001can call this meeting for Monday, February 9th of the Cleveland County Board of Education to order. At this time, I'll call on Stephen Little John, pastor of Battleground Community Church, if you would come and lead us in our invocation. Let's pray together. Lord, it is at the beginning of everything that is important in our life that we acknowledge that you are God and we are not. You have entrusted us with responsibilities and privileges and I know that there are a lot of parents in the room and they are here tonight because we treasure and our children. And so [snorts] Lord, we acknowledge and are grateful for those who partner with us as parents for the education and the instruction and the formation of our children. And so Lord, we pray for for all these that
002are in front of me for the school board. And Lord, they have an agenda in front of them. And so, Lord, I pray for that agenda. I pray that today, this evening would be a time that that we would hear and be heard on on both sides. Lord, we pray that this meeting will be governed with a respect and um that honors you. And Lord, that we would glorify you even in our speech and even in our hearing tonight. And so Lord, we thank you for those that are in front of us and pray for for wisdom and and understanding for them tonight in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> Thank you. Uh I've asked Jonas Woods if he would come forward just come right over here and come up the side right here to
003lead us in our pledge from Shelby High School. 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. >> Thank you Jonas. At this time, uh, we have some special recognition. I'll call on, uh, David Ples. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Fiser, um, thank you for giving me a little bit of time tonight to, uh, recognize an outstanding achievement of a group of our student athletes. Uh we have representatives of the 3A state champion Shelby High School football team with us tonight. The Golden Lions defeated Kinston High School for the state championship. Finished with season with a record of 13 wins and three losses. Most importantly, this team had a GPA over a
0043.0 this past semester. I'd like to ask head coach Mike Willbanks to come up tell you a little bit about uh the Shelby team. Coach Will Banks. All right. Well, thank you for uh recognizing us and honoring us tonight. It's a uh definitely an honor and a privilege to be here before you. And uh you know, it's u it's nice to go around the county. I mean, around the state when you uh play other teams and we just got back from a coaches convention this past weekend, but you talk to other teams and coaches from around the state and you hear about what they talk about in their county. Uh, but it's always easy for us to represent Cleveland County. And I thank you, uh, the board. Thank you, Dr. Fischer, Mr. P, and our
005administration. Uh, we just appreciate what y'all do for us at Shelby High School. And, and we saw several of you at some games this year, and, uh, we appreciate that, and don't think that that doesn't go unnoticed. So, thank you for that. Uh, you know, Mr. P asked me to say a few words about our team and um you know there's there's a lot to be said but I'm going to try to keep it brief. Uh we were 13 and three. Um I could tell you about the team the stuff you saw on the field. Uh saw a lot of wins. You saw a state champion win against Kinston where we scored 84 points and the highest uh scoring output by any team since 1917. So pretty pretty cool accomplishment there. I could tell you
006about uh our on the field some accomplishments some our individuals had like our quarterback Lan Farmer is now the Cleveland County passing record holder uh which is a great and a tremendous honor for him to achieve with over 10,000 yards passing and 132 touchdowns in his career. Um I could tell you about how our team handled adversity this year. Um when we got to the playoffs, we had we're the only state champion team that had to play all five rounds and then the six the state championship. Uh and uh of those six games, we only got to play one of them at home. So they handled adversity really well. I could tell you how they handled adversity when we lost uh some players to injury, season ending injury, or how we lost some players due
007to some disciplinary uh issues and they they just rallied around each other and and stayed the course. Uh I could also tell you some intangibles how they the team chemistry that we had, they truly I enjoyed this team because they loved one another and played for one another and it showed. Um, I could also talk to you about um their grades. Um, they uh out of our 55 players we had on our roster, 32 of them have at least a 3 0 or higher. And uh out of those 32 that have a 3 0 or higher, 13 of them have a 40 or higher, which, you know, when I was in high school, I didn't know such a thing was was was manageable to get over a 40, but we got some guys that can
008do it. Uh, so I'm proud of them for that. Um, I could also tell you about how our team [clears throat] um is led by some great great men. Uh, I got some coaches here, Coach Emery, our offensive coordinator, and Coach Barkley, our defensive coordinator. Got Coach Dunaway, our offensive line coach. Coach Scott, running backs. Who am I missing? Uh, got Philip Watson who helps us out a lot. Big Mo right there in the front row. They got a lot of people that pour into this program. Uh we also have a lot of community that pours into them. Team moms, we got supper club and all those kind of things, but also the the players themselves. And what a lot of people don't realize is how much commitment, you know, a lot of the a
009lot of young people today get a lot of flack because, you know, they're this that or the other. But these young men started last January when nobody was in the stands, nobody was out there cheering and they committed themselves to working. Every day we had school, they were working. There was no days we just sat in there and hung out. We were working every day. They committed themselves during the summer. They most of them scheduled their summer vacations around football workouts. So they dedicated themselves to a goal and they accomplished it. And uh that's one of the things that's uh really uh makes me proud. And then ultimately our seniors, we have uh nine of our 18 seniors that are committed to go and play college at the next level and further their education, which
010at the end of the day, that's what this business is all about is creating student athletes and creating young men that will be uh be attributes to society. And so I'm just proud to stand before you as their head coach. Uh there's a lot of people that do a lot to get us to this point. I'm just uh I'm just glad to be a part of it and thank y'all for recognizing us tonight. >> Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> [snorts] >> Good job, guys. [applause] forgot to do. Congratulations. Mr. Chairman, what's what's really awesome about getting to be here in Cleveland County is we get to recognize another awesome team, the representative of the 5A state champions. We have members of the Crest Chargers here tonight. And the Chargers defeated Hunt High School for a
011state championship and finished the season with a record of 13 wins and two losses. Most importantly for the Chargers and to me is they had over a 3.5 GPA. I'd like to ask Coach Greg Lloyd to come up and share a little bit about his team. >> Hey David, >> would you tell them I used to work for you? >> Did you tell them I used to work for you back in the day and you paid me $6.50? >> [laughter] >> him right there, David Fisher. >> Well, no, he was a great boss. I'm just kidding. He was a great boss. But, uh, thank you for having us tonight. Appreciate the board. Uh, Dr. Fiser, Mr. Bless, thank you very much for recognizing our football team this year. We had a great year. Just like
012you said, we had 3.5 uh GPA over average for our team. So, we did it on the field and in the classroom. We had some great young men uh led by some outstanding coaches who cared about our players as good role models and uh you'd be pleased if you was out there every day to watch our coach coaches interact with our kids and they did a great job. We had a we had a fantastic year. Uh we finished 13 and two. Uh what made this year special is we were a very well-rounded team and I know you folks uh know football very well being from this area, but we were good. We were good on offense. We were good on defense. And we were good on special teams. And that's what made the season special.
013It wasn't one group, one side of the ball that made it a great team. It was all of us. Uh our offense scored six Well, we scored 662 points, which is a which is a school record for points in a season. And uh the long history of Crest High School and the great football program that it is, this team this year scored more points than any other school than any other team that has ever scored at Crest. So, we were very proud of that and we gave up 11 points a game. So, our defense was just as good and our special teams were impressive as well. We have a great administration at Crest High School is very supportive of me and the team and I couldn't have asked for a better administration at Crest. Mr.
