001this uh regular session board meeting of the McDow County Board of Education will come to order and uh Mr secretary is there a quum present this evening yes sir so the chair declares a a quorum and we can move forward with the business at hand first item is to approve our agenda this evening and is there a motion to do so so move Miss mumal second and Miss poo makes the second any discussion if not all in favor right hand and the motion carries I should take just a moment to let folks know that Miss Helms will not be joining us this evening due to a very recent death in the family she called this morning and said that uh she felt like she really needed to spend time with with her family this evening
002perfectly understandable and so that might be a nice segue into item number three at this point in our meeting our tradition to take a few moments to sit in silence together and perhaps as we are gathered here we can remember Miss s's family along with others in the community so uh would you join me for a moment thank you all thank you all very much item four on the agenda is our pledge the flag and presentation of colors I'd like to introduce Captain Steven Ross he's the commander of our jrc unit at mow High School sir I like to introducing Color Guard summer Wyatt Anthony escalera Gabriel Ammons and Gren Allen colors thank you sir would you stand please hi nice please join me to pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
003of America and to theice right ready nice Arch Captain Ross I know I understand you guys are getting ready to uh attend the rifle competition for the Nationals and just wanted to say on behalf of the board and the school system we're excited about those kids representing us I know you all have done a great amount of work the teams look incredible this year and we just want to send you off with the letting you know that the community and the school board and our schools and our folks are behind you guys yes sir thank you very much we appreciate your support gr absolutely thank you okay okay that brings us to item five on the agenda this evening and Dr GD it says it's time for the superintendent for all right folks thank you
004so much for being here tonight I've got quite a few things to go over I'm actually really excited about a whole lot of stuff that's going on want to take this opportunity to uh celebrate the success of our winter sports teams we've had two wrestlers that'll be competing in the state tournament coming up uh we have the boys and girls basketball teams that have both been on a roll this season and they're ready to wrap up their regular season this week with ses set on a run in the conference tournament as well as play so it's been great to be a Titan this winter and I know we just talked about what's going on with our Rifle Team supporting us at the national competition so we got kids doing big things and it's really really
005awesome I'm also excited to announce the first serve event that is the opening of the tennis courts that'll be held this Wednesday at 3:30 parking's going to be a little bit of an issue and I've talked to Miss Bennett a little bit about it but um if we can park at the Academy I think that's the plan and and kind of walk down there but folks we'd love to have you out there as we we do that first serve event and that'll be hopefully as many of the girls we can get to come out and join us and it's the first day officially of tennis practice it's also Valentine's daybody might be interested in that any rate that'll be at 3:30 3:30 February is Career and Technical Education Month and we got a great deal
006to be proud of in our most recent reports that rank us ahead of the state in our students earning certificates in these programs I think Miss Finley and her her staff they do a great job there was actually an article in the paper this past week about that um but that's a program that we're very proud of um and it's it's it's actually one that um we're we're kind of leading in a little bit so we'll talk more about that as as time goes on um February is also time when we recognize our school counselors I think that school counselor appreciation week was last week and last week I also had the opportunity to uh represent superintendents in the seventh and eighth regions at the state school board meeting and the items that stuck out
007to me the most on the agenda were student absenteeism mental health including substance issues across our state our counselors and programs such as CTE have never been more critical time and time again research has shown that students who are connected to something are more likely to graduate I am proud to say that we're doing a great job connecting through CTE clubs and Athletics and prioritizing mental health as an area focus in our strategic plan I'm proud to say that we're we're doing some good work there the other thing that stood out to me from the board meeting is the excellent job our schools are doing in learning recovery loss and that was really one of those things from the co time the state really wanted to focus on what was going on there McDow county
008is doing a great job there and the state in general is doing a great job there North Carolina's leading the way as far as in in the National level leading the way with the progress that's been made since then so that was that was reassuring to hear that not only are we doing a great job but across the state we're doing a great job thank you Miss mum I start turning my head everywhere don't I this week is also school bus driver appreciation and I want to remember Roy Roy was my bus driver Roy was a Vietnam veteran he didn't have much to say but when he spoke we all listen Roy worked another job in a local Factory and drove our bus as a side job Roy made sure our travels were always safe
009and he ensured that we followed the rules on the bus Roy was just as much as part of my school experience as my teachers and I had a long route and we spent I spent about three hours on the bus an hour and a half in the morning an hour and a half in the afternoon uh daily for many years bus drivers are an integral part of our Student Success they have a hard job but for some of us who have driven a Bus full of kids you also know it's rewarding drivers are often the first person to greet our students and sometimes the last person the student will have a positive interaction with until the following day I want you to think about that I want to express my appreciation to all of our
010drivers and their work Mr Thomas and his team maintain our Fleet behind the scenes to ensure that our students arrive and depart safely daily and we thank him I want to thank our team for that work this upcoming week or this week I'm sorry we have several board members and I'm and myself who will travel to the my future NC NC State of Education attainment that is a meeting that will be held in Hickory I'm proud to say as a county we have embraced this work and some of you might remember those folks came Dr case came and spoke to our board um it's been September it's been a while since she was here but that work has continued throughout you know we've we've had numerous City uh folks sign up and have their boards
011agree to it our Economic Development board is getting ready to have them come and present to them as well as CH chamber and the county our County believes in education and how it can support our community that's important part of this initiative is the students to complete the fastb parents and students were leaving millions of dollars on the table and those are educational opportunities so if you are a parent of a high school student out there please get in touch with your schools to learn more about the fast fun and what that can do for your child folks I want to take a moment tonight to address the administrative book review that we've been involved in since September it's underway at the school level and we are nearly complete with with developing a community level
012District team we hope to have the first meeting in the coming weeks please remember this work has placed all books in review on hold meaning they are not available to students during the review we hope to have more information for you on the progress of this work in the spring and I hate that Captain Captain Ross left but this is an important piece as you know Captain Ross or njrc senior officer was kind enough to prolong his retirement to be part of the rifle team's National run we're indebted to him for his work finding someone to pick up this role has been challenging for as you know a few weeks ago we wrote a letter asking for support from the Admiral over our regional njrc and last week I had the privilege of talking on
013the phone with the lieutenant colonel uh with the njrotc about this they're helping to facilitate this search he let me know that we're one of the many programs in the area needing an officer Miss Bennett and I will continue to work on this diligently um and I and I think that's important to know we are on it we definitely want to find somebody for that program it's an integral part of our work that we do here the other thing I want to share with you is I've had several folks ask about the hunter safety program at our middle schools and I'm excited to announce that we have worked out a way to schedule the program at East and West I want to say a special thank you to coach Paige for his willingness to help
014make this happen we weren't sure we were going to be able to make this happen in this semester but we did find a way to do that and I want to thank him for his work as well as Mr spy for your work on that finally board we've reached a consensus for a virtual meeting in March with our building and grounds committee and the NC State study group and um I will say that um knowing that it's in March gives us a little bit more time so what I've asked Miss Smith to do is she will poll each of you for your thoughts on the qu and thoughts on this and any questions that you want to make sure that we share with the committee um so we want to have the entire board's voice
015heard in that even though we'll do that ahead of time with the buildings and grounds committee but it's very important if you have specific questions about that please don't hesitate to reach out to ask me and we'll put out more information about this in the coming weeks and then hope to have a robust list of questions for this team so we'll be able to get our answers in March as to what they can do for us I think that's all I have all right thank you Mr chairman may I have just a moment ma'am I have something I wanted to to share with Dr grit and Miss Bennett Miss Bennett I know you're back there in the back where um I just wanted to take just a second on behalf of myself Miss Miss Helms
016we're all members at Grace Community Church and I just wanted to um take this minute to thank you and Miss benett publicly for coming and being a part of our night to shine uh through the Timo Foundation special needs prom last Friday night um I found a quote that I love and it says character is who you are when no one's looking and the two of you came out of the darkness and just came into the back and just interacted with um our special guest at Grace and I just wanted you to go that that did not go unnoticed and um from the bottom of all of our hearts but definitely from the bottom of the hearts of those students at the high school especially Miss Bennett um thank you for taking time out of
