2025-08-05 Work Session

001All right, everyone. It's 300 p.m. and we will begin our August 5th work session of the Wake County Board of Education. Uh we do have a quorum of all nine members present and so we will begin. Our first item is an update on calendar conversions for the 2027 2028 school year. Mr. Caressa. All right. Thank you. Uh before we get started, I just I want to take a moment and thank the parents, the staff at both North Pines and Pleasant Union Elementary as well as central office staff um and the principles because it it just this is not an easy process. If this was easy, we probably would have done this a lot over the last several years. And um I I I know it's hard. I know a lot of you heard from the

002public regarding this topic, but I just want to make sure that um I thank everyone because the people who showed up, the people who came to our virtual public uh meetings gave us great feedback that we'll share with you today. And so I just uh want to say thank you to everyone. So as I shared, this is a difficult decision. Um, we've used all the other options uh to date before getting to this uh decision that we're sharing with you. We've used capping, we've used reassignments, we've used trailers in parts of the county where we have high growth. In order to keep up with that growth, we can't sustain on our current path. We need to have less reliance on new construction, which would allow for more renovations for the district. When new construction is

003utilized, multittrack year round is necessary. Funding from the state and federal government doesn't cover all the multitrack year round costs. So therefore, we need to look at ways to be more efficient with our our operating budget. These decisions are not taken lightly. The information that um on this website here can be found on our website and this will share with you the progression of events and research that we've used to support these recommendations. So, I'm going to quickly go through several of the slides that outline the six steps that we got to this process. I know many of it is something we've shared with you and with the public. So, for fear of redundancy, I'll just skip through. This is our um 10-year forecast slide. This is the comparison of last year's 10 10-year forecast

004and this year's 10-year forecast. Then we talk about uh our projected crowding for the next school year and our processes. These maps show you the projected crowding for elementary, middle, and high school for the upcoming school year or for the current school year. Now, then in our capital improvement plan, the CIP, it's a seven-year plan where we talk about new construction and renovation projects. These are the new construction projects. And here's a chart that shows their timeline. And here are the schools included in the CIP that are set for renovations. And then here's their timeline. Then one of the other steps that we use is our annual enrollment plan. As many of you know, Miss Susan Polling, who's here with us today, um she and her team go through and reassign students to fill those

005new schools or to utilize the capacity in certain parts of the area to deal with long-term growth. We have cap schools that we bring to you annually. And each year we've been tasked with reducing the number of schools on that list. And then we get to step six, which is reviewing the options to address other school utilization concerns. And so first step there is to review the cap schools list. So here's a slide that I shared with you in um June on June 10th. This outlines all of the the CAP schools and what we can do in the upcoming or previous uh capital improvement plan or reassignment plans to help address those crowding concerns. Then in step two, we look at schools that are not operating on a multitrack year- round calendar but still have

006long-term crowding concerns. Again, this slide is from the facilities uh committee meeting from June 10th where we outlined that Oak View was one of the schools that we would not be able to address under our current pract uh practices. Then the third step is to identify schools that are operating on a year- round calendar but do not have long-term crowding concerns. And this was from a June 10th presentation where we talked about North Forest Pines at Pleasant Union which brings us to our discussion today. So here is the forecast map on the left hand side. I put a circle around the approximate base attendance areas for both North Forest Pines and Pleasant Union Elementary. So you just kind of get an idea of where we are in the county. And then on the map is

007our projected crowding map. And I highlighted the area zoomed in on Pleasant Union, which is the circle on the left, and North Forest Pines, which is the circle on the right. And before we move on from this map, I just want to highlight, you know, what it means. the the C the sorry the blue arrows on the lefth hand map show areas where we're projecting to have enrollment increases over the next 10 years and the red arrows are where we're expecting to see a decrease in those particular areas or a lack of growth and then on the right hand side the red areas designate schools that are projected to be crowded over 110% the orange represents 100 to 110% crowding yellow is our sweet spot That's about 90 to 100%. Ideally, we want to be

008in the 95 range. That allows for um groups of cohorts of students that are abnormally large to come through and bubble through and we have the available space so that we don't have to make um changes to classrooms like putting art on a card and stuff like that. And then the white represents areas that are currently projected to be underutilized. That means they're projecting to be under 90% crowded. So you can see from the map on the left and the map on the right, we have a lot of available seats currently and long-term in this particular part of the county. So here's a slide that I shared during the ver virtual public engagement sessions for both families and staff. This information here shows you the projected crowding for the schools in this particular area. So

009I'll start in the west and move my way east. So, I'm starting over by the airport, which is the area where that little um tip kind of sticks out into Durham. There you've got Pleasant Grove Elementary, which is projected to be 48% crowded, which is operating on a multitrack year- round calendar. Now, again, that is underutilized, but remember, we just converted that school last year to multitrack. It used to be traditional. So, you have some adjust adjustment with the stability rules that we've put into place. Brier Creek, which is out by the airport there, is projected to be 89% crowded for this current school year. They're on a multitrack year- round calendar, and as is Sycamore Creek at 85%. Again, we talked about many of these schools during the uh June 10th facility committee meeting.

010Leville Road at traditional at 80%, Barton Pond traditional at 82, Pleasant Union multitrack at 81. we'll be discussing today. Bailey wick at 82, Brassfield multittrack at 86, Wakefield 75, Forest Pine 74, North Forest Pine 78 on the multittrack, Richland Creek at 86, Durant Road 75, they're on track 4, Wake Forest 82, and Herage on multitrack at 73%. So you could see we have significant seats in this particular area. So the need for long-term seats in this area is not needed. The forecast map shows that. So we do not need the additional seats that multitrack offers this particular area. So then we talked about hosting engagement sessions. The thought exchange, we launched that on July 1st. We met with staff at North Forest Pines on July 9th and then again with Pleasant Union staff on the

01118th. We did a virtual public engagement meeting on the 23rd with North Forest Pines families. So, we tried to give each school their own specific time frame so they could ask questions specific only to their school. So, we did uh North Forest Pines on the 23rd and Pleasant Union on the 29th. And then I'll also add, we had talked about Oak View earlier. We did Oak View, an initial one for Oakview on the 30th of July. So here I just want to take a moment to just highlight I'm breaking up the feedback that I'm going to share with you into two groups. So we did North Forest Pines and Pleasant Union. So each school you'll see the feedback from each particular school. But within that I broke it down by what the parents and guardians

012feedback was and what the staff feedback was. So you can see the difference or similarities between the two separate groups. Okay. So here we have North Forest Pines. This is the parent and guardian feedback. There were 133 participants that generated 167 thoughts. There were 3,399 ratings, which was about 20 ratings per thought. And the alignment was high, meaning that no matter where they were in their comments, they generally felt the same way. There was common ground, a lot of common ground in the thoughts. So to summarize their feedback, I I I can't say it enough. No matter what feedback you're going to get from staff or from parents with regards to both schools, there is strong opposition to converting these these schools from multitrack to traditional calendar. Okay? I don't want that to be lost

013in any of this conversation. You know, again, if this was easy, we would have done it years ago. But there are strong opposition once families um move into a base attendance area based on that school calendar. They generally want to keep that. Same thing with staff. They they pick schools and one of the reasons why they may pick a school is because of the school calendar. So to change that school calendar on them is disruptive and it's not something that they are um willing to accommodate for the district. So just to highlight you know current year-round calendars benefits for families work life balance special needs supports um special needs students support and reduces summer learning loss. This again is parent feedback. We do have some uh data and research that we'll share with you at

