001Good evening to everyone. We thankful that you are able to come and be at our meeting on tonight. We welcome you to our meeting, those that are viewing and those of you that are here in person. We thank you for coming on tonight. At this time, I call our meeting to order. We're going to ask Justin Eastwood if he will lead us in the pledge and also a moment of silence. All right, everybody will join me and stand and hear the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All [Music] right. Now, if y'all all join me in a brief moment of silence. Thank you. Are there any adjustments to our
002agenda? Motion to accept our agenda. Motion to approve. Motion by Kelly, second. Second by Mary. Any questions? All in favor, let it be known by raising your right hand. Motion carry. At this time, we have spotlight on teaching and learning. Miss Beth, good evening. Chair Trip, board members, Dr. Lassador. We are so excited to be here tonight towards the end of the school year and we are starting with an artist. The third district of North Carolina art competition proudly sponsored by the Congressional Institute has celebrated student creativity and talent since 1982. This esteemed annual event invites high school students from across each congressional district in the nation to submit original works of art for consideration. The winning pieces are displayed in the canon tunnel of the US Capitol building. An inspiring tribute to the power
003of youth expression and artistic achievement. Pit County is honored to be one of 11 counties served by North Carolina's third congressional district represented by Congressman Dr. Greg Murphy. This year we are proud to recognize Kayn Williams, a senior at South Central High School and daughter of the wonderful principal at South at um Creekide Elementary, Miss Yolanda Williams, whose artwork was selected as the district winner. Kayn's exceptional talent will be showcased at the US Capitol for the next year, a remarkable achievement that brings great pride to our community. We also celebrate the guidance and mentorship of Mr. Ira Vanney Ka Kalin's primary art teacher at South Central High School, whose support has helped nurture this extraordinary gift and talent. We commend this student for her dedication to the arts and representing Pit County in such a
004distinction on a national stage. [Applause] Congratulations, we are so excited to present this to you. It's just a little token that says excellence in the east. But could you tell us about your piece? It's amazing. It's called Well, my teacher, he named it Double Total. I suck at naming stuff, but I don't have much to say about it. It was pretty complex. Yeah. To me, I the hardest part was choosing out what the basically what I was going to do. I'm very indecisive. like I said before and so it was a fun project. Took me a while but I got it. Is it oil? Um it's oil. That's very hard to do and it takes a lot of talent and a lot of patience. What's next for you? Um I'm going to pit for two
005years. Congratulations. Thank you. And after that I'm try to transfer to NC State. Okay. I'm going go into architect in construction. Wow. Very proud. [Applause] Come on, Miss Williams. in the picture. Congratulations. In addition to our talented artists this evening, we have some amazing track stars that are with us and I'd like to turn it over to Paul Cornwell, our athletic director for Pit County Schools. Thank you. Good evening. Uh it is my pleasure to introduce some amazing young athletes. Pit County has a rich tradition in athletics and it continued through this spring. Um, we have some state champions we want to honor tonight. We're going to start out with Aiden Griffin's uh 4x4 relay team. Ladies, this 4x4 100 team uh won the state 2A uh championship uh just a couple weeks ago up
006in Greensboro. Um, we have coach Tyler Hail, coach Jonathan Butterworth, we have Madison Langaman, Isabella Asencio, August Overby, and Abigail Mitti. All right. And they were your 4x4, as I say, stated, the state 2A champions for the state of North Carolina. [Applause] He is available. Amen. And two school board is very proud of you. All we would say is run run and we thank you for representing us and the coaches and everyone who support each one of you and congratulations. [Applause] All right. So y'all turn around. Oh yeah. Just coach in there too. Thank you. I know. Coach, correct me wrong. There's only one senior. One senior. So, all the three of the four will be back next year. Nice. All right. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. In addition to ingret, we have some couple
007of young men coming from Farmville Central that also uh won state championships. I'm going to have them come forward. Uh our first state champion is Cameron Cessums. He uh he actually won his state championship in the indoor in the winter. We just didn't get a chance to recognize him at that time, but he won the 55 m 55 meter hurdles uh at the Is it the dash or the hurdles? Hurdles. Okay, I'm just making sure. Uh the hurdles, which if you know anything about hurdles, uh that's very difficult. And also, he just finished second in the nation. Is that correct? He went to nationals and finished second in the nation in the same event. So, we're very proud of him. Um, and then also right here we have Elijah Ael. Now, very special young man.
