June 6, 2022 Pitt County Schools Board Meeting

001uh good evening i'd like to say good evening to everyone and i hope everyone has been doing well we're glad to have you here at our meeting on tonight with dr greet our board and our superintendent on the night glad to see that we have a full border here on tonight it has been hot it has been a great time even though it's been hot ecu has been winning but we come tonight to take care of business for pitt county schools we have a lot of presentations a lot of people here on tonight and we're going to try to get through this as quickly as possible and we hope that we all be able to do this in an orderly fashion at this time i'd like to call the meeting to order we have our

002pledge of allegiance and our mobile silence by amy cole we stand for the pledge allegiance united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all please join me in a moment of silence [Music] heavenly father thank you for allowing us to serve the students of pitt county schools help us to continue to always do what is best for all of our students as we wrap up yet another difficult year thank you for helping us all through be with our teachers administrators staff and students as we wrap things up help to keep them safe and sane through all the chaos allow all the graduations to be successful and may everyone have a safe and wonderful summer break in your name we pray amen

003amen motion to approve our agenda so moved second moved by caroline second by second melinda gonda mr chair yes uh in the spirit of fairness to all of our parent groups i'm moved that we move the parents for public schools part of the agenda to the public comments public expression part of our journey is there a second second there's a discussion all in favor of moving the preparing for pit county schools that'll be known by the raising of your right hand two all opposed motion did not carry 62. all right back on our original motion made by caroline ii by melinda for garnish all in favor of approving our agenda they've been owned by the raising of your right hand six approved all opposed two opposed the motion passed at this time we would have

004a spotlight on teaching and learning good evening we have so many kids out there to celebrate tonight and teachers and so we're excited to get started we will start with battle of the books and for those of you that may not have any experience with battle of the books let me tell you these kids try out for the team and then it's incredibly competitive and their coaches work with them every single week and they read these books several books and they have all these details about these books memorized and then they compete against other schools and our teams are amazing every single year so meredith hill our district media specialist and she is also in charge of digital learning for pitt county schools will introduce the teams tonight good evening everybody thank you so much

005for having me here tonight i am so excited to introduce elmhurst elementary's battle of the books team who was our district first place winner and then went on to region one and they won first place there as well and the students who are here tonight are uh josiah brazile come on up josiah arietta camarada alex velasquez kaylee weatherford and they are followed by their two co-coaches ms lydia o'reer and miss jessica corder and we are so proud of you guys and all your hard work all the wonderful reading that you did and we know that reading is the basis for all learning so you guys are going to go on and learn so many awesome wonderful new things and we're so so so proud of you congratulations everybody oh yeah absolutely and mr pomeroy here

006is going to take your picture and miss caroline's going to give you a certificate thank you for bringing excellence to the east congratulations thank you for bringing excellence to the east thank you for bringing congratulations [Music] thank you for bringing excellence to the east and for all you've done i will just have to take a moment to say that my daughter's time with melissa's son elmhurst was one of our favorite memories still loves to ready [Applause] congratulations we've got our hope middle students coming next house all right we have hope middle up next hope middle won our uh first place in our district competition and then they went on to our regional competition where they placed second another example of excellence in attention to detail and really feeling that love of reading and i can't

007understate the community that is created in battle of the books it is the friendships i think that last the longest as well as well as that love of reading but that community spirit and working together in a team way to show all the things that you've learned and to share that passion for reading is really really phenomenal so we're very proud of them and we have got on our team first our coach over here is miss tracy bilo and then our students are griff brimhall carson cornwell oh i'll go slow i'm sorry and i don't know that they're in order they oh are they in order wonderful okay great excellent okay i'll go slow i think this is maddie cornwell next and then we have natalie dunnigan and elena ferner esther jung brandon liu not

008here oh okay how about rachel shut all right rachel mckenna shackleford come on through mr forbes we're doing good peyton smith lilith tuckmeyer and then i think erica is not with us tonight is that right but we got the coach all the way down there that's right so i know mr forrest might want to say a few words to all the students that are standing here today i want you to know how excellent you are doing things in your school and for your community it's really really exciting but i i want to suggest one thing when you number two you try harder to go back let's do it again okay congratulations [Applause] oh yeah hey tracy [Music] [Laughter] congratulations [Applause] all right south central come on up um i will say i think this is

009the first year that i'm aware of and maybe tim can correct me that all three of our teams have come in first and second place in the regionals it's wonderful yes we're so so proud of them and all their hard work this year especially during such a challenging year so this is um part of our south central team and they are small but mighty um they uh were in a situation where we had a a district competition that they what place did y'all come in district competition third place but then the regional competition was an open invitation so we had i believe five high schools that went to the regional competition and despite coming in third in the district they knocked it out of the park at the regionals and came in first which was

010out of 11 which was incredible so it was wonderful wonderful job and so tonight with us we have got jaden bird right is that right jayden and then is it isabel isabelle crowley and we also have um andrew dapo and then one of our coaches is with us tonight that's miss kelly friday and we are so we know how hard it is to keep reading oh and kaylee grubbs is here too welcome kaylee yes awesome we know in high school our kids are so busy with so many things some of them are working and doing sports and lots of things so to be able to achieve this level of um of reading excellence on top of all the other things that you do is really phenomenal so we're very very proud of you guys congratulations

011yes mr rhodes [Applause] congratulations [Applause] and it is a night full of good news not only are we recognizing our students this evening we are also recognizing excellence in our staff so we have got the 2022 pitt county schools media coordinator of the year with us tonight that is mrs latoya gardner miss betoye you want to come on up and miss gardner works at north pitt high school she has endeavored to shift her media center to a a place where student voice is at the center she encourages her students to participate in reading of books selecting of books in book studies in and she works hard with her teachers to collaborate she has implemented a new program at north pitt project lit where students are reading books that they're interested in that they're excited about

012reading and she has just worked so hard to make it a space where kids want to be and that again in high school that can be a challenging thing kids we know are so busy it can be hard to get out of the classroom it can be hard to make time to come to the media center to want to choose those books and to read them for pleasure and that is something that ms gardner does so so well and we are so honored and humbled to recognize you as our 2022 media coordinator of the year she will represent us in the north carolina school library media association media coordinator of the year um what's the word i'm trying to say um not a competition maybe it is kind of a competition i don't know but

013we will hear back from them in the fall to see if she moves on and we we absolutely wholeheartedly believe that she will she is a gem and we just love miss gardner so much do you want to say anything mr harris did i say it okay okay i'm sorry i should have asked you before up here i'm sorry i should have asked that um and i think mr tripp is gonna recognize you as well [Applause] don't get again thank you so much it was wonderful to see you tonight i told you we had a lot to celebrate you could probably hear the buzz in the hallway um when we opened the door the energy out there is infectious tonight so i know that you welcome that after so many years of quiet hallways dr

014jennifer stahls our k-12 science curriculum specialist and district stem coordinator has a really special announcement this evening and she's going to recognize a special teacher good evening we would like to recognize lindsey stahls the stem coordinator at eastern elementary for being selected as a 2022-2023 keenan fellow for the state of north carolina the title of her fellowship is northeastern north carolina computational thinking and computer science fellowship which is sponsored by dpi for this fellowship the kenan fellows program for teacher leadership is partnering with dpi and the hashtag imcs movement to advance stem education and build a northeastern north carolina-based ecosystem of teacher leaders that will support career and workforce development in the computer science fields for this fellowship there are five keenan fellows that were selected lindsay is one of them and will be representing