014the end of the session. Uh many of the respondents emphasize the importance of frequent breaks for preventing burnout and maintaining academic momentum. and I'll let you read the rest of that. So again, strong opposition to changing the calendar from the multitrack to traditional calendar for parents and guardian feedback. So the main themes that came out of this uh conversation again you can see when you have a rating of four or higher that means there's a lot of alignment towards that and you can see almost all of the themes that were captured here are rating at a four or higher. So these are a lot of really important topics to the families. I'll just highlight a couple at the top. child care needs and um came up as one of the top themes from parents and

015guardians, educational performance, learning disabilities, and mental health. And I'll talk a little bit more about uh mental health comments um that we got from both parents and staff throughout this process. So, what were some of the comments? So, the highly rated comments that we got from parents tend to be we like this school to stay year round. um they felt it improved mental health for their children. Um they learn best on year round. So again you can see lots of support for year round school because they feel it's academically better for their child, socially emotionally better for their child. And so these are the re these were the highest rated comments that you saw. So now let's get to the staff feedback. Okay. So, there were 50 staff members that participated in this thought exchange.

01681 that generated 81 thoughts. There were 1,300 ratings, which was about 16 ratings per thought. And there was alignment of medium. Still, again, many of them on board with not feeling that traditional calendar is the best solution for their particular school. But I think there were still some staff that kind of felt like, hey, it kind of makes sense. You know, we're not we're not uh overcrowded. There's no growth in the area, but yet strong opposition to uh maintaining the year- round calendar. As you can see on this particular page where I've highlighted the the general thoughts and concerns that came from the staff, uh there was a recommendation to explore single track 4 as an alternative solution and that's something we can talk um at the end of this presentation as well. Um staff

017were concerned about the financial strain, burnout and logistical challenges posed by switching to a traditional calendar. Um there was also consider um considerations for losing competitive advantage against charter and private schools. Um we've often heard from staff that um the staff retention would be a concern if we converted the schools as well. So the main themes that came out of the staff portion as you can see everything's above a four all the themes the top ones being mental health the multi-track year round system consistent schedule and educational performance and then some of the main comments that came uh school culture um concerns about changing the school calendar would affect the school's culture. Um offers of choice. Many families felt that um you we should be offering calendar as a choice to families in the area

018specifically to be um in competition with private and charter schools in the area. A preference for single track 4 if we were going to go for multittrack. um to take it away preference to go to single track four rather than going to traditional would be a little bit more amanable by staff. Um and then uh again I'm sorry the last one is again single track 4. So those are the four highly rated comments coming from staff out of the feedback. So now on to Pleasant Union. Again, this is the parent and guardian feedback for Pleasant Union. We had 189 participants, which generated 273 thoughts, which was 6,685 ratings, 24 thoughts per rating. And there was some alignment was low there because I think you had some families who were considering, hey, look, if we have

019mismatched calendars, this would align our calendars with our feeder schools. However, overwhelmingly you're hearing strong support from families for maintaining Pleasant Union's multi-track year- round calendar. So again, just the same as uh North Forest Pines, Pleasant Union families strongly support maintaining a year- round calendar. Uh they also shared concerns about losing valued staff. Um, there were some thoughts about it would possibly increase classroom size, misaligned schedules with other schools, inconvenience for working parents, and potential negative community impact. And again, they also brought out the track for uh possible solution as well. And the main themes that came from the parents at Pleasant Union, learning loss, keeping a year- round calendar, mental health, and resource utilization. Again, not as many that valued over a four rating, but still significant number of themes that were maintaining uh

020that consistency. So, some of the thoughts from the Pleasant Union parents. Uh, we've really enjoyed the year- round calendar. We feel like it keeps our kids engaged without uh and learning without long breaks. Uh, worried about um camps, you know, summer camps, competition for getting seats at um summerlong programs, excuse me. um people requested a transfer to a school because it's a particular calendar. Um that's you know a theme you'll often see both with staff and with parents and they and some just feel that year- round learning uh improves retention. So then the staff feedback we had 50 participants as well uh which generated 56 thoughts 861 ratings which was 15 ratings per thought and alignment of medium but again the overwhelming strong support for maintaining current multitrack year round calendar. Academic retention, mental wellness,

021work life balance and teacher retention were some of the main themes uh that came out of that. And then some of the main topics again, learning loss, break frequency, mental health. There were some miscellaneous which kind of grouped in a bunch of different things. But then teacher satisfaction and then some of the main comments from the staff supports retention of academics. Year- round schedule is great for preventing teacher burnout. year round calendars effective for with multiple breaks and then single track 4 is preferred if they have to change. So then making recommendations to the board. So before we get into that I want to talk about some of the fiscal impacts that it could have. So we shared a similar slide like this when we converted Pine Hollow and um Rollsville Middle School. So when

022you have a multi-track year round calendar, we generally have it's a 10-month calendar for traditional. You have an additional two months for certain staff when you're operating on a multitrack year round calendar. And again, all of this is locally funded. So here you can see the savings on the right hand side will show you the loss of months of employment that the schools will have. Now understand that this will impact staff because staff will have a reduction in pay because they'll no longer be working 11 or 12 months in certain positions if they convert to track 4 or traditional. U either of those two options will have a reduction in the months of uh employment for the schools. So there you can see that also to consider operating a multitrack year round calendar during the

023summer months is more expensive, right? Because you have more students in the building. So your HVAC and your water is obviously um being used more. I didn't want to just give you this particular data and not give some counterbalance as well. So it's not always, you know, one-sided. It's you're definitely going to get some savings. But when you look at it as a whole, utilizing multittrack is needed. When it's not needed in certain areas, we should be using th that funding to support where it is needed. So operational efficiency. So high growth areas require multitrack year round. So, if we're not going to build new construction as as often as we have in the past, and that's been a direction from the board for our capital improvement plan, we need multitrack year round. So, how

024are we going to fund it? We cannot continue to sustain our current budget with running multitrack year round where it's absolutely not needed. Uh, as I shared, the additional months of employment can be shifted to the schools that'll need it. Less reliance on new construction. Um, I wanted to share something because I misspoke during our engagement sessions. I had shared that the cost of an elementary school was about 120 to $130 million. It's actually we got a rough order of magnitude amount of 95 million. So when we operate schools on a multitrack year round calendar when anytime we open new schools, every four multi-track year round schools that we open saves us from building a fifth school. So that will save us the $95 million in building costs. However, there are additional costs to operating

025on a multitrack year round to the tune of about 130,000 um give or take when I showed you on the previous slide. So, all of that adds up over time, but unfortunately, you know, saving the 95 million in a shorter term, you know, seems to be the more accurate move for the district when it comes to utilizing multitrack year round. So the data and research that we use, this is not an easy decision as many of you know. And so what we did is we tried to use a lot of research because we we're impacting families and we know you know it's never easy and so we wanted to make sure that we were doing it with fidelity. April 8th we presented to you during the board work session uh we had Dr. Katie Rouse

026come in and talk about the multittrack year round um impact. So does changing a school's calendar impact the student achievement and again that that data was no. So I linked that to this particular presentation but we also have it on our website from previous presentations. Then we also had other um research articles that we have gathered in order to identify what are some of the impacts or information that we can share with families so they can better understand what year round it is because many people think year round means you're going to get um less you know uh learning loss during the summer and that it's better for students academically and it's not because year round schools though they operate 12 months out of the year they do not offer more days of school, more

