2025-06-03 Board Meeting

001All right, everyone. Welcome. As planned, it is now 6 o'clock and we are opening up our session of the June 3rd, 2025 uh Wake County Board of Education. Now, please excuse my joke. We were supposed to start at 5:30. We have been working on our cell phone and mobile policy and we wanted to make sure that all information was considered and properly vetted. So for those of you who have come out tonight in particular and joining us in person, I apologize for the delay and any inconvenience this may have caused you. But we are ready to begin. Thank you very much. As you know, I have the little uh speech I gave at the beginning. Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school

002system. The public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business. Persons who willfully interrupt, disrupt, or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer. Members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions. Disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with general statute 143 through817. Again, please please consider your other speakers. those are coming forward tonight and show them the same respect that you would like to be treated with. All right. Uh now as I look around the room, we do have eight members present. Uh we do have a quorum and so for those of you who are able, I ask

003you to stand as we recite the pledge of 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. Thank you. So, uh the first item on our meeting agenda is approval of the meeting agenda. I do need to request an amendment. Uh specifically, there is some information left out of a service contract that's being proposed. I do not want any of us to uh have a contract on the consent agenda. We've not had time to see. So, what I would like to do is amend to action the service contract for county municipalities for school resource officers 2526 currently. And what was submitted was the contract for the 20 for the city of Raleigh. It did not

004include the other county municipalities. So rather than correcting that and putting up different numbers than you would have seen, we're going to consider that as a separate action item under my proposal if someone will be so kind as to offer that amendment. So moved. Thank we have we have an amendment from an amendment from Vice Chair Swanson, seconded by Mr. Hershey. This will add to action an item chief of staff service contracts for county municipalities for school resource officers 2025 through 2026. All in favor of the amendment, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Now, do we have a motion to adopt tonight's amended agenda? So moved. Mo motion from Vice Chair Swanson. We have a second from Miss Mafy. All in favor of approving the meeting agenda as amended say I. Any opposed?

005All right. The meeting agenda has been amended and adopted and we will move into our first item, the public comment portion tonight. As you know, speakers commenting on items on the tonight's agenda will be given priority over speakers commenting on items off agenda. We do give priority to Wake County Public School students who have come out to address us tonight as well. All other speakers will be heard in order of signup. Only the person speaking at the podium will be able to stand. All other attendees who are not speaking are expected to remain seated. concerns related to personnel issues or student matters may be addressed through applicable WCPSS personnel, the grievance policy or other available policies. If you do have something specific to a student that has not been able to be resolved and you

006are here, please before leaving uh after comment, stay so that we can direct you to an appropriate member of staff tonight to try to get this resolved for you while you are here in the building. In the interest of maintaining civility into quorum, speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of directors and must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board staff or members of the general public, specifically other speakers. Please remain at the podium during your speaking time. Any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to our board attorney, Mr. Rod Malone, either before or after your comments. During public comment, you may speak for up to three minutes. Please note the microphones are adjustable. Your time will begin once you begin speaking. So go

007ahead, adjust them, get them where you'd like. Then when you are ready, you may begin speaking. The green light will show that your time has begun. You'll continue on and when you hear an audible tone and the green light turns into a yellow light, that means you have 30 seconds remaining in your 3 minutes. When your speaking time is up, you will see a red light and hear another tone. When your speaking time is up, we will call the next speaker to the podium. Please respect the time limit and speak no more three minute than your three limits. You don't want other people in intruding onto your time. Please don't intrude onto their time. So for tonight, we will go to Excuse me. We'll turn to our speakers list. I believe we have just one

008student uh Phoenix Bilo who will be speaking and then we will go to our non- studentent uh items with one agenda speaker Margaret Bilau on deck then we'll go to our off agenda speakers. Good evening Phoenix. Good evening board members. As you may or may not know, I'm about to graduate and this is the last meeting where I will be the first speaker. In reflecting on my time as a WCPSS student, I realized that ultimately I am grateful. I've had some amazing teachers and I've learned a lot of valuable information and I've made some amazing memories. I wish I could say that my time in Wake County was flawless, but I unfortunately cannot. I've had to endure bullying, harassment, assault, and battery. I know how those words are defined by the state, and I am

009using them correctly. Not only did I have to endure those things, but I also had to endure an entire administration team that was so non-compliant. It's actually illegal. I've essentially been forced to use bathrooms much further away from student bathrooms because my presence in bathrooms make other people uncomfortable. I think I recall learning in elementary school that separate but equal is not equal, but I guess we forget that when enough people complain. I've been told countless times that nothing could be done about things I've reported because there's no sound and it doesn't look like they said they wanted to gang rape and murder you. When somebody actually physically hit me, I was told that it was too light to be considered assault, even though assault is considered the threat or attempt to do something. and

010battery is any unwanted physical contact. When I went to report admin to Title 9, that's when I learned that my school had been breaking federal law for at least two years and probably for the whole time the school has existed. On top of all of that, I've had to endure hearing two board members spouting hateful and ignorant rhetoric towards trans students and often towards me directly. If I had to leave a review, I'd probably give 2.5 stars. There's a lot of good and a lot of potential, but also a lot of bad. I think vast amounts of people feel unsafe and unprotected at school, and that's something that we need to fix. Despite all of that, I am thankful for my time in Wake County and for my priceless education. I just think that there

011are a lot of problems that need to be addressed. Thank you. Our next speaker is Margaret Bilo. Next speaker is Margaret Bilo. Follow Following Margaret, we'll go to our off agenda speakers. Our first speaker will be Joseph Deon. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, this is not necessarily organized. Um, I want to be clear from the start, schools need to have structure around device use, but policy 4318, as it's written, creates more problems than it solves. Um, and it does it in ways that disproportionately harm disabled and marginalized students, whether or not that's the intent. Yes, we need clear, consistent guidelines around technology use in schools, but the way forward isn't to restrict access with uneven enforcement and hope federal educational plans get implemented correctly. The way forward is to

012invest in digital citizenship, set fair and specific boundaries, and ensure safeguards for students who need those devices to access school at all. We do need a thoughtful enforcable approach to digital habits in school, but this policy does not achieve that. Please take it back. Engage with the communities who are most affected and try again with access and equity at the center, not as an afterthought. This policy doesn't make kids safer. It doesn't make learning better. It just makes it easier to silence and punish already marginalized students, especially those with disabilities. The policy assumes that if a student has a 504, an IEP, or a safety plan, their access to a necessary device will be protected. There's a wellocumented pattern across schools locally and nationally where these legally binding plans are routinely ignored or delayed. This

013is not theoretical. This is reality for a significant number of Wake County students. According to a 2020 Government Accountability Office report, one in three complaints about IEPs nationwide resulted in finding of non-compliance. Um, I've had a 504 safety plan in place for my child Phoenix that was uh explicitly permitted cell phone access and even with that documentation, it's been denied. Every single one of you here knows egregious violations of IEPs have happened in this district. If those don't get addressed, do we really believe minor ones ever even make it to a report? For students like mine and many others, wireless devices aren't just phones or toys. Sometimes they're the only way those students can independently and reciprocally interact with peers and engage with their school environment. It's how they regulate during high stress transitions. It's

014how they participate in ways that don't require adult mediation. Remove that tool and you're not just limiting distractions, you're severing access. Ali's interactive gaming via his communication device is not just play, it's social survival. It's the only way he can independently interact with peers who aren't physically or verbally accessible to him. This student blocks students from participating in the social fabric of school life. It doesn't reduce distraction. It cuts off access. If those methods of interaction are forced out of sight all day, then those students are shut out of the social part of school entirely. And that's not small. That's a big part of why kids even show up to school. This policy creates a wedge. And you know that wedge wedges like that get used. Abbleism thrives in gaps like this. Let's be real,

015kids notice that. It becomes, why does he get to have a phone? And that's not fair. And now we've handed abbleist people one more thing to weaponize. Under this policy, the classmates of kids like Olly wouldn't even be allowed to play with him. That's social segregation, and it's cruel. Please take this back to the drawing board and bring in parents and students with lived experience. Do this right. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Joseph Deon, who will be followed by Jessica Lewis. At at the last meeting, the chairman lamented that House Bill 636 would allow people who don't even have kids in public schools to challenge books. When you say that, what what I hear is that we should pay thousands of dollars for schools through property and state taxes, but if we

016don't have kids in public schools, we should mind our own business about the books. So much for for hearing all voices and community engagement. Well, no. Everyone in society has a duty to work for the common good. Those who do not pay much tax because they are economically disadvantaged, especially minority groups who have suffered generations of discrimination, have the most at stake in having public schools function well so that the young people in their communities develop the virtues that they need to improve their circumstances. Instead of teaching virtues, the pornographic books you have stocked in libraries and even used in class lead young people into the vice of objectifying other human beings for their own pleasure. The chairman said that the wishes of the majority must be respected, but the parents I talked to have

017no idea that these kinds of books are in schools. So, if you really are concerned about how the majority feels, I challenge you to send emails containing the excerpts and illustrations that people have complained about in these meetings to all parents and ask whether they think these belong in schools. And each board member, please tell parents in the email whether you support keeping these books and why. HP 636 does not allow for censoring opinions or identities or or relationships. It's just about removing sexually explicit descriptions and illustrations. Claiming that HB 636 would do anything else is a red herring to dissemble the real issue. Classic works that have problematic passages are available as a bridged versions. If you remove the sexually explicit books, no one will have any basis for all the challenges that you're

018ringing your hands over. You are the ones who started this culture war by allowing this stuff. Now you need to end it, please. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jessica Lewis, who will be followed by Amanda Lerman. Happy parental rights month. My name is Jessica. I have two children in the Wake County school system. I am also the vice chair for Moms for Liberty. My youngest child will be graduating fifth grade at AB Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary next week. I am sure Miss Sexon has invited you, Lynn Edmmonds, to this graduation as you were at my daughter's graduation two years ago. Our f our family has been a part of Combmes for 14 years. My oldest who is 23 now got in through the lottery and attended the school in fourth and fifth

019grade when he moved from M Michigan. What drew us to the school is the leadership principles taught based on the seven Steven Covey habits. This school has been amazing for my three children. Everything is studentledd teaching the students to take charge, find your voice, and don't ever give up. I cannot speak highly enough about the amazing teachers that my kids have had during their elementary years at Combmes. And this is why I will always advocate of paying teachers more for all the hard work that they do. Lynn, this fifth grade class that will be graduating next week is the class that had a glimpse of how fun kindergarten could be and then had their kindergarten year ripped away from them in a blink of an eye due to the pandemic. There were they were drugged

020into the virtual schooling nightmare that would create an abundant amount of learning loss. When my son was finally able to enter back into build the building his second grade year, he was beyond terrified and the school building felt like torture to him with everyone masked and the isolation of not being able to be close to his friends or teachers. I state this because while our children were suffering with depression, suicidal thoughts, and feeling a huge sense of loss of trying to catch up with their academics, where were you, Lynn? You were promoting gender ideology, DEI, telling everyone to read band books, implementing vital Biden's Title 9 rewrite, bringing queer sexed programs in. This was your focus. Your focus was not on bringing proficiency scores up. In fact, I'm not so sure I've ever heard the

021words academic and proficiency come out of your mouth. Your priorities of being an elected official on this board has hurt our children in more than one way. Steven CVY, if he was still alive, would be appalled with you being the school board rep of one of his schools. I really do not believe you deserve a seat at the graduation as you go against everything Steven Cvy stands for. So, please do not show your face. These kids that are moving on to sixth grade have persevered and have had to work overtime to try and catch up. My son is yet to pass an EOG and I know my child is not the only one. But hey, let's talk about trans rights over academic performance. It doesn't make sense. Lynn, you can stop patting yourself on the

022back for a job well done. You are not the hero for District 5. The children and the teachers are the real heroes. Thank you to Miss Ston and all of the amazing staff at Combmes for pouring your heart and soul into my children and keeping the focus on academics. Our next speaker is Jen Smith. He'll be followed by Richard Brides. What's that? Oh, I'm sorry. We'll come back to you. No, no, you're up here. Go ahead. Well, I'm so Amanda, we'll follow you a after that, but uh Jen, if you could sit down. Yeah, we say I'm all about keeping a list. All right. We'll go ahead and take your seat on the front and then Amanda will hear you now. I apologize for that. You'd think with the orange I would have seen you

023right there, but my name is Amanda Lerman. My twin sons attend Middle Creek Elementary and I'm a substitute teacher in the Wake County Public School System. I'm also a volunteer with Moms Demand Action. This Friday, June 6th, is National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the United States. 2024 was a deadly year of gun violence, and unfortunately, the first half of 2025 hasn't been better. In an average year, 1,714 people die by guns in North Carolina with a rate of 16 deaths per 100,000 people. That means our state has the 23rd highest rate of gun deaths in the US. Gun violence costs us $19.5 billion each year, of which approximately $471 million is paid by North Carolina taxpayers. Perhaps most significantly for the work you all do, in 2024, firearms killed more children and teens than

024any other cause, including car crashes and cancer for the third straight year. But what can't be captured in these staggering figures is the social and emotional toll gun violence takes on our communities, our families, and our kids. This is a crisis. The first step in fixing a problem is acknowledging that it is in fact a problem. And that's why we're here today. This Friday, we are kicking off what we call Wear Orange weekend. Wear Orange originated on June 2nd, 2015 on what would have been Hyia Pendleton's 18th birthday. Hyia was 15 years old when she was shot and killed playing basketball in her neighborhood in Chicago. Her friends, wanting to honor her life, decided to do so by wearing orange. Orange has since become an important color in the gun violence prevention movement. Whether worn

025by Hyia's loved ones in Chicago, activists in Nashville and Nuvaldi, or hunters to announce themselves to other hunters, wearing orange is meant to promote safety, to convey the value of human life, and to honor the lives cut short, the people wounded, and the countless others traumatized by gun violence every day. This year, our community members will focus on concrete steps they can take to keep our communities safe. Our volunteers will have conversations about gun safety with friends and neighbors. They'll build partnerships with local leaders, businesses, and organizations by attending meetings and sharing concerns related to this issue as I am doing today. And they'll work to safely store all firearms in homes and cars and encourage their community members to be smart. We want to thank the Wake County Board of Education, especially on this

026last point. The safe gun storage resolution you passed last year and the superintendent and board's work since then to follow through on that promise and promote the importance of secure gun storage is a good step in the right direction. We all have the power to act. Parents and non-parents, gun owners and non-gun owners, members of every political party, community partners, sheriffs and law enforcement, students, teachers, and school administrators. This effort takes all of us, and I encourage Wake County citizens to get involved, be it this weekend or at any of our events this year. The time for change is now. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jen Smith, who will be followed by Richard Brides. Um, happy Pride Month. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

027Um, I wanted to voice my support for LGBTQIA+ students and staff in our district. If anybody wonders why the support should be verbalized, um, right before I came here, I went on like the town of Kerry Pride post and there were some not nice things in there. And so that's why I think this is an important thing to show support. Punching down is a term I remember learning about when I was a lot younger. is a lazy way to bully and it's still but it is still very hurtful. An example of this is when people through willful ignorance decide that reading books about lives that aren't the same as their lives is wrong. Representative um representation is important. People wanting to ban books that are about real historical heroes like Alan Turing or Marcia P.