015pitt county schools along with this traditional fellowship experience she will also be participating in a two-week internship with a industry to learn how we can better implement computer science in our schools we are so proud of you and honored that you're representing pitt county schools for this prestigious honor please join me in congratulating lindsay [Applause] if you've not been to their school and she just does so much she keeps me inside and says i've had it like the wrong day like trying to join the zoo congratulations can i take a picture jennifer doctor [Applause] more exciting news we would now like to if eastern will come on up we would now like to recognize two schools in pitt county that have received the honor of being recognized as north carolina stem schools of distinction the

016journey to becoming a north carolina stem school of distinction requires schools to cultivate a culture of stem that aligns with five overarching principles 20 key elements all relating to student opportunities classroom environment school structures school culture and community connections in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities the stem coordinators at eastern elementary and welcome middle school collected evidence and artifacts from students teachers parents community members and a variety of other stakeholders to build a website that serves as the school's stem portfolio after submitting a 70 plus page application each school was notified that they were awarded a virtual site visit where teams at each school defended the contents of their application because of their dedication we now officially have two stem schools of distinction for pitt county schools each school will be formally recognized at the north

017carolina state board of education meeting in the fall and first we would like to recognize eastern elementary for this honor oh [Applause] no you got it [Applause] and now we will welcome um welcome middle school to recognize them for also receiving uh this distinction also i would think yeah that's awesome congratulations [Applause] wow at this time you are going to see some incredible athletes that have won state championships and our wonderful ron butler is going to introduce each coach and give them a chance to talk about their team but this is ron's last school board meeting as athletic director so thank you so much for all that you've done for our school system ron yes my last meeting somebody said would i cry and i said there may be tears but i will not be

018sad [Laughter] so excuse me if you see tears no we're here a lot of people ask you know who do we honor when we're here well we honor state champions and um we we have a great privilege tonight we've got two teams a golf team a softball team and four different track relays to honor i don't throw out the word state champion lightly because state champions we're members of the high school athletic association which has 430 members so every division when somebody's a state champion we'll start off here with with the farmville girls relay team there was over a hundred schools that put up their best runners against them so you know we don't take it lightly when someone is honored as a state champion okay we'll start with the farmville central girls 4 by

019200 relay team and coach ahmed please girls come on hi i'm coach ahmed i'm the head pharmaceutical track coach first i'll say thank you to our assistant coach corey roberts without him we wouldn't be here so our team won i got a school record they ran 145.88 and it came first place and the four by two hundred so we had freshman shaquilla daniels jr ariana davis sophomore kamai espate and junior kamaya wooten oh wow we're gonna win again next year yeah [Applause] good job coach [Applause] so now we're gonna go to golf you know benji's nice enough he's always invited us to play in a golf tournament and dr linker's let me play and now suddenly he's out there with the golf team member so i've been canned you know he's got he's got a

020new team to go with so um but this time we'll we'll um we'll we'll introduce the uh the rose high men's golf team that won the first ever state championship for golf at that school and uh the coaches liz barbie but we're gonna have steven west assistant coach say a few words thank y'all for letting us come i want to introduce the golf team this would be the state champ right here go and tell them your name what year you are luke mosley and i'm a sophomore whoa whoa we'll get your applesauce jack west wow so yes you did hear that correct we have two sophomores and two freshmen so we look forward to the invitation next year okay and just so y'all know so put us in but we look these kids they play

021every day um i'm sure their parents they studied as much as they play golf but that's okay they're still making a's and b's and uh again they've really okay pam um but cam is graduating so we're good he's also got a scholarship too because of his golf skills and his grades wow okay but anyway and listen we'd love to say we did something great here we just showed up you can't teach these kids they work every day on their golf swings they got the best attitudes and their parents and yes the small ones my kid he takes after his mother for the record but they're they're super kids and i mean this this high school has a lot to be proud of that for them to um support you know recognize and be the rose

022high school people out there on the golf course but thank y'all barbie your help for even the people that aren't here i think everybody on the team has one let me go ahead and hang them out sure oops poor jack okay [Laughter] um congratulations [Applause] okay we're going to continue with some more speed you know come on in bring them all up um you know all coaches if you've got a very talented athlete you know can win an individual state championship for you but when you do relays and teams it requires some coordination requires four or five gentlemen or girls that are fast so we're very really blessed here and the rose team won the four by 100 and you know i told you there's over 100 in there well in the four by 200

023they finished second to the next group were when they were going to introduce and they were in different heats and it was a close race so you know we're going by in the parking lot [Laughter] recreate them and put them in the same heat so there's lawson if you want to say a few words all right hello coach latoya lawson i like to thank you guys for having us here today and helping us you know celebrate these young ladies they did an awesome job this year they pr had a personal record every track meet so they worked super hard to get to states and they were determined if you could see the video you know what i mean i want to introduce our girls and our staff this is my assistant coach coach monet baker

024first leg breanna woods second leg meshiah green third leg kamiyah whitfield and fourth leg molina sutton [Applause] next year we're going on one for four by one and four by two okay thank you congratulations [Applause] come on come on so this is this is the south central for by 200 state champions we're going to let coach parker speak and since i'm on the way out let you know the first year i coached as a jv football coach coach parker was on my team [Laughter] i can't believe it's been that long so since we're dealing with speed coach parker thank you coach uh good evening everyone once again my name is coach kendrick parker a women's track coach here at south central high school um we had a needless to say we had a phenomenal season

025as a team as a team we won our eighth consecutive conference championship uh we finished uh second in the region for three east region and of course you see our wonderful ladies our four by two uh four by two relay team uh finished first in the state and we're very proud of them um the thing about them i don't know how much i know about track is in the state championship there's always a we call a slow heat and a fast heat and normally when the first seat you know you're happy to be there and you know try to do the best you can can normally chase because from the fastest heat well these girls were in the slowest heat so even though they had they had one of the better times in the state

026i told them all the time it's not about who's the best team it's about who the best that day and through their hard work and dedication god's grace their state champions so kudos to them and i'm also proud to say all see all these champions from pitt county like we're a county of champions today so i really appreciate the opportunity for us to be here okay uh first we have this is kayla smith our senior hello we have this kyrie walker she's a freshman and this is chelita jones a sophomore and we're just here so we had one very classy [Applause] nice job coach [Applause] coach walker going to bring your team up here so you guys can sign up right here we'll give you so um you know the four by 800 everybody's got

027to run running 800 and these guys run i mean but i think anybody runs like that that's a that's that means that just hurts to run 800 you know we should drug test all them every every meet anybody's going to run that but look coach wahlberg congratulations to your state champions if you'll say a few words about them um for individuals and again i will say they have extreme character they're about academics um now all four of them plan to run in college too the twins um scholarship east carolina another one has scholarship mount olive and another one's running at uncw but they all have extreme character they work in the classroom that you know they always show up for practice they're always doing what you ask for them and they always give 110 percent

