Board of Education Meeting - March 13th 2023

001excuse me Mr Berry Hill are we are we ready okay well I have been wanting to do that quite a while it's 6 p.m on March 6 p.m daylight savings time on March 13 2023 this is the regular March meeting of the McDowell County Board of Education excuse me and the medium will now come to order and the first item of business is the approval of this evening's agenda is there a motion regarding so move Miss mum makes the motion oh second Miss silver seconds any discussion if not then all in favor of our approving our agenda this evening as printed the motion carries unanimously all right the next item uh that we have traditionally done in the past got away from it for a little while and we've started doing this again the next

002item is for each of us here in this room to take just a moment to be silent and to uh and to calm ourselves and offer ourselves up for greater service so if you would please thank you thank you very much next on the agenda item four is the Pledge to the flag and presentation with colors and I mean no Mr Frank Mr Frank is our representative to the njrotc program and do you have some introductions to make you know I uh was informed by a Captain Ross that things are kind of slowed down a little bit they got a few Marksmanship matches that they're going to be doing at the end of April and they're gearing up for a little Miss McDowell which is Saturday night and with that being said Captain Ross I'm

003gonna turn it over you to introduce the color guard and uh pledge allegiance sir okay people have uh Color Guard today is uh Bell and Hensley way faster now okay all right you would ride okay foreign right face it colors please drop me a pledge of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Kyrie colors what face Kyrie colors for word March Color Guard oh word much and you may be seen But thank you [Music] we'll move along with the meeting then and the next item number five is student recognition and Mr Oliver I'll call on YouTube handle that item yes sir thank you very much and I'm going to ask Ms Mary Finley our director of Career and

004Technical education to come join me yes well good evening everyone it's my pleasure to introduce a wonderful student that we have at McDowell High School tonight on Friday February the 17th Mr Keith scholes took five students to the regional skillshusa competition at Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville North Carolina there were 20 welding contestants there from McDowell High School Swain Franklin and Pisgah high schools and the students had to perform four different welding tests a horizontal feel it a vertical up an overhead t-joint and a mig weld Dawson Bartlett placed first in the regional competition Dawson is a senior at McDowell High School and has taken Weldon carpentry and masonry courses and he will have his welding certificate from McDow Tech in May so we are very pleased to announce Dawson Bartlett is their first

005place Regional Association thank you and Dawson will also going to compete at the state level in April and we know he will do well there [Music] okay so would you like say anything better come on let's try to get underneath okay one more time congratulations though and now we have some staff recognitions from our Career and Technical education program so miss feeling while you have the floor would you continue on I will be happy to the students have the opportunity to earn at least one industry credential in every CT pathway that is offered at McDowell High School and the attainment of this certificate or credential ensures that students graduate from high school globally competitive for work and post-secondary education and Industry recognized certification or credentials helps businesses by Saving many hours of training time because

006their new hire is ready already trained and be confident that the credential holder already has a specific set of skills an industry recognized certification or credentials help students by validating their knowledge and skill attainment with an industry recognized certification they stand out in the field of job applicants and they start at a higher salary level some of our credentials offer bonus incentives for CT teachers who provide instruction in a course that leads to a student's attainment of an industry certification or credentials the following McDow High Career and Technical education teachers earn bonus pay for the 20 21-22 school year by having students earn the following credentials Mr Clark Adams vet medical application certification and the North Carolina competency certification in ag mechanic small engine and Mr Adams could not be here tonight he's attending professional

007development in Winston-Salem Miss Angie Allison [Applause] Angie's hospitality and tourism class earned the certified guest service professional certification Mr Charles Autry his Public Safety students earned the FEMA Emergency Management Institute Mr Chad Brewer his students earned the national Center for construction Education and Research and construction Corps and Masonry this is Kristen Clark earned food protection manager safe plates she had obligations with her children and could not be here tonight Mr Charlie Davis would work Career Alliance saw blade certification for his woodworking students [Applause] Mr Paul Davis ASC entry level certification maintenance and light repair and automotive service I don't know if Mr Davis is here Mr Mark Lowman the national Center for construction Education and Research construction Corps and carpentry and he's not here I'm Mr Chris Marsh national law enforcement certification with its own

008Justice students and Mr Morris is at Team court tonight we had four cases going on there miss Heather Martin her marketing students earned customer service and sales foreign Peters his students earned the FEMA Emergency Management Institute certification as well in public safety and Mr Keith scholes students earned the AWS sense entry-level welder program shielded metal arc welding congratulations job well done thank you all so much for watching all right thank you we're we're also very proud of our Career and Technical education y'all really knock it out of the park thank you all thank you uh next is correspondence and Miss Smith do we have any questions no correspondence this is next is a request to address the board and public comment and we have four folks that have expressed a desire to address the board

009this evening uh Laura Bustos is did I say that right Carlos Lopez Enriquez and Donna Ledbetter Paula sweps with the board is there a motion to hear these folks in public comment second motion by Mr Frank and a second by Ms mumo any discussion on the motion all in favor then and permission is granted now I need to tell each of you that we welcome you here this evening but uh pursuant to public statute General statue and their onboard policy we invite you to speak to the board through public comment this is a time for you to say what's on your mind to the Board of Education it's not a time for us to debate or a direct question and answer period and the board members will not respond except to request clarification of a

010point that you may make or raise but incorrect or misleading the information may be responded to at the direction of the board chairperson so you are allowed to address the board concerning any topic that's when in this board's jurisdiction and pursuant to confidentiality concerns and matters related to Due Process the board will not hear issues or concerns either positive or negative regarding specific employees or students if you're having a concern of that nature please contact our superintendent Mr Oliver after the meeting disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting are unlawful and can result in removal from the meeting you're allowed to speak for no more than three means and may only speak once during the public comment period uh Ms Mumma asked each of you earlier since all four of you want

011to speak on the same matter if you would like to elect a spokesperson and that person would have five minutes if speaking on behalf of a group so I understand that you folks want to speak individually so we will begin with Laura Bustos please if you will go to the podium and tell us approach [Music] okay oh miss Darrell our able assistant this evening will be the time keeper and she may tap you on the shoulder or whispering to you that you have 30 seconds or so left okay Miss Bustos the floor is yours good evening School Board good evening everyone my name is Laura who says I work for the um centronita as their office manager and I just want to desire for this public comment to encourage and to provide the resources for

012our Educators to attend any Dei um meeting or reinforcement or teaching that they need um so a little boxer about me I was brought here to the United States when I was two years old and I began my education here in um here in North Carolina so I went to school here my entire life um and throughout my entire life obviously I went to school with 70 population who were white kids uh for obvious reasons we do live in McDowell County um but throughout my entire time going to school um never once was I encouraged to embrace my Hispanic Roots um and it wasn't for a lack of wanting to from Educators but it was a lack of knowledge um and throughout that time instead of being encouraged to embrace those roots I suppress them

013um I felt like I needed to be just like a normal white girl and I wasn't obviously um and so what I want to say is that if we have the opportunity for inclusion um because I feel like this nation and I was educated that this nation um was built by many adoptions from different nations um we have a little bit of everything and I believe that if our educators are well educated in the topic of diversion inclusion and Equity than our students and our kids could also know what it's like what it's like for different nations um and how it is and other places that it's not just here um I believe that if we start to encourage that then we can not only help this nation but we can help other nations and

014we can be more diverse in our school systems um and encourage those kids to not be to not be scared to show who they are and where they're from to not be ashamed because I know when I was a little girl I was ashamed to be Hispanic um and it wasn't anybody's fault um but I just believe that if we include a little bit of everything and a little bit of everyone but we can move mountains all right anything further sorry okay thank you ma'am all right next the next speaker this evening and I'm calling these folks in order that I did earlier is Carlos Lopez Enriquez and Sir the floor is yours and you remember the rules right all right foreign awesome so uh good evening audience and Mr Frank and respective members of

015our school board my name is Carlos Lopez I also work at Centro needles a local nonprofit here serving latinx and various amounts of community members here at the end of the day all our services are for the community at large oh I'm retired so not really but um so this also this public comment is in the interest of encouraging Dei or diversity equity and inclusion Concepts in our Educators training or any sort of meeting that has to do with the orientation of our students right so you hear a lot about diversity Equity inclusion these days and it might sound a certain way on paper but in practice you can really tap into the Curiosity the leadership and above all the potential of our use in our community and as we all know our students spend

016about an hour to an hour and a half of their days during the work during a normal work week with four or more educators in in their day-to-day life right and our Educators have leverage in constructing a mindset for our individual youth to retain information that is new and to keep an open mind while retaining that information and learning about it and uh this information which really revolves around the richness of sharing our individual cultures and in the interest of full disclosure and transparency I am not a U.S citizen however I was much like my colleague Mrs Bustos I was brought here at a young age but I never once doubted calling this place my home not one one because of the relationships and the opportunities that I've been given while I'm growing up in

017this community but also learning the history and going to school and not being able to take advantage of all the opportunities but still being grateful for those that are presented to in front of me and but one thing's for sure it feels fulfilling when I have the opportunity to not only Embrace but to share my culture because it's there's a richness behind that and as someone who works in developing Our Youth and well I think I forgot to mention this but I'm a youth coordinator at my job so I work with a lot of students in youth in pretty much developing developing them and giving them the tools to be able to navigate life socially personally mentally emotionally all that stuff and I think at the end of the day the changes in their life

018allow them to be a team player but not only team player but a good neighbor and I think that being a good neighbor starts with understanding where your neighbor comes from no matter how far it is and so at the end of the day we are a part of this big expanding story of humanity so it should be easy for us to be on the same page and we all walk on the Lord's Green Earth so it should be easy to find common ground and with that I conclude my three minutes thank you school board thank you audience for having an open ear and I hope you all have a wonderful evening thank you [Applause] okay uh the next person that would like to address the board this evening is Donna leadband and Madam the

019floor is yours you remember the rules now [Laughter] all right okay as he said I'm Donna Ledbetter I am the director of equity of West Marin Incorporated and um we have all been taught that we were created equal and that's a beautiful concept but it's not the truth and diversity equity and inclusion have become cliche buzzwords Equity is being seen as taboo um Dei is not a comfortable conversation for most people it's a New Concept to a lot of folks but we all need to learn to sit in our discomfort and see things from a different perspective if you are not looking Beyond dni which is diversity and inclusion if you're not adding the equity um you need to start looking at things through a racial Equity lens a language Justice lens if you're trying

020to force your religious or beliefs upon people who do not believe as you do you are saying to our students who are not white who are not um Christian who is not heterosexual or who does not have white English as their first language that they are not the norm that they are not important or included and none of these things are prerequisites for students to attend a safe the first and inclusive school system I am hopeful and I'm thankful that you guys are considering the Dream Builders and I hope that will be the first step in in implementing Dei policies practices and procedures within our school systems there are also local organizations like my organization West Marin Incorporated um that offer the our workshops and training as well with my colleague and our executive director

021gets up here to speak to talk to you and she'll say to same thing it's all about collaboration and not a competition the more Partnerships we build the more diverse Equitable and inclusive our school systems becomes and the better the outcomes for all of our children all of our children I have that in capital letters so in closing I would like to leave you with the following things for group reflection um ask yourself what is so extreme about teaching real history why is there a fear of a concept that has not even been taught at the K-12 level why do you feel that everyone has to subscribe to your personal or religious beliefs and what would Jesus do so let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your

022father in Heaven like Hollow said we all walk on the Lord to bring Earth together when we get in heaven I bet you there'll be a lot of diversity equity and inclusion thank you for your time all right [Applause] in their last uh public comment speaker this evening is uh Paula sweps Miss sweps there you are you remember the rules now all right foreign Incorporated and we are the first and only black men non-profits in the county I stand today to encourage you to hear that this encouraged to hear that the school board has been working to develop a plan for supporting training and learning on diversity Equity inclusion with students and teachers in the school system we have been working with school leadership for several years to Champion this process notably our youth leaders

