2025-11-25 Special Called Board Meeting: District 8 Candidate Interviews

001So this is it's a special meeting. It is a regular meeting. So I'm going to run through our regular agenda with a determination of quorum. We'll say the pledge and then we'll go over just an update to our interview schedule and um then we will have the system where we start bringing candidates. All right. Okay. Great. Well, good morning everyone. It is 8:18. We are starting just a couple of minutes late, but I would like to call uh the special called meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order today. Um we are working to fill the district vacancy uh the district 8 vacancy left by uh former board member Miss Lindseay Mafy. So, the first thing I want to do is determine if we have a quorum. We do. Um, and so, those

002of you that are able, please stand and we'll recite the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you everyone. Again, today is Tuesday, November 25th. Um, and we have a long meeting agenda planned for today. However, it is not quite as long as we thought it was last week. The first thing I'd like to do is I need to update you. The following candidates have officially withdrawn from consideration of the position. Balam Alari, Heather Emerson Young, and Hardik Raval. So those three candidates, Balam Ali, Heather Emerson Young, and Hardock Raval will not be able to join us today. Will not be joining us today.

003They have withdrawn from consideration. All right. Um, if you had gotten any correspondence, we did have one candidate who was unsure if they could join us. He has confirmed that he will join us, Mr. Robert Dunn. He will be in the last uh interview position today. So, we will proceed today and interview candidates for the vacant district 8 board seat. Um, Miss Melissa Allen has contacted all of the candidates, shared the format for the meeting and the interviews, and we will proceed through the through the interviews in the following order. Raymond Jaggley, Nihar Shaw, Steven Murray, Lana Prince, Lorie Parsons, Pratt Fishnava, Dr. George Reed III, Romesh Nalivolu, Almira Abbas, Jennifer Dearman, Dr. Candace Smith, Douglas Ba Behan, Dr. Jennifer Job, and Dr. Robert Dunn. So, as we discussed, there will be five minute breaks

004between each interview. will break for lunch around 11:55 to 12:25. If everything goes on time according to plan, we should complete our last interview at about 5:30. At that point, depending on your energy level, we may break for a little bit. We could have some brown bag or delivery food um before we go into deliberation. or if you're feeling motivated and you want to push on through, we can push right on through with deliberation. We'll just take a break and assess at that point and see how everyone feels. All right. Um again, after the last interview concludes, we will have a break and then the board will come back and deliberate on the um 14 candidates and we'll begin voting. At this point, I want to make sure that the board is in agreement about

005how we will move forward with voting. Um, with 14 candidates, that could be for a very long day. You'll have many, many choices. Looking at the resumes, we have many fine candidates. Many qualified outstanding candidates unfortunately won't be selected. Only one. Um, one thing that we have done in the past and that we've talked about in our previous meetings is a system where you have to have at least one vote to proceed to the next round of voting. So that way it does show that candidates who are being considered do have at least one board member in support. On the other hand, we will eliminate a lot of candidates, but that is our job. We have to get through 13 to find the one. Um, so is everyone comfortable or does anyone have any alternatives

006to the idea of eliminating any candidates that fail to receive any votes? Okay. All right. Then the other thing that I want to talk about is that with the limited amount of time we have for each candidate, I do want to try to keep everything on track and on task. So, um, the vice chair and I will have a system of going out and getting the candid candidate from the lobby, bringing them in, and then escorting the the candidates who have completed the interview out this door while we bring another one in. Uh, we're going to keep introductions short, very short. We're just going to jump into the interviews to give each candidate as much time as they have to use as they please. Okay. All right. So, with that, the time I have is

0078:24. Our first candidate will be Raymond Yaggley. Um, and so, Mr. Vice Chair, at at whatever time is appropriate. If you would like to um bring in our first candidate to start at 8:30, we'll be good to go and we'll stand in recess until then. Mr. Hershey, >> you want to just review the question? >> Oh, thank you. So there are um eight board members. Seven are present right now. Um I'm hopeful Miss Cfield will be joining us. Um what we'll do is I will just ask the first question and then we'll just proceed down the line. Everyone ask asks the same question. Um, the way it should work, unless a candidate spends more time than um was anticipated, everyone should be asking the same question each round, unless you decide at some point that

008you want to mix up the order. Okay. All right. Good morning, Miss Cfield. We just went over uh the procedures. We have three candidates who have withdrawn. Baral Malaldi, Heather Emerson Young, and Hardik Raval. So that leaves us with um 14 other candidates that we'll be interviewing and um you know, Mr. Swanson is going to bring in our first candidate and we're about to get started. All right. All right. We'll remain we'll be in a brief recess until our first candidate is here. Thank you. All right, everyone. We will come back into session from recess. Good morning. Um, I'd like to introduce everyone to Raymond Yaggley. Um, Mr. Yaggley, we have 30 minutes per candidate. We also have 14 candidates. So, what we're going to do to give you as much time as possible is

009we'd like to really skip any further introductions and just jump straight into the questions. All right. Well, good morning. Um, our quest, first question for you today to get started. Um, is simply if you could tell us why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> My whole professional career was serving students and when I retired, he needs to turn the mic. Real quick, I'm sorry. Do you see the microphone? If you could, is there a button is make sure the green light is lit up? >> I was so concerned about the pace I forgot to give you that basic setup instruction. Please go ahead. >> So, I was separated from that when I retired and I missed it that I want to be able to serve again to serve

010a community serving students. >> Great. Thank you, Lester Swanson. Good morning. I have a question, too, that says, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?" Well, my current commitments are pretty non-existent. I'm retired, so this should not be any problem at all. >> Good morning. I have question number three. What do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent? And how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Well, I have been managing the relationship between superintendent and school board for 24 years and uh I think I have a pretty good understanding of it. As a board

011member, uh the priorities are, I think, to uh deal with policy, make decisions for the community, and uh stay in touch with the community with the uh superintendent leading. I was never a believer in all of the recommendations coming from the superintendent. We got them from uh kids, from board members, from the community, from staff. And uh I would see that as part of my role to make proposals in addition to considering those that come my way. >> Thank you. as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Okay, there are numerous things that school districts are responsible for from transportation and uh student nutrition to uh extracurriculars.

012But I think there are two priorities that really stand out. The first one is keeping the students safe. The second one is maximizing the learning opportunities for students and make sure that they are learning. So I think those two things need to be foremost in our mind as we're considering the budget. We don't want to short change that. Now even those two go into some of the other areas. So for example uh safety requires I think that we not uh leave too much deferred maintenance. We have to have safe uh facilities, safe playground equipment and uh a safe environment for the students to be in the uh academic excellence part of it. I believe requires that we have both a uh a competitive salary and an environment that is inviting that is supportive of teachers

013and staff members and students uh with safety. We may need to coordinate with uh police. I don't know whether we have school resource officers in Wake County or not. That uh might be one of the things that would need to be budgeted for. Um and I guess another priority I would have is good effective staff development. Uh I think we have good teachers like any other profession or any other uh school district. There are probably some who are not performing up to standard, but all of them come from a diversity of preparation programs. And if we are going to have excellence, we need to support them in their professional development and developing new skills. And obviously with the growth we have in the uh area, buildings are going to continue to be built. We'll come

014around the table uh with Miss Gordon. >> Thank you. Um given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps among our most vulnerable students? >> Okay, this question is really close to my heart. This is what I'm all about. I think one of the biggest challenges we have is understanding what excellence is because uh the federal government and state governments have uh defined it almost solely solely as achievement. And achievement is actually not a measurement of school effectiveness. It's a measurement of the socioeconomic status of the school district. I have a uh proposal here, a concept proposal that I'd like to share. It's not to be read right now, but there are some uh charts in it that if you want to hand that to Mr. Malone, he'll

015distribute it for us. Thank you. >> If you will go to page five, there are two figures there that are apppropo to this question. The top one shows achievement with socioeconomic status and you can see that it's a nice tight line that as uh the the affluence goes up the achievement goes up as well. The second one is learning rate or academic growth of the students and you can see with that one that it's spread all over. In the first one, Wake County is fairly affluent and is a high achieving district. But when you look at the second one, our students are not growing at the national mean. We are below the mean. So what is uh not totally responsible for the high achievement, but a big factor in it is the socioeconomic status. And

016there are things that we can do about the lo learning uh rate and that's what this concept proposal is about. One of those things is to implement something called formative assessment in the classrooms. This is not another test. Formative assessment is a way of thinking. It's uh the teachers asking questions, using instructional strategies that allow them to get a sense for each student in their classroom and what they are learning, how they're understanding it, how they are moving forward. And in this environment, students do grow faster. Now the question asks about uh the most vulnerable students and a lot of the research on this shows that there is a a large effect with formative assessment and that the effect is greater for the students who are more challenged than it is for the higher students

017higher performing students. So that is one of the things that I would strongly recommend and I hope that you will look at this and consider this at your leisure. But whether I'm selected for board membership or not, I think this is something that you may want to look at. Uh the data by the way on those two paragraphs came from the Stanford Education Data Archive and it uh it dates back to 2019. So the data are not exactly up to date but I don't think there have been any significant changes in the relative performance in those years. Uh the embedded prof or the uh embedded formative assessment in this proposal involves a two-year professional development program which is not particularly expensive but is highly effective. >> Thank you. Uh question six, what are your thoughts

018on uh WCPSS school choice which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County Public School System use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> Well, I'm very impressed by the uh opportunities that you have in the school district. Uh my family is benefiting from it. One of my grandchildren is uh has been accepted to the engineering program at uh Apex Friendship High School. He thinks and and I think he might actually be headed for MIT. So, he's going to benefit greatly from this. uh regarding the recruitment and retention. I think one of the things we need to do is if we can figure out how we need to project in the future how much need there will be so that we can have the demand the supply

019meeting the demand. My uh grandson is a good student and deserving of the program, but he also was very lucky because he uh survived the lottery. And that's a challenge in all kinds of things that we do, the lotteryies and the needs for the lottery. Um continuing to make people aware of what these programs are and what they do will be important. and uh continual improvement on the programs making strong programs even stronger. >> Good morning. Uh question seven. With the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? Okay, balancing needs is a universal problem that I think will probably continue until the end of society. Um, Mr. Spot most famously said it on

020Star Trek, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. But he was not the origin or the the writers on Star Trek were not the originators of that. You can find it in several places in anti antiquity. One of them Plato securing one individual's good is cause for rejoicing but to secure the good of the nation or of a city state is nobler and more divine. So we will continue to work with this and I think there is no solution that gives everybody what they want. So what I would need to communicate with the constituents in my community is that they are going to be in the many for most of the things that we have and sometimes they will be in the few and the many in other

021places will need the benefits but in the end it's going to balance out. I think the board and the the administration are very much aware of that and are working to balance things. Thank you. Uh last question. With nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> Okay, this requires a whole bunch of different strategies. One that I know of is student community service. Um I'm not going to spend all of my time if I'm on the board harking back to things I've done, but we did have one really good thing in Rochester. It was an alternative school that uh had a a strong focus on academics, and these were kids who were not surviving in the regular

022school environment. But in addition to the strong academics, they had a community service uh part that included uh them managing a zipline that was used by many groups in the community. They planted trees in the medians in some of the streets. They did a lot of other things and that brought an enormous amount of support both to the alternative school and to the district as a whole. So I've uh known many districts that have a service requirement for all of their students, not just the alternative students. So that I think is one thing that we can do to bring support. After all, the students are what this is all about. The second one is to be responsive to inquiries and give genuine respect and consideration and attention to every citizen who approaches the board. Um,

023you can't please everybody. There are times that we're going to have to do things that will be negative. There are teachers who will have to be fired, students who will have to be expelled, and parents who will have to accept the answer no. But I would hope that doesn't become a a big part of what we do. We need to recognize and try to honor the requests that we get. And I think a a key to this is that if people feel like they have been heard and understood and respected, they are more willing to accept a negative outcome. >> All right, Mr. Mr. Higgley, that does conclude all of the questions that we have for you today. Um, we will make a decision this evening. I will, uh, call all of the candidates who

024have come to interview and I will notify them of the selection. We don't know exactly what time that will be. U, we anticipate it will be sometime after 5:00 p.m. >> Okay. >> I will say we had 14 candidates. We have many highly qualified candidates. However, 13 will not be selected. Um, but we do appreciate you putting your name out there. It takes a lot and uh we will review the information that you've shared with us. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. So, thank you very much and have a great day. >> I'm sorry. Uh, Vice Chair Swanson, we'll show you out. We're going to take you out a different way. Yeah. All right, everyone. Welcome back. Um, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Nihar Shaw. Uh, Mr. Shaw, uh, we

025have, as I I told you outside, we have 30 minutes per candidate. We do have 14 candidates, so we want to give you as much time as possible. Sure. >> Uh so what we'd like to do is jump right in to the interviews. We will give you a time check uh to make sure that you're uh you can get through all the questions in the time that we have. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Uh thanks board. Good morning everyone and I appreciate uh allowing me to come here and share some of my thoughts process. I'm sure it will be a busy day so I will not try to repeat myself on the repetitive uh answers on some of the questions and feel free to ask me any questions. >> Thank you. Let's jump right in. So tell

026us why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Absolutely. uh being a weak county resident uh for a quite a period of time and uh father of two high school kids it's always uh you know I believe that the strong schools will bring bring a strong communities uh also my education background masters in electrical engineering as well as MBA in finance and management and some of the others certifications makes me believe that strong education will give uh tools that our student needs for a future success in a rapid changing world. Uh I think so some of my educational and technical expertise uh launching a large scale technology projects as well as financial stewardship makes me believe that I can support the board and the need for the W county

027especially the district which is I guess the rapidly growing district and some of the expertise that I have learned uh collaboration uh equity as well as uh collaboration on innovation side will support the board's mission. Thank you. >> Good morning. I have question two. >> Please, Tyler. >> Um, and serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> Great. Uh, so I work full-time in Amtrak as a technology director. In a previous work before Amtrak, I used to manage a large teams all over US. But my current position in Amtrak, a national railroad passengers, I work remotely here out of Apex, North Carolina. Uh it's a technology director. It's a technology guidance role. It's

028an individual contributor role. So I can manage the requirement of the board couple of hours every day, every weekends as well as managing the early afternoons and later evenings to compensate between my traditional job versus the board position. Thank you. >> Good morning. I have question number three, please. >> What do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County? >> Great. Uh, so as I said, my I'm I'm a father of two high schoolers in a Wake County. So I always look at the board meetings recording available on the YouTube channels and go through some of the Wake County uh education updates. uh this the the board's role is to come up

029with the the high level processes, budgetary guidelines, budgetary approvals where the superintendent's role is more about day-to-day operations and implement those strategic visions which came from board into the uh different school district. So I get the overall idea about the board's role versus the superintendent's role and the the overall staff requirements. I think so the collaboration which was part of the question you asked is very important key to understand how that both side of the world works. Uh board can come up with the great ideas and great budget in isolation but without knowing superintendent's individual school or individual need it will not be the the best of both worlds. So I will recommend a great collaboration though it is more a strategy-driven organization here the board it needs to have the day-to-day updates from the

030superintendent and each school has a different need any any follow-up questions please feel free thank you >> thank you um as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget what do you think are the budget priorities ities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff. >> Absolutely. Um I have managed multi-million dollars uh almost billion plus dollars budget in my uh professional life. Even at Amtrak I manage multi-million dollars of budget for technology road maps. So every budget here for for the board I will envision is it has to have a transparency as well as datadriven uh analytics without having the solid data you cannot come up with the budget. So if I have to provide some few points about the budgetary guideline or budgetary

031priorities, I will start with uh equip our educators, teachers with the latest technology uh with the latest resources what they need in the classroom to be a successful. Second is to our students uh the great we have a great system in Wake County but it can be enhanced absolutely uh the great digital connectivity. there's a lot of material but how what is they can use those material so that's a lot of work to be done so that could be the second priority for digital access to the students and third and the most important is uh mental awareness programs uh safety programs wherever it needs some some schools district needs some versus more uh depends on the area and the location and the diversity but that's the fundamental safety and the mental awareness so those are

032the three or four highlights for the the budgetary priorities if I had to put together. Hope that that answered your question. >> All right. Thank you. Now we have um we have eight questions. Those were your first four. By my time we have 23 minutes remaining out of your 30. Oh, >> okay. So I have Thank you. >> Okay. Next we'll come around the table to Miss Gordon. >> Hi, good morning. Um, given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps among our most vulnerable students? Uh, >> it's a great question. Last year, I was looking at, as I said, my my two daughters in in middle school, high school, now both are in high school. I was looking at the overall process of EOCCOG and EAS tool,

033I guess, which is developed by the SES and how they come up with the trending the data analytics from last couple of years. for ranking of the schools, the educators, the teachers based on the similar students and their success over the period of time. There are multiple ways uh even and and some of our um vulnerable students. I guess that's the question. I will say that we should start proactively before even those tests earlier in the year. Those vulnerable students we have to provide an additional help a specific subject specific topic if they are lagging there is an opportunity the targeted uh help will be very useful to to uh reach to the level and help those uh lagging students that's the first second is um I think so I have provided that we have

034a lot of different material but it needs to be organized so some students where they don't know where to look for those materials. It's a ease of access and ease of looking at that specific topic if they are lagging in that topic before the EOCG or any other standardized testing for evac data. And third is uh being a technical background there are a lot of different softwares and applications even for our teachers or educators where they can come up with a very targeted uh study plans for those vulnerable students. And I think so that can help the students to to progress and that way we can improve the overall level of the student education. >> Thank you and good morning. >> Good morning Sam. >> What are your thoughts on uh Wake County Public School

035Choice which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs. How can Wake County use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> Yes. Um I'm very pleased when we relocated in the area uh putting a specific address and you see the multiple options yearround schools traditional schools magnet schools charter schools uh yes my kids are going to the traditional Wake County school system there are a lot of different information uh there are lot of different uh it's not properly structured there are ways we can important ly structure those information especially do I have a transportation if I go for this specific school is the transportation available or I have to arrange my own transportation I think so there are multiple ways we can still attract the families uh from outside to to

036the wake county if we have more ease of those tools and uh information is there we have to just make it more systematic so being a product manager or product launch in my previous roles I want to make this as a product where it is very ease of access and uh whatever the information you think as an end user it's readily available second approach I will think is uh share the success stories there are a lot of great students in Wake County and they have done fantastic um either at the county level or at the national level um in the field of engineering, STEM, medical. There are lot of different students which you see on the on the media every day from Wake County. We have to share those success stories uh to attract the

037families. And uh one more thing I will add is some of the other school district like Massachusetts uh New York and uh Orange County, California especially Tustin school district and those they're using for magnet school they use like a summer volunteering or summer internship program for high schoolers which is not very common. You have heard summer internship for the college kids not for the high school kids I think. So that can also attract more families to the magnet and other programs and other school district are using those uh methods to attract the families into that school district. So I if that that helps. >> Good morning. >> Morning. um with the growth of the dis the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents

038of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> That's a great question. Uh so if I put my corporate hat um I will follow the corporate mantra and follow the district first and then system always methodology which means that I will give a priority to the needs of district 8 as a as a as as a board member but same time I will align with the broader board's mission uh before we take a final decision on those uh and there is always in governance there There's always a difference of opinions. Uh but I always believe collaboration and data database uh uh discussion pure data analytics discussion will will come up with a conclusion what is right for the overall school district and right for the specific district 8 if you're talking about >>

039Thank you. Uh, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public School System do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> Yes, this is uh also a very classic uh question for lot of school district. How to balance uh the taxpayers who are paying for the school as well as the the taxpayer who don't have the schoolgoing kids. I will be in the board in four years. I will not have kids in the I will be empty neester. So if I look at that uh specifically topic it's more about awareness. Uh I found um Chicago one of the suburbs of Chicago school district and I I don't remember the name so I'll not quote for it. What they have done is they have done uh talking

040with the bigger homeowners associations who are whose majority of the kids are not in the school and try to get awareness that the public school system will bring uh the overall pricing of their houses. It will bring more workforce development in the area. So try to get awareness. That's that's just more collaboration part with some of those HOAs and community and it has to be done regularly. It's not one time that you communicate those messages. Second is you show the statistical data about having a great public school system attracts more families into the area and the entire ecosystem will develop because those families will bring in if you look at economics perspective there they will need restaurants. So eventually it will start bringing more economy into the area for that specific need of a young

041family and that is great for the growth of the overall area financial growth. So your house prices your overall economy will improve if you have a great public school system. That's that's just one of the way of thinking. And being an HOA president of our community in Apex, I always bring that topic though I'm I don't have all the information publicly available information to the to the residents of the community that it's a great to be part of this area where we have a great school system. So that's couple of ways we can manage that but there is no silver bullet. It's it's always a tough question to juggle. >> Okay. So Mr. Shaw, that does conclude the questions that we have for you. Um, I will wanted to let you know that the board

042does intend on making a decision this evening. Oh, >> okay. That's that's pretty quick. Appreciate that. >> And, um, I will contact everyone to notify them of the selection. Now, as I think I might have mentioned before, we have 14 candidates. So, there will be many qualified candidates. >> Of course, >> 13 of the candidate 13 of the 14 will not be selected. But um we're very excited uh for everyone who has applied and we really appreciate you putting your name out there and submitting your name and your resume and your ideas for consideration today. Absolutely Chris. So I really appreciate the time uh this morning. I know it will be a busy day for the board and if I get selected or not but definitely we'll be even volunteering work to support the board

043in future. So really appreciate. Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you. Yep. Okay. >> All right, everyone. We're returning from recess and I would like to introduce you to Mr. Steve Murray. Mr. Murray is our third candidate today. Um, I have instructed Mr. Murray that we have 30 minutes per candidate and that we have 14 candidates. Uh we do want to give you as much time as possible. Um but we do want to make sure that you do have a chance to answer all of the questions. So halfway through we will give you uh after the first four questions we can update you on the time you have left. And at any time if you're curious feel free to ask. It's no secret and we can let you know how much time that

044you have remaining. All right. So if you are ready what we'd like to do is just jump right into the questions. And our first question, it's pretty simple. Why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Certainly. Uh thank you for the question. I think it's a combination of my uh professional background and my commitment to public service and my lived experience as a parent. Um there I've had some roles that require me to advocate for others in some complicated systems. uh first as a pharmacist and then as an uh investigator as and a data analyst in North Carolina Medicaid. Uh it's taught me how to uh listen closely to people and uh to find the root cause in situations and um how to use data to make sure that

045systems are working properly. Um I've learned that when systems fail, it's not uh abstract. It's an actual person that uh is being failed. Uh it's actually shaped how I approach this role. I live here in Wake County and I've lived as a public servant and uh as a public school parent. Um I have been impacted by uh one of the reassignments uh in 2012. Um there was a period of time there when um our family was temporarily going to be reassigned to a location 6 milesi away. and uh we organized and talked with the school board and school board uh actually went back and uh gave us a path to our local school. So we found out that uh you guys do listen and uh adjust plans based on on on how public feedback. Um

046but it is very personal to me. I have three kids. All three of my kids are neurode divergent. Uh, one recently graduated high school. Uh, one is still attending high school. And, uh, one of my children, my wife and I, had to disenroll from school and had to place in a therapeutic boarding school because that's what my child needed. Um, we've had a range of experiences. I understand the reality of the system, both its strengths and its gaps. Uh, things that need to be addressed. I have had some experiences that are profoundly positive and I've also had some situations where my children were either misunderstood or um unsupported but I don't think it's from a a lack of compassion but I think it's more from um probably some inflexibility related to their neurode diverency and

047I think it's the small decisions or policies that that are set at the board level or at the district level that really can impact a child uh and ripple down uh to the child and impact their confidence uh how they engage and their sense of belonging. And I just want to ensure that the policies that we pass here uh work for the families that they that they affect because I think that the policies uh that are created here are going to be around long after uh we're gone and they really can change the lives of some people. Um my analytical background has taught me how to evaluate data and ask some really tough questions u and identify patterns in the outcomes. Definitely. My experience as a pharmacist has taught me how to build trust and

048explain some complicated information in very simple terms to people. And I can also problem solve with some pretty deep empathy. Having worked in the community with people, being a parent has definitely given me the ter the determination that I need in order to do this role. Uh, but I think what motivates me most is just the idea of service. I've grown up or my kids have grown up in this area and um I think the public schools are the foundation of the community and I certainly want to make uh this foundation stronger. So, >> thank you. >> Good morning. I have question two um which says, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?

