Feb 7th, 2022 Pitt County Schools Board Meeting

001[Music] i'd like to call this meeting to order first let me welcome all of you to this february the 14th meeting of the pitt county board of education my name is james tripp and i have the privilege of serving as chair we are delighted to have members of the public join us for our meetings but we do ask that you observe a few things while you're here first the nine elected board members sitting at this table are here to conduct the serious and solemn business of local government i have deep respect for all of our fellow board members and how seriously they take their obligations as public officials during this meeting there is a specific time designated for the public to offer input to the board and that is the portion of our agenda designated

002for public expression only speakers who have signed up for public expression may address the board and only during their respective turns for public expression at all times members of the public should remain quiet and your cell phones should be silenced if you speak out of turn or your cell phone goes off you'll be asked to leave if you attempt to engage someone in conflict you'll be asked to leave if someone attempts to engage you in conflict and you respond you will be asked to leave if a majority of this board makes a decision that you personally disagree with and your voice your option to that decision you'll be asked to leave finally if you do not follow the directions of the board you will be asked to leave and we are at capacity in both

003rooms and as some may leave then others will be allowed to come in from the outside at this time we have the pledge by mr four four then stand for pledge belief i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we'll now have a moment of silence dear lord we thank you for your protection and pray dear father that we have a productive meeting lord please give all of the leaders here the wisdom that they need to make the right decisions for the children of pitt county we pray father that your hand of protection will be around all of our employees as well as the children parents everyone that's here and that's

004involved in our school system you surround them with protection in regards to kobe regards to any disease we look for you for all the answers and father we just thank you for dying on the cross to save us from our sins in your name we pray amen amen at this time ask the board members if there are any uh adjustments to the agenda as presented mr chair i appreciate we approve the agenda as written second in the discussion been moved and second that we approve the agenda all in favor say aye any folks we begin now with our spotlight on teaching and learning along beth good evening chairman tripp board members pcs staff and all of our friends that are here in attendance tonight we have so much to celebrate there are lots of wonderful

005things that are happening in our schools and tonight we will get to recognize some of our outstanding teachers and administrators that we find doing wonderful things throughout the district it is my distinct honor to call up dr steve laster who is actually past north carolina principal of the year and he will share with us some of our honors of distinction this evening thank you and good evening to members of the board this time we would like to honor mrs allen allison covington miss covington serves as the principal at south greenville elementary school and miss covington has been named the 2020 wells fargo northeast region principal of the year and we are so proud of ms covington and the work that she has done at south springville and we know that she will represent us well

006as she goes to the next level at stake and the announcement will be made in may so we absolutely applaud and congratulations [Applause] i believe her children are with her they can come and get the picture [Laughter] thank you [Applause] next we would also like to honor and recognize uh mr clinton todd so todd if you come up i believe mr todd is here with his principal as well mr todd is a teacher at j.h rose high school he is a fantastic science teacher at jh rose science rhodes high school and he has recently recently been named the 2022 burroughs welcome northeast region teacher of the year we are so proud of you mr todd and we applaud you for all your work and leadership and like miss covington we look forward to you representing

007kid county schools congratulations [Applause] so our next honor and recognition is miss ashley parmly she is a beginning teacher at hope middle school and i have heard nothing but wonderful things about miss farmley as an educator who is an outstanding teacher she loves her children and she brings her best to the classroom even every day which is an exciting thing for my teachers like you model teachers such as yourself at the beginning of their career we look forward to you remaining in the profession and continuing to bring that energy to the classroom and she has been named the pitt county school's beginning teacher of the year we are so excited for you we too believe that you will represent us at the next level at the state level and that you'll bring back that win

008to pitt county schools and thank you so much for all you do and congratulations [Applause] let me say one thing before you do that this farmland has only got 29 years [Laughter] [Applause] we are so excited for our three finalists and five or six years ago pitt county schools had the same level of winning as beginning principal of the year excuse me principal of the year and teacher of the year and we are just excited that it has happened again in pitt county schools it speaks to the volume of quality and leadership that we have in our schools so thank you thank you it is not uncommon to find pitt county schools teachers winning awards on the state level dr jennifer stahls will now recognize two teachers for north carolina science teachers association awards good

009evening i am honored tonight to recognize two of our outstanding science teachers the north carolina science teachers association recognizes teachers across our state in all districts for elementary middle and high school and this year we are honored to have two recipients of the middle school and high school awards in pitt county for the entire district so for district one of north carolina these awards are given to teachers for their service for our students their leadership and their contributions to the community beyond the four walls of their classrooms first i would like to recognize miss nicole curran from aj fox middle school um miss giron consistently develops lessons that are hands-on high student engagement relevant and challenging she is definitely a team player and is willing to have help out in any way possible she serves

010as a mentor for our beginning teachers and provides advice to teachers on best practices in the classroom not only for science but for classroom management as well so ms caron we are so excited and honored to have you to represent not only pitt county schools but district one as outstanding middle school science teacher for the north carolina science teachers association [Applause] next i would like to recognize mr obiamachuku from the pitt county early college high school mr chukwu is unwaveringly dedicated to his craft he is always willing to try new things particularly with technology he is innovative in the methods that he uses to reach all of his students and is truly a leader in our district as well so please join me in congratulating mr chukwu on being the outstanding high school science teacher

011for district one in north carolina [Applause] during the month of february we celebrate career and technical education and i had the opportunity last week to attend a trades foreigners event at south central high school and we had over a hundred parents and students at that event we are growing our own talent and preparing students for the local workforce with our cte programs and it is my honor to call up jessica edwards this evenings where she can recognize some of the teachers that are doing outstanding work with our cte program thank you good evening my name is jessica edwards the career and technical education curriculum and instructional management coordinator for pitt county schools our cte director beth and trueblood is away at the state cte directors conference receiving honors for being named the north east region

012director of the year and is unable to join us tonight while all of our cte educators are excellent and hardworking we would like to take a few moments to highlight five of our cte teachers who do an outstanding job for their students in pitt county stacy hardy is a health sciences teacher from north pitt high school she is the leader of the positive behavioral intervention and supports group at north pitt lead bt mentor and has stepped up to assist with providing high quality instruction for students enrolled in all health sciences courses at north pitt high school ms hardy works extremely hard to make sure her students are credentialed and receive training for careers in the health sciences field joey joyner is a carpentry and woodworking teacher at j.h rose mr joyner gives back to the

013community through multiple service projects with his construction classes has worked throughout the pandemic to provide high quality hands-on experiences for his student and works closely with the exceptional children's department at rose when you visit jh rose you will always find his students working on projects such as barns picnic tables adirondack sets or various projects that student build from recycled pallets [Applause] congratulations [Applause] thank you [Applause] renee shepherd teaches career readiness at chicag school she is a leader of the new paxton patterson middle school career program in the district renee has served as a model classroom for paxton patterson and is a trainer for the company across the state her passion for learning and her students could be seen on twitter are articles that have been published in the paxson patterson newsletters [Applause] um of career

014technical education i'm very proud on behalf of uh how about that [Applause] and kim spade is not here tonight but her principal mr cannon is receiving the award in her stead she teaches business at south central high school she has demonstrated a willingness to step out of her comfort zone to meet the needs and interests of her students she has grown the fbla student organization at south central and has been an active member in her district's plc's miss fate is a teacher that encourages her students to work hard to succeed [Applause] and our last award is to mr jonathan riggs who teaches agriculture at farmville central high school he has worked tirelessly over the summer to enhance his local communities with his students and is currently working on the state curriculum team to create new

015curriculums unfortunately he is unable to join us because his wife is going to have a baby tomorrow so we have excused him this one [Laughter] yes i do i'm glad my daughter [Laughter] oh that's great thank you [Applause] at this time we are going to recognize some really incredible people that are the heart of our schools they are the silent army that make sure our children are in schools make sure they have clothing make sure they have food make sure they have all the necessary resources to come to school and be ready to learn our social workers you might not even know the name of the social worker in your school because they do it so quietly every single day but i wish we could have every social worker for pitt county schools in this

016room tonight so you could lay eyes on them and see these people make a tremendous difference every single day so i ask you before we announce the the social workers that are going to receive recognition this evening i ask that you please take a moment write a note to the school social workers drop off a piece of candy do something kind for them because they are just our unsung heroes and they deserve our praise so i'm going to ask karen harrington to come and introduce a few social workers to you this evening all right thank you miss alfred but we are actually going to wait till next month to recognize social workers today is counselors so if you want to say something great about the counselors next month we can do that it's okay so

017i think the board is familiar that the the first week in february is the start of many student services recognitions um and so this week is actually school counselors week but i certainly agree with her sentiments and um the same can be said about our school counselors school counselors are essential in ensuring that students have all of their needs met from academic to also to mental health needs which certainly we are seeing across the county and across the state and the nation an increase in student mental health needs and so throughout this week we will be highlighting some of the work that all of our school counselors do we have 65 school counselors across the district and certainly we would love to recognize all of them but we have picked two to spotlight tonight first

018so continue to watch our student services facebook page throughout the week and you will see highlights of others and the work that they're doing we shared some of those today but first i wanted to recognize dr kristen jeffries from chicago she's she's wide-eyed about my doctor but she did receive her doctorate last year and so ms jeffries is has been recognized not only for her counseling skills that she performs at chicag but also as a leader in our community and she is recognized this year as one of the ecu 40 under 40 in their leadership program so only to be 40 i would love to be under 40 and also to have my work highlighted like that so thank you dr jeffries for coming in she obviously she is one of our strong counselors our

019go-to people she serves on many committees and we are just fortunate to have her and thankful that she came out tonight so thank you dr jeffrey [Applause] [Laughter] yes [Applause] and another one of our um excellent school social now you had me do it school counselors is ms burnett of bradley she serves at the pit early college high school and i will just add in that in addition to her role as a school counselor she is often mr whittington's right-hand woman we were just talking about how the students keep a track of her at all times she just goes above and beyond in all the things that she does just an example is that she has started a knitting club called pearls of wisdom and so again something else i envy i would love to

020be able to do something like that but crafting is not my skill so in addition to all her other skills she is teaching knitting and this young lady um here had never knit before in her life and while they knit i think there is a lot of wisdom and sharing and just some mental health and i'm sure that is something that is good as a strategy as well so we just want to highlight miss bradley for the work that she does we are fortunate to have her again she's a leader across the st the county and also the state and so thank you miss bradley for coming out [Applause] uh [Music] [Applause] so thank you so much again share with your school counselors a note of appreciation throughout this week you can do that on

021their facebook pages our principals have done a great job already today just highlighting the many things that they do thank you all thank you let's give them all another round of applause [Applause] we're at the point in our agenda where we have public expressions on this evening we have 25 individuals who will be addressing the board on tonight public expression is an opportunity to share issues of concern that are relevant to the business of the board personal attacks of individuals and discussion of the family members of board members are not relevant to our business and will not be permitted per our policy individuals have three minutes to speak and groups have five minutes to speak when the speaker's time expires the speaker must end his or her remarks if you do not observe your time

022limit you will be asked to leave your comments should address the entire board and not an individual board member we will listen to your comments comments and i may offer some direction if your if our rules are not followed but we will not respond to your comments at this time and some of those that are to speak tonight are in the overflow room so we give them time to come in as well first one melissa adamson good evening everyone my name is melissa adamson just for context i have a son that has graduated from pitt county schools and i'm a greenville resident and i have a daughter who's in first grade in pitt county schools first and foremost i just want to thank you all for your service i know that the last two years

023have been particularly challenging and i understand that there have been some very nasty things said about you and your character and i for one just want you to know how appreciative i am for your commitment and your time and dedication to you know navigating these challenging times and addressing some of the real issues that our schools face i do not believe that book bans really need to be on that list not to mention that bullying and threatening board members is quite ridiculous um childish and really solves nothing and so for for those actions i'm deeply sorry that you have had to experience that i also understand that there are a lot of people that feel similarly to to me and for whatever reason they may have not come forward to say thank you and so

024that is why i'm here so thank you from the bottom of my heart i really appreciate what you do every single day furthermore books do not teach rape and pedophilia and underage drinking and curse words in fact as a parent i am the most influential person in the lives of my children in terms of shaping their character and protecting them from the fears that we all share families have far more influence on the safety and well-being of their children than any book ever could books do share stories about situations that many children and young young people will encounter in real life at some point and just because it might make some uncomfortable does not mean that it should be banned and as unfortunate as it is there are many adolescents who can relate to these

025themes in these books and it is far better for them to have access to these books than to have them believe that they are alone in their experiences books can sincerely spark conversation that can end up saving lives and banning them makes it even harder for teenagers to open up to adults to get the help that they need and so i'd like to close with just briefly trying to imagine for a moment what could have been accomplished if this energy and time were invested in improving our facilities or advocating for additional programming or even passing a school calendar this conversation of what some perceive is offensive is a moot conversation and quite frankly a waste of time because of the option for parents and caregivers to seek alternative assignments but instead we've not only wasted

026time but we've lost ground to real issues and this whole circle of attacks and outrage is completely unnecessary and misdirected thank you believe it is okay good evening everyone my name is elena ferner i am a seventh grade student at hope middle school i want to thank you for choosing not to censor forge by fire darkness before dawn an all-american boy i think it is important to have the freedom to read books about real life topics that happen to real people even if they are somewhat disquieting i feel that books open a window to a different world the things that happen on their pages are things that happen to actual people and it's important to understand the different perspective different ways of life that aren't like ours i would like to learn about the things

027that unfortunately many people experience the content in these books will only make us more aware of a topic empathize with the characters and thus be better people for example the stories about abuse and forged by fire give me the courage to stand up for victims that i might know stories about slavery and prejudice do not cause me to feel guilty only aware parents who are not mine should not tell me what i can and cannot read just as my parents shouldn't decide whether or not children read certain things parents should discuss with their own children what books they should be allowed to read instead of banning the books altogether thank you again for hearing my perspective books have had a wonderful impact on my life even the unsettling ones and i would hate to deprive

