001and welcome to the regular session meeting of the McDowell County Board of Education it's 6 p.m on Monday April 17th and we're here in the board office and uh just so glad to see so many people uh uh supportive and and uh interested in local public education here this evening our first order of business this evening is to approve our agenda and is there a motion to do so okay I'll second it Miss popo makes the motion and Miss silver makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor right hand and the motion carries unanimously all right and has has been our custom over the last number of months at this time we uh try to take a moment of silence to instill ourselves and we hope you folks would join
002with us good thank you I thank you for your kind attention the next item is the pleasant presentation of the colors and the pledge to the flag and I've asked Chief McClure if he could Tell You Folks who these Cadets are first of all I'd like to say this Thursday through Saturday posting a rival match uh conditional across the Carolinas including Tennessee high school but one of only a few schools that have electronic Target system there we go on a county school citizen in the Navy and a joint partnership purchases of Lakeline authorities and as a result the scores of our Cadets have been has risen tremendously uh throughout the last four years they've made the HUD go to Navy Nationals this past year Unfortunately they got snowview to Dallas and I make it to
003Utah but I was in high school that struck in the airport and all those stories would go along with them but but I would like to take it at this time to say thank you so much for supporting us for those targets and just what you need to know where your tax dollars are going is a very worthy cause I guess to me like to say from Carolinas including Tennessee and compete against one another so it's really an awesome event and she almost filled with 25 Lanes of advanced firing and pre-positional arrival I'd like to now turn it over to Cadet command group so we introduce the guest with the nice color guard I am Cadet Lieutenant Commander this afternoon and then we will have Cadet petty officer first class Curtis Eppley being the left
004rifle with petty officer first class Burleson being the state flag and Lieutenant Junior grade rabbits being on the right back thank you could we rise please oh my God February colors ready right go away all right Hollow guard help right face reason colors ready salute pledge of the United States of America foreign [Music] face oh word March Color Guard help right thanks post the colors left face oh word March thank you thank you and you may be seated and thank you Cadets the next item of business on our agenda this evening is public input and comments regarding the superintendent search and selection and the board has reserved until 6 30 PM for that time to happen now I need to tell you if you're here to address the board for some other reason you may
005also address the board in this session regarding the superintendent searching selection and so far we have one person who has signed up to address the board regarding the superintendent selection this season so uh Mr David patenew has signed up to speak to that matter and I need to tell you that you have three minutes if you're speaking on your own behalf and that the board will not respond except to clarify uh particular points that you may raise it's not a time for us to debate but a time for the board to listen and the public to speak so sir you may uh begin when ready one question all right what this this portion is only for the superintendents but uh I think you are also signed up to speak for another issue and those will
006be later on in the meeting at the appropriate place on the agenda see that one okay um my interest in addressing you all about the superintendent search goes back to to superintendents ago when we made a terrible mistake in his County and hired a lady that Martini lady um the worst choice that could happen when she left everywhere else she was they dismissed her from wherever she went to terrible choice and uh there were several times that the board could have dismissed her I know one time that I and the teachers had provided some email things but they did and we were stuck with her until she left I would hate to see this County go through that again um I hope when it gets narrowed down that somebody will go to wherever this person's
007coming from and do just a few minutes of Investigation you can find out a lot going to a neighborhood in the system about what a person's really like and the other issue that a lot of these people are here about tonight that should be considered the type person that you're hiring uh I believe you can see the support for what's going to come up a little later and so we need to be thinking about that one other comment that was made several years ago when we went through the deal with her one of the board members told me everybody wasn't for her and there was a some discussion but they all voted for because they wanted to show Unity when they did that that's not why we we didn't elect you all together we selected
008each one of you by a vote so we can hire or fire you buy that vote so please stand on your own if y'all don't agree on the person let us you know vote the way you you want not just to be unified and ship so to show support for the new superintendent that bothered me a lot when that was sent to me last uh last time or time before last that's all thank you all right thank you sir are there others that may wish to speak well I tell you what it's about 12 minutes after according to that clock we'll hold the floor open until 15 after and then if no one desires to speak to the superintendent selection then we'll entertain a motion to proceed with the meeting is that agreeable to the
009board okay all right thank you [Music] okay anyone else desire to dress the board and make your feelings known about the selection of the superintendent all right if not then the board would entertain a motion to close this portion of public input and move along with the agenda so is there a motion to do so yeah so miss silver makes the motion hey Miss moomo makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor of continuing with the meeting and closing this portion of public input raise your right hand and the motion carries thank you all so we'll continue on with the business session of the meeting then and I'm going to call on our interim superintendent Mr Brian Oliver to update the board and the public on a lot of big
010happenings over the last 30 days thank you sir Mr English members of the board special guests School leaders students thanks for being here tonight since our last meeting we held our leadership team meeting at Pleasant Gardens Elementary School we had our bid opening for the McDowell High School athletic upgrades projects and then we had a special call board meeting to discuss and consider those bids we had an endowment fund board meeting we had parent advisory committee which is a committee made up of all of our teachers of the Year from each School that's always a wonderful group to meet with Miss Phillips is our district Teacher of the Year this year and she is part of that group as well I also had the opportunity to attend the state superintendent's quarterly meeting and during that
011meeting we were recognized in two or three different ways as a district we recognized as being one of the few programs in the state that has a fire safety program in our CTE program which is a wonderful program that trains future firefighters and we're really proud of that and proud of our whole Public Safety Academy which that that firefighter Academy's part of we were also recognized for being one of only seven districts in the state that has completed letters training and you may have heard about letters training over the past two years but all that hard work that has taken place has been noticed and has been recognized so one again one of seven districts that has that is now considered letters complete Mr Oliver could you just for the sake of the public could
012you explain what letters training is training that goes along with the science of reading and uh this is the chosen Curriculum by our state to teach reading to our third graders and above and um over the past two years districts have been the staff of districts have been training on the science of reading said that they would better be able to teach students to read and so we're again we're one of the first seven districts in the state who has completed that mandated training by the state we're proud of that our teachers have worked toward lots of our elementary folks are here and we appreciate all that hard work that you too we were also recognized for our programs with steam and stem at FCS and other schools I'm very proud of that as well
013we had a board work session in March March 27th to be exact I had the opportunity to attend the joint education committee meeting which is with the county and the Community College staff that's always a good meeting I had a great meeting with Sheriff Buchanan to talk about SRO issues issues always players are made with sheriff in Canada and chief Lawrence um we had a very good meeting with our CTE leadership at East Middle talking about CTE training for middle schools had the opportunity to attend the blooming Arts celebration at Nebo Elementary and I had a chance to read to some elementary students doing that celebration and that was a great event we had a special call board meeting to another special call board meeting let me say to reconsider the low bid for our
014Athletics upgrade project at McDowell High School and that project was approved with adjustments from the low bidder and so we're very happy to be moving forward with that after that we had spring break I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed an opportunity to take a week away from work and the students had a chance to take a week away from school and be with their families and family time is always important for all of us so we're very thankful for that and also the celebration of the Easter holiday during spring break teacher advisory Council met after we returned from Spring Break and that's all that's another good group to meet with these are um folks that um represent our schools and it's always a lot of fun to meet with them I had a chance Friday to
