001e e e he'll be here after wor e e e all right good evening everyone welcome tonight is our uh February 18th regular board meeting of the Wake County uh Wake County Board of Education those of you who are able please stand as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right thank you all we have a full house tonight so if I could I need to remind everyone that Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its
002official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in according with in accordance with North Carolina General statute 143 31817 all right so uh looking around the boardroom we do have a quorum Dr in will be joining us later in the evening um we have said the Pledge of Allegiance so the next item on our agenda is approval of the meeting agenda and based on our work session progress and based on the full crowd we have tonight I'd like to entertain two amendments to the agenda um first I'd like
003to add to board action approval of the wcpss Board of Education federal legislative priorities and second I would like to move board member comment to after additional public comment if needed that way we can get through all of the public comment here first especially with the potential for bad weather and cold weather tonight all right um having said that is there a motion so moved we have a motion from Vice chair Swanson to amend the agenda as noted we have a second from Miss mafy all in favor of the amendment please the amended Mo of the amended the motion to amend please say I I thank you all right any opposed all right the amendment passes now we need to vote for adoption of the amended agenda all in favor oh I do Mr chair
004so moved all right we have a motion from Vice chair Swanson to adopt the amended agenda with a second from Miss maaf all in favor any opposed all right great now we can continue on with the agenda all right um first item that we have on the amended agenda then with no in no other information items will be the public comment portion speakers commenting on items on tonight's agenda will be heard ahead of speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be heard in order of their signup only the person speaking at the podium will be able to stand all other attendees that are not speaking should remain seated concerns related to Personnel issues or student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies so if you've
005come with something that is very specific to your student or classroom situation please stay afterwards and we can direct you to staff who is here who can help you to resolve that problem or issue also I should mention that our students are given priority in speaking so they will be given the first opportunities to speak at public comment tonight in the interest of maintaining Civility and decorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the Board of Education those of us up here and um must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the staff the members of the general public please be respectful of your fellow speakers it takes a lot of courage and a lot of Bravery to get up in front of a lot of people you don't know with everyone watching
006you and even if you're intending to be supportive hopefully you would not you know be trying to interrupt please do refrain from those comments it can rattle someone in they speaking and you want to give them the benefit of their full time during oh also any any materials you wish to hand out please give those out either before or after you begin speaking those can be given to Mr Malone our board attorney here and he will ensure that those are made part of our meeting minutes and distributed to every board member let's see uh please remain at the podium during your speaking time once you begin uh your time will begin once you start to speak and you may speak for up to 3 minutes the microphones are adjustable uh when you begin speaking the
007green light at the podium will light up to let you know that your time has begun a yellow light will show up with an AUD with an audible tone that first tone you hear is just a notice that there are 30 seconds left remaining in your time when you're speaking time is up you will hear uh the tone a second time and that yellow light will turn into a red light at that time it's important that you end your comment and step away from the podium because the next speaker is going to be called up we want to make sure that all speakers get their full allotted time so please respect the time limit speak no more than three minutes you are permitted to speak for Less oftentimes that's not the case so first as
008I mentioned we will hear from our students tonight uh the first speak the first student speaker we have is Charlie Pine who'll be followed by Samuel ccasta is Charlie here okay if Charlie's not here we'll bump him to the the back of the oh is that Charlie no I'm Sam okay oh then yes we will go to Sam ccasta who will be followed by anelie Joseph Sam come on up thank you good evening members of the board my name is Sam siron and I'm and I currently serve as the vice president of role plays for my for Bron High School's very own Deca chapter I wanted to to take this opportunity to discuss how great DEA has been for myself my fellow Wake County students as well as thanking the board for their continued support
009of our organization starting with the former Deca has provided us with countless opportunities for growth and success in terms of competitive events our members have taken significant strides to to prove their competence as it relates to business administration marketing Finance hospitality and tourism and Entrepreneurship students demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways including doing roleplay events and written papers this past December bronze chapter competed at NC District 3 competition where despite this being only our second year as a chapter four teams placed in their respective events soon we'll be heading off to state competition in Greensboro where members will attend workshops and compete for a chance to attend International competition at in Orlando moving forward to our Outreach programs this year chapter members raised funds and awareness for a variety of issues recently our
010chapter raised hundreds of dollars as well as creating nearly 200 individual butterflies for Riley's Army furthermore as part of their project management event two students raised well over $2,000 for Pediatric cancer research using their knowledge of marketing to fundraise and collect donations we and BR and deck are so thankful for the board's continued support of programs like these Deca has become one of the largest student organizations in Wake County and we couldn't be thankful more thankful for the board support we like to send a special thank you to District Six representative Mr Sam Hershey for for volunteering his time to judge at District 3 competition in December as well as his exceptional support to Wake County Deca thank you all have a great evening thank you Mr Casta all right our next speaker excuse me
011excuse me remember we got a lot of speakers we got to get through tonight so uh their next speaker is anelie Joseph uh speaking on student uh CTE student organizations and distributed education clubs of America AKA Deca and anelie will be followed by Harper Rossy good evening Miss Joseph hi good evening um thank you so much for letting me speak and coincidentally enough I do really want to focus on Deca here today and basically a little bit more um I am the vice president of career development at our green level Deca chapter and basically what we were hoping was that we could um request like additional funding or resources or any of those sort of bills to be supported as the can I really quickly get a show of hands of how many of you
012guys know about like the ctsos or like how much you know about like Career Technical student organizations oh yeah okay so about most of you guys so basically a lot of these Career Technical student organizations are really beneficial for students to be able to explore career Pathways start develop um find out what they are passionate about and also explore fields that they may have not even been intrigued about in the past like I will say for me um Deca was a great entryway into into business and I was not really considering it before and now I'm really passionate about business and I feel like a lot of these students should be given the chance to explore their career options and by funding and resources for these sorts of clubs especially like Deca which focuses a
013lot about business marketing that sort of things and then like HOSA which focuses on the health science field um there's FFA which focuses on Agricultural and there's many anymore and I feel like if we could get increased funding or resources for those kinds of clubs then that would be amazing for us to be able to continue to support students and also allow them to grow and develop their skills because especially with a lot of these um organizations being competition based um students are able to get a lot of skills such as public speaking um they can build their confidence kind of start networking with other individuals that they may want to look forward into like maybe even working with and things like that so I would also like to um thank you guys for your
014continued support for these organizations thank you all right our next speaker is Harper Rossy and then we'll give one more chance to Charlie Pine if Charlie is here um thank you uh my name is Harper Rossy I go by she her pronouns um and I attend Carri High School um I would like to begin by thanking uh Tyler Swanson for being vocally supportive of all of the people who attend our school and I would also like to thank Sam Hershey for his vocal support at the last meeting in two weeks waight County schools are required to remove all programs relating to diversity equity and incl illusion this includes School clubs like the uh GSA the black Student Association and the Latino Student Association as a transgender person I understand the value of finding a community
015which not only accepts you but understands you a group of people to which you do not need to explain who you are having a GSA at my school gave me a community I may not know what it's like to be black or Latino or Muslim but I understand the common need to have a community which you can rely on we need these communities to continue to exist in our schools thus I would like to ask the school board to please pass rulings which will protect both these clubs and the schools that host them our diversity is our strength and we need to guarantee that our diversity is protected thank you very much all right we excuse me one last attempt uh for Charlie Pine if Charlie is here okay all right then we'll then go
016to our on agenda speakers we have two speakers on agenda uh subba ready uh m m ready is subba here all right then if subba is not here then the next speaker on agenda is Christina Cole good evening good evening superintendent Dr Taylor board members District staff community members I'm Christina Cole a Wake County special education teacher by trade former coordinating teacher in the office of equity Affairs currently serving as the Wake ncae president as a special education teacher I've worked my entire career in Wake County schools at Washington Elementary Centennial midal Panther Creek and Apex friendship high schools as your federal legislative priority States your conversation earlier today the US Department of Education plays a vital role in safeguarding our most vulnerable student populations through policy and funding including our disabled students who receive
