001Good evening everybody. Welcome to uh our regularly scheduled board meeting for April. Um at this time we'll have the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem. Everybody stand. Flag is to your back. student. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hi, I don't know if you can see me. I'm really short. Um, my name is Amanda Fonka. I teach all the maths here, but I also run coral comp here as well. So, I have a few members of my choir club here. And we are going to sing the [Music] national stripes and bright star dreams singing. [Music] Stay down. Thank you for that. Um, at this time, do I have a
002motion to approve tonight's agenda? Make a motion that we approve tonight's agenda. All in favor? I second. All in favor? And now, Miss Granny, you want to present or have some student present space presentations? Good evening everyone. Special greetings to our board members, Dr. Ays, and all of our amazing directors and of course our principles out there in the audience. It is with great pleasure that I'm able to welcome you to Jackson County Early College this rainy evening, home of the Jaguars. Special shout out to Jaden and Greg over there who have overcome a number of obstacles with all things setup with tech. It takes a lot of extension cords and electrical tape to make this happen. So, thank you. This year as a school family, we set out to accomplish a number of goals,
003but perhaps one of the biggest goals was to increase community awareness and knowledge about what Jackson County Jackson Early College is all about and what can it can offer to a high school student. As part of this effort, we visited all of our feeder schools with a student panel. We hosted a number of community open houses and we launched a social media campaign focused on showing how the early college is different from the traditional high school experience. I think that we have accomplished this goal as we had close to 100 students to apply for our 2526 incoming class which is significantly higher than what we typically have. Getting students to graduate in four years with their high school diploma can sometimes be a challenge. Getting students to graduate in four years with their high school
004diploma and an associates degree is truly remarkable. Here at JCEC, students have the opportunity to earn either an associates of arts degree or an associates of science in four years. Accomplishing this feat is a testament of course to our students but also to our amazing staff. One of my favorite quotes of all times um that perfectly sums up our staff is from Simon Synynic and the quote is a small team committed to a cause that is bigger than themselves can achieve absolutely anything. Not a day goes by that I am not blown away by our teachers, by our staff, and by our students. Each of our students is challenged, supported, and loved here at JCEC. And it truly is the place to be. Board members, I want to extend to you a personal invite to
005each of you to come to our school anytime to come and see and experience what makes us unique here at JC. We would love to have you absolutely anytime. And I mean that. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Sutton to talk to us more about some senior internships. But actually, my tech team over here, they were able to rig up a video that we used as part of that social media campaign. Um, and it's very short and it's a day in the life of um some of our JC students. A testament to them is I literally gave them a GoPro and said, "Go." and they didn't break the GoPro and they came back with some amazing footage. So, I hope that you will enjoy this video. Um, and then I
006will turn it over to Messa. So, a day in the life of a JC Jaguar. [Music] to get right. [Music] Afternoon. How are you? Hello. Do you need it? Oh, Awesome. That's good. Hello. We are so excited to showcase some of our seniors tonight. They will be sharing their job shadowing experience along with a visual presentation for you. Um job shadowing is just one of the many requirements um seniors have in a class uh called house here at JCEC. And the job shadowing experience alone um involves 16 hours of shadowing. That's two full work days which I feel like will give them a good taste of what a job would be like. Um and but so much goes into preparing for that um that many do not see. Um so as the school year begins,
007we actually work on communication skills that are needed um in in the workplace. Verbal, non-verbal, email etiquette, um interview skills, listening skills, all of those uh types of communication skills. Even learning how to greet a business person with a decent handshake, right, is valuable. Um and yes, I do give a quiz on that. Um, knowing how to communicate in the right context is an important skill, just like helping them know unspoken rules and standards that a lot of people don't tell them. Um, and and things that are expected in communicating with professionals in the community. Um, and we work on all types of communication skills. Then we move on to trying to understand the importance of networking as a strategy um and for career development and exploration and how how to get them to find
008those jobs that they want through networking. Um traditional networking, you know, like really talking to people is really scary for um some people, well, probably most people in trying to find a job, but we practice all of those things together. And lastly, we focus on ethics in the workplace as well as problem solving, critical thinking on the job, all those things that are needed. And so once seniors practice some of these skills in the classroom, then it's time for them to email a mentor or to pick up the phone and call a mentor or to even head for a cup of coffee with a mentor, right? Um, one of our seniors was as first time she met the mentor, the mentor said, "Will you meet me for a cup of coffee?" And I thought that
009was really professional and exciting and she was very nervous but it was really it was really neat. Um so it's a process um but one that I still find very valuable um for the futures of these seniors. And so I believe that the seniors presenting tonight will be able to convey to you the lessons that they have learned in their job shadowing experience and what they plan to do with those lessons that they've learned. So, at this time, I'm going to introduce you to Sarah Morris, who will share her job shadowing experience first, and then you'll meet Sumner Messer, and then you'll meet Ruth Osorio. So, Sarah, I will turn it over to you. Hello, my name is Sarah Morris. Um, so the career that I chose to job shadow was accounting. I'm planning on
010becoming an accountant. Um, so I guess I'll just get over it. So, um, the place that I chose to job shadow, um, accounting is a nice, uh, career field to have to do job shadowing in because accounting is kind of a field that you need everywhere. Like almost everywhere deals with money. Um, so it was convenient for me to work with uh, SEC's business office. They're just right down campus. Um, so it was nice to be able to go there just right after school. Um, so I mainly worked with Carol Martin, who at the time was SEC's comproller. She's now moved on to a different job. Um, but she was um, a great person to be in contact with. She was very, very helpful and very good at explaining um, you know, like what you