008Both of these guys had phenomenal year, but Elijah is the twotime defending state long jump and triple jump champions. That's four state championships in the last two years. Mr. Elijah, Coach Corey Roberts, and Coach Scott Gardner work with these young men all the time. Farmville's got a great track tradition. uh they they've always had great runners and throwers. Coach Gardner is a longtime throwing coach. So, uh they these young men are doing great things and uh we're very excited about the year they had and uh excited about them moving forward. All right. Thank you. [Applause] We appreciate what y'all doing for district 4 and the county. As coach Barney can tell you, I know it's hard to tell the I got a little bit. Keep going and keep working hard. Whatever y Let's get the
009[Applause] picture. Indeed, [Applause] and thank you to Mr. Brad Johnson for being here for his track stars. We are absolutely transforming our schools and our culture with capturing kids hearts. And we have with us Sarah English who is our executive director of student services to showcase a few of our fantastic schools tonight. Good evening. Good evening. We're very excited. Um we have two national award winners. Um actually four national award winners of two awards for capturing kids hearts. First, we have Faulland Elementary. Um, their admin team and members of their process champions, which I'll explain in just a minute. And then Lake Forest is also out there. You want you guys want to come on in? Lake Forest has their ad their administrative team and their process champions team as well. Um, so Faulland and
010Lake Forest were recognized as national showcase schools this year by capturing kids hearts. And this award spotlights campuses that go above and beyond in fostering a safe and welcoming environment where students are relationally connected and eager to learn. These schools have demonstrated measurable improvement from their first year of capturing kids hearts until now in attendance, academic performance, and discipline referrals. a change in school culture and the majority of their current staff have um gone through the capturing kids hearts foundational training based on that this award is based on evidences provided by school teams on traction visits in fall and spring and based on survey data from the be beginning middle and end of the year. So, the process champions team is a team that's selected by the school administrator and their strategist to be the
011early adopters for um capturing kids hearts. They do a good job. They're just that they're exactly what they sound like. They're the champions for the processes and the structures that go along with capturing kids hearts. So, I would like to say a big congratulations to Faulland and to Lake Forest. [Applause] I am so excited. I never played. So we just want to say congratulations to empathy of our children is always a very thank you on behalf [Laughter] of behalf of the board. Here is a certificate of appreciation to elementary. Congratulations on your award. Great job. I do whatever two [Applause] making me hot. Come on. Three, two, one. Nice. And the second award, we have two award winners. We have Bethl School in South Central and this is again a national recognition but is for
012schools in their first year of capturing kids heart um implementation. So these are the early award recognizes um who've been recognized by their strategies capturing kids hearts and pit county schools for doing a fantastic job of implementation going above and beyond in the first year. So it's all of the same metrics as the national showcase but it's just in the first year. Um Dr. Kaitton said I'm going to get this the first year and I knew she would and South Central did and Bethl did as well. You guys have done a fantastic job. Thank you. Um so congratulations Yes, sir. Congratulations on behalf of the board and on behalf of super superintendent. Thank you for our you all capture my heart. Thank you so much. You've done wonders. Thank you. This is for this is
013for South Central and really honestly I you know we talk about social emotional well-being and you all just exemplify what that means because our kids couldn't learn if you take care of the whole child and just really appreciate everything you do. So thank you very much. Congratulations. Absolutely. [Applause] You can do my picture. Oh, that's right. He has to do his first. I knew I was doing stood up all [Applause] Oh yeah, here. Our next spotlight participants probably traveled the farthest to get here tonight. I'm going to turn this over to our executive director of operations, Aaron Ericson, to in introduce our friends from Synergistic. Good evening. Um so in August of 2014 the board started what was called the quick start program with center district and um that was 10 and a half years
014ago already. Um we officially started the first performance year um that occurred February 1st of 2015 and we have since finished 10 cycles um through that performance. They're going to give you a little bit of the program overview and then they have something um for us tonight for being a tenure partner. So, I want to turn it over um um turn it over to Shannon Synergistic. Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Shannon Smith. I'm client manager with um Synergistic and manage the the program here at Pit County. I'm joined by uh regional um RVP uh Piper Azelle from Dallas and your energy specialist uh Anderson. She's gonna she's going to say a couple words for you. Hello, I'm Anderson. Um, first want to say I'm so proud to recognize the incredible dedication and hard work
015that the Pit County School staff has put in. Their commitment to sustainability and efficiency has made this partnership so such a true success. Your efforts have not only led to significant energy savings, but also to they have also demonstrated a deep care for both our environment and our community. And I really appreciate that. I'm so glad I get to be a part of it. Thank you so much. Awesome. So, we're super excited to um present Pit County Schools with a best-in-class award um to celebrate our 10-year part uh partnership. Uh Pit County Schools has um reduced its energy consumption by over 26% and that has generated over 25% in cost savings over the past 10 years. um to celebrate and to thank you for our partnership. We have a small um scholarship of $1,500 that
016comes with the award um for the district to use um as you best see fit. Oh, awesome. So, thank you, Superintendent, board chair, and chair members. Thank you so much, superintendent. One more thing. I'm sorry. We also do have the um Energy Star certification. We were able to get three buildings certified this year. So, we're going to work again on on getting some more knocked out next year and hopefully add some more every year after that. So, we've got the Energy Star certific certification and then um a check and the obelisk to um to celebrate your best. Awesome. Sure. When you're an Energy Star certif certificate or certification and what does that entail? uh in order to achieve a best or um the energy star certifications you have to be in the top 25% of
017energy efficient buildings deemed by the EPA in your in your life wise so other other K through2 school system so you guys are in that top 25% nice oh there's a banner too Stay there. Congratulations. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Lastly, we are excited to share some um marketing with you and we have Dr. Tara Patterson, our assistant superintendent for human resources to tell you all about how your future starts here. All right. Good evening, board members, superintendent Dr. Lacader. It's great to see you this evening. Uh, so we have been uh working hard to put together some ad campaigns for the summer. So, for a few weeks now, we've had our first um commercial out there on WITN and WCTI. And I do have to give props to Mr. Reggie Hines. let him wave because
018this is his talent uh at work. We did work together um he and I and Miss Jones uh the director of human resources to put together the commercial, but he is uh the cameraman and did an excellent job setting everything up. So, I want to say a special thank you to him. Uh we really are wanting to promote Pit County Schools as the best place to work and learn. This is the first um first commercial advertising for some teacher recruitment and pretty soon we're going to have one ready to share with you all for student recruitment because we want to promote that this is the absolute best choice for our students as well. We are offering much better opportunities than some of the other uh folks around. So, we want to make sure that we