014Shields and his group fantastic. Uh had great community support. Our booster club uh future Chargers were wonderful. Uh we did uh we did a lot of good things for the players and we did everything for the kids. We try to do everything for the players and uh try to make their experience as a as a as a player at Crest High School uh special. Uh this year uh also and it's not congratulation to Shelby and it's not to take any throw any shade at Shelby. It's really respect. We we won all our county games this year and uh one of our toughest games is obviously Shelby and it is every year, but I think they would probably say the same thing. If you can win all your county games and go three and 0 in
015the county, uh you're probably going to be a pretty tough team to beat and we were. And like we have some of our toughest games are incounty games. So, it's really just respect for Burns, Kings Mountain, and Shelby programs that they're so strong and and it's such great competition every year. And it's it's credit to their players and coaches. Uh we we won all of our county games on the road this year. I'm not sure who made that schedule. You know who makes that schedule, David? You make us play all three county games on the road, but that's okay. That's all right. Uh we had nine players earn scholarships this year, which was very impressive. hopefully another one may possibly have two. So we had 22 seniors and nine of them is going on to
016play and continue their education and playing football at their respective places. But uh thank you again for recognizing this year's team. Uh we have we have some players and coaches here tonight. We have they'll be up here to take a picture. I know you want to shake their hands and they did a fantastic job this year. So thank you for recognizing us. [applause] Hold [applause] [clears throat] [snorts] it right here. >> [applause] >> Hey buddy, congratulations. Congratulations. >> That went over the way, don't you? Wasn't [clears throat] our intent. >> Yeah, I must have been playing freshman. >> Yeah. That's why I said he's must started since he's a freshman. I would assume. I don't know. and then 62. >> All right. At this time, I'll call on Mr. Eric Lammana. [snorts] >> Good evening,
017Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, Dr. Fischer, as well as everyone here in attendance tonight or watching at home, have the opportunity tonight to talk about a different kind of state championship. um than football. But I appreciate the opportunity to come to uh recognize a distinguished group of our secondary students from the middle and high school level that were selected to participate in the state championship of chorus, you might say, the North Carolina State Honors Chorus. Auditioning for and participating in the state honors chorus is challenging for students. It challenges them to develop their musical skills to the fullest extent. spots in the chorus are competitive, extremely competitive, with only the top singers in the state having the opportunity to be selected for state honors chorus and to perform at the North
018Carolina Music Educators Conference in Winston Salem in the fall. So, I'd like to take just a few minutes to recognize these talented students and their directors for their exceptional dedication and achievement. And students, when I call your name, please come up see Dr. Fischer for your certificate of recognition and then come stand here kind of in a semicircle up front for your photo opportunity at the end. From Kings Mountain Middle School, Iris Dupe [applause] and Ivana Kelly, [applause] Garrett Santiago, [applause] Kendall Steel. [applause] Congratulations, >> James Welsh. [applause] from Kings Mountain High School, Mariah Goens. [applause] We also had one student from Kings Mountain Middle School who could not be here tonight. Just want to recognize that student as well. That's Brilan Laws. And we'll get Brillin's certificate to Miss Gray after the program tonight.
019Now, as skilled as these students are, and they are skilled singers, or they wouldn't be standing here tonight, it also takes a dedicated and talented group of staff members to help support them in the auditioning process and then the performance itself. So, I'd like to take just a minute to recognize our coral directors and accompanists for Kings Mountain High School and Kings Mountain Middle School who worked with our students to help them get ready for their auditions and their performance. from Kings Mountain Middle School. The coral director, Susan Gray [applause] from Kings Mountain Middle School and Kings Mountain High School. Our coral assistant and accompanist, Heather Bundon. [applause] and the coral director at Kings Mountain High School, Sarah Gray. [applause] Thank you all again for your dedication and expertise, and I will get out of
020the way now so you can get your picture. >> [applause] >> Okay, at this time I'd like to call on Dr. Valerie Oke. Kelly. Good evening board chair, vice board chair, members and of the board and Dr. Fiser. It always brings me great pleasure to come before you to celebrate our national board teachers. And uh with approximately 24,000 National Board teachers in North Carolina, North Carolina still holds the record for the most national board certified teachers in the United States. And we're very happy to add to that number and to maintain that number with the celebration tonight. I'm going to start with the renewal uh candidates. When I call your name, can you please come up? Anna Buchanan, Kristen Lance, Joy Laney, Stephanie Mitchell, Carrie Richardson, Barry Beverly Owens, Emily Parker, Stacy Pasco, >> Casey
021Pointer, >> Courtney Richards, >> Hannah Santiago, Lisa Smith, Lorie Sutherland, Laura Toms. These are our renewed national board teachers. Congratulations. [applause] >> They don't like us for some reason. >> [snorts] [applause] >> drum roll. These are our initial national board certified teachers that are coming up now. Savannah Ross, Matthew Harris, Joseph Hord. Emily Walker, Crystal Champion, Caitlyn Heavenho. Miranda McD McDaniel, Leah Garren, >> Jessica Hinsley, I'd like to say a few words about one of our particular initial candidates. I don't know if she made it here tonight. She was trying to make it here. Natalie King. In 2022, the rules were updated to open the National Board Certification Process for beginning educators. Demonstrating exceptional dedication and professionalism, Nataline King successfully completed the certification process within two years. She was a Beginning educator and she did
022this in two years. Matter of fact, she had to wait until this year to be recognized, but she had completed everything within those two years. So, we need to give her a hand for doing [applause] being the first one to do so. And um she did c tell me that she may not be able to make it tonight, but we just wanted to recognize that. So, that was Nataline King and Katie Kates. [applause] Congratulations. >> [snorts] [applause] >> Congratulations everyone. >> Mr. Chairman, can I say one word? >> Sure. >> Dr. Cali, did we have the most certified national teachers in North Carolina? >> Do we have the most certified national teachers in North Carolina? >> We don't have the most, but we have definitely added to them. >> We're close. >> We're getting it.