049>> So, fortunately, I have a supportive spouse and uh I think that's going to be the key for me. Maybe many of you probably feel the same way. That's the first key. But I think what I really hear you asking though is um how committed I am to the role and do I have any barriers? Because that's really what I the fundamental question that comes down to it is. Um and I am really committed to this role. I'm really excited about it and having the opportunity to do this. Um and as far as barriers are concern um at my job my leadership is very uh uh supportive of this. Uh they're giving me the flexibility to change the hours if I need to. Um I do work mostly from home and the team that I

050work on is pretty agile. uh we can anticipate our work mostly uh the work that we do and we can plan around the board meeting schedules. Um the key is I just need to complete all of my job duties and the functions of my job. So you just stay within there. But uh the specific of question uh of how I would go about it I to be honest with you I think I would seek advice from all of you guys as to how you guys do it because you guys are the experts on how to manage all that. So, >> okay. Uh, I have question number three. [cough] [clears throat] What do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent? And how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local

051leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Well, uh, paint it with a broad brush. Uh, everyone can say it that the board sets the policy and the the superintendent imposes and enforces the or implements and enforces the policy, but I think the jobs are interactive and they're almost overlapping in some ways, but their goals are always the same. Um, the district certainly works the best when there's a coordinated effort between the two of them, obviously. Um I recognize that there's no power or authority as an individual. Uh it's only when the board is collectively together making decisions that you actually have any power. Um but also the board answers and is only accountable or is accountable to the public and the members are accountable specifically to their constituents and the uh

052superintendent is accountable to the board in that respect. Um but for some examples of u accountability uh related to the relationship between the two um it's essent it's like the the school board the school board's job is to um use the student achievement data uh to drive the decision-m. It's the superintendent's job to um collect the data and report the data uh you know to the board in order to make the decisions. um and also to make recommendations to the board as as far as to how to uh change policies. Um and another example I I would give is uh related to climate uh in the schools. Um it's the board's responsibility to recognize achievement uh in the schools with the students and the and the staff. So we would have to develop policies related

053to all of that and it would be the superintendent's job to both uh implement the and uh carry out the plan um in order to to do that. So then the second part of the question as far as uh how would I collaborate with the community and stakeholders? I think they're two different questions. I think there should be 3A and 3B. But um I I certainly see collaborating as an as an obligation. Uh that's not an option obviously. Um there are several practices that uh I think are obvious. Uh first one is uh you have to dress professionally because if you don't look good then the board doesn't look good. And it's a a no-brainer first of all. But I think the key is you have to do your homework. If you're asked to give

054any sort of speech or talk with the legislators, in order to do anything, you have to know what you're talking about and you have to find out what they want you to talk about if you're going to be making a speech. Um, you have to be knowledgeable in that sense. But I think one of the the keys that you have to keep in mind is um if you don't know something, you have to be able to say I don't know. Uh, and I'll get back to you on that or something like that. Um as far as specific methods, I certainly would say um I would attend those uh the meetings with the service groups and with the local leaders and get to know them. Um and certainly continue those uh roundt discussions with the local

055municipal municipalities uh that uh Mr. Swanson's spearheading. I think those are a great way to foster ideas and relationships with the local leaders. Um I think that's one of the keys is to try to identify where we have overlapping uh priorities and uh try to find efficiencies with them. >> Thank you, Mr. Murray. Um, as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Well, I think a the a budget reflects your values first of all. Um, so I would say that uh classroom pay is one of the priorities I would do and then u uh infrastructure investments is the other one. So, we'll start with the classroom pay.

056Um, I think having top-notch teachers in the classroom is vital to student success. I believe out of the operating budget, uh, it's it's it's an investment that we we should be making. Um, our teacher pay is somewhere between 41 and 46 nationally, depending on how you make the calculation. Um, I believe that in Wake County we can attract and retain uh the best teachers if we're smart about it. Uh, you guys reinstated the advanced degree payment from local payment which I think was a great investment uh from the from the county. Um, but I believe the IAS the uh instructional assistants are just as important as well in the classrooms. Uh, they have just as much of an impact as well uh for those that are in there. But I I believe in order to

057fully fund all of that uh we need to have uh the full legislative funding of the Leandro remedial plan. Uh I'm part of a I think there's a pessimistic part of me that uh believes that uh it's I think that those funds even if we do get a positive judicial outcome from that that those funds are going to find the way the same way as the lottery funds and the uh the technology funds where they're just going to find a replacement instead of a supplement. So I think we need to behave as though that money is not going to be coming. Um and second of all uh the infrastructure uh the medium and long-term systematic investments uh I believe obviously behave like savings accounts for the for the district where they you know pay off

058over long time periods. uh cherry pick a couple of things uh would be easy. Energy efficient buildings, solar panels on the roof, um retrofitting the the bus fleet with electric. Um but I think the the elephant in the room that we all need to address is the uh the deferred maintenance. It's that's a it's a lot that's out there. Um, we have uncomfortable students that are sitting in classrooms that are hot and cold and it's really hard to learn um, when you're uncomfortable. Um, I know there's a line item in the budget for, you know, a study in order for us to figure out how to get if, you know, more efficient um, HVAC units. But, uh, there's no assurance that that's going to get through there. Um, and I know there's also some uh

059concerns about uh hiring technicians for the new technology. I mean, perhaps we can uh partners with Wake Tech in order to have some sort of program with them where they can either have a uh either a contract or we can have a pipeline with them for new technicians uh for that. Um, I know there's a a thought process that there might be some state school construction bond because it's been what 30 years almost since we've had one of those. Um, it's another one of those things where I think down on Jones Street, they've displayed with their behavior that uh they're a pay as you go. They've used the bonds uh as negotiating tactics the last couple of budgets and uh I don't think we're likely to get those. So, I think again that we need

060to make investments uh out of the capital budget and you guys have done a great job uh going from 20 million to $40 million and taking bites out of that in order for the deferred maintenance, but maybe we need to do more. and you guys have done a great job um prioritizing new buildings in the you know fast growing areas in order to alleviate the overcrowding but maybe we need to take our foot off the gas just a little bit. I know that would impact district 8 but you know if that alleviates some of the students that are are uh uncomfortable then so be it. Um, at the end of the day, it's about the student achievement, and I think that's those are the two things that I think I would prioritize. So, >> all

061right, Vice Swanson, how are we on time? >> Uh, 14 minutes. >> Okay, you're right on pace. We'll come back around the table, Miss Gordon. >> Thank you. Um, given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps among our most vulnerable students? >> Sure. So, um, the one that, um, I focused on was, uh, early warning indicators in ninth graders. Um, there's a study that's out there that's shown that, um, a combination of good grades, uh, focusing on, uh, attendance and earning enough credits in nth grade uh, increased the likelihood of graduation uh, by four times. So I think if we can fixate on those metrics in ninth grade um and focus on those students then um it'll have an impact on the arc of people's lives. Um,

062I know that we're not going to see the impact of the outcome for 3 and 1/2 years and that's well beyond the next uh election cycle, but that's the right thing to do and um that's an easy one to monitor. Um, but that's again where the separation of duties comes in where we would monitor the information and the superintendent would have to implement some sort of a policy to insert into the evaluation principles and ensure training and all that stuff is is in there in order to ensure that that policy is uh enforced. Um, also I I think reason and common sense tell me that you take the student data um and identify the students that need the help and you use the data to find the teachers that are good at it and you

063try to put them together and uh find the ones that uh really need the help and you put them in smaller classroom settings with those teachers. It's a logistics thing to me. Uh you do that as best you can. Uh sometimes it's those simple things. Uh you don't try to overthink it. Um and also you bring the parents and the guardians in um to try to develop a student- centered plan and you support them around that and perhaps redirecting some of the uh 1% of the title one parental engagement funds to help close that gap. So, uh, what the board could do is when they're writing policies, keep that principle, um, that when they're writing new policies, they should always, uh, keep the principle in mind that uh, it's like an invisible phrase. Uh, uh,

064this will improve student outcomes by then. Every policy should be keeping that focus on the student outcomes. So, this will improve student outcomes by Thank you. And good morning. What are your thoughts on Wake uh County School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? So, I I love the the school choice. Um the fact that parents do get to choose within Wake County uh from multiple different pathways for their child to learn. Um I think that Wake County certainly has a reputation as one of the best places in the country. Um and I think it's a direct result of the long-term efforts of this board. Um, I know the magnet schools were created in, you know, the

0651970s with the, uh, intent to promote desegregation. And lately, there's been a, uh, a voluntary path towards segregation as a result of the, uh, voucher program with charter and private schools. Um, and that's unfortunate. I think the the the board of education over the years has done a great job uh with the different type of options and the number of options that we offer and I think the board is definitely in tune with the different types of magnet schools that uh parents uh are asking for. I do think there's an opportunity that has a pretty lowcost solution. Um one of my children was part of the Academy of Information Technology within their high school. I think those could be expanded. uh they definitely give the students the practical skills and experience uh and they're uh

066it gives parents options right within their base school. So um and the only other idea that I was kind of thinking through was um parents are are anxious when they're starting their child down a magnet school path uh when they don't know that they can continue down that theme for the entire time. So I'm I'm I would suggest that we have a guaranteed pathway in order for for some parents uh so that they can rely on that continuity all the way through that pathway. So >> thank you. >> Sorry just we want to do one more time check. >> You have uh nine minutes remaining. >> Thanks. Go ahead Dr. Sorry. >> Okay. Um thank you. with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve. How would you balance the needs of

067the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> So, uh it's a tricky question obviously and it sounds like you want me to kind of reveal my secret sauce for politic and right here up front, but uh uh I I guess I would call it a district first through a local lens kind of philosophy. Uh certainly student outcomes districtwide are the first priority and I don't ever want it to become a uh us versus them rest of the district kind of view. Uh it is incumbent upon us uh to learn the district 8 um growth patterns and the timelines of different projects um new traffic patterns and all of those specific issues that uh really impact us and and be unmerciful in our advocacy. whoever is selected for this role. But

068with that being said, I certainly understand it if it comes down to it. If we have to make some short-term sacrifices um if there is another area that can have a meaningful impact uh for another district, that is part of consensus building with colleagues on the board and uh that's part of the uh budget making over multiple years. I mean, it's I get that. Uh, but I would remind myself of the strategic plan and the vision and use those to guide my long-term priorities. Thank you. Um, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should WCPSS do to improve engagement with the broader community? So, I think the joy agre the joint use agreements that we have with the municipalities, I think we need to be a little more flexible

069with level four ones that we have. I think that's the most cost-effective way that we can spend community tax dollars. Uh those are the ones where we're the town uses the school properties outside of the school hours. Um I think we should continue to build those relationship with the local counterparts and um by doing so we foster trust and it helps us understand their needs. um when we are doing those level four agreements, I think every new school proposal that we have should have some sort of a provisional level four agree uh agreement incorporated into it. Um I also believe that the the schools don't belong to the Wake County Public Schools. they belong to the community. And if we want to make it a community hub, then we really need to think beyond just

070our needs and we need to um find a way uh to share the space and see from their perspective also. And even the level one through three agreements that we have with these different areas, um how much does it really cost to embed a community garden in these schools when we're building them? I mean, or uh building the architecture some sort of uh safe entrances into a meeting space. Um or put some electrical lines and water lines into the parking lot so that we can have a a farmers market or some other event on the weekend. Um it doesn't cost that much to embed those things in from the from the beginning. And for what it's worth, we already go the other way with the city of Raleigh when we use our city pools for

071the swim teams. So, we're already um doing that type of work and it's natural that we should share resources with the county, different localities. As far as specific activities, um my daughter when she was a in choir in grade school, they went around to all the different um senior uh living spaces and did performances. I mean, it's a great thing. The seniors loved it. Uh I think we should encourage that that type of stuff. Um, of course there's uh activities like reading buddies with the seniors. Uh, we could host uh some lifelong learning classes at the schools and I think even with uh internships and uh shadowing with the local businesses. I don't think any of those are groundbreaking new ideas but those are things I would encourage. So >> all right, thank you Mr.

072Murray. That brings us to the conclusion of our questions. Um what we will do is the board will make a decision this evening on the selection to fill the vacancy. I will I will contact everyone individually to let them know know about the selection. Uh we did have 14 candidates and as I'm telling everyone with many qualified candidates 13 people aren't going to be selected. So, we know it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out here and we really appreciate your interest in serving the district and then coming and talking about your uh your ideas and your interest with us here today. All right. So, thank you very much and hear from us later today. >> Thank you so much. I forgot to ask. Is it Lana or Lana? >> It's Lana. Yes.

073>> Hi. >> All right, everyone. Um, as we just heard, I'd like to introduce Lana presence to you all. Um, Miss Prince, we will have 30 minutes for the interview. Uh, there are 14 candidates who have applied for the seat. We want to give you as much time as possible. Um, so, but take your time for each question, okay? >> Uh, we will give you time checks throughout just to let you know how you're progressing. There are eight questions. We'll give you your first check after the first four. Okay? >> And then depending on how close you are to the deadline, we may give you >> give you some others. All right. All right. That's good. >> All right. Well, if you are ready, we will jump right in. >> Sure. >> And our first

074question is, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Yes. Am I talking loud enough? [laughter] I'll have to get used to the microphone. Um, well, my name is Lana Prince and I have three young kids that are in the elementary school system. Um we have been working with them since they were in preschool to get them um the help that they need. They were diagnosed with some developmental delays and we have been in three different area schools in the district 8 um like area. So we've been at Buckhorn um Buckhorn Creek is where they did preschool. We did Holly Grove and then we just got redistricted and now we're at Rex Road which is the new school and we're having a great time settling in over there. Um

075but as the uh federal uh board of educ like department of education has kind of been like dismantled and redistributed that just brought a lot of concern for me that these programs that we have been living in in the last several years might not get the funding that they need at our state level. Um so I'm here today to try and be a voice for for that program. Um it was something that was vital for me as a parent. It's a huge learning curve when you have kids that have a lot of special needs. And I I thought that was huge for me. And um my kids are not the highest needs that are out there. We take care of a lot of different levels of kids in the state. Um we get exposed to

076that through the programs that we are in. Um but there's still sides of that program I still haven't even seen and I've been in pretty deep so far. Um, and these kids are awesome and amazing. And the schools are have been pivotal to creating communities for parents especially, um, where I can make friends and just say, "Hey, am I'm not alone, right?" Um, and that is something that's really really important and I think that our state needs to really make sure that we can focus on that. So my interest in being here today is to say that there's a time and a place where we need to step up and be ready. And I think that this is a very important time and place. If we are not prepared to have North Carolina be able

077to keep these programs for these kids, um if that money doesn't come from a federal level, then we could let down a large portion of our students. And um I want to be that voice. I feel like I am in a position that I can be a community bridge. I can be that person for you that I'm in these schools. I've been in a significant portion of them already. Um, you know, I printed out the list of all the schools in the district and you're like, I mean, to get three out of them like that, I'm here. I'm I'm in it. Um, and I'm somebody that can use those skills like that I have gone through so far and bring that as something to to give a different perspective. I think sometimes when you're in

078something for a while, you get used to the daytoday and sometimes you need a fresh perspective and I feel like I can bring that. Um I, you know, made the decision for the longest time I was like, I'm going to be a working mom. And these kids were born and they said, "Hey, mom, we need you." And I had to step away from that. And I I did that. And what I feel like now that's bringing me to here today. I have the time. I have the time. I I'm an advocate for my kids. I'm with them daily. I speak to their teachers daily. Constantly. I've got cell phone numbers. I've got emails. I've got talking points. I'm constantly communicating with those teachers to make sure I can give my kids their best. And I

079would like to do that for all of those kids and I have the time. Um when my kids when my kids are in school, I will have all of that school time to dedicate towards this. Um, and I'm ready to like dig deep and and really try to see if we can come up with some interesting solutions to accomplish those goals. Um, so that's a little bit about where I'm coming from. uh like the skills that kind of bring me there with that interest and um all of like being able to combine that like I have a really unique way of looking at things and being able to like identify pain points identify um you know the framework that we're working in like how is it working now and then where can we take that

080and make that better where can we make improvements um I've done a lot of problem solving in different areas of my life for that. Um, especially with being a mom of three, you know, kids that have different varying levels of neurode divergencies. You have to be able to take something at you that is going to scare them and make it easy for them to proceed on and continue throughout their day. It can be very disruptive. And I feel like that's something I can take here and say, hey, we are in a moment where we need to pivot and we need to make sure that we are able to accommodate as many children in this area. And that's a really important goal and that I think I could bring a perspective where I'm in the schools

081just naturally. So I can kind of make sure not that y'all aren't but [laughter] like that we have a different perspective of like what it's like to be working in those those districts in that way when you're at a parent teacher children level of it and how do we adapt things that the adults want to say are best for the kids and bring the why back to the kids. I think it would be a really empowering thing to make sure that we're saying like, does the child that we're trying to provide all of these things for fully understand why they need the education that we want to give them? Um, and and identifying that can kind of help us all hone in and get there for the state of North Carolina. Um, you know, I

082I was looking at a lot of the the vision um for the state and how we had goals of trying to be one of the best in the country. And I think that an opportunity like this could be a time where we are able to become an industry standard essentially for the rest of the states to follow our model. If we can make something that's creative and different that really supports it where we don't necessarily have to rely on the federal government money if they're not going to give it to us um to be self sustainable. And I really think we could get there if we are ready to be like collaborative and creative with that. So I think that covers my interest. [laughter] >> All right. >> Thank you very much. >> Good morning.

083I have question two which says, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. >> How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?" >> I have talked to my husband. He's going to help me out. Um we've got babysitters. Um, a lot, like I said, a lot of I'm the primary caregiver for my kids, but if they are in school, I'll be able to dedicate all of that time to to this. Um, and then some of those after hours time, you know, dedicating having like other people help in with that. But right now, with the with the ability of being a stay at home parent that is not working currently, this would be my primary focus other than my children. So, I have

084a lot of time that I would like to dedicate [laughter] to helping. So, >> thank you. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Um, what do you know about the roles of the board of education and superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County? >> Um, so I did I did read through some of the documents for like the rules where it lists out everybody's um thing and I would like to dig through that a little bit more. Um, but I just love talking to people and kind of getting the sense of like what every like where everything stands and how people are kind of operating. Um, I tend to kind of be a little quiet at first and that's me just observing kind of

085taking everything in. Um, I'm a very curious person. I'm definitely going to sit here and do research. If I need to do trainings or you're like, "Hey, you need to read this thing of documents." I'm going to read the thing of documents. I'm going to get through it and I'm going to do my research. I'm going to show up. Um, you know, I'm not scared of the fact that I I know I'm coming in with having to learn. There's going to be a learning curve. Um, and I I'm dedicated to making sure that the that I'm here, that I'm showing up, and that I'm communicating with everybody that I need to um to find those, you know, points where we all can get together and get along. >> Good morning. Good morning. Um, as you

086collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Yes. Um, that is something I definitely would love to dive into um and really get a look of like how everything is working when it comes to the budget. Um, you know, I I obviously very passionate about our special, you know, education programs and making sure that, um, those are able to stay. And I think, um, going back to some of my skills, I'm able to look at things like that and read through that and really say like, how can we accomplish the goals that we're trying to accomplish in the most efficient and logical way possible? Um, it's kind of a

087superpower that's like a little bit hard to understand until you kind of see it. But like I I'm really good at that. Um, where I want to make sure that we are putting their the money where the kids can get access to it, where we can support our teachers. Um, the teachers are also doing a ton of work. And you know, one thing about being at Rex Road and like having a new school is like we were at the beginning of the year be like, "Ooh, I think my child needs this thing." And then they would be like, "We don't have the thing yet." And then I would, you know, be like, "You know what? As a parent, my kid needs a thing. I'm going to get the thing to you and you can have

088the thing. I want that to be available." Um, but I want to make sure that we're able to kind of get those things across the board um with all of the schools in the district. And you know, I was reading some something saying like some of the budget like we wouldn't really be able to expand a lot of the programs yet in the new schools cuz some of the budgets really tight. And I would just like to see, you know, where where is all going and how it's being allocated a little bit better and dive in um to see if we can kind of bridge those gaps and and have that conversation of like, hey, how interested are we in trying to do things a little bit differently and maybe looking at this problem from

089a different angle so that we can make sure that we're covering all these bases. So it might take a little bit of like being uncomfortable and sitting in that for a minute and checking ourselves and saying like I think we need to make these changes for the best interest of our students and our teachers to get them those um the tools that they need to to reach the goals that we want to reach. Um I hope that answers the question. [laughter] I was trying to look at the budget and every time I put up there'd be so many documents. I was like, you can't really get comb through it in 24 hours like cuz a part of me was like I wish I could sit here and like come in with a full plan. I

090really wanted to do that and I was like that's that can come later [laughter] but definitely, you know, here for it. Here for the work. [laughter] >> All right. And Vice Chair Swanson, how are we on time? >> Uh, you have 17 minutes left. >> Okay. >> All right. right on pace >> side of the table. >> Um, given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> Yes. So, I was looking I have I I almost brought them the binders I have of uh evaluations that I have for my kids of how many like data points that we are tracking for these kids. Um, I'm I'm I'm getting a lot of those documents too as a parent. Um, so I know that,

091you know, as the state board, y'all are tracking everything as well with those data points. And one thing that I'm kind of noticing is it's honestly a little bit of a roadblock um to deal with some of the data points. And that's something that we may need to like have another opinion on to to try and see like where are we really landing with the effectiveness of the data collection. Um, you know, the things that they were tracking. I was looking at the formulas that they were creating and these formulas are just not the children that I'm dealing with every day. And um I think it would be an interesting thing to consider like how much of that is important that we are tracking and how much of that might just be how can we

092take care of our children in a way that gives them the tools to still reach those goals where they're not just a number on a piece of paper. Um, and I know that that can be kind of tricky because it is a system that we're investing in and like we're working with that. And if you want to talk talk other statistics, I know that I think there's some peers that actually work for the company that developed it that might be able to speak to the numbers directly a little bit better than I can. Um, if I need to, I'll dive in. I'll learn the numbers. I'm fine with that. I'm not scared to learn something new. Um, but one thing that came up to me that I thought was striking when I looked at this

093question, um, I also looked at the article where everybody had a little blurb about who was possibly being up for interview today. And the only thing that one of the things that stood out to me that I noticed was every single person that's showing up today mentions in some capacity the mental health wellness of our children and the social emotional behavioral component of our children. And to me that just doesn't go I don't know if you're measuring that in data. And so um something that can that can be an area where you know when the kids are needing to learn social emotional regulation because they can't perform they can't sit still long enough to perform the test of the data or the data is requesting that the test be done in a certain way. You

094know, I have a kindergartener. He's supposed to blend a word and he they do this thing on their arm where they start with the first syllable of the word, the second syllable of a word, and the third syllable of the word. But if they don't do the blending step, they just do the the syllables, but then they say the word, they've said the word, but the data says we can't record that as a win because they didn't blend the sounds. And so then your your child is on the data form getting all these numbers that say they're not meeting their goals. And then you're kind of going, well, how are they missing the goals? And it's maybe because the way that it's being taught and the way that it's being tracked is not necessarily what's

095most beneficial for the child. When you're in a preschool classroom for special education, the way that they have so many simple ways of adapting a learning model to make it accessible for a child is probably one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Just simple picture boards. Here's a picture of the thing I'm asking you to do. And the child can understand that's so much easier because they don't have the words for it. But once they see the picture, they can make that cognitive attachment and say, "Now I understand what you're asking of me and I've also seen another student that maybe has a higher cognitive level. They're able to model the behavior. Now I can watch my peer model the behavior. And now I've successfully done the task that you're asking me to."