017a very busy Friday evening to come and be a part of that we we sincerely appreciate it absolutely we enjoyed that I know Miss Bennett back there somewhere we had a great time at that event and have to say that we've talked about ways to not be so booked up on that Friday before Valentine's Day next year and maybe in the future be a good idea so our school staff can get out and enjoy that it's a great program but you can yeah I already put that on your schedule it's the fridayest thank you Mr chairman you're welcome uh just a footnote to Dr grit's uh comments there about the study group from NC State uh at our over the course of the last couple of months uh the board decided that it would be
018uh what's the word I'm looking for I don't want to say profitable but it would be prudent wise uh long longterm strategy if we could uh try to begin to gather some information to come up with a long range strategic facilities plan and we're talking like 10 to 20 year out in the future and try to get some uh expert research and advice on factors in our County that would uh directly impact your school system uh such as uh potential for major employer moving into the area or you know the extension of a natural gas line or I mean just any number of issues so that uh the Board of Education can begin to toss all that around and try to make some long range uh plans not necessarily commitments but but plans so that
019moving forward uh that future boards can look back and say well yeah uh that's a good foundation to to start from so just a footnote okay next up item six is the moment everyone's been waiting for this evening that is a report from our teacher representative Miss Maryann bass Miss bass we can hardly wait thank you this evening I'm gonna share with you some news from Pleasant Gardens Elementary and West Mary and Elementary um by this point in the school year I get tons of inform for these and they're I think elementary school they're wonderful and sweet and cute and I don't know if I could ever teach it but these presentations have been great so um first up Pleasant Garden students have showcased talents and their giving hearts over the past few months and
020there's several programs and uh events that they've done together but one was their talent show they had dancers singers and comedians sorry there we go so there's a photo from all of their talents at their schoolwide talent show and I know recently we had our countywide talent show as well next up they had their Veterans Day program they had veterans come out to attend so they could be honored as well the next two slides are um photos from events that students were a part of um they had worked hard to support their community and they collected canned goods and blankets for those in the community that may be in need and next up they um they collected stockings and gifts to deliver to Rose Hill Nursing Home this was students on their student services committee
021and while they were there they sang carols and visited with the residents next up they had an agricultural Awareness Day essay contest and there's a photo with their winner Hector Rodriguez they had a winter glow dance with great participation lots of students showed up for their their dance so right before Christmas their fifth graders presented their version of The Grinch and their second graders entertain them with handbells and a and several Christmas carols as well Pleasant Gardens participates in four houses one family so here are some photos from a few of their events in their gym from those celebrations as well PG has received two grants this year one through Walmart and one was the go Grant next with West Marian they had a Holly Jolly week with lots of photos lots of student participation
022and staff sorry I got myself thrown off here um they also had members a Community member come in and dress like the Grinch we spent the day at West Mar and and every class had the opportunity to meet and greet with them um hosted Red Ribbon Week as well and it ended with a book character day where students could dress as their favorite book character they also had a Veterans Day program and this was um put on by their first grade classes and it was wonderful they had uh their veterans also attended and could be recognized at their program West Maran hosted their first ever boo bash for the community they had a wonderful turnout their school was decorated to the nines it was super neat they had lots of great pictures with that and
023a great turnout with students West Maran also participates in the four houses one family and the next two slides have photos from their events um this is for grades three through five at West Maran they have house meetings every Friday and at the end of every nine weeks they have a celebration with all four houses and then fun at school Mr Ro uh got silly shrink and this was for a chocolate bar fundraiser celebration next month I will be giving you guys some information about East mcdal Middle School thank you guys all right [Applause] all right we'll move along then thank you Miss bass uh we'll move along then item seven is correspondence and I understand that we have none for this evening so we'll quickly proceed to item number eight which is request to
024address the board in public comment and we have eight folks who want to speak to us this evening and so is there a motion to approve those uh requests to address the board I'll make a motion we approve those second Mr subtles makes the motion M mumal makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor right hand and the motion carries okay now we'll take these in the order that they were received but I have to let me just give all our folks that want to address the board uh our rules that govern that this is your chance to tell the board what's on your mind it's not a question and answer period and the board won't respond to you unless it's to clarify a point that a member may be
025unsure of also you have three minutes to speak and Miss da back there is going to be keeping the time and when you're old 30 seconds or so out she may reach over and just give you a sign that your time is getting there also I need to remind you that we expect a certain level of decorum in this meeting space here and that we expect you to use uh language such that you can convey your point without being demeaning or derisive of anyone so explicit language won't be tolerated and uh we ask that you not uh that you not conduct yourself in such a manner that that you're uh younger siblings or maybe your Grandmama and granddaddy wouldn't be proud of okay all right so we'll begin and the first one to sign up
026this evening is Eden Bur is did I get that right okay if you will come to the podium and be sure you speak into the microphone okay okay thank you thank you you may begin okay hello my name is Eden I come to you tonight with disappointment and fear I am nervous to discuss the recent situation pertaining to the quote unquote book band however I believe this is important especially as an older sister and a former student I do not know the ins and outs of the situation but I believe any type a book regulation within Public Schools is somewhat belittling Banning books that focus on black communities minorities and lgbtq topics undermines our students parents that are part of these groups this displays that we do not stand with our children that we as
027a community we do not pride ourselves in inclusivity due to peer also find that the ban of certain books can be upsetting in 11th grade I remember reading a book about the Vietnam War the book went into depth on what the soldiers endur along with nudity and violence to get to Children it was incredibly detail orientated book my fellow classmates and I have a better understanding on what happened when we emotionally um but it makes me question why high school students are allowed aren't allowed to read about violence against aren't allow are allowed to read about violence against others in war but cannot read books about read books like the hate you give or the the handmaid tale we cannot pick what our children read because we do not agree with certain narratives if we
028continue this path we will gradually become like the Florida school system we will be erasing our history along with our students constitutional right to speech I believe the parents are worried about what their children are consuming I feel like we should focus more on unlimited access on Internet that so many of the children have um thank you for your consideration and time okay thank [Applause] you next up and I hope I pronounced this correctly anah John John anuka well I got okay hello I am a parent in this County and I am concerned about the detrimental effects a book band will have on our children one of the books on this list is Go Ask Alice it is a controversial book about drug abuse but over 20 years later I still credit this book with
029being the most profound reason why I did not do drugs in high school or college I was able to live safely in my own home and school while simultaneously experiencing the consequences of drugs and story form when I was five I lived in Oklahoma City when Timothy McVey blew up the myor building as I became older I turned to books on religion terrorism grief and even the death penalty in order to cope with my feelings of fear and uncertainty in the world just this past Saturday I actually went to a book signing for a new book called if only I had told her it was a New York Times best-selling sequel I listened to hundreds of young women tell the author that the book changed their lives for the better including one woman who left
030an abusive relationship because she didn't and quote want to be trapped in an unhealthy relationship like the girl in the book this new book changed my life too as it is in fact dedicated to my first son who passed away this is one of the most impactful kind gestures I've ever received in my life and it came from a book that discusses trauma and grief even if we ban every book on this list the Next Generation has access to television social media apps and news outlets that are far more likely to put inappropriate material in their faces and with far less compassion the days of book burnings and bans to prevent people from Gaining access to offensive and controversial material are over I could not protect my 12-year-old from her brother dying but I could
031give her resources including books on Grief religion and mental health in order for her to cope book bands will not solve the problem of this generation's Mental Health crisis all it will do is make people feel more alone more isolated and more likely to commit a mistake in real life that could lead to disastrous consequences this generation desperately needs more support not less stories even the scary and controversial ones put tools in the reader mind to better equip them from when pain and tragedy will inevitably strike they can live worlds and entire lives in stories giving them the ability to make better more effective and more ethical choices please help us continue to help us protect our kids give them the resources they so desperately needed and deserve so that they can grow into the
032amazing thoughtful insightful Heroes of Their Own Story thank you next is Sarah Skinner Sarah okay good evening um board members and community members my name is Sarah Skinner I have two children in our public schools and I'm also here to talk about the book bands I believe the book bands are an effort to infringe on my Liberty as a parent I want to choose what books my children read too but books in the library are about access my child came home with a book last year that I wasn't quite ready to go over the material with um from a library and I said you know let's put that back and read it next year that's what I can do as a parent so that my child has access to that book this year when we're