015attend the steam showcase at Mai was uh it was Mai ndmec at McDowell Tech and that's McDowell Academy for Innovation let me down early college on the campus of mtcc had a very nice event there so and in one event that I didn't put on the report today had the opportunity to meet with a mineral a member of the general assembly Mr edger who is from Buncombe County but he came down to visit our Head Start program and because they would they were looking to try to improve their Head Start program in Buncombe County and that was very interesting that that his interest in our program because it's so highly thought of Statewide so you'll hear from Dr Delaney shortly um they do a great job Dr Delaney in her program and then the last
016thing I have um for tonight is in regard to the work session on March 27th and during that work session the board heard from the board attorney regarding the need for all School administrators to be updated on current statutes and cases regarding bullying harassment and discrimination is defined in law the board has agreed that legal training for this purpose is a priority for our district at this time and this training will be part of our summer Leadership Conference that we have each summer so we'll be having that we'll be getting that scheduled and that will be very meaningful training that we we all need to be updated on that's all I have for my report sir all right okay well if you would sir could we uh continue on with our student recognitions and I'm
017not sure our students are in the other conference room Miss family can you grab them okay Miss Finley I'd like to introduce to you Ms Mary Finley she is our Career and Technical education director uh started out just at McDowell High School but now has expanded to East and West Middle Schools as well and uh very very active programming a lot of a lot of students learning a lot of different things thank you I appreciate that well good evening so it's my pleasure to be back here again to recognize the great things we have going on in CTE so two of our Career and Technical student organizations completed competed at the state conference last month and this month and we want to recognize those winners so I'm going to start with our Deca students and
018the students competing in individual series events Miss Addison Cunningham she competed in the apparel and accessories and placed sixth overall in the state all right [Applause] Miss Olivia Brown competed in the apparel and accessories as well and placed fourth overall in the states Mr Gannon malambi competed in entrepreneurship and placed second in the state and in these series of events the students had to take a hundred question multiple choice test in the category that they were competing in and then they were required to do two 10-minute role plays in front of a judge and then the test score and role play scores were averaged together to get their overall score so all right and next students that competed in team decision making Events first Elise preachered and Sophie Pittman these students competed in the hospitality
019Services team decision making and placed second in the state thank you [Applause] Sophie thank you and the same in this event students had to take a hundred question multiple choice test and then as a team they had to do a 15-minute role play and one in front of one to three judges so and then again those scores were average to get the overall score and then next competing in a virtual business challenge is Mr Bailey moss and Tyler Tran I think we know these gentlemen before that's been here and in this virtual business challenge each team has two rounds to play in order to qualify for the ICDC which is the International Conference coming up during these rounds they are in charge of running a virtual business and for this category they are running a
020restaurant they have a virtual year and usually between 10 to 15 minutes to make as much money as possible the first round took place in October and the second round took place in January Tyler and Bailey placed high enough in the first round to qualify for Internationals and if and once they get to ICDC they will compete in two live final challenges to see who places at the top of their category and if you remember Tyler has won first in the last two years and we know he's going to hold on to that title for this year so we're proud of these statements I also want to recognize our teachers Ms Heather Martin and Mr Todd Queen and I want to point out that Heather's been teaching for 10 years but this is only her
021second year in marketing with us in CT and this is Todd's very first year of teaching so we're very proud of what they have accomplished in this short amount of time and so these deck of members and teachers will be leaving on Friday to head to the ICDC International Conference and in Orlando Florida and we know that they're going to represent us well and make us proud so congratulations foreign [Applause] thank you you look great I know it's very professional here create another group okay all right I think we have some more students coming in to be recognized for all their hard work thank you [Music] okay so our next group that I will recognize is their future Business Leaders of America otherwise known as FBLA so at the regional competition that was held at
022Haywood County on December the 2nd and the regional North Carolina FBLA board places a limit on the number of students that we can represent McDowell High School with but those that went to Regionals competed very well and these students placed in the top four in their subject area allowing them to continue on at the state level so miss Carmen Ramirez Rodriguez placed first place in accounting and she is a senior at McDowell High School he's not here and that the region read Mr James price plays first place in business Communications Miss Rebecca lowen placed second in the intro to public speaking [Applause] okay [Applause] [Laughter] I also want to point out that she is a freshman and today is her birthday so happy birthday and then Jenna Rankin plays fourth place in public speaking at
023the regional and then our students moved on to attend the state competition in Greensboro on March the 23rd through the 25th and the hospitality and event management students qualified for the state competition by completing an objective test and placing in the top 15 of the regional competition and at the state level they had to present a case study to the judges so Miss Gracie Patterson and Katie show placed fourth place in hospitality and event management in the state [Applause] yes thank you and in the business management students qualified for state competition by again completing an objective test and placing in the top 15 and at the state competition students were given a case study to prepare and present and in second place in the state in business management is Miss Emerson Presley and Mr James
024cross [Applause] and next I would like to introduce our wonderful business teachers Miss Angie Allison [Applause] and Miss Courtney interest foreign CTE but I'd honestly like to point out that this is misinterest It's first year as well teaching and they have made a great team and they have revived our FBLA program and I also want to point out that um this is the first time in over a decade that McDowell High School FBLA has qualified for the National Convention so we are super super proud [Applause] and these State winners will now go on to the National leadership conference in Atlanta Georgia June the 27th through the 30th and we know they're going to bring home the goal there and do great things and represent us well no pressure but no pressure um so we're very
025proud of this so congratulations [Applause] foreign we want to take one quick second and tell you about our new upcoming Boutique if you remember when you were at the high school Under the tour we're almost ready um so we want these teachers to share a little bit of information about that all right yes we would love to introduce to you and take a moment to talk to you about Moxie that is our completely student run and student-led boutique I have the pleasure of having it attached to my classroom so I get the distinct honor of getting to work with it quite intimately with my entrepreneurship to class in this the students have completely helped make all the decisions on what fixtures are going into the store um the mannequins that we bought to display our
026merchandise and they even are going through the process of God buying quote unquote the merchandise from the wonderful donations that we have received by the way we need more particular men's clothes so hint hint please bring your staff um and so the students get the distinct um unique opportunity to help open a store from the ground up they have made decisions on understanding the pricing structure to a promotional plan as well as a strategic plan to help ensure that we continue on in this program for years to come and it doesn't just stop with them we are incredibly proud of them and the talent that we have at McDowell High School is definitely something to be proud of and something that we do not take lightly so thank you for your contribution and we'd like
027to invite you on May 26th from about 8 30 to 10. please come see us we'll give you more details to come but please enjoy the first invitation that's been sent out and that design was brought to life by one of our very own Mr Wesley minnis who's with his skills USA team um competing he's also a cohort of our CTE program and we are delighted to be able to work together so thank you very much for your time and we can't wait to see you and you and thank you [Applause] all right so ladies thank you very much especially I I would just like to recognize um Miss Finley we hear great things about our CTE program all the time and the fact that we have brand new teachers in some of our programs
