001occasion. At this time, I'll ask you for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank [Applause] you. I aliance to the flag 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. First item is the approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to that effect beyond Smith? Any discussion? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Post motion correct. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. Mr. Miller, Miss Smith second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Announcements. Mr. Sto. Yes. Good afternoon. Good evening everyone. Tonight we have a great bid over 90 minutes and some special recognitions. We would like to like turn over to Mr. Morris to
002come forward for our student excellence award. Thank you Mr. Shs. Um I'm honored to be able to take this opportunity uh on behalf of the board and interim superintendent Stokes to recognize uh some of our outstanding students in Casual County Schools. We're going to begin by nominating two of our outstanding students from Bartley Yansy High School. These students were nominated by interim principal Carter and interim superintendent Stokes for their excellence in many things that they do every day at Bartley Yansy High School as two examples of our many excellent students in Caswell County Schools. Um, Superintendent Stokes will present them with excellence awards and then we'll have an opportunity for them to take photograph with the board of education. Our first student excellence awards winner tonight is Joseph Escalante. Is Joseph present tonight? Well, I
003would like to read a kind word that was given by his principal, interim principal Carter about Joseph. Uh, Principal Carter wrote, "Joseph Escalante exemplifies excellence through his strong work ethic, positive behavior, and commitment to academic success, earning an impressive GPA. He consistently follows school expectations, actively participates in class, and approaches his studies with dedication and care. Joseph's respectful and considerate attitude reflects the core values that make Caswell County Schools a supportive and thriving learning community. So, we're grateful for Joseph. Our second uh Caswell County Schools Excellence Award for Bartley Yansy High is for Miranda Hancock. Is Miranda here tonight? All right, we invite her to come up and accept her award. These are the words that interim principal Carter wrote about Miranda. Miranda Hancock exemplifies excellence through her remarkable dedication while graduating from BYHS and
004earning her associates degree from Pedmont Community College simultaneously this year. Her ability to balance rigorous academics, competitive dance, soccer, and leadership in Beta Club reflects the well-rounded, high achieving spirit that makes Caswell County Schools great. Miranda's academic success and overall commitment to excellence serves as an inspiration to her peers and a proud representation of our community. Let's have a round of applause for Miranda. [Applause] We're now going to recognize nominated by interim principal Wilson and interim principal uh interim superintendent Stokes the volleyball team from NL Dillard Middle School. And I'm going to ask the members of the volleyball team as they're recognized if they could line up along this side of the room along with their coaches and they'll receive their certificate from uh coach UTS, coach Miller. And they also have with them their
005championship conference trophy tonight. As they're getting ready to take their places, this statement was written by coach UTOS in celebration of the team. Congratulations to the 2025 Dillard volleyball team. It was an incredible season led by mostly sixth and seventh graders. The Lady Bulls won the conference championship as well as the conference tournament title. They had an undefeated 10 and0 season. Wow. Their hard [Applause] work hard work, teamwork, and dedication paid off. We're proud of each member of the team for the time they put into making this season a success. Everyone has worked so hard and learned so much this season and we look forward to seeing what the 2026 Dillard Bulls volleyball season will bring. We'll now call up the members of the team. Willow McJunkan, Libby Smithers, Bailey Parsons, Harper Meyers, and as
006your name is called, you can come up receive your certificate from Coaches. Emma Smithers, Jaylen Greenway, Madison Garris, Alyssa Badstein, Emma Chandler, Kaylee Mathly, Emerson Randall, Mckenley Hyron, Kayn Robinson, Addison Star, Bailey Danforth, and Belle Kenzie. and they are here tonight with their coaches Angela Uts and Ruth Miller. Congratulations. [Applause] All right, I'm turn it over to Mr. you for a photo opportunity. Behind That is perfect. Everybody ready? Very nice. Thank you. Congratulations. No. Oh, you want invite y'all to our athletic banquet. I'll send an email Thank you. Congratulations. I have a card to read from Cas County Board of Education from the family of Mary Barker. Thank you for the beautiful flower arrangement and the wind chimes you sent to honor our mother. To those who were able to attend the visitation and or