028others of the experience that books have given to me thank you amanda clean good evening and um i would also like to thank you all for your service i know that this is often thankless work and uh you're appreciated um so i have been a professor in the english department at ecu for the last 15 years i also have a daughter in the 10th grade at jh rose and a son in the sixth grade at cms so i speak as both an educator and a parent banning books sends a hurtful message to vulnerable students it tells them that the very real struggles they're experiencing should not be discussed or understood remember one in nine girls and one in 53 boys under the age of 18 have experienced sexual abuse or assault at the hands of

029an adult those millions of kids who have had this terrible experience for them banning a book like forged by fire or darkness before dawn sends the message that these kids should feel shame and that they should never speak about their experiences because they are unfit to discuss one in eight children ages 17 or younger live in a house where at least one caregiver has a substance abuse problem when a student who lives with a family member who has a drug or alcohol problem for them banning a book like all american boys tells them that these problems should remain secrets that discussing these real-life problems is dangerous when reading a book students deserve to have stories in which they can see themselves and their life experiences reflected censoring these conversations does harm to these students likewise

030when reading a book students need to have the opportunities to underestimate understand experiences that they haven't had to see and understand experiences of their peers and others in the world around them it's how we learn to be empathetic and how to account for the differences in our collective experiences books allow us to see people who are different from us as whole three-dimensional people it helps us to humanize people we've never met this is something we need more now than ever kids need mirrors and they need windows censoring this content pulls the curtains over that window and isolates us in our experiences this is the opposite of what reading and talking about literature is supposed to do for our children but of course if a parent is very concerned about the content in a book and

031doesn't wish for their child to read it they have the option to ask for an alternative assignment in other words if you don't wish for your child to read this book your child will not be forced to read it but please do not demand that a book is removed from a curriculum you are telling other people's children what they can and can't read why would you want to take this important experience and lesson away from someone else's child i would also ask those who demand that books be removed from the curriculum to take a different approach instead of limiting options why not expand those options why not recommend more books on more topics don't we want our kids exposed to an expansive landscape of ideas i fear that these calls to remove books from the

032curriculum is the start of a larger campaign to remove more and more books what other real life experiences will be deemed objectionable and worthy of censorship thank you for your time thank you very much richard allsbrook good evening members of the board and thank you for the opportunity to address you thank you for your service as a public servant myself i certainly appreciate what you do and the vision that you have for our pitt county school students i'm here tonight to speak for the open enrollment for students who desire to attend d.h conley high school i don't have any children in high school i don't have any children in the pitt county school system both of my kids have graduated we had a great experience i read the january 26 article in the daily reflector

033of how the list for open enrollment schools remained unchanged the last three years which included all the county's traditional public high schools except d.h conley i believe there are critical points embedded in this issue that are not being discussed i would like to recommend to the board to consider the unintended consequences of this recommendation a couple of points i'd like to make inclusion not exclusion i know each of you are public service and public servants and understand the need to be inclusive the board policy 1705 addresses that the board defines multicultural education as an education that recognizes values and affirms diversity in a pluralistic environment the recommendation to keep d h closed enrollment does nothing more than continue the status quo that limits comment conley's opportunity to enhance diversity the school's population is based strictly

034on the demographic and geographical boundaries of the school district you can look at the enrollment numbers at d h conley and consider the recommendation of not making conley and open enrollment at school unintentionally limits the growth in diversity and opportunities for all students opportunities we know parents are seeking academic athletic fine arts and other extracurricular opportunities for their kids this has become increasingly obvious with the current open enrollment schools and our local private schools students with parents who have financial resources create opportunities for their children whether they attend public schools or private schools parents also seek financial scholarships in the private school settings parents who do not live in the d.h college school district and want their children to attend the college school district do so by moving purchasing a house and or trying to

035find an apartment to rent to move in the school district not every student's parents has the ability to purchase a new home and or rent an apartment in the d.h college school district with that being said i'd ask the board consider unintended unintended consequences and be inclusive by allowing d.h conley to be considered for open enrollment like all other pitt county schools thank you thank you it is peggy peggy harris beautiful piece of artwork i'm a mother of five children and a junior uh junior and freshman at jh rose twins at uh st peters and a two-year-old at home um i'd also like the administration at st peter's catholic school to listen up as well because they've actually become more restrictive than the public school systems when i was here in november i spoke out

036against the unlawful forceful masking and the ridiculous quarantine protocols i've warned of the propaganda being pushed in the toolkit to vaccinate our children and since then i've watched his kids have lost trust in the uh the health care professionals of deemed safe and have ignored your mandates by wearing their masks on their chins or not at all whenever possible they've adopted a don't test don't tell policy amongst themselves in order to circumvent these rules so they can have the opportunity to learn in classroom and compete on the athletic fields i would like to thank werth and benji for continuing to advocate for the families you serve my remarks today are intended for the board members who continually vote to keep the mask mandates in our schools i'd like to emphasize that covet 19 is not

037a childhood disease yet we are enforcing the most restrictive standards on these children the argument against the mass mandate is to make them optional it's not to prohibit them i would also like to quote from a teacher when we took when we look at the coven 19 pandemic through the lens of history i believe it will be clear that we betrayed our children the risks of this pandemic were never to them but they were forced to carry the burden of it as a board you have asked the community to stay away from personal attacks and leave children out of it well i would say that every time you vote to take or to make the mask mandate it's a personal attack on my children and i take it extremely personal to the members who continually

038vote for mask mandates you're not martyrs you are not a martyr for punishing your child for being caught on social media without a mask or for having to explain to your child have to wear it into public for fear of being exposed because of your decisions you're not martyrs your elected officials who choose to make decisions and must take accountability for the consequences if you believe in them own it and do it with a passion the real martyrs are the children who sit masked all day long their smile silence their emotional well-being buried under the safety you proclaim is the answer to this mess the real martyrs are the teachers and staff who continue to desperately try to comply with their mandates while watching their students struggle academically and their spirits fade under these absurd

039standards the real martyrs are the parents who lives have been turned upside down desperate to comply because they need their skill kids in school to go to work and are scared to speak out in fear of retribution did i have five minutes was that five minutes three nope i'm supposed to have five to the members of the board to mandate mass the tears of these children should weigh heavy on your hearts i've come to speak again before i stayed at home to take care of my children and raise them i taught special needs most kids with extreme anxiety disorders and serious developmental social and emotional disorders i've been frustrated and infuriated by the unlawful and harmful mandates this board continues to put on children my children are going to be okay but there are many

040who won't be shame on you shame on you for continuing to ignore the data the studies and the parental pleas to change this if you truly wanted to follow the science and the health risks on our children you would do your due diligence and consider the overwhelming amount of data and studies that prove contrary to what you claim as your reasons to mandate these masks every month you willingly and purposely vote to keep the math mandate i have a simple solution you say you don't want this power you say you wish you didn't have to we could take them off right now i wish we could take them off tonight we'll do it because by making them optional you leave that choice in the hands of the parents if you vote optional you relieve yourself

041a decision that you say you don't want and finally to the parents and the students and teachers who are listening tonight because you've all contacted me in private you can't be here to speak out in fear of retribution please know that you you are heard and we will continue fight to be heard we may never change the board's beliefs and decisions but we can change the board with our votes during election time and i would like to share with the public that i have submitted an official letter of request under the freedom of information act to dr lenker and each of the board members for documents pertaining to their public official surety bonds as required by north carolina revised state code 587210 worth and benji that exempts you because you have not voted for this

042if you are unable or unwilling to uphold the constitution of the state or the united states as required by your oath in taking this office and the duties that the office requires i respectfully ask that you step down if you are unwilling to remove this mass mandate in pitt county schools by way of vote tonight we the people are rep are prepared to move forward with this course of action thank you thank you and we apologize to you miss harris that you were to get five minutes thank you taylor keith is that three that is five minutes pitt county parents and responsible education this is the third time i've come before this board for public comments each time i've come before this board i've demanded two things a basic agreement of morality and age-appropriateness for

043books in the school and parental consent for books containing explicit language and sexual scenarios never to ban one at your last meeting which was held while the book hearing was still open you allowed miss meredith hill to continue presenting evidence for the hearing which broke her own hearing rules and did not allow me to speak this board then went into closed session one board member left and you voted on several motions an amendment to those motions four of you voted down an amendment to not allow these books to be required reading four of you voted down an amendment to have non-explicit books available as the required readings and to have these books that were appealed still available not banned as additional resources requiring parental consent since then a public message dated february 2nd has been

044issued the message refers to question and answers document which relies on book reviews rather than actual content but the words matter the provided summary in the review or in the question and answer for forged by fire says rape is not a theme of the book or even what the book is about but in the very next paragraph of that text it says angel's father molester you see the words matter in this paragraph the writer of this question answered tries to gloss over the main theme of the book which is a battle against a molesting pedophile named jordan that is the theme the q a goes on to talk about all american boys and actually does a really good job of describing the story but it emits the very item that was appealed the book needlessly

045uses the f word over 30 times in just the first two chapters later the author tries to justify although this q a tries to justify the use of profanity by offering statistics such as youth uses profanity approximately 90 times a day let's hit that here you got a book about an important topic police brutality a topic that should be talked about but this author chose to use the f-bomb constantly and that is why it was appealed so while the pcs staff and the board members argue that that should be okay and that parents have no right to have to give permission to read the vulgar language you're encouraging relying on the guidance of someone of the opinion that normalizing vulgar language is okay the reality of it is the language of the book is the

046entire reason it was appealed we should be teaching children that they do have an important message to give and using the f-bomb cheapens that message because words matter now tonight as much as i want to i want you to allow me to read a few passages from another book that's in our public school media collection before i read these lines i want to note and you all have a copy that has you on your own rules for this this you don't have from 2019 august 18th a movie rated pg 13 in elementary school requires parental consent r-rated movie in high school requires parental consent but the board doesn't interpret that to go to books rule 9 of a student code of conduct which you do have a copy of no student shall have or possess

047any obscene literature photographs slides motion pictures videos or other materials rule 10 same code of conduct no student shall direct toward any principal teacher students or person on school premises buses or at any school activity language signs or other acts that are discourteous profane or abusive by our student code of conduct any book with this level of profanity is a category two offense to be read aloud or even possessed on school property finally before i read these passages i am demanding the board just develop a review committee consisting of media specialists teachers and parents to review purchases so that controversy like this doesn't happen again a simple word search on your kindle app can identify profanity in a matter of seconds i realize we can't read all the books before we bound but a simple

048word search the following language is from a book currently available in high schools throughout pitt county there's no condom they did it doggy style with one of those sandwich packs there was this guy they called action jack because supposedly he was caught masturbating at a drunk party after a few minutes the boy pushed the girl's head down she started to kiss his penis she was still crying finally she stopped crying because he put his penis in her mouth and i don't think you can cry in that position one day cb got so drunk at a party he tried to a the host dog now if those lines don't encourage you to take a deeper look into the presentation of miss hill justifying the book purchases made with tax dollars that do not require parental consent

049i don't know what will parents demand better for our schools thank you emily and may i ask you the name of your group um so i'm speaking twice um my first group is eastern elementary school staff my second group is the face of pitt county all right thank you um so the first um i was supposed to do this last month and my husband got sick i couldn't leave my son but i am an exceptional children's teacher at eastern elementary and miss fegundus is our board member and she has been absolutely phenomenal to the staff at eastern this year by bringing us flare pins and everyone who's a teacher knows how important those are um not only did teachers get these pens but our cafeteria staff our custodians everyone in the office literally everybody that

050works in our building um and so and then she got us gift cards at christmas which teachers also love gift cards um and books for us she's just been absolutely phenomenal and so we just made her a poster i think and i apologize been in my mommy fan thank you i appreciate that um can i just go ahead into the second yeah okay um so my name is emily kleindenst i'm a 23 year exceptional children's teacher at eastern and i am the vice president of a new non-profit in pitt county called the face of pitt county face stands for families aligned with the community and education our president is sarah kleineck who is also a special education teacher at wintergreen primary she's in the overflow room after meeting with several board members other non-profits in

051our area and several conversations with family and friends we decided to take the leap and start out on our own our mission is to support engage include and create opportunities for families to align with the community and educators to support students in academics athletics and as active citizens in pitt county our office is located in the back of punch fit on red banks road just next to the painted peacock since beginning just six months ago we have signed up and tutor weekly 25 students our tutoring services are completely free to anyone in pitt county regardless of school choice we have seniors and one eighth grader who volunteer with us weekly to help serve some of our younger students while also earning their credit hours other than ourselves we have an additional teacher from wintergreen primary

052miss spate who also volunteers every week to tutor if anyone hears this and would like to volunteer just 30 minutes a week we would love the help unfortunately at this time we're not able to take on any more students until we have more staff we have several principals who provide incentives for teachers who volunteer and we also provide lunch and gift card drawings monthly for anyone who helps we had an extremely successful yard sale that raised fourteen hundred dollars thanks to donations from members of our community in january we had our first annual race for the face 5k and fun run which also did well hopefully you saw that on wnct and we did a private punch fit members only 5k which raised about 500. in addition to that we held our first educator conversations

053this past november where six schools were represented and we're holding a second educator conversations this month on the 26th at 7 pm inside punch fit gym we will have free appetizers and beverages for sale our hope is for anyone in the education profession to come out socialize network let us know how things are going what we can do to help this includes all of you you are invited i'd like to present our conversation findings to this board in march so that you also know what educators are saying good things about pitt county we are starting a kids fit class this month to be held one saturday a month that will focus on physical and mental fitness and we of course know how important mental health is so many of our kids need an outlet to