028and again uh they've created a bond those four friends and uh you know they just carried on to the state championship you know eight minutes and like coach coach butler said eight minutes for four guys so they all ran under two minutes or less and too lat that's moving so anyway they did a phenomenal job this year helping out the team and and i'm glad they're rewarded with the state championship [Applause] yes this is uh cooper klutner tell us where they're going to school again he's going to east carolina okay ellie i mean sorry this is matthew riggs he's going to mount olive okay this is elliot kleckner he's cooper's twin he's going to east carolina on a track scholarship and this is mario delgado he's going to uncw all right [Applause] congratulations [Applause] so

029one more team to honor and the shocking thing here is uh in my 13 years we've never had a team win a championship on saturday and we we have them in here on monday uh at friday night's game i talked i talked with their athletic director rob maloney and i said look i know athletes are superstitious but just uh just hold tight but be ready to send a roster if they win and uh and they went the whole way coach deans you need to stay over here real quick um but what a phenomenal win and um coach deans this is his fourth state championship first on an even year so we're glad that that's finally done um but you know when you look at it this is really their fourth in the last 11 years

030one got wiped out so really they've won a state championship four out of the last 10 years congratulations takes a lot of talent coach if you want to talk about your team yes these young ladies were a very resilient group and was very proud of the effort we put in this season uh the most wins uh in the 17 years i've been in this school 30 wins and only two losses so they've had a lot of accomplishments and i'm just very very proud of these young ladies you'd like me to introduce him sure i didn't turn in the roster all right right here riley of course trinity nichols and just um thank you very much sir and i know she's handed out the rest of the certificates but um coach whitehead has been at uh

031in this program for uh 15 years and coach bullard 12. so our coaching staff has been really a very tight group for a number of years we'd also like to also remind that behind the scenes we have people that do a lot for us certainly our managers for this year uh kyla silver and uh tamaya pittman who is not here tonight uh so we're one big family and uh these young ladies definitely deserve everything that they accomplish this year [Applause] aspect of it but just the the character that you are that you have representing our school system and we also want to thank your parents too because we know i know i have a lot of athletic teams working start out a lot of times at that age and your parents are right there with

032you supporting you and uh i can just imagine the anxiety that they have had on that last game did you know with the help of the lord [Applause] [Music] pose very well [Laughter] congratulations great job congratulations thank you very much how old are you all your girls do you have any seniors graduating five good to seniors you we have one more exceptional award this evening and it is the association of school business officials international certificate of excellence and financial reporting award and i'm going to just tell you really quickly our school system would not run without this lady deborah baggett deborah baggett and our pitt county schools of financial department i they i tell you they're incredible they our schools run because of these perfect wonderful people deborah baggett's car is usually the first one

033in the parking lot and it's usually the last one in the parking lot and for those of you that might be watching that you're a teacher or staff member deborah was at work until about 2 30 a.m to make sure we all got paid in january and then was back at work at 8 o'clock in the morning not many people know that but this woman is a rock star [Applause] i think they snuck that one in there on me beth is like you see that down there um i would just say that my entire team they do a whole lot and they are very conscientious and they want to make sure that everything's right and so we really couldn't do without them and i do appreciate all of them thank you [Applause] true story all

034right this time we're going to our public expressions i think we have three that are speaking on tonight and remind you that those that are speaking on behalf of the group have five minutes and those are speaking as an individual have three minutes and we begin with dr fleming state your name and what group you're representing i'm back again frank fleming committee for public education thank you board for starting this meeting with the pledge of allegiance to our flag and one nation under god with liberty and justice for all we are already a truly diverse country which for over 200 years has welcomed others to become americans and pursue that american dream of equality of opportunity individual hard work the chance for success and the overall betterment of our children today sandwiched in between memorial

035day and the 4th of july is june the 6th d-day surely a day for historical pride in american accomplishment i suspect that there may be some students who are not learning about world war ii or storming the beaches of normandy have you seen the dismal tv performances of some of these spring break college kids who do not even know who we were fighting in world war ii or who did george washington defeat in the revolutionary war or what are the three branches of the u.s government some students may not even be able to tell you anything about the war of 1812 where it happened or even what year if students do mention d-day they believe the big d stands for diversity that is for inclusion for all sexes genders and ethnicities but not necessarily to

036include all points of view and philosophy tonight i'm talking about the k-3 curriculum philosophy if too many kids score low below grade level in reading and math well so what they're well socially adapted instead of the basics some progressive teachers think that sexual and gender education has now become essential for k to 3. their curriculum creates new word definitions new x spellings and choice of many many many pronouns and they also redefine truth as based on feelings current events of the day include this recent bulletin this is real this is not made up the us congress hears testimony that sex is not biological and that men can have babies unquote well a child of five to eight years of age may be told that he can choose a gender and declare to his teacher and

037his classmates what he wants to be but this may change from week to week now if you think this is confusing for teenagers and young adults who are trying to decide to transition with hormones or ablative surgery how in the world is this supposed to be appropriate for the k-3 undeveloped brain now since the last time i was here and beat you there is now a bill pending in the north carolina senate which should be known to you and all the citizens of pitt county and i'm going to quote classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in k through third grade nor in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students under state standards this proposal mirrors the parental bill of

038rights law recently passed in florida it does not mention gays or trans or lgbtq minority and it does not shame them or denigrate them anyway now if this board or the state board of education wants to substitute any of sexual oriented material in place of more standard stem or english subjects this might be possible might be possible in higher grades above third although not encouraged by me or many teachers furthermore national polls have already revealed strong support across party lines democrat and republican for the concepts in the north carolina parental rights proposal once again i asked this board to take a stand for the children and parents of our county we believe that you are the elected voices with good judgment why not take a vote and let us see where you stand on this

039issue your opinion and actions should be known before the november elections and i hope to convince you the six women on the board especially look at your children the five six seven eight-year-olds and then look at the kind of education that's being proposed in these sex ed classes is that what you want for your kids and our kids thank you mr don cavallini you have five minutes give us the name of your group thank you for affording me the opportunity to speak and i'd be remiss not to say i feel really good about some of the awards and the students and the the the educators uh i ran track in high school and college and i know what it takes to get these kind of uh acknowledgements state champions that's that's quite an accomplishment so

040i'm here again uh as i was last meeting and for the last six months it has been getting harder to be a school bus driver in pitt county it's never been easy to manage 50 to 75 children and a 12-ton vehicle for 14.95 an hour and it's no wonder there is a bus driver shortage nationwide not just here parents and drivers often women of color in both cases have been stretched to the brinking point as they try to do more with less less time less money less help and yes even less of a sense of safety and respect there's a hostile work environment in the pitt county school bus garage drivers are being unjustly fired and or demoted if a driver asks questions during a meeting she shouldn't be disrespected or for that matter walked

041up on and i thought and that's usually somebody who's not in the clique with the transportation director i i thought that there was some time before dr linker became the superintendent incorporated and mr forbes maybe mr holland you can confirm this added to the personnel policy of pitt county schools was a clause that said there would be no bullying of school personnel we were all worried about students being bullied but i'm telling you bus drivers are being bullied they're being embarrassed and they're being intimidated this is leading to higher turnover and will further complicate recruiting bus drivers for the new year the shortage existed before the onset of covert but very few school districts are willing to acknowledge it let alone do something about it and you know it took the pandemic to make that