007the funeral, your presence was deeply appreciated as were the calls, visits, and other expressions of sympathy. Sincerely, this is from Doug and Jackie. Yes, we have a recognition for my energy department. They come for good morning. Uh Mr. chairman and board from the AIG park. We have some special recommendations we want to make. And the first ones that we want to start off with are some students that were in a competition through the auh program with the math league competition. This is a national uh competition that they participated in. We had several students that placed in the top 20 and we want to recognize them as uh for their success in this competition. They had to be able to answer 35 word problems in a 30 minute window with success and see how well they
008could do. So that was the purpose of this competition. So I'd like for them to come up and receive their award. Are you gonna I'll give it to Mr. Give it to Mr. St. Boot's going to give Mr. St. Come up when you get your name. Make sure I got the name. Skyler Young place 12th place. [Applause] And for so sixth grade, for sixth grade, in 11th place, we had Ryan Re. Congratulations. And for seventh uh grade, we had two individuals. They came into a tie for both. At 11th place, we have Riley [Applause] May and Levi McKenna. [Applause] I want to congratulate four individuals for their last representing Dillard Middle School with their achievements there. Thank you all very much. Good job. Great [Applause] job. [Music] Also from the AIG department, we also want
009to recognize some uh teachers that have committed an excessive amount of time trying to excel in what they do and perform to support our students in the AIG program. These individuals participated in two evidence-based uh programs that were done. Typically, they're done in the fall and in the spring courses that we have. It's approximately 48 credit hours that they have to earn um to to be successful in this. And they commit hours in the afternoon and on late afternoons, evenings, and on Friday nights to try to accomplish this certificate. It's also part of our AIG program that these individuals um receive this certificate, these courses so they can meet the requirements for AIG plan that we discussed last summer. So, I'm going to list the names of the individuals that were unable to attend. First,
010we had Don Phillips, Stephen Camp, James Springer, Miriam Springer, Heather Franklin, and Rhonda McFalls. They weren't unable to attend, but tonight in attendance, we want to recognize Britney Ash from North Elementary. Ryanna Meyers from North Elementary, Stephanie Brooks from NL Dillard Middle [Applause] School, and Laura Webb from Marley Hansy High School. I want to thank these individuals for their hard work and commitment toward the success of our students here in C. Thank you. Ready? Thank you. [Applause] Next item is public comment. Uh we have Phil with us. Please state your name and your address. Uh just a reminder, the limits are three minutes. We'll get to the two and a half minute mark. Mr. L will give you a signal for you to finish out with your last 30 seconds. Thank you. Good evening to
011each of you. I bring you greetings. It is with emotions of sadness that I stand before you this 19th day of May, 2025. not emotions or feelings of gratitude for the manner in which you are handling your responsibility as elected officials of the council but those of sadness. You have truly shown the citizens of Caswell that you have problems handling the duties as members of this board. In the April 9th edition of the cancer messages, there was an article that stated the council board of education ends working relationship with superintendent. In the May 7th newspaper, there was an article that says, "Bard of education issue statement regarding end of term of of employment for former superintendent Gwyn." In the latter article, there's a statement made that the board and Miss Gwen want to clarify that
012Miss Gwen had not engaged in any wrongdoing or had not engaged in any misconduct, nor was she terminated for a cause. I clearly understand what those phrases mean. If she was not terminated for misconduct or for cause, why isn't she still in the superintendent's office of Catwick County Schools? You have been asked the question before, why was Miss Wayne terminated? What was the mutual agreement that was referenced in the newspaper article? The public of Casper County, the citizens who voted for your positions on this board, deserves to know. Was there a financial settlement? If so, where did the funds come from? Was it again local tax payers money paying for the end of term for superintendent dismissed by the board of education? I want to believe that if money was paid it came from the