054just let loose hit a punching bag and de-stress lastly we plan to provide a thousand dollar scholarship to a senior three 100 grants for families and students and three 100 scholarships for our heart of gold teachers check us out on facebook and our website thefaceofpitcounty.com we are going to do great things thank you thank you theresa you have three minutes yes sir before i start i'd like to thank you for hearing me tonight um and before i read the statement that i wrote for tonight i would just like to say that we absolutely empathize with victims of sexual violence and other tragedies against children but that we should really recognize that the proper outlet for that is counselors and parents that's where they need to process and discuss the sensitive sexual and deeply personal experiences

055not exposing that information of that personal tragedy to all students as a mother and a certified educator in the state of north carolina your position as a board to keep controversial reading material in the classroom is extremely concerning and disheartening there are so many reasons that this material should be removed but i'm going to focus tonight strictly on literacy education i've taught my own homeschooled eighth grader to read well to think critically to write articulately and persuasively i've taught him to have empathy for diverse populations and circumstances he tests well above grade level every year on national standardized tests and there are many students like him in our home and private schools locally i assume that given their test scores that they will also test highly on the s.a.t and we've accomplished all of this

056without using one single book that has controversial topics or profanity this is an agenda this is not for the purpose of literacy excellence and literacy can be achieved arguably more easily without fighting the social justice fight simultaneously pitt county you have to decide what the purpose of your literacy program is is it to promote excellence in literacy or is there some other goal if the goal is excellence in literacy it should be easy to set aside anything that's distracting from that goal in my opinion these books are a distraction from that imagine how hard it is to focus on vocabulary reading and writing while also processing deeply emotional content side by side with opposite sex peers imagine if all the parents the teachers the administrators instructional coaches media coordinators and board members spent every minute

057of time that was spent fighting on these books on the actual literacy of our students what if every minute wasted on this distraction could have been minutes spent tutoring small groups of students in vocabulary building word deconstruction learning common prefixes and suffixes and new root words what if we spent those minutes teaching students how to write and edit sentences paragraphs and stories what if we use that time to teach them to think inventively help them through the creative writing processes of setting character development and plot twists what if we actually put all of our effort into making sure students could read and write more effectively i urge all of you to consider the cost of wasting precious instructional time on distractions i urge you to set distractions aside and focus on excellence in literacy for

058our students thank you thank you diane rafino and please are not announce the group that you're representing i'm sorry did you ask me a question did you ask me a question could you announce the group that you're representing you have five minutes uh coalition for public education okay hello members of the board i am grateful to have this opportunity to address you tonight my name is diane rafino i live in greenville and i represent the group coalition for public education which is continuing to grow first of all i'd like to thank you all for your service i'd like to address a new topic tonight and that is a parent's bill of rights i provided a copy of a proposal to each of you a parent's bill of rights is actually nothing new several states already

059have such a bill of rights in place florida missouri and indiana are just three of them governor greg abbott of texas just recently proposed a parent's bill of rights for his state and senator josh hawley of missouri recently introduced one in the u.s senate back in november parents are responsible for every detail of their young child's lives from potty training to eating healthily healthy to keeping them healthy and happy to helping them socialize well we used to think that our responsibilities were lightened when our kids got on the school bus and went off to school we trusted that they were in good hands good and responsible hands and getting the best education the district had could provide but that's no longer true as we've learned over the years that responsibility continues perhaps even more so

060when they go off to school a gross overreach by education bureaucrats has teachers in school systems focused on counseling on gender identity on inappropriate questioning on policies of race and division and on social progressivism rather than providing a sound basic education teachers debate preferred pronouns for gender identity while our children don't even know how to construct a proper sentence students aren't even situated with the proper skills to enter college north carolina has an abysmal record on public education but finally parents are stepping up to fight back moms for liberty liberty first first ed first north carolina taylor keith and now the coalition for public education are just a few of the hundreds if not more new parent groups that have emerged across the country in recent months they are fighting against the mass mandates crt

061the progressive curriculum the inappropriate school surveys and pornography and our sexually inappropriate themes in our child's reading material it must not be the school's job to validate and normalize the sick and decaying social culture schools must work with parents in helping them protect and shelter their children as long as they possibly can from the sickness and immorality of our current progressive society the bottom line is that education in america will hopefully likely never be the same thanks to this great parent revolt of 2021 and that's good news frustrated parents are making a difference the number of board member recalls has already doubled and is increasing every day and so far at least 36 states have adopted or introduced laws or policies that restrict teaching about race and racism thankfully parents are doing their best to

062reassert their rightful place in decisions about curriculum and content they are reasserting their right to make decisions on how to raise to best raise their children parents have rights and these rights need to be recognized and respected in closing the coalition for public education strongly supports a parent's bill of rights the fact that parents are getting out of the kitchen out of the house and off to local school boards meetings all across the country because their outrage of their outrage and frustration over what is happening in the public school system to the detriment of students to the dismantling of the child parent relationship and to the integrity of education in general should impress upon you with the board of education that such a parent's bill of rights is a good faith gesture that signals and

063promises to parents that you are on their side that you will value their status as parents a group you are tasked to serve and that you will value their input and their views on how their children should be educated thank you again thank you lee williamson and we please state the name of the group you're representing yeah my name is lee williamson and i represent education advocates i have two boys in pitt county school system i have i am a concerned parent and a business owner in pitt county and i do not believe in any type of mandates please tonight vote no to mask mandates england ireland denmark and sweden what do these countries have in common they have ended or are ending the coveted lockdowns in their countries including all mass mandates there are

064currently 12 countries phasing out all lockdown mandates israel is in the process of phasing out its vaccine passport requirement they all have come to the same conclusion that lockdowns including mass mandates do not work many many studies would agree with them and the pool of believers is growing the current figure according to a johns hopkins study is that mandates and lockdowns only reduced coveted mortality by 0.2 percent wow question what are the physical emotional and psychological consequences on our children that wear masks all day is there a study was it ever discussed here any expert testimony brought in to hear about the damage masks can do not to my knowledge what about covet and the mass horrific effect on the learning process kim grizzard wrote in the reflector in december that quote most pcs students

065taking standardized state exams in reading math and science in the 2020-2021 year failed them in the district 42.7 scored at or above grade level compared to 57 percent in 2018-2019 that's a 25 drop in proficiency the mask is abusive and literally chokes our children's ability to learn we learned from a survey sometime back that over 60 percent of pitt county did not support mass mandates and yet the board has continued to vote to deny the will of the people and now everyone knows the truth about the mass and the other mandates i only have one more point to make tonight as i said i have two kids in public schools here i wonder how many of you have children or grandchildren in the schools in pitt county don't need to answer it just think about

066it but when your children get older and they learn the truth about what happened here on your watch under your votes on this board about mask mandates and they ask you why did you let this happen to me what will you say i'm pretty confident that i'll never be asked that question thank you thank you yeah jamie harrison hello um i'm going to start this off by saying i am very nervous about speaking today and i'm a little terrified um i'm afraid that my friends who are teachers and administrators are going to think this means that i don't respect and appreciate them or their profession i'm afraid that speaking up is going to put my child on a watch list i'm afraid that no matter what words come out of my mouth others are only

067going to hear if i'm not for you then i'm against you and i know a lot of other parents out there feel the same way but it's just easier to stay quiet especially when you have so much to say but given so little time honestly i'm surprised that anyone has to speak at all i can read directly from the pitt county school code of conduct but taylor did that for me the expectations that come with inappropriate language or pornographic material profane material things we are telling our kids they are not allowed to do or say or have yet can read aloud as long as its teacher assigned and that statement from the board that said there was or is a venue for parents to opt out of books well i would like to know how

068and when that option was presented to any guardian i didn't know what my child was reading in the books until another parent brought it to my attention as much as we are preached to about monitoring our kids activities at home i never thought i needed to concern myself with what was being placed in front of my child in class and yes my child has a phone and yes my child has social media and yes she has certain social media apps and you know what that scares me too because i know she has access to all things perverse and ugly in this world and as a parent it's my job to talk about how to be responsible in those apps and she knows that any minute i can walk up to her with my hand out

069and she has to give me that phone there's a saying that with great power comes great responsibility and i need school system i believe so sorry i believe the school system needs to reevaluate their priorities and world compass when it comes to their power and responsibility i hear arguments about how the kids hear and see so many worse things and how they have access to so many things so why are we feeding it to them to say that kids are going to learn about this stuff anyway so why not at school it's kind of like saying kids are going to drink underage anyway so why not be the cool parent that lets them do it at your house i support every parent's right to allow them to let their child read whatever books they want

070to read but again this came up because students were being assigned reading in classes as a group with no notification or warning to the parents about what they were reading certain subject matter is meant to be uncomfortable because that's how your body knows it's not right fight or flight if we continue to normalize mature content without having the appropriate conversations we are going to desensitize children from being able to identify those situations you your time is up all right thank you for your time thank you robbie harrison so we are here once again fighting for our children and the moral obligation that pitt county school board teachers and administrators have to them we have teachers staff administrators and board members that are more concerned with policing the proper use of these makeshift masks that most

071kids are wearing or if a logo is too big on a sweatshirt than they are with reading every cuss word ever invented out loud in class they are more concerned with a tiny hole in the knee of a girl's pants than they are with discussing the rape molestation pedophilia in detail with our kids i want to read a few definitions molest sexual assault or indecent advances pedophilia sexual desire in an adult for a child rape unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina anus or mouth of another person with or without force by a sex organ other body part or foreign object without the consent of the victim those words and those definitions read aloud should make every single kid at least a little uncomfortable can you imagine a 12 or 13

072year old discussing this in class googling rape googling sexual penetration once again we are not here to ban these books stop using that narrative we are not offended by them we are not censoring any author or anyone's freedom of speech having these books as mandated classroom reading is morally wrong and most of you know that already we are normalizing the conversation around what is and what will always be a mind-bending life-altering traumatizing event if these if there are alternative readings that teach the same message without these vulgarities then why are they not being used as a standard we are angry and we are talking about right and wrong you stand place your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance to this flag and you say one nation under god but if you've read the bible

073god only talks about protecting our kids from evil not discussing it in our classroom it's not your place or your job this board reeks of corruption and i sincerely hope and pray some of you aren't here any longer when your term is up and are never and are never again involved with making these types of decisions for our kids if this weren't enough already now that teachers and administrators are paying attention to who is speaking at these meetings who is talking to the news and who is writing emails to you now our kids are being targeted by teachers and treated differently i don't know where it ends or how it ends but we will show up to every one of these meetings until a real change is made and we have made sure our voices

074are heard it's not just taylor it's not one or two parents we have all been here through with all and more the more corruption that is exposed the more people you will see and we will make sure we put an end to it thank you thank you ashley pruitt hey boys and girls how y'all doing i've never done this before but i'm trying i'm small so please there we go okay when do i start does it matter has it started okay cool um my name is ashley pruitt this is my best friend carrie we both have children several in fact in pitt county schools i have several concerns i'm sure you can imagine it's similar to the ones that you just heard we did not hire you guys to be doctors psychologists psychiatrists you hired

075to educate our children in math science reading and to put the children first one may think that you have been hired instead as bankers or accountants since you care more about the government funds and our children the funds that made you made off the backs of these parents these people in this county and the faces of our children i think you should give it back two years ago kovitz showed up we had no idea where it came from how it transmitted how it was transmitted or if it was fatal but that was 2020. fast forward to 2022 most of those questions have been answered you know because we followed the science the ever-changing ever-evolving science that now says mass really just don't work it is the equivalent of trying to stop a mosquito from flying

076through a chain-link fence the cdc has come out on their own state and said the same thing about mass that they just do not work as well covet is not what it was in 2020 masking our children for eight hours a day is simply unnecessary at this point i'm asking our children where they play outside at recess while teachers walk around with their masks off and yes i have pictures um speaks volumes to me you want to mask my child for eight hours but you have politicians i don't even need this you have politicians and you have rich people going to banquets to to games while those people that serve them are mass while they sit around with their mat their face completely fresh but you want my child my children to sit for eight

077hours with a mask on their face do you have any idea how much bacteria is on a mask no matter how many times you wash it my children have been sick more times this year from being forced to wear that mask than they have ever in their lives if you do not believe me i'll bring you the bills that i've had to pay to go to the doctor to get them tested every single time it is absolutely absurd and at this point you have to make a choice of what side of history you choose to be on is it the one that continues to cover our children's faces for at this point no reason or the ones that let them be kids and go to school and see their friends faces it's time to get

078back to normal okay and if you're not going to do it and you're going to sit in those chairs and not do it then we will unseat you and we will get people in there that will thank you for your time appreciate you all thank you dr frank fleming my name is frank fleming i'm a retired greenville physician after my august comments here at this meeting i was glad to read that you approved policy number 7720 which allows impartial and opposing discussion on racially sensitive topics like most of you i hope i am not ashamed of my country nor ashamed of the color of my skin nor am i defined by it but how can we stand proud concerning the current events that go on around us and attacks against our culture especially law and

079order how can we support any movement that wants to defund police turn peaceful protest into arson and riots and defame all officers as brutal thugs i actually read all american boys which tells a virus biased narrative about innocent oppressed black teens versus a white oppressor police force this book which appeared after the ferguson riots in 2015 but long before the violent summer of 2020 promotes black opposition to police but does not present any positive message about the benefits of community policing for minorities it certainly does not point out any statistics on black on black crime nor any information about the current spikes in murder robbery and general mayhem across our country in selecting this book pit educators have advanced the message of implicit crt teaching black youth to fear and hate cops preaching white self-loathing

080against their own racist skin color and excusing forever oppressed black victims if we all promote similar books but fail to require application of your own policy 7720 which demands counter material for balanced instruction then de facto crt is being taught in pitt schools we look to this board for fair leadership and hope you will avoid hypocrisy and failure to follow your own 7720 standards most teachers are media specialists will carefully avoid using any crt label but yet they may still present biased and unbalanced materials that indoctrinate against racial harmony so please encourage parents and teachers to do critical evaluation of all words and stories that should be age appropriate for youngsters if we inculcate respect for law and order through our schools and if we recognize that there is a 50-year progress in race relations

