001i'd like to call the june 7th 2021 pitt county board of education meeting to order i'd like to welcome everybody here that's present in this room as well as those who are listening or watching at home prior to beginning i would like to ask miss rankins to let the minutes reflect that ms anna barrett smith was unable to attend tonight so she is absent but all other board members are present and at this time i would ask worth forbes to lead us in the pledge of allegiance a moment of states silence america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice let's have a moment of silence dear lord we praise you for all that you do for each one of us give us the wisdom tonight
002to make the best decisions for our students and staff and our county thank you for keeping our graduates safe this past weekend lord and we pray that all students and staff in pitt county schools will have a safe summer dear lord thank you for dying on the cross to save us from our sins in your name we do pray amen amen thank you mr forbes okay move along to our routine business are there any adjustments to the agenda i move to approve okay carolina agenda as presented okay caroline motion a second worth second any discussion all in favor right with your right hand please sorry passes unanimously thank you very much and now we will move on to public expression and as jennifer's coming forward i just want to note that public expression is to
003be respectfully observed during the readings because of kova we are still following the rules with having it sent electronically but also remind people that after she is through reading that there will be no response to what is read to us and with that i will let you explore okay our first message is from abby yoon and she represents a group called digging for diversity dear pcs board of education my name is abby yoon and i am a recent graduate of d.h conley high school and a member of a grassroots youth-led anti-racism initiative called digging for diversity as pcs students we first want to thank the board from your recorded meetings we have watched you all lead the road to reopening schools during covet 19 since june 15th of last year we can only imagine the
004arduous task of handling an unprecedented crisis and working toward the best interests of twenty thousand plus students nearly a year has passed since the pcs board released a statement standing in solidarity against discrimination cultural biases and racism the letter stated that one of the key focus components of our upcoming strategic plan is equity while this strategic planning was put temporarily on hold due to covet 19 other students and i acknowledge that pcs has been leading steps to uphold its commitment this includes pcs implementing equity training for administration the board has also demonstrated recognition of the need for collaboration between parents and the board and its decision making and efforts as well as including teacher and student voices in coming years we urge you all to consider the latter intention as a priority students have an
005invaluable perspective that cannot be illuminated by the parent or decision maker we understand and have experienced the covert nuances through which our country's power dynamics are upheld this may be best demonstrated through the point the posts of an instagram account called at black at south which amplifies the experiences of pcs students through anonymous reports written by them some of them include dhc dhc colon in quotation marks a white boy in class yelled the n-word multiple times all the other white kids and the teacher were laughing about it end quote second bullet quote being black at rose means looking on instagram and seeing a white girl put a black peer and monkey beside each other asking am i racist if they look alike question mark end quote third bullet schs colon quote a classmate thought it
006would be funny to say that being a terrorist was the most common occupation in afghanistan the same guy who made jokes about muslims in another class fourth bullet a.g cox middle colon quote counselors and teachers discourage black students from taking honors and ap courses end quote fifth bullet dhc colon quote i've seen so many people laugh and push the buttons of kids with severe autism or mental and physical disabilities at conley end quote more instances of dehumanization apathy ignorance and no accountability towards marginalized students by white students and authority have been reported and historically under reported for every pcs school for any minority child who has navigated our system it has always been clear that bigotry thrives within unintentional well-meaning habits and social institutions our curriculum falsely promotes our times as quote post-racial period with
007colorblindness as a mechanism to absolve white people's guilt from white supremacy glosses over imperialist and white supremacist atrocities fails to address race as an influence in every discipline perpetuates erasure of any individual lgbt btq plus neurodivergent with disabilities or existing beyond the racial binary of black and white for example aapi native latinx etc and invalidates minority students experiences and lived reality furthermore racial segregation has still persisted among our schools since the first desegregation order for pcs was issued by a federal judge in 1968. this segregation has undoubted undoubtedly contributed to the perpetuation of inequities and limited access to opportunities for marginalized communities in which white students have been reported as six times as likely to be enrolled in at least one ap class as black students black students 3.6 times as likely to be suspended