028and in one program one brand new teacher and one teacher who's new to the program right and they're still doing great things and that's Deca FBLA is coming back on the scene for the first time in a while and doing a great job now my personal experience I started in education way back in 1996 as a business ed teacher at Watauga High School so I certainly appreciate what what you folks do and thank you for your efforts and thank you for the way you represent McDowell County and McDowell High School thank you thank you [Applause] and next we will hear from our district teacher of the year is Kelly Phillips thank you Mr Oliver and Mr English and members of the board as always it is an honor to be back in front of you
029um I don't know when I'm ever gonna not be nervous so I apologize to the crowd I'm used to five-year-olds for those of you who don't know me and so T speaking in front of all these adults makes me a little bit nervous but this month I want to share with you another highlight from the high school um so those of you who know me know that I teach kindergarten and I my realm is k-6 and I truly believe that God places a colleague on each person's life and I thank him so much for allowing me to work with little children because when I set foot in front of teenagers including my own and their friends it makes me extremely nervous but I did get to go spend a little bit of time with Miss
030Bennett at the high school about two months ago and talk to her a little bit about something amazing that is happening there at the high school so for those of you who don't know teachers like to use a lot of letters and a lot of acronyms so my husband is somewhere out here my dad and anyone who has teachers in your family you're going to hear us throughout words like s-o-r-p-b-l-p-l-cs um mtss RTI and so if you hear those letters just know that they all have meaning and so members of the board mtss multi-tier system of support this is something that the state has implemented a long time ago when I first started teaching about 18 years ago we had care teams it was we were looking for students who were they were at risk
031for something and it evolved into RTI response to intervention now RTI falls under mtss so mtss is multi-tier System of support and I know that anyone who's heard me speak throughout this year the goal of every teacher in this County whether you teach kindergarten preschool Head Start High School 13th grade at the Early College if you're part of the community college system the goal is for every child every student to find success it is our responsibility to be able to find ways that help them be successful and we know that every child every student they're not going to be successful in the same ways but we are going to find ways to help them do what they need to do be the person they need to be so that when they graduate high school when
032they graduate from our community colleges they can come back to our community because that's what we want and they can be a thriving member of our society so at the high school they do it a little bit differently when I hear mtss in kindergarten we are finding students who when they are tested on reading and math they might have some gaps so in elementary school we are filling in the gaps by providing interventions and reading and math and skills like that but has goes a little differently they are doing that they are filling in the gaps for the core but it goes a little bit beyond that so what mtss is the definition it's defined as a comprehensive framework designed to address the academic behavioral and social emotional needs of each student in the most
033inclusive and Equitable learning environment more than just RTI it is a whole school framework that organizes the people programs and policies into an integrated support system that begins in tier one two years ago maybe three I was able to hear Miss Bennett when I went to teacher leadership at ncat and like I said it's a whole school framework if you have not been able to hear her presentation that she has presented for the the regional she's presented to the whole region and they came and they wanted to hear her present I encourage you guys get her to present because she's going to do a way better job than me but I'm just going to hit the highlights but the high school is really doing a great job especially when you look at the whole school
034how can they help each student be successful so if you look at this upside down pyramid or the pyramid's not upside down we start at the bottom every student in our county is tier one they're receiving core instruction tier two they need a little bit of support they're strategic and by the time you reach tier three they need intensive support So for those teacher talk we know what this means we have to layer upon layer upon layer to get what students need but the thing that you need to understand is every student all means all all students can be successful we can find interventions that will help them and the high school's doing a great job of this so what are they doing for that bottom level tier one instruction they're focusing on their core
035so one thing that Miss Bennett has done and what they've done at the high school is at the beginning of this year they had 10 teaching strategies that they focused on she presented that and that was part of their profession PDP like I said we love acronyms PDP is your professional development plan so each teacher got to choose three three of those that they wanted to focus on in their classrooms there was professional development that was delivered at the Boi the beginning of the year like I said we love acronyms so each year was that each teacher was then asked to choose three of those 10 to implement throughout the year and what Ms Bennett is doing and what they're doing at faculty meetings is they are choosing teachers who are highlighting these each month
036and so then they get to Showcase ways that they're focusing on these strategies because the strategies that teachers use is what's helping the students become successful so one of the things that they're doing is Titan Pride so in 2018 the high school started working on classroom management skills then they focused on building relationships and providing stability for students I know we've heard a lot especially in the last several years our students are not going to be successful without the relationships that we build with those it's not just relationships with the teachers it's not just relationships with this it has to be a whole school we have to build that Community if a child feels like they're involved they're going to be successful so Titan Pride home rooms were implemented in fact several years ago the
037students remain in those homerooms throughout four years after the high school so they have one common person to come back to a group that they can someone that they can have support with someone that they're going to rely on and so they meet Tuesday and Thursdays of each week and by next year what they're going to do is they're going to use that time to provide tier two instruction so tier two remember tier one everybody 's at tier one we're all getting those instructions tier two they might need a little bit support a little bit extra so that is where it's going to be provided at the high school level Elementary's slightly different we do tier two kind of differently but High School I like this idea so some of the training that the teachers
038have been provided they've had impact to help the teachers what impact can they have on students so it's not just academics we know that by the time a student reaches High School the core the foundational skills have already they need to have already been met like the basic skills so now they are trying to find other things environmental interactions reflecting on how do students feel in the classroom what's strong and more supportive relationships um they've had characters strong training I did that presentation it's something that the whole county is doing I did that one back in December so I imagine it's very similar to the character strong that we're doing just for high schoolers not so much for elderly they've had Amy Dean come in um some of her training and then psyop training and
039the one thing that I thought was I mean one thing I want to mention when I was in high school a couple back in I graduated 2000 Titan Pride was not the same thing so when Miss Bennett was telling about top prize oh I said I was part of time Pride I got a sticker that let me park in a special parking spot that's what proud was for us so uh it's great that it's still the same name but it's something a little different but so another thing that they're very proud of and this is what impressed me the most was the Titan Bridge so I don't know if you've had a chance to talk to Miss Bennett about Titan bridge but Titan Bridge does focus on the core it's brought they brought it back
040for students who just need that extra support but might not get it at home so some of the activities that they're doing in Titan Bridge they have reading skills social skills they have field trips to colleges Next Year Ms Bennett mentioned that they're going to take field trips around the county there's some students who may have never even been to restaurants around our County so they're going to take these and give them the experiences that they need just to see what our community offers um the great thing about this class is they get an English credit plus the Titan Bridge credit so they're kind of getting two credits from that how are these students selected they're based it's based on feedback from their eighth grade teachers and the 8th grade teachers suggest Titan Bridge students
041that they're not major disciplined kids it might just be those kids who fall between the cracks because remember the purpose of mtss is to find all the students provide everyone with that multi-tiered system of support so the students who might be following back they could be students who are EC or exceptional exceptional children or it could be students who are just in the standard classes but there are four EC teachers and four devoted teachers who have agreed and I know that one of the teachers is Miss Holly Keller who is one of their teachers of the year and I know from experience I had one of her I had her son in fourth grade so he is she's amazing but they they're working closely together they have agreed to stay with these students all four