033ready in the library um book bands also fail to respect the professional competence of teachers and Librarians who are really well equipped to exercise their best judgment what books should in the library and what material should be assigned for reading we have excellent Educators and we have wonderful Librarians and this is an insult to them book bands also create a hostile environment for those teachers and having teacher friends I know that job is already hard enough and it creates a hostile job environment for librarians we should be making their jobs easier and not harder watching these book bands take place around the country I've watched school boards band books because they represent diverse families people of color people of different different religions people with two moms and I've seen book bands that have books with
034just one mom I ask the school board to bear in mind as you review these books that the leading cause of death the second leading cause of death among kids age 10 to 14 is suicide and that that rate is four times higher for children in the LGBT community and it is not because they are LGBT it is because these book bands and other actions create a sense of unwelcome and not belonging every child should F welcome in their school and their community and especially in the library if you ban books showing the beautiful diversity that we already have and should be welcoming to Maran you increase the likelihood of tragic youth suicide in our community I also asked the school board to consider that I as a parent am not afraid of books and
035I want to tell you you about what I am worried about in our community since I've had children in Maran school systems I've learned that for every one child care spot there are 1400 children waiting and there is no pediatric dentist that takes Medicaid in this County so there are children in our preschools losing teeth and this is a distraction from what you need to work on and what we as a community should value thank [Applause] you okay next uh person to address the board is Chris Nelson hello my name is Christopher Nelson I am the husband of Sarah Skinner these are my children also um I will not um repeat what's already been said except to say that I fully support it so I am another person that is against the book band um
036I might offer an anecdote which is uh I was raised probably pretty similar to the way most of you were um a very conservative household one of the most profound things that ever happened to me is when I went to China in the summer um in the University of South Carolina they have a program where learn Mandarin and that was one of the most eye openening things for me because I got to see what it's like to be in a place with actual suppression of thoughts and ideas where people are not allowed to say what they think where the government has a lot of control over what they're allowed to say and just believe me when I say when I came back home and then turned on Fox News and CNN and heard these old
037things that I was familiar with and these arguments they seem so petty compared to being a place where you really were worried about disappearing for criticizing the government so the reason I offer that is to please understand it's a great gift we've been given to have freedom of thought freedom of education and I have found in my life that the most powerful things for me where when I was in low Parts sad events in my life it seemed like God always found a way to give me the right author the right book the right time and I don't want anyone telling me what books those are um I was in a school like I said it was conservative they did not like CS Lewis cus Lewis became a wonderful um inspiration for me and for
038anyone that's Christian and here and is familiar with C Lewis can you imagine not being able to read him okay so this is Big Picture stuff all right I am okay with access to the books and for choosing for my children what they can read and I don't want anyone else to to do that for me all right thank [Applause] you all right next is uh Mara Sinclair four statements my name is Mara Sinclair I've lived in McDow County for 43 years and my child came up at the school system here my first statement true statement is I believe and I hope you do in democracy I believe in the Constitution and I also believe in the first amendment I have read nine of the books that have been asked have pulled for the libraries
039and I hope each and every one of you will read each and every book before you make a decision on Banning as you can see there are many other people in mcdal County with a different opinion than the small group who have asked you to ban books I think the majority rules in a democracy thank you all right okay next is Rong St Clair is that okay all right [Music] okay I'm not going to repeat much of what some other folks have said but I'm coming with a little different perspective we have been in this County for 44 years as Mara said it'll be 44 in June our son Chris grew up in the school system here we love this County we love the people here we love everything that we have experienced in this
040County what we have trouble with is that there seems to be a movement of foot to limit free speech to limit free thought to limit access to certain things that offend a small group of people and folks that ain't right uh for 25 years and actually go further than that for 40 years I have worked in the church United Methodist Church 25 of it full-time at St Luke's United Methodist in Hickory North Carolina I worked with youth I worked with children I worked with adults I worked with marginalized communities I worked with people who a lot of folks would not want to spend a single moment around because of how they looked how they smelled what they believed any other factor that would limit them what I experienced in working with those marginalized communities is
041the amount of pain the amount of fear the amount of persecution that children who are lgbtq children who are Hispanic children who are black children who are just different experience every single day I met with kids who were on the verge of suicide our pastors met with them I met with them they were welcome in our church they are welcome in the church I serve now in New I'm driving back and forth at this point part time the Bible is a great book but like any of the books that are on this list it can be be read by two different people and will come up with two different ideas on what it means mine is a more liberal perspective because I have seen Grace at work I have seen Grace in action I have
042seen children who have turned their lives around simply because they knew they were accepted they were loved and they had a home taking away the books that are on this list will do nothing except compound their pain and compound their uh difficulties in trying to get their lives on track and I beg you don't pay attention to what a small group of people want in this case uh I won't try to judge their motives they are definitely sincere with what they believe but so are the rest of us I do resent being represented or considered to be I be Christian and that group does not represent me okay thank all [Applause] right okay next up is is it Corey Corey Ford all right ma'am the floor is yours what you say the floor is yours
043Madam sorry I thought you said something about for and I was like oh that's my last name okay okay so I am here today also to speak on the book band um the reason why I speak of this in front of the board is because I am aware that um Mr Tracy spoke to a pastor at Grace Baptist Church this is not Grace Community Church but Grace Baptist uh so I wrote something on this and when globalization has taken over and we don't read books anymore then what is the reason that you are so mad over them being banned in the first place this is not the concern for most who believe in the idea that these books should remain on shelves yet remains an excuse in the eyes of those who disagree in my
044listening and acknowledgement and forgive me if I am wrong but I have heard much commotion over the concern that the books that are under investigation are in are books in which do not honor the Christian Faith Pastor From Grace Baptist Church quoted recently on Sunday morning January 14th 2024 as long as there is breath in this body as long as I have physical physique that I can get to it I want you to understand that this is what's going to take place take place in meaning that the books are removed from our schools dear Pastor from one Christian to another I urge you to understand that the God we share Believes In The Free Will of his children whether they are followers of him or not not for only the Lord Our God can judge
045with perfect judgment and to the rest of the demographic of whoever this may reach which is the board in you and whoever else may listen I do not urge you for for you to agree with for you to agree with me but to understand how multifaceted a situation like this truly is for this does not just involve Christianity but also a violation of our First Amendment right to have freedom in what we we say and do do not forget what you believe but do not fear to look Beyond a truth to see if there is more than meets the eye all [Applause] right okay our next uh speaker this evening is Sierra carac okay hi I'm Sierra carac and I would like to address the school board about the potential book gang today I used
046to be a student at mcdal County Schools until I graduated last year as many of you know I've had a heart transplant last June learning to navigate my new life that I have learning to navigate my new life I've learned that representation matters you don't feel very seen being in a small misunderstood group of people a simple story goes for goes far in how I view myself and continue to live my life it gives me hope insight and motivation it's made me feel less alone It's Made Me Stronger and if you were to consider Banning these books that is what you are taking away from these students that are representation you are showing them that they might not matter that their stories might not matter and that you may leave them feeling ignored and you
047could potentially Rob them of their hope I would ask you to consider the full effect that you will have on these students because it is more important than you realize it is their livelihood that stin I will be praying for your guidance and support in making these difficult decisions and I wish you all the best of Lu thank you all right okay those are the folks that have uh signed up to address the board and since each one of them spoke to the uh book review process I leaned over and asked Dr grd if he would like to clarify for everyone in the room exactly what the process is and how it will proceed yes sir thank you Mr Engish thank you speakers tonight so the administrative book review that we that I mentioned in
048my superintendent remarks this evening initially we had 40 books that we were looking at we pull pulled those books beginning in September uh we pulled those books as part of the administrator review uh since then there's been additional books that have been added to that list uh so what we did was we developed a strategic team that was part of uh the school level which is called mtac committee and that being studied at the school level based on based on what information we were given on the books to review um so once the school level teams have made a decision on those books then the next level was to uh send those books to me for uh the next level of review what we decided to do uh was to add an additional layer of
