001Second. [Music] Okay. Good afternoon. We'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Canary County Board of Education. At this time, I ask you for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank you to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. First item is the approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to that effect? Mr. Lil makes a motion. Not second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor approve and administer raise your hand. Motion's carried. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. The motion to that effect. Mhm. All right. A second. Dr. McGee. Is there discussion? Mr. L. M. I like to move long bid contract out of consent agenda and add it
002to item number five. Okay. Any other you repeat that again? move the lawn bid contract out of the consent agenda item number five. So we got discussion on Okay. Anything else? If not, with that being said, all in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Motion's carried. Thank you. Announcements. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, good afternoon everyone. Um it's been a great school year thus far and we are wrapping up the final days, final weeks of school. And so I just want to um let you know that for some announcements. I want to announce that um we've had a very good um end of the school year in regards to closing out the school year with students taking academics important with testing. U we also want to just commend North South Oakwood and Ster Creek for
003having great field days. Um I do want to acknowledge Mr. Nelson Shawwater has this um um not not publicly this is probably his last board meeting. Um he is retiring after doing 30 years of um work in education. Um he is a a wonderful asset to education and I want to thank him publicly for his commitment to children in his absence. He may be sliding a little later on but u we'll be having a retirement reception for him later this week. And also want to congrats to the eighth grader promotion ceremony in elability that was held today as well. Those are all the announcements I have. Anybody else have any? Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Co. At this time, we'll move to public comments. We ask that if you've signed up to speak, you please come
004to the podium, give your name and your address. Just a my reminder, you have three minutes for your comments. At the two and a half minute mark, I'll give you a signal and let you know you have 30 seconds left to go. First speaker is Amy Howard. Good afternoon. Excuse my addressly field day. Um, my child attends Stony Creek Elementary School and uh, lately I have witnessed the change in uh, staffing with some moves from um, teachers being pulled and TAs being pulled to be uh, put into different elementary schools. Um, I've also heard county leadership asking why Stony Creek is even open. It's deeply concerning for me and many other parents um, in that community. Stony Creek Elementary is more than just the school. Um, it's a pivotal part of our children's education and
005our community's identity. I myself have my child transferred from South Elementary to Stony Creek for the very reasons of her education. Nothing else other than that. She has since um grown tremendously, just scored a four and a five on her EOGs this past week. um she's excelled and she's been challenged and pushed in ways that she wouldn't have gotten in another situation, another school environment. Um so my concern is that the local schools like Stony Creek Elementary not only play a crucial role in shaping our children's future, but they also provide jobs, build the future of the community, and maintain the community's vibrancy. Research suggests that when schools like ours face challenges, the ripple effects impact the entire community. Businesses suffer, property values decline, and families feel less inclined to move or stay in those
006affected areas because there's no thriving school provided for that area. They have to travel a long way, put their kids on the bus for two hours. I' I've been in those situations myself. Uh, keeping Stony Creek Elementary open and fully staffed is essential for not only the students but for sustaining our community's growth and prosperity. I urge the county um school board and local authorities to resolve any staffing issues, ensure Stony Creek stays open for operation and is fully staffed. Keeping our small class sizes, it makes the children uh grow. They thrive in those environments. Larger class sizes tend to leave children behind. They get missed. They get left behind and they don't score well then when it comes to testing and what we're graded on as a county to the state. I appreciate your
007time. Thank you. Kent Williamson. My name is Kent Williamson. I'm at 562 Graves Road, Breezeville, North Carolina. CASM county. Um, I just wanted to uh come before the board to let them know that we haven't heard anything on the uh dismissal of uh Miss Gwen except for that she was dismissed on the 14th of April and that uh I had sent a letter in and uh the only information I got on that is that they were looking at the letter because they didn't know whether that they you you had to uh go by that particular letter, but I just wanted to make sure that uh you are still reminded that we are still looking for more information on uh our superintendent while we keep allowing superintendent to move out of casual capital. Thank you. Thank
