Board of Education Meeting - April 7, 2025

001for Monday, April the 7th, 2025, board of education to order. At this time, I'd like to ask Jason Allen, pastor of Oakrove Baptist Church, if he would come come and give us the invitation as a proud product of Cleveland County Schools, uh I don't know if you believe it or not, but in 1990, proud Burns High School graduate. There's some folks in here. I just want y'all to know that appreciate the work you do and have been in the school systems for eight years as a school counselor. I appreciate what you all do each and every day and who you represent. So, uh, I definitely want to go to the Lord in prayer, but I want you guys to know that your faith community thanks you for including us in this process because I know

002a lot of folks that have different beliefs. That's fine. But I believe the power of prayer is something that we underestimate. So, thank you so much for including us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our kind and gracious heavenly father, we do come into your presence. Lord, uh throughout your scriptures, you're always telling us not to be worried, to cast our burdens on you, not to be troubled, to seek first your kingdom. Father, we need to do that today. We need to put our eyes on you, fixed on you as you're guiding each and every step that we take. And Lord, also the good book reminds us that if we lack wisdom, we can ask for it. We can seek it and we will find it in you. So as you bless the leaders

003and the leadership of this county that love children, love to see young people grow and reach their potential. Lord, would you give guiding hands and direction to all those that are charged with being in positions of authority? Would you be with each teacher and each assistant teacher, each administrator, each student, each person from the highest ranks to the lowest ranks that involved with the growth and and bringing up of of young people that will be indeed our future leaders of tomorrow, if not today? And Lord, would you just put your guiding hands through the power of the Holy Spirit on each one that serves and may they serve with glad hearts. May they be given the energy and strength to endure all those difficult days, those long hours. And again, Father, will you just continue

004to guide them each and every step of the way? Thank you so much for Cleveland County Schools. Thank you for the heart that that goes beyond just math, reading, and arithmetic that goes into the heart of each individual and cares about those to see them successful. And Lord, as you bless this meeting, Lord, just again put your guiding hands at directing each step, each opportunity that you can be glorified. Thank you so much again. And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you, pastor, for taking your time and coming and doing that. At this time, we have uh Cadet Watkins from Chris Huh. Uh that will come and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Cadet Watkins, if you'll just come right up through here [Applause] and attention. Salute. Pledge. I pledge algiance to the

005flag 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. Wow. We have to have you come back more often. Get us going. Wow. That was great. All right, at this time we got some special recognition. I'll call on Dr. Parker. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, Superintendent Fiser, members of the board. Tonight, I'm pleased to recognize our CCBC winners. Isn't it great to have a room full of our students behind me? We are so excited to uh recognize them this afternoon. Take a moment to get my clicker to work here. Uh Jinger, if you could just advance for me. I want to start by uh purposefully thanking our coaches. You will see a lot of the adults behind

006me. They have worked really hard. We don't pay them extra, but they get a lot of second paychecks, I would say, in helping kids see success and really motivate a love for reading. So, you may be asking, what in the world is CCBC in this acronym rich world that we're in? It is the Cleveland County Book Challenge. And it really, that first bullet is really important. It's an opportunity to cultivate excellence with elementary literacy. Before I get into the details of CCBC, I want you to look in the the uh figure on the right. Their book list this year was on average an 868 Lexile level. That means we have third, fourth, and fifth graders fluently reading and comprehending middle school level text while they're in elementary school. So when we say cultivate excellence with

007literacy, they're really doing that. They are being pushed by their coaches well beyond their grade level content. So a little bit about CCBC. It's two It's two components. The first one is a competition round. They all read 13 books. These books are thick and they're tough. The students become experts in each book. I would dare say the coaches become true experts in each of those books. During the competition, which we had last month here at Central Services, the teams choose four representatives to represent them in a fast-paced question and answer session. It moves quickly. It's timed. And then they do that seven times throughout the morning. They then go to lunch, which was new this year. And we added a brand new component after lunch, which is a presentation round. And we love this because

008it is a real life scenario. And we capitalized on your vision for us to have a common curriculum in elementary. So, we chose two books from Wit and Wisdom, wrote a rubric that aligned to both of those books, and then the boys and girls you see behind me presented uh some information in front of judges in a real life scenario. Skills such as public speaking, being persuasive in thought and in action and preparation. Those are life skills that we hope will serve our students well throughout their life. So, we are going to represent tonight. Dr. Fischer has trophies for all of our teams. We'll start by representing uh teams who placed uh in our competition round. That's that fast-paced question and answer round. I'll call to the front here West Elementary [Applause] School. They are

009our first place winner. [Applause] And I'll just quickly as they're uh hopefully shaking the board members hands, I'll read through the West information. We have two coaches. They are co- coached this year by Nikki Nolan and Jennifer Bumgardner. And the team members are Ella Ellis, Kylie Little, Grace Melton, and Breyn Steel. Congratulations. Good job. Good job. Good job. Wow. Great job. Thank you. And board members, if you just want to stay where you are, that might [Music] help. Our next school, Kazer Elementary School, actually placed second place in the competition round and they also placed third place in the presentation round. So with to not call them up twice, they're going to get both trophies and we'll recognize them all together. As they're coming through uh shaking hands and getting their trophy, I'll read off

010their school information. They were coached this year by Miss Candace Gold and team members were Jackson Brady, Case and Clay, Haley Chavez, Congratulations Roan Galves, Emma Godfrey, Ameilia Lel, and Elena Joe Workman. Congratulations. Third place in our competition round is Fost Elementary. I'll invite them down to shake hands. And as they're coming, I'll read through their school information. Their coaches this year were Mir Miranda Spangler and Jamie Willis. The team members this year are Woods Borders. Jacob Elliot. Congratulations. Emma Gardner, congratulations. Cora Gizmann. Macy Lancaster. Congratulations. Matthew Lowry, Olivia Lowry, and Ethan Putnham. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. False. Moving over to our presentation round again. That was a brand new component this year. First place this year was Kings Mountain Intermediate [Music] School. As they're coming down, I'll share that they were coached this

011year by Michael Cogdel and the team members are as follows. Annie Beam, Sawier Benfield, Addison Blandon, Caroline Bridges, Braden Carroll, Cadence Dayton, Lane Hoffman, Caroline Holt, Carson Hovas, Moira Mahoney, Madison Smith, and Norma Thompson. Good job. And as we were designing the presentation round this year, we thought we had everything covered, but our first tiebreaker was tied. Our second tiebreaker was tied. We had to go three layers deep and we were still tied. So at that point we said buy two second place trophies. All right. So tied for second place this year of which some of you saw this morning the parade at Township 3 is Township 3 Elementary School. As they're coming down I'll share they are co- coached this year by Christy Hess and Crystal Champion. Team members are Skylin Barnett, Lucas Black,

012Dylan Emory. Good job. Thank you. Anya Harlo, Jaden Means, Joseph Miller, Dia Patel, and Evan Vincent. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Just give my high five. [Laughter] And our other second place winner for the present presentation round, excuse me, is Bowling Springs Elementary. As they're coming down, I'm pleased to share they are co- coached this year by Maline Humphre and Lindseay Baker. Team members are as follows. Alexander Bridges, Piper Bryson, congratulations. Kyrie Henry, Riley Mosley, Aiden Smith, Leila Sudden, Mark Talbert or Talbert, excuse me, Abel Yantis, and Ella Washburn. Thank you so much. And again, without calling them back up, I'll re-recognize Kazer. They were third place in the presentation round. Board members, we do appreciate your support of all of our events as we work really hard to get students prepared

013for middle school. Thank you. Thank you. Not yet. Not yet. Thank you, Dr. Parker. Dr. Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. We want to continue our celebration tonight and really emphasizing the excellence that's cultivated in Cleveland County schools by recognizing two of our community partners. Um, school districts are are only as good as as the extension and the way we reach out and partner with with outside organizations. And tonight I'm going to to talk about two really important organizations to our school district and and the health of our uh the work that we're doing. Um both of these um groups are are dedicated to Cleveland County Schools. Um and while they may not be employed by Cleveland County Schools and and everything that they do is not focused on there, they are

014definitely a part of team CCS and we really appreciate their work. Several years ago, we were approached by an organization that wanted to help Cleveland County schools. Reached out and said, "How can we help?" and and really wanted to incentivize our teachers and our staff members. We looked at several different options that we had to be able to highlight the things that team CCS uh means and and was important to them. Um and so together we created and and and had had created for us an employee recognition system um where all of our employees are recognized over time through their years of service. Uh we wanted to do this to help retain good high-quality employees and we also wanted to have a system where we could attract employees and talent to our district by recognizing

