001be a reader and have access to all the resources that it takes for them to have those highquality learning experiences the North Carolina Childhood Education Foundation has developed a framework to help us ensure that we are meeting all the needs of a child the things that will secure a uh healthy and vibrant student so that they have all the resources that they need to become uh literate and um engage readers as they enter the school wake up and read is formulated by three pillars we have learning opportunities those are out of school time um learning opportunities action teams they expand they are working to expand their knowledge of the literacy expectations of students during the school day and what happens after schools during school day during the school day so that they can better align
002their after school programming we have a School Readiness action team and the folks on that team work to ensure that students birth to age five are grow that they're growing their understanding of what it takes to be a proficient reader and the transition into kindergarten and how those agencies can support Equitable access for those students students and their families to be better prepared for entering school and the last pillar of our work is engaged families that action team is meeting with families where both where they are literally and figuratively learning more about the science of reading from and with them as we navigate learning at home two strategies to build relationships with families are our parent leader Network and that is a cohort Co cohort of families that gather together monthly to learn more about
003the science of reading and to experience literacy models the second strategy that we use is parent powered that is a free text messaging platform that allows parents to receive three texts per week focused on reading math and social emotional Wellness that program is appropriate for students birth to age 18 and it it is available in 10 languages the books that we hope to hope to gather today um and through our annual Drive are a m multifaceted tool that we share with our community those books allow us to engage and build trust with our communities and the families that we serve the books also allow our communities to engage with us and help to improve the work work of Early Childhood literacy in Wake County these Partnerships between families Community agencies and Wake County Public Schools
004are the power of wake up and read thank you in advance for your donations today excellent thank you so much Marissa Smith who I don't think introduced herself so I'll allow her to do that she's so humble and modest I'm Marissa Smith I'm the family leadership and literacy liaison for wake up and readed excellent does a wonderful job thank you Marissa okay we'll continue with our slide deck so we're here to talk about the today a reader tomorrow leader school book drive and distribution so let's talk about our journey with wake up and read in this book drive and distribution um we started with six schools um way back when um 10 Child Development Centers um progress made to 19 schools with 17 Child Development Centers and in the 2025 year um we are going
005to partner with 28 schools and 18 Child Development Centers so that is definitely progress indeed so as it relates to our wake up and read partner schools we have listed here for you those 28 schools that we'll be partnering with in region one and region two so that you as board members know what schools you can sign up to volunteer at for our book distribution program in the spring and this is our call to action so we want you to get involved with the book drive and the distribution 2025 we encourage you to purchase new books and I know that you have some gifts for us today um we want you to volunteer your time we want you to consider hosting a drive and we want you to spread the word um because our goal
006this year is to equip each of those 28 schools prek through third grade students with five new books um in order to accomplish that at those 28 schools we need a total of 56,000 books um of which we are about uh at 30 6,955 that's why I have Marissa thank you Marissa 36,9 and 55 55 books so we need your help um and we need the community's help so we are here um with a call to action and we want to go ahead and ask that you pass down your books that you are donating as a part of that wonderful drive and your commitment to wake up and read and childhood literacy development here in Wake County Public Schools we will now entertain any questions that you all may have great well thank you both
007for being here and we also want to thank the community in advance for their support and the donations that they will be uh providing for our students as we enhance our future generations of now and tomorrow um but I'll open up for questions I see Miss mafy and then miss rice I just have one question if someone wants to host a book drive the website is wakeup andre. .org correct yes okay thank you for that important reminder Miss mafy Miss rice you know I love reading in early literacy so you know I'm excited I was excited to be on board when wake up and read first began here in Wake County um and being able to be a part of those foundational pieces um the one question that I do have that I would love
008for parents to better know is how can parents get access to the um parent powered because I know that I remember when it began and it was um it's a very important tool that families can use for 3 to 0 to 5 or as you said Till to 18 and so how can we get access to that parents can uh text WC to 70138 and if they forget they can find that on our website wake up and.org thank you so much wonderful excellent work and great goals thank you thank you any others hearing done thank you all so much excellent and thank [Applause] you so we have two recognition items that will be honoring some of our teachers which we are always great so I will turn over to Dr matillo and Dr Karen suner
009um for this next recognition item Dr matillo great thank you Vice chair Swanson members of the board superintendent Taylor and all the guests behind me we do have two recogn items this evening I want to start in a minute by introducing Dr Karen sner who is the Deputy executive director of the national Center for advancement of teaching commonly known as enat um Dr suar will briefly celebrate the additional achievements of one of last year's Diane K Kon Parker winners as you will recall the Wake County Public School System each year during our banquet recognizes four firste teacher Award winners so tonight um we will recognize one of those winners I do want to thank Keith Richardson principal of night High School who is with us to help us celebrate this evening so at this time
010I would like to turn it over to Dr suner good evening board members Dr Taylor with Peter westerbeek please come forward at this time on behalf of the North Carolina Center for the advancement of teaching it is my privilege to announce that Peter westerbeek has been selected as is a finalist for the incat 2025 burough welcome fund North Carolina beginning teacher of the year award this recognition highlights Mr Wester Beek's exceptional contributions to the teaching profession and his remarkable impact on the students and Community here in Wake County the beginning teacher of the year award was established to celebrate the creativity resilience and dedication of firste teachers across North Carolina each year more than 7,000 new Educators in her classroom Statewide and this award honors those who exemplify the best of the profession while addressing
011the unique challenges of beginning teachers Peter westerbeek will be attending a week of professional development with his fellow finalist in a few weeks on March 27th incat will celebrate All finalist at a recognition event on the campus of UNCC Greensboro at incap we are committed to advancing teaching as an art and a profession and we are thrilled to celebrate Mr westerbeek as a shining example of this Mission please join me in congratulating Peter westerbeek on this outstanding achievement we are pro pleased to provide you with this certificate recognizing you as an incat 2025 bur welcome fund North Carolina beginning teacher of the year finalist please [Applause] thank [Applause] you you're not done yet in addition we invite Margaret Hendershot on behalf of Empower to present Peter westerbeek with a check for $250 Empower supports North
012Carolina Educators in their retirement investment plan land and we're thankful for their support of Education in North Carolina thank you all for being here to celebrate this outstanding educator we appreciate Wake County schools for recognizing Peter westerbeek and the incat beginning teacher of the year program thank you [Applause] and congratulations to you and thank you for your service to your your students and as a beginning year teacher we know how difficult that is and so you are representing not just W County but all beginning teachers very well so thank you so much and let's give another round of [Applause] applause it's my pleasure to bring the second recognition item this evening we have our 20 weake County public school system semifinalists for Teacher of the Year these semi-finalists were nominated by their schools and selected
013based on a portfolio and video submission we know how hard teachers work we're thankful for for all of our teachers who participate in this process and we are excited to recognize these semi-finalists tonight to help it sink in a little bit we have over 11,000 teachers in the Wake County Public School System to be sitting here as one of the top 20 is truly an honor um and we are happy to spend a little bit of time recognizing them this evening each semi-finalist will receive their very own personal Chromebook compliments of Lenovo as well as an engraved award the Chromebook is yours guys on the side um not not the systems so awardees when I call your name please come up to the front and be greeted by Dr Taylor and remain up front until
014all recipients have come forward Fran Avery Diller Drive Elementary third grade Spanish Immersion [Applause] Moren Bard LED M Elementary third grade [Applause] teacher Whitney bleop Buckhorn Creek Elementary fourth grade [Applause] teacher candy Blackman Cree Road Elementary third grade teacher NAC Brenson Kingswood Magnet Elementary K5 health and PE Brandy Garrett milbrook Magnet Elementary third grade teacher Elizabeth Gary Southeast ring Magnet High School 9 through 12 healthful living Lor Davis Drive Middle seventh grade math teacher Anna Hardy leel Road High 9th to 12th grade math teacher Trevor Harris North Garner Middle sixth grade science luren Holloway Wildwood Forest Elementary first grade teacher Rebecca Howard Overland Magnet Middle art [Applause] teacher rajani kolami Horton Creek Elementary first grade teacher Chrissy Minik welcome Elementary fourth grade math and science Tanya Neil lockheart Elementary kindergarten [Applause] teacher Lori new housee
015Woods Creek Elementary second grade teacher Ashley par Mills Park middle 7eventh grade [Applause] math Shirley pan Mills Park Elementary K5 music and [Applause] stem Matthew Reigns Night Dell High N9 to 12th grade Theater Arts and Allison tanelli Hunter Magnet Elementary special ed CCR teacher let's have one more round of applause for all of our amazing semifinalist [Applause] and teachers if you'll turn and face the board to receive greetings and congratulations from Vice chair Swanson and any other board members who would like to share them great thank you Dr mantillo and thank you all for being here and congratulations to each of you all for being named semi-finalist for way County Public Schools um this recognition is a testament of your dedication your passion and the lasting impact that you have on your students um your