011need in accounting. Um, other than uh, Carol, I also worked with Lisa Kim Fischer. So, she's the vice president of financial and administrative services at SEC, which basically means she's kind of second in command when it comes to the financials at SEC. Um, she works directly under Dean Don Thomas. It was super duper cool to be able to work with her um and kind of see what kind of stuff you work with in those really upper levels of accounting. I also worked with several members of the uh human resources department. um the human resources and the other members of the business office work really closely. So, Carol wanted me to have kind of a general understanding of what HR does and um because you need to be in communication with them. So, that's everyone that
012I mostly worked with during my job. So what I what I actually did mostly I worked with Carol like I said um Carol is um in charge of most of the general uh journal entries and also the general ledger. So she's putting um into the journal a lot of um the transactions that the college makes. Um it was really cool because last semester I took an accounting class and I'm also taking an accounting class this semester. So, as I was working with Carol, I was saying, "Oh, these are things that I learned in like chapter four of the textbook, my accounting textbook. This is something that I learned super early on in accounting, but I can see how it's being applied to a real job. This is actually being used in real life, and I
013could connect those things and understand what she was telling me um without her having to go super in-depth." It was really cool. Um, I got to practice using Excel, which I haven't used much outside of my accounting class. So, I got to see some of the ways that she uses it professionally. I learned some cool things that you can do with it. And I got to look at a real accounting software, even though every time Carol would pull it up, she would be like, "This is a really old software. You'll probably be using something a lot more updated where you're working." Um, but it was still super cool to see um, a way that you input accounting stuff into a software because I mostly work with traditional journal entries in my classes. Um, when I
014did work with HR, a lot of what we discussed was just what HR does itself. So like I talked with Ally about how she got into HR and what she does as the hiring director for part-time employees. I talked with Cheryl about her work with full with hiring full-time employees and benefits and then I talked with Brian about some of what he does as the director of HR and a project that he was working on. Um I worked once with Lisa Kim. Lisa Kim does so many different things. It was very cool to see what she does. One of my favorite things we did was she she has she will log into a government website for SEC and she pulls down funding. So here's the funding that we're going to need for this upcoming semester
015for Upwardbound. here's the funding we're going to need for our uh students who are in financial need. Um, and she pulls that down and says, "This is what we're going to need." And then you have to like rightclick and print every page where it's saying the exact amount of money you use because you want a paper trail. Um, and a big takeaway that I had during my uh job shadowing was just how much you have to rely on the other people in the office. Um, pretty much every time I worked with Carol, my job chatting was spread like in a couple hours on many days. Um, every time I was working with her, she would go out of her office and be like, "Hey, Tara, I'm looking for where this funding came from. I don't
016think I got an email." Or, "Hey, can I run Piglet?" Which is uh, basically, you're updating the accounting software so no one else can be on it while you're doing it. So, are you on are you on the accounting software? Can I run Piglet real quick? um putting stuff in the mailbox, just all these different things that you need to have a good relationship with your co-workers. You need to be able to talk to them. Um it was really cool to kind of see how um how your relationships factor into your work. So, um when I first chose to do accounting, I was kind of worried because when people like I would say the most default boring job is accounting. Oh, you you say I'm going to be an accountant. People are like, "Okay, that
017sounds really boring." Um, so I was I was really worried that I was going to go into my job shadowing and start doing stuff with Carol and I was just going to hate it and I was going to have no idea what I was going to do afterwards. Um, and when I was working with Carol, I would say like it is boring. like you're I was going through a PD a 400page PDF and I was saying okay this is for this account and I'm going to update these three figures on this account and then I scroll down to the next page and I update the same three figures on that account in the spreadsheet and you're just doing that for like 2 hours. Um so it was objectively boring but for me I really like
018I actually I did enjoy it and I can't explain to you why I enjoyed it. I just did. Um, so this just really made me feel a lot better about what I'm planning on doing. Um, and I've been accepted to WCU and I'm going to major in accounting and figure out what I'm going to double major in. So, it's great. Great. Hello. Good evening. I'm Sar Messer. Um, for my job shadowing experience, I job shadowed the job of being a filmmaker uh slashdirector. Wow. So, just as a quick background, the mentor that I job shadowed was Josh Overbay, who is a lead film professor and prof also professional director and filmmaker at WCU. Um, some of his films are smaller indie films which include As Hope Bridge and Luke and Joe. So, um, on the
019first day I was not sure what to expect. I sort of but I wanted to go into the job with an open mindset because I knew I've always wanted to be in sort of a creative career and I thought I'd try out film making because I love movies. I love television. Um media is one of the most important aspects of what I enjoy in life. So that's just part of the reason I wanted to get into it. Um so on the first day uh I've sat through a film making and directing class. This class helped me learn about the importance of table reads. Um that's what I took away the most from that session. They had students act out um a single script and in this script each student had a different role. I believe
020the plot of this uh script was basically like this big bank heist that each individual plays a certain criminal role in executing. And it was really interesting seeing the input Josh Ober gave to each student as well as um given the opportunity for other students to step in and see what they would provide for the role. It was just really interesting seeing everyone's different interpretation of the same scene. Um I also sat through several meetings which sounds boring but um I actually learned a lot from that experience. Um they one thing that I noticed the most was they discussed the controlled chaos film festival at WCU. This is basically this festival led mainly by students where they get to showcase all of the different films, videos, clips, whatever they've made throughout the year. Um, and