028Johnson or fiction books like the one about penguins called Antango Makes Three are choosing to try to erase real people's accomplishments. The reality that nature has shown in many species that homosexuality, for example, exists and is natural. I found this funny point to this is thankfully we humans are not like angled fish because that would be very unfortunate for my husband. If you know, you know. So tonight I am speaking up to say I support our LGBTQIA plus students and staff. And I know I'm not alone in this. And I'm speaking up against book bans. Giving Wake County already has policies and procedures in places for parents if they choose to want not want their child to read a book. Looking over the list of books challenged, the pattern is easy to see and supporting

029book bands is just punching down. Thank you. Our next speaker is Richard Bridges who will be followed by Becky Luhans. Good evening. Since my son was assaulted by a substitute teacher in February, I have been very patient, respectful, and done my best to present you with factually correct information. While most of you have been polite, and cordial, I've also been met with apathetic employees, evasive answers, and a principal who's leaked my personal information, and tried to publicly tarnish my reputation. The one thing I can't stand is being lied to. You're looking at me confused. I'll show you. I'll send it to you. Um, the one thing I can't say is being lied to, and it seems to be what happened here. I was recently made aware that at approximately 4:30 p.m. on March 3rd, the

030principal and vice principal of my son's school filed a joint report with the school resource officer regarding the substitute assault of my son. The investigators from the school got this information on a notice to rep a notice to report to law enforcement filled out by the principal on April 9th, 37 days after my son was assaulted. and after she allegedly made the report. I went to independently verify this with Fuway Verina Police Department. The records clerk searched everywhere in February and March was unable to find the report. I went to the sergeant. The sergeant searched all relevant body camera information and dash cam footage from that officer on that day. He found no reports. Additionally, he searched all of his emails, phone calls, text messages, and voicemails. Found no records of the report. concerned. He

031did a crime analyst search from March 3rd to March 5th in case the principal reported to another officer. There are no relevant reports in the Fugquave Arena Police Department system regarding the assault on my son. In addition to that, the sergeant called the principal. The principal said, "I told the officer in passing since it was my first day, which directly contradicts the official report she filed with the school." So, in order for me to believe the school's official account, I would have to believe that a officer with 15 years of service failed to follow Fugquway Verina policy, activate his body camera footage when receiving a crime, failed to properly document an assault of an adult on a child, failed to send it to his investigative team to properly follow up with that. In addition to

032that, I would have to believe that his sergeant lied on a police report that I can hand you and doctorred his body camera footage when he spoke with the principal. Why do you insist on employing unethical leaders who foster an unsafe environment for our children? Your hammers. Stop acting like nails. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, our next speaker will be Becky Lu Hobs who will be followed by Heather Rossi. The child is not the mere creature of the state. These are the words of Justice James McReynolds from the 1925 United States Supreme Court ruling regarding Pierce versus Sisters of Society. This ruling restored parental rights in the eyes of the court. But one thing I will remind you guys is parents rights, they're God-given. They're natural. The parent and only the parent has

033the ability to direct the upbringing of their children, the education of their children, the morality of their children. Too many times a school system over the past few years have trampled that. Yes, there have been progress made, but not nearly enough. Today at a press conference, L uh Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that parents are the ones who can help children thrive. Once again, we have too many teachers, administrators that are trying to put themselves in the place of the parent and that needs to stop. We truly want to partner with you in the education of our children because every child deserves the best quality education that they can possibly have. No one wants to stand away stand in the way of that. But we have to understand that we have roughly 160,000 students

034enrolled in the Wake County public school system. There are 160,000 ways that those kids need to learn. They cannot be treated as all carbon copies. And Wake County also has to recognize that they cannot necessarily fill all those different choices. I know one of my children Wake County failed and could not provide the education they needs. had to go seek other options. It was not something we wanted to do. So, with that, I've given u Mr. Malone a copy of the 1925 case. I will also be emailing you later because once again my printer died so I couldn't get it printed out regarding a resolution regarding parental rights as this this is the hundth anniversary and we want to make sure that this is this is important to everybody for the so that their children

035can thrive. Um so look for that email from me later today and it'll be in your records. But if you have any questions about that I do offer please reach out to me. I'm always available to disc have these discussions with that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Lou Hobs. Our final speaker tonight is Heather Rossi. Thank you. My name is Heather Rossy. I have kids at Kerry High, although we started at Brier Cliff and have moved our way all the way through. Um, I am also Harper Rossy's mom, which seems to be how I'm known best here. Access matters. Thank you for supporting the band book grants. Each time this topic comes up, the argument becomes, "But the book isn't banned. People can still buy it." This is absolutely true for me and

036my kids. We have easy access and the time to access public libraries. We have money to buy books if needed and that isn't enough. I grew up in a public school and so have my kids. The values I took away from diversity of education in an inner city school in Dallas, Texas made me a successful college student. It gave me the necessary strength to serve in the military. More importantly, it gave me an made me an advocate for the inclusion required in good leadership. I read books my parents didn't read. I grew up in a staunchly conservative Republican voting household that also valued diverse opinions and believed that even as a child I could bring new information to the table and expect respect. We were able to talk about new ideas. My parents valued my

037opinion and knowledge. I even changed their opinions sometimes. And now my kids read books that I didn't read. And they get to help keep me thinking flexibly. All kids deserve the ability to explore new ideas. Last week, I donated a bed to a friend who is a social worker in Wake County. She was getting it for a family of hers in need. The 9-year-old who got the bed was delighted because it was the first time they had a real bed. I look around this room and I doubt that there are many of us who have ever lived in that situation. School libraries and school librarians are likely the only access that child has to books. that that kid deserves the same access as my kid. There is no easy balance in access and protection. And

038yet we have paid professionals who are trained and certified to make these decisions. There are teachers and administrators to ask hard questions about appropriateness. We even have the ability already to talk to our schools about inappropriate books or not wanting our children to see something. As a society, we seem to have moved away from trusting professionals. Our students will not be better for random, untrained parents deciding about books and curriculum for the county. We all want what is best for our kids, and that is trained professionals continuing to make decisions for the schools. Thank you. Thank you. And that will conclude our public comment period. Um, next on our agenda, we have information items. We have comments from Superintendent Dr. Robert P. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. chair. Good evening to everyone. Uh, I'd like to

039start by congratulating Gina Montigue of Powell Magnet Elementary School who was announced last week as our 2025 WCPSS school counselor of the year. Uh, Miss Montigue has been a school counselor for eight years. She joined Powell in 2022. She leads a counseling program that recently received the RAMP award from the American School Counselor Association, one of 12 in our district to earn this distinction this year. This national honor is given to schools delivering highly effective services that improve student outcomes. She uses data to support student well-being and she works closely with families, staff, and students to foster a strong school community. Her calm, kind approach, as well as her use of trauma-inforced practices continue to improve the lives of students and families at Powell. Miss Monigu is emblematic of our outstanding school counselors who help

040students form healthy goals, mindsets, and behaviors so they can succeed in the classroom and beyond. So, my thanks to her and all of her colleagues for their exceptional service. Next, I'd like to encourage the five WCPSS um congratulate the five WCPSS educators who were recently honored by the East Central District Band Masters Association for Excellence in Music Education. Tony Powell of Pine Hollow Middle School received the award of excellence for more than 30 years of distinguished service and leadership. Eric Riggs of Mills Park Middle was named band director of the year for exemplifying total program excellence and community engagement. In addition, three of our staff members received young director of of excellence awards. Catalina de uh uh de la Rosa Gonzalez of East Cary Middle for growing her band program from 25 to 140 students.

041I think that's outstanding. Absolutely. Uh Caliro Gambuso uh of Martin Magnet Middle for leading her students to success in diverse musical ensembles and honors bands. and Ryan Wing of Lufkin Road Middle, a proud Lufkin alum for bringing national recognition to his ensembles. So, we are fortunate to have robust arts programming in all of our schools led by talented, passionate educators like these honores. Uh, my thanks and congratulations to these award winners for their incredible influence on students through music. I would also like to recognize Amanda Worerble of Douglas Magnton Elementary who has been named our 2025 speech language pathologist of the year. Speech language pathologist or SLPs as we call them serve students with a wide range of communication disorders including language articulation and fluency. SLPs work with students to reduce or eliminate barriers to

042education. Uh, Miss Worble began working in our district in 2018, first at Wilburn Elementary and later Sanderson High School. She is passionate about her students and brings a deeply personal connection to her work. Her inspiration comes from her brother Dustin who has Down syndrome. Uh, his experience helps shape her dedication to speech therapy. Miss Worble's story reminds us of the heart behind the work that our staff members do each and every day. So again, congratulations on these well-deserved recognitions and my thanks to all of our amazing SLPs. I'd like to take a moment to recognize that June is National Gun Violence Awareness Month. In March of last year, uh Wake County uh resolved to play its part in combating this critical issue by promoting the practice of safe gun storage. Uh if you are a

043gun owner, please take time to properly secure your firearm when not in use. Uh, the extra minute you spend locking your gun away can prevent a tragedy. And you can find a list of resources by visiting wcpss.net/a safe storage. And I'll add to this that I encourage gun owners uh who may have their guns in their car and they lock the car. Uh, that is not proper gun storage. We know that u many uh weapons are acquired illegally by breaking into cars. So we do discourage that practice. And as you aware, the 2025 graduation season is already underway. Mr. Chair, are you ready to join in on the graduation? This is always an exciting time of celebration and promise. Uh well over 12,000 seniors are expected to cross the stage in the coming weeks well

044prepared for college and career. We anticipated being among our largest graduating class ever, if not the largest. As you recall, we graduated a little over 12,000 students last year. So, we're really excited that we can uh even surpass that number this year. Uh as we do every year, we are spotlighting a few outstanding members of the class of 2025 on our website. Uh you can find these inspiring stories as well as more information about graduation ceremonies by visiting wcpss.net/gradula uh graduation. So again, congratulations to every member of the class of 2025 and their proud families. We can't wait to see the positive differences you'll make in Wake County and beyond. Uh and finally, Mr. Chair, I do want to thank the county commissioners for approving uh our budget and the full ask that the board

045uh made of the board. Uh I do recognize that this has been a collaborative effort of a number of people and and and we do appreciate uh them supporting the effort that we've asked for. We now encourage uh that the general assembly also do their part by passing a budget that will continue to support uh public schools. Uh I'll say to our public that um while we appreciate the work that our commissioners have done, we do recognize that uh we have a long way to go in our budget uh both with our state budgets and our federal budget. But I can tell you that uh the support that they have provided has uh um significantly reduced the stress that we have in meeting our uh obligations for this school year. And with that, Mr. Chair,

046I'll yield back to you. Thank you, Dr. Taylor. Next on our agenda tonight is consideration of our consent agenda. And uh again with the amendment, I just want to note the chief of schools consent item service contract with city of Raleigh for school resource officers 2025 through 2026 will be the only contract approved on consent for the SRO's. All other municipality SRO contracts will be considered on the action item to make sure that everyone is clear on the amended agenda. Okay. All right. Do we have a motion? Uh, if board members have reviewed the consent agenda, do we have a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion from Miss Edmonds, a second from Vice Chair Swanson. All in favor of the items on the consent agenda, please say I. Any opposed? All right. The

047consent agenda items on the consent agenda have been adopted. We'll now turn to our action agenda items. The first item being our facilities and operations team to uh present calendar conversion recommendations for 2026 2027. Uh we'll hear again from Mr. Corrosa. Good evening. Staff's here to make a recommendation for Lake Meyer Elementary to convert from a single track elementary to a multitrack for the 2026 2027 school year. staff has presented information to you during the April 8th board work session. We held a public uh virtual public engagement session on May 15th and we also presented today during the work session. Uh we're seeking your approval tonight and I'm open to any questions or concerns you have. Thank you, Mr. Crosa. Chair Hagerty, I make a motion that we approve the staff recommendation for calendar conversion