023[laughter] All right. >> All right. Next on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. Do I hear a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? >> I make a motion to approve. >> Mr. Bridges, do I hear a second? >> Second by Mr. Fischer. All in favor? It's 80. [clears throat] All right. Next is the approval of the minutes from u January the 12th and also the work session of January 23rd. Do I hear a motion um to adopt those? >> I make a motion to approve both minutes. >> Okay. Mr. Bridges, you second. Mr. Blandon. All right. All those in favor? That's 8 to zero as well. All right. Uh due to this crazy weather we've had uh we have [clears throat] not had any committee meetings, but we do have uh a
024budget amendment item that needs to be addressed tonight. Mr. McDaniel, I will let you present your budget amendment and then we'll after that you can do your school bus replacement. [snorts] [clears throat] >> Thank you, Mr. chairman, members of the board. Um, all four of those items are actually related to each other. Uh, we received the bus replacement information last Monday. Uh, and it's due back by the end of February. Typically, we would run that through committee. Uh, but we don't have the time to get it through a committee before and and another board meeting before it's due back. So, uh, bus replacement. This year, I think we have eight buses. The state's going to replace. the state does pay for those, but we do have to take them onto our books. So, the end
025result of approving bus replacements is we'll also have to do a budget amendment as well. So, um can approve budget amendment. I can answer any questions on it. The primary changes have been fund one and fund fund three which is state and federal. We have received some additional funding and we've budgeted that money. And then in fund four is where the buses are budgeted for. So we've added those to the fund four budget. >> Be glad to answer any questions. >> All right. Does anyone have any questions on the Let's take the budget amendment first. All right. Do I have a motion to adopt the mot budget amendment? >> Mr. Bridges, Mr. Blandon. All those in favor say 8 zero. All right. Now, let's take on the school bus replacement, which is basically we just
026did that by adopting the budget, but let's make it formal. Do I hear a motion? >> Make a motion. >> And Mr. Leford bridges. All those in favor. All right. That's eight to zero. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. All right. Personnel report. Uh, you have that with you. Dr. Fischer, do you have any additions? additional information. I won't say additional personnel. >> Yes, sir. M Mr. Chair, members of the board, we do have an addition to the personnel report I'd like to highlight for you. Um, [clears throat] and you uh I emailed that to you earlier today. I think we'll see that on the screen. There we go. So, the recommendation is to the promotion of uh William Vernon Beaver. promotion from assistant principal at Burns High School to principal at Burns High School effective March
027the 1. Uh the promotion of Chris Dao um as from principal at Jefferson Elementary to principal at Crest Middle School. Uh the third would be the promotion of Katherine Couch from assistant principal at Jefferson Elementary to interim principal at Jefferson Elementary and then the transfer of Dr. Kim Green who is now serving as the interim principal at Crest Middle to the assist interim assistant principal at Jefferson Elementary. Mr. Dao, Miss Couch, and Dr. Green. Those transfers will take effect tomorrow. Um, and they will transition be in full full transition in their new spots uh by the end of this week. So, Mr. Chairman, we'd like to add that include that into our normal personnel report. >> Okay. All right. Do I hear a motion to adopt a motion? >> That's with the uh additional. Okay,
028that's Mr. Blandon, Mr. Bridges. All those in favor? That's 8 to zero. Thank you, Dr. Fischer. >> Thank you. >> Uh, as I said, we didn't have any committee meetings, so the safety and operations was cancelled due to weather. Uh, also the education program was uh cancelled due to weather. [snorts] But we do have some policies for first read information only. Those will be policies 3640 graduation requirements and policies 3460 promotion and graduation requirements 9 through 12. Next we have the head start items you all received. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven items that we can take as one. They are the November [clears throat] 2025 PCSB report. November 2025 HS financial summary. December 2025 PCSB report. December 2025 HS financial summary. Head start transportation waiver 26 27 training and training and technical
029assistance plans part one and part two. Do I hear a motion to adopt all of these? >> Make a motion to approve. >> Mr. Bridges. Do I hear a second? Yes, sir. >> I heard Mr. Grigg's voice, so we'll go with Mr. Grigg. All those in favor? >> Question. >> Yep. >> All of these are November or 2025. Uh why are we waiting until now to get these and what are they? Dr. Fischer, would you like to address that? Maybe we've had them and I don't realize it. I don't know. >> So, so you get this quarterly information at the end. Basically, you're approving their reports and their financial summaries. You're not proving it ahead of time. you've approved uh back months ago the board would have approved an initial budget Head Start funds as
030a part of the district budget but this is a summary and a and a end of almost like an end of month end of term report that has to be presented this information is presented to the Head Start policy committee um that committee approves that but because you as the board of education oversee our local Head Start uh operation you have to report you have to approve the final reports there. So it's it's in the on the back side of that. That's traditionally what how that's been done. And usually it's quarterly um that has to be approved sign off on uh that you're acknowledging that that these head start funds were spent in this manner. >> But as a full board we don't normally see these reports though, right? >> No, they they uh they're
031approved when we approve those. Usually it goes through committee, but when you approve those at the end of that quarter, you see those same reports every quarter. Yes, sir. Okay. >> All right. Uh, we had a motion second. All those in favor? That's 8 to zero. Thank you, Dr. Fischer. Uh, legis uh instructional reclamation plan. >> Absolutely. And Mr. Chairman, I you said a couple things about weather. I don't know what you mean by weather. Has has anybody had any weather? Um we we have uh we've had experienced a little bit of weather over the last couple weeks. Tell you a quick story is our uh presentation's coming up. Um three uh three Sundays ago uh in anticipation of some weather the next week uh said in church that uh hopefully to get snow preacher
032called for people to pray for snow, wanted snow. So we laughed about it in Sunday school class. I teach Sunday school and so we laughed about it in Sunday school class. I said, "Now, listen, if y'all start praying for snow, pray for snow on the weekends." Well, if you notice, the next two weekends after that, we got inches of ice and then we got inches and inches of snow. So, this past Sunday was the first Sunday we're back in church since all the the inclement weather. And I told my son class, I'm not telling you to quit praying. I'm just asking you to quit praying for snow. So, hopefully we're we're we're done for snow for a while. Um, but we do have inclement weather and it has created a little bit of instructional issues.
033So, I'm going to walk you through um a reclamation plan when we look at instructional hours. Um, in the board's wisdom, when we look at approve a calendar, we approved a calendar that had extra days in it. Um, Mr. Ples at one of our recent meetings gave us a history lesson on inclement weather and missed days and delays over the last 15 years, plus or minus. Uh, there's been some years where we've missed some days. There's been several years where Mr. Pleasant and I didn't have to get up and ride roads and make any calls. Those were nice winters. Uh but we've had the opportunity to talk about weather a lot um over the last couple weeks. Uh and this is one of our um most aggressive winters in terms of miss school that we've
034had in a while. Um especially when you consider um not missing. We missed a couple a year ago for hurricanes and those type of things, but just for snow, this has been an aggressive winter. So, I want to walk you through a little bit of reclamation plan. And first, let me start with some some information from board policy. Board policy 3330 says the length of the school day should be a minimum of 6 hours and 50 minutes. Now, we have school days that are longer than that, but that's at a minimum. Activities such as lunch, recess, etc. should not be considered as that instructional time. So when you take that six hours and 50 minutes and you back out lunch and you back out recess and you back out a couple other things, then on
035average what we do is we base our instructional time, instructional day on six hours a day. Um and and that's straight from board policy. Now you see the italicized uh font there. That is not in your policy. Uh the two first bullets are in your policy, but that that's not that's basically our calculation. We need you to take that six hours and 50 minutes and you back out 25 30 minutes for lunch, 25 or 30 minutes for for recess, you back out class change at the high schools, those type of things, we're left with six hours of instructional time per day in which we calculate. Also in section D of that policy, the school calendar in all our schools will be for 215 total days. So that is teacher work days. Teachers work for 215
036days. Not 216, not 214. They work for 215. So we take that 215 days and it's divided among um holidays, annual leave days, student days, teacher work days, and there's some calculations on um how many of each of those are there, but 215 total work days, excuse me, [clears throat] in the school calendar. Um, and it provides for a minimum of 185 student days or 1,025 hours of instruction. So, in Cleveland County, you know, we don't go to school 185 days. In theory, theory only, we could go to school for 185 days, but only go three hours a day and would meet the state law in terms of instructional time. That would not be best practice for our students. We use 1,025 hours of instruction as our baseline for an instructional year. This year, the
0372526 calendar has 178 days. I've counted that multiple times to make sure I didn't miscount because that matters and it matters in what we'll talk about in just a minute. Your 26 27 calendar has 179 days in it. And so you'll see in just a few minutes that next year we wouldn't have as big of a problem as we do this year. If we had an 180 days calendar with six hours a day, we would have an additional time built in. But this year our calendar is 178 student days. So let's talk about first semester. First semester is done, but it does set as a a prefix for what we're going to talk about second semester and makeup. So first semester we had 86 school days at six hours instructional hours per day. That gives