023led a full divorce project and shared concerns related to racism discrimination and bullying happening at the schools with the school board School administrations and teachers I'm excited to hear that their voices have been heard and I would love to learn more about the plans of our emotion to address these issues with Dream Builders communication Incorporated and I also look forward to continuing to be a thought partner with you in this work one concern I have um is that leaders nonprofits and Christian conservative groups that are active actively trying to intimidate and suppress learning in action on Dei in our community it brings mine to me how Masters oppressed their slaves by using the Bible to intimidate and dehumanize them it's going to take all of us tonight all of us to unite against these harmful

024and diversive groups to build a community rooted in love not hate and to unite us and not divide us I stand here as a Christian who believes in God and I know that God is love we know all the first ten commandments let's refresh ourselves with the two greatest Commandments in the New Testament you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul with all your mind and the second one is love your neighbor as yourself whenever we took our youth on the Civil Rights um trip down south through to Birmingham Alabama they were in tears they were mad they were traumatized because what they had seen in that museum they had never taught in their schools so we're truly about educating uh our students we need to start

025thinking about that ourselves I invite you to join my non-profit indeed our conversations with local policy makers law enforcement officials youth Health Care leaders and Faith leaders for our next Roundtable discussion on Tuesday March 28th from 5 30 to 7 30 P.M and you're also welcome to join our monthly forums it's every third Thursday of the month this week it will be at East Main Methodist Church from 5 30 to 7 30 and we have been very intentional in building equity on places and that's why Donna spoke everything she said we want to make sure that Equity is in our places thank you all right [Applause] thank you folks for your input uh next on the agenda this evening is a presentation on the Dream Builders program by Dr Kinston Griffin and Dr Griffin the

026floor is yours sir and I understand you have a a PowerPoint presentation Garrett are you ready okay so good evening everyone that was four people good evening everybody do me a favor hold your hands up real quick now shake them you can save you shaking hands with everybody now to the school board and to each and every person here I'm Kenston Griffin and first and foremost I want to say I am blown away and very thankful that I can do as Dorothy would say there's no place like home as a resident of North Carolina is the Irondale Statesville guy that just uh graduated a few years ago you put your head down you don't believe me okay maybe a few few years ago uh I I did not know that these were going to be

027the public comments tonight so um my father is a minister just as I met my new brother Mr Larry so my father said blessed are the brief for they shall be asked back so I will not stand before you long but I think that it is important that you've already begun in some way shape form or fashion talking about Equity inclusion access diversity uh belonging and most of all inclusivity plus and when you begin to talk about these conversations I think that in my short period of time I think it's important for you to hear less about what I say and more about who I am I grew up in a little place called Statesville but I really grew up in Mooresville not the Lake Norman side but I grew up in Mooresville they called

028it Mayu town and I remember going to Middle School um what we did not have visually was a whole lot of diversity visually but we did have is a whole lot of love and I think that's important for us to hear Point number one the second thing is I began to go to South Iredell high school and then I had a football coach by the name of Mr Bill Mayhew for those that know about wrestling back in the day coach Mayhew was one of those leaders that taught a lot of people in reference to the power of wrestling well within that I was a football guy and all of my Appalachian State grads don't uh hurt me for this but he got me a full scholarship Appalachian State and I said thanks I said but

029I think I want to go somewhere else and he was like I did all this work and you finally passed the s.a.t State School stadium I say all that I did my undergrad at Livingstone college and continue to go on to further uh educate myself but the persons that I think that I I want to make sure that we understand um that helped educate me Google Mr Bill Mayhew because he might not have looked like me but he treated me as if I was one of his young persons or Sons when you start talking about Equity inclusion access and diversity it will get confusing real quick because you'll look at me and look at this gentleman and think that we're different do you have children you love your children we have something in common already

030I have a child you wanna no I'm joking I'm joking but don't tell my wife that but there's already an inclusive opportunity if we choose to get to know each other so we're talking about better together for children so I think it's important for you to look at the second slide it says most people try to make a better world for our children when they should be doing what they should be doing is making a better children for our world and that's what I believe the Educators here are doing in McDowell County Schools but if all you know is all you know it does not mean that they're all there is to know so we have to put ourselves in a position Point number two to consider inspecting what we expect because at the end

031of the day if I know like you it's One race it's the human race and I don't want to sound as if a religion overtoned but if I need a blood transfusion I really don't care what color you are I really don't care what you believe in if my daughter or you have a son or a daughter both how old are but between 9 and 17 as men what we want is what's best for our children so if that means education in some way shape form of capacity that's safe that means if it's true transparency that does not teach hate but we have to figure out well what is important for children because one of the things that I've learned over my years as a practitioner but young people don't quite have the challenge that

032the adults have the young people look at it as if we want to have fun we want to play we want to get to know each other so when you look at slide number three some of you like well why did we uh why are we considering Dream Builders communication we've spoken at the North Carolina State School Board Association conference and I think that's where McDowell County schools had heard of us you can go to the next slide you see those faces but as you begin to see those faces you'll begin to see the next slide or show some faces so when the School Board Association asks us to start teaching some Equity inclusive practices it started with the state of North Carolina superintendents that's all 115 superintendents that our firm began to teach Chris

033my colleague that does a lot of legal work seeing him around so good to see you my friend but he knows like I know when it comes down to creating inclusive practices go to the next Slide the first thing you have to do is you have to get someone that really understands what the work is about and I'm not saying that we're the best at the work but what I am saying is HR Tech in 2020 ranked us as one of the top 10 firms across the United States that teaches Equity inclusion access and diversity now the next thing you're thinking okay how can we afford that in McDowell County understanding sometimes favor is not free but favor is fair and you've got to understand when you have favor you don't necessarily worry about cost

034because what you may or may not understand is we're working with at least four school districts that are surrounding you so we come right before we get to you we skip over you and then we go to two other school districts so it kind of only makes sense that there is a potential for partnership the next slide will show you some of our clients right now that are working on some of the things that you're considering to take the path upon you'll see Iredell Statesville schools no secret but you'll see the one that's really close to you is Caldwell County schools which is I would consider them not a client I would consider that superintendent Dr Don Phipps a friend not only is he a friend but he's also your state superintendent of the year

035and this was not an easy conversation for McDowell County or Caldwell County but how did it start the next slide says it starts with an assessment and some of you all are wondering what is the value proposition I think before I try to throw anything upon anybody what I clearly heard and these are some dates that I wrote down is March the 28th there's something that's already happened somebody from my team probably needs to sit into that meeting to find out what's already in place also it sounds like on the third Thursday that something occurs at 5 30 that's already in place so if you really want to begin to collaborate and partner I don't believe that we have to have all the answers but I also don't believe that you have to have all

036the answers nor does the board but some of the value propositions that some districts have elected to do as such is the assessment leadership development processes and what does that mean well our program starts with leadership development it does not start with the equity assessment a customization of best practices around inclusion but it starts with a leadership assessment and people like well I thought you were coming here to talk about Equity I came in to talk about leadership because if you get proper leaders in place to be informed which I believe you already have if proper leaders are in place Equity becomes easy and you're probably saying well how's it becomes easy because it depends on how it's presented when it's presented and here's the big one don't judge me but Kenny Rogers said it

037best you got to know when to hold them you got to know when to fold them some days you got to know when to walk away some people are so passionate about this and they don't know when to walk away then there are other times that you've got to run but running does not mean cowardness because I'll tell you this uh what I've noticed tonight that Dawson that is just gotten first place in welding that's what we have to support because you're probably saying why is that a difference because we have to be careful talking about a four-year education because if he goes on and does what is entitled for him to do with an associate's degree loving everything about education he will make more money as an archaeologist welder as the average teacher that

038has a master's degree by the year of 2027. that's inclusion so we have to be cautious to say well you've got to go to a four year he could actually do a two-year program and be as successful but we also have to give him the encouragement and the tools to say you can do this we want you to be successful and it doesn't mean that it's a bad thing that you're putting things in place but if you look at the awards tonight I counted 11 different individuals that talked about CTE some of those programs are not four-year programs many of those programs are but what they are is employing a working Society in McDowell County Iredell County Caswell Buncombe County whatever County you want to look at that's where the employment comes you can begin

039to see that I won't bore you with this but many of you all are saying what are the next steps I know you're wondering go to the next slide so what are the next steps look like well you've got to level set with the CEO or with the uh superintendent why is that so important well it doesn't make sense for us to come in and not know what the Strategic plan looks like what are the school Improvement plans we've got to get a framework of what you already have in place and I've had multiple super conversations with your superintendent and I just want to take a point of personal privilege you're very fortunate to have a leader that has served our country and has Integrity give your superintendent a big round of applause foreign Retreat

040when I talked to corporations and companies they'll say we want you to work with our line staff and I said you've probably selected the wrong company we want to work with the CEO and his or her staff that are the ones that are leading the organization so it starts with the school board we want to have a conversation with them is has this conversation come about what does the conversation look like and people like what do you mean by the conversation well what I mean by the conversation is do you like and this is only an example the New York Yankees or the New York Jets or the New York Giants all of them are sports teams and I'm just using Sports as analogy but all of them are not the same the Jets fans

041are totally different than the Giants fans but they're all in New York so what kind of fan will be I think it's important for us to be fans of children children that have special needs children that speak English children that don't speak English children that look in the mirror and say you know I do want to go to a four-year School but our finances say that I might not be able to go to any school then we align them with the CTE program that says you can go to school but not only you can go to school have you ever thought about starting your own business leverage the fact that there is something called The Early College that's another Equitable opportunity that you can now begin to look at the early college and who knows

042after that two-year experience someone may desire to have a four-year experience as you begin to look at after the school board central office and professional development summer institutes but remember the slide before that talked about the assessment you don't start beating people over the head until you find out where they are there are seven principles and tiers of levels of equity and inclusive training everybody's not going to be at the same level and everybody may not connect with a certain presenter or a speaker so that's why you've got to work with principals and assistant principals and doing dual walkthroughs why are dual walkthroughs important because we want principals to tell us what's going well in their building how dare us come into your county and tell you about your building wouldn't it make more sense

043for you to tell us what's going with before we tell you what is not going well so it's called partnership and relationships and then customize uh School feedback and support sessions in one-on-ones and small focus groups finally as you go to the next slide and that last point there says school-wide professional development we're looking at early release days and days that align that don't take away from academic time these are things that we found that really work well in different school districts but if you look at those four words up there respect all of this starts there you know it was a young lady that was standing right here and I was trying to do everything to get her attention it was you I was trying to get your attention because I can't talk about

044anybody else but Reverend Griffin raised me differently it's not about black it's not about white it's not about young it's not about old but that's a woman and I was trying to get her attention to get my seat you're probably saying well kissing you're the presenter so what the only person cares about the doctor degree is my mama and the people I pay the money back values you have good values here in McDowell count I'm a musician at my church and I remember when we were on what I call the quartet circuit we used to come through these negative woods and play a lot of different churches but you know what I never found in my experience that no one treated me bad at your gas station and no one treated me bad at your

045hearties that nobody treated me bad when I wanted to get something to eat at one of your local restaurants but what is clarity I think that Clarity means that I've got to understand where you are before I ever tell you where I am Stephen Covey says it best first seek to understand then seek to be understood and then we've got to serve all people not the ones that are in your Clique not the ones that have your last name not the ones that don't know your name but the ones that want to have a name that can be well represented I will tell you this I make no promises that we can fix everything but I will make you this guarantee as we partner together if this is your choice because this is what I

046will tell you don't jump up and sign any agreement with anybody until you've done your own homework to find out who we really are you've been provided a list of references that I think is important for you to check and I know you're sitting there thinking wait a minute boy you have lost your mind you taught that good and you told them to check you out because I don't want to be your partner I want to be in a position that we have a marriage Partners come and go the marriages that my parents have had and I'm only talking about mine and I'm not saying something is wrong if somebody's done something different but the Griffins have done it for 42 years I know my dad didn't do everything right but they figured out to