049support there so with that uh with the support of of the community um and really making sure that we're following the law in that sense and that would be specifically Pico if you guys would like to hook that law up it was that is the law for uh books and and our Supreme Court ruling and it talks about a contemporary Community standard so what I talked about earlier in my superintendent uh remarks was creating a contemporary Community standard or a committee to do the next level of review and that's EX exactly what we'll be doing uh as the next added layer of support for this process and as the books are um read thoroughly read and reviewed uh if there are books within that that would be that they would ask that would be removed
050and those books would be removed if there are books that would be asked to be kept then those books would remain that would be the next that would be how that process works excuse me so that's exactly where we are with it right now there are nearly 80 books on that list meaning that that will take some time to do um our staff have been diligently working on that since September and this is something that's not not going to be a a super quick process as we need to review and read those books uh I do feel like we've got a good process in place uh for moving forward and I feel like that um you know this committee uh I have done a with with the team here as executive staff we've a really
051good job of trying to make sure we have a committee of folks who represent the community well um and that's really where we stand on review now outside of that um with the with the books uh you know it may be that the next step of that is to talk about at what level some of the books could be available to students I heard someone say earlier tonight that a book that maybe one of their kids got their hands on it might have been a little too adult for them or maybe a little too mature for them so at what level do we need to determine when when parents look at those books and they say okay well maybe that's more so for a 14 year old or a 16 year old or a 17
052year old so trying to have an idea of what that would look like if indeed there are books that will remain within within the at the end of the administrative book so again we've been involved in that process since September and uh we we expect to have updates for the public and routinely let folks know where we are along the way in that review I appreciate you thank you right thank you Dr grit for uh making that clear yes sir next item on our agenda this evening is unfinished business and uh we have a couple of items there uh you folks might be interested in hearing the facilities update I'm sure we're going to talk about the UN tennis court facility and also the work that's being done at mcdal high school for our student
053athletes may I say something sure everybody Le we just and I people someone that I read said the greatest lies are told in Silence by not by not respond and when we when we sit here and and don't respond then it leaves leaves an impression i' I've never heard uh Banning as a as a word that is in anything that we're that we're doing and and I think that that needs to be needs to be said what what we're considering is the graphic nature of certain works and whether they're appropriate for a particular age group and that's all we're we're not we're not Banning we're determining whether what some would call pornography or or graphic content is appropriate for a particular for a particular age group and I think that's a that's a that's a
054big difference and and I for one cannot sit here it doesn't matter to me the crowd who who's out there it just doesn't it's going to be the same opinion regardless and uh graphic pornographic content in the hands of of underage people students is not something that um that that I'm going to look favorably on thank you okay uh no sir not at this time okay I would encourage folks that would like their thoughts to be known didn't sign up to speak this evening you can get on McDow County School's website and you can uh contact us through there if you'd like for your thoughts to be known by the board and superintendent uh just a click or two away all right so Mr Oliver are you fully prepared and ready I ready well we'll
055take that I hope so Mr chair Madame Vice chair members of the board Dr grit honored guests School leaders thank you all for being here um I get to talk about something that's really exciting when I talk about facilities updates because we're doing a lot of really neat things that that will impact so many of our students um and I just want to ask has anyone here been to a basketball game or a wrestling match this winter at mcdal high school raise your hand if you've been to one did you notice anything different about the gym did you see some brighter lighting I hope so one of the most noticeable things that we've done this year is the is the new lighting of the gym and I think that's been a great Improvement for everyone
056who's had the opportunity to to be part of an event in our high school gym this year and um lots of other things are going on but before I talk a whole lot more about um facilities I do want to mention something that Miss Bas spoke about and she spoke about the Veterans Day program at West Maran elementary school I had the opportunity to attend the event at West Maran and also the event at Eastfield and those were wonderful events Mr or Miss Baker great job that was special I know it's special for your students but it's more special for the old veterans like me who had the opportunity to be there so thank you thank you for that a lot of effort went into that and it's very meaningful all right so some just
057recent updates that we've had for our facilities projects the multi-purpose field that was completed back in August um we had a gmax test recently last week and the test came out all positive glad to hear that um you we had had a gmax test for our Stadium years ago it's important that you know any of our artificial surfaces are tested and that we have that documented and that we're doing what needs to be done to make sure those those spots are safe for our kids very very glad that that turned out the way it did you've already heard about the tennis courts in the first serve event that will take place on Wednesday now Wednesday someone did say Valentine's Day and it's very appropriate to have a first serve event for a tennis court facility
058on a day that talks about love because when you watch a tennis match how many times do you hear the word love quite a bit so very very appropriate day to have the first servey event we're excited about the new tennis courts and excited about Wednesday's event to open the facility for our our student athletes but also for all of our students who will have the opportunity to uh play tennis either as a student athlete or as a as a PE student we'll have members of the community who also will have access to the new tennis court so that's a very exciting U upgrade for our high school campus Mr oliv yes sir can I ask a question absolutely should we bring our unra well sir if you uh if you want to be part
059of the first serve then maybe you should I don't know if the tennis team will have extras uh Miss Miss Bennett do you know if the tennis coach is going to have extra rackets for folks who might want to hit a ball okay that coach may may bring pickle ball racket never know um one other update for the tennis facility um our were the the hitting boards where if you're practicing by yourself those came in today and so be getting those installed soon as well so that was good news very excited about that so I'll move to some photos and then we'll just kind of talk about some of that and then I'll close up with a couple more things so Garrett if you don't mind thank you Mr Oliver can we PA just for
060one second yes ma'am thank you if you all look at the the photos up here and you see these pictures of now this one is a different photo but I did want to share it oh no I the the ones with the the pictures of the students on the the njrtc yeah can you show these I've been seeing these around our County for the last couple years yes ma'am and they are photos that are created for all of our seniors as well as eighth graders in our County and they're not just for athletes but they're for the njrc flag team um band members uh these are so cool and what I learned for the first time is that they're gifted to the students and that their families don't pay for them and my boy came
061home with one from the wrestling team this past week and he was so proud of this photo and he looked awesome to be honest he had like some pose it was really great but as a parent seeing him walk in with this Banner that the school had gifted to him and it was a professional shot I just didn't realize that we were doing this for our kids and I wanted to point this out and allow everyone else to know that this is a gift that we give our students and it's fantastic and these kids walk they're so proud to see themselves and parents are proud to see their kids too I didn't know that that Banner was up I had missed it honestly because my kid didn't really play and I really good kid but
062you know um anyway I just wanted to I'm sorry thank you for letting me interrupt this but these Banners are such a gift to our students and their families and they just there my boy was so proud to hang his on his wall and every time I see it I'm proud too it's really it's really quite a gift so thank you for letting me interrupt I just wanted to point that out no that's great and actually the the photo was there to show you the new FC gate that's in front of the multi-purpose field but what's important about that spot is it's also collocated to the JROTC facility and so they've taken advantage of that new fence to hang banners and they've decorated the wall that the fence uh marries up to Garett if you
063can move yeah there you go the fence goes up the hill toward that concrete wall that concrete wall is now an incredible mural and you can see the the anchor that's painted golden there in front of the jotc facility so they have really they have taken ownership of that area and made it look wonderful uh and that that couldn't have been done without the new fence new gate and the new multi-purpose field right there is a backdrop and they're also using the the multi-purpose field I think more than any other group at the high school SE so I know the the tennis teams and the PE students are I mean not tennis but the soccer teams are using the multi-purpose field to a great extent I know the football team uses it some but I
064think JROTC is getting more use of the multi-purpose field than any rout so really thankful that the board made that investment for the school and remember that that's not just for athletes it is for athletes but not just athlet everyone is having an opportunity to to experience that and to and to have value to their day from that facility so great investment go ahead Garrett thank you all right so this is not a facili photo but today in uh in our cabinet meeting Clark brought us uh the new baby goat uh at our our CTE program at the high school the agricultural program part of their program has a goat born and that's one of our new baby goats at McDow high school so thank you for for that Mr uh Dr grit said it