048for the 2026 2027 school year for Lake Meyer Elementary Schools. Thank you. We have a motion from Miss Mafy, a second from Miss Cfield. Are there any questions for Mr. Corrosa or any board comment or board discussion? This was an item that we did talk about and we we were briefed on in our work session. All right, seeing no comment, we'll move into an immediate vote on the motion. All in favor of the recommendation concerning Lake Myra um and it and its calendar conversion, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? All right, the motion's been adopted. Thank you, Mr. Corrosa. Have a good evening. Our next item tonight, uh board policy uh 41 or sorry, 4318, student use of personal wireless communication devices on second reading. Uh this also known as the cell phone

049policy. So, as you know, we were um getting an update about the latest round of changes in our work session. Uh we had some robust discussion and we know the discussion is not yet continued or is not is has not yet concluded and so we'll continue and we'll turn it over to our uh esteemed Dr. Julie Crane who will update us on where we are and where the discussion goes next. Thank you, Dr. Crane. Sure. So, I'm going to do the formalities first. Um, and that is good evening everyone. It's good to see you again. Um, we are bringing to you tonight draft policy 4318 student use of personal wireless communication devices for your approval on second reading. We discussed this at the March 25th, April 29th, and May 27th policy committee meetings and the

050April 22nd and June 3rd, 2025 board work sessions. Was approved on the first reading at at our May 20th board meeting. It's a new policy, so it doesn't replace anything that already exists. And we present it for your approval. During work session, we presented to you a version of the policy um and we reviewed the changes that our attorney Neil Ramy who works with me um and us and you on board policy. Um the changes that he recommended, revisions that he recommended, everyone seemed to be fine with those. They're mostly copy copy edits um for specificity and clarity. Um there were two sections in the version that we looked at um tonight that I highlighted in yellow and then in orange. The first one I'd like for you to consider unless the board chair wants

051to. Okay. Is in the first section of items number one and two in section B under authorized use highlighted in yellow or the same sentence. That sentence says schools may develop additional restrictions in schoolwide policies made available to students and parents. And Dr. Crane, let's hold on for one second. Vice Chair Swanson, I know you had spoken to me about the opportunity to have this projected. Is that something that we'll see on there or do board members need to pull it up individually on assembly? I want to make sure the board members see All right, there we go. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows which part of the language we're on and everyone can see it. All right, I see it on the screen if everyone's good. Dr. Crane, I apologize for

052the interruption. Please proceed. No worries. So, you have it. Um, you see it there. Um, again, this language is the same in the front end of items number one, which is for elementary and middle schools, and item number two, which is for high schools, that schools may impose restrictions at other times of a day through a schoolwide policy made available to students and parents. I will hear your All right. So, uh, this was a recommendation, but there was not, uh, consensus on it. So the first thing we would do is that we would need first I'll listen and hear if there is a motion to adopt the amendment and a second and then if there is we'll have discussion and any questions. Mr. Hershey for clarity before I are we able to separate them between

053elementary and middle and then do the high school version or is it all or one? So we we can we can consider it however the board would because I'd like to make a motion that we keep the language and I'm going to just start under section one. Okay. As the maker of the motion, yes, you can craft it that way. Is there a second for Mr. Hershey's motion? And just to clarify, when you say keep the language, you mean adopt the adopt it. That's the highlighted language. Yes, sir. Okay. I Miss Maf, you have a question? I just have a clarification question chair because I'm trying to follow your process. Is you're are we going through each suggested change and discussing them with a motion for each change or are we doing the policy and

054then amendments? So I thought what we would do is I I I still view this as as um the perfection of the draft because we did not get these recommendations. We did not get consensious of these recommendations in work session. So what I'd like to do is just have consideration of these into the draft. Then we can have an amendment. We can have an amendment. Sorry. We can have a motion for adoption on second reading. Then if there are additional discussion and amendments that the board has not been privy to already, anything new, we would consider them at that time. I just wanted to continue the discussion from work session since it was still fresh in our minds. I appreciate that. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you. Chair point of clarity. Yes, Miss Rice. Um

055in in reference to the motion that Mr. Hershey um the gentleman just um made are we are we saying he wants to keep what's in highlighted yellow? I didn't quite hear um that was my question. That's what I wanted clarified. So to your to your point, yes, Mr. Hershey's motion is to take the language that is in highlighted that's highlighted on the screen now and incorporate it into the new draft policy. All right. Was there a second? We have a second from Miss Cfield. All right. Mr. Hershey, do you have any comment? Sure. So, a couple of things. Um, I think this is good compromise language. We look at a a base of bell-to bell. Um and the in you know we talk about following data and we got data today that the majority not

056the majority the plurality of elementary schools go um prohibit on campus and then there's 14 on campus of those that um replied nine were bellto bell and I think if we go to bellto bell we're taking away um what elementary schools are using and what some middle schools are using. I'm less passionate. I mean, I can go either way on high school, but for elementary and middle school, it's working. We have data that schools are using it, and we still have a baseline of bell-to-bell for elementary and middle. We're just providing those principles, that flexibility that they're already using and seem to be using with good effect. Thank you, Miss Rice. So discussion. Um I'm not in favor of keeping this uh in the the policy simply because I believe that we should create a

057policy that's unformed. Um I believe that that language creates access to creating another 199 different ways of doing something when we need to be uniformed in what we do. so that when students move from space to space, we have the same understanding. I believe in our policies and the things that we're trying to um better clarify in our current policies is how to create policies that are uniformed against across the district. And I so I I disagree unfortunately with um the gentleman around keeping this language in here because it continues to create an ununiform process when we need to be uniformed concerning this particular policy because it is such a uh a social behavior that we all really need to be on the same page about. Thank you chair. Thank you. I'll come back. Uh

058we'll go Vice Chair Swanson and then when we come back for a second, Mr. Hershey, you'll be first. Thank you. And I too want to echo my concerns around this as well. I will not be voting in favor of this language. I think I expressed it at the work session that we heard from principles about a clear policy um and feedback from those elementary and middle school principles of having clear and concise um policies in place. To Miss Rice's point, I think this causes additional confusion and at the district level, our policy should be the standard versus allowing folks to go beyond what we're putting in. So, I will not be supporting that language due to potential confusion that that could lead to. All right. Thank you, Vice Chair Swanson. Miss Cfield, um I just

059want to be clear because I have so many different pieces of paper written out crossed out. This what you have in yellow adding the yellow is the part that you're talking about correct what attorney Reie had asked us to put back in that is what was recommended this is not the language that that you had taken out that he wanted to put back in that is below in orange okay on this so can you explain the origin of this language Dr. Right. Sure. This language um is language that originally said schools may develop additional restrictions period in both sections. It was truncated to that. That is what the board my my recall of what the board agreed to at last week's policy committee meeting. Mr. Ramy recommended that in both sections we expand this um

060restrictions in what and communicated how. So he recommended that we add um in schoolwide policies made available to students and parents that is in in both places. That was his recommended addition to this section. Miss Kovville, does that answer your question or do you have a followup? Yes. though I actually want to amend my second I don't know how to do that because I misunderstood. I wanted the original language that we had not adding back in because I agree that it is adding more confusion and more options. And we had especially the middle school principal that came to us and spoke he was very clear about the success that they've had um in having that clarity. He mentioned consistency and training. He improved social integr um interaction and that it was going very well. So

061that's where I wanted to stick with that especially with elementary and middle school. And I feel like that yellow part adding that in is actually speaking the opposite. Okay. I'll consult with Mr. Malone. May a board member retract a second that has been offered. I know. I'm not aware of a way to do that. No. Okay. So, hold on. I'll just vote it down. So, all right. Okay. All right. Um, so we'll come back around, Mr. Hershey. So, I have a couple of problems with this. We we talk about being data driven and we were given data. Now, I'm willing to go and say element change it to say elementary schools should be prohibited on campus because that's the most that we got in the data. And I'm happy to do that and then keep

062middle school bell-to bell. But if we're going to talk about following data, I'm following the data and we're taking away principal power to to what they've been doing. and and that would create the consistency that people are seeking when it comes to this. Thank you, Mr. Hershey. Miss Rice, I disagree with the gentleman in reference to the data. I think that I think that staff looked at the data and incorporated the data with creating the schoolwide policy. um meaning we've looked at the data, surveyed it, came up with the edits that were necessary versus turning around saying this is the data that we see, but now we're still going to go back and give principles the ability to change the policy in which they deem that it needs to be um based on I believe

063that the data was collected for the purpose of recreating the policy in which it needs to be as a district-wide level. And so I think that we are acknowledging the data. I don't think that they collected the data without having the thought of why they need to create the different statements within the grade levels. We clearly see that the data being followed because we don't see the same restrictions in the elementary middle school level as we do in the high school level. So what we do see is that the data is actually incorporated in the process which is why I don't see why we need to give schools even further abilities to do something more obstructive than what we're already seeing. The data clearly shows to us we don't need as many processes in place

064from elementary to middle. Um but in high school you see the difference in what it reflects with the data. I I need the back people to fix their stuff. Yeah. It it cut out on you. Can you Miss Coughfield, are you willing to let Miss Rice use your microphone? Thank you. I apologize for the interruption. No, it's it's okay. Um, yeah. So, I I I believe that the data is is followed in the policy. I just think that we're stripping we're stripping the data out if we turn around and say this is what we've looked at. This is how um the staff has gone and and created this and put everything in it that's necessary and then to turn around and give principles the ability to change what staff created at at this level in

065the work that they did into it. It just defeats the purpose. And so I'll continue to stand and and I I can't vote for this particular policy the way that it is if we add that language in to turn around because if that's the case, why are we creating the policy? we're going to give it right back to the principles to do what they desire to do. Then why are we even taking the time to create the policy and have gone through the different measures if we're going to turn around and tell our principles, "Oh, it's okay. You can do whatever you want to do anyway. That's beyond what we're doing. That's it. Thank you, Miss Rice. Um, Miss Gordon hasn't spoken yet. We'll hear from Miss Gordon." Um, yes. This usually doesn't work this

066level. I think you got all of the volume that was in Miss Rice's over on yours. Um, I will say I understand in in the spirit of what um, board member Hershey is trying to say in in honoring the data. Um, but I do want to want to make clear that this is also the document that we are seeing tonight is also a different document that we discussed in policy committee meeting um, what last week. Um, and I will say the document that we discussed in policy committee meeting last week did not have this here. And also I think to your point um Mr. Hershey in honoring the data piece I think that is actually um it is accounted for in the orange section where it says the personal device is displayed used or made

067visible for instructional purposes with the prior authorization of the classroom teacher consistent with the schoolwide policy regarding such instructional use. and of the data that we saw, the data supported the use of cell phone for instructional purposes. Thank you, Miss Gordon. Mr. Hershy. Um, so but my concern with only with that is that we might be stripping that language tonight, section B. Um, and I think there's that was kind of the sense that I was getting. And um to Miss Rice's point, to me, we are not saying principles can do whatever they want. There's a now, like I said, I will amend it to I'm happy to change it. So, we make it elementary schools prohibit it on campus completely because that's what the majority, not the majority, but the plurality, almost 40% in the

068survey said that they already do. And that would make it consistent on all elementary elementary school campuses that on campus it's prohibited. It can be different at middle school and different at high school as we are going to be see you know as it's likely to be anyway. Um and that would actually honor all of the data where that we receive today. it. Um, but I just I I think if we're going to be data driven and we see the data, I'm happy to change it to onampus. So, it so it's the same at all elementary schools um for this, but I I just looking at what we're getting and that's what it's saying to us. Thank you, Mr. Hershey. Miss Evans. So, Mr. Mr. Hershey, are you Well, I know you haven't made an

069amendment to your motion yet, but are you Am I hearing you say that you would split out elementary and middle? I I think I would just withdraw the motion and then make a new one very specific for elementary school. Okay. Okay. And may I chair just for clarification be before um what what we're trying to do is we're trying to go through all of the amendments that were presented or recommended by staff. So if this one went down, then Mr. Hershey, if he wanted to address it, could develop a new amendment, but we would consider it after the conclusion of this document. Thank you. Miss Evans, please continue. Sure. Um, so with regard to what's highlighted in yellow, um, I do, this is a new policy. We've talked about the change in culture, change in

070behavior, how much we're going to have to get parents to buy in and help us and support us. And I do, I am concerned about that consistency as Miss Rice has articulated. Um, and I I think it just adds a little bit too much wiggle room for a new policy. We've said all along repeatedly that we want consistency across our campuses and we do have kids that move around quite a bit and they could be in three elementary schools in this single school year and I think it's really important that it's uniform. You know there's some consistency and basic um you know bottom line if you will across across campuses. Thank you. Thank you Miss Evans. All right Mr. Hershey. Um, for the purposes of this, I'll withdraw the motion and then re make a

071new motion at the appropriate time. All right. Unless uh and and unless we're overruled, otherwise we'll just take a vote. Yeah. I mean, you you technically can't withdraw. All right. Let's just move into it. Let's call the question now that it's been I think it's clear from the body that they're ready for a vote on this issue. Miss Edmonds, just may I request a roll call vote, please? Thank you. All right. So, by roll call, we will move into immediate consideration of the proposed amendment as um offered by Mr. Hershey, recommended by Therington Smith. Uh we'll start with Miss Gordon. This is in favor of incorporating the language that you see highlighted in yellow into the draft. No. Mr. Hershey, yes. Miss Dr. Ing, Miss Edmonds, no. Chair votes, no. Vice Chair Swanson, no. Miss