016students your families and the communities that you all serve um you all are heroes and sheroes to so many students and you're shaping their Futures in ways that will be remembers for days and years to come so your hard work and your commitment to Excellence makes a real difference every day so on behalf of the W County Board of educations we are grateful for your work we thank you all for the the hard work that you do each and every day and congratulations on this well-deserved honor let's give them another round of applause [Applause] oh great well you all are we can give yes so thank you all we do know we do know that some of you all have something to do tomorrow so we will not let you all have to stay through
017public Comon the rest of our meeting so you all may leave at at this moment so thank you all so much and looking forward to the celebration on May 4th thank you first thank you yes thank you so we'll go for a brief recess for the room to clear [Music] up of you e for e all right so we will now give me one second get these papers together all right so we will now move on to public comments speakers commenting on on items on tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on all other topics all speakers will be heard in the order of sign up only the person speaking at the podium will be allowed to stand again all attendees that are not speaking are to remain seated concerns relating Personnel or student
018matters may be addressed through through the applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or any other applicable policies in the interest of maintaining Civility and dequorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general public please remain at the podium during the time any materials that you would wish to share with the board please hand them to our board board attorney Mr Malone either before or after your comments during public comments you may speak up to 3 minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that you have 3 minutes your 3 minutes has begun followed by a yellow light um
019a yellow light we will sorry begin um let me just start that completely over when you yes when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that you have 3 minutes your 3 minutes has begun a yellow light will light up with an audible tone when there is 30 seconds remaining of your time when your time is up you will see a red light and hear another audible tone when you speak when your time is up the next speaker will be called to the podium speakers are also ask to respect the time and speak for No More Than 3 minutes so our first speaker for our students is Dylan Meyers all right we're good hello members of the board I'm Dylan Myers I go to Heritage High School I'm in the 12th
020grade um I'm here to address concerns about the future of Education our district in 2023 House Bill 187 was introduced in North Carolina aiming to RCT discussions on Race history and other sensitive topics in the classroom while it didn't pass it's important that North Carolina and Wake County remain proactive in protecting academic freedom ensuring historical accuracy preventing censorship and supporting our teachers these are the key issues I would like to discuss today it is vital that Wake County protects academic freedom in public schools House Bill 187 wanted to restrict discussions on sensitive issues like race and gender while it may have intended to prevent discomfort such as restrictions could silence important conversations in public toools teaching about history in modern society requires honest and open discussions way County should encourage Educators to teach difficult topics
021without fear of censorship or political influence Wake County must also promote historical accuracy and prevent censorship in the classroom houseb 187 proposed the meeting discussions on key topics like slavery segregation and the strugg isation the struggle of marginalized communities in American history these restrictions could result in a sanitized version of History students like me deserve a full understanding of the past even while when it's uncomfortable weight County must allow and encourage Educators to teach history in all of its complexity ensuring students are prepared for the real world and know how the past shape the present finally we must support our teachers House Bill 187 would have required teachers to seek approval for materials related to sensitive topics creating unnecessary bureaucracy teachers are already overwhelmed and shouldn't have to spend time navigating red tape they should
022focus on lesson planning student engagement in creating a positive classroom environment weight County must trust teachers and remove barriers that distract them from their primary role overall while House Bill 187 did not pass similar proposals could arise in the future we County must remain committed to protecting academic freedom ensuring historical accuracy preventing censorship and supporting Educators censorship in the classroom limits abilities limits students abilities to think critically and understand history teachers should be trusted to present complex topics accurately without unnecessary restrictions instead of adding bureaucratic hurdles topics accurately or sorry teachers instead of adding Bureau curdles W County should provide Educators with the resources they need to help us soon succeed W County should also continue to prioritize the truth learning and academic Integrity overall Public Schools should focus on educating students not promoting political
023agendas thank you for your time thank you our next speaker will be Phil Phoenix Bido good evening board members and happy March I'd like to read you a poem one I'm sure that you've all heard before but I've added my own twist at the end first they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me since they've been coming
024for the trans kids and you haven't spoke out because you're not a trans kid then they started coming for the gay people and you've yet to speak out because you're not a gay person then they came for the immigrants and you didn't speak out because you're not an immigrant now they're coming for the elderly and the disabled and you're not speaking out because you're not elderly or disabled and soon they'll come for you if they somehow haven't already and your complacency will have done nothing and no favors because nobody will be left to speak for you and you know darn well they would have so I have a question for anyone who thinks this may be directed at them what are you going to do when we're all gone what are you going to do
025with your privilege you were so painstakingly born with when there's nobody left to look down on maybe you should think about how you could use that privilege to Def defend those less fortunate than you before the target is placed on your back thank you our next speaker is [Music] mAh mahi what your can you be yes please correct me at the mic I'm so sorry it's Mah machini but it's a long last name so thank you so sorry for that that's fine um do I start oh good evening my name is mahi verini and I'm a freshman at enlo high school I'm here to talk about the districtwide cell phone policy on behalf of en's PTSA student leaders I'll be the first one to admit that cell phones and social media are incredibly distracting I
026won't be ignorant to the concerns of teachers and adults who find restricting cell phone use completely as the only way to discourage cell phone use I understand that it's difficult to design and Implement a cell phone policy that students won't be able to find a loophole for and that will be easy for teachers to implement however when it comes to creating a cell phone policy for way County I hope the policy committee will take into account the following W county is the largest county in North Carolina while creating a uniform cell phone policy for all schools andur fairness with how when and where students use their cell phones every school in Wake County is very different firstly this might have been what you were planning but elementary middle and high school students should have different
027policies high high school middle school and Elementary School students have very different reasons to use their phones so implementing a uniform policy for all grade levels that takes into account these exceptions would be extremely difficult for example High School Middle School students might need to text their parents about changes in their after school plans while it's very rare for elementary school students to have many clubs or after school activities implementing a uniform policy also wouldn't account for differences in schools like the building itself for example enow has two buildings with a walkway in between would the walkway count as a hallway or would students be able to use their phones outside the building differences like these would create ambiguity with a uniform cell phone policy therefore I would suggest that instead of creating a uniform
028cell phone policy creating a set of guidelines for all schools to base their cell phone policy off of which would allow for all ages and their educational personal needs in the school setting to be taken account for without am ambiguity in this day and age phones and electronic devices are also an important part of our Lives while School devices allow us to complete our school workk and our homework Chromebooks have limitations as they were designed for different purposes and phones the most obvious examp obvious example being that Chromebooks cannot be used to contact our parents or Guardians phones are also more useful when recording for school projects or creating group chats for school projects this brings me to my third and final point of creating a cell phone policy that allows students oh sorry um
029so phones are also going to be used for many generations so learning how to use them responsibly should be something taught in school gos right now because as adults in our jobs we can't be using phones irresponsibly because we obviously won't get paid so this brings me to my third and final point of creating a cell phone policy that allows students to learn how to use phones responsibly like I said before electronic devices phones and social media will play a huge role in the rest of our lives so rather than completely restricting cell phone use teaching students students to use and properly would greatly benefit them in the long run thank you for your time and have a good evening thank [Applause] you and I apologize for butchering this name in advance our next student
030speaker is crti Porco please correct me what I'm sorry what is your last name p po yeah so sorry I do apologize in advance for mispronouncing any Nam so please feel free to correct me at the mic when you start thank you um I have some materials that I can uh can I email it to um Mr sure yeah you yeah I can just s right now so you guys can look would it be easier to start your remarks and then email it afterwards um yeah I just thought it might be helpful for you guys to see what okay sure whichever whichever it's it's up to you okay um good afternoon my name is ky Pell and I'm a senior at Panther Creek High School and over the past several weeks students from across way
