001okay good evening and welcome to the jackson county public schools regular business meeting for october 26th at this time we will be going into closed session pursuant to gs 143 318-11 for the following purposes under sub-section a1 to pro to prevent the disclosure of privileged or confidential personnel information pursuant to gs115c-319-321 and an a3 to discuss matters protected by attorney client privilege do i have a motion to go into closed session i'll make a motion that we go into closed session me you're right [Music] so thank you are you already ready good evening um we are here to have the jessica county public schools regular business meeting of october 26th open session at this time we will do the pledge of allegiance led by the colorway valley elementary school students valley school please join us
002in the pledge 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 thank you very at much time i need the approval of the agenda i make a notion that we approve tonight's agenda a second all in favor this time doctor and but i want to make sure that everybody can see me and miss kristen holt so kristin if you would come on in i want to share some exciting news kristen hope jackson county early college high school wins the north carolina science teachers association district 8 outstanding high school science teacher for 2021. so congratulations to kristen i'm going to read a little bit more it says krista will be presented with the 2021
003ncsca district 8 outstanding high school award at the annual 52nd conference or award ceremony on thursday november 4th the virtual ceremony will take place at 4 pm and there is no cost obviously for that this award is given to a person exhibiting leadership in science education contributing to improvements in science education and excelling in the aspects of science and education the honor is determined kristin holt's professional excellence and contributions to science education in north carolina and kristin has a bachelor's in illinois ed from wcu also a master's in aig from western as well she has a licensure in elementary education middle grade language arts and science and high school science and aig so your jack of all trades is what you are she completed her internship at fairview school and began her career with jcps
004in august of 2005. kristin taught elementary education for six years before moving to high school where she tells science she added the aig and worked between two schools for a short time before moving to jackson county early college to teach high school science so kristin congratulations we are very proud of you so i'm gonna go right here so i can show off her certificate so congratulations [Applause] tomorrow [Laughter] he's not just a writer he's a photographer um open session public comment and ms cora fields will read the instructions each month the first part of at least one regularly scheduled board meeting will be set aside for citizens to address the board through public comment each speaker will receive three minutes to present comments however the public comment session will not exceed 30 minutes total except
005by majority vote of the board a sign up sheet will be available 30 minutes before the meeting begins for any individual or group to indicate their desire to address the board during the public comment period the board chair will recognize speakers in the order in which they've signed in substitute speakers will not be permitted and speakers may not donate any portion of their time to another speaker if a speaker is unable to present all of his or her information within the specified time limit the speaker may provide the board with the additional information in written form if an unusually large number of people request to speak a majority of the board may decide to reduce the time for each individual or to require the designation of a spokesperson for each group of persons supporting or
006opposing the same positions at any time the board may establish additional procedures to ensure that public comment sessions proceed in an efficient and orderly manner public comments are designed for the board to listen complaints about individual employees or students are prohibited we actually have five speakers two more have signed up large inheritance additional names so we'll call them one two three four our first paper will be on cyborg thursday so oh thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you for the chance to speak today uh after reading services i come here today as a concerned parent my first concern i'd like to address is the current policy that restricts parents from being allowed in the schools policy code 5020 visitors to the school while i understand reasons behind the policy i disagree with the premise that
007it will keep the children safer i'll just reason specifically uh during the board meeting on uh 24 august 2000 2021 it was said in reference to properly warned mass that a mask is like captain america's shield that being said a parent on campus properly wearing a mask will not oppose risk to anyone so there's no purpose to restricting their access reason number two for this i'll read a short quote from article by marissa o'connor found on the healthboard.com titled how common is child abuse in schools she writes as part of the 2002 no child left behind act the united states department of education conducted a nationwide study of abuse the study showed that six to ten percent of public school children were sexually abused or harassed by teachers and other school employees i have no