081then there may yet be hope to preserve the united states of america thank you good evening my name is brooke blue i'm a licensed clinical mental health counselor a licensed clinical addiction specialist a parenting coordinator and i have worked in pitt county with this population for the past 15 years i am also on the pta at wintergreen intermediate and a proud parent of my fifth grade daughter the books recently in question were brought before the board due to concerns for exposure to topics including profanity underage drinking pedophilia and rape the question and answers provided from the board regarding the books stated that all three books at question have a common theme of courage bravery standing up for what is right at great personal cost and finding one's identity and self the question and answer also

082stated that none of these topics of profanity underage drinking pedophilia or rape were the themes of the books read however these topics of profanity underage drinking pedophilia and rape were within the book content the question and answer response states that this is a genre of realistic fiction which mirrors life as some people may experience it it prompts readers as you have stated to draw their own conclusions after considering the events of the topics by applying their own moral and ethical judgment the problem here is that middle school students have not reached a level of full development with maturity or brain structure let alone moral or ethical judgment they still are seeking guidance making choices about their own character development within the framework and subsequently social experiences they are depending on us as their parents and

083the teachers to provide them the tools to process and understand the hard things in life they are not an isolated island and cannot draw any conclusion on their own moral and ethical judgment without tools from inside outside sources the hard topics that these books bring into the classroom but that are not the themes of the book are they then left untouched and if they are untouched who is then speaking about them the classroom is exposed to topics of profanity underage drinking pedophilia and rape but teachers are not processing this appropriately with them because they're not educated to process them they are educators not mental health providers and so to know how to talk to a child after reading through these topics is not something that they are trained to do and so as our children

084sit in the classroom what are they left to know thank you for your time thank you very much kirsten bean i believe i will get right to my points because how does one begin to scratch the surface in five minutes time of the absolute administrative chaos that this board of education in the pitt county public school system in five minutes time how does one begin to address the abhorrent corrupt conniving criminal divisive dishonest elitist egotistical greedy hateful hypocritical ignorant misguided manipulative suspicious spiteful and shameful instigation of tyranny over children and their parents for five minutes tonight we're going to talk big picture we're not getting mired in the minutia of masking we're not repeatedly rehashing covid and your prolific fear-mongering and false hysteria tonight we're talking about stolen childhoods and stolen parenthood the absolute ruin

085of innocence of children and joy of parenting that each of us in turn only gets one time we will never get that time back they won't we won't we're talking about moral authority and ethical compasses belonging to parents not schools and how our choices for our kids will be honored tonight we're talking about willful ignorance and selective deafness on display by this board and this county for the last two years which has robbed children and parents of peace and replaced normalcy with deviance this board is one hundred percent entrenched in politics coveted protocols are not medicine they're politics coven mandates are not law and they're not medicine they're politics woke libraries and disgraceful literature are not cultural curriculum they're politics crt and sel programs are not progressive they're prejudiced against the very people they proclaim

086to uplift and they present a troubling evolution of distorted education politics if it takes every board meeting of every month of every year to slowly but surely wrestle the evil beast of this medusa's head so be it we will be here we're talking conflicts of interest and the public's immensely growing skepticism of this board's dealings its relationships its loyalties and its corruption we'll continue to question the whys behind your repeated doubling down on blatant bias we'll keep finding motives for your irrational policies and behavior including but not limited to coercion blackmail threats bribery and perhaps most shamefully of all the cover-up of alleged crimes being committed in our county schools right now who is behind all of this we want to know and we are finding out i want to acknowledge all the people viewing

087from home tonight and all those in attendance and overflow rooms who are neither seen nor heard also the people who are standing outside in the cold and the rain they're neither seen or heard and therefore disregarded and i want to remind them and inform them that this school board allegedly may be embracing and protecting criminal behavior in pitt county schools stop listening to what you're being told and start asking around you'll be shocked at what you learn i want to remind this board that as we all know serving the public can be a thankless task however there will be no playing of the pity card citing character assassination and bullying when you behave as egregiously as you have and continue to do you deserve to be unapologetically dissected under the microscope you are merely people

088ultimately of no consequence superior to us the public you and only you have elevated yourselves in your own minds to authoritary status and the public sees it resents it it demands it stops now either listen please or step down and allow others to set this course right you do not represent us or the wishes we have very vocally expressed we have been first patient then expectant then demanding but routinely and boldly ignored and rebuffed you have thumbed your noses at us and the time for that is now done there are so many needs and so many concerns and so many questions but i will close with just this one how do you sleep at night thank you some names i'm having a problem reading will you pronounce your name for me katie hanway all right

089thank you good evening i'm addressing the board tonight at the request of my daughter a student at hope middle who is concerned about the precedent of book banning that is again sweeping the country she would like the board to know that no book should ever be banned and that she does not believe that other parents should be able to dictate what books she can and cannot read in school she says that books open our eyes to the world even if it is something that makes us uncomfortable my child is a voracious reader we encourage her to read books featuring characters of diverse races religions nationalities origins and upbringings because that is the composition of the real world it is so much wider and diverse than just this county and our children deserve to know this

090you are also devaluing children who have lived these experiences by banning books telling them and telling them that their story does not deserve to be heard no child deserves to feel that especially at school as a parent i holy support our teachers and library and media specialists to select reading options that require critical thinking and are engaging books that show empathy and i'm sorry this is their passion and what they were trained to do by selecting a diverse set of literature they are trying to engage all students of different backgrounds and life experiences and to widen the world views of all students not just traditional readers they are trying to prepare critical thinkers for the real world i ask the board to listen to the experts on any topic rather than the vocal minority of

091parents in closing i would like to quote new newberry medal winning author meg medina to pull books from a school library because of the discomfort they create in adults is a recipe for disaster it erodes the trust young people have in the adults in their lives and it pushes them to secrecy it undermines the studied opinion of professional librarians and educators it supports a false idea that there is one version of life that is acceptable and it denigrates the work of authors who are brave enough to name experiences that are difficult and real thank you to the board and all teachers and educators who work so hard and thanklessly to give our child the best education possible thank you let me tell you about this amazing brave educated african-american young woman who's a junior at

092d.h conley high school this young lady has gotten straight a's her entire high school career and has a gpa of 4.4 now mind you that's with all of her core classes being either honors or ap classes she is a member of all five honor societies at her school she also has played volleyball and softball for her school this young lady has had zero reprimands in high school and all of her teachers would speak to her superb character this young lady is actively planning her college career where she plans to major in social work to become a clinical therapist this young lady was also sent home from school today because she refused to wear a mask with the threat of being unenrolled from school in 10 days if she continues not to wear a mask she

093refused to wear a mask because science has told two different stories and the side you have that you claim to cho who have chosen is abundant with fickleness and hypocrisy politician administrators and even school board members are caught time and time again not wearing masks where they are supposed to now i'm going to let her speak a little i was sent home today and could possibly be kicked out of school because of your mandates mandates of which a vast majority of people don't follow and don't care to follow i walk around school every day and i see a majority of students and teachers not wearing their mask properly whether it's under their chin or around their necks for people who wear gator masks i've had conversations with teachers and classmates about how they're over it

094they are wearing masks like they're just it's it's getting tiring and i've had conversations with teachers who have told me that the only reason they enforce the mass mandates is because of your mandates because of how you've mandated it they don't feel like it's making anybody else safe they're just doing it for the mandate purpose and i feel as school board members your job is to represent students teachers and parents and it doesn't feel you know like you're representing me if you're here to represent me i feel like you should listen to me and listen to parents and teachers and we don't feel like we need mass we don't want them we don't wear them so thank you david wilson and could you pronounce your last name for us my name is david wilson nakamura

095i've been an english professor for more than 20 years and many of my former students are now teachers in pitt county schools i'm here tonight to address a question that i think is in the back of many people's minds why should we have books with heavy subjects like sexual abuse in our school libraries why can't we just let kids be kids why do we have to burden them with all this darkness i sympathize with that question the real world has enough darkness in it even though i'm an english professor i don't need more darkness in books and yet as much as we try to protect young people from darkness darkness finds them anyway sometimes because they are young at that point the question becomes how do we help young people to deal with the darkness

096that befalls them through no fault of their own i mentioned that i teach literature i don't believe though that reading a book is going to cure the pain of being sexually abused what i think reading can do is make those young people feel less isolated when they have been abused when you've been harmed sexually and you read a story about someone else who has been harmed sexually it makes you think and more important it makes you feel i am not the only one after all there is darkness around me but i am not alone in that darkness unfortunately the reverse is also true when we remove stories about people who have been harmed sexually because the subject seems too dark for young people it sends a message to the young people who have been harmed

097whose lives have been darkened in spite of our best efforts to protect them the message is unintentional but the message is you don't exist what happened to you doesn't happen here which makes the darkness feel even heavier so please keep these books where young people can find them the books didn't summon the darkness and they won't repel it either but they can't help the young people who walk in darkness to feel less isolated and less alone thank you thank you courtney steve good evening my name is courtney steed at first like to address the fact that i was required to stay outside in the cold for an hour and a half before i got access inside the building so whoever made that decision appreciate it um me i wasn't the only one i'll say there

098was probably about 40 others outside as well so to see the capacity inside is anyway my name is courtney steed i live in district five i have two children at eastern elementary school i'm here tonight to speak on the mass mandate and the coveted pandemic policies that you have implemented my words won't be as elegant and as passionate as some that have spoken i'm very nervous but i needed to put a voice to the mic instead of being behind the keyboard so here i am i cannot forget that this is the same board that continues to mandate our mat our kids wear cloth over their faces and the guides of safety you're the same ones that pushed out the burdensome harmful and ineffective strategies as thermal forehead temperature testing at check-in this is particularly interesting

099during cold weather months that we were greeted with signs that said hey hang your head out the window turn the heat off in your car all in the name of safety uh those attach the attestation forms i'm sure they did a lot to reduce the spread the closed and restricted playgrounds the masking of our kids outdoors the directional hallway decals to say walk this way not that way because you know a virus follows directions the weekly closure of schools to disinfect surfaces for a airborne virus you see by blindly following the toolkit and engaging in the contact tracing and that excludes kids from healthy kids from school you're causing irreparable harm by making a one-size-fits-all mandate and taking the decision away from parents as to what's best for their children you have lost the confidence

100of your constituents you're charged with serving you will end up on the wrong side of history on this ethically the onus should be on mass proponents to show the benefits of masking kids outweigh the cost but they can't because they don't they are disruptive to learning and communicating in classrooms they are inhumane the science is settled on this this is not a kid disease the kids are not spreading this asymptomatic people are not spreading this in times of crisis children look to adults to model courage and wisdom concerning mask in schools you decision makers tonight need to demonstrate both those qualities allow the mass mandate to end and stop the contract tracing and quarantined practices that exclude healthy kids from schools thank you thank you vic corey good evening my subject matter changed by having

101stand outside in the cold for an hour and a half the first thing is i question whoever's in charge of this meeting if that person didn't have enough foresight to know that there was going to be an outpouring of of parents and concerned citizens in north carolina and tonight is not 75 degrees outside why were you not able to better prepare to get everyone inside at one time this board needs an adjustment of the moral compass just because things are changing doesn't always mean that they're changing in the right direction you don't have to teach a child to do wrong it just happens naturally you have to teach them to do right well same thing with language there is language that is inappropriate it's inappropriate for me and i'm about as grown as i'm gonna

102get it's certainly unappropriate for a nine-year-old ten-year-old eleven-year-old so it's not about banning books it's about doing what's right it's about thinking how is this going to turn out in the end if i just let this slide we need to put a stop to it i think this board needs to take a better position as to how would you feel if this was your child that was being exposed to these kind of books at this kind of age this afternoon when i decided i was going to come over here i did think of uh what i wanted to say it got changed outside when i was waiting and instead of focusing on the things that you shouldn't be hearing from other kids or be reading at such a young age the bible said don't worry

103in advance about what to say just say what god tells you at that time for it is not you who will be speaking but it'll be the holy spirit don't use foul or abusive language let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be encouragement to those who hear them may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you o lord my rock and my redeemer lastly avoid all perverse talk stay away from corrupt speech thank you thank you tyler porters i'd like to just briefly discuss my thoughts on ending the math requirements for our students i have a six-year-old in the first grade and next year my second daughter will be going into kindergarten um being two years into this the data information data

104and information that is coming out becomes increasingly clear that the the demand mandates are not effective even the cdc and the who are now admitting that cloth mask and even surgical mask are not particularly effective against this virus mostly for kids and that the the only mass that provides a adequate level of protection is the n95 and even that is not available in kids sizes and a recent study by the cdc in the state of georgia found that masking children did not show any significant difference um in in case rates in schools with or without mass mandates so if we know that it's not effective if it's not particularly doing any good what are we sacrificing the forcing this on our kids what are we sacrificing well there are uh many studies are now coming

105out um one in particular from brown university that shows significant cognitive and motor delays um that they've seen from kids over the past two years in fact the results showed an early learning composite mean resulted it dropped 23 percent from 2019 and verbal development also dropped 30 percent uh from 2018. not only that but depriving our children of the social interaction with their friends on a day-to-day basis is a detriment that we'll see for years and years to come having my my daughter go to school and not being able to see her teacher smile at her in in providing affirmation and not being able to see her friends smile back at her i i don't know what the long-term effect is that of that is going to be so i'm asking that we end the

106mandate now because we don't end it now when will it end thank you thank you good evening my name is jessica humphrey and i'm here um my son is in eighth grade at aidan middle school and i just personally want to tell you all that i am appalled at the books that our kids were made to read in school and as bad as coveted as being i would also like to say that i am grateful for covet because it has awakened our parents we now know what's going on in our children's education and we're here to let you know that we're not going to stand for it anymore we will be actively involved in what our children are doing i also would like to say as far as the mask mandate this is my son