047have differences but what my dad said is I prepared her clothes and if the board has any questions I will Avail myself to do so what happens in our house you refinish the sentence for me hmm interesting that my Daddy might not look like yours but you know my daddy thank you so much for your time give yourselves a round of applause oh thank you at this point in time are there any questions from the school board that I may be able to ask or answer in any way shape form or fashion and I will state if I do not have the answer because I have uh 47 team members that work out of Huntersville North Carolina Atlanta Georgia and Chesapeake Virginia that they uh maybe the ones that have to have the answer so

048if I sit here and say you know that's a great question let me get back to you that is not because I'm trying to impress you I'm just trying to impress upon you that I must keep my Integrity even when I leave your county does that make sense any questions from the board for Dr Griff anyone okay yeah I've got some questions all right that's all right sure I'd love for someone to go ahead of me that anyone else you remember here so uh the walk through struck me as as an interesting I looked at the uh contract for services and the the walk through is about half of the hours if and if I've understood what you had down right it was about a total of 26 or 27 hours and about half of

049them were walking through the schools and so you walk through with the team and that's to inspect or what what is the great question so I'll tell everybody the three components in the walkthrough number one you've got to be a reform report before you begin to have conversation so the first thing is we'll sit in the principal's office based upon they'll get a what we call a doodle schedule and they get to pick a time that works best for them and we'll go through for the first 15 minutes sitting uh in the office trying to get to know who they are what's their education philosophy see if we have any kind of Connections in any way shape form or fashion then we'll do a walk through and then that particular educator gets an opportunity to

050share with us exactly what they see is going well in their building in any way shape form or fashion it could be academic it could be inclusion and then ultimately as we go through a full walkthrough and this does not exclude just what we would call your traditional core classes we would like to see the entire student body so if it's masonry classes we want to see what happens in your masonry classes what we're really trying to do Mr Abernathy is looking to identify some of the best practices of inclusion that you already have many times you're doing the work you just may not be aware that you're doing the work your color guard did the work today there was a young lady leading us today that young gentleman that looked like he was at

051the end on my far left your right it appeared that he may have been younger than everyone else um but it still didn't mean he was less than anyone else after the walkthroughs come through then we're looking at from a holistic District perspective and I think that's important to hear that then we can look at commonalities because the average Middle School principal guess what they don't get a chance to do go see another middle school because they're running their middle school so then we're trying to look at what best practices are and then as we begin to bring the principles together we'll identify what some of the best practices are currently happening in three capacities in the district at your school and sharing the ones that are going forward does that answer your question you

052and so the teachers there is not a training session per se that involves teachers at this point you're dealing with with uh School Leadership School Board Administration principals and then I'm assuming at a future point you would you would love to come back in and do additional training with teachers well so the answer to that is yes and no here's what I mean by the yes and no you have the flexibility and we do this with any school district in a new relationship you may have one thing on your service agreement that you may come back and say you know what our teachers have gotten a buzz and our teachers really want professional development so if I were you if you hear that no disrespect to us on a piece of paper throw it out

053the window if I say why would you do that if people need something don't prohibit them from getting something so if you need to shift a service that one school because I can tell you now some schools are going to be further ahead than other schools some communities are going to be further ahead so that does present itself as one of the methodologies if you choose to but that is up to the superintendent and the leadership team or if you decide to do that from a board perspective you all can make that decision that would not be my call you got to give me one more I'm on a roll did that answer your question okay yeah yes sir several communities you know I think they want this answer as much as I do you

054know in some ways but you know you come from a Christian background uh you'll understand this question but some people would think going by your website and looking through this that Dream Builders could be an Avenue to invite certain groups or people that work against religion or God's word to come into our community and to grow and bring in more negative than good what is your take on that as far as Dream Builders yeah they must have looked at the wrong website because that's not us so I would say I would fail as an example um I have yet to be an in-game that they don't have a prayer beforehand but if you think about in January my biased opinion that was a National Prayer meeting on TV but we didn't call it that what

055we thought was a young man had Cardiac Arrest but it's so amazing that how we've said that we can't say a certain thing and the whole world was saying pray for Demar so I would say that from our perspective we have to meet every organization where they are um some of you might have noticed it when I came in and sat there I wasn't closing my eyes because I was tired I closed my eyes because I needed a little bit of help I'm just talking about Kinston but I also have to be sensitive that everybody may not have the same Health that Kinston desires to help and I'm also aware that regardless of where your help is that is not my business my business is to make sure that I help you not worry about

056where your help comes from did that answer your question absolutely thank you sir knock us a little bit so I can't say I'm a preacher I'm a princess kid so y'all know what PK means so work with me don't don't I'm working on that side of me any other questions from the board and and let me be real clear ask me those questions if you're really looking to go into an agreement with anybody it may not end up being us but I humbly say you have the CEO of a company that's standing before you in 24 States in two different countries almost country is a truck load of okra I've just been blessed I grew up in Statesville North Carolina we had White Oaks that's the flea market and I didn't care what color you

057are because guess what if I needed some lasso we went to your house and got live soap if I wanted some cornbread I wanted to come to your house and go get some cornbread if I looked at the Dukes of Hazard at eight o'clock I was looking at the night right at nine o'clock but the what was on the top of the car didn't necessarily represent the people that I lived around that didn't bother me what bothers me is when people try to hurt people that have nothing to do with what they're trying to do questions give me one more yes what what sort of uh expected life of the program would you imagine a year a school year let me check my left knee to see how much I got left in me so

058I and that is a great question but it is unfair let me tell you why no it's not unfair it's more challenging than not because you have an interim superintendent and as a superintendent goes sometime thus goes your school district so but what we can say about your neighboring counties and I'll just give you a few names because I talk to these individuals to make sure I could identify that we only ask you to do a one-year commitment and then in the ninth month let's sit down and do a true evaluation to find out exactly where we are we will talk to and some of the stuff that we're going to do is not you're never going to see it in a proposal because you're gonna be like okay they're basically giving it away then

059when you give somebody more than what they want then they'll say what's wrong with it why does something have to be wrong with it because you got something in that capacity I'll tell you how we're going to cheat we're going to catch a Caldwell count and then we're going to come right up the road we're going to catch Asheville and come right back down the road because we know that you don't have the budget that a Charlotte Mecklenburg will awake or Durham as so a one-year commitment is what we ask individuals to start with what we've seen to be successful is normally a three to four year process because if those hadn't figured it out and you can test for this and you can attest for this five weeks ago we only had six superintendency

060opens throughout the state of North Carolina today we have 12. it is projected by November of 2023 that we could have north of 20. that's frightening to me because we're changing leaders at that level thus goes superintendents thus gold leadership teams thus goes teachers hold on to this teacher of the year they're hard to get they're hard to find and even more so than that they're hard to recruit because when you have good ones other people have leveraged Risa funds and a lot of different things to say you know what we're looking for an instruction they don't have to live in the county to be our instructional coach don't leave because that was your I think that was your is your student teaching it she would cut you and kill me so don't do that

061okay so does that answer your question one to one year initial start and most people do anywhere from three to four yes sir good thank you any additional questions because I know you have a meeting you have a pretty full agenda I want to listen a little bit longer so I don't have to just scale out because I got a little person but any additional questions okay if not then Dr Griffin thank you sir yeah thank you thank you all so much for your time okay foreign taking advice from Dr Griffin and that this is a commitment and that it deserves a thought and reflection it would be my advice to this board that we entertain a motion to table any action official action on this matter this evening until our April board meeting uh

062just speaking as the chairperson I think that will give all of us time to reflect and digest and come to a good decision whatever that may be individually and it will also allow members of the public the opportunity to relay their concerns or support and uh is has been our custom in the past uh whenever a new item of business is introduced at one meeting we typically wait until the following or later meetings to take official action and we'll witness that this evening but so why would the chair with entertain a motion to table any action on this item until our April meeting if some one would be willing to offer that and if not this is a time for discussion commotion that we table the um decision until April second okay we have a

063motion by Miss mumo and a second by Mr Abernathy to table of action on this item until the April meeting is there any discussion on that motion yes uh Mr Rings I'd like to ask the public because that was here that heard his presentation tell me if you will any concerns that you just heard in that because I will read every email because I want the public when I issue my vote I want to be wholehearted in it from McDowell County and I want to represent everyone in McDowell County so please send me emails and let me know anything that's concerning about that because you know I'm not saying to influence my vote because one man is the only one that influences my vote uh so I mean I do want to read um read

064what every citizen wants to say so please email me if you will all right then just copy us all in on that please and I think too just uh Mr chairman if I may foreign myself uh we we started this work over a year ago um we see a lot of Community Partners in here that we sat together with and met with um and and we've heard you and we continue to hear you and as as Mr settles pointed out you know please please email us um you know just with what your opinions are um because we want to hear them but at the same time we want to keep moving forward yes okay so all right oh any further comments discussion from the board I have one yes sir uh I want piggyback on

065both your remarks it's very important for us as board members you elect us and a lot of times we're torn we're very torn because even though we're we're supposed to be real intelligent know everything there is to know about a school system but we don't and we got people that great people as you said sir that run our system and we have to have faith in them but being an elected official please please give us your true opinion on what you really think um I personally would love that and I know it's been said already and as I told you last time on my video I'm a hard nut to crack man I'm that I'm the doubting Thomas okay and not against you but I I want to know what people really think all right

066any anyone else if not then is all those uh in favor of the motion to table until the April meeting right hand and the motion carries unanimously so we will move along on the agenda this evening and next up is Mr Chris Campbell from Campbell Shatley uh attorneys at law who the board voted to engage for to facilitate our superintendent search and he's here this evening bringing the board some information and to talk generally about how the process will go and what it may look like foreign thank you man thank you Mr chair board members superintendent Oliver how are you sir I'm good sir how are you glad you made it back from the County Commission meeting I survived absolutely absolutely board members it is uh my pleasure to be with you this evening um

067as I was talking with Mr Abernathy earlier tonight I got to say congratulations to the three new board members it's not often that I'm with you and that's a good thing to say that you don't have to see your legal counsel very often so Mr Oliver and his staff continue to do a wonderful job but I'm here tonight because we need to talk about something very serious as you know from doing board trainings and other things the most important job you have is to elect a superintendent it is more important than anything else because you can pass all the policies you want you can put all of the focus on academic achievement you can pass all of the Strategic plans in the world but unless you have a superintendent and under their guidance and Leadership

068that is implementing those things then your school district is not going to make any progress and if there's one thing that you've been blessed with in recent years here in McDowell County is stable leadership at the superintendent level and Mr Oliver certainly to be congratulated for that and you know that so tonight begins that process that very serious process of trying to select a new superintendent for the McDowell County Schools the field of school boards looking for superintendents is getting crowded um as Dr Griffin was saying and it's all very true right now there are a lot of school districts that are looking for superintendents in more districts that are coming online with their superintendent searches right now we're assisting the Watauga County Schools the Transylvania County schools and the Cherokee reservation Cherokee Central Schools

069and looking for superintendents and just completed about another three or four other what we call board assisted searches so before we go through some of the documents I brought with you this evening let me just remind the board as your legal counsel we are not a search firm we are not Headhunters uh just making sure we're all on the same page because I didn't have this opportunity to have this conversation with you we do not have a stable of candidates I do not have a Rolodex of potential superintendents we don't make phone calls we don't encourage people this is your selection process and that has a couple of unique factors to it first of all you will be selling McDowell County schools and the county will sell itself I think anytime you've got a district

070the size of McDowell County you're looking for a certain type of leader and that certain type of leader will be attracted to McDowell County I think there's a lot of stability here a wonderful place to raise a family and quite frankly the size of your district there are a lot of young leaders out there who are looking to take that final step in their career so it would be my hope that in your superintendent search you would get candidates who not necessarily have been superintendents yet but are showing that they have the potential they're ready to step up and be superintendent but I also would not be surprised if you didn't get a few acting or sitting superintendents who are looking for a good place to retire but it is a very challenging environment out