013local fund balance and that was council county citiz taxpayers money. I don't expect a response from you tonight, but as a citizen of Casway County, I do expect a response. Do you encourage me to seek legal assistance to get the response that the citizens of Kazworth County deserve as to how the taxpayers money is being spent and was it spent to make to determine a settlement with Miss Gwen for her exit as superintendent of Cer County Schools? Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next we go to new business. First item is Eureka Mas. Good evening board members. In your packet, you will see a request for the approval and renewal of Eureka Math. As I did last year, I included the logistics around um surrounding districts that are also using Eureka Math products. We
014again surveyed our staff um to ask for their feedback in regards to the continued use of Eureka feedback as well as the um feedback about how often they are using the Eureka Math products. Um the survey results are included in your packet. So I am asking tonight you all to approve the purchase of Eureka Math for $65,89823. Any questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the request Smith? Is a second Mr. Lil discussion? Yes. How long have we been using Eureka math? Um, my understanding, the records that I have go back to 2018, Miss G, I see that 19 teachers responded to the questions. How many teachers did not respond? Um, I mean, of our total, we usually approximate that we have about 65 staff members. So, it was in our newsletter. It
015was shared out email um, pushed out multiple times. Um but that was the survey responses that we did get. Anything else? So, um, what types of supports are in? I mean, I ran through that. Um, some of them feel strongly about it where there are some with some suggestions as far as some other supports and resources. But for the ones that were still needing the training, what what's in place with, you know, to move forward because I see, you know, part of it is replenishing the kids and right and really the cost that you would be approving this evening is just the replenishment of the workbooks. They are consumable. So we receive three workbooks per student. We are um surveying the staff right now to make sure that we need a an updated set of
016workbooks for every child. We do realize that we have some we've had a conversation this year about accounting for materials. So that price could be lower, but we offer training at the very beginning of the year. Um as well this year we've received a lot of feedback from the listening tours about the alignment with the NC check-ins. So, we are in the process of rewriting the pacing guides um for grades three through five for um align it with the NC check-ins and Eureka math. Um they've always been provided the pacing guides. We conduct PLC meetings and then this year they had access to the I Ready teacher box as well which we plan to take to next year. So, most of the folks that had a suggestion um that was one of the questions that
017we asked them that if um it was not Eureka math what would they suggest? Many of them suggested I Ready, but um we've shared multiple times that I Ready is a supplemental resource. It's not intended to be a core curriculum. So, we intend to continue to provide that as a supplemental resource with Eureka Map being the core curriculum. Yes. Um how do you think we can increase um more people to participate because we got we got a that's a low I might have to get anyone else. If not, all in favor, right? [Music] Okay. Um so the next one is um the for PRC 251. So we're excited to announce that we just received a state aotment um $17,187 that was awarded to Oakwood Elementary School for receiving um for exceeding growth for the 2023
0182024 school year. Um we are really excited to be able to purchase a lot of instructional materials that the teachers have requested. Um, so we are well on our way through purchasing those materials to better equip our classrooms. Um, and one of the ways that we would like to do that is a proposal that I'm reading to you today. Um, which is an upgrade to the wireless network um, at Oakwood Elementary School. As you'll see, um, I did make a revision. So the total cost is at the bottom that should have been at your place today. So $28,71645. That is the cost of the materials only. um we have um the capability of providing the labor and Mr. Usuchi has um guaranteed me that it's not going to interfere with any sort of um school
019business. So that we will upgrade that. That will be for all instructional classrooms um media center anywhere that um instruction and connectivity is um an issue right now. Question M. Is that a motion to approve the request be second? Any discussion? And not all in favor raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Our next bit is a memor of understanding. This is what decorate. This is a no cost service to our district. This provides another resource for our families, another health support. As you can see within this, this is no different than some of our current federal health providers. They're going to provide assistance to our families. Um, I ask that you approve this so that we can go ahead and have it in place to support all of our schools K through 12.