008as white students and black students on average academically 2.8 grades behind white students in pcs despite black children making up nearly half of the district composition non-white students comprise only around 30 percent of the ap course and gifted and talented programs yet nearly 100 percent of expulsion cases these statistics were highlighted by a pro-publica study and that concludes the five minutes allowed the second public expression is from mr mitchell buck mr buck says i am sending this information in light of the ongoing outrage of parents across this country concerning the false teachings being proposed addressing the woke history being taught to young students it's an insane idea socialist and marxist ideas at its core history should be taught in its original and factual concept and content this is not the first time education was attacked
009with marxist socialist ideology in 1923 h.g wells published four volumes of the outline of history for freshmen through senior levels of instruction h.g wells was a self-proclaimed socialist from england died in 1964 period in his publications he stated that man had evolved from chimpanzees slash apes question mark in quotation marks evolution theory i have two volumes of these textbooks which my older sisters had for class study in pitt county one of my sisters still remembers those textbooks and the content being taught in the classroom it is time for the school boards here and across this country stand up to this idiotic approach as well as the teachers unions before it's too late thank you mitchell buck and that concludes public expression okay thank you and i do want to just make a note that individuals
010are permitted three minutes groups are permitted five minutes and although we were not able to get through the the one submission all board members do have a hard copy of it so we will be able to to read the remainder of what wasn't read and i guess i'll also say that not everybody's an auditory learner so i like that because i'm a visual so i actually need to see the hard copy even if you stood there and read it for the entirety thank you for that all right let's move on to consent items for approval and there's several on here and i'm going to list them first we have the board minutes from may the 3rd special called meeting from the 17th of may the board work session from the 17th of may a closed
011session meeting on the 17th of may personnel record um report for june the 7th the 2122 interim budget resolution that was presented on the 17th at the work session the pitt county schools strategic plan that was discussed on the 17th of may at the work session so those items are on consent do i have a motion for approval i make a motion for approval okay second okay any discussion all those in favor of approval for the items on our consent raise your right hand unanimously thank you very much moving on to new business the first item on the agenda for new business is the resolutions to improve student learning lauren piner presented the resolution to improve student learning conditions at our work session and ask for approval and it was at that time that several
012board members requested that we move it to today's meeting for new business said that questions could be asked and further researched at that time so now i would like to bring it back up to the board in terms of seeking approval for it i move that we approve the resolution to improve student learning as presented caroline's made a motion is there a second second second by tracy is there just further discussion i got worth i think this is the one that i said that i had some concerns about is that yeah and um two of two of the um bullets that i had concerns about dealt with the private school and the private and the vouchers and i just feel like we need number one i believe that uh pitt county schools as well as
013all public schools needs competition and i think competition helps us to be stronger in what we do throughout our system we do know that our students they are our customers and therefore we need to provide for them the best education that we can you know possibly provide for them and i think the competition is good the the vouchers i believe that those need to be in place because when you pull those vouchers out you're hurting the kids that may not can afford a private school or an alternative and i believe all kids are socioeconomic low socio economic kids deserve a choice just as much as any other uh child so for that reason i'm not going to support it and it's really for those you know specific items okay any other discussion or madam chair
014benji i move that we postpone indefinitely uh the resolution to improve student learning give you an opportunity to get together maybe with dr linker and get a neutral group of teachers and faculty and staff together to put us together a resolution that's not proposed by partisan organizations such as the north carolina association of educators um i guess my my concern there is that it it not concern as much as i wish that that could have been brought up before tonight's meeting if that was the the wish to to do that because we've had a couple weeks that we could have met and we're going on break do you have any comments on that dr linker all right that requires a second second you got a second okay so you're emotioning that we postpone indefinitely indefinitely
015indefinitely postponing definitely the resolution to improve student learning all right so we'll vote on this one and then go back to caroline's correct correct okay so um benji no no no excuse me this is the subsidiary motion takes precedence over a main motion if the motion if the emotion passes then we would it would pass if the motion to postpone indefinitely passes right then it then it passes right then you don't take back up this is true okay if it does okay sorry but that's that's what i understand we'll mostly vote on your emotions first and then if it passes that's it that's right then we go back to the that's right and just to follow up again is because i i feel like that there's a lot of good things in the resolution there's