071there I will tell you that we used to say you can expect anywhere from 10 20 to 25 applications we're now down to suggesting that you may get 12 10 to 15. and that's starting to Bear out with other districts if they're not seeing many more applications uh than that for a lot of different reasons so one of the things that you've got to give some consideration to is the time Factor so what you have in front of you are examples these are draft timelines for the board to consider and in working through the activities that you've got to accomplish in the amount of time in which you've got to look to complete that task the very first timeline that you have in front of you actually is designed to have a new superintendent sitting

072in that chair by July 1st of 2023 so it's the most aggressive of the timelines is to have a new superintendent sitting there by July 2023 so if you'll just look at the activities that need to be accomplished that first of all you would have an application an advertisement that would already go out in your packet you have a draft advertisement for the position and a Draft application for the position so those documents are already in your packet we would then advertise with the North Carolina School boards Association the North Carolina Association of school administrators you can also choose to put the advertisement in education week and then there are some other optional choices the most obvious being the American Association of school administrators to get a wider net more of a regional and a

073national perspective for the application we like for the application to be out there for six weeks this timeline basically has it out there about five weeks toward the middle the latter part of the middle part of April that you would then get all of the applications that's the other thing about a board-assisted search we are not going to pre-screen any applications and I want to tell you why we're not going to pre-screen any of the applications we don't need to pre-screen the applications for you board members to know who you're interested in to know immediately who you want to know more about and who frankly you're not interested in I think a lot of times Focus boards will focus and even Consulting groups will focus on a vetting process of who you're not interested in

074well in my opinion if you are spending even 30 seconds on someone you're not interested in that's 30 seconds you'll never get back and 30 seconds you can't apply to the process what we ask you to do is to look at all of the applications and then come up with a list of individuals and we throw the number out there of six is a ballpark number anywhere you know in that area to come to a meeting that you are interested in and folks I will tell you we have now done probably upwards of 30 assisted board superintendent searches in my career it is uncanny when you ask board members to bring a list of who they're interested in then suddenly there are two three four candidates that immediately rise to the top just about everybody

075seems interested in those same three to four candidates so at that point in the process why spend any time at all talking about three people that all of you seem to want to know more about that's a given Then There are a host of candidates that very few people maybe one or two of you might be interested in but a lot of candidates that no one is interested in so again why would you spend any time talking about a candidate that no one was interested and what you very quickly realize is that in a meeting where you have all the applications sitting in front of you all of you have taken the time to review those applications then the discussion is around the three to four folks that you might want to know more about

076and to discuss as a school board and then we use a two-step process as you'll see in the timeline here first of all you tell us who those semi-finalists are so to speak and we will excuse me I'm getting over a cold you can tell we will do a newspaper background social media screening on those individuals so that you've got additional information about them pull that information together so that you can come together again and then narrow that list down to who you think you'll want to interview and let's say you come up with four individuals that you want to interview for superintendency at that point we will actually do the background checks and the reference checks on those four individuals so you will get a notebook on each candidate before you interview them and

077I do wish that I could figure out a way and I'm an attorney you're looking at me and say well why don't you figure this out Chris to copyright this process I'm not being completely serious about that it is a great process then why check references after you interview somebody I know we do it all the time but think about that for a minute why check and talk to the people that worked with Chuck Abernathy as a County Manager after you've already interviewed him wouldn't it be nice if you were considering him to be your county manager if you talked to five seven eight people that had worked with him in that role got their feedback got their input before the interview so you'll actually have a notebook on each candidate that you'll be able

078to review what folks said about them because that also helps in the interview process we also do not believe in a straight structured interview yes you should ask every candidate the same questions but then you should have a second round and we'll help you through which questions you can't answer from a legal perspective there's not actually that many and we'll help you with that before the interviews but you should have a No Holds Barred follow-up section in interviews because the questions you're going to want to ask me are different than the questions you're going to want to ask another candidate so you'll have that information you'll have the structured questions but then you'll have a set of questions after that you can follow up kind of on critical issues as you think further so all

079of that is designed for you to be conducting these final interviews get ready strapped in by May the good superintendents have a job by May a lot of the good superintendents know where they are going and the good candidates know where they are going certainly by the end of May if a board is looking to hire them by July 1st so you can see what I've given you is three different calendars the first one again having superintendent by July 1st the second calendar by September 1st and I'll speak to that in just a minute and then the third calendar by January of 2024. the activities are the same obviously you just have more breathing room in the two later calendars of the one for September and the one for January September one why do I

080put that out there as a potential time frame in my experience a superintendent or someone that wants to come to the McDowell County Schools as superintendent can usually work that out by September one deadline because September 1 is when a new school year starts so there is some flexibility there particularly for candidates that are not sitting superintendents okay so for any candidate who is not a sitting superintendent is an associate superintendent or assistant superintendent or a principal or a director they are inherently going to have more flexibility they will be able to potentially leave to start a new job by September 1st a lot of those folks frankly can even leave mid-year and start a job on January 1st so the later you go from a July 1 start date in my experience who do

081you start to lose you start to lose sitting superintendent candidates who don't want to leave their school district in the middle of a school year specifically so yes in a perfect world that July 1 start date is the start date you want but are you going to lose a significant number of candidates if you were to need to back that up to a September start date I don't think you'll lose a significant number if you back that up to a January start date you are going to in my experience lose some candidates who don't want to leave their school district mid-year particularly if they are a sitting Superintendent at that particular point but the big point I want to make right at this is that again this is your process okay the general statute say

082that you will do one thing elect a superintendent the entire general statute on this is one sentence the board shall elect the superintendent how you get there and how you do it is completely up to you so the option or the recommendation that I want to put out to you this evening is pretty straightforward my recommendation would be that you pursue this first calendar for a July one star date and in doing so my typical advice that I give to all boards is that you have the application you have the advertisement here in your packet that you would delegate that final approval of an application final approvement of an advertisement to your chair and vice chair that's the the recommendation I usually make it's up to you as a board as to how you want

083to do this to finalize those procedural steps so every board member after tonight would have the ability to take these documents home read the advertisement read the application and then give your feedback to chair and vice chair so that we can get this application out there as soon as possible hopefully by the end of this week if not certainly the beginning of next week so that we can get it out there get it on the street then when it comes to you've also got a survey here same process would recommend you look at these survey questions if you want to add or take away survey questions you would direct those comments to the chair and vice chair and they would give you a deadline by which they would want comments and then the survey would

084be available next step is soliciting input I'm going to give you a whole lot right now and I promise I'll take a breath here in a few minutes and answer your questions but let's just walk all the way through the process because I think it's easier to do it that way so let's say that you do decide that you're going to delegate that chair and vice chair would finalize the advertisement application we'd have those out on the street you would have a week or so you know 10 days to respond to the survey questions and you can tell chair and vice chair what changes you wanted to the servants the next question begins okay should you solicit input from your staff in a unique or direct way specifically your teaching staff separate and apart from

085the service now I promise you the surveys are Anonymous we use SurveyMonkey it goes through SurveyMonkey we have no idea how folks sign on we have no access to that information whatsoever we just get the responses back but a survey only has certain value second of all it is a public record and I'm going to keep saying this this is an entirely public process and you'll see it how much it is in just a few minutes but survey responses are public record as well and we put that right across the survey So my answer as a parent may be anonymous but my comments are not my comments would be available to the entire board and to the community so we want to make sure folks understand that with a survey now if you want to

086solicit input from your faculty from your staff we've got a district that has just done that and it seems to have been a very good process what they've decided to do to give teachers and staff a direct voice is they decided to invite a couple of board members two three board members at the most because you can't have a majority if you have a majority it's a meeting to come to a faculty meeting to come to a faculty meeting at each school and listen not to engage in a dialogue but they're to listen to The Faculty and their concerns is that a confidential private conversation of course not anytime you're in the room with other people it's not a private confidential conversation but here's the important point that I think your parents need to hear

087your community needs to hear your staff needs to hear what you are looking for as a board of education is three things what are the traits what are the characteristics of the next superintendent and what are the issues that you think that that next superintendent is going to need to address so characteristics traits and issues it is not a time for people to Lodge complaints about their unemployment situation it's frankly not a time for people to make complaints about their co-workers or their supervisor or their boss you've got to remind Folks at the beginning of this process you have procedures for that you have policies you have grievance procedures this is a prospect of looking toward the future and what do we want the characteristics the traits to be but you do open that up

088in what I think is a very inviting environment to faculty members and to teachers do it at their school in a faculty meeting now in my experience in my recommendation you would not direct that the principal has to leave the room but you would give the principal that decision they can stay if they want to if they want their faculty just to have a Converse station and some board members to hear it knowing it's not necessarily a confidential conversation you know do they want to stay around I think sometimes when you ask senior leadership to leave the room you inadvertently give the wrong message you know if you're asking someone to leave the room there's a reason you're asking them to leave the room and if they're you can think what you're doing is trying

089to create a more open environment when really you can be giving the message that there may be some concerns about school leadership or we don't think teachers can trust principals I just think you've got to be very careful in doing that then if you keep people focused on traits characteristics and issues then I'll put it back to use a rhetorical question why does anybody need to leave you're in if we're talking about Trek's characteristics and issues then it should be open so that would be faculty and staff the principals will get that same opportunity here at the central office in a leadership meeting you could have those same board members come and sit in on a leadership meeting and hear what the principals have to say they wouldn't be taking notes on what individuals said

090they would be taking notes on the characteristics traits and issues to bring that back to you as a board and then finally you would have Community listening sessions and input sessions now how you do that that is uniquely McDowell County you heard discussions about Caldwell County versus Asheville City versus Watauga County I have represented boards that have had 12 to 15 listening sessions I've represented boards that too okay that's a McDowell County decision uh do you want to pick the high school and the community center or have folks come to a board meeting or do you want to Fan out across the county I'll tell you that you're only limited by your time and energy and the boards that choose to go to community centers they choose to go to each school or to try

091to go to each area of the county sometimes they'll choose to divide that up among board members and try not to make it the full board I bet other boards say no we want to all be there so we're going to have two listening sessions one on the Eastern end one on the western end one on the North one on the south however you want to do that and the entire board is going to be there and we're going to invite com folks to come and speak to us and be ready because sometimes I've seen listening sessions with five community members I've seen listening sessions with 500 community members so it all kind of depends on your particular County so again I would encourage you again this is your process if you haven't heard me

092say that already and we'll say it again but I would encourage you to think about delegating those specifics again to just shoot chair and vice chair or a small you know two individuals or something so that you don't have to continue to come back to the board to talk about the procedural details now that's up to you that's up to you and certainly as your counselor and the person who's going to help you through this process I'm happy to be on the telephone I'm happy to jump on a zoom so I don't have to come down here I'll do whatever you want me to do but I will tell you when it comes to these procedural details uh sometimes it's helpful to just have that chair by share with you folks giving them input to

093be able to make those decisions so that's the process that was a lot and I certainly will stand here as long as I need to answer your questions anyone go ahead I think it was an occupational hazard for you and your prior I just I do have a quick question for clarity sure and I agree and I appreciate you pointing out that all of this is open and part of our records are the interviews with the actual candidates closed great question uh no this is a closed process okay um and I've had I'm trying to think other than community colleges I can think of one school board that chose to do an open process and I think they regretted it because folks in K-12 education the truth is the better candidates have good jobs and

094they're in communities and their families are rooted in those communities and their kids are rooted in those communities and people get real upset when somebody thinks about leaving the community so if you were to have an open application process where those folks would be known interviews would be known I think it would severely limit your applicant pool so just about every school board does a closed process in order to get more candidates and no the interview would just be with the board and this is a board decision ultimately but I think what you want from your community from your teachers from your Educators uh it from all of your community leaders is inputs you want those characteristics traits and issues from as many folks as you can get Mr Campbell so if we go with

095our July first timeline we need to get these surveys out as quick as possible obviously you said you had uh your firm has a Survey Monkey which will give us a link for our website yeah yep our link for website social media we can share that link everywhere you would want to share that link as far and as wide as you can all the Community Partners you've been working with the folks that you've already been speaking with as board members you want to share it with as many folks as you can in Transylvania County we actually have somebody that we've contracted with to do a Spanish version of the survey and to translate the answers from Spanish back to English for benefits of the board members so we've already got a lot of that in