031County have worked together to draft the green New Deal for w County Schools resolution a student-led resol uh research backed plan designed to address the challenges our school district faces due to climate change this resolution includes smart goals specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound actions that would make our school more sustainable while also saving money and some of the key points included are switching to LED lighting which reduces energy costs while lowering emissions and I would just like to say that if we had LED lighting the flickering of that specific light bulb would not be as consistent and the lighting in this room would be better if this is what we have in this building which is used for Schoolboard meetings imagine how bad it is in schools and another point is upgrading HVAC
032systems to improve air quality and student health which I know some schools in way County have had issue with and has led to early release due to their being overheating another point is investing in solar energy to create long-term savings and make our school more energy independent and expanding the climate education so students are prepar for the growing Green Job sector developing a climate disaster plan so that schools are prepared for extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent especially in W County and we have not just created this resolution we have actively tried to engage with the w County School Board we have attended a previous board meeting spoken during public comment and sent numers emails to board members asking to meet and discuss this resolution many board members have not responded and the
033few who initially replied ignored our follow-up emails requesting meeting meetings and even the board members who agreed to meet did not show up to our scheduled virtual meetings only one board member Mr Sam Hershey has actually met with us virtually and he has engaged in discussion about potential edits to help get the resolution passed and while we appreciate his willingness to work with us one board member alone is not enough we need the entire board to acknowledge our work and commit to action we have shown up we have done the research we have put forward real solutions that benefit student staff and the district as a whole yet the school board has engaged has failed to engage with us and this resolution is not just about the climate it's about student health school funding and
034our future we deserve a response we deserve action and we will keep showing up until the board listens thank you and I'll email that to you our first off topic agenda speaker is Margaret Bido followed by Jana Ducks Margaret Bido good evening board member I am not nearly prepared but go ahead um I was going to come in and talk tonight um about kind of the direction of our public schools and we've talked um about vouchers and the board has come out speaking uh against vouchers as a whole and um one thing that I've talked about and a lot of people have come here and talked about is the impact that vouchers have on special education services and um with current state proposals to fund Cuts uh the same students that have also been severely
035negatively impacted by vouchers are facing even further reductions this is an excerpt from uh North Carolina House Bill 113 um the purpose of this committee is to consider various ways in which the existing North Carolina Medicaid programs could be modified to respond to any decreases in federal support for the Medicaid Program in order to maintain current state funding levels these modifications may include number one reduction or elimination of optional Services number two reduction or elimination of optional eligibility groups number one and two on the chopping block are vulnerable people specifically this includes waivers for medically needy children those waivers are optional this would impact their ability to get the care that they need at home and at school funding for their needs and services so that they can be supported in their own homes and
036communities rather than in institutions um as the parent of a child who would have historically been provided services in an institution it infuriates me to repeatedly hear the false premise that vouchers are for special education students and meet their needs this is a lie whether intentional or not if it's if it's intentional just say that if it's not educate yourself do better there are no options for our most vulnerable medically and educationally fragile children it is not it's just not cost effective for for-profit schools and putting them all way into some kind of institution so they're out of sight and out of mind is disgusting and that's what we're working towards with our current direction it's time for everyone on the board to educate themselves and put the needs of all of their students above
037their personal and political opinions that being said I will always Echo what Phoenix says and we need to stand up for everyone we need to take a stand executive orders are not laws and when laws are in violation of the Constitution or executive orders are in violation of the Constitution which they very much are many of them it's our duty to follow the Constitution I'm tired of hearing people say we need to read the Constitution and we don't know what we're talking about because those same people are not following the Constitution they just want it to be Rewritten and want us to follow their desired rewrite thank you our next speaker is oh there you are I'm not here yes hello good evening everyone um good evening wake for and Dr Taylor my name is
038Janna Ducks um I am here tonight simply to give some shoutouts and some recognition to our schools and programs in the southern part of Wake County um I'm here as a parent of two students attending Wake County Public Schools and someone who is very involved with um PTSA sometimes in all of the noise of current events the louder voices trying to grab attention for the sake of fear the positive everyday stories and the reminders of how great our public schools are get lost so I'm just here to remind us of how lucky we are to witness the role that our Public Schools play in the lives of our students and families there are so many moments of impact and success examples of community and connection and proof of how incredible and inspiring our public schools
039are for example shout out to Holly grve Middle School home of some of the hardest working Educators and administrators and support staff they walk in Daily to meet the needs of our students where they are and they help them each grow and find success our Bulldog students understand that their learning and belonging in our school is of highest priority it's a privilege to have these folks in our community the same can likely be said of our campus neighbors Holly Gro Elementary as well as other area schools like Buckhorn Lincoln Heights The Herbert Akens Road schools Holly Springs schools there are actually too many Fantastic schools in Lake County to list them all tonight uh but an extra shout out to now that I have a high schooler um our F Arina high school and Holly
040Springs High Schools the Educators and support staff there bring their passion and guidance to our students who are nearing their launch into adulthood daily uh the amount of patience and dedication that they bring to their classrooms and clubs is remarkable we're very very thankful for them um I want to make a note um just reminding or I'm sorry recognizing various programs and enrichment opportunities at these schools as well um I've gotten to see firsthand inspiring talented band instructors their are Marching Band programs they currently are challenging their students to prepare for mpa performances Science Olympiad groups who are creating and competing um multiple clubs that are sponsored by our staff in this area um in in addition to their classroom responsibility um they are dedicated to giving our students opportunities and Leadership and our coaches
041who in all the different Sports Seasons um understand the goals of teamwork shout out to our drama and visual arts teachers and programs as well uh finally I'll use my last seconds here to um encourage everyone in Wake County all of our families to celebrate the ordinary Wonders that happen in our Wake County Public Schools every day um check in with your schools ask them what they might need it might be boxes of tissues and it might be our voices high fives to all of the PTA and PTSA members in weight County who are willing to walk the walk and show up to support thank you thank you our next speaker is Eric shepher Eric will be followed by Joseph Deon good afternoon members of the board my name is Eric Shepard I believe we
042have the same mission of trying to build Wake County students to be the best in the world but it is a fact our students today have a hard time competing with outof State students at our state schools and it's for increasingly expensive irrelevant degrees the last administration had our students closed sedentary muzzled with no physical activity that is not an education that is not leadership that's indoctrination it's no secret there needs to be a radical disruptive devastating paradigm shift in thinking to completely overhaul way County's education practices to reach desirable student achievement results in mass and this won't this won't be done by throwing more and more and more taxpayer money at the symptoms of a diseased pedagogy and a diseased bureaucracy so here are some tenants of Education that can spark a catalyzing scalable
043change that builds a stronger weight County relationship and Partnerships and improves the knowledge transfer of our students open schools 24 hours a day schools are a beacon of area resources and a hub for information sharing they are places of play and reprieve and Innovation and Enlightenment they are most important institutions in our communities and they close at Sunset so our students are met with closed doors in times of need School complexes should be 247 city parks with playgrounds and lit up ball courts and On Demand resources because children and communities learn through play harness technology if the school system is printing anything there's a better way harnessing technology for its efficient use looks like embracing the use of phones and app Suites to improve operational efficiencies and release vital Public School data to the public
044it's taxpayer funded and it's hidden and it can be used to identify granular pockets of inefficiencies that can be weeded out free the data redevelop the curriculum to have a Jer curriculum with monory principles at the core this will add more physical movement around more relevant content if you intermix curriculum with Pathways to accredited certification so students can graduate with relevant professional C certifications like project management degrees lean sck Sigma leadership trade certifications that increases their opportunities open the channels of communication to increase Community relationships magnitud inally between local companies government entities and nonprofits to create classroom Partnerships to bring an Innovative education to our students Partnerships could be encouraged through tax incentives and sponsorship programs that create commercial opportunities uh Source funding from appr appropriate government entities not everything needs to be a Department
045of Education problem just because it involves a student at a school there are expertises that align with specific government departments that you can draw funds from and these are things that can be enacted right now if you have these ideas to align Government funding and duties to keep schools open all day with a thick incentivizing bridge to the partner Community we have thank you our next speaker is Mr [Applause] Deon I have protested the promotion of gender identity and social transition in schools not because of any ill will towards trans transgender persons but exactly the opposite because this is causing terrible harm I have been so concerned for young people that I've spent an enormous amount of time studying the the medical and psychiatric journals if I may put the support some of you have