072Mafy, nay. Miss Cfield, no. Miss Rice. Nay. All right. So, the motion fails. Um, and again, we we can come back and revisit this language through another amendment. The next amendment that was offered by Therington Smith. Um, if we can keep the SC if we can keep the language back on the screen, please. We'll move down. This will be the next section that was highlighted in yellow. I believe it's in um numbered item two, high schools. There we go. Thank you. Rather than saying schools may develop additional restrictions period, which is what was in the draft, um we were recommended to consider schools may also impose restrictions at other times of the day through a schoolwide policy made available to students and parents. Thank you. Um having heard the debate on the last one, I'll

073just simply open this up. Is there a motion from any board member at this time to incorporate this yellow highlighted language into the draft? All right. Uh seeing no motion, we'll move on to the next proposed change. Dr. Crane that is just above in the elementary school section. Um item number one, elementary and middle school policy at policy committee. The committee recommended striking lettered item B which stated that the school administration has elected to allow teachers through the development of a schoolwide policy to authorize such devices to be displayed, used or made visible for instructional purposes during instructional time provided that the teachers supervise students during such use and the use is consistent with the teacher's authorization. I showed that as struck in blue and um our council recommended that we consider adding that back

074in a shortened, more concise um sentence that says the personal devices displayed, used or made visible for instructional purposes with the prior authorization of the classroom teacher consistent with the schoolwide policy regarding such instructional use. And we had a discussion earlier during work session about the rationale behind that recommendation regarding language that is currently in both the state budget and the Senate budget regarding teachers being able to authorize use. All right. Thank you, Dr. Crane. So, we'd had some discussion in work session about this language and you've heard from Dr. Crane the justification or the rationale for it. Is there a motion from any board member to incorporate this language into the draft? All right. Seeing not this will also um not be incorporated for lack of a motion. Dr. Crane. So, as I just

075for clarification for the final version of the policy that passes, we will include neither of the highlighted yellow sections nor the highlighted in orange section in the elementary middle school section. Are all board members clear? All right. Thank you, Dr. Craig. Thank you. So, Dr. Crane, let me ask a clarifying question. uh with the with the stricken part um that was with the salmon color that was not included. Uh is that stricken language in B and blue would that now remain or will that be stricken as well? All of that will go away and for elementary and middle schools there will only be two exceptions. Okay. That exception will remain for high school. All right. Good. Chair Hagerty, from my recollection earlier, there were no other significant concerns about revisions. I know that you may

076have had a little more time to take a look at it. And if you have questions about any of the others, happy to hear those. Thank you, Dr. Crane. do know that, you know, at at least one potentially other board members have additional amendments or things they would like to discuss with the policy, but I did want to conclude our consideration from the work session before we advanced to make sure we were all on the same page. So, we've gone through all of the changes that were recommended by council that would have changed the recommendations that we had made in our last uh policy committee and work session. And so those we now have one draft ready for consideration tonight for second reading. At this time, do we have a motion for um to do

077we have a motion to approve and this is just for discussion to begin our discussion the policy as amended um on second reading. So moved. So, we have an motion from Miss Edmonds to adopt the amended policy, seconded by Miss Caulfield. Now, we'll open it up for discussion. All right, we'll start with Miss Mafy. Chair Heaggerty, I would like to uh make a motion to add verbiage uh in section C, consequences for unauthorized use. This would become the first bullet point and um I have shared this verbiage uh just now via email to all of you as well as Dr. Crane, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Taylor, and Miss Allen. Um, and that is after hearing our principles um, speak today to add the student will first receive a verbal warning to put their phone away and

078or silence their device. And again, that is I'm just going to leave the motion clean there. All right. Thank you, Miss Mafy. Um, I believe does everyone have access to the wording of the motion in your email? All right. We've had a motion from Miss Mafy for an amendment that she has offered. I heard a second from Mr. Hershey. All right. So now, would you like to uh provide any more information? Yes. is shared. This is based off of feedback that we heard from our principles today and also setting the expectation that it is not our intent to immediately confiscate devices but yet to remind students of proper use and to give them the opportunity um to put their device away um because their children we all make mistakes and school should be a safe

079place to learn from your mistakes and have that opportunity. So thank you. Thank you Miss Mahaffy. Are there further comments or any questions about the amendment proposed by Miss Mafy? All right. All in favor of the amendment, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Dr. Crane, do you have a copy of it or we can? All right. The change has been made. And now there are four bullet points in that section. The first of which reads, "The student will receive will first receive a verbal warning to put their phone away and or silence their personal device." Thank you, Dr. Crane. I'm sorry, that should have said device. Is that a technical correction we can make or do I need to make another amendment? I'm willing to to call that a drafting correction unless

080anyone objects. Not a personal device, just device. Correct. Okay. All right. Again, there's been several versions today. We just want to make sure it's consistent and No, we're we're all good. All right. Thank you, Dr. Ing. Um, based on the reading of the language, it it doesn't flow where where that uh sentence is placed. I think it probably be better above it. Um, before the the mention that school staff are authorized to temporarily confiscate a student's personal device. It just seems like that's should be where it should um placed. All right. Is there any objection from board members? All right. Miss Cfield, what's your question? We can see the corrections on the computer. Uh it still says the phone away. Are we correcting that portion, too? Oh, I saw him corrected at the bottom. Right.

081I heard it. I heard it stated we're going to replace phone with device. Yeah. All right. Sorry. No worries. And so, uh, Dr. Ring's Dr. Ring's amendment, if I understood it, was to take the language we just adopted and then just to reorder it, placing it higher in the sequence. I'm taking it as an amendment. Yeah. All right. And then let's see where it is dropped. I'm sorry, Dr. Can you just restate for clarity exactly where you'd like it placed? Um, yes. Um, I would like that sentence to be placed before um school staff are authorized perhaps. Right. School staff are authorized. All right. If that is an amendment amendment, I would like to second amendment. So, we have a second from uh Miss Evans to Dr. Ing's motion in front of the sentence. Yeah.

082But yeah, but then that that there is a parenthetical phrase in front of it that doesn't make sense either. All right, chair. Point of clarity. Yes, Mr. Rice. Um, so that means we're going to remove the bullet. We're We thought we were going to make it a bullet. We now want to make it a sentence. That's right. That's right. It's keeping the language. It's just putting it higher up in the description. All right. I think there was a question as to the actual placement. Are we good? Okay. Sorry. I'm just asking Dr. Ring because I thought he had I just don't know where it would be best placed. um addition. Okay, Miss Garfield, I just have a suggestion. If we start the beginning of the paragraph with that sentence, the student will first receive a

083verbal warning to put their device away and or silence their device. In addition to opposing disciplinary consequences when authorized by code of conduct, the student wh and then it hops down to what was there before. authorized to temporarily confiscate a student's personal device if any of the following apply. Dr. Ring, what do you think about that? Um, yeah, that that seems better. Yes. All right, Mr. Hershey, you had a comment. I was just going to suggest that um it could say something like in addition to imposing disciplinary consequences when authorized um the following uh steps will be first be taken by something like that that lays it out because I don't know that that really reads right either. Okay. From what I'm seeing because we want to get to I mean we put it after

084distraction. I think that would be All right. So, um, you know, Mr. Merlin, I'm taking that as debate on Dr. Ring's motion. Uh, Mr. Hershey's suggestion. Is there a is there a parliamentary issue or a legal issue? I don't know if it makes sense, but Well, I think you would need a motion to amend Dr.'s motion, right? Yeah. Yeah. I was just taking taking what Mr. Hershey as a proposal or discussion rather than a formal motion yet. Oh, no. Yeah. I think you continue. Yes, I'm okay. Can may I make a May I ask a question, please? Dr. Cran. Okay. Um I I would uh just in reading flow. So we can leave the sentence the way it was. In addition to imposing disciplinary consequences when authorized by the student code of conduct, school staff

085are authorized to temporarily confiscate a student's personal uh device if any of the following apply. However, the student will first receive a verbal warning to put their device away and or silence their device. I'm looking around the table. Do board members accept that. Miss Mafy, I'll make an amendment to Dr. ing's motion to uh English teacher Dr. Crane's suggestions. I'm channeling my inner Neil Ramy. Is there a second to Miss Mafy's motion to amend? We have a second from Vice Chair Swanson. Unless there's any discussion, we'll move to immediate vote on the amendment to the amendment. All in favor of Mrs. Mafy's amendment, say I. I. Thank you. We now return to Dr. Ing's amendment as amended. Is there any more discussion on Dr. Dr. Ing's amendment. If not, we'll move into an immediate mo

086motion on Dr. Ing's amendment. All in favor of Dr. Ing's amendment, please say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Board members, what I'd like to suggest is I know that there are other areas where we might like to make improvements or alterations to the policy. Rather than stating the idea as a motion, perhaps we should first discuss the change we would like to see, discuss any wording and then once we've agreed upon the wording, then make the amendment. That way, we don't have to continue to amend amendments if that works for everyone. All right. Thank you. So, let's go to further discussion. Um I do have one that I I have a couple that I would like to suggest some concerns that I had about the policy. One of the one of the things that

087going back through our notes a concern I had raised from our earliest meetings and had suggested is not found its way into the policy and this is in the exceptions. If we look at the language under elementary and middle schools section A and in high schools under section um A it talks about use of a personal device during school hours is specifically authorized and it gives examples of student individualized education program 504s individual health plans plan. Thank you. um here I think we've seen and I've heard from schools that these devices do play an essential role for some of our students for translation for translation services and I thought we had agreed that that would be an exception that we wanted to see in the policy. So, I'd like to us to consider an amendment

088to that language along the lines of or has been approved by administration for translation purposes. And I'm willing to accept any word smithing the board would like to make before I make that motion. What do you all think of that idea, Mr. Hershey? So, in addition, I I think we heard tonight um from one of our public speakers talking about as an additional use or an exception when able to use devices kind of in a group to communicate. I I I don't want to She said it much better than I can say it and I don't want to mess up her words. Do you recall what I I don't know how to phrase it the right way. Um but the concern was that um non-abble-bodied kids are able to communicate with able-bodied students. And please

089forgive me if I'm using the wrong language um through devices. And that was one of the exceptions that was kind of being that I believe was being asked that and I so I'm open to whatever if it's within the spirit of I think what you're suggesting when we look at different langu we look at different language that's been used around communication and accommodations here I think you could say um you know approved by an administrator for translation purposes or uh assisted communication or assistive communication That's typically a langu that's typically what we've seen. So I'm sorry we can't take we can't take further suggestions from the from the audience but um again the the language that I would suggest would be assistive communication. Are there any other thoughts about this issue? Vice Chair Swanson I

090just have a technical question to raise where it says individualized education program that should say individualized education plan. Um, would you? Yes, I think that I think that's good. And I'd like to if I can incorporate that into an amendment I'd make on this section. Sure. Would that be appropriate? And would we need to make that in section two as well? Yes. Program should be correct. All right. Um, and thank you for catching that. All right. So, uh, Dr. Crane has captured some of that language on the screen for board members to look at. If is there any further discussion about the idea? Miss Mafy. Yeah. In the spirit of um Mr. Hershey's, I have a question for Dr. Taylor. Is a safety plan something that's housed within a 504 or an IEP or is

091that a separate plan that the district has? That's more than likely going to be a separate plan because it could be developed by the nursing staff of someone of that nature. So, it wouldn't necessarily be a part of an IEP or 504 plan or a health plan. It would be separate. So, I would like to add that language as well because if we do have students that are struggling that need that access and and again, I think that is an exception to the rule that would be needed like these other pieces. I think I think that's a good addition to this language on exceptions. And so if we see some model language there all right Miss Rice I I think are we just simply only saying safety plan or we're saying safety plan as well

092as um health plan because those are different. So the health plan we are adding this because it is distinct from the health plan, right? And the health plan is included in the earlier part of that paragraph. I see that one. Okay, there I see the health plan. I'm sorry. Okay. Does that read okay to you? Yes. Yes. All right. All right. If board members um are in favor of this suggested language on the screen for um accommodations, I would like to propose it as an amendment to the draft policy school and elementary school. Yes. Thank you. For both section the elementary for both section A on elementary and middle schools and on 2A for high schools. Second. All right. Uh we have a motion and a second. All in favor of the uh amendment on

093the screen, please say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Um the second the second amendment that I wanted to offer is um the second issue I wanted to bring up where we have the amended language and again it should be pretty simple and it might even be a little bit technical. If we go to authorized use, this is in section B. when uh in no just specifically in high school. So the new language as amended for high school we took out we have B we have C. If you saw in the B language originally it had that as permitted by law. That's been taken out in the new language B. And you know the justification was that this is what seems to be suggested in the proposed law. But then if we go down to

094D, see this is use of the phone for non-instructional use. And this is where I'm afraid there would be a conflict with state law because if the section that was described earlier that was in both the budget version and the the standalone legislation created an an exception for instructional use here as I read this it it is allowing the use display you know all the uses of the phone during non-instructional times during the day. So here I would think you would need that as permitted by law exception if that's what you want because here is where I think you do have you you may have a question where it was not expressly per permitted by the legislation. Again, it may be a technical thing, but it's something that we can put in there now preemptively

095to ensure that the change we intend to make can be in there and then if there is a legal challenge, if it does develop, you know, we know that um we we're still that that state law takes obviously takes priority. Any questions or concerns about it, Mr. Hershey? If if state law passes, would it nullify all of the based on what you're saying? It could potentially, but by by putting that in there, it does it does state what our intent was. If depending on the nuances of state law, there could be state law that allows some of those uses but not other uses. It really is kind of kind of predictive language. I'm trying to create something that gives us more options that we could keep as much of that as we intended, knowing that

