October 2nd, 2023 Board Meeting.

001call the October 2nd 2023 meeting to order we welcome those in attendance those watching watching online and those who will watch later online this time let the record show care we have two board members not present Mr Fords and Miss Lin this time I call on Amy Cole for the Pledge of Allegiance in a moment of silence stand for the pledge Al 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 as we go into this moment of silence I just wanted to um say that we're praying for the Fallen families who have lost someone previously U Miss Mary blunt Williams who was a board member from 2008 to 2020 Miss Charlene Barry who is a pre-

002teacher at STI Salter and then recently a um previous graduate 2022 North pit graduate Marian mobl who tragically died as well um please keep your these families in your prayers as we have a moment of silence Heavenly Father we come to you today with praise and thanksgiving As We Gather for this meeting tonight we ask that you help us to be able to discuss the matters at hand in a reasonable way let this meeting be productive with the children we serve at the Forefront of our minds give us insight to lead with integrity and that our decisions reflect what is right and good for all in your name we pray amen amen thank you this time any adjustments to the agenda you have a motion we accept the agenda as written motion to accept agenda

003as written okay all in favor raise your right hand thank you V all right this time we go on to uh a most important part of the evening the most fun part of the evening Spotlight on teaching and learning where's Beth good evening chairman roads board of directors Dr Linker PCS staff and Community we are so excited to bring in our community partner for this month we have decided to feature a very special program that helps children across the district and the line is still coming you're going to see a lot of people coming in tonight we are going to honor our backpack Pals program and with us this evening we have Kim Anderson who is our lead social worker she is going to call the names of all of the churches and Civic organizations

004but I just want to tell you last board meeting when Mr Forest and Mr Forbes made a comment at the end in their when they had a chance to speak about all of the organizations in our community that support our students it made think we have not brought in our backpack pal sponsors and these people each Church represents hundreds of people that bring um non- perishable food items and school supplies to our children each month and they also love on our teachers many of them do a breakfast or a lunch at schools or go around with the treat cart so it is only fitting that we bring in these lovely wonderful people to represent our backpack Pals program when I was a teacher I would see the children on Friday afternoons when our school counselor

005walked around with a cart with the little backpacks and to see their faces when they got a special backpack filled with non- perishable food items it is incredibly heartwarming warming and I wish that all of you could be in our schools to see that but we want to thank you from the bottom of our heart for what you do for our children in pck County we thank you so much C is going to come forth and tell you a little bit about how the program got started and then we will read each church and we tried to hunt down all of these churches and Civic organizations and if we omit anyone please accept my apology and I will come to your church and thank you personally um but Kim Kim should be good evening everybody

006I'm Kim I'm the Le School social worker for pit County schools and welcome Community Partners we're so excited to have you here tonight the backpack Pals program actually started during the flood and when we say flood if you've been here in pit County long enough you know what the flood is Right 1999 so for over 20 years Our Community Partners have supported us with this initiative they not only find the resources for the food but they pack they distribute they pack their cars and bring them to our schools um and they all do this on their own time voluntarily so we really appreciate you all for doing this during the pandemic these people were out supporting us when everything was shut down um and they haven't let up yet um and so we appreciate you

007being here and thank you for supporting our students and [Applause] families so we're going to to recognize each church or each organization with a certificate of appreciation so first we have Aiden Christian church thank you thank you bethl United Methodist Church can we read oh yes absolutely so we also have Aiden United Methodist Church um David and Jennifer Smith bethl United Methodist Church chur thank you Blackjack Free Will Baptist Church Christ Church 86 hunger okay Church's Outreach Network Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church Covenant Church Farmville Baptist Church B don't let them go out yeah cuz a couple of board M might want to say something to him absolutely I didn't see him Dr Link all right please stay until all names are called thank you Farmville Presbyterian Farmville United Methodist Church First Christian Church yes thank

008you abely Hast stack reality ignite Church Emmanuel Baptist Church Jarvis United Methodist Church Junior League of Greenville North Carolina corania Christian Center Church the memorial Baptist Church she made sure I said [Laughter] the Oakmont Baptist Church Open Door Church Our Redeemer Lutheran Church Rose Hill Church Rose Hill Free Will Baptist Salem United Methodist St James United Methodist [Applause] Church St Paul's Episcopal Church Greenville got to give her my seat sweet gum Grove Church sicamore Hill Missionary Baptist Church Winterfield Free Will Baptist Church and word of Truth Ministries want to give him a round of applause you got something to say yeah you the only thing that I I wanted to add to it is that we do appreciate all of the partners of pit County Schools but you know I don't think there's anything that