017special education services and funding guaranteed under idea and 504 laws our multilingual and immigrant students students living in poverty and the list goes on so thank you for your discussion today and urging the federal Administration to do what's right by our students as a coordinating teacher in the office of equity Affairs during the current president's previous term in 2018 through 2022 we did and can do necessary work to support those marginalized populations in our Public Schools we can acknowledge the diversity of the United States in our Public Schools meaning acknowledging admiring affirming the differences between people which is a K2 learning standard we can create classroom communities and public schools where those differences are welcome and everyone is included regardless of those differences we can and we must talk about Equity addressing systems of power
018that exist and have existed for centuries to oppress specific and marginalized specific groups of people so thank you Mr Sam Hershey for your Brave comments last month we have to keep saying these things out loud and that brings me to my final Point as the president of the public school work Union here in Wake which is a part of the nation's largest labor union Nea something that gets missed in the current political moment is the role of capitalism and class identity no one in this room is a billionaire this room is made up and our public schools are made up of workingclass people we as workingclass people are a majority of whom work in and send their kids to public schools and we need to be United against billionaires and privatizers who are overtaking our
019government though it looks a little different than January 6 and privatizing every public institution and getting rid of every social safety net meant to protect and support the working class including our beloved Public Schools the billionaire class is using these differences to divide us sewing seeds of chaos and confusion to have us fighting each other instead of fighting them what unites us across race and gender lines as our working class identity so I urge everyone across the across party lines across this room to protect the promise of our Public Schools We Must Stand United to defend and transform them and we must fight to win thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker tonight is Malik small who'll be followed by Joseph Deon is Malik here all right in that case we'll turn
020it over to uh Joseph Deon and Mr Deon will be followed by May Mitchell good evening last time I I told you how wpath suppressed publication of evidence reviews that did not support their treatment guidelines they have a history of this at a 2017 W path conference Professor Ken Zucker organiz the panel discussion relevant to your title 9 policies when research that showed the majority of children with uh get over gender dysphoria with no intervention whereas social transition locks in dysphoria activists who are part of those conferences shouted down the discussion the W path organizers then cancelled the session and apologized for scheduling it in 2023 wpath pressured a journal to fire Zucker as editor and retract articles also relevant to your title 9 policies showing that rapid onset dysphoria of adolescence was due to
021social contagion and or mental health issues at the Tavistock gender Clinic two internal reviews were suppressed clinicians who worried that they were violating the hypocritic oath were labeled as transphobic and drummed out seven out of eight adult gender clinics refused to provide data to the cast review about the outcomes for Tavistock patients who transferred into the the adult clinics a Tavistock study that failed to reproduce the results of the original Dutch protocol was withheld from publication while Tavistock continued prescribing puberty blockers and hormones anyway until they were forced to publish by a a malpractice lawsuit Professor Olsen Kennedy at USC who is also being sued has withheld results from publication to during my career I have never seen anything like this we do not make progress in science and medicine by blocking Publications firing people
022and refusing to consider data that doesn't agree with our Theory Wake County must end participation in this Scandal that includes everything from gender identity books and libraries to use of locker rooms reserved for the opposite sex and to forcing every body uh to use false pronouns thank thank you and good evening thank you Mr Dayton our next speaker is May Mitchell and Miss Mitchell will be followed by Eric Shepard good evening members of the Wake County School Board my name is May Mitchell and I'm here as a parent of two kids in the Wake County school system to today I want to bring attention to a critical issue affecting some of our most vulnerable students which is Latino immigrants and lgbtq youths who are facing heightened threats due to the recent political actions at the
023state and National levels we are seeing real consequences of these policies in our schools attendance rates among high school students particularly those from Latino immigrant households have dropped as families fear harassment discrimination or even deportation related consequences lgbtq students especially in Middle School are experiencing higher levels of distress with national and local research showing a rise in suicide rates according to the Trevor Project's 2023 National survey on lgbtq youth mental health 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year with rates even higher among transgender and non-binary students the cudc also reported suicide rates among middle schoolers have been rising with lgbtq students experiencing a disproportionate levels of bullying depression and self harm these are not just statistics but our students and our children I understand that the district is likely Consulting with legal counsel
024to navigate the chaos stemming from federal actions but harm is happening now I also want to take a moment to appreciate the guidelines way county has provided regarding ice Presence at schools this is a crucial step in ensuring that immigrant families feel safer sending their children to school however fear and uncertainty still linger and more must be done to protect our students I respectfully ask what concrete steps is Wake County taking to ensure that immigrant and lgbtq students feel safe supported and valued in their schools how are we addressing the mental health challenges that they are facing and how can we improve our access to counseling Crisis Support Services our students need to hear loud and clear that County public schools are committed to their safety their mental health and their future and most importantly
025their dignity I urge you to take action and provide transparency on how this district will protect all students and Dr ning is not here today but I wrote this last paragraph specifically for him which is that I imagine that he cares deeply about how he shows up and the influence he has on others but I invite him to think about his own belief because I've listened to him speak the past several years and as a daughter of a Chinese immigrant I wonder if he recognizes the right sweep both have today are the result of the tireless work of black organizers and that I appreciate him speaking about the AI communities but the myth of the perfect immigrant is rooted in white supremacy and antiblackness and this kind of thinking thank you Miss Mitchell our next
026speaker our next speaker tonight is Eric Shephard and Mr Shephard excuse me one minute Mr Shephard will let those folks pass all right um Mr Shephard will begin and Mr Shephard will be followed by Elizabeth Bergen good afternoon members of the board my name is Eric Shepard and I'm one of your constituents I went to aversboro Carnage in southeast I have my degree in education I got my teachers license from the state of North Carolina I taught remedial English at Title One schools I did six tours in the Middle East I've been paying taxes to this school board for over a quarter Century my family's been on this land for five different governments we've paid taxes the entire time I'm here today because you heard my feelings and I'm offended you took time out of
027your taxpayer funded day to bully one of the genders of an entire race of your voting base and you're using Black History Month to do it the direct quote I'm referencing verbatim made last meeting by the board was it's really important to talk about that for 250 years it's been mediocre white men that have been hired based on their skin color and those other the facts I left parts of myself on foreign lands for this country for this County that I know is Home Gold Star parents have lost heart pieces and it wasn't for mediocrity it wasn't to be called mediocre by an elected official those comments called citizens who gave their lives for this country mediocre and they referred to 40% of the Wake County students Fathers as mediocre on the world stage and
028if this is the form of public humiliation that exists in front of the cameras what happens behind the scenes what kind of Kickback conversations what kind of rhetor rhetoric violence are we talking about behind the scenes this board's focus is supposed to be the effective regulation of the education system and we're supposed to be setting example for the children who are going to fill those seats in the future so I'm going to help give you some considerations to maybe refocus that a quarter of Wake County High School students tested below proficiency for reading over half tested below for math operational issues persist like hundreds of teacher vacancies and bus driver shortages student mental health issues like depression anxiety and teenage suicide are all rampant and increasing hidden statistics have no inquiries like unreported sexual assaults
029interracial violence and inappropriate teacher student engagement with this the tax payer cost per student is up to $110,000 per year so this is why you're seeing a rise in homeschooling because confidence in the bulk solution is going down confidence around having government officials around your children is going down so I'll leave you with these two essential questions before I walk out that door why am I paying taxes if I'm paying taxes and all the good numbers are going down and all the big numbers are going up and somebody from the most affluent District in my [ __ ] jurisdiction is going to call me mediocre have have a good night I appreciate it thank you Mr Shephard the next speaker is Elizabeth Bergen and Miss Bergen will be followed by Becky lobs good evening members of the
030board I'm here tonight to thank you for your continued efforts to support diversity in Wake County Schools our district has long been known for its commitment to supporting all students according to their needs and that work is more important now than ever for decades de facto School segregation in North Carolina has been on the rise the recent expansion of the opportunity scholarship voucher program is only making it worse diverting millions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into private schools that can pick and choose their students without oversight this system disproportionately benefits wealthy families who are already enrolled in private schools while our free Public Schools struggle with major funding gaps Wake County is facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall and our teachers remain severely underpaid this fuels a growing teacher of attention crisis
031leaving public school students underserved and pushing more families toward private schools including those that have become modern Havens for segregation in the face of increased inequality in North Carolina schools we need to strengthen diversity equity and inclusion efforts to ensure every student no matter their background has a fair shot at success we also need to further invest in competitive pay for the teachers and staff who are the backbone of our Public Schools I urge this board to push back in any way you can against Federal attacks on Dei initiatives and continue prioritizing higher teacher pay Wake County has the chance to lead the way in building a well-resourced and successful school system that serves all of its students not just the wealthy ones let's make sure we take it thank you thank you Miss Bergen