019are putting that out there and hopefully we will get some more students as well as more teachers. So, I'm assuming the sound is on so we'll be good. So, I just need to click. Oh, there it is. Okay. I just wasn't seeing the mouse. Okay, there we go. All right. County School is the best place to fulltime instructional coaches and multiple layers of support at Head School. Opportunities for girls and advanced students such as advanced teaching support because we believe Dr. Lacier ending it as the star of the show. Thank you Dr. Lacader for being a good sport. Thank you all very much. Uh and I look forward to sharing our next commercial. This is um we do have a contract for three months uh this 30 secondond um commercial and then once we start
020the student one they will alternate back and forth between sharing the staff recruitment and the student recruitment. Oh, that's right. Thank you. At this time, we have our public expressions. This evening, we have five individuals and two groups offering public expression. Public expression is opportunity to share issues of concern that are relevant to the business of the board. The board will listen to your comments respectively and our chair may offer some directions if our rules are not following, but the board will not respond to your comments now or during the meeting. Only speakers who have signed up for public expression may address the board. When a speaker's time expires, you must end your remarks and step away from the podium. If a speaker is not present when his or her name is called, the opportunity
021to speak will be considered waved. And during this period, you may hear someone share a viewpoint with the board that you do not agree with. And we do not sense a speech by viewpoint. And we do not permit our audience to express approval or disapproval for viewpoint expressed. This time is for the individual speaking to address the full board. The board does not permit speakers to name a staff member or student when offering praise or criticism. And we also do not permit comments that are irrevant irrevant to our business which include attacks on individuals for something in their personal lives or the discussion of board members family members. Again, the board members will listen to your comments respectively. Our chair may offer some direction if our rules are not followed, but we will not respond
022to your comments. At this time, we'll hear from our first speaker, and that will be Michael Tan, and he's has a group. Thank you for allowing me to speak again. Okay. It has down here three plus. Yeah. I've got I put about a half dozen here. Oh, what's the name of the 5051 Greenville? I had to fill the form out before I could do roll call. Okay. Um, I'm Mike Tan. I'm the co-chair of 5051 Greenville. We are a nonpartisan proconstitution group that has become active in our community uh since the end of March. Uh currently we have right under 700 members. On our last uh rally we had 2,000 viewers on our live feed. Um the most we had was 9,000 viewers on our Easter uh event. Um so we represent a big chunk
023of boats here in Pit County, mostly in Greenville. Now, I've got to throw one provisional out there. One of the 9,000 came as far away as Canada. So, we may have a few less than 9,000 actual members here in town. The I like to introduce my We have a vice chair of education. That would be Lindsay Price. Uh she'll be president at most, if not all, the upcoming schoolboard meetings. Um, we believe in our children and we know what kind of bind the district is in with money in regards to DEI. I spoke about DEI. I spoke with some of you afterwards at the last school board meeting and know what you you think about. Um, but there's been new things that have happened since that last board meeting. If you're not aware, a manager
024at a University of North Carolina school was terminated by talking about workarounds against the anti-Dei policy here in North Carolina. I've heard from people in this room about doing workarounds of this DEI policy. We need to support our students. Almost 50% of our student population is black. Almost 50% of our student population is is female. The federal government when they started rolling out the anti-dei policies took books off the shelves. Books about such topics as the anola gay because gay was in the word and they didn't know history. The history that we should be teaching in high schools. There's a list of over 250 words that the federal government is telling folks not to use in the classroom and not to use when you're when you're applying for grants from the federal government. These words
025include include anti-racism. They include biases. They include the word black. How can you teach an art class without using the word black? They include the word disability. They include the word female. They include the word woman. How can you teach a biology class if you cannot differentiate between the sexes? We we believe as an organization that the school board should be the heroes in this. You have the opportunity to say no. There is council that can sue. There are 12 states that fought this and the one that went to the court has already won. I think our students are worth this. I would hope that you would remove the anti-dei language off the consent agenda and vote on it so that the public will know who supports our kids. The next thing I have to
026say is there's an organization that's also present. They were present in the last meeting that hates our children. They would rather our children die than take a vaccine. That is what they were founded on was antivaccine propaganda. They are the they're part of what they do is they advocate for the banning of books. Nobody in history has ever said banning of books is a good thing. These people want to marginalize and eliminate gay children from our schools. They would rather ban a book of two kids kissing than of a boy hunting. Just as teaching your sons how to hunt doesn't make them a mass murderer, reading a book about two kids of the same sex kissing does not make them gay and will not change their orientation. This group I find important. For a member
027of the board to come out and give this group a shout out to me makes me wonder how this board can function when you back when at least one member of the board backs a group that literally would rather see kids die than participate in modern science. And for that I am disgusted. This was a hard speech for me to give. I had to put on my dad hat. I'm not angry. I'm disappointed. Thank you. Okay. Uh, our next speaker is Trisha War. Good evening, board members. Um, my name is Trisha. I have been working to get here for several months. Time management is a difficult thing for me. I am here to let you guys know that we cannot disappoint our students. We cannot take away these DI DEI policies. We cannot take away
028the protections for our LGBT students. I am surrounded by queers and I promise you guys, I'm still attracted to men, unfortunately. Like, they have not turned me gay yet. Like, they're not going to do it. We need to love them. God loves them. God loves our our immigrants. He loves all of them. And you guys need to show that you love them, too. It is so important for us to stand with them right now. We cannot take away these protections right now. And like the speaker before me just said, when they when the excuse me, districts have stood um on legal realms, they have won. Let us pioneer this. Let us stand against what upward leaders are saying we need to do. North Carolina has always pioneered things. We were the first to step away
029from um with the colonies. We were we are pioneers. I believe Pit County can be pioneers in taking care of our students and showing that they matter to us and showing that every single student deserves to be here. If we take away DEI, we take away future geniuses from this county. We take away creativity. We take away the chance for grants to be brought here because those students won't be here. They won't be safe to be themselves. They won't be safe to come out. We will miss a lot of opportunities of growth. I myself have LGBT children. One of them is heavily active in things. They have they have messaged Bishop Trip. They have messaged Senator Smith. They have messaged Representative Brown because these are very important issues. And we live north of the river
030where it is heavily important that we remember we we need care up there too. And I am here saying we need to come all together to love these kids. We need to come together north of the river and south of the river to love every single child. And we do that by not supporting things that take away their rights. We show that we love them, that they are important to us, that they matter, and that we will not comply in advance with things that aren't that aren't equitable. We have fought so hard to get the rights we have. We cannot take them away. We cannot let them take them away. And we have to show these kids what it looks like to be real leaders. And I believe in you guys. I believe you can