008doubt that since 2002 new policies and procedures have been put in place to help protect children from abuse i also find it to be undeniable that removing the possibility of a parent being present on campus will only increase the potential for abuse i want to be very clear about something i'm not accusing anyone of any wrongdoing of this nature i'm simply pointing out that taking away parental access can only increase potential of risk the second concern is the current mass policy for children i'm not going to argue for or against wearing a mask i will however point out a few things the lack of discussion and the diminished nature of the issue dismissive nature of the issue excuse me there's no doubt in my mind i'm missing a page here sorry the second concern is
009masking policy there's no doubt in my mind that all parents are concerned about the health of their children it's also important to note that kovit is not the only concern parents face though i couldn't miss something i'm yet to hear a discussion from the board on the issues when the issue is brought up i've only heard the board raise the decision to impose a masculinity what's disturbing to me is it happens without an ounce of opposition from a single board member so i'd like to remind you i'd like to remind you that you represent all people of jackson county not just those on one side of an issue as i mentioned before i'm not here to argue or against the mass mandate i will however ask the board to set some sort of goal or
010standard some sort of realistic expectation parents and students can have that way we know where we stand and what to expect moving forward what is it that you all need to see for pre-covet standards to be put back in place what do the numbers need to show what does the case count need to be what does this exposure rate need to be now what point does the future harm outweigh the immediate benefits i'd also emphasize them being realistic expectations the last concern i'd like to address is the potential to check is the potential perspective of the board in no way can i assume to know what anyone in the room is thinking about myself i can only tell you how things appear to me there seems to be some sort of consensus among some of
011the local leadership that if everyone were vaccinated everything would go back to normal so i'd like to point out something that seems a bit obvious to me uh that may not may have not opened excuse me obviously that may have been overlooked by others according to the cdc 47.3 of jackson county is fully vaccinated with another few percent having uh one dose pair this with the fact the vaccine the code vaccine has been available for nearly a year it should tell you something if people want the vaccine they've gotten it and it's saved those who have gotten those who haven't gotten it don't want it they have access they've assessed the risk and are aware and are willing to accept it i hope you keep that in mind when it uh you decide excuse me
012hope you keep that in mind when you dictate policy i remember that people are capable of making the choice the best that's best for them and those around thank you thank you thank you no i'm sorry it's just for your comments okay comments to the board so what what i was going to ask john is he and i have been coming here month after month after month and we've had requests for the board to take action and what i was going to ask john what action has been taken for him you know what he asked everyone you know my topic is what what action have you taken has there been emotion there hasn't been a motion so my expectation of the board is the board to address every person that comes here with bring a
013motion forward you can vote it down you're going to move it forward or you can ask outside the meeting for more information i don't expect a motion but not if i was a board member i would want time to think about some of these things they're being said but i would like to see the board start addressing people's requests can you tell me in the last year which request have you addressed from someone that stood right here can you name one not one so what i'm going to do to the board i'm going to send you what i think needs to be addressed and the emotion that needs to come in front of the board the board needs to address just what john asked about or what mr uh edward just talked about john edwards
014is next you've got someone else after that why are you not addressing the people which elected you if i'm sitting over here you're you're addressing my concern i'm sitting here i'm ignored the people are getting targeted the people are getting very tired of being ignored by the people that they have elected we need our elected officials to step up your time is up thank you very much hey zachary is he my name is i think i think little question is the bible is going to be put back in our schools and the reason why i think it's so critical that we put our history our constitution the constitution of north carolina our currency there's a lot of reference to god and our children must not be brought up in a vacuum of information about god
015because vacuums have a way of getting sick and we don't want it to be served by things that are not true or not good we need to go back to the history and accuracy of the scriptures the bible because our country's law and justice and administration everything in our country is based on a biblical knowledge of the bible and if we don't have that then we are going to stumble and fall in to difficulty also i have passed over the years i have asked students that have been educated in the american school system when you were in school what did you hear or learn about god can you tell me three things that you learned directly in the classroom about god and they usually can't give me an answer that is a very sad situation