042years the success rate of passing their other classes has increased each year since it's been implemented and of the students who were predicted to possibly not graduate that group out of that group they are still staying in the program they're there and it's 25 students per class so there's a hundred students who are being impacted through Tatton bridge and like I said for me I didn't I didn't really fully understand what mtss looked like at the high school level I'm used to seeing students who just oh we're going to go and we're gonna do reading fluency and we're going to do math addition facts but it's more than that we know that if you saw back on that first slide that I presented when you look at it it's not just the academic it's not
043just behavioral it's social emotional it's all the needs and we know now more than ever especially coming back the last two years after covet our kids have more behavioral and social emotional issues than ever before people in the community I wish I wish that you could see how hard teachers are working amen we love these kids we love them and we want what's best for them whether you teach kindergarten or whether you teach 13th graders in Early College every teacher that I know loves these kids and our hearts hurt when we see them hurting but class is like Titan Bridge and the social emotional I promise you we are doing everything we can to give them what they need and they are loved and we will keep doing that and it's going to be programs
044like the Titan bridge at the high school it's going to be that social emotional learning making sure that they are not just passing the academics because that is important and you heard me present all science of reading and I am a firm believer and I will preach that forever because it's amazing but we have to meet them where they are and we are doing that and we are taking Miss Bennett has done a fabulous job I really encourage you to have her come present to you because she's going to knock it out of the park way better than me um I got to hear a couple years ago it's great the things that are happening and as scared as I am of teenagers I would gladly go watch her in action at the high school
045but um teenagers scare me a little bit it was okay but every child deserves to be successful every child in McDowell County is loved and cared for and we are providing everything we can to make sure that every child graduates not just with the academics that they need but with the skills that they need to be successful and come back and thrive in our community and for those who don't want to come back Thrive wherever the Lord wants them to be thank you good job I don't feel like I did Justice to letters training as far as letting people know what that is about you know it much more I know I understand you just tell the folks what letter straining was about so let us train the state of North Carolina has given legislation
046telling us that every teacher needs to be trained in the science of reading I love it and it's amazing so the science of reading it's going back to teaching the basic fundamentals of how the brain works how are we going to teach these children to read it starts out with environmental print so those of you who may not know it was 96 hours of training and it was hard it was it's basically equivalent of a master's level course every teacher every elementary teacher at McDowell County has taken it but if they're just a first year teacher they're starting it now every teacher in North Carolina who teaches Elementary School will have this training done I don't know when we got lucky we got it done first it was hard it was a lot of work
047but the purpose of it is so that we better know how to teach our kids to read and I promise you it works I have taken those I've seen colleagues um who may have been trained under some different types of I know when I came to college it was balanced literacy and we were just teaching let's look at this book and we're going to look at the first letter and look at the picture and kind of oh if you don't notice it's just guess what it says but no we are teaching kids to read I have kindergartners who are sound I got multi-syllable words who are reading paragraphs who came to me not knowing a single letter and they are it it is amazing so members of the public go into your Elementary classrooms ask
048someone to show you you are welcome anybody who wants to come to my classroom you can come any day anytime I promise I'm not going to be offended just check in at the office you can come in um it's great so letters training l-e-t-r-s Crystal hit me what is that I don't even remember what it stands for it's just language something I don't know what it stands for I know the so are science of reading like I said teachers love acronym I just call it letters training it's two years of training you get 96 hours with going back how is the brain wired how do we teach what are we going to do to make sure that every child can read it's great stuff okay thank you thank you [Applause] Miss Phillips thank you thank
049you again uh Miss Smith is there any correspondence for the board this evening no correspondence Okay so we've come to that time on the agenda excuse me when the board hears uh public comment and uh each person has signed that desires to speak has signed a request to address the board and they'll be called in the order in which they were received but before we get started I need to need to read this to you we welcome you to our meeting tonight you're invited to dress the board through this public comment session it's a time for you to address the board and it's a time for the board to listen to you board members won't respond except to request the clarification of a point you have made however incorrect or misleading information may be responded
050to at the direction of the board chair you're allowed to dress the board concerning any topic that's within this board's jurisdiction but pursuant to confidentiality concerns and matters related to due process this board will not hear issues or concerns either positive or negative regarding specific employees or students now if you have a concern about a specific employee or student matter please contact Mr Brian Oliver here our interim superintendent after the meeting waiting we believe that you folks will be respectful when you're addressing the public and the board and but we do have to say that disruptions by any person or unlawful now you're allowed to speak for three minutes and you can only speak once during this portion of public comment me multiple speakers presenting for the same topic may choose one speaker for the
051crew who shall be allocating no more than five minutes so our first person that signed up to address the board this evening is Miss Bonnie Childers and she is speaking on behalf of a group of folks and so miss Childers has been allowed up to five minutes to speak to the board this evening and she the topic she would like to address the boar down is uh either Vote or non-vote on the Dei initiative slash Dream Builders now when you get Miss Childers Miss Dowler does not own a joy buzzer I promise so when she Taps you on the shoulder you won't you won't get a charge okay you can begin whenever you're ready and Miss doubt we'll let you know when you have this that we hear public comments okay oh well may I
052guess I got ahead of myself okay so Mr Frank makes a motion to hear the public in public comment Ms moomo makes a second is there any discussion if not all in favor okay so the motion carries nine alt and we're set to go and this child the floor is yours my name is Bonnie Childers my husband John was a teacher in McDowell County for 29 years my father-in-law was principal at North Coast School my mother-in-law sister-in-law great aunt and niece are or have been teachers in McDowell County so I have a history of McDowell I'm so very thankful and want to thank the board that you will no longer at this time seek to initiate Dei in our schools but I find it deeply disturbing that our McDowell County School Board even considered it
053and even though the issue has been dropped I will I will speak on it today as I believe it deserves a closer look like so many things that have made headlines lately build back better or the inflation reduction act the name implies one thing but the reality is exactly the opposite the same is true for Dei diversity equity and inclusion implies that it is about fairness and stopping racism and discrimination after last month's meeting I did extensive research on just what Dei is and I found it does the exact opposite of what it claims most eye-opening was an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled The woke indoctrination machine where two journalists studied leaked videos of actual Dei workshops and I emailed each of you that uh that article so just what did these videos
054show about Dei diversity up until a few weeks ago Silicon Valley Bank loved to brag about the diversity of their board of directors trouble is only one of them had any banking experience and we all know what happened to give someone preference for anything because of an extraneous physical characteristic like skin color is the very definition of racism Dei training teaches that because of your skin color you are automatically an oppressor privileged or a victim and if you don't think you're a victim they have a workshop to teach you that you are Dei teaches that white supremacy culture and its characteristics need to be eliminated now who wouldn't agree with that I certainly do but then you look at what the characteristics are that they list worship of the written word niceness punctuality objectivity individualism
055and capitalism according to Dei need to be eliminated equity we're living in a world where equity and equality have gotten mixed up and I don't think that's by accident in this country our Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantees everyone equal opportunity not a guarantee of equal outcome we are free to succeed and we are free to fail Equity wipes out personal responsibility inclusion I could spend all day on this one but as I'm limited to five minutes I'll only say this we the people of McDowell County will not allow biological males in our girls restrooms and locker rooms we will not allow mute the biological males to destroy our girls Sports we will not allow the mutilation or sexualization of little kids and lastly I say this in all seriousness we will not allow the