046for gender identity in a charitable light you are concerned about mental health and suicide pre prevention but I implore you from the bottom of my heart to recognize that wath doc doctors have not been telling us the truth they told us that unless kids transition they will commit suicide that's not true and it's emotional blackmail they will not all commit suicide the elevated risk that does exist is due to other psychiatric comorbidities gender transition does not reduce suicide long term because it does not treat their true problems they told us social transition in schools allow kids uh to try out an identity that is false it's an active psychological intervention that steers the great majority onto medical transition whereas the great majority would outgrow gender dysphoria without inter prevention wpath doctors told us the puberty
047blockers are fully reversible and give kids time to think about their gender that's not true on both accounts 94 to 98% of kids on puberty blockers proceed on the cross- sex hormones because the blockers quench natural hormones and thereby solidify the dysphoria W path lied about how they develop their treatment guidelines too what will you say to alumni alumni who come back and tell you their transition that you encouraged with gender identity books and your GSA Club was all a terrible mistake well you consented to treatment when you were 13 so don't blame us if you're not happy with the results you can get surgery such as silicone implants to go back this is not a matter of a right to personal autonomy but whether this is legitimate Psy psychological and medical treatment that Wake
048County should participate in thank you our next speaker is Elaine funderberg I just wanted to express my gratitude to this board I know that what you're doing is work it's hard work I tasted that a little bit when my father was a chairman of the school board in Union County many years ago so I really appreciate what you do and I have uh a great appreciation for the public schools and I am here to express some of that and I want to thank you Dr Taylor for your comments on the uh the spe speech you gave last week about safety in schools uh you said that that's the number one priority of this school system and that comforts me that gives me uh hope that my grandchildren and children will be fine in the public
049schools but you also said that if children are afraid in the public schools if they are fearful and don't feel safe then they can't focus on instructions and so therefore they can't learn so we've got to make our school safe and I'll just share with you a couple of experiences I had as a substitute teacher I taught school uh in kry High School to begin with after I got out of college but um a number of years ago I started back being a substitute teacher and I worked with atrisk students in one of the largest high schools in the county and one of the experiences I had one day open open my eyes uh to the real problems with some of these young people in our schools I was locked in a classroom with five
050students three of them were in a gang one of them had committed murder I don't know how that child ended up in a public school and one had brought her scissors to school that day to get even with somebody like her mother did on the street and so I got to talking to them and listening to them and I said well you know what's going to happen to you don't you uh if you do if you well I did ask the boys that were in the gang three of them I said what do you do in your gangs and they said we rob houses in North Raleigh and I said well you know what you know what's going to happen to you I said you're either going to get killed or you're going to prison
051and by the way I did prison ministry five five years and I worked with all kinds of women um but anyway they said well that does not matter to us whether we get killed or go to prison they said there there is no meaning or purpose to our lives isn't that a sad commentary for children that they don't have any meaning or purpose to their life and then uh the Wake County Schools uh had a drug bust uh in connection with the sheriff's department and they arrested a large number of students a number of years ago and I happened to be in the superintendent's uh office that day uh in the board meeting when he uh told them what he was doing that he was expelling them and I said well what are you going
052to do with them he said we think we're not going to do anything anyway I'm sorry but I'm just suggesting that we get a Bible curriculum in our Public Schools thank you so any our next and we can start with an alter school thank you our next speaker is Janet Peterson I was asked to read this letter from one of your Educators that's currently teaching in Wake County over the past several years I've had a handful of students who identify as trans and I know that my cooworker workers have as well we've always shown care and compassion to those students and we're guided to have those students change in a single gender bathroom available to them during PE it has never been an issue to use this procedure and we protected PRI the privacy of
053all students this way to my knowledge Wake County has not sent out any information to parents making sure they are aware of the Biden title n policies and how their child could be affected I heard heard about it on social media and in a meeting with Dr Gia Hoke from the office of equity Affairs she indicated that something would be sent out to parents but parents that I know have not received anything despite this policy being adopted by the school board in July principes didn't receive training until October and PE teachers still have not received training about Title Nine furthermore the current policy as I have heard it could have students daughters and sons impacted if they express a concern about the situation they could be accused of sexual harassment and face suspension or risk
054discipline if someone is misgendered when asked about civil rights Dr Hox said that not allowing a trans student in the locker room violates their civil rights but when I ask if it violate violates the civil rights of the girls in the locker room I was told no and when I ask why parents don't have to be notified about boys and girls space we were literally told we don't tell parents when there's a student with autism in the class with their child as if this were a fair comparison I don't understand why we would not protect even younger girls and boys in their most private spaces a girl should never have to worry that there would be a boy in their bathroom or locker room with them or boy should be put in a situation where
055a female in the locker room could be accused of sexual assault will you not change back uh when the the administration changes the NCAA has already reversed their locker room policies thanks to Riley gains and other women uh our teachers should not be in a situation where they might be in a locker room supervising students of the opposite sex teachers should not be in a situation where we are told to go against our morals and religious beliefs and teachers should not be asked or expected to keep secrets from parents PE uh people teachers are staying silent because they fear losing their jobs please revert to the old Title Nine policies our next speaker is Jennifer lobs hello my name is Jennifer lobs and I am a proud parent of two children that attend school at
056Wake County Public Schools and I am the spouse of a school teacher here and I really want to applaud you guys this has been a very challenging time and it is difficult and I just want to talk about a couple different things one I realize that there are a lot of threats that are coming from different sources it is difficult for us as a community to figure out how to handle a lot of the things because I do think that they do affect our students our schools our communities one of the things that um Mr Taylor came into the school system with that I really stuck with is trying to reach every student every day and I think another thing that struck with me that I pay attention to is I really think that every
057student needs to feel safe and loved or cared about it's the connections that matter I believe that you as Schoolboard members also have to interpret things and you have to like a camera lens you have to zoom in and out with the the the microphone focus of something and then come back out because I think it is very complicated the school board is a vast School Board we have we have schools and we we educate the majority of students that live in Wake County now I know that we want to reach every student every day but we cannot we cannot simple things that you guys make decisions about such as the school calendar or the bus well one student or one family may not have transportation so they can't get to a school or they
058don't have the opportunity that somebody else does so you guys do need to make choices that do impact um all of our students and you have to keep that in mind so the one thing that I want to talk about is school choice and I believe that when we're talking about funding and when we're talking about where the money comes from I really think that I want to encourage you to look at our school system and what are the best resources and how can our taxpayers I I believe in public schools I think that the opportunity scholarships are not funding for all students they're not a choice for for most of the students and in fact that don't have resources are thank you our next speaker is Elizabeth Norville Elizabeth will be followed by Sarah
059Dickerson I'm here to thank the school board for your service and for what you do I especially want to thank those of you who are campaigning to maintain diversity equity and inclusion in our schools I myself was born in South Africa I attended an allh school and I had a very bad misconception of people of different races it was until I left South Africa and met black people and Asian folk and realized wow these people are intelligent these people can communicate these I I had such a bad uh idea of what different people were because of my schooling because I was never exposed to somebody different and so I applaud anyone who advocates for diversity in our schools we are a diverse Nation we need to interact with people who are different Equity how could
060anyone be against equity giving people what they need to thrive treating people with dignity and respect inclusion I'm a member of the Unitarian universus peace fellowship and in 1994 we sponsored a refugee family from Sudan we took the oldest boy Muhammad to um I forget the name brasfield Road Elementary School for his very first uh display of how the schools work and the principal gave us a guided tour the teachers greeted him with open arms it was a wonderful experience he immediately felt included and he had a wonderful experience still has a wonderful experience in W County Public Schools we need that kind of schooling here and we've had it but we need to find fight for it unfortunately so I also would like to Advocate that we give our schools the funding they need
061I'm a retired W County school teacher I know how hard teachers work they need to be paid more and they need to get the funding they need to help students who come from backgrounds where parents have to work two or three jobs to make K meet those children often have needs that are not met without specialized treatment and so I advocate for that and I abhor the fact that we are taking our tax dollars and using them to fund vouchers that seems just so wrong to me Dei spells uh God in Latin thank you our next speaker is Sarah Dickinson [Applause] thank you for having us here tonight and thank you for the work that you all are doing I'm Sarah Dickinson I am a parent of two soon Tobe three children in Wake County