038us 516 instructional hours. Now we lost five instructional hours for early release days. That's fall parent teacher conference days and the last day of school in first semester prior to Christmas. We did early release those days. So you have to back those hours out of the day. So 516 minus 5 turns you into what? 511. We also lost two instructional hours on December the 9th because we went on delay that day for inclement weather. So first semester we had a total of 509 instructional hours. Now you may ask, so what does that mean for first semester? What does that mean for high school courses? It doesn't matter. The law says 1,025 hours for per year. So again, we're fine with this and we know going into the calendar that we have more days second semester
039than we do first semester. Why do we intentionally do that? Because if we miss snow or we miss days for snow, when's it going to typically be? Typically going to be in second semester. So there's some intentional design there. So we total had 509 instructional hours first semester. So second semester, we started with a plan of 92 instructional days at six instructional hours per day to give us 552 instructional hours. We knew going into that we were going to lose five of those instructional hours for spring parent teacher conference day and the last day of school which would give us 547 instructional hours for second semester. So for total that gives us 1,56 instructional hours for the school year. And if you remember from two slides previously, how many instructional hours do we need? >>
0401025. So quick math problem. 1056US 1025 gives us 31 hours. Divide that by six. Why six? Six instructional hours per day. We have five days built into the calendar. If we don't get snow, that is great. That's five extra instructional days or five days that we don't have to take off that we can use for teaching and learning. But in the event we have inclement weather, we have those five days. If you look back on the calendars that you've that we've had since the beginning of the year, there's a note that says we have five days that we can count off for inclement weather. So, as we got into the last two weeks ago with the ice and we missed Monday and we missed Tuesday, there wasn't too much concern. We missed Wednesday and this
041the the concern started to grow. Not necessarily because we missed three days, but because on the weather radar it was showing snow the next weekend. People at church were still praying for snow on the next weekend. Um, and so we began to really be concerned about what this would mean if we continue to miss miss school. So, as you know, we've missed school two weeks ago and then we missed school again last week. So, where does that leave us? Well, fortunately, um, and it's a little bit chaotic. I will admit it's a little, uh, it's a lot of work on people's part, but we do have the ability to zone our days when when needed. Um, it works pretty well. It doesn't work perfect. There's some o always some odd things going in there. Uh
042but but over time we've kind of got this system where it works pretty good. So for inclement weather 2026 and I'm going to positively think inclement weather 2026 like in the past tints meaning we're finished with that. The Crest Kings Mountain and Shelby attendance zones missed [clears throat] seven days. Those seven days are 42 lost instructional hours. How did I get 42? Well, I multiplied it by six because that's how much instructional time we we figure in per day. the Burns attendance zone in the district schools missed eight days. Got an asterk there. I'll get there in just a minute. District schools, early college, Turning Point, North Shelby School, our sale programs, those district programs. When we close a zone, we close those programs, too, because we're pulling kids from all attendance zones. And if
043we say it's burn, the burn zone is closed, meaning we don't feel comfortable our buses and student drivers driving in that area, we're going to close those district schools as well because we have students drawing from that area. It's not very fair to say, okay, well, early college is going to be open, but it's only open to these the these students and not this student these students. It creates instructional issues. >> Before you leave that, make sure I understood that right. You close the [clears throat] entire if Burns district is shut down then you close the entire North Shelby all the schools that are fun to you close. Okay. >> Yeah. All right. >> So if we close any any zone those district schools and programs are closed. >> Okay. >> So you see the
044the eight days um and 48 lost instructional hours. Now one or two of you may be thinking wait just a minute. I think the burn zone miss nine days. There's an interesting part in this in the law and this in the school accounting manual that says if you cancel school the day of meaning you cancel school that morning it counts for your instructional time. So if you remember the last Burns day we had planned to go on a two-hour delay but that morning Mr. Ples and I were talking at 5:00 and and we felt due to the snow that happened overnight that the burn zone had to be cancelled. It was definitely the right call. So, we didn't have to lose that entire day because the night before we had declared a two-hour delay. Now,
045we believe we got to take take our take our medicine on the two-hour delay because we called that the day before. So, in theory, we we could not make any weather calls until the day of and have not have to make days up. Nobody would like that. You would get lots of calls because if there's six inches of snow on the ground and we're waiting till the morning of to call school, that doesn't seem very smart. So, so we do get a little bit of break there in the Burns attendance zone. Um, two-hour delays. Crest, Kings Mountain, and Shelby, we had three delays, which counted for six lost instructional hours. Those were all two-hour delays. The Burns and the District Schools, we had two delays, four lost instructional hours. You say, "Well, why did you
046have three in Crest, Shelby, and Kings Mountain, only two in the burn zone?" Well, the ice week, you remember, we closed in the burn zone and went to a two-hour delay in the other ones. And so, that gave us a little discrepancy there with the delays. So, in all total, we lost 48 instructional hours in the Kings Mountain Crest Shelby zone. You say, "Well, how did you get 48?" I got 42 from the first bullet. I got six from bullet three. 42 and six gives me 48 on the burn zone. We had 48 from bullet two. Four additional because of delays gives me 52 hours. Now, if you're paying attention, if I hadn't bored you to death already, you're going to remember from a couple slides, how many instructional hours have we banked previously? 31,
047right? Well, 48 and 52 are both greater than 31. So, we have a problem. we have an instructional hour issue. Um, so we got to put some things and and and worry about that. Let's first highlight a couple things in the zones just for uh clarity sake. The Crest Kings Mountain and Shelby attended zone. Again, I've already highlighted this. Seven missed days, 42 hours, three two-hour delays for 6 hours for a total of 48 hours. You can see the delays there. Um, we you've got a copy of the charts. You've seen a copy of those charts. Um, our team takes pretty pretty uh meticulous records and keeping up with with that stuff. So, there's your Crest Kings Mountain and Shelby attendance zone. There's your Burns attendance zone and district schools. And you can see there
048you can see the February 5th day. Um, if you just for to make sure everybody's on the same page, did we did the burn zone and the district schools miss that entire day? They did, but we only have to count the two-hour delay because we called school off that morning. So, we have to count the delay um not the full uh not the full day. So, Kings Mountain Kings Mountain uh Crest and Shelby, they're 48 hours uh lost. We had 31 hours to the good from our initial calendar. So that means 48 minus 31 we still have a problem a deficit of 17 instructional hours. The burns in the district schools 52 and you have that same 31 in the original calendar. You subtract those two you have 21 instructional hours left to reclaim. So
049the question then becomes so how do you reclaim that time? What are you going to do to make those days up? I can tell you from past experiences ideas that are not very good. Idea one that's not very good is Saturday school. Um I've been a part of the district years and years ago prior to my me being a superintendent. We did Saturday school. That does not go over well. Um second option that don't doesn't go over well is is having school during spring break. And so we do everything we can to protect not only our Saturdays but protect spring break. And when we talk about protecting spring break, I consider that protecting Good Friday and the entire week of spring break. So we're going into a mindset of reclaiming some hours with those parameters
050in mind. So here's our reclamation plan that you've seen. Um and and I I can talk through this in however much detail you would like. Um but first our our first action would be to go to full day on Thursday, February 12th. That's this Thursday. So that would give us two hours back. It's early release day. Students are already in school. Um we just delay the beginning of parent teacher conferences. Instead of starting those parent teacher conferences 1:30, we start them at 3:30. We get a full SK school day in. It makes good sense. Anytime you change students behavior or schedules kind of things get a little wonky anyway. So staying in school a full day there um is not a huge deal. So again, that's only two hours, but it's two hours. And you'll
051see in just a few minutes why that's important. Um our our plan would make a Friday, February 13th, which is this Friday, to to make it a remote instructional day. Now, I'll talk about remote instruction again in just a minute. Um and I'm not a fan of remote instruction. But I think given the circumstances we're at, this is a day we can get six hours. We've got a real robust plan for remote instruction for this Friday. Um, and I think it will be beneficial to our students and it will get us six hours. The third part of that reclamation plan is to make Friday, March 13th, a student day. Um, previously that day was a teacher work day. Um, and and it was Kday. We don't like to give up teacher work days. We don't
052like to give up Kday. But it's not the first time we had students go to school on Kday. We've done it before. We have gifted, talented, really smart people in our schools that we'll figure it out. We've done it before. Is it ideal? No. But it is it is best in this situation. Our team believes it is. So that gives us another six hours. Again, that day is face-to-face in-person instruction because what we believe and what we saw through CO is that in-person face-to-face instruction is by far the best. There is a place for remote instruction, but the vast majority of students, especially in Cleveland County, do better in face-toface instruction. The fourth bullet point would be to add additional time to the school day beginning Monday, March 2nd to allow for 6 hours and
05310 minutes of an instructional day. And so that adds 9.1 hours to the year. If schools already had that time in their calendar, and I told you at the beginning that the policy said it was 6 hours and 50 minutes was the minimum, but some of our schools are already over that. And so those schools that are already over that don't necessarily have to extend their day because their day has already been extended. Primarily that's in our middle schools and high schools where they may be going 7:55 to 3:00 already. So they're exceeding that minimum 6 hours and 50 minutes. So their instructional hours don't necessarily need to be um addressed. But this will give us 9.1 additional hours for the remainder of the school year. which brings us to 23.1 hours that we've reclaimed.