096And none of that can be recorded in a statistical analysis. So, I think if you were to kind of flip the script and say, "Hey, what happens if we spend our time and our money developing and giving teachers those tools to kind of bring in little things like that in a classroom and let those things last longer in the elementary section, like a lot of that stuff, kindergarten dropped. I go from preschool fully adaptable classroom, kindergarten, half of that is gone. I got really lucky that my kindergartner who has an IEP has a teacher that used to be a special education teacher and she knows exactly how to get him working, you know, and so, um, that is something that I thought was just an interesting thing to point out when it comes to doing

097the stuff like the data. Um, it can make it really tricky when you're sitting in an IEP meeting and you're like, unfortunately your kid is like one point, two points, three points lower than what's listed and it's just not showing their full capacity, but now they're behind and now you're like for a child that needs to unleash after performing all day at school, they need to have relaxing time. I can't rein that child back in to get him interested in learning his reading words again that week. he's already been doing it all day at school. So, it's just kind of how much data do we want to place as a roadblock in our way when we need to help the kids. And I think that that's going to be something to consider, especially as we

098come up in the next year where funding might be different. Um, so I that is kind of my two cents on where we're at with some of the vulnerable kids. I think um it would be it could be something that leads to leaving them behind if we don't account for some of those things that are just outside the parameters. Um math is cool, statistics are awesome, and it's cool that we have ways that we can track that. And I think it's an important thing to learn. Um but I'm not entirely sure if it's the greatest service to helping the kids the way that they need to be. Um, and like I said, everyone here today, I think, is really passionate about making sure that we're taking care of the students and the teachers mental health

099along the way. Um, and whether or not some of this can be a deterrent in that. So, >> that helps. Thank you. >> Thank you. And good morning. >> Good morning. >> And real quick, just a time check. We only 10 minutes left. >> 10 minutes. Okay. >> Go ahead, Mr. Hershey. What are your thoughts on uh Wake County School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> This was a trickier question for me, I'll be honest. Um, I haven't I've seen a lot of the recent magnet school stuff has been coming up and I've been checking some of the emails for that. Um, I I just would like for there to be a like I would

100want to make sure that there was an even accessibility kind of like in our starting points before we get into the nitty-gritty of the magnet schools too. I think, you know, when we're doing things like opening a new school, but then that new school doesn't even have like a dedicated computer program teacher kind of thing, like where what are we leaving off some of the regular public schools by diving into into deep in a magnet school? And that's something that I can't really see the answer to until I'm kind of in the paperwork and in the nitty-gritty of it. Um, but it's a question that I think is worth po like posing and kind of considering. I don't want to leave any students behind. I love that magnet schools can kind of give you um

101like a super diverse population and exposure to certain things and that they can have certain programs that get like fleshed out in a way where um I believe they called it niche um exposure where you had like exposure to more niche programs and like things that are out there. Um but I also would like want to make sure that all the schools are still being able to take care of all of their students. Um, and especially again I'm going to bring it back to my special education crew that I I think you know making sure that there's is there an OT in your school? Is that OT being shared between two schools? How detrimental is that to your students that have trouble regulating their bodies? And then what does that mean when you're bringing in

102a in the magnet school programs? Um, I think it's just being able to kind of look at the problem from a different angle and say, is this the best way that we can make sure we're allocating all of our funds to to across the board? Um, so I I I think that's kind of I don't have as much magnet school exposure and knowledge at this time. Um, but I'm willing to dive in and learn more. Absolutely. >> [laughter] >> Um, but it's also like a decision that like personally our family hasn't looked into yet. We've been with the the schools that we've been districtricted to and kind of that just kind of staying in those lanes and you know doing more day-to-day stuff with our kids. So, um I would need to learn more about

103that admittedly. >> Thank you. Um, next question. With the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Yeah. Um, that one I'm trying to think get organized here. I think it just comes down to just making sure you're growing with the people's needs. Um, you know, I I live in an area where we like we built that new school cuz it's growing incredibly. And so we have to make sure that like as they're throwing these new neighborhoods up that we have a place for the kids to go. Um, and that's really really important. And within that is still like making sure you're keeping up with the time. So, you know, making sure that

104kids are exposed to cor like technology and like learning to grow with that and being able to also work within the community. I think I feel like a lot of what I've kind of already mentioned kind of falls into this as well where it's it's something that when you're living it and you're in it, you hear everybody has a different thing that they're really focused on. And it's just good to hear as many different points of view as possible so that you can make sure you're coming here and actually helping those those people with their concerns. Um, and I think being in the schools and kind of just making sure you're like visiting everybody and like checking in and keeping that line of communication open. Um, where you're hearing like what do the parents need,

105what do the children need, what do the teachers need, and and seeing how you can combine that as best as possible. Um, you know, and being being a voice for that. I think that that's like the whole point of being this is like speaking up for the people that you live with. Basically, they're your neighborhoods, so they're your neighbors. Thank you. With [clears throat] 70% of Wake County residents not having school-aged children, what should the Wake County Public School System do to improve engagement with the broader community? Yes. Um I for me that kind of immediately just kind of thought of social media essentially um and kind of use utilizing those tools. Um actually it could probably even be something that the students get in on as well. Um but just simple things like uh

106you know I have a neighbor that has middle school aged uh kids and she was like my child's gonna play in the band and I'm like I would like to go to the band performance but I didn't know it was there. So, like being able to have um I'd love to be able to have some of these concerts or like performances be a little bit more available for the rest of the communities to know like posting football schedules, posting volleyball schedules, showing up cuz like the girl that babysits my kids is a volleyball player and I can go show up at the high school to support her when she because she texted me the schedule. Um and kind of making it available like that. Um, I was also thinking about I remember when I was

107um in college they have the the senior program where like you can just show up to classes and audit them to take care of them or like to like listen in. And I'm wondering if there's a version of that for uh like a mentorship program where people in the community that have really cool jobs and just like want to share it with the kids can kind of come into schools. Um, and just kind of feel like a school isn't just the building the children go in, they disappear and they come out at the end of the day, but being a place where you can actually like show up and sign in and volunteer and like be a part of it and not necessarily like have to be vested just cuz your child is there, but

108just be interested that you want to share the things that you learned. Like we have a ton of longtime residents that live in the area. they probably know things like it would be really cool to hear a story about what was the what was on the land before we put the the stores there or like what is some really niche history about North Carolina and Holly Springs area that would be really cool to share. Um and kind of bringing in little programs like that I think would be really cool. Um just kind of like how any university would have like an alumni day or like career fair, we could essentially apply that um to like a middle school or a high school level. I think that would be really cool. Um, but then just in

109general, um, I took a course on digital marketing. Like I I think it'd be really interesting to like incorporate that and have kids that are doing classes be like, how can you market essentially what is happening in the school and like what that looks like? And that's where you can bring in like how you're reading data points and stuff like that where you're looking at um, which platforms are people most responsive on, like what age groups of people are we trying to do? Do we do Facebook? Do we do Instagram? Do we do Tik Tok? What if we were doing a schoolboard TikTok? We don't know. But um [laughter] just something interesting and different to like engage to everyone at different levels and kind of meet them where they're at. Um and kind of have

110like an incorporation program where you're really like combining those things and letting people in the community come in and be a part of it too. I think would be really cool. Um cuz there's there's definitely a lot of opportunity as I've seen as a parent where I just went I didn't even know that was there. I didn't know that existed. I didn't know that that I could just do that. Um, and then you're like, "Oh, that's a shame that it's not well known that you could just help." [laughter] Um, and making it a little bit easier to find the information in order to show up. Um, might let some community members that just had a little like, I have a little extra time. What should I do with it? They might be able to read

111to a classroom and they just didn't know that they could. Um, obviously you have to do the volunteer form and and do their background checks and stuff, but um, you know, I think that there there are some really fun ways that we could do it where yes, we I've seen that we do have like way county public school system social media um, is just to increase engagement, like posting more often and like having a schedule for that and seeing what that looks like. School spotlights, just here's a different fact about a different school in your area. Um, little things like that or just here's all the fall sports that are playing at the middle school. Here's when the high school is doing their musical more than just a banner on the side of the road.

112Put it out on the inner internet and then teach kids how to do that safely or how to do it in a model where they're actually like maybe they want to start their own business, but they learned how to market themselves because they were helping the school market their stuff. Little areas like that I think would be really cool to add in. >> All right. And that actually takes us to the conclusion of your time. >> I did it >> every [laughter] every minute. So we will be uh making our decision this evening. I'll contact everyone individually. >> Okay. >> Um we have 14 candidates. That means that 13 people we can't select. You're >> right. >> But we have some wonderful folks very wellqualified. We really want to thank you for coming out sharing

113your ideas with us and putting yourself out in this leadership position. >> Thanks. Yeah, it's a little nerve-wracking. The resume is a little different for me, but [laughter] I appreciate you guys taking your time and thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Good luck with the rest of the day >> that way. You're right. >> Thank you. Morning. >> All right, everyone. [laughter] Let me introduce you to Lori Parsons. Um, Miss Parson's as we were coming in, I explained to her that she will have 30 minutes and uh, we want to give her as much time as possible. We're starting, it looks like a just a minute or two behind. So, I will issue any other introductions. Okay. >> And jump right into the first question. >> Okay. >> All right. So, um, Miss

114Parsons, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Um, so I will say a couple of things. So, um, my first inclination when I saw the, uh, announcement go out that you were open to applicants was really my boys. Um, I have two children who are one is, um, they're both in the Wake County system. Um, you know, I have a fifth grader and a eighthish grader. My older son's actually in a residential therapeutic boarding school at the moment. um due to challenges with autism and and things like that. And so my time at Wake County, I've worked with so many different schools and teachers and counselors and librarians and coaches and um and I've learned a lot in my time as their mom

115advocating for them. My younger son's also ADHD. So, if you saw my write up, I'm kind of very focused on diversity and neurodeiversity in particular. Um, if any of you are parents, you know you lean in hard on the things you need to do for your kid. And this was new for me. So, um, I've learned a lot through that process and I thought, you know what, like I think I bring something really interesting to the table because of the work I've had to do and wanted to do in support of my kids. But more than that, education's always been important to me. I'm the child of two public school teachers. Um, although I went into corporate America and I've been in corporate HR for 23 years, my dad and I used to have a

116lot of conversations when I was a know-it-all 25-year-old who thought, "Yeah, you could put corporate, you know, performance management principles into place in schools." And my father would look at me like, "You're crazy, kid." Um, you know, he was a high school teacher for math in an inner city in Hartford, Connecticut. And, you know, that just started this dialogue of like, "Oh, wait. There's all these different perspectives." And um I've carried that, you know, with me um as I became a parent and started realizing, oh, like there's ways practices can come into play. And so in my time in HR, I've been an HR business partner. I counsel and advise the seuite at SAS, previously at MetLife, and my role there really is to help them think about the people in their organization as they

117put business practices into place. And that lens of always looking at things through the people like in their organization I think translates really well to thinking about how as a board you put policies in place and it's all about the students and the staff. But you know a a people first approach um doesn't always translate. You know as you roll that up it gets lost and then sometimes as you roll your policy down you realize oh we're having unintended consequences. So for me, I think just my varied background um from just how I grew up and and and the the the cards life dealt me have really led me here. Uh my son uh who's home for Thanksgiving, but when I was on the phone with him, um I told him I was doing this

118and he said, "Mom, thanks for advocating for me." And it just sort of spurs me on, you know, to say, and I don't mean advocating in a in a adversarial way, just, you know, he can see um, you know, that I would bring that perspective. So, I probably didn't even follow my notes, but just sort of speaking from from my, you know, perspective, I um I think what I've done for a living contributes. I've also sat on um you know some nonprofit boards very very different and they were about a volunteer organization I was a part of as a volunteer for 10 years but in doing that that was my first understanding of how do you merge passion and policy uh and I struggled my first year on that board um it was another opportunity

119for me to realize okay like I know this organization inside it and out I volunteered for 10 years and yet I also bring all of this governance and org design and talent management skills to play from my corporate life and merging that was at a it merged at different places and at a different pace than if I were just bringing passion into the workplace and so I learned a lot in that time as well. I had to step down from that board because it was very local to Connecticut and at the time I lived in New York and when we moved here that just proved to be way too difficult um to really be an active member of that board. But all of these things combined have helped me to realize you know what it

120what it takes to balance all of that and bring the patience and open-mindedness. So that long answer but that's a lot of you know where my thought process was when I decided to apply. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Good morning. I have a question to >> um serving on the way county board of education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> Yes, I did chuckle when I saw that question. Um because I was like, "Wow, yes, balance is always hard." But um I will say I'm at a really um I think a couple of years ago I would not have even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have applied. um my family and my work um schedules

121were such that I definitely would have something would have suffered. Um so I am at an interesting I'm at a great point in my family life and my corporate life where I have the capacity for this. So I've recently um in my role I have a new manager joining my team. So now I only have management direct reports. I don't have any individual contributor direct reports and that changes the dynamic in my capacity. So I'm doing a lot of coaching and management but I'm executing through others. So the responsibilities for me to dig in and design or do the fingerto keyboard work is less and less at this point in my career. Um and so that that pivots the capacity where the things I'm working on a lot of it is thought time which doesn't

122have to be between 9 to5 right um or prepping through others. Um, and any of the individual contributor work I'm doing are things that I'm super deeply experienced at. So, we're in the middle of an organization design or redesign of my client group. That is my specialty in my work. And so, I'm able to do that not only really well, but because I really like it, you know, I can put all that that energy to it. But I'm also process driven. So, in addition to feeling like my work capacity can be managed and flexed, I am just a processoriented person. I like to find efficiency. I was a track runner in high school and I just remember it was all about finding like the fastest path. I was cross country. What's that shortest route? That

123line that gets me there the fastest. It's just how my brain works. Um and so I feel like I can balance it that way. But lastly, I'm hybrid and flex in my actual work schedule. So I don't commute to work on a regular basis. I go in when it makes sense. Um and so I'm not losing time to commuting. Um, I think I learned a lot of efficiency as we probably all did with the co years of having to balance things. So, while I'm not saying it wouldn't be a large workload, I think I'm at a place and a time and where I could handle it. >> Good morning. >> Hi. Um, what do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent? And how would you collaborate with community stakeholders

124and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County? Yeah, this question I spent I kind of came back to answering this one for myself. I'll be honest with you because I don't have um you know as I mentioned tremendous firsthand experience with you know a board of education. I have the one experience on a volunteer board which does give me that experience with kind of policy versus kind of in the weeds and and and executing through volunteering. But as I really thought about it and and looked into it, I actually think that it balances really well with a lot of what I do at work around standard setting guidelines. How do you think about something that could be applicable across a broad that might have been me um a broad um audience? So while

125this would be my first time on a much larger scale official board, um it's not entirely unknown to me. Um, you know, I like when I looked into it, um, you know, thinking about, um, sorry, thinking about the focus on the budget was one of the things that, and I know there's a budget question, so I won't won't go too far into it, but um, that's another place where I think the people get lost a lot, at least in my work. You know, you can think about, okay, we need to do all these things for the people in our organization. So we have goals around, you know, uh, student achievement and we have goals around teacher and staff and employee development and making this a great place for teachers and, you know, education staff to

126work. And then you pivot and you look at the budget and you're like, right, how do we get water out of a stone, right? And um, and balancing back and forth between those two perspectives is hard and it can be really exhausting and and we're in the middle of it right now uh, planning for next year. So, it's top of mind for me. And I actually went back and wrote some notes saying, you know, I used to earlier in my career be just wishing to get to the finish line on that conversation. You know, it just would get to a point where it was really hard. You're like, fine, whatever. You make concessions. And I've built a tolerance and a diligence for saying, "No, I'm always going to be the one to come back and

127say, okay, I don't think that one rolls down well for the people." Because that's my job on my client's leadership team, right? They're they run R&D. they have these massive budgets they have to manage and they'll start talking about these huge investments in technology which makes sense and then they're going to go lean back on something over here and I'm like but for a fraction of that cost we can roll out a more global management training program let's really focus on where we are not hitting the root cause of what is the what's the point in rolling that out if we don't have the right skills in our team and it requires a deeper level of understanding that sometimes gets missed and I think being the HR person on that leadership meeting. I hold myself

128accountable for always bringing that stuff up, right? And and not in a challenging way, in a let's not lose sight of it way. Do you have to compromise at the end and make decisions? Sure, decisions are hard, but it's important to always look back and make sure I can feel, you know, we can feel comfortable. Okay, we leaned in as hard as we could on the things that really drove the value. >> Good morning. as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? So um the first place I go is obviously um you know support for teachers and staff whether that's salaries whether that's work life balance initiatives whether

129that's um you know support needed um in the classroom in the schools um for the administrators um I have had the p privilege of working with just or partnering with as a parent so many amazing people in I mean my sons have been through three four different Wake County schools and that is such a variety of individuals and there are some who really were critical at very important turning points in my family's history as we dealt with challenges my older son was facing in particular or my younger son who you know was in kindergarten during COVID and really struggled to join as most probably did right first grade was hard for that group and I unfortunately ran into folks who clearly you could tell best intentions really amazing but boy were was I the recipient

130where I I was the thing you know I was the thing that made them snap what I was raising the challenges my family brought to their day and I could tell you know um in hindsight I could tell it wasn't personal right I I know that they were um you know the reactions and the interactions were because they were stressed and so I will always lean in on you know um It's an undervalued globally, right, role that I think we always need to it needs to be first. But also beyond that, um, I lean a lot in on knowledge. I've learned so much about, and this is where I kind of come back to the neurode divergence, you know, the the ways I've explored my son's um, biology, you know, before we knew he was

131autistic, um, really understanding his autism in particular, we've explored the PDA profile. we've explored um all the different you know facets of what make him him and in doing so I've really realized that there is just so much information out there um around all of the different neurotypes and then you translate that to any other differences right or uniquenesses and I think there's room for a lot more investment in knowledge sharing whatever that looks like whether that's partnership with community leaders whether that's partnership with social activism groups or whether that's partnership with, you know, established um, you know, um, advocacy organizations or whether that's expanding what some of the most amazing special education instructors and instructional assistants just naturally know how to do for these kids and then extrapolating that into the other teachers. So,

132how do you cross-pollinate? And I have to imagine there is a relatively I don't want to say cost-effective, but when you kind of learn across um there's something amazing there. You know, I've seen my son's fifth grade teacher. It's a gened classroom. It's his first year staying in GE ed all day. He is assigned to an EBS room, but he doesn't go there at all anymore. Barely has pushin strategies. He's really the the model worked amazing for him, but he struggled the other day with something and his gened teacher handled it as well as the EBS teacher who is amazing, like the best I've ever met is is Alexander Kerman at um he picks Friendship Elementary School and um and he just stepped in naturally. And even at curriculum night, he's like, "Listen, I can

133tell when Evan's kind of like struggling to process everything, so I just give him room." like and I had so many teachers who it would be that the tendency was to like dive in on it and and not that they were wrong but they misread oh he needed space because he couldn't process fast enough. So for me there's this opportunity to lean in on how do we cross train and I don't know how that fits in a budget but that those were the things that came to mind for me >> as far as a time check. Vice Chair Swanson >> 14 minutes. >> Oh okay. >> Right on track. >> Oh good. Thank you. Good morning. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our

134most vulnerable students? Where I go to whenever we're trying to solve a gap is like how deep into the root cause can you really get? You can't I mean there's never usually one root cause for something, but how deep can you get into what's really an underlying driver for this? often um what you see on the surface are the symptoms and the result of other driving factors. Um I see this in behavior for neurodiversity in my sons. I see it in um even bad manager behavior at my work, right? Like um what you see happening in the immediate antecedent is rarely the actual like thing to fix. there's something a few layers before you know the old adage of like ask five wise um corporate loves to have addages and like you know um analogies

135for things and that one went around for a while but it's true where you know how deep can you get and then if you solve deeper okay it has this positive you know ripple effect so for me I would start with really understanding that listening digging into some of that why um so we solve as deep at the root as possible um A couple things that come to mind similar to what I said under budget is, you know, how do we learn from where things are working? Um, so what can you glean from areas that are working that have that have either solved a gap similar to this or a different type of gap? Where are you seeing creative and innovative responses to challenges aligned to achievement gap or aligned to other issues? But where

136is that creative thinking, out of the box thinking, ideas coming from that challenge what's always worked or challenge the we tried it 10 years ago, it's not going to work again because sometimes it does. Sometimes a great idea just needs to happen at the right point in time for it to fit that unique set of challenges and the people in the room who are fixing it. All of those factors come to play. Um so for me I think it's really um digging in in that more holistic way is what really first you know comes to mind for me. >> Thank you and good morning. >> Hi. >> What are your thoughts on Wake County public school choice which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs. How can Wake County use the tools to

137re use these tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> I will be honest. I sit on the line with loving and not loving um some of the components of school choice. I um um and and um I lean toward really loving it the more broad it is. But um I kind of grew up again charter schools took funding. You know, the way my dad would put it, charter schools just really impacted his ability to do what he needed to do. Um, in Connecticut at least. Now, here it's a I mean, Wake County is massive. You need all different kinds of options. But I have always kind of struggled with the charter concept. Um, partly because neurode divergence is really ills supported in my personal and my friends personal experiences with at least the

138charters we've all attempted to explore when our kids really couldn't handle the volume and the pace of a public school. Um, and that's disheartening to me. Um, it's another place where they are otherred. Um, however, flexibility is so important and so I do love the variety that we have and I think that it is much broader than just charter or not. Right. But um any you know flexibility is key and it really creates opportunity for everyone. Unfortunately in any large system you're going to have systembased inequalities. You're going to have privilege in there. You're going to have um the flexibility might inadvertently um further perpetuate systemic challenges. And so unless it's actively worked against, it's just going to keep happening, right? So, um, where do the opportunities exist? And how, um, feasible is it really

139for those who, um, for everyone to really access all of those different options in a way that really achieves the best for their kid. Um, is the bit that I that I struggle with. I think it can be it can obviously be managed, but this is where it I think for me managing it with an awareness toward the potential systemic gaps it creates and then fixing those in addition to you know heralding and supporting and growing the flexibility are what's important. Um I had other thoughts on that one. I think at the core of it um the balance is hard but for me families thrive and therefore any of the options thrive when your family feels like you fit. You know a place feels organically built for you versus um you have to um you

140know you you seem kind of separate from that environment. And so I think bringing that into any options makes sense. Thank you. Um, next question. With the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Yes, I am floored by the growth rate where I live. Um, it is amazing. um and frustrating at times I'm sure but um I think um you know in my experience there can be a tendency to lean all in on where the growth is happening and they can have a disproportionate amount of time and attention um brain time and attention, thought time and attention in addition to funding time and attention. Um and so really making sure that um

141again we kind of have a check and balance um to make sure that um that it isn't disproportional um to areas that maybe aren't on that growth trajectory at the moment. Um but I also think that when you have a growing area, you end up with a lot more diversity of thought occurring. That's just a driver, right? When an area is growing, it draws people. So it's going to draw different staff. It's going to draw different families. it's going to draw different community leaders, um, businesses, and that can really then create really innovative and creative ideas that then can be brought back through the rest of the districts. So I think also taking advantage of those um ripple effects or those like unexpected ideas or learnings that can come out of a growth environment and

142then applying them as broadly and as widely as you can so that everybody can really, you know, take advantage of that. Thank you. Um, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not [snorts] having school age children, what should WCPSS do to improve engagement with the broader comm community? So, I think there is a lot of engagement. Um, so I think one of the things is always, you know, looking at what exists and doing it through a lens of, you know, making sure it's always evolving and growing, um, or continuing to meet meet the needs of or meet the community where they are so that there is the right partnership. But if I think about it, um, you know, obviously coming from the corporate world, I think about a lot of different opportunities for partnership for

143just, you know, whether it's events or programs or sponsorships or unpaid internships or, you know, I'm I work at a software firm. So, the stuff that comes to mind is like hackathons or how do you solve this business problem? There's things that are done at like a gra a collegiate level that I think is starting to be done at a lot of the high school levels, but how do you bring that even further down into all the other levels where there's projects or programs and the things they're working on are based in real life? So, I was working on a worksheet with my son yesterday and it's amazing compared to when I was a kid, right? the the way the work is put in front of um kids, it's more holistic and but the story

144he was reading to then do the math work um you know word problems was generic um and you can I can imagine where you have an opportunity to tie it to a community organization or a business and make them about real challenges. So, how do you have a bunch of middle schoolers solve some challenges that maybe the autism society is facing? Or maybe that, you know, some of the different food pantries are facing or maybe some of the corporations are you have a whole bunch of small business owners in Wake County. Um, tons of CEOs of, you know, 50 to 100 person companies and, you know, they are innovating all the time and they have to be utility players. So, how can they partner with schools and whether it's administrators or different pockets? So, I

145kind of lean in that way and think, okay, there's so many different ways in Wake County to partner where um you're mutually beneficial, I guess. And then lastly, um you know, you want people to graduate and come back or graduate and stay and contribute in this county, right, as you know, adults, contributing adults. And there's a draw for that which is very different from where I grew up. Um towns were too small to want to stay. You know, you kind of left and stayed gone. Um but here a lot of my, you know, friends and colleagues who've got older kids who are graduating college are coming back and building their lives here. And so that's another opportunity where okay, it's a it's a positive cycle if we're building the right relationships. So, how do we

146make sure that the broader community sees that this is that next generation to help grow the town, right? These are the people who are going to be your town leaders or they're going to bring business to this town. If you're growing and going to need elderly services or community services, you want people who grew up here to want to make it better here. I think about the mayor of Apex. I mean, his story of kind of growing up here and and having been, you know, in the police and now being the mayor. Um, I find it fascinating, you know, to want to contribute so much back to where you grew up. And I just think with the volume and pace of growth here, there's tremendous opportunity for that storyline. >> All right. [laughter] Well, Mson,

147that does bring us to the end of the questions >> and almost to the end of our time. So, um, I want to let you know that the board will be making decision on the vacancy tonight and I will call and notify everyone of the selection. Again, we have amazing candidates, very wellqualified candidates, but we're going to have to say no to 13 of the 14. >> Oh, wow. >> Um, but we are very excited that you've applied. Thank you for putting your name out there. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us today and all the materials that you've submitted to us as part of your application as well. >> All right. and we'll hear from you later tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate all your time. >> Thank you.