016we are raising children in a godless environment and expecting them to have a fear and a knowledge of god which i think is unacceptable and it is detrimental to all of us i think everybody got a copy of the little thing that i think the issue is are we going to walk with knowledge and understanding or are we going to try and reinvent knowledge and understand it and if we can't use the source that has knowledge that comes from the creator himself then we are trying to do the matter invades something and man's inventions sometimes don't turn over it thank you thank you very much get more so okay is miss kim moore hello how are you do you want to start three minutes okay so i um i have been trying to get here
017i've wanted to be in a school board meeting very badly ever since the whole thing and critical race theory has come up um one of the reasons i wanted to come is because i don't think enough people from the african-american community are speaking up about how they feel about it and i definitely don't represent every person from the african american community but i do represent um a part and so i just wanted to say how i felt after looking through a ton of paperwork about just not just critical race theory but what they're trying to introduce into the education system i was i was so disheartened um because it just seemed racist at its core and i'll tell you where i'm coming from i'm coming from um from a family who my father was very
018poor he came up with no father figure in the home um 18 people were living in the house between his aunts and cousins um he didn't get um adequate education adequate health care adequate food then across not even in the same county my mom was also living there being raised by a mom and a dad who both worked who made enough money to send her sister to boarding school in asheville who were um they're all set down at the table together at eight every night um it's just two different black people in america coming up two different ways and if so to actually try to lump them in the same boat and it's just it's racist at its core it's saying because i am black this is the way this is the way they were
019treated or this this is the way they came up i do believe we should teach african-american history but i don't believe in the critical race theory at all and i wanted to be able to say that from someone who feels like if it's introduced to our children we're going to create a racist society once again i really do i really feel like if i would not allow my children to be taught that because i don't want them to grow up with a victim mentality they have every opportunity in america to succeed and that's the way i raised them oh i will come against this as much as i can every time i see it come up i wouldn't want anybody of any race to think that they were less than or had to be treated
020differently because of the past i would suggest all of you considering that when you consider introducing anything about race into the educational system thank you for hearing me out you'll probably see me again very adamant about this so i appreciate you guys taking time out for here all of us and to consider it and i do appreciate what the other man said it would be so nice to get a response like even a written response saying that you're hearing us and you want to do something different okay thank you thank you and now guys justin got there he should be here evening i'm here as far as the mass mandate i'm a concerned citizen and i'm a father of i'm not sure if you're aware of it or not macon county has now made it
021optional uh if jackson county wants to be on par with them or practically next door neighbors we ought to do the same thing if parents want to choose that's a parent's choice i don't need a school board to tell me what i what they think is best for my child you have school board meetings in an alternate meeting place because of the safety of outside parents and so forth coming in and possibly exposing people but yet you're picking up the kids from the same diagonal environment what difference does it make none of this is logical this leads into a potential vaccine mandate which again no board has jurisdiction over my child's health their citizens groups that are being formed in macon county there'll be some formed in jackson county to fight these insane policies that
022are going on your position is not forever some someone will run against you and your spot will be taken if you don't listen to the people of jackson county and i will say this i'm watching some of y'all on the video and i would appreciate if each and every one of you would take the time to listen and look at these people some people are not paying attention to the speakers up here and that's disheartening thank you okay thank you to everyone for coming to speak with us um at this time the superintendent will give her a superintendent's report you need to do the consent agenda yes open session minutes we get that can i just ask real quick i'm pretty sure several meetings ago you did respond to mr blaine's question about critical race
023theory via email yes sir just kind of clear up of it and i didn't know if we wanted to get i mean we usually don't respond at this time we usually have the superintendent respond and the superintendent does respond to these folks so and for the board and that is correct public comment is their comment doesn't require a verbal response for us um out loud but yes anybody who's emailed i've certainly answered a couple of those folks yes sir you've met with several of them yes indeed i thought we had done it but go ahead and ask them at this time i'm going to make the motion that we approve the open session minutes from the meeting on september 28 2021. second favor all right so um a little bit lengthier than normal and then