009could be any more special than our houses of faith that get involved because that really is down at the Grassroots level and it provides an opportunity for our young people to understand about the the the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and we appreciate that for the bottom of our heart and I know you work hard because the the gentleman that came in here from Blackjack Church he's almost 24/7 with those backpacks and I know y'all are too and we just really appreciate everything that you do okay thank you very much if I could get you to gather this way we're going to get a big group shot so come this way you get picture [Music] the [Music] right here guys this is going on social media 3 two one smile smile smile you are

010fabulous we appreciate you so very much thank you thank [Applause] you [Music] good it's pretty impressive all right good good evening I'm here today I'm Gretchen Wiltson School nutrition director and I'm here today again um reoccurring every year I loving this um we keep on bringing back a art contest win winner for the NC Farm to school calendar contest um so this year I put a calendar in front of you um that is the current calendar our winner is on January and there is a a big picture of his right there for if you want to look at it blown all up um Tanner if you'll come for that would be so great miss Bell also so um of course sha did it again they are awesome about being supportive to this farmer school calendar

011contest and U Miss Bell brought home another win for her students in her school and um this is Mr Mr Tanner and um Godly and he is what you were third grade when you won this so he was a third grader last year when he won this competition to bring you a little bit information though about this one more time make sure I understands is this is to help um bring back education in regards to um everything that's grown in North Carolina so it's all North Carolina produce agriculture anything so you know we've seen some with fish you see crops you see all over it could be any kind of Agriculture we do here in North Carolina and the calendar has been done through NC Grange they were the sponsors they're the ones that take

012care of that they do all the printing on all the awards that are given out to the winners um so we appreciate NC gra for being the sponsor for this and for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture that puts this on gets the judging done goes through and announces it to all the students and everybody that wins this um and then they have a big uh get together that they give the awards and stuff out we were there last year up at the fairgrounds and Raleigh um last spring and so I'm so glad that Mr Tanner and Miss B can make it over here today to get recognized by you the board members so um yes you see like I said go to January that is it the beautiful mushrooms you see the pictures that

013was when we went to the actual presentation where he received um his certificates and stuff from NC so congratulations again we appreciate that you put artwork in and it was so beautiful and we're known now in the state for your beautiful mushrooms sir on behalf of P County Board of Education I would like to present to you this certificate for creating eement in the East and it's very exciting told you know my career's been in agriculture that's right and so it's very exciting for me to see this wonderful agriculture calendar that you uh put together and that you painted and got such a special reward for you did you know that North Carolina is number one with three things three Commodities of Agriculture that start with a te to B turkeys and ters how about

014congratulations congratulations to the left my right your right right in the picture as oh that's perfect oh this is so lovely all right three two one 3 two one excellent thank you so much [Music] tonight good evening um at this time I'm going to invite uh Miss Mia Wallace to come forward with her art teacher Miss Kathy Bellow and principal of Shad Miss Leslie Hayes every year during the North Carolina art Educators Association conference which happens in mid to late October art teachers are encouraged to come and bring some works that uh can be submitted for potential selection to be displayed um at the North Carolina General Assembly Building um last October well I should also mention that um in each region for the North Carolina art Educators Association only two works of art are

015selected to hang at the general assembly if you'll notice we have two names with this recognition both Mia Wallace and Elizabeth coulston who could not be here tonight so both of the selections um tonight or for this past year have been from Shad one was a student of Cathy Bellow and one was a student of Nancy panoa who um again cannot be here this evening so we're thrilled that um 100% of those representing this area for the North Carolina art Education Association are pit County students and both Shad students um on behalf of Representative Tim reer who could not be here tonight I believe we've we've got two um recognitions a certificate from um the school board and then as well um a certificate or an award from uh representative Tim reer so at this

016time uh we're going to present those to miss Mia Wallace here on behalf of pit County Board of Education let me get over here on behalf of pit County Board of Education we proudly recognize you for creating excellence in East by having your Ark hung in the North Carolina general assembly of all places in the state of North Carolina that is a place where everybody in the whole state all 10 million people could potentially go and see your artwork so so that's on behalf of the pit County Board of Education and then it's my privilege to be able on behalf of Representative Tim reer to present to you a certificate from the North Carolina General Assembly recognizing the same feet ain't that wonderful let's give her a round of [Applause] applause oh yeah we'll get

