001call a meeting the order December 4th board Education meeting welcome those in attendance and welcome those listening online and those who may listen later online at this time would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I'd like to say thank you to the board members Dr Linker Carl Beth uers and all other staff all you've done during my time as board chair I ask you tonight to remember the family of Patricia Rogers who was a bus driver at Sam Bundy pass away with last month I also ask you remember the family of the honorable Ed of War a Trailblazer and a hero to
002many women including my wife and daughters she was pit County School's first woman principal where she became principal at Sam Bundy she inspired women to get in School administration including my wife's thirdd grade teacher as Isabelle wicker she inspired many women in politics she was our County's first woman commissioner and one of two to represent our County in the North Carolina house as a commissioner she was a strong supporter of pit County Schools as a North Carolina house representative she was a strong support of education and I remember her getting us a help getting us a 8% raise my first year in pit County in 2006 maybe the last biggest race that teachers have had I also remember that she played a key role in retaining retaining funds for the heart center and the dental
003school also keep our students and staff in your prayers as we reach the holiday season the new board chair and the new Vice chair that will be elected tonight please join me in pray praying individually and at a moment of silence thank you at this time I turn the meeting over to wh let me see what minute yep this time I turn the meeting over to Dr Linker for the election of the board chair all right good evening at this time I will take nominations for the chair of the pit County Board of Education I nominate Amy Cole I have a nomination for Miss Amy Cole second if I correct we don't actually vote on that obvious any other nominations then I would close that the move that the Nom I can't really move it
004um close nominations without objections Nom without objections I'll close nominations that's why I don't do this job um okay um all right so at this point do I we have a nomination Miss Amy Cole those voting for Miss Amy Cole as chair of the Board of Education please raise your hand and it's unanimous very good congratulations Miss Cole thank you give that to her you got to take that thank you oh yours that one okay thank you very much um nominations are now in order for the office of Vice chair I nominate Kelly Weaver did you second I see second okay any other nominations okay if not without objection nominations for the office of Vice chair closed uh all those in favor of electing Miss Kelly waver to the office of Vice chair please raise
005your right hand it's unanimous all right switch places yes we'll go ahead and switch places I don't have to go very far welcome to the Sid line yes sir got a little different here now okay so we mov on to routine business okay are there any um is there a motion to approve the agenda I move we approve the agenda second all those in favor Zer all right so let's sorry y'all I'm new with this give me some time I will get it spotl teaching and learning Miss Beth good evening chairperson Cole board members those of us that are in attendance tonight and those watching online um Mr rhs thank you for your year of service as our board chair we appreciate your dedication to Excellence and public education thank you thank you so much
006and miss Cole we're excited to have you as our new board chair thank you very much tonight we're going to start with our community partner for December and I'm going to ask that Dr Jennifer stalls our our coordinator for district stem and K K12 science curriculum coordinator she's going to come up and talk to you about the ECU College of Engineering and Technology Department of Technology systems good evening I am delighted to share the impactful collaboration between the ECU College of engineering's Department of Technology systems and pit County schools in stem recognizing the pivotal role of stem in our evolving World we've forged a partnership to inspire the next generation Our initiatives include Hands-On workshops interactive demonstrations and summer camps bringing University expertise directly to our local schools this engagement aims to spark curiosity and
007passion in stem subjects providing students with practical experiences and Role Models furthermore they are committed to supporting teachers through applied learning experiences equipping them with the latest research in their disciplines and resources to create an engaging learning environment together we're building a bridge between the classroom learning and real world application nurturing a culture of innovation and excellence in stem education thank you for your support and shaping a brighter future for our [Applause] students on behalf of the Board of Education we want to present you guys with this for you for Comm let me just read as about a community partner in champ sucess as and thank you thank you so much well hello everyone my name is TJ Muhammad I'm the department chair for technology systems and I've completed 30 years with the UNCC system