008you, Casey Evans. My name is Casey Evans at 824 Dusty Lane in Pedum. Um I'm actually the media specialist at Stony Creek also. And um as Amy said before, I think it's very important that um some of the staffing changes at Stony Creek are going to cause really large class sizes. And I as my child goes there for that reason of small class sizes, I'm really concerned about that for next year. Um the other issue that I will bring up to you today is as a media specialist it has been very very difficult being a testing coordinator and a media specialist at the same time. Um I've spoken to others and they feel the same way. We're really concerned that we are not able to be the best in our position dealing with not only
009as a media specialist trying to work with the kids because that's what I wanted to do is go into this role to support the teachers and help them and you know work with the kids on reading and I spend probably 60% of my time testing and testing has taken up a lot of canceled enhancement classes and a a lot of other time um spent and out of the school working on testing and getting testing materials ready. Thank you. Thank you, Adam Evans. Okay. Hey, I'm Adam Evans. I'm at 24 Dusty Lane and the better half to Casey Evans who just spoke prior to me. I want to take the time to echo what Miss Howard and and and Miss Evans here were kind of saying is uh I have an address in Pelum, but my
010my kid attends Stony Creek and it's a little bit troubling to me to see kid uh teachers move out class sizes get bigger. Uh my my kids in kindergarten, you know, the the one of the most pivotal grades moving up from K to one. And I'd hate to see his class go from, you know, 18 to 32 or 18 to 26, you know, kids. And uh it's just troubling for me as a parent to try to navigate through these waters. And I know with you know state cuts and funding that you know you're going to have to do what you have to do, but it is troubling where we're cutting folks where we really need them the most. Um and so I didn't want to take up too much time today, but I want to
011do I want to echo as a concerned parent. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next item, report CTE updates. Yes. Um, we're going to ask invite Dr. Medina Jones to come to the podium to give us an update on our CTE plan. Oh, and Miss Lisa, please. Thank you. Mhm. Good afternoon. So we have shared with you our CTE update for the local plan. So what we had approved before you approved these simply have addendums to them and we'd like to share that with you. But for starters, we asked the CT teachers to share celebrations that they wanted to share with you specifically. And if you're looking through, it's pretty impressive with students and teachers. I'm not going to read them at you, but um for starters, just plucking out a couple. Harley Denny said that
012we received the gold national FFA chapter and there only 37 schools who received this distinction in North Carolina. So if you can just look through layered out the great things that our teachers and students are doing and this is new. Okay. In addition to what we gave you before, but the teachers really wanted you to have it. So, I'm just going to give you just a minute to look at those celebrations. And as you can see for Dillard because we layer them out and Miss Chandler is doing an amazing job with a there and the FFA chapter Yes. And Miss Chandler was at the high school, but as I just said, she's doing an amazing job with a at the middle school. Okay. So, do you have any questions about the update that we shared
013with you before? Yes, sir. So, in culinary arts, when it says 17 out of 19 received their certification, is that the the safe serve certification? Yes. That's awesome. Isn't that awesome? Good. So are these um information that we have here is this going to be um shared with the parents of these children or what I know we had it before us and they may not understand the audience may not understand what's been given. Uh so would this information be given like a 179 students receive safe they serve? Yeah. I think it will be nice to put these in the paper. Yes. Yes. Yes. For the community. Yes. And see. Thank you. I've asked this before in our CTE. Uh are we working toward skills test for our kids to participate in? Skill test as far
014as credentials? No. No. No. No. Skill uh skills competition. We are um in all honesty I think it needs to be a lot of more promotion um not only from the teacher um not being funny you know if you all are over there to let them know the importance of um to get it out to the community because I think a lot of them want it I mean just like the young man that made that coffee tape simply beautiful but they're nervous and they're they they don't know what to expect. So, I do think with more recruiting and helping them because we we've sent them to the um competitions before just to sort of see what goes on. But um but I do think a lot of it is just nervousness and scared to get
015out. You got to put yourself out there. Yeah. Uh I saw some on Facebook uh well Yeah. made roses. I mean it was beautiful. and stuff like that needs to be showcased. Uh, you know, you do it at home, let other people see what you're doing and the skills that let you know how you stack up. That's that's how you learn. Uh, I hope that we can move toward that, though. Yeah, we really are trying to work in that direction. All right. And like I said, you know, the support from the board, we would love as Yes. All right, Miss Begley. Um, I know you we usually do a survey to the kids to see if there's any new classes they would like to take and then try to find someone to to teach that