017a picture will yeah here we go 3 two one 3 two one 3 two one thank you so much thank you Mia said she had a chance to actually go and visit uh the artwork at um the legislature which is wonderful um in in a similar vein instead of um here within the state of North Carolina there's a an annual competition through um the United States Congress through our local Congressional offices um tonight we have a representative um from the office of Congressman Don Davis uh Mr Chris Hardy um who's going to come uh with a presentation for a student as well Mr chairman members of the board it must be art night in pit County some outstanding students some outstanding presentations my name is Chris Hardy I'm Regional director of Congressman Davis he could

018not be here with us tonight he is still in DC trying to make sure the temporary budget they passed can become a permanent one in a few short weeks um um last spring we held the annual art competition and it's held in all 435 congressional districts across the country and there's a single winter from each district and that winter is then art is taken to the US capital not state capital this time but the F national capital and it is hung there uh for an entire year for folks to see Matthew who is now a senior he was a junior last year at South Central High School is the winner um and his presentation is there on the screen you can see it it's not simply a print but Liberty as its name is made

019out of recycled carved and painted styrofoam that was inspired by his dad and their shared love of rock and roll music and uh we had a great team of Judges that came through and and judge that uh the the first runner uping Congressman Davis's office in Washington and the second runner up of course in our office here in Greenville but what brings this unique because he's already been to DC back in June is that right for that presentation is that the congressman likes to bring things full circle and not only is he an award winner that he'll always remember but we want to make sure everybody else does as well so he takes to the floor of the house and during a few minutes he speaks about what he has done um in this art

020competition especially for you Matthew and it's called the Congressional Record it's like the minutes that the clerk is taking here tonight but of the US House and this record is in the house record forever so you will always be named in the house record in 2023 as the first congressional district across all 19 counties winner and if you'll allow me to read it Mr Davis of North Carolina says Mr Speaker I rise today to congratulate Matthew pulio get there there we go a student at South Central High School in pit County and the winner of the North Carolina First Congressional District artistic Discovery contest Matthew who won first place took inspiration from his father Zachary whose love of rock and roll music led the creation of this remarkable Masterpiece titled Liberty through his artistic work

021Matthew has transformed recycled styrofoam into a creative piece that captures the spirit of Liberty and I commend all the participants for the outstanding work and contributions to the artistic landscape of our community because it Fosters creativity of self-expression together let us continue to support and nurture the next generation of artists who Inspire creativity and enrich our Nations Mr Speaker I congratulate Matthew and all the competition winners they Rock sign The Honorable Donald G DAV member of [Applause] Congress excellent thank you [Applause] was there anything else was there anything else with that I I did just want to mention before we left that that uh that Matthew's art teacher I vanney was regretfully unable to attend tonight but we want to congratulate Mr vanney in the continued outstanding work he does with his students as well

022thank you guys very much thank you and we want to thank Dr Sheena Kon for in here um as his principal next we have Rob Maloney our District athletic director um he has a very special presentation to give tonight um he called me a couple months ago really excited about a situation and he is going to tell you about this very very special pck County Schools employee thank you Beth and uh good evening to everyone I usually stand before you presenting Champions uh state champions Conference champions and tonight I get to recognize a champion of students um someone that really stepped up to help all of Athletics in pit County I've watched in my short time in pit County schools and at central office I've seen her at work behind the scenes and she's an

023amazing resource and employee for our school system um in particular we ran into a situation which is a n National Trend where it is really difficult to hire certified athletic trainers uh this is Nation wide this is Statewide in North Carolina well this summer we ran into a situation where we had three vacancies and what a lot of people don't realize is the state of North Carolina requires that we have a certified athletic trainer or certified first responder on site just to have football practice so we were in a position where if we don't fill those vacancies there's a chance that I'm having to call you know some of our high school say he' got to cancel practice and so uh to say I lost a little sleep would be an understatement so here comes

024to the rescue the person that I want to recognize tonight as I shared the struggle with many co-workers this one person in particular jumped in with both feet and became a driving force and helping us to achieve filling these positions and uh she was intrical in forming a relationship with Kinetic Physical Therapy and Wellness and as a result of that now we have professionals out at North pit and at South Central High School um things are going wonderful and I honestly I would have never been able to have this happen if it wasn't for her I can't take credit so I want to recognize Emma Hudson our attorney who is wonderful to pick County Schools to all of our students a champion of [Applause] [Laughter] students let's put Emma in the center say that I