065would be okay if I had that photo in there so we all had fun this morning meeting the new goat that was nice U this is a shot of the new drop ceiling in the women's locker room down high school um has new tile all around new paint it's going to have new f pictures and lighting and you see that the drop seiling will also come bring new lighting it's really going to be an upgrade to that facility very excited about that go ahead G thanks so this is obviously this is men's locker room but the the reason for this photo is to show the new dividers also with the new tile on the floors and also the the new tile on the on the walls and these aren't these aren't being used yet so
066you don't have to worry about anyone being in there except me taking photos uh we're excited about the new facilities and what they're going to what they're going to do for our students and again yes for student athletes but these these restrooms and locker rooms serve all the students who take PE at McDow high school so it's not just the student athletes it's all our students and I'm really excited about those upgrades again those ja and we talked about the tennis court so this is the new Tennis complex uh we finally got the gate installed up the top of the road so that'll be good to help keep it secure and uh facility looks great we're excited about Wednesday and hopefully it according to the forecast Wednesday is going to be a great day to
067start tennis practice so excited about that and again the investment by the board for for this complex is a long-term investment this will impact students you know the original tennis courts have been there how long 50 some years I think this you know this complex may end up serving uh the students and residents of mcow County for you know for an equally long time so huge investment in great vision for the future of of McDow high school and McDow County Schools thank you Garrett so a couple of other things that have come up recently there were some questions about fire hydrate servicing and we had issues at Glennwood and at McDow high school that were brought to our attention and I want to say thank you to Mr Donnie tempton of the Glenwood volunteer fire
068department if you know officer Tipton everyone calls him Tippy the tippy is helping us get the fire hydrants at Glenwood service through a local contractor and I also want to say thank you to Mr Gary cook at public works for the city of Maran who is helping us with the fire hydrants at McDow high school and West midle and those fall under the city's purview so we're very very happy to hear that the last facilities issue that I will mention today is that on Friday February the 2nd the board approved the McDow High School cafeteria upgrades project in a special call meeting and this project will greatly enhance the cafeteria and the commons area for McDow high school and again the cafeteria serves every student in our school uh on a daily basis but the
069commons area serves all of the community every part of our community has used the commons area of McDow high school at different times so this is really exciting to me for um the great the great enhancement this will be for the school and Community with the cafeteria upgrade but also the commons area there when you walk in McDow High School you walk right into the commons so this is going to be another huge upgrade for the county so again thank you thank you for approval of the project and the investment and we look forward to seeing that when get started soon any questions sir uh M mumo you have well I don't really have a com I have a comment I think um so I believe with the Improvement of the cafeteria the renovations what
070we were told is that with the addition of a new line um that that is really going to decrease the amount of time that our students are in line to get that food is that correct yes ma'am that's the goal currently we have three service lines and we have two CS H cart service here uh this is going to give us uh two additional service lines but it's also going to move the service lines out of the kitchen area so which will greatly reduce the weight time and make it a lot easier for our students to access um meals at a timely manner and it will also be much better for the staff to have more space inside the kitchen area for the prep and all the work that takes place um to serve students
071every day so yes it's a it's a big deal yeah and we really appreciate that because I think several of us have heard along the line that one of the reasons that a lot of our students may not be accessing some of the resources or the food or eating is they are kind of on a time crunch I mean we're trying to fit in what is it four classes a day right yes me and specials and and you know Titan time and all this other stuff so so lunchtime is is pretty Compact and when they're having trouble getting through those lines a lot of times kids are skipping meals so I'm I'm really excited to hear that that's going to be much improvement that's needed so thank you we excited that and that's the board
072member and the dietician coming out in m m m asking about the service of meals absolutely yes ma'am good boss thank you okay uh next we have we have a finance update from miss rampy our finance officer I'm gonna have Garrett pull up uh the web page just want to give you a quick update um and just a reminder too on our web page we have a financial transparency page that the state has us put information but we also add additional information that we keep updated uh in general that has been um once a Year's closed we post you can see on there their statistical data um transfer data and our audit report is posted on there for the last few years and the one that we just finished and you just received in your
073packet is on there as well one thing we've added this year is uh what used to be the board report once the allotments hit in your packet or in there in a separate email would be where we were at by the at the end of the previous month uh by PRC and so we have added that to have it available for anyone uh to look at on our financial report so Garett if you can click on that on the web page and I'll show you what that looks looks like uh and it'll be updated there's a there'll be a monthly tab on there so that anyone would like to look at a snapshot it is as of the end of that day so for instance this one is as of the end of January 31st
074um I'll just go over the top line so you can kind of just see you can see that as far as in our fund one which is State classroom teacher uh funds we get about 19.4 million in that pot of money we've spent about 11.3 uh that gives us 8.1 left over we spent about % of that budget which tracks pretty well since we are basically six months in for when the teachers have been paid for so they're they're paid August through May um and so you could just see every pot of money but do know that it is a snapshot of exactly what the system showing on that date and we are uh relying on transfers from the state and different allotments so these are moving funds that may be receiving additional funds sometimes
075that we get funds in allotments and uh sometimes at the end of the year and sometimes there funds that are just guaranteed there's not actually a budget so if there's anything that ever comes up just let me know and I can most of the time you're not as interested in it as I am but I will be more than happy to go over as much as you want we can go over H non-contributory employ benefits line that's really interesting um so again it's just for your information if you'll slide down just a little bit I'll show you it goes through every pot of money that we receive in the state um and then you'll see that it has there's a local there's fed funding um and then it'll show fund 8 which is our grant
076funding as well so again that's a snapshot for every month that will be on there um and if anybody wants anything that's uh you can always just you know go straight to that or email me I can get you the information but again that's on the main uh school system web page under departments you want to go back to that show them where that's at if you hit departments there's fin it says financial transparency and it's the same site we've had for a while we're just adding that financial report data in there so that's just available whenever you need that anything else no thank you Mr rampy I think it was one of those we had been doing that with our head start showing showing those uh showing those funds on there and I know
077that you traditionally had brought this before the board um but but it is one of those things in our early months we've got to remember that a lot of that money may not have actually came to us from the state yet so um can you talk just a little bit more about that piece of before we get those allotments and what that looks like in those in those documents sure so the first couple months of the year and it really depends on the poot of money so for instance Federal uh funding runs through September 30th generally so a lot of times we do not receive those funds until September October um and so we generally have carryover funds that help us uh with any expenses that we have to have um if it's a year
078that the budget is delayed which let's just say that's happened a lot in the 18 years in April that I've been here um then sometimes that funding will be delayed but they do guarantee us to be able to at least pay staff and keep regular operations going just because they've not passed a budget we don't stop paying people I mean would never keep anybody employed if you didn't employ so in general the state will allocate us a a generic amount but what they generally will do is it is a minimum amount that they think that will get us through until the budget is passed so they'll do a percentage of the bu or something that effect um and then with Federal we usually use carryover now sometimes um we have local also because we've been
079very fortunate here we do have that to help us if there's a long process but we've been very fortunate in what the state and federal uh gives us to be able to use that for salaries but it does make the allotments look like we've overspent them already in the second month of the year because they haven't hit yet we can't post them till they actually hit um and we can only post what they give us at the time so sometimes if it is a % and it looks like we've already spent 30% of the budget and it's the first month since a lot of times that's because the full budget has not hit so again if anything ever looks weird because you know red parentheses that's never good in um finances but a lot of
080times that's just temporary and there's a reason for it in general I would know that um so if anytime you have questions just let me know I'm always excited to explain anything related to that you're welcome so fance are about uh actually about 60% right now okay you count Capal school right no just a fun to not a capital right just 60% right I don't like to say this Mr if I could because I think it's really important you know there's a lot of board members setting up here right now that ran calls of things like this and uh I know personally for me I wanted some transparency for our community I wanted you to know what was going on inside and out with our school system and this is just another added pat on