096place but it's a link that can be shared very wisely the other thing it does is one of the very first questions it will do and you'll see what you've got as an example of the survey from Transylvania County here you can identify in what capacity you're associated with the school district so we can break it down by parent answers employee answers Community answers things of that nature and again you're looking for broad Brooks you know broad Strokes in terms of issues that are facing your community so that's good information to have to kind of break it down in that respect so you can kind of see what how different constituencies feel about things based on your timeline here is there a date where that survey will close that we should be looking at closing

097that those are the kind of details that I would encourage you if you're comfortable with it trying to instead of trying to decide those things as a full board have the confidence to let a couple of folks decide those procedural issues so that you can get going you don't have a whole lot of time uh in fact I really encourage you you know to the extent you're comfortable to delegate things to a couple board members maybe chair and vice chair so we can get things out there thank you um just for a little really appreciate that there the three frames that that's so if we if we went all the way through um April 21st and then we had a called meeting I'm saying on April 25th and we're not impressed we can go to

098a different timeline you can not only go to a different timeline you can say you're going to put it on the Shelf uh for a little bit longer I think again one of the blessings you have is an interim superintendent to we have as far as I can tell it's not going to abandon his post right until this board says that uh you're ready now there are limits to that I feel compelled to say that on your bananas but yes if uh if you were to get applications and if you decided that you did not see the kind of quality application you wanted you could actually stop the process and re-advertise later so so the biggest things for us moving forward the nine of us is basically getting to April 25th that's correct and then

099if we need to we could slow things down but from now until April 25th we need to move with haste right gotcha thank you sure anyone anyone else real quick um so you're not requiring a p or we're not requiring a PhD or an EDD but it's favored correct we do not recommend requiring that a norm or is that more normal than it used it is certainly more normal than it used to be um and I think that what boards are realizing is that that there are a couple things at play one is non-traditional paths into education educational leadership that does occur but I think more importantly is that the reasons why some people may not be able to pursue a doctorate earlier in their careers those individuals tend to get to a place in

100their career where they frankly don't feel like they need the doctorate and if you and I were to both look at their application their level of experience talk to their references we might agree some of the best superintendents I have ever worked with have been misters and misses instead of doctors so we don't think you should limit yourself at all to the PHD or the EDD so so maybe a silly question is there a way to communicate and Community advertisement that you are open to that mid-level or assistant superintendent in another Community or perhaps a candidate that's got their EDD underway absolutely and the best way to do that is just to say it to say that you know that mcgow County schools and the size of McDowell County Schools makes it an optimal school

101district for leaders who are looking to prove themselves in the superintendency and and just say it just put it as part of the advertisement that we welcome you know both and you wouldn't want to limit yourself but the McDowell County Schools welcomes experienced superintendents who may want to bring that superintendent experience to bear in McDowell County and we're also excited to accept applications from rising School leaders and those that feel like they are ready for the superintendency I think it's a great idea because I think then you are broadcasting a lot of times folks they want to know whether or not a community is going to be open to individuals from outside the community and I think when you say it like you just said it I think you you send that signal but yes

102we are open to individuals from other places who are ready to prove their leadership and that's what we're looking for I think that would be a great addition to do that third and final kind of piggybacking on Amy's comment miss mumau the the aggressive timeline I think in my mind I've again I've been here three months I I would have said well if there's no real reason to to be aggressive but I think there probably is because of the numbers of vacancies uh it probably puts us in a situation where we might do better hurrying along and getting an early start yeah so I appreciate your big ger but I'm glad we've never met [Laughter] as I said to most of my clients I hope I see you in the grocery store it is it's

103a complement your leadership we can Mr Oliver and I can do most things in a 10 minute phone call and that's a wonderful thing to be able to do anyone else so to be blunt uh with the get going attitude I would recommend you consider adopting the more aggressive timeline and delegating the procedural details to the chair and vice chair with input from every board member and you will you will know and again these are procedural details and and soliciting input things of that nature this is nothing substantive every application will come to you does that require an official effect I would take that as an official action if I was you Mr chair just to be clear for the record is there a motion on the floor I'll make the motion that we accept

104this timeline for July 1st as uh Mr Campbell uh presented okay is there a second to that motion Mr shuford second and does that also include Board designees of chair and vice chair to consult with Mr Campbell's firm I think the easiest thing is if that's up to Mr suttles whether he wants to add that or wants to have a little bit more conversation about that we can do it either way thanks for looking at me guy anyone want to be a part well everyone will be a part of it is is there anyone from the board that is not the chair and vice chair that would like to be very specifically a part of that portion of this process okay okay then I think that it's fair too sure that too so I would

105like to designate the chair and co-chair okay to be that person that talks about your camera okay all right if Mr shuford would take that as a friendly Amendment yes hey Dash okay so uh Miss Smith would you read back to the board and the public the motion or would you for like for me to restate it new Smith Mr chair I believe the motion we all just heard the search timeline to elect a new superintendent by July 1 of 2023 as presented in Open Session and to delegate to the chair and vice chair The Authority with input from the full board to set the procedural details of the search all right that's what I meant that's what I heard [Laughter] okay all right so we you've heard the motion and we have a second

106is there any discussion upon the market if not then all in favor I'm grateful that we're that we're doing this this quickly I mean I know that in the past that we've talked about it and Mr Oliver has been very gracious to give us a full year um for this process but we want to honor that too but you know it is I'm grateful that you brought this forward gave us a timeline that we could use that is realistic for us to look at a July one um because we've we've already been a full year without the permanent person inside um thank you Mr Oliver for being willing to step in but I'm grateful thank you thank you you're welcome anyone else comments discussion if not then discussion will close and all those in favor

107of the motion uh signify with your right hand and the motion carries unanimous thank you Mr Campbell all right we'll move along with the agenda and at this time we've come to that portion where we have administrative reports and our esteemed colleague and superintendent Mr Brian Oliver would you uh deliver that for us sir Mr chair Vice chair memo members of the board honored guests and members of the community thank you for being here tonight we appreciate you taking time to attend our meeting in caring about what's important for McDowell County Schools thank you for being here tonight so since our last official meeting I had the opportunity we had our leadership team meeting at North Cove this past month and our upcoming meeting will be at Pleasant Gardens this month McDowell High School hosted

108the mountain Athletic Conference basketball tournament for the first time of several years and one note from our basketball season we had several student athletes who were named to All Conference teams but we also had a coach who was named the coach of the year of an Athletic Conference so we're really proud of coach mccartha and his efforts uh he's worked really hard with the team and he was named the coach of the year for the mountain Athletic Conference we're proud of him I had the chance to attend the West Risa superintendent's council meeting at Western Carolina University Biltmore and that's always a great meeting Mr Campbell attends those regularly and he was one of our briefers at the last meeting and always provides us with some really good wisdom that we take back and hopefully

109stay out of trouble and do good things thank you sir I had a chance to be part of the amazing Shake competition at the Marion Event Center and what a great event the students just do a great job and really proud of how they do and have some students who came today to prepare for their next event in Atlanta I think it's in Atlanta when they go to compete so we wish them well I had the opportunity to attend the Old Fort 150 kickoff celebration event at Old Fort Elementary and that was a a really nice event several board members attended got to learn a lot more about the history of old Ford and all the things that are coming up in the 150th year of the town of Baltimore I had the chance to

110attend the YMCA presentation at Pleasant Gardens Elementary School uh which was an opportunity for them to share with the elected officials at the state and local level about the opportunities that they provide immunity and we just we have a great partnership with the YMCA and they do a lot we have Partnerships with a lot of folks here tonight too um but the YMCA does a great job with uh with a lot of those programs tended to join education committee meeting with the chairman and vice chair and that's always a treat to sit down with County officials and also the Community College president and board members and talk about education in McDowell County and that's a great group that you have advocating for students in the institutions here in Canada so be thankful for that um

111I visited the slat the splash program at the YMCA which is uh an introduction to water safety and swimming that's for second graders at the YMCA and what a great program those students just have so much fun and uh plenty of supervision lifeguards on standby and it's a great program so if you get a chance to go see that sometime please do the students love it um on read Across America day I had the opportunity to read at Nebo and West Marion and always a treat to spend time with students and get to read and if you want to brighten your day just go spend a few minutes It'll brighten your day I promise you um I had a chance to attend the SEC or third annual convening of Community College presidents and superintendents in

112Greensboro and this was a day and a half event where Community College presidents and the superintendents of the local education agencies who work with those colleges get to sit together and talk about things that are going well around the state and also learn from other folks what they're doing well and also talk about issues that everyone needs to work together to address at state level great event last week was National School breakfast week so I hope that everyone had a chance to encourage their student to enjoy School breakfast provided at school and our our school nutrition folks do a great job supporting our students and our staff and we're proud of them last Tuesday I attended the meeting with the state superintendent in Jackson County at Silva and that was just for the superintendents here

113in the west Risa and that was a really good event a chance for us to hear from the state superintendent and also share with her any concerns or issues we'd like her to take back to Raleigh we had our state tornado drill last Wednesday and I think everyone I think only the high school had to have theirs on a different day or maybe Greg knows was it all three high schools or just MHS okay so Greg's our district testing coordinator and all three of the high schools had to do the act on that day so they had to move theirs they couldn't do it on Wednesday but every school in the district did execute a tornado drill and we appreciate that last Thursday attended the 2023 Bigfoot Festival planning meeting um with the that was

114led by the city and obviously that's a big event the city of Marion it's a lot of planning goes into that it's pretty pretty impressive what all goes into that effort so that was a good start for that process for this year and then Friday I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at the lake James State Park Visitor Center and you haven't seen that go out and see it it's impressive it's it's amazing so everyone in this room needs to go take advantage of that I promise you that we're going to encourage our teachers and students to get out there and enjoy that that Visitor Center there it's a tremendous facility and it's available to everyone so take advantage of it it's a it's a great facility a couple things that aren't

115on there today we had our we'll probably hear more about the Head Start Council but I live Miss silver say more but always a great meeting Dr Delaney does a great job with that and this afternoon at five o'clock I was invited to attend the County Commissioners meeting so that we could brag on our four brand new National Certified national board certified teachers that we rep that we recognize last month or their February meeting had the opportunity to recognize those four teachers today with the County Commissioners so great opportunity it's always nice to break on our folks and we got to do that tonight too so always welcome that opportunity Mr chairman that's all I have at this time okay did you forget anything probably see you've been a busy fella so uh I suppose

116one of the qualities of a superintendent would be stamina [Laughter] uh we'll move along then the unfinished business and the first item is the Dennis court and multi-purpose field project and I'm not sure if uh Mr Oliver if you want to leave the conversation on that or or Mr settles yes sir okay sir so we had our pre-bid opening meeting at uh on February the 14th uh pardon me February 28th and and the bid opening meeting is tomorrow so we'll have our bid opening meeting tomorrow afternoon and so I know that on the end of the night at the into our agenda tonight there's a discussion about we will need a special call meeting in the very near future to consider those and I think there might be some talk about wanting maybe the finance

117committee to meet prior to that we we I talked did talk with Mr franker chairman and he felt like that probably the great majority of the finance committee members would be at a special called me so he didn't see any need to call a meeting of the committee we can do that now or we can wait at the end okay since it's on the agenda at the end let's let's wait until that time the reason I I you know I relate to you is we get to see what the bids are and we'll know what kind of money we need to deal with right after yeah that's why I say later than Prime right right so you'll send the bids out a listing of you had four bidders and these this is the their bid

118and you'll let us all know it's just curious yes sir well once we have the bids open tomorrow I'll create a list that I'll share with the chairman and then the chair and vice chair will determine whether we send that out for the whole world instantaneously I would have no objection to Affordable same immediately did you have good participation yes so you want to speak to that we had great numbers yeah it was probably one of the biggest turnouts for a bid that I've seen uh especially in McDowell County I think we had maybe 9 to 11 companies Representatives it was a good turnout that's good I was surprised I mean pleasantly a great turnout all right so the bid opening is tomorrow at what time 2 30 p.m and so probably about tomorrow afternoon