021then I sat through some more meetings specifically with just like the professors. Um, they talked about the junior and senior thesis projects. These projects would be presented at at the controlled chaos film festival. So they sort of um each play a role in each other. For day two, I should say night two because it was a night class. We watched and analyzed the film Black Girl um which is a 19 1966 film. Um I I I don't know what happened but the name of the filmmaker was covered up but it essentially the story of this film I thought it was really beautiful. It follows this um this young woman from Sagal in Africa who is looking for um a new career trying to escape her more impoverished community. Um, so she finds this French couple
022who basically recruit her as a maid of their household. And a lot of the themes and dynamics in this film, I think on a surface level, are tragic, but once you dig deeper, you start to notice more of like societal themes and history of racial segregation and discrimination. Um, and it's really interesting to see, I guess, how it approached that. It's a very tragic film, but I thought it was beautiful. On day three, I joined another film making and directing class. This time it was more of the practical part of the process. So that included like that included like how to develop the story of the of the movie or play or whatever you're directing. Um so that includes like character arcs, how to structure a story, the rise and fall of the dynamics between
023each character. Um, we also watched a scene from the social network which sort of demonstrated how individuals can act out a scene very well. Um, and show sort of the transition of a character how they can start off sort of in a happy happy space and then maybe a conflict happens and they end up being they feel neglected and they um sort of act out. And then I joined another film production class where they talked about props, where to find props, what the different effects and just I guess like phys physical objects and resources that you need to make a film. Um they had I believe some sort of like drive at Engles where they raised money to for these students to purchase props for their thesis projects. And that's pretty much for day three.
024Here's that scene from The Social Network that I thought I should include because I really liked it and I watched that movie and I really enjoyed it a lot. So, my final thoughts, that's me. That's a terrible picture of me, but that's a picture of me with Josh over Bay. Um, I my final thoughts sort of changed since when I first presented my job shadowing experience to my class because I'm I although film is something I still want to do and I want to make movies at some point, the career I'm ending up going to get into is graphic design because I also do art and I believe for the time being that's what I can make the best out of my talent with. Um, and I think I still want to make movies as
025a hobby. Um, I'm going to Appalachin State University for graphic design, but I planned at at App State and in the future just making movies on the side and maybe that can turn into a career, but overall it was definitely a valuable experience that I had. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ruth Sorio and I did my job shadowing presentation it up in cashers with a woman named Jessica at soft pies and so the first day we kind of met up for coffee and it was very nerve-wracking. Um she was over an hour late and I was stressing out but she did communicate with me so it was fine. But we met up at Bucks and we I also stressed what my coffee order should be. I didn't want to seem too professional, but I
026didn't want to seem too like like get a smoothie or like a frappuccino. So, I got like a cappuccino, you know? I tried I tried to get something with like Anyways, during this time, she kind of just asked me what got me what got me interested in real estate, which to be honest was the money, the amount of money you make. But she also asked me just like background information. And after that, she took me to this place where they were planning on developing land, just acres. It was very rocky and it had a lot of trees. But she definitely tried to show me the vision and like what they were planning to do, which they were just planning to do little cottages. Um, after that, she took me to the office and she kind
027of just showed me where her office would be and then she put me where her other colleagues worked. She also after this we just sat down and she like showed me a bunch of paperwork that she had to do daily which was very boring. And then at on the second day we met at a house that was not on the lo like on the map. So I got lost and I didn't know where I was going and basically I just waited on the side of the road until I could find her car and it was very embarrassing. But after that, she kind of she had a showing, so I just followed through and I just followed and see like saw what she did. And she basically explained like all the little things of that the
028house is like a big thing was that it was really close to Mountaintop like the club and that it had like a back door access which the client really really wanted. Um after that like a person came with furniture and she kind of staged the house for photos which took forever. And then after this, she took me to another house that was already sold, but she had to take pictures for like the final comp. And then on day three, she took me to another house. And this time we This house wasn't for sale. It was just she had to check up on um something that was in the house. She had to take pictures. And then she also took me to another land development. And this one they hadn't purchased yet. It was It wasn't
029even like on the market, but it was something that they were scouting for. And then she took me to this like area that they all owned but and it had a bunch of mini cottages on it and it was like two-bedroom, two bath situation. But she was telling me that she really hated it because it was like in a culde-sac kind of and it just didn't fit to what their other houses were. Um, which really like not it did not make her happy. But on day four, we went to another house and we kind of just retook the pictures cuz the pictures for some reasons didn't save. So that way we were with another photographer for like two hours just taking photos and I couldn't really do anything cuz I'm not a photographer. So it
030was kind of boring. Um, and then she showed me how to do more comps and she showed me like the database where she could find all the houses that were like on sale or even like the ones that they owned. And then after this, she had to there was a house that they were planning to put on the market, but for some reason they didn't want to stage like actual furniture. So they she showed me this AI staging website that they did for the house. She ended up just staging the house because she hated every single up like option they gave her. She hated it absolutely and she just she just called someone to go stage it and that's what we did after that. So, some of the lessons that I learned during this was