016no doubt about it it's just coming from a partisan group under the guise of nonpartisanship i do believe on the top of her thing it said in nonpartisan relationships that i said under the guise of nonpartisanship are we having discussion now we can well is that what we're having now is discussion on the you can have discussion on the motion to postpone indefinitely you just can't amend it my understanding that um from what dr linker said when it was first presented to us that everything in here is either on the north carolina superintendent's association request list from the legislature or on the north carolina school board association request list from our north carolina legislature so it's really nothing new here outside of what you're aren't you the chair of the superintendent group this year not
017the superintendent group necessarily but the school administrator group yes anyway so i feel comfortable knowing that it has been carefully worded by our by fellow by superintendents across the state as well as and thought through as well as by the north dakota school board association i feel comfortable supporting it may i take my second if the north carolina school board association or the superintendent's association wanted to make a presentation before us that would be fine but the ncae is a partisan group and they come under the guise of being nonpartisan that's what i think is is not right about this i do think that we could get if with the chairman's permission superintendent could get together with a group of mutual teachers and staff and come up with a good resolution for us to pass
018i wouldn't have a problem with that madam chair a couple questions today and i have a problem with the justice statement nonpartisan resolution to with that part being there i don't i don't see the purpose for that in a sense because i do have to agree with mr forrest from the nces used like that a lot of people do think they're non-partisan i mean they are partisan the second thing i worry about is is if another group comes and makes the same or a different type resolution where do we draw the line i do have that uh concerns okay anything else so now we'll vote for the benji's would you like to rephrase your motion please uh i knew that we postponed indefinitely the resolution to improve student learning give you the opportunity to work
019with dr linker and get together a neutral uh group of teachers faculty and staff to put us together a good resolution those in favor of the motion made raise your right hand please two three opposed and i'll and i vote likewise so the motion does not pass so now we'll go to caroline's emotion yes you're recognizing caroline's motion correct at this time and that is to approve no i'm recognizing her motion for discussion okay vampire i move that i move that we amend the motion by scratching out number eight therefore be it resolved scratched that out and put prohibits the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 project as developed by the new york times magazine i do have a question for um for emma just in regards to this because this is something
020that's presented so i don't know can we amend this or does this have to be amended by the people that it's representing okay okay so state that could you state that again you want to we amend the resolution by striking out number eight freezes funding for north carolina private school voucher and adding the words prohibits the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 project as developed by the new york times magazine okay is there any discussion on that it needs a second well you got to get a second okay somebody gone second at that then second okay now discussion amy if we're gonna start adding stuff then i say we need to move this whole vote to another time because i would like to find out what this stuff is about before i were
021to make a vote on something like that okay i'd like to make a point too i'm not comfortable dictating um what resources our teachers who are professional educators use we don't we've not never made a habit of doing that in pitt county we've always allowed our professionally trained educators to choose the teaching materials and learning resources that they think best fit the curriculum and the standard study in the state of north carolina and their students okay so amy has not felt comfortable we still need to vote on this well you asked for further discussion amy said she didn't feel comfortable caroline's discussed there could be more i'm i got explain to me one more time what you were talking about with number eight what are you gonna scratch scratch the whole number eight off take
022hold although i paid off right and then you're replacing it with with prohibits the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 project as developed by the new york times magazine and i would just say to that i do know we have a lot of concern from our community about those topics and i do think as a board we have to be careful of allowing just any type of curriculum to be allowed to be taught to our kids i think as a board we have to [Music] look at what is being taught and making sure that it is best the best for our community and for our students and i do think we as a board have that responsibility that's what we're elected for to represent our parents and you know when i listen to
023the parents uh that i have talked with and have called and they have all expressed concerns about what benji has brought up uh critical race theory 1619 project so i just have concerns with not at least making a statement as a board on how we feel and at least you know with a um emotion like this everybody is on record on how you feel about it madam chair we're not dictating curriculum we're asking the north carolina general assembly when they're doing those the way i read the resolution is directing the north carolina general assembly go back up to the top okay whereas now go to go go get through the warehouses will therefore be resolved pitt county school board of education urges each legislator representing pitt county and each legislator in the north carolina general