016class. Is it anything new our kids are like reaching out but want to do to add or I know one time we talked about bris brickmason was a big thing and I know hopefully TCC will be bringing on um we did see some interest in cosmetology engineering um the masonry numbers weren't as high But with PCC, we hope to expand upon new opportunities. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. We need to improve this or just for No, this was just for update only. No board action needed. So this will become part of would it go on our website or something because I think this is good information and just good recognition. Yes, we share the information through multiple outlets. Okay. Thank you very unfinished business. U we
017don't have any unfinished business at this time. Okay. Thank you. Next item on the new business. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? And remember that we're pulling the lawn be contract down to that'll be number five. Is that a motion to that effect consent? Mr. Miller, is there a second? Miss Knight, any discussion? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Opposent agenda is approved. All right. Number two, budget amendment number five. Good afternoon, board members. You have budget amendment number five. Um, it's a budget amendment for capital outlay. We're not putting taking anything out of fund balance. This is just realigning the budget. Um, because we're in that closed down process, I got a question. Sure. On roof repair. So, we didn't have to spend anything on roof repair. No, that's
018just what was left in roof repair. That's what was left. Okay. All right. When I don't see a debit card, I see credit. Okay. It's the way the system has you have to go in the system. I guess the same everything. Yes. So, safety upgrades. Yes. That's a big chunk of money. I don't remember us approving a lot of things with safety upgrades. So, can you tell me a little bit about what that is? Yes. So, that's um regular maintenance for like the cyber power. Several of the schools got security camera upgrades throughout the year and then also in that 9,000 block which is under safety upgrades. It was when we approved for the gym the page gym um assessment that Deubberry and Davis did. That was a big chunk of that money because that
019was $24,000 and that was board approved last fiscal year, but we didn't get the um invoice until this fiscal year. So cameras along the way are not already a line item. No, not when like it's stuff going out because we did have a major power thing happen at some of the elementary schools when we had all those storms back in the fall if I remember correctly. Guess my concern is money is not supposed to be moved from one line to the other without a budget amendment coming to the board. So I'm confused how all this stuff was purchased and now we're getting a budget $54,000. We can put it in the budget for next year, but it's just stuff that's came up throughout the year. But why are we not doing a budget amendment when
020it comes up? Who's approving this stuff to move forward? Come through superintendent. But if it's not in a line item, the board has to approve it before it can be paid. It cannot be paid if it's not in a line item budgeted that this board does not approve. Is that correct, Chairman? That's correct. So, if I may add, some of these um needed camera upgrades, security upgrades were things that were going to, if I recall, we had some pieces that weren't operational. So, some of our key cards weren't reading, our doors weren't opening, and it messed up some of our operations. Am I correct? Is that Mr. at you. All right. Yes. And so I understand the board's concern with the transfers and budget items. Um some of these things were already in play um
021prior to my appointment. And so um now that I understand the perview of the board, we will do a better job of communicating these information to you so that we understand. But some things um just got to be fixed so that we can operate. And so none of the items with the exception of the construction architect fees um and the cy the the the cyber power replacement unit security system was above the the spending threshold. So um we can do a better job of explaining that information to you. Sir, it's not about the spending threshold. Superintendent has a $10,000 spending threshold, but only if it's in the line item to be spent. Nobody has the authority to move money from this line to this line without board approval. It doesn't matter what the situation is.
022I do know. So, I'm understanding that we've got swipe cards being put on these doors out here. Okay. Who approved the budget amendment to move that money before it's being paid because it didn't come before this board. This is what's a card after the horse. My apologies. It's not your fault. Somebody signed something to approve this stuff to be done. And what I'm saying is it it has to stop. So, as the finance officer, you're not supposed to pay any invoice that is out of a line item that's not approved. And folks shouldn't be sending to you to pay if they're not following policy. Yes, sir. So, I think we've had this discussion before. I want to make it real clear today. It has to be done according to policy. Do not know it. Okay.