031do it. I've met with multiple of you. I've talked with you. I know you love these kids or I would not be here pleading with you to think to look at them to think they deserve the best and we are going to give them the best by not doing away with the policies that protect them. I really appreciate your guys' time. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you. [Applause] Mario Blanchard Good evening. I'm here asking for several things. First, let's find a way to keep all of our diversity programs. Diversity should not be a divisive issue. Unless we can acknowledge and embrace our differences, we as a society will not achieve our full potential. Uh second thing would like to uh thank you all for working to get our classified staff a
032pay increase. No, haven't quite gotten there yet. So, whatever uh that you guys can do to uh get us over the finish line, uh plan on being here tomorrow at the uh meeting when the uh the county votes on that. So, you know, please let us know in your closing comments what we can do to make sure that that happens because our uh classified staff uh really need the money. And lastly, as a parent of a middle schooler, is there a better way we can do the testing schedule? Because I know they were done with their test last week and then this week they really have nothing to do, nothing to uh to uh work for. So, uh I guess if we can do a better job of coming up with the exams, exam schedules
033for middle school, that would be fantastic because I know parents like myself uh all across the county probably trying to plead with their kids to go to school uh this week. So yeah, if we can do something about the testing schedule, that would be fantastic. Uh that is all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see. Stephen, come back. Yeah. Good evening. I stand here today as a concerned citizen, a father, and as a product of public education. I attended New Hanover County Public Schools for elementary, middle, and high school. Went on to complete degrees from North Carolina State and East Carolina universities. Along each step of that journey, I benefited from outstanding opportunities, varied course offerings, excellent instructors, uh even some fantastic extracurricular activities to enrich my experience. I graduated alongside some of the
034most brilliant people I've ever met. I I've seen classmates do amazing things. So now I'm a parent and I'm contemplating my own child's academic future as he prepares to start school. Given my experiences as well as the positive things that I've seen on a visit to WH Robinson Elementary, uh sending my son to public school seems like the right choice. Like many, I worry about changes to our educational system proposed to both the state and federal level and how that'll impact the education of my son and his generation. I want the best opportunities for my child and I want to live in a society that seeks to maximize the potential of every individual. Obviously, right now there's a great deal of focus around the restructuring or elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. That's something
035that seems to represent a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Uh I'm sure that there are people here who welcome those changes as long overdue. There are other people here who worry greatly for the harm that those changes might inflict. Regardless, I understand that changes are inevitable when demands are accompanied by threats of massive funding cuts for those not in compliance. I do not envy the needle that this board and others will have to thread when determining how to implement those changes. After all, there's a clear obligation written in article 1, section 15 of our state constitution. People have a right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right. No person can be excluded from the right to education. This
036represents an obligation beyond simply keeping the doors open to our public schools. That's why we use a variety of resources to identify and eliminate barriers to any student successfully attending school. From obvious measures like offering free transportation, making buildings handicapped accessible to more complex matters like providing accommodations for differing learning styles, overcoming language barriers, even providing advanced learning opportunities to those able to meet or exceed higher academic standards. These are rights. Our constitution and our ethics demand inclusion. Outcomes may not always be equal, but opportunities must be. And we recognize that different people have different needs. I hope that whatever changes may occur, this board approaches the process thoughtfully and carefully and remains mindful of the obligations enshrined in our constitution. These are not simply words. They are the source of real policies which affect
037children's rights to education and underscore our collective obligation to protect their opportunity to succeed. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay. Julie Andrews um represents a group. Five minutes. Good evening everyone. Dr. Lacader, school board and the pit county community. Uh first want to thank Dr. ambassador for inviting me to the uh May 19th school board meeting and uh Moms for Liberty appreciate your openness to issues concerning curriculum and our children. We look forward to seeing the progress in cursive writing next year 2526 as u you decided to implement the learning uh once a week instead of once monthly. So we do truly look forward to that. Also, um July 4th, we open we are openly having a public uh speak. I think Dr. Lasser might have the flyer. Um uh just to give
038parents and anyone else that's that's uh interested in learning about different books and whatnot that may be in North Carolina schools throughout the nation and the different things that parents throughout the nation are having to uh deal with. [Music] Um getting to something that's very very important this month of June. Moms for Liberty has designated it as a national parental rights month and we've been invited numerous times to the White House even on tomorrow on the steps of the United States Supreme Court. But where did this originate? And this is a history learning thing for me as well as it might be for all of you and some people in the audience. Um, June 1st, 2025, 100th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Pierce First Society of Sisters in 1925. It was a powerful
039affirmation of parental rights and education. Basically what it come down to is the Supreme Court stared down the Klux Clan and their allies in Oregon to affirm parental rights as fundamental and declare that children not mere creatures of the state with a 90 majority 100 years ago. Pierce First Society of Sisters issued by Justice James C. Mcrenolds effectively articulating that compulsory education act intruded on parental liberties and the family unit. and he was right. But here we are again 100 years later still dealing with a lot of things. He was a progressive Democrat and partnered with the KKK to pass a referendum requiring every parent, we're not just talking about one skin color here. We're talking about everybody and guardian to send their child to a public school. And failure to do so was declared
040a misdemeanor. And so the fight for parents to defend their fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children was launched a hundred years ago. Today, Moms for Liberty is honoring to pick up is honored to pick up that baton and carry it through the finish line. While these people who did this are all passed away, the same drum beat of authoritarians advocating for reduced parental influence continues. And today we are dressed, they are dressed in red for ed shirts, t-shirts, but they have the same goals to insert governmental entities and implement policies that divide children from families by forcing their radical ideologies on children, which are in opposition to most American values and religious beliefs. So, Justice McReynolds wrote a sweeping opinion that firmly embedded the principle that parents have the fundamental rights to
041direct the upbringing of their children in American constitutional law. This ruling bet back beats back the ambitions of these radicals, but not for long. The fundamental theory it comes down to, he drove a wooden stake in the overreaching public school monopoly. We saw this in during COVID when our children were forced to have masks and there were other things too and now we're paying for it. Our children are paying for it because a lot of them are behind. Um so I leave you with um the copies because of this month we have a on the Moms for Liberty website we have a parental pledge. um a president of the United States and some other federal uh governmental heads have already signed this pledge. Um this one in particular that I have handed off to Dr.