081the back for you guys for doing this because it shows everything there in detail down to the fact you know we're talking about a cafeteria renovation right now and it's 1.66 million dollars and everybody's thinking my taxes my taxes well if you look on the spreadsheet you'll see it comes from Esser funds so it's not coming out of our budget all right it's money that we had to spend from the federal government so I think this is perfect if if you really want to dig into find out where's your taxpayer money going you know and uh the transparency that we talked about in the past you know I'm from here followed School Board stuff and school stuff my whole life and I don't know if you've ever been this transparent before and I really appreciate
082the work M rampy you Dr and stuff we putting into this and really listen to our voice of saying hey we would like to have some transparency so thank you again okay uh just for a point of clarification check that uh fund balance it does change from time to time I know Miss ramp is very conservative in her uh estimation of what it will take to run the system for a year and I do know she likes to keep have the Balan in case the state budget is delayed and being passed and those funds pass on to us we can continue to operate as usual for couple three months maybe it does help with cash flow especially with those federal funds if we do not have carryover we generally would have to pay that a
083local until we could get that those funds right so it it's uh it's not like we're hoarding money but we have to it's a congratulations and to the board as well it really is very very POS help well that's we have to keep going every day uh anything else for miss rampy miss rampy you have anything else for us well okay all right I feel like [Laughter] applauding okay we're move along to new business which is item 10 and Miss dle has some uh policy updates for a first reading to uh present no action required this even correct good evening so in your packet is kind of a reader digest version of all of the policies that were updated um or proposed to be updated as you can see in that reader digest version it
084kind of lays out for you it has the policy number the name of the policy the if it is required or not and then the explanation and so all of the explanations for each of our policies that we are updating here are state law and general statute so um when it is based on state law and general statute those are pretty much required um changes to make so I have those all listed on that form for you as well as the explanation of what the change is in policy towards the back of our um this reader digest version is also um some policies that had minor um changes which include minor changes to wording or legal references Andor cross references so with that being said are there any questions specifically for if not then the
085board would need to take action to approve these after the second reading yes sir okay so most likely next month's regular meeting yes sir and so during this time if there are any questions again that is all listed in this form but I would be happy to to answer any of those questions for you Mr English I think one of the things we wanted to do and some of what Mr s just mentioned in total trans have the have the committee meet which which did take place and have that meeting but then bring those on as a first read just so the board and the community has an opportunity to see the policies that we're looking at and at that point accepting feedback from from the board on them so that that this would be
086the first read and then next you said the adoption of policies after the second read but I feel good about where we are with these and and Miss D and work leading that team and what was done here and a special thank you miss Robin I know she does a lot of work behind the scenes for us to get these policies in order and this is if if you will remember this is the fall version of them so we will have a winter version coming up pretty soon so we'll just continue to keep these policies going through pretty routinely there'll be a regular rotation okay thank you thank thank you Miss D uh Mr Oliver you're up again and if you do a good enough job we might give you a round of applause yes
087sir thank you for having me back up to discuss calendar and the process first of all I want to thank all the folks that were part of the calendar committee uh it's a a lot of communication it starts with a kickoff meeting and talk about the statute and all the limitations that we have from the state as to what the calendar can look like and then we hear from everyone who's on the committee uh you for about a two or three week period and then we put together the proposal from the consensus of the comments to come back to the board and these are present tonight's proposals and then they'll be on the website for public View for the next month and as the committee and the board and uh everyone involved from the executive
088leadership team on down to provide comment and to have some more discourse on what the best choices will be but I want to thank everyone who is involved I definitely miss silver is our board uh representative for the committee uh Miss basne as teacher year was part of our calendar committee several principles are here who are part of that uh Miss Bennett Mr Carson Miss Baker We all on the committee and I really appreciate everyone if I missed anyone I'm sorry I don't think I did if I did I apologize but we'll look at the Traditional School calendar first the proposal and if you'll notice one one change that is pretty noticeable on the on this year's proposal is that there are two work days earlier than normal so we normally have the week right
089before students return and you you'll notice that that week is always in the end of August and the reason for that is the state law says that the earliest date that school can begin for students is the Monday closest to the 26th of August so this year it happens to fall on a Monday which makes it very convenient and it also helps us do something that's really good this year and that one of our biggest goals so I mentioned the two work days those two work days up in that first week on the 15th and 16th those are earlier than normal and those are meant to help our teachers who want to come in early to work on their classrooms have a little more time to do that before uh before parents uh come in
090for meet the teacher on that following Thursday and Friday and then before students arrive on the 26th so that's important for for a lot of folks you'll also notice that in the fall months on this year's proposal for the traditional calendar that there are not a lot of work days and professional development days between August and December and you'll notice that the students um will be attending classes all the way up through Friday December the 20th that takes us to our 80th student day and the reason Reas that the fall has been streamlined on this proposal is that our goal is for our high school students to be able to take their exams for their fall courses prior to the Christmas break and uh we've had lots of feedback over the years and those of
091us who have worked in high schools before I spent about 15 years in high school work during my career it's really helpful for students and staff if those exams can be taken before the Christmas break and so that's the goal in this calendar and that was Dr grit's priority um when we started the process and uh everyone agreed right off the bat that that's what we needed to do I was really proud of our team there was there was really no back and forth about that at all everyone thought yes we need to try to make that happen so um everything that we talked about for the for the traditional proposal had that in mind um if you move on down Garrett thank you so you'll see that uh for the Christmas break there's still
092a two full weeks for students for the break you also notice that there's no change in the Thanksgiving break Wednesday before Thanksgiving is still a work day and the holidays are Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving uh part of the calendar law says that you'll have three days for the Christmas holiday in your calendar so that those there's three holidays there in that first week of the Christmas break and then the days in yellow are annual leave days and those are scheduled leave which means you don't have a choice um and then January 1 is the holiday for new years's and then two more annual leave days to provide the two full weeks and then students get another little bonus since they worked so hard in the fall and didn't have much downtime for work days
093in PD um January the 6th is the first work day for staff after the break and that's the transition day for the new semester for secondary students and also a great day a great first day back for all staff as they prepare for students to return following break so that was the goal there the Martin Luther King holiday is on Monday the 20th um that is always on our calendar and always will be the February breaks uh we' have we're able to have some uh some professional de development and a work day in February around the Valentine's period not a holiday but a work day and then the Monday following Valentine's Day is professional development day and then because Easter is so late you come on down Garrett please thank you because Easter is so
094late in the month of April we've done this before in the past when when Easter came late we would have spring break earlier in March and so the last week of March last full week of March will be spring break for our students and staff and then we'll have good Friday and Easter Monday will be another a 4-day holiday around a 4-day weekend not a four-day holiday but four-day weekend around the Easter holiday and then in May Memorial Day and then in June the last student day is Friday June the 6th and then there are three work days there in June now there there will be some discussion about work days and the reason having only three work days in that last week there in June um will make it really hard to finish some
095of the end of the year responsibilities uh most specifically it will be really tough to complete the remediation and retest process that can't begin until all student dayses have been completed by law you can't start your remediation on an instructional day so that has to wait until instructional days be completed so with that in mind having only three work days there will make that a challenge that will and it will also it could be a financial challenge because um that fourth day could be an unfunded day and we'd have to figure out how are we going to cover that if we need f day so I know there will be discussion and Dr gr has already recommended that we move one of those work days back to June but that's to be decided that has
096not yet been decided but it is a recommendation yes sir and thank you Mr Al for bringing that up it's one of those that the committee really had had hadn't had an opportunity to we didn't have an opportunity to get back with that committee to completely share that thought with them so we know that this calendar as far as far as student days um it really doesn't affect any of the student days we're talking about two work days potentially for for staff right so recognizing that we're going to leave this on as a first read and when we come back to you with the next read we'd like to have that detail worked out with the staff in a way that they understand it and really it's one of those that we looked at it
