001good evening and welcome uh the meeting of the Cleveland County Board of Education for Monday March 11th 2024 is called to order uh Mr Fitch is traveling this evening and couldn't be with us and Mr Bridges is joining us by phone so first we'll have our invocation uh we have uh pastor and retired teacher Mr Derek green for the invocation let's pray heavenly father thank you that we are part of Cleveland County Lord thank you for Cleveland County Schools thank you for the gentlemen who are on this board Lord thank you for the men and the women who work in these offices Heavenly Father we thank you for the Educators who are here tonight to celebrate and to be recognized for achieving national board certified status Lord we thank you for the community members who
002are here lord they're here because they care Heavenly Father we pray that in this evening you would fill this place with your spirit you would fill your people with your spirit Lord and that everything that happens here tonight would be pleasing in your sight we pray this prayer in the name of Jesus amen amen amen amen thank you D Mr sper if you lead the pledge for us please stand salute I pledge aliance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all we do have some special recognition this evening I'd like to call on uh David P for that our first recognition started to call you doctor again stop there chairman members of the board Dr fiser thank
003you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight um I want to recognize uh one of our one of our student athletes um we have with us Garrett Ur uh Garris a junor from Shelby High School uh recently Garrett won the 2A state champ ionship in diving at the pulling Aquatic Center in Raleigh uh Garrick's coach at Shelby High Derek Carpenter is with us tonight uh coach Carman told me that Garrett dominated his competition all year long and including the state championship Garrett Garrett's parents are are with us tonight Joe and Nicole and and super proud I got to watch uh Garrett many times uh this year in in swimming and Diving and outstanding season and went and represented us well in Raleigh and brought home the 2A state championship lastly I want everyone to
004to also know that not only is he a state champion but he's a champion in the classroom Garrett carries over a 4.0 GPA as well congratulations [Applause] Garett congratulations good job next we have uh Dr Valerie o Kelly for to recognize our national board certified teachers good evening board chair board members and not Fisher I am ecstatically happy to present our new initial national board teachers and our renewal teachers as you probably know North Carolina still Reigns as the having the most national board teachers of any state Cleveland County the current data says that we have over 20% and that is one of the list also of our teachers as national board Educators this year we are inducting 10 new national board Educators so we're going to start with our renewals as I call your
005name please come up and Shake Dr Fisher's hand and receive your certificate Megan boy Heather Bridges Michelle Britt Aaron Bryant Amber Carpenter Catherine couch Jamie craw Stephanie Ellis Amy goodam Elizabeth green Katherine Jenkins Jamie Jones Kristen K congratul Rachel Lowry Kelly keer Amber Quinn good job Laura Ramsey good job Amanda Rito conratulations mayor the mayor the roster congratulations Brady Scott Miranda Spangler Julie Turner congratulations Cammy chanter congratulations well let's give our newed national board [Music] candidates [Applause] now for our initial board candidates Jennifer Blandon Kevin clear Tera congratulations good job Candace gold good job conratulations congratulations Jessie green congratulations good job Katie King good job Shane Robinson conratulations Laura thorington Samantha Williams Rebecca and Daisy still let's congratulate our brand [Applause] new for all right we'll continue on next we have adoption of the agenda
006what's the pleasure of the board make motion to approve motion by Mr Shores second second by Mr unas any questions or discussion those in favor if You' raise your hand Mr Bridges all right that carries eight zero next we have approval of the minutes there are three sets of minutes we have the February 12th training session the February 12th uh business and close session and the February 12th close session what's a pleasure of the board motion to approve three sets all right motion by Mr Bridges second second by Mr Taylor any questions or discussion those in favor if You' raise your hand Mr bridges that carries 8 Z so we'll move on to committee reports uh the finance and Personnel committee did not meet since our last board meeting uh that the next meeting is
007scheduled for March 28th at 10:30 a.m. we do have the Personnel report to act on uh that includes our our normal Personnel report along with the substitute list what's the pleasure of the board make a motion second motion by Mr blunt second by Mr Shores any questions or discussion those in favor if you raise your hand Mr Bridges motion carries 8 Z educational programs mrus so the education program committee met on Friday March 1st uh M Heather Bridges Moore president and chief executive officer of communities and schools provided an annual update from communities and schools they are currently serving six schools burn middle Shelby Middle Burns High Crest High Kings Mountain High and Shelby high and they currently have two graduation coach vacancies a family engagement and advocacy coordinator works with high school intensity cases