054Now, again, if you're paying attention and doing, I see some of you writing these things down, you go back, you think, well, we didn't need 23.1. We only needed 17 and 21. Well, by my calendar, it is February the 9th, and spring has not gotten here yet. And so I would be remiss to cut it so close that we don't have any flexibility moving forward. Granted, we don't have a lot of flexibility moving forward, but but there is a little flexibility moving forward. You can see 17 is less than 23.1. So if you're doing the math at home, you really got an extra day there. You've got an extra two-hour delay in the burns in district schools. So you may ask, well, what happens if we get another 10inch snow? Well, we've got plans for
055that and and unfortunately that's where we'll have to get into something that we don't like to move into is more remote instruction. Um, so a little bit of additional information. We have tried to place a premium on face-toface in-person instruction. We strongly believe that's what's best. Some of our classes lend themselves to being a little easier for remote. Some of our classes are hands-on and in-person face-to-face instruction is best. Of the of the seven days, and and I'm using the majority of our district, of the seven days that was mi that were missed, four of those days were optional teacher work days. Three of those four we gave teachers and staff a two-hour delay. Um, one of them was a three-hour delay. The remaining three days were closed for teachers. So if you remember back
056in the 215 days when we closed that day for a teacher, we still got to make that day up somewhere. And so our schools and district offices plans to work with teachers and staff to make those work days up later in the year. So Mr. Mr. Chairman, I'll pause for questions that that you or the board may have and we respectfully request your approval on approving the reclamation plan which would edit those days um that we highlighted uh on our calendar. >> Okay. >> Do we have any questions for the superintendent? >> To make a comment. I had several parents reach out to me and say, "Please don't let this interfere with our spring break." So, I think we're at least doing that for them. Um, uh, they didn't want the spring break to be
057interrupted, so that's a good thing. >> I have a question. I noticed in, uh, some of our reports that we receive, uh, weekly that, uh, some of the, uh, districts were contacting their legislators asking for forgiveness of these days since they had so many uh, snow days. Are we going to do that that or why do we not do that? >> Well, we we have been in conversation with folks across the state and and there's some some conversation uh Mr. Leadford about um would days be forgiven and and I don't know that answer. Um that that has to be an action of the North Carolina General Assembly. Um and and I've had that question multiple times. I've had people call or email and say it was an it was a state of emergency in North
058Carolina. Do you think they'll forgive the days? Well, that takes action of the North Carolina General Assembly and and we can't create that. We can't make that. And in and right now, the the they're not in session. And their scheduled sessions are short and small and in the future. And remind you that we don't have a state budget that was supposed to be passed July 1 of 2025. So while if it is forgiven then we may if it's forgiven in time we could go back and and differentiate some of these plans but we can't wait on that time because I'm concerned that that may never come. Um there there is conversation. I've got a call tomorrow morning at 7:30 uh with superintendent uh the superintendent's executive committee and that's going to be a conversation of
059where's the state at? What's the conversation like that? That there will there will most likely be a state ask on behalf of all districts to to to forgive some days. Um Monday, February 2nd, a week from today, every school district in North Carolina was closed for inclement weather. I don't know if I've ever seen that in my life, but every school district in North Carolina was closed for inclement weather uh last Monday and the vast majority were closed Tuesday. So, to answer your question, that that may happen, but it's um we we we really, in my opinion, can't wait on if that happens. We need to go ahead with some plans moving forward. >> But it doesn't say that we shouldn't be able to go ahead and ask for that. >> Absolutely. I agree. I
060think I think we'll ask for it and if that's the case, then we get it. and we can we can decide if and what we want to undo at that time. >> Well, another question is why can't we do these remote uh teachings uh instead of letting these students go without anything? [snorts] M >> Mr. effort. I I think and that's why we're talking about this is I believe and our team believes that changing to a remote day when snow happens is nothing more than um remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, the old nursery rhyme. Um I I don't think there's a whole lot to it. And I'm afraid that when you do remote instruction and you don't have real good uh timing to to get stuff out and you're just sending home
061a worksheet or some of your kids don't get materials or they don't do that, then that's not really good instruction. That what we ought to be doing is we ought to be looking at a way to get students back in the building because we know that is how students learn best. That is that is how kids uh integrate best. And and while we have classes that in some courses that we can do remote instruction, there's a lot of them that can't. [clears throat] And so um I have talked to people in districts that I won't name, but say, "Yeah, my district called and said it was a remote day. My kid got no work all week." And we just don't want to do that. That in my opinion, that's not right for students. That's not
062right for the instructional integrity of our program. >> When you say our team, who do you mean? I mean our our entire central office team, our our school administrators, those folks. >> I don't know who you're talking about. >> Talking about all these folks right here. >> That's our team. You you that's you know it's been our team for a while. >> Are principles included in that? >> We include principles in there and I think the the vast majority of our principles would double down on the importance of in-person instruction. Well, I know the session is closed, but I believe there's somebody in Raleigh will answer the telephone or because they have their secretaries and stuff. They're there. Uh I don't I don't see why we can't ask. uh because we've had to call emergency
063meetings before and uh they might need to call one, you know, if just as you said just a few minutes ago, every school in the state for February the second and possibly a whole bunch at the 3. So, you know, a few phone calls might make a difference on that, but I know every day that we can get the children back in, that's that's that's better better for the child. No question there. But just in case to keep from adding and uh going down that route, uh uh I it wouldn't hurt to make some phone calls. Uh we we have local representatives right here uh in Cleveland County to make that make that call too. And they know how to make that call to Raleigh who needs to be contacted. >> And and I will
064just say I'm not against days being forgiven. Don't mis don't misquote me on that. But days are forgiven are days and hours that young people aren't in school around teachers that have a positive impact on kids. >> I understand. >> And when we don't have that, that's not good for for students. That's not good for our community. And I'm all for the idea that maybe things could be forgiven. and we'll continue to to to to to let that, you know, to chase that rabbit, but at the end of the day, we can't wait on that. And young people need to be in school. When they're not in school, many of our students don't eat breakfast. Many of our students don't eat lunch. Many of our students don't have a warm, safe place to be. And
065as educators, we provide that for them every day. So, I'm going to always fault on the side of bringing our young people in the building where loving, caring teachers that are experts in their field can have face-to-face instruction on them. >> I understand that 100%. And uh me and you were here with me. I was here during CO and the only problem I have with your plan, but I that won't keep me from voting for your plan is the remote day because statistic after statistic shows remote doesn't work. Y'all can look that up, especially in our county. And I I'm sorry I forgot about that. But when we do a remote day, you got kids that ain't gonna eat. So we're gonna have some kids that remote day not eat. [clears throat] And I am
066totally against if my my opinion I say we don't ask for forgiveness. We're behind already from CO. We've been playing catchup for four or five years. Why in the world we would want I mean we should be an advocate for kids and kids learning and this is just my opinion. I know probably everybody wants to give forgiveness. We don't have to worry about it. I'm for kids being in school. I'm Our county has a 69% poverty rate. I'm for our kids being in school, being able to eat, being able to learn to try to make this county better. And Miss Shores, that the remote day I agree with you 100%. we struggled with that those six hours. Um we needed to get six additional hours and the timing of changing that to a teacher workday
067did not work with some of the requirements that we have in terms of notice for people's plans. So we we kind of the the the best scenario. We know it's not we know it's not the best but it is the the better. >> I agree. I said I that's not the best for me. >> Absolutely. But I understand you got to give some give and take in this situation to number one not go on Saturdays and number two not mess with the spring break. And I think we're trying to do that. But please people quit praying for snow because if we get more snow it's going to be Saturdays or spring break unfortunately because [clears throat] I am no way, shape or form into forgiving days miss. Let me ask another question. [clears throat] >>
068Let's look at that uh teacher for example that has is having to work. You know a teacher puts in more than six hours a day. Don't tell me that it's only six. They put in more than six. Then we add two and a half or two additional hours to them. They're putting in eight plus. And then they're having to go to meetings. They're having to do all this. We're really putting in a lot on teachers and they're not paid any extra. Now, mind you, I know that they're paid uh salary exempt, but the fact that we're overworking our teachers likewise is is adding to something that they have to put up with as well. Now, what are we going to do about them? Do we say the heck with the teachers and go with the