062Public Schools um and I am someone that's deeply invested in the future of public education I am very active on the PTA um I wanted to just say I appreciated Jana's comments um to give shout outs about positive stories and what's going on with our schools we're seeing it day in and day out and we appreciate all the work that our educators are doing and they give it their all um we are concerned about the attacks that we're seeing on public education um they're coming from our state legislature by choosing to actively keep funding incredibly low I realize that is a choice that our North Carol legislature is making um as well as right now there's a lot of uncertainty and Chaos coming from the US Department of Education about potential budget cuts we're concerned
063that our schools may not be prepared for what lies ahead and that's not because of our teachers or our students but because of the deliberate policy decisions in this state to dismantle public education in favor of privatization and political control recently North Carolina House of Representative Julie Von haen was quoted in a News NBC news article sharing her concerns that North Carolina is not ready for the impacts of federal funding cuts when asked if legislators were preparing to react to changes in federal funding for public education or how to deal with a shifting civil rights violation enforcement framework representative Von hen stated absolutely not she went on to say in North Carolina we're at a really precarious point in our um State funding the loss of federal funding would be really devastating it's kind of
064a perfect storm right now she said because last year we greatly expanded our private school vure program um we're all aware that North Carolina's per pupil uh spending is 48th in the nation and that if we were to bring North Carolina up to the national average that would be an addition $ 4,867 to spend per student um the the lawmakers that we know are pushing for distractions but the crisis is here the funding cff is real um we've seen that with the expiration of pandemic error relief funds um my middle son lost his favorite Spanish teacher we can't fill that position um and about $50 million was spent in 2024 going to private school vouchers we understand that Wake County Public School System currently receives $200 million or about 13% of its budget from federal
065dollars and our state has sadly proven that they're not going to prioritize funding um Public Schools over the private school vouches um we understand that $1 million of Federal grant money for hiring and training teachers has already been cut wanted to hear more about how that's impacting Wake County Public Schools um we have concerns that should the US Department of Education decide to give that money to States as a block grant how's that going to impact our schools I have a couple more things to say but I wanted to say in conclusion how can we help how can we help to continue to advocate for public schools in Wake County um as parents um and as concerned citizens so thank you [Applause] guys all right all right so our next speaker is Christine zacardi good
066evening superintendent Dr Taylor board members staff and community members my name is Christine zardi I'm the librarian at Farmington Woods Elementary School and I'm here tonight to talk about the importance of funding our school libraries Wake County Public School's strategic plan is directly tied to student achievement with a focus on eliminating barriers to success this evening we heard about the wake up and read program which is dedicated to helping students read proficiently by the end of third grade building their home libraries and increasing their exposure to books in the home we know that reading proficiently by the end of the third grade is a huge indicator of future success including High School graduation and college enrollment with our strategic plan aimed at reaching a 98% graduation rate by 2028 90% of students meeting or exceeding
067grade level proficiency proficiency and 90% of our schools exceeding the Statewide average for growth it only makes sense that we should be looking to create a sustainable model for funding our school libraries that serve all of our students within the district we currently don't have a policy in place or a recommended Baseline for per pupil spending within School library budgets funding happens at the discretion of the principal through ptas that are able to successfully fundraise and support the library or grant writing many Librarians are faced with having to choose Book Fairs in order to raise money to purchase new materials which is not best practice selling books to students in order to earn back a small percentage so we can purchase books to make them freely available to all is a complete contradiction to the
068purpose of school libraries and is not a sustainable model for funding what we need is reli funding coming from schools that have already received money for instructional materials from the general assembly that fund fund two already exists in our schools this isn't an ask for finding more money during a time when budgets are Slimmer and cuts are pending but an ask for an allotment to be made a line item added into already existing budgets that would direct funds to the school library each year there are many districts that already have a formula for per pupil spending such as Durham and Chapel Hill carbo schools for example with the average price of a library book costing $21 even asking for about half of that $10 per student each year would help to increase the average age
069of our collections the current guidelines from ncdpi for school library collections are no more than 10 years old for an outstanding collection 12 years for developing 16 years old for a minimum and 17 years old for below minimum the weight County collection standards range from within 8 to 15 years of the current calendar year we calculate the age by averaging the copyright of each book in our collection based on the most recent data we looked at from the 2223 school year out of the 194 School libraries 138 of them had outdated collections with an average age across the District of 18 years old that's 71% of our school libraries not meeting the bare minimum of those same 194 schools 98 received 0 from fund two and 20 received less than $1 my question tonight is
070utilizing the funds we already have in fund two for instructional materials can we create a plan to sustainably fund our school libraries thank [Applause] you our next speaker is Lisa Johnson followed by Brooke wigs good evening my name is Lisa Johnson I'm the executive director of bright links an organization that serves highly gifted and twice exceptional students in our state gifted program standards and the Wake County AIG threeyear plan highly gifted and twice exceptional students are listed as underrepresented students today bright links is here to represent their voices and bring your attention to their needs including asking the board to review School Board policies 1150 3422 and 3423 to include highly gifted and twice exceptional students these students can come from any race or economic background which is why it is essential to provide more
071acceleration opportunities during school many families from Wake County have reached out to brightlings for support including paage of Wake County parents with whom bright links has now partnered wake parents Express frustration with barriers and policy limitations in this District which sits in the technology capital of North Carolina it's normal for highly gifted students to have some of the most atypical educational paths everyone expects a student that is three standard deviations below the average IQ to have a very individualized path requiring lots of resources the same is true for students with uh iq's three or more stand deviations above the average this is the highly gifted range unfortunately reality is numerous barriers to access few acceleration opportunities with little understanding and resources bright flight is on the rise and at bright links we hear the same
072three stories from our families one some never look at current policy some look at current policies and decide barriers are too great and never enroll two they leave Wake County Schools after multiple failed attempts at advoc advocacy for their children children or three they remain spending hours for their children with little result parents Stu and students encounter negative attitudes and are ignored even though requests are supported by Decades of research some can't afford some can't afford enrichment programs but others won't have the time transportation or financial resources and it's not right parents want simple and fast identification and Service delivery a clear path of gifted services and individualized plans more acceler ation opportunities AIG representation on IEP and 504 teams and Common Sense Solutions like hybrid homeschooling ability grouping with highly gifted cohorts prioritize enrollment
073enrollment for highly gifted and twice exceptional students at certain magnet schools where resources are it's not a one student at one school issue it's a district problem parents shouldn't have to watch their child's academic and developmental growth stagnate every child deserves to grow every day in their education including highly gifted and twice exceptional students thank you very much for listening our next speaker is Brooke wigs hi good evening I'm here as a mother of three who are in the public school system 6th 8th and 10th graders and I want to express my concern for the education that they are receiving my personal belief is that it is largely connected to the use of the Chromebooks because I saw how School operated and how the school day functioned without every child having their own personal Chromebook
074and then how it has changed and even seems to be increasingly changing and going toward a model of everything being on a screen I realize that we are living in a world of technology and we use technology a lot however I also hear my three children saying that they want to receive instruction from a teacher and they are not enjoying how the school day is going they do not like being just given an assignment of slides to do each child at their own desk to to go through slides essentially go through the instruction on a Chromebook instead of receiving the instruction from their teacher I sat down last week in a meeting with one of my sixth graders teachers her school counselor her sixth grade principal and the data data manager and when I expressed
075my disdain for the use of the Chromebooks I was honestly a little bit surprised to get a very emphatic head shaking as if we don't like this either from three out of four of those present in the room so my proposition would be investigate this further maybe it is something under investigation I just wonder how many teachers are not enjoying this somewhat new system of learning and education um one of the reason that I was one of the reasons I was there at the school was because my sixth grader um was involved in chatting um during school during class on her assigned Chromebook kids no Tech kids no technology better than we do they're going to be able to find a way around it my high schooler talks about how they sit and watch movies