031that you're always going to be late. Cuz all of our meetings, she was always late. Another lesson is that it's really hard to make connections cuz this this um what's it called? Her business, it wasn't even hers to begin with. It belonged to another person. But the guy like passed away and then he gave it to her sister. So now her and her sister own the business. and she said it was really hard at first to make connections, but now that she does have like connections, it's like it's a really great job opportunity. Like a fun fact, their boss made over 166 million and then her sister and Jessica made $88 million, which is a lot of money, but job shadowing is is an experience that is for your future career if you want to
032pursue it. And after this, I do not want to pursue being a real estate agent. it. Yeah. And that's all I have for you guys. Thank you. Oh, I want to be a teacher. So, I'm gonna shout out to Christy back there. Uh, you're an accountant and a teacher. So, two of three of you. And graphic art, graphic design. Shenica, you better watch out. Somebody's coming for your job. So you got all three have a job. Thank you all for that. Now we're going to do some special recognitions. Dr. Thank you for the student presentations. I will say that I had the pleasure of um sitting in some of those last year and in your classroom and brought the deputy state superintendent and he was so thoroughly impressed. So, it's always good to see what
033they get out of it. And I appreciate Ruth's honesty. This is not what I want to do. And so, that's the purpose of that too is to dabble in what you think you're interested in and then what really is going to be the path that you travel. So, tonight we are recognizing and I forgot my certificates. two students and we've been holding this um these two students because um I wanted to make sure that we had opportunity to give them a proper acknowledgement of what they have done. So I'm going to call the two of them up first. Gabby Roman Bruno and Caven Wilson, if you two will come on up. This is the hardest part to stand in front and let people read good things about you, right? Um, so don't mess with these
034two students. Let me just start by saying that Gabby finished fourth in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association State Wrestling Tournament. Fourth in the entire state of North Carolina. This accomplishment equals the highest placement by a female in the short time this program has existed. On her way to this accomplishment, Gabby tallied a 41 and5 season record, all conference honors, a second place finish at regionals, Western North Carolina's all wrestling first team by Asheville Citizens Times, and was selected all state second team, the very first female from Smoky Mountain to receive this recognition. Gabby is a junior, so that means she has another year to do this. and also plays soccer for Smoky Mountain High School. So, congratulations to Gabby. I'm gonna hold both certificates to the end. Caven Wilson, also a junior, finished
035second in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state tournament. That's the runner up, number two in the entire state of North Carolina. And I watched every minute of that minute of that online. It was amazing. Caven is only the fifth wrestler in the program's history to achieve state runnerup. Caven had a season record of 49 and4, earned all conference honors, and was selected as the most outstanding wrestler of the Mountain 7 Conference tournament. He finished third at regionals, Western North Carolina all wrestling first team by Asheville Citizen Times, all state honorable mention and hit the 100 win mark this season. Caven is a member of the National Honor Society, a peer group counselor, and on the A honor role. So, congratulations to both Gabby and Caven. You represent us and you make us look
036good. So, thank you very much. Right here, she turns. I don't really like this kitchen right behind. So, maybe you can come later. Where do you want us? So that I do want to say, and I know I asked Coach Wilson if he wanted to speak, and he said no. But I do want to say that just two years ago, we were standing at uh Fair View recognizing the female wrestling team that was really just a seedling. It was just something that was just growing. And in in two years, now it was not a brand new program that year. I think it was his third second year maybe. And so in this short period of time, this program for the females has made a name for itself. So that is thanks to what you do,
037Coach Wilson, and the entire team. So did you want to say anything? Real quick, you want a microphone or you gonna use your teacher voice? Just real quick. Um, many of you in here are a huge part of these kids success, but also my other breast success. I have 11 scholar all-Americans. Wow. As of now, I have two who are chosen marshals for graduation. I push academics a lot. Okay. but also the success of that work. But when I came in here, I started thinking it kind of blew me away how many my kids thought and and now as they're going into high school, reach adulthood to help put them on the right path. I greatly appreciate that. Thank you. putting us on the map. I think that's what's happening. Next will be the last
038two teachers that we recognize in our district as we've been doing every month at our board meeting. And it just so happens JC was the last school that we're hosting the meeting. So, Miss Ingga Sutton, if you will come forward and Amanda Fonka. Every month I have been celebrating teachers who have exceeded growth status in our district. Annually the state of North Carolina provides information about student performance and teacher growth exhibiting progress. Teachers receive an EVOS growth score number and a designation. EVOS we always have to have an acronym right in education means education value added assessment system. These designations are did not meet met or exceeded growth. In the entire district, there were 17 teachers that exceeded growth for the 23 24 school year. And this evening, we're recognizing two, that's pretty good odds,
039two out of 17 in the entire district. Two teachers who did exceed growth. Miss Amanda Fonka, who is a teacher of all math, as she said earlier, and is the leader of the coral club, and Miss Sutton teaches English and is a national honor society sponsor. together truly they constitute half of the teaching staff here in our building. There are four teachers at JCEC. So that's also pretty good probability right there, 50%. So we're really proud of what you do, not just to exceed growth, but what you do for our children. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay, moving on to this the consent action agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the open session minutes of our regular meeting on March 25th? Make a motion that we approve our open session minutes from the March meeting.