097in executive cabinet on Thursday I think really was last it was last week but at that point it was already too late to PLL in when we discovered there might be a little issue with that but I think you I think you had to nail on the head with the fact that that's going to be a tight turnaround um and and one of the one of the things that the committee really wanted to do miss silver you can help me with this they really wanted to make sure they had a couple work days at the beginning um so and I certainly respect that so you know what I would what I would say to them is to consider let's go one at the beginning and move one to the other side but again that's that
098that's what that committee needs to bring back to us to recommend for for the board I think the takeaway that I had from the meeting and I think Miss Bas can can back me up on this is that the the staff overwhelmingly um wants to have time to work in their classrooms and at the beginning of the year unfortunately we packed those days full of professional development and meetings and we have people that are giving their time all summer long to get their classroom set up and and I can say that from experience and so that was one thing that we talked about and they were very passionate about is H be being paid to come and work in their classrooms um and so I think that was one reason that we did move those
099days there um to the beginning and then also there was one other thing that I wanted to say and and it was there was it oh oh the January 6th work day um again overwhelmingly um from the secondary teachers especially is they have asked that that we as a system protect that day for those most specifically the high school teachers Miss Bennett to be able to um get ready for new kids because this year they have professional development all day and then have new kids the very next day and so we're hoping that we'll we'll plan that a little bit better this year yes ma'am and on the on this year's calendar it was listed as a PV day but this proposed calendar has it as a work day which means it will not be
100Obed because there there is a polic in place that says if professional development is going to be expected they have to have be told ahead of time at least two week yes ma'am but I know that was one thing that continued to come up correct good to move on questions okay we'll move on to the Early College calendar I think is next so this is for the McDow early college and McDow Academy renovation and this calendar is very similar to the calendar they always work with and the reason for that is that the early college and Ma their calendar is very much tied to the Community College calendar one they're located with Community College but also their coursework after the second year almost all of the coursework for the students is college cours work so
101their calendar always reflects the Community College calendar and I don't is Billy here I don't see Billy or Lisa here to talk about the Early College REM calendar um this calendar looks very similar it does tie in to the traditional calendar on the days that it needs to for planning purposes so we feel really good um as Dr grit mentioned miss Robin earlier U with uh policy work well I know she does that because for about nine years Rob and I were the we're the policy team and we're still the calendar team so miss Robin obviously works hard on a lot of the different things that supports the the executive staff so um she worked closely with uh Dr Klein and Miss Robinson to put this calendar together so we'll move on to the Eastfield
102Global Magnet School M robt excuse me I'm sorry sorry folks I want to point out one thing that's that's really really important I know Mr Oliver said this I think it's important if if you have an opportunity may want to un pull one of those calendars out the traditional one and lay it across from the other one and you'll see what I'm talking about you'll see in that January time frame both of the both of the calendars here match up uh so that's critically important for our students who are trying to take those college level classes that might be at McDow High School um our students this year for example where we were testing weeks weeks after the Christmas holiday some of those kids were carrying as many as eight and 10 classes during that
103time because remember you can take two college classes during a regular traditional block so getting those lined up uh would mean that that when those exams were going on that our kidss that were taking those exams would be missing in college level class so to me that was critical to be able to do that for our students and I really feel like it's going to offer us an opportunity to offer even more of those CTE classes and CCP classes so I was really ex really excited about this and I commend the calendar committee's work on on helping us to make that happen thank you absolutely thank you sir all right um we'll move on to the Eastville Global Magnet School propos calendar and I have to give credit where credit is due and as normal
104as almost always happens Miss Baker built this calendar she had a little bit of help from Miss Smith but uh this calendar meets all the requirements um for the hybrid calendar that that Eastfield has and if you don't know what the Eastville calendar is if you take a look they start early so they start the second week of July and there will be nine weeks of instruction followed by three weeks of non-instruction and in all of those three week breaks at least one of those weeks is used for staff planning and PD um um and then usually in the fall three- week break that's also a time for remediation GRE field Global correct Miss Baker so Miss Baker is a is an absolute artist with this calendar um she has developed it to its maximum
105potential over the years and it's about as uh it's about as efficient as it could be are there any questions regarding the Eastfield calendar and if there are we'll have to turn those over M back Miss Baker do you have any comment you'd like to add on the calendar right and that that's you know that's parents but it's also staff members who are parents that might have students that he feel to make so that's very important that all of that is synced up M Baker thank you you and Garrett thank you for keeping all that moving but again I want to thank everyone who served on the committee it's a lot of thought a lot of effort that goes into making everything line up and uh be synchronized to the to the extent that it
106can be and I know that between now and the next board meeting we'll get a lot of good feedback and we'll be ready to have our recommended final draft for the for the board to consider or approve okay so you do this like on two two readings you present it distribute and present back yes sir that's really good yes sir so it these these proposals will be on the website for the next month and anyone who wants to comment can can do so but for for a lot of folks it's just really good to have it out there to plan front too even though it's not approved yet you can you can at least see what possibility is I think even hopefully be ready for approval at the March meeting yes sir and even without
107our without our approval we know the first student day and we know the the final day for sure is based Bas so let's parents know okay okay all right thank you thank you Mr you want to appla Mr Miss silver since you're on that calendar committee if you could on the first week of August we'd like to have t Hub appreciation week that's teacher husbands who paint the whole first week 23 years of desk Cubbies and everything else make sure you put you're preaching to the choir we'll we'll consider that all right okay so this is the year that we get to uh engage a new math curriculum and Miss H's here to give us the state of that some thank you good evening chairman English Dr grit members of the board thank you for
108allowing me to have this opportunity to share about our math adoption process our ka8 principles and our math team across the district have been actively reviewing math curriculums over the past several months we've received five different curriculums from five companies and have participated in four presentations to date tonight I want to share with the entire board that the cost of the math curriculums are much higher than our previous Ela adoption I did not want the quotes to take you by surprise once we present that information coming up in March we aim to use our Esser funds to support this purchase as we work to respond resp to the learning laws brought on by I've contacted DPI our office of federal programs inquiring about the possibility of using our Esser funds to enter into a three-year
109contract as these funds are quickly coming to an end I have also been working with Miss silver to schedule a curriculum and instruction committee meeting for February the 20th at 11:30 during this meeting we will share the preferred curriculums quote notes and teacher feedback we look forward to sharing the committee's recommendation dpi's guidance on spending and possibly requesting action at our March board meeting so when you think about a considerable amount of money I do want to go ahead and give you one of the quotes if you're ready for it tonight remember this is prior to negotiations but one quote did come in a little over $700,000 for a K8 adoption so I want to go ahead and put that on the table when I say that it's coming in a little bit higher than
110we expected everything seems to be doing that right now so without any questions about our math adoption um I look forward to meeting with our cni committee meeting on February the 20 to share even fur just one quick question uh Miss handy could you tell us how long we've been using the previous math adoption well sir currently we are using our North Carolina state standards and teacher created content um and so um we had a small adoption I would say K5 when I first came to the district and in this August will be 10 years so it's been quite some time since we've had an adoption um I don't I can't speak much past the 22 years that I've been here but I don't remember the last time we've had a k adoption that has
111been systemic across our district and I hope I'm not speaking not out of turn that's to my knowledge the point I was trying to get to even though it's a rather large sum of money we getal it's not something we have to do every year that is correct yes sir these materials last us our teachers are um they do a great job um maintaining the curriculum and working to implement that um and of course they also being the professionals that they are being the Magnificent Educators that they are continue to use curriculums that we've had from the past that also bring kindr things to the present as well as we learn more the only thing I'd like to add is without the Esser funds I can tell you that in this budget I don't know
112that we can do this um so I think we've got to uh with that with our planning we've got to consider what those look like every 10 years and I know that's one of the things when we talk about that the possibility that fund balance I me that's that's what that's there for You're Building because you can't you don't get to buy a curriculum every year so and I appreciate your work on that Miss yes sir thank you I have a great team right okay so uh Mr Spivey is going to bring you folks and gradu situation dates for your consideration hopefully to approve this evening chairman English superintendent grit McDow County school board members administrators and distinguished guests tonight I'm here to talk to you about the high school graduation dates for this spring