015those things. Uh through the work and the financial contributions of this organization, Cleveland County Schools has one of, if not the best employee recognition system in this area for school systems. Every year at the end of the year and coming soon uh we will recognize employees that have 20, 25, 30 years of service. Um employees that have 5, 10, and 15 years of service also receive a gift from the school system and from this um group, but also um we have a special dinner for those that have 20, 25 and 30, 35 and 40 years of service. uh that night. Uh there is a point system where employees because of years of service can earn points. They can buy gifts as an opportunity to to send cards and really track things that are going on

016in our system. Uh it also gives us the ability as a as a school system when we have uh teachers and staff members that are recognized through the teaching of excellence awards uh that were early this spring. We give them points that go to this employee recognition system. So, this has definitely been a a system, an avenue where team CCS has been rewarded and and advocated for by an outside group. Tonight, I would like to recognize the Hospice Foundation of Cleveland County. U Emily Ary is the executive director of the Hospice Foundation. Uh she is here with a couple of her board members. Uh and if you guys will come up, we we appreciate uh what they mean to Cleveland County uh and the work that they do. Uh but Emily and you and your

017board, we appreciate what you mean uh to Cleveland County Schools. You are leaders in this community. Uh but you're also leaders in our school system and we appreciate the work that you guys do. So I'm going to make you turn around and shake board members hands. Uh I'm going to present you with this uh uh just a small certificate of our appreciation. So hopefully you can display this uh and then we'll get a picture. And we just want you to know we appreciate the support that you give Cleveland County Schools, not just to to us as as employees, but also uh the students and staff that work every day with our students. Thank you very much. [Applause] Hey, thank you. Thank you for Thank you for all you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you

018very much. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, hold on. Keep forgetting that part. Sorry. [Applause] Our next partner is um one that we've Cleveland County Schools has worked with for a long period of time and uh if you know Leslie Cobb, you know she's not going to be able to be recognized without saying a few things. Pick on her a little bit. Um Leslie and United Way have long been long-term partners of Cleveland County Schools. Cleveland County Schools has been an integral part of United Way campaign in Cleveland County. As you know from previous years, our school district always ranks number one. Um sometimes two, but usually one or two in the nation in per capita giving. Uh we're continuing to lead in this community of giving back uh to important things in our community. Just

019a couple years ago, our school system won the North Carolina Spirit Award for their contributions and the ability to give back. Uh we have a long extensive partnership with United Way. U and in part of this partnership um Leslie and I had some conversations about literacy and um I kind of prompted a little bit and and Leslie took that bait and ran with it. Um and as you know later this week uh we have the my my home library project uh that is spearheaded and started by the United Way. Um Leslie will be the first one to say the United Way is not the only group fortunately not only does hospice foundation and give to our employee campaign they were also huge contributors to uh the home library project. Um our goal is to enhance

020what we're doing um in our schools throughout our community. Not just we just don't want to cultivate excellence in our schools, but we want that to permeate throughout our community. And what a better way to do that through literacy. Through literacy, putting books, printed text in the hands of students and families so that reading becomes a part of everyday life and every family in Cleveland County. The old adage that a rising tide lifts all boats is very true. very true about lots of stuff, but it's definitely true about community literacy that we all are better when we read um in our families with our students with our children, grandchildren. Those are those are attributes of of a successful community and we appreciate the support of the United Way. So, I'm going to present this certificate

021to Leslie CBY, the United Way. And I'm gonna Leslie's going to come around, shake your hand in just a minute, uh, get our picture made, but Leslie first wants to talk a little bit about the home library project, their work, and recognize those folks that help make that possible. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Fiser United Way of Cleveland County's My Home Library project is excited and proud to work alongside PAL's Cleveland County schools and local businesses to provide essential tools and resources that will not only improve literacy skills, but also bring families together in a shared joy of reading. Through the impact of compassionate and giving partners coming together for this inaugural initiative, we are able to provide a home library for 2,187 first and second graders across 15 elementary schools, putting 13,200

022books in the hands of Cleveland County students. And we can't do that without our sponsors. So our sponsors include Albamarl, Sharon View Federal Credit Union, Pink Paradise Wellness, Hospice Foundation, Dover Foundation, and Cornerstone Dental Associates were the were the partners that came alongside of us to to make this happen. Together, we are empowering our future empowering our future scholars, making them dynamic readers, writers, and thinkers. And so we appreciate your support and the and the school system support. Um, we have been to four schools. We went to two on on um Friday and two on Monday today. And um we have had just an overwhelming um you know everybody's the principles are excited. The students were really excited. We have readers coming in from different organ from different sponsors and they have the students have

023been interactive. They've been u answering questions asking questions. Me and Dr. Ethridge back here was filling in questions like today and it was like man they come up with some interesting questions and some good questions. So it makes them think about what's happening with these books and then wants to get in there and start reading and find out what happens. So I'm just thankful for the partnership that we've had. We wanted to do this. We'll continue this next year and hopefully we'll have some other partners that come alongside us. But we're thankful for our sponsors. We're thankful for our partners and the school system. So thank you very much for your for your time. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Dr. Fischer, could you come back up

024just a minute, please? Dr. Fischer, go ahead. There's a lot of good things going on in Cleveland County schools. Uh about two years ago, I think it was the vice chair of the Gaston County Board of Education put together a group. It was chairs and vice chairs where they meet quarterly to talk about some things. And going to those meetings was always refreshing because it just seemed like to me they were always jealous of Cleveland County Schools. How do y'all do that? How do y'all do that? And you know, I think I told some of you they actually wanted our policy for our cell phones. Uh, but recently, I guess words got out across the state. Recently, Dr. Fischer attended the North Carolina Association of School Administrators. He got elected as president of LET of

025the North Carolina Association of School Associations board of directors and will take over that as president July the 1st. This is a testament not only of his excellent leadership here in the county but throughout our state. I received this quote from Katherine Joyce, executive director of the North Carolina Association Superintendent Association, provided me with the following statement. The North Carolina Association of School Administrators, which unites more than 8,000 schools and district leaders statewide, is fortunate to have Dr. Steven Fischer taking the helm as president July 1st. His deep understanding of the issues and challenge in facing all facets of school leadership and his unique ability to identify workable solutions and build bridges with key stakeholders as we just seen make him a great asset to both NCASA and his peers across the state. We appreciate

026the leadership role he is undertaking for the NCAASA. Dr. Fisher, we want to present you with a little certificate and congratulate you on being elected as the president of the North Carolina Superintendent Association. [Applause] Gotcha. Thank you. We'll get just a second. Let uh those who want to leave uh feel free to do so. But you feel free to stay as well. That's better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You stay here. All right. At this time, we'll uh entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. I' um Mr. Speaker, I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda for confidential personnel matters in closed sessions. So, you're making a motion to include into close session a personnel matter? Yes. Uh, okay. I second. Madame attorney, is that one subsection one, I believe? Yeah. What What

027have you got for This is A3. You'll need to include A1 into that if it passes. Um, okay. Any discussion? Hard to discuss if we don't if it's in close session. I understand. I understand. I guess we'll find out when we get there. All right. All those in favor and we will include that in the close session portion to include a close session with attorney consult consultation as well as a personnel matter. Okay. All right. All those in favor raise your hand. That's 90. All right. With the add-on, Mr. Blandon. [Applause] Now I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda with the added personnel issue in close session. I make a motion to approve the agenda. All right. The uh amendment. Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Bridges and a second by Mr. Umpre.

028All those in favor raise your hand. That's nine to zero. All right. Approval minutes. Without objection, we'll do 4.01 and 4.02 together. Approve those minutes. All right. Hear a motion from Mr. Bridges. Second. Second from Mr. Grigg. All those in favor raise your hand. All right. That's 90. All right. Finance and Personnel Committee report. Mr. Leford. Thank you. Mr. Leford, if you'll turn your speaker on. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not used to this little stick yet, so I got to get used to it. The March 26 Finance and Personnel Committee meeting was called to order by committee chairman Aaron Bridges. Dr. Jennifer Wampler introduced Paula Clark from Duke uh Energy to make a presentation and recognition. Duke Energy awarded Cleveland County Schools a business energy excellence award for one uh for work done on

029recent construction and renovation projects. The work was led by Ed Richards, CCS energy manager with assistance from Daniel Sherman, CCS project manager and other maintenance staff. As part of this award, a rebate check for $22,278 was presented to Cleveland County Schools for energy efficiency. The committee thanked the maintenance department and Duke Energy for the excellence work and partnership. Folks, we don't see this often. Duke Energy given back to the to the customer. So, we're proud to get anything that we can, and I assure you that this money will be greatly used. Rob McDaniel shared a draft of the superintendent's 202526 proposed budget. The budget has some components based on the governor's proposed budget, such as his proposed 5% raise for teachers. We're still waiting on an approval budget from the general assembly before we can