042shortage visible and painful to more than just the school bus drivers themselves across the country reports have come in about shortage of not just school bus drivers but cafeteria workers school nurses substitute teachers and and and even the paraprofessionals who help the teachers with their workloads and make it a better experience for the students by having more small group attention we call them teachers assistants here in pitt county so as with the drivers these shortages existed before anyone had ever heard of cover 19. the problems were there but the pandemic made them more visible and opened our eyes to the repercussions for parents and school children since the last board meeting i've had two conversations with dr linker and to his credit he was very gracious one of the drivers i talked about at the

043last meeting was demoted not fired that was after an investigation by human resources but why did the person who chased her with his broom get her position instead of being disciplined himself he's the one who might be a danger to his co-workers not her and why for the two two weeks that she was out while being investigated hasn't she been paid for those two weeks i thought even though there's a policy of being guilty before proven innocent in pitt county schools and and quite frankly in the city of greenville in general i thought that the policy of the pitt county schools was you get paid while the investigation is going on that's leave with pay that has not happened there's another worker who was fired unjustly after taking leave because her mother was sick and

044finally died she asked for leave family medical leave that's something there's a federal allowed she took no more than the days she was allotted and she was fired now human resources reversed that but should that have ever happened to begin with there's something very wrong in the pitt county garage and i'm hoping somehow some way you will fix it herbert godly he has a uh uh uh cdl he was and he was i'll let him speak for himself because he's here tonight thank you very much you have three minutes good evening my name is herbert garland i come to address that i was wrongly wrongly fired i was wrong in the fire i worked with the school there six oh five done a great job everybody seemed to like me good never left the job

045never got off none of that november 10th last year we took a drug test and they waited 28 days to bring that test back to me to let me know that i was uh i had drugs in my system 28 days i went to three four uh drugs they said it lasted on two three days and then they throw it away why would i keep mine for 20-some days i won't i don't do drugs i don't do drugs i've been preaching for 26 years some of you know me some don't and i've never taking drugs the only thing i need to know why would i keep my drugs that long my drug i said well if if it's in there it's in the navy state for 33 days the drugs in my system now let

046me take a drug test now and if it's in there then i'll go i said but i know it's not in there they told me the only way that i was allowed to take another test is to use the same urine that they kept all this long i said man the stink writing and some of everything else and let me take another test no i couldn't do that the only way you could take this test mr dollar you got to pay 275 i said now this don't make no sense you know me now bill said that i hate reading the the thing about justice for all i know i don't see i don't see i lost wages my driving record is messed up i don't want to get several jobs they refused me to have

047my jobs because of the record that they gave me about being fired because i had drugs in my system i don't do drugs never done drugs ain't done drugs in 1977. that below 40 years ago why would i jeopardize my job and i know what my job called for i hold children every day and i love my children i love my job but they lied on me i didn't get fired be by my supervisor i got fired by her soccer team you know what i'm saying the lead driver come to me and find me why would she have fired me she wouldn't talk to me this thing is wrong this city is wrong the kind of school is wrong i'm pushing i'm gonna keep right on pushing i don't lost six seven months of labor

048and everything that goes with it can't get a job it's record messed up something needs to be done about this i won't stop and see it happen somebody gonna help me y'all thank y'all for listening thank you [Applause] thank you again all of you that come to speak on tonight at this time we'll go to our consent items for approval motion to approve our consent item a through in so moved moved by caroline second second by adam barrett in the discussion all in favor let it be done by the raising of your right hand motion carry this time we go into new business first parents for public schools in pitt county community conversation report hello and good evening to the board members the audience members and any attendees watching from home before i begin let

049me say thank you to those of you who sit before me for your service to our schools and community and for the relationships that you help us build between parents for public schools and pitt county schools my name is kyleen dibble i'm the executive director of parents for public schools of pitt county before sharing some of the highlights of our community conversation i would like to take a moment to explain exactly what we do as an organization we are a local chapter of a national non-profit that just celebrated its 30-year anniversary our local chapter has been here for nine years and we primarily focus on three programs school tours the parent engagement program and community conversations this past year we had the opportunity to take over 250 individuals through pitt county schools this included realtors

050business professionals professionals elected officials clergy current pitt county residents and prospective families who were considering a move to pitt county the surveys that they took showed that tour participants were grateful for coordinated tour efforts and were more likely to send their children to schools in our county after the tour than before then we have our parent engagement program which is a two-year cycle in year one there's a parent cohort of community members and parents that meet one day per month to learn about public education modules include topics such as learning styles the difference in involvement and engagement finances the role of the school board north carolina standard course of study statewide school report card grades and much more participants in that cohort develop projects that enhance one or more pitt county schools previous projects in

051recent years have included a kindness rock garden a girls who code program an effort to revitalize a pta a community partnership that stocked one high school with feminine hygiene products for a year and many others in year two we hold evening workshops such on topics such as the difference in 504s and ieps how to write successful essays resiliency strategies and other topics we're currently recruiting for our cohort of next year and if anyone would like to apply for that that is on our website on the contact me portion and that will go to me i'll send them an application our third program is what brings me to the board meeting each june our community conversations program has a goal of speaking to as many people as possible throughout the school year to hear thoughts perceptions

052and experiences about pitt county schools they're compiled into the report that you've received in your board packet and hopefully over email as well i'm grateful to parents for public schools board members who helped compile the report and i'm especially grateful for megan stello our msw intern who not only attended every single community conversation this year but spent countless hours transcribing them and finding the best themes that fit each comment we value the thoughts of all parents and community members so we don't turn any away from any conversation so that means there's no requirement that you be a parent and at times community members who are not parents but have a vested interest in public schools do choose to participate this year we provided an in-person conversation and a virtual conversation for every attendance area as

053well as any other group that was interested principals were given a flyer and a zoom link and asked to share that with the families at their school in whatever way they best communicate with their schools and with their families some through phone calls some emails some social media some in lots of different ways and some chose not to share it we also advertise on our own social media outlets at each conversation we ask the same five questions those questions this year were what is going well with pitt county schools what are the greatest needs in pitt county schools how do you define equity as it relates to public education if you identify with one or more minority populations what's been your experience with the schools what else would you like to share with parents for

054public schools about your experience in previous years i've shared a summary of each question but this year the questions all led to very similar themes question number one was a little different what's going well with parents with pitt county schools i want to point out that we heard praise and gratitude for our schools there were comments about appreciation for the level of communication parents and families have received over the past couple of years schools were seen as a safe place in terms of coveted and otherwise participants had many comments about their gratitude for all that pitt county schools has done to keep children in school the past couple of years and there's no doubt that participants in this year's community conversation are thankful to everyone associated with pitt county schools including direct staff support staff