027days of instruction than a traditional calendar school. So, you're not getting those academic gains because you're not offering the extra days. Um, and that can actually be seen in that last article, the busting myths about year- round calendars. I did also want to identify some of the data that came out of the public engagement sessions that we're going to continue to try to find. Um, you saw mental health, right, as being one of the main topics from families. Um, I've reached out to um our other departments within the district to find out, do we have any data or research that talks about the impact of yearround or traditional calendar schools on students mental health or staff mental health and it's just not there. And so we have asked the public who've made those comments if

028they do have that data and research to please share it with us and we'll continue to look at it. Um, but our professionals do not seem to have any data that would support that at this time. Um there was also a really good um question about teacher turnover. So when you convert a school's calendar, you know, what's the what's the expected outcome when it comes to teacher turnover? Well, teachers are telling us that they'll leave, right? But we don't have a lot of data that supports whether they will or not because we really haven't had a lot of um calendar conversions since like 2006. And we've had some schools in the short term, but we've never really tracked like from year one to year two, what's the percentage of teachers that leave when you change

029a school calendar. So two years ago, we converted uh Pleasant Grove. So, we're able to just get that data now and as we continue with this process over the next several years, we're going to be tracking that data so that we can share that as another data point for you to consider when we look at converting schools because we think, you know, that could be impactful if you have, you know, 85% of the staff at the school lead from year 1 to year two. That's something you should have at your fingertips to consider as we make these decisions. So, that leads us to our recommendation. Well, I know you've heard a lot of information about, you know, the possibility of going to track 4. Um, staff still feels, and when I say staff, I say

030the office of school choice still feel strongly about a conversion to traditional calendar. Um many of the feed um parts of the feedback that we hear from families throughout the district our K12 alignment is important you know and when you know we talked about it when we converted Pine Hollow and Rollsville that leaving the elementarymentaries at you know multittrack and moving the middle schools to traditional was not ideal but we did still have 612 alignment. um these schools currently have 612 alignment. So converting to track 4 would still you know keep them kind of the same and it would actually give us our um financial gains that we would be looking for. So that could be something you'd want to consider. But for staff in our recommendation we're looking at how do we check all

031of the boxes and so the traditional calendar would be that option. Um and as I said, you know, the funding could be allocated to high growth areas such as when we talk about Oak View for 2728 or any other schools uh moving beyond. So what are the next steps? So we met with area superintendents and principles. We met with the staff. We've engaged the public. Um we're presenting to you now um the information for a final decision. Now I know you have u you'd like to vote. we didn't want to vote at this particular meeting. I'll ask that we put a date on the calendar for families. If we could do September 2nd as a vote um during the board um board meeting um that would be greatly appreciated. This way I can be in

032attendance to present to you at that time. And with that, I'll take any questions. >> Okay. Um let's start. Dr. Engles learn to state. >> Yes. Um thank you. Thank you. Um thank you Mr. Ka. Um yeah both of these schools are in district 3. So definitely um you know I have a a lot of um feedback and that's the interest in the in these schools. Um I and and I do have a couple of other schools who who you know like Durant Elementary and Durant Middle that are that are in this you know um that the track four and I just want to kind of get a historical perspective from those two schools and how did that come about or or or how how did that come about and and what was the result

033of that conversion? Um, and then what the cost differential between a traditional calendar versus a track 4. So if you could give me that. >> So if I think I understand you're asking how did we get to Durant going to track four and not to traditional. Okay. So at the time when we converted that our data had said that we kind of felt we may need multitrack year round in the future. And so when we converted those schools to track 4, we were doing that in in a way to leave open the door that we could possibly convert back to multitrack. Um when you look at the data um that our current forecast has, we're just not showing a need long-term for converting these schools back to multitrack. So that's why staff feels, you know,

034a little bit more comfortable with converting to traditional calendar because we don't anticipate a need long term for multittrack in this area. And we say that because when you look at this next slide here, when you look at all of the schools in this particular area, that whole northern region from the airport over to Capitol Boulevard, you're not seeing any projected long-term growth. and the schools already in that area are are all below the 95% threshold of where we ideally want to be when it comes to long-term crowding. So, that's kind of how the Durant Road schools got to where they were at that time. We had felt like we would maybe need to convert them back, but um we'll probably be bringing to you um a lot of other schools in that particular area,

035you know, track 4 only. Do we want to consider going traditional if it has misalignment with uh middle schools? And so where Durant has track four on both elementary and middle likely not going to make any recommendations yet but something we could consider. Um and then the second part of that question was sorry >> um the cost difference. >> Oh cost. So uh I showed you the cost change from multi-track to traditional. It would be the same going to track 4. So you would still get the cost savings going to track 4. Um there is no difference in cost uh operating a track 4 or a traditional calendar school when it comes to the month of employment. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Evans. >> Um thank you because that second one about the cost

036I I thought I heard you say that and I wanted you to repeat it. So I'm glad for that clarity. Um that was on my list. >> Uh the community engagement and the staff engagement. Um, can you I know you don't have your laptop in front of me and I tried to look myself like how many families are at North Forest Pines or students rather because I know families can have more than one students student but you've got 103 133 participants for North Forest as far as the family survey the family thought exchange 133 at North Forest Pines and then 189 at Pleasant Union. I would like to have a sense of out of >> y >> 500 families >> I don't know the full number of families but by students both schools have between

037like about 550 and 575 students but I also want to point out that these recommendations are not in to take place until 2728. So you may have several student several grades of students who were currently at the school that this isn't going to impact them. So they may not have engaged >> okay >> in that unless they have a younger child either at the school or coming. >> Okay. >> But we can get you those exact numbers. >> So 500 to 550 >> roughly. >> And then how about the staff? Same question. So the North Forest Pine staff you had well at each you had 50 participants. >> Yeah. I don't know what percentage that is of the actual overall staff but I can get that information for you. >> Okay. >> I I mean

038I'll say this. I don't think so. Even if we missed 50% of the staff, I still don't think it's going to change the sentiment that you're getting from either of the schools, it when I met with the staff, we went to a staff meeting and I brought HR as well and we talked and overwhelmingly they do not support converting the school at all, let alone, you know, but they did say track 4 could be amanable if it has to be done. Um, it's just you're just not going to get a lot of support for changing school calendars. That's historically why we haven't done them because they're just they're just not easy. Nobody wants them. It's just hard. >> Yeah. All right. Thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Miss Ev, you're going to have

039roughly 40 certified staff. So when you say 50, that could include IAS and staff that you have, but certified is going to be around 35 to 40. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Evans. I apologize. I was a year off on my data. The last thing that it looked like we had an enrollment was 524 for Pleasant Union and 544 for North Forest. >> Okay. But that's in the ball. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> We'll do uh Mr. Hershey and then we'll come around the table. Um before I ask, I just want to acknowledge all the staff and families who have sent us emails. They sent a whole bunch. So, we probably they're probably not all getting responses. Um so, I just want to acknowledge all uh we get it. We read we're reading it.