056Marxist indoctrination of our children in closing last month the young lady spoke about how she and her classmates became angry when they learned on a trip about the 1965 civil rights history of Selma Alabama they were angry that they had never been taughted in school I absolutely agree our schools must teach history this is a time when we desperately need the wisdom and teaching of Dr Martin Luther King especially when he said he looked for a day when people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character sadly because of the threat of ideologies like Dei we are still looking for that day thank you [Applause] okay the next person who signed up to address the board this evening is Neil shunky did I say that right
057okay and he wants to speak on Dei concerns and I take it from your act uh request here that you're not speaking on behalf of a group no okay so Mr shunky you have three minutes and when you're getting close okay I think we've heard from teacher the year that every teacher loves these kids I think we believe we love our students and to take and say that we need someone a whole program to take and reindoctrinate them because they don't love our students either they're either wrong-headed or they're stupid goes against our whole whole being it's demeaning to our teachers um but I also want to say that even if the program was free that this is not something that I would want for our children Dei would be a new Focus for us
058but is it is it is it going along with our Pledge of Allegiance one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all looking at diversity I mean we're going to take put names on people and give them labels and put them in a box that's not one nation dude is that what we want for our children we had we had one person that spoke last time I listened to her and she said she was always ashamed to be Hispanic do Would we not rather that she was proud to be an American you that that idea of dividing into special groups with special privileges goes so far against the grain of our country we want to be a Melting Pot Listen to Body killers and she spoke very eloquently right there Martin Luther King
059I dream of one day when we won't look at the color of skin character and I mean when she spoke by inclusion I second that the when I mean listening to Dr kenson he's very enjoyable to listen to but he said something that should raise a warning flag about Dei he said we should all becoming familiar with inclusion Plus that means not just taking welcome each person treating people but to give them special rights and so that comes down to okay biological males in the women's locker room and that means not just allowing but walking them in into these personal spaces that is not fair that is not Equitable in any way shape or form to our women okay so what I would specifically ask the board because I know that there's been discussions about
060making a Dei statement I would ask you no please now okay that instead one sentence all persons will be treated fairly yeah [Applause] okay next step is Miss Linda Brown and she put down that she wants to speak to the board in support of the board and I take it you're not speaking on behalf of a group okay okay well you may yes ma'am okay all right Miss Brown Since you're speaking on your own behalf you have three minutes that you can say what's on your mind to the board well I think everything is pretty much there so I will read it except for my closing line which um um and also I do want to take time to really support and and say I appreciate the board's decision to uh inform and teach um
061our teachers the the uh legal outlines or whatever it is that you referred to as far as educating them um on how to handle um different things so um my name is Linda Brown and I speak to the school board tonight in support of your decision to dismiss the services of Dream Builders and hopefully any future outside organizations which may further escalate departure from the disciplines required and successful education of our children and adults I enclose a short expert excerpt taken from the University of Michigan's web page page to verify the incompetency of comparisons like those their website displays to compare education with partying is not only incompetent but irresponsible in my opinion a departure from reality yes education should be fun have a party in is hardly the proper perspective with a rigorous disciplines
062of Education which our country desperately needs to regain our once former recognition of being highly competitive on the world stage verbatim taking from University of Michigan's website our chief inaugural officer Robert sellers often emphasized the importance of all three topics diversity equity and inclusion which he likened to varying aspects of attending a party diversity is where everyone is invited to the party inclusion means that everyone gets to contribute to the playlist Equity means that everyone has the opportunity to dance or experience the music how our country has come to an accept an institution of Higher Learning approaching the education of adults in the name of preparing them for success in life with this mindset is nothing shy of a travesty this is a blatant attack on exclusion from America's education system Christian doctrines that were
063taught in the founding of our Educational Systems in America trying to remake rename or Rebrand the foundational truths key in Christian scriptural doctrines to steal God's glory or exclude his name's sake has been responsible in many Minds across this country and counties and brought the disastrous outcomes which we see nightly in our news I'm informed that I cannot carry on but there is another sentence or paragraph but enclosure I offer continual encouragement and personal involvement by sharing ideas for promoting peaceful environment in McDowell County Public Schools I have a VA in art studio which there occurred to me to offer my time and energy with creating signage within our schools so I am here um you know whatever I can offer to help make things a more peaceful and productive atmosphere in our schools thank
064you [Applause] okay the next person who signed up was Mr William Bach and he wants to address the board regarding Dei and sir I take it that you're also not speaking on behalf of a group okay so he's asked for three minutes and you may begin whenever you are ready good evening uh for those of you that don't know me my name is Bill Bach for the last four years I have set as a Board of Trustees over here at McDowell Tech Community College I got a pretty good idea what you're all up against one of the things that we offer over there is a course called social diversity it is mandatory I repeat mandatory by the North Carolina University system with everything that's going on and people asking me how did we get to
065this situation I enrolled myself in this course and expose myself to it to see what it was all about there's nothing more than a social and emotional indoctrination of our children it affects business it's worked its way into our corporations mtss I learned something tonight the letter system on the bottom of it says all means all we owe that to our kids all means all to start that education we also sit and watched a parade of the best that we've got in the top 10 in our state they didn't get there through diversity Equity inclusion they worked for it diversity Equity inclusion should be nothing more than the Golden Rule but it has become hyper extended to the point that diversity is used as a wedge to drive between different groups of people Equity the
066sacred game of baseball you strike out at the plate you get to go to first base you hit to the grounder to shortstop he throws you out at first you still get to go to first base you bounce one off the Home Run wall maybe almost a triple you gotta stop at first base where's the incentive these students at paraded before us tonight knew the difference they could see through it 84 WLS did a a report that came off Stanford University 84 percent of the people that they talk to about Dei will lie they'll lie if they're confident enough they know that they're not going to get bit in the butt for what they say because we live in the shadows of lawsuits 84 percent of them will lie to you I know that we're
067going to make an attempt so I thank you for doing it my only caution is when you're going through the training that we're going to do please proceed with an open mind and do not become indoctrinated yourself thank you [Applause] okay next up is Dr Eric grindstaff and he wants to address the board on deep Dei and sir are you speaking as an individual or on behalf of a group adds a little unclear okay so Mr Dr grindstaff uh you have five minutes allotted under the rules and you may begin when whenever you're ready sir thank you my name is Dr Eric grindstaff I'm the pastor of Grace Baptist Church and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of CPR let me say to you as the board thank you for your service and we thank you
068for your decision concerning Dei tonight I speak for myself a group of pastors several churches many teachers in our school system that we pastor and many students I'm going to share something a little strange in this meeting but it's my wheelhouse Romans chapter number 2 verse 11 says for there is no respect of persons with God the Greek word that is translated respect means favoritism or partiality with God there is no favoritism with God there is no partiality this issue has been most concerning to us we want to be on the record tonight with Hugh Satan without any doubt we are opposed to this that's right we are diabolically opposed to racism we are diabolically opposed to the mistreatment of any individual we want to be clear with what we disagree about I can't speak