030complete our budget. Our state funding is based on our average daily membership from monthtomonth of the previous year. Mr. McDaniel thoroughly reviewed the proposed budget section by section and shared information related to the planning process based on the state, local, and federal factors. The committee discussed the proposed f draft budget. Dr. Wampler shared that board docs is changing to diligent community in August 25. We will begin the transition behind the scenes in May with training for the board over the summer. Dr. Wamper shared the proposed 2526 board of education meeting schedule for information. The meeting schedule will go to the full board for approval in April. Dr. Wampler shared that at the plan for the 26 27th calendar drafts to be brought for the full board for a first consideration at the April meeting. The

031committee discussed the new calendar bill that was introduced by the North Carolina Senate which may impact our calendar drafts. Dr. Wamper shared a technology update related to Clear Pass, which is a network security program that limits personal cell phone access to our network. The implementation process is going well. All high schools will be completed this week. Then technology will move to the middle schools and finish with elementary. With no new business, the meeting was adjourned. The Finance and Personnel Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April the 30th at 11:45 a.m. Thank you, Mr. Leford. Next on the agenda, yes, I got Okay, go ahead, Mr. Wayne. Uh, I don't know if I need to say this at finance or or at educational. Uh, I've had several calls this week concerning our title one. Are we

032having to eliminate title one at some of our schools? Uh, or is this false information that I'm hearing? Um, I don't know if I needed to do that. Is it due to finances or go down to person down to educational? Okay, I'll tell you what. We'll go ahead and let Dr. Fiser with what he might know about that go ahead and address that. I know it's really muddy water right now, but maybe he knows something I don't. Mr. Chairman, I um there's a lot more questions than than answers at this point with federal funding. Um in regards to Mr. Bllandon's question, I'm not sure what he heard, so I'm not sure how to answer that, but there's no uh issue with Title One funding this year. Our title one funding this year uh we've been

033spending that uh is has gone as normal as possible. Now, what happens with title one next year? We we don't have that answer. We've not received a title one aotment. Uh we anticipate continuing with a title one aotment, we anticipate with those things coming and and moving forward. But in terms of what happens and the specifics on that, um I I can't definitively answer that. Obviously with um the decision to dismantle the Department of of Education at the federal level, there's the more questions in terms of federal funds um moving forward in in 2526 and beyond. I can tell you what we've heard and what the the communication has been given to us is funding will continue to come to the to the states and to the students. We're just not sure how that looks

034and what that that is. Um, so obviously we're taking a a a cautiously optimistic viewpoint of looking at title one funding for for next year, but those those avenues are for next year. Okay. No. Uh, the question that came to me that they had been told that we was dropping title one at Springmore and at a school at Kings Mountain and uh that was the question that was told to me. So that's the reason I brought it out. So, by the what you just got through saying, they have nothing been dropped nowhere at this point. Yeah, I'm not sure where that um where that information is coming from. I can tell you that based on um the work that we've done recently in looking at the economically disadvantaged uh percentages at our schools, all of

035our elementary schools would be considered title one. We're well above well above the threshold for title one. Uh it is my understanding that we cannot serve some elementary students and not others. So from a district perspective, we when we serve elementary students, we're going to serve all of those. Now the funding follows that economically disadvantageous child. So a school with a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students would get a higher prrated share because it's based on per student. So obviously you would imagine bigger schools with a higher percentage of free or reduced lunch are going to get a a bigger chunk of title one dollars. We get an aotment of title one money. It is and so Cleveland County can choose to make you know as many schools as as qualified title one understanding there

036are some parameters if you think about horizontal alignment across our district. We couldn't pick and choose from elementary schools as long as they all qualified. Now, if an elementary school would not qualify, then obviously we could not characterize that title one. So, hopefully I didn't get in trouble with Dr. Parker of of summarizing that, but that's um you know, there is a there is a formula and complexity that of of things we must do. Um but but Mr. Blandon, to your point of elimination of title one in some of our elementary schools and not others, there is no merit to that. Okay. I hope every who made them phone calls heard that. Unless the rules change and laws change and if the rules change, then obviously, you know, we adjust to that. But under the

037the current legislation and and and work that we're doing, Dr. Parker, I will put a plug in for for Dr. Parker and our elementary team as well as our our finance and and human resources folks. I mean, that that title one budget is a is a challenge. uh it's a bearer and we have we that's a really a good collaborative work that happens between instruction and what we're doing with that title one finance being able to um appropriate those funds correctly and then human resources making sure we're doing the right things for personnel. We our title one budget is heavy in people which we believe are are really difference makers in our schools. Um but that's it's really a collaborative effort. They work really hard with our title one budget. So usually by this point,

038Mr. chairman, board members, we have a a planning aotment for that. Uh we usually have planning aotments for everything and unless Rob got it on Friday, we got we do finally have some state planning aotments. Uh but we just received those, but no federal funding allotments for next year. Thank you for the update, sir. Thank you. All right. No other question. We'll go on to the personnel report. Do I have a motion to adopt the personnel report? Mr. Mr. Bridges made a motion to adopt a port personnel report. I hear a second by Mr. Humphre. All those in favor, if you would raise your hand. That's nine to zero. Have a question, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Uh would it be possible? You don't have to come to the microphone. Would it be possible that we

039can get the personnel report during the personnel committee meeting? I know you say that it's not a full report, but could we what is available? Hey, is your mic I can't hear. Yeah, he's just asking personnel report during the committee meeting. Dr. Fischer, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, you know, we can do whatever the board wants to do in terms of that, you know. So, the the short answer is we can. Um, but if we give you a personnel report um, a week and a half before the board meeting, there's a lot of stuff that that will change between that and uh, o over the next week, especially not as much maybe this time of year, but especially over the summer and the beginning of the year where we're we're hiring people all the

040time. Understood. Yeah, we we could, you know, that those are options that, you know, we we'll be glad to do that at direction the board. The the other thing is um obviously the personnel list is confidential. So in a committee meeting um we would have to make sure that that's um sent out from a confidential standpoint. Um and also I just something to think about. Again I think this is a conversation the board can have and give us direction is you know I I feel uncomfortable giving it to just the people on the personnel committee and not giving that to everybody. Well, we used to get it, didn't we? Used to all get it at one time. It it it's loaded on board docks on Tuesday or Wednesday the week before. The the what I

041think Let me make sure I'm clear here. Mr. Leford would like to have at the time of the committee meeting what personnel he has at that point. Yes. What Dr. Fischer is saying that will change possibly from the time of the committee meeting to the time to the full board. We do get the final one, but this is going to be what I would like to do is chairman uh Bridges, if you guys would address this at the next finance committee and come bring a a recommendation to the full board. I'm not able to get the personnel report pulled up the week before. I'm not getting it pulled up on my iPad at my house. I cannot get it until I get here on Monday. and and I haven't seen any of the personnel report

042until Monday. Okay. If that's if that's the issue that that's I mean it's it's because you're not logged in. If you log in when when we post that agenda, if you log in, the personnel reports and executive content and I I know sometimes you've told me before you have problems logging in. Um Well, and I didn't get logged in today until I got here. She had to log it in. All right. All right. Yeah, we're we're getting off the track here just a little bit. Let's Mr. Blandon, if you would get with the technology folks and find out what the problem is. I don't want to go down this rabbit hole in in the meeting here and Okay. Committee chair, if you and those on the committee would bring a recommendation to the board on

043what to do with the personnel committee and then that way um we'll just do it do it that way. So, you're on the finance committee. Is that okay with you? All right. All right. Let's move on. All right. Next is safety and operations. Mr. Spur, March 20, the March 24th safety and operations committee meeting was called to order by Chairman Walter Sperling. Dr. Fiser uh provided a school safety grant update. We received 355,000 in the safety materials portion of the grant. Unfortunately, this is only 30% of our request to cover safety equipment services for students in crisis and training for staff. We are working to spend this money by the deadline of June 30th, 2025. The we received some information on another safety grant that we were we are also working to apply for this

044spring. Daniel How, the new uh chief security officer for CCS, gave a school safety update. He shared his work with the schools and SRO's over the past couple of weeks. Ginger Jackson shared the Vivy renewal quote, which includes renewal of Vivvy Pro subscription and related hardware and software. The the renewal amount is $76,69.40. We will and we will pay for this out of school the school safety grant. The committee discussed the vivy renewal quote and unan unanimously supported the renewal which will go in front of the full board tonight. We there were no agency reports. Dr. Jennifer Wampler and Chip Childers shared the capital projects report. The committee reviewed the report which will be attached on the board's agenda for tonight. Uh Dr. Dr. Wampler and Chip Childers shared bids for three summer projects that

045are more than 75,000 and require board approval. The first project is a HVAC unit replacement at Kings Mountain High School on the band and course hall. The recommendation is to accept the lowest bid from digital plus 15% contingency for the amount total amount of $145,000. The committee discussed this project and unanimously supported this project which will go in front of the board tonight. The second project is a roofing project at Burns High School over a portion of the classrooms on the 100 hall media center office and hallway area. The recommendation is to accept the lowest bid from gutter guys plus 20% contingency for a total project cost of $119,994. The committee discussed this project and support and supported the project which will go in front of the board tonight. The third project is a roofing

046project at Crest High School over the dining and cafeteria areas. The recommendation is to accept the lowest bid from gutter guys plus 20% contingency for a total of amount of $122,470. The committee discussed the three projects and supported these recommendations which will go in front of the full board tonight. Jamie Courier shared child nutrition's summer feeding program plans. Summer feeding will begin June 2nd, 2025 and will run through August 1st, 2025 at Kings Mountain Intermediate Intermediate School and Turning Point Academy. Both of these sites will be open daily for all CCS students for a hot lunch. Additionally, child nutrition is offering a offering meal kit pickups for all CCS students at Burns Middle, West Elementary, and Shelby Middle School 2 days a week. The meal kit pickups will be in three and four day kits.