024assembly to co-sponsor and vote for legislation that we're not doing it melinda i'd just like to point out that i feel like this should have been a discussion at the work session and not have stuff thrown at us and try to make a a snap decision about stuff that needs to be discussed i just don't think it's appropriate how do we go about tabling this can we table the discussion or can we table the vote like how does that work we still have to vote on the motions so do you want is it the board's um i guess my question is do we need to table it for further discussion or do we need do you want to vote on the motions the motion has been duly made and seconded and discussion has been had
025i mean that's proper okay so let's vote on the motion that you just made you vote on the amendment the amendment based on the the result then you would vote on either the motion it goes back to the original motion or you would vote on the motion as amended well let's vote on the motion that was just the amendment the amendment so the amendment to cross out number eight and add strikeout number eight and add what i just said said all in favor of doing that raise your right hand one two opposed three four five the motion does not carry so now we go back to discussion of whether we want to vote is there further discussion before we vote on the original motion madam chair if amy still feels like she will i've asked
026her that so she can okay for herself sorry is there any further discussion or emotions to be made well madam chair she won't table it i'll table it i'll move with table emotion okay then she's made a motion to table it five second and we don't have a second for the motion okay let's go back to caroline's original motion to approve if there's no further discussion or further emotions to be made okay caroline would you restate your motion please yes i move that we approve the if you go back to the top i'll read it the motion before us the resolution to improve student learning conditions caroline made motion is there a second there wasn't it okay yeah that was already second all right so further discussion we've already asked for but i'll ask again
027hearing none let's vote all those in favor of this motion raise your right hand two three opposed so that fails so the motion fails so we'll just move on to the next item on the agenda next item is going to be deborah baggett for requesting approval for powerschool news ela and canvas software good evening tonight um finance would like to request the approval of these three items powerschool canvas and then the blended learning suite from newsela one of these the first item is paid from cares the cloud the canvas cloud is actually we have an allotment that covers just that it's 77 000. so any above that would be taken from s or 2 and then the blended learning suite in new zealand would also come from esther 2 funds these are all software programs
028that the would support powerschool actually supports online enrollment and virtual basically electronic processing for grades and that type of thing and then the other two are instruction and you're asking for the approval for purchase yes do i have a motion for that suddenly okay and benji any discussion all in favor raise your right hand please passes unanimously thank you very much thank you and i do believe up next we have miss kylian dibble who's going to present the annual community conversations with us thank you for coming tonight good evening everyone i think most folks in the room know my name but there's a few folks who are new so um my name is kyleen dibble and i'm the executive director of parents for public schools of pitt county um and i do want to begin
029by just saying thank you to all of you um i get this pleasure every year of spending your very last board meeting of the school year with you and that is it is a real honor because you have you have truly worked so hard and that's the case every year this year certainly more so thank you for everything you've done this year for those who might be unfamiliar with parents for public schools of pitt county we do focus on district-wide issues through three main programs school tours the parent engagement program and community conversations while conventional school tours did not happen this year we did record a virtual tour at every school in pitt county and they have been viewed well over 3000 times now by people all over the country who are considering moving here
030and those in our county who are considering our schools our parent engagement program just gathered it graduated its fifth cohort and these participants have already started their local education projects um anybody rides by wintergreen take a look at the beautiful kindness rock garden that's out there that's a pep project of recent but tonight you have the seventh annual community conversation report in your board packet this report has been made possible by the generous donations of time and talent from our board of directors with further support from the z smith reynolds foundation the smith family foundation the pitt county educational foundation and individual donors who support our mission the community conversations program itself was sponsored this year by tammy lynn home team and you'll see her logo on the first full page i also want to