024i'm going to end with the video so good evening madam chair and board members we've concluded the first quarter of school on october the 14th and we are now in week 11 of this month we hosted education north carolina reporter caroline parker who visited classrooms at smoky mountain elementary where the new wisdom materials are in use she also visited smoky mountain high school to see the arts program the students were highly engaged and lessons were integrated and rigorous we're excited to see the report that caroline will be sharing with us and it will be shared on social media and across the state of north carolina highlighting jackson county public schools as we approach the upcoming veterans day holiday on november 11th we'll be honoring our jcps staff who are veterans we have 13 staff who
025are veterans and other contracted staff who are also veterans i genuinely thank them for their service to our country and i've got a big surprise coming for them in the coming weeks on the coveted front our current positivity rate is 0.2 is the lowest it has been since we started school there are only nine active cases in jcps as of this afternoon this is really exciting it really is very exciting to know that we are doing a great job with our safety precautions of importance to note we are working collaboratively with the jackson county health department to organize the vaccine clinics for families at dates to be determined in november on the athletic front blue ridge early college varsity volleyball team finished with the 6-8 record overall second in the conference and they made it
026to the first round of playoffs the blue ridge varsity soccer team is completing its regular season this week they are currently five and five and in third place in the conference so they have a chance to make it to the state playoffs as well as smokey high athletics football wrapped up second place and an automatic birth in the playoffs with a big victory over tuscola friday night go mustangs i hope you're over there they have a great chance to host a home playoff game on november 5th the volleyball team finished fourth in the conference had an excellent year defeated atkins high school in the first round and are playing as we speak right now in the second round state tournament at fred t ford the smoky mountain high school women's golf team had two golfers
027this year and both were all conference those were peyton broome who finished second and chesney coggins who finished fourth payton also qualified for regionals both the men's and women's team finished third at the mountains mountain seven conference cross country me earning all conference honors where lilly boutin caleb phillips and parker smith both teams will compete this weekend at regionals the men's top soccer team is currently in the third in their conference and they have a chance to also host a home playoff game and senior night for soccer is tomorrow evening the women's tennis team had a good year and recently complete competed at the conference tournament so i continue to encourage you to go see these student athletes who are great students and great athletes as well so keep on um coming out and cheering
028them on the mustangs and our bobcats i'd also like to revisit a topic that one of our folks spoke about that we have talked about over and over for the last few months there's been much media attention regarding critical race theory jackson county public schools will teach the standards as required by the north carolina department of public education we will teach history in an unbiased and factual manner but most importantly we're going to follow the north carolina curriculum standards for social studies and history to ensure that our students receive appropriate standard align instruction and i've shared that many many times and finally a little bit of celebration also october is national principles month and we will honor both our assistant principals and our principals with a special luncheon this week it's certainly well deserved and
029they are fighting the good fight for all of our students and staff in honoring our principles i want to share a video with you in just a moment uh that is this is highlighting our amazing building leaders who serve our students and our staff in our community so the video will conclude my superintendent reports thank you [Music] i'm eleanor mccauley i'm principal at fairview school i've been in education for 26 years i've been in jackson county for 17 and this is my fourth year as principal at fairview i'm carrie cowan and i've been in the education system for 17 years and i've been at blue ridge for three and this is my first year as principal i'm melanie jacobs principal at jackson county early college i've been an educator for the past 25 years this
030is my fourth year as principal at the early college i'm heather ridinger principal at jackson community school this is my 18th year in education and my first year here in jackson county hi i'm mike treadway i'm the principal of smoky mountain elementary school this is my third year here at smokey mountain and i've been in education for 25 years i'm brandon pendergast i've been in education for the past 15 years this is my second year as principal at blue ridge early college my name is evelyn granning and i'm the principal here at smoky mountain high school this will be my sixth year at the high school i served as two years prior to that as an assistant principal it is my 17th year in education i am april bryson principal at scotts creek elementary i
031have been in education for 25 years and this is my second year as principal at scotts creek i'm kathryn kantz i'm the principal at colorway valley school this is my 35th year in education and i have been at colorway valley for 10 years now the best part about being a principal is being a part of helping a team develop a shared vision for student success and helping that team to develop that vision and implement it so that students can be the best students that they can possibly be the best thing about being a principal is that no two days are alike the best part about being principal for me is that i get to be involved with every aspect of a student's school life i love my job the best thing about being a principal