032our next speaker is Becky L Hobs who'll be followed by Jessica Lewis good evening we are going to follow the law and if the Law changes we'll change our policy this is the quote from chair Hagerty from when July when the Wake board rushed to implement the illegal Title 9 rewrite policies illegal you say Yes Federal Court vacated these Biden change of January 9th citing the 2020 Title 9 rules were now in effect last board meeting this board spent about an hour prattling on about how uncomfortable unsettled and unhappy you are I for one am thrilled of your so-called unhappiness fortunately there are two board members who chose to focus on students and academics this board should be ashamed of yourselves the lies and the hate spewed towards your political opposition and more importantly your
033constituents in November Millions voted for Change and are very hopeful for the direction our country is now going we the parents are tired of our kids not going to school and not learning to read or write four out of 10 kids are not reading at grade level six out of 10 kids are not proficient in math one which is required to graduate you've yet to explain to me how you can boast a 91% graduation rate now let's get on to some details of the last board meeting Mr Hershey said many many derogatory things this is not the first time that's happened yet this board and specifically the chair has done nothing we the parents vote for and the voters want what is best on the board we don't want somebody that's mediocre if you're mediocre
034get off he also said Dei hire is a replacement for the nword and then proceeded to call people losers no when any member of the board focuses on physical appearances which is what Dei does such as skin color instead of qualifications you end up getting people who are not the best focusing on appearances and classifications is a discredit to everybody black white Asian Hispanic anybody who has worked hard on their craft it discredits them and then there is Miss rice who kept referring to people who look like her why don't you just say black because you compared yourself to Keith Keith and Tyler Swanson and you guys look nothing alike why are you encouraging people to vote based on skin color not qualifications that is racist that is what Dei is seven of the nine
035board members worship at the feet of Dei to the detriment of our children diversity it focuses on quotas Equity it's the enemy of Excellence inclusion becomes compelled speech it's time to throw away Dei and get back to AC academic instruction and obey the law change your policies disband the department of equity Affairs and remove CRT and curricul Miss lops I apologize all right our next speaker is Jessica Lewis who will be followed by Katherine Rodriguez my name is Jessica and I have two children in the school system I am also the vice chair of moms for Liberty my daughter and I were honored to receive an invitation to the White House and attend president Trump's executive order signing of no males and female sports this executive order was signed February 5th so why has this
036school board not implemented these Title 9 changes in your policies next I would like to address the letter that the Department of Education sent to all 50 states stating that Dei will no longer be allowed this letter states that the law is clear treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve goals such as diversity racial B balancing social justice or Equity is illegal this means the office of equity Affairs needs to be dismantled along with any Dei programs February 28th is the deadline to say goodbye to Dei it will be in the best interest of this school district to comply if compliance is not met moms for Liberty is prepared to escalate this issue potentially leading to the loss of federal funding for the school district lastly I would like to address Sam
037Hershey my daughter's school board rep I am disgusted that you are allowed to spute hate racist comments call us losers from your Podium you are unprofessional and your resignation would serve us well we need a leader to represent our children and their education in D6 I will tell you after one of the last school board meetings um I was fired from my job for defending my daughter in the school system um as one of your fans as you like to call them um emailed my workplace anyways it was a blessing and disguise my new job the management now has a backbone and you do not have to um she said keep standing up for what is right so I don't have to worry about that anymore um my daughter was also bullied after that school
038board meeting um because it was very obvious that you set out a phone call text email to get your leftist crew out to the meeting and then they went home to their kids she was bullied she was put in a choke cold at her school dance pushed up against a wall from a girl waiting for her in the stairwell we've seen it all on video footage we've been down to the Wake County Attorney's Office with our attorney twice anyways the principal has denied it two times now because she said it doesn't follow policy 1710 or 1720 if a choke hold and push you someone against a wall doesn't go with your bullying policies maybe you need to review them um the disgusting part is if we appeal it it goes to Elena the superintendent then
039it goes to Sam Hershey we know you're all going to back the principal up my attorney and I have already talked about it um no parent should ever have to fight this hard for their child to get a good education my daughter has been out of school first through third period now for 4 months waiting for them to switch my daughter's English teacher um please look no further than yourselves as you are the reason parents are pulling their kids out of the school system thank you Miss Lewis our next speaker is kathern Rodriguez who'll be followed by John bog hello I just wanted to say thank you for being up here and taking all of the comments from people who may not understand what you're trying to do but I know that you're trying to
040protect the students um and even though I don't always agree with your stances Miss Coffield I do appreciate that you always try to bring up bullying and and I'm sorry for what happened to your daughter I think bullying is unacceptable in in any form but I think we have to admit that sometimes these policies of trying to be anti- Dei kind of put some kids at risk you know lgbtq kids who come up like Harper that was incredibly Brave to come up and speak in front of people who are actively trying to repress your identity and and and make you seem like you don't exist I think it's so sad that the clubs that make um make her feel accepted are going away and really my biggest concerns right now are just the fact that
041we're so focused on yelling at each other as adults and our kids are going to be the ones who are punished for it I mean really the scariest thing to me is is the Department of Education being used as a weapon you know the fact that they're going to take away funding if we don't behave or do what they they want or they're just going to dismantle the Department of Education and who's it hurting I mean it's hurting the kids they're just trying to go to school be with their friends and learn and I think they're being used as pwns in this adult fight and I just think that that's really sad so I appreciate you all being up here and standing up for for the kids um and trying to make sure that that
042they're protected thank you thank you thank you Mr Rodriguez our next speaker is John bog who'll be followed by Joseph Hudson good evening school board thank you for your time uh congratulations Mr Hershey you made it on Fox News that's a very good-sized audience um you did mention you have never seen someone lie so much I'll guess you didn't mean hearing the Border was Secure multiple multiple times the school board should be a nonpartisan group and I would hope opinions of the board do not influence classroom teachings students should be taught to love and support this great country not burn the flag and destroy cities and property even downtown Raleigh they should respect the Office of the President Congress and the Supreme Court please stop the politics and educate the nsba National School Board Association
043has as their guide six items I'll do a few number one education is not a line item in a school board's budget it is the only item number two the school board represents the community's voice in public education number three the school board sets the standard for achievement in the school district District incorporating the community's view of what students should know and be able to accomplish at each grade level again we've heard a few times we're at 60% grade level um and yet we're graduating 91% so something's a little bit of Miss there we're either putting folks through with 60% or something else the school board is accessible to everyone in the community and is accountable for the performance I do appreciate your time I do appreciate you folks I would not want to be
044sitting in your chairs thank you for all the hours and times that you put in I I really really sincerely mean that um the school board is the community's education Watchdog ensuring that taxpayers get the most for their tax dollars this includes making access to pornographic materials age appropriate uh I will be visiting the legislature shortly uh there are some new folks in town I will be taking the books that are found in a lot of the Wake County Public School Systems there you quickly pass the unconstitutional Title 9 changes and they are unconstitutional um the previous administration tried to change the law unconstitutional um anyway in July of 2024 to keep Government funding that's what we kept hearing now we will see how quickly you will remove Dei in your system to also keep
045government funding the last time I spoke here I read a list of over 22 companies and universities that closed their Dei programs down they don't work and recently FEMA moved $59 million to support Helen victims to put hotels uh give illegal immigrants in New York City hotels thank you very much thank you Mr bog our next speaker is Joseph Hudson who'll be followed by Janet Peterson so everyone come to order okay does this clock need to reset it so um two seconds on all right let it run down and then once it turns green I need more than two seconds thank you uh I'm Joseph Hudson and I recently sent you all two emails on a horrendous wake School sexual harassment policy and your Corruption of Title 9 to get to that policy sadly the
046policy is consistent with past and current wakeboard Schoolboard nonsensical woke actions like placing porn in school libraries woke zealots on the board consistently prioritize woke policy over the proper education and Welfare of students and have ignored countless pleas for common sense from concern earn parents and citizens on this subject uh I have one of the executive orders here uh ending radical indoctrination in K to 12 schooling I'll give Mr Malone a copy when I'm done the federal government has issued new rules and executive orders to prioritize education over woke indoctrination or risk losing federal funds or the members of the board are you able to put your personal radical woke political agenda aside in order to retain Federal funding for special needs students and lunch programs for lower income students or will you fail those