025had a wonderful PE [Laughter] teacher that wait just a little bit yeah perfect all right ready two one this way perfect great job at this time we are going to hear from director Don Hester who is director of the exceptional Children's Program in pck County Schools Dawn actually was the interim director in May of 2022 and then she was um selected as the official director in January and we are so fortunate to have her in this role she is such an advocate for all children but especially exceptional children to she has a lot of energy and so she has a wonderful presentation for us tonight good evening um as Miss ofer said my name is Don Hester and I am the exceptional children's director here for pit County schools and I am thrilled to be

026here today and to have this opportunity to share some of the amazing things that are going on within our exceptional children's department and to take a little dive into the world of special education first off it worked great so I am honored and proud to serve in this District where at the heart and center of our district is our vision and if you'll notice that our vision starts with pit County Schools will inspire and motivate all Learners and that's something that's very important to this district and to me as the exceptional children's director because all means all in this district and students with disabilities our general education students first currently we have 3,457 students with disabilities and in our department serving them we have over 200 special education teachers we have over 150 teacher assistants

027and we have over 80 related and direct service providers helping to provide support and services to our students we are addressing some of our vacancies we are working very hard with our ESS with long-term substitutes we are working with ECU on early uh release for our graduates um we're working very hard with retirees contract agencies um and our international program has been very very successful with helping us to fill some of our vacancies as well so we're working very hard to have proactive services to ensure that our students provisions of services are covered as well so we have a a quite large department and here I wanted to just provide you the breakdown of our related and direct services so you can get an idea of all the services that we provide to our students

028here in pit County to make them successful and to have a powerful impacts on them so with that our exceptional children's Department provides a full Continuum of services and within that full Continuum of services we have 85 District classrooms throughout the district um including some of our Flagship programs like project search our day treatment programs alternative education so we have a full Continuum to provide F free and appropriate education to all of our students here in pit County so today I wanted to take a little data dive with y'all about in the world of special education here in pit County schools and I wanted to talk about what I call our three C's and our three C's are based on our compliance core plus more and our commitment to pick County Schools so I'm going

029to start with our compliance because our compliance is all about our laws and our policies that we must follow um for our students with disabilities so as you can um so the primary vehicle for providing fate to our students which is a free and a a free appropriate public education is through an appropriately developed IEP or individual education program so compliant I IEPs when we have appropriately developed IEPs we get to have them counted on our head count and our head count for our compliance equates to our state and federal funding and then when we have a compliant IPS it also helps us to have legally defensible IEPs as well and this is important as you'll see on our chart that we've been tracking our compliance and our headcount numbers where we receive our December

030and April funding from and you'll notice that in 2023 we had our highest compliance rating that we have ever had which is very very significant what we noticed in the past particularly last year if I may talk to that is that we had about 279 students I noticed that our students that were serving and the students that were on our head count didn't match and we had about 279 students who were required to serve however we weren't receiving funding for these students because they were not compliant so we worked very very hard collectively with our administrators our related service providers our staff everybody worked together to get us to have us to be compliant so we could get the maximum um headcount that we could get and with that being said we were able to

031recoup over $2 million in Lost funding from the year before this was a this allocated us this allowed us to open open new classrooms this school year provide equipment resources salaries that we were not able to provide previously because of this lost funding because of the lack of compliance that we had so this was a major area and a significant impact on our students and our staff um so we're very very excited about having a great compliance um and with that being said at in April of last of April of this year we only had nine I PS that were out of compliance compared to the 279 that we had the year before we had 434 students in addition to our compliance our headcount which is which equates to that additional funding um so we're

032very very excited about that um and as you can see I just provided a breakdown of all of our areas for our exceptional children's department for our 14 disability category groups that was a lot um with that being said we have um at this time we're proud like I said compliance also equals legally defensible um IEPs with that being said this is the first time in many years that pit County schools has no pending law suits we have no compensatory education services and we have no corrective action at this time so we're very very excited about that um and are working very hard to maintain that so I'm going to move to our second C which is our core plus more so according to oap the office of special education and idea the individuals with