042Lacader is for candidates and schoolboard members, politicians and whatnot. But we do have a parental rights uh pledge and it's very simplistic. It's basically to unite us because we all have the children's best interests in our hands and we want the be what's best for them in our education system. Um, one of the North Carolina, I'll be real quick, North Carolina does not have a real good parental rights bill at all. We've been trying to push something through with our legislators and it just keeps getting knocked down and we have we have to do better together. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um Isaiah trip 3 minutes. Hello to Dr. Lasser and the entire board of education. My name is Isaiah Trip. I'm speaking on behalf of myself. I am a student at AG Cox Middle
043School. This is my last year. I'm grateful grateful for the staff. Last Friday, we had our eighth grade dance and our principal was kind was kind as usual. He doesn't play, but he makes sure we're responsible, respectful, and safe. I'm thankful for the leadership at my school. We are the Raiders, and we are the best. My experience at AG Cox has been the best ever since ever. so that I wouldn't have to switch schools because of bullying and if a teacher was mean to me. And ever since I've been going to AG Cox, I've be been becoming a respectful leader and I am very good in a in a very good path and I can also say that I am going to miss this school and because of that I have a full ride to
044the health care of ECU. from my group. We are the emergent healthcare scholars. Thank you. Hey Nicole Co. Hello everyone. Never done this before so kind of nervous here. So, I have recently read a bunch of the changes that have been going on and I'm quite concerned about them. I have printed them all out. I highlighted and marked made all my comments, but I found that'd be a little bit more than three minutes. So, I kind of condensed a few of them down. Um, I'm kind of concerned about the full removal of policy code 1705, the commitment to diversity. This I understand when you take it away you are telling children that we will not care about you. In code 7 code 7100 it removes protections for discrimination against pregnant women meaning school officials can
045make commit um can make uh can make comments and treat pregnant women different without repercussions or minimal repercussions. Code 4150 takes away rules that will guide where students are placed, meaning some students can spend more than one and a half hours on a school bus just one way. These are just a few of the changes I have seen. I spent five years in the Marine Corps and whenever we had a policy that was put into place, it was because someone did something stupid and so they finally had to put a rule in. When these I saw when these policies were put in, it was because they saw that something bad was happening and they need to explicitly put a rule in protecting these people and protecting everybody. The only time I've ever seen a policy
046in the Marine Corps changed was to help uh was to help make more freedoms. When I was in the Marine Corps, they took they made it so women could serve in combat and they integrated the men and women. That has helped our service members. So when I see these rules being taken away that I see our children losing out. Uh the removal of these policies will come will cause harm to more children especially minority children. Um that's it. Thanks. [Applause] Thank you. At this time, we'll go to our consent items. Number one, board meetings. Number two, updated policies. Number three, 202526 interim budget resolution. Number four, DH Connor High School free student breakfast and lunch. Number five, Advent membership. Number six, software renewal fees. Number seven, supplements and bonuses. Number eight, school and student device.
047And May 19th, close session minutes. Motion to accept our consent items. Moved by Amanda. And I second it. Second by Mary. Any questions? All in favor receiving all consent items that has been known by the raising the right hand. Motion carry. New business. We call on Eric. Erikson. Aaron Ericson. All right. Um, good evening. um opened a lot of bids in my 11 years um with Pit County Schools, but this is uh probably the most interesting as far as the results went. Um we have six different contractors who have returned pricing um for the uh middle school gym structural improvements, which is essentially putting rebar in the walls and filling them with a slurry grout mixture. Um this is for Ada Middle, Welcome Middle and Farmville Middle. And um you can see a widespread all
048the way from $394,867 all the way up to $1,994,900. um in reviewing with the contractors and discussing with de several different um individuals um we have confirmed that um with Doneight Incorporated who is out of Chesapeake Virginia that they have they've verified their quantities. They are self-performing the work which is a big difference between them and some of the other companies that bid this. They are not turning around and subbing it out to somebody else. They are a company that has been in business since 1982. They are a fasttrack um shortterm renovation company. So their bread and butter is essentially that they come in, fix an area of a building and leave. That is what they do. They are not going to be a business that would ever come in and say we're going to
049renovate the whole school and be here for two years. So they're they have a very unique business model. Um we have spoken with them. They are comfortable with their estimate. They've gone back over their estimate, make sure they didn't leave anything out. Our engineer has reviewed their quantities. Their quantities do appear to be correct. So, um I'm making I don't normally make those statements, but I did want to make them considering the wide variety of pricing that we received back on this project. I will also say as a reminder to the board, um I know we talked about a total project cost of 1.3 million to do these. This is 400,000. We also have the removal and reinstallation of the bleachers, the painting of the gyms, the floor finishing, the design cost, the construction administration
050cost, the third party testing cost, and the biggest item that we have is the unknowns. Um, for those of you that were on the board when we did CMFs, this is the same type of repair work. There will be change orders. I I will be back here for what we find that was not expected. Um, I just want to be clear upfront that just because we're at four just under 400,000, that does not mean we've saved $900,000 in this scenario. This is just a this is just the nature of how it was bid, the nature of the work. Um, so I just want to be clear on those and that's kind of but I am seeking permission to contract um after a thorough review with Dunright Incorporated out of Chesby, Virginia, which is not to
051be confused with Dunright Contracting out of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Two different companies. So um that's what we're seeking. I have a question too. I think W had a question first. Benji. Amen. Oh, I'll have one. Oh, mayor. Okay. Erin, I just got to ask this to satisfy my own mind, you know, with the difference in the uh the money up there. The very same repairs that we're having done at these schools. Did you or has someone checked with this company in how they did the same repair at another school? Uh that and how was the work and how did it go and the that's as far as identical exact repair. The only company on this list that's done to my knowledge the exact repair is Meter Construction and that's because they did it at CMS
052for P County schools. Okay. So beyond there's been they've done some similar repairs but the exact repair method is just meter. All right. Which is 844,000. Okay. Erin, I got a similar question. I'm sure everybody in this room does. Um, are they that much more efficient? question. I will say um as something that we have found with larger contractors um in particular some recent bids that we've done up to 25 to 30% of a larger contractor's cost is their overhead and management. So if you are self-performing the work that's a big savings right off the top 25 or 30%. Yes, but not half. That's what I know. So, but you feel good about it after the conversations we've had. I Yes, I do. Cuz you know I know if you don't you coming back. I