069to all the issues with my time but let me speak to equity we disagree with the principles that are brought up with equity we are for equality this is the equal treatment of every individual equity seeks to place value on an individual and devalue other individuals when you get into some of the teachings we are taught through Dei that there are some folks who are benefactors because of what part what area they fall into and others are oppressors because of what area they fall into according to this the greatest oppressor is a white male over the age of 50 who is a Christian according to that ladies and gentlemen I am an oppressor personally I'm highly offended at that anyone who would say that of me doesn't know me or the intent of my heart
070many of you sitting on this board I have worked side by side with you in areas in our community to see that those who are underprivileged of our community get the resources that they need and the help that they need I am told that one of the greatest reasons that I am an oppressor is because of my Christian faith of which I am not ashamed as a matter of fact my Christian faith ought to be celebrated by the community because it is my Christian faith that has taught me that all individuals are created in the image of God for that reason they are worthy of respect they are worthy of honor from the time of my childhood I have been taught red yellow black and white they're all precious in His size that's the way
071that I feel tonight to label me a racist and by the way that's why many will not speak out because we are worried about how we will come across to our community that we would be labeled a racist because we oppose these principles you'll have to convince the Hispanic children through the years that have come through my church you'll have to walk with me in Walmart look down to the other end of the aisle and watch the children of color come around when they see me at the under end and run down the aisle of Walmart crying preacher Eric running and grabbing me around the knees and loving on me we are concerned that the board has allowed this issue to go as far as it has we applaud what you have done we stand
072with our County Commissioners in the decision that they have made and in the future if need be we will go to them and ask them to fulfill the promise that they made thank you okay next the person who desires to dress the board this evening is Taylor White and wants to speak on diversity and equity and are you representing the group or speaking individually the same representing teachers who are speaking out against the yeah can I do or for it can I say it camera five minutes ah well you didn't sign up as addressing the speaking on behalf of a group so maybe can you say what you need to say in three I'll try I bet you can all right y'all I didn't know we were going to church today and this is off
073screen I'll start with the fact that Jesus right he prefers Equity okay the people who walked by the beggar they were experiencing equality they were allowing the person to suffer because they were at a disadvantage equity is when Jesus stood him up and helped him see that's what Equity is my name is Taylor white I'm a sixth grade teacher and I've been a teacher in McDowell County schools for two years they say use your privilege so here I am I'm privileged to be able to speak my mind about the current system as I transition out of Education after this I would like to speak on behalf of equity and diversity diversity inclusion in the classroom in my class we shed light on those who have not traditionally been visible to elaborate I must first give
074this explanation the schooling most of us received come from the great man Theory a system in which our history has been told by glorifying one or two individuals about a purpose or incident that was not entirely their own this means that you can tell me about Martin Luther King Jr what can you tell me about Mahalia Jackson King's long-term friend who stood with him staying with him and even encouraged him to give the ACT to have a dream speech you can talk about Robert Frost in the road he took but can you tell me about the hill that a man before we clocked my students can talk about people like yui Morales a Mexican-American who came to this country a non-native speaker learned English from the books she received and now she is a renowned
075author and illustrator that celebrates her cultures like in her bilingual books dreamers my kids know the name of Tommy Alexander an African-American author who has tackled more genres and topics than most could ever dreamed as I typed this I look toward my bookshelf sing topics covered from indigenous stories to tells of slavery the Civil Rights Movement ASD and dyslexia as well as school shootings the Holocaust and Stalin tyranny in Russia all of these are grade level appropriate texts and um they've all been uplifted through some type of academic means as in they've been picked up by Scholastic they've received children's literature Awards Etc my students deserve to see their whole self represented in their academic resources their whole self includes not only their cultural ethnic religious or extracurricular identity but they should also be able
076to see their own family dynamic in these resources as well as in students should be exposed to different home lives that might not include a mom dad or a yellow dog my kids are more important than feelings or tradition my kids already know who they are and according to rudyn Sims Bishop a well-respected researcher of children's literature it's my job to show them who they can be by accessing mirror's windows and sliding glass doors to skip ahead sliding glass doors allow students to step into a world and may not have much experience with I'm here to stand up for teachers who are finding these resources on our own and I'm standing up to any bully who tries to tell me that my students do not deserve to be seen in their education if someone chooses
077to protect tradition they are not protecting students all right thank you okay the next person that has wants to address the board this evening is Dr Tom Walker and he wants to speak on uh Dei and uh you are also representing the CPR group is is that right cprm I represented okay can we take the vote well I'm just trying to to see whether you know okay you need five or three say what I'm with the group okay all right but I'll be brief it won't take you five minutes okay okay all right you you can begin whenever you're ready sir I'm Dr Tom Walker I'm pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church and president of Foothills Baptist Bible College I was born and raised in McDowell County I love this County and I want the
078best for it and for our children I'm concerned about the mentality that we feel we need others to come into our County to solve our problems do we not have the intelligence and the training I believe we do to solve our own problems why bring people in who probably have a different set of values than we've gotten it just doesn't add up to me and the majority is not for working toward a woke agenda I found out in my church that some things if I started it's going to lead to something else so it's better off to take care of something right up front instead of one thing leading to something else that's undesirable I believe our people are bright enough and intelligent enough to take care of our problems locally if I were a
079principal and the school board brought somebody in to tell me after I've been trained to be a principal to come in and tell me how to direct my school I would be offended School Board I won't ask you a question do we have the intelligence to take care of our problems doing I believe we do I believe you have the ability to do it and Let's do let's take care of our own problems all right okay all right there are no others that have signed up to address the board this evening so we'll close this portion of public comment and we'll move along to item number 11 unfinished business and uh Mr Oliver there's there's one more okay we don't want to give everybody a chance oh that's right I forgot all about it Mr
080bad news you wanted to address the board on this Bill Stanley uh principal in Nashville who said though uh he was a Native American redneck I probably am I always thought Dei stood for Dale Earnhardt radio this garbage anyway I'm a Christian I think I think a lot of these folks in here will say the same thing and uh we all know God didn't make mistakes amen well boys were males were created females were created you do have a choice you've got a choice when you're 21 to buy liquor and a hard drink but it shouldn't be when you're 7 or 17 in our schools the other thing I'd like to and I'm done because everything's been well said but we were spending 24 000 on this this project and two months ago I was
081in here we talked about money for your reading letters program give it to her if we've got the 24 000 click music music and the children can really benefit from reading's the best thing it can take you everywhere it can take you everywhere let's use it that way thank you all right again Mr Pat note I apologize I've almost overlooked yes sir also uh just for the public record there is a hey uh statement here from a large group of people that will also put in our public record thank you okay [Music] um [Music] okay then we'll continue on and the next item number 11 on our agenda this evening unfinished business we need to talk and update the public on McDowell High School tennis courts multi-purpose field project and Mr Oliver would you care
082to leave that for us sir yes sir so I have great news today um our grading contractor which is a local company of Bennett graders they broke ground today and started with the demo of the two older buildings down to practice field and they'll also be they brought in equipment today and they'll start demo work on the fencing tomorrow if they didn't already start that as well and then they'll start removal of the first set of trees that will be taken out to make way for the erosion control Basin and then after that once that's in place then you'll start to work on the retaining wall portions of the project so we have Broken Ground so things are moving yeah all right it's been a long process but things are starting to happen now yes