033disabilities Education Act a student's IEP must be aligned to the academic standards of the grade level that the student is enrolled in in addition to that um students also must have to take they also have to take the EOG and the EOC on that grade level on that academic standard so we worked really really hard Dr Lasser was a Trailblazer for the special education department and helping us to really work because we knew that we needed to Pro provide more access and opportunity for our students with disabilities to get into those academic content standards so we worked really hard um Dr Lasser helped us to work with our Master scheduling with our administrators um we worked with Lisa Tate to ensure that the letters and the science of reading and the ma foundations of math

034we should ensure that access was uh available to our students we worked with Monica Jacobson to provide multiple platforms of of our specially designed instruction whether it was through co- teing or our curriculum Assistance or if it was through our direct instruction programs uh we worked on having multiple platforms to provide for our students to ensure that access and opportunity to those grade level standards we worked with science social studies student services testing and accountability we worked all collectively together to ensure that these students were going to get core plus more that core content plus specially designed instruction to make powerful impacts on our students with disabilities and so now we must celebrate those scores so this year this year our students with disabilities overall eight almost 88% of our students met or exceeded growth

035on their end of under grade tests our elementary schools 10 out of our 14 Schools met or exceeded growth in our K8 schools five out of our five schools met or exceeded growth that's 100% of our K8 schools for our students with disabilities met and or exceeded growth we also must celebrate our middle schools all seven of our middle schools for students with disabilities met and exceeded growth 100% our high schools six out of our schools all of our high schools met and exceeded growth for our students with disabilities 100% of our students we must continue to celebrate we have graduation our graduation rates this year were the highest they they've ever been North pit if I could Spotlight them 89% for students with disabilities with a dropout rate of only 7% JH rows increased

036from 49% to 71% they're not where we want them to be but that's an increase a huge increase in our graduation rates we're really making a difference our project search program had our largest oh thank you guys for being there by the way as well thank thank you guys so much for your support we had a graduating class of 11 students our largest class and students from each of our six traditional high schools in that program graduated I can't forget prek we had 14 prek students transition or graduate and go into kindergarten that's a huge amount for our prek because it's starts there as well our community our community is amazing for our students with disabilities the opportunity Special Olympics returned face to face after 3 years we had a coffee shop that opened that

037employs students with disabilities we had a student who who uh earned first place in the state level in swimming we've had some amazing things happen in our community and then our staff W ITN teacher of the week Robin Phillips from uh Aiden Griffon high school was recognized as teacher of of the week we have our nccat beginning of the year teacher um from ebac I'm sorry ebac Cameron story is representing the Northeast region as teacher of the year she's an EC teacher at ebac um we've just had some amazing things I'm sure I could go on and on and then we have our teacher assistance training where we have developed a behavior tech for our opportunity for our behav for our teacher assistance to empower them and then to invest in our teacher assistance Miss

038Hodson came to our meeting and we appreciate it so much they enjoyed hearing um from you and thank you for your support where they're going to have the tools to become Behavior technicians we have a three-year cohort an opportunity for them to grow as well um for our teacher assistant so we're really excited about that opportunity for them as well this all comes because of our third seat which is commitment we are committed to working with pit County schools with Collective efficacy because we know that working together with Collective efficacy yields the highest impact on student learning Collective efficacy working together and that's what we're committed to our exceptional children's Department this is our logo and it represents our four rings our four links because we're linking our chains together to work together um never

039in silos but always together you'll notice in the center of it is our pit County Schools logo and it encompasses our prek to 12 plus students it looks like it's in the shape of a motor because our our exceptional children's department is all about progress and change and momentum and that's what in high impacts on student learning and that's our exceptional children's department so we're committed we're committed to supporting and providing resources to our teachers our staff and our administrators to make sure that they have the tools that they need the equipment that they need in order for our students to be successful we're committed to communication and high collaboration across divisions across this District we're committed to ongoing continuous professional development with ongoing coaching to support our teachers we're committed to Bringing out the

040best in one another and we're committed to celebrating one another we have a lot to celebrate with the exceptional children's department and it's time for us to shine so with that I want to shine on a special guest that I have here with me today we have every year we nominate a staff member as our educator of Excellence um and this staff member is a a staff member from the exceptional children's Department who demonstrat Ates leadership and Innovation within um our department and this year our 2023 24 representative for our exceptional children's department is Miss Bobby cumberworth Bobby has been with us for um in education for 17 years 19 19 years and she has been with North pit for seven years she shared a really great story with me that U Mr Harris actually