008high intensity cases at Cleveland Innovation Elizabeth Elementary Jefferson Elementary Kings Mountain Middle springmore Elementary and Township 3 the coordinator meets with students one-on-one to provide support and interaction Mrs Moore reviewed their areas of focus for work with Schools students and families centering on academics attendance Behavior Social Challenges and emotional difficulties for the 2223 school year 451 students were case managed and and supports were provided to 8117 parents Guardians 97% of seniors graduated 88% of students served were were promoted and 76% of students made progress towards Behavior related goals the committee unanimously approved Head Start information and the items will be presented shortly Mrs Benfield CTE cordinator provided an update on CTE summer programs the programs are funded by Esser this summer CTE will host camps related to Culinary Health Sciences advanced technology cosmetology Public Safety
009skill trades mechatronics Robotics and agriculture camps are being held at Cleveland Community College Garden Web University Shelby High Crest High Burns High and the Cooperative Extension Mrs Benfield Shar pictures and antidotes from the two 2023 Camps summer camps they are expecting to serve up to 300 students during the camps this summer Mr jaon Chief technology officer thank the board for their support of the iPads and Chromebooks which have arrived a team has been spending time reviewing North Carolina cyber security incident response plan and is in the creation stage for an incident response plan for the district Mr Taylor asked about whether this would address artificial intelligence Mrs Jackson said it would be addressed through the plan if considered a s if considered a cyber incident the district is currently working on a plan to address
010AI specifically with no other business the meeting was adjourn and the next meeting for the committee is scheduled for May the 3rd at 10:30 thank you is that next meeting date right May the 3 yes so we're not we don't have one in April okay all right just just check it all right we do have a few action items the Head Start report there are four reports the January 24 policy Council and school board report the January 24 Head Start financial report and the Head Start Grant application uh for the 2425 year and then the 2425 Head Start eligibility form those do come from committee recommended for approval any questions or discussion those in favor if You' to raise your hand Mr brid bries did Mr Bridges all right that carries 8 Z next is
011our operation committee report Mr Taylor thank you Mr chairman the March 1st operations committee meeting was called to order by Greg Taylor Dr J Dr Jennifer Wampler and Chip chers provided the capital projects report for review by the committee the committee discussed the report this report will be attached to the board's agenda in March and as an information item the committee reviewed additional information related to the town of bowan Springs and the possibility of a request to have them Annex springmore related to utilities based on the current information the committee decided not to proceed with the request at this time Daniel Sherman providing an update on the HVAC me projects at our Traditional High Schools Crest is tracking ahead of schedule and burns his own schedule the new system is in use in most of
012the building but a but a full conversion to the new hbac system will occur over spring break the Shelby jym project is almost complete and work continues on the vocational building the HB controls are on schedule to start in the next month in Michel Brown Auditorium Kings Mountain is on schedule to be completed over the summer as it requires the power to be shut off in the main buildings for a few weeks press boxes at Crest and burns are underway the floors have have been poured for both while the weather has hindered some work the project is tracking well and in good shape Jamie cier recommended extending the milk and food bids for for the 2425 school year Miss Curry is recommending that we extend the milk bid to pet Dairy for another year in
013the amount of [Music] $535,500 the food bid to Gordon Food Service for another year in the amount of 3,641 6236 these were the lowest bids that were received during the previous bid period the committee unanimously approved recommending the approval of extending the milk and food bids for the 2025 school year to the full board at their next meeting with no AB with no additional business the meeting was adjourned the next operations committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday March 28th at 12: p.m. thank you Mr Taylor we do Mr BL yes uh as y'all was here in the last meeting there was a bet went on on some mobile units if we sell them uh I get to buy a hot dog if we don't sell them I get a steak I needed to bring this
014a because uh our time period I think it's going to run out with Dove deals CU we have voted to uh put them things on on Dove deal to sale well within the next 30 days see 30 more days that's going to be a time well I went to Crest Middle School for my school visit today and I asked I asked was the school full and they said yes uh so with our building uh and construction taking place in Cleveland County we l to need that mobile unit right there at that school yes it's got a hold in the floor it's got one leak in the roof that could be very fixed very simply and very easily with small amount of money compared to what it would take us to rent via I think that