031give special thanks to brianna kohler our master of social work intern from ecu who put so much time and effort into making this report an accurate representation of the voices we heard this year so collecting community voices for the community conversation was very different this year we conducted all but two of our community conversations over zoom with about two or three zoom sessions per week and by the end of the school year every school had an opportunity to participate so every principal was sent flyers links to send out to their parents nights for their school to participate things like that many families actually found it easier to connect with us by zoom this year because they didn't have to leave their home to participate in total we had 22 community conversations and spoke to a
032total of 205 people each of our community conversations is conducted in the same way so we asked the same five questions this year's questions were what's going well with pitt county schools what could be improved what are suggestions for involving more voices in large decision-making and how do people like to receive news of decisions when they happen we ask folks to describe their experiences with schools if they or someone they know identify as a minority and then we ask them is there anything else they'd like to share so from what's going well families were very grateful to everyone in our school system for how well the school year was handled in the midst of a pandemic the focus on providing meals was of great appreciation there was also praise for creativity adaptability and implementation of
033safety many participants also commented on the high quality learning that took place both virtually and face to face one common phrase we heard this year was that school has become like an extension of our family which is something that surprised me in a year that we couldn't actually be in the school all the time we felt more connected this speaks volumes to the efforts that were made to help families feel like part of the school even though they couldn't physically be present recommendations were to keep up the strong communication even after the pandemic is over and to keep focusing on school on student resilience we also ask our second question what could be improved many participants as in years before but more so this year brought up the need for support staff parents want to
034see more nurses social workers counselors interpreters tas in our schools they also want to see those who already work in the schools receive fair and adequate pay there's a desire for increased supplements for teachers to enhance recruitment and retention that was brought up on multiple occasions not surprisingly one area of concern that commonly came up was in relation to social and emotional growth that may or may not have happened this past year also people watched public meetings from home more often and there were comments about professionalism from district leadership a frequent request for improvement about making decisions and informing families of any changes in a timely manner came up a few times there were also many comments about a desire to see diversity of the student body reflected in our teachers and administrators parents asked
035for transparency in the district's plan to hire a more diverse teaching staff they also asked for more training for teachers on the topics of cultural competency racial equity lgbtq inclusion diversity there was an overall feeling that if teachers better understand these issues they better connect with students from all backgrounds which leads to increased academic success fortunately parent pit county schools recently developed a five-year strategic plan which addresses many of these concerns there's a commitment in that plan to increasing the presence of teachers who resemble the student body and there's clear evidence of increasing cultural competence at every level our recommendation would be to publicize that plan and then just give frequent updates to parents to let them know how it's being carried out as we asked questions about how parents could further see and teachers
036could further see their voices at the table of decision making time and time again it became evident that pitt county schools strength and communication is the way that information is delivered people want it in multiple forms they want to know about changes from emails and texts and apps and phone calls and all the ways that you so graciously do there was a common request that schools implement changes and decision in a consistent way also the issue of timeliness and making decisions and informing families of them was brought up there were several comments about how many how much parents appreciate the surveys as a way of sharing their voice some recommended using more polls on social media and said that might elicit more responses some parents also discussed how much they enjoyed the community conversation that
037we hosted over zoom and said that maybe the schools could also host a similar conversation to gather parent voices some parents suggested creating a parent advisory council a group made up of parents from each school that could bring voices to the district alternatively from a teacher perspective there was a concern that the teacher advisory council doesn't always represent all the voices of all the teachers so teachers ask for other avenues for communication many people became more aware of the board of education this year through its televised meetings yet there does remain a lack of awareness about how to communicate and how to watch board meetings in our pep class we address the role of the board how to communicate with you and we even outline the process for how to run for board of education
038we'd be happy to work with the board or pitt county schools to just increase a broader awareness of the role of the board and how to communicate with the board there was also discussion about a need for the board to more accurately reflect our community in terms of diversity of course while parents or public schools can't endorse anyone to run for board of education we can give information about what district you're in the filing process when your seat is up for election and in board election years we always highlight every candidate through newsletter articles and candidate forums which some of you got to participate in online this past year um when we asked the question about minority individuals overall when we asked about minority experiences this year we heard that our schools are overwhelmingly respectful