083projected to be completed in Windows Tendencies okay sir so Mr settles asked that question when we met with uh the uh the gentleman who's running the project I guess we'll call him the project manager and from Wilkie construction and Sir remind me but didn't he say 240 days from from breaking ground so in his opinion that will not be ready for a women's fifth tennis season which comes first but you should be ready for it against Tennessee the practice field we're going to try to jump on that as soon as the men's tennis is over demolition other supports to do the practice field so we can save time to keep our football players uh [Music] yes sir no those are good questions and ask that very question to the project manager when he was with
084me good question okay if there's nothing else then we'll move along to item 12 new business and Dr Delaney from Head Start is here to present about the non-federal match waiver the floor is yours man and talk to you a little bit about our Head Start non-federal match waiver I know when we did our board training we discussed this a little more in depth and you give them to see the copy of this in your packet so you've had time to look over that I will just briefly review that the federal government gives head start um our budget and then they tell us that you must match that with non-federal share which is community donations cash donations from the community to match 20 of the amount of funding that they give the program so I
085have been director for eight years now and we have um well before my time and my time as director we have had to ask for a waiver from the federal government as um we have not met our non-federal match that they are requiring us to meet that 20 so um there is a lot of programs this is not unique to McDowell County there is a lot of the larger programs in Head Start that are a little more capable and able to get those Community donations that cash donation in and able to meet those waivers but a lot of the smaller more rural counties do have to ask for a waiver for this non-federal match so you do have a copy of the waiver and a copy of the budget justification the budget justification just details
086the amount of non-federal match that we have collected up until this point and it shows you the amount that we are requesting and you can see on the first page of the the waiver we are requesting a waiver of 207 623 of our 514 621 that is required so we did collect almost 307 thousand dollars in non-federal match okay I will be happy to answer any questions if you haven't yeah the non-federal matching just for the public and I know there's a lot of church groups here that includes donations and supplies and materials the the rule of thumb for what we can count as non-federal match is if our program can spend our program funds to purchase it or to pay for it then we can count that as non-federal match so we do have
087a lot of donations of clothing that has to go home with children or food to go home with children those are not things that we can purchase with our funds so that is not something we can count as match whether we can things like diapers wipes formula baby food classroom materials those types of things because those are things that the federal government has given us the funds to purchase with so we can count things like that okay thank you anyone have any questions for Ms Delaney and non-federal share a match waiver request so is there a motion then to uh approved the non-federal share match waiver then okay Mr settles makes the motion is Mr Shaffer makes the second any further discussion if not then all in favor right hand and excuse me the motion
088carries [Music] and also great great job this morning with your your monthly degree thank you it's been a busy [Laughter] oh this I'm John Mayer Khan Lancer glance at y'all spaces you guys use on that yeah whatever put together it was really put together well so continue that for everyone to see that I actually read this one before I throw it away good yeah thank you I will pass that word along to the person that designed it thank you all right next under new business is uh recommended board approved local leave and I'm going to ask Mr Oliver to begin the presentation and then Ms rampy to provide details should the board need more yes sir so this is something that Ms rampy and I had discussed several times since Christmas time um we thought
089this would be the most appropriate time as we're approaching the end of the school year and this is a way for the board to say thank you to all of our full-time staff for all the hard work for the mandated staff development that they've had to complete over the past two years uh it's been hard it's been a lot of hard work I know in your listening sessions as part of the superintendent search you've heard a lot about the hard work and some of you have heard more about it uh you know through uh former colleagues and family members it has been tough the the letters training along was extremely difficult for for elementary grade staff but there's also been other mandated staff development uh that our secondary teachers had to do because we were
090doing mandated staff development for the elementary so folks have worked hard and this is a way for the board at no cost uh to anyone in the county or any of our staff or any of our taxpayers just to say thank you to our staff for all of their hard work and I'll let Ms rampy talk to the technicality of of how bonus leave days can be used once the board approves that we will add three days for any staff to be able to use between now and June 30th a couple of the specifics are that they can't be used on student base because we don't want to affect students there are five work days at the end of the calendar but we know some especially at Illinois may be working those five work days
091at the end of the calendar so if they are not going to take those days off we can switch those for days that they have taken either in spring break Christmas break some other time which will then just increase their annual leave balance if they could take off it and so that will be working with the individual because if there's lead time taken or if we switch those times out they do not have a cash value that can't be cashed out if they were you know they have to have to and by June 30th and of course the leave does have to be approved by your supervisor but generally that would be on an onstand day anyway and they do not carry over to a subsequent year so just just from my experience sir and
092members board the absolute best way to use any bonus leave is to replace leave that you had to take because of a mandated annual lead day on the calendar so you can take bonus leave approved by the board and let's say you you use four days of it everyone used four days of annual leave for spring break mandated by the calendar so three of those annual leave days would go back to the employee replace that with the bonus Loop any questions for Mr Oliver MS rampy if not then is uh is there a motion to prove the recommendation of Mr Oliver and Ms rampy on the uh board approved locally second all right and that is for three days of local leave I think last year we granted one was that right and it is
093prorated based on the here seven half hour whatever their their day yes okay and I would just uh make sure it's explicitly explained so that I was confused yes ma'am and I appreciate so much you clarifying that for me they don't have to take the days it can go back retroactively and I think that's the difference in the day that they were given last year is they had to take the day and so I I want people to understand we're not asking you you've been planning to work in your classroom finally on some work days now we're asking you to give three of those work days up that's where I was confused so I do want to um publicly thank you for explaining that to me that they can go back and make those days
094up yes ma'am it's also a really huge benefit for our brand new teachers who sure probably have a negative Fleet balance after the first shoot and so this allows them to again go back and replace three days that were mandated as annual leave on the calendar not be possibly not be at a negative balance at the end of the school year that's a that's a tough road okay anyone any other discussion if not then all in favor of the motion and the motion carries museums unanimously all right okay all right thank you time now for uh board reports any members have anything particular to report okay Miss silver I have to have children one is for Head Start and one 's update um on the curriculum and so which one would you prefer that I
095do first let's do head starts all right so uh as always my favorite um thing where did she go there she is you're always over there um my favorite part about board meeting Mondays is definitely My Head Start policy Council um Dr Dulaney I just appreciate all that you guys continue to do um just for so many families in here I'm always disappointed when we have a full house and then people leave before we're able to just brag on our people I so was I was just I was just sad to see everybody leave so that's the message I'd first like to get out is we're doing so much more better in this system and I'd love for people to stick around and hear it when we do our board reports that's a that's an
096editorial comment but that's my right so anyway moving forward um one thing that I wanted to share um that I hope you heard Mr Oliver talk about is we did have a representative that came from Buncombe County unfortunately due to a tutoring commitment that I I have standing every Monday afternoon I wasn't there but representative adger who is actually Buncombe County's representative I came to McDowell County to look at our early childhood programs to look at Head Start and and to find out exactly what we're doing so well in this County and I think that's a huge compliment to Dr Delaney and to the McDowell County Head Start to miss Hamby to our our office of early learning um you know people from Buncombe County don't come to McDowell County often to see what we're
097doing well and so I appreciate the fact that their representative came here and and thank you guys for being so welcoming to them and and helping them see what they can do to follow our lead um and our Head Start uh policy council meeting today so many great things are happening I always come with the uh the appeal that we need we have positions that need to be hired and I come to you tonight to report that we just have a a part-time position now available all the other positions have been filled so that's that is such exciting news to know that those classrooms are filled that's great uh so that's great to hear um exciting also that we are looking at increasing some security systems at the doors um all of their covered money