015we need to take those off and as a whole board go look at those to that bathroom over units and the uh double wide classroom pull that off of Dove deals especially there I hadn't seen the other one until we see what our economy and stuff going to do to save this County some money well I recommend referring that back to committee I'm looking here our next committee meetings in two weeks and discuss that during the committee okay will we have time to get it pulled off of Dove deals then if we decide to to keep it should be able to okay you'll add that to the agenda for the operations committee right is is okay because we the auditoriums that same day right March 28th the grand opening is okay so we have two
016action items the first is a Child Nutrition Milk and food bids again the milk goes to pet da for $535,500 Milli 316 uh operations committee recommended approving both of these bids any questions or discussion on the bid I I do have one you know we had some problems with the milk this year um have we resolved those issues with um P have students will bring to manager there that's on that and we can get it to the and they can on that particular and we find out what's the problem okay all right thank you any other questions on the food bids all right those in favor if You' raise your hand Mr Bridges carries 80 so at our last meeting uh we declared the uh property next to East Elementary as Surplus and excuse me
017we had already declared Surplus we put it out uh for sale uh we have received a bid for that uh board members if you look at your desk you have a resolution for that I'll read that for the public uh this is a resolution for the house at East house at East Elementary whereas the Cleveland County Board of Education owns property located at 701 Cleveland Avenue Kings Mountain North Carolina whereas the board has declared the property Serv Surplus and no longer necessary for public school purposes whereas the board has offered the property to the board of County Commissioners pursuant to North Carolina General statute 115 C- 518a and the Board of Commissioners has declined to obtain the property whereas the board finds that the best interest of the Cleveland County Schools would be served by
018the sale of said real property as is in accordance with the North Carolina General statutes whereas the board wishes to dispose of the property per to General stat statute 16 A- 269 providing for the sale of real property by negotiated offer advertisement and upset bids whereas Jennifer hord has offered $50,000 to purchase the property and agreed to play agreed to pay applicable real estate closing calls Revenue stamps and expenses whereas the board accepts the offer as the initial offer pursuant to the upset bid process now there therefore be it resolved by the Cleveland County Board of Education that the superintendent is authorized to provide notice of the $50,000 offer and to advertise the offer for upset bids in accordance with General statute 168 269 and if approved that would be adopted the 11th day of
019March so this did not go before committee because the bids came in afterwards uh so we would need a motion to approve the resolution so second so we have a motion by Mr Unis and second by Mr Shores any questions or discussion on the resolution again this would go uh into the upset bid process it would be advertised uh the 10 days would start tomorrow and I believe that 10 days what is it the 22nd something like that 21st 11 plus 10 is 21 uh it's hard to do math in front of people but uh and and you have the figures there for the calculation for uh any upset bids what that would have to be so any any questions on the resolution all right those in favor if you raise your hand Mr bridges
020that carries 8 Z all right uh next is our policy report Mr policy committee met on February the 27th um the committee review policies 6320 and 6321 which relate to school bus transportation as a part of this policy review David PL Bri mclung and Melissa Kennan shared information with committee members related to bus routing and relevant North Carolina General statutes the committee discussed Cleveland County School's routing procedures and various situations that impact routing at this time the committee recommends no change to these polic policies as part of the ongoing policy manual review we look re we went through policies 33100 3101 3102 and 3105 these policies are part of the 3000 section of the board policy manual which is educational programs no changes were recommended to these policies by the committee Dr fiser shared with
021the committee that principles directors and District administrative staff are currently in the process of completing conflict of interest training in compliance with a new law that was passed as part of the 23 state budget as part of new business Dr fiser introduced Sandy hamri director of student services who shared some information related to the attendance policy 4400 specifically Mr Sam asked the committee to revise this policy to remove the requirement to mail the three-day attendance letter this is a requirement of our policy but it's not a requirement of state law we will continue to notify parents after after their child has missed three days but would not have to mail the letter the committee supported this revision the revision will go to the full board for a first read tonight the committee will review policies
0224130 4150 4150 R and 4155 at our next meeting with no new business the meeting was adjourned the next policy committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March the 26th at noon thank you Mr ERS and as stated there is one policy uh on the agenda for first read That's policy 4400 attendance policy and as mentioned that's a small correction not to require mailing the information next we have our Safety Committee report uh Mr spur safy committee safety committee meeting was called order and an update from Ryan ethd was requested about the North Carolina safety Grant ethd noted that the funds have been transferred to CCS for use while discussing the timelines for expenditures Danny Blandon mentioned that the requested that he requested $725,000 for safety purposes to be afforded to the Cleveland County Schools from