032is that i get to work with students and staff every day the best thing about being a principal is getting to interact with students and staff on a daily basis the best thing about being a principal to me is getting to know my students the best thing about being a principal is the relationships that i build with my students the best part about being a principal is being a part of all of the students educational experience from pre-k all the way up it's just a joy to be a part of that i could be having a really rough day and all i've got to do is go and find a kiddo in the hallway and a classroom and have an interaction with them and automatically my day is better [Music] there are so many moving
033parts in a school and sometimes it feels like you're solving one situation and then you've got another situation that you have to solve my kids would tell you i work all the time so it's trying to find that balance between my professional life and my personal life the most challenging thing for me about being a principal is knowing that there are thousands of things that would be really great to do but only having the time to take it one day at a time and do a few things at a time i think the challenging part is just not having enough time in the day to get all of the things done at a school level we're trying to bring together a group of people with a lot of different interests a lot of different backgrounds
034and we're all striving toward one goal and as principal i have to bring all those opinions and perspectives together the most challenging thing about being a principal is all the multiple hats that you have to wear and trying to give everybody what they need being able to dedicate the time and energy to each problem that comes across my landscape it is a true juggling act my biggest challenge in this role is having the time to accomplish everything that i'd like to accomplish one of the biggest challenges i find as a principal is just finding enough time in the day to fit everything in and to meet all the goals that we want to accomplish for students i work with some of the finest people that i have ever known in my life and that's pretty
035much how educators are they are people who are dedicated to the success of the children in the community and who will do just about anything necessary to make sure that every child succeeds as an educator and a mom i feel that jackson county public schools really prepared my children for life after k-12 what i would like for people to know about our teachers and staff and students families of jcps is that we are resilient people what i'd like the community to know about our schools is that our staff and teachers are committed to providing a safe and inclusive place for students to learn and to do their best there are amazing things happening in schools today creative teaching and learning innovation use of technology the critical thinking the things that kids are doing these days
036are just absolutely amazing we have so much support from the community from our commissioners from our school board from our central office this is a labor of love for educators we are committed to the success of every child i would really like to make sure that our community understands how much all of the staff members at jackson county public schools really care about students and student success we all really come together to do what's best for children and to make sure that they feel welcome and safe in our school system at the end of the day i hope that you will remember that everyone here in jackson county public schools are committed and devoted to your child we care about your child each and every student that is in this building i care about and
037i believe that my impact here will hopefully make our community a better place to be for everyone [Music] and i'm really proud [Applause] that's kind of hard to follow that yeah so i would just like to give my huge thanks and appreciation to our principals um had the opportunity to speak with our principals last week or week before last you know one of the things we've been through a lot this last 18 months with uh with kobe and i think one of the things that's been most discouraging for a lot of folks and they communicate it in different ways it's just been the evaporation of kindness um particularly towards teachers and uh and towards principles while we're talking about principles i know um you know many of us speak for myself was raised and grounded
038in the primary value of kindness and being kind and our principles are 100 percent dedicated to the children in our community they've dedicated their lives to them that's nine extremely intelligent people that could be very successful in anything they chose to do they decided to dedicate their lives to making children's lives better i wish people would show them a little bit more kindness so in principal appreciation week my hope and wish for them is that they receive some um some kindness for all the hard work that they've done the last 18 months and many of them years and for the many years to come but back to the agenda um egress courtyard update as the board is aware um we have begun the process of upgrading the security uh at four of our campuses we
039from the very beginning said that we would not dictate which school would go first as far as the order of uh of the project buchanan and sons incorporated out of whittier um was a little bidder on all four projects and said they're doing all four they're doing them basically at the same time but they're going to focus their work at one school then move to the next so the order of that will be since they're based in whittier and smokey mountain elementary school is there and also because of the complexity of each of the projects so smoky mountain elementary is the least complex and smoky mountain high school is the most complex and so they're going to follow the level of complexity and so they're starting at smoky mountain elementary then they will go to