047Dr. Fischer shared the proposed 20 25 and 2020 to 20 2026 board of education meeting schedule. This will be shared with all committee committees prior to coming to the full board for approval tonight. Dr. Fischer let the committee know that the 2026 to 2027 calendar drafts will be brought in front of the board for a first consideration at tonight's meeting. After the meeting, calendar drafts will go out to the public for comment and review. Dr. Fischer shared that he received a request to purchase property attached to one of our school sites. Staff nor the committee are interested in selling this particular property but are willing to listen to proposals. Dr. Professor shared that our technology department is in the process of rolling out clear pass which is a network security program that limits personnel cell

048personal cell phone access to our network. The process is going well. With no new business, the meeting was adjourned. The next safety and operations committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 28th, 2025 at 11:45 a.m. Thank you, Mr. Sperling. Yes, Mr. Bland. Yes. I'd like to talk about those bids. Just a second. If you will give me You want to talk about the school bids or the vivy? Uh the bidding uh on them roots. All right. If you'll let me get through the vivy, then I'll give you the floor. Okay. All right. Uh, I will entertain a motion to approve the renewal of the Vivy Procription and related hardware and software at the price of $76,69.40. It comes from committee. No need for a motion or a second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor?

049It's 90. All right. Let me read this. Uh motion to approve the lowest bid for the DI digital plus 15% contingency for the amount of 145,000 to replace the HVAC units on the band and course hall at Kings Mountain High School. This gun comes for committee. Uh does not need a motion or second. Any discussion? Not on that. Not on that one. Okay. Now, do we get I notice we're only getting like one or two bids on these things. No, we got um we I think if I remember correctly there was it was given out to six or seven four returned the bids and uh took that was on the roof. Is that not on the HVAC bid? So the HVAC chairman HVAC uh listed in board docks on on on the Kings Mountain HVAC

050project. Uh it lists Digitrol uh P Heating and Air PC Godfrey and Dac. So that's four. Uh Dacon refined the bid. So you had three good bids. How do we choose those people that the bids are sent out to? It's it's open to the public. That's what I was wondering. Right. And and so uh Dr. Wampler, there is Mr. Childers, there is a bid process. Yeah. That is in policy. Um Dr. Fischer, if you want to come up and explain that policy, uh it's in our manual. I I think to answer the question is I mean there's only so many groups that can do this specific work. um this is not something that that um you know just anybody can do from an HBAC perspective in dealing with the systems that we have um already.

051So from experience people who've been involved in in the bidding process for this we know who does that work and do that. Um I would say if there's somebody that does this kind of work and wants to be added to that then definitely let myself Dr. Wler or the best contact would be Chip Shielders to do that. We want the lowest bid. Obviously, if there's people that do that specific work, we we definitely want to know that. Okay. So, we we send these bids out to these different companies. Is that correct? Or do the companies do we post it and the companies bid on these projects? I I think in this particular situation, we we send that out to companies that we know have done similar work like that and are in that work market.

052Mr. Joe, good evening. How are y'all? Good. In this situation, we use a HVAC engineer and uh everything was run through him. He solicited the bids based on people who've done work in our system before. Who sent it out? Um Craig Champion. Uh his company, is he an engineering company or what? It's uh MSWG out of Charlotte. We've used them. They did the uh auditorium projects. Uh we use Craig a lot and uh he solicited solicited those. Okay. Based on my experience, I've just noticed that we've had a lot more people or a lot more companies that were bidding on projects than what I'm seeing. three years ago, we couldn't get any any. So, I think that uh the roster of uh contractors that we got for that project, they're all top notch. Okay. Thank

053you. All right. All right. Any more discussion on the Kings Mountain Hback? If not, all those in favor passes nine to zero. All right. I'll entertain a motion for the Burns uh roofing project. Lowest bid plus 20% contingency by Gutter Guys Incorporated for the total project of $119,994 to remove roof the portion of the classrooms and the hall on the 100 hall media center offices hallway leading to the commiss area at Burns High School. Uh is recommended by safety and operations. Does not need a motion or second. Any discussion? Yes. Okay, Mr. Mr. Blank, uh, I think we need to postpone this to a later date for the simple reason that, uh, we had several people to put in bids. Matter of fact, there was three withdrew their bids. They were three within a few

054thousand of each other, then one 70 to 100,000 less. for a 200,000. I'm going to use round numbers. For a $200,000 project, you're not going to have a company to be $100,000 less. If it was a million dollar project, you might see that. But when you're just talking about a $200 to $225,000 project and then somebody bid $100,000 less, that can't happen. If you're figuring apples for apples, something is not getting figured there under no circumstance for them to be that much difference between the three other companies that did bid when they was that close. They were fairly close together because I believe we had a statement to come back to us after our committee meeting that there was a mistake on one of the bids and they raised that bid up. So that uh

055I'll have to go back to my phone, but we did get a a thing. But still, when you're talking about a small amount of money, 200,000 is a lot of money, but it's a small amount when you're talking about doing a big job and there, you know, anywhere from 70 to $100,000 difference in the price. uh that uh that's not possible if you're figuring everything for Apple those apples and on the warranties and stuff like that. Uh I'm not going off on the company. I'm just talking about I just don't feel by me being in the construction my whole life that that's that's just not realistic. Okay, Mr. Chairman, let me say something first. Uh, and I'm sure Mr. Childers was maybe getting ready to say this, but this bid was very low and it

056caught Mr. Childers's attention. Mr. Childers called him back, said, "Are you sure?" Because it caught your attention twice. He called him twice. All right. And because it was so low. My opinion is we owe it to the taxpayers to make the lowest bid. I mean, if they're wrong, then they signed the contract, they're on the hook for the contract. And uh I I if we go back and reest out here, what I I need to say. Well, hold on just a minute, please. I have the floor. Okay. Uh I think we need to um not rebid this because what if the bids come in $100,000 more? then we've just wasted money. But that's just my view of it is if he hadn't called on him twice to say, "Look, you sure you didn't make a

057mistake?" I would have issues with it. But he's called him twice. Mr. Sperling, did you have something? Yes. Uh so so there uh no company uh uh withdrew their bids. Yes. We had we had three to withdraw the bid. They Okay. Three declined to bid. They declined. They declined to bid. Okay. There was a reason behind. And and and so there were one, two, three, there were four, there were four bids. And this one uh did come in significantly lower. Uh they were contacted twice. They were offered the opportunity to withdraw their bid in case they made a mistake. Yes. And they said, "Nope, we're good." I want I want to uh emphasize something right there. Wait just one minute. Are you just let me make one more comment. Um and and no company was

058allowed to rebid. That's what Yeah. No, you you said somebody was able to re change their bid. No. No. No company was allowed to change their bid. that that this company did get have the opportunity to withdraw their bid, which would have meant they would have not have had the opportunity to do the job at all. But no company it uh was allowed a chance to change a bid. I just want to emphasize that. Okay. All right. Explain Mr. Childers because you have something you want to say. this company, uh, Gutter Guys, they're based out of King Mountain. They've done over the past seven years close to a million dollars with us. Uh, one thing I want to say with all our projects, we don't don't just put contractors on the job and leave them.