023the general assembly in an attempt to recoup the entirety of the original amount requested for safety purposes Philip Lane the Shelby City Fire Marshal led a discussion on uh a partition consideration for Jeff Jefferson Elementary in hopes of providing a more effective thway for students there were no staff reports for this meeting and no new business was discussed the committee entered into Clos session where the most recent agency responses were recapped and discussed the meeting was adjourned following the updates in discussion the next safety committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday May 20 March 26th at 12: p.m. thank you Mr Sperling uh no action items uh in the Safety Committee so next we have our superintendent's update Fisher thank you Mr chairman members of the board just a few updates uh tonight for you uh
024real briefly um we do our ongoing capital projects update HVAC projects our high schools continue to uh move along uh closing in On That September 2024 completion date at the end of of Esther funds um continuing to work from those I know several of you were at burn Chris Crest High School today uh and saw much of that campus complete uh there's still some areas that they're working for so we're working towards that deadline um we feel like feel good about the progress being made there um auditori updates uh I know all of you were at the uh Burns High School RI uh ribbon cutting grand opening had a wonderful night there show you in just a few pictures in just a minute a great turnout at Burns High School that night um um and
025you know unbelievable auditor I I can't say enough about everybody involved and seeing the Praises of everybody involved in that Auditorium whether it's you know from the architect our folks that that worked in that process um you know the Builder everything it's just um you know many things in life don't exceed expectations um you know we have wild imaginations that that sometime create these unrealistic expectations but um you know when you walk in that auditori Burns it exceeded the expectations both from the visual um appearance to the sound U it was it was phenomenal and and I appreciate all the folks that that put in a lot of work uh getting us to that point uh a great a great ribbon cutting grand opening there uh we anticipate on Thursday March 28th at 7 o'cl
026having another one at Crest uh and being just excited about the auditorium uh at Crest High School um as we as we um uh have the gr open cutting there so we invite folks to come to that night uh should be a great night we'll have some uh performances from our fine arts department as well as an opportunity for folks to tour the facility uh the restroom uh Press Box restroom facilities at our at cres and Burns High School uh at the stadiums are continuing to uh Move Along again we've had some cold weather but hopefully we're beginning to transition into some War warmer weather we'll see lots of good dry days to be able to get work going on there I I did did uh include a few pictures here here our board and
027County Commissioners uh cutting the ribbon uh we did two ribbon cuttings uh this is the first one with our board County Commissioners and some State elected officials there we appreciate their attendance that night uh you know this is kind of what everybody wanted to see uh and those communities have the opportunity for Fine Arts programs to perform on stage on campus uh that's the orchestra there performing there you can see I think to the left another uh group that's going to perform next so we we ipate having that same opportunity at Crest and then just looking at Center Stage looking out at that facility again uh those of you that know uh you can see the the the left back lecture hall area is open one on the right does open we kept that close
028so people can see the difference as they did that tour so just a great um a great grand opening and really appreciate unbelievable aor uh the look and the sound and the appearance there was was uh unbelievable um a couple other things um in terms of uh academics congratulations to our book challenge robotics competition winners we we've uh been on that circuit recently at the elementary level Kings Mountain intermediate one the Elementary Book challenge Middle School Bible books was Kings Mountain Middle School and a robotics Champions were Washington Elementary had great days of competition there lots of wonderful things to see from our uh from our students from an academic standpoint uh lots of great parent uh family community support for those events uh as well a few schedule things for you just as a
029reminder uh tomorrow Tuesday is our outstanding Educators Awards program tomorrow night uh that starts at Seven Grand uh you're definitely invited to go as we uh our top performing seniors recognize outstanding Educators that they've had in their career um it's hard to believe but uh the school year is is almost 34 way over um 39 weeks in on Thursday March 14th uh Friday the 15th it's a teacher work day but it's also K day um and uh you know again we're we're getting to that point where now we're definitely in the preparation stand up point for for next year um March 27th is making it work uh and that's an opportunity for our students um mostly seniors but uh our high school students to engage with employers uh at Cleveland Community College at L gr