040blue ridge then they will go to fairview and then they'll go smoking out of high school and that's not to say that each one of those projects will be finished and then they'll move to the next so they start with underground utilities and so they're going to do the underground utilities at smokey mountain elementary school once the underground utilities are done then that team will move to blue ridge and do the underground utilities there and then the next team will come in and work on the walls and so on so forth until the the project is complete um so the the planning and the phasing of it has been developed based on the complexity and just the most efficient way to get the all four projects done materials were being delivered uh today some fencing
041will go up for this week the fencing will go up the end of this week at smith mountain elementary school to keep the kiddos safe and separated from the construction areas um and i imagine um there'll be shovels in the ground come first part of next week so our hope is that this is will be wrapped up early next fall and everything is on schedule to do such i'd be happy to answer any questions that the board might have about the project all right very good thank you thank you very much so good evening madam chair dr ayers members of the board thank you for the your time this evening so that i can bring you some financial updates i'm going to start with the unwanted financial statements that's in your work packet for october
042it also continues to include the comparison data from last year and this reflects that we are in compliance with our continuation budget that we adopted in june and the continuation budget will remain in effect until we pass the budget resolution to the 2021-2022 school year and then i believe i'm also on the agenda for an audit update so finance has completed the first quarter of internal audits of the bank of america purchase card program as well as for all of our non-schools you're going to find these reports in your board packet and in these audits we are testing our internal controls and compliance for each random transaction selected just to summarize these reports for you we had no findings in the first quarter audits there were a few areas of concern regarding adequate documentation i
043have followed up on those directions have been made and trained extra training was provided so overall all of our schools and purchase card program are following our established processes i'm happy to answer any questions at this time thank you so much [Music] good evening come to you tonight to ask for approval for the school improvement plans from the school i'm sorry from each school and our district plan is documented through the nc star system to provide a comprehensive report the snapshot and time of what each school improvement plan includes we have now provided access to our website so that each parent teacher student community member can view the current plan from any school or district as it is a live moving and breathing document previously the plans were loaded just from the snapshot each time
044that we approved them in the fall but now anyone who views the guest page can see it as live as whatever day they log in to view it so this is a great way for everyone to see exactly what's happening in terms of our school improvement planning process throughout the year to access this just go to our jcbs webpage and select academics and then school improvement plans and all the logins for each school is listed i'll be glad to answer any questions that you may have about our school improvement plans thank you do i have my motion some information that we approve the school improvement plan second this afternoon or this evening to seek your approval for some door work and smoking high school you're wanting to replace two sets of doors and seat building
045that help reach their life expectancy bigger place and also add some automated doors to both c build and md building to create more access for those that may be limited mobility should be in your packet if you have any questions very excited about all these you to be very nice for the accessibility through those buildings do i have a motion i make a nation that we approve the replacement doors and automatic controls all in favor thank you very much board members i come to you asking for action on an agreement with big brothers and big sisters of north carolina of western north carolina scots creek elementary school is hoping to partner with big brothers big sisters the overall goal of the school-based mentoring program is to provide caring mentors to students in first through fifth
046grade the objectives for the student mentor relationships are to enhance their academic performance improve attendance increase self-esteem improve communication organization problem solving and emotional regulation skills so this is an agreement i hope that you will approve it is free to us there is no charge and the mentors slash volunteers who come are through a nationally vetted company for background checks and such and so miss bryson has agreed to welcome those folks in for some academic support and we just need your approval on that that's a great program dude i am a motion i make the nation that we approve the big brother big sisters partnership um with scottsdale second favor dr ayres yes um the next thing that we have um is an action item also to approve the cherokee culture day at smoky mountain