076and it's accepted and that the teachers know about it and no one does anything to stop it but um it is now being investigated at my sixth graders school because they realized what an issue it is they have actually taken Chromebooks and are going and looking into these conversations that these kids are having that are spanning 45 solid minutes of class time where they're just back and forth in Google Slides where they have found ways to chat with each other so thank you our next speaker is Cecilia Joyce followed by Our Last speaker Richard Bridgers hello school board and superintendent Taylor thank you for listening and for all the good work you do for the benefit of all students and families in Wake County my comments today will be short I'm Cecilia Joyce the librarian
077at Dillard Drive Magnet Elementary I brought you a message from some of the second graders at my school we were talking today about the value of our school library as we were discussing quality education this is one of the u United Nations sustainable development goals which guide our work as a Global Studies magnet school so our student said we want you to know that we need to have an equal amount of money for our school library let's say about $ to $10 per student we need to have books that are current and most interesting to our students we need books on topics like Global Studies and in other languages because we are a magnet school sometimes kids lose or damage books and we need money to replace them School libraries are so important because some
078families can't afford to buy books for their kids it is fair for each school to have enough money to buy the books they need thank you for listening and thank you for your service to Wake County [Applause] thanks good evening uh before I begin I would like to voice my support and uh to the students who came up and spoke they were courageous they were relatable reasonable and Innovative and please take the time to respond to their emails 20 minutes out of your day to talk to students who are trying to get across an important message that's the bare minimum for Schoolboard members in my opinion now the reason I'm here tonight is because on Friday February 28th of this year a substitute teacher at South South Lakes Elementary School grabbed my son in an
079aggressive manner I reported this incident to the vice principal the day of he assured me he would have a prompt investigation and talk to my son when I picked him up on Monday that investigation had never happened is as if it didn't happen when I spoke to my uh the new principal she took the Reigns now I'm hopeful that she's doing what she should do but my history with South Lakes Elementary School includes uh during the co years the art teacher told my daughter she was stupid while I was in the room the principal said I've known that woman for years she's taught for me for years she would never say anything like that during my son's kindergarten year he was isolated on multiple occasions the longest being about 4 hours without letting me know
080about it when I told the principal I was I did not appreciate this she blew it off when I reached out to the area superintendent their investigation was I called the princi she said that didn't happen but now that I am here and physical contact has been made with my son I ask that you take this very serious and if the vice principal did not take the appropriate actions file whatever form he's supposed to file or it reported in any way shape or form I ask that you remove him from his post not only does this in not only does this expose our children to a dangerous individual but it exposes the entire system to Legal liability please do not brush this under the table if this happens again I will not be so kind
081and there will be legal involvement thank you for taking the time to listen to me and again please talk to your students answer those emails have the meeting it'll change their entire lives thank you and have a good night thank you all right we will now turn to our information item our superintendent's comments thank you Mr Vice chair uh first of all it's National School social worker week a time to recognize our hardworking and compassionate School social workers for their critical support they provide for families and students in need our school social workers promote positive change by working with students and families to eliminate barriers to learning they help and secure needed resources for our students connect families to Community Partners who can provide assistance encourage students to remain engaged in school each day and
082manage physical and mental health services they are a Lifeline for students and families experiencing difficulties and their work is an essential part of our mission to make sure every student reaches their full potential please take time this week to honor your school social workers for all they do to support student well-being and and success I'd also like to take this time to recognize Erica stacky a school social worker in the office of early learning who was announced today as the 2024 25 Wake County Public School school social worker of the Year miss ducky has worked uh for our district for nearly 20 years and in that time has developed a reputation for going the extra mile for students and for families uh the colleague who nominated her for this award praised her huge heart her
083dedication to supporting preschoolers and their families and her vision for how all of the Wake County Public School families should be supported she spends weekends delivering supplies to families and makes time to support anyone who ask not just prek families this kind of selfless service makes Miss Stucky a worthy recipient of this year's School social worker of the Year award so my thanks to her and all of her school and all of our school social workers for making sure all students have the opportunity to receive the Priceless gift of Education this week is also National School breakfast week uh when we highlight the important role of school breakfast and what it plays in supporting both the academic and behavioral needs of our students you've heard it said that breakfast is the most important meal of
084the day and that is doubly true for our young people a nutritious breakfast ensures students have the energy and the focus they need to encourage to engage in the classroom this year's School breakfast week theme is clue in to school breakfast clue in to school breakfast absolutely uh our child nutrition services staff members will prepare special menu items each day of the week such as secret agent French toast and who done it Froot Loops waffles man I got to get out and get me some School breakfast I'll tell you uh it's a fun way to remind us all of the serious business of making sure all students are ready to learn each day uh I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone who took time to attend last week state of the schools
085address as well as those who uh watch it online I was told that we've had nearly 4,000 people to view uh our state of the schools address online I'm I'm just super uh excited about that we were joined by hundreds of students families and Educators and Community supporters at Southeast Raleigh magin High School to celebrate our recent successes and to share more details about how our new learning model will improve outcomes for all students uh the stars of the show were definitely our student performers who helped who helped us bring the concepts of the new learning model to life uh you can find a summary of the event on our website and you can watch the entire presentation on your YouTube channel including seeing the superintendent do the robot uh we get there I can
086tell you was an inspiring moment to take stock of the progress we have made in the recent years and to share with our community how we intend to build on our success so again my thanks to all who attended as well as to the many folks who came together to make this a memorable uh evening and making it possible uh lastly as a wrap up to the Black History Month I'd like to share the video recap of last week's D to dream black history month program in Lian Magnet Middle School on that event U was late into the week so we now have the video to be able to share that uh so again the uplifting event uh featured incredible performances by both students and staff so let's take a look at the [Music] video
087tonight we presented African-Americans in labor Dare To Dream a black history program for Wake County Public Schools we had students from eight areas in our district and faculty and staff who formed a gospel choir so we showcased the many talents of our students Performing Arts as well as Visual Arts it means a lot to me to be able to express and show what my culture has done in American history and show how not only people who look like me but people all of all cultures in America have both uh influenced Arts but also spoken word and different crafts that will be shown here tonight [Applause] all the there's been a lot of work a lot of running from the technical theater team here at Lian Middle School a lot of running by of course uh
088Dr Janine Perry Campbell and a lot of just juggling trying to get everybody here getting rehearsals making sure everyone's in their spots uh but you know just because we're doing it for a great cause I believe everything works for the greater good and that's what happen it's important for us to do events like this so we can showcase all of the talents of our students we heard yesterday in Dr Taylor state of the school address that knowing me and seeing me is very important for our students and seeing them perform seeing their passion seeing them live out their dreams on stage they all deserve to be seen and known and all of their talent [Music] showc thank you Dr Taylor and thank you for giving us a recap of that great celebration um at this
089point I will entertain a motion for the adoption of our consent agenda motion by Miss rice second second by Miss mafy all in favor say I oppose same sign the eyes have it and we will now move to our action item our first one is from the chief of schools uh the naming of windale area East Elementary land bake site e57 that will be presented by Mr cor Roa thank you evening good evening St is here for the naming of e Del area elementary site near Highway 97 in marshburn Road staff brought this to you to the facilities committee meeting on February 11th and then again at the board meeting on February 18th at that time additional feedback was requested and we are here to share that with you this evening a second thought exchange
090was shared uh with families after that first meeting board members were provided a link to that thought exchange so you have it um with you now I will outline the information that was uh shared through that survey a reminder this information only includes the thought exchange for the second thought exchange we sent not the first one so in the second thought exchange there were 380 participants which generated 293 thoughts there were 3,892 ratings which uh comes out to about 10 a little over 10 ratings per participant the alignment was low which means that you had um thoughts that didn't kind of uh go with each other they had um conflicting thoughts the top three topics the a AI generated groups of thoughts were one naming controversy uh naming controversy educational environment and name familiarity who
091participated 62% of the participants were uh notified that they were a parent or a guardian uh Community member was 41% staff 7% and student 1% where were were the participants from 89% of the participants said they were from Eastern wake which is night Dale Wendell zebulun area 4% were from the northeastern wake which is Northeast Raleigh rolleville and Wake Forest Area and 3% from the central wake which is Central and Southeast Raleigh area the race and eth ethnicity of the participants 57% um shared that they were of white um white or Caucasian um 24% black or African-American nine Hispanic or Latino then AI gives a summary of the feedback and all the data and that summary stated the following the responses to the questions about naming the new elementary school highlights several key considerations many