039and welcoming places that was the top thing we heard um many parents commented about how they're very happy with the level of diversity in their schools some people did bring up a lack of racial representation in the teacher population and there were comments about a need for equitable distribution of resources across all schools particularly those in rural communities and that's something we've heard a few years in a row that i've delivered before there were suggestions about improving language services but also more specifically about a higher awareness of how to access the language services that are available already i have heard that cares money is going to make it possible for more interpreters to be available in the coming year so that's a welcome step in the right direction for many families in our community there
040were suggestions about more cultural awareness training and a hope that staff at every level would participate many suggested that school leaders remain aware of trainings that aren't always done in the schools trainings available in our communities like the mental health first aid offered through trillium or safe zone at ecu obviously these comments were collected before the strategic plan was revealed um and again the strategic plan touches on a lot of these things the comment that rose to the top from the anything else question really related to concerns about social and emotional well-being after a year and a half of living in a pandemic we hope that returning to some sense of normalcy next school year fingers crossed will address some of that concern and again the strategic plan has a section that is specifically addressing
041social and emotional well-being one issue that came up in this question that did not present itself elsewhere was the dress code that actually came up quite a bit in this question there were comments ranging from encouraging pitt county schools to do away with the dress code altogether the suggestions for further modifications to suggestions that language around dress code be gender-neutral to requesting that it be enforced consistently from school to school and there were suggestions that dress code issues be resolved without removing students from classrooms again in this question it came up again that there was a further request for inclusivity around issues of race as well as students and who have families and students who are part of the lgbtq community and finally there was quite a bit of conversation about schools providing more opportunities
042for parent involvement so after a year of covid i want to say to everyone out there in our schools that parents are eager to get back in the schools and we hope that schools will capitalize on this eagerness and create opportunities to connect schools to parents as their doors begin to open we also encourage the parents out there to be creative and to to be the one who takes initiative and suggests modes of involvement that increase parent engagement in many forms so the report in front of you contains an executive summary that recaps everything i just went over in a lot more detail i really urge you to take a detailed look at that report and just read the actual words of our community members the executive summary is in the front the actual every
043word that we collected is there towards the back and it's our hope that this report provides helpful to you as you continue to think critically and make decisions that positively influence public education right here in pitt county we as parents for public schools of pitt county as always are grateful for the partnership we've had with pitt county schools this past year we thank you so much for your time this past year and your time this evening and we thank you for all that you are continuing to do to make pitt county schools the best educational option for families in our community thank you so much for having me thank you for being here is there any quick question or comments i'd just like to say thank you so much for this report i always look
044forward to reading it is good insight into things that i observe throughout the year and it's all kind of put very succinctly together i think it's a great tool for the board to take a look at more closely later to see how we can grow and improve based on this feedback thank you thank you melinda i just also like to add a vet and say that um i also think by having so many community conversations and congratulations for getting the participation you did during the pandemic no that wasn't easy quite a challenge many parents are not comfortable coming to a board meeting or calling a board member i mean just there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with interacting with government of any kind and so i think you know by having
045the community conversations um really provides an opportunity that that might not feel comfortable to many of our parents so thank you for doing that and for documenting it so well thank you so much if i can just do a plug for parents for public schools just thanking you for what you do but i encourage businesses out there to partner with them historically some businesses in the community will bring new employees in and and bypass the public schools all together as an option even and i had the best opportunity to have kylian tie into a local business that was hiring and am happy to say that she met with the family and every child i mean there are some students that maybe would do better in a private setting and i'm not against that every child