053know it ain't going to be pretty. I know. Okay. Erin, I don't doubt your faith in these people, but help me understand. And I'm sure others may have the same question, but they're not asking you what is MBE percentage. I'm sorry. Um that is that is where your historically underutilized businesses would fall. So that is your it's sometimes called MBWE. Um it's minority businesses and womenowned enterprises is what it falls to. They are a minority um business contractor, 100% self-owned, self-performing. Okay. Thank you. because I was looking at their percentages so high compared to the others. Yes. So, I can see your confidence in them. One more question. One quick question. So, you were saying because they're they're self-performing that means that they aren't subcontractors that they this business is the one that does the
054work. Their employees are doing the work. Okay. Motion to approve the contract. I move to approve. Jennifer, second by Kelly. Any further questions? All in favor of approving the contract that has been on by raising your right hand. Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. My husband also um asked any changes be shared with Miss Hudson prior to June 30th. Uh this would be placed on the June 30th special board or call board meeting consent agenda unless changes are required. And board members, this is a revise revision to policies 3620. It's a very small revision uh to update the policy to reflect state law uh to reflect recent changes to allow uh student athletes in both middle and high school to enter into uh name, image or agreements for the use of their name, image or
055likeness. Uh this reflects policy with the NCAA. Uh we we are just following the law at this juncture. Thank you. At this time, we have our closing comments starting with our superintendent. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And um so there's so much for us to celebrate and uh we're incredibly proud of our staff and students who were highlighted tonight. And thank you to Dr. Patterson and Mr. Hines on creating our recruitment video. I'm certain that they will that it will help us recruit and retain some of the best and brightest to come and join us to pick in here in Pit County schools. So, thank you Dr. Patterson for your work and your leadership. Also, I want to thank uh Mrs. Oers and the communications team for organizing a great scoops with the soup event last
056week and thank you to the board members who were able to come out um and have some scoops with the soup. So, we appreciate that. Uh words can't express our gratitude to our wonderful teachers. Um, so we truly are thankful for our teachers here in Pit County schools. Uh, last week and this week, our students continued with the end of grade testing and our high school students began with their EOCC's this week going into next week's and we know that our schools as well as our students have put forth their best work. So, we're expecting some great results. Some of that work results have come back uh preliminarily and so Dr. RH and Dr. Matkins are working to look at those results. So, we're very appreciative of of them as well. Uh, this year we
057have served over a hund,000 breakfast meals and nearly 1.9 million lunch meals to our students. Um, we are very proud of that. Um, and that is addressing the needs of all of our children. Uh, every child deserves food. um and to be taken care of. Which leads into we've opened the Contentia Health Clinic at JH Rose, our very first health clinic. And hopefully the board will allow us to add more um that addresses the needs of all students as well as our staff. Despite any changes or anything that's going on, this board and the administrative staff continues to address the needs of all that we're serving in this district. And I'm proud that we're addressing and supporting the needs of the whole child. I'm also proud to share that South Central High School on our
058tour, we talked about career and technical education. Uh we're fulfilling our commitment. South Central High School was awarded a grant from Elizabeth City State University to begin an aviation program. So we are beginning. Thank you Dr. Roach for working on that grant to you and your team. So we're beginning an aviation program. So thank you to Chancellor, former Chancellor Elect Katherine Edmonds who was a former superintendent um in Elizabeth City and Bert County who um they have awarded us that grant here in Pit County. So, we're excited that we're going to be able to offer aviation at South Central and hopefully continue to expand through career and technical education. It's about providing opportunities for our students. And we're thankful for our legislators who've engaged with us. Thank you, Representative Brown, for being here and for
059engaging with us this year. All of our local elected officials for engaging and working with our system and helping us uh do what's best for all of our students in the system. So, we say congratulations as well to our retirees and thank you for the service that each of them have given to Pit County Schools. Um, they were too excited about it, but they are welld deserving of that. So, we look forward as well this week to celebrating our high school graduates on Friday and Saturday of this week. And I'll just say um you know when the board offered me this role last year, I promised them that I would be everybody's superintendent that I had to be the superintendent of every child and every person in this district. And I hope I fulfilled that
060commitment. And I want to say to the board and the community, thank you for your strong showing of support this school year. Uh I'm surrounded by a great team and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to serve and I look forward to the road ahead. and it has been a great first year. So, thank you Sher. This concludes my comments. Thank you. At this time, we'll start with uh our board comments starting with Chester. Okay. Uh well, as Dr. Leser stated, just congratulations to all the winners tonight. U Fogman and Lake Forest, congratulations to y'all again, too, as well as South Central Bethl. Um to the people who spoke tonight, thank you for getting the courage to come up and speak. As somebody who started this journey in the same spot you were, I understand
061how uh how nerve-wracking it can be and and the toll it can have on you to make sure you get the right words out in a limited amount of time. Um so, thank you for that. Uh as um we've we've touched on the EOGs for the middle school and unders are done. The high schools are starting. Um as Mr. Mario said, "It's been hard to get my kids to want to go to school this week, but I'm appreciative that school is open and that they are getting their chance to decompress after taking EOGs in a controlled environment. Uh to the graduates this weekend, enjoy your time. Don't take it for granted. It flies by really fast. Uh so, soak in every moment moment and enjoy that walk across stage." That includes my compromise. Jennifer, um
062I also just want to share my excitement with the our teachers and our staff and just from the retirement celebration. It was and is one of my favorite times to just be present and celebrate with people who we hope will come back after six months. We keep we casually put the flyers in their little to-go bags of about coming back and we're hoping maybe our general assembly will help make it even sooner at some point. Um, but really with the truest and deepest respect, I mean, there were some that had the biggest smiles that I think I've ever seen, and rightfully so. They've deserved it. Um, I'm thinking also about our teachers and administrators and our staff and our bus drivers just hanging in there to the end of the year and just thank you
063so much for everything you're doing to make sure that this school year is successful for our children and being there for them. um in some of the more stressful weeks, the EOGs, the EOCC's, finals, our kids are really stressed and working hard and our teachers are right there beside them. So, I'm really thankful for them as well. Um, graduation week is special. Project Search, graduation tomorrow night is the most soul lifting experience you'll have. This program is about making sure all children have a purpose. And I have heard that one of the speakers is one of the graduates. So, I am super excited to hear and be a participant in that experience. Um, I want to address our public speakers. I I too have tremendous respect for everybody coming up, but I want to assure