148>> Oops. >> Good luck with the rest of your day. >> [clears throat] >> We're talking about There you go. We'll get started in just a minute. >> Thank you. >> Can I sit down? >> Thank you. All right, everyone. Please allow me to introduce uh Promelada Vashna, Pinky as she is called. Um she will be um spending the next 30 minutes with us interviewing as I' I've explained that we do have only the 30 minutes. Uh so I'm going to stew a lot of other introductions and we'll just jump right into our questions. All right. Um and the first question that I have is just why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? because uh um well good morning everyone uh I want to serve here uh Wake County

149Public Schools uh because my kids go to school here I am substituting for about four or five years and uh I am a teacher by heart by training and by my uh energy and my mind and I like teaching. I am uh I have been in university uh teaching for quite uh for 20 years actually. I don't look that old but I am old. [laughter] Um Indian secrets for the skin. So, so when I I went to these schools, um it was quite a different experience for me and I thought that uh I would like to know more about a school uh because the kids come to college and I see that um that uh gap from this part to that part. uh that and uh I also um volunteered uh at uh private school

150uh in Durham when where my kids went. It started from kids actually wherever my kids go I go with them. So um I then slowly things changed because from private to public schools things are a little different. the classroom strategies, the teachers um the way um all the atmosphere work in the classrooms and now I noticed that uh with the growing uh population of people from different ethnic uh uh backgrounds uh let we keep along the religion part. uh things are changing drastically and I want to learn more to be an integral part of this system uh where I can bring something from my part my understanding as an outsider to uh wake county and uh when I uh heard about this position uh I did not know it was paid so that's why you

151should know I want to serve [laughter] and I made it up to here so you all you people, experienced people must have seen something to call me here for the interview. Uh, so those are the few reasons that I want to serve. I want to learn and serve and serve more. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. I have a question too. >> Yes. >> Um, serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? So um I I'm not working full-time right now. I work as a consultant for uh uh training US government employees for South Asian literature, culture and language their linguistic background. So this is different from uh school part but again

152it's the part of academia uh and academic training. So uh I do have 30 hours uh and uh because this is my priority. I really want to make my way through the system um in this country uh in our in the state in our county in our school system so that we can serve better uh how our children from diverse backgrounds are coming in to learn and be part of the larger community to actually uh move forward in a way where everybody feels included and uh their capacities whatever they may be are appreciated. So I would work more than 30 or 40 hours uh to make something happen and give my contribution to >> Thank you. >> Good morning. >> What do you know about the roles of the board of education and superintendent and

153how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? So honestly uh before this part what in as a general knowledge of board board of certain things uh what board people will do I knew that and uh the the questions I received like yesterday about 10:15 or so that was the email but I was at a conference in New Orleans so I didn't have time to go through all the questions uh so I'm I'm not prepared to answer exactly to the questions but was I As my understanding for the board is that the board members um work on um collaborating uh thoughts and policies from different school districts and and then uh because I this board will be representing one part of the district, one part

154of the the whole community and then so uh we work or the board member would work on uh collaborating with people on the board. Um bringing in new ideas how to serve the children better. uh what would work better for uh or to make policies or to uh brainstorm policies uh bring the thoughts together that what would work better for uh our students uh our children we county children uh to be uh competent enough to uh represent us on a broader picture a broader spectrum and I will learn from everybody on the board because I'm new to the I will be new to the Good morning. As you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the

155needs of all students and staff? Budget priorities. Um well if I say what I think that is just my thinking. I think I would rather go with as a collaboration like what every member of the team thinks and how should we bring it all together to implement as the best possible uh practical way to spend uh for the school system in in our county. That's what that's what I would think that I would do with the budget part. I'm very good at finances at home but this this is a larger picture. So I would uh uh not just bring out as I know everything because I don't. So uh I would talk to my collaborators. I will talk to people on on the board or my uh counterparts. What do they think? How should we

156do it? uh for me I think um if I have to give just my opinion about budgeting part uh it should be same for all schools and uh all children but I see there are discrepancies I see there is uh there's inequalities and uh um the part of the world I come from schools are very different and the schools in America are very different uh yet we are trying or we try very hard to bring it all together that will make everybody feel that they are all um benefiting from this part. So for budget I I would say I I don't know a lot about it but I'm happy to work with what everybody would think so. >> All right. Thank you. Vice Chair Swanson, how are we doing on time? >> We have about

15720 minutes. >> Okay. All right. So we'll come back around. We'll have four more questions. >> Okay. And you have uh like vice president wants to said 20 minutes. So we'll go to the side of the table with Miss Gordon. >> Good morning. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? So we uh go through this same thing without the data being published for the college students. But we have the same thing that some some people perform outperform or underperform or don't perform things like that. So I would uh say that it is a difficult target or goal to achieve when we are dealing with many different people or stu students rather from many different uh linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The

158learning and teaching in their part of world is different because the families they come from we need to understand that part do we have resources and time for every teacher to understand that background I don't think so can we make it happen possibly how do we make it happen we need to have the community people come in and then help us uh learn what are the differences that we are we don't know Everything in the book is not just that we can apply to the uh to the real world. Practicality is a big thing and as a teacher I know that when we do practical things they make bigger and better impact than something like coming straight out of the book. So this data about um performance for students um we cannot possibly have everybody

159achieve a plus in every single thing. It is just humanly not possible. But if we we are going to go that way then we are doing something wrong. So we should be looking at what is this person uh this the children or the students specific um interest and which part of the interest the energy is driven to we should work on those things and it will take time but it's not impossible and I work around so I I I think these things are possible because um in one class this I think the government policy was uh everybody should move forward I'm I'm forgetting the exact words but uh we cannot put uh students uh children in same class where um in third grade where this ch child has just moved to the country and never

160spoke English nobody at home speaks English and he or she is put in the classroom here and all they're doing is mechan mechanically just doing the assignments I I as a teacher don't find it very rewarding because that child is not learning enough. So for to erase this gap first as the educators we need to learn what are the best policies would work for this specific child if he or she is put into this group where things are very different. Thank you. >> Thank you and good morning. What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System school choice which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs. How can Wake County Public School System use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> I think Wake County schools are doing pretty

161great in terms of schooling or attracting families for a school uh for classes and schools and all those things. Um so again when I when I walked into this building or when I walked to the school first time and I saw something written in Hindi and Udu languages scripts I can read I was like wow they know this and uh then um on the way county site there there is a a a button that says um uh if you want to read in your language click this so it comes there however it's not correct and uh I volunteered myself that I will make it correct the spellings and what exact word would work in that situation like outside here the word for welcome is written which is not written correctly again for whatever reason. So

162so these are the things. So th this is the first part when um a family walks into a school and they want their child to go there that where their language is represented not in a bigger spectrum or not in a very big uh part like they're teaching the language there but uh yes certain things um one of the one of the families or actually not one few families that enrolled their kids in a school um that I was given credit for because I had brought some homemade sweets, Indian sweets and was at the school table at that time when they arrived and they were very happy to see that. So just just a little little cultural connections where you can feel make people feel that yes you also belong here. It's not just the

163the dominant of one part of the people or the culture or the uh race race or whatever those uh categories are that we have defined the humanity and I think human is just one it should be just one human man women that's it uh but we have we are in the world where people think differently so I think that uh maybe more of something from their culture like we teach world history and um at one of the schools I I saw one somebody teaching world history which wasn't really exactly what the thing is because that was from different part of the world and I understand that that nobody knows everything I don't know everything so certain things if we have representations of different cultural ambassadors on the on the ground that way we can do

164it. Thank you. Good morning. Um, next question is, with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> So again, this is because this is the my district and as I said before that then there are other districts all coming together and we're working together as a team. So getting what their thoughts are, what their policies are, how they're working together and then bringing ours in there as a part of the team. Uh because I don't have all the policies, all the strategies in front of me. But once I have it, then we compare, bring it all together, compare and then we implement as a whole. And one thing I would again u

165uh insist or u emphasize on is more of cultural diverse uh curricular activities. Uh not just once a month or once once a semester or something like that but more regularly. Uh if you go to um say um Detroit airport, you'll see sign boards in Japanese and Chinese. uh we don't have that here in in Royome area. We don't see that many Hindi, Udu, Punjabi, Arabic or other other other languages uh um out in the public domain. Uh somewhere we see like publics had this uh these signs for Diwali festival for Indians which was pretty good because now they also understand that we have the community from this part uh or Hanukkah for that matter. So something like this that how uh we bring uh stuff from the community to serve or to um implement

166in our schools because ultimately our school's children are going to be the community. So connect from here and then bring it back. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, with 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? Yeah, that was a surprising factual information for me when I read it this morning. Um so um I think community outreach one of the stuff that I tried in my college classes of course it's different than uh school the children but they all are learning so for the learning for learning purpose I think um if we have more community engagement in schools that would be good. For example, um when I was teaching Hindi, I would have um if you guys remember the

167Skype era which is like ancient era now, I will have um people from my part of country India uh come on a Skype and talk to my student here. It's so different what we teach here. It's like for some reason it is it is fed to our brains that okay this will be the question and this will be the answer. this will be the question and this will be the answer. But that in the practical world it's not like that. So when I did that uh the students really really um learned more because everybody's grasping level is different. Everybody's um they they attract to certain syllables, certain letters, certain expressions and then they they bring it to them and then we discuss in the classroom. And I think the small children do the because they're

168very active brains they do the same thing. So community engagement maybe we put somewhere professionals uh not just uh like higher level jobs which well not higher level but jobs that are you know higher paid but anything uh a salon uh director a person who works at the salon um uh a barber uh a person who works at Publix grocery stores a a grandma uh somebody who um works in the tourism company. Those kinds of things. If you bring those to school uh and then uh let the children ask questions like what do they know about this? Like when I go to school, children will ask me what is this? And this guy in third grade, he's so interested in knowing about my culture. He doesn't know anything about what Indian clothes are, Indian food

169or something. But he asked me so many questions after school because he was waiting for bus and I was there with him. So something like that how do uh because we are living in this interculturality uh of this uh uh new era where we need to learn from each other and teach each other and and survive with each other uh co- survival. So I think uh that what uh we should do when we have so many people who don't have children to come and talk to our children because they had children somewhere maybe not here. Thank you. >> All right. >> Well, that does bring us to the conclusion of our questions. >> Okay. >> Um, so I know before outside I told you we would take you out the side door. >> Yes. >>

170But because we're going to have a break, actually, uh, Miss Luton on our staff would like to talk to you about some of the language translation issues that you had seen. Yes. >> Just outside. So, we'd actually actually ask you to go back out the way that we came to the lobby. >> Okay. And so Miss Luton will talk to you about that. Um the board will be making a decision on the district 8 vacancy today uh this evening and so I will notify all of the candidates on the selection. >> Thank you. >> We have 14 people here at the process, but that means that we'll have to tell 13 no. >> That's okay. And so we really appreciate you coming out, putting your name out >> uh to us, sharing your ideas, your

171leadership, and uh your interest in this role. So thank you very much. >> Thank you everyone. >> Can I go? >> Thank you. All right, board members, we do have a scheduled break and we will come back at 12:25 to interview, uh, Dr. George Ward III. Um, and so, um, with this, we have a few extra minutes to, uh, enjoy lunch. We'll be back in a bit. Am I want it. All right, everyone. Welcome back after our lunch break. I am uh pleased to introduce you all to Dr. George Ward III, who is interviewing for a District 8 vacancy. Um I've let Dr. Ward know that he has 30 minutes like the other candidates. Um and we are going to jump right into our questions. Uh and I believe you did get the questions in

172advance. >> Yes. >> All right. Fantastic. So we'll start off. Our first question is simply why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Thank you and shout out to all the family and friends listening. Thanks Dad. So, I'm interested in serving because my personal story, my professional background, and my values all align with the work supporting our school system. I grew up watching my mother pour herself into students lives. She was the first person who helped me understand that education is simply not a profession, but it's an act of service. Her example grounded me in the belief that when adults align their hearts, actions, and purpose around students, schools transform. So, I've carried that belief throughout my career. I've served as a teacher, as an assistant principal, a principal,

173a district collaborator, and a state level policy adviser. Uh, I've now had two children graduate from Wake County schools, another graduating in June. And my youngest will start kindergarten in August. Don't worry about the math. It it all works out. Uh, I'm running because I want to help create coherence between what families hope for, what teachers are working toward, and what the district promises. My goal is to help align the system so every student in district 8 and across Wake County experience consistency, opportunity, and belonging. >> Thank you. Our next question will come from a vice chair, Mr. Swanson. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. So, I have a question, too. Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while

174juggling your current commitments? Sure. Well, I approach uh leadership through the lens of alignment, making sure routines, priorities, and people are structured intentionally around what matters most. Before even applying, I had open conversations with my family and my school leadership team. We've aligned our routine so I can fully commit to the time that this role requires. My family understands the importance of this work and supports my stepping forward. In my current role, I manage complex hours, crisis, long-term planning, and community engagement. I've also learned to create coherence in my days, protecting time for high impact tasks, eliminating distractions, and sustaining routines that keep the work moving forward. Serving on the board won't be something I try to squeeze in. It will be integrated in a purposeful structure that allows with my time and responsibility to

175the role. >> Good afternoon. Um, what do you know about the roles of the board of education and superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Sure. Well, the board set the vision, the policies and expectations for student outcomes. The superintendent executes those policies and manages the day-to-day operations. Uh so I believe that effective governance is built on role clarity and coherence. Uh when both bodies stay aligned, the system stays steady. Uh to collaborate with stakeholders, I believe in creating consistent, predictable engagement routines. Families, educators, community partners shouldn't have to guess uh how or when their voices will be heard. Engagement becomes sustainable when it's aligned to structures, not personalities. So, I would support the forms uh in district 8. Family

176engagement hubs uh already build upon our advisory councils and clear communication routines. So, alignment and communication builds trust and trust is necessary for meaningful collaboration. Well, welcome. Um, as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Great. Uh, so first, I believe that a district budget must [clears throat] reflect it values. So for me three priorities raise to the top or rise to the top. Uh first uh recruit and retain highquality teachers. Uh so the teaching force is the single most powerful lever for student achievement. So that means investing in strong induction, mentorship and leadership pathway. So every educator, especially those who are now entering through non-traditional routes,

177receive the report they need to succeed. Also, I believe in uh funding and helping to strengthen academic recovery and acceleration through high uh core instruction. So, the most significant and scalable gains come from improving daily classroom instruction. So that includes investing in evidence-based literacy and math uh instructional materials readiness frameworks to make sure we have structures to support all of our students. And also uh I would want to uh expand career and college uh readiness pathways so every student can graduate with both uh diploma and a plan. So, our budget uh could accelerate access to career and technical education pathways, dual enrollment, uh early college uh industry partnerships, especially for students who have may historically have lacked some opportunities uh to invest uh in some good future ready programming. >> All right. And so before

178Oh, do you have more on that one? >> Oh, sure. Go right ahead. >> I want to use the my full amount. Uh so at the end of the day uh I believe our budgets communicate what we uh believe is essential and for me it becomes simple. Great teachers, effective instruction and real pathways that prepare every student for life after graduation. >> All right. Thanks. And just as a time check that is uh four questions down and that was about six or seven minutes. So we have plenty of time left for these remaining ones. >> All right, we'll continue on. Miss Gordon, >> thank you. Good afternoon. Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> Thank you for that. So, looking

179at the latest EVOS growth uh for the district kind of shows a clear pattern. Uh many of our schools that are serving high needs communities are producing lower negative growth while schools in some of our most resource areas are achieving double digit gains. Uh so you have uh plus 16 for uh uh renown like Mills Park and then you have some others on the other end but a negative8 growth. So to me it kind of looks at some gaps uh in growth may reflect some gaps in access opportunity and alignment across the system. So as my role as a board member uh my focus would be to help close these gaps by aligning our resources, our talent and support to actual needs, not just some averages. Uh I believe that when children are struggling, we

180don't lower the expectations, but we raise the level of support around them. So here are some actionable steps that I might champion. Uh looking at some real data inform resource alignment. So when we look at uh some of these schools that consistently uh produce some negative uh growth, uh that might be a signal they need more uh support like instructional coaching, some better staffing ratios and targeted intervention funding. And also let's use our high high growth schools to help uh scale and model some things that are working right. Uh so as a board we could help reallocate some supports for schools um to schools where students are losing ground to move. Also continue to strengthen a high impact instruction. So sometimes growth gaps can come from inconsistent instructional quality. So as a board member I

181would advocate for some highquality coaching models and low growth schools. uh build with strong uh tier one core instruction and work with some good like we said before evidencebased literacy and math frameworks not just a patch worth of programs so fortunately this is some work I've already done in my career uh shout out to Lucas Monsuri by allowing coaches uh data cycles and restorative practices our school moved out of low performing status and into the top 20% statewide for growth and that improvement came from alignment and actionable items, not just some thoughts and prayers. Uh so also I would say uh maybe look at some equitable placement of strong teachers and leaders. So looking at our EVOS data, uh maybe there's ways to incentivize some of our strongest teachers to work in some of our

182lowest growth schools. Uh do we have some customized mentoring and onboarding for our new teachers entering through non-traditional pathways? uh have we looked at our principal pipelines that match uh our strong leaders with schools that need uh rapid support? So, as someone who has led teacher development at scale and supported statewide educator pipelines, this is an area that I contribute to immediately. >> Thank you. It was so It was so much I was like, you're right. >> Good afternoon. >> Thank you. >> What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can we use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> Thanks for asking that. Uh, I believe that school choice and magnet programs can be tremendous assets

183when they strengthen but not splinter the district. I think the magnets give families some specialized options and they often become places where innovative practices take root. But at the end of the day, I believe that families also shouldn't have to win a lottery to get a great education. Every student, every zip code deserves access to a strong, wellsupported neighborhood school. Uh so I would say for me uh the future is about alignment and coherence. So choice works uh well when transportation, staffing, curriculum, communication works in sync. When those elements are aligned uh you know the magnet programs become engine innovation that can help the entire system uh not just students who uh attend them. But if I were to channel uh my inner Martin Luther King Jr. I know it's a little early. It's not

184February yet, but you know, I will focus on some priorities. Make every school a great school. Uh so families usually choose magnets for high quality instruction, strong culture and unique programming. So I think our goal should be uh to bring those strengths to all schools. high qual quality literacy and math framework, strong teacher development, a culture that values belonging and high expectations, but also share these practices across the district. Uh there's a lot of magnet programs in the district that excel in projectbased learning, world languages, arts integration, STEM, and monatory principles. And I think we should be trying to lift up what's working in those schools to help other schools work with the students in their communities. uh because we know not every student can attend a magnet school but every student can benefit from

185some of the lessons learned there. So I I believe that choice should open doors not create winners and losers and I think our job as a district is to align uh our system so no matter what school a family attends uh they can just trust that their child will grow, thrive and graduate with that diploma and a plan. Thank you for that. Uh, next question is, with the grow the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Sure. Uh, District 8 has a mix of high performance schools and some schools that uh have not uh had some uneven growth. So even in a strong district like Wake County, uh the growth is uneven.

186So I think uh one of the ways to balance this is I I think I understand what many families want. Uh safe schools, effective teaching and opportunities that lead to that diploma and a plan. But as a board member, I cannot only advocate just for the schools my own children attend. I have to think in terms of the entire system. So here's one way to balance both of those. Uh start with the data, not assumptions. So I think that our district deserves strong representation and the EVOS data shows that we have schools that have both high growth and declining growth. So I would advocate some resources based on the school need uh not just zip code or past reputation. So that means that our schools that have lower negative growth receive some targeted support but

187also learning from again our high performing schools uh in the district and also some alignment making sure uh we're connecting the right people, the right purpose, the right resources in the schools uh for the whole district because uh when the district is strong uh it works for every school. So, not just the loudest voices of the newest buildings, uh, but for everyone. So, you know, our district, I think, is home to some of the uh fastest growing communities and I think our families want just reassurance that that rapid growth won't compromise quality. So, those are the concerns I would absolutely bring forward, but that applies to the whole county. So, we can't be a strong district if one zip code thrives while another falls behind. Thank you. Um, with 70% of Wake County residents not

188having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> Sure. Well, I think first we need to kind of redefine what engagement means. Uh that it's not just attending school events, but about creating meaningful roles uh for all residents. So I I I really believe that community is built when people feel connected to something larger than themselves. And with so many residents not currently raising school-aged children, it has to extend beyond school walls. So I think we need to align our outreach with b the broader identity of district 8 by helping build and strengthen uh partnerships with HOAs, civic groups, senior community and local businesses. uh offer meaningful volunteer opportunities for mentoring and advisory roles and also be clear in our communication on how strong schools

189uh shape home values, workforce readiness, safety and economic health and also we can host issue focused community forums that welcomed residents regardless of family status. When we align uh schools to the whole identity of the community, everyone sees their role uh for success. >> All right, I just taken a few notes there. Um Dr. Ward, I appreciate it. That brings us to the end of our time, the end of our questions. Um I will tell you that we will be making a decision on how we fill the vacancy later today in the early evening. Uh there are 14 candidates of those that have applied that have continued on through the interview process. Um the good news is that we have many fantastic, highly qualified candidates. The bad news is that we're going to have to

190say no to 13 of them. Um but we really appreciate your submission, you joining us today, sharing your thoughts and opinions about the district and uh what you would do as a board member. So thank you very much. >> Sure. And if I have a few minutes, I'd just like to close if that's possible. Well, we haven't really been giving a closing statement as I mentioned outside, but um it you know, but we just want to be able to keep everyone with the same >> Okay. >> number of questions. >> All right. Thank you. >> But thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. The camera mics are off. I always, but our next interview would start at 1:00. I just realized that Chick would have been my goto spot. >> Yeah. So, the only

191the closest one, >> I think. That is true. >> That's true. Once you get there, I might just wait. Right. I've just been down I'm sorry. >> No, haven't looked. >> If you hit the arrow on your left, So if you do it this way, I'm ready. I have >> so I have to put my cursor. I know. I have to see how >> Okay. So, was it see arrow. I had to click when it's not because I don't have D. I don't know. Yeah, that's why I said system. So 112 D. Yeah, I open it. >> So why I notic they did this with Why did we extend it to the end of it? >> It's 25. >> Basically, >> Rod can explain it better than I can. >> Okay. >> But basically, every

192superintendent in North Carolina by law, you can't have longer than a fouryear contract, >> right? But even though it says it's four years, it's really only as long as the buyout. Because so long as you have that Fire. You see it's a green light. >> Yeah. Yeah. Just pull it up a little bit closer. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. All right. So, board allow me to introduce uh Romesh Nalava. Nalavalo. >> Nalavalu. You got it. >> Navalo. Okay. Thank you. Um um we will have uh 30 minutes for the questions. You did tell me that you had received the questions in advance >> and to make sure you have enough time to uh answer all of the questions. There'll be eight questions. We will give you an update on your time about halfway

193through the questions to help you pace yourself and make sure that we can get through everything. >> Sure. >> And then um let's see. I believe you have everything you need. So, we'll get started. >> Yeah, sure. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, the very first question is simply tell us why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Yeah. So what I believe is a strong uh school education system is a foundation for a better thriving community and uh better schools you have a better society and uh I have a young family and um you know my kids are going to school I want them to be succeed and uh I want to hold my you know the community to succeed and that's where I want to um help

194the community and uh improve the anything uh um on a school level I can help and um everyone should be you know benefited and uh we build a better society and that's where I want to help and uh I have seen uh there are you know there is always I mean schools are great but there is always a scope for improvement. That's where I want to chip in and you know where I can help. >> Okay. Thank you, Vice Chair Swanson. >> Good afternoon. I have a question number two. >> Sure. Serving on the way county board of education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> Sure. So I worked in a very complex systems work demands and uh I

195managed well there and um uh from a from a school board side I heard about I I mean I read somewhere on that uh you know at least uh 20 hours 20 hours per month is required what I read in the somewhere on the website. Okay. Um but my my I'm committed to uh allocate my time for the community uh the county for the school board and uh I can manage time well and uh my workload well and uh you know I work with you know global teams you know I can manage well I work remotely and uh I'm committed for Good afternoon. What do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake

196County Public Schools? So about the the board and uh the school board sets the vision uh policy and budgetaries and accountability and uh a superintendent is given a and uh maintains their operations basically and who oversees all that initiated programs. um um overseas and uh make sure that uh they are implemented and um as a board you know we want to have a clear communication with uh with our principles uh parents, teachers, communities and u and work with uh municipalities, commissioners and uh other community groups. uh make sure that uh we hear uh the community voice and then um make a clear you know judgments and set the priorities at a governing level as a board level uh so that um community voice is heed and we are meeting their you know um demands so

197that's where I want to um help basically and um where I can you know uh whether I can help in a either a recruiting uh or a right uh staff or uh looking at the data as a as a IT professional you know data is the key to make any decisions um I can help the team um to you these are the critical findings, you know, to act on it. You know, it's not it's a it's a board decision to set the priorities, but my job is to get that critical uh data, bring it onto the table um and think about it. >> Thank you. Good evening. As you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet

198the needs of all students and staff? >> Yeah, budget is always challenging where you want to, you know, spend more money or less money and uh community demands something else. So, um I think one thing I noticed is um somewhere uh you see notice boards um North Carolina teachers um being paid less and there are a teacher shortages and um and from a budget perspectives I think keeping them uh you know meeting their um um livelihood and meeting the expectations is important and but the better talent you get you you have to pay more. So so from budget and if you want a better schools I would focus or you know a little allocation of a budget for a get a talented staff better staff or make them better staff basically. So that's one thing

199and the student resources are also important for a learning perspective. They have a proper infrastructure or the classroom material or teaching material or instructional material. Um and then other things also I have noticed a little bit challenges uh transportation also. Um and uh and and as a board I think want to have a a priority wise. You know you hear uh everyone every voice is important but uh as a board we need to make a right choices on the budget wise but the foremost important thing is um school academics are the where students have to be successful uh the first thing is um you need a better teachers or a good teachers or skilled teachers or whatever uh you know the other uh terminology and uh second thing is the schools will be made better

200um the community engagement. Um when I moved in one place in Massachusetts and there was a you know top school then I was moving there why people are like talking about you know um how does this schools becomes better and one guy one parent told me that uh you know the community makes the schools better basically that's what he so you have a you build a right ecosystem and uh the community is involved better and we make it a better and successful you know school ecosystem. So from a budget perspective and based on the you know whatever that brings the the best you I mean we allocate a more budget on that one. >> All right if we can get a time check Vice Chair Swanson. >> Uh 21 minutes. Okay, so still plenty of

201time. So don't rush. Take your time as we go through the second batch of questions. So for these questions, we'll turn over to this side of the board and we'll start with Miss Gordon. >> Good afternoon. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> So the there Kids are of uh different uh learning levels. There is always a challenge you know uh identifying you know which group set of groups are you know lacking in a reading or a math or any other skill set and this EAS data should um I mean know um give you or um pinpoint to you know what are the challenges you know the the the data set what you are seeing okay whether it could

202be you know they needed uh early literacy programs at a you know uh at um lowest I mean lower grades or uh do they needed um any special um education or uh tutoring I mean every kid is learning capability is different but we need to fill that gap or do we need any special programs or um after school programs or uh you know any other community engagements or uh identify any challenges they are facing and um I think looking into the data at a bigger picture different districts that should give some idea um and uh what is that we can propose and uh um how we can improve the the school uh student um learning levels. Thank you and good afternoon. What are your thoughts on the Wake County Public School System School Choice, which

203includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? >> How can Wake County P how can Wake County Public Schools use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? So there is always u uh people look for a new technologies um forward thinking basically and uh the young parents always looks for hey this is upcoming technology and uh this is a um future basically what they say meeting that uh meeting that their thought process having a you know like a STEM schools or magnet schools and um other programs. Okay. So we need there is a need for a improving a labs uh research labs um right now you know we do have um you know AI is everywhere and I'm seeing worldwide uh some schools are they call it as a AI labs at

204the schools. Okay. Um, so how can we improve you know we look at uh we we need to look at the you know globally you know what is that transforming or changing are we are we ready to um for those challenges are we equipped again when we talked about this uh uh budget things right so the these are the things you know hey this is the new thing you know we don't have this AI labs whether it's a equipment or it's a software where are the teachers all those things you need to bring it to the uh table prioritize [snorts] and um and recruiting the I think this is the one thing I have seen is recruiting there are lot of lot of educated people are in a wake county uh they are into PhDs

205they are into master's degrees I have seen them But but uh and I've seen like uh people I mean who are already recruited but that their communication is not that great. Okay. So my son also complained. Okay. I just I've seen it. So my point is you know hiring uh you know right resources locally there are a very good uh English or communicators and uh with the qualification you know master's degree and PhDs are available and why don't we tap um and then the the teacher qualifications maybe you know a diploma or other certification if there is a such a you know stronger um you know rules are there but we can at least we can uh prep a group of people train them and use them you know locally um that's where we need

206I I think um that uh recruiting those those uh you know available community and um and their kids are going to the same schools around locally so and uh retaining them is also you know a big factor if if you have the right resource resources and qualified resources but you know you you have to identify them then train them locally as a V county public schools you know they may not be ready at day one but you know at least you know there are volunt I mean what do you call them volunteer programs are there but there are qualified people who are not able to work as my my point is so where we can we should be engaging them okay that's what I can bring it up and are retaining then attract all the

207families. So such a programs um and uh if you bring uh you know such a programs or awareness among the communities definitely there you know they take care of their kids and internally or externally it is helping all the community basically. So yeah, having uh recruiting our right, you know, staff locally is much more important. Thank you. Next question. Um, with the growing needs of the district you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? So I I am part of you know WPSS and uh if I am successful from my district I'm a part of the you know whole uh uh district I'm successful and W uh county is also uh successful and I will be available for for principles

208uh parents staff and uh local municipal commissioners or uh commissioners and uh you know municipal officers and uh um so it I see I look if I am successful my district and uh I can correlate I look at a bigger picture for the whole district and as a county and uh I want to succeed all the schools not just my my school. So u any any concepts which are very successful in this thing you know propagate to you know other areas to where you know our successful uh programs um and uh key identified u um positive stories how we can you know help other schools also. So, I look at a at a bigger district than just, you know, my local them. Thank you. Um, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school

209age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> Yeah. So the communities who do not have a young kids or no kids um we should engage them and uh they are working and uh if you are partnered the schools are partnered with uh industry and uh you know they are already part of it but uh at least I would say uh engage them in an like a reading buddies at a high school level or you know at a middle school level um lot of communities they are ready to volunteer and uh only thing is making them engage basically um when compared to other states I don't see that much engagement of parents um you know county uh public schools but I want to improve on that one

210and um the kids the the I I know a lot of young families moved to Wake county um they may not have a a ready schoolgoing children but they will be coming up but at early you know um at a I don't know I say like um play school or um you know early stages but introduce the some programs hey you know future your kid will be going to Wake County Public School any programs that engages or you see as a you know he he wants to send to you know our local schools and and the other thing I was thinking about is uh people who are seniors okay engage like with the senior senior care somewhere you know engage high school students with senior care some volunteer hours or in turn seniors also can

211engage in the schools like a reading buddies or other volunteers but all that uh We have to engage these community groups basically whether it's a faith school or anything you know um those who are do not have a kids basically you engage them and all this we are doing is for a better society and we want our kids to be successful and uh ready for the world to challenge and everybody is a part of uh their success whether kids they have a kids or no kids or they going to have a kids all are important. They will be seeing like their kids want to one day future like be successful. They should be thinking on those lines. So I want to make them you know part of the um discussions engage in the school programs.

212All right. Thank you. That concludes our interview. That is all of the questions and what we will do is the board will be making a decision on the vacancy later this evening and we will notify all of the candidates about that selection. So there are 14 people who have applied and while many are very qualified unfortunately it means we'll have to tell 13 of them no. Um but we appreciate you coming out and applying today and we will be in touch um at the by the end of the day. Thank you. >> Sure. Thank you so much having uh with me today and thank you everyone you individually and uh taking a time to talk um as a board and um even if I don't get it okay uh I am committed to do any

213help needed for a board you know outside this I am willing to work for a school board. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Oh, this way. >> And board members, our next interview will start at 1:35. Here we go. All right, everyone. We'll come back to order after recess. I'd like to introduce you to Amira Abbas who is applying for our district 8 vacancy. Um I've explained to Miss Abbas that we'll have 30 minutes for the interview and that we're going to jump right in using the questions that she had received uh received yesterday. And so I will start the questions with the first question one which is why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Yes. All right. Yes. So, the educational industry has

214always been a passion of mine. I feel like it's very uplifting. Actually, one of my first jobs out of school was working at the Wake Forest MBA School. I had worked on organizing a summer business program for minority students to take business course fundamentals and essentially get them um interested in the business program and come back after undergrad to apply for the MBA program. Um, as in my time as a stay-at-home mom with three kids, I have been very active with the PTA. So, um, I had started out with the North Carolina PTA, which gave me a foundation for advocacy. Um, and then this also helped me in my role. I ended up wanting to work more with my kids and stay a little closer to home. So, I took on the advocacy chair role

215with Oakview Elementary School. Um, and in that role, I did have to work with uh families, educators, and leaders to come up with ways to improve the school as well as to inform them about different educational issues and legislative issues going on um within Wake County. uh this um now as I'm looking to go back to work, I feel like the skills in my PTA role as well as my education and my career background um will help to uh promote positive change within the community through the board of education position. I have a 13 plus year business career and um in business. So I had taken my um done my MBA at UNCC Chapel Hill where I learned valuable leadership skills and strategic thinking skills. Um so I would love to apply the strategic thinking

216skills for the greater good of the community uh and support schools support students and families to thrive. Um I also have in my corporate roles I have uh I had concentrated in marketing but I have budget management experiences at the Washington Post um at Hannes Brands and um at Lowe's Foods which was my uh last role and I so I do understand like the ins and outs of budget proposals. So I feel like um with my career interest as well as my education I could make a positive impact on the community through this role. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good afternoon. Excuse me. [clears throat] I have question two. >> Yes. >> Which reads, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How

217do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?" >> Yes. No, definitely. So, I actually have been act I had mentioned I've been a stay-at-home mom for the last 5 years. I've been actively applying for roles, looking to go back to work. So this you know job it actually provides flexibility for me be um you know if I had taken on some of my previous roles were in office so they were prior to COVID 50 hours a week. This role would actually offer some flexibility for me versus those um more corporate roles. And um my my kids I have twin boys that are in fourth grade and my daughter just started prek so it's a good time to go back. I do have support from family to help with drop offs and

218pickups and things like that. So that's a good thing. >> Good afternoon. What do you know about the roles of the board of education and superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Yes. No, definitely. So from my understanding the board of education um hires the superintendent and also the uh superintendent and the district staff work to um implement the policies within the community. Also the uh superintendent proposes a budget and the board of education adopt and approve the budget. So the the two functions work hand in hand. Um at a local level uh I can say that I think in order for people for community stakeholders and local leaders to be involved they have to be informed and aware of

219the decisions that are being made at the level at the board of education level. So for example at my one of my previous PTA meetings I actually had presented on the board of education passing 4318 which limit limited the um internet device usage in classes. And so the purpose of this was for parents to know about this and it was signed into bill that they would be limiting their in sending their kids with internet devices. Also towards the um end of the last school year I did a internet safety webinar. So parents were also aware of the detrimental effects of too much internet usage um for their children and how it can affect them developmentally and for their physical and mental health. Um, I think also just generally speaking, having school visits and having individuals

220come to speak at forums is a good way to get people informed and aware and ultimately get them involved in in achieving the goals of Wake County Public School System. That's it. Yeah. Thank you. >> Good evening. My question is, as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have um to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um I had I did review the budget and I since the operating budget um the daily operations includes salaries and benefits. I I just feel like in general I think across the board there needs to be a boost in pay for teachers as well as for administrative staff like principles. Um just retaining talent is

221so important and providing funding for training and development opportunities. um it's easier to uh it's easier to retain talent and develop them versus having a lot of turnover and having to rehire spend the money and time rehiring and training people. Um I know that's how it's been in the corporate world. I'm sure it's the same issue but um and also just having I know at our school we've if when a teacher left the kids are left without a teacher and it impacts their development as well. Um also postcoid we've seen a rise in mental health issues within schools. So uh providing funding to hire more counselors um social workers, mental health um staff and implementing healthy lifestyles programs within schools will help to keep our our schools safe as well as to help with uh

222student achievement. So I think those are important. Um I also think that child nutrition should be a focus of the budget. Kids need to eat healthy and nutrition nutritious meals to thrive in school. Um free and reduced meals should be offered to all low-income kids as well as even if there's a way to reduce um you know the the daily meal price so that all kids can um have access to these meals. I know it had help parents they don't have to worry about packing lunches every day too but um I think so that's important. And then the last uh thing was facilities should stay up to-date and safe for students with repairs. And the area that I'm in specifically Holly Springs, Apex, Fukuqua Arena, there's a lot of new construction. So we've just been

223seeing over capacity within our school and so it's great that uh new schools are being built as well. >> All right. Thank you. Vice Chair Swanson, can you give us a check on the time? >> We have about 21 minutes. 21 minutes. We've We have 20 minutes. One minute. >> 21 minutes left into the conversation. >> So, we're doing good. Yeah. >> Plenty of time. So, we'll go back to this side of the table to continue our questions. >> Okay. Hi. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, >> are you on? I can't >> the green. Oh, there we go. Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> Okay, great. Thank you for that question. Um, I feel that each student's

224strength strengths and weaknesses differ. So, I think it's important to have a targeted approach. I know for my own kids when I get their report card, what I do is I look at what are their areas of strengths, what are their what are their gaps and then I provide tutoring or other act activities to try to strengthen their um their gaps or their weaknesses. So similarly for this I feel that with vulnerable students um if you look at the uh the kids schedules each year there's about one hour of flex time. I feel like that would be a great way for them to get private tutoring whether it's from their teacher or having somebody who can provide that for students that have these needs. um oftent times uh the most vulnerable do not have the

225means to pay for private tutoring or have or their parents might be too busy at home to be able to provide that for them. So I think that's that's one way to close the gap. I also think that um schools can implement a positive behavior reward system. So, for example, if you go a quarter without having absences, maybe you can get crispy cream donuts or just some just an example of that, but some way to to reward positive behaviors within the school environment. So, that encourages them to want to excel. Um, and and then lastly, I I know our school has these extracurricular activities right after school through different clubs like soccer clubs, tennis clubs. Having a way to provide they're provided at a fee. So maybe having a way to provide these activities at

226no cost for the vulnerable students so that they can um you know feel a sense of belonging with their school and also kind of become well-rounded and and round out their skills. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. And good afternoon. >> Afternoon. >> Let me find my question. I've got it. Um, what are your thoughts on Wake County Public School Systems School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County Public Schools use the tools to retain, recruit, and attract all families? >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Um, I think that the Wake County Public School System is an excellent choice. I think it's notorious for being a very reputable school um not just within North Carolina but in the nation. I actually grew up in Fory County.

227So I always had heard about how great Wake County schools were. We were living in uh Guilford County before we moved back here and um we moved back here prim primarily for the Wake County public school system because we know it's excellent. Um, and I uh I think that the magnet programs also offer e educ exc excellent education, but it's tailored to specific areas such as STEM. So, I think that that um that's a good option for people as well if they decide to go that route to recruit and retain families. It would be helpful. I'm in marketing, but to have some kind of campaign where people are just educated on the high level stats of how, you know, top-notch Wake County public schools are, for example, you know, just like the graduation rates, the

228college acceptance, where are these kids going to school, um, you know, how like what, you know, what different uh certifications the teachers or credits do they have? That way people can say, "Okay, you know, if I'm, for example, I I know a family, they're they're in the Kerry area and they between Wake County public schools, they put their kids in private schools because they thought, okay, maybe the classes will be smaller, maybe the teachers will be more qualified, and then they were unhappy with it, and then they put them in another private school and then they weren't happy. But if they just knew these stats, you know, I feel like that would be a way to sell them into the fact that you can get a better education and not have to spend the extra

229dollars for private schools. Um, and I I also had um I was looking at ma magnet schools for my own kids and I know I went to one of the magnet fairs and so I spent some time walking through all the different booths and I had to wait in some lines and stuff and then it helped me understand, okay, you know, this school specializes in, you know, STEM and this specializes in the arts. I think it'd be helpful to have some type of quick reference guide for the magnet schools like what do they specialize in too so that way people just ga gather that information at a high level and then you can sell them on the schools um that they would be interested in. >> You're welcome. >> Hi, good afternoon. >> Good afternoon.

230Um, with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of your constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Yes. No, definitely. Um, I think it's just a matter of, you know, time blocking and prioritization, which I did learn in MBA school. So, um I would assume that the weight count um the district 8 needs would be more time consuming and um you know prioritized with site visits and forums with families versus the the needs of the Wake County public school system as a whole would be more um tackled at the board meetings that you guys have monthly. Correct. So, um I but I you know I just think as as any role comes up, you'll see prioritizations changing and um you

231just have to allocate your hours accordingly. >> Thank you. Um with nearly 70% I started to say just flat out 70% but with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? Okay, great. Thank you. Now, I think it's very important for the broader community to be um have the partnership with the schools to improve and uplift the entire community. Um I know many uh there's a lot of opportunities to work with local businesses and individuals to either, you know, donate to schools to offer pro boner work. Um I know many individuals are work uh would be happy to do that. For example, at our school, we have spirit nights where we have local businesses such as, you know,

232Chick-fil-A. They might have a certain night where we'll promote and invite all the families and then um a percent of the proceeds go back to the school. So, that's an opportunity for the business to uh you know, advertise their their for their customers and also for the school to benefit for it. Um we also have events like fall festivals where we have different sponsors, local sponsors, um you know, pay for placements to get advertisement at the fall festival and then um they're they're donating but they're also getting their their name out in the community. So there's a lot of opportunities uh with businesses and individuals um for partnerships. And then um in my advocacy chair role, I did notice that I feel like people in general, maybe it's in the county and we're lucky to

233have that, they love the opportunity to get involved with schools and with the underserved. Just last week, um we we found out about this uh family or a few families that needed Thanksgiving meals or some students that didn't have winter jackets. So, um, I talked to a few ladies and they like jumped at the opportunity to to per and we went together shopping and gave it to the counselors and social workers and they they, you know, handle that relationship. But it's just amazing to see how people love to be involved even if they're busy. Like one of the ladies, she was hopping on a plane to go to Chicago. It was last Friday, but she went in the morning, bought the turkeys and everything, gave it came to the school, gave it to the counselor.

234So I I think you would be um amazed how people love to give back and I think you know when you give help others it actually get helps you get get a sense of contentment and gratitude for your own blessings. >> All right. >> Thank you. Well as we discussed that brings us to the end of the questions and therefore to the >> end of the interview. >> Yeah. So thank you very much. Um, thank you. >> As I mentioned, we will u making be making our decision >> later this evening and then we'll notify all the candidates. >> Okay. >> Again, the the good news is that we have 14 excellent, highly qualified candidates. The bad news is we're going to have to tell >> 13 of them know, >> but we're very we

235we're very uh grateful and appreciative of your interest and thank you for the materials you submitted in your application >> and for joining us here today. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. It was nice meeting all of you and I appreciate your time as well. Thank you. Have a good day. Yeah. >> Yeah. All right. Thank you. Bye. >> And board members, our next interview will be at 2:10 for Jennifer Dear. How's everybody holding up? This is take 10, right? Take 10 for you today. >> Can you hear me? Okay. Is the audio working? Okay, great. >> Great. All right. Well, um, board members, I'd like to introduce Miss Jennifer Dearman, who is another applicant for our district 8 vacancy. Um, I've explained to Miss Dearman about the time, about the microphone, and then

236about, uh, the flow with the conclusion of the meeting. And so, just to make sure you have as much time as possible to talk about any of the questions that we're going to present, we'll just jump right in without any further introductions. >> Wonderful. >> All right. So, uh, I'll be asking the first question, which is quite simply, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Well, thank you, Board Chair Hagerty. Thank you for the question, and thank you to all the members of the board. Uh, I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you all today, and uh, you're making an important decision, and I appreciate the time that you're dedicating to the process. Um, Wake County Public Schools has been, uh, an important part of my personal history

237and my family story. I graduated from Apex High School in 1986. Uh that building looks a little different now uh than it did back then. And my husband of 25 years and I have raised two children who are also proud Cougars, class of 2021 and 2024. Both are thriving in two North Carolina universities. And I'm grateful for the impact that Wake County has had on on them and our family. On the professional side, I'm senior vice president at No Red Inc. And uh that's a digital evidence-based writing curriculum that uh is used by hundreds of public school districts, thousands of teachers, and millions of students across the country to improve K12 literacy outcomes. Over the past two and a half years, I've worked closely with superintendent and chief academic officers, curriculum directors, school leaders, uh

238and teachers across the country, and I have a deep understanding of the opportunities and constraints that go into district decision-making. things like urgency to accelerate growth, stu uh retaining great teachers, the realities of staff shortages, competing mandates, limited resources, which I'm all I'm sure sound very familiar to all of you. U my work involves setting a vision and developing multi-year strategic plans, managing significant budgets, and aligning cross functional teams around our shared goal of student outcomes. Uh, all of this is important experience for a board member, but what I really want you to take away from this interview is this. The best part of my job is being on the ground with school districts of all sizes. Uh, large districts like Wake County that have over 200 schools all the way to the small schools

239that have uh small districts that have just three schools. I study district strategic plans for a living um and talk to district administrators about what they're prioritizing and what's getting in the way. I visit all types of schools across the country, rural schools, suburban schools, inner city schools, title one schools, low performing, high-erforming, unacredited schools. I visit classrooms and I talk to teachers about their instructional models and workflow and how we can better support them. I watch students learning through the different supports that are provided to them and I've learned a lot honestly uh things that I I did not know like uh what equitable access means and how important it is to ensure every every child has the chance to succeed. The variation in subgroup performance and the challenges to move the needle. The

240effects of increasing and decreasing enrollment and how it affects the district. high rates of teacher attrition and growing need for teacher uh emergency teacher certifications and the importance of student well-being. The list I could go on and on with this list. Uh two and a half years ago I did not know about these things. It was not part of my lived experience but I do know about them now and I want to help. >> Thank you. Our next question will come from Vice Chief Swanson. >> Good afternoon. And I have question number two that says, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours uh per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?" >> Thank you, Vice Chair Swanson. Uh first, again, I

241want to acknowledge and applaud the board members for the time and energy that you put into this important work. Serving our community at this level requires a tremendous commitment and uh I have great respect for that. I've given a lot of thought to the time commitment of serving on the board and actually now is a great time for me. Uh my current role is fully remote gives me flexibility in how I structure my days and my time. I have strong support from our founder and CEO at Nerit Inc. as well as my peers there uh who not only value my commitment to public education but also deeply understand the importance. I also have the full support of my family who are very proud of me for wanting to serve our community in this way. So,

242short and sweet, I'm very used to balancing demanding professional obligations uh with other meaningful commitments and I'm ready to prioritize this role. >> Sorry, was busy notetaking. Sorry. Um good afternoon. My uh question number three, what do you know about the roles of board, the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? Thank you, Miss Caulfield. The most effective boards that I've been on or worked with stay focused on priorities, data, and results, and they don't drift into the operational management of things. Uh the roles of the board of education and the superintendent are distinct but closely interdependent. The board sets the vision, establishes policy to support student outcomes, approves the budget, and holds districts accountable for

243achieving the goals and listening to the community. Superintendent Taylor is essentially the district CEO, and he's responsible for the day-to-day operations, managing staff, and executing the strategy that the board approves. Uh when I think about uh collaboration with community stakeholders and local leaders, uh I believe it starts with building relationships and providing opportunities for uh conversation and listening to learn. I' I'd engage regularly with parents and teachers, school leaders, community leaders because they often know things that show up that before it shows up in the data. Being present and acres present and accessible is important to building trust. And I'd engage in a variety of ways. Meeting people where they're at through forums or listening tours, surveys, working sessions, um just to name a few. Thank you. Good afternoon. As you collaborate with other board

244members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Great. Thank you, Miss Rice. So, developing a budget for a district this size is no easy task. Uh a $3.3 billion annual budget sounds like a lot, but at the largest school district in North Carolina that continues to grow year-over-year, providing resources for over 10,000 teachers, teaching six2,000 students in over uh 200 schools. There are a finite amount of resources and many competing priorities. For example, um in last week's work session, there was a healthy tension when discussing the constant backlog of maintenance and repairs, how learning conditions affect students, and the impact that this could have on parents wanting to send their children to Wake

245County Public Schools. Yet, as also stated during that meeting, funding for maintenance and operations budget up to industry standards hasn't been a priority uh for several years because funding for teachers and classrooms has been the key focus. And of course, both of these areas are critically important, but the result is competing priorities. I've developed a lot of budgets throughout my career, and I think our pri our budget priorities here should be driven by this simple statement or question. what investments impact student learning and the stability of our schools the most. When we look at it through this lens, decisions about long-standing expenses that no longer serve our students will need to be made through thoughtful collaboration. And having said all of that, a few areas of investment that I'd support prioritizing and that I proposed

246as initiatives uh aligning to the strategic plan are focusing on early literacy because if we don't get that right, the gaps continue to widen. Retaining and supporting teachers, especially early career teachers, so we have stability in the classroom and a pipeline of leaders. Reducing chronic absenteeism because we can't make a difference if kids are not in class. And as a bonus, um I think it's table stakes to be investing in learning conditions like reliable transportation, mental health supports, and well-maintained buildings. >> Before we go on, we're going to do just a quick check of your time. Vice Chair Swans, >> we have 20 minutes left. >> Am I talking too fast? >> Okay, I'll pace myself. >> We have four more questions that we'll go through. All right. >> Good afternoon. >> Hi there. Given