008most of them at ECU and let me tell you this is long overdue the partnership between public schools and the university particularly in the stem areas where we see tremendous opportunities for our kids pit county in the state of North Carolina um I wish we started this 30 years ago when I first got here but I'm glad we're doing it now thank you for the opportunity thank you than you thank you very [Laughter] much get we do have L yeah man start one a No cameras next we have some precious children from Shad school they are here because of the North Carolina music educators Association Elementary honors course um in my years of being a music educator I actually was an adjudicator for the honors course on the state level for several years and we
009would lit literally listen to hundreds of recordings over about three weeks and we would have to give them a score based on a very competitive rubric and we are so fortunate that we have several students from Shad school um that are here well we don't have them all here tonight but we had a few that made the honors course this year and our wonderful Russell Knight coordinator of Arts education is going to introd their teacher and tell you the student names good evening guys um it's it's a pleasure to be here before you I knew Beth would do a great job of introducing this honor because of her experience um in the past with it but um at our state music educators convention we were thrilled to have represented um five students from Chad School
010in the 180 member um Elementary chorus so it's an Allstate Elementary chorus uh they came to Winston Salem stayed a couple of nights had a wonderful performance um as you can see on the pictures um looked lovely and sang even Lovelier um tonight we have with us miss Eden Elks and Taylor Smithson um we also have their teacher uh Miss Beth hegar and principal Leslie Hayes I believe is here as well um and I also want to mention we have three of our students that are involved in other activities whether it be volleyball or basketball or other things that are not here with us but mine Greenway Shelby Jones and Riley Riggs were the other three students that are not here with us tonight but participated and definitely deserve recognition as well so um congratulations
011to these young ladies and congratulations to their teacher Miss [Applause] egar Mr FS you help represent your college school why don't you come up here I thought you going to ask me to s I I want to hear I'm just so excited these two young ladies first of all notice one of them's El and one of them smithon oh yeah so they sound they sound like chicag names don't they they definitely do and uh this is uh for all of your talent uh Ed for creating excellence in the East we're just so tickled and excited for you you just don't know how much we are and we're going to present you with that and then tell for all of your talent and singing ability we're going to be presenting you this uh certificate of excellence
012in East too and a lot of people don't know this but your daddy kind of sounds like Randy Travis when he say they need to listen to him sometimes I know where you get your singing Talent from so congratulations to you and then to the uh three that are not here today wor I'm going to let you present that to your teacher all right that's shelbyon and Riley thank you okay now we're going to give a picture and she's going to say one two three amen there's one other thing that we definitely need to say we appreciate so much y'all entrusting your students to our schools to chicag school in particular and we thank you for that trust and we hope that we do everything that we can from our end of it I know
013you got an excellent principal there and I know she is committed to doing everything she can to make sure that we continue to provide in the East thank you very much [Applause] app and their teacher Beth hegar um she was my intern so I had to brag on her a little bit she's are like my grandchildren music um but Beth is one of the best music educators in the state for Elementary music so we are so blessed to have her teaching in pck County schools and I have to tell you Mr Forest I love to see you give certificates to kids it's just so heartwarming just give them to me every month and I we pleas yes that's right yes sir we will that's vot next we have some fantastic Orchestra students that are with
014us we have Alex and Juliet Workman and their teacher their outstanding Rock Star Orchestra teacher Betsy Hughes and I will tell you yes she is one of the best orchestra teachers in the state and we're so lucky to have her teaching with us you've probably heard Juliet's name before because she went to Governor's School last year for for orchestra um very talented family they get it from their wonderful parents um and so we'd like to call up Mr Knight again so he can give you a few more details about the honors um Orchestra performance again every year at the um Statewide music educators convention another one of the ensembles that rehearses and performs is the All State honors Orchestra um the students actually do their audition for Eastern Regional Orchestra in our half of the
015state in January um in the western part of the state they'll do a Western Regional Orchestra and um because this convention happened so earli in the year they don't do another audition what they do is they take the take the top scores from the East and the west and the students that didn't graduate obviously get weeded out and they put together the All State Orchestra to combine the East and West together um and we were really thrilled um that we had while we have two current road students we actually had three former Rose students well an one additional Rose student that was also represented there um so we had Alex Workman Juliet Wartman and uh Gia Lee um who's now at the school of Science and Math but she qualified because of her scores while