040It's really important to us to hear from y'all. Um can you just let's say hypothetically we decided track 4? Is that something that would have to wait we would still wait till 2728 and how does a conversion like that work as far as what's the process once a conversion is is decided upon? So we would still recommend to wait. All right. The reason why you're making these changes is because you're trying to give families enough le leeway so that they can make adjustments to their calendars. You got to remember there's 3/4s of the building is on a different calendar than track 4. So they'll need time to change um their career needs uh the vacations and whatnot that they have planned. Um as well as for your staff that would be losing the months of

041employment, we'd really want them to have the time to be able to plan accordingly so that they can make those adjustments because they will be getting two less paychecks. um once we convert the school. So I think the 2728 school year would still be a target. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Well, that would be my preference. I'd say >> that's fine. >> Yeah, just Swanson. >> Great. Thank you. U my question kind of goes to the latter part of Miss Edmond's question. I know you stated that it's you know we the numbers may be low due to families that may not be you know aging out of that particular base. So my question is what outreach was done to get those families that may be moving into that particular phase that may be school

042age that we may have neglected. Um and then I have another question. >> It's a great question. I I mean it's hard when you don't know the families that live in your particular area. That's why we've put the information up on our calendar website. Um I know we had sent it out to the school um hoping that other families would catch wind of it and they were uh we left it open a Google Meet open so that anyone could join even from the community. Um, so it's just a difficult way to engage families that you just don't know who'd be plugged in or who live here yet. >> And is there any connections or outreach to daycare centers that may be getting into students? So therefore, we're able to, you know, capture and collect as

043many voices as possible. >> Uh, we we didn't do that, but that's something I can make sure that we add to do as part of our in um outreach to bring in families for engagement. >> Yeah. And then I I know you mentioned that there would be those teachers would you know potentially lose two additional checks. So is there a cons I know typically when there is a calendar conversion there's an opportunity for for staff to submit transfers. >> Correct. Is there a concern that there may be a you know that may we may see 50% I'm just making up numbers hypothetically of a turnover with staff and is there concerns about concerns about that? So so like I said we don't have historical data to compare that to just yet. We're we're starting to

044track that. Um I mean the reason why we have the two-year window again is so that staff will have two years to participate in that transfer module. um they won't be just up to that one year. Um you know, it's difficult. I mean, like I said, if this was an easy decision, we'd be doing these a lot more often. Um it's really difficult once you start a school on a specific calendar because staff, they they pick a school because they like the school principal, they like the, you know, the culture, they like the calendar being one of the main reasons. I mean, it's because they have their own kids on specific calendars. And so these would be other things that we'd have to work with. If we did a conversion and the staff stayed at

045the school, if their children are on multitrackaround calendar, we would have to work with them to make sure that their children can be on the same calendar that they're working on. Um, so these are all things that we'd work out with staff. But I think the 2-year window is a good win good time frame for people to make. They don't feel rushed to make these hard decisions. But to answer your question, I mean, I just don't know. I I I feel like when you're working at a particular place and if you really like it, it's hard to walk away. I know the calendar can be in can be, you know, intimate to certain people because you just you feel like it better fits your family's lifestyle, but I can't really project it what I feel

046at this time what I feel like the staff would do with with regards to staying or leaving. >> Sorry. No, and I I just think this is a a discussion that, you know, for those that may be interested in listening knows that all of this has been taken into consideration and that this, to your point, is not an easy easy task. And so I just want to thank you for raising those pieces for us and I appreciate staff for bringing that to our attention because that's not something that we thought to be tracking and so I certainly think that we will want to bring that data to you as you consider these decisions in the future. Yes. Um, thank you for for all of this. Um, I do want to say um say to you

047um Mr. So that I want to thank you for acknowledging that this definitely disrupts families um and students because coming from a a teacher standpoint that taught in year round and having children in year round it definitely um you know with the idea of having to abruptly switch well it's not abrupt but having to switch the idea of it definitely disrupts on on multiple levels. Um my specific question is around the cost implications that you noted um on slide 40 and you said that um it says here that the information presented here shows that moving from year round to traditional specifically will impact lead secretary student information data data manager and potential impacts to child nutrition services and special education months of employment. Do we have information? I feel like you've kind of touched on

048it a little bit, but do we have information specifically around what positions would be impacted if we if we decided to move to um track 4? >> It still should be the same. Um because when you look at a track four school and a traditional calendar school, they both operate on 10 months. All right? When you operate on multitrack, it's because you're adding that fourth track in when the three tracks, you know, one of them tracks out. That's how you're getting the additional capacity. You get 25% more kids to fill the building. And then you need the extra months of employment because your your principal, your APS, your front um your front support staff, they need to be there year round. You don't have a 10-month and then you fill another position for two months.

049So we as a district have funded those additional two months or one month to keep those positions rolling. >> Um so that it would not be a need for the additional funding on track for it. Okay. So, it wouldn't be more than this impacted, but it wouldn't be less. It just >> it would it would be equitable to moving to traditional. It would be about the same. >> Thank you, Mr. Gord. Miss Maf. >> Thank you. Um, Mr. Cros, you shared that both of these schools um their students feed into traditional calendar middle schools already. If we were to go the track 4 route, would we be obligated to do K8 alignment and provide transportation? I'm assuming we provide transportation to it would have been Pine Hollow for one and maybe Durant for the other

050or Heritage. >> Yeah, it's a good question. So, you know, I I think if we go to track 4 only, I think we seriously need to consider looking at, you know, the district can't continue to afford to provide that choice, right, in that sense of um keeping that alignment. And so, I think we've already removed the traditional the the middle school calendar application choice with transportation in this particular area. um we may need to consider looking at removing it for elementary as well over time um because again the the inefficient bus routes are what's you know preventing us from being able to have more reliable service um elsewhere um but I think you're going to continue to have hard decisions to make during the transfer process during the appeal process as many of you know

051when you often see families seeking K8 alignment um that's why staff was trying to recommend a traditional calendar because then you won't have that particular issue uh to deal with. But going to track 4, yes, you will still have um some misalignment, you'll still have appeals and and transfer requests. Uh we may look at the schools that will offer because if it's track 4 only and if if Heritage, and I don't believe it is, but if Heritage is still an application school for some of these families, they're operating currently on a multitrack. So, we would probably want to um offer them Durant instead so that they had that um track 4 alignment with the middle school and it'll be easier on this the school principal because when you force feed track four students into a

052multitracky round school, it puts pressure on the principal for picking tracks for students and really limits, you know, the their ability for nontra 4 schools to get track four when they go to middle school. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, and looking at the percentages of the schools that you've shared with us on slide 20, there really is no school to pull from that's overfilled except for really one in the area. >> Yeah. Absid >> and well, I didn't want to name names and stir up any for Dr. Um but um but I mean there really is no reassignment choice and so the calendar conversion is one of the only levers that we have. Do we know what uh the anticipated capacities would be if we I mean let's assume nobody moves but going from you

053know 48% or not 48% 8 got the numbers here but the 78% for North Forest Pines and the 81% for Pleasant Union and what that would look like again if everybody stays converting to track 4 or traditional just to look at the capacity of what the schools would be. >> Yep. So it' be about a 20 to 25% increase. Okay. >> So you're looking at, you know, North Forest Pines going to right around 100% utilized. Um and then Pleasant uh Union would be a little bit over that. Probably about like 10, excuse me, 105ish. >> Okay. >> Um but we can certainly get you those exact numbers. Uh, and I appreciate you bringing up the fact of the different levers that you pull in a particular area because one of the things that we've done