092respondents favored Lizard Lick Elementary due to its historical significance Community identity and unique character despite some concerns about negative annotations from the TV show and potential stigmatization marshburn Road Elementary is appreciated for its clear location reference and simp and simplicity while Fall Branch Elementary is seen as professional Pleasant and nature inspired overall the importance of reflecting local history Community Pride and ease of identification are recurring themes in the feedback the final Poll for the three different names Fall Branch Elementary had 23% of the vote Lizard Lick Elementary had 52% of the vote and marshburn Road Elementary had 25% of the vote staff is now seeking a board vote for the final uh for the official name of the e57 site I'll turn it over to you thank you Mr Cora thank you Mr carosa and
093to your staff for uh going through this I know it was not a it was a very interesting process I know we had to reopen it because there are some error so I do want to thank you and Miss Parker although she's no longer here for her efforts into this so at this point um staff's looking for a name uh so I'm going to open it for a motion from the board or unless there's any questions so I've been thinking about this and I I think I have a compromise since this has been so tight we saw our last time and this time is that we named the School marshburn Road and we out have the mascot be the lizards and I feel like that's probably a good piece so I'll make a motion to
094that effect marshburn Road and a mascot of the lizards so we have a motion by Miss mafy to name the school marshburn road with the lizard as the mascot make a motion to to a wait hold on hold on so we have a second by Mr Hershey is there any discussion Miss CI so I've gotten a lot of feedback with this and excuse me I've gotten a lot of feedback with it with um mostly support almost all support of Lizard Lick because of the history um and I think when we opened it up for the survey and we allowed the community to say what their choice was we got 52% with Lizard Lick so I'd hate to kind of go back on that after we gave them the choice of giving their opinion and then
095change it yes Miss rice did you have um right so um I I can appreciate uh the statement of um my former member um speaking however I I do want to be mindful that the intent of gathering the information from my understanding was not to give the complete power of our uh Community to name it we took that as a piece of consideration which was a very important piece um to make a decision um we also received other information around what was most um prevalent around naming of the school and other information so our community engagement is always a critical piece and role uh of making a decision however we always receive other information and feedback from staff as well and so I just want to from my perspective as a board member and my
096thought process is to clear up the understanding of of uh the naming of a school or within precedence of what we've previously done is not necessarily completely given to the community um and so but it is a piece of a community input that is necessary for other for us to make the best decision for the people that we represent with the information that we have I'm just trying to make sure that I understand that as that's what I understood when we had that discussion as a board member I'm not two of my other board members had that same understanding and that is correct this is the first time that we've ever reached out to the public for feedback on the naming it's generally a staff recommendation right yes M yeah I was looking at the
097feedback we got last time where Marsh bur Road was the second was the runner up which was you know and I know there was initial concern between the two so I figured it was a compromise but how many folks did you say completed the survey this time around there there were 380 this second time around so and the school capacity would not be a lot more than that that is correct it would generally be somewhere we're thinking depending on the size 616 716 capacity do you have a follow up no okay Mr Hershey when when's the time frame for the school to even be planned built that sort of thing it's a number of years off right it's several years off if if you're looking to delay the the naming we could do no okay
098good no the the but if we name something now you know it's not written in pen where if there's an outpour no you know closer I mean we're so far away this is the first step we'll do a lot of it if it needs to be Revisited when I'm long after this off this board then that'll be fine so I would um make oh I can't even think anymore I'm ready I'm ready to get to the vote so I hear a call a question from Mr Hershey is there any other hearing none I guess well yes I I will entertain a vote so the vote at this point is um the naming of the site to be uh marshburn road with a recommendation of the mascot to be the lizard as a compromise so all
099in favor say I I oppose nay so I believe that say F I'll I'll do a roll call to make it easier Miss rice yay okay Miss Cofield N I miss miss Gordon i m Hershey I I'll vote in I is so the vote is 51 so the motion passes thank you for your staff and looking forward to visiting the new site thank you Mr croa have a good evening so our next item is Miss Coffield a letter of support uh a letter supporting legal action towards power schools I'll turn it over to you thank you um so um this letter that we have um in assembly was a letter that was um drafted toor Attorney General Jackson as uh part of a joint effort with other school boards around North Carolina to encourage the
100Attorney General to pursue legal action um and 48 months of protection from Power School from the Power School data breach that we had that affected 64 million people across the nation um and I believe that it's well over 200,000 here in Wake County if I have those numbers are updated and correct so as anyone who has experienced any kind of identity theft or struggles excuse me knows that we have um you know your personal data being out there could be of real burden so this letter was um I know it was edited a couple times um because the first letter that was sent to the attorney general he um in turn with new uh Hanover County he in turn did do a press release and said that he was going to in fact pursue legal
101action um against Power School so um the letter is kind of um edited a little bit but still to encourage and continue the in the joint effort to make sure that the effort itself continues so that we can give our teachers and our students some uh protection and assistance going forward for 48 months great so I'd like to make a motion if we could um approve the letter but I did want to add one one change in there in the second paragraph um where it says we want to express our support for our investigation on this matter and I was going to instead of saying including the possibility to add the words and encourage so we did remove some I guess more um I guess I'll say forceful language towards the end that was really
102like uh trying to get them to understand the magnitude and to pursue it um but he already did a press release saying he was so we kind of left that out great so miss cofield's motion is to adopt the language well to adopt the letter and include some strikeouts of some language yes to remove include the possibility of and instead use the words encourage so I would like to make a motion that we approve this letter um and allow the board to have it signed and send it off to our attorney general okay you've heard the motion is there a second okay hearing no there's not a second so attorney Malone that means the motion dies uh that would be correct yes okay well we will now turn to our board comments of the meeting
103um I'm sorry do you want to do first nope I'll get to that after that so um I'll kick off our board comments since our chair is not here um Dr Taylor thank you for highlighting the greatness that is happening in our your state of the schools address um it was a great way for the community to see the see me engage me hear me and challenge me peace um and to highlight some of our great students talents so I was great to see my colleagues there um also hopefully I our two new retirees are not watching this meeting um but had a great opportunity celebrating the retirement of Dr Sexton who is now our former Western Wake area superintendent and our former Chief of school Chief Ella so hope they're enjoying the next phase
104of their retirement life um and as we are celebrating uh rake up and Reed Across America I wanted to thank Miss Barcelona for the invitation Monday uh to read to some third graders at Wilburn elementary school so um looking forward to to attending tomorrow's pieces of goal celebration and to highlight our great students as in the Arts um so those are my comments I'll kick it off to miss mafy and we'll just go on a circle Miss mfy I would uh like to thank the Carrie Chamber of Commerce for hosting our principles for uh lunchin and recognizing that the work that the work that they do and um happy International women's month Miss CI thank you um I had the pleasure of meeting our legislators legislators and advocating for our teachers one of them was
105our representative Erin pre to discuss some of our needs here in way County um one of them was to support the higher pay for our beginner teachers to start at 50,000 for all our teachers proportionally as well um I was proud to see that um representative P paray introduced the bill to support the starting teacher pay at 50,000 5% for our non-certified staff and Masters pay right now we are at 41,000 and North Carolina ranks at 38 in the nation and 41st for the average starting teacher pay yet we're the 15th largest in the nation while there are a few things that we can do to further support our teachers like longevity pay and extra support with the behavioral and disciplinary struggles that they have we should be able to come together with a nonpartisan
106support for our teachers and their need for a living livable AG to be able to support our community in North Carolina specifically D way County often referred to as the best place to live in the United States and the number one rank to raise a family here in in North Carolina and I do hope the support continues to approve this bill um for all of our teachers even further I'd like to see the longevity pay return to our seasoned teachers because they are the most valuable to our for our students and our new teachers as they provide the support expertise and mentorship which is invaluable I was encouraged to see that uh Senators Lee Bergen and Barnes also introduce s sp55 the student use of wireless communication devices and fully support this bill I recently
107wrote an opinion piece for Carolina journal on technology and education and I appreciate that this is being recognized as a struggle that we face in our schools I look forward to having and seeing some support from our legislators as a school district we would still have to create our own policy and we are currently working on that and would like and what that would look like the survey was sent out to the students and to the parents and was extended to March 11th so we encourage you to um please participate in that survey and help us out with your where you stand I was however disappointed that 45 senators in congress voted against the protection of women and girls Sports act I am not sure what message that is sending to our young female athletes