059We're there every day. And this is my wheelhouse. This is what I did for a living. And after talking to Mr. Thompson, the president of the company, I'm good with it. If he's good with it, I'm good with it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Go ahead. What is the U warranty on this? 20 years. 20 years. And who does their work? Do they do their own work or is it contracted out? No, sir. They got their own crews. Okay. Matter of fact, they just did one for us right here on the dining room for TPA. I'm just a little skeptical about the um difference in the pricing. Um you know I I was not in a large construction company at any point in time but I was in business for 30 years and um any

060time that I went out to bid if there was a significant uh difference in the bids you know there there's something that's being left out somewhere. Well, uh, and I will say this also, uh, the company that they, the manufacturer that they bid is Durastroof. I personally put on Burst Roofing for 25 years. They are a top-notch company. They stand behind their warranties and all their contractors have to be vetted and certified. So, I am I have no qualms whatsoever with them doing this job. Now, if he does the job and he loses $100,000, that's on him. That's not on us. Mr. Children, could you explain the the warranty the Just a minute. So, uh, the Mr. Sper, I just wanted him to reemphasize what he was talking about with him with the warranty cuz

061just let me recognize, okay, I'm trying to give everybody an opportunity, okay? I'm not nothing against you. I just didn't want to keep going. I want to get this done as quick as you are, but I want to give everybody a chance to speak. Okay. Anybody else? Oh, go ahead. I'm not sure that you can tell us. Did was there any discussion or can you tell us as to any statements that were made as to why their prices might have been different from other people like lower? I mean, did they say something to you directly like I'm doing it for this because of this like materials are cheaper or I mean no those materials are definitely not cheap, right? The only statement I got from Mr. Thompson was I've reviewed my numbers and I'm good.

062I'll stick with what I gave. [Applause] Yeah. My only comment is honestly out of anybody sitting up here, I'll probably been involved in more dollar-wise contracts and everybody else put together. Um, Mr. children's follow the exact same procedures the state of North Carolina follows when doing that if you have an outlier bid you go back to the contractor you go through it line by line with them you make sure if they're happy the taxpayers are happy so that and that's all I had to say about that you have anything Mr. fishing. You have anything? You're good. All right. One more time, then this is going to be it. All right. Is he tearing off or is he going to lay on top? That's a tear off. It's a tear off. Okay. Um mention about that

063rebid. I don't Nobody rebid it. I think there was a mistake on a number is what it needed to come out. There was a mistake on the numbers and it had to be added. That was on our account, not that was my That was my mistake. That it wasn't somebody else rebided. I wanted Mr. Sperling to understand that there wasn't a company coming back in and rebidding. That was a misread on my part on Tab One's bid. Right. But they still were not low. Right. They wasn't low. uh it went up and that made those three companies closer together. It actually came down. It actually made a little bit more debt, but that that was my mistake. All right, Mr. Sperling. So again, would you please explain the warranty that uh the the company the

064installation company versus the uh the product company? Okay. and and and uh thank you. How how commercial roof warranties work. Um the first two years is a total coverage by the contractor. This requires a 20-year bid. The next 18 years is covered by the manufacturer. Now there's a whole list of we don't cover this and most of that has to do with structural movement but other than that and you know I can supply you a list of what's not covered and you know that whole thing acts of God stuff like that but other than those stipulations the manufacturer cover it covers it for 18 years an additional 18 years which that gets us to the 20-year warranty. Can can I continue one one more? So, uh and also the the the uh uh the companies

065that that did not bid. Mhm. Uh it's my understanding uh uh at least a couple of those companies it was because of the warranty. Is that true? Uh yes. uh one of the uh one of the contractors and I'm not going to name names uh could not get their uh manufacturer that they're qualified for to put on. They would not warranty the number of penetrations that we'll have with all the new HVAC support legs. They would not warranty that. Uh the other contractor uh um did not give me a reason from the manufacturer, but they just said they wouldn't cover it. All right. I will say and the third one was the gas on the sheet metal and they pulled out said they couldn't get to it. They were already booked for the summer. I

066want to say this because I'm not going to get into discussion again. These same folks did crest. you going to have the same issue. So anymore I mean the bid was obviously low with the next one we're going to come up with. So is everybody got what they wanted to say? Say cuz we're not going to have any discussion next. I want to get it all out now. We are checking these people out. I know we've used them but we're still checking with other uh customers of theirs on what kind of job they are doing. Correct. Yes. And and and We also have used them recently. So I I I go on what I see. It's it's like it's like I told you, Mr. Leford, when we put contractors on the job, we don't leave

067them. Mr. Sherman, myself, or if it's a HVAC project, our texts are on the job every day. And and I'm on if we got major projects, I'm there every day. We do not leave contractors by theirel. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. All right. I'll call for the vote on the Burns High project. All those in favor? One, two, three, four, five, six. All those opposed? One, two, three. Pass it to six to three. Crest High to approve the lowest bid plus 20% contingency by gutter guys for the total amount of $122,470 to roof the cafeteria and dining room areas at Crest High School. Comes from committee. No need for a motion or second. We've had plenty of discussion. All those in favor. That's six opposed. Three. Six to three. All righty. Education uh programs report.

068Miss Sherman, excuse me. The March 25th educational programs and policy committee meeting was called to order by committee chairman Ron Ure. Dr. Steven Fischer reviewed policy 1510, school safety, which was given to the board for a first read in March and will be up for approval at their April meeting. No feedback or changes were requested. Dr. Fiser led in a review of policies. 6135 headlice 6140 student wellness 6145 concussion and head injury. 6200 goals and organization of school nutrition services. 6220 Operation of School Nutrition Services. 6225 free and reduced price meal services and 6230 school meal and competitive food standards. These policies were reviewed and discussed as part of the committee's ongoing review of the board policy manual and are in the 6000 section which is student support services. No changes were recommended to these

069policies by the committee. Dr. Fiser reviewed policy regulation 5030R1 application and contract for non-school use of school facilities. An update has been requested to include a question about the need for Wi-Fi. The committee was in support of this update and it will go to the full board for a first read at their April meeting. Rhonda Benfield shared a CTE update. Mrs. Benfield highlighted the upcoming Making It Work event and the Create a Spark Award that has been granted to three Cleveland County school teachers for creative classroom projects. Dr. Jason Parker provided an elementary education update. He highlighted um CCS involvement in the literacy summit, the work on the My Home Library program and book challenge event. Dr. Parker also shared his department's work and grad span meetings for teachers across all grade levels and schools.

070Wendy Fitz shared an exceptional children's update. She highlighted an upcoming school-based enterprise spring sale involving students in occupational studies. Mrs. Finch also shared that the Cleveland County School's GET program, which stands for growing excellent teachers, is open for new applicants. Dr. Anita Wear shared an update from ESL on testing and enrollment. Dr. Wear also shared an update on alternative education and highlighted their work to add health services for TPA students through the Golden Leaf Grant. Paula Peeler shared a preK update and highlighted the recent screenings completed for preK students for enrollment in the 2526 school year. Dr. Chris Bennett provided a middle school education update. Middle schools have recently completed check-ins and are working on using the data to improve instruction for the remainder of the year. Dr. Bennett highlighted that behavior referrals are down

071by 30% in the middle schools. Ginger Jackson shared a technology update related to Clear Pass, which is a network security program that limits personnel call personal call cell phone access to our network. The process is going well. Mrs. Jackson shared an update related to recent technology conferences and our work for the summer conversion from Power School to Infinite Campus. Dr. Brian Hunnel provided an high school education update. He highlighted competitions, testing, and upcoming awards and events. Dr. Hunnel also shared an AIG update and work on our three-year plan. Dr. Fiser shared the proposed 202526 board of education meeting schedule. The committee reviewed the schedule and recommended that it go to the full board for approval in April. Dr. Fiser also shared the 2627 calendar drafts and that will be brought to the full board for

072a full consideration at the April meeting. After the meeting, calendar drafts will go out for public comment and review. With no additional new business, the meeting was adjourned. The next educational and policy committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 at 11:45 a.m. Thank you, M. Sherman. Next is the approval of policy 1510, which is school safety update policy. Does come from committee. No need for a motion or second. Any discussion on that policy? Question. Yes, sir. Mr. Huffs. Does this include my request that I had for uh visiting schools? Board members visiting schools. That's not part of this policy. Okay. You you had told me last month that one of the policies that was read had the uh visitation of board members to schools. It was brought up and there was no discuss

073that one of them wanted to talk about it. I mean, the committee's right here. You're welcome. I mean, not now, but you're welcome to I would I would say that the lack of interest would then indicate that everybody's happy with it. So, all right. Policy 1510, school safety. All those in favor? Any opposed? That's 90. Next is for first read information only with no action. And it's going to be if you have any questions, please contact the superintendent or Mr. Humphrey's. It's the application for non-school use of school facilities regulations. It'll be up for vote next meeting. Next is board of education meeting schedule. Uh does come from committee. No need for a motion or second. Any discussion? All those in favor? It's 9 to zero. Summer 2025 testing uh revisited. Uh does need a