054over the years is look at, you know, so how do you find ways to, you know, help an underutilized school fill up because you want to utilize all of the seats at the school, but as you look at this, there are no pro all the schools in the area need additional students. So, it's not like you can take the students out of Wakefield and move them into Pleasant Union because then you' just be shifting the problem to to Wakefield. And so it just becomes, you know, difficult for the families at those particular schools. And then for the district, um, you know, year round is for capacity purposes. Um, I know it was used as a choice mechanism, you know, several years ago, probably a little more than 10 years ago, but it's just it it's

055not helping us solve the problem when we're dealing with high high growth areas and we can't afford to continue to build schools in those areas. So, we need multittrack for the additional capacity, but the funding for these underutilized schools operating on a multittrack would help offset those operating costs. Okay, >> I have two more questions. >> Um, if this were to go through with the calendar conversion, students that are transferred in, we would give them the opportunity for stability and to stay. >> Great question. So, any student who's currently attending the school, whether they're calendar application or transfer, um we would allow them to stay um obviously without district transportation if we drop the calendar application portion. Um but yes, we would offer very generous stability rules for all students and their incoming siblings. >>

056Okay. And then my final question, knowing the Forest Pines, North Forest Pines campus, um, not only are they two different calendars, but their times are staggered. We anticipate keeping that staggered time. >> Great question. >> For the folks, so that carpool does not get so backed up during the day. >> We are not anticipating requesting a um, a time change for their start and end time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Rice. Well, I think everybody's almost answered all my questions. I was knocking them off. Um, but just for clarification purposes for me, I think the last thing that really mattered to me um was the two things that I heard was one that the families really love where they are. Um, and and and most importantly is um we really want to

057save taxpayers dollars um and in the honesty of where we are. And so that really was my question that I had that you answered this these choices because I was concerned about what did the data uh what data did we originally have to suggest that we open the school as a year round in the first place? And so I think I've heard that answer. Um and then um what oh I did have a question. what are we going to do for future decisions to prevent this type of change and save taxpayers dollars? And so I'm hoping that I'm hearing that as we move forward, are you saying that are we going to go back and look at our schools that are not um that are multittrack and we're making go back and create a better

058change for schools that's just been converted to multittrack by choice only versus actually using multittrack for its purposes for overcrowding. are is that the model in which we're trying to move forward to um so that we save the money that we're supposed to save because I think what I hear you saying um is that we need to convert the school back because of the funding purposes behind it. Is that correct? >> Just let me make sure I understand correctly. So we're asking about converting a school from multitrack to traditional. >> Correct. >> Okay. So the reason we're doing that in this particular area is because we just there is no need long-term need for the additional seats in the area. So again for um fiscal responsibility it would be best for us to convert that

059school to either track 4 or traditional it would be the same cost savings so that we can utilize those costs in areas where we have high growth and we need to convert schools or open new schools on the multittrack year round calendar. >> Okay. I want to thank you for saying that again. I did hear you correctly the first time. Thought we gonna sum it up at me as being the last. And um and then the final question again was I know you found this particular space. Are we going to do that for other schools that we're seeing in the same situation currently so that we can I hate to put you on a spy if you need to tell me we need to wait to hear it later but um to make sure because

060one thing as Miss um Gordon said families don't like to be disrupted um in that manner. I just Right. And so I realized I think we're correcting I won't say that it was wrong but we're correcting some better physical responsibilities that should have been thought of in the beginning when this happened 10 12 years ago probably to be exact 12 years ago. >> Well I'll defend the fact that I think we used multitrack when we originally started because we were experiencing high growth at the time right and so your projections keep telling you you're going to continue to grow. Um what has changed in the last 10 to 15 years? There's been a lift on the charter school cap, right? You've got um uh vouchers that have now come into play. And so and you

061had COVID which really changed the way that some people deal with school. And so I think those factors which when we built these schools and then put them on the multitrack your own calendar, you couldn't have anticipated some of that stuff. So I think we made the right decision at the time because we were using our resources accordingly. I think what we're doing now is you're you're getting a you've assessed over time and now where we don't need it anymore, we're scaling it back, but we're then using those funds to then not build as many new schools as we have in the past. So, a lot of times in the past, we just quickly continue to chase new growth by building new schools instead of also looking at can we convert particular calendars in order

062to utilize the school so that we don't have to build that extra school in the area. And I think that's kind of where we are right now. >> Okay. And how old is this school for any of you know by hand? >> Which school? Uh >> um both of them. O um >> well when the change happened and the only reason why I'm reiterating it is because >> families get frustrated and we make these changes as we hear and I've tried to respond to the amazing educators that giving their input and when we have to make these hard choices um to create physical responsibility I also don't want it to make it look like we're ignoring people's opinion and desires for where they are to do great and where they're being successful and then they're

063clearly showing tons of data and reference and around it. And so I'm trying to make sure that we don't continue to repeat the same um patterns of behavior um whether it's those of us that sit on this board in 5 years or 10 years. How do we create a space that there isn't change in um in this manner that disrupts 550 families um what a total maybe uh 1,200 families total with the two schools right how do we give minimal disruption to families moving forward and I know we may can't answer that question right now but I just want people to hear that that's on my heart um of how do we have the least amount of disruption constantly going forward to come back say well these factors changed this and it changed that and

064this is where we are today. How do we not do that 10 years later when families purchase their homes they do what they do to be there 10 years later only for things to be disrupted um in that manner. So, I just want us to think about that um in those departments that are making these amazing decisions um with data that are hard and challenging to what do we do? You know, I know you have to answer that now, but I'm just saying I want us to really look at that response because I think that's a great question and I think what we see out of this process is that uh when the data presents itself to say that we look at the utilization and we recognize that uh now the trend is going to

065a direction to where we do need to make a change that uh that is not something that you take lightly. You've already said how difficult this decision is, but uh but in some instances when the data has changed from what that original decision was that our responsibility is to be able to bring that to the board so that you all can make an informed decision about how you make that change. I'll say that uh because there's a cost that you pay for that doesn't mean that's a bad thing. And so when we recognize we have to go to multitrack year round setting that it's going to cost more. uh but there's also a benefit that we get from that. But at any point uh we feel it really does get to the point that now

066the board has to make a consideration about that long-term impact then that's what we want to bring it to you guys that the public can understand that uh the board has considered all of the data that it is not an easy decision that we don't want to disrupt parents and staff and faculty. Uh but it is difficult but when we make that recommendation we've given you all the data to where when you do make it you can stand behind it. But that's a great question >> and we've tried to utilize all of the different levers to deal with this before we get to this point. This is I think historically been the last straw you know that we've used and so I appreciate your willingness to consider these options because these are not easy decisions.

067And to just to get back, you asked about the year school opened. North Forest Pines, I'm pretty sure, opened in ' 06 or '07, somewhere around there. Pleasant Union was built before then, but I I don't have an exact No, we have an answer. >> Okay. 1992 for Pleasant Union. >> Thank you. >> I want to make a couple of points and we'll go to Miss Coughfield. Um, >> everyone good? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um while you know anytime there's a change in cal calendar it is potentially disruptive we all I know staff has worked to try to bring this recommendation to us now for a change in 2728 because we do want to try to give staff and families as much notice as possible. Um, there are hardships that families have based on calendars.