108and how we support them their right to safe faes and safety in sports some of these female sports have been injured female sport athletes have been injured and lost scholarships and earn recognition for their achievements and I'm disappointed that those in leadership did not vote to support our female athletes it was a busy two weeks at the joint commissioners meeting um well we went to a joint commissioners meeting and discussed some of the budget things that are coming up in um March and then out to the state of town in night Dale where mayor Jessica day and their community director Rachel Morris spoke about the great things that are going on in night Dale these two ladies are always doing some great things in their growing Town including additions to the park and beautification projects
109to lift the town but it is more about how they brought the community together they have multip they gave multiple Awards out one of them was to the Scouts of America troop 365 for their Community appearance award we were also greeted by ndale students band another thing that I really appreciated was their operation green light for veterans where businesses and homes would light up for the week in green to show their support for our veterans and to let them know that they were seen appreciated and supported in honor of women's History Month which started in 1987 where President Reagan signed a proclamation to make the entire month of May women's History Month I wanted to lift up these two ladies from night Dale who are making history in their own way they put they put
110so much into their talent and I wanted to share that another lady that I wanted to lift up who is making history is Payton McNab president Trump invited North Carolina's Payton McNab as his special guest for the State of the Union tonight and Payton's courage to speak out resulted in North Carolina passage of the fair fairness in women's sports act which protects opportunities and safety in female athletes I know North Carolina is going to be proud once again to watch our n DC we also had the state of the school where Dr Taylor um he was able to speak about our schools and how we wanted to empower our students to see me challenge me hear me and know me one of the best parts about this job is getting out and seeing our children
111grow and enjoying their incredible talents and successes we heard about um a second grader overcoming her challenges with language the robotics clubs delivered a gift to Dr Taylor up on stage and the debate team presented a case and we finish off the show with our very talented night d student her name was Faith who sang a song from Color Purple her incredible Talent blew us all away and I look forward to seeing her in the play that is coming up in April in ndale ndale high school Hayden toown um we had a sneak peek sorry my screen just kind of blinked we had a sneak peek so I know that our family is going to enjoy going out to see her and I'm sure we will not see the last of these Future Stars I
112wanted to thank Miss Honeycut for coming out to our board advisory meeting she did uh she came out to discuss the opportunities for the CTE program and I will be sending out the slides to district one so that everybody has the availability to look at that she talked about how the program works and how our families can learn more about what this could look like for their student we are working on that now on our website so hopefully we'll have a userfriendly option that we could help our students engage but also for parents that may not be able to know what is available that is one feedback that we had that they did not know what was available and how to how to get to that so hopefully this will help close those gaps for
113those parents our next board advisory will be in April and we'll be discussing the AIG programs this is still evolving but staff will be joining us for a presentation that's on three that we also will see in student achievement in March 18th we'll be discussing AIG the process the updated three-year program some ways that our uh we could connect with our families with the AIG services and too often our students are met with roadblocks and the stigma that because they're in the AIG that they'll be able they're smart and they'll figure it out um but some of them are not finding their space and I think that closing these gaps and getting all that information out for our parents will definitely close the gaps and help our AIG so stay stay tuned for some more
114of that information both with student achievement and at the board advisory thank you thank you Miss cell Miss rice great things are always happening in District 4 where we are empowering education and elevating communities I attended multiple events since our last board meeting the black history celebration was outstanding trib um trib tributes to our labor force contributions Dr Taylor knocked it out the park delivering our state of the school address I must highlight and uplift the excellent framework for student centered success led by Dr Stacy Wilson Norman and staff superb delivery on what see me know me engage me challenge me should look like to our teachers thank you for putting this model into action daily and developing your skills and tools to deliver it flawlessly with intention and pride and finally the students the
115reason why we exist our students they were Beyond extraordinary in their performances I also attended Raleigh nor Raley mil apartment grand opening grand reopening of their Community Center I engage the families on how to access support within this within our district project Enlighten it Enlightenment showed up and supported families to share they um to share their um continued support for early childhood education and resources other Community Partners attended and all participants were well received by the families and wanted to engage more and ask for school-based support finally our eight Dimensions of Wellness focus on how we can improve connectivity and student achievement through social Wellness two tips host Community conversations and engagement events schools and Board of Education members can organize regular fors where students staff parents and community members openly discuss challenges and collaborate
116on Solutions fostering trust and shared accountability second we can create peer mentorship and and support networks establish student-led mentorship programs where older students guide younger peers and staff Community Partnerships provide holistic support ensuring every student has a strong social and academic Foundation focusing on these um suggested tips I want to say thank you to parents and communities that participated in the talking with t rice on Mondays at 12:15 and 12:45 focused on education Wellness um please know your voice voices were seen and heard and finally please join me um on March the 10th at 6:30 p.m. um with um NC representative Monika Johnson Hustler councilman Corey Branch commissioner Tara Waters and staff members representing each level of government and a panel discussion on a Community Voices town hall on mental health and special education support
117you can visit tashar rise.org to register so you can continue to empower education Elevate communities so that we all can have positive and productive days thank you chair thank you coming around the table we'll go to miss Gordon thank you Vice chair um March is a very busy month um I got to participate in read Across America week um the National Education Association celebrates children from all backgrounds reading from diverse books and I got to read to the exceptional children's class over at Timber Drive Elementary um um and I received several hugs I also got to speak to uh Miss Bess who is the school occupational therapist and I got to witness her in action and she she also shared with me that her husband Al um comes to the Schoolboard meetings a lot and
118so I wanted to lift the two of them up who serve our County both as Educators um and uh March is also youth arts in our schools month where we celebrate Advocate and and educate about the impact of Arts education many thanks to Green Hope High School for sending me swag I love swag um green hopes Advanced theater Ensemble um was chosen to move on to the Southeastern theater conference for their production of anonymous and they are currently raising funds for their journey to na for their journey to Nationals through their silent auction which you can um support them at greenhope theater.org um and look forward to going to see their next theater production SpongeBob the musical um and finally I would like to address the state of schools address um I want to speak
119to the power of Storytelling and most importantly the power of Storytelling through those closest to the issues we faced in public education in my line of work I have learned that storytelling is a bridge between understanding and action storytelling helps us build the connection between see me challenge me engage me and know me by ensuring that students voices are heard and that parents Educators and the community see themselves as partners in Student Success when we weave storytelling into our District's culture we create a learning environment where every student is seen challenged engaged and known despite the circumstances by working together Educators families and community members we sure we ensure that students are not just a part of the system but at the heart of it so today I have an ask for students parents and
120Educators students what's your story don't be afraid to tell your story loudly and boldly like that courageous second grader did the night of um the state of the schools address families what do you know about the story of your child's school bus driver cafeteria worker school counselor coach or teacher and educators what spaces are we creating so that students and families feel inspired and safe to tell their stories thank you Mr Hershey will'll close us out thank you uh Vice chair Swanson um I'll be brief our uh district 6 BAC meeting will next be at Sanderson high school on March 24th at 5:30 p.m. we will be discussing the budget since I believe that's coming to us next meeting and um there is a lot going on on I'm hopeful and I I need to
121find out who to reach out to about potentially getting a legislative update um if someone could be available for that for that meeting as well and I just want to close by saying um as an elected member of a public school board and as a board as we advocate for people in public service in our schools who do incredible work without any desire to become wealthy that you don't go into public service to to be rich and famous um I just want to acknowledge all the underappreciate the underappreciated public servants being fired at the federal level largely without justification without regard for the positive impact they have on our communities right here in W County and in our country this includes but is not limited to scientists air traffic controllers veterans Wildfire firefighters and many
122many more and I just want them to know that as a public um School Board member elected official I stand with them as they go through this totally unnecessary um going on at our federal government level thank you Vice chair thank you and at this point I will entertain a motion to approve the HR recommendations so moved motion by Miss mafy seconded by Miss rice all in favor say I I oppose same sign the eyes have it now the moment we've all been waiting for I guess I will entertain a motion to adjourn um motion by Miss rice seconded by Miss Gordon all in favor say I I oppose same signs the eyes have it and we are a journ thank you for