041interviewed her on FaceTime FaceTime and got her she was actually in California and had applied to be a long-term sub and Mr Harris convinced her to be with pit County schools and she has been a teacher in our teaching students with our all in our autism program for the students on the extended content standards and we are thrilled to have Bobby represent our district and our department this school year so congratulations [Applause] Bobby I had retired from California and I gave Mr Harris one year here we are seven years later that's awesome W so we're thrilled to have Bobby with us so as you can see our department truly believes picture don't you say Mr Harris say U so we truly believe in our district and we're committed to it and we are ready to

042act so thank you so much for your time and this opportunity to share some information about our exceptional children's Department like to congratulate seal children as a former director of accountability and a former principal yeah right at the top of the list of me for all teachers have a difficult hard job but at the top of the list is EC teachers I've always they've always been at the top of my love list because I know the job they have to do the people they serve sometimes it's difficult with the type of students they work with I mean people don't realize changing diaper first cleaning this up that's at the low end and then you got the high end you really have a different spectrum of students but the most thing I'm proud of is the

043growth the students made this year because that is that is great to make at least a Year's worth of growth thank you for all y'all do thank you thank you picture excellent 3 two one 3 two one excellent thank you so [Applause] much thank you again thank you this time I turn to General with our vice chair Amy Cole for public expression those wishing to make public comments must register prior to the Board of Education meeting individuals will receive 3 minutes and groups will receive 5 minutes to address the board U at this time we have one um Miss Hillary Mayo who's representing a group um so you have five minutes you may come forward I have um some supporters uh behind me that are standing um so ladies and gentlemen uh of the board

044I'm here tonight representing a minimum of 15 families of daughters who play soccer at DH Conley High School more importantly I represent our players voices during an impossible challenge that they have faced over the last several seasons uh after a parent organized meeting just last evening we decided to share our daughter's voices and seek guidance with ongoing concerns involving the girls soccer coaching staff's Behavior the documents I have prepared um and submitted for each of you are as follows a timeline of events text exchange between players and coaches team email Anonymous parent statements head coach and assistant coach job descriptions and the petition uh that was created just a few hours ago to remain respectful of time I will only read sections of the email that were drafted and written uh by our players in

045coordination uh with the timeline so May 29th uh our team worked together via team chat to compile a list of concerns from any player who wanted to be heard June 1st our captain attended the open house where she was interrogated by one of the coaches for information on what the players wanted to discuss and which of the shared or which of the players shared which complaints feedback from the captain at that time was the conversation became aggressive and accusatory with no ability to redirect the conversation the situation grew with such intensity that it resulted in a literal finger being pointed from our coach to the captain's face text from uh coach carbajal carbajal carbajal thank you denying the opportunity to meet and cancel summer workouts um June 2nd the players again met to organize an

046official letter uh which was the email that was sent uh to a number of individuals on June 4th and that is where I'm going to pick up again this is drafted from our players this letter is to address some concerns the 2023 DH connley women soccer program athletes have regarding the program and its coaches we the athletes have tried to have a constructive conversation with the coaches but have been turned down and told only to go to our school's athletic director we feel as if this step would be a miss and our concerns not heard therefore we're addressing this situation to everyone some of the concerns they highlighted the team rules not holding all athletes accountable the same way I.E favoritism and nepotism example saying School comes before soccer yet punishing the athletes when they

047exercise that role I.E fbl par participants we're student athletes the student part should always come first and we should not be punished or penalized for missing a practice or game of attending a school club or event um nor should expecting attendance with last minute schedule changes with the threat of punishment team attitude and chemistry uh constant negative comments with no positive reinforcement unless the team gets their desired result which is a win when we lost to Rose emotions were high and coaches probably would have been better off to just walk walk away and talk to us later instead they simply told us that we were all disgraces coach is not accepting partial responsibility for losses their attitudes not preparing at practices leading up to the game's attitude towards the players when we're losing we're a

048waste of their time but when we're winning it's because they coached us talking down to players in the presence of other players um talking down about one individual in front of the team during a scrimmage and then allowing those players to also talk down um about that teammate another uh one here we feel as if the coaches are being adult bullies at times due to a lot of the mentioned points the definition of a bully is repeated Andor severe Behavior directed at a minor that is aggressive and intended to it is intended or likely to hurt control diminish the minor emotionally physically or sexually athletes coming off the field crying after games as a result of comments that were made to them several games by the coaches repeatedly coaches stated the beginning of the Season