047elementary school just a few of the things that will happen on this friday november the 5th which will be next friday if it is approved um they'll have performances of stickball by wolftown a powwow and a red dragon dance there are some workshops some of these workshops um in prior years have been more make and take but this year because of um because of a lot of reasons they're going to be more demonstration workshops and these will include some traditional dances african-american poetry cherokee center workshops on native stereotypes games and weapons african-american workshop by students and latinx workshops they'll also be food available in the gym for sampling and all students will have the opportunity for that and some traditional retail items that will be available for students in the gym in the cultural market
048is what they're doing so this is something that usually occurs every year and it did not happen last year so this is coming back to a sense of normalcy again and i seek your approval for smoky mountain elementary school to be able to do their cherokee culture game i make a nation that we approve that's making up melancholy all right the next thing on the agenda is um the mask discussion so i'm going to go back and give a little history just a synopsis on july 27th um you all as the board of education voted to require a bask indoors during school hours the north carolina legislation does require us as a board and the superintendent to revisit this every single month um in july also you all as the board gave me the authority
049to make decisions about mass requirements during indoor athletic events which we're getting ready to come up on those seasons of lots of indoor events for athletics currently all spectators who attend jcps indoor athletic events are required to wear a mask so at this time i want to offer a few snippets of information and then open the pool for you to here are a few points to consider as i mentioned earlier in the coming weeks there will be some vaccine clinics um that will happen after school hours on site on some of our campuses and other places and again those dates and times will be to be announced soon those vaccine clinics will include ages 5 to 11. when the cdc and the fda approves that vaccine again those are optional clinics that families can sign
050up for some of our neighboring counties as mentioned before have went to a mass optional but not a lot of our our counties at this point remember that students and staff who are exposed to coveted to a coded positive person and who are properly masked or not required to quarantine our current positivity rate as i mentioned earlier is 0.2 percent and we have nine current nine active cases um and our quarantine numbers as of last wednesday we do them every wednesday morning um as of last wednesday we have a total of 48 students who were in quarantine last week so i do open the floor for discussion about the masked mandate and and i i do want everyone to know that we do take this very seriously and we do um read about it we
051get information about it one of the major things for me is that is this quarantine piece because if we don't have these masks on and we are exposed then everybody has to quarantine so we would have class after class after class out um even during this time that we're at a low rate because we know that the rate would go up if we weren't mass we know that the mass are working and we are here to protect children and this is the best way we know how to protect the children at this time and also keep them in school most of the time and um so we we really are trying to do what the wishes are we know that the people in jackson county want their kids to be in school and so do
052we and this is the best way we know how to keep them in school yeah and in the spirit of having a discussion about this i i am not interested in any of my four kids being at home for 10 days quarantining i would much rather than be in the classroom i've spoken with many other people about this that may not be as vocal publicly but also are not interested in their kids staying home for 10 days quarantine and i know based off of cdc guidelines there are instances and i have spoken with people who have had children who had to stay home for 20 days because one of the siblings got it and then you know the sibling was done with it but the one who didn't get it had to continue quarantine so
053uh i mean lord if it hit my house right one of my kids may not go to school at all for a half a year or so i am still in favor of our current policy so i do agree i mean i'm glad that our numbers are low and that they've continued to decline um that i think of what those quarantine numbers could look like had our students not been masked um and for those quarantine periods of 10 days or 20 days where the children are receiving limited instruction my child being one of them who was quarantined for 10 days and i know the limited instruction that he received at no fault of anybody else's but just not being able to be in the school building and my fear is without masks that we're going
054to see a huge increase in that um so at this time i feel like everybody's best interest um to keep kids in school and that means wearing masks um i'm agree i agree with keeping the mask i feel like it's how we've gotten as far as we have at this point i know some surrounding counties have kept optional but also those surrounding counties also have had to close schools in their districts when they didn't have mass mandates so my first priority is keeping the children safe and giving them the best education we possibly can and i feel like we're on the right track i think so too and i think that we all of us do thank reid and are very well educated in mass mandates um probably more than we've ever wanted to be
055but we definitely and we do think it is keeping the numbers down well and those that you know are not wanting masks i want i don't want them to feel like they're not hurt we do we hear from everybody um and we like to hear from everybody and hear all perspectives but honestly at this point i think it's the only way that we can safely keep children dr so i am seeking a motion um action to be taken on this requirement that's currently masked mandate for every student in staff member indoors at this time i make a motion that we keep the math mandate as we have i second uh a favor thank you very much from next on the agenda two with the um our board of ed meetings as we discussed the last