047students to continue your radical woke ideology thank you thank you our next speaker will be Janet Peterson followed by Gil Pagan and again I would ask that members of the audience please remain quiet while speakers are speaking good evening hi well it's black history month and I'm here to make a historical correction two weeks ago Miss rice said our schools were integrated in 1976 that's not true the merger of Raleigh and W County Schools occurred in 1976 so apparently Miss rice confused the word merger with integration she also seemed outraged that black Americans have been under represented on the school board as we look at the current school board right now and if we count the superintendent we can all see that the board has 50% representation and I'm glad integration began in 1960 four
048years before the Civil Rights Act made integration mandatory Nationwide the first chair of the Wake Raleigh unified school system was a black leader Mr Vernon Malone who was instrumental in planning and the execution of the merger here's a short list of other wonderful and noteworthy black Americans who have since served on the board Rosa Gill served 10 years and was instrumental in many projects that led to substantial improvements in our system she went on to serve as our representative in the North Carolina General Assembly Harriet Webster served eight years on the school board as well as 21 years as a teacher and a principal Keith Sutton served on the school board from 2009 to 2021 including board chair monicaa Johnson Hustler served four terms beginning in 2013 Dr Bill mcneel teaching here in 1974 and
049ultimately became superintendent from 201 to 2006 all of these wonderful black leaders and their others held or began their positions before diversity equity and inclusion programs became a priority of the youth US Department of and education in 2001 to 2002 91% of Wake County elementary and middle school students were proficient or Beyond and 83% of high school students performed at grade level or beyond the SAT average was 1576 higher than state or national average two decades later we see an alarming decline in academic as well as student Mental Health and there appears to be a correlation with a series of programs No Child Left Behind Common Core social and emotional learning and Dei the data shows results of each of these programs were worse than the one before we are now in a state of
050crisis with board members making outrageous comments and bringing National embarrassment to our school system all students can learn get back to the basics and follow the Golden Rule thank you thank you our next speaker is Gil Pagan who'll be followed by Eileen Johanson and Mr P if you can just wait one second while everyone gets seated or out of the room for you it's Pagan don't me Pagan okay I appreciate the correction I came I didn't want to use my time no worries at all completely understood I apologize for this you didn't know you didn't know that all right good evening good evening board members as a Hispanic parent of an autistic child I'm shocked about the story of Justin smithan Justin smithin is a non-verbal autistic student who was attacked by James wrencher at
051East Wake High School wrl revealed that East Wake principal Stacy alustin and assistant principal katonia Ford had received numerous reports of at least six alleged assaults by the end of October 2022 done by Mr rencher Justin's mom spoke to Mr Altin when she was secretly notified of the attacks on Justin and Mr Austin confirmed he was aware of the attacks but wrencher was still working there it was revealed that Wake County uh Public School Superintendent was also knew about the tax and did nothing Justin's mom was kept in the dark for 17 months on the outcome of her complaint after meeting with principal Alon the school system has a practice of moving around bad employees from school to school or placing bad employees in this building evidence by principal Stacy Alon who will continue to
052work for the district as an administrator of Maintenance and operations records also showed the abusive teacher rener was transferred out of East Garner High School to Herbert Atkins middle school in Fuquay a day after W called the District about this issue the teacher resigned the school system was caught and they did a cya interesting note that Justin the student is black rener the bad teacher is black Austin the principal is black Ford the assistant principle is black and uh our superintendent is also black where is Dei here to protect the vulnerable sounds like the system is protecting itself at the expensive minority students all those in power are mandated reporters and should have called police at a minimum all of them should have been suspended while an investigation played out and then fired when all
053the details came out some people are still working here you have sent them message that it's okay for staff to assault students make that black students we will just move you around the system can you imagine how the mom felt when she heard her son was assaulted and he could not tell her cuz he's non-verbal no you couldn't if you do not have a special needs child like I have I would have cried then I would have got angry how dare you cover this up shame on you all of those people should be fired immediately thank you thank you our next speaker is Eileen Johansson followed by Renee suckle Johansson Johanson oh here we go thank youor hi there hi there and I apologize could you say your last name for me Eileen Johansson Johansson
054all right I'm married a Norwegian but I don't have him anymore oh anyway uh okay there's so much to say too much to say so so I'm the uh the hippie grandmother who uh spoke a few years ago here um I did a Paul Harvey what if the you know what if I was the devil you know I spoke that and uh I I didn't know but I got um aund a thousand hits on uh Tik Tok or something like that I didn't know but I guess uh I struck a chord with some Americans well I have I I hope I can stri strike a cord today because like what I'm hearing across the boards here and outside of here is um love and learning and race a lot of it is I believe is
055false uh Love Is Love Is false if you're allowing children pouring in the schools that's false you can't love a child if you know that there's horrible books in the school and the school librar librarians know it and you know it um learning we've just heard about learning we wish we we were the children were learning more but when you have this you know this uh diversity thing and and Dei and everything how can they learn I didn't you know when I was a kid I know I you know I respected my teachers and my teachers were great and I was the hippie girl who went wild when I was 1920 I'm the girl who got a bunch of girlfriends and we went down to Harlem and watched uh what is it I'm tired of
056being alone I me you know who I'm talking about and we walked into Harlem together to see tell me who it is I can't I I forget names these days um anyway I went down there and we were the only white white kids there and we had a great time and I had a great time when I was young we didn't have this diversity and all this stuff going on um so basically the love the learning and the race is fake because your children are being exposed to porn they're being exposed to mutilation they're confused it's not our fault it's it's just not and um the thing is that the parents need to have the control on the children and not make excuses for them to the wrong to to the wrong place the excuses
057are for the family for the community and all of that but it's not about what we're hearing here today so anyway I'll see you next time and that's it for Eileen all right thank you Eileen our next speaker is Renee seele who'll be followed by Susan book good evening evening how are you oh rat's trying to trying to erase I finally took notes um so first off I wanted to say thank thank you to miss rice for your comments last meeting it really struck me how few black members we have had on the school board and how very recent integration is and to be honest I think we all know that integration hasn't ever actually happened and here we are now talking about recreating the schools and I appreciate you're giving me a lot to
058think about Mr Hershey I appreciate your comments as well and for most of you on the school board it is so clear How Deeply you feel for our children and How Deeply you want them to be educated all children and that is very much appreciated now turning to another civics lesson so yes it is true that the um Department of Department of Education put out a dear colleague letter last week giving all schools in the country basically 14 days to turn away from diversity equity and inclusion or else lose their Federal funding however that letter in its own text said that it does not have the force of Law and I thought people might have some desire to learn what a dear colleague is and what it can and cannot do so first off that
05914-day fuse means nothing because for a school or a school system to lose their Federal funding a complaint needs to be brought by the office of civil rights within the Department of Education the school must be provided an opportunity to respond they might they have to work on coming to an agreement first and if that agreement fails or if they can't come to an agreement then the school system has the right of due process where they go through an administrative hearing before Public Funding can be pulled from that school system so none of that can happen within 14 days so and I'm sure that you're all getting good legal counsel mostly this is for people who might not know what this process is speaking of the office of civil rights as we are all aware
060president musk has been going through and firing dozens and thousands of people throughout the government in including folks in the office of civil rights so I ask you who's going to be bringing these complaints against school systems if you fired the attorneys and you fired the people in the office who is left to enforce these executive orders furthermore this uh Administration has declared that it is going to be eliminating the Department of Education itself and with it the office of civil rights that sits within it and slashing fun for public education anyway so if they're going to do it anyway what is the point of compliance and finally I just need to talk about the so offended people who we hearing from specifically from momster Liberty because a couple of weeks ago somebody sent me
061a recording of a mom's for Liberty training where they literally offered legal services to people whose kids bully other children in school to protect those kids from being punished so that's it all right thank you the next speaker is Susan book excuse me let's bring it down the next the next speaker is Susan book who will be followed by Vicky Harry you would think this would get easier hello and thank you Wake County School Board my name is Susan book I'm a Wake County resident of kry and the mother of a ninth grader on the autism spectrum I've had many conversations with you all both publicly some privately that we are in a special education crisis I can only say now that we are approaching catastrophe the threats are now on multiple fronts and are
062intersectional we have the threat of closure of the Department of Education on the federal level the agency that oversees the civil rights of children and specifically overseas idea we have the continued underfunding from our State and our Supreme Court is doing nothing to uphold our own North Carolina Constitution finally we have 17 States openly trying to declare Section 504 unconstitutional and upend over 50 years of inclusion law in public spaces what I ask of you is this well I definitely want you to defend the Department of Education on the federal level you don't need a federal law to treat all children with dignity and Humanity you can do that without formal policy you can make sure that able as predators are not recycled through our systems you can make sure that all principles and vice