069students? I didn't see anything in the plan that required an eight hour day. >> I believe I read on the thing that it showed that they were going to have to work uh extra hours. Is that not correct? >> The vast majority of teachers won't work any extra hours. Um by going and I'm not sure what you're referring there to, but teacher hours generally are a minimum of seven and a half hours a day anyway. So teachers, let's just say that that the teacher hours at a school are 7:45 to 3:30. Well, if we're gonna our students are going to go have been going 8 to 2:50 and now we're going 8 to 3:00, well, that's not changing the teacher hours, that's changing the student hours. Now, could you have a teacher that that works
070an extra few minutes because that instead of getting out at 2:50, the kids got at three o'clock and when they were on duty, duty took a little longer. You may have some of that, but that that will be minimal across the district that we have. Uh, and some of our schools are already at that 8 to three time and are making it work. And there's not a there is a minimum amount of time teachers work that but there's not a there there's obviously not a maximum that any salaried employee works but we we try to stay with that. So I don't see that this being a a major an issue with teachers working more at all. Um the six hours is instructional time if you remember that's not the full day that is the the
071instructional time that's when we take out lunch you take out recess that's within that seven and a half hour teacher workday. But I think you're going to find that teachers work more than that, though. If any if any teacher was like my wife that taught, I guarantee she's out uh that that teacher is out longer than uh what that designated seven and a half hours is. >> I I don't disagree with that, Mr. Leadford, but I don't think that anything in the reclamation plan is going to require that teachers work more time. I I I don't think that um you know the adding the two hours back for next this Thursday. Well, what teachers were going to be there anyway for parent teacher conferences? So, you just shorten parent teacher conferences, but you've lengthened the
072school day. >> How long is parent teacher conference today? >> Is usually it's from 1:30 to 7. This year it'll be 3:30 to 7. >> Okay. There's extra hours right there. 1:30 to 7. >> They were planning on working 1:30 to 7:00. Now they'll be working 3:30 to >> 7. Okay. Still, they go till 7 o'clock. That's extra hours. >> Either way, it's not. >> Either way, it's extra hours. >> No, it's not. >> That's what I'm saying. >> No, it's not. [clears throat] >> How's it extra? They were going to go from 1:30 to 7:30 and now they're going from 3:30 to >> This was planned in anyway. >> So, are you suggesting we just cut out parent teacher conferences all together? >> I'm saying they're going extra hours. They're working extra hours anyway.
073I I would argue that that's not extra hours at parent teacher conference is an expectation that's set forth by the board and you know the district. So that's not extra hours. Those are required work hours. >> All right. Well, any anybody else got any questions? >> It's on the board's calendar. >> Okay. >> I don't care. [clears throat] >> Okay. Anybody else got questions? All right. Do I hear a motion to adopt the reclamation plan as >> present? >> Mr. Sperling and Mr. Bridges. All those in favor. That is seven. All those opposed to one. All righty. Legislative priorities. Mr. Dr. Fischer. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Uh, I just put these priorities back in front of you. You've got a copy. There's uh I've included uh a copy of my
074end of the week updates as well. Um if you've got additions, you've got comments on those legislative priorities, please let me know. Uh we're going to bring these legislative priorities to you at at the March board meeting uh for approval. Um I've gotten one or two of you that have submitted some things. Um and I've highlighted that one of the the uh recent submissions was to include um additional funding and aotments to instructional assistance or teacher assistance. And you can see that listed there in 4B and then also looking at state construction bond which would be number eight. Again, a lot of the things that we had already talked about are in here. So, if you've got additional items that you'd like to include or discuss and legislative priorities, if you'll let me know of
075the coming weeks, uh we'll bring this back to you um in March for your approval so we could put our legislative priorities besides other districts in our region. um looking at instruction uh legislative priorities uh for this 26 27 legislative session. >> Any I believe this was handed out at our uh workshop. >> Yes, sir. All right. And the last thing, Mr. chairman, members of the board is just a few updates, calendar updates as you normally get. Um this week on Thursday here in this room, spelling be urge you to come and and sit and listen to many of our young spellers um to really do a good job. Dr. Parker and his team uh put on a great show uh for the spelling bee. Uh excuse me, that's at Shelby Middle School, not here.
076Um these Flores Creek and so became noisy here. So Shelby Middle School, don't show up here, you'll be spelling by yourself. Um, so Shelby Middle School spelling be parent teacher conferences. We do have that Thursday the 13th. Um, we have our teacher assistant appreciation banquet on the 19th. Uh, we we encourage you to guys to come be a part of that. If you're going to come to the TA banquet, please email either me or Ashley Hooks so we can uh make sure you're registered. It is a hot ticket and we are going to be packed in this the staff development. So, we need to make sure that we have you uh counted for or you may have to stand and eat. Um you see committee meetings. Um a couple things at the bottom I want
077to bring your attention to the My Home Library project which is Monday morning at 9:00 at Bowling Springs Elementary. We hope you'll come out be a good event. Um and then elementary book competition here at Central Services on March 3rd. Uh that awards is usually about 12:30 or 12:45. We'll give you some specifics closer to that time. Board meeting in March, and then our teaching excellence awards, our Tuesday night, March 10th, 6:30 to Lrand. So, that gets us a month out. Uh, springtime, as you know, gets busy with lots of uh lots of programs and recognitions and things going on. So, we really appreciate your attendance at those events. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Fischer. All right. Next on our agenda is public participation. While I'm finding my list,
078uh I think Mr. Bridges, if you want to read the roles, please. [clears throat] >> Sure. Uh public comments should not address any specific confidential student or personnel matter. Specific concerns related to confidential student or personnel matters should be directed to the superintendent or designate. Comments must be relevant to the matters that are within the board authority. Uh speakers shall refrain from personal attacks or threats directed toward staff, elected board members, or members of the public. Speakers shall be courteous in their language and presentation. Insults, profanity, and use of vulgar language or gestures or other inappropriate behaviors are not allowed. The board vests in its chair or other presiding officer authority to terminate the remarks of any individual when he or she does not adhere to the rules established above. Any person who willfully interrupts
079or or disrupts a board meeting may be directed to leave the meeting by the presiding officer. Any person who refuses to leave may be prosecuted for disrupting a public meeting. Persons appearing before the board are reminded as a point of information that members of the Cleveland County Board of Education are without authority to act independently as individuals in official matters. Immediate answers are not generally possible and must be deferred pending investigation and consideration by the full board. >> Thank you, Mr. Bridges. The first one I have here is Jay Carpenter. Good evening. I want to speak a little tonight [clears throat] about an incident that has deeply concerned many people in Cleveland County. An alleged physical altercation between two schoolboard members during a disagreement over policy. Regardless where anyone stands on that policy, physical aggression
080has no place in school leadership. When adults entrusted with guiding our education system result to physical behavior, it sends a troubling message not only to the public but to the very students we supposed to protect and lead. Our schools work every day to teach students conflict resolution, self-control, and respect. We suspend students for fighting. We discipline students for putting their hands on one another. We tell them disagreements must be handled with words, not force. When leaders failed to model those same expectations, it undermines everything our educators work so hard to instill. If students see adults in power can act physically without [clears throat] accountability, what lesson are we teaching? That rules change when emotions run high. That leadership excuses behavior we would never tolerate in our schools. Schoolboard members are not just policy makers. They
081are role models. The example set at this level shapes the culture of the entire school system. Professionalism, restraint, and respect must be non-negotiable, especially when opinions differ. Disagreement is normal. Passion [clears throat] is expected, but physical confrontation is unacceptable. This is not about politics. It's not about sides. It's about standards. Cleveland County Schools must hold its leaders to the same or higher expectations we hold students. Because of that, the board member who committed this act should resign and step down immediately. If we expect students to learn responsibility, we must demonstrate it. If we expect respect, we must show it. And if we expect sa safe safe schools, leadership must begin by modeling self safe behavior while being honest, transparent, and accountable in their conduct. Our childrens deserve leaders who resolve conflict with integrity, not intimidation.