016here is a pit County student at Rose High School so um we certainly want to congratulate these um ladies for their wonderful work day in and day out that leads to these successful auditions and again the work of their wonderful teacher Miss Hughes um and the outstanding thing she does at Rose High School so congratulations to [Applause] them [Applause] congratulations I should also Mr Sam Lee is here representing the administration at R didn't mean to that next we're going to hear quite a bit from Dr Jennifer stalls our district stem coordinator and K12 science curriculum specialist she is going to recognize two of our outstanding stem teachers that have recently um received an award on the state level and then she's going to give you a presentation as the program umid presentation for the month
017good evening again I have two amazing teachers with me this evening um Miss Clara Higgins from Innovation Early College High School um and then Miss Ashley Jones from gripton school and recently they were awarded um the North Carolina science Teachers Association district one outstanding science teacher award in high school for Miss Higgins and in middle school for for Miss Jones um so these awards are presented to recognize excellence in Science teaching to teachers who exemplify excellent creative and Innovative Science teaching and if you know these two you know these two you know that they embody all of those things every single day um they were nominated by their principles uh letters of recommendation were submitted and then they were selected by a committee um and chosen to be the representatives for district one in our
018state um so join me in congratulating on this amazing honor and thank you so much for your service to pit County [Applause] Schools thank you for all that you do [Laughter] espe yes ma thank you good evening again um as Beth shared I am the K12 science curriculum specialist and stem coordinator um and I often tell my colleagues I do have the best job in the world um and I'm excited to share tonight why um all of the amazing things that are happening in stem in pit County Schools so with this image um I think a lot of things come to mind as far as what stem means but I want to share a little bit about what stem means to us in pit County Schools um so today I want to highlight the dynamic
019intersection of stem education in the four C's of 21st Century Learning and those are critical thinking communication collaboration and creativity in the realm of stem instruction and pit County Schools we recognize that is not just about equations and experiments it's about nurturing skills that transcend traditional boundaries and prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities of the modern world firstly critical thinking is at the core of stem it's about questioning analyzing and problem solving whether it's unraveling complex uh equations or devising innovative solutions our students are encouraged to think critically fostering a mindset that is essential in our rapidly changing World communication is the bridge that connects those brilliant ideas to the world stem instruction emphasizes the ability to convey those complex Concepts in single terms um to articulate hypotheses and to collaborate effectively through
020effective communication our students not only share their discoveries but also engage in meaningful dialogue that drive that progress collaboration is the heartbeat of stem in the world where breakthroughs are not achieved in isolation our students are immersed in collaborative learning experiences they work in teams bringing diverse perspectives to the table mirroring the collaborative nature of the real world and finally creativity is the spark that transforms information into Innovation stem instruction cultivates creativity by encouraging students to explore Uncharted territories purpose Solutions and approach challenges with an inventive spirit this Fosters a generation of thinkers who can adapt evolve and create in an everchanging ing landscape in essence the stem instruction goes beyond just textbooks it Embraces these four seas and by weaving them together we Empower Learners to thrive in complex interconnected worlds that Define 21st
021century so in pit County Schools uh we do not Define stem as science technology engineering and math um in collaboration with the science Mathematics and Technology Center we do view stem as strategies that engage mind and because of that um we do believe that stem happens in all classrooms not just your science and math but social studies language arts and you'll see evidence of that this evening St County schools has four pillars um the NC stem schools of Distinction teacher leadership uh student competitions and opportunities and then our Community Partners in pit County Schools we have three North Carolina stem schools of Distinction and we are three of 39 that have active recognition in the state of North Carolina which is a huge honor and I'm going to share more tonight about the process that