247the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? Thank you, Miss Gordon. This is where I get a little nerdy because I was excited to see a data question um in the interview list. So, uh in my current role, I spend a lot of time digging into district performance data uh to better understand what's top of mind for our district partners. And one thing is very clear, achievement gaps amongst the most vulnerable students is a nationwide concern. It's not unique to Wake County Public Schools. Our EVOS data shows that the most vulnerable students are not growing at the same rate as their peers with the highest unmet growth status coming from schools serving highne communities and their pockets of growth but not district-wide uh

248consistency. Students often fall into one or more vulnerable group uh and the needs of each subgroup to close achievement gaps will vary. For example, students with dyslexia need different support than a student struggling to learn English or a student who is food insecure and equity of course plays a role across all the subgroups. So, I recommend working with subject matter experts to determine the best solutions based on the distinct needs of students and utilizing the most current research in the field. We have amazing research universities in the area and we should seek out partnerships with them. What's important to recognize though is there isn't a one-sizefits-all approach and the goal should be to make sure to address the specific needs of each subgroup. Thank you and good afternoon. What are your thoughts on Wake County

249Public School System School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County Public Schools use the tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> Thank you, Mr. Hershey. Well, I I see Wake County School Choice Program as a strength. I think it gives families options to choose a school that meets their child child's needs and their family needs. Whether that's a magnet school with the specialized pathways that we offer or the calendar option that better aligns with family schedules. Um, actually many years ago, we took advantage of the application process to enroll our son at Turner Creek Elementary because of the calendar option. Um, and I will say it's nice to see the stability transfer program that is in place now. Uh I think to recruit and retain

250uh families, we need to make sure families are informed. They know about these programs that we're highlighting what makes them special. Um and access matters which may be creating barriers to families taking advantage of the of uh school choice that that need to be examined. Uh we need to ensure transportation, clear enrollment processes um and transparent information make these options truly available to all families. Uh, I think that's when school choice becomes a powerful tool for retaining and attracting families. >> Thank you. Um, my question is, with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Ing. Um, I mentioned this a few times. I partner with districts

251all over the country and I understand every district has to balance different needs within the system like high growth areas, enrollment shifts, staffing shortages and leaders have to make decisions that work for the entire system. Uh we serve more than 160,000 students and our policy should be designed in service of all students. And while I'd hope that the majority of the time the needs of district 8 align with what the district is prioritizing, that may not always be the case and I recognize that. Opening three new schools in district 8 this school year is an example uh where there was certainly local impact to families and operational complexities and constraints at the district level. So, an analogy um I'll use is sometimes a district will ask us as a as a product company for specific

252features in our product and we'll listen to the district and understand what their needs are and their concerns and then we'll take it to the product team and we'll, you know, ask them, we'll talk about it and we'll evaluate whether or not this feature will benefit other districts as well. And sometimes the answer is yes. and we do it and sometimes the answer is no. What's important during that process is that we're open and transparent and that we're explaining our decision. So, as I mentioned, not every local need uh will always align perfectly with the district priorities. And the truth is we cannot make everyone happy. That's just the reality. But what I commit to is doing my best uh to understand and represent District 8 with an appreciation for the needs of the district

253as a whole. Thank you. Um the final question, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should WCPSS do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> Thank you, Miss Admmonds. Did everybody else mention how surprised they were with this number, 70%. I mean, I was really shocked by that number and then it hit me that I'm actually part of that 70% now. Uh, it's funny how you forget where you are, what stage of life you're in with my kids away at college now. Um, so I did a little bit of reflection as I thought about this question. Um, when my kids were in school, I knew what was happening. I knew when the home games were. I knew when the concerts were happening. I knew when the plays were

254happening. Um, I knew about volunteer opportunities. I felt really connected to the school. Uh, I loved Principal Hoffman's Peak newsletter that came out every week. Um, but once my kids graduated, that flow of information stopped. And I still follow a few of the sports teams, the softball team in particular, uh, because my daughter was on the 2023 team that brought home the first Wake County softball title. little plug. >> Um, but you know, unless I go look for things, I don't know what's happening in in in my local school, Apex High School, very close to that school. So, I do think people care about what's happening in their neighborhood schools. I know I certainly do. Um, and want to know what the impact is that we're having on children in the community. Uh, but it's

255a little out of sight, out of mind when it's not part of your daily life. And so, I have a couple of ideas. Um, I thought about a quarterly community newsletter and also putting updates, school updates in town communications that are already happening. Um, running a community volunteer campaign uh with opportunities to be mentors um or adviserss, part of an advisory board. Hosting community events at the school is a great way to get people to come and participate and know what's going on. And there's a lot of space. um engaging with local civic organizations of course and then student outreach to retirement communities. Although it's important to note that that 70% they're not all retired people, you know, they're just people that maybe don't have children or in different parts of their the stage of

256their life. So I believe they have a lot to offer. Um I believe they care deeply about their neighborhood schools as I do and they're definitely a knowledge base that we should be tapping into more intentionally. All right. Well, Miss Dearman, thank you very much. Um, that will conclude our interview questions and our interview time. Uh, the board will make a decision on filling the vacancy this evening and I will notify each of the candidates as to the outcome of that vote. Um, there were 14 candidates. Again, that means having to say no to 13 people even though we have some amazingly qualified applicants. And so we really appreciate you putting your name in, sharing your materials that you submitted with us, and coming out and answering our questions here today. So, thank you. >>

257Yeah, thank you. Good luck with your decision. >> Thank you. >> Nice to meet you. All right. And board members, our next interview will be at 2:45. I love you. All right. >> Yeah, the microphone is still on. So, >> have a seat. >> Hi. >> It's okay. I uh took notes on the questions, so I'm gonna leave them here. I'm not going to read to you, though. Gosh, that'd be awful. All right, we'll come out of recess and we'll continue with our candidates, our interviews. Board members, please allow me to introduce Dr. Candace Smith, who is here today to, uh, answer questions related to our decision on the District 8 vacancy. So, um, and you told me to call you Candace, not Dr. Smith. >> Yes, please. So, uh, Candace, we're going to jump

258right in with the first question, which is, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Yeah, I was really excited to, uh, meet all of you today. I've attended several board meetings in the past months just to make sure I had a better idea of what I might be trying to get myself into. Um, I uh mentioned in my letter of interest and I I think it bears repeating that I think I would bring a really um unique perspective to the school board. Uh I have three children inside of Wake County schools. Um one has just uh completed and he's at UNCC Wilmington um and is home for Thanksgiving. So that's nice. Um but I have uh I have two additional children. one who's at Apex Friendship High School

259and one who is at Olive Chapel Elementary School. Uh so I know personally what it feels like to be a parent to uh to kids inside of Wake County. Um and um and for to to parent kids who are struggling inside of Wake County. Um and I I don't have an axe to grind. Uh I I am super passionate about the way that public education helped me escape my uh sort of birthright whenever I grew up. Um and um and I I want to see that kind of fervor in my own children and in all of the kids in Wayne County. Um, and so that that has sort of circled me back around to a desire to serve inside of the public school system in some capacity to try and give back what was given

260to me. Um, so yeah, I uh I I think I bring a a parents perspective, but also um a perspective from a a poor kid who grew up in rural Oklahoma and leveraged my education to um to bring me here at where I want to be instead of just where I was born. So that's uh what I got. >> All right. Thank you, Vice Swans. >> Good afternoon. I have question number two for you. Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> That's a great question. Um, so I do have a full-time job. I'm a lead scientist at a a rather large um research organization called IUvia. with the three kids uh one

261in college uh one in high school and one in elementary school. My commitments are are heavy. Um but I am very very lucky to have a super supportive partner who um thoroughly believes that we should share the the load of um caring for our family. Um and my direct supervisor wrote one of my letters of recommendation. Um I went and spoke with my bosses to find out what their thoughts were. Um, I'm super lucky to uh to have all of my current bosses be working mothers who also feel really passionate about education and the role that it plays in um in their kids' lives. And so they they are enthusiastically supportive and have agreed um that we we make time for the things that we're passionate about. And um so they have agreed to help

262me make my schedule as flexible as it needs to be um to accommodate the work that we would do here. Good afternoon. >> Hi. Um, what do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Yeah. So, I've uh done um I wouldn't say a considerable amount of reading, but uh what I hoped is due diligence about the the roles and responsibilities of the superintendent and the board. It's my understanding that the superintendent serves as the executive uh offers leadership and advice um helps implement policy where the board is uh semillegislative in nature where uh you know listening to advocates coming up with new policy uh working to um find

263ways to evaluate the success or failure of those policies. Um, and so I I uh recognize I have a ton to learn having not sat on a board or held a position inside of a public school. Um, so I I look forward to that a lot. The second piece of the question, how I'd like to collaborate with community stakeholders. Um, is I think my favorite question of all the ones on the list. Uh I as I mentioned grew up in this very small rural place and the the public school that I attended was the hub of the entire community and I think because Wake County is so large that presents some real challenges to seeing schools serve as the hubs of their communities. Um, and so what I'd really like to do is, um, spend

264a good amount of time listening to the experts in front of me and talking to teachers inside my district to see, uh, what partnerships already exist because I I think that there are a lot of them that do currently exist um that I got to sort of dive into when I served on the PTA at Lufkin. Um, but also I think that we have a real opportunity in a period of strife or upheaval. I think the political and economic climate right now is really driving people to to seek out the things that matter most to them to invest their time and their treasure into. Um, and I think that our schools could serve as a as a home base for um some of the deficiencies that we have in this really big county. Um, and

265so I'd like to be a part of helping make schools make the schools in my district in particular feel more closely aligned with the neighborhood feeling that I had before. And I think that um, local businesses and and local leaders who are also stakeholders um, want those connections as well. I think we're all sort of hunting for connections and this might present a nice opportunity to make them. >> Good afternoon. um as you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, do you think that do you think I'm sorry, what do you think um are the budget priorities um that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Yeah. So, um I pulled up the budget uh maybe a month ago. um a after having attended

266one of the uh the board meetings um with the public uh and realizing that we still don't have a legislative budget uh to help fund the schools. And so I I wanted to know what I didn't know. Um it's it was a daunting document at 188 pages. Um, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the apparent um, priorities inside the existing budget align pretty well with my own. I have this deep well of love and respect for public school teachers and I'm glad to see that most of the uh, most of the money in the budget goes toward uh, paying for quality educators and staff and support. Um so in my view that is a a right-sized um chunk of the budget. I also think that material support for children is one of my um

267big passion project projects. Um as PTA president um at Lufkin I spent time talking with our counselors about children who were experiencing food insecurity um who didn't have clothing, who didn't have school supplies because I was that kid, right? um school clothing closets clothed me. Uh most of my jackets growing up came from them. Um and all of the good pencils that I ever got, the Tyonderogas were from the the school supplies closet, right? And um and so I I believe very passionately that that children can't learn effectively and reach their fullest potential if they are distracted by instability at home or hunger or the weather. Um, and so I think that material support for the students is also a a really important piece of the budget that I'd like to explore more. Um, and

268I, you know, with the growth in Wake County, I think that the expenses for maintaining and building new facilities are probably really challenging. Um, and that feels like it should be a also a high priority. So, those three are um are the main priorities that I see as being most essential to a good budget. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right, Vice Chair Swanson, if I could, let's just do a quick time check. >> So, we still have 20 minutes left into this interview. >> All right, great. So, we'll continue the round of questions. We'll start with Miss Gordon. >> Good afternoon. Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> Yeah. Uh so I have um almost no experience

269with the algorithms that we use to evaluate our teachers. Um I watch my kids go through the the testing processes, right? And I I know that they are associated with the performance of the teacher and we um have the high performers and the low performers. Part of my job as a scientist on the on the day-to-day is to find out the things that I don't know and ask questions until I do know them. And what I would think that would uh be the right approach is to talk to the highest uh performers and to the folks who need the most help um and find out what their um what their best practices are that are working the most uh for the folks whose students are performing really well and um and also find out from

270the teachers themselves what barriers they face on the day-to-day that is resulting in um a poor performance because I don't I don't believe that inside our public school system there are folks who come to work to willfully underperform. And so I um I think that remediation has to begin at a a clear understanding of the problem. Um, and then we can leverage the experienced teachers who are seeing a lot of success and their best practices and see where they might be applied to the to the folks who need the most help. So, that would be where I would want to start. >> Thank you. And, uh, good afternoon. What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System school choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County Public

271Schools use the tools use these tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> I was really struck uh at the recent meeting. I actually went home and spoke with my husband about um the school choice folks who came to uh to speak in favor of um keeping their school, keeping their teachers, keeping their students exactly where they are. And simultaneously, um, I can't remember who mentioned it, but, uh, someone, you know, brought to to the front that all of our districts ought to be in here fighting to keep their teachers, fighting to keep their schools, fighting to keep their kids where they are. Um, and I think that school choice has some to do with that. Uh, I have experienced my own frustrations with our choice um, policies. Uh my kids are currently in

272a a year-round school um which is a wonderful school. Uh we have an abundance of great choices in district 8. Um and for my address um but I have been trying for years to get them to a traditional calendar and for years have been told no. And that's really hard for me um even as a you know a champion and a person who's very happy with the school that my kids are in. Um, and so I think that there are some really big challenges where the our choice system is not meeting the moment and I don't know why. Uh, those are more questions that I would like to ask. What is it about the growth that Wake County has experienced which seems to be tied to a lot of the challenges is driving the problems

273with school choice and are there avenues to to make that better? Or is the the program as it exists no longer serving anyone in the district? I I don't know the answer to that question, but it is one of the things that I I wish we could um spend some time with. Um, along those lines, I have a couple of realtor friends who spend a lot of time with their potential clients moving from out of state, um, and saying to them, I've heard them, witnessed them say these words, don't buy a house based on the school that's near the house because it is not a guarantee that you're going to get to go to that school. Don't do it. And they still do it. And I don't understand, but I do think that that puts

274us in a position where from the jump the county seems disconnected from the community, right? And so the expectation is and I I did it too. I moved to Apex so that my kids could go to Apex schools so that they could have the best possible education my husband and I could afford to give them. and um and and even we sometimes are just like should we just move to a a much smaller place where we could just do exactly what we wanted and I think that there's a disconnect in communication there and and so I believe in what school choice particularly magnet schools affording our students the ability to to move into the avenues that interest them them them the most so that they do their best work at school. Um but I I

275think that um that it is not serving everyone and I'd like to better understand why. Um yeah, >> thank you. Um the next question is uh with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? Yeah, I think that goes uh really well with the the recent meeting with uh some folks fighting for their schools and some folks fighting to, you know, love their schools more. Um I think that we have a considerable well of untapped potential inside of our um inside of our districts at large, right, across the whole county. When I was at Lufkin, one of the ideas that I had that I was unable to to bring all the way around

276um was that we have, you know, uh magnet schools, we have students who speak four or five languages. And at Lufkin, we had a a group of um new to the states immigrant populations whose parents had no idea what was being said at our um at our open houses and at our um meetings. So, we're trying so hard to engage them. Um, and they and we couldn't we literally couldn't communicate with them. And so, what I wanted to do was find a way to get some of those high school students who need volunteer hours, who need community service hours, and see if they were interested in learning what communication looks like in in the public school system and get them into serve as volunteer interpreters or just ambassadors for those families. We didn't have time.

277Uh I was PTA president the year that Karen Cinders died um at school and so that was a really challenging year. Um and so we had to rep prioritize very quickly uh to try and show some stability for the students. Um so [clears throat] I I think that we can leverage the the talent and the time in uh our districts for one another. And I'm a big believer in best practices. My favorite school teacher told me a really long time ago that um the best teachers are really excellent thieves. They go into a classroom and they observe people and they figure out what it is that they're doing that works and then they adopt it and make it their own. And I think that we should be able to do that across our districts as

278well. So, um I prefer to think about the resources um not as pie where all of the districts get a slice, but uh that we may be able to all be ingredients for one big, you know, successful Thanksgiving dinner to be super corny about it. Um, I I want to um really uh avoid competition between districts. Um because I think that that can breed contempt not just uh maybe inside the school system but also with the the the folks living in those districts. And um I think it goes back to trying to build a community school again, right? even in this giant district. Um, and so I I hope that there will be opportunities uh to be able to never have to choose my district um over someone else's or at the cost of someone

279else's uh resources. So that's uh that's where I land there. Thank you. Uh, with nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? Yeah. Um, so weirdly, uh, I have a I have a chosen family, uh, in and most of us live in Wake County. Um, and I am the only one with children. Everybody else is a couple of what do they call them? Do double incomes, no kids. Um, and so I I pose this question to them. What is it um that would make you really invested in Wake County schools even though you don't have kids here? And to a to a person, they all we're all pretty aligned with one another. To a person though, they said

280they didn't want to live in an area with stupid people. And one of the reasons that they loved being here was because everybody was so well educated, and that included [clears throat] the young people. Um and so I think that um improving communication with the community at large and providing opportunities for community leaders to be more involved in their schools, particularly their schools that are geographically located near them, but also other districts, right? We are a we are a county. um would I think uh make people feel more invested, make people feel more ownership in the public schools even if they're not directly tied to them. Um I remember high school football games whenever I was a kid and the local photographer, there was only one right in Salisaw, Oklahoma, but um the local photographer

281volunteered his time to come and and photograph the kids uh at the football games. I have a friend in Apex who does the same just because she's a football nut. She doesn't have kids in the school anymore. Both of her kids are are grown. Um, and she does that because she feels welcome, because she already knows how to get into the school, right? A lot of folks, I think, see schools as a fortress because they have to be a safe place for our kids these days. But that can be really intimidating to try and figure out how to just get your foot in the door. Is it okay to go and knock on the door of the school and say, "Can I pay for a new sign out front or or something to that effect?"

282Um and so I think that if we can [clears throat] be more intentional about involving our community um at large where they are, not always just asking them to do something for the school, but also offering the school as a as a road for them to be more connected to network to be uh a community name. Um then we can get more investment because everybody will have a little bit of skin in the game. All right. Well, that concludes our questions for you and so that will conclude our interview. >> Lovely. >> I want to again thank you again for coming out today. Um, as I said, we have 14 candidates. >> At least half done. >> Wellified candidates. Um, but the bad news is we will have to say no to 13 of them.

283But we will contact everyone tonight and let them know about the selection. and uh we really appreciate you coming out and all the thought you put into your materials and for answering the questions that we had for you today. So, thank you. >> I appreciate the opportunity. It was nice to meet all of you. >> Thank you. All right, our next interview will be at 3:20. That's right. All right, everyone. It's 3:20. So, let's get um let's get going. We'll come out of our recess and I would like to introduce all of you to uh Douglas Bian and um Mr. Bian is here to interview for our district 8 vacancy. He has received all the questions, knows the time limits and the structure for today and knows that we're going to jump right in with

284our first question. So, if you're ready, I am >> um I'll go ahead and start with question one on your sheet, which is simply, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? Chairman Hagerty, I appreciate your question because it's something I've thought a lot about as my son is currently a sixth grader in the Wake County Public School System. I've done a significant amount of volunteering and service throughout my lifetime, things like Habitat for Humanity. And when I lived in your district, Miss Edmonds, uh, I adopted Westlake Road as part of the North Carolina Adopt a Highway program. I've been captain of my son's soccer teams and volunteered many times at school programs. More recently, over the last 5 to 10 years, I've started mentoring kids who are just about

285to graduate or have graduated from college to help them create resumeums. We do mock interviews and other things to get them prepared for their first job interview. At first, this was for children of some colleagues at my work, and more recently, it has morphed through word of mouth to be mostly working with kids as well as grown-ups from historically black communities. All these things I've mentioned are fine and good, but I think they're also safe and small. When I saw the District 8 opening, I knew I found something that could challenge me and use my skills to make a bigger impact. I think my broad industry experience, managing large complex projects, and my leadership style centered on listening, respecting diverse perspectives, and building consensus to achieve shared goals positions me well to be an effective

286board member. I also love working with kids. They never cease to amaze me with the unique and creative things that they think and do. In the past few months, I've done a ton of research into Wake County schools and the issues facing the board. I've studied Wake County school programs, state session law, and general statutes. Recently, I found myself reading a famous passage from Theodore Roosevelt named Men in the Arena. It's a 1910 speech he delivered at the Sone in France that was quite inspiring to me. He speaks about what makes a strong republic. Engaged, virtuous, hard-working citizens who take responsibility and contribute to the common good. He argues that a thriving democracy relies on individuals who actively participate rather than passively judge. Critics, he said, contribute little because they risk nothing. He went on

287to say that uncertain times like those that exist today have marked US history as times when it is often common to see ordinary citizens rise up to do extraordinary things to move society in a better direction. I believe I'm that ordinary citizen and this position in district 8 is my extraordinary thing that I feel compelled to rise to do. There's something else I want to talk about as well. From reading my resume and looking at me, you probably think I'm just a white collar dude, but that's not entirely true. Growing up, starting from ninth grade through graduation from college, I had a range of trade experiences. Working four summers for my grandfather in his industrial optics company as a skilled machinist, working uh sorry, being on the maintenance crews of several prestigious golf courses in

288the New York City area and holding various construction jobs. In these in these jobs, I often operated heavy equipment like bulldozers, excavators, front loaders, dump trucks, as well as about 20 or 30 other medium to large mechanized equipment and machines. For eight summers, I worked and sweat alongside my bluecollar brothers. For me, these were just summer jobs, a way to earn some money for school and do something I loved, as well as practice my bilingual bilingual Spanish fluency. For the men I worked with, many in the Latino community, it was their life. For most, it was just one of the two or three jobs needed to earn a living wage for their families. After college, I entered the white collar world and began my long and successful technology career while continuing to take several hundred

289hours of professional community college vocational vocational training courses at night in the trades of plumbing, electrical, masonry, framing, and HVAC. Recently, I had the privilege of designing and building my own house with the coll collaboration of a contractor friend and did a good amount of the construction work myself. Why, you might ask, do I tell this story? I tell it because currently Wake County Schools has an unfunded deferred maintenance backlog of close to $600 million. Besides my technology, professional and office work experiences, my lived experiences in facilities and mechanical trades, I think can contribute significantly to the board in this space. I have several initiatives that I've drafted and I think they'll help with the bus driver shortage situation as well as help remediate the large outstanding maintenance backlog of priority number one through three

290issues currently in Max Maximo for our schools in general. Mr. Mr. Hershey, if I'm selected for the board, I would love to work and collaborate [clears throat] alongside you in the facilities committee and chairman Hagerty, I completely agree with you about the need to fully fund the maintenance and operations performance alignment. If it's put on the budget for next year, it's something I would definitely support. If there's one thing I know with 100% certainty about maintenance issues is they get exponentially more expensive the longer they're delayed. So, we should take the hit now to raise up facilities in order to have more resources later to continue to raise up teachers and staff. >> Thank you. >> Great. Good afternoon. I have question number two. Um, serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require

29130 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these how do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> So, in my current job, my responsibilities span the globe. I meet teams daily in Europe and Asia. And because of the time zone time zone differences, my day is made up of meetings that occur anywhere from maybe 5:00 a.m. to 11 or midnight. So, as long as I get my work done, I have a lot of flexibility and latitude to plan my day. Basically, if I know about things far enough in advance, I just schedule them into my calendar and it's no problem. My supervisor is also aware that I'm [clears throat] applying and he said that it's not an issue for me to do this. During co my

292wife and I decided to homeschool our son for two years and at the same time I was building our new house. Each of these two things individually were at least 30 hours commitment on top of my regular job. Although not ideal, I was able to manage. So I figure one 30-hour a week extra job won't be hard to handle. Good afternoon. >> So, question number three, what do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Thanks, Miss Cfield. My sister was a member of her school board up in New York for 10 years, the last two of which she was president. So, I know quite a bit about school

293boards and how they function through my many conversations with her. The role of the school board is to provide strategic governance of the district with the objective of identifying and developing policies, initiatives and goals that the school should adhere to. The intent is to ensure that every child has equal access to opportunities in quality learning and a positive healthy school experience and outcome. The superintendent's role is to take those strategic goals and initiatives and translate them to actionable steps that can be taken by the school staff to support the day-to-day operations of our schools. The superintendent should provide regular updates to us as the board members as well as raise topics of concern where he could use our input or help. I'm a very strong proponent of datadriven decisionmaking. In that respect, the superintendent should

294also provide regular and sufficient data through which we can view and evaluate progress towards the policies and goals that the board has outlined. I think Dr. Taylor has shown that he has similar views about datadriven initiatives and has done a great job to bring more transparency of that data to the public and the board. Relating to local officials, I'm a strong believer in community-based schools. So it's important that we work with community stakeholders to make sure we complement their community work rather than commi compete with them or create redundancy. One focus of my time on the board will be to try to work with local leaders to see if we can get them to incentivize affordable housing in all the new developments that are under their jurisdiction. That these housing units should be geared towards