096state law may not allow all of it. But what I don't know is if it would prohibit all of it. Miss Mafy, thank you. Chair Hagerty, I understand your reasoning for wanting to put that in there. Um, I do not want to govern based on trying to anticipate the work of the legislature. So, I will not be supporting this amendment. Thank you. Any other comments um or or questions or concerns about it? Miss Edmonds and then Mr. Hershey if you have one. So, Miss Mafy, we're leaving it that phrasing as permitted by law in another section, are we not? No. That came out with the attorney's recommendations. It was in the original B. Okay. Thank you. Before I' before I'd seen the attorney recommendations, I wanted to keep it in D to be consistent between

097the two. We were told it wasn't needed in B, but I think the distinction is that if B is specifically authorized by legislation and D is not, D is the one that is more likely to potentially be um in conflict. And again, you know, my thinking is, you know, a lot of what we're doing is kind of reactive or reflective to what the potential legislation could look like and this mandate that we do need to have this policy in place before school starts. So, I completely understand and respect the position you're coming from. Um, but I do I I think it would be better if we had that in there. But again, I'll accept whatever the board. It's not a hill I'm going to die on. Mr. Hershey. Uh, I agree with Miss Mafy only

098because I think we're going to have to come back and probably make changes anyways immediately when so I think if we kind of plan on whatever the law says we this is coming straight back to policy anyways that we can do it at that time. Um, so that's yeah I I I would like us not to get ahead of what they do because I think we're just going to change it anyways. Okay. Are there any other thoughts, uh, Miss Russ? Um, in the spirit of student well-being and the realities of complying with social behaviors, um, I think that this language um, needs to remain, it needs to be in there. um after having a discussion with um our our guest today outside of the fact that was a actual statement that we talked about very

099briefly and that is to take away all access is not going to be good. They we kind of we spoke very briefly about that. That's the reason why they felt transition times. It was like we have seven minutes between bells. Um transition times, lunch times. Um you can't take away something that's a part of people's social norms in its entirety. The point is about academics. The point is about student achievement inside the classroom. We're not here to police what people can do in between those particular times outside of a classroom. And so, um, Chair Hagerty, I'm going to have to support this amendment that you've suggested. And, and honestly, personally, on a high school level, I can't accept anything outside of telling students that you cannot use your phone. as a person who just recently

100had a student in high school. Um my kid my kid if he were still here would definitely have his cell phone and and we would have to have challenges if there was a problem with it outside of that. So to tell a student at a high school level that you can't have your phone during a lunch transition, during a class transition, you're going to cause more problems than you think you're not going to do. They're not middle school and elementary school kids. These are people who have jobs. We have to look outside the scope of our own personal lives. We have to look outside the scope of our own lifestyles. Some of these children have real full-time jobs that they have to go to to support their own families in our district. So to tell

101them at no point in time can they check their phone throughout the day, that's going to be a problem. And it's also not going to be fair when something's changed at home at the last minute toward the end of the day and you need a kid to actually get on a bus to find out that the parent is not coming to pick them up. Which one of us at this table is going to pick those children up? So, let's be realistic in asking people to change their social behaviors and what we're doing. And I'm coming from a perspective of well-being. be realistic about change of social behaviors for something that people automatically use. Take it away during instructional hours. Give people some level of fairness and you can't take away control because then you cause

102chaos. Thank you, Miss Rice. Miss Gordon. Yeah. Really briefly um to uh board member Rice's comment. Um and I think the I think what we are trying to do also especially in regard to high school students is to model and support safe use of devices and not completely take them away. So um I support that. Thank you. And again, what what what I'm asking is really just whether the board thinks including this uh purple language to this section will, you know, help us keep this if the you know, what will help us keep this in seeing what we'd like to do and you know, kind of what our goals are if the legislation varies slightly. Uh Miss Edmonds and then Mr. Hershey, if you have one. Oh, I'm sorry. Dr. Ring, was your hand up?

103Oh, okay. Miss Evans. Okay. Thank you. No, that's okay. Um, for Miss Rice, I'm not following how I hear what you're saying and I I agree with you and it's so starting under section two, high schools, the first intro to that section, students are permitted to possess personal devices, etc., etc., etc. Um, continuing students may not display, use or make devices visible during this time period unless one of these exceptions applies. I'm not following how like if we vote down Chair Hagert's motion for the purple as permitted by law, I feel like what you're trying to protect is still protected. So I hear I hear what you're saying, but my colleague suggested no that they could not vote for this. I needed clar meaning I'm thinking the entire paragraph around the non-instructional piece. And then

104well that's that's what he said. He wanted the non-instructional piece to be in there, but he also is adding as permitted by law in case legislation changes. The one thing that I want us to understand with our language though when we're talking about students are permitted to possess personal devices, understand possessing and access to use are two different things. You can have it on campus, but that don't mean you get to use it. So the language is necessary when we clarify when people can use something because just because you can have it on campus doesn't mean you have access to it. And so that's what I keep noticing throughout the language of what we're doing. We're trying to clarify. We're not telling people that they can't, right? So we're saying, yeah, you can have it

105on on campus, but we're trying to give people more aotment to understand you have it on campus, but these are the appropriate times that we're asking for you to use it. And all I'm simply saying is I continue to agree with chair in reference to section D um that we keep all of the language as well as add the as permitted by law. And so his first statement of modification was to keep the non-instructional. Um my uh colleague uh mccaffy um indicated um no that it wasn't but I I still agree with the chair. He asked specifically first about the paragraph and then amending it to the uh legislative possibilities. Yeah. So either way, I'm still in agreement with keeping the full paragraph even with the amended purple. Chair, can I if I can clarify?

106Yeah. I really am just talking about the purple language. I'm not saying to correct. I'm not I want us to keep section D. It is just about the additional language in purple. I I think I I think what it is is just a debate. I think having that language helps us keep D. And then if I understand correctly, Miss Matthew's like, "Well, it's, you know, it's it's she doesn't think it's required and if we did need it, we could come back and change it later." Is that a fair representation? Okay. Correct. Since the bill's still needing to be conferenced, we don't know what's I can't predict what the House and the Senate are going to come together and decide to do. And so I I'm I just don't want to have a crystal ball. Right.

107All right. So, is it okay? All right. So really kind of looking around, I I don't know if we have consensus about the language or not or a majority, I'll just ask others who haven't weighed in. If if if you if you think it would improve it or it's not necessary. If it's not necessary, I'll let it go. If you think it improves it, I'm happy, you know, I'm happy to put it in. And Dr. um yeah, I I support your um addition, the the change in the language. uh you know just the spirit of this whole policy is that we are trying to um provide cover for our staff in the in the um in the schools individual schools with with a policy that is is um that they can fall back on and

108and that particular language I feel like is is our finding cover from our legislators. you know, that that that whatever they uh come up with is is the law of the land and uh once it's passed, of course, you know, um and we um we have something to fall back on as well. Thank you. Other thoughts? All right, Mr. Hershey. Uh, I just want to point out that I I hear what Miss Rice is saying and so I'm wondering if if there should be a modification because to me, and this talks about D in general, doesn't D set us up to have however many different policies at however many whatever number of high schools like because we're saying no bell to bell and then D is the you can create your own school policy so

109every single high school can create their own policy. Well, that's what the How is the language not saying that? I'm happy to be corrected. Any other any other discussion? I I I see your point, Mr. Hershey, and I I need to think about it. Quest Swanson. Thank you. I was not trying to I was trying to move this policy as quickly as we can and reserve my energy for other topics. However, I think when we look in the policies that was shared with us from staff with high school that was broken down by elementary, middle school, and high school, this piece, how I'm interpreting it, um does not create any additional pieces. It just says with non-instructional, whether it's class change, um class change, lunch, etc. That's when cell phones are permitted when there is

110non-instructional time. Once students are in the classroom, i.e. when teaching is taking place, there's no cell phone. So, I don't think it creates additional policies. I just think it's a way of just pulling back the pieces so folks can understand a little bit more. But I don't interpret as that. And if that's my interpretation is incorrect, then someone can correct me. All right. Um, at this point, what what I I see more hands. Um, or if there's more discussion, we can continue discussion, but I was going to ask if there was a motion because I don't want us to discuss it if we don't even have a motion. Miss Emtts, I will make a motion to accept your as permitted by law in the high school section D and then I have a comment. All

111right, let's hear if there's a second and then we'll come back to you for a comment. Is there a second from Dr. Miss Edmonds. So, in response to Mr. Hershey, I don't see it that way either. I agree with Mr. Swanson. I think what the high school section D captures is the many discussions that we've had around the fact that high school students are different and there should they should have a little bit more autonomy um with regard of the between classes non-instructional time. I think that's the spirit of section D, not that different high schools would have different cell phone policies altogether. All right. Thank you. Um, we'll do Mr. Hershey, then Miss Rest. So, I actually agree with the but I would ask if it said the language says the use is consistent

112with a schoolwide policy. So, is a school making a policy for D? Correct. A school would need to say, "We allow you to use your phones during class change, during lunch." And can it be only at lunch? Yes, it could be. You may not. That's my understanding. It could be a school could say you can't use it during passing because we don't want them in restrooms, but you can use them during lunch, but they will probably also be in restrooms. I'm seeing the faults of my logic there. Um, yes, a school could say, so I read it as every high school could have a slightly different schoolwide policy based on what we're and and I'm I actually am fine with having D and like the spirit of D, but we're going to have every high

113school make their own. All right. Um, Miss Rice. So, I guess at the end of the day, um, for the point of clarity for Mr. Hershey is it is understood in D that the districts will create even in their schoolwide policy to reflect the policy that we already have right now indeed. And it needs to be in their schoolwide policy. This statement indeed saying this is when these students can use it. But I I see the headnodding meaning no. They get to choose when. So I think that Mr. Hershey is correct to to a degree. I mean, seriously, because I um because again, if it's not when when I hear our legal um professional and our person say and we're saying, "No, that's not correct." But I hear I hear my colleagues shaking their head

114and says, "No, it's not." But the truth of the matter is they it this policy D is it but then they get to choose which exception they want versus making it the school is supposed to create the policy but also should include all of ND is what I'm hoping that we're going to do. I hear you. Okay. I Let me go to Vice Chair Swanson, Miss Caulfield, Miss Mafy. Well, when you explained that like that, I did say I'd stand incorrect and someone proved me otherwise. Miss Rice did. So, Mr. Hershey, I do apologize. You were absolutely correct. So, I think Miss Mafy has a compromise. Well, go ahead. You take it. Um when we had a little mini caucus. So, if we The discussion was just to scratch or strike through schoolwide policy. So

115it eliminates um uh 100 or how many high schools we have creating their own pieces or their own policy around this. It's still consistent and clear for those high schools. Yeah. And Miss Rice said districtwide, which would then make it uh Dr. Crane and Dr. Robinson's job a little bit easier. And again, if I can lend my support, that was trying that was, you know, Mr. Mr. Hershey has identified the point that I was trying to make in the work session about the section B. And again, here we can have a district-wide policy. It can be a schoolwide policy, but it's informed by district-wide policy, right? It's informed by the rules and procedures that we would adopt district-wide. So, you can have that consistency through the administrative options available to the school and we can

116take care of this. So, so do I need to make an amendment to Miss Edmond's amendment to change again from schoolwide to districtwide chair? So, I heard Miss Edmond's amendment only to be that as permitted by law, which if we're fine with, we could go ahead and vote and then you wouldn't have to amend it. You could just make your amendment straight up. Okay. All right. All right. Let's just take the vote on as permitted by law. Again, um all in favor, let's do this roll call. Miss Gordon, yes. Mr. Hosi. No. Dr. Ing. Yes. Of Miss Edmonds. I chair votes I. I'm supposed to say you are entitled to do so. Miss Mappy nay. Miss Caulfield. Yes. And Miss Rice. Yes. All right. It has it has been incorporated with I think Vice Swanson

117casting the winning vote in that in that exchange. Um. All right. So that will be adopted and we will go to Miss Mafy. I want to recognize her for her um her amend do we need more discussion to to perfect it or do you have no I think in the spirit of and Dr. Yeah. I I have a question. If you use the language that said Am I jumping? I'm sure you're going to say what I was going to say. I hope I hope so. I have I getting better at channeling attorney in my head. So, and and that is if you say in the policy that you are that schools must follow a district-wide policy, then you need to state right here what that policy is. Otherwise, you're saying you want staff to create

118an RMP that then tells schools what they're allowed to do and you would need to reference an RMP here. So, Missy, so I in the spirit of my prior amendment am going to say give me a couple minutes and let's move forward through the document. I'll come back to it. Perfect. And I think we can get it perfected to do exactly what you would like. Can I ask that what you're now doing is this not an exception, right? So, I think you're what you're going to want to do, Lindsay, will go in the beginning, right? It'll go to when they can use phones because you're now going to say that they can't use them between bell to bell except they may use blah blah blah blah blah is I think what you want to do.