022it took for them to get to this distinction so in this slide you'll see an overwhelming amount of information um and we align all of our processes in stem to the indicators that you see on this screen so our stem schools of Distinction are required to align their work of their schools to the indicators that you see which include five overarching principles and 22 key elements in order to receive the distinction schools must submit an intent to apply compile a portfolio that includes an executive summary along with narratives artifacts and evidence for each of these 22 key elements the portfolio and application are then submitted to DPI to be reviewed by an anonymous group of of peers and if the School receives um a score of prepared or model for each of those principles the
023school is then awarded a site visit and that site visit is to triangulate and verify the components that were submitted and after extensive questioning the site team then decides whether the school can be recommended to the State Board of Education to receive that honor all of that is to say that if it were not for the administrators school-based stem coordinator ERS um our Community Partners and most importantly our amazing teachers um this honor would not be possible for these schools so for Teacher leadership um which is a huge pillar for us in stem um you see that evidenced at many board meetings throughout the year um this next segment will highlight the advancement of teacher leadership for stem and pit County Schools teachers are the Catalyst for inspiring the Next Generation of stem professionals by
024fostering a passion for these subjects they lay the foundation for future Innovation and progress elevating teacher leadership in stem ensures that our educators are equipped with the knowledge resources and skills to ignite curiosity and guide students toward meaningful stem careers moreover teacher leaders serve as mentors and Role Models their leadership extends beyond the classroom influencing colleagues and shaping School culture through collaboration and shared expertise they create a ripple effect positively impacting not only students but fellow Educators thereby building a stronger more interconnected stem Community advancing teacher leadership in stem is an investment in continuous Improvement teachers as lifelong Learners themselves need opportunities to stay a breast of the latest advancements in their fields by providing professional development mentorship programs and collaborative platforms we Empower them to remain at the Forefront of stem knowledge ensuring that
025they can effectively prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow here you will see that uh teachers that are Keenan fellows who have partnered with local industry experts to create K12 curriculum aligned with those Industries these teachers applied for and were selected amongst a group of peers for this one-year commitment we also partner with the North Carolina space Grant for the North Carolina space education education ambassadors program these teachers also applied for and were accepted amongst their peers for this one-year commitment and in this um ambassador program they learn how to utilize NASA's resources to implement in their classrooms on this slide you will see Lindsay stalls um is currently a stem Educators for equity and diversity fellow or a seed fellow um Lindsay applied for and was selected for this one-year commitment Lindsay works with
026other Educators in the state to discuss diversity equity and inclusion in stem teachers at welcome middle school cmfs and Innovation Early College High School are participating in an international project called plant the moon where they will design an experiment to grow plants on the moon and we've seen some of those projects here before and they're continuing that again this year this one's really exciting so this one uh is a Keenan fellow stemor Scholars Program you'll see all the schools on the screen that are participating in this work through Keenan fellows um these teachers have completed uh select teachers at the schools have complet completed online modules on Project based learning and they'll present that work at a spring Expo next semester and what is unique about this year's cohort is that we are focusing on
027Elementary Encore teachers um what that means um is we're focusing on PE music and art so that they can work to integrate their curriculum with the core con content standards to support efforts in literacy math science and social studies and on this screen you'll see evidence of that so these are mostly pictures from a PE class where they are integrating science and math standards into their PE curriculum um which is unique um and you'll see some teachers that are participating in that program finally um you will see teachers administrators and school-based stem coordinators uh participating in applied learning experiences where they Shadow a local business industry or organization to learn more about current fields in stem so that they can take that information back to their daily practices in their classroom and on the screen
028you will see an example of an applied learning experience where we visited the College of engineering's um Department of technology for a tour and you can see evidence of that tonight of that lasting uh partnership one of the most exciting components of stem and pit County schools are our student opportunities and competitions there are too many to name um but on the screen you will see highlights of North Carolina Science Olympiad for elementary and middle school and high school um the ECU College of engineering's Summer stem camp that was completely free to our students in they actually did receive a stien um in attending for a travel reimbursement which was fantastic along with um being allowed to keep the materials that they used during the stem Camp um and you'll also see the FLL first