098was spent we did not have to return any of that back we definitely want to thank Mr trinks and the maintenance department Mr Oliver for for helping to make sure that some of those measures were put in place um and then one thing too just an appeal uh Dr Dulaney shared the classroom assessment scoring system that's all class but it stands for classroom assessment scoring system where they just sit back and evaluate themselves and again this group is constantly evaluating what they're doing and I think that's why they do so well is that they are they are looking to see how they can improve they're different areas I won't get into all of it but one area that they did look at that they need some work in um would be the area of Behavioral
099Management productivity and instructional learning formats in their classroom but very specifically why some of those areas were marked a little lower is because the amount of mental health needs and behavioral challenges that are coming into Early Elementary classrooms as we've heard Ms Phillips shared every classroom teacher will share with you every administrator will share with you we have got significant behavioral needs in our classrooms right now and what we need is people we we need people to to partner with our classroom professionals one thing that that we talked about is we've got to somehow appeal to people that provide funding to help us to employ child psychologists and behavioral specialists that are going to step in and work with those youngest of Learners um so that a lot of those behavioral issues that our classroom
100teachers are not trained to deal with but they're dealing with anyway how can we partner with them to make that better so that was something that I definitely wanted to to share but as always Dr Delaney gets a joy for me 10 o'clock on on those Mondays is not penciled in as permanent marker Den because I enjoy that so um the other thing I just want to give an update and I met with Miss Hamby we've talked um about our reading curriculum and looking at the adoption of that I just wanted to update everybody on this because we we really haven't touched base as a curriculum committee I did want to thank Miss Hamby and the administrative staff as well as our teaching staff throughout the county for taking time to peruse the various curriculums
101that have been offered to us um we are looking for the one that most specifically fits teaching to Fidelity the science of reading that Miss Phillips talked about this is Senate Bill 387 which directly and explicitly says your reading curriculum will be based on the science of reading um she and I could talk about that all day long but I know that we get weighing the Weeds about how important that is it's our hope that we find one soon but we've all heard this quote before that it's better to do things right than to do them right now now and as soon as the samples of some more curriculums that she and the principals have looked at are delivered to the schools we're once again going to take feedback from the teaching staff because those
102people are the professionals that we trust to do the work at that point we'll call our curriculum instruction committee meeting to look at what they have chosen through a series of surveys and they were very informative on this last round we do want to do this as quickly as we can but like I said we want to take our time and I know that sounds like the oxymoron but we we want to get these in their hands so they can be ready for next year we also need to get reading taken care of because we also have a math adoption that we're going to be looking at so that's just kind of the basis of where we are there's a lot a lot a lot of work that's been done and just to convey back
103to the teaching staff and to the administrative staff how much we appreciate the meticulous way in which they're doing this to find the the career thumb that's best for their kids and thank you too for your leadership oh others yes sir Mr bright yeah I want to update you on njrotc and I had achieved kind of brief you a little bit on this rifle match you're having this weekend and it's Thursday through Saturday but one thing that kind of hinted on that I want to uh put in a plug for the board they're expecting 180 Cadets from 21 schools and when you look at the income to the county for their motels and that sort of thing we made a good investment on those targets and the hats off to the board for doing that
104and also this is interesting too Saturday they're hosting a drone and Cadets from six schools will compete playing wrong with various events and I'm telling you that's an up-and-coming thing for the military and hey it just shows how active and proactive we are in njrotc and I'm saddened at the fact that we're losing Captain Ross but I understand that better things yes sir we will we will miss both of those young retirement Independence that I know that we'll we'll we'll have two great bugs coming behind them so are there others I'll just real briefly update the public that um as a board we made a commitment to um go around to all of the schools and meet with our teaching staff our directors our principals um and I am glad to report we have completed
105that task so it was um daunting at times um but every one of our board members got to participate in meetings with the different schools and with the different um groups and it was a wealth of information it really was and I think it was a uh an Endeavor that I'm glad that we um took that on I really am because I think it really gave us a lot of insight as to what's going on in our school system so glad to report that that part of the project is is completed so we can check that one off our boxes uh would you care to further update the public on the timeline in the superintendent process the survey closed uh last Wednesday I think it was right I think so the survey closed last Wednesday
106and that's another piece of this um superintendent search in the sense of gathering information and public opinion um that went out to all of our staff we encouraged everybody to share that that was on our website um and so I believe that has closed um the applications are due on the 20 um first I believe and on April 25th the board will have a special called meeting it will be a closed session meeting to review those applications as I told the staff at several of the places when we met with the directors um you know our principals our goal is to narrow it down to four to five applicants to interview we have not seen any of those applicants yet we don't know how many there are yet um as as Mr Shatley said or
107Mr Campbell said um he doesn't even really look in his inbox yet until it gets close to that date so um so I really don't have much more to report on that except that we will have that special called meeting on April 25th to begin that process okay that's enough wonderful anyone else okay all right well we'll continue on then and the next item is approval of the consent agenda and as you know uh any item may be pulled from the consent agenda for uh individual uh discussion and action so is there anything that the member would ask that we consider separately I'll make motion to accept the percentage all right thank you sir all right Mr Frank makes the motion and Mr shuford makes this second any further discussion questions if not then all
108in favor right hand and the motion carries unanimously uh next item will be uh move to go into closed session for discussion of information that's privileged confidential or not a public record under North Carolina General statute and consideration of a Personnel action that involves an officer or employee of this board under North Carolina General statute is there a motion to move into closed session so a motion by Ms Muma second by Miss Helms okay any discussion if not all in favor and the motion carries the board will move into closed session thank you folks for coming and thank you for staying left out there you think Wrecking what was that good I know we uh well there are folks left okay all right the next item on our agenda this evening is to take action
109on closed session items and is there a motion regarding that come on Terry you know how to say I'll make a motion that we accept the certified and and uncertified recommendations all right Ms moomo makes a motion Mr shuford makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor and the motion carries we're down to item number xbi would that be 16 yes sir all right I remember a little something uh the board will not have a work session in April of 2023. however the board will need to have a special called meeting to consider the applicants for the superintendent position and that will be on April the 25th and I think we talked about this once before I think most everyone said that a midday meeting would be at 11 o'clock
110we set from 11 to 1. from 11 to 1. now I was thinking it was like this okay so April 25th from 11 A.M to 1 P.M the board will meet here and you'll you'll have your packet of uh applicants the timeline communication for Mr Campbell said they would be hand delivered I don't know exactly how we're going to hand deliver them but that might have been hand delivered here I'm not sure okay all right so you will have the applications on the 21st or 22nd and you'll have an opportunity to review those and when we meet together on the 25th we'll consider all of them and try to whittle that down to a handful for an interview okay the May regular meeting will be Monday May the 8th and that seems really early in
111the month but it is the second Monday and that is our policy to meet that date also uh our work session that month is tentatively scheduled for May the 22nd so uh there's the things are gonna be an awful lot to do in a in a short time here over the next 30 days or so so with uh there's nothing else is there a motion to adjourn the savings maybe somebody Mr Abernathy makes the second any discussion if not all in favor of a chairman and the motion carries thank you all and we will meet again on