040Second. All in favor on the information superintendent report. Dr. Eris, a lot of good stuff tonight. So, good evening chair and board members. Everyone has just returned from a week-l long Easter break and it was a good time to rest and prepare to finish the school year strong. Including this week, which two days have already occurred, there are only five weeks remaining in the school year. We will begin end of grade testing on May 13th and end of course testing for high schoolers on May 19th. It's really hard to believe that we're at the end. I'm overjoyed to share that the land for our new middle school has been purchased and we are moving forward with all of the capital projects. One primary item that needs to be addressed very soon is the name of
041our new middle school. Uh at the community input sessions in January, several school names were recommended by students, staff, and families who were in attendance. The most popular suggestions include Tuckiji Middle, Smoky Mountain Middle, and Jackson County Middle. There were other suggestions that were only recommended by a single person. I will have to say some of them were a little offthe-wall, like Hogwarts Middle School. You knew that had to come from a a student, right? Um, I will be asking the board to decide on a name and take action to select a name at the next board meeting on Tuesday, May 27th. Per JCPS policy 9300, the superintendent will submit a recommended name or limited list of recommended names to the board for approval. Final decisions on the naming of the school facility shall rest
042entirely with you all as a board. I'm very fond of the name Takasiji Middle School because I think it honors the river that runs through the entire community and is a nod to the rich Cherokee history here. As of now, our architects are busy working on renderings for the new bus garage in Fairview's cafeteria. We've had two opportunities to revise and give input on the original draft drawings. Next week, we should receive the draft drawings of Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain High School athletic projects. This is a really exciting time for us here in Jackson uh Jackson County as a community and our schools. And it just doesn't seem like it's real, but it's real and it's happening. Earlier this month, I announced administrative changes at two schools. Miss Eleanor McCaulay will be leading Scots
043Creek School after Miss Bryson's retirement in June, and Mr. Kerr will take the reigns at Fairview tomorrow. A team will be interviewing for the new principal at Smoky Mountain Elementary School. Mr. Kerr has set the bar high and made tremendous progress. So, we are seeking a leader to continue the upward momentum he and the teachers have created. In other news, the Smoky Mountain High School theater performers will present its spring show, which is Guys and Dolls, the weekend of May 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. There will be shows on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. I haven't missed a show yet, and I look to make sure that I'm going to be there on Sunday afternoon to see this one as well. I can't wait to see what the kids perform. And lastly, the
044Jackson County Special Olympics Games are this Thursday, April 24th. You all know I say it's it's my favorite day of the year, and it really is. The date had to be rescheduled due to inclement weather on the original date, which was the Friday before spring break. It's always a wonderful day to watch, volunteer, and cheer on our Special Olympians, and I hope everyone can attend and witness the awesome day and our student athletes respectfully. Thank you, Dr. S. Up next, we have Jessica Webb with a information on the Gear Up Grant. Okay. Well, first off, uh just thank you for having me and uh I thought it was great to hear from some of our seniors here at JCC about their job shadowing uh experience and their plans to go on to college and that
045really ties in with the Gear Up program and what Gear Up's all about. So, this is a student quote from someone who's been in Gear Up. Uh Gear Up to me means bright opportunity. It means setting up students for success and allowing students to dream even bigger than they could imagine. So, what is gear up? Of course, another acronym uh gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs. Um, but I will point out that it's not just limited to undergrad programs. Um we also work with community colleges and we know that some people might have a different path but this is a fedally funded program through the department of education and it is about college access um designed to increase the number of students uh who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecary educ
046uh this grant is called apex and that's another acronym which probably don't actually know what it stands or off the top of my head. But uh the four target areas for this are academic readiness, college preparedness, um creating a school climate and culture that is uh college going and then also systemic uh changes to promote student success. And before I just tell a little bit about myself, um I do just want to say, you know, uh I feel like Jackson County already has so many great things going on. Like when I came here, I talked to teachers and I'm like, "Oh, I have this idea." And it's like, "Oh, that's already happening." Or, you know, I got to uh come here to SEC with uh the eighth graders from Colored Valley and Fairview for the
047you know, I think it was the first time they did that. that was such a great program that really ties into what we're doing and just a lot of great things like that. So, just a little bit about myself. Um, I'm used to not really being at the podium here, but sitting in the front row with a notepad, uh, taking notes because often that's my background. Um, you know, for the past 20 years, I was a journalist um, in the region. Most recently, it's uh, Snake Mountain Times in Bryson City. Um but years ago I also uh did report in cashers and uh sometimes with Jackson County government. I'm a Bria College graduate and I currently live in Williams and my office is at the uh this is just a map of some of the
048Europe partners. Uh several other surrounding counties uh have this um are in this current grant cycle uh including Transennsylvania and Mon. They're both new to this grant just like Jackson. Uh Swain County has actually had uh the 2.0 part of this grant. So they have a little bit more experience with it. and just we serve 17 school districts across the state of North Carolina and work with over 30,000 students and families this program and it's probably hard to read these but this is a list of the 12 colleges and universities that are direct partners with this grant. Uh so that does include Southwestern Community College and we do have a coordinator like myself that's on the community college campus here. So, just a little bit more about the grant itself. Uh, this is a seven-year