029robotics competition and those are two rookie teams from this year um on the top you will see the froggy force from light Forest Elementary and on the bottom you'll see the um welcome middle school students for their team as well first year teams and finally uh it is important to mention that none of this would be possible without our inlist support from our community and Industry Partners the list that you see on the screen um does not even begin to scratch the surface um of all of the support that we have received from the community for stem and pit County Schools um we are forever grateful for their support and look forward to the continued success that we'll see in our programming and stem thank you um on behalf of the Board of Education I
030would like to present Don Rose with his scav and we appreciate you leading us this past year with integrity and showing your leadership and I I personally thank you for working alongside me as your Vice chair and you have been wonderful thank you all the formal okay and we have no public expression today so I'm asking for a motion to approve the consent items so move second any discussion all in favor raise your right hand 8 and that gets us into closing comments so that will start with you thank you um first just thank Don rhs for his time and putting up with all my phone calls which you get now so okay name I'm sure that phone uh got blocked a few times but I appreciate that appreciate all your support um to miss
031Cole Miss Weaver look forward to working with you this next year is our leadership on the board and lastly if uh deor baget would you stand up for a minute please just come on out from behind the table you pit county has been blessed for 30 plus years but really for 26 because Deborah baggot has been in our finance office for the last 26 years um the last eight years she have served at the finance officer and had to work put up with me just coming in just got a minute and we talked for hours right about budgets and numbers and everything else and um noway is she an amazing finance officer here for pit County she's also one of the best in the state as you notice by every year we have this audit
032award that the finance team and and Endeavor win all the time so um eight years serving as a finance officer the last four been through Co Nester so that's like another 28 years on top of it you know so throw dog gears in there but um it's just been um for me I've been truly blessed with my time to have her helping on that end of the building and running that department um pit county is better because of her and we're certainly going to miss uh Miss Miss baggot immensely so I congratulate you on your retirement and but we're certainly going to miss you thank you we'll start with you Don I got two minutes not used to two minutes n want to take long once again congratulations Deborah I remember back in the day
033walking on the third floor seeing her and Michael Calvin working together say that's great congratulations on retirement you will enjoy it like I said told you earlier today the check starts on January 23rd I believe so congratulations to Amy and Kelly good luck good luck to our winter sports who started this week and that's all I got to say tonight thank you Melinda thank you congratulations to our new leaders Amy and Kelly I know you do a great job and uh I hope the board will you know continue to support the people in the leadership roles thanks to Don I know from history that it's not an easy seat to sit in and I appreciate you um everything you did for us as the chair of the past year and congratulations to Deborah enjoy retirement
034you will love it and you will be busier than you've ever thought you could be um I just want to say I'm I'm very excited about ECU being um you know collabor ating with pit County Schools especially with um the stem and the College of Engineering and Technology that's amazing I can't wait to see what things come out of this and I'm look forward to see our students uh doing bigger and better things with ECU supporting them and I and I love the fact that um of one of the sees was critical thinking because that's really that's a hard concept for for people to get and it's so important in so many jobs especially in the medical field it's really hard and somebody you can recite things but if you can't put it together and
035understand it and do critical thinking to make decisions it's it you're just not being successful so I'm was glad to hear that was one of the se's and I would just say I hope that everybody has a safe holidays coming up here in a couple of weeks and um I look forward when the spring rolls around doing some tours with parents for public schools enjoyed one last week at Innovation it was amazing and I can't wait to see where we're going to go next is the season to be jolly and also thankful and we've got a lot to be thankful for as a school system I was told years ago you surround yourself with good people good things happen and de bagot you're one of the reasons why good things happen pit County schools for