055administrators county office staff and board members as we look through some of the needs thoughts on equity comments about experiences of marginalized populations anything else we found that the themes of those four questions could be summed up into one word more while participants were grateful for what children received from pitt county they also want more they want more support for teachers more teachers more exceptional children's teachers more teacher assistants more translators more training for teachers and administrators that will help them better understand each child's unique individual needs and act accordingly more representation across the county of staff who represent the unique and diverse student population more equity of resources across various areas of the county more focus on improving improving facilities more opportunities for parents and school employees to interact together as a team more

056communication about volunteer opportunities in the schools for parents more communication from the district particularly in unique ways such as recorded videos that share information about changes more transparent sharing of information about what's being taught in schools more social workers and support staff more options for dealing with learning gaps and learning loss from covid more interaction with the board of education more opportunities to get to know each of you outside of board of education meetings more creativity when it comes to advertising open positions in ways that will attract qualified applicants to apply for them more opportunities to work together as a community as we all provide more support to students the common reason that we're all passionate about public schools we usually offer recommendations from each section of the report this year i have very few

057recommendations although there are some written then you can read them in the report but what i'm hearing in our community conversations is being reflected across the nation public education is having a nationwide dilemma fewer college students are pursuing education as a career teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers finding nutrition staff bus drivers custodial staff and other crucial personnel is harder than it's ever been this is not a solution that one organization one school board or one school system can fix immediately so what we hope is that we can work together to make small increments of change tonight we're here to say thank you thank you to this board of education thank you to school staff at every level we support you as we all continue to think creatively about how we can continue

058to make public education the best education available for our students i thank you for your time tonight and for the many hours of service that each of you has given to improving the educational experience for each child and family in pitt county thank you so much thank you this time we have requests for purchase of chromebooks ms baggett good evening tonight we would like to request approval of a chromebook purchase there's um 7500 chromebooks from the vendor hpi incorporated this will be paid from esser funds and will should be here in time to you know serve the students for the 2022-23 year and the price is one million eight hundred eighty-four thousand dollars and this has been bid out to approve do you have any questions second move by uh word any discussion all in

059favor let me know by the raising of your right hand motion care thank you and eric erickson playground contract selections good evening tonight we have bid out the either replacement partial replacement or expansion of the playgrounds at the majority of our k-5 and k-8 schools this project would bring all the playgrounds into compliance both in terms of the size of the equipment versus the number of students at the campus as well as correct all existing safety concerns related to the existing equipment the total cost to do this work is one million seven hundred ninety six thousand ninety three dollars and thirteen cents we had slightly more than this in the esser fund budget so we do have the funds to complete this work it would start once approved they'd start with purchasing and fabricating the

060equipment and we would look for completion by the end of the summer of 23. so just because of the lead time for the equipment any questions motion to approve by tracy any questions all in favor let it be known by the raising of the right hand motion care thank you thank you and my husband sale of stokes school old cafeteria and gym buildings mr erickson is also here to answer questions should the board members have any the board may recall that back in the latter half of last year we received an offer to purchase the old stokes gym building the building is very old it is very dilapidated uh the individual who wished to purchase the bill which is to purchase the building and has submitted a bid of ten thousand dollars for the building

061um wishes to he's a graduate of the school he wishes to put a classic car collection in the building after fixing it up a good bit um wishes to do what uh put a classic car collection in the building after fixing it up uh we have presented this to the county commissioners for their right of first refusal they they did state that they did not they did take action they did not wish to purchase the property we then had a little bit of a hang up with our surveyor who unfortunately has just been we're not really sure what's occurring but he has finally presented us with a legal description of the property so that we can now uh begin the upset bid process the board has two documents tonight one is the resolution to approve

062the potential sale the second document would be the the sample advertisement we would use to give notice to potential upset bidders if you were to approve this tonight it would start the upset bid process and to be frank i don't know how long that may go on because we may have upset bidders we don't know at this stage any questions you want a motion typically mr chair i make that motion and then i've got a question to speak i second it move by binge is second by don any questions mr chair yes um so how will it be advertised for upset bid we'll be advertising in the paper uh as we're required to do by state statute uh mr mcclelland is assisting with that that portion of the process but we'll be advertising in the

063paper they will then have an opportunity within 10 days to contact mr erickson and mr johnson at facility services if they wish to submit an upset bid uh that process is outlined in the resolution is there a minimum i believe they have to do ten percent of the first thousand dollars and then five percent of the remainder of the bid so there is the first yes ten one thousand dollars one thousand dollars yes and that is actually outlined i believe in your resolution okay okay if it's in there and i may have but there's a portion on the first thousand dollars and then there then the remainder of the bid it's five percent this question i wrote out and looked at it after coming down from washington to target other days so i just stopped

064by i'm assuming they have to use our driveway is that correct or it will it be there is an old right-of-way entrance old driveway apron from when the building was a k-12 high school um that is still active with d.o.t and is still registered and they would use that entrance not our forward to the property line okay thank you yes we would install um if this once this all goes through we would install fencing that would clearly delineate between their property and ours at the property line carolina mr chair all right i'm sorry um caroline it's a housing a classic car um collection is this for a personal use or will they have tours this is for storage only oh so really not open to the public at all correct okay so they'll secure it

065yes thank you any other questions just just follow up i prolong anything but once this motion passes tonight if it does then i assume tom you'll go ahead and start advertising okay thank you all in favor that have been owned by the raising of the right hand any opposed motion care thank you use security matt johnson good evening um with all of the um negative uh circumstances happening in texas a couple weeks ago i just thought we'd come up and give kind of a brief overview bullet point list of the 21 items that are probably that stand out or come to mind the most when we start looking at pitt county schools what we've done safety security wise to harden buildings as well as train and bring people in with expertise over the last five

066or six years it's unfortunate that we learn from tragedies as they happen but each one you do learn things from and and able to go back and revisit however i will say we do not wait for events to happen to review our security and safety plans we do it constantly with our security team who's over here you guys know john jenkins he's been around a while and we just got miss jennifer for people's to join our team what two weeks ago now and luckily she keeps coming back every day so that's a good thing even how crazy things get with us sometimes but through with these guys as well as our pitt county sheriff's department greenville police department aiden police department winterville police department grifton police department and farmville police department we have a really

067good relationship with all of our partners around the county to to help us with with our efforts to keep our schools and our children safe um some of the things on this um that you you've seen all these before um all of this has been in the public eye before as far as what we're doing um and again this is really just an overview but if you think back to secure corridors buzzing systems panic alarms visitor management systems a big thing that we did was we were able to go get grant money three years ago to increase sros by 12 giving us 26 positions around the county i mean that was huge and that's a two-year grant that continues to roll we could we apply for it every year we also look for other grant

068opportunities out there to help us fund this fund our sro program but access control has been huge um we hired a a risk management management consultant to come in about five years ago and he's been working with us annually to not only put out or help us put out our crisis manual or recovery manual but he's also come back and help us review take things that that has been learned across the state things he has seen from other counties things we have seen from unfortunate events have happened and continue to upgrade and update our manuals whether it be the crisis or the recovery manual one of the things that we put out this year which i think has been a really big improvement is actually a classroom flip chart for crisis is we've got a