082The future of our schools depend on it. And any of you on this board that don't agree with that need to step down immediately, too. Thank you, Mr. Copper. Next, Mr. Rob Pow. Good evening, members of the board. Mr. Chairman, Dr. Fiser, I want to start out by saying uh I want by echoing Dr. Fish's comments here about the importance of public schools here in Cleveland County. How teachers show up every day and a an hour in the classroom is worth so many hours of remote instruction. Students do need to be in school. And Mr. Chairman, I will will echo your remarks about how on a day when students aren't in school, many of them don't eat. That's important to remember. And Mr. uh Mr. Leford, I wanted to thank you again for recognizing how
083hard teachers work daily. Daily. I remember that as a retired public school teacher. And tonight, these remarks tonight really fit into my um theme of my theme of my remarks here. I want to talk about school vouchers here. You know, I'm [clears throat] here to talk about school vouchers because here in North Carolina, the school voucher system, it's not a choice by any s any honest sense. You know, it's public money that's going out the door with weak rules and little accountability. Now, here's the plain truth here. When a public school takes a child, it takes the whole job. transportation, exceptional children's services, counselors, federal requirements, and records, testing, safety plans, all that unglamorous unglamorous work that keeps the school running. Now, these uh uh many voucher uh voucher funded private schools do not have
084to carry the same load. We know that some can pick and choose who they enroll. Some that don't have to provide the supports. Some don't have to offer transportation. And some can teach curriculum that is questionable, unscientific, or ideology first while cashing taxpayer checks. Now, if taxpayer dollars go out the door, taxpayers deserve to see where it went and what it produced. I want public reporting, fi, real financial audits, and basic civil rights protections for any school taking state money. And I want the general assembly to stop draining public schools that educate almost every kid in Cleveland County. Now, what can this board do? Put the facts in front of in front of the public. Ask the hard questions in open meetings. work with nonpartisan civic groups and any other community group willing to do
085[snorts] this in a nonpartisan setting so voters understand what vouchers are, what they are not. Now, before I sit down, I'll say this. I spent years in a high school classroom. When adults treat something like it is no big deal, kids learn that lesson fast. Public education is a big deal in Cleveland County. Cleveland County families deserve are counting on us to act like it. Thank y'all. >> Thank you, Mr. P. Next is M. Jenny Ross. Hello, and happy Black History Month. Uh last month I had the joy of attending the Cleveland County chapter of the NAACP's um Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. They had a wonderful walk from the um courthouse to Malcolm Brown auditorium where it was full to the brim of people who heard um speeches from a lot of really
086wonderful leaders in our community. Um notably uh Mr. Ronald Harrell and Mr. Harold spoke. He gave some history about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ketta Scott King. Um, and he also gave me some history that I had never known or thought about um, in regards to Cleveland County. In September of 1963, four students integrated Shelby High School. Their names are Cynthia Loe, Rayfield Cabinets, Mary Borders, and Severn Bud. I I started reading um after I learned about their names and u Miss Bud is the only one who is still living today. And I went to Google and I Googled it and I read um an article that the Shelby Star had done about Miss Bud two years ago, three years ago now. Um where she was recognized for the very first time, three years ago,
08760 years after she integrated Shelby High School and all of Cleveland County schools, Mr. Harold made a request whenever he spoke um on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I want to bring that request to you guys because I think it should be heard. We would like to see I would love to see he mentioned he would love to see a plaque commemorating the Shelby 4 at Shelby High School. I've sat in operations committee meetings and heard gyms being named after coaches and things of that nature and those are wonderful. But I do think that these four courageous teenagers, they were 16, 17 years old. They went into Shelby High School with police flanking the doors. And I would really love to see Cleveland County Schools honor them in that way with a plaque at
088Shelby High School. Thank you. >> Thank you, M. Ross. All right, that's all the ones I have signed up. Next is our board member comments. I'll start with this side. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to again congratulate the uh two football teams on their success uh of what they accomplished. uh something that takes a year-long work to do and uh they did it courageously and they did it very uh honestly and we're very glad to to see them to rep represent Cleveland County schools. Second, I would like to thank the teachers or the principles or whoever is responsible for putting information on the web on their website, Dr. Fiser, of informing the uh public of what is taking place in their schools. Uh I questioned that at one time and uh I'm perfectly
089glad to say that they have uh honored 100% and I'm very glad to to see that happen. Uh congratulations to our teachers, to our uh certifi new certified national teachers. Uh we're certainly glad to see them. That's a big honor, folks. If you don't know what it is, it's a big honor and it takes a lot of work for a teacher to do to become a national teacher. And sometimes they just have to work at that more so than they do anything else. But it uh it's a big honor to become a certified national teacher. So with that, Dr. Fiser and Mr. Chairman, I close my remarks. >> Thank you, Mr. Leford. M Sherman. Yes, please. Well, I'd like to thank and congratulate everybody that came and spoke tonight. Um, for sure our high school
090football and the honors core students and um I just want to commend you on your high GPA scores and your success on the field and off the field. That's that's so important and it takes a lot to um be successful in those areas. So, congratulations. You make us all very proud. Um, also I want to commend our national board teachers. That is something that I had the honor and got to um go through that as I chose to um set out my goal to be a national board teacher and it um I you cannot explain how much work it is. it. Um I had I got two master's degrees and I can tell you right now that my work in becoming a national board teacher was harder than um going to college and getting a
091master's degree because that takes a teacher spending hours and hours and hours um at home and weekends and um not knowing if you're going to attain it or not. Um so I just want to commend it makes me so proud to see that we have so many teachers um attaining their national board and working toward that because it also I think it made me um become a much better teacher because you are continually looking at what you can do to improve your teaching your your skill and how you're improving. So, there's a lot that goes into it and um I'm just proud and I hope our district will continue and I'm proud of North Carolina for supporting our national board teachers and um I Dr. O. Kelly, I know it's a lot of work to
092support that and our principles support it. So, congratulations. When I did it, we had a box about this big and the ones that did it with me that we actually mailed a big box and had to mail the box. Um, so now it's all online, but it is still a it's a lot of work. So I'm very proud of all our national board teachers. Um, also I would like to thank Dr. Fiser. I thank um Mr. How and Mr. Ples for your hard work every morning and others I know up before daylight and looking and making decisions on keeping our children safe because academics is important. all everything's important winning state titles, but the safety of our children comes first. And um those are hard decisions to make. I had to make a couple of
093those as a principal. Um one that came to my mind as I remember I had a whole lobby full of parents. I had a whole five classes of kindergarten children ready to go to the circus in Charlotte and there were some icy spots on 85. And I remember making that call to Dr. Fiser and he's like, "Well, Miss Sherman, you know, we'll support whatever you think." And I had all these mothers and daddies that had taken off work and I just took a minute and went in my office and closed the door and I had to say a little prayer and I had [clears throat] to say, "You have to go down and say, "What what's most important?" And it was the safety of those students. So, I had I made that announcement that we