074motion in a second. Uh Dr. Hunnel, are you going to give us a little bit information on this? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Fischer, thank you. We are revisiting the policy that we brought to you in the fall and was approved. Uh the reason being DPI last week changed the the game a little bit which allowed us uh to increase our flexibility which we're very excited about. Uh DPI has opened up instead of us only being allowed to retest and remediate after the end of the school year, they have opened it up to the uh end of the school year, the last 10 days. Uh so this is definitely a help to our students give them a second shot as well as us to a chance to increase our proficiency. So

075why are we bringing it to you tonight? Obviously they let us know Thursday that they are letting us have some increased flexibility which we would like to ask for and the plan is actually due before May 1st. So the short time frame is why we have it. So again, uh we come to you tonight for just an increased flexibility, uh to give great opportunities for our students to uh remediate and test prior to the end of school year. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hunter. Any questions for Mr. Hunt? Make a motion to approve. All right. I have a motion from Mr. Bridges to approve. Second. I have a second from Mr. Sperling. All those in favor? That passes nine to zero. Dr. Fischer? [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, just a couple

076things real quickly. U, we do have a 26 27 draft calendar, uh, several draft calendars, uh, that we will make public after tonight. Um, you've got a copy of those three draft calendars. We've discussed this. Um, this is not for 2526. This is for 2627. If you remember our 2526, next year's calendar is already approved in place. This is for the following year. Um there's lots of conversations about school calendar. There's several bills out there. Uh but we it is important for us to go ahead and move forward um to to look at next year. Many of our families when they go on vacation this year will make plans for next summer. Uh so we want to have a calendar for the following year. Um as we've done in the past, we've created three options.

077You've got those three options. Um I'll quickly run through these three option. Option one is an early start August start date. Uh you can see the highlights there from the number of work days before student start the start day, the work days during the school year, the last days for students. Um the total student days, total work days, number of holidays, number of annual leave days. Um teachers must work 215 days. Um students must have a,025 instructional hours. So 178 school student days definitely gives us um 1,025 instructional hours. For ease of of con conversion you can take the number of student days in this calendar be 178 multiply times six and you would get the maximum number of instructional hours we have. Um that's about 172 hours in in that round right there. So

078we do have some days flexibility for weather. Um if if we have that um option one um follows the calendar law as written with the exception of start date. All other areas that that um calendar falls follows the school calendar law. Option two is a late August start. Um you can see the difference there in the third column. The start date would be August 24th and option two uh and first semester ends in December. Um the challenge with option two is that the semesters are uh unbalanced. If you look at option two uh first semester is a lot shorter than second semester. Um this really manifests itself for problems in the high school whereas first semester would be 8 to 10 days shorter than second semester. Option three is again a late August start which

079is August 24th um and first semester ends in January mid January. If you roll back to 2018 um 2019 prior to COVID this was a calendar that was used and it's widely not popular because of exams are taken uh in the semester ends in the middle of January from from a student's perspective. You can see that um by and large these calendars are very similar. Um the the work that's done by Dr. Wampler and our calendar committee um is is high level in terms of putting this draft together. There's always obviously different things you can do in moving days. Uh there are certain things from from our perspective and and the feedback we've always gotten uh is that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is we want you know folks want that Wednesday off before Thanksgiving. Um

080everybody wants two weeks at Christmas. Um you know we we like you know spring break tied to Easter and to have either Good Friday or Easter Monday off depending on which one's not in spring break. This year, spring breaks before Easter, so we have good uh Easter Monday off, which many times spring breaks after Easter, so we have Good Friday off. Uh those are things that are really important. Um our folks have have traditionally liked the starting at on Wednesday. Um having a short week that first week gets students really acclimated. Uh staggered start kindergarten helps that as well. Um again, so where we go tonight, we're not asking for any uh action tonight. Uh basically after tonight, we will post these three calendars and this information that you have uh on on your uh

081on the board docs on your version. Uh we'll post that for public view. We'll also poll and get people to give us their input. um they can make suggestions and and those type of things uh and gives us the option to come back in our May board meeting with some data that says our community prefers this and here are the suggestions for our community. If you remember from the calendar law, it does uh you know require the board to get public input and this is why we do this. So this is an initial kickoff for this tonight based on conversations that we've had over the last several years with the calendar. uh and then we'll put that out for for public consumption uh review feedback uh and bring you that information uh in May for

082hopefully a decision at that point. So, Mr. Chairman, I believe I tried to answer any questions uh that you may have. You've got again, you've got those three versions and we will put those on our website probably tomorrow to give folks an opportunity. We hope that people will will really respond to that. We'll send a a call message to all of our families as well, letting them know that this information is out there. Mr. Cherry will will put that on social media as well for people to drive people to that, give some input there. We usually get a couple thousand uh responses to that. I would encourage all the board members to call all you people, you know, and tell them to give input on these which calendar they prefer. But any questions for this

083one for Dr. Fischer? One question. Dr. Fiser has the House voted on the calendar law yet. I knew the uh Senate had passed their version, but I understood that the uh House was going to have a different version. Have you heard anything about that? So, Mr. Lebert, I do not believe the Senate has passed that. I know the Senate has a a proposed uh calendar bill out there gives school district some flexibility. uh it was, you know, received in lots of different ways. Uh for us, it's workable, very workable. There are a couple suggestions that we've made to to that. Uh so that's out there. There are a couple different calendar bills out there, but there's one that was pushed out by some of the Senate leaders in terms of what that calendar bill looks

084like. Um what we have been told and what I was told last week when I Raleigh, the House is going to respond with their version. Um and and I'm assuming at some point if there's enough support those get passed in their respective um chambers and then cross over and then who knows what happens there. Um but but it does that there has been a lot of conversation around Senate bill I I can't call it start with a seven but 575 whatever it was there's been some a lot of conversation around the state uh about that uh both in a positive and and some folks with some concerns about that but uh we'll see where that that lends but it has not passed the Senate yet so it's not crossing over it it to the house

085yet but I again I don't know if it will or if that was just a uh that you know an attempt to um bring attention to some some options there. I'll go ahead and say it. He can't say it in a public meeting, but was it an attempt to hush people? So, was it an attempt to hush people? And I know Dr. Fischer's professional and he will not say that, but I don't mind saying it. But anyway, continue, sir. So, um we got again, we got to try to answer any questions about the calendars. Um, our folks have done a lot of good work. We've had been a lot of positive feedback um on the last two years. This calendar is very similar to what we've had the last two years. Obviously, um, you know,

086when you're in the middle of it, there's always some tweaks you can make. Uh, but there the calendar law, which you have a copy of, really defines what you can do, what you can't do. Um thi this is in my opinion got a very solid calendar an okay calendar and then one of these options is is not a good calendar for students. Um and I think that's the direction we have to do is is what's best for our young people as we you know look at all the options for for for our students. So again we'll post this on online in the in the meantime. If you have any questions or information let us know. Mr. Leford, you brought up a good point. If if something changes with the calendar law, then obviously we're we're

087ahead of the game enough that we can we can tweak this. Um it doesn't have to be approved in May. Um but but we can approve a calendar and this is 26 27. So the law changes, we could always choose to revisit this. But for planning purposes, we need to give our families a running head start for for making their summer plans. All right. Uh was that your update as well? No, sir. I have a couple things. update. Um just just a few things. Um it has been a busy couple weeks. I think over the last couple weeks there has been an event every day if you wanted to go to it. Uh between honors chorus, between robotics, between battle of the books, between making it work, we have lots of of things going on.