069crisis manual that's in the office but what do i do in that classroom so now if something comes up that teacher can go right through that flip book and and roll that chart open and say okay here's the steps i need to take for my classroom so that's a big success i think in for pitt county schools to get that distributed out into the schools but we have we've done a lot of things and we continue to look and do things and and work with all of our partners to continue to harden to continue to bring safety and security to the top to the forefront of what we need to do to make sure we're safe the tip lines radio upgrades i mean it's all here you can read it all and again this is

07022 things that are just these are the big items this this is not what's going on day to day you know behind the scenes that you know we could we could sit up here and read them off for hours right on the things that that these guys all over here do to to help us so just kind of want to bring that up um for for you guys and for the public is um we're not sitting back waiting but we're actually going and reviewing and we have been for several years so are there any questions associated with this that we can talk about um and again we want to keep this pretty pretty general if we've got to get into anything really specific we need to go into a closed session because we don't want

071all of our good secrets getting out if you know what i mean that is correct yes sir well i mean i think this is public uh resource officers how many resource officers do we have we currently have 26 resource officers in the district in the district yes sir so are these schools that don't have full-time resources we we have set it up with all of our agencies that we have coverage at all schools now some schools do share resource officers we john and jennifer work with these schools daily to find out if they've if they need some extra help that day to make sure somebody's there and that kind of thing working with it we don't put out a schedule on when an sro is going to be here or there that would be kind

072of counterproductive but we are we do have coverage at every school we don't have boots on the ground 100 of the time the good news is there's some funding coming our way is what we're hearing and we hope to add at least 12 more hopefully by the beginning of the school year it's really going to depend on manpower that can be provided by agencies whether it be our current partners or outside of our current partnerships i understand that but i believe we need to have a resource officer at every school for 100 of that day yes sir those kids are there i agree and with any activities that are there afterwards yes sir and the second thing security cameras on the bus yes sir where are we so mr smith has has worked with um

073with patsy hudson down at the transportation department they have put the bid packages together they have sent them out to our vendors so what we're working on right now is getting bids back but the bigger concern we're having right now the bigger issue we're having right now is actual getting the product so cameras whether it be in the building or the cameras that are going on the bus we're actually having uh supply chain problems getting them and it's correct if i'm wrong but it's the micro chips for the cameras that the vendors the manufacturing plants are having problems getting we have looked and and spoken with numerous vendors and they're all having the same issues um and so it's not unique to here but it is a nationwide and probably a global problem at this

074point um that the the chips actually running the cameras are that far behind um so we were anticipating starting to install them on the buses this summer and i just don't know how far we're going to expand that this summer because i don't know how many cameras we're actually going to get um come july 1st compared to august 1st so we're going to continue to roll as many as we get in we're going to start installing them and get them in yeah we're not going to wait for as they come in we'll start going yes sir and i do think as a system you need to put them on buses that maybe some of the principals have had you know some major problems they know where to start yes sir yes sir and there's one

075other thing i have do you have someone from your staff or whatever that will walk through out the schools randomly to check doors safety features yes sir yes sir so what here's a couple things that we do and again this is this is public knowledge so we ask our sros to do at least one a month to do an inspection now granted for the most time they're there all the time and when they're on site they do it but we also have john and jennifer that are random and just come through and do audits create that paperwork go sit down with that principle to go through what they have found so we continuously review we continuously audit and we continuously take feedback back to that school so they understand what we've seen and where corrections

076need to be if there are any uh we also use it as a praise hey great job we did an audit today everything looks great we didn't find anything right so it goes both ways for this and and these guys do a great job going around doing that on top of you know the lock down many the many lockdown drills announced and unannounced and all that that they have to do as well and another thing i'm sure the principals that's something that they can do also checking you know checking doors and i know many of our you know you got i know there's a different mindset than what the word for years ago you know in education there would always be somebody that would put a rock yep you know that would many of our

077folks do their own audits as well but i think you've worked with a lot of teachers and with students i mean with administrators on having keys also on those out so one thing with the access control that's done is it's eliminating keys so the more keys you can eliminate the better off where we are so you don't have to worry about a lost key getting in wrong hands and that kind of thing so the access control with the badges is really the wave that we are pushing through to getting through to all of our exterior doors and injuries and and we've gotten uh we've gone a long way compared to what we were three years ago it's it's it's uh tremendous any other questions mr chair there's a couple things i think i read somewhere

078that like dr lincoln when you're going by you're checking some doors and some of the staff am i correct on that i've done i'll say recently that's what i that's what i was they want to make sure that and and if anybody has any suggestions i mean they always there i mean just like when he mentioned the rocks i think it's always a good idea the teachers closest to that uh doorway to check it every every after every period because especially in our high schools we know we've got kids leaving all the time going out to the parking lot to get in that car to go to pitt community or go home or whatever so but i do want to thank everyone that's doing everything they can to make our schools as safe as possible

079we do appreciate that as a parent i appreciate it thank you mr chairman and and matt this might be a superintendent question i don't think oops i i i'm uh i'm wondering about the funding so that we you say that we can probably get these other 12 in place this summer is that correct i think the manpower is going to be the problem i don't think i think that'll be the truth so the funding is not the issue as much as it is finding qualified people to come in here and take those positions obviously an issue with everything but right now we would let manpower be the problem not the money okay so some of those federal dollars that we can use to be able to to uh supply those personnel in those positions we're

080working on on getting additional people i know matt is actually also working on private people who can partner with our uh and with our uh police forces in in pitt county to see how we get more people here so we're tending to get more people for sure that's good people is the is the issue yeah and then the other thing i keep and this is this is a thing of inconvenience but um for the the more we make sure and i know the principals and every and its staff and i know they've got buy-in to it but the more we have one way in one way out the better yeah and you know the the secure corridor is is to push that direction um the other doors around the campus are for your exterior classroom

081activities or or your pe classes they're not meant for you know staff and and students to be entering and exit out of so yes sir that's the secure entrance in the front with a visitor management system and all and and your actual clock in badge in all of that in that front is has really driven to a front one entrance one exit um building on on our campuses good good deal caroline matt i just want to say thank you you you've really pulled together um an extensive list thank you as you said things that have been in the public um doing a great job of managing this whether it's in the news or not and um i know that the public is appreciative of hearing um that our that your time and attention is on

082this incredibly most important topic i just wanted to ask if you might say a couple more words about that number 22 which i think is really really important that the public understands especially the parents understand that you know if they do um see something or hear about something um amongst their children's friends that they're concerned about what you need to do to get that anonymous so karen harrington is really close with this tip line so i'm gonna let her talk about it a little bit well again we're all working together i mean john and i and matt and we're all communicating all the time but we do have the anonymous tip line it's on the website our families do use that that is helpful that goes to all up to john and i the principal

083so we're all getting that tip um the the most recent thing that has helped us with the social media threats um that we have experienced in the last week which is a typical thing that our adolescents tend to do not understanding the serious nature of social media threats is that we have also had parents report that directly to the principal not anonymously which it helps us get you know to be able to ask questions but also to our law enforcement partners so that has allowed us to make sure that those threats were not credible and follow up and and have appropriate consequences also so when a parent um is concerned about something it doesn't they don't have to know for sure that right it's going to happen they just have to be concerned right about