049grant, so I think it'll probably be finished about the same time that the middle school's finished. Um, it follows a cohort of students. Um, so kind of really the best way to picture that is the classes of 2030 to 2033. This year it started with the sixth and seventh grade and then we'll add eighth grade next year and ninth grade the next and then follow that fourth cohort through high school and for the one of the first year of postsecary. This grant includes some professional development opportunities. Uh probably too many to mention here. Some of them are free. um some of them also through the sitement. In general, it's about a 1.2 million grant for Jackson County, which is pretty significant, and about $68,000 a year in direct services after. So, uh all services for
050the students are free. So, all of the students in that cohort are already in. Uh this is just a graph that kind of breaks down uh what those grades are and kind of how it will follow. Okay. So why uh it aligns with our district goals. Uh so if you look at the Jackson County public school strategic plans um some of the similarities um you'll find are increasing high school graduation rates as a goal. uh gear up Jackson County public school graduates uh will have increased confidence and greater implementation of the postsecary plans. So that aligns with our goal to advance for all employment. uh they there's also a shared goal uh of increasing attendance which we know has been a challenge since and then also uh another goal of this program that coincides with
051Jackson County Public Schools goals in reducing family knowledge of finance and preparation and then these two things on the bottom here the national council for community education partnerships and the national postsecondary strategy instit our partners that we work with to accomplish some of our so just uh to some of the fun stuff and the things that I get to do more directly um support career exploration so possibly some workshops next fall uh next fall and spring with students uh helping them get ideas and explore all the different careers that are out there. uh and then campus visits and actually this program has found that seventh grade trips have the greatest impact which I thought was kind of surprising when I started. So here's some photos of some of the activities that this program offers. Uh
052family design nights that's what these photos are from back swing town this past year. uh family engagement series. Seeds is a program um specifically for families who are new to the area and may be multi- language learners and might need extra help and support to become acclimated to the school system. And then also summer steam camps. Uh this summer I'm partnering uh with SEC and with the high school robotics club uh to expand the robotics camp that they do this. That'll be the first week of the semester. So we'll include a couple of college visits on that camp which I'm excited about. And then some other things here, some photos from uh I also got these from uh SW County's uh coordinator. Um so leadership day camps I'm planning a sixth grade uh transition leadership
053day camp this summer uh educational field trip summer college bus orders and then that's just contact information for myself and then some social media accounts for the program. Well thank you guys. Um any questions that you have for me about gear up or um how do you identify the participants? Right. So uh it's already all of the students in the cohort are already in Europe. How were they identified initially then? So it's I don't really have the answer to that question other than uh I know that the grant is really targeted towards you know it's I probably didn't go into where the grant is from Appalachin University and so it's to cover western North Carolina [Music] counties that's really the detail of details that I that I know of but the main part of it
054is it's a very data driven grant and so that's why we target specific you know, we start with specific group and then we follow them all the way through to see that we're actually making a difference with the program. I'm gonna let Angie jump in because Angie wrote the grant to allow us to be awarded so Angie can give you a little more information. Thank you. Yes. So to clarify what it does, it follows specific grade levels. So as Jessica was saying, all the sixth and seventh grade students in Jackson County are inside of this project can be served. So it's not we're gonna select these 10 20 all students are eligible to start. Okay. And then next year um in the fall of August 2025 we add eight on and the following year as
055those students move forward we'll add another grade level. Then when you get four grade levels of students then those four grade levels start going forward. And Appalachin has a long history of these grants. So they've written multiple grants. So in like Swain County, they've had the grant for two three cycles and one cycle is seven years. So we're hoping that after that seven bring on the next cohort which starts with the sixth graders and seventh grade which metriculates. So it's services to all students and every student that they just um we target whoever is serving that current grade level at at the current time. Like this summer we have lots of professional development opportunities for teachers that are serving grades sixth, seventh and eighth grades that help. So it's not like groups of students. It's
056all grade level across the district is it? So it I remember project sore is that similar in what they're doing? Similar kind of similar. It's also federal grant. Um there are other grants that are out there. SEC years ago had a Europe program I remember grant and uh the person was making my high school same kind of philosophy. Sure. Appalachin um has a lot of long history of these grants and they've been reaching out to add other western North Carolina districts into the fold to increase college access and postsecary preparedness. So that's how we were selected in this cohort here of those 17 counties that that Jessica helped out. So um it's about $1.2 million over the course of those seven years. Um that includes Jessica's salary. It includes professional development. It includes equipment and