023Anything else? If not, is there a motion to approve the budget amendment? Miss Begler, is there a second? Miss Blackman. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Motion is four. I'm sorry, 5 to one. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Number three, memorandum of understanding. Carnegie. Yes. Um, ask Mr. to come up our elementary director and federal program and to share about this opportunity through Carnegie learning and Weststead for fourth grade math teachers. Sure. Good afternoon everybody. Um this is aou um that would allow us to offer professional development to our fourth grade teachers. It is a 2-year opportunity. Um there is no cost to the district. This is in alignment with an NCBPI um grant, $8 million grant um to fund the opportunity. So, it's all working around fourth
024grade math. Um so, they are specifically focused on building these teachers. So, it offers them professional development opportunities to put their practice um into action in the classroom. And you'll see that the um opportunity has the bulleted um aspects. It's online. It does not interfere with instructional time. Doesn't require any additional assessments. I know that was really big for um our district. Um can be completed in conjunction with any curriculum and they know that we are aligned with Eureka math. They are eligible for the $1,700 stipen and they can earn CU and graduate credit. I'll be glad to answer any questions you have. Miss Begley, I want to just make sure it's clear to the public. We did not get the $8 million. I know, but I just want some, you know, when I heard
025you say 18 $8 million. I just want to make sure Ma'am. Yes, ma'am. That's correct. Um, NCDBI received $8 million to support fourth grade math across the district. Yes, ma'am. Miss back. I think I said that it's going to be four teachers. We have four that are interested right now. Um, as we're transitioning into the 25 26 school year, we wanted to make sure that everybody is in that fourth grade math position before we confirm um the number of um teachers attending. But we did it based on this year's um feedback and four of our elementary fourth grade math teachers were interested. So if one wanted to be, they could. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. And it's not a um it's not an opportunity that if they complete one year of the cohort, if they
026are not comfortable proceeding at that point, they don't have to proceed. There is no um upfront or out-ofpocket cost um to us in any way, shape, or form. It only benefits us and our and our teachers. Well, it's good that others can participate. Yes, ma'am. They absolutely can. Anyone else? All right. Motion to approve. Mr. Begley, there second black. Any discussion further? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Opposed. Motion's carried. Thank you. Thank you. Board members number four, we cannot do. We are missing one board member. It has to be second reading. It has to be unanimous. So we will hold that one. Uh number five, the lawn contract. Uh Mr. St, will you give up on? Yes. Reason we're doing that. The reason I requested for that consent agenda is we were
027able to reach out to custom cuts and to see if we could enter a multi-year contract um as we're looking to use and save taxpayer dollar. Um, so I have what you should have is the amendment to the first page and last page where this will be a three-year contract at a fixed rate. Uh, the main advantage of this multi-year agreement is price stability. Um, let me get down to look at it. So within this three-year agreement, um the primary advantage of multi-year agreement is price stability. Uh the proposal also includes the following added benefits. Graduation MOT this year will be provided with no labor cost. Uh we will only pay for the mulch material as well as for the following two years. Both labor and mulch for graduation event will be included at no
028additional cost. Um this the this arrangement not only protects against potential cost increases in two in years two and three but also provides an estimated additional savings over 15,000 over the term of the contract specifically related to motion services. Um it is staff's recommendation that you approve this option for three-year contract. If you have questions we are open for that time. Um question. Since we had an online for one year contract when we took the bids, do we not have to go back and resubmit a three-year one to see if it's open for bids? A future question, please. We had online. It was only a one-year bid. We did. Okay. So, now we're without having it listed online, we're switching today to a three-year bid. So, when the when we put the bid out Yes.