036so long and uh I don't know whether y'all know this or not but being in the school business you probably do there's a lot of systems in this state that have issues most of the time the issues Dr Linker starts somewhere in the finance department we haven't had those issues here because you have been an outstanding and excellent person in our for leading our finances and I will miss you here but there's always other things to do I will tell you that retirement was one of the best things that happened to me and now you have an opportunity to serve Christ in other ways particularly with your church and with your husband and I know you will find a way to do that um also uh don thank you for your time as the uh
037board chair I I I really consider you have done a credible job and I appreciate what you've done thank you some of them under real real tough times and we always didn't see eye to eye but we always came together and work worked together for the better of the schools and and the children in this County and uh you and I have several things in common one of them is our love for the national blue and corn gold of the FFA and the leadership that it builds so I I appreciate all your efforts Don I mean that is sincerely as I can say it Amy thank you for accepting the leadership role as chairman of board I appreciate that and and one of the little perks I hope that you will allow me to have
038is that when that bell rings you'll still let me talk I'm going to count on that and I appreciate you and uh look forward to working with you I know you'll you'll lead us well you won't embarrass us at all and I believe that thank you and I look forward to working with you too Kelly you got a year to sort of learn the ropes and uh become uh familiar with that leadership role and I know you'll do that as well um one other thing and I'll quit I had the opportunity this past week to visit the fifth grade graduation at gr Whitfield and their dare program under the leadership of the resource officer Mr Holloway there and if there has ever a man that has embraced a community in a school any better than
039he I have not seen it and the love that was shown there that day Dr Linker I know you felt it wherever you were and and you have a thousand places you could be every day as superintendent of this school but I know you felt that love and so with that I want to wish everybody a very very Merry Christmas and hopefully a happy New Year and a very very safe holiday season Tracy okay um I just want to reiterate the condolences to the family of Patricia Rogers um and thank you Don for your service I know it's not easy being chair there's a lot of things that it entails behind the scenes that I think a lot of people don't don't realize what you do um of course um Deborah we're going to miss
040you I'm kind of like just not really processing the fact that you're not going to be here next year we're really going going to miss you sorely you such an asset to pick County schools and I brag about you in different ways out in the community if you don't you probably don't realize that but um congratulations to Amy and Kelly um I know y'all were service well um I'm always impressed by the stem presentations um my son had a um opportunity to do the um ECU college for engineering department of Technology summer camp and it was just fabulous I always find it fascinating um I I consider myself a little bit of a science and I just really get into um looking at what they do and it just blows my mind because these are
041these are our kids in our future so um we're in good hands um congratulations to the honors course and Orchestra and of course um happy holidays to everyone I hope they have a very safe and healthy and enjoyable holidays and my gift to Amy is I will not go for two minutes I'm done thank you James thank you Don for one year of wonderful service to us I look forward to being with you on Saturday the former parade congratulations to Amy and Kelly look forward to working and serving with you again thank you to all of our Community Partners and congratulations to the students from and JH Rose and we're very proud of our stem's uh programs and I do want to say that uh debborah and I have a tie together her husband is
042my god brother so we're going to always be together but thank you de for all that you've done for pick count excuse thank you Jennifer um so don I I I'd like to pride myself as a therapist in saying I can read people and I can't tell right now if you're relieved or sad or maybe both but I just I just want you to know how special you are and in coming in as a new board member you really helped us all to feel very welcomed um very prepared very supported and and I couldn't have asked for a better chair coming on to the board so thank you for everything you've done in your service and thank your family as well because I know that took time away from them so thank you and Deborah
043I didn't get a chance to work with you very long but I can assure you that all the things they've said I am grateful for um so we know we need to pinch every penny we have and spend it wisely and thank you for all your years of service and making sure we do that big big big shoes to fill so um and Amy and kie are going to be fantastic I'm just really really excited about the energy you bring to the board so and I would say a couple of things South Central's cheerleading team state champions so very very proud of that team and the hard work they put in um I also want to give a shout out to Eva Cox Orchestra they had their winter orchestra concert under the leadership of um