064you that all children will be seen and taken care of. All children will be seen. It is very important to this board and there are some real difficult times that we've had to navigate through, but that doesn't lose sight of why we were elected and why we're here and what we're going to do. So, I am always available to listen. Um, you're welcome to email me. Um, hold me accountable for this, but I truly do believe that all of our children have the right to feel safe, to be supported, to feel appreciated, respected, and have purpose. So that is my promise to you. Thank you, Kevin. Um I have a lot of feelings tonight. Um so I I um first want to start with there's a lot to celebrate. We are celebrating a lot of
065students in the coming week. Um celebrating the end of testing. Um I know there's a lot to celebrate and even um transitions are hard, even good ones. So it's going to be a transition for everyone as we move into summer. Um, I I um have been showing up in our schools and I've been seeing our our students through the exams and things and um and I encourage you all to show up with for your students um for the community too because um you can't you can't not advocate for them when you are there and you see them and you know them. Um we have been as a board um very intentional and thoughtful um individually um with colleagues on the board and as a full board um as we are figuring out what it looks
066like to navigate these um state and federal legislation um because we do, you're right, we need funding. We want to make sure that we our kids have the things that they need. Um and we also want to make sure that our kids are um seen as the whole students that they are. So um as we are this is a process. It's not going to take it's not going to happen overnight. Um what I what came up to me as you um our our community was speaking is you can't legislate kindness and respect. And so even as we're working of what it looks like um to manage and navigate the legislation um we can still encourage our students and teachers to be kind and respectful to each other all the time. Um and it doesn't that
067that's not coming from the laws that we are shifting in our policies. Diversity isn't scary. I think it's what gives us freedom to be ourselves. Um when we're not trying to be somebody else and let everybody be themselves. And so as we're navigating the diversity of our whole community on so many levels, um you know, we can just remember to be kind to one another as we're as we're doing that together. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um so just again, congratulations to our artists and athletes. Um it's so impressive and thank you as always to the engaged parents and community members who come here and speak. It is uh very intimidating to do that. Um and of course congratulations to our early college graduates who graduated last week and all of the graduates
068who are going yay all the all the people who are going to walk the stage uh this week. Um, but I wanted to use my time this week to bring up a slightly different topic, but one that comes up a lot amongst the parents I know, um, as well as constituents in the district, and that is the role of technology in our classrooms. As I'm sure a lot of you know, the legislature is currently discussing a statewide, uh, cell phone ban in public schools, uh, bill, which my understanding uh, is likely to pass um, the Senate. Uh I asked my son uh a cell phone expert uh and his friend who are both students at JHR Rose about their thoughts on this and unsurprisingly they uh did not like this and we got into quite
069an argument. Uh and my son's response was well if you take the phones away kids will just play more video games on their Chromebooks. Um so I brought this up last week when I attended uh Scoops with the Soup uh with Mr. Rankin. Um his mother's great. she's sitting there. Um, and he is our our our tech guru. And I asked him why Pit County Schools were unable to block games from Chromebooks, things like that. And he said, um, it's it's basically impossible. It's like a game of whack-a-ole. Um, our students are very smart and they will always find a workaround. Do not sleep on these kids. They know what to do with technology. Um, and so Mr. Rankin and I talked for a while and agreed that there's no quick fix to this problem.
070Um but there is a slow fix and that is media literacy education. Um media literacy if you don't know is simply the ability to read, think about and respond critically to media texts. Um and cell phone bans and internet blocks um will not necessarily teach our students important things. So just a few things that I think a comprehensive media literacy education program in our system could do. Um t talk to students about the addictive nature of social media. its impact on self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. Uh how to find reputable, carefully vetted information about the world around them and the events that impact their lives, aka how to spot fake news. Learning how to recognize and avoid deep fakes. Those are AI generated content purporting to be real footage of real people. Uh the ethics of
071using AI in the classroom. As a instructor, that makes me crazy, but um we need to talk to our students about it. and of course the dangers of online bullying. So over the next few years, I would love to see us talk about this more and a way to um educate our students about the media that surrounds them. And that's the end of my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Uh first of all, this past month has been a very very busy month. Uh I was uh fortunate enough to be allowed to go to many of the barbecue circuits in the in the school system. I had the opportunity to attend several banquetss. I just wanted to note two of them that I attended. There was the formal central FFA and also the Aiden
072Driftton FFA. was very very interesting and very exciting to see those young people uh win their awards and watch them perform uh just most excellently. We are preparing future leaders. Uh Dr. Lasser, congratulations to all uh who were recognized tonight during those celebrations. I want to uh congratulate congratulate those who have already gone through graduations and then looking forward with the rest of the board to see the remaining graduations this upcoming weekend. I continue want to uh thank the county commission board with our board working together in unison and harmony and in partnership to continue to improve local supplements both for our teachers and our classified staff. Um, Representative Brown, is always good to have the North Carolina General Assembly representatives here. And we want to thank you for all of your commitment to education
073and your passion and continue working toward narrowing that sixmonth requirement that retirement has. would do so many things to open doors and and and liberate more teachers to come back after retirement. I'd appreciate that. And then last but not least, it's always good to see more parent groups, not less. Uh we've been here for a while and we have one parent representative group and now tonight we've had at least three. So, it's always good to have more groups rather than less. And I'd encourage even more to come because we work for the community, we work for Pit County Schools, and we work for our u we work for our uh people in the county. So, thank you very much, Mary. Thank you, chairman. Again, I would like to echo the congratulation to the artists and
074to the track stars. I was especially happy for Amy Griffin um four young ladies because in 1973 that was my sisters and my cousin who's who stood that in that same place. So that brought joy to my to my heart when I saw those four young ladies. So again to the schools that um got special recognition this evening thank u congratulation Dr. Patterson. I see that commercial and every time I see it, a big smile comes on my face because that's us and we do believe and you know we all are big supporters of Pit County Schools and that's I'm so glad that this county definitely put our scholars first. It's evidence that we put our scholars first and that's what we should do. So I want you to know I love and to Mr.