295teachers so that our teachers can afford to live in the communities where they teach. Hi, Miss Rice. >> Good afternoon. As you collaborate with other board members and the superintendent to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? >> Thank you. So, I've already mentioned the need for more emphasis on facilities. My approach to developing an effective budget starts with aligning every dollar to student success and equity. Wake County is experiencing rapid enrollment growth and faces st state mandates like class- size limits as well as minimal funding increases. So, we need a strategy that balances these pressures with our core mission. First, I would advocate for a student focused budgeting model such as weighted student funding to ensure resources

296go to where the needs are greatest like special education, mental health, and early literacy. Second, we need to review existing programs for impact and reallocate funds from lower returning initiatives to high impact areas like teacher recruitment, training, and retention, which is critical for maintaining quality instruction. Third, I believe in multi-year financial planning to anticipate growth and capital needs, reducing the reliance on one-time fixes. Transparency and community engagement are also essential. I would propose public input sessions and clear dashboards so families understand trade-offs and priorities. I'd like to see us provide to our community a web-based budget simulator so they can experience for themselves how their decisions would affect the budget and our students as they try out the job of maning managing the budget of a school system that's as large and as vast as

297ours. We could leverage data collected from these simulators to get insights on what things are important to our community. Finally, we should leverage partnerships with local businesses and nonprofits to supplement funding for technology and workforce development. For our more affluent school communities, I think we should look into creating endowment funds for them to supplement their schools, teachers, and budgets, allowing us to shift public money over to other more needy schools from schools uh whose families are able to support their school through private investment. Let's let them do that. All right, Vice Chair Swanson, can you give us a check in on our time so far? >> Sure. We still have 16 minutes left. >> Great. All right. Right on track, right on pace. So, we'll come over for the the next four questions. >> Good

298afternoon. >> Hi, Miss Gord. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? So the first thing we need to do is make sure that we truly understand how EVOS works. It's a proprietary system and the exact model behavior waiting and error margins are not openly published. One possible suggestion I have to gain better insights is to run some synthetic data through the system to see if the things that we're hoping to affect or the dials that we're trying to shift produce the outcomes we want. A few weeks ago, Dr. Robinson and Dr. McMillan walked you through some very granular details of the EVOS scores at your working session. Two slides that stood out to me were the one showing K through

299two literacy MClass and growth index scores. Normally I think the reporting ranges that you see in published reports have an index score below 10 sorry negative -10 just shown as a negative 10. What you saw in their more detailed slides is the actual scores are as low as -16. The other slide was one which shows that we are in fact experiencing significant growth which is great but the growth we're experiencing is disproportionately occurring in our higher achieving schools. The result of this is for the achievement gap become even wider. There's two things I would recommend around this problem. First, we have to continue to focus on literacy, specifically grades K through two. I'm sure you've heard it before, but if you don't learn to read, you're not going to read to learn. Vice Chair Swanson,

300you made a comment two board meetings ago that we can't tutor the hell out of this problem. I wish you had expounded on that statement because I'm not really clear what you meant and would love to have a discussion with you about it. The reason I say this is because one suggestion I have for closing the achievement gap is something I call Project Limitless. What if we create a single elementary school cohort to the maximum limit of 21 students, a mix of black, Hispanic, special needs, and English learners, and put them in a classroom, and we say to staff, "Okay, this year, we're going to give you a blank check. Show us what you can do. Obviously, we're not going to scale this because it's not affordable. The purpose of this program would be to

301track the heck out of it. Get our best data and analytic folks and be intentional about what we do. We need a bunch of metrics that tell us in almost real time through some type of continuous assessment what things work and what things don't. Also, I think lots of video should take place so that hopefully they can be edited into working visual examples for other teachers to see. For things that work and are scalable, we need to get them out and trained into core quickly. Maybe in some kind of iterative refreshes like one sheet's quarter through PLC workshops. For this limitless cohort, I would hope see to see the needle move drastically like 20 to 30 points raw index score in one year on MClass. If not, then we know resources are not the issue

302and we can go back to the drawing board because there must be something else that's systemic that we need to figure out. The second thing we need to do is figure out why certain cohorts of students underperform regardless of their economic status. If I'm chosen to the board, one of the first things I would want to do is to create a special task force in create in collaboration with Dr. Taylor and staff that will look at students not under the lens of low performing schools, but instead based on race, ethnicity, and special needs. One of the first things I would do, as Miss Rice recently pointed out, is to head over to Greensboro and visit Guilford County Schools. They face similar challenges to us 10 years ago when they engaged an independent consulting firm to

303look at their schools to figure out what was going wrong. One thing the consulting firm found was, and I'll quote, "This report shows an achievement gap between students of color and their white classmates. Even when their socioeconomic status is taken into account, white students on free and reduced price lunch outperform black students who are not. I've read about many of the things Guilford County is doing and I think it will be beneficial to see them in person because now 10 years later they outperform Wake County graduation levels by 10 percentage points in the student subcategories of black, Hispanic, special needs, and English learners. The special task force I'm suggesting for Wake County will hopefully be brave, bold, and empowered to finally get to the root cause of what's happening in our schools to help resolve

304our longstanding achievement gap and move us toward meeting our long-term strategic plan and objectives. >> All right, thank you and good afternoon. >> Thank you, Mr. Hershey. What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can Wake County Public Schools use the tools use these tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? Before addressing school choice and magnet programs, I want to acknowledge a critical challenge. Vouchers and private school options are pulling funding and students away from public schools. This makes it even more important for us to strengthen our public schools so that families choose us over non-public alternatives. Our goal should be to make Wake County Public Schools the first and best choice for every family. School choice, when implemented

305thoughtfully, can be a powerful tool for equity and engagement. Wake County's magnet programs are a great example. They offer innovative theme-based learning opportunities such as STEM, arts, and global studies. These programs not only attract families but also promote promote diversity and academic excellence. They've earned national recognition and significant federal funding because they align with best practices for equity and innovation. To use these tools effectively, we need to ensure that access to magnet schools is inclusive and transparent. That means simplifying the application process, providing multilingual outreach, offering targeted support to families in underserved communities. Reliable transportation is also critical so that choice isn't limited by geography or income. If families can't get to these schools, then choice becomes an empty promise. To attract families, we need to highlight the innovation and real world relevance of these

306programs. Marketing magnet themes as pathways to college and careers, especially in high demand fields like technology, health care, and global leadership can make them even more appealing. Partnerships with local businesses and universities can enhance these offerings. Providing internships, mentorships, and hands-on experiences that prepare students for the future. Finally, family engagement is key. Hosting magnet fairs, virtual tours, and sharing sus success stories can help families understand the unique opportunities these programs provide. Continuous improvement is also essential. Expanding themes that align with workforce trends and community interest will keep our programs competitive and relevant. I also want to acknowledge that school choice isn't just about programs. It's also about where families choose to live. Many families make housing decisions based on school assignments, and we need to respect those choices. When realignment becomes necessary, the district should

307explore every option available to minimize disruption and avoid moving families out of their chosen schools whenever possible. With three new schools this year and another last, District 8 specifically has had its share of growing pains. There are many constituents in my district who are quite upset with the board right now because of being redistricted. I understand that balancing school population is necessary, but I feel we can always do better. I was really pleased to see the things Miss Poleium talked about recently in the school assignment planning. She showed us how we are now taking a much longer time view of school assignment to better align towards schools that are coming online in the future. Stability matters for students and families and thoughtful, transparent planning can help maintain trust and confidence in our system. Miss Coughfield

308and Miss Gordon, I saw some big blue arrows of growth coming into your districts on the right hand side of the map. So perhaps we could work together to make sure the lessons that we've learned from our successes and mistakes in district 8 will make the experiences of your constituents in districts one and two even better. >> All right. Thank you. um with the growing growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Thank you, Dr. Ing. This is a great question and the one that I've spent the most time contemplating over the last two months. The first thing I did was give Miss Mafia a call. My intention was to find out what

309her election promises were and her vision for District 8 community so I could balance those things against my own thoughts and ideas. My wife and I embody the general demographic of District 8. We're a mixed race family. I'm Caucasian. She's first generation Indian-American. We're both highly educated, highly compensated, and work in academia and technology. District 8 is pretty much divided demographically by Route 64. North of Route 64 is 65% Asian and 25% white. South of Route 64 is just the opposite, 65% white, 25% Asian. We have less than 5% of any other race or ethnicity in our district. Census data shows the area is highly educated and highly affluent. Performance grades for our schools average high B. Our median economically disadvantagement is a low 16% and half our schools were built in the last 10

310years. Sounds pretty great. The issue is we're only one ninth of the entire Wake County school community. As a board member, I picture myself putting half my time into serving District 8 and our community and half my time helping serve the district as a whole. I hope you recognize from the initiatives that I've talked about today, many of them were not focused on my district. Equity means meeting students where they are and ensuring that every child, whether academically challenged or gifted, has access to opportunities that help them thrive. Wake County's diversity is its strength, but it also requires us to have intentional strategies to close achievement gaps while nurturing our advanced learners. One thing I plan to do as a board member is to ask my BAC to have a standing agenda item for discussing

311and creating initiatives that leverage our lessons learned or strategies from our high performing high- growth schools that we could reach outside of our district and collaborate into our neighboring districts with the intent of helping the Wake County school district as a whole. >> Thank you. With nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? >> So, I believe engagement begins with demonstrating to every resident that strong schools strengthen the entire community through higher property values, workforce development, and civic pride. Since 70% of Wake County residents do not have school-aged children, our outreach must go beyond parent focused communication and intentionally connect with the broader community. One effective strategy is to transform our schools into true community hubs. This means

312expanding partnerships with local businesses, government, and nonprofits to offer services that benefit everyone, not just students. For example, schools could host community health clinics for flu and COVID vaccinations, provide mobile dental services, and create community gardens. We could also offer wellness programs such as yoga or fitness classes led by our PE instructors before or after school hours, hosting family nights, board game nights, and anything else that we could possibly think of to get people off their phones and into their communities. One last thing, although I'm not sure it's allowed, would be using some of our school tax cafeterias to support food banks and provide hot meals for those facing food insecurity as an additional way to make schools welcoming spaces for all residents. Beyond services, schools can become centers for lifelong learning by offering adult

313education classes, technology workshops, and community forums. These forms would allow us to share transparent updates on district performance and gather input on how we can improve. By creating these touch points, we ensure that even residents without children feel invested in the success of our schools. Engagement should also flow outward. Encouraging community service among students is a powerful way to strengthen ties. For example, if every high school student in our district completed 10 hours of service learning each year, that would amount to nearly 1 million hours of service given back to Wake County over a 4-year term. This not only benefits the community, but also instills civic responsibility in our students. Ultimately, these efforts help all residents, parents, and non-parents alike feel seen, heard, and valued. When people recognize that schools are integral to the health

314and success of the entire community, they're more likely to support and invest in our district's continued success. As part of preparing for this role, I spent the last two months reading and learning as much as I could about our school system and this board, studying and memorizing school policies and the priorities and goals and aims of our strategic plan. I've also watched every board session, committee meeting, and special session that occurred over the last year and a half. Through watching these videos, I feel I've come to know you and your individual personalities and priorities. I've also been consistently amazed at the dedication and professionalism of our staff. You're a dedicated, caring, and professional group of individuals. I want to extend my most sincere thanks to all of you on the board for your continued dedication

315and sacrifice in serving our community. Thank you for your time, your service, and your thoughtful consideration of my application. It will be my most sincere honor to join you in this mission. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. That concludes our eight questions and that concludes our interview. Um, we want to thank you again for uh all of the materials that you submitted and for joining us to answer our questions today. We have 14 candidates that are interviewing today and we will make our decision um by the end of the day and I will notify everyone on this selection. Um, you know, the positive as I've been telling everyone is that we have an enormous amount of amazing well-qualified candidates. Unfortunately, we're going to have to say no to 13 of them. Um, but

316we will have one amazingly qualified candidate that does come out of it and so, uh, we'll notify you of that selection at the end of the day. >> So, thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> Thank you. We are right on time. Our next candidate is actually here. Um, but we will bring her in at 3:55 if anyone needs a break before we go. Welcome back everyone. Um we are continuing our interviews for the candidates to fill the district 8 vacancy. I'd like to introduce all of you to Dr. Jennifer Job. Uh Jennifer as she told me she'd like to be called. Um I've uh reviewed all of the basics in the format with uh Jennifer outside. She knows that she has 30

317minutes. We have the eight questions. There's no open or closing statement. And um that in order for to give her as much time to answer all the questions, we're just going to jump straight into it. And so um I'd like to begin, I'll ask the first question, which is quite simply, why are you interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um thank you all for being here. I also want to shout out Melissa for organizing all of this. That was pretty incredible with so many of us. And I also know I'm your second Jennifer of the day. So that is that is a lot. But hopefully I'll differentiate myself. Um I feel like I've been coming to this building or kind of on a path to this

318building since 2008. I was a te I was an high school English teacher um in Chapel Hill. And in 2008 I began the PhD program for curriculum studies at UNC Chapel Hill. And one of the first things we did was come here to hear some presentations about what the school board does and how it works and and I knew that it was something I wanted to be involved with. Um I also was um I did my PhD in um policy and curriculum policy and I went on to be a teacher educator. So, I learned a lot about how the board acts and and I um learned out in Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University, how teacher education programs interact with school boards and help to do student teaching, that kind of thing. I observed a lot

319of student teachers in my career. Um, and I taught either high school or undergraduate students or graduate students until my very last class in 2020. Um, and I when I moved back to Wake County, um, after several years at Oklahoma State, I started coming to a lot of these meetings as well. So, many of you have seen me before. Um, and I became a public advocate and that and I had even thought about possibly running someday. So, this when this opportunity arose, I felt like it was a natural progression. Um, however, I think this may be one of the hardest times ever in public education. Um, I think that we're facing a shrinking budget. Um, we are seeing more and more money going to private school vouchers and charter schools. Um, we are, you know,

320seeing the seeing people who are thinking that public school is not providing what it should for students. And so I think it's more important than ever to have an educator and an education advocate on the board. Um I know that all of you are education advocates and all of you are educators in your own right, but I think that that's why district 8 means one as well. Um public education is the most important good that the government provides. Um it's a great equalizer. It exposes children to different to kids of other backgrounds that they may never be part of again. Um it it helps us provide people to work and to change society and change society on their own. And we help kids realize their potential and there can't and there is really no greater

321work than that. And so I want to devote as much time as I possibly can keeping that spirit of public education alive in Wake County, especially in District 8. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um I have question number two. >> So serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments? >> Yep. So [snorts] my full-time job right now is a consultant and I make my own hours. Um, I have freelancers that work for me and sometimes I use them more and sometimes I use them less. Um, I basic I have a lot of time to volunteer and it's something I've really devoted a lot of time to. I also have a third grader at Farmington

322Boys Elementary and I am a constant presence there. Um, teachers who have not had my kid know me there because I am there so often. Um, I was a board member for the Apex Public School Foundation and spent a considerable amount of time doing their communications work and designing events for them. Um, and most recently I have spent 30 to 40 hours a week working as the regional vice chair for the Wake County Democratic Party. Um, so and actually those were during the election season it was much more than that. Um, and that is a position that I will um hand off to somebody else if I'm chosen for this position. So, I absolutely have the time um to to devote to doing the best job I can on the school board. >> Good afternoon.

323>> Hi. >> What do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent? and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County Public Schools? >> Being on the Wake County Board of Education is an awesome responsibility. Um we are the 16th largest uh district in the country as far as I remember and with um 10,000 teachers and 202 schools and 164,000 students and M or Dr. Taylor rather is the boss. So the superintendent I know he is the boss and he handles the operations and he um and he basically oversees the staff and and the um how the uh programs are laid out. Now the board sets the vision of the district. Um they make the budget decisions. We would if I

324was on the board I'd help assure that the standard um course of study for North Carolina is aligned with the curriculum that's being taught in schools. Um supporting teacher development and growth. And one thing that I think is very important that the board does that often gets overlooked is we protect the civil rights of students. A lot of times um parents have to come to us to talk about issues that are their students are dealing with and and we um are one of the those that are standing up for them um whether it comes to title 9 or title 10. And it's you know it's an important role. Um, it is, that being said, it is incredibly important to build relationships with the representatives. I'm going to talk about them as stakeholders first, for our

325county. Um, I have I already have a very strong working relationship with um, county commissioner Cheryl Stallings, with Senator Sydney Match, who wrote one of my recommendation letters, um, Representative Julie Von Hayen, the town councils of Apex and Holly Springs I've worked with on v on various things. And I would plan on doing that with Fugquay Verina and Representative Par as well. Um we are only as strong as our budget and so we need to be able to have strong relationships with those representatives. Um it's also important to have relationships with business and parent leaders in the district which is why the board advisory committee that you all have is so important. Um, I already I worked at with our current District 8 uh representative Stephanie Mitchell in um with the APSF. Um, so she

326and I are already close and ready to work together. But um, I think there are other parent leaders in our community that we can invite in in other ways. And it's also a way to um connect us with the schools, you know, and with the school communities more, but rather than seeing it as a the only way they come to talk to us is like I've come to talk to you all, you know, standing here, usually there's a podium and you know, and someone is saying something that they're complaining about or wishing something was different or whatever. But it would be nice to have um some of the leaders who are here regularly having more access. Um and then for you know and that could also help us fulfill the strategic plan for Wake County.

327So for example, one of the strategic goals is student well is student student wellness and mental health and we have many local experts in the area that could help with that um and could help init um implement initiatives. >> Thank you so much. um as you collaborate with the other board members and the superintendent uh to develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have um to meet the needs of all students and staff? Okay, so with 18 years of education experience, I of course have a wish list of things. I wrote in my cover letter about having an AI framework which I still think is very important especially with how AI is being used currently by some by students and teachers in the classroom. Um however we have

328to recognize I think where we are with our budget. We want you know wake you all asked for $60 million increase to even try to get us close to where we needed to be and we they came you know the commission came back obvious with obviously with 40 million. Um, now out of a $3.3 billion budget, that can seem small, but it's not. It's programs and initiatives that we all want. Um, and the problem is, one of the things I loved, by the way, about reading the Wake County budget is how it says we can use good business practices without acting like it's a business. We are not a business. We are a public good that we are providing. And one of the other ways we're not a business is that we need to count

329on the state and the local state and federal government to give us our funding. And right now the state and federal governments aren't doing such a great job of being clear even about what that funding will be. Never mind cutbacks. We're talking not even having a federal budget, not even having a state budget. And so I think that um if we're what we need to do is have more of a framework of looking at the budget where we make sure that we're answering is this going to meet our strategic plan goals. Are we really going to get 98% graduate or will this what we are funding get us to 98% graduation rate? What are what are we is what we are we are funding going to get us to a 90% social and emotional wellness

330rate a 90% um EVOS uh proficiency rate so our EVOS evaluation um and a 95% employee satisfaction and I think that what we need to do is um work on stability like um you know assume that we're going to be having more cuts you know and work with what can we do to protect teacher jobs and what can we do to protect our students well-being in the classroom. Um, one of the priorities I would have therefore is um looking toward interchool knowledge transfer. Um, one of my kind of small brags is that when I was a 10th grade English teacher, I had a 97% passing rate across all subgroups for the 10th grade writing test. And it all subgroups. I had one year where I had 138 students and one kid failed. And yet, and

331you would think that the district would have looked at that and said, "hm, maybe she can work with some other teachers who are not having that quite, you know, success rate." However, we were sent out to, you know, outward programs, classes, buying curriculum, you know, buying whatever. And I feel like we we need to come to that 10,000 strong teacher force and look for their expertise and how they can share it with one another more than they're doing now. Um, I also think that we need, one of the priorities we're going to have to have is protecting our special education programs. We don't know whether we're going to have the federal funding that we need. Um, there's a current effort to dismantle that project in the in the Department of Education. And so, considering that

332the special education pro um population has the lowest uh proficiency rate right now, I think that that needs to be a top priority. All right, we'll do a quick check of your remaining time. Vice chair >> 18 minutes. Wow. >> Okay, >> so plenty of time left. As you pace for the final four questions, we'll go to the side of the table. >> Good afternoon. Hi. Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? >> Okay, so I wrote about this as one of my initiatives that I would like to take. Um, one of the the actually that I left out from question number one was that one of my experiences with Wake County was I taught um I was an an instructor

333for a couple weeks on the US Stars program for Wake County. We used to use it in Wake County um a couple of well maybe decades ago this at this point. Um but is basically a program that is meant to find the gifts and talents in under reppresented populations. And as part of that work um and developing the USRS program with the lead writer um I read the research base from the last two decades for how to close achievement gaps between especially black and Hispanic students and white students. And it is certainly something that we need to work on in Wayne County. Right now white and Asian students are showing an 80% proficiency rate pretty much across the board. and black, latino, and economically disadvantaged are just at around 40%. Um, that gap's worsened since

334the pandemic, and we need to do something about it. So, my recommendations would come from that research base that I studied. Um, it would be first, it would be approaching communities from a strength-based perspective. There is a really terrible long-standing systemically racist habit of coming in and say and seeing that students have deficiencies that we need to address that they're going that the minute they walk through the door they have weaknesses that they're going to address. One of my most heartbreaking experiences was when I had a student who graduated from my 10th grade class and went and I pushed her into honors English because she needed to be there and the teacher looked at her and asked if she was in the wrong class. And that has happened so often. It's almost a stereotype at

335this point, you know, story, but it it happened to a student of mine. And we need to approach them that they have these strengths and it's the research shows it. Um, we also need to see have do what we can to to see that to see that the students are seeing themselves in their teachers and the people who are in the front of their classrooms. we um teaching is still a largely white middle-class profession. We need to make sure that we are doing what we can to recruit teachers who teachers of color, teacher of the who have the same backgrounds as the students they are teaching. Um so that way they can see and connect with them. Um and then let me see sorry. Um, and finally, the third recommendation is we need to build

336strong family partnerships from the first day of kindergarten. Like the first day they walk in the door, parents need to feel welcome. And that's not easy. Um, schools aren't even built to be welcoming to adults. Um, for necessary safety reasons. You have to go through, you know, you have to scan your ID. You have to, you know, come through a locked door, probably two locked doors. Um, so it takes a lot of work to make parents feel welcome and to make parents who have not felt welcomed by the school community to feel welcome. Um, and so we need more community events and options to come to school that work with parent schedules. And finally, I want to go back to that knowledge transfer I was talking about. We do have schools that are doing better,

337not to our strategic plan level better, but better than the average for with students of color. Um, Hortons Creek Elementary, uh, Willow Springs Elementary, Milbrook Elementary, they're all above average and and some significantly so. So, what are they doing and what can we do to help them get what they're doing into other schools? >> Thank you. And good afternoon. What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System School Choice, which includes but is not limited to our magnet programs? How can we use these tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? >> Yes. Um, so, okay, I'm the poster parent for magnet schools in my community. Um, I knew when I was pregnant, I wanted to send Hannah to Farmington Woods. like I wanted I like planned our neighborhood based on what would be

338the best like lottery position to get into, you know, and most people um moved to my neighborhood so that way they can send their kid to the 90% passing rate school down the street. And I was like, "No, I'm moving to this neighborhood so I have the best shot of getting my kid into Farmington Woods." I wanted her to be in the international balorate program. I wanted her to um have the service experience. Um, I wanted her to have Miss Pierce, which now she's leaving, but at least she had her for three years. Um, and I adore the magnet program. Um, I think it's essential for not only providing a variety of program and enticing parents to come, but also for balancing out schools, you know, and making sure that we don't have, you know,

339schools that because they're in certain neighborhoods, they're much worse than in various ways than others. Um, and I think it's important for kids to get exper like I said in the beginning to experience kids from all sorts of backgrounds and the magnet is a voluntary way to do it and I think that's fantastic. Um, but when I ask and so when I ask around and I'm like why wouldn't other people send their kids to magnet schools or enter the lottery? Um, I think this is part of what we need to address. First of all, we need to um explain to people the difference between magnet and choice and charter. Um, and I think that a lot of people conflate those and so we I think we probably could do a better job. But the main

340thing is transportation and transportation is such a hot issue and I know that it is really hard to um manage busing and that kind of situation. But a lot of I know when I first looked at Farmington Woods, I had trouble figuring out how Hannah would get to school. I had to have a friend down the street who had also was sending their kid to Farmington explain to me how the bus system would work. And so I think that we probably should do um we should probably work on making parents feel like it's much more accessible than it seems right now. Um and I think that we um we also need to um help advertise the programs as much as possible within budget constraints. I think we actually do a great job. I you know

341the website is easy to go through. We have a lot of virtual opportunities to learn about the magnet program but the more we can do the better. Um we also need to explain this sorry this is the point I was looking for. We also need to explain what the benefits are in especially in my district. You know one of the main benefits of Hannah going to Farmington Woods is once she got in she was in and she was going to be there till fifth grade. there is no chance that she was going or very little chance. I won't ever say never, but there is no chance that she was going to be drawn out of the school, you know, that that there was going to have to be some sort of redistricting and that she

342would have to get new, you know, go to a new place. And that's a huge bonus for me. And I think I think parents would actually find that so as well. And I haven't seen it explained that way. Um, I think, you know, talking more about the bringing the kids into the community and talk more about what they're doing would also help in that situation. I do want to end by saying though that the the words school choice are very fraught and I think it's very important that we make sure that we don't fall into the into a trap of thinking that the neighborhood schools are bad while the magnet schools are good. Um they're different. They offer different things. Um and so we need to make we still need to make sure that the

343neighborhood school is as good as possible for every kid. >> Thank you. Um, next question is, um, with the growing needs of the district that you're applying to serve, how would you balance the needs of the con constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Oh boy. Okay. So, this is the big one for district 8, right? Um, we since I've moved to the to Apex, um, I've been in this area since 2002 off and on, but since I moved to Apex, I've heard so many people say, um, why don't they just split up the district? Like, what do we have in common with kids in Nightdale or Rollsville or Wendell and or Garner? And why don't we just like have our own district? And I think that speaks to um

344how we need to explain what the benefits are of having the district this big. I think that there are really um nice parts to having small districts. Like when I taught in Oklahoma, um I taught I supervised two student teachers that were in a district with one school. So there was, you know, it was K through 12. It had a superintendent. It had two buildings and that was it. And there were some really nice community aspects to that, but there were so many resources they couldn't access because they just didn't have the size and the budget. And we have a lot that people can access because of the size and the budget. Uh we can have these magic magnet programs because of the size and the budget. So we um we need to be explaining

345to people like how the district benefits them. That said, as a representative of District 8, I want to constantly be questioning not just what is the size of the district, but what does the student population actually look like? Does our area superintendent oversee way more students than other area superintendent? Um, and if so, is that, you know, drawing away from his attention and and not and we not getting the attention we deserve? do um are the new schools we are building leaving enough capital to renovate and rehab other schools um in the district? We need to be constantly asking those questions. And so one of the um and then when we do redistrict, how are we putting parents um in difficult spots of getting their kids to the schools that they are redistricted to? So

346what I had recommended in my letter was a um rapid growth advisory committee which I think should be made of stakeholders and um and hopefully council members and parents in the town where the where um these growths are hap this massive growth is happening and help us to work not only work through those issues and help us find good solutions for um helping students get to new schools Um, but also help communicate to the rest of the community why we are doing the redistricting we are doing, how we chose to do what we did, and what benefits they are getting out of going to this new school. Um, I my last year teaching high school, I opened a brand new high school. I didn't open it, but it opened and I was there and it

347was really hard. Um, and I will and especially high schools. um when K high schools have a ton of culture attached to them and when new high schools open, they don't have that culture. And so, what can we do to try to build that culture ahead of time? What can we do to make parents feel more comfortable about walking into this brand new building that they don't know or their older kids didn't go to or that they didn't plan on when they moved to that area? So, and what can we do to help through this parent committee help parents understand, you know, how their children are benefited benefiting by not being in, you know, um, villas out that stretch out to the highway or something because we didn't build a new school. >> Thank you.