046is different but i think they all need to be looked at and i'm happy to say that family is back right now looking at homes and they have decided that public schools here are good coming from out of state so i encourage businesses to tap into parents for public schools because kyleen knows our schools like no other so thank you so much for what you do thank you so much all right and now we will go to closing comments uh first i'll just uh thank preston bowers for all of his work over the last several weeks and his entire team i know jennifer johnson matt johnson i can't name them all but to pull off the graduations that we had so i certainly appreciate his leadership in making that so successful and again also congratulate
047the graduates for their success in this year getting through this year and graduating and then basically just everybody else in pitt county schools you know this has been been a unique year hopefully it's one none of us ever have to deal with again i would like to thank the principals the teachers the senior leadership staff over here all the positions all the support staff that make this work that took everybody to make this year uh successful to get us through this year so just thanks to to all of them and we'll start with worth i don't even feel like going first but anyway again i want to say just on behalf of the board uh that we are all i believe grateful for what our staff did preston and everyone who was involved in our
048graduations because we need to think there's there's a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes i know i was involved in that for years and you know this was a year that there had to be a lot of modifications made and some some difficult decisions made at the school level as well as with the board and i just think that all of us stepped up to the plate and did a great job in that and um you know we have and it's everyone that's really involved in the graduations from the school staff custodians so forth you know a lot of them come over and help and to pull that off another thing i also want to thank carol for what she does for us as a board you know keeping our robes
049straight so that we put on the right road and thank her for all that she does in regards to that now comes dr laster and a lot of the instructional staff start with summer school and we're looking forward to that that our school system is offering something that will help our students i believe that they'll benefit from and then not only that we have got uh you know the test scores and things that we have a chance to look at that's something that's done during the summer that a lot of people don't realize that you know they say well school's out well the staff at central office they are they're off too but that's really where a lot of work takes place into some hard work and reviewing test scores and looking at what strategies
050we need to implement next year i can't believe that but i just want to thank you for all that you do you didn't like that baptist preacher already yeah caroline you're up next thank you um even though eog seemed like years ago now um i want to thank you to all the parents who stepped up and volunteered as as proctors and members of our school staff for getting through the end of course and end-of-grade testing this year it's always a big challenge and um i'm really appreciative of that support deeply appreciative to emmanuel baptist church for hosting the cms 7th graders all year long and not charging us any rent it is amazing what they have done and done it just with servants hearts it's so incredible and um we i don't know how we
051could repay them um also had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to attend the parents for public schools pep academy graduation about 20 busy adults who spent the year learning about public education presented their projects and their end of year projects and it is just always so inspiring to hear almost all of them are working you know to hear the efforts that they have put into working with the schools and the students to improve either our facilities or opportunities for students or help teachers in very constructive ways that build on the strength of our schools and lastly i want to say how much i enjoyed graduation was i was able to go to all graduations this year it's really felt honored to celebrate every learner that graduated from pitt county schools and um i enjoyed
052doing that with each of you and just say that that really is the the cherry on top of a school year it is such a privilege and such an honor to be part of such a big achievement for so many of our students every single year so thank you dr linker and your incredibly professional team of excellence for making it happen okay benji thank you madam chair i i want to echo those sentiments as well i'm sure everybody in here will probably do the same what a tremendous graduation all of the graduations were so done with so much respect and dignity and i've had so many people to comment about how well they were conducted and carried out and how you know behind the scenes they could tell that pitt county schools personnel the staff
053the faculty that was involved with it just did a yeoman's job of carrying it out in a first-class manner and i guess it was probably the very first thing that our students actually got the opportunity to be involved in on a school level again in some sort of normalcy so that again was very very good and appreciative i want to say one other little thing that a lot of you probably don't know but it's it's the little things that make the difference the little things that matter uh carol rankin changed her clothes every time we had a different graduation and she wore the school colors of those uh different schools for every one of them that shows you how much blood what she's got in her veins and and she's just she's just an example