057supplies for academic uh readiness, college readiness, career readiness, lots of different things. Plus, they also provide a lot of targeted professional development for postsecary preparedness and academic types of PD. Like right now, Appalachian has a program for math one teachers and all that's free. A lot of it provides a stipen for teachers. Like one program we have going this summer, teachers get a $1,500 stipen for couple three four day workshops. So, lots of opportunities that it will bring to us for teachers to connect and partner as well as for our students to get them out and about on college campuses about four years of that type. Now, do you think because it's federally funded, is it at jeopardy of being cut with the current issue with the Department of Education of that? Okay. Yes, I
058do. Um, want to mention Jessica pointed out that some of the pictures were from Swain. That's because we were awarded the grant in October, but then there was a hold and we couldn't hire or process. So, Jessica just jumped in with us February. Is that right? In February. So, um maybe next year you'll be seeing pictures that are our our students in there. but she um did a great job and was selected um because we had multiple candidates to interview with her background and her ability work students were really proud of that. So, it's just kind of in the baby pieces of it, the infancy of this program, but we're excited about what it's going to hold for our students. So, just to clarify, it'll serve all the sixth graders and the money will go
059to training, teachers, stipens for them to college tours, materials, college tours, $50,000 appropriated each year. Okay? Part of that is a salary for the coordinator, but it goes for professional development. It can go for classroom supplies or those grade levels we're serving. Um, it can go for um college trips like Jessica was talking about. I know Swain does a lot of college trips and they take their kids to Charlotte. They visit um the NASA Tech or they go to UNC Charlotte and then they have some fun and other educational things built in. We will pay for those opportunities for students to sign up to go to be a part of it. So it really is about opening students eyes and their world particularly in western North Carolina and getting them access to college and thinking
060about that a lot sooner to kind of make plans as they're kind of going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we got Christy Walter with the unaudited financial summary. Mr. Chair, Dr. Harris, members of the board, in your packet is a copy of the April and audited financial report. It says that we are require budget. You have any questions regarding um yeah, I don't know if I missed something, but what is the trust and agency fund? That is our transportation fund that we established to replace our activity buses. Gotcha. That's it. So, we have just All right. Up next is Christy Walker with budget amendments. Oh, I thought my voice was very low, Greg. I was liking that. So, um, I am requesting your approval for budget amendment number eight to be made to
061our budget resolution for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. In this amendment are the following funds: state, federal, and other specific revenue. The remainder of the amendment details are in your packets, but I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um, title two, I noticed it says improving teacher quality. I was just curious of what specific use that money is put to and I am going to defer to Miss Angie Dills to answer that because she oversees this. IQ funds are improving teacher quality variety purposes. They pay for part of salary for one person in the district that works on improving teacher um professional development uh coaching teachers in that domain. But it also pays for partial tuition reimbursement for teachers working on uh undergraduate degrees last year or graduate degrees.
062So they get some money back to help offset that cost. It goes to professional development for teachers and administrators to attend any type of conferences or whether these are local or regional or state. Those are the common uses. There are also some slides materials funds in there that go to provide um like one of our latest expenses we bought books for our instructional coaches to do book stud. So it's anything that goes along with improving teacher quality giving them professional development and opportunity to practice. Good question. Any any others? If not, I ask your approval. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the budget budget amendment as presented. I second that motion. All in favor? Thank you. Up next, we've got Laura K with the school meal price approval. Good evening, Mr. Chair and
063Dr. Eric, members of the school board. Um this evening I come before the board asking for action to raise meal prices for the 2520 excuse me 2526 school year. Um all students in Jackson County public schools receive meals at no cost thanks to our county commissioners. This school year is the first year that county commissioners funded this initiative and it is our responsibility to request this funding each year. The request for the increase is a result of rising supply and demand cost, which includes food service equipment, supplies, salaries, benefits, and of course, increased food cost. The current cost for breakfast is $2 for all students, and the current cost for lunch is $3.75 for students and $4.75 um for adults, including all Jackson County Public School staff. The new cost for breakfast would be $2.50,
064and the new cost for lunch would be $4.50 50 for students and $5.50 for adults, which will include all Jackson County Public School staff. This um will be the amount build each month for uh to Jackson County for the reimbursement um to Jackson County Public Schools. And um at this time, I want to ask if you have any questions about why we are requesting this increase. It cost me $13 to get my son lunch at Boj. We've all been to the store. I will say um Lars really worked hard on this and I I'm very proud of her and our ability to give students no cost lunches. It's not costing them anything, but it cost taxpayers money. Um but I think it is a very worthwhile initiative and I am grateful that our commissioners um
065have done so last year. But I do go on May the 6th to present my budget request again. So, any of you out there who want to put a bug in a commissioner's ear that we really want this to happen again, but that means that there will be increased billing um that we build to them. Last year, I asked specifically for about half a million dollars and when we complete this year, we will be over that. Um and so our our budget ask for the upcoming year will be about $700,000. So, it is specific. They don't just hand us a lump sum. what they do it what Laura and her team do is they bill the county every month so we can get a good accurate count on them. So I just wanted y'all to