063principles are creating a safe learning space for all children and step in when they're not doing their jobs do not be afraid to prioritize students who need Services resources and an education that reflects their identity for example black history is American history we can greatly reduce seclusion and restraint practices by better de-escalating using better deescalation techniques even better would be be prioritizing compassion over compliance no worksheet is ever worth a meltdown you could even do something as simple as creating a PE class that met the sensory needs of all kids or at least a smaller environment to those who are most vulnerable to bullying if you're afraid to speak then speak with your actions of love honor and dignity to all children if you are bold as many of you were last meeting keep being
064bold while many of us understand the consequences before us we also know the price of staying silent we have already seen the lies of trans transgender children be disparaged when all they asked for was existence if the threats are coming from all sides I ask this board to use their power as well it might be in the courts the state house or the schoolhouse but we must continue to fight for the dignity and Humanity of each and every child thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker tonight hold on had a little glitch here all right right is Vicky Harry but Vicki will be followed by Rachel Jordan thank you good evening board members thank you for hearing me tonight my name is Vicky Harry and I'm a Wake County resident I'm the
065mother of three the grandmother of 10 two of my children are female and I have five granddaughters I'm also a former College athlete former girls basketball coach and health teacher I'm here today on behalf of female athletes who depend on the school system our state and federal government to protect their safety opportunities and privacy instead of trading those rights in for political points with activists recently this board voted to swiftly adopt Biden's Title Nine changes with which put female athletes at risk by allowing biological males into their private spaces these changes were made with a total disregard for victims of sexual assault who might be traumatized from having biological males peering at them as they change and undress and shower it's not only victims of sexual assault but younger ladies in general have insecurities about
066their bodies and should not be forced to share showers or undress in front of males these types of policies have forced girls like North Carolina State swimmer Kylie Allen and her teammates to change in a dirty broom closet for privacy because a biological maale was allowed in their female locker room not only does the Wake County school board's Title 9 policy violate female priv privacy and likely to cause trauma but it also puts female athletes at risk for physical injury and lost opportunities our very own North Carolina pton McNab still suffers from partial paralysis and brain injuries after a transgender volleyball player spiked a ball at 70 M an hour hit her in the head at her high scho school volleyball game not only does Payton have physical injuries but she lost out on opportunities
067to play college sports and the scholarships that would have come with them there is one thing we can all agree on and that is everyone should have the right to play sports biological males who identify as another gender can play on male teams but they do not belong on female teams gender specific Sports were established because of the undeniable differences between the Sexes no amount of hormone therapy can change the physical advantages or biological what the physical advantages of biological males including larger Hearts lungs denser bones and stronger muscles identities don't play sports bodies do as a coach I watch girls struggle with body image and embarrassment about their bodies the government has no right to allow biological males a free Peep Show on girls who just want to under undress in private as a
068coach I know that mental toughness needed before competition and being stressed and embarrassed and even traumatized before a game puts them at an automatic disadvantage board chair Chris Hagerty was interviewed by Channel 11 and said I quote we're going to follow the law and if the Law changes will change our policy I hope these policies thank you we appreciate it time has expired all right our next speaker is Rachel Jordan and Miss Jordan will be followed by Diane Chandler hello so I am a mom of a daughter who's in fifth grade here and I am here in the midst of all of this controversy to tell you guys how much I love the school system I grew up a kid who has moved around many many different small towns in North Carolina South Carolina Georgia
069Virginia Indiana and California um and I had horrible experiences in school I was a geeky kid I was always the new kid and truthfully I was Terri ified when my daughter was going into kindergarten and this was complicated by the fact that I had both lost a child uh at right after birth and some of our best friends had and so she was going into kindergarten talking about her dead sister and her God sister's dead sister was an interesting experience and yet the school we went into was amazing we had meetings with counselors and we're in a school that is incredibly diverse we're actually majority Asian and yet every single person in that school is there constantly knowing every child's name talking to every kid we I've watched Cultural Arts happen where we bring in
070Indian dancers and they talk about sign language and they talk about nature and how we can use dance to communicate how we can learn the water cycle through movement through dance I have had the incredible pleasure to get to sit on one of the board advisory counil uh councils for the school district and watched as principls as PTA members take that time out of their busy schedules just to celebrate the wins to talk about reaching one child that they couldn't reach before to talk about finding a new way to talk to kids to talk to other teachers and I also help college students apply to co or help high school students apply to college and I watch these kids who are literally part of their problems are that they have taken APS they have taken
071tests and yet they are still you know number 50 for their GPA because the students in our our schools are so amazing and they want to stay here in Wake County or in Durham to go to the colleges we have and I think it is horrible that we are talking about taking money out of these systems we have some of the best magnet schools we were just out of 24 top magnet schools 18 of them were in Wake County that's funded by our federal government I think it's ludicrous that we're talking about taking away these opportunities that our Schoolboard and our teacher worked so hard for thank you m Jordan all right Miss CH if you want to wait one second while some folks go behind you don't want you to be interrupted all right
072so our next speaker is Miss Diane Chandler who'll be followed by Andrew uh ulam hi thank you um first little history lesson nowhere in the United States Constitution education a priority of the federal government it always meant to be a state issue and that's what we're going back to okay for those of you who are concerned about lost funding for school net that's be Department of Agriculture which is now idea will so be a lot get protest and people with disability like myself okay and federal grants and Loans which be under the Department of Treasury okay so that's a little lesson as for the board comments from last meeting from Mr Hershey the only newor white man even what I'm looking at right now stop making this about rates because people of all Races and
073ethnicities Ved for the change because we want better for our children it's not about white or black or Indian or whatever okay about better education for our children and since the Department of Education was founded in 1980 which is really not that long ago it only two years younger than myself and I don't consider myself to be that old okay education hasn't been any better okay it hasn't gotten better so something not working okay now Department of Education had given you a deadline for taking away diversity equity and including initiatives and programs I sat in this room where you were so concern and you push forward the Chang it to make the Ty N even though there were a federal lawsuit against it because you were concerned about losing funding you even pushed the pressing
074local issue that I was here could talk about to the next meeting even though it really should been Su at that meeting you so concerned about getting that so you are hypocrites if you are not concerned now about doing what it being required by you by the Department of Education you are being Hypocrites because it's not on tonight and and next will be too late so you are putting your Ender before the federal funding you thank you m Chandler our next speaker is Andrew ulam who will be followed by Jonathan Clayton and then that will conclude our speakers sub is here oh Mr all right thank you I appreciate that Janet um Mr ready since you are here we will put you at the end of the speaker list okay thank you thank you Miss
075Peterson hi everybody take a deep breath I'll give my first five seconds to just like deep breath and hang out one thank you guys all for for being here my name is Andrew Alum I'm a a proud parent of a second grader in Wake County Public Schools also a business owner uh in district 6 I'm a resident of District 4 thank you both for speaking out and speaking your minds and just being present at the meetings this is um really an incredible place and I'll Echo the sentiments that I have no idea how you guys are just standing up here and and absolutely taking it I had a really great plan when I was sitting over there and that's now just completely out the window um my son our son is a second grader and
076uh was just taken off of an IEP about three weeks ago he's met and he's exceeded his goals but he does have an Autism diagnosis and an ehhd diagnosis and we're petitioning for uh 504 for him we're excited about the support that it will afford him that's really what I want to say is that I'm I'm very excited that that still exists um the one thing that I do want to talk about is we're we're not necessarily talking about political agendas we're not talking about you know us versus them or anything like that I I do want to just say that I want to continue to include empathy in the classroom that includes empathy for yourself and empathy for other people empathy is inclusive by nature and as we're talking about diversity and equity and
077inclusion we're forgetting that if you think of yourself as an empathetic person then you do include everyone regardless of of who you are who they may be and I think that that's really getting lost on a lot of folks that are are kind of coming forward and saying like this is wrong and this is political and this is racist it's not empathy is a human condition and I think that we could all use a little bit more of it and I think that we should push for that in a classroom my wife and I are working on raising an empathetic child that's our number one goal right an empathetic child will support his peers and we'll support his teachers and we'll support his classroom and by extension we'll support the learning of other people regardless