049mental health was important but as you can see from the following text messages scents that are in your package I will not read any of them they do not appear to be concerned with our mental health when we have clearly reached out to them and have been denied we feel as though the coaches went behind our backs to get the list after we told them repeatedly that we wanted to discuss it with them in person as a team one of the main points that had us concerned was this is referencing a text in that message the coach said quote in your list of unwarranted concerns you talk about Sisterhood and mental health however after reading your list it was evident that this was not taken into consideration for the coaching staff end quote if a

050group of athletes are reaching out to the co coaching staff they should be worried about the mental health of their athletes not the other way around we don't feel as if the athletes are bullying one another rather than being bullied by the coaches athletes do not want to address their concerns during the season for feel fear of retaliation for your participation thank you this time we continue on with the agenda consent items I hope the board has had a chance to read all the items on consent do I hear a motion we approve the consent item agenda motion approve okay all in favor raise your right hand that's 60 vote Mr Carol okay this time closing comments about Linker uh just this is um National princip principl month so we got a couple principles in

051the back if they would quick stand up Sheen I told you you're you're involved in me okay Yolanda Kim three of our school administrators an incredibly difficult job and we are blessed with the talent of our school administrators we have in pit County so I personal thanks to all three of them uh for everything they do every day thank you sir [Applause] is that it kie I I started off this meeting thinking of all the the hard things that have been going on in um in pit County uh with the deaths that we've had and so we're continuing to think of Miss Barry and those other families that are um experiencing loss of loved ones um I I feel like every um every board meeting when we're doing the uh the community involvement and it

052just really it it's encouraging to me because I'm such a big believer in how it takes all of us working together to serve our students and that our teachers do so much work um and are so important um and yet the students growth and education is is really on all of us and so I love seeing how the backback pals is so um it's every everywhere in our community had churches from every U and and organizations from every corner of pit County and I just really appreciate how we can see um see the thread of love for our schools I think that's the that in out because I believe that our schools are the fabric of our community and that's how how we're going to continue to grow so I really appreciate all of those

053um people that were here and thank you um Miss Hester for sharing about um special education and our special students all of our students are so so important um and I am so grateful to hear um how the work that you're doing as our director is um is is facilitating growth for our students and um and I know that when those students are getting what they need that all all of our students are impacted by that so thank you for that um and yeah we're in the thick of things um in school so uh all yeah thank you everybody for being here wait this making sure was my time next thank you um continue prayers for those that were were brought up this evening as far as um the loss I know that um it's

054hard for everybody and I will say personally for me the loss of Mary BL Williams was was really really hard she was a good friend I learned a lot from her and um just really grateful to her family for for blessing me on this board um congratulations to all those that were here for awards tonight it's always amazing and along with those that were here for backpack Pals you know um you can't you can't learn if you're hungry and you and and you don't get fed on the weekend um it's just a really important program and I remember when this program came about and it's just an amazing to see how it's how it's grown and not just for the backpack house but other avenues that that different organizations um work with our schools and

055and you know support our schools is just a wonderful thing I am amazed with um Don Hester and that what she presented tonight and if you can't see the energy and the enthusiasm right there is why they are where they are I think 100% so I mean you know when you have a leader that that can set things on fire is it's hard not to to want to grab onto that train and go with it so thank you Don for what you do um thanks to Eastern I went to rock your rock the school last week that was a lot of fun uh amazing I had a great time with that and uh I hope that oh lastly Emma congratulations I had that on here congratulations I mean wonderful what you did but she does

056so much more than than people out there would ever know what she does for our board and our schools so I just want to say especially thank you to you and that's thank you Benji thank you Mr chair uh first of all I'd like to recognize the over 80 businesses uh that participated in our pit County FFA alumni golf tournament that we had this past month that raised over $23,000 for our young people over 600 of our youth that are in pit County schools that are involved with the FFA and agricultural education this organization makes sure that it's truly integral that when you are an agricultural education student in pit County schools that you are automatically a member of the what I think is one of the greatest youth organizations as far as leadership development

057that there is that being the FFA I was also very very uh pleased and uh honored to have all of the uh people that are representing the churches places of faith here I I I appreciate you doing that b because uh that's they are unsung heroes in our community and they some of those people have been at it for years I think you said the program started 20 years ago some of them have been at it for 20 years and uh very well deserved for what they've done we did lose a board member uh Mary Williams at the same time I would like to recognize we've got another former board uh former board member we we've got another former board member that's in the hospital now with uh having issues uh with he failed and