056couple of meetings we have been um hoping and trying to have some of our uh board meetings at schools and i know that was done in the past and we have planned for that to happen um this year and as of yet we have decided to pull those back um our november meeting forgive me but i've already forgotten where it was supposed to be evelyn november meeting was supposed to be at blue ridge that is on november the 16th um so i i do request that um action that we make a decision to either have it at blue ridge or pull it back here i think our format here has been very successful so i would like to request and request action for us to have our november 16th board meeting still here in the
057central office one nation that we have our november 16th meeting here in the printer office all in favor thank you and i'm just going to remind everybody we'll revisit that every month because we hope to get to the point that we can return and do some meetings in school thank you so the board has had access to some policy updates there's actually two on here that are first readings um these all of these policies whether it's first reading or whether it's an update have come from your north carolina school board assist association attorneys is their recommendations um and they have all been reviewed by your directors and myself as it pertains to the particular department that they they work in and so we are recommending um as they are marked in your uh in your
058packets a first read for the first two policies listed there and to accept the updates one through eight i'd be happy to answer any questions that you have about any of these and of course ashley's here as well to give the legal opinion on any of them any questions do i hear a motion make a motion that we approve the updates one through eight to the policies okay a second all in favor thank you okay all right field trip so we have um three field trips here for approval the first one is fairview on their sixth grade students to go to ripley's aquarium it is an overnight trip it is a sleeping with the sharks kind of trip that will occur in february 2022 and that um is falling in line with some of the
059other trips that they can plan for their lower grades um the next field trip is the smoky mountain high school grades 9 through 12 going to walt disney world in florida and that is the choral department that is going um and they have a plan for fundraising it's actually already um already started their fundraising the information went out today um and that is in late march of 2022 and so they do have some um plans and preparation in case things change and then goes and then the final field trip is one that's occurring pretty pretty soon that is smoky mountain elementary school and their first grade students would like to go to ripley's aquarium in gatlinburg and that is on november the 12th so in about two and a half weeks um i just want
060to provide a little more information about that field trip um the ripley's aquarium and the smokies um in tennessee they're not currently under a masked mandate the staff and uh ripley's are not required to be massive this time about half of them do voluntarily mask is what i've been told most of the educators who are going to work directly with our students in there will be asked but some of them may not be so again it is optional at the site we have already reached out to them and let them know that that is a concern for us um the director of education stated that um she would give an update to um mr treadway and miss mar if things were to change regarding the mass mandate between now and that they're traveling on the
061trip um another question i ask is if their numbers were to change their or our covered numbers were to change drastically here in the coming weeks would they be able to postpone that trip for us and they certainly would be able to do that with no financial loss um to our students so i'm seeking approval for all three of those but don't you know the one that's first and foremost in my mind because it's so soon is our smoky e-field trip i will say that i do feel like our kids would really enjoy going on a trip we would be masked our students and staff would be masked the entire time regardless of what the mandate is at ripley so i'm seeking approval for these field trips questions you might have i make a nation
062that we approve all three field trips segment all in favor thank you all right are you doing this item so the last on our agenda is our personnel action items so i'm looking for approval for employee recommendations 1 through 31 employee resignations 1-6 staff non-staff and returning coach recommendations one through 42. now you hear a motion i'll make a motion that we approve employee recommendations 1-331 employee resignations 136 staff non-staff and returning coach recommendations 1 through 42. all in favor thank you everyone for coming our next regularly scheduled business meeting of the board of education is november 16th at 5 45 at the jackson county school board i would like to and i know this was not on the agenda for tonight one thing that has been mentioned is parents being able to return into
063school so that is something that i would like for us to revisit it is something that's in my mind too um a couple of things i would like to reconsider as we go to the next board meeting so our next board meeting is only three weeks away because of the thanksgiving holiday um but those are some things i would like to address okay thank you i'm making thank you very much you