348With nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? Okay, so um this is the second most asked question I get um when I start talking about public education after why don't we split up the district? It's why do my taxes have to pay for this? you know, my kid goes to XYZ school or my kids graduated 10 years ago or I don't I chose not to have children. Why should my tax dollars pay for these schools? And in in the end, um this is kind of a PR problem, you know, and that's what I do for a living right now is I help people understand issues and see the best sides of them. And so there are two

349directions I'd go with that. The first is um I think we need to encourage our students to be out in the community more than we do. Um I really enjoy the Farington Wood service project. I think we need to start student service for a number of reasons, not just because it's good PR, but for a number of reasons. We need to start service earlier. Um we need to get students feeling responsible for their own communities earlier. I don't um I don't think it's it's healthy when it's just a college application thing and it tends to be that with a with some kids. Um I want them to feel connected to their community and that also works for the community to see what their their tax dollars are giving back. Um I we also should encourage

350and I know other people have said this but we really should encourage more people to attend community events to attend um theater sports you know have ways of bringing their expertise into the school. Um but most important we need to build the narrative of how public schools serve the community at large. We have, you know, and I know that politicians say this a lot, but we can, you know, we could be telling these stories, too, of the businesses that chose to come to Wake County because we have the schools they're willing to put their kids in. You know, it's not low taxes. They could go to Texas or they could go to Kansas or or Oklahoma um if they don't want to pay any taxes. And they don't do that because they want their kids

351educated here. And who are these businesses and what and what stories can they tell? um who you know what workplaces are hiring our graduates and what are they seeing from those graduates and wouldn't you rather walk into a place of business where the kid you know or the adult behind the counter can talk to you with a good sense of critical thinking and can do the math and do all the things you need them to do. Um, and public schools are providing those people. And what which of our graduates are going on to do amazing things in our communities? I mean, we have some, you know, someone who just ran for town council, um, and is an incredible me in Apex, an incredible member of the community and an incredible advocate for the community. Um,

352TJ Evans, he graduated from Apex High School and he wanted to stay here and do good things. And so what where are we telling those stories and how can we tell them better? Um so yeah that's that went really fast. I don't know about [laughter] you but I feel like that went fast. >> That went really fast but it also took you down to the very last minute. So you used your time very effectively. >> Thank you. >> So um just to wrap up that is the conclusion of our questions and the conclusion of the interview. Um, as I mentioned outside, we we have 14 candidates that we interviewed. We will make our decision tonight and we will notify everyone tonight of the selection. With as many wonderfully qualified candidates, the hard decision is that

353while we will, we know we will select a wonderful candidate, we will have to say no to 13 others. Um, but we will let you know as soon as possible. And we really appreciate you putting your name out, submitting your materials, and coming in to answer our questions today. >> Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. >> All right, board members, we are right on schedule. Um, we'll have five minutes for a break and then we will bring in our next candidate and our final candidate for tonight, um, Dr. Robert Dunn. All right, we'll go ahead and seat you here. Everything is on and we are ready to go. Good afternoon. How's everyone? >> All right, everyone. We'll come back from our recess and please allow me to introduce Dr. Robert

354Dunn, who is uh our final candidate for consideration for filling the district 8 vacancy. Uh I want to thank Dr. Dunn for coming tonight. I've explained to him the format and everything and so we will jump right into our questions with our first question tonight. Um I will ask which is quite simply tell us why you are interested in serving on the Wake County Board of Education. >> Very well. Thank you and um thank you for having me. And I I do want to ask how many people here were hoping I didn't show up so you could get home early. I >> if I was over there I'd be going, "Oh man, he showed up." Okay. So, anyway, um my first grade teacher, this goes back a while, uh Mrs. Carter, um she noticed early

355on that, uh my friends and my fellow students, um would seek me out sometimes if they had questions. And so, she sent home a note to my mother saying he should be a a teacher. And um my mother who was a nurse at the time, she was like, "Yeah, it sounds about right. He can help people." And so I went through school learning as much as I could. Uh both my parents were very pro- education. My father had been a a veteran of World War II in the Pacific and he decided that that was not what he wanted his sons to do. So he forbade both of us from going into the military. And at the time it was Vietnam War we were talking about. And as my brother went into law, I started looking

356at uh things to do to help people in another way. And living in Washington DC, politics was going on all around me. My sister worked on the hill. My other sister worked in the Washington uh sanitarium. and uh my mother remained as as a nurse and my father worked for the uh national security agency. So government and education were two very large aspects of my youth and uh I grew up wanting to uh know as much about anything that I could. I got into uh University of North Carolina here in Greensboro and I took six years. Um I had a went at a leisurely pace. Um and I was interested in uh I ended up being interested in teaching uh theater and uh teaching um presentation and how to um deliver one's uh dreams and

357hopes in a way that people could understand them. Um, I came out and, uh, continued my interest into the, um, pedagogical functions of theater and how it was used to instruct and how it was the center of of education for a large amount of the populace uh, during the early times. And as I was doing that, I realized, okay, I have a master's thesis here. And uh so I went into um a master's program in writing and theater writing and I wanted to get a doctorate in um uh in theater history to show how technology has influenced uh the expectations of the student as well as the audience. And as I was doing that, my mother-in-law stepped in and said, 'Well, have you looked at how technology has influenced education and what a learner is

358expecting now as opposed to what they used to? And I thought about it for a moment and I was like, that's even more interesting. So then I started looking into how technology can be used to help learners learn. How uh the access to a large uh a large library that went beyond the uh concrete of of any school had that democratized uh the uh the the learning, how everyone could now access information that didn't used to be available to everyone. And so then I I got into the uh education uh aspect of technology and I got my degree in instructional systems design which is how to uh design curriculum and course content to enable the best trajectory for the student from novice to expert in an efficient and effective way. And that's what I've been

359doing for the past 25 years as a contractor for uh the Department of Defense. Um, I've served as um adviser and as a consultant for the Marines um for the US Army, for the Navy um not yet for the Air Force um although I am now working on a a course of instruction for uh drone pilots. So that's about as close as I get with that. Um but the overarching uh arc of uh my experience and why I want to uh be a part of the chair that that is empty is um that I believe that there are ways to improve everyone's uh learning everyone's capability to learn. Um I believe in the uh the power of thought. I believe in the um magic that a child can experience um at all grade levels. Um

360my most uh rewarding moments are when I'm talking to uh somebody no matter what age. Um, but almost even even more so when an adult uh has that moment where a light bulb goes off above their head and they just realize, "Oh, okay. That's I I see now. Okay, this is wow. Thanks." and that moment of of of uh clarity, the moment of um I I've been recognized as a person and I've been presented with something I hadn't thought of before and now I can take this with me and expand my life and make it better as I go forward. So, when I heard about this empty seat, I was already considering about running in two years. Um but I was like, well, why wait? let's just go ahead and uh put my application in.

361Um so brings me perhaps two years closer. >> So that that what brings me here. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome, Vice Swanson. >> Thank you. I have a question, too. It says, "Serving on the Wake County Board of Education may require 30 hours per week or more. How do you plan to meet these commitments while juggling your current commitments?" >> Um I I touched on that. Um I'm a contractor so um I don't have to take jobs that are offered and the jobs that I do take I I perform on my own my own time uh when I'm when I'm capable. Um I do not have any commitments at this at this moment. Um but I can say that at one point in my life I was working three different jobs uh

362one full, two part-times. Um, I took 18 hours in one semester because I had to and I was also working a job. And then when I had my uh my son, I was working and trying to finish my PhD. So, there's ample evidence that even though I don't have as much energy as I used to, um, I've learned how to work smarter and not harder. and um I have high confidence that I can continue uh to work at a high capacity uh in any in any field that I need to. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, question number three is what do you know about the roles of the board of education and the superintendent and how would you collaborate with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals

363of Wake County Public Schools? >> Sure. Um, good question. Uh, I I had to make sure that I had the idea correct. Um, so I did some research. Um, and the the the board and because I've been around military for so long, I I tend to put things sometimes in in that that sort of frame. Um, the board are the boots on the ground. The board is the people that bring uh issues and uh decisions. Uh they plan the policy. They plan the the procedures, the uh the content, the um pay. These are all areas that um that because you're at the on the front lines supporting the teachers, then what happens now is that you need what's called an angel. And uh the angel is um what's referred to by infantry and others on

364the ground. Angel is the high-flying aircraft. They're the persons that are making sure that you're going to be safe. They're the people that you call in uh to make sure that uh you're going to reach your objective safely and uh and return. So the superintendent in in my imaging is uh that angel um the person who takes your recommendations, takes your suggestions and takes them forward to uh to their battlefield and presents the uh the discoveries, the investigative uh results that uh that you all have come up with and uh the recommendations that you have and uh tries to make them happen. um if if they they feel that it's going to go through and it's going to be something of of benefit. Um so it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a

365symbiotic relationship um being on on the front lines as it were in the administrative side uh making sure that the content and and everyone is is happy and and there's progress being made. Um, and then uh going to uh a superintendent to help you achieve those. Um, and then they get to turn around and say, "I helped achieve this and I helped make this happen." It's a symbiotic. You support superintendent, superintendent supports you, and everybody hopefully achieves the objectives that uh that go out to the end user, which is ultimately the students, and they get to uh take that forward. So it's it's a support. I I I don't see any there there should be no um friction. And the second question, I'm sorry. >> Sorry. >> Oh, >> how would you collaborate and comm

366and with community stakeholders and local leaders to achieve the goals of Wake County? I I think um one of the things uh I'm a big proponent of um learning by doing and one of the thoughts I had was an internship um offerings um going out to uh uh volunteer um bringing the uh parents in the community uh into uh the schools or classrooms uh to try and um show uh the end uh the end result of the lessons that they're learning. Um if you want a geologist, go out and find um somebody in in a the geologic field and bring them in, talk to like have have a career day, but come in and and talk to the people in in uh interest if they're in the elementary school. they're just working with their rocks,

367have them come in, talk about rocks. Um, if they're in high school, have them come in and perhaps tell them what they look forward to uh in employees um or what they want uh from researchers or people who um who uh want to go into that field. So, um I I think the reaching out is also a bringing in. So, not only reaching out from the school, but bringing in the community. Um, you know, finding out what uh what the local businesses need. Um, that can help uh focus uh content that could help um guide the uh the curriculum. Those are my thoughts at this time. I thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Good evening. At this point, right, um, as you collaborate with each with with other board members and the superintendent to

368develop a budget, what do you think are the budget priorities that we should have to meet the needs of all students and staff? It's going to sound funny, um, but breakfast and lunch, making sure that, um, we have breakfasts for everyone, making sure that we have lunches for everyone, that goes a long way in uh, having students not only value coming to school, but also helps with their cognitive abilities. making sure that everyone has the basics that they need as they as they come in. Um, taking a a look again at uh school uh schedules. Um, making sure that they're aligned with um what research indicates is uh an advantageous timing for for the students. And um I would spend the the the money where the evidence would point. Um and it it's covered later

369on, but um when when uh there's constituents in in in uh in W and there are constituents in another county. Um I feel that uh that where the greatest need is that's where the resources go. Um, I would however expect really good evidence to show that the constituents that that I'm to support um are not going to be missing out on something that they need to. I'd also look for synergy between the two problems. um if there's if there's something uh that uh that funding can be used for in another district um that their findings can be used to support um our uh initiatives in the wake district then then use that information and uh and know that the money is being spent for the benefit of of of all students. Um so I I

370would look to collaborate not um not with boundaries. Um I prefer to think of that there's that there aren't any boundaries. Um there is education and there is making it better um for everyone and um whether that's for my constituents or uh for um elsewhere that we're also benefiting from. We're all benefiting from from better education. um in I think it was Jefferson who said the a successful government relies on an educated populace. So um that's a big instigation as well. Um does that answer the question that that I was being asked sufficiently because if not I can I think I can round it out. Is that okay? >> Yes, you're fine. Thank you. However you answered it, you're fine. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> All right. And Vice Chair Swanson, let's

371do a quick check on the time. >> We have 13 minutes left. >> Very well. >> Okay. So, you're right on pace. >> Thank you. >> All right. We'll come around to the side of the table for the next four questions. >> Good evening. >> Hi. >> Given the most recent EVOS data, what approach would you recommend [clears throat] to close the achievement gaps amongst our most vulnerable students? This is um uh I see this um really this kind of question all the time. It's a it's a needs analysis. Um what we what we do is we look at what we have versus what it is that we want and what is in the middle is what we have to address. So, uh, I would I I I took a look at some of the

372data, but I didn't have access to, you know, the the full thing. But any data, um, log, um, used properly will show you, um, and especially in in in this sense will show you areas that students are being um, uh, accelerated or that their performance is uh, increasing. um that there is a general trend towards the positive uh above expectations and um conversely there's the indications of schools and students that are going in the other direction. Now, what is the successful data pointing to and what is the um the less advantageous data pointing to and can we bring what is happening here over here and then bring these uh these subjects these students up um doing the same thing as we've done over here. So using having data is is very important. It's um you

373know any researchbased decision relies on the data and so I would look at at at the the data find out what is happening what is successful um what is not successful um and then bring the successful uh you know if if appropriate if if um if possible in some situation might not be possible depends on on the situations depend on exactly what the data is but find what's working. Find find out what's not working. Um eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive. Um and uh and that's how I would use uh that data. Um yeah, I'm I'm a big I'm a big believer in research and uh getting the right answers uh to the right questions and using that uh that data to help uh make us uh a a more informed decision-making body. Thank

374you. >> Thank you. And uh good evening. What are your thoughts on Wake County Public School System school choice which includes but it's not limited to our magnet programs? How can we use these tools to recruit, retain, and attract all families? Um, first off, I would say I don't think we have enough. Um, because uh we don't really have any high school uh programs. Um, and I and I'm I'm I'm talking specifically about year round. Um, I think year round education is is really a good way to go. Um, I would I would be a proponent of that. Um, so my first reaction is we don't have any high schools that offer that kind of uh that kind of education. Um, and one of the ways that I think we can can attract is offer

375uh those schools the those schools that go year round. Um, I noticed that they have the same uh the same course offerings as other regular uh regular scheduled schools do, but I think it would be a big attraction if uh we give those schools that go year round courses that are not offered in the regular uh scheduled schools um those that are more um vocationally uh academically focused um because I think if you look at the student population and I'm is making a a hazard, you know, an informed guess. I would think that the the students that go to year round schools are more uh focused on um academics and vocation and uh succeeding in um higher order thinking skills sort of programs than uh than regular uh student attendees. Um, so I think they're

376they're already kind of self- selecting for students that will take um academic uh courses that other schools are not offering. And I know when um I was looking at high school for my son um I was looking we were looking particularly for a course offering for world history and uh world uh civilization and um not all the high schools offered it but we concentrate on the ones that did because that's what he was interested in. So, um if if you want to attract and um make this area even more of a of an an attraction, um then uh you may be appealing to um a uh an area of a student population that u can't get what we could potentially offer anywhere else. Hello. Um, with the growing needs of the district you're applying to

377serve, how would you balance the needs of the constituents of your district with those of WCPSS as a whole? >> Yeah. And and I I knew it would come up later. Um, it's it's what I said earlier. It was like um the resources should go to where it can do the the greatest need. Um and uh if there's some synergy to be found between uh the money going elsewhere and any problems that WCPS WCP what is it WCPSS has then um uh we can benefit from that as well. Um, but like I say, uh, before allowing any resources to go out of our hands, I would like to see the evidence that shows that it would be used and, uh, implemented. Well, >> thank you. With um nearly 70% of Wake County residents not having

378school age children, what should Wake County Public Schools do to improve engagement with the broader community? And before you answer, I just wanted to let you know you have about six minutes left. >> Okay, should be about right. Um, yeah, I I thought about this. This is this is a a difficult question. Um, because you know, I I know um my parents did not do it. They they stayed active in in elementary school uh even, you know, after I left. But um as you say, 70% of the the families around here, their their children are not in school. Um they've already come they've already gone. Um and so why why pay taxes? Um well, that's that's a valid question if they're not going to benefit from it. So what we need to do is um

379again, instead of, you know, reaching out, bring them in. um in addition to reaching out, bring them in. And uh one of the things I was thinking of was offering uh free tickets to u events um football games, basketball games, uh theater shows, uh uh science events, offering free tickets to uh to parents um who uh whose children were alumni of a school. um reaching out to uh older families uh to see if they need any caregiving. Do they need any um support in in any sort of way? Do you know just somebody to come out and help um mow the lawn or take out the garbage? Um caregiving uh is is um nursing and health is a is a big field especially in this area and um a lot of the students have uh

380grown up uh with their parents um either being part of that system or um on on the doctors and nurses side or as having been uh receiving the care. So I think um you know getting the the students interested in uh in putting their interest in helping others. um giving them the opportunities to go out uh will show not uh not just the the personal individual u or the personal family but I think the communities at large will see that okay you know our students uh our students they grew up they're gone they did they're doing wonderful um but these are the people that are going to be taking their place and uh these students are are coming out here. I'm seeing this this for free. I didn't have anything to do on this night.

381Um but you know, I'm going to go back to that old high school that uh that you know, my my son went to. My um my daughter said that she loved uh theater at this at this school and now I've got tickets. Well, let's go. Um so, it's it's um finding and I don't I don't have all, you know, I don't have the the answers. I don't have all the the the possibilities in my head, but I do know that I think I I think the reaching out as well as bringing them in, it's it's a two-way street. Um so uh I think anything that we can do um in that vein will go a long way to um to helping us be a partnership um with the people um around us. Not only our

382students and the and the parents but uh um but the industry and the businesses uh around the areas. Um where are they going to be drawing their employees from? Well, if they're available here and ready to work, they'll draw them from here. Thank you. >> All right. Well, Dr. Dunn, that includes our questions and it concludes our time. So, thank you so much for coming out and joining us tonight. We really appreciate you being here in person, giving us a chance to hear your answers to our questions. We appreciate the material that you submitted. Um, we are going to take a little break and then we will come back and we will decide um on the replacement for Miss Mafy tonight. And so we I will reach out and I will contact everyone with that

383selection as soon as we're done. Again, there's 14 candidates. So many very qualified candidates. We're going to have to say no to a lot of very qualified candidates. But that also means that whomever we do select will be incredibly qualified. and we really appreciate you being out here to put your name into that mix. >> Well, I'm glad that it's going to be a difficult decision. >> Yeah. So, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Um, shall I wait or >> All right. >> Should I wait or >> Oh, okay. >> All right. >> Because we we you you're free to wait. We just don't know how much time it will take, how many rounds of voting, that sort of thing. >> All quiver with anticipation. >> Okay. >> All right. Now board members,

384we will um now that we have concluded, we will take a break just for everyone to um you know relax a minute, compose the yourself, maybe go through your notes. Um so let's come back at about 510. Do you think that's I don't want to push you, but I don't want to go too late either. So let's take about 10 minutes to maybe just look at your notes. Um, grab a snack if you need it and we will pick it up and we will start our deliberations. We'll be in recess until then. All right. We're ready to go back. >> Let's make Yep, there they are. All right, everybody. It is 5:10 and so we are going to come out of recess and begin our process of selecting the district 8 uh the new district

3858 representative. Now we have interviewed 14 different candidates and Mr. Malone has prepared a ballot for us I believe. Melissa. >> Oh, Melissa Allen. Melissa's looking at me like, "What? Excuse me?" I only saw him with it, so I was giving him the credit. >> Okay. Attorney Malone will be distributing Miss Allen's ballot to us. >> And [clears throat] again, let me just say, we have 14 candidates. There are eight of us present. So, even if everyone votes for someone entirely different, you know, almost half the candidates will be eliminated on the first ballot. Um, but I just, you know, kind of want to publicly share like I know the rest of you do our thanks and appreciation for everyone who came out. And again, we will have many qualified and excellent candidates who won't

386actually get selected tonight. So, um, please make sure to write your name under board member name on the ballot, select one choice, and then sign it. And I do want to remind everybody that the ballots are public record. Um, Mr. Malone will keep them, and sometimes we've had the press ask to see them before. Um, so I see some of you have already voted and are passing them in. I need to take a minute. Um, and of course, you know, again, if we're if anyone wants to say anything on behalf of any candidate or any criteria or anything like that, you know, just let me know to be recognized, but we're free to discuss that at this time. Did anyone want to say anything before the first ballot or just go ahead and get that

387first ballot in? First ballot in. Okay. All right. >> All right. All right, pass it down. Yes. Thank you. >> Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So, Mr. Malone, if you can give us the number of ballots cast and then um the results just by the number of votes. >> All right, we have eight ballots cast. We have one ballot for Dr. for Candace Smith. Two ballots for Jennifer Dearman and five ballots for Jennifer Job. Um Sam Hershey voted for Candace Smith. Cheryl Cfield and Dr. Ing voted for Jennifer Dear. Dash Toshiba Rice, Tyler Swanson, Lynn Edmunds, Christina Gordon, and Chair Hagerty voted for Jennifer Job. and that would be five. So then with a quorum of eight of us and five votes is a majority this board has selected Dr. Jennifer Job as the replacement for Lindseay Mafy

388for district 8. So congratulations to Dr. Job. I will be calling all of the candidates. Again, I really want to extend our appreciation to all of them. There were many qualified candidates and I've heard board members talk about how many wonderful suggestions that we've gotten out of these interview processes and we hope that everyone who applied will continue to be interested and engaged in the process. And with that, unless there's any other comments by any other board members, I don't want to hold anything up. So, I'll entertain any motions. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> A motion vice chair Swanson to adjurnn. Seconded by Miss Rice. All in favor of adjournment, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, we're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you everyone and we will see you in December for

389our annual meeting. >> Happy Thanksgiving.