119Thank you, Attorney Malone. I appreciate that direction. All right. All right. My final suggestion, my final issue I want to bring up has to deal with, we've talked about confiscation and a lot of the issues with confiscation. We've seen where confiscation can be an issue. Um, it could potentially escalate into conflict and then other options that we could have. Again, it looks like we have to have we have to have confiscation as a possible, you know, consequence, an issue of last resort. But how can we avoid that? And we'd heard and we had discussed other ways that a student could store a phone, keep it out of sight and put away in such a way to kind of minimize that use. And so again, not knowing exactly how the policy will be implemented, I wanted

120us I was thinking about ways to keep our options open, right? So that again knowing we will need to come back and possibly you know change policy the more we can go into the policy with as many options the better. So what I thought about was where we define for the this is in both elementary in high schools elementary and middle schools and in high schools that introductory section that talks about what put away means. For the purpose of this policy, a device is put away when it is out of sight and not accessible. And then it gives the examples stored in a locker, backpack, or bag. I wanted to suggest that we have language in here about alternatively devices may be considered out of sight and put away if stored in a district approved

121pouch or sleeve stored within sight of the student. That's to the point Miss Mafy had raised this before about some examples that have been raised. I think Vice Chair Swanson had talked about examples he'd seen in the classroom. We've all seen examples from Granville County and other counties using the yonder pouches. This is just some other way that we could keep the phone and the students separate and just give us that option. Um may not be necessary. We just say not out of sight and easily accessible. But for me, I think alternatively having it within the student site but inaccessible is a way that we can potentially avoid conflict and escalation. Just throwing it out there. Whatever you all think. Miss Caulfield. Um, I just wanted to raise the point that one of the things

122that is distracting about the phone is the notifications and the buzzing and just it being there with the stress that it gives a child when they're looking at the phone or knowing it's there to want to be able to look at it. What if somebody did give them a notification? So, I'm not sure that it not being put away in the bag is really completing the task which is to remove the distraction from the child. Okay. Um, in response, I believe it would still be as we we've talked about in the status that they wouldn't be able to receive the notifications. It's just that it's rather than, you know, in a bag or in a pocket or otherwise where you don't even know, the teacher can't even confirm where it is. Right here, you do

123have it where everyone can confirm where it is and confirm it's not in use. That's my hope. But if we need to perfect that, I'm open to any suggestions. Yeah. But I I can tell you I around teenage boys and when the phone's sitting there, they're looking to the side every two seconds. Even though it's upside down and they can't see it, its thoughts are after class, I can't wait to see if this person texts me back or if I need to. Their thoughts are not focused on the paper because the phone is there and it's still a distraction. So I I would like to stick to the fact that we put it away and in a bag. All right. Other thoughts? Anyone else? Yeah. Again, I'll just say I'm just trying to make sure

124that we had the opportunity that if we wanted to use these pouches, these sleeves, these things that have been used in other districts that we retain that right. So again, if people like that idea but don't like the language I have, I'm open to anything that we have. But if you don't like the idea of the pouch or the sleeve or anything like that, then I'm okay with moving forward. Miss Rice, um I am in favor of making sure for me that that student's phone is somehow um in a space that they can still monitor if someone takes it. It sounds great, but the reality is um some of the suggestions we heard today about a book bag going in a section, someone's not watching every minute of the day. So, so I'm not in

125favor of removing devices um that are not in the vicinity of a student to monitor if someone is around an area where their device is. So, um I think at the same time we need as we continue to create this um policy and get parent partnerships um we just we we have to have uh parents to to buy in and to participate in this process. I heard someone say earlier today that parents have to be a part of this. This is a great opportunity for a parent to do just what they do best. Parent, right? Because what I can say to my kid at home about your phone and give you consequences beyond the school that if I get a phone call about you on a phone during instructional time, there's going to be some

126consequences at home. So, we really need parents to buy into the fact that I agree with Miss Cfield. there still can possibly some distractions if it's in front of them. But I I do want to make sure that that device is in a space where students know that their device is actually safe because sometimes even in book bags if they've turned their head away um and walked away somewhere in the classroom or doing something focused things happen. Thank you, Miss Russ. Any other thoughts on this? any other way to address the situation? All right. Well, without hearing a lot of support for it, I won't make a motion. I know that Miss Mafy and Mr. Hershey potentially had other language they're working on in other parts of the bill. Does anyone have any other discussion

127or any other potential amendments? Or if either of you are ready, Dr. In. Um, so I would just Nope. I'm sorry. Your mic. I had um just just thinking kind of channeling u Mr. Hershey's um um first um amendment um trying to figure out how to uh appropriately um uh look at the data as well as as keeping the um the spirit of the policy which is to provide a a um defined guard rail for our staff. Um my thought was um to basically codify uh the the the data that we got today saying that um elementary school students must keep them silenced and put away while on campus, middle school students must keep them silenced and put away between morning and afternoon bells. So it's just making it clearer what we are asking for.

128All right. And I I I I I saw at least all the signs of a second there, Mr. Hershey. I'll take that as official. And I will send this over to you guys. All right. Um let's see. And let's And I know you're sending it to us. I do just for the benefit of the other staff that are putting up on the screen. If I could get you to go through and read it one more time, and then we'll open it up for discussion and questions. Yes. Um elementary school students must keep them silenced and put away while on campus. Middle school students must keep them silenced and put away between morning and afternoon bells. All right. So discussion, Mr. Hershey. So I I think um this fits with the data especially if we're looking

129at changing high schools which will mean we are respecting like the during instruction part of high schools the bell-to-bell that middle schools are generally are doing and the onampus that um the elementary schools are doing as well. Thank you. discussion questions Miss Mafy then Miss Caulfield. Yeah, my I understand the the reasoning for it. My only concern is for our students that are on campus um as part of uh our buses where they have to wait 45 minutes either before the bell rings because they were dropped off early and they live farther away or they're waiting 45 minutes for their bus to arrive because again they're a part of a double back route. um we have limited staff and so this is a way for students to um you know as a parent of an

130elementary student who waited 45 minutes for a bus that was a way for to know that she was busy and again that was because of limited staff and so again I hesitate without and I understand we heard from our elementary principles but I hesitate to put that language in there without more explicit information on those before and after school times especially for our students who are waiting and just sitting in. Thank you. Additional other comments for us and then I'll come back to Miss Cfield. It sounds like uh Mr. Hershey wants to clarify something. So I'll wait to hear what his clarification is. I was just confused on specifically what it is. It sounds like you're trying to separate elementary and middle school and have two separate things. Okay. So, for me, I kind of

131want to stick to the language that we have in elementary and middle school because I know middle school with bullying, distraction, just it's middle school is, for lack of a better word, sometimes a train wreck for these kids. So, I just I think it's best that they don't have the distraction in between. Um, and we've already seen like even the principal said and we've seen this in other different in other areas as well, more social interactions. Everything was going well. The teachers were all on board. So, I just want to clarify because it sounds like you wanted to allow them to have in between bells. No, that's okay. So, I misunderstood. Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. And we'll let Yeah, if Miss Mafy has that language, she can show you. Okay. All right, Dr. A. Um,

132I mean, the reason I I propose or or maybe propose it is that um I feel like that um it's just a a natural progression of um allowing more freedom um as a child develops. Um so in the elementary school age um there's you know really you know I don't feel like there's a need for a cell phone um to be in in the school except for in case of emergencies. Um um and I'm open to any kind of wording to express that. Um and then middle school then they they will be allowed a little bit more freedom in terms of the um from bell to bell and then high school will be uh even more freedom to do things that are um uh in in alignment with uh instruction all the time. So all

133right any other thoughts or any other discussion on this amendment? It's currently the purple language you see there only um in this section, elementary and middle schools. All right. Well, we have a motion. We have a second. At this point, if there's no other debate, we'll go around and again, we'll do this by roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Was there I mean if he's if he's not in the room and voting um we go Miss Gordon. Yes. Mr. Hershey. Hi. Dr. Ing. Hi. Miss Edmonds. Nay. Chair does not know what to do. I'll go last. Just go last. Take your time. I I will I I will I won't employ that and go privilege. Oh, Miss Mafy, I vote nay. Miss Cfield, nay. Miss Rice, nay. Oh, great. Maybe we want to wait for the

134vice chair. No, I um Yeah, if if I understand it, even if they are silenced and put away, use would still be permitted for the exceptions. That's correct. Which include the um IEP, a 504 plan, a health plan, translation purposes, um assistive communication, a safety plan, or if school staff in their discretion can authorize a brief use if there's reasonable and legitimate need to communicate with someone outside the school. Based on those exceptions, I'll vote yes. So it is that um 44. Yeah. So it's deadlocked. So then it it goes down. All right. All right. Um and again if someone in voting in the prevailing side wants to reconsider the vote when the vice chair is here, you have that option. All right. So now, Miss Mafy, did you have language prepared? I did and

135I double checked it this time before sending it off and took Mr. Malone and Dr. Crane's suggestion as to placement. Um so again this was sent to all board members um along with Dr. Robinson, Dr. Crane, Dr. Alfred Keith, Dr. Taylor, and Miss Allen. Um and this would move the former section D under high schools into the introductory paragraph under high school. And so it would now be the second sentence of the first paragraph, which would read, "Students are permitted to possess personal devices at school. Students must keep them silenced and put away between morning and afternoon bells. Personal devices to be displayed, used, or made visible during May." No. To I'm missing a verb. Dr. Crane. um to to be displayed, used or made visible during specified non-instructional times during the school day, such

136as class transitions, lunch, and other times designated for activities other than classroom instruction as permitted by law. So, I I believe So, what's my missing verb? I believe it is may and I believe it's in that sentence. Personal devices to be displayed. If you replace two with may, I believe the rest of that would flow like you intended. Okay. So I will then make an amendment. Does may then mean that there can be restriction though. Let me to Mr. Hershey's original point. Okay. Yes, sir. Oh, I was just going to Am I allowed to recommend language because I I sent you an email that would encapsulate encap would capture everything. I sent it to Mr. Malone as well that we just add three words to the original paragraph which is students must keep them silenced

137and put away between morning and afternoon bells during instructional time. Well, that's simple. I'm glad I didn't make a motion. I I'm not making it. So, it's please. All right. So, we we've we've heard that. What What Yeah. Yeah. What does the rest of the board think? Is that I think that's capture clean. Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted because I still had concern about um from bail to bail. You still But thank you, Mr. Hershey. That during instructoral time sum summarize the bail to bail. Go ahead and take that motion, Mr. Hershey. I wait. Well, let me Well, Mr. You should go ahead and take it if I'm going to take the motion cuz I like it. Do we need when you do the motion? Do we need to at the same time cut

138out all of D? Let's we could we will need to do that whether you want to do it as part of the original motion or in cleanup after. That's up to Miss Rice. Yes, let's do it together. My attorney says let's do it together. All right. So, this would go to the language under high schools. it would go into the exceptions where currently we have A through D and it sounds like we're just going to strike all of D. Is that correct? Because this language basically functionally replaces it earlier in this section. Are are we good to folks understand that? Yeah, I think I have it. Mhm. So you you There we go. So you see the purple language there. Yeah. striking D and then the other language earlier was adding those three words dur

139and during instructional times. All right, Miss Miss Edmonds I believe has some thoughts on this to me including the word and means do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, because we were talking about three words and that's four. And that fourth one, No, but that fourth one adds a new meaning. It does. That's my point. Yeah. I'm not talking about number of words. I'm just saying. I mean, seriously, I was like, whoa, time out. Yeah, cuz that that captures the intent of allowing it between at during instruction during transition. So then I I just moved it to put away during instructional time between morning and afternoon bells. It's the same phrase. It's just in a different location. I did diagram it. All right. Any other discussion? Oh, okay. So, I thought that was all right.

140That's my That's the motion. So, that was the motion. Miss Rice owned it. She claimed it. Yeah. We have a second. Play around. It's time to go. Second for Miss Mafy. All right. So, while you were gone, all right. Um, this this one's significant, but I think it looks like I think we're in pretty good agreement on it. just clarifying some language around the board intent with something that I think we all agreed was a lot more direct and made more sense. So, are we ready for a vote? All right. All in favor of Miss Rice and Miss Mafy's motion, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? All right. We'll incorporate that language. All right. Those are all the amendments and concerns that were brought to me that I'm aware of. And again, I

141know we've gone a long time, but this is a very significant, very important policy. I want to make sure we have a full hearing, a full vetting of any issues. So, Mr. Hershey, uh, question. Um, uh, Vice Chair Swanson had brought up B and not having it in there for middle, elementary, and middle schools. Are we keeping it for high schools though? Because right now, I Are we not? Is that not the same language? Let's go back and review. I remember the motion as striking it for elementary schools, meaning you did not want to allow teachers in elementary and middle schools to authorize use during instructional time period. But you did want to allow teachers to authorize use during instructional time in the high school level. All right. So everyone sees the language under there

142under B. This was the attorney recommended language but this is under high schools different than the section we saw under elementary and middle. Miss Rice. So chair um and my colleagues I want to make sure that I am understanding that we are re we are removing teacher instructional ability to utilize devices other than a Chrome book or and at the at the elementary and middle school level. Ah okay I see you going right. See, because we took away cuz what we what we look like is that we took away even though we know that teachers say that there are certain apps and things that they use instructionally, it looks like we took away and I noticed that in the beginning. So I think I hear my colleagues and I saying that we have taken away

143the ability for teachers to use devices during instructional time at the elementary and middle school level. And we feel that it is best that those devices are not even used during instructional time. So let's go back and review the language to see what's it said and whether that was our intent or not. It might have been unintentional. Let's see what we have left. Dr. That's what I saw in the beginning, but I just assume that's what we were going with. I confirmed with the other half of my attorney bringing present tonight um that in the introduction of the policy, the last statement says that the policy does not apply to districtisssued and managed devices which are governed by the technology responsible use policy. which means this does not apply to any device that's in a