088Uh which is great. Uh it's great to be busy. Um, I was reminded yesterday uh at church by somebody that the you know that old saying that idle time is a devil's workshop and and so we we can't say that around here. We've got lots of stuff going on. Just a couple pictures. Uh these are pictures from making it work. uh students really getting a a bird's eyee view of what's going on in the manufacturing world uh with the with some competition stuff with with uh having conversations with uh business leaders in our community about uh about manufacturing and job opportunities. Uh robotics uh was a great competition here last Friday. Um you can see the intensity on these young people's face as as they get their robot to to do right. Um, there's one

089picture. I didn't include it uh here, but it looks like a young person's about to pull their hair out because obviously the robot is not doing what they want to and it is stressing that young child out. Um, but but that's a great day to see kids excited about robotics and their robotic runs, also about their prof, their team building activities, the presentations they do. Um, this is one of our best robotics competitions we've had. Uh we had conversation about that in a meeting earlier today about the high quality of work that our young people are doing. Um two other uh events uh the one on the the left is the Cleveland County student art show. Uh was a great event last Thursday night uh to highlight uh student art competition. We will have the

090winners of that student art competition here at our next board meeting. uh the turnaround time was just too quick to get them here tonight, but that was a great night. And then on the right was fifth grade career fair, and not every day you get three of our four high school coaches uh working a table together and just showing the collaborative work that goes across there. Um Shelby coach wasn't in this picture, but you have the head football coach from Burns Crest to Kings Mountain in uh working manning a table together, really encouraging these young fifth grade students at at career fair. So, as you can see, a lot of this work drives around post-secary preparedness, the work that we're doing with our students to make sure they're successful, not just in school, but later

091in life. Um, and then I forgot we had these last two pictures. Uh, on the left is a picture from Cleveland Community College. This is a CTE group. Again, firsthand uh on the on the job with real people, real employers. um having conversations with our students about preparing them for postsecary. This is right outside the Walter Sperling building. Oh, excuse me, Walter Sperling classroom, not the world Walter Sperling building. Um I snuck up on Mr. Sperling other day in class and and he was working hard again. He was teaching away. So, uh good for him. And then on your right is Kday. Couple weeks ago, this is the James Love team welcoming folks into Kday. Uh lots of smiling faces as they're preparing for uh to receive our kind upcoming kindergarten class. I think I

092updated you on my Friday end of uh week updates and I think it the number was about 850 kindergarteners already enrolled which this time of year that's a that's a good thing. If you look at our enrollment we average plus or minus about a thousand students every year. Um so we encourage folks if they did not come to Kday they have not registered their their kindergarten student to go ahead and do that. We do want those students registered so we can make plans for them. Uh just a couple uh upcoming events. Uh science for a day. Uh was on this campus today. Uh Dr. Hunnel was running around out of breath. Uh he didn't have his coat and tie on, but he was he was running uh hard today making sure that everything went well

093for science for a day. We had um about 150 or 200 students on campus yesterday today. And we'll have another uh big group tomorrow for science for a day for free. You want to stop in uh really doing some cool activities and STEM activities. Uh the my home library project. You heard a little bit about that already. You're probably tired of getting emails from me about reminders about that. I'd love to see you at Bethware Elementary School uh at 9:00 on the 9th. I've I've sent out emails about parking. If you could help me and park as far away from the building as you feel comfortable walking so some of our guests uh can that that need to park closer can can get there. Uh but we're expecting a big crowd and a great event

094uh that day. Spring break uh is uh I think most people are excited about that. When I see folks, they're excited about spring break just around the corner. Um we have this week and then spring break starts uh the week of Monday the April 14th. Uh extends through uh Easter Monday on the 21st and students return to school on Tuesday, April 22nd. It's hard to believe that that you know the end of school will be just right about a month after that. So we are you know honing in on top of that. Um that gets us a week or so out. The big event uh moving forward where the senior scholars banquet on Thursday, May 1st. Dinner begins at 5:30. The program starts at 7. We're just about to the point of uh you know,

095scholarship donors. If folks want to donate to that scholarship and want to be a scholarship donor, they need to notify us soon so we can make sure that Miss Hooks gets you in the program and gets gets all that documentation done. So, uh we're ready for a big night on uh Thursday, May the 1st. So, Mr. Chairman, that's all I got to do. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Fischer. I do hope all board members got a chance to click on the CTE link that Dr. Fischer sent Friday. Uh CTE is one of my passions, but there's a lot of good stuff in that. Some some schools getting some certification, some licensing, and maybe in one email earlier, there's something maybe we're going to be doing with the hospital. So, there's all kind of

096good stuff. So, I hope you was able to click on that link and read it. Uh at this time it would do a public participation. Uh Mr. Bridges, would you read our rules for public participation, please? Public comments should not address any specific confidential student or personnel matter. Specific concerns related to uh confidential student or personnel matter should be directed to the superintendent or designate. Comments must be relevant to the matters that are within the authority of the board. Speaker shall refrain refrain from personal attacks or threats directed towards staff, elected board members, or members of the public. Speakers shall be courteous in their language and presentation. Insults, profanity, and use of vulkar lang vulgar language or gestures or other inappropriate behavior are not allowed. The board vests in its chair or other presiding officer

097authority to terminate the remarks of any individual when he or she does not adhere to the rules established above. Any person who willfully interrupts or disturbs a board meeting may be directed to leave the meeting by the presiding officer. Any persons who refer 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. I have two here. The first one I'm looking at is Mr. Rob Pal. Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would like to distribute a um resolution entitled Making Cleveland

098County Schools a safe and welcoming district. And I'll speak to this resolution during my remarks. With your permission? Yes, sir. Mr. Le on you to take one and pass like you did in history class right on. Thank you. And I think we might need I think we're good. That's [Applause] right. Good evening, chair, members of the board. My name is Rod Powell. I'm a retired educator and I'm a proud resident of Cleveland County. I'm here tonight because I care deeply about the safety and dignity of every child that walks into our schools. We all know that students can't learn when they're afraid. And right now, some families in our community are living with the real fear. fear that immigration enforcement may show up where their kids are supposed to feel safe. I spoken with parents

099who worry every morning when they put their child on the school bus. That's not how public education should feel. Under federal law, pler versus dough, every child has the right to attend school no matter their immigration status. And the Department of Homeland Security says schools are sensitive locations, meanings meaning that ICE is not supposed to conduct enforcement on campuses unless there's an emergency or if they have a judicial warrant. But policies aren't the aren't the same as protections. Right now, Cleveland County has no clear public protocol on how to handle immigration enforcement request. This leaves staff uncertain and families vulnerable. Tonight, I'm asking you to consider a resolution that makes three simple commitments. First commitment that Cleveland County schools will not collect or share immigration status unless required by law. Second commitment that ICE agents

100must present a judicial warrant and go through superintendent and legal review. Third commitment that staff shall receive training and families will get clear information especially in multiple languages so everyone knows their rights. Friends, this isn't about politics. It's about protecting kids. It's about making sure that every student can come to school, focus on learning, and feel safe. We're a county that values fairness, compassion, and the power of education. Let's live up to that. Please consider this resolution. Our students are counting on us. Thank y'all. Thank you, Mr. Pal. Next, I have uh Mr. Paul Leadford. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the school board, Dr. Fiser for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm a resident of uh my name is Paul Leadford. I live in Kings Mountain and uh I'm a graduate of Cleveland

101County Schools. Graduated Kings Mountain few years ago. Uh my my children were there, my grandchildren went there. Um and you know, you all all of you know me from the Republican party, but I'm here tonight to talk as a father and a grandfather and a friend of the school. So, first thing is I want to object to some of these pushes that we've been getting from the liberal left uh particular last month on the LGBT. And I would encourage you to stay strong. These atrocities cannot go un unchallenged. Uh Mr. Pal just talked about people being scared. Well, they sometimes they have to be because they keep pushing these liberal agendas onto our kids. So, additionally, I'm requesting that you resist any other uh items that come up like this. continue to fight. Don't give

102up. Let's get our schools back to a Christian-based organization because let's face it, we are the majority. So, we can do that. And let's emphasize how important to, you know, to the kids. Let's emphasize how important this country is and all the liberties that we enjoy. Now, taking Pastor Allen's comments a step further, I've been in management for just about all my adult life, and I've learned a lot of things, and then we can apply some of those principles here. It's critical that the way you present things to the public. So, if you know, I would challenge the board to do your homework in these committee meetings. You can fuss and fight all you want in them, but when we come out here, I hope that you got you pe you can present a unified

103front. That's what people need to see to gain more and more confidence in this board. So, lastly, I want I've been to numerous school board meetings. I hear a lot of complaints, but I'm here to tell you now that I am behind this school board 100%. Every one of them 100% plus. So, as a manager and and and that includes Dr. Fisher. So, um as a manager, we were always taught to praise in public and critique in private. I'm going to say that one again. Praise in public and critique in private. So, I promise you if I have a problem, I'm going to come to you privately so that we can discuss that in the back room. So, I want to challenge the group here, the public and the audience. Who's going to stand up

104and join me in supporting the school board? Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Leford, for your comments. Next on the agenda is board comments. If anyone wants to take a couple minutes and say something, we'll do that. Okay. All right, Mr. Bridges. So, first I want to say it's cold in here. I was hot earlier, but I'm about to freeze. I'm I'm shivering. No. Um had an opportunity uh this past weekend to um go to a local organization that helps our students with food. Um Feeding Kids in Cleveland County. If you've never heard of it, I recommend that you look it up. um they do a great job of um feeding meals to our students and I just want to commend them uh and what they do and I'm going to be looking at