078of who you are we got a really smart kid at the house he just doesn't like loud noise so it's really cool that he has the opportunity to put on headphones every once in a while or go somewhere else and take a test and the only person that that affects is him it doesn't affect anybody else so the inclusive nature of our school system the inclusive nature of our educational programs is good for our son but it is good for everyone else else Rising Tides raise All Ships so we can support everybody while supporting those that need a little bit extra without harming or taking away anything and in that spirit I want to remind everybody that the NC legislature removed $400 million from the state school budget in in uh favor of private schools
079so when we talk about funding and where's everything going and how's this going let's look to our votes moving forward and go from there thank you guys very much thank you our final speaker tonight excuse me let's let's bring it back we're almost at the end almost at the end we have a final speaker Mr Jonathan Clayton let's give him your time and attention Mr Clayton you'll have three minutes good evening and I'm sorry followed up by by Our Last speaker I don't want to exclude him please go ahead no problem good evening so this speech tonight that I'm giving to you is actually not written down you're completely hearing from my heart tonight and while this is not the first time you've heard me speak on this topic I certainly do hope it will
080be the last but as has been mentioned before back in July the Title Nine changes specifically policies 1710 and 1720 were enacted under the GU of wanting to follow the law and not lose Federal funding if that is the case then I submit to you there are significant changes one in the federal government and two by the way of federal courts that have completely vac ated the very Biden policies that those policies that you enacted were enacted under so at that point it is going to be best to do what was said before to follow the advice you had before and follow the law but I would like to turn from just that and talk about some of the things that I think would genuinely help make our school system better for one thing focusing
081on politics in the classroom isn't necessary good or helpful the basic things that a school system should do that help students learn and Achieve are things like teaching them to read teaching them to do math teaching them how to write helping them understand science preparing them for the workforce and things like that if we focused entirely just on the basics what we used to call as Reading Writing and arithmetic about a generation ago when my grandpa was in school that would be better in fact when he was in school it was better he ended up in the air force and he never even went to college except for one semester but he had a high school diploma and he ended up being a successful aircraft mechanic for 36 years so when we have in our
082country focused on the basics Reading Writing Math Science History and career Readiness it has worked quite well what hasn't worked is politically driven agenda-driven educational practices that have actually caused students to learn less and yet at the same time be unprepared for the workforce I myself am 24 years old I don't feel 100% that the public education I Reed prepared me for the workforce I found myself in college playing catchup essentially to those I knew and some of my peers as I felt that yeah I'm not not exactly dumb but at the same time some of them are better at taking tests than me some of them are more prepared to be here and some of the things that I'm talking about now would have helped that happen when I got there so tonight I
083hope that we will get back to that and return to Common Sense thank you and have a great evening thank you Mr Clayton our final speaker it's bring it back our final speaker uh super ready mat ready good evening thankk you thank you for taking time and giving opportunity so first I want to uh thank you for all the teachers and students parents who are taking time and coming here and to participate this V County school board meetings because this is very much important for us to understand now uh why the students are not capable of or why parents are worried about the school educations in the v County School System so saying that one of the parent when I was walking to the meetings so uh he gave the notes so he has a
084concern I want to read be the preference for them first first foremost the Capp and feeder cap schools in the epex Friendship uh and other schools still not open for zoned residents since 2020 21 what is a measure the doe takes to mitigate the issue that's a one most V County Schools lack the basics uh basic cafeteria Sports by lunch facil and amenities unlike neighborhood States Virginia Maryland and DC schools and no buses for tmsa charter school is terrible situations to be addressed and curriculum must be focused on the critical theory to prevent the racist ideology from the schools and politics that's what his request hope you will understand uh you will uh give the respect for the parents and kids who are concerned about this stuff coming to my point is there are five
085five concerns I want to bring your attentions as a parent as a volunteer as a scho w County residents here what are the concerns we are worried about in The V County School System why we are not able to build the Next Generation scientists why we are not able to build the Next Generation leaders why we are not able to build the Next Generation ideology role models in the world so everybody watching in America education and they're worried about that the America dreams are suffering because there is a lot of Education problem going on which are more messed up with the political and other ideology so as a parents as a active community volunteers let us step back and think about it where is this funds and budget is going the school system is set
086up for teach the students Core Mathematic and stem education and and bring them more political science or whatever the more educate them to build the Next Generation citizens good citizens in the country and we as a parents we gone through we learned it but we are messing up with the lot of political agenda and other aspect in the school system today because I've been coming for last couple of years we've been talking about various topics but are we concerned about the teacher salaries are we concerned about the bus driver salaries who are taking care of our kids to bre to teach them thank you thank all right I know that was a lot of speakers and some of you may have other business tonight so what we'll do is we will take a five minute
087break just in case anyone is leaving and then we will reconvene thank you [Music] yeah e for e for e of all right everyone we we took five and then some so let's call let's bring it back to order all right thank you we'll give everyone just one more second to take any seats and then we will proceed with our agenda so we did move board comments to the end of the business agenda but we did leave the superintendent's comments and so we will turn it over to comments from Dr Robert Taylor thank you Mr chair and good evening to you all uh first I'd like to congratulate this year's winners of the Diane Kent Parker first year teacher of the year award uh every year our district honors four outstanding teachers in the following
088categories elementary school middle school high school and special education this year's winers are Olivia denbo a second grade teacher at Fuller Magnet Elementary School Chris Tuggle a seventh grade ELA teacher at Herbert Akens Road Middle School kayin DLo a social studies teacher at Athens Drive Magnet High School and Molly Tod a special education teacher at West milbrook mag Magnet Middle School I have the great privilege last week of surprising each of these exceptional teachers at their schools each one has proven themselves to be effective teachers navigating the child Alles of their new job with professionalism and enthusiasm they serve as models for their colleagues and inspiration for their students this award is just one way our district Works to support and celebrate our new teachers we also founded the future Teachers Program which provides professional
089development and guaranteed job placement for Wake County Public School students seniors who commit to the teaching profession and obtain their certification I'm especially pleased to know that Miss denbo from the Fuller Magnet Elementary uh is an alumni of the future teachers program so we are seeing the benefits from that program uh these first year teachers do indeed represent the future of Education in Wake County we are grateful for your service to our young people and we look forward to your continued excellent work in our classroom for many years to come so again congratulations uh for well-deserved recognition for these beginning teachers I would also like like to congratulate the 20 teachers who were named the last who were named last week as semifinalist for the Wake County Public Schools teacher of the year uh they
090were recognized by their peers and school leaders for the incredible work they do in the classroom each and every day a full list of semifinalists is on our website so you can check that out 10 finalists will be named in early April and the winter will be announced in a ceremony on May 1st regardless of who wins the top prize each one of these semifinalists should be extremely proud to be deemed among the 20 best teachers out of more than 11,000 in our district uh and we know this is 20 out of 11,000 but we think they are all great and wonderful teachers so again congratulations and good luck next I'd like to remind you of three important events we have coming up next week to encourage you to consider attending one or more of
091these events first in our 2025 state of the schools event uh which will be held on Wednesday February uary 26th at 600 p.m. at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School this will be an exciting event highlighting our most recent successes and how we intend to build on those successes the stars of the show almost certainly will be the outstanding student demonstrations and performances we have planned this event will bring together leaders from both inside and outside our organization to unify us as we work toward our common purpose of ensuring that every student every student reach is their full potential this event is free but we ask that you uh visit the wcpss website uh to RSVP for the event uh the next Friday February 27th the community is invited to Lian Magnet Middle School at 6:30
092p.m. for the second annual Dare To Dream black history month program this year's program will honor the rich Legacy of black history through meaningful student performances storytelling art and more uh we will show a video which highlights from the program at our next board meeting we'll be able to share that with you lastly the kickoff event for the annual wake up and read book drive will be held at John chavers Community Center 5:15 Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard on Saturday May the 1st from 10:00 a.m. to noon you are encouraged to bring new books to support students at our 28 partner schools and 17 Child Development Centers there will be games prizes and food and fun and a few local celebrities will be sharing their favorite books and I've heard that the board chair will
093be in a dunking booth in the co I'm sorry that's not true uh but again more information can be found on our wakeup and.org uh uh site in closing uh I would like to offer a fund farewell to uh Chief Jackie Ellis our chief of schools uh tonight is her last board meeting before she begins her well- earned retirement uh Chief Ellis will be stepping down after 29 years as an educator administrator and educational leader in our state she has served as our chief of school since 2018 providing strong leadership and wise counsel especially as we navigated our way through the covid-19 pandemic prior to taking on the chief of schools role she served as an assistant superintendent end during Public Schools she also previously has held various leadership roles in our district including assistant