144classroom, a student's Chromebook issued um by the district, um any tablet that's in a classroom, computer lab. This does not prohibit any classroom teacher in elementary or middle school from using instructional technology or any student issued district issued device to students does not apply to that. It as written it does say that in elementary and middle schools teachers are not allowed to authorize use of personal devices during instructional time unless as noted by these two exceptions. And so my point chair is yes, are we comfortable or making I just want to make sure my colleagues and I we're comfortable with with taking the authority away from teachers at the elementary and middle school level that they will not be able to allow students to use their devices during instructional time. I just want to make

145sure that's what we're saying. I don't necessarily know if I completely agree with that, but I know I don't have five votes, but I'm just saying but but it's a good clarification. I'm just trying to make sure that we understand what we're actually saying that for teachers who may be doing that at the fourth and fifth grade level or whatever that we are no they will no longer be able to do that. Okay, that's that's an important clarification. And I do think some of the discussion was especially with how it was written, the idea that this could allow again all of the individual schools to have all have individual policies and it really threatened that lack of district consistency and there wasn't any alternative really put up there. But but it but it's an important

146check when you start striking language and replacing it to see what was left and what wasn't left. And I'm okay with that. I heard Dr. Ing mention his response was more of I think that his intention is for students to graduate to the high school level. Um the only thing that I would say about that is are we preparing students um for 21st century learning at all levels as we do this? And that's the only thing that I would have to say to kind of that it's not about a graduation to it's like we're supposed to be starting this from the ground level. So that's the only thing that I think but I I'll I'll keep it in line with what we already have because Yeah. I got Thank you, Miss Mafy. I see another

147em. All right, Mr. Hershey. So um NB for high schools. Do we want to take out I mean we're leaving it as schoolwide policy which is the same thing as making it which is what we just talked about in D. Do we want to make it consistent across district policy? I mean I'm I'm okay with it but I'm just pointing it out. Yeah, I appreciate that. Miss Mafy, uh I think it's a great question. And I think for me, I think having this being like the schoolwide policy allows, like we saw Miss Jacobs having the red and the green cards for her teachers, whereas another school may have already normalized a way of of setting those standards. And so I think this provides some autonomy that goes with the school culture, um, but is still

148restrictive of here's where we're at. And I don't know, Dr. Taylor, you've been a principal. What do you think? Dr. Taylor is also abstaining. I mean, I I do think an important distinction here is that this is for instructional use rather than non-instructional use. Whereas, if you had a lot of different policies from school to school varying, you really could see a whole lot of different possibilities. But here, I think it's going to be directed and supervised. May I may I make a a request um that the board consider in staying a schoolwide policy, you could say a school rule or a school practice. Um it's from my experience, we have school school handbooks and school rules. It would it's clear for me to consider school rules and district policy versus district policy and school

149policy, you know, um their school rules. So, we we could say schoolwide practice or schoolwide rules, whichever is comfortable, most comfortable for you. Okay. I see a lot of nods, but I also see a question, Miss Cawfield. I'm just wondering why we would waiver from the policy where we're stating this is our exact policy and expectations to this is our rule which kind of makes it like rule of thumb because this is different. This is not what we're doing as policy as a district school board. This is something adopted individually at the school. So it's like the difference between I mean it it's it's a it's a different kind of rule like in the hierarchy of rules. So it was a it's a very important distinction that Dr. Crane has made and I think it's

150valid. Made it kind of big here on the screen. Okay. So this is just in pertaining to the exception for instruction with the teacher at that particular time. Okay. Thank you. because my thought is we don't want to take away the teachers ability to teach our students um with what they may need um and possibly use the phone or something in because there's lots of apps that they use at the high school level around phone so and there might be things that would aren't appropriate and they can address that in their rule right Miss Mafy so I will make a motion to adopt Dr. Crane's suggestion and in uh section B under high schools uh change the word policy to the word rule so that it reads consistent with a schoolwide rule regarding such instructional

151use. Second. We have a motion from Miss Maffy, a second from Mr. Swanson. I did want to ask, are there any other areas where we need to make this change that we've seen or is this the only one now since we've amended B elsewhere? Well, we can look for it. Let's go ahead and take the motion we have on the table. All right. Any other discussion? Any questions? All in favor of the switch of policy to rule for schoolwide uh school-based restrictions, say I. I. Any opposed? All right. I I'll also share with the board that I have confirmed we have confirmed that we do have um K8 schools um which fall under elementary and middle school. We also have some 612 schools which are our leadershipmies where we might have two sets of rules

152that apply but we have confirmed that while they are on the same campus they are not in the same classes. So there would not be the scenario of eighth grade students in a class same class as a nth grade student not able to operating under a different policy that would apply. So I think we're all right. We've we've checked that. We're good. Dr. Thank you Dr. Crane. Um actually that that was my thought about the elementary middle school section whether we should use that same language and be um in the elementary and middle school section but solely for middle school. I mean I I hear that where Mr. M rise wanted to make sure that there is a access or or ability to for have instructional use for instructional use in the with the phones.

153So here this would go back to B which was deleted in its entirety and it would restore it for middle school with language similar to high school about a school a schoolwide rule. Is that my understanding? A schoolwide rule. Yeah. Okay. Miss Mafy, the middle school parent and former middle school teacher in me would not be in support of that. Dr. Ring. Thank you. All right. any more discussion of that or discussion of any other part of of the of the policy? I would have to um I would I would like to agree with Dr. Ing in reference to the middle school level just as a point of transition. Um again, my teacher's over here shaking their head so I'm just uh oh All right. Do do do do do do do do do do

154do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do we have I mean would you like to comment on if if it's not a good idea as to why or Yeah sure I mean I think we heard from Dr. Savage who was a middle school principal that talked about the importance of keeping them so yeah section yeah so no I'm in I'm in Okay. Okay. All right. Any other aspects of this policy? Any stones left unturned? anything that's nagging you or bugging you or that you've just been waiting to get out there. All right, Miss Gordon. Uh oh, I'm just trying to get in with everybody else. Um under C, search of personal wireless communication devices. um our discussion last week during our policy committee meeting

155um we talked about taking that section out and I've tried to look through the recommended language um that was given to us uh from Mr. Remy and I don't see that however I do see that it is put back into the policy. Yes. Um, that was because in the original um in the I'm sorry, may I answer that question? Yes. I feel like I jumped in before you finished asking it. Um, in a draft that was brought to the table by Miss Mafy and Mr. Swanson, they had um pulled that out and and put um put it in a different section or put it together. There was a separate section for other relevant policies, other applicable policies, the link to the student code of conduct and the discussion was to put that back in um

156and then to put the student code of conduct piece at the bottom following the consequences for having a a personal device. I I will tell you that I used the North Carolina School Board's Association model policy as the base policy on which to build our language. And that's a section that's in their model policy for whatever if that provides any context or has any weight in the consideration, Miss Russ. And then um actually Mr. Malone, do you have a I would just I would just say whether you have this language in this policy or not, your policies already have this language in it. So, you've got your um technology responsible use policy 3225. It says that um the fact that that the device is private property does not insulate it from inspection and monitoring pursuant

157to board policy 4342 which is your student searches policy then in your student searches policy. The only difference is that your student searches policy uses reasonable suspicion um is kind of the the legal standard for when you would be able to search the device. So even if you if you're taking it out to prevent the searches, you won't be preventing the searches. If you leave it in, then at least parents when they look at this policy will know that those devices are capable of being searched. Um, and you've got language in your um, student searches policy that defines reasonable suspicion as based upon specific and articulable facts which have been acquired through reliable and/or corroborated information from employees, students, law enforcement officers or other credible sources or upon visual or other evidence, you know, blah

158blah blah. So, um, again, whether you had leave it in or not, your policies otherwise still allow a principal to search a student's cell phone today. Okay, I understand that. I think my my reason for asking was because in this policy, it it states a school official has reason to believe. Um, but when you when you just name the actual student searches policy, there were very specific guidelines as to what that suspicion would be. So that's what I was getting at. Miss Willow, in light of this coming up, and I'm sure Neil's looked at this, but I would probably change that language to say reasonable suspicion. I think it'd be a lot cleaner. It'll reference back to that. and everybody lawyers know what that means if we ever have to try to define you know

159that that was going to be my suggestion as well and Miss Gordon if you want to amend that I'm more than happy to second that motion and support it. Yes. So I I will take that motion to amend the language. We have a motion to change reason to has reasonable suspicion yes to believe and the chair will second that motion. All right. Any other discussion? any further debate on that. I think that's very important and I think it's good to be consistent and it addresses what we need to address. So, all right. All right. I'll take a vote. All in favor of the amendment say I. I. Any opposed? All right. All right. Again, I thought we I want to make sure Oh, I see a hand. No. All right. So, you do have one.

160Okay. Sorry. to the left maybe think you didn't. It's not an amendment. Okay. I want to make a comment before we take the vote as chair of the policy committee. Yes, ma'am. Please. Um, we just had an additional policy committee meeting. That's what we've done here this evening. And I just want to acknowledge that we all value everybody, all of staff's time. I mean, and it's not just those of you that have worked on this language and gone back and forth with all of us and done all this heavy lift, but it's the staff that is sitting in this room waiting for us to be done with this meeting. So, I just want to acknowledge that we appreciate you all and we do value your time. This has been painful. Um, so I I sincerely

161thank you and I know my board other board members do as well. Um it is a lesson learned as the newer policy committee chair um that when we have new things that are of this magnitude um I may lead differently. So I appreciate lessons learned. Thank you so much. Thank you Miss Evans. All right then. Is there any other discussion of the policy as amended before we move into a vote? Mr. Chair, I move to be called a question. All right. Um, well, we don't actually need a motion if no one else has to speak, but I will follow the vice chair's lead and we will move to an immediate uh vote on board policy 4318, student use of personal wireless communication devices on second reading as amended. Um, I think we can do this

162by voice vote. All in favor of the policy say I. I I any opposed? All right, the policy is passed on second reading. Dr. Crane, thank you very much. You're very welcome. All right, so board members, we do have one item that was added to action. This is under chief of staff service contracts for county municipalities for school resource officers 2025 2026. Uh here, I think this was just simply an oversight. Uh the document that was submitted for the consent agenda for an approved contract enlisted only some of the municipal some of the officers I think for the municipality of Raleigh and we didn't want to correct it at the last minute if the public had not seen it. So we're bringing it on the open agenda just for purposes of transparency. Mr. Scott, good

163evening everyone. Board Chair Hagerty and board members and Superintendent Taylor. Today I'm bringing to you the service contract for school resource officers in WCPSS district municipalities for the 2526 school year. As you know there are 80 school resource officers that participate in the SRO program throughout the district. As you're aware the role of the SRO is to provide an efficient cohesive SRO program that will build a positive relationship between law enforcement officers, school administrators, families, and students in Wake County public school system. At this time, I'm requesting board approval and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Chair Hagerty, I make a motion that we accept these contracts for our school resource officers for the upcoming school year. Thank you, Miss Mafy. We have a sec. We have a motion for Miss Mafy

164to accept the contract with a second from Miss Caulfield. Are there any questions for Mr. Scott or any discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll move into immediate vote on the uh service contracts for county municipalities for service school resource officers 2025 to 26. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right, it passes. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Sir. So, now we will proceed with board comments and then we will move into I'll entertain a motion to move into close session for the statutory reasons cited in your agenda. It's been a long meeting, but I hope everyone feels like they were heard, they had an opportunity to participate, and everyone had input on what is a far-reaching policy. Um, you know, I know that it's difficult sometimes. You know, we're almost like negotiate against ourselves.

165We know there will almost certainly be a state law requiring this policy. We think we have a good idea what the policy has to have in it, but we've still had to work around that uncertainty, and I know that can be difficult. So, just thank everyone for your efforts tonight and in the weeks leading up to tonight as we've worked on this. Um, a couple of things I do want to share tonight. Dr. Taylor had referenced this in his superintendent comments, but uh Vice Chair Swanson and I were at the county commission meeting last night and we did witness the county commission's discussion and vote on our budget and the county commission, if you have seen the news, did vote to did vote to fully fund the request that the board of education put forward.