066have that information um so you will know when when you might be talking to those commissioners or telling people we want this program to continue for our students. Thank you for that too. Thank you. So if you don't have any additional questions I ask for your approval. Make a motion that we approve the 2025 2026 Wilmill price increase. I second that motion. All in favor? Thank you. We have Jake with uh Jones Street easement approval. Mr. Chairman, Dr. members of the board. I'll start off by reminding the board that Smoky Mountain High School is actually the only piece of is the only school property that we don't actually hold the deed to. Um that was deed was given over to the county many years ago so that when the county borrowed money on our behalf,
067they would use it for collateral. And so we're I'm actually asking you tonight to endorse the plan so that the county commissioners can grant the uh the easement. But if you look at the map that's in your uh your packet of the Jones Street um road, if you look to the left of the intersection, just to give you some orientation, look to the left of that intersection, that's Bryson Farm Supply, and then you have 107, and then you've got the QP to the north and the um the oil change place to the south, and then Jones Street. So, the area of interest uh of the the owner of the piece of property um directly to the north of the intersection there, Mr. Bill Chambers, is the area in between the QP and where um Smoky
068Mountain Drive te into Jones Street. So, uh Mr. Chambers would like to develop that piece of property. He owns the the lot that is on here. It's now one large parking lot. Um but on this it's it's two green sections with a um a mobile home in the middle. Um he owns that property and is working with Tiffany Henry and Jackson County Economic Development to develop that as commercial particularly professional um office space. and he would like to uh get an easement um basically in between where Smoky Mountain Drive comes into Jones Street and the QP. And so as we've been discussing this with them for for a couple of years now, our concern of course is with safety um for that area. And the board will remember about a year ago or maybe more
069um a county task force that was looking at sidewalks to Fair View and around Smoky Mountain High School. They actually had some attention to that area. And so we asked u Mr. Chambers, you know, in exchange for the easement to do some upgrades to that property to make it safe for the kids to to walk. And so, um, particularly the planning department has gotten involved and Mike Poston and John Jaluski at the planning department has worked with the Department of Transportation um, to come up with a plan. Um, and basically it would be that there would be a sidewalk that would be on the north sides of of Jones Street. So, the side closest to Mr. chambers property that would cross and go beyond where his intersection would be, the easement would be, and then
070we would have a crosswalk um across Jones Street and bring the sidewalk into the sidewalk that already exists on Smoky Mountain Drive. Is that making sense to everybody on the map? Yeah. And so what this would allow is we do have numerous students at Smoky Mountain High School every afternoon that leave Smoky Mountain, walk down that road, and then get on the sidewalk and walk to Walmart or town or wherever they choose. And of course, we all know one of the big um focuses of the 107 project is to add pedestrian and bicycle traffic to 107 out through Love's Field. And so this will tie in with that. It will be to DOT standards. Dr. Ays and I have looked at it. We've discussed it um with others and we feel like their proposal will
071be um safe for our kids and will be an improvement for kids to get to the sidewalk. So, what I'm asking this evening is for you to endorse um the county commissioners to uh grant the easement um to allow Mr. chambers to build this um this road to Jones Street, but in doing so also make sidewalk improvements to benefit our kiddos. Know that was a lot, but does anybody have any questions? If not, I ask for your endorsement. I make a motion that we endorse the Jones Street easement approval. I second that motion. All in favor. All right. Thank you very much. You're next. You thought you were trying to fix this, so we didn't do this. So, also in your packet are some board uh policy updates. Um the first couple uh uh Christy
072has reviewed and made some minor and working with Ashley made some minor adjustments to follow the procedures that we already do uh with with staying within the law. Um and number three is purely at the recommendation of the state schoolboard association and through our attorney as a policy update. So, we don't have any um questions for for me or for Ashley or Christie about these three policies. I'd ask for your approval of these updates. Make a motion that we approve policy updates 1 through three. I second that motion. All in favor? I thank you very much. Field trips. The last two field trips of the year. Um, I am asking for approval for Blue Ridge Early College, grades seven and eight to travel to Dollywood on May the 22nd and field trip number two, Kley
073Valley School, grades six and seven, also to travel to Dollywood on May the 20th. Make a motion that we approve field trips one and two. Uh, second that motion with invitation. [Laughter] That's a stipulation. That is I I'd second that. All in favor? Thank you. All right. At this time, we find it necessary to go into close session pursuant to general statute 14318.11 for the following purposes. under subsection A1 to prevent the disclosure of privileged or confidential personnel information pursuant to general statute 115 C-319-321 and A3 to discuss matters protected by the attorney client privilege. Do I have a motion to go into close session? I make a motion that we go into close session. I second that motion. All in favor? I'm already gone. We didn't she said we did not. All right. Uh
074we did not take any action in close session. Dr. Ays present personnel. So I am asking for your approval of the personnel action item as presented. I make a motion. Do we not have an addition? Ashley says, the one that was presented in close session. I make a motion that we approve the personnel action agenda as presented. I second that motion. All in favor? I. All right. So, the next regularly scheduled board meeting is May 27th, but we also have a board meeting work section tomorrow night. Yes, sir. 5:30 at the board of education office. Yes. At this time, do I have a motion to close? Make a motion that we adjourn tonight's meeting. I second that motion. All in favor? Third. playing.