020Miss Be second is added. Further discussion on this hearing none in favor presented by oppos uh budget. So, four members in your packet and a memorandum I met with um our county manager Scott Whitaker on May 12th. Um just to follow up from our budget request we sent in regarding asking for additional funds for operating for 256 school year which included teacher supplement raise for our um operating cost and increase in our capital outlays. When I met with Mr. He also asked us that for us to reestablish a few things. So one actually reestablish a quarterly joint meeting with the county commissioners. They also ask us to develop a one, three and fiveyear facilities plan so that we can now look at our current needs as well as we look at aging facilities and changing
021needs of our district and also um to work collaborate with him in the creation of a budget and project update calendar. So in that in essence we have several schools that are aging. We have several different needs. It's not a one-size fit all, but we are looking to um put in a process to identify how we and which way our approaches to improve our capital outlay, use our capital dollars. Um these initial will support strategic collaboration, long-term planning across our departments. As you notice, he asks us as we request a 1.1 million in capital outlay for this upcoming school year, he asked us to do a breakdown of that 1.1 million. um our need is much greater than 1.1 million. However, we show that our most immediate needs are have access heating and cooling system
022at all our school facilities as well as roofing needs. Um if we do not we do not address these needs, we will have greater needs down the road. We cannot kick this can down the road anymore. We've got to do something with our roofing agent facilities particularly at North Elementary, particularly at South Elementary with some of the roof issues and our havoc system. We have havoc issues that almost all schools even the old parts of B high school. So our havoc systems um the estimated cost to address the repairs needed to keep us out of critical need is over 80 is an excellent 800,000. Our roofing needs are almost 600,000. Um as we request additional capital funds they wanted to know where we were planning the current budget request which is an increase what we
023allotted for the past four or five years. So I want to share the information with you tonight because I had an update with Mr. Whitaker, our county manager. Questions by Okay. Thank you. Next item board member comment. Um I just want to thank Connie and everybody very nice. seems like every year. Um, also had a chance to go to PCC graduation Friday night. Very nice and the dare graduation today which was really nice. First time we've had it nice said you know kind of what Miss Bgo said about the um end of the year bank was a nice event. Um the I did attend um the dress rehearsal for Finding Nemo over at North last week and I volunteered to teach appreciation um week over at I came to the art show here and I
024guess we have some very talented students in county. So we might see them the name someplace in big streams or something years to come but they're very talented kids and I also attended PCC graduation on Friday night and my daughter was blessed to be one of their graduates. Um, just thank you to Connie and all the staff. The interview was awesome. Um, I did get to visit Bartley Any a couple times and I also visited Dillard and I was just so impressed with how well behaved the kids was when I went in the lunchroom at Bartley. The kids were just talking and not loud and I mean it was just great. Everybody seemed for it to be the end of the year. I was really surprised how well behaved everybody was. Um, I thank Miss
025Lasser. She was a big help to me this week with trying to get something prepared for my son for college. I just really appreciate the hard work work of our counselors. Um, I went to Special Olympics this past Friday and that was awesome. A big thank you to Mr. Sho Walter and to um, Farm Credit, the Dabs family, the Anderson um, Ruitan provided the food. It was just such a blessing to see. I think it was 42 kids there participating and they just seem to have the best time and they did things a little different this year. So at the end all the high school um students were out there dancing for like the last 30 45 minutes. Um you did a great job djking over there but u but it was just Carter was
026out there with them. It was just really good. So I really enjoyed the Special Olympics. Good. Uh last year the end of the year banquet we had the disco this year. We had the 50s. I don't know what it'll be next year, Miss Connie. But my wigs, but uh really an enjoyable event. Like to thank all the help from Con staff and to the winners. I think they really enjoyed that. Got a chance to attend Dylan concert. Uh that was last but in the day we had a nice damn graduation. First time I've seen it where everybody came together. It was real nice. That's good. We all agree with you. We But uh a lot going on here in the year. Thank everybody for all their hard work putting these gra fifth grade graduations dances.
027I know it's a lot going on in year bank was great. Um the finding Nemo Charlotte North was an awesome event. So, thanks everybody for put their hard work into that. All right. Um, I too want to just thank everybody. The banker was nice. Um, I didn't get to attend a lot of things this week. My future C County students shared their germs with me this week, so I was a little under the weather, so I didn't want to spread them to everybody else. But I do want to thank everybody for all their hard work. It seems like everything's going, you know, everybody's working hard and I do appreciate everything that everyone does to keep us informed and um reaching out. I attended the also attended the Special Olympics and that was a job well
028done. So, thanks to all of the people that participated and congratulations to all the participants. I agree with Miss Smith to see the jewel on their faces portrait. uh also the end of the year family. Congratulations to all the winners and it's always good to get together on a good occasion. So, it's great to see the staff and everyone come together and everyone smiling and dressed up. So, that's really nice. Uh and I also went to North and D met with their principles and talked to some teachers and everyone is preparing for the big day which is testing. So, uh, but I just want to just thank, uh, the staff, not the staff, but all the everyone that makes Cassville County work because it does take a lot of people and people coming together to
029make a difference say it all. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion for us to recess in order for us to attend the public comment hearing of the budget resolution at the old courthouse. Miss Smith, any discussion? Not all in favor, raise your hand. Just for the public who's here, we will be coming straight back here because we have close session items to take care of. Okay.