054of the dedication and the hard work and the commitment that we all have and we see every day from the faculty and the staff and administration of pitt county schools amy all right i just want to say um thank you again to colleen for coming out and presenting her findings from our community we definitely appreciate all parents for public schools does for pitt county schools and echoing what everyone else has already said thank you for all the hard work that went into the graduations seeing all the graduates walk across stage is probably my favorite part of being on the board as well especially so i get the also get a privilege of having taught several of them through pitt community college so that's really neat to see um so i really enjoy that part of
055it and and since we're all doting on carol over here i agree she is the best we love her and we would not know what to do without her so and and pretty much just let i hope everyone has a great summer and hopefully we'll be back to normal in the fall fingers crossed thank you mr tripp this has been my first opportunity to serve on the board and to attend all the graduations i was glad to be able to attend all the graduations it was a long tiring but enjoyable time i really has already been stated i would like to congratulate all those that put these graduations together from dr lincoln to all who scheduled these graduations it was so beautiful how it was done i regret i wasn't able to to go down
056and spend time with some of the parents after the graduations and i hope to do that next graduation you didn't run me away i plan to stay with this board i think we have a good board a good group of people to to work with on this board and i've gotten to know some of you even better in the last two days or the two days of the graduation which is a a good thing because i think the more we learn about each other the more we can work together on behalf of all the students of pitt county and i think we i want to commend all the principals uh the staff parents and the students to survive through a pandemic to to turn out as many graduates that we've had in pitt county is
057commendable on all of them who worked so hard to keep the kids in school to keep the kids focused to be able to even complete all of their assignments we just in a blessed county i was able to attend an 8th grade graduation i say to all the principals especially north of the river if you're having any graduation of anything that you think you can ask me to come to i'll be glad to come if you invite me but i was glad to be able to go to stokes elementary to their graduation and so again i'm not going away i really enjoy the graduations i think it was outstanding i'm very proud of all the students that walk across that stage and i'm looking forward to them doing some great things in our community thank
058you okay mr reds congratulations to the 2021 graduates from surviving and graduating best wishes you're in the next chapter of your life whether it be in the working world the armed forces attended community or four-year college a trade school or combination as you probably could see i attended all the graduations but my voice is lost because of the pirates victory last over the weekend i appreciate the parents and guests that conducted themselves in an appropriate manner at the graduation ceremonies i regret that some parents in my district were not able to hear their child's name partially or completely because the demander that some of the tenants conducted themselves blessings to all students staff and parents that survived this school year have a great summer to this year's retirees thank you for all you did and
059good luck in your future endeavors finally i'd like to congratulate to express my condolences to the families and schools farmer central high school southwest edgecombe high school and tarboro high school that were involved in the tragic accident last week that took the lives of four young people i'm praying for you have a good summer folks keep mine short and sweet everybody's pretty much expressed a lot of the things on my mind i would just like to say congratulations again to the 2021 graduates of pitt county schools i deeply regret that i was not up to par to be able to attend them it is truly a highlight every year to take part on that so my hearty congratulations and i wish everyone a bright and successful future and just wanted to echo again thanks for
060everything that pitt county schools does to to carry off this massive undertaking and to do it in a safe orderly and classy fashion to honor our seniors so it's really appreciated um i mostly wanted to say thank you to everybody that either attended had part in planning for graduation it was such a difficult year as as you know we've had to constantly keep shifting gears i feel like i'm going up a mountain that's never going to get to the top constantly shifting downshifting and switching but graduation as i said yesterday at our senior sunday presentation of awards is to me it's like christmas i feel like it's christmas to me in terms of the excitement and the thrill and it's one of the things that i look forward to all year and in the past
061year and a half where sometimes hope's been dim when you know you feel like you're constantly being thrown a curveball um graduation was just like the prize at the end and so it was successful it was great to see all those young seniors and no matter what their choices are going to be going forward it just gave me hope and so i look forward to next year's graduation and as we you know get through the summer i will remind everyone that our work session is at the facilities building not here so that we all go to the right building and that's again on the date somebody refresh my 21st 21st and then we'll have the meeting on the 23rd that we can zoom for the budget and with that being said i will entertain a
062motion to adjourn removed caroline motion to adjourn second benji no discussion any discussion on favor raise your right hand meeting is adjourned thank you