030Center uh for those students to have an opportunity to uh look what um see what employers are offering what uh what that uh manufacturing career looks like so that's a big event and the life for our school district and then March 29th is Good Friday and start of spring break I'm sure I've got some some teachers uh here or folks watching and definitely some students excited about that day uh but but we are off Good Friday and extend that next week and school resume on Monday April the 8th uh that's all I have tonight I'm glad to try to answer any questions any questions for Dr Fisher thank you and believe it or not we don't have anyone signed up for public participation tonight so Mr Shores you're off the hook uh we'll move on
031to board member comments uh Mr Bridges since you're joining by phone we'll let you go first scho Vis this this home and one week you guys let me phone tonight thank you thank you Mr GRE I went to um Crest today also and I'd like to say that you know I was really impressed with the um outcome over there today uh the children are doing a lot of good things you know we um really don't know if if you've not been there to visit you you know you might have questions as what's going on but um and I did in my mind until I went in today and I I realized that you know we're doing some good things at Crest um I hope we keep it up and also um hope hope that the
032parents of the crest children will show up at the opening on the 28th I had two daughters that graduated from Crest it's been a few years since they graduated but I know I plan on being there we uh did see the burns Auditorium and it was really amazing what they've done over there so um I think CR is going to be the same way so um come out if you can thank you Mr Taylor no I don't have anything Mr short Mr spurin Mr Bland I went to Cris middle school today and had a very enjoyable uh visit there and uh I want to break on the custodians uh the custodians is doing a fantastic job over there uh that school was shining so uh just to let them know that they're doing a marvelous
033job and uh appreciate what they're doing and I'll still bring up those uh mobile units and I also found out they've been using one of them for a for the concession stand for the baseball fields we do not have a concession stand over there so it would be good to keep that right there in place but fix it it needs to have some repairs done to it and the bathroom for outside bathrooms so we don't have to open up the whole school during our sports facilities and stuff so I enjoyed my visit today Mr erson so I had the had the pleasure of going to the robotics competition uh award ceremony that that's I don't know if it's my favorite thing every year but it's close to it CU you know stem is near and
034dear to my heart you know I we have a lot of kids involved in it now and I'd like to see even more that that program I think people people tend to think that it's programming robots or something there's a lot more to it than that there there's a whole process they go through but the big thing that does it's probably as good as anything I've seen in the K12 is teach critical thinking skills those go with those students no matter what they're going to do in the rest of their life that critical thinking is extremely important for any Endeavor you get into in life uh the book book awards was today um another great program national board certified teachers um seems like it was only yesterday my wife got that and I'm glad to
035say our marriage survived it it's if you don't know what those teachers have to go through to get that national board certification check into it it's the real deal it it's I kind of jokingly say that I'm I'm glad my marriage survived it there was times Jenna's looking at her there is um Burns Auditorium wow I don't even know what to say about that I mean I I was my previous what I did for a living is look at plans and pictured what things was going to look out like or design things and having a vision of what they were going to look CL in the end like Dr fiser said very few times I don't know that ever in my life that the actual product has exceeded my expectations and my vision and but
036that Auditorium does and I I can't wait for the people at Crest to see it having been in drama in the little auditorium at Crest um it it is just blows my mind I I can't I can't wait till the crest one just because I was at Crest and we dealt with the little Auditorium so now those students coming forward what a great asset to Cleveland County Schools and those students and the community as well for that matter anyway all right thank you I'll say congratulations again to our uh board certified teachers for going through that process uh the new folks the hard work that went into that and those that renew uh I have to do certifications myself I think the teachers have a a rougher deal than I do so I know they
037putting a lot of hard work into that uh and you know not to be competitive or anything but just so folks know at Crest there were three or 4 hundred people showed up for the burns uh Auditorium grand opening so I expect my alumni friends to at least match that and uh I'm I'm excited to see those colors in green and gold as as nice as the blue and gold was at Burns I'm I'm ready to see some green and gold so uh do come out on the 28th that's at 7 o'clock um so with that Mr Shores do you have a motion to go into close session yes I move we're going into close session pursu it the general statute [Music] 143-30570 one last [Music] vote all right