105getting more active with that organization. Uh had a school visit today at township number three. Um they got a lot going on but the the teachers and the staff and the principal. I just want to commend them for the job that they're doing to work on uh progressing the school. um they showed us their game plan this morning on how they plan to continue to improve the school and I think they're doing a great job and I just as always want to say thank you to our teachers and staff and appreciate what you do and uh we're coming down to the end of uh our school year here and just hang on it's it's almost there before we get to rest. Um but just thank you for what you do and thank you for all

106uh you do for our students. Thank you Mr. Bridges, Mr. Sperling. Uh just like to say congratulations to the CCBC students we saw tonight. Uh if anybody has doubts that we have excellent uh teachers and excellent students that should clear those doubts. U the curric the the uh as explained this today uh the the process of of that competition is uh something I would not even want to go through. So, uh they they've done very well. I'd also like to uh say thank you for our partnerships uh with the with the people uh hospice and um help me United Way. There you go. And uh you know it takes partnerships like that to to make the whole county work, but it shows a commun the the the investment that our community is making into our

107school system. Um you know, without that investment, uh we're we're just an entity by ourselves. But apparently there's other uh uh businesses and and uh uh organizations that believe in our school system and and partner with us to do great things within our community. I'd also like to congratulate uh Dr. Fiser uh on his uh election on his being elected. Uh, and I'd like to point out that shows uh uh his willingness and our our our uh our school systems willingness to reach beyond our borders. Uh we're we're just a small dot on the map. If you if you look at even North Carolina, we're we're just a small dot that that has to work in unison with other school systems. And and uh if you want to put your ideas out there, the way

108to do it is not to bang on the table and stomp on the floor. The way to do it is to do things like get into a leadership position like that and show a good example that people want to follow. You can't make people follow you, but but they can see the benefits and see the good things happening in our county and they want to follow. So, congratulations on that. Not only to you, Dr. Fischer, but thank you for leading the way for for our school system. Um, that's it. All right. Thank you, Mr. Sperland. Mr. Blunt. Well, I went to a few ball games this week. Uh I went to Kings Mountain and we need to keep one child in our prayers. Uh he got hit. Uh pitcher throwed a fast ball uh was

109done it and I know the kid didn't mean to hit him but he did and it broke his jaw in two places and he's got quite a few screws in his jaw. Uh he had uh a pretty long surgery the next day and uh dog gone if he wasn't at the ball game on Thursday night uh supporting the rest of his team uh sitting there in the stands and the next thing I know he was getting up and walking down toward the the dugout. Well, he need to have been going down out of that dugout with all of that jaw the way it was. They done all the surgeries from the inside. So, it really didn't show a whole lot from the outside, but it broke his jaw in two places by my understanding and

110broke some teeth and uh but he come he come bounced back. So then I had two days that I wor with some sale group and Nor Shelby children. That is my heart and soul. uh our special needs kids in this county. Uh I can't do enough for them. Uh that I want to. But then uh I decided I'd feed them pizza on uh one that second day. They were they they just absolutely just they just overdone theirel and they were really good. Then today I had a school visit down at number three and uh it was uh went around and they showed us uh what they is accomplishing down there. But I go back to my sale group and that north Shelby folks we've got something in Cleveland County when it comes to that that

111nobody else has got. I I I if they got to prove it to me if they beat us in any any stepping ground when it comes to that. So, uh I have to come out with a little bit of negative. I've praised so much. I got an ominous letter at the last meeting about maybe me asking too many questions and fussing and stuff. Well, I want everybody in Cleveland County to know that I work for them and every last child. That's the reason I ask questions. That's the reason I bring up what I bring up because I work for you. Y'all are the taxpayers. Y'all pay our way. Y'all pay for these schools. And I want your money to be spent at the very every dollar spent the very best way. And hey, that cheapest

112price, hey, I don't have a problem with it. But sometimes it's not always best to go with the cheapest. You need to remember that. It's not always best to go with the cheapest, but I can promise anybody that we give a bid to, if Danny Blandon has got anything to do with it, he's going to hold somebody accountable. Everybody should be held accountable for what they do, even myself. So ever who wrote the letter, if you cannot put a signature on it, you can leave your signature off and you got something to tell me, tell me. If you want to call me, my cell phone number is 704-477188. I will still keep you anominous, but you might join with me asking questions after me and you talk, sir. Thank you, Mr. Blandon. Well, I'm not

113a very well good speaker here, but I'm going to go ahead and read from my notes. Um, I did have a school visit today and it was down at number three and it was very impressive. Um, you know, the school was well organized and the principal, Mr. Bridges, um, talked to us about some of the situations they have there. One of the things that um was brought up was the fact that the fourth graders there um their math grades are the highest in the county and I thought that was pretty good. Um you know number three has some challenges. There's no doubt. Um, I don't know if people in the county know just how much poverty we have in Cleveland County, but we have a good bit. Uh, Mr. Bridges showed us a chart and

114it showed just about how many of the children in his area were in povertystricken areas. And, you know, poverty affects kids in a lot of different ways. um with them. When the bell rings at 3:00, they may go home and not have any parent there to help them with their education. You know, their education ends at 3:00. Um they may not get anything to eat until the following day when they come back to school. I did a little bit of research um on some test scores, ways to increase test scores in our school system since we have do have some schools that are having some problems. Two of the items that kept coming up was um exercise and nutrition. It said that if kids have exercise and nutrition, their test scores are anywhere from 17

115to 20% higher. To the staff and the teachers in Cleveland County, I just want you to know that um I'm available at any point in time. If you need me to volunteer in your classrooms, I'll be more than happy to do that. I appreciate everything that the teachers are doing. I think we're doing as much as we're allowed to do. And I also went to uh visit the feeding the kids organization on Saturday and was able to help deliver food to families um in need. And this food was given out this past weekend so that these kids will possibly have enough food to get them through spring break while they're at home. If you're not aware of how much poverty is in Cleveland County, you might want to go to feeding the kids, sign up

116and volunteer and go with them one weekend because we have a real problem in Cleveland County with that. So, we do have a lot of good things going on in Cleveland County as you saw tonight, but we do have some things that we need to work on. And I'm hoping that we can get that done um in the future. And let's not take things for granted. And you know, when we keep saying that everything is great, everything is great, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's true. It doesn't make it true. We have some of the most educated and talented teachers in our school system. With our schools that we have that are low performing, we should be utilizing some of these teachers to help us put a plan together to bring these other schools back

117up to grade. So, I'm hoping that in the future we can get this done. And I know we put in a plan to have lead teachers, but we need to work on a plan and I think the public needs to know the plan. I think the parents would like to know the plans. So, but our visit was good today and I appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you everyone for being here and staying with us and um all the support. I I'd like to also thank all the people that work for the school system. I know um you work long days um what you do to support the schools and I certainly appreciate that. And I also wanted to commend everyone that got awards tonight um the battle of the books. I was

118fortunate enough at but right before Graham school closed I was able to work in their media center and I was able to be a coach. So I really learned how challenging those books are. They are very challenging. I mean, thick books and um I think you said 868 Lexile level and for those of you that aren't familiar with Lexiles, that's pretty high reading and especially for elementary students. Um you're looking at middle school and higher levels there. So that those students are to be commended as well as the coaches. Um I'm excited about the um our plan operations um Chip and and your team. um it's not every day we get a rebate for that much money. So you you're you're using our funds wisely and I think that's to be commended as well. Thank

119you to the community partners. We have lots of community partners, but especially um the United Way that we recognize tonight, the Hospice Foundation. And I am so excited about um April 9th coming up in a couple days and the books that we're going to put into the homes and and the families so we can support literacy in Cleveland County. And um with that, I'll turn that over to anyone else. Thank you again. And I I certainly feel honored that I'm able to serve on the board and um represent you. I appreciate it. Thank you, M. All right. Uh I'll just have one thing to say. Uh Friday, I believe it's Friday, I came to the Title One Parent Advocacy Council and the place was packed. Uh Mr. Grigg, I don't know if they listened to

120you or not, but you said parents get involved. they were involved. Uh there was 16 tables there with every elementary school and each table was full. So um the thing I was stood at the back and the the two ladies that presented I guess that's what you call them came up to me and was just bragging. They were from the North Carolina School of Science and Math, which is a very prestigious school, but just bragging on our folks and bragging on our teachers and they've been working with some of our folks in the past and that that's always good to hear when you're when you're just standing there. But again, that that was something to see u all those parents that were showing up. So, good deal. With that said, Mr. Bridges, do you have

121a motion to go into close session? I do make a motion to go into close session pursuant to uh North Carolina General Statute 143-318A um 3 for consultation with attorney for NW versus CCS and MK versus CCS and also um 143 section or 318 section 6 to consult with our attorney regarding a personnel matter. We have a motion by M have a motion by Mr. Bridges. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Blandon. All those in favor, it's non zero.