166If you have an opportunity to go back and listen to the county commissioner's comments, I would encourage all of you to do so because I thought it was very instructive. I thought it was potentially even a roadmap for how to approach these conversations with the county in the future. The commissioners raised several concerns, but the commissioners, those voting for our budget, were very appreciative of the efforts our board put in. Meeting with them, having our staff meet with them, Dr. Taylor coming in specifically to address concerns that they had taken away either in our joint meetings or in our initial budget proposal. And I think you know what looked like a strong 6-1 vote at the time the vote was taken even earlier in the day may not have been as secure. And you know

167what I think really helped to win that day was the sense of shared sacrifice of responsible budgeting and of you know potential collaboration in the future. So, as we go forward and work with our county county partners, remember we don't only come see them at budget at budget time. Board members, you remember we started our budget discussions in the fall and I expect we'll do so again this year looking at what revenue projections look like, what the needs of the school are, and what areas we need to address. We've already talked about our child nutrition program and how important that is. There will be other opportunities for collaboration as well. And I think in the in the spirit of being good partners and all working together, we need to look at how we can assist

168the county in issues of affordable housing, in issues of potential joint use in parks and recreation and in other areas that were important to residents that came out to the county's county's uh meeting and they were some of the top issues that were expressed. So, you know, I want to pledge my continued collaboration with our county partners. I hope all of you will as well. Um, and again, just go back, listen to the arguments, and you I've tried to express my gratitude to those commissioners supporting our budget. I hope all of you will as well. Um the other issue I wanted to mention and I actually hope that we can bring this to the board as an information item. Uh several of us this weekend had the opportunity to share in a wonderful event. It

169was a walk-athon by BAPS charities uh who are very active. It's a national charity um made up of um you know a community of faith nationwide. We have a large presence in Morrisville with a lot of our Indian and South Asian residents. They dedicated their walk-athon this year to the WCPSS Angel Fund and they've raised over $17,000 that will go to that effort. And it was a wonderful opportunity not just to talk about the Angel Fund itself, but about hunger in our community and the needs of all of our students. Um, and we're going to give them an opportunity to come back and be recognized for this gift. As board members, we always vote whether to accept gifts. I hope this will be one that you do vote to accept for the needs that we

170have. And I think it is just a wonderful example of people coming together in the community to address important needs that all of our students face. So, with that, we'll go around the table. I'll start with Miss Edmonds. Thank you. I'll be quick. Um, thank you to those who came out tonight in support of Wear Orange Weekend. Part of keeping our schools safe involves advocating for common sense gun laws and that's what the Wear Orange weekend is about and for working to end gun violence. Um, the board of commissioners passed a resolution last night in support of wear and you can learn more at wear orange.org. Happy Pride Month to all of our students and staff in the LGBT plus community. You do belong in our public schools and in all public spaces, and you

171deserve not to just feel safe and welcome, but to be celebrated. Lastly, I'd like to thank the county commissioners who voted for our budget increase last night. What most of those commissioners did was not vote to give the school board more money. What they did was invest in our public schools, in our teachers, and in our students, and in our community. Public strong public schools build strong communities. and WCPSS has been a top contributing factor to our county's economic success. I'm very grateful for Chair Evans leadership for her commitment to our school district and for all she did along with others to make public education in Wake County a priority. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Edmonds. And I echo those sentiments, Dr. Yes. Um um I echo that. Uh just really um appreciate the county

172commissioners um um making those hard decisions and in especially in light of the things that um they that all of us have to give up um which is uh some of those you know um uh safety uh um measures and as well as affordable housing. And so um yeah, I I really appreciate that. Um and that really just um emboldensed us to um really look deep and and make sure that we are using our resources responsibly and um uh and then um you know how to um uh get the results that we want um which is you know basically you know student achievement that we want uh with them the resources that we enough. Um, speaking of uh student achievement, I I was really glad to be um uh part of um the Milbrook uh

173inter uh the IB graduation ceremony as well as the Heritage High School award ceremony. And they were just really special um intimate time to hear what uh those uh students have uh gone through and the achievements that they've made in the uh last few years um and where they're going to. One of them uh is going to West Point, another one going to um uh have a full uh ROC scholarship. And so very proud of them. Um um and then this past weekend I was uh part of um uh attendance in the Special Olympics summer games. Um some of u I'm sure some of our uh students were uh participating in that um over in the NC State campus and the Reynolds Coliseum. Um uh the um the opening ceremony was really uh just uh

174very inspiring and then seeing some of the athletes um compete was really truly inspiring. So uh that's all I have to say. Thank you Dr. Mr. Hershey. Uh thank you. Just briefly um I know a lot of people are going to be paying attention to the cell phone policy. if there's anything that people think we missed, didn't get right, anything at all, cuz I there are some things that I I would have done differently, but it's it's um the the board spoke and uh but it doesn't mean that, you know, we all have different experiences and we had a speaker tonight. So, if you're paying attention, if you feel like there's anything we missed should modify, you know, we welcome that engagement from our families. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gordon. In the

175spirit of time, I will try to be brief as well. Um, I want to say congratulations to all of the graduates this season. I got to experience my very first graduation as a board member and the the amount of um just overwhelming feeling in the room was amazing. So, congratulations and I will continue to um to support. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the overwhelming support of our county commissioners who I I did watch last night um uh go through their vote. Um, I am grateful for the transparency of their comments and recognizing that no matter what their vote was, we continuously have their full support and to highlight highlight that the state continues to not do what they are supposed to do. We thank you and know we do this work

176together. Um, I also want to lift up Principal MAI um and the baby Bengals at Willow Springs Elementary School who I got to go and visit with Commissioner Jackson. Also, Principal Johnson and the Rockets at Fugway Arena Elementary School. And finally, um I just want to say that our schools have a responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive uh and supportive learning environment for every student regardless of their background or identity. Recognizing Pride Month and maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are not about promoting any particular ideology, but about ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed. And as educators and community leaders, we must continue to advocate for policies and practices that uphold the dignity and worth of every individual in our schools. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gordon. Miss Rice. Oh my.

177So, I'm going to try to keep this very simple um and keep myself together in the process. Um with a heartfelt um gratitude, I want to thank um all Wake County staff and community members who sent condolences, called, text, and visited following the passing of my son, Nicholas. Your kindness is beyond appreciated, and your prayers have truly sustained me during this time. A special thank you to our board chair, vice chair, superintendent, and board relations specialist um for your leadership and compassion in responding to families in my absence. Um I'm so grateful to the many parents who partner with my colleagues during this time. Um your continued collaboration means so very much. So I definitely wanted to say that first so I can breathe a little bit. Um um thank you so much county commissioners

178for um standing up and being strong with uh fully funding our superintendent's budget. Superintendent Taylor, I must say I'm extremely proud of your leadership during this time to understand the climate um and then move in it and be bold in it. Um and then most importantly getting the job done. Um, and to Vice Chair Swanson, who I must tilt my hat to and say, um, job well done with chairing the budget, um, during such a a different time socially, um, in in Wake County that we that we've ever seen. I think this is probably one of the toughest budgets that I've ever seen, uh, being an adult and being a part in Wake County. So, I'm very proud of my colleagues and the great work um that they've done. Um in particular, um Chair Hagerty

179um to run two districts for the past couple of weeks means a lot to me and thank you so much for taking on that huge challenge. And you got some pretty uh huge emails that were raided. Um, and you took care of every family in District 4 that cried out, that was seeking me, and you stood in the gap. And I will never forget it. And I appreciate my gummy bears. And so, um, and we're going to end out, of course, with our um, eight dimensions of wellness tip. Um, for this week, I want to talk about social wellness. Why? Because you all have been that social wellness for me. um um Commissioner Waters and and Representative Monica Johnson Hustler and um Vice Chair Swanson who were there for me in one of the most

180one of the most hardest times of my entire life um to 1:00 in the morning still being there. Why social wellness is so important and to have those types of folks. So, nurture your connections. Make time each week to reach out to a friend or loved one, even if it's just a short call or message. Meaningful relationships provide emotional support and help you um feel connected and valued. The second tip is set healthy boundaries. Clearly, communication um communicate your needs and limits in relationships to avoid burnout and maintain mutual respect. Healthy boundaries create space for trust, peace, and personal growth. And so, I just want to say one last time, thank you all for being my wonderful, helpful social wellness support group. Thank you. Um, I know the cell phone is a big topic right

181now. Um, while we're discussing and developing our cell phone plan, I wanted to point out a certain book. I know Dr. Ing um has mentioned it before as well called The Anxious Generation. I highly recommend that all families um read this book. It's a nonpartisan informational book. It really gets to the heart of our mental health and our well-being for our students. Um as well as the focus on academics. I do believe that all our teachers and families want their children to thrive and succeed. This book direct speaks directly to us about the dangers of social media which we know affect our children but also the disruption and distraction that the cell phone also cause. So I'm thankful that the GA has been working to address the cell phone issue and I know I appreciate

182all of the hard work that our staff has done to words smmith this policy. I appreciate that our board is bringing it to fruition now so we can get ahead of it and not rush the policy. And I appreciate all the families who have participated to collaborate to help us come up with this plan. I know our teachers and administrators will appreciate the consistency and the support from the central office. And I've received a lot of feedback that our families support having the guidance and healthy boundaries for our children while they are in our care to work on their education. As we wrap up May, I wanted to recognize May as Military Appreciation Month, designated on April 30th of 1999 by Congress as a month-long observance where almost all states, North Carolina being one of

183the first, has a proclamation to recognize this month. It is a time designated to honor and recognize the contributions, sacrifices, and service of the members of our armed forces, past and present, for our servicemen and women and their families. This month, we celebrated Memorial Day to remember their sacrifice, military spouse appreciation day and armed forces day. I wanted to express gratitude for their service, bravery, dedication, sacrifices, and contributions to defending our freedoms. I also wanted to recognize our ROC program that led some of our graduations so far and the many students that were starting their jun journey in the military to serve our country. I am super proud of those students and their families. I've had the privilege to attend some of our Northern Wake awards ceremonies because it was in District 1 and District

1843. Along with many wonderful awards and recognitions, it was fitting to see several students recognized by our m our military as well. At Heritage High School, one of our students earned admission to West Point, which is a high honor, one that is appointed by Congress. Well done. There were many awards and and recognitions given to those senior awards for Wake Forest High School and Heritage High School, all for their accomplishments to each and every senior. You have worked so hard. You have been faced with your last year of middle school and into high school in a pandemic that kept you from social growth as well as struggles in ac and academic success. But you did it. You pulled through. You overcame some of the most crazy times in your lifetime. Some that in your lifetime

185that have never and I pray will never again happen to anybody else. So give yourself a pat on the back. Let that encourage you as you venture on your next chapter. Let it empower you and let nothing stand in your way. You have the power and you're going to soar. Whether you were in sports, clubs, theater, outside school activities, or you just simply just pulled it together enough to cross that stage. You are now off to explore your future. Be proud. I know that we are. Keep reaching for those stars and congratulations. Go knock them dead, class of 2025. Thank you, Miss Mafy. I Thank you, Chair Heaggerty. I'd like to also thank our commissioners, um, Chair Evans and our county manager, David Ellis, who started us off at a number that was workable for

186our commissioners as well as our county staff for um, helping bridge that gap in our local dollar amount. Um, I'd like to congratulate our track 1 early college and modified students and staff um as they are done. Um, and to congratulate our graduates and thank all of our staff members for helping them get across the stage whether it was during preK getting on a bus or anywhere in between. Um, and on a personal note, it is my last two weeks as an elementary school parent. Um, starting in that unprecedented year and, uh, I have been able to see my kid thrive and catch up and be able to participate fully in her school experience these last few years. and I am forever grateful to all of the staff both current and former at Lincoln Heights

187Environmental Connections Magnet Elementary School. Thank you, Miss Mafy. And bad and cleanup, our vice chair, Mr. Tyler Swanson. Thank you, Chair Heaggerty. And I will also say publicly, I did have the opportunity to thank the commissioners last night for their support um and partnership. And so I think it's it's great to see that not too many school districts have commissioners and uh have working relationships with commissioners. And so we are very grateful and appreciative of their honest feedback and critiques um that we have to continuously move forward with. And so uh to Chair Evans and Vice Chair Mile and the entire commission and and to county manager Ellis, thank them. and to the taxpayers because again we're seeing the taxpayers are standing into the gap and let's hope that the general assembly does a little

188bit better for us um and for all educators in the district. I also want to thank Congresswoman uh Ross for the um great town hall and lunch that uh Chair Hagerty, Superintendent Taylor, and board member Gordon and I participated with on Friday uh talking about SNAP and um the impacts that we'll see at the federal government, how that will impact school lunches in our schools that have title one funding. And so um really grateful for that and we learned a lot from the students. Um and we did learn that Fridays of pizza days and they have the best pizza. So great to give some feedback um from those students and also want to thank um the students at Crossroads uh flex. I think that was Thursday. Dr. Ing and I had the opportunity to see

189their their uh district C presentations and so really great to hear and see and learn from our students. There was a really great conversation. I'm not sure if Dr. Ing was able to speak with the students that were talking about AI and and whatnot, but they had a really great presentation. And so, as we discuss the future of AI, may be best to hear from our students. Um, I also want to congratulate Kerry High's SRO, Officer Edmmonds, on his retirement and to the Kerry High community for celebrating him this week and thanks for um, you know, the partnership. I I have seen the impact firsthand that um officer Edmonds has with Carrie element I mean with Carrie High. I feel like I'm forgetting one more piece but if I did oh yes I can see

190I was looking for it Mr. Chair. Um so I also just want to remind board members of an upcoming training that will be taking place with the school boards association. It's uh core training for schoolboard members that will be taking place on July 21st. That will be an all day thing. So, be on the lookout and some emails will come forward. Um, and as I conclude, that concludes my comments and Mr. Chair, I would make a motion for us to go into close session. Second. All right. We do have a motion to go into close session. Before we take the vote, I did want to direct you to each of your chairs. You should have a wonderful little stick sticker here I got for all of you. I love public schools. This is a little

191gift from the Wake Education Partnership. Wake Education Partnership, as you know, plays an important role with Wake County Schools. It's the business community's voice and advocacy arm in support of public education. In addition to one all of their wonderful programs like summer stem and pieces of gold, Wake Educ uh the the tools for schools program, Wake Education Partnership has also just completed a whole new strategic plan and developed a new mission statement. And not only are they doubling down and reaffirming their support for the public schools in our community and to taking a greater advocacy and communication role, they were able to provide these wonderful stickers as a token for us that we were able to use at our state of the city, county, and schools lunchon as well. So, we wanted to say thank

192you. I have extras if you'd like to share these with anyone. It's a great way for people to express their support for public education. So, we do have a motion on the table uh to go into close session for the statutory reasons cited at this time. All in favor of going to close session, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you very much, everyone. We'll now be in close session.