029We only had two companies that responded to the bid and only one company met the state requirement for insurance and liability. And so, um, just as we're in this discussion season, we just pushed the envelope a little bit to see if we could get Korea. So, it's not my understanding that we have to put the bid out again. Okay. That's not that's not my understanding. And I would like to also request I tried to go online to to check that but I could not get the requirements that we were asking for this bid. It would not show on my end. I would like to actually get that um you would like to know what is it the provider please everything was posted online that you cannot get for this I would like to have a
030copy of it. Okay. No. Anyone else have questions concerns? I think the plus Well, the plus is you have a three-year deal and the same amount. Well, I agree. I think it's great, but I just Okay. All right. So, this person has all meets all the state requirement. You said the insurance and all the checks. Thanks. Meets and exceeds. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Okay. Okay. And this price will be for three years. That's correct. It's $160,800 would be three years. Per year. Per year. That'll be per year. Correct. Correct. Okay. Saving us over 15 about 15,000 over at least. All right. Any other questions, concerns? If not, is there a motion to approve the contract? M. Be motion. Mr. Lillard and other discussion. If not, all in favor raise your hand. opposed motion carry unanimous. Thank
031you. Uh certain updates. So as you know um we're beginning to close the school year. Um do not have many updates no more than graduation 2025 is for the high schools coming up. Um, I want to thank the maintenance staff, all faculty and staff as we prepare for graduation and all the multiaceted approaches we need because the rain has been killing us. And so, um, the lawn the lawnmower man is going to have to get busy because this grass is growing like weeds. But we are very appreciative of the hard work of each of our faculties and staffs across the board. uh do want to commend our students from grades preK through 12 for having a wonderful school year. We're looking forward to learning more about their academic outcomes when their data is available. Um
032do not have any additional updates at this time. No more than we're looking forward to the county commissioners to finalize our budget requests on the 16th. they should vote this upcoming um Monday. So, we're looking forward to positive outcomes regarding um the funding from our county commissioners. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sts. Next is board member observations. Miss Black will start a few. Um I had an opportunity to attend the athletic um function at Dillard and that was very well attended and very good. um the parents recognition of their children, it was a very positive, but what I enjoyed this morning was the eighth grade graduation. So really hats off. Uh having it over in the civic center is it's just like high school graduation almost and the speakers and just uh to see the the
033civic center was full and the capacity is about 900 and maybe it was at least 800 people attending. So, that's a blessing. And I just wanted to uh say to the students, they were well-mannered and excited. So, and I like what someone said. Uh I don't know who said it, but they say uh we can't wait until you graduate in 2029. And so, I think that that was, you know, that was a positive. The whole thing was positive. Thanks to the staff uh throughout Caswell County for everything that they have done. I've been hearing some positive things. So, uh I believe we're ending on a positive note. Thank you, Dr. McGee. Um yes, I've had a chance to attend several um events over the last few weeks like the dance performance at um BY's awards
034night um athletic banquet and um Bill's graduation today. And I just want to um echo what Miss Blacker said that it was all of the events that I have attended has been well attended. Um the students have done an awesome job and they they definitely deserve the u accolades that they have received. Um the programs have been very professional. I've enjoyed all of them. Um particularly I want to shout out the awards night. I think that was really a smooth nice event. It didn't last a long time even though they individually cap and each student was able to give comments about a family member how that particular family member impacted their life over the years and it was giving them an opportunity to just share their have their moment. Um so I in graduation again
035at Dylan was very good. So I just enjoyed um all the events I've had a chance to attend. Thank you. I'll echo an eighth grade graduation we attended this morning. It was very nice and I'd give like to give a special thanks. You know, we had some retirees come back and save us uh this year at Dillard. Mr. J Wilson, um interim principal and Fernandez Johnson come in and help with some of the assistant principal role and Shirley Wilson come back and help us with math and I was able to speak with all those folks this morning. Thank them for their help. Um you know, visiting schools, everybody's really excited. Um teachers are very excited about the preliminary test scores. So, um, that that's great to see the excitement there. All right. Thank you, Miss