094superintendent for human resources and Western area superintendent part of chiefs Ellis Ellis's Legacy is the many leaders she has nurtured and inspired in particular she has been an outstanding coach of female leaders I had the opportunity to first meet uh Chief Ellis uh in in May of 2020 uh over 20-some years ago uh and we've uh remain professional colleagues and I've seen the tremendous work that she's done as an educator in number of systems uh in North Carolina and I can tell you that uh she is a true leader uh that has dedicated herself uh to the advancement of public education um and I um am privileged to call her my friend and my colleague so please join me offering a heartfelt thank to Jackie for all that she's done to challenge our thinking and
095move us forward and chief Ellis is not here tonight because she's trying to use up her days of leave and she has some left but uh uh but we certainly thank her for everything she's done and with that Mr chair I'll yield back to you all right thank you all right thank you superintendent Taylor so we will move to the items on our consent agenda board members have had an opportunity to review the items I'll entertain any motions at this time some second we have a motion from Vice chair Swanson to adopt the items on the consent agenda we have a second for Miss mfy all in favor of adopting the consent agenda items please say I I any opposed all right those items have been adopted next we'll move to our action items uh
096first up we have three items in policy board policy 7432 board policy 7900 and board policy 7910 all on first reading um is Dr mutell here I think okay if not Dr crane they're gonna have to they're going to draft you into service all right welcome Dr mutilla good evening everybody um bringing three policies to you tonight first 7432 athletic directors serving as coaches um once adopted this policy will replace 3218 in the old manual um there was alignment around the language coming out of policy committee so won't spend a whole lot of time reviewing uh but tonight we are asking for the board's approval of the first reading of policy 7432 thank you Dr Mello Miss Edmond thank you um I move that we approve 7432 on first reading we have a motion from
097Miss Edmond and we have a second for Mr Hershey any discussion any debate any questions about the policy all right we had a good discussion of this in policy committee so if the seeing no no speakers we'll move to an immediate vote all in favor of adoption of board policy 7432 on first reading please say I any opposed all right 7432 passes on first reading next we'll go to board policy 7900 on resignation Dr Mella yes sir again this one um resignation will replace policies 3400 and 4400 in the old manual board was aligned around the language did um want us to clarify calendar days so you'll see some additions to add those in but other than that um you all aligned with the language so I'm requesting your approval of the first reading of
0987900 for resignation this evening thank you Dr Mell chair Hagerty I move that we approve 7900 on first reading we have a motion from edmans for approval on first reading is there a second second second for Mr Hershey any discussion any questions any debate yes sir M Vice chair Swanson I was not able to make that uh policy committee meeting but I just had a question regarding the 30 days if I'm in understand this correctly folks have to give a 30-day notice to submit resonation that's correct yeah we we I'm sorry oh that was the question no you're you're fine yeah there is a 30-day notice we did talk a lot in policy committee that we do often due to extenuating circum St will wave that 30 days notice so um but yeah that was
099a part of our discussion at the policy committee but it is is required Goa okay thank you yes sir any other any other questions any other discussion all right in that case we'll move to an immediate vote all in favor of adoption of board policy 7900 on first reading please say I any opposed uh please note there was one nay I'm going to account eight votes in favor uh nay was vice chair Swanson all right um so that will pass and go on to Second reading um our final policy on our action items is board policy 7910 the retirement policy Dr Mell again 7910 retirement for first reading um board was aligned around the language we did add calendar days into this one as well um and we're requesting the board's approval of first reading
100of policy 7910 this evening Miss Evans I move that we approve 7910 on first reading and I will note I went back and watched the policy committee meeting just to make sure that I remember the discussion correctly and there were no questions or comments on 7910 thank you thank you Miss Edmond we have a motion for Miss Edmond for adoption of board policy 7910 the retirement policy we have a second for Mr Hershey any questions any discussion with no speakers we'll move to an immediate vote all in favor of board policy 7910 please say I I any opposed all right thank you Dr matilla thank you all all right the next item on our agenda tonight our uh chief of schools we have two new schools coming online soon one in the Wendell area one
101in the Zebulon area let's see if we have no but we do have Mr cor roza who will be uh subbing in and taking all the slings and ARS good evening good evening I'll start with the easy one the Board of Ed has acquired lamb bang School site which has a current address of 2200 old Bun Road in zebulin North Carolina which includes 43 plus acres for use as an elementary school it is located on the southern side of old Bun Road West of its intersection with North Carolina 39 highway and it's East intersection of NC 97 Highway uh the naming of landbank e54 Elementary School is now required this item was brought to the facilities committee on February 11th there were three options that were presented to the committee one old Bun Road Elementary
102Two Little Creek Elementary and three East zabul and Elementary old Bun Road Elementary is proposed as it identifies the road from which the school will be likely accessed and will help to specifically identify the location of the site Little Creek Elementary is proposed as it references the near geographic feature which is located south of the site and is the stream into which the site drains um which is a uh tributary of the moccasin uh Creek East zebulun Elementary is proposed as it identifies the area of zebulun within which the School site is located and will help to identify the location of the site staff has collaborated with the town of zebulin Staff in review of the proposed naming options uh in accordance with board policy 9300 the names were offered to the facilities committee as
103as I shared and after due consideration the facilities committee recommended that the name selection of Little Creek Elementary be brought forth to the board uh for consideration of its naming and we are here asking for you to vote on that tonight thank you Mr cor Roa so uh we have a recommendation from the facilities committee um to rename the school and you've heard the recommendation I'll recognize Mr Hershey do we need to make a motion for the vote uh yes we would need to make a motion to either end the recommendation or for to endorse the recommendation all right we have a motion from Mr Hershey's the chair of the facilities committee to endorse the recommendation that the uh zebulun area school would be named Little Creek Elementary is there a second second from Dr
104ring any discussion any debate a question yes Miss carfield this is on Zebulon not the Wendell right that is correct just wanted to clarify okay all right then uh seeing no other speakers we'll move to a vote all in favor of accepting the committee recommendation that the new that the new school will be named Little Creek Elementary please say I I any opposed all right one down see how easy that was that was I hope the next one is as well okay so the next one is the naming for a Wendell area Elementary uh currently named as e57 the board of vet is required uh landbank School site which is a current address of 2621 NC 97 Highway in Wendell which includes 35 plus acres for use as an elementary school it is located in
105the intersection of marshburn Road Lizard Lick Road and uh NC 97 uh the naming of landbank e57 is required in accordance with board policy 9300 the following names were offered for consideration one marshburn Road Elementary two Lizard Lick Elementary and three Fall Branch Elementary marshburn Road Elementary is proposed as it identifies the road from which the school will be likely accessed and will help to specifically identify the location of the site Lizard Lick Elementary is proposed as it identifies the community within which the School site is located and the nearby location of lizardlick road which will help to identify the location of the site Fall Branch Elementary is proposed as it references the nearest geographic feature which is located south of the site and is the stream into which the site drains uh it's a
106tributary of the Little River staff has collaborated with the town of Wendell staff in review of proposing the naming options in accordance with policy board policy 9300 the names were offered to the facilities committee on February 11th uh after due consideration the committee asked that we reach out to the public to get uh public feedback there was an email earlier that was sent to all of you from um Chief Lon and she gave you the feedback I can talk about that now if you'd like to um we we did a thought exchange with the public and so what we did was we reached out to families we got 71% of the respondents were parents or Guardians 32% were staff and 11% were community members um 95% of the people represented in this survey came from
107the Eastern wake area so Wendell ndale zebulun area um there was a a breakdown of the race of the participants for 9% white 29% black or African-American 11% Hispanic or Latino and 6% multi-race and then the preferred name we offered up north Wendell Lizard Lick marshburn Road and Fall Branch were the four that came up and North Wendell came out on top at 39% next was Lizard Lick Elementary at 28% marshburn Road 23% and Fall Branch at 11 um there was um it was either hot or cold for Lizard Lick um a lot of people either really liked it or didn't like it at all for various reasons um North Wendell people like the fact that it located where they were living um marshburn Road also had some positive feedback and didn't receive any negative
108feedback as much and so we'll open it up to you okay thank you uh Mr Cara Miss Parker did you have anything that you wanted to add to that yes I did uh one comment I wanted to share the facilities committee directed that we take three names to the community they were to be marshburn Road Lizard Lick and U Falls Branch Branch uh North Wendell was not intended to go to the public and I've communicated with Chief Luton apparently that was an oversight from the pares that had gone to the facilities committee instead of here so whether the board wants to take that into consideration I just want to be sure that you had all that information it was certainly not intentional but it is a a blip in the data and with that I'm