068You're hearing a lot from families that like the calendars at the current schools because that's, you know, we brought this to their attention. So, we're getting that feedback. I also want to encourage everyone to consider the feedback we get year round from families that come to us when they bring challenges in our transfer requests. You know, for some families, the year- round calendar provides benefits for getting after school care or care during trackouts. For other families that, you know, that trackout care can be expensive or it can be a hardship. And so, we just need to balance the pros and cons of the kinds of calendars with each other. Um, to m to vice chair Swanson's question, you know, we have had some recent calendar conversions I think we could look at to pull some

069data. you know, Pleasant Grove Elementary went from traditional to multi-track year round and that had an impact on staffing and then you recently as you know, Mr. Crosa said, Pine Hollow um had went from a year round to traditional and the other school I get was it wait which one? >> Roseville Middle as well. So, I think we could come back and get you I think that data that that you were requesting. The only data I can currently get you is the Pleasant Grove data because we won't be able to get the Pine Hollow and um Rollsville data until the till next April because those reports from HR are they lag back all the year. >> But that is something we will start. >> But then I do want to go back to my screen

070timed out. I think it's page 20. Nope. Um it was the one Miss Gordon had referenced. um that had the conversions. >> You know, those of you who have been tracking our federal budget issues know that while frozen funds for a lot of key positions were unfrozen recently and the recently passed federal budget, those funds were not extended. And so going into next year and perhaps future years, we're losing an important source of federal funds that fund a number of those positions you see up there. You know, limited English proficiency, literacy coaches, I'd be willing to bet some program enhancement and structural facilitators. You know, a lot of the that federal funding that was providing important enrichment services at the school is not going to come in. And as we struggle with our budget and

071trying to figure out how we'll continue to provide important services because just because we don't have money for English instruction, I think we still want to provide English instruction. So opportunities like this to stretch those dollars to be able to still provide those dollars and those ser those services more efficiently may be something we have to look at. If we have to replace all of the money for, you know, you know, our limited English proficiency programs, it will be easier if we have if we have to come up with a smaller replacement amount. Likewise, you know, you know, we struggle with child nutrition services and the money that we earn from those systems here. We didn't get into it with as much detail, but if you're feeding the same number of kids in the school,

072you can feed them more efficiently, more cost effectively on a traditional calendar than you can on a year round calendar. Again, these are some important ways we can take the limited or declining dollars we get and stretch them further so we can still offer the important services that we need to provide to all of our students at those schools. So, I wanted to bring up those points. You know, it's it's never easy. We don't make these changes necessarily because we want to, but sometimes we're trying to do the most good with the resources that we have. Um, Miss Cfield, I saw you had some comments and then if anyone has a second comment, we'll bring it back. Um, first I want to say thank you because I know that you guys really do provide a

073lot of really helpful detail and engage with the public which I think is the most important part. Um, one thing I wanted to ask is just to clarify, so Durant Middle School is track 4 only, >> correct? >> Okay. They would align if we were to say switch to either track four or >> Yeah. If we were to offer that for middle school families to align with their K K5 families, we could do that. >> Okay. And then Forest Pines and North Forest Pines, if we were to switch this over to traditional, they will now have two side by side traditional calendar schools. >> Yeah, they would have different start times, so they wouldn't be operating during the same times, but >> Okay. Um, so the next thing, um, I wanted to ask, you said

074that they did a study on the academic games. How do they measure that? Cuz like I'm thinking about I'm a huge fan of year round and my family did year round. So I'm just wondering if he's never done both and he's only been in if particular students have only been in year round or traditional, how do they compare it? like how would they measure that it wouldn't be different one versus the other. >> So I can get uh Dr. Katie Rouse who presented to talk through that so you can see but they do research where they take uh they use controls is what they use um and they measure and you do have some students because these were done on Wake County students these studies so these are not students you know who are not

075ours these are our students um I'll probably speak out of turn in a sense of they they have ways to identify and compare to students so that they feel comfortable with saying that no matter what calendar you on you wouldn't have academic gains or losses depending on uh whichever you were on. >> Okay. I I was >> I think they originally did it when they had the large conversions back in 2006 because you had students who were on one calendar year 1 and then went to year two on a different calendar. So they were able to compare that time. Um but I can certainly get some feedback of that from >> I would love to see that. That was our April 8th work session too. >> They're all linked in the presentation. >> Yeah, you

076can pull up the full study. >> Thank you. >> There's three of them I think. There's three there's three three links but the first link is what we presented with Dr. Rouse >> um that she did an update to her 2006 uh study. So the April 8th this is the link to the presentation the one that says multittrack round student achieve and it'll have you read through that report she'll give you some good data >> but if you need anything additional please ask and I do >> um and then the other thing I just wanted to clarify for um on page 40 the chart that is there this would be a conversion so it would be a gain of $197,000 if we were to switch from year round to two two traditional >> or track

077board approximately >> or track board. >> That's what you say. >> And then what would the class size look like for us? Like how many classrooms would we gain or lose comparing the options? >> So on multitrack they have more classrooms available to fit more kids but they're not utilizing them right in a sense you don't need them. um we can take all of the current student population and change the school to count to traditional calendar and they could all fit in the building um appropriately. Uh class sizes don't change at elementary because you still have that K3 class size limit. I often heard that from some families. You're going to have more kids in our classes. You shouldn't have more kids in your classes because you have those limits within those particular grades and

078you have enough space at your grades four and five where you don't have to purposefully add more kids to the classes. However, sometimes principles like to have that flexibility and offering some classes with more students at four and five so they could use those extra months of employment to do other things at the school, but that would be the principal's discretion. >> Okay. Um I just wanted to like be clear with that. I I know that you know like we're trying to scale back but my concern is that we are disrupting 500 families and the students and especially for speaking for forest pines we know that area is completely condensed with charter and private. >> Correct. >> So that's one of my big concerns is that we will lose families to that because they're trying

079to keep their family calendars and what really works for their child in that in that calendar. So, um, it sounds like they might be more willing to go with track 4 versus go to traditional. >> That seems to be based on the feedback. Um, I think if if a change had to be made, which staff feels like it does, um, I think families would be more amunable to track 4 as opposed to going to traditional. >> And then just to clarify, the 197 is between both schools, the savings for both schools. >> Correct. That's the cumulative. >> Thank you. We are we have hit our time limit. I know some board members had some quick comments. I'll do Miss Edmonds, Vice Chair Swanson, and then Dr. Lass. >> Thanks. Um, so thank you, um, Mr.

080Crosa for bringing up the charter cap because it both of these schools were built and opened before the cap was lifted. That was done in like 2010 or 2011. And unfortunately, that area that we're talking about today is saturated with charter schools, saturated, more so than other parts of the county. So I think that's an important po point. And then um just as far as like the data, I did read um the besting myths about year round and took note of the academic piece. That's fine. That seems to be, you know, pretty well um researched and gr and founded. But I do want us to and the the transportation costs are very real for like you know us transporting all choice literally on a yellow bus. However, the environment that we are in today at

081the federal and state level, we are forced to operate in an environment of choice. And so I think we need to be mindful that is to the best of our ability and finances, we need to invest in choice. And so perhaps track 4 is a way to do that because choice can't just be on our magnets. It has to involve, you know, calendar. So that's how I look at it is an investment in choice and I I just would ask us to think of it that way too. >> Thank you. And you bring up a great point, right? Because I I do think that we should have that choice because you you're you're fighting for market share. I think the hard part for you and for staff is when parents want to keep a particular