036Beel. Um, I had a chance to go to Diller and BY sports banquet. I got the chance to see the senior walk at the elementary school. That was very interesting. The captain, I love that. That was wonderful. And I also attended Miss Gullock's meeting with her parents. Um, she had three different days. was very interesting. A lot of information she gave out and I'm looking forward to next year for Dillard to see what she's going to do. And I also got to attend the uh by PCC night which was a lot of parents there. I was really happy to see that. And I also learned that we offer stuff for a middle school at this PCC camp that was very interesting. So, it was a lot of information give and as Joel said, thanks to
037all of our staff for all their hard work. everybody from top to bottom. Nobody's on the bottom, but this is your speech. Thank you, Miss Knight. Um I too attended the um band and course concept at the civic center that the high school did. They're few in numbers, but the students did an excellent job. We have a lot of talented students over there and a teacher, I guess I hear that she's still one of our teachers and she's doing an excellent job with their program. So hopefully it'll grow to back like the band was years back. Um I had lunch with the fourth graders over at South um last week and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting there listen talking to them and catching up with them. Um I volunteered for Oakwood's career day and it was
038very well planned. Um the staff from Dr. Rosman Chris offices the station that I was working with and they were very complimentary of the of the event and our children and how they behaved because one of the young ladies who was there she had worked in another school system. I won't say which one it is, but she was talking about how how more well behaved our kids were based on the school system she was at when she was um at this teaching the same grade level I guess for elementary school kids. I also had a chance to partner the EOGs at Oakwood last week and I was over there for field day this morning. That's why I didn't make it to the um ceremony for Dillard and also Mr. Stokes and I both attended the
039community foundation scholarship recognition program where we were able to see our BY students receive our scholarships. Thank you. And thanks to all our teacher staff and everybody that deal with our kids in Caswell County. We thank you for all you do. Mr. Smith, um I attended the high school sports banquet and the high school captain and the scholarships and I just want to say how blessed we are as a county to have so many local scholarships. I mean those kids received a lot of money. at least two of them received $10,000 a piece. So, that was a blessing. And um I just too thank the staff and the all the administration, just everybody for all their hard work. And um we appreciate you so much. I um I get a chance where I go to
040where I can go and uh I won't list them but the most important thing to me is when I see kids faces light up and then I saw one today this this parent hug me. We go back 40 years and she's a grandparent now and uh she was so excited at the eighth grade graduation and that's what it's all about. Uh that's might be the only time you seen them but that child is their most important asset possession they got. So I hope we can continue that. We don't get everything right but if we get a lot of things right. So got to stay focused that way. Okay. Thank you, Miss Smith. Since you are here now, we're going to on the agenda, we held the policy updates number four because everybody has to be
041here. Okay. And Miss Stokes, I'd go back to you on that. The policy updates. Well, thank you, Chairman Battle. As you know, North Carolina School Board Association, u we have aligned our board policies with them, and we have several policies that are due for updating. you have all 26 of them um with you and um you've had opportunity to review and review those. We've gone through those ensure that they still there were no major changes that would make us change our policies or procedures. Most of them are updating legal references. So it is staff's um good that you guys will if you look at the cover sheet there's cover sheet on top that gives you a list of each policy and then each policy is listed behind it. You'll see the changes in red um
042and most of it legal reference. So it's a it's a good read. Um you got to have your reading glasses on when you read this. It's a good read. There's a lot of reading for some of these policies 13 14 pages long. And so it is staff recommendation that um we update our policy to align this with school board association um and to wave the second read. So I'll make a motion that we put them on the table for first read and wave the second read. All right. You second. All right. Any discussion? All right. All in favor that motion raise your hands. Oppos Smith made it second. Okay. Complete that. I know we had to go approve them, right? Where's that? That's it. Okay. We wait a second. If you had any discussion. Okay.
043Very good. All right. At this time I move this cab county board of public education to go into closing and personnel action that involves an officer or employee of this board NC 143 218.11 princ and for the purpose of discussing information that is privileged confidential or not a public record NC general statute 143 through8 ding levels one for motion to Smith second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Oppos. Thank you. We are now in the close session. infect.