058uh hurt his hip actually cracked his hip Ephraim Smith like to keep him in our prayers and then uh congratulations to all Award winners and then last but not least uh I've got 15 seconds to say what John F Kennedy said in rice Stadium back in the early 1960s he said we choose to go to the Moon not because it's easy but because it's hard and you know Miss Hester those individuals and staff that are part of exceptional children they don't do it because it's easy they do it because it's hard and they get the rewards of those young people for what they've done thank you very much ben I'm going ask you to do one other thing please if you will tell us tell us what FFA funds are useful they're useful paying for

059all of the uh d we also provide uh FFA jackets those jackets are about 55 or $60 a piece we provide opportunities for our young people to go to FFA camp in the summertime they go to both leadership camp and FFA Camp during the summertime we also send them to um uh to the National FFA convention which is held in October and uh also there there's something in FFA called supervised agricultural experience that students do in the summertime where they have individual projects that are merited to their instruction uh during the school year and we pay for those resources to provide them field trips to go on different agricultural adventures and things like that so it's it's it's really really encouraging to see how the community has come together to support that program Dr Linker

060I want to thank you and the chairman of our board and all of the board members here for continued support of that program thank you James U thank you um really love what is being done with our exception of children Department I really congratulate uh Miss cumberworth for the great work that she's doing it is so important that uh we work these exceptional Children and Families uh it is very encouraging to see all the work that is being done and I do want to say I plan to make personal contact with the Moy family and Miss Barry's family and the loss of of those two I hope to be able to attend those services and represent the board as well as making personal contact with each family do acknowledge all the principles for the fine

061work they're doing the appreciation month of all principles again to the churches we thank you for all that you're doing for our schools uh I I love this calendar for the farm I grew up in the rural area of Green County and I plan to hang this calendar in not in my church office without Farmers we couldn't eat and so I really appreciate uh this calendar and to uh those who Express those concerns do know that the board take all concerns very seriously and these matters will be looked into thank you Jennifer um again thank you and and just wanting to hold space um for the loss of a very de dear teacher um for her community for her family um the very family our hearts are with you um and then MAV and Mo's

062family as well and to have lost a child just after graduation I I can't even imagine um Don Hester thank you so much for not only loving what you do but loving on the people who do it because we cannot retain our teachers and our talent if they don't feel valued and appreciated and so that enthusiasm where we may not be able to put the money in the pockets of people who deserve it more than anybody body if we can at least let them know how much they matter to the team so thank you for everything you put in the joy you get when you're able to add something to help them in their classrooms and and to continue to walk that journey and I love what you said about all means all because that's

063true every child has to feel that same love and respect no matter how great their grades are how strong their faith is what their family life is like or what their abilities are all of them deserve every opportunity so thank you thank you for doing that um I want to shout out uh an art teacher at JH Rose um Randall leech he was one of a panelists um recently at the inclusive community breakfast he spoke on diversity equity and inclusion in the Arts so shout out to our teachers who are being recognized all over our community for the wonderful things they do and the messages they bring to our classrooms um and then the last thing I just wanted to say too is that art is just one of the most intelligent expressions of what

064people see and to just sit with an artist um and just to be amazed at at what they can contribute I'm just so grateful how we showcase them thank you Beth for doing that so thank you Amy I love going last so well almost last anyway um listening to my fellow board members and some of them are way more eloquent than I ever am with my words but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate being part of the school system in general and we see all the great things that are happening we hear about all the good things that are happening and all the good leadership that we have and I just wanted to say thank you to everybody and again as everyone has said my thoughts and prayers go out to all

065the families that we've lost not just this past month but it seems like this past year has just been a huge domino effect lately and of course my heart goes out to Mary Williams family because she was right on the board as I was com going off as I was coming on and she really took me under her wing and and I appreciate everything that she told she shared with me me as well so my heart goes out to her family thank you I'm thankful not only for the people here tonight that got does the backpacks for all the people we only recognize a few tonight but there's so many more that need to be recognized and therefore I am very thankful I'm thankful for our principles for being one being one it's it is

066a difficult job and being a teacher that's a difficult job I'm thankful for our staffs and with that being said I'm thankful for our maintenance department yes and I asked this question Aaron is I he be ready in the next couple weeks is our Heat going to be ready in the next couple weeks oh yeah y'all heard it Heat's going to be on once again thank you for coming out tonight with that being said I do ask for a motion to adjourn I move we adjourn I second all in favor raise your right hand right thank you thank you