075Hinds and Miss Jones. I love that commercial. Dr. Lester, we believe. So, I would also like to say to um Dr. Madness, who who's not here, and Miss Coverton, whom has gotten their big big jump to their next um endeavor as principal of a high school and of uh Dr. Coveton going to HB Suggs and to Sam Bundy. I want to say congratulation to them because those two have really been a a strong part of my success in joining this board. Both of them I have worked with. They have sent me emails, great communication. I just I just love them. So when Dr. Lasser mentioned their names, I said to him, you took both of my people because that's my love for them. They have really been strong um um communicators to me and and
076I've supported them as much as possible. To the graduates, the ones that have already graduated, congratulations. To those who about to step across those stages tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, congratulation. And to Representative Glor's team, it is so beautiful to see you. I mean, so nice to see you in all the orange today. and thank you for being here and always thank you for your support because you didn't have to come here but thank you rep for being here with us again. Thank you parents. I'm like Justin. It takes a lot to stand up in front of people and to that young man back there. Sweetheart, we hear a lot of negative things about schools. Thank you for sharing that positive note on them. Thank you all. Thank you, Amy. Oh, yep. Okay. So, um
077I'm just gonna say pretty much the same thing a lot of others have said as far as congratulations to all those coming out tonight and getting awards and thank you to all of the parents and the groups that came out to speak tonight. Um as everyone has mentioned, we always put all of our students at the forefront of everything we do and every decision we make. And it's tough to be in a spot where you have to make these tough decisions and we I feel that we do the best that we can and I'm very proud to be part of this board. Um, as far as the middle schools taking their EOGs, I totally feel you on that one. Um, because I actually told my son this morning, you don't need to go. I don't
078even want to bring you. Just stay home. And he's like, I want to go to school. I'm like, what is wrong with you? So I I brought my eighth grader to school this morning. I'm like, what'd you do today? Nothing. I'm like, "Okay." But, you know, I think it's a good thing to have that time to unwind and just kind of be with their friends and you know, it's the last week and you know, you've got um a lot of awards programs going on this week in in the middle and elementary that are finished and then we have all the ones taking EOCC's with the high school students. So, you know, now it's their turn to kind of get through that grind before graduation. And um I'm so sorry I missed the retiree program this
079week, but I put on my parent hat the past two weeks and I my son graduated from the early college last week and um I've had family in town and um just celebrating him and I thank you for all those that came out to support and all those that have sent him well wishes. It's been a very emotional time as anyone with a parent, anyone who's a parent of a senior, has been a parent of a senior knows. Um, I just I still can't believe it. But, um, it it does happen very quickly. You you blink and it's it's over. And so, I'm just very excited for all of those who are graduating this week. Graduation time is my favorite time of the year as a board member. I It's going to be a long
080week. As she mentioned, we got graduation tomorrow, graduation's Wednesday, graduation Friday, graduation Saturday, and then we're here tonight. So, the only night we have off is Thursday. So, you know, we we push through, but it is my favorite time of the year. I love watching these kids. They're so proud, their parents and their families are so proud of everything they've accomplished and it's just very heartwarming. So, um, congratulations to all those who have seniors graduating because it is a wonderful time. Um, as far as the commercial, I am really excited about that because I think I mentioned that a couple years back because I saw I think a Bowfort County or some one county was doing it and I'm like why don't we have a commercial and so my next question is when is the
081radio announcement coming? Because I've heard radio announcements too. So, you know, we need that too. Um, but it's really great to see that and I love it. I love um any kind of recognition, positive recognition we can get out there and get more people to pig county schools is a wonderful thing. Um, so that is it for me. Thank you. Thank you. About 28 years ago, I was principal at HTUS and um the year that I got there, there was this young man who was a teacher and he was hired the year before I got there. His name was Steve Miner and he was a great teacher. Kids that a lot of teachers or a lot of even their own family ignore, he would take under his wings and work with those those students and
082give them a sense of purpose in life. And Steve at the same time struggled with uh mental health issues and but yet he had a big heart for for those kids and he was an excellent teacher. Uh he taught in Pit County schools at Pacles for about 18 years. He had uh in the last few years he had moved to Buffett County and he was uh teaching in Buffford County. Uh this past last week I got a notice that it was his birthday. I wished him a happy birthday and um and thanked him for all that he had done for education. And then the very next day I get a note from a friend of mine that he has passed. And I think that we really need to look at our programs that we have
083when dealing with mental health with the children a as well as the staff and adults. And I would like to have uh during one of our meetings beginning next year um what we're doing here to address those needs and each year that that happens. Uh we can always get better and better. We never get to the point that we say we're okay. Um, every there's there's a kid out there that needs help that's suffering and that a lot of times no one knows about it. Not even the parents. And then what I do is get a phone call as a pastor that something terrible has happened and they need me. Um, I just think that we should look at our the mental health of our children and our the adults in our school system and
084do all that we can do. And one thing that we all can do is pray for our kids. And I pray for all of those that are graduating that they have a safe time because so many times during this graduation period. We always hear of a tragedy and we just like you said make sure that those kids uh take care of themselves and think before they act. Thank you all again. Thank you all for coming and being in our meeting tonight. even all of those that are viewing our meetings. Congratulations to everyone that was recognized on tonight. Everything has been said that I wanted to say, but I do want to thank the staff, the board, and all for supporting um this young man in his first year superintendent. Uh this is his first year
085uh being there for his graduating class of 2025. I think he's done an outstanding job and I really appreciate how the employees of Pit County Schools have supported him in this transition. Anytime you have leadership, you know, you're going to have some that may not want to do continue, but you have surrounded him. you have supported him and he's having well pig county school is having a a great year and I believe that at at the beginning of the next year we're going to hear I believe I hope all our schools are going to be we're going to be surprised at what we hear I want you to know that this board takes what you bring to us very seriously there are times that we are put in positions where we have to make decision
086decisions We're not a board that breaks the law, but we are a board that try to take care of all the students and all the staff in the best way possible. So do know that we take what you bring to us very seriously and we when we have our meetings and have opportunity to discuss those we take time to discuss those and come up with solutions that's going to be best for all of our students because believe me this board loves every student in Pit County and we're going to do the best we can to make sure that our students that our staff that our schools are taken care of. And so continue to as as worth said to pray for us. I hope that you have a great summer. Some of you I won't
087see you again until our next meeting in in August, but I hope that you have a great summer. I hope all of our teachers and staff have a great summer. Uh look out for our children this summer. Uh if you have a chance to visit some of them or spend time with some of them, do that. If there are programs that you know our children can be involved in this summer to help further their education, encourage them to get into those programs and do just that. Again, thank you tonight for coming to this meeting. We really appreciate you coming and I hope you have a a good night and a good week and looking forward to the graduation. Sitting on the stage with Dr. Les for his first 2025 graduation. Yeah, it's going to be
088nice. Motion to adjurnn. Mr. Chairman, I move that we adjourn. Motion by Mary, second by Mary. Any discussion? All in favor? Let it be known to raise the right hand. Motion carried. Our meeting is a journal. I did. Yes. That is your