044Mr Emory and it was fantastic it was um just very inspiring to see how he's grown that Orchestra uh and then I attended the Greenville Christmas parade in Rose High School and connley in their bands were playing and they just did such a fabulous job so the holiday spirit is definitely there and I'm just grateful for our schools for being a part of that in our community and thank you Don do appreciate all that you've done I look forward to uh when I make an unpopular motion that you able to Second it now forward to that and uh Amy and and Kelly I look forward to working with you and Amy one of the reasons I voted for you is when Benji is talking and that bell rings for you to come down with that
045G I know you can do it but anyway and Deborah I you know when as I was when I was a principal and my uh bookkeepers and all you know back then the school were signed certain people and I I was always really relieved when I knew that Deborah was signed in my school and I'd always tell my uh bookkeeper you won't you cannot make a mistake because it will be fam and I always appreciated Deborah and one thing that I remember noticing that when I went up on especially when I was working up here at the central office sometimes the other work work CU they would have their doors closed Deborah's door was always open and that was an invitation right there if I needed to ask her anything and she was always willing
046to do that really it's going to be very tough for anybody to replace you sometimes you know you just can't be replaced we can just put somebody else in there and let them do their own thing uh but you did a wonderful job and uh I appreciate it everything that you have done and one other thing I'd like to say is uh that's uh stem education one of the things that I noticed up there was the uh community and Industry Partners I think that means so much to our school system that we've got that G hey I stopped in um Don I want to Echo what Jennifer said as a new board member coming in having leadership ship um uh having your leadership really helped transition us into this role and and showing us you
047know what it means to serve with integrity and to be engaged with our schools um and to know what's going on and we really appreciate that um and Amy I'm excited to serve with you um when people ask me have asked me throughout the year you know how how how it is being on the board and I just say I love every second of it because I love our schools and I truly am honored and humbled to be able to serve in general and this is um even more um so thank you all for trusting us to to take this leadership and um and I'm really excited to continue to serve um serve our schools um in this role um the stem I one of the things that stuck out with um Dr stalls that
048um that stem means strategies that engage the mind and I love how that's able to bring all of the things we're talking about the collaboration with our community and in our arts and our Encore classes and um how stem is a part of all of that um you've probably heard me say that um I think we can't live in silos and we have we are really working to impact that here in pit County schools by bringing stem into our Encore classes and having the Arts um in different uh Elm persones having their first modern band concert tomorrow night like all of these things that we're really doing to bring all of our schools and Community together and I love getting to celebrate that here and um the partnership with ECU um as an employee there
049seeing how what we do here in our schools to prepare students for higher education is so vital and so being able to use that resource that's right here I think is so beautiful and I'm grateful for our um leadership that's bringing them together so everyone have happy holidays and we'll hit the ground running and J room thanks very much I get to go last no with no no with no time but I always say I'm not the best with words and I love listening to what everybody says and I can just Echo everything Don thank you again for your leadership this year and I look forward to working with you Kelly and um bear with me as this is new to me so I've got to learn how you know running up there when I'm
050supposed to be up there I was another world so just give me some patience as I get used to this new role um I promise you I'll do the best that I can I appreciate my fellow board members for their support and giving me this position and I hope that I do not let you down I will try my best um I'm always going to promise to put the needs of our children first that's that's always first in my opinion so um thank you guys so much and I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year as we close out the school year and um be with everyone for I know exams are going to be after Christmas which I really do not like but anyway that's time for another another day
051um but everyone you know have a great holiday and all the teachers enjoy your time off please and administrators everyone enjoy your time off I'm going to turn over to Kelly to put us into a close session make a motion to go into close session pursuant to General statute 143 31811 for the following purposes under subsection A3 to consult with our attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege and to consider and give instruction concerning judicial action titled State V Casper 14c 6373 and 14c 06371 do I have a second second any discussion okay all those in favor raise your right hand 8 Zer we will go into close session we'll take a five minute break okay we're back in Open Session can I have a motion to toj all in favor Merry Christmas Merry Christmas