107like i said he's in eighth grade he came to the last board meeting he spoke out to the daily reflector in witn on what he felt was inappropriate material being read in our schools since then he has never been in trouble with school he got written up for his mask his social studies grade miraculously dropped 30 points that we had to go and stand in front of the teacher to make her correct this same teacher also wrote up over 20 plus students in one day for mask most of whom those kids parents have been the ones that have been speaking out against books and mass mandates i don't know if i'm allowed to call her name but i will say this i also take offense to the fact that my child sat through lunch detention

108when we have a principal posting on facebook friday morning dance parties and i can personally count 30 or more students that do not wear their masks properly standing beside this principle and yet none of them have served a day in detention like my mom said my name is mason parramore i go to ayden middle um your mass mandate does nothing for us okay as a student coming back seventh grade year when y'all made us quarantine it's done nothing students wear their masks down every day i'm one of them and yes i've been wrote up for it but will i stop that no because i don't believe in it that's my beliefs and if students want to wear that i understand that and i will respect their beliefs but me personally me being forced to wear

109a mask and me being asked to wear a mask is not what i want to do it's not my beliefs and your mask does nothing because i've had kova twice seventh grade year i did wear my match correctly got coveted this year i haven't still got covic either way it's done nothing for me so i don't know what it's doing for any other student but it hasn't helped me either way thank you thank you alex could you also pronounce your last name for us yes sir good evening my name is alex zoldas i've got two children in pitt county schools uh unfortunately i'm here again to speak to you about masks unfortunately i missed dinner with my family this evening unfortunately i miss tucking my children into bed unfortunately i stood out in the cold

110for two hours tonight but i'm willing to make those sacrifices for my children making our children wear masks every day is no longer about their health and safety it's all about optics i'm hearing impaired and we're hearing aids daily it's only through a combination of hearing aids and lip breathing that i'm able to have efficient conversations covet has made this 10 times harder how many children that are hearing impaired or undiagnosed hearing impaired have had to suffer because they cannot see facial expressions and lip movement some of these children of the age where learning words and phonics is critical for their future development masks are setting them up for failure right out of the gate we now have entire countries lifted all cove lifting all covered mandates and we can't allow our parents to make

111the decision for their children's health the health minister of the netherlands recently said they would not impose mass mandates at all because quote from a medical perspective there is no proven effectiveness i understand that pitt county schools receive pallets of mass to be used by students in the event they do not have one does anyone here know what they say on the side of that box does not protect against covet 19. we are requiring students to wear a piece of fabric that actually states it doesn't protect against what you're trying to protect against and what situation does that make sense the toolkit says that if a child is exposed but has a mask they don't have to quarantine yet according to the box they don't protect against covet so again in what situation does that

112make sense we've been using our children as political pawns and it's time to stop we see countless pictures of politicians that mandate mass requirements in their cities and counties out at basketball games restaurants and concerts all while our children have to wear masks eight hours a day five days a week this is no longer about mass providing safety but about people's feelings political beliefs and refusal to accept they are not an effective means of preventing viral transmission i've seen firsthand countless occurrences where people have been triple vacs boosted worn double mask double n95s washed hands and still have contracted coveted multiple times masks don't work they didn't work in 2020 and they don't work now it's time to let the parents decide what's best for their children's health dr silvernails should not be the be

113all end-all for medical policy for pitt county schools he is not my child's primary care physician and has no authority to make the decisions for my children as someone who deals with complex data and number sets daily i understand how easy it is to skew in one direction or the other all the data presented over the past two years from nearly every agency and governing body comes with asterisks and conditions as to why it was presented that way it has always been a if you take this group out or account for this the numbers we want to present make sense after speaking with a few executive level personnel and key decision makers of the vita and duke health system the majority of covert numbers they're reporting are secondary cases for example patient came in with

114a broken ankle but we tested him for covid and he was positive it's time to soak up our pride admit we are wrong for the past two years and end the mask mandate thank you that so ends our public expression at this time our consent agenda items get a motion to approve our present i move that we approve the consent items as presented carolina food get them i'll second second all in favor going to new business at this time all right uh conversation with dr silvernail um this information was shared with the board last last week and our updates um it was stated on tuesday that uh i am in there's a quote i'm in support of going mask optional in view of the test estate program and dropping cases he came back to me

115on friday and said i'm in support of the pitt county schools moving to the mass optional environment in the near future and also said i would suggest the actual transition date be selected two to three weeks in the future to allow for individuals to either update vaccinations request alternative arrangements for school or for the test to stay program just quickly looking at the dashboard you can see the number of cases has dropped massively since i think about uh two weeks ago when we hit the high was black 100 or so students i would like to um is that coming up carol i think it's let that refresh 143 cases as of right now um 81 in our schools those are total cases of teachers and students what we've been working on the board approved this

116last month if you can go to the other process just remind the board of where we are is the test to stay program you know if we are in the mask required statement this is the toolkit that by law we have to follow says that there's less need to quarantine we have it five days we can go to the next slide if we go to mask optional students staff must be excluded for five days and keep them wearing a mask and even if we do that if we do go mask optional remind everyone that buses we don't have a choice that is a federal law we have to wear a mask on buses what we've been working on with karen harrington who is over here i'm going to ask her to help a little bit

117here in a minute but we've been working with the abc collaborative we started with that a year and a half ago but they've started a new program they've been approved for which is called the test to stay even in mass optional situations okay well the purpose of that whole program is just to keep the kids in school if if you don't have a mask on and you can read in the middle where it has like the orange oranges color the study will permit students and staff to stay in school finding exposure provided they remain asymptomatic which just means if you actually get get covered so um you do have to wear a mask as part of the rules that's part of the cdc rule actually the nc dhhs rules as well i would point out

118the very last part there participation in this test to stay research study is optional this is part of the duke program this is a choice that if the board decides the one at one point to go mask optional this is an opportunity to keep kids in school that parents would sign up to to be part of this just like we did with the mako medical for diagnostic testing which we still have this would be another test that they can actually stay in kind of a hassle that's two tests but that's kind of where we are at this point okay so we do have that i can also tell you that today we got 4 000 of those tests in i've been trained going through the training miss harrington has been through the training she is

119actually meeting with some individuals tomorrow to start some more training so we'll we will be ready um if we could uh there's another slide on that one too caro i believe just if you skip down to the middle of the page where it says voluntary masking districts actually i forgot one important thing go back one slide right in the in the um where's the part about athletes on the slide next part my fault next slide carol here if you are an athlete on one of our sports teams and you are in this position you are here all right that mask optional you still have to sit out for the five days okay so this is just something we have to keep in mind and you have to wear the mask for 10. that's part of

120the nc dhhs rules that we have to follow okay karen did i get that correct um so there's your rest your details you can see that we have the kids have to test if they want to do this process they have to test at least twice preferably the first day they find out third day fifth day but at least twice when you read into the details um i would like to if i could just jump to the next item real quickly sir carol go to the next item on the that through karen's help karen you come up and help me on this one um karen's been working with a group called intellichoice here in pitt county to help get additional um nurses or nurse extenders to help with this process we already have things you

121have a meeting with 15 or so people we're going to be asking all this kind of goes together we're going to be asking for your support in hiring these individuals this money is um money earmarked for hiring extra nurses for schools that's all you can do with it um and it runs out in a couple weeks or a couple months so we have to use we don't use it it goes back to the state level so this will allow more people in the schools to help with these additional testings keep track of the data that has to be done um anything you want to say about this part karen um i will just say that intellichoice is a company that we're already familiar with we contact contract with them for our exceptional children that need

122one-on-one nursing staff so this was a company that's already that we're already contracting with they are working on increasing that number right now we have 15 to start as soon as the board approves the use of this contract and we provide them the additional training and this will just help our schools our principals our covet contacts within the schools and our nurses have all had to of course do the coveted mitigation tracking and then also recently the addition of the testing that's the test of state program um additional questions on the test to stay program so how quickly do we feel like this can be up and running and do i understand correctly that once it is up and running that it will help mitigate the quarantining it it should help lower our quarantining with

123our ability if people opt in to the testing correct but how quickly can we get it up and running we can be up and running we have since we already have the test now it's just a matter of getting individuals trained whether that's this new group we're getting ready to hire plus some of our other nurses or counselors or administrators um and then we can get the information to parents in a day or so so just a matter of them replying back that they want to be part of it and this will keep quarantines down in an optional setting um but it's really just to opt in for the parents so it can be just a couple particularly up and running by by next week easily another question mr chair i moved it we go

124to mask optional beginning immediately um so you know my my um thought is on this that it it definitely needs to happen i would like to see the testing up and running because it's not even about whether masks are effective or not for me anymore it's about keeping kids in school about keeping our teachers in school so if we can do something that if i'm hearing this should help mitigate the quarantines and reduce the quarantines obviously there will still be quarantines then i'm in favor of that um so you know i know dr silvernell said that he is in support of mask optional and he suggests two to three weeks um i i said in december and you know i needed to hear a strong recommendation from him a suggestion doesn't quite you know the

125bar i have to clear to make a choice for my family is one thing the one i have to clear to mandate something on twenty thousand plus people is different so i would actually like to amend mr forrest motion can i do that um to go mask optional starting february 15th which is next tuesday given that dr linker says our testing program can be up and running and that would take care of the quarantine portion of it that remains a concern to me february 15th which will be next tuesday the kids are not in school next monday so next tuesday i think we you said we had 15 um folks already lined up how many other personnel do we need to make this fully operational i know you said maybe administrators or other people could

126fill in until well we don't we have coveted contracts and coveted contacts and all of our schools will be hired months ago at the end of the year they'll certainly be trained to do this as well they'll i mean they're the ones who are helping with with the current testing the mako medical testing with the diagnostic testing as well as the principals and counselors and the nurses the idea of hiring additional people is truly to to get let our nurses do part of their real job which is more than obviously covid um but to really do their other job but this will help alleviate a lot of that pressure help us with the data we also have additional nurses that work with work with ms harrington as far as keeping track of all the information

127behind the scenes and keeping things moving so those people will also be trained in keeping keeping the data there as a point of order is there a second for the motion to amend a second i mean instead of the discussion did i answer yes thank you yeah yes i have a question for dr linker and then some comments to make as well um you sent all of us the um i believe are some slides of powerpoint slides in the past couple of weeks with the um some conclusions i believe you and the other superintendent were presented by the abc collaborative researchers correct and one of the findings that was highlighted in very bold language was that districts that had universal masking had one-third of the school clusters yes than districts that did not have universal

128masking is am i remembering that correctly yes that's correct is at least the finding of that collaborative and we've been involved in that collaborative from just about the beginning right that research study basically correct and so we've been universally masked so we have actually reduced the clusters the school clusters that were reported five or more cases i believe five or more related cases in a school okay but in that the definition of a cluster so that um research determined that our actions have in fact reduced by two-thirds the number of clusters reported by pitt county schools we've kept our students compared to basically from yes is that the conclusion i mean that's the that's when you looked at the numbers that made sense yes that's correct that's what so i would like to just say

129um you know in early december i think it was the first or second day of december very early december we were so so close to getting to meeting the metrics that dpi and cdc um had had put out and in our state frankly for being able to roll back some of the mass masking and other layered layers of protection we were at 5.3 positivity in early december and today we're at 28.9 28.8 percent um there were 17 new hospital admissions in pitt county that week that seven day period in early december today for the seven day period ending today they're 82 new hospital admissions and there were 53 cases per 100 000 residents that's how you express a incident in communicable disease and that was in very early december and today we're at cases for

130the past seven days per hundred thousand residents that is way down from where it was a couple of weeks ago we were like four thousand or over four thousand per hundred thousand so that omicron spike and i believe we all got the graph um i don't know if you were planning on showing that what dr nell dr silvernell sent to all to you and shared with all of us the very steep rise in omicron and then in the we are now in the steep decline which is pretty much how these types of viruses tend to act i think that's why he felt comfortable saying two to three weeks as a recommendation to us or a suggestion i will point out that the north carolina general statutes for many many decades have set out clearly the

131duties and responsibilities of all public health directors in all counties in the state of north carolina one of those duties and this is a quote from the statute is to advise public officials about public health matters to advise us and frankly he's been doing this he's carried out this duty every single month throughout this pandemic that we've asked him to advise us we've chosen to rely on his expertise throughout the pandemic and i for one am extremely grateful for his carrying out his duties that the general statutes of the state of north carolina have authorized him to do so i continue to respect dr silvernell's expertise and his authority he is a physician and has a master's in public health public health this covers the study of epidemics and pandemics and communicable disease among other

132things i continue to have faith in his guidance that it will be and that it will be safe to move to mask optional in the time frame he's recommended two or three weeks i think that should give parents time to get clinical advice from specialists who may be caring for their children or their child or a family member that lives with a child who suffers from a condition that weakens their immune system i mean i think two weeks is enough time for that um it also gives time for the parents if they have a child who has cancer or another immune suppressing disease and we do have families who have children who are seriously ill they exist i've heard from a couple of them and they are concerned about their children's ability to fight off

133any kind of infectious disease and it also depends on where they are in their treatment so it gives those families time to make alternate learning arrangements if we follow his advice they might need to bring in a grandparent to come and be at home if their child's too young to drive or too young to be at home by themselves they might be able to bring in a grandparent or a neighbor to come and be in the home if the child the child's doctor says you can't i don't want you to go into an environment where you're mask-free and there are families who have been very very fastidious because of their children's immune status being degraded there are families that i have heard from who have been incredibly fastidious about not exposing their children to anything

134that they don't have to expose them to so um i think that this gives those families time two weeks gives them time to make alternate learning arrangements for those children dr linker has already assured me that all teaching staff and we do have some of those as well who have conditions that require that they teach in a remote setting if if we if and when we do choose to go mask optional that they can be accommodated so there's no loss of teaching and no loss of learning that occurs our children have lost enough learning over the past since march of 2000 so we need to make sure we can put everything in place to support both our families and our district in making sure that no teacher and no child will suffer any loss of