119late you can check your school email and should have uh an accounting of that and of course that meeting is is run by the by the architect right we provide that back to the board all right so if not tomorrow evening uh the next day tomorrow evening okay all right okay so we'll move along then the proposed 2023-2024 school calendars and um I'll let Mr Oliver and Miss silver our calendar committee representative uh speak to those if if they need speaking to maybe you have anything you'd like to say about the proposed count no um just that once again and we'll address this a little bit right after this but um just for for the public and for our staff to remember that a lot of our calendar decisions were made for us at the

120state level and we had to work with what we had but we'll address that in just a bit but the other thing that that I've just been approached you know by our staff to just remember is just the Integrity of work days and to give them the opportunity if it's a work day and it's not designated as professional development to give them the opportunity to work in the classrooms yes me because they have been inundated we've had a we've had a lot of required PD yes that's one thing I I had a question about because I'm not sure why we went away from it how come our calendar doesn't have a list of designated optional work days sir we just don't say the word optional but if it's a work day that's not a PD

121day then teachers have the option to use annual leave okay because this is going to come up here in a few minutes a principal can designate a work day as a PD day or required attendance work but they have to do that 14 days in advance if it's on the calendar as a work day okay then that that means that teachers may use annual leave unless and the the PD days are actually stated as PD okay I'm looking at it I want to make sure so for instance the June 10th through the 14th are optional work days because they're not listed as PD that's right yes sir if if teachers have annual leave then they may use annual leave on those days so the email that went out in front for the teachers that said

122everyone must participate in our summer program is not accurate if they have annual leave time I'm not sure what email you're referring to sir okay I'll just cover when we get to the next part of it I'm just saying it would help if we listed as optional teacher work days but you have because you're saying anything is not PD is optional unless 14 days ahead of time it's said to be a PD day yes sir okay what I hear though is that you're saying that teachers can take that as an optional like vacation pay but if they have leave yes ma'am I believe 14 days prior to say I want this to be PD and so that teacher then is required to be there for PD at that point there they would have to work

123out the details with the principal ities since they already had it they already had a requirement that that they can't break and and that's one thing I appreciate both of you guys point that out that's something that was reiterated many times during the calendar committee meeting because you know people do look at school calendars and go ahead and make plans to be out of town and and this is just you know a personal commentary um if you've got plans to be out of town and you've made reservations to be out of town two weeks is really short notice to have to change your plans but that is one thing that that we did continue to reiterate we heard what our staff said is that if it's not on the calendar as a professional development day

124can we not have professional development on those days and again you know the older that you get those annual leave days are not just um being able to take that day off they can be converted to go towards your retirement as well so that's really your more senior teachers are less later in degree because they can convert that as they retire but because again you know and I'm looking at other people that were that meeting that's something that we talked extensively about especially looking on the last three years with Morton Gillingham and letters training and some of the professional development at our secondary level as well we've got to be mindful that if we put on there you have a work day and you have the option to work it or not that that's just

125something we've got to hear what our staff is saying and they are drowning I've had several teachers email the reason I asked I had several teachers email me and ask me that specific thing because number one they did put a deposit down on their vacation time and in a time when we're trying to retain teachers and we want to keep them here we don't want to encourage them to not to work this not get your deposit back be upset at us I mean so getting them to understand what you've already said that they if they've already got prior engagements they can talk to the principal we can work this out because we want to retain our teachers and especially post covid right now is still trying to get that whole mental aspect back and maybe

126the beach at seven days will give you that desire to come back and to do the best you can before sorry and sir we we certainly recognize the the tough um ask that later stranding was for probably over half of our teaching staff and leaders training was a state mandated requirement we happen to be placed in the first Cold War now the good news is we'll run through it they're done we've accomplished it they did it so now the only folks that will need letters training are the folks that are new to the county or new this day well definitely new to the state and possibly new to the people will need it but there's also an effort in the in the near future that latest training will be provided by the universities and the

127education educator preparation programs at our state schools so and and hopefully it will move into the private schools as well but that's not happening yet but in the near future that will happen in college and they won't have to do that after they're employed by by one of the districts so that's been a really tough ask for our teachers we know that it was hard it was a lot of work and it it did mandate some days that we were pretty inflexible with because we we had to be because it was a state requirement but our our principles are extremely uh mindful of folks having a life and most of them are going to work really hard with their staff members to honor anything that they have scheduled if it was scheduled in the out

128in the previous weeks and they had no knowledge of a change in the calendar okay thank you thank you Miss silver for all your work on the calendar all right sure anything else if not then is there a motion to approve I would like to my motion to approve the three calendar that were presented one for the traditional calendar one for Eastfield and one for the Early College in MA okay Miss silver makes the motion Mr shuford makes the second any further discussion if not then all in favor and the motion carries unanimous thank you all uh next item under unfinished business and this is one that was presented to the board at last month's meeting it's a board resolutions supporting local control of school calendars and Miss silver since you introduced it to the

129board at the last meeting would you you care to uh speak to that and perhaps you could read the resolution I know it's two pages three pages but uh Mr English I think it would be considered an honor for me to be able to share my commentary on the North Carolina State calendar wall now save your voice best because you got three pages to read okay and I'm so I got very nervous because I thought please don't leave please don't leave please don't leave because I I really want our community and especially Our Community Partners to understand people want to know how you can help McDowell County Schools this is exactly how you can help in Dow County Schools we have a senator and we have two Representatives that you can contact uh Senator Warren

130Daniel representative Jake Johnson and representative Dudley green to let them know that McDowell County Schools deserves the opportunity as do the other 110 school systems in the state of North Carolina to set their own parameters for how they want to educate their kids so I appreciate the fact that you're all here but I want you to leave tonight depending on what time it's over uh and shoot an email make a phone call and just say what's going to be in the very first line of the resolution that I'm going to read we deserve to be able to do what's best for our kids that's why all of us are here and that's why all of you are out there because we want to do what's best for our children and that doesn't need to come

131out of Raleigh that needs to come out of right here so with that being said Mr English I'd like to share a resolution um that we had some help from our our buddies at Campbell and chatley to to word this whereas the North Carolina law provides the McDowell County Board of Education powers of supervision and control of the public schools located within McDowell County whereas local control over establishing school calendars is an integral component of the school system supervision and the administrative Powers with which the McDowell County board of education has been vested whereas in 2004 the North Carolina General Assembly set a Statewide mandatory start and end date for all school districts which is known as the school calendar law whereas the North Carolina Journal assembly amended the local school calendar law in 2012

132to further restrict the starting date for schools whereas the mandated school start date is no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26th and the end date is no later than the Friday closest to June 11th whereas the school calendar law resulted in school starting no earlier than August 29th for the 2022-23 school year and no earlier than August 28th for the 23-24 school year whereas a late August start date means that the schools within McDowell County are unable to complete the first semester until mid to late January whereas the school calendar Law requires high school students to take first semester exams after the winter break which negatively impacts students and faculty and further is an inefficient use of instructional time whereas the school calendar law does not align with community colleges and University calendars

133making it nearly impossible for high school students who will graduate at the end of the first semester to enroll in college courses in January because college courses start before or at the same time as the high school students complete final exams whereas exams for advanced placement classes are given on the same day Nationwide and the current calendar law shortens the amount of time that McDowell County students have to learn the material and prepare for the exam whereas It is Well documented through multiple studies that children will experience a phenomenon known as learning loss during breaks which has a disproportionate impact on low-income children whereas with little flexibility built into the calendar scheduling makeup days is extremely challenging increasingly increasing the likelihood of using unpopular days like spring break and Saturdays as makeup days whereas with

134little flexibility built into the calendar scheduling work days and professional development during the school year for faculty and staff is almost impossible during the fall semester and remains challenging in the spring semester despite the significant increase in areas which faculty and staff are required by law to receive training for example letters whereas fall Sports and band programs have not changed to coincide with the state mandated school calendar causing some football and band events to occur before school begins whereas neither Charter Schools nor private schools are required to follow the state calendar law whereas allowing schools to start earlier in August will not impact the overall length of the summer break as the school year will also end earlier whereas parents overwhelmingly support a school calendar where the fall semester ends in December whereas local school

135boards are better equipped to understand The Balancing Act of meeting the community's needs and maximizing Student Success whereas restoring local control to school calendars will allow the McDowell County Board of Education to meet the calendar preferences of Mcdowell County's families Educators and businesses in our community while allowing for Innovative experimental approaches to improve student achievement and whereas on December 12 2022 the North Carolina House select committee on an education system for North Carolina's future issued its finding that the current School's calendar law is not best suited to the needs of students and Educators and the local Boards of Education should be given greater calendar flexibility the select committee recommended the quote General Assembly take action and change the school calendar law now therefore be it resolved that the McDowell County Board of Education supports an

136amendment to the current school calendar law providing local school boards more flexibility in the start date of the school calendar and be it further resolve that one the chair and superintendent are authorized to disseminate this resolution to members of the North Carolina legislature and two the board would encourage parents students and other community members to contact their North Carolina legislators to advocate for calendar flexibility and three the board requests that the McDowell County Commissioners and other local governments within McDowell County to adopt a resolution advocating calendar flexibility all right is there uh emotion I would like to make a motion that we adopt this resolution sorry I'd like to second that all right so miss silver makes uh motion to adopt Ms mumo makes a mo his seconds to that motion is there any discussion

137if not then all in favor of that motion right hand and the motion carries unanimously thank you all we need to stay around afterwards and sign that uh yes yes Miss Smith has the original to be uh signed okay new business item number 13 2023 2024 Head Start Grant application uh Miss Delaney I'm sure miss when in fact I know that Miss Smith uh distributed the information on this and policies and procedures which is the next item to each member electronically sir so well we we've all had time to pour over every word then I can make it [Laughter] there I showed them my folder and I read every word thank you so Mr chairman Madame boss chair members of the board Mr Oliver thank you for this opportunity again to stand before you tonight

138to talk about Head Start and talk about some wonderful things that are going on in Head Start and some exciting news that has been added to our Grant application package so as Mr chairman did say you did receive that folder with all of these documents in that folder so I hope you've had the opportunity to look over those um if you have any questions I would be happy to answer those questions for you or clarify any of the documents that you were provided but for um for the minutes and for clarification I'm just going to read briefly the documents that you were provided in that folder so that it can be approved as a whole Grant application package so that you can only vote you can only have to vote on that one time so

139the first item that I am presenting tonight is the 2023-2024 Grant application package this is our third year of our five-year Grant cycle for Head Start and so that Grant application package did include the cost allocation plan School Readiness goals selection criteria self-assessment summary results of the self-assessment and program Improvement plan training and technical assistance plan part 1 and part two the training and technical assistance narrative travel plan justification the Head Start annual report organizational chart budget justification Community assessment strategic plan the Grant application and narrative a cost of living adjustment increase quality improvement funding increase and our 23-24 pay scales and so um the third year of this Grant application did not have any major changes the only changes were updates to our program goals to reflect progress and growth that we have made

140over the past year and it did reflect updates in our budget so you were provided a copy of the cost of living funding increase and the quality improvement increase and that was provided to us Thursday night at like 9 30 at night and so we worked on that all day Friday to be able to get that out into that folder for you but the office of Head Start did provide a cost of living increase for all employees of a 5.6 percent funding permanent increase and then they did give us a pot of quality improvement money that they highly encouraged us to use that to increase staff wages as well so we're able to take that quality improvement and and Supply an additional three percent permanent increase totaling an 8.6 percent increase for Head Start staff

141it does give us give a budget of before the cost of living and quality improvement was 2 million one hundred and fifteen thousand five hundred and eighty seven dollars with an additional 175 661 for the cost of living and quality improvement okay can I answer any questions for you about any of those documents we just approach those employees who were our lower pay staff or getting an opportunity to get some money and hats off to you thank you yes thank you very much I did not mind starting to work on that at 9 30. on Thursday night all the way till about 9 30 on Friday night trying to get those completed it was a it was a privilege to be able to do that so that staff can get that increase thank you so