084right some a post or something that might lead to an unsafe situation anywhere in our school system that's correct just to reiterate that for the public who's and that and again that's that is what is helpful for us is when our parents are working with us to combat these issues um again social media if school system people could have a way you know we would probably do away with school social media because it's it takes a lot of time you know um so again it help it's helpful to share it with the appropriate officials it's not helpful to share it on social media and cause panic and hysteria so another note on that i'm sorry but um greenville pd has a department now that basically finds these people that are making these posts right um

085the last couple weeks we've had a couple and i think three in greenville pd told us who those three people were within 24 hours right that are that are putting these threats out there so you know just a warning out there you know to the general public if you're going to make these threats there's there's the ability in pitt county working with all the agencies through greenville pd to find you wonderful all right thank you i got one more question well really two but one of them want to do where do you give me a hard time that bad system do you have are you able to tell who goes in that door yes sir and what time yes sir so i just wanted to bring that up and um you made me forget my

086satisfaction um what i want to do i'll come back it's all right thank you we got one more i just got a comment okay and and one of the things i've always heard and we always heard it i don't want to get involved folks this is real stuff that's happening get involved it's your child's school your grand child school your friend's school your cousins aunts whatever it's it's your school your people get involved and if you hear something that appears to be a threat report it please yeah and this is out of karen's book here but you know what is what's been shown over several events not necessarily just school events but there's been red flags there's been obvious signs so again just like mr rhodes says if you if or if you see something

087say something not to coin the phrase from other people but really if if you think there's a threat you need to let the right people know so we can start investigating it yeah did you think of it where yes okay it's really the doc the link okay he said basically if we have if we have for example a school i mean a kid in our school that puts out a threat and it's you know real we need to make sure that that kid is out of our school soon and is not allowed to come back i mean we you know we shouldn't be finding a way that we can put them in this program or that program they need to be uh expelled from our school system i i mean we do not need to

088play games and give kids second chances uh in regards to that all right thank you this time we have closing comments by our superintendent just a couple quick things first uh on saturday we had the uh the first graduation of innovation early college high school which was a super long time coming i've been working on that myself for a couple years actually found when i got to pitt county in my desk nine years ago i found a brochure for this school from 2006 that this school was going to be created in 2006 so thanks to east carolina everybody from pitt county schools to pull this off and to jennifer james for putting on an amazing uh graduation this past week is awesome deborah baggett you guys if you guys know what you have in deborah

089baggett and her finance department that's all just amazing work she does and quickly just this has not been the school year that we thought it was going to be in august when we started and so just as thanks to the teachers and everybody at the school and we started off thinking it was going to be back to normal and then whatever greek letter started in in october hit us you know and got us going and then we thought we were good again and then we all went for christmas and some of us got stranded in places and couldn't get back to our country so but um and we so we saw what happened and then now we're finishing up the year so i know our teachers and our and our principals and our teacher assistants

090our cafeteria bus drivers we know it's been a year and just wanted to say thank you for all them thank you sir all right we'll start with amy yeah i get to go first uh i just want to say thank you for everyone who comes out to speak with us and reading through the community conversations it's really neat to see all the comments that get made and you know just so the public is aware you know we we do listen we we can't comment with public expression but we do listen every time and you know we have conversations and we do what we can um i also want to say congratulations to all the wonderful sports teams that we saw it was it's so heartwarming to see all the great things going on in our

091county and that's really really awesome and i i have a personal soft spot for a lot of these students because i get the pleasure of being able to teach them myself through the community college side of it two of the runners i had the two twins actually were in my class last semester so it's really nice to see all of them get recognized and it's just wonderful to hear all the great things going on so i'm really excited about all the graduations graduation season is my favorite time it's my favorite part of being on the board it's a long week you know we got 10 graduations and it's a long week but it's it's so nice to see all these students get awarded and it was really nice when we were able to still do

092that through covid so one of the few counties that did i like to remind people of that so thank you again for everything and have a wonderful summer um i want to congratulate all the winners tonight the a word kind of stuck out to me tonight as we were witnessing a lot of athletic achievements alongside of academic achievements and that's balance and that i'm so proud that we have such a wonderful balance in our school system and in our community of offering opportunities athletically and academically and when we're offering them athletically we're challenging the kids academically in order to you know so it's it's really a wonderful um sort of way we do that in tandem and that gets sort of visually represented at meetings like this so i was really excited about that i'm

093super excited about eastern and welcome being being recognized as stem schools of distinction i think that's a i know the kind of effort that went into making that happen and i'm blown away by it and super excited about that um wanted to thank those of you who came tonight to express to us we're taking notes we're listening thank you for that i i want to thank parents for public schools for this comprehensive report that i always enjoy diving into for days after our meetings um it appears to me and i think i remember being told this in the past but that that the comments that parents make during these community conversations have been recorded verbatim and at least at least the way some of them are written appear to be verbatim and so i say

094that to to encourage parents if you have an opportunity to attend a community conversation do it um because if you make a comment then we you know it gets included in here as you said it not as someone else editorializes it so that's um i think helpful and i thank you guys for the amount of effort that it goes into to putting this together for us um and congratulations to the class of what year we had 2022. i too love every minute of graduation season and look forward to spending lots of quality time with my fellow board members over the next few we'll get days come back to you where that you i'll let you think about it a little bit you know i forgot again yes you go ahead we'll come back tracy all

095right a little left out there let's kid um i would like to offer condolences to the family of alana driver she's a kindergarten from grifton that passed away i think the day of our last board meeting so i just wanted to take time to convey my condolences to the family um i think matt for all the security items refreshers i know that those things are always going on and i think it's reassuring for the public to understand that it's a constant continual thing it's not just a reactive mode that we have going on in our schools i want to say thank you to colleen dibble for her presentation for parents for public schools i always really appreciate the comprehensive feedback that we get from the community it's represented across the county which i really appreciate

096thanks to everybody as always for the public expression pieces it's always good to hear insight and perspective from everyone in the county i was very excited about the innovation that's the first graduation of innovation it went really well i was extra proud my kid was a junior marshal there fell down to the ground y'all in the middle of the ceremony but it was okay um so i always look forward to the graduations that's just really a highlight to celebrate our kids i'm really excited about i just want to point out project search it's a really small graduation but it's our exceptional children's or special education kids that pair up in the community for different employment purposes so i'm really excited to see that in person and i want to say thank you to all of

097our dedicated staff this year um i can just speak personally from working in a public school system this was one of the most challenging years i think we've ever had and it was really un anticipated so thank you for all you do and i'm really wishing everybody a happy and safe and healthy summer mr workforce okay you know like dr linker said it wasn't the year that we expected but at least it was better than those previous years that we had and you know i still believe that we and through the curriculum team and so forth that we've got kids that are still behind but i know that that staff is working to implement programs and strategies to get those kids caught back up you know i still believe they're still suffering from those first

098couple years and again um the programs that we implement need to be programs that we are really getting good results from and i'm sure after you know looking at test scores and so forth you'll reevaluate those to make sure that our system will look at the look at the programs that we have implemented and ones that didn't give us what we thought we need we would take them away because we don't need to keep piling on teachers more and more and we just need to make sure that we're putting the programs in place that are most productive and we get the most growth i also wanted to mention i was going to mention that student at grifton we're sure we're thinking about that family and that's a terrible thing to have to deal with you're