135learning because of a condition that they can't help i mean kids can't help it if they have immune compromising conditions they just can't help it so it is um also my understanding that pitt county schools has a very large supply of n95s i believe you said we received an order of 2 000 and then we can get more of those 4 000. excellent 4 000 and that we can get more of those as needed because i do believe they they do protect me warrants in 95. it's 95 if you wear them properly um and that we make those available free of charge to any of our staff and students who have faces big enough to wear them basically so i do i do think we have to pay attention to the research that we have

136participated in i believe it i don't think well i do think we have presented fair and honest data points to the researchers i can't imagine that we would have done anything otherwise and um i do trust that collaborative and i trust our participation in it and i trust those results um i also trust dr silverdale and i respect his authority to advise us and that's what he's done he's advised us two to three weeks and i would certainly be comfortable with the way this and i'm interpreting that spike the decline in the spike the way he is and have had a conversation with him and it is a precipitous decline and i think in two weeks i think we're going to be in a really good position so that all of our students and our

137staff and their family members can be protected all right thank you i think oh we have benjamin melinda benji then dawn i believe and then work okay okay thank you um you know my thing all along was to keep kids into school when vaccines came out my point was choice if you want your child if you want to get vaccine choice that everybody had the opportunity we reached that point the end of december then we had this new virus peak when we were thinking we were going to go without um i feel like families have had time to get vaccinated if they wanted to um i feel like if you have somebody that's compromised if i had a compromised child they wouldn't be in school okay they just wouldn't be but that would be my

138choice just because nothing's 100 percent in terms of protection against i respect dr silvernail he gave us the suggestion two to three weeks and that suggestion the way i'm interpreting it was last week was when he gave it so to me that was week one this is week two i really want to see us have things in place i don't want to haphazardly say oh yeah i think we can scurry and get it i agree i think the 15th is a good time if if we can have it there the main thing that that i want to see is that families understand because i'm not sure i understand completely what this means in terms of if a mask is on if a mask is not what those rules are that are in place that we're

139supposed to be following but bottom line is if we can have testing available next week i support anna barrett's proposal thank you mr chairman um mr chairman i think the study that caroline was citing and that you had shared with the board the superintendent though there is and that the superintendent has shared with the board i think they even in their own literature said they didn't even have a control group so it wasn't really validated at all i want to share something with you though that i think may makes a lot of sense after i've been through this ordeal we all been through this ordeal for the last year and a half or so and you don't see it on the uh major television networks you don't read it in the new york times or

140the washington post but and i did hear one parent refer to it and that was the john hopkins university study i want to read this researchers at john hopkins university economics professor steve hank lund university economics professors lawrence jannung specialized special advisor at copenhagen center for political studies jonas herbie analyzed the effects of lockdown measures such as school shutdowns business closures and mass mandates on covet 19 deaths they concluded we find little or no evidence that mandated lockdowns in europe and the united states had a noticeable effect on coven 19 mortality rates the researchers concluded that limiting gatherings may have actually increased covet 19 mortality shelter in place orders may isolate an infected person at home with his or her family where he or she risk infecting family members with a higher viral load causing

141more severe illness researchers also pointed out that from may to 20th this this is what we need this is why i say immediately research also pointed out that from may 20th to april 21 the united states recorded hundred 100 six drug overdose deaths a 28.5 percent increase from the 78 056 deaths that were recorded in the previous 12-month period according to cdc data a study from the national convention commission on coven 19 and criminal justice last year found that domestic violence incidents increased 8.1 percent in the united states after lockdown orders were issued about 97 percent of the united states teachers said that their students have experienced learning loss during the coronavirus pandemic according to a horse man survey last year such a standard benefit cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion lockdown should be

142rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument and it included in that mandate the mass requirement we've done enough to our kids let them use the mask if the parents want to have the mask and let it be optional for those parents that don't want to have the mask there's plenty of research particularly overseas that suggests that it's time for the parents to make the best decision for their health needs of their kids on this issue thank you don as you can imagine since august you know we've all got a bunch of emails personally i've got more emails favoring math up until this point i've talked to a lot of people in the last couple weeks as many of you know i'm a data person i've looked at numbers for a long time uh

143our quarantine has gone from 14 to 10 to five and we now have tests to stay i talked to a lady last week basically the same thing everybody's had a choice to be vaccinated as melinda said we've had a lot of kids that's had coven which technically basically would be the same thing as being vaccinated my understanding and we've got the test to stay however with that said if we do go mass optional tomorrow i'll test the state program we currently have by may co cannot be used we've got to go to the abc collaborator if you've heard so with that being said we'd probably see a spike in numbers because a lot of our kids would have to go home we will have kids not where have a quieter mass that we'll probably refuse

144to participate in this to test the state program and that's their option not the test but they will go home for five days and then they'll come back and have to wear a mask for five days am i correct on that dr linker so technically there's a 10-day corn peak corn team period five at home and five at school with a mask on and that's mandatory by the tool kit with that being said i'm looking at the numbers when we only have a couple schools above five percent most of our schools are low two percent which means that's two percent of their kids at a quarantine our overall average at this point in time is 1.55 for students 2.14 for teachers so you see where i'm leading that is we we're in a good shape

145and with 2 or less i cur i encourage our athletes once we go mass optional if you're not vaccinated i encourage you to wear a mask so you can continue to participate because under this mandate you'll be able to stay in school with test estate but not participate in athletics for 10 days um let's unless they're meet the vaccinations they're vaccinating correct they're vaccinated they will not have to do that i also encourage students with teachers or underlining conditions because that's one of the things a couple of my principals have talked to me about yes and as as caroline said december 3rd we went voted mass optional so at that point in time i would to start in january i would hope those people that had those underlying conditions had made some plans to what

146they're going to do when we go mass optional but with that being said i can see the point anna says we need a week because they got to make some plans our principals has got to make some plans that some of their teachers choose to leave you know all of a sudden we say mass option tomorrow we may have 10 teachers across the district not saying that i'm just making up a number have no clue that may say i'm not coming to school we may have some students with parents that are not coming to school so i do see where that week would be beneficial to our schools to our principals to our administrators all right thank you where the points i would like to make is you know we've heard all of these statistics

147and all these numbers and we're talking about things from research but yet we're here to see that our children are getting the best education that they can receive i would say that almost a hundred percent of our students have been hurt instructionally and in their learning as a result of what this board has put many of our kids through this year and part of last year we're finding out now from a lot of the data that what has been put in place has really not made that big a bigger difference in the outcomes that we have uh i was i heard today that uh nationally there have been a a big increase in the number of students who are having to take speech classes now because you take uh a kindergarten what a couple of

148years ago start out with kindergarten that's kindergarten first grade and now they're in second grade they've been in school all of those years and they haven't uh they have had to wear a mask that just about the entire time except that first half of the year and they have not many of those students learn by seeing individuals read and their lips moving in their facial expressions and you know that's hurting a lot of our kids i look at what's best for the kids instructionally as well as health you said dr silvernell the first recommendation you got from dr sivanelle was what what was the date on you got two years it was tuesday of last week tuesday of last week now tuesday of last week what was the recommendation from dr silvernation support of going

149mask option on view of the test estate program and dropping cases okay hold it so he said let's go mask optional now for some reason between last tuesday and when was the second notice you got friday this year just last friday yeah this past friday he is st he is saying we need to continue with he was a student supporter and mask one mask optional in the future suggesting two to three weeks for those reasons we discussed and you know i take the recommendations of dr silvera also and i take that recommendation that we need to go to uh optional math that came right out of his mouth last tuesday and and again folks we represent we're here because people have elected us to be here these folks that have been speaking tonight and the

150public out there they are trusting us to make good decisions but yet we also have got to hear what they have to say and there's never been a outpouring in the recent years of where parents have been so vocal in feeling that their rights are being taken away and that we're just putting mandates on these their their children that they should make the decision for and i just again i think we need to give the parents the option on deciding whether that child wears wears a mask or not we are not anti-mass but again the parents need to place it in their hands especially when last tuesday dr silvernell said it we should go to optional mask and i think it needs to happen tomorrow i just wanted to he's he said that but did

151he say with tests to stay that's my concern optional in view of the test to stay program and dropping which we don't have in place yet so i want to get that in place and i mean i want to do mask optional but i want to be sure we have that in place and then just to clarify with research you don't have to have a control group when you're doing research there's all kinds of research and some things are unethical when you're trying to control things so that may be why that research doesn't have that because again all right i want to see i just want to make sure that no matter what way we decide tonight that again speaking from the um college level that parents of high school students are very much aware

152that if they have high school students at any of the high schools in our county that are attending classes at pcc or ecu that no matter what we decide today they will have to wear a mask on the campuses of pcc and ecu because they are still required for all people on those two campuses so no matter what we decide today if you have high school students they have to wear a mask or we ask them to leave if they don't leave they get escorted out because that's our jobs that are on the line so you need to make sure that your high school students are aware of that as well that's federal requirement we cannot we cannot wave the buses that we'll have to i have a mask on bus and my last comment

153is i will still continue to watch the numbers if the quarantine numbers rise up to a point well i hope we have some discussion at what they need to be at our network work session dot linker if we can discuss quarantine numbers where we might think we need to go back then we'd go back to basket if the coin ain't rise because once again my main thing this year has been to keep kids in school okay caroline then we're going to yeah thank you um so i called dr silvernaire like i have done over the past two years to talk to him about what he was thinking um and so i asked him specifically you know what are what are your recommendations what what are you planning and that's that was i think either last

154wednesday or thursday um and he specifically told me that when he wrote the email to you he did not intend to imply any particular time frame but that he was that's what he told me and i know he's with the county commissioners tonight i wish he could have been here with us i think that would have been better that he was here with us but they hire him and they're his bosses so he had to choose that so what he told me at that time was i feel like two to three weeks is enough time to make sure that everyone who has to make adjustments who has to get in touch with the rheumatologist or the immunologist or their oncologist um and you know i'm actually one of those people okay so and i know

155how hard it is this pandemic has created a backlog in people's access to specialty care so i know how difficult that can be that's what he told me when i spoke with him directly he said two to three weeks and then apparently he put that in an email to you sometime after that thank you hopefully this is the last one oh thank you mr chairman and i i really think what caroline said is good to do it immediately because she just said that dr silverdale said he didn't give a timeline okay all right he didn't mean to imply on the said amendment made by anna barrett smith seconded by amy cole that we go math optional february the 15th all in favor of that amendment please raise your right i i want to be a

156little bit more clear cause excuse me we got we got we got to vote i understand that but you need to be clear with what we're voting on now so what is the amendment you would you want me to restate the date i want to hear what the amendment says okay i don't forgive me if it's not verbatim the way i said it before i can't remember how i said it but um in light of getting tests to stay in place by next week i was i move that we go mask optional february 15th that's at february 15th the kids are not in school february 14th that's four more days this week so so point of order so you your amendment is to substitute the word february 15th for immediately correct i just want to

157make sure correct thank you all in favor again 5'4 all the four three opposed uh the motion carry pass was five and three would you state your motion again well the the motion that i stated is no longer that's right no i think we're done with the motion it's a motion as amended the motion as amended is that you will go mask optional starting february 15th 2022. no we just we shared with you the information about intel choice and the staffing we're asking that the board approved that contract so we can get those individuals i'd like to make a motion that we approve the intelli choice staffing agreement request second thank you do that point of order we hadn't we haven't voted on the motion as amended we voted on the amendment you got to

158vote oh yes so now we've got to vote again i guess we got to vote the second time on february 15th all right madame attorney will you please state what we are voting on this time so you voted on you you previously approved the amendment which was to substitute the word immediately with february 15 2022. the motion now as amended is to go mask optional starting february 15th 2022. all right all in favor i missed that one yeah that that one character okay thank you we apologize we missed that so we've been on intel choice staffing um we asked the board to prove that i think caroline made a motion if that's still valid and don seconds if that's valid okay all in favor of that motion unanimously propose any open enrollment the list of

159open enrollment schools has discussed that the work session as discussed eastern elementary was kindergarten only that was the changes we discussed was on that list that we talked about at that point mr chair yeah of course you uh dr lincoln you already know what i'm gonna say because i disagree with disagree with that list because i believe d.h colin needs to be up there if we got 25 feet so i think they need to be made available for students throughout the county and i just think it singles out that school by not having them up there uh as a part of that list of um you know schools the open enrollment and i just think it's important that we include it so therefore i cannot support that as listed any other discussion yeah i might

160as well let me get i totally agree with what i saw her oh i'm sorry i'm sorry i just love to talk i was just going to ask are there any i know we're focused on the high schools but are there any middle schools that aren't on the list yes hope hope and chicago wintergreen well they're not listed in the k-8 just the middle school so it would be hope middle school and aba so i just want to make sure we're not just targeting one school as kindly that there's other schools that aren't i meant one high school that's right right i know i just want to make sure there was that that wasn't the only one that was being left off so there's more than one school correct correct all right then yeah mr

161chairman we we hear so much about equal opportunity i just think it would be a very very much uh great uh a great speech or speaking of the board for us to give equal opportunity for all the high schools to have open enrollment we there's no more arguments we've been through this for five or six years now and everything that could be said has been said it's time to make d.h conley open and rover would you restate dr linker that the numbers and what brought you to your conclusion why d.h conley should not be on here in my conversation with the principal i think i sent you that information um that at that point there were 18 teachers on classrooms on carts i mean um they don't mean they don't have a they don't have

162a classroom so those teachers were on carts around the school so that's and i did check with the the next largest school and that was not the case there were one or two teachers on the cart but there were twenty empty classrooms it was complete opposite numbers we get a motion can you please um explain what a teacher on a cart means means they just don't have it's the way i taught my entire career which to me i kind of liked it myself but yeah but i didn't do any bulletin boards right um but you basically you are on a cart you go from room to room and that's where you teach you don't you you have a desk maybe um or a file cabinet somewhere but that's your that is your office you do