094just were going to air on the side of safety and please take your child to the circus when you can, but you have to look at those things and I know those are the decisions they make and keeping our students safe on those roads. So, I know it's hard. It's not always popular, but um that's what we're about is the safety of our students so we can have them here. So, thank y'all for doing that. And um I'll end on that. I could talk longer about a lot of things, but I'll stop on that and thank you all for attending. >> Thank you, Miss Sherman. Mr. Craig, you have anything? >> Well, I just want to say we had a great group of uh young men and young ladies here tonight and um they have
095represented our school system well and for that I do appreciate it. Also, the uh teachers that received awards tonight, you know, they've shown their willingness to lead our children in the right directions, and I certainly appreciate what they've done for those children. Now, the third thing is I believe it's bus driver appreciation week. And if it is bus driver appreciation week, I think we ought to let our bus drivers know how much we appreciate them because I'm going to be honest with you, I know how it is riding around with four of my daughters in the car. I I just couldn't imagine today's time riding around with 25 or 35 kids in a vehicle. But uh if you see a bus driver out there, please tell them how much you appreciate them. Now, I know
096we got a lot of great staff, and I'd like to appreciate all of the staff, but I want you to understand this is the bus drivers appreciation week. We'll get to you guys on another appreciation day. Mr. Ples, I appreciate what you do in that field and um getting up early sometimes. I know it's hard, but uh you're the man and thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Grigg. Go ahead. >> Uh, you have anything, Mr. >> Bur? Okay, go ahead. >> So, just real quick again, uh, everybody has already thank or said congratulations to the football teams, the chorus, the teachers. Uh, I' I' I'd like to point out that uh uh, every week we recognize new people for new things. uh or not every week, but every month we recognize new people for new
097things. Uh uh it's just a continuous line of people coming through here getting recognized for uh good grades and sports and and chorus and art and I mean it's just a multitude of things that this that this county does. And there's a lot of people that want to point out all the bad stuff and they don't look at all this good stuff that comes through here. there's way way 99% of it is good and everybody wants to focus on the 1% of bad, you know. So, uh we have a great school system. We have a great team and and my honest belief is uh uh this school system is because of the teachers, the staff, uh the administrators uh and and I think they do a great job, not because of this board, but in
098spite of this board. So, I think all of you do a great job. Thank you, >> Mr. Berlin. Appreciate you having Mr. Blandon. >> Yes. [clears throat] Well, I want to thank the football teams, the music, our chorus, uh, and I'll repeat on those bus drivers and, uh, how Mr. Play gets up and gets them, uh, make sure his staff is getting that rolling. But there are one more thing that I'd like to bring out that I've been working on for quite some time. Miss P, Mr. Ples will be a little bit involved in this and he's going to like to hear it. I received a letter today. [clears throat] That's how I know must somebody some secretaries is down in Raleigh and it's not that I want to forgive days or anything like that.
099But I've been working on our driver's education. We got some children that's getting to be 17 years old and they hadn't drive have driver's education and they can't go take the private sector. So I've been working on this for quite some time probably close to a year and Mr. Ples can back me up on this. We thought we had it set up that we was going to get some uh teachers. We got 10 or 11 people that would like to get their certification so that they can give drivers education. Well, I received a I've received three letters in the last week and I received one today. Uh docu He said Dr. Blunt, but I'm not no doctor. I'm just a just old uh redneck. I got to get a little bit of that in there.
100But I would like to begin thanking you for your dedication and your commitment you have demonstrated to the students and the staff of Cleveland County Public Schools. You have served Cleveland County School Board as a testament to your service of serving the children and the community of Cleveland County K through 12 of education. Your concern regarding the certification of driver's edge teachers has been acknowledged. Thank you for the bringing it to our attention. We are currently in the process of collaborating with the department of public instruction and the department of transportation in finalizing and logistics and details associated with the certific certification process. As we navigate through the process, my hope is that we make may have a solution in the near future. Please continue to reach out to my office with suggestions and concerns
101as I am here to assist and serve our local boards of education. Again, I want to thank you for your service, but most of all for suggesting this critical need throughout the state. There was over 28 schools that the public schools was not getting uh any certification or allowing us to teach or get staff to be certified. Well, the letter the other day, it does not have to be a certified teacher now that can get certified for driver's education for us. I got that letter. is in place that they done got that. They said it was going to probably be on into the spring when they go back to get something done, but they had no idea. But public construction and DMV was not given someone to teach us to get teachers certified to do
102driver's education. Well, Mr. place. He followed the directions of what they had guided us to do and he got it all lined up for about 10 people to get their certification and then DMV bucked it. So hopefully that is going to be overrode now. Mr. ples will be able to get our teachers certified uh for our staff and we'll get it all taken care of where our children can get their driving license at a reasonable time and get their certification and pay $65 or whatever uh a parent has to pay on a children through the public schools where if they have to go to the private sector, you're looking at $400 or so. And uh so I'm going to stay on top of this until we get this going with Mr. Ples and get everything
103squared away. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Blandon. Mr. Bridges, >> Mr. Greg took mine. So [laughter] I'm just going to say uh the the governor of North Carolina um declared this week uh February 9th through the 13th to be school bus driver appreciation week. And so I just appreciate all of our bus drivers. Uh Miss Sherman has has told us before and it's true that our bus drivers are the first ones that see our students every day and they make the difference. And so I appreciate all of our bus drivers. Um I appreciate all of our teachers. You know, it is hard to accommodate everybody with the weather issues. Um and I just appreciate our teachers flexibilities and their willingness to serve. Um because without you guys, we wouldn't have a school system. So
104I just appreciate our teachers uh and our bus drivers. And Mr. Ples, I appreciate you getting up at 4:00 a.m. and riding the roads. And Dr. Fischer, I'm just, you know, a lot of good things going on for Cleveland County schools. the the chorus students that were here, our football team. Um just a lot of good stuff going on at Cleveland County Schools. I'm a proud board member to sit up here and and be the cheerleader for the district. Uh we've got uh Miss Oke Kelly said that uh we had 24,000 in North Carolina board certified teachers and Cleveland County is adding to that and that's a great thing. So I just uh commend our teachers um that are getting their board certification and I'll hush now because we've took a lot of time but
105uh just appreciate our school district. That's okay, Mr. Greg. We'll celebrate on them this week and we'll celebrate on April 23rd because you said that. I wasn't aware of that and I'm like, but the governor pointed to this week and I'm glad you brought that up because I didn't know that. And I want to commend our our t our school bus drivers, not taken away from anybody else. But since the governor said it's this week, uh I do want to say that. I do want to say that we approved a plan to to make up these days. I know there's probably some teachers out there that's not going to be happy and and you know, part of this job you just you got to do what you think's best for kids. And don't think I'm
106not want to do what's best for teachers. That's not it at all. But I I I've heard loud and clear Saturdays don't work. Please leave our spring break alone. So please uh for those who believe in prayer, pray for no more snow. And with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Mr. Bridges and Mr. Berlin all.