142much for your dedication I you're you're just so committed to your staff and those students and we really appreciate that thank you very much thank you it was an exciting email at 9 30. it was an exciting email I like 9 30 email [Laughter] if there's nothing else is there a motion to approve the 2023-2024 Head Start Grant application is presented by Dr Delaine I'd like to make a motion is there a second all right Emotion by Miss silver a second by Mr Settles to uh approve the Head Start Grant application any further discussion questions anyone need clarification if not all in favor right hand and the motion carries unanimous now we'll move along to the Head Start policies and procedure that also require school board approval and Ms Delaney would you care to tell

143the public why they need school board approval if it's a federal program absolutely um for many of you you know if you do not know a head start can be funded and can be a grantee of many different locations it can be a private facility that is the green tea for Head Start it can be a community action which is the majority of what Head Start programs are are under the grantee umbrella of there are 18 now in the state of North Carolina that is in under a school system grantee so if you are under a school system grantee all decisions changes policies do have to be approved by the school board we do follow all of the school board policies and procedures the Head Start does require that we write policies and procedures about

144some additional things last month I did bring to you that covid-19 mitigation policy that is one of the additional things that we have to put into those policies and procedures over and Beyond what is in the school board policies and procedures so I did provide you in that folder an executive summary of the changes that were made to those policies procedures so that you did not have to go through 300 pages of policies and procedures you were provided that executive summary that noted all of the changes that were made and there were just a few of them okay be happy to answer any questions about them if you have them any questions for Dr Delaney if not then is there a motion to approve Head Start policies and procedures I'll make a motion this time

145did we accept the policy and procedures that's presented by Ms Delaney Dr billing second medicine Helms tell me how you prefer it Angela Allen hyphenhans Miss Allen hyphen Helms that's hard to get used to writing that uh makes the second so we have a motion and a second is there any discussion any questions if not then all in favor and the motion carries unanimous thank you very much thank you all right and so the next item is the 2022-2023 which is this school year summer program plan and Miss Crystal Hamby our curriculum and instruction yeah she's a lot of things sir but she's our executive director of Elementary and federal programs man that is a lot of things summer program sir good evening Mr English Mr Oliver and Miss Muma and the other board members

146thank you for allowing me to have this opportunity to stand here before you this evening on the behalf of the elementary secondary team at this time we are seeking board approval as required by the state to provide summer learning opportunities what we call take to Camp here in McDowell for students who need to score proficient on the third through eighth grade end of grade assessment or our high school students on their intercourse exams deer intake two camps students can attend remediation as well as retake the end of grade or end of course assessment upon approval tonight from the board the camp will occur at each elementary school or each secondary location students would arrive at eight receive breakfast and lunch and transportation will be provided as needed take two summer camp will be funded uh

147if funds are needed uh through our Esser funds 20 of our Esther funds do need to go towards learning loss and this would fall into that category take two campus currently uh proposed to take place for third through eighth grade students June the 12th through the 15th and for high school students June the 19th through the 23rd and the 26th through the 30th so at this time I'm open to any questions if you have questions about camp or I am seeking board approval for this summer learning opportunity Miss Hamby thank you for the presentation so who number one who's teaching these classes and second are the Esser funds to pay the teachers that are doing that so um we spoke with principals and I chose the week immediately following a lot of times if we

148do a break during that time our students that really need to be back to reassess will not return and so uh during that week of June the 12th through the 15th those are teacher work days that teachers can choose to participate in Camp because that's already currently inside the contracted hours Sr funds would not be needed except for Eastfield because they would already be out of session after the first two days for our high school the 19th through the 30th yes as their funds would be available to pay staff okay so no extra pay for the first session but that's the next one um I guess my next question is because I've received a lot of emails from administrators that an email went out that was saying that no extra pay for this but everyone

149needs to participate during this week in some fashion those are optional teacher work days so those so any administrator any principal that sent this letter out needs to send another letter out saying that these are optional teacher work days and that anyone has a problem being there for this and they just need to let her know that that is correct okay those are optional teacher work days now as Mr Oliver mentioned earlier about professional development days we can do notifications but whether or not a teacher choose to participate during summer school I'm going to defer that to Mr Oliver but it's my understanding those are optional teacher alert days now we can do s or pay for teachers if they choose to take annual leave day but because it's already inside the contracted time then

150of course we cannot double pay just some of the emails that I read didn't sound like some of the principles principles words that I've heard before so I didn't know if this was a generic thing that was going across to everyone the teachers and there were some complaints that they had vacations already but they felt like that number one our teachers don't want to let down the principal or the children right so they want if they're asked to do this they want to do it but they're in conflicted now so I just wanted to make sure that we support these teachers absolutely yes sir foreign any other questions comments what about our teacher of the year is take two summer learning program valuable there's a couple of games I don't know we know you just

151work all the time have we ever had to take two a week after right after yes yes ma'am it's always been that week and take two is an opportunity for students that are so close yes sir that is a that's correct so we are required to provide to provide remediation during that time and then give them a second opportunity if their parents and the students so chooses there's no punishment if they choose not to participate but it is an option and we do pick up quite a bit it is very beneficial for our students a lot of times just to see it the second time around so our data does support that it is very beneficial that we provide them with this opportunity okay anything else on the summer program plan if not then is

152there a motion to approve so move means moomo makes the motion to approve so Mr shuford makes the second is there any further discussion questions or comments if not then all in favor of the motion right hand in the motion carries unanimous thank you all right thank you Miss Amber next item is board reports and uh I guess uh it would be appropriate for me to begin and I will end up after everyone else has made their reports but if you recall a few weeks ago our Administrative Assistant Miss Smith was able to attend the training session sponsored by School Board Association and down there she was telling me that uh they were covering the agenda and what's appropriate for this section or that section or whatever and uh Miss Smith maybe you could kind

153of I know you touched on board reports could you kind of bring us up to date on what you learned there as to what board members should or should not include in board reports [Music] now you're you're he he is not the administrative assistant he did not take the training [Music] [Laughter] thank you a lot of good knowledge but if they were assessing word report s and how it should be used for useful report on a committee or School visits okay and certainly these are these are as bright aligned oh sure because I've always said that maybe was interesting and setting for future names okay and while we're on the subject of Miss Smith I have to compliment her and Mr Garrett Berry Hill our technology director if you've been on the McDowell County Schools

154webpage lately you'll notice that Anna line across the top of the page that it does announce when our meetings will be and it will also announce any special call meetings that may be called and uh in talking with Miss Smith and Mr Berryhill over the past several months that's one of the small tweaks that have been made to make our website more accessible to members of the public that may not be familiar with our website if you knew where to look beforehand you could find it never visited our website before you were really lost so I appreciate Miss Smith and Mr Berry Hill uh attending today Mr English uh let me ask this too so Mr Berryhill they can also watch it on YouTube live now correct you can see everything on there so if

155you want to stay home and eat strawberry shortcake and still watch what's going on you can do that no but I see it there and I want to make sure everybody's aware that you can see us in person and hear everything going on thanks sir thank you okay and then it's there so after it's live streamed it's recorded and it's there for anyone that wants to go back and review okay so that's my beginning are there other board reports and then we have uh njrotc Head Start what else you you go first okay I just wanted to take a quick moment I had a 1 once morning uh who said it this morning but boy if you need a uplift or or um you know just to feel good spend a day to school and

156I just want to thank um West Marion Elementary this morning for having me and um I just enjoyed hanging out with um we were kind of looking at the EC program and uh the teachers and and the students there and it was just such an enjoyable day and eye-opening and I thank you profusely for making me feel so welcome the teachers making me feel so welcome and um it was a great day and I encourage all of you I'll be glad that sometimes just kind of share in an email just all of my great experiences but it was a wonderful wonderful way to start my day and thank you very much all right Michelle so I'll go ahead and do my Head Start report and Miss Muma just to follow up on on that um

157I just appreciate the opportunity to be able to go into several schools and and do reading for read Across America and um so I was able to go to a third grade I mean a three-year-old classroom and I was joking with Miss Delaney about that this morning um I was with children for 30 years and they never scared me but I went into a three-year-old classroom and like wanted to throw up I mean I was like oh what are they going to do to me so just just having that opportunity to just just to be reminded again while we do everything that we do um I did uh one of my favorite things about the the second Monday of every month um despite what you guys might think that it's the board meeting it's actually

158the Head Start policy council meeting and um just always enjoy having that opportunity to be there and uh Dr Delaney shared some information that I felt like was worth sharing again um in the area of Staffing and again thank you all for staying and sticking this out because this is another way that that you might can reach out to some of our leaders here in our County again and also at the state level that control funding as you've heard tonight we we do a great job of spending money we don't do a great job of generating money but because we don't there are agencies in this County that that do generate funding and we'd love for your help to to reach out to them because in all of our areas and Ms data would share

159that as well Being Human Resources uh the the biggest area that we struggle with is Staffing and Dr Dulaney shared today that our Early Head Start is still looking for a Lead Teacher um they are also looking for an instructional assistant in Head Start and they are looking for a part-time Head Start family advocate one thing that she was able to do I don't see her I always look at her and make sure I don't say that there she is one thing they did uh that was was a great thing was to advertise that into McDowell news and for some of the positions that she's recently hired for they had over 30 applicants for those positions um if we can catch issues and problems early and this is exactly what our Head Start is doing

160our NC pre-ks are doing it makes the transition for kids starting school so much easier um the out of the 30 applicants though some of those people chose to not continue to seek employment McDowell County schools and it's simply because of the salaries we can't expect people to work for the salaries that we're able to pay them but we're asking them to work with our children that for some of them or you know haven't been born long so so we're really I think as as a county and maybe as a country we're speaking out of both sides of our mouth we're saying that we value education and we value early intervention that are we are we doing that so once again you know if you you'd like to reach out to anybody and say wow

161we need to increase some salaries that would be that would be fantastic one thing that Dr Dulaney did point out that that has been a an eye-opening experience for me um as she shared his start is funded uh it is a federal program so they do have a guideline when they are you're creating Early Head Start classroom and establishing it from the very beginning you have a static ratio of one adult for every four students four children four babies however you want to call them um but then North Carolina has has a different statute and in the daily operations of that it can be one staff member for every eight children so to set up a classroom you need one one adult for every four but then the state says you can have one for

162every eight and that causes a little bit of confusion but it's it's like you know I've had people ask me before what are the um ratios of class sizes you know and and the state likes to say that you know you can have one forever you know one to eighteen or one to 22 but we aren't going to put a No Vacancy sign up like if kids are there we're going to teach them but but that is a little bit um concerning there but once again um we are so thankful for that cost of living adjustment I think Dr Delaney that's that's one of the largest adjustments you said today in about 10 years so so that's exciting that's encouraging but I do want to just reiterate the fact that people love kids that's why

163they do the jobs that they do they want to invest in the future um but but love of kids doesn't buy groceries and so we've got to continue to advocate for our people and so once again thank you for letting me serve on this committee I enjoy it all right uh Mr Frank you have anything from ROTC I gave it at the beginning okay all right okay any any other board members have anything to share if not then I will tell you that I was able to attend the North Carolina School Board Association board of directors meeting uh first few days of March and uh there is just so much going on in education all across this state there's representation from 18 different districts on that board and from the updates that we received everything

164from educational policy to laws and statutes that were being considered by the legislature and how they may affect local Boards of Education uh I heard a very interesting presentation from the office of learning recovery and they're going to try to share that out I see Mr Spivey and Miss uh Hamby shaking their head I see you've been summoned already but uh it's it's really education is a a really a busy subject in the state of North Carolina much like it is here uh felt privileged to be there and represent McDowell County well even though I did get caught in a 10 mile traffic jam because a traffic accident on the way down and I got there late and the chairman introduced me as Tommy yeah but uh I just granted I'm thank you I mean