163not have a classroom you know you you cannot follow that on the phone before you teach your teachers three periods a day in her classroom to vacate one period today so or he is right but someone will be in that vacant classroom so that that teacher would have to go to that office so and that's how it's being done now at conley for those of 18 correct they're going into those planning period classrooms right right and and what information do we have on on the enrollment in the schools that that came to the middle schools that feature right the next um enrollment for example next year's there's uh 505 current eighth graders that would enroll into conley now obviously some of those will go to innovation some will go to pcc some may go to

164nursba last year that number was about 30 total kids that went to those schools some may take over enrollment to other places okay but that's still the large by far the largest and none of that the next three coming up or right at the 500 mark that would that will reach their population next year yes go over what it is now we have 300 and i forgot the number now but it's 375 or so uh seniors that will be leaving and possibly 400 or 500 i mean um ninth graders coming up more than that it must be the largest class that they've had folks father board members i don't want to bring that r word up but you know uh all right thank you don't don't bring it don't bring it up i'm throwing that

165out y'all won't redistricting we can have it if we take some numbers out it'll be 72 then let me get emotional on this a move that we approve i'm sorry chair can you recognize me i move that we approve the uh proposed 2022 2023 open enrollment schools list and starting lakers presented did something did dawn no i didn't dance been moved by caroline second by anna barrett the proposed 20 22 23 open enrollment through this all in favor we don't know what we just did okay uh any further discussion and forward this guy further further further yes oh yeah when you ride by d.h conley after about 9 30 there's plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot there is room there and even if we only allow a very few students you can put

166them on a lottery system that they the perception is it's not equal opportunity it's time to make it that way all right it's just as a as a i hear what you're saying and just as a counterpoint to that do we feel like it would be misleading to families to say i mean are we looking to just put them on the list so we can say we put them on the list or is there a meaningful spot for kids to go because i i feel like it sounds like we're just giving it lip service if we say they're on the i'm not saying you i'm saying us as the board if we give them a position on the list just so that we can check that off but there are only you know two spots

167or three spots left and we've increased this idea that everybody's got the equal opportunity to go to hope i mean i sorry it's late conley conley um and then nobody gets to go and then they feel like they've been misled i would love for there to be equal spots available in all of our high schools and for our high schools to be more evenly you know attendance to be more evenly distributed across our our county and unfortunately i'm not gonna i'm not even gonna bring up the letter but um but the fact is i'm not looking to do this so that we can say hey we put them on the list but really there's fewer than five spots there so good luck to you all i just i feel like it's misleading dr linker you

168know has has made his professional judgment in speaking in collaboration with the principal there and in looking at numbers not just for current but going forward we know where the building in the county is we know all this i just don't feel comfortable putting it on there just so we can say we did it any further discussion are we ready to vote all in favor of the motion made proposed 2022 open enrollment school list let it be known by the raising of your right hand six four all opposed to opposed and the carry uh dr lincoln i'll take the uh post california over the last um i think back in november uh dr christie rohn presented a couple calendar calendars to you to the board there was some discussion about another calendar that we did

169share with our staff about having exams before christmas there was zero interest in that because of the on balance of the calendars specifically at the high school level zero interest after going back and looking at this and meeting with the principals and the teacher advisory council this is draft one that she presented you in in november the november work session so at last that the board would approve this calendar a couple of things to note first day of school is the 29th that's um very late 29th of august that's very late also just because of the way the calendar law is written um again no one in our system thinks that's a good calendar it's actually not a good calendar to start that late if we could start a week or two earlier we could

170team it up with the community college would make a lot of sense but at this point law we've got this is the calendar we're recommending and i might ask you a question certainly you know at one time the high schools especially they wanted that semester to end prior to getting out for you know christmas break and because you know kids were coming back they had just a few weeks and they were taking exams right why was there zero interest because the because as i said the calendar now only has like 76 days in the first semester because of the latest start date that starts because the general assembly says we have to start on this date that's why and then we ended up with 100 days or 102 days in second semester so you end

171up with a calendar that's got four weeks or 18 days what is that number of days um 15 to 16 days extra in the second semester than the first semester and just if you have ap classes or any any class math 1 classes spanish classes first semester just doesn't work because it's what the legislature said hey you got to start right on that date yeah yes whereas before it wasn't well 2005 is when they put it in yeah right right it's been 15 years now and there's been a lot of talk about the calendar law flexibility and things like that we just haven't been able to you know get that contact your legislator correct please yes i got a question before i make a comment is there a drop dead date line that we have

172to make this decision drop dead dateline well other than getting people ready so to know when they can start school you can technically there's no no nobody sets a date that we have to do it no and here's the reason why i asked that mr chairman when when we brought up those other calendars maybe i misunderstood what we were going to do but i thought they were going to go back to faculty and staff and let them take a look at the option of doing that but from what i said we didn't we did that well what i've heard from teachers is they haven't seen that option well i can well we sent the email out back way back in december that that had that calendar on it you went through info info you know

173but the principles were adamant and the teacher advisor council was adam at the high school level teachers but high school principals how are you going to teach it i mean that's just not i don't think that's fair i mean this year was close because we only had 80 days and that was still a problem but next year down to 76 it's going to be worse but the teachers did get an opportunity to see the calendar and make comment on it as far as the workability of it because they were the ones that were very adama about wanting the semester to end at christmas i agree with them i'd like it then that christmas too i don't know that everybody understands that you have to start closest to the 26th of august even teachers yeah they

174understood that because but you do have some flexibility i understand that there would be some there would be some difference in the lengths of time i understand that but still it is a doable calendar to have the semester end at i don't think that's good education doable but it's doable don't rethink okay are you finished yeah all right the only thing i would say as a teacher if i was teaching and as a principal i'm thinking about my school scores and the time period that i'm gonna have to teach that if if it did end before christmas i just don't know that it would have an impact possibly on my test scores because of the instructional time that i would miss and they keep what it you know if the legislature says you got to

175meet on this date i mean start on this date that's where the problem is right there and i have to trust dr lincoln when he says he has sent it out to the teachers and there was zero interest well the other thing i guess i'm looking at too is if when you shorten those days you have to have those days for finals so that takes away instructional days also so if you had 74 you really probably only have 70 because you've got to take four days away from for final exams right i mean just like it's wonderful i mean i i think it's awful and we've done it that way before i've had students that have had it both ways and it's much better the way we're doing it this year but your hands are

176tied with the 29th dawn hopefully yes i'm getting ready to move on but i encourage you parents and you teachers and you administrators if you listen tonight to contact your legislators which i have talked to about it this year we need to go back the way it used to be in 2005. i mean i helped put the full before in it at southwest i can tell you that's where we need to be instructionally so we can align ourselves with the community colleges the the the colleges and get our kids some of our kids can graduate at mid-year and go ahead to college or the community college route collect more classes with that being said chair i make a motion we accept the calendar that is a presented second bye and then mr chair yeah i'm

177gonna vote for this calendar because dr linker said that the teachers did have an opportunity to see it any other questions all in favor of the motion to okay all right thank you you want to finish up the two votes we'll do this now okay okay uh floor replacement contractor selection request uh aaron thank you sir how you doing good evening um today i wanted to present a we've bid out some flooring replacements this is an esser fund project related to increasing indoor air quality these are all carpet replacement projects removing carpet from various media centers classrooms things of that nature and putting back and all the in classrooms all vct in the media center's partial vct we are seeking approval to perform this work at creekside elementary wintergreen primary northwest elementary south greenville elementary

178wh robinson elementary and bethel this is about half of our current list and this will encompass about half of the funding set aside in esther funds for the flooring replacements we have tried to concentrate this to a certain number of schools for this summer to make sure that we get this accomplished while still allowing for summer school to continue and to be represented in each quadrant of the county this does involve some abatement there is some abatement at bethel south greenville and w h robinson that is so when you look at the costs at each school those schools seem a little higher given the square footages that is the reason so we are seeking permission for nine contracts and they are for express floors to do the work at creekside for one hundred forty thousand

179four hundred ten dollars and sixty two cents for elite floors to do the work at wintergreen primary for eighty six thousand six hundred twenty five dollars and seventy cents for at northwest elementary for elite flooring to do the floor replacement for one hundred forty eight thousand seven hundred three dollars and fifty nine cents and just so you know that is almost every classroom in the building south greenville elementary two contracts one to enterprises g for thirty eight thousand three hundred dollars and ninety one cents to replace the flooring and a contract to environmental assessments east for thirty five thousand five hundred ninety dollars to remove the flooring that is the some of the abatement work um a contract to full service flooring for ninety two thousand ninety eight dollars and eleven cents to replace the

180flooring at w.h robinson a contract to environmental assessments east for sixty seven thousand seven hundred and ten dollars to remove the flooring at w.h robinson a contract to express floors for sixty four thousand five hundred eight dollars and forty one cents at bethel to remove the floor to replace the flooring sorry and a contract to impuricon for fifty six thousand eight hundred dollars to remove the flooring from bethel school any questions on this list or the contracts yes um you said this is to um purify the air to improve indoor air quality so by explaining the physics behind that yes i'm sorry the level of allergens and that get trapped in a carpet over time and in some of these schools these carpets are anywhere from 18 to 25 plus years old and if you

181walk these rooms you'll also notice that in addition to the indoor air quality which is the reason we're bidding these will also remove some trip hazards where the carpet has started to get wavy so but we are the vct going back is a hard surface it's not nearly as absorbent as the carpet that we're removing 18 to 25 year old carpet at least yeah and they clean up a whole lot of stuff yeah air and some other things too mold what have you tear i make a motion we approved that contract a second being moved by don jacobs anna barrett to approve the contract all in favor or any other question good discussion all right i'm sorry all in favor thank you we have one that um was admitted on the chance to give public

182expression standing warrior and so we're going to allow her to come at this time and she gets two minutes three minutes i'm sorry i'm trying to get out of here no sorry thank you i appreciate you for letting me speak um i know it sounds like we're beating a dead horse but trying to address the books again thank you first of all to the board members that voted to um to remove the books in question and i do want to thank dr lanker for halting the ordering of any new american books american boy books because he's been very diligent at addressing matters that have been brought to the parents and that's been noted our purpose isn't into band books like a bunch of parents said before the parents that were here cared about it enough

183to be waiting i was waiting out there an hour and a half plus um in the cold 39 degree weather so obviously um it's because they care we want to be good stewards of our children's education and be mindful of not misusing taxpayer money on books that do very little at improving grammar promoting literacy rigor analytical skills creative writing improving vocabulary et cetera so we should be very selective in the kind of books that are introduced into the library and the books that are required reading and demographics race of the author reader interest should not be the driving force in selecting these books and i had provided you guys with some information where it talks about the standards that are used by the state when it comes to the books they select and it talks

184about involving parents the board shall involve and survey a representative sample of parents teachers and the public to help determine academic content standard priorities and usefulness of the content standards and then it talks about what those content standards are and then it goes on to say the high school course content standards shall include knowledge and skills necessary to pursue further post-secondary education or to attain employment a lot of these books that are being put out for required reading do not mean any of these standards that are listed here um i also wanted to propose that a community media advisory uh committee would be established and there's precedent for it in the first page it talks about the local boards of education shall adopt rules not inconsistent with the policies of the state board of education

185concerning the local operation of the textbook program so i in the back of it i provided a sample of what it looks like when the dpi chooses people to review the books revise them and then they are adapted to the curriculum and part of those people are parents so like three parents from uh grades k through five three parents from grades six through eight and two parents from grades nine through 12. so parents are involved in that process then it says here a local board of education b1 may establish a community media advisory committee to investigate and evaluate challenges from parents teachers and members of the public to textbooks and supplementary instructional materials to the that are inappropriate to the age maturity uh pervasively vulgar i'm sorry kind of right around there the state board

186of education shall review his policies concerning these challenges etc etc so i propose that you guys establish a community media advisor committee with parents involved have a public meeting have parents that are interested volunteer maybe have a lottery system whatever that looks like the books that have already been brought up by taylor they're not good books they're not age-appropriate the american boy books is actually not only laced with profanity but it's very oversimplified in the language that it uses so if you have this set in place then it would probably mitigate some of this thank you i okay good evening to the board and i'm here to share um our reset and recover plan as related to teaching and learning and so we're going to start with just a couple of things i want to

187share first with this curriculum team last year we shared with the board that we had nine focus areas when our students returned back the school year that we would focus on to support teachers to support principals which ultimately those practices would support our students when they returned in august our hope was that when students did come back to school that they would [Music] it would be a year that was with some degree smooth sailing and obviously that did not happen what i want to first hear as i share a couple of things before i share a few of these is that teaching and learning in terms of helping our students reset and recover it is going to take quite some time dr linker and i were looking at a bit of data from the state

188earlier today and even that data is skewed based on the fact that students particularly across north carolina our nation and our world to some degree were in school half of the time and then some parents made their choice that their child would stay home and do virtual learning and we know that that practice was not is not for every child so as i shared these things i want you to keep that in mind that it's going to take years for us to catch up but we are committed as a curriculum team our principals and our teachers are in the trenches every day working hard to make sure that students have what they need so that we can close those academic gaps the data we looked at today was our k2 data and you know and

189myself as a former elementary school teacher those foundational years are critical to the success of students being able to read and to be able to do math etc so with that said what are we doing to help students reset and recover how are we helping them to close learning gaps number one we do have after-school tutoring programs that's located across the district we have partnered with the district has partnered with for years i believe cornelia church antioch church possessing to the keys of the kingdom program the boys and girls club united way most recently has taken the lead on hosting most of our after-school tutoring programs that are currently held at grifton lake forest northwest south greenville walcott bethel creekside pactolis in addition to aidan elementary falkland jr whitfield stokes south greenville and belvoir so