113uh McDow early college is looking to graduate their senior class on Saturday May the 11th at 9:00 A.M in East McDow Auditorium later that morning the McDow Academy of innovation will graduate their senior class at 11: a.m. also on May the 11th and then we have a little bit of time McDow Virtual Academy is seeking to graduate their seniors on Thursday May the 6 at 6: PM in the East McDow Auditorium and the last graduation of the spring would be the McDow High School graduation Friday night June 7th at 700 p.m in the McDow High School stadium so we are asking approval for these dates sir correction there yes you said May theba June the sorry June the 6 I apologize thank you Mr all right anyone have any questions about the proposed graduation dayses
114if not then is there a motion to approve accept Mr shord makes the motion second M mumal makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor right hand and the motion carries thank you thank you very much thank you all and let's uh let's just don't hope we don't have a whole lot of snow day days between now okay next up board reports and uh uh as we were formulating the agenda for this SE we decided to just lift all our committees so if there's anything going on uh it can be reported out to other board members and the public as well Mr Frank we'll start with budget and finance anything you need to update everyone about I I do uh M Ry deserves really Standing Ovation but as usual our
115audit report was Stella and M rany I appreciate all your hard work to achieve that [Applause] and I'm not thank you for the remark you made about the Veterans Day programs and I know uh Mr Carson's here Mr wall well they veterans and I don't know how many more here but I want to say this is I'm very proud to the veter and all these folks that spoke tonight here in this boardroom and the gentlemen that talk about the way they're sequestered over there they can't do things the veterans job is a 247 job protect the rights those folks here tonight and everybody else to get up and be able to speak and say whatever's on their mind whether you be for it or against it you have that right in America as as we
116spoke and I appreciate Veterans for bringing that right to us and sir I appreciate the comment you made okay all right uh Mr settles is chair of the building grounds committee anything you need no I'd like to say the same thing and I believe Mr Oliver deserves a run of appause to on this committee you know heading up because he always keeps us updated along with Mr trinks gvin trinks and I don't think a lot of people understand what's going on but I think our school system right now has made a huge transition into buing and grounds on the new things that you see going up around the schools for the kids not to mention behind the scenes they're working on pump stations for the septic nonstop and some other things so they are KNE
117deep in it sometimes uh but often but I think uh he did a great job and it makes it easy for me to be that you know that chair when you get reports like that all the time so thank you so much watching [Applause] this okay uh curriculum and instruction we'll be having a meeting on February the 20th at 11:30 to find out about a new math curriculum that she's not paying any attention I'm telling about our meeting that we're having in February 20th okay so we need everybody to bring their checkbooks um no just to reiterate what Miss hamy said I've been retired seven years and taught for 30 previously to that and Miss Bassy and I were just trying to remind ourselves last time we got so this is much needed much need
118all right Miss I want to say this too Miss hamy rest assur when you come to that meeting uh I want us to all to remember that there's nothing more important than a curriculum of what we're teaching our kids so if we keep that in mind it doesn't matter what amount of money it comes down to because that's more important than bu ground tennis course this or whatever that comes up so when you say that it doesn't scare me as long as it's good matal material because I think that's what we need to keep in the back of our minds there's nothing more important than that material okay all right Min poo is chair the policy bring to our attention we see I have nothing to add further than what Miss dowle already did she's
119amazing we deserve she deserves a round of applause too and miss handy and Mr spy [Laughter] and okay that's right all right uh as you folks know that are regulars at our meeting each month we have a report from our design to the Head Start uh program and that's Miss silver what's going on with Head Start we need to know about uh so we had our Head Start policy meeting today um looking really good they currently just have two positions that they're needing to staff one of those is a full-time instructional assistant position at the Sugar Hill facility and the others a part-time instructional assistant at Early Head Start but we're excited because we um have the one position that she's been trying F has been filled and so we're excited about that uh she
120shared a lot about classroom data um they are so they are the most introspective group of people as they continue every month just to uh look at their kids and look at their staff and see um where their needs are they're in the process of gathering documentation for the grant that Dr duany spoke with us about in our meeting um that's not going to be due until April so I have more information on them but one thing that we talked about in the areas that they're they're working on um is building up their emotional support and um that is creating a positive climate not having a negative CL climate and teacher sensitivity and all of those um come directly from uh maso's hierarchy of needs for kids and um I hope that the general public
121understand that it it is curriculum's extremely important but if a a kid's basic needs are not met they can't learn and I'm just so proud of Head Start those needs our physiological needs Safety and Security love and belonging self-esteem and self-actualization and if any kid is in our schools and they are not feeling that those needs are being met then we're failing them as a school system and so I'm very proud of our Head Start group and all that they bring um taxy taxonomy is good as well but again if we are not meeting children's needs then we're not doing what we're called to do as a system and so I just continue to be thankful that I get to be a part of that group every every uh every board meeting day I also
122get to do this so thank you okay oh thank you I got Applause to miss all right okay uh right quick Mr abany would you like to update the board on the upcoming legislative thing I sorry to catch you by surprise but I know you were U keeping us informed at its original schedule the the chamber and the economic development commission hold a legislative breakfast or lunch and we make presentations to the members of the general assembly and Pres um kind of what the what the needs are and it's it's pretty straightforward we do it both at the uh at the federal level and also the state so this would be the state I believe it's next Thursday okay all right uh I've been privileged to serve for the last three years on as uh
123your representative to the North Carolina School boards Association and uh we had a meeting on January the 26th and just a few things I think you'll find interesting one is uh we're uh they're in the process of forming discussion groups one is for board members from across the state together in they call forgive me I've never heard of this before but I guess it's a real thing it's called a zoom room so people from across the state at certain time can gather and discuss things that are going on with their local boards and maybe that would be helpful to for uh members to bring back to their own group also plan to have one of those going for board chairs and and vice chairs and let's see also uh you need to check your email
124inbox this week because the school boards Association is ready to roll out the public relations campaign that the the association has been working on for the last two years and it's a the working name of the campaign is public school does public good and it's a way of reminding folks particularly parents of school AG kids that U even if you're not participating in a public school setting just how much good public education does for our state in general and this will be a a digital campaign you won't see a TV commercial or a newspaper at it it'll all be digitally uh distributed Facebook Instagram so on and so forth so uh keep your eyes on your inbox an email will is going out to each School Board member in the state this week also we
125heard from the Department of Public Instruction and teaching staff will be glad to know that they have revised the teacher working condition survey and they have shortened it to make it more concise and it's only half as long as it used to be so uh School Board Association thought that was a good idea also uh had an update on some legislation that's on hold in the Supreme Court going V Gaston and this deals with statute of limitations on child sex AB abuse by School employee and uh that is a particular interest to a number of districts sad to say but but it is also uh we heard an update from the governmental relations team the short session of the state legislature begins on April 4th and so uh the legislative command of whom we asked
126Miss poo to serve on our behalf last month they're be beginning to meet and formulate a a list of uh things that boards across the state would like legislature to consider also uh heard a little presentation on health and mental health for students and staffs in public school uh a little bit of information on the three-year graduation track that the state legislature enacted this past session also uh quick update from the North Carolina High School student Athletic Association uh and some of uh their new uh policies and procedures in place one of which is that a student athlete must pass 70% of their course load so uh I don't think that'll be a problem for our athletes but it may be some places so uh you do have en active State Association and they are
127working on your behalf and on behalf of public education in general so that was a lot to to say but it's over now so I'm [Applause] waiting okay so we will move along to item 11 which is approval of the consent agenda and as you know any item that is on the consent agenda can be uh pulled from that for uh discussion and uh action separately so is there a motion regarding the consent that so move but what do you move do you want to remove an item or do you want to approve the agenda as presented all of them as presented please thank you miss m she makes the motion Miss poo makes the second any discussion if none all in favor of approve of the consent agenda and everyone's in favor so now
128we'll move along to item 12 which is a request for closed session so we need a motion to move into closed session for the following reasons to uh prevent the disclosure of privileged or confidential student information to prevent the disclosure of privileged or confidential Personnel in information to discuss the acquisition of real property and to discuss the terms of a contract for employment so is there a motion to go into close session for those reasons I'll make the motion we go into close session I'll second it Mr subtles makes the motion Miss silver makes the second any discussion if not all in favor and the motion carries