165so uh with carry on and I'm sure they'll maybe some further updates on that um we'll move along then if there are no other board reports item number 14. its approval of the consent agenda and as you know any item from the consent agenda may be considered separately if there's a majority vote of the board make a motion to improve the percentage in that is print we have a motion by Mr Frank to approve as presented sir and a second by Mr shuford is there any discussion if not then all in favor and that carries unanimously okay the next item of business will be requesting a closed session but before we get to that eye I really think we need to recognize our teaching and Leadership staff in the room you folks y'all make all

166the difference from McDowell County I hope you know that I hope we I hope we have told you that already and if we haven't now we don't have 8.6 percent and federal funds to give you a raise but uh we appreciate what you do in your dedication so is there a motion then to go into closed session for those reasons that you find listed in our agenda this season I'll make a motion to go into closed session second a motion by Miss silver the second by Ms Mumma is there any discussion if not then all in favor of the motion right hand and the motion carries unanimously we take about a five minute break to give the public a chance to uh relocate remove themselves from the room and then we will go into close

167sessions oh God okay so the Board of Education and its regular March meeting is back in Open Session and is there a motion to approve the Personnel considerations both certified and non-assertified as presented in in that closed session we have a motion by Ms Muma is there a second to the motion Mr settles makes the second is there any discussion if not then all in favor of the motion and the motion carries unanimously we're down to item number 17 announcements potential Scott called excuse me potential special called board meeting for consideration of construction bids for the McDowell High School tennis court project and we touched on this briefly earlier uh in talking with Mr Oliver earlier this week he recommended that we we try to do this into this week or first to next at

168the earliest our latest Excuse me yes sir I think Mr Campbell sir if we uh if we wanted to do this on Thursday would we be okay to notice in the morning or would we have to notice tonight for a special call there's only 48. it's not 72. yeah can you adjourn this lady into Thursday the other option is recess is me and when you recess the meeting again so your immersion at the end of tonight so by the time which is actually easier to do I recommend that you do even if you recess then Vista would still the issue that I noticed for the for the specific purpose for the specific time I actually don't even pass the research he simply recessed the meeting which do you which do you recommend um I mean

169I think that knowing that that is the specific reason you want to meet you're going to do it either way I do think that when you notice a special call meeting for a specific purpose of just it kind of keeps from that purpose it also keeps folks from wondering what you're doing too right yeah the other I'm trying to think if not I think I'd go ahead and just do the special company but you can do it either way well let's talk about this before we get all Carried Away about it date and the time is Thursday good for folks and as a doctor's appointment leave the cat I can't be here well I I think it would probably be easier for most folks if we could do it like over their lunch hour say

170like noon it shouldn't take quad shouldn't take long 20 minutes would Friday be a better day Bernie's worse I can be there how many do we do we need five we have to have five we have to have at least five but then we have to have all the estimates looking thirsty or not well we're just kind of thinking out loud right now for the Friday but I can do it okay okay you could participate by Zoom or by telephone State lunch again seven is good because we're saying 12. Friday would be easier for me but I don't have to if I can't make it more it seemed like it was less on Friday what time around noon what time on Friday 's worse for me but it works for me how many hands can

171do Friday at night I can't shake it [Music] shaky well it looks like seven on Thursday and six on Friday make it on Thursday Thursday at noon okay Becky you'll get that notice in the morning it won't last long one it shouldn't I mean it I mean anything could last longer than you expect but well we'll all have the information I put one right here location wise right yes sir that'd be great to do it right here um we'll be doing the bid openings here as well tomorrow someone's going to tell us the money is there that will be uh that's gonna finance committee and your own finances a big part of that will come from is rampy to tell us if we if we agree to one of the proposals [Music] and we've already

172lost it in there 1.1 we budgeted 1.1 so you know we budgeted up to two million dollars every year ever got close to that um unless it the bid comes in at 2 million dollars I have to tell you that I'm extremely confused what are we meeting about Thursday we're meeting to approve to consider now hopefully approve one of the bids for the tennis court I'll be here Thursday at 12 you'll tell me one okay sorry I'm sorry I thought somehow okay everyone yeah to prove the bid and then and then what she's saying is we have 1.1 million dollars already out well when she said 1.1 million dollars I thought I am confused and then what we're gonna lose what the difference is from that 1.1 million and that's what Mr Abernathy was asking

173is like do we have the funds right I I my brain was down a different Road okay so uh we don't have to have an official motion or anything do we okay so the special call meeting will be Thursday at noon in the boardroom at the central office can I imagine Miss Smith will have lunch for those who attended she might okay after all the accolades you got tonight that's the least you can do find find out what Suzanne likes best for lunch that's what we'll have since she won't be here yes let's do that I like it we'll try to have orange cake okay uh one other item the March board work session we scheduled that for Monday March 27th six o'clock here and uh we were thinking that to begin the work session

174we might ask our we have four appointees to the Board of Trustees to McDowell Tech might have them come and be with us and get just a real brief report what committees they serve on how that affects our students that attend McDowell too and it's basically just so folks can put a base with a name so let it you know we bump into them or have cost to contact him we'll uh have some some idea of who we're talking to and then the big item we're hoping will be uh budget and finance and uh we'll have a budget and finance report and I let's move on myself and Mr Oliver we're kind of hoping that this could be as much of a budget thinking session as it could be just like a Budget Finance report

175so I asked the chair of our finance committee if he would contact his members and they along with Miss rampy could come up with some things that they felt like the board should have on their radar over the next couple of years uh for example what about our local teacher supplement program Miss just one example uh so after that expect probably another update on the superintendent search process that's probably an item that will be at every Gathering that we're all together on and probably an item that will have a lot of electronic communication as well uh do we have a date for this survey stuff to be completed thank you sir thank you thank you well while you're here we could just [Music] so beautiful Mr chairman can I ask Mr Campbell a quick why

176absolutely Mr Campbell you just discussed the possibilities uh for for Budget items to come up in the near future uh and this this borders on on uh closed session item but I want to ask this in Open Session if we have any legalities and I think you know where I'm coming where I'm going to that could possibly affect our board budget it has to come out local funds if it pay it can we discuss that during this work session no without mentioning any names we all know about the lawsuit I think that anything that would relate to Personnel or to a potential living liability specifically even if you don't use names that needs to mean okay and any committee on an obsession for personnel or to discuss legal issues but the attorney has to be

177there if you're talking about legalism now that can be electronic very much so yes sir are you asking if we should Reserve funds for a possible officer I I can't we can't discuss it okay but that's what okay you are represented a law firm and agreement that is correct and at some point it is you are the client so if you need an update particularly in closing session of man on that lawsuit so they don't hesitate we're actually at two and we are waiting on a ruling from from I strongly suggest that with the retaining fund yes sir Mr English at our special call meeting on Thursday Kim I'm looking at our new board members that are completely lost that just heard this information can can we go into closed session at that meeting to

178just update them on what we are talking about I would recommend that you since you've got new board members and she asked the firm from Greensboro to give you an update in a color session and it can be at your next closed session meeting it doesn't have to be done it can't be at the work session if you'd like for considering where things are would be waiting on the rule in that I don't see any problem for you to do and just have that eternity we can do this we can do but that would be good because I believe those are the only two features yes the school district welcome one and all right sorry okay all right oh absolutely more Dream Builders discussion harder with voting at the work session anytime well once you

179put emotion through to whatever we do and then someone seconds that motion then there will be discussion if you want to add more discussion prior to that we can do that at the work session that's not on the agenda right now for the work session but we can definitely add it it just um we were just we just hadn't added it yet but as always when we make a motion and then you get a second then there's always opportunity for discussion but if you want to add it to work essentially well since we have our board attorney here Mr Campbell I have a Jude advise us to proceed because I know the board members would like a chance to converse with one another about as a group instead of individually through an email chain or

180phone chain text chain there's just something about being together and talking through these things [Music] so this one at this point again it is if board members want to hear the input of other board members before they'll be ready everyone that's true but that would have to be open session oh yeah it's gonna all be inflate right there is nothing possession about this position right unless you want to talk about a success for the total amount identified in the contractors of the record okay you are spending tax dollars and there's so as an individual if we're approached and asked us to sit how much did this Dream Builders are asking you for that I would recommend that again I give you the same recommendation tell folks that you want to make sure that they get

181accurate information sometimes things can get updated sometimes we need you know amendments today recipient and then give them a heads up and [Music] okay sir all right you're set happy so so are you saying if the workshop there will be a discussion of the presentation tonight there can be there can be if that's what the board desires I think that would be a good thing okay all right we can we can accommodate it's a logical time to do it it's already scheduled Terry or Mr Frank are you you agree oh yeah yeah I think we're going to discuss it let's get it for the meeting and you know we're going to talk about it we need to talk about it before we got it I agree I I want to say this you made a

182comment earlier today and I what Donnie just said uh you you being the son of a Marine Corps Colonel they can handle things right and he can have phone calls I I agree with you yeah [Laughter] I'll make sure [Music] tell him semper fidelis sir okay well it sounds like we're going to have a big work session on March 27th uh 6 p.m here in the Border might want to bring you sleeping bag in your pajamas applications okay and what day of the week would that be on that's Tuesday isn't it Tuesday yes because it was moved right and that's something [Music] there's a meeting on the 25th can we can we set that time now yes we can we can what what would be most accommodating to you I would plan on I would

183play on a couple hours my experiences again but I would say a couple of hours you wanna do morning or evening I can accommodate and I prefer if we can do it well actually I can but I don't have to be here that Tuesday Morning from 7 30 until probably about 9 30. I'm I'm completely out of it clock on the 25th yeah is that the fourth two yeah so our work session is the 24th we don't have a work sessions good well how about that Beth get on board again well that that it changed when the board meeting was shifted okay yes now if we have to we can she did the 24th at 10 and I that would to stay in the morning I couldn't do that yeah I'm sorry okay okay you

184busy I know well I mean I've got patient scheduled I can try to call well that'll give us what a month and a week okay well it's really important that everybody is here for that so if if you find out just tell me and tell me okay uh so what time suits everyone 10 to 12 I mean I act that far out would it be better if it was from say 11 to 1. okay now we have to figure out whether this room's going to be busy that day we'll figure that out we can we can okay we've got plenty of space that we can see all right it's easy okay eleven to one on April 25th April 25th here in the boardroom and would that require public notification [Music] okay and what we like

185to do is full information right okay all right then anything else yeah before you close I just want to throw it out there to this Open Session I want the public to hear this too I wanted all the board members if you will really think about and I'm not wanting to do this in the past for some reason I think I think it's necessary it's not personally a need for me personally but I think it's it's only a fair question to ask for all of us is that we're doing all these meetings now more than we ever have before we're answering phone calls from concerned citizens I've answered phone calls from County Commissioners all week long all right so if County Commission is going to make 1800 a month and we're making 450. I think

186we need to look at ourselves about at least gas money an increase for board of education pay to cover at least our gas money or something for everybody that needs it so just think about it it's an open session I love giving to the county my time as much as I can but I would like to get my gas paid sometimes and if the County Commission will continue to call I would like to be an equal partner the procedural way to address in a lot of times because the county has to approve that my statue so you include it in your budget included as a line audience of the entire world world city and then when the county gives you a lump sum you're able to spend that money Mr Campbell that's the procedure I

187observe well watched Asheville City uh I think it was actual City or Buncombe County one their superintendent made direct Foundation that he wanted his uh one of those two wanted the board members to have the raise and the superintendent is that the way that that goes through look at the superintendent included in the forward approved approved just okay so it comes from the budget children yeah right okay to me the only one would be helpful is if Suzanne could do four or five or six counties around us right and if we're way off yeah which you probably are 400 or whatever for the amount of time it would be absolutely it'd be nice to know what uh I don't know about Buncombe but maybe Rutherford County sure Caldwell Burke Maybe okay I think that's a

188good thing that's always a good idea yeah but I have a bigger per capita all right anything else if not then is there a motion to adjourn I think a motion to a job silver makes the motion which Settles makes the second is there any discussion questions clarification hallelujah thank yous all in favor um thank you