190we have a number of tutoring programs located at various schools the question was brought up about after school tutoring at at schools you know teachers they teach for during the day and once the day is spent uh they are exhausted and so it is not often where teachers are actually uh staying after every day with students so we're having these types of programs in place however it was very difficult to find teachers because to find teachers for our after school programs a lot of the principals they struggled to find those teachers because teachers were was just exhausted from particularly the summer work and then having to stay after during the day as well as fighting that the covet battle so what we did was uh we also in addition to that we added tutor.com which

191is our second point and it was purchased for students in grades 312 to access for academic support and so tutor.com is available to parents at no cost they are able to log into tutor.com and there is a live tutor there that is providing support to students that should be up and running within within this week or no later than next week until parents are able to access that at no charge for their students for their child schools are allotted annually a remediation budget so deborah she's somewhere in here deborah and i uh we sit down and there's a budget based on a formula that is used and those schools are giving fun giving funds to be able to utilize to support students they hire teachers to come in and provide support this year was the

192most challenging year for them to find retired teachers to come in and find to to to provide that remediation they're able to use those funds to provide additional supplemental materials and as a district we do keep an eye so that teachers so excuse me so that principles aren't replicating uh programs that we already have as i share with you when i first got here four or five years ago uh i am not a programs guy i'm all about people and people being able to provide the instructional practice one-on-one with students because programs don't they don't do that well so the next thing is the district expand the science of reading initiative to all elementary schools using reading horizons we are moving away from a holistic approach whole language approach of reading we know myself as

193a former elementary teacher that is probably balanced literacy was not the best approach to teaching students how to read we are going we have decided to we are going back to the science of reading which is more phonemic based in helping students learn the foundations of reading by way of phonics and not by telling them to look at a picture and guess a word which is is not a a true practice in literacy as a literacy person so all of our schools have implemented reading horizons i will tell you in using this as well as already those are two frameworks that will help that we're looking at in terms of how our students are performing and our students are moving according to these data points it's incremental but they are showing showing progress our four

194high schools and two middle schools were a lot of reading specialist positions to support high school and middle school struggling readers we allotted eight positions and four high schools took advantage of that to hire a reading specialist which is typically an elementary teacher who's trained in how to teach students how to read and so when those middle school middle schoolers went to high school we immediately recognized that there would be academic gaps especially trying to struggling to read so we used our cobit funds to employ those reading specialists and we're seeing promising data on supporting our high school students we have two remaining positions left and our early colleges have are requesting those additional positions so we're looking at the data to make sure that that that's the best place for those positions our schools

195and the district continue to monitor achievement and provide interventions for all learners so we're not just looking at students who are under achieving but we're looking at students who are doing actually well because believe it or not when you look at the data in certain parts of the county there were students who did not lose any ground last year they did not lose ground this year and we can certainly look at that as a demographic factor and so we look at those things and so if they're doing well within our plc framework we advance them to the next level and provide the things that they need academically to keep them engaged in learning if those students are not performing well our teachers go back to the plc they look at the data and then they

196adjust practice and they keep to keep it moving so we're looking at the data very closely the teachers are looking at the data the district is monitoring the data i'm constantly visiting schools we are planning our power visits between now and may visiting all 36 schools myself lisa tate monica jacobson our 912 director sandra morris our chief of schools turn around school support we're taking a team we're going into school so it's a marathon between now and the end of the year going in in schools and supporting and seeing the plc data boots on the ground parent-teacher conferences is a way that parents can be engaged in finding out what's happening at their child's school title 1 meetings and really asking questions about what's going on what's happening what can i do as a parent

197to provide my child more support and one of the things that parents typically do is one stay engaged stay in constant contact with the teacher find out what's happening in the classroom and continue to engage your child in the learning processes at home by extending the learning that's happening in the classroom and then lastly we are planning for our k-12 summer bridge is underway which is our summer school we will have more information on all of these things at our next board work session and summer school is underway i didn't did not go into detail for our summer school because state of north carolina has not allotted us a budget so we are not we do not know how many students we can host we do not know the exact framework because there are meetings

198that are being hosted across the state with chief academic officers and assistant suits of curriculum to discuss practices and best practices that are being employed across the state and other districts so i prefer that our team network and listen to some of those practices and then begin to embed them into what we plan to do next school year so i'm looking forward to that statewide plc on best practices of what we do once we do that we'll come back to the board and we'll share what our plan is specifically for pitt county schools and its students but we will also engage them in stem we'll engage them in high-level activities in reading and math so those are just a couple of the highlights of things that we're doing to make sure that our students have

199reset and they are recovering the learning that the pandemic has so terribly interrupted over the past couple of years any questions yeah so thank you um for agreeing to put this item on the agenda i am very very interested in um the progress that we're making and if if i may ask a few questions i would appreciate that thank you so much dr lasseter um so the the after school tutoring programs at the churches and united way are these new above and beyond what we used to do or is continuation or how are we enhancing that a few of these are continuations and then a few of them are new because uh being added into the grant that uh the ellis grant that was given through uh that's going through united way so we've added

200a few schools through that grant so that's not related to cobit money right no we did not use covet money but we could before after school if we sure absolutely well i let dr linker respond to that he a lot of money how about transportation how do children get um get to the tutoring buses okay we use the buses of the funding through the through the grants and through the churches uh or they send a van through some of the churches to pick up the students or the funds are used through the grants that have been allotted for these programs so i'm assuming that parents are aware of their own children's learning status like where they are is that through middle of the year testing and parent conferences yes ma'am and report parts okay if

201a parent wanted to know um where they can get tutoring who do they contact for that for their child absolutely they are always welcome to contact their the child's teacher or the principal and we can make that happen if their school is offering tutoring as well as through i tutor in some way they can have access to that additional support so a goal i would think that we would want to have is if there are um children whose parents request tutoring and they don't happen to be at those schools that maybe we could work out the transportation to get them to the places that the tutoring is happening so i just think we need to be um as responsive as we can to parents who are concerned about learning loss for their children and be

202as flexible as we can with that it's just a thought okay um thetuter.com what is the uptake rate on that or is that something brand new that is brand new that the board approved i believe the border you all approved the contract in december and that's through our essa funds right that's correct for for covid so it would be nice to know what the marketing plan is and i know we don't have a public information officer right now zach thank you for being interim thank you um but i think it's really important that parents are aware that there is a new resource available or about to be available to them so we met and i shared with the board in december that we would have a plan and we're waiting on there was a finalization

203to the contract as well as one technology glitch that we're waiting to clear and we have a plan already monica jacobson is getting with mr pomeroy and that will be going out this week once those glitches are finalized so we do have a plan and i shared that in december with the board good so to market it to make sure that parents are very well aware of this so hopefully phone web teacher you know all the different ways we can communicate with them um so the reading specialist you mentioned that it was offered to more than the number of schools yes um and that is also i believe you said covet related coveted funds yes so um you said there right now six and there are two more slots available yes if there were more

204schools who were concerned about the loss of reading skills in their students i would assume all schools had students that showed learning loss in reading right but maybe i'm wrong um so is there a cap on that money is there no way that we can uh designate more money so our elementary feel like that's an important thing our elementary schools have care teachers right so the elementary schools are set when we initially share this information and and with our principals we did make it a make it an opportunity if those principals wanted um these reading specialists in our middle schools and high schools that we could make that happen so principals are aware that if they would like these additional positions that's something that they can submit a plan for we'll look at the data

205and provide that support our goal was that obviously with covet transitioning from middle school to high school that there were high schoolers that were performing below and particularly reading at fourth grade and third grade reading levels and they needed that explicit and direct support so if there are other middle school principals who would like to request that that has been made available to them so um and they know their data right about yes they know what the learning law looks like absolutely in their middle school students and high school students in terms of their reading absolutely proficiency because or maybe there's another route to improving reading and proficiency i don't know then my last question sure i really think that um we need to have almost like a handbook or a playbook for parents who

206are concerned about science math reading or whatever their children's learning loss looks like um you know based on scores based on tests um or even just based on parents concerns even the ones who are performing well but feel like they should be performing better i really think we need a tool that is um tailored to parents to promote their engagement in this and make it easy okay for them to um know where to pull different resources from in addition to what we've got here but what are other things they can do to promote science math the basics okay i really i really think that's something we need to consider because this is big the learning loss is huge and you're right it's going to take a long time and i think if parents know that

207now you can get started now so that by the end of this year they've cut some of that loss down and then it's a little bit less to tackle this summer and next year and as long as it takes i also think it's really important to advocate for funding all of us any parent who's concerned about learning loss and any teacher who's concerned about learning laws if it's going to take years of resources we need to make sure the legislature really grasps that and makes those resources available to us the coveted funding as far as i know we're not getting any more of that we've got what we've got maybe we will get more i don't know but it's i hope not i hope the pandemic's almost behind us um but you know it's those

208are not forever and i suspect the learning loss and the cost of gaining those um that loss learning back will be more um expensive than the money that we have available to us right now we wanted to ask dr laska if you could come to our workshops workshops workshop sessions uh there are further questions to be asked i'd be happy to uh yes sir thank you thank you very much just quickly january was stressful at the schools with all the coving cases just so just a shout out to the to as you see we have great obviously great people at the school level as you saw with miss covington and mr todd and miss parley but um for everybody that works at the school level for the what they put into it the last month

209to keep it everything running i just want to thank them for everything they've done thank you sir thank you uh word i'm gonna pass all right tracy that'll be very brief it's been a long night y'all i just want to kind of just reiterate the congratulations to all the people for the spotlight on teaching and learning we continue to make great strides even during some very difficult times and i just wanted to say um reiterate happy school counselor week everybody and i'm really hopeful about the test to stay program i'm looking forward to us being able to keep our kids in school and having some other options for our children so i'm looking forward to that thank you all right amy i second what tracy said about congratulating all the teachers and faculty and staff

210that got awards tonight it's great to see all of the wonderful things going on in our schools when times are so tough so congratulations to everyone there and that's about it i'm gonna keep it short all right in light of how late we are i'd just like to say thank you to everyone who is working so hard to keep this train moving um congratulations to the school counselors i hope that um that people will follow up on the suggestion to write thank you notes i know some parents who've reached out to me particularly concerned about their remote child's complete loss of any progress during the pandemic when they were remote in two cases the different school counselors have made a huge difference in working with those families so it's a they're a great resource for

211pitt county schools and for our families so if you don't know your son or daughter school counselor reach out to them because they are incredible incredibly knowledgeable and incredibly caring and can make things happen for your child if you if you have concerns about their their learning loss or anything else um frankly that has to do with their ability to succeed at school i think that's it thank you melinda i'd like to say thank you to emily for bringing this card that was really sweet of you and uh good luck on your endeavors the two of you and what you're doing i wish you only the best i thank everybody for coming even though it was a long night i always learn when people speak and i appreciate it and and i apologize for those

212that that were outside in the cold i i wasn't aware of that and um and i'm sorry for that and last i just want to say um thank you to all the teachers and and today's a real special day for me because today was my son who graduated from pitt county schools in 2017 today was his first day of his real job he graduated from college in december and he started working for michelin tires in lexington south carolina and i give 99.9 of that credit to pitt county schools and the teachers that gave him the support that he needed the education that he needed and you know just encouraged him along the way that he could do it and i'll take that point one percent as his mom that supported him along the way thank

213you mr chairman i won't take long first of all again thanks to all of the parents and everybody that participated this evening and i thought there was a lot of information shared and very very valuable information well thought out and articulated so well and i do appreciate the continued advocacy from our parents also i i am excited that we finally maybe have an end to required mass beginning on monday i had rather begin it tomorrow but i'll take what i can and i respect everyone's opinion on that appreciate that so we will have a mask optional beginning on monday and then just one other thing real quickly real quick thought you know sometimes our policy gets ahead of maybe some of the other things that we need to look at i was very very excited

214my colleagues did vote on that um you want to call it race theory policy and part of it is that one race ethnicity religion disability status or sex is not inherently superior or inferior to another race etc etc and it's a possibility we really need to pay close attention to some of the books materials that we uh that we have in our school system now to make sure that it meets the same requirements that we have asked in our policy to meet because i think that we could be there could be some books and materials and instructional supplies and things that might counter what our policy now states thank you don thank you for our parents students professors and computer community members for coming out tonight and are speaking so are you mr rice sir

215you and mr rice and i'd like to thank mr rice is one of middletown council for coming out in our meeting tonight uh so you know that's nice we have some you out here all right also school counselors as a former school administrator i can tell you as i can't express the benefits of them enough i appreciate everything you do and i also appreciate all what the county school staff does thank you as we prepare to close this meeting i just want to say that i am thankful to god for this opportunity to serve pitt county schools and the people of this county going forward i hope that we are able to continue to work together and carrying out our meetings in the most professional and timely manner none of us saw the impact of

216covet 19 the delta or omocron variants what it would have what an effect it would have in our lives and in the way we operate in conduct business i do want to address this as chair i want to say that in light of the threats that were made against board members families and it is not okay to threaten to rape our children to call board members fake christians harbor mothers or pedophiles this on all accounts is wrong it should not be practiced displayed or tolerated by anyone especially in front of yours and our children we are public servants that are here to serve the whole community and not just a select few we welcome public the public to have comments at all meetings if we agree or disagree with decisions that are made but we

217ought to keep it civil and respectful thank you to those who came to speak on behalf of the board members and the work that they're doing i really appreciate working with all of our board members they all bring something uniquely to the table i think pitt county has one of the best boys around we may not all agree with what is done but we're doing the best that we can and i think if this board continue to work with the superintendent continue to work with all of those that are really concerned about our children and everybody involved that we will have a good and productive board with the support of the community we thank all of you for coming out tonight we apologize for those who may have to stay out in the weather but

218because of the virus and because we are trying to be safe and keep everybody safe from how the omicron variant was so contagious we didn't want anyone being here where you may be able to contract that virus and so going forward hopefully we'll do things even different to make it more convenient for all that comes to be a part of our meeting motion to adjourn [Laughter] all right amen you