082school on that calendar, but it's not aligning with their feeder pattern schools. Um you know, one of the comments one parent made was we'll just convert one of our middle schools to track four. But now you've offset all those feeder schools. So it just becomes very difficult and so that's why we originally came with that uh recommendation for traditional but certainly staff is open to attract four. >> Mr. Chair, Vice Swanson, the doctor this slide has been referenced quite a bit and so I just want to make sure that it's important for folks who may be sitting in those current positions and Mr. Please correct me if I'm wrong, that if there is a person that's currently holding those positions, we will ensure that they do find another uh position that's within the district. Just

083to put that out there because I know it's been referenced and I just don't want folks who are sitting there thinking that their position, you know, may be gone. So I I see Mr. New York. >> Yeah. I would I would just >> if it's all right um that when when the district historically has changed calendars obviously this unique set of circumstances but change calendars whether it's from traditional to year round year round multitrack to single track or year round multitrack to traditional we have worked with staff that are that the new schedule is not best aligned for in finding ultimate placements for them. And then as it relates to a teacher, for example, um that is currently year round and being paid 12 months a year and then all of a sudden maybe going

084to traditional and being paid um 10 months a year. We got some structures to assist them in going from 12 paychecks to 10 paychecks. So we have through experience been able to facilitate um working with staff in supporting that. >> Thank you. And I think they'll have two years of that window to find positions as such. >> And Dr. >> um thank you. I'll end up my last question comment basically. um uh you know between these two schools there's one school right in the middle of it is um grass field um which is also multitrack um and I'm just wondering or out loud or maybe for your food for for thought but you know in terms of how it would impact brass field in the positive way in terms of increasing their capacity uh in

085the long run so that that that school can maintain multitrack year round um in in some other ways that you know because you if you're saying that president you um union is going to be over 100% in a a traditional or track four then you know um there's you know is there ability to offload peasant union in some ways. Yeah. And and I think with the two-year window, that gives us the ability to utilize our reassignment plan. If we feel that converting the school make it a little too crowded, we can utilize some of the neighboring schools because they certainly have seats available if we had to shift some students. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. C. >> All right. Next on our agenda, we'll transition over and

086we will talk about exciting calendar topic. Um, not that that wasn't exciting, but an exciting topic on our calendar on on our agenda, the 50th anniversary and specifically the uh communication plan for the anniversary weather. Chief communication officer, Lisa L. >> Y'all, I have the best job in the entire community and it is not because I get to announce snow days. Um, but it is because we get to talk about things like this. So, I am going to not talk fast, but I'm going to put Dr. Taylor to work. If you'll take one of each and pass it on. Um, we are talking today about a very important milestone that we will hit our 50th anniversary. Um, 2026, it marks 50 years since the landmark 1976 merger of the Raleigh City and Wake County school

087system. We will launch a campaign that celebrates the foresight and courage of those who unified our system um and honor a half century of legacy. So I'm going to highlight a couple of campaign goals. The first one is we really want this campaign to involve everybody. um and not not just the folks that we typically are able to reach, our students, our staff, um the folks that are connected to the school system, but also engage those who are not connected to the school system, folks who might not have kids in the school system, folks whose kids have aged out, charter school parents, anybody who benefits from living in this amazing place, we want them to understand um this legacy that was built. Um the other one that I wanted to uplift is um this story

088that we're going to tell. It's a story about integration. A story about integration is a story about equity. And you can't do that without looking at it with an equity lens. So we will be very intentional about amplifying historically silenced voices in this campaign. We're going to tell the story of everybody who created this amazing system um that we all benefit from. So what I passed out um is are two things. And the first one I'm going to point to um is this document that was published by Wake Ed Partnership 20 years ago of Community United um for the 30th um anniversary and it is a good outline of our history. So I wanted everybody just to have that so that you have um a piece that walks through it. We're not going to walk

089through our history today, but a couple of key dates. Uh 1973 residents from the Raleigh City Schools and the Wake County Schools had a referendum. that referendum failed. Um early 1975 um the office of civil rights pulled about a million dollars of federal funds because our community had not reached um adequate integration. Uh at that time school leaders and business leaders came together lobbyed the general assembly who approved legislation enabling the creation of a merged system. um late 1975, I believe it was September, but I'm still trying to find primary documents. The boards of education of the Raleigh City Schools and the Wake County School Districts voted affirmatively to merge. July 1st, 1976. That is the date that we will celebrate. That is the date that the school boards merged, began to search for a

090superintendent. At the time, somebody's uh father was the chair, the late Senator Bar Malone. um and vice chair Billy Johnson. I have on here the list of all of the board members. I understand that that board then got consolidated to a smaller board. Um we will publish a website that has a lot of these documents on there. The one of the documents that I will publish um in the coming weeks is a document of all of the superintendent and all of the board members up to 25 years because we did that work on the 25th anniversary. And then I'm going to have staff do the research for the um for the last 25 years. And so we'll we will by the end of the year have all of those. Um August of 1976, which I

091think is actually a typo. I think it's September the 1st, was the first day of school for this new school system under the leadership of Dr. Murphy. And then 1978, the year after um is when our first magnet schools opened, a GT program at Hunter and a before and after school program at Phillips. All right, campaign messages. So, we're going to talk in a second about four ways that we're going to um do the celebration, but we are going to center the celebration around three main messages. The first one is honoring visionary leadership. If um if you were around 10 years ago for our 40th anniversary, um led by Melissa Allen was our Trailblazers campaign. Um, and so we're going to build on that campaign on this new website. I'm actually going to pull out

092those stories and publish them on um on our 50th anniversary website. We pulled a lot of um first-person interviews for that campaign. So, we're going to um pull those out and then build on that work. We're going to celebrate a legacy of excellence and opportunity. So, for 50 years, there have been a lot of people and a lot of things that have happened. And so, we're going to celebrate all of that innovation. And then we are, as Dr. Taylor likes to say, going to level up. We're going to inspire the future and um really work on messages to uphold this legacy. Okay, a blank slide cuz it took me a second to pull it together, but you also have a list. I haven't counted them yet, but of the original schools from 1976. I'll tell

093you all that this is a little bit of a rabbit hole because you're going to see schools on here like Sherwood Bates that don't exist anymore. Um Sherwood Bates is a good one. It kept me up very late a couple nights ago. It actually has an active alumni association. They ended up graduating. Sherwood Bates was built right behind where Daniels currently stands today. Um and so there's so much incredible history in in each one of these schools. >> Oberlin. >> Oh, behind Oberlin. Thank you. Thank you. >> Speaking of changes. All right. Yes. >> Um All right. So, let's talk about the four main ways that we'll celebrate. The first one, 50 golden celebrations. So, um you all are part of our culture and you know that what we love to do is uplift and

094recognize the people that power our mission. So this 50 golden celebrations will take um the existing celebrations that we have um a lot of the ones that we all celebrate teacher of the year, principal of the year, pieces of gold um the very many district celebrations also school celebrations um and incorporate the anniversary theme within that celebration. So centrally will provide a toolkit um and then we this Friday will be meeting with what I'm calling my committee of party planners where all of us party planners will get together um and talk about how we can tell the story of the last 50 years um in the current celebrations that we have. Oh, I will say we're also working with partners. Oh, I'm going backwards. Hold on. How do I do it? Okay, we're working with