099never really over it you just learn how to live with something like that and so our prayers are with that family and i would say graduation you know it is always a stressful high school graduation is one of the most stressful things that a principal high school principal has to deal with because they always you got so many people large crowds and you're looking at everything wondering how the kids going act and parents and so forth but i know we got principles in place that will do the best that they can possibly do in our school high school graduations so and congratulations to the students thank you don okay i'd like to uh just remind the parents we do have emails we do have phones we do listen as i was sitting here tonight as

100some of our people were speaking i went back to review some board policies we have such as what can occur in k-3 and cannot occur in k-3 i encourage everybody to read our policies if you had questions uh and the comment was about things we need i don't know about the other eight board members but i'd love to have more money so we could spend on our schools to do things we we really need to do once again congratulations to all award winners tonight the state champions um and so i'd also like to best wishes to our seniors they've been to a difficult two and a third years uh so of all our students and also to all students um have a great summer and to the parents they're yours in a few in a

101few days for a little while i always love to say that when i was the principal caroline i just want to extend my sincere condolences to the family of kindergartner elena driver and grifton it's always such a tragedy to lose the job i do want to say thank you for all the work that parents public schools of pitt county has done over the years especially the countless school tours that you've organized for parents who are interested in hearing about the wide variety of opportunities that our 38 schools offer in our district having community conversations and evening information sessions to parents across pitt county is truly a valuable entry way to become for parents to become more informed stakeholders in their children's education and frankly in the mission of public education here county providing the parent

102engagement course every other year is another way for parents to become more engaged in our schools we saw tonight 53 students whose families are engaged in their children's education it takes a lot of support from families to support a champion we saw 53 examples of champions here tonight representing their team that takes a lot of engagement they not only have to excel on the report in the field but also in the classroom to stay eligible to play that sport it also extends to the 26 staff who who we saw highlighted tonight who work with those 53 students to make sure they stay engaged in school and lastly i'd like to say what an honor it is to have been part of the innovation early college high school graduation at ecu this past saturday it was

103truly a privilege to be there um dr linder said i believe it was 11 years in coming i mean he really did pick up the ball when he came and and took it over the finish line really proud to see our first graduates of this truly innovative high school what an honor thank you melinda thank you gosh everything's minutes then congratulations to all this we're honored tonight i mean it's just amazing every time i think that we're not going to have more people come in somebody else wins something that they can come in and be a part of and to not only you know tonight the battle of the books for all three levels that's amazing because if you've never went to one of those competitions um the questions are so specific that it's amazing

104that anybody gets a question right so i hats off to them schools two schools not one but two schools stem schools of distinction i mean that is not anything to to just blow off because that is to have one but two it's just amazing and my hat's offered to that staff of both of those schools for all the hard work that they did to get there um i'd like to thank parents for public schools for this book there's i have a friend that i've mentioned that's on a board in northern west virginia or what actually western pennsylvania we share like things that we're jealous of or not jealous of and this is one of the things they don't have and would love to have this kind of data because it's hard to get out in

105the community and you you get you always hear what you're not doing right but sometimes you don't hear what you're you know what's good and so this this is something that i look forward to every year parents public school has helped two businesses um that i know of that i've tapped into to help families move into the area and so i thank you for that and the school tools the school tours are invaluable absolutely and last but not least graduation i mean innovation it was awesome it's my school it was it was great for me and i am looking forward to early college in the morning and i can't wait for my girl to graduate friday night amen all right thank you mr benji thank you mr chair first of all uh dr linker i

106want to acknowledge that ron butler very soon is going to have more time to play golf so he's going to be looking forward to you continuing to help sponsor him uh and we're going to miss we're going to miss ron but at the same time i'd like to acknowledge that uh rob maloney will be taking over as as athletic director and i think he'll do a tremendous job there's somebody else we hadn't recognized that is a tremendous person that has worked for years in the north pitt community mr chairman that has built a baseball program very nobly and very very hard work and dedication and he's finally realized it's time to take a little bit more time and spend it with his family now that's that's noble yeah because he's he's leaving something he loves

107for something he loves and cherishes and that's ryan meadows and he needs to be acknowledged because the north pitt community is certainly certainly better off because of the accomplishments that ron meadows has done i had the opportunity to speak at two ffa chapter banquets a couple hundred people attending those events and it was a wonderful event our cte students and agriculture students continue to do a good job and those those teachers and advisors are very very dedicated i know i'm gonna run out of run out of time but uh it was very it was wonderful tonight to be able to see so much excellence of our students and behind the scenes of that those teachers and also the parents involved in making sure that that happens and then i think the last thing we need

108to acknowledge and if you would allow me to do so and that is it's wonderful to see many parent groups now involved with our schools on a grassroots level parents for public schools being one of them and they made a good report tonight and i appreciate that but we also appreciate all of those other parent groups that are essential to making us a better board as well and and maybe uh somehow figure out a way so that all of those groups can have an opportunity to present wonderful things such as was presented this evening all right thank you thank you thank you thank you all for coming out tonight i know some of you are going to miss us for the next couple of months i think some of you have i think some of

109you may have been to all of our meetings this year and we're very thankful and glad to have you to come and we look forward to you coming and sharing with us things that we need to know things we need to look at it's been a great experience for me uh being on the board as short a period of time as i have it's a lot to learn it's a lot to to to take in but i'm doing the best i can with the help of all of these wonderful people sitting here i hate that i miss the graduation on saturday i've had a nephew's been very sick in the hospital had a minister who passed so i wasn't able to attend that graduation but i plan to be to the other six graduations and

110whatever else i can make this week i want to say something on behalf of the security and i really appreciate what was shared on tonight me being retired law enforcement officer for 30 years there's some things you tell some things you don't tell and so it's very important that what we do we make sure we do it and do it right no plan is a hundred percent but i really appreciate all the things that have been put in place some things you cannot tell because those who want to do harm will figure out a way to do it and so i commend them a lot of times law enforcement don't get the appreciation they should get when something happens they're the first one you're going to call and they've been taking a hit for the

111last few years and i know agencies are having issues now trying to hire officers because of things that have been said trying to defund police departments and all of that we need them we need that relationship with our local law enforcement i appreciate the sheriff's department the police department for allowing those officers to come and be school resource officers we need them we need that support they are braver than what some people give them credit for being in it for 30 years and having to see what we've seen over the past few years in the past few weeks it's alarming to think about what can happen in the next few months or the next few years this world isn't getting any better but we got to get better as a people and work together and

112not against one another our children are important we've got to take care of them and we cannot let politics get in the way we got to do the right thing and i really appreciate all that officers are doing and i appreciate all that the principals and all the faculty is doing to keep our students safe because it is very very important and again congratulations to all of those who receive awards and championships on tonight it is beautiful to see the things that are happening here in pitt county and i will take care of my man across the river in norfolk take him out to eat i'll take care of him mr chair i make a motion to go into closed session pursue it the general statutes 143.31 for the following purposes under subsection a3 to

113consult with our attorney and to preserve the attorney-client privilege to consider and give instructions concerning a potential or actual claim administrative procedure or judicial action second caroline any discussion all in favor raise your right hand motion