095partners on their celebrations too because as you know it's not just our celebrations but has a um a very big gala other partners and we'll work with them to incorporate this um in their celebration. All right, way too um 50 acts of kindness for 50 years. So again, one of our cultures is active service. Um, I like to remind everybody that public education is a shared responsibility and that shared responsibility comes out in the way our community has always served our um our students and our schools. And so we will um wrap that um that feeling together in 50 acts of kindness. Um invite the community to honor the legacy by giving back reflecting our district values. Um how it will work. So, a couple of different ways we are going to um work with

096schools, classes, clubs, and departments. Um we will also work with community partners and we're in conversation with Activate Good to help uplift one of their E Love programs that they have to um find opportunities in our schools in which we can invite the community to um do acts of service. All right. Storytelling. I think this is the one that I'm most excited about. 50 stories for 50 years. So, um, we will build on some of our, um, former campaigns, um, and work with our students to tell the story of our schools. So, I'm going to give you an example before we go through this. Um, the one that I'm very, very excited about is we are doing a renovation right now at Ligan. Um, and we've been doing a lot of work with the community

097to understand what do we want this new school to look like. Um there is a gentleman who leads the liganist alumni association who um very much um wants to um have the alumni association participate in that. So how powerful would it be for the current students to interview the alumni association talk about the building of the school talking about what it was like to be at that school um when they were there. The campaign is going to um work through our students. So we will work with librarians and our history teachers to help model for students how to storytell and then um publish those stories on our website. Um this is the beginning of our campaign but we are in early talks about doing um a walkthrough of those stories. So think a living um

098library a living um exhibit in which we can go to and meet the students who wrote these stories and then um listen to them tell them. All right. And then lastly, we will work on fundraising. Again, public education is a shared responsibility um and we will leverage the celebration um so that folks can support um our students and honor our legacy either with a memory of their teacher, a memory of their school, a memory of their experience um by giving. And so we know that we have the angel fund. So we'll use this to promote the angel fund. And then we're also talking about longerterm ways to create some sustainable development in our organization. So that one of the gifts that we will give out of this 50th anniversary is a fundraising strategy for the

099district. All right, that's my last slide. Um I will share what um um our next steps are. So the next step is we are meeting with lots of different committees to work through executing this. Um we will launch a website and in that website when we launch it we will invite the community to participate in lots of different ways acts of service giving sharing their contact information so that we can connect them with schools so that they can participate in these student storytelling. Um I also know because you all love this school district as much as I do that you probably have lots of partners that you want to pass on um that we reach out to to help with the celebration. So I invite you all to do that. All right, Dr. J's looking

100at his clock. >> Uh, could you explain the dates again? Uh, 75 versus 76. >> I And I apologize. This one is an old logo um that I didn't update because I pulled that together quickly. It's 76 to 2026. >> Okay. >> Yeah, good. I apologize for that. >> Oh, 82 schools. >> All right. >> Put it up for feedback. >> Thank you, Lisa. This is very exciting. I know this is your first look at it. Probably have a lot of questions. We can, you know, start the questions now and then continue the questions as we go forward with the anniversary. So, uh, see Miss Mafy's hand and then we'll go around the table. >> I love the building on the trailblazers piece. I think that video still is so important and still resonant in

101this day and understanding especially for families that are new to the area as to why our district looks the way it does. Um, you probably remember five six years ago um Dr. Martin started a where were our Rosenwald consolidated schools and so knowing the impact of the merger having on those schools closing so Apex Consolidated merging into Apex High School Fugquway Consolidated going into Fugquway High making sure that those voices are also lifted up based on those contacts um that would have been with Dr. gardener's office chief of staff at the time. Um because we know this was a merger for a lot of folks and I believe Mr. JC Nolles is still kicking around. So from the uh former school board that's all. >> Thank you, Miss Russ. >> I think that was along

102some of the similar lines. But I wanted to um know which ones were our Raleigh city schools and which ones were weight schools so that we can differentiate between the two what's still standing after the merge. And um definitely um the Rosenwall schools that's um one is even refurbished out in a Garner area with pastor um Jeffrey I forgot Jeffy's last name but um they do a lot of great work out there and former teachers of the W system um that's still actually actively working in those in that building space that they've renovated >> for Rosen Wall School. one of our colleagues in our grant's office is actually doing her dissertation on the Rosen Wald School and so we um we have definitely talked about leveraging her research so that she can get her dissertation

103done on time and we can celebrate. >> I think doc I think um does Senator Blue go to a Rosen school? >> I'm not sure. I believe he went did he go to Washington consolidated school? >> I couldn't remember. I thought >> I can Yeah, after. Yeah. But I think I think >> my brother may have done his thesis on that when he got his doctorate. I know he did a lot of research. He's a history. So I'll if you want me to have >> That's where we are. Any any final questions? This is not to end the conversation at all. Um go ahead. I know um um uh Chief Luton has been very excited about this and Chie and I have had like a little sneak preview into this um over the past couple

104of weeks or months rather. Um and one thing that the chair and the superintendent and I had discussed uh Friday actually after you had walked out was finding ways to either put images of these founding principles so when folks kind of walk in you know it tells a story and it can open up that conversation. I know some of the schools um currently list their principles, but I don't think some of those founding principles from 177 uh 1976, don't want to go back that far, but 1976 um are less than some of these schools. It might be a great way to really help those students, you know, understand where they are and and whatnot. And you know, if those some of those principles are still living, you know, engaging them to let them share their

105stories of what it was like walking to a newly merged uh district, um may be a good good recommendation. >> I love that. Thank you. >> All right. >> Oh, and I I just have to say this. Yeah, I just have to say this. I am proud because I don't know about anybody else at this table, but I have been in Wake County schools 45 of its 50 years. M >> so even though it started in 76 of course I was born in 74 but my elementary um is Bug which is one of the schools on this list so I'm excited about that. >> Awesome. >> All right Dr. Um I was just reading skimming through this and I thought oh JT not um one of the county commissioners back in the those merger days

106and you know he's still alive 99 um so uh I I'm a friend of the family so I just will be eager to learn more about it. >> Wonderful. >> We were we were trying to look Vice Swanson and Dr. Taylor, Melissa Allen, I, you know, some of the schools, we had the list of the original principles who might still be surviving. Are there opportunities to bring them around and get, you know, collect some of their memories and things? So, any opportunities like that from the kind of surviving families are really wonderful. >> All right. Well, Lisa, thank you so much. We're really excited. >> Thank you. I did want to point out I will publish this on the website with the correct logo. This was an earlier version of it. And then I will

107email you all when it's live. Okay. Great. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chief Luton. All right. Um, that concludes our work session agenda. Do we have a motion at this time? >> Mr. Chair, I move to I'm going read the close session. Um, Mr. Chair, I move to we go into close session to consider confidential personnel information under GS143-318.11 A6 and 115C-39. also to consult with the board of education attorney and preserve the the attorney client privilege provided in GS143-318.1183. also to consult with the board of education attorney and preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in GS143-318.11832 due to current litigation CY Cotton and DJ Ferrell and co-administrators of the estate of DJ Frell versus Wake County Board of Education and Outlaws Jr. versus Wake County Board of Education. And finally, to

108consider the student confident student, excuse me, to consider confidential information provided under GS115 C-402 and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act 20 USC uh 123G. >> Second. >> There's a race, but cross the line first was Miss Mathy with a second. So, we have a motion from the vice chair, uh, second from Miss Mafy that we move into close session for, um, all of those stated reasons. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? All right, we'll give the room a minute to clear, then we'll move into close session. Thank you all.