109happy to also address any questions you may have okay thank you Miss Parker so this is unusual because usually what we'll do is that we will talk about the names in committee and come forward with a recommendation it's not unprecedented though for example when we had um the naming for Morrisville high school we had recommendations but we did bring it back and we did discuss it got community input and we did vote I I've never I haven't seen as detailed a process as we've had seeking input about this school but I think a lot of it is due to kind of the unique nature of like one of one of the suggested names and different issues that different board members had raised so we got we did receive the feedback that Chief Luton had shared
110with us many of us got it while we were in uh our meetings and I know not everyone has had a a chance to review it and fully digest it um but what I thought we could do because it is on the agenda tonight we could open discussion see where everyone is if you're comfortable that we have enough information would like to proceed we can if on the other hand you'd like more time to digest it we can certainly entertain a motion to table it and bring it up at the next meeting um but I just wanted to kind of set that expectation out at the beginning we're not NE necessarily going to force a vote if folks are not are not ready so I see Miss caulfield's hand Miss Coffield thank you and thank
111you for bringing that forward um I do think from the feedback that I got back from the public that they actually were um they were very grateful that we gave them a word um you know and gave them some input on what it would look like since it is their Community um and I have learned um even aside from what Miss Parker had given us history that being in such a small Charming little town they really do hold a lot of value in their history especially from the people who have been there for a long time um it seems like the survey might not have been out as long as we could have gotten more feedback um is my only concern because it sounds like there are still people reaching out to me even though
112they're not on the survey and I wonder if we could extend that or if there is a rush for us to name it um you know this evening and vote on it um and also to have a little bit more time to just kind of digest the feedback that came back um I guess my second part of my question would be could they change it later if we continue to see receive feedback and I know that North Wendell went in um as one of the the the higher numbers um but where we did speak in the committee we were kind of trying to steer away from you have a Wendell Elementary school you have a you know Wendell Middle School now you have a northw so it just might kind of be confusing even though
113it seems pretty simple that it's in Wendell um and if we were to not have that on there it looks like the Lizard Lick actually had higher numbers so I'm not sure if that's going to confuse what we were trying to int intentionally do um and I I got a lot of feedback about the Lizard Lick um and mostly in favor of it because of the long history Century long as as it was told to me where it goes back and identifies and um they were all also hopeful that they would have a lizard or something friendly as their mascot so I'm just wondering if we could give it a little bit more time okay thank you Miss Coffield Miss Parker if I could I'd like if if I could get you to address a
114couple things that Miss Coffield brought up in her comments um the first would be recapping for the board members who were unable to attend facilities what some of that conversation about when like North Wendell was certainly um and then second could you just take us through the process of why we name schools now and then you know are there pros and cons of delays and then is it better to delay the naming of a school by a couple weeks versus how hard it might be to change a name later certainly well first of all there's not a requirement that it be named today it can certainly be pushed out to another meeting if that's the board's will there's there's not it's not critical today it is important sooner than later this is a project that
115I understand will be soon advertising for a designer so it's in the CIP and it's scheduled so the the benefit of scheduling it of having a name set before that time is all the contracts will align with it the name will be associated with the project for the entirety so typically we do it in front of the project so this one isn't as far ahead as you might think so it is beneficial to do it will a two to 3 week period change that of course not of course not there's always an opportunity to change it if you'd like we try not to I think we've had one situation where that's occurred U through Community feedback and I think you're well ahead of the curve on this one so that that may be eliminated um
116based on your process either whether you vote today or you wait another time or two that's certainly within your province in terms of the the north Windell we've had several reasons to give this some serious thought serious thought part of it is the the places that we name North Southeast and West today as towns grow May no longer be North Southeast or west a good example is West carry which is not West anymore there's much carry further west than that so that's usually the example others times there's a a question about if the school is named for North Windell do do kids in Windell think they're entitled to go there and kids in zebulin ZIP codes can't so sometimes this feeling of while the community is positive does it convey some sort of an exclusive
117tone and this site is equidistant between Wendell and zebulun core so it's it's in zebulon's jurisdiction or will in their etj it will be zoned for them but that question comes up U and also when you when you've got a north and the other one doesn't have a directive it it just it doesn't seem as logical to some um we've had boards that prefer not to name schools after town others that are fine with it I leave that up to your wisdom but those are those are some of the reasons there and if I could on the one other point that you mentioned about the historic nature of Lizard Lick U it was a minor point I made you may not have have caught it I know I said a lot that day um but
118there was once a lizardlick school so there had been a school in that Community um in fact the school building was moved in 1972 to the fairgrounds by the village of yester year so there's a a model of of historic North Carolina schools so since there had been a school there before it's not been unusual for us to look back at historic maps and find where schools have been located before and may not be there anymore and rename them Green Hope is a good example of that so Green Hope High School is named it was a green h hope school there before not in the same location so those are those are some of the reasons we brought lizard lickup not just because it's a cute name and and it might be fun but there
119is a long history there and I appreciate you bringing it for all right thank you Miss Parker do we want to just go around and sort of take the temperature see where you are if you have a name that you like or don't like or then if you'd rather defer Miss Emmons thank you um so a couple things I support Miss Coffield in delaying um so that we can look at the survey I was one that was concerned that we got it during work session and didn't have time to look at it but I went to the restroom and came back and skimmed it so it's pretty easy to digest um I I welcome the opportunity to receive more feedback but I think we do need to make that correction because we did discuss in
120facilities why the north Windell is is not preferable and I think that was a perfectly legitimate reason um makes a lot of sense and so I guess I'm not making a motion but I want to support you know delaying um to another meeting and I also want to support putting the survey back out or continuing the survey as long as we correct it to only include the three that we discussed in work session thank you thank you Miss edmans so you just just to go around I'd like to hear from everybody just sort of where they are and then miss edmans I'll come back or Sorry Miss cofell I'll come back to you Miss Russ uh I'm in agreement with u Miss Coffield as well I was going to ask the same thing to to
121not accept the survey for tonight because the 102 families that thought North windale was an option not knowing that it really wasn't an option should have an opportunity to share what they prefer out of the other three options thank you Miss Coffield oh sorry coming back around Miss Miss mafy I'll defer to what Miss Coffield uh would prefer to do it's her community all right Vice chair Swanson yes I'm also in agreement and we'll defer to miss Coffield it's a community that she represents and so miss edmans has expressed her opinion Dr um I agree with u Miss Coffield miss Mr Hershey um I agree and I just want to apologize to the public who we sent this to um for the mistake I think we have to own it that we did not intend
122to have North Wendell on there as we instructed in the facilities committee so I am sorry that that happened and I hope they will um give us feedback when we send it back out thank you and Miss Gordon I will also defer to miss Coffield but I also want to make sure that we are being um genuine in offering the community ample amount of time to give their feedback all right thank you Miss Gordon and you know my my only other comments I think they're aligned with everyone here um I think we can get some more feedback but it is important to have accurate um expectations for everyone and so being able to correct that in the survey and then letting people who may have voted vote again if you know example if they voted
123for an option that's not really an option we want to continue that could really shapee the outcome of that poll I think so miss edmans do you have Sorry Miss Coffield do you have a motion I'm changing my I'm sorry it's okay um I I just wanted to know I'd like to uh make a motion to delay the decision and bring it back when we have a little bit more robust feedback um if we could remove North Wendell like we spoke about and if we could share it with our town Representatives because I know one of our commissioners had asked to um have a happy of it and he was wanted to help get it out to the families in the community in case it was just not on somebody's radar so do that before
124we second it I just wanted to ask you a clarifying question would our next meeting March 4th two weeks from now be adequate time I I think that's sufficient if we can get it out and communicate that it's out there okay yeah all right so we have a motion from Miss Coffield a second from Mr Hershey any discussion or debate it sounds like you know sounds like what we all got behind all right then all in favor of Miss cawfield's motion we will um put out another uh survey of the public uh using the three names that came out of facilities committee and we will give it um a couple of weeks or sorry we will give it some time it will be voted on on March 4th is that can we can I also
125just not as part of the motion but just direction that we try to get it back to the board by at least the Friday before the board meeting so that we have time to look at it and analyze it sound good all right then all in favor of Miss caulfield's motion please say oh Miss Parker did you have anything else dad not before you vote sir all right all in favor then of Miss cfi's motion please say I I any opposed all right thank you Miss Parker the only suggestion I would have and I'm happy to work with Chief Luton is it didn't appear from what was published that the public the benefit of the explanation for why each name was chosen it was here are the names so without understanding the board policy that
126to understand that this is a stream that's close and lizardlick has an historic community and this is marshman road while some are app parent it might be helpful to give them more thought than than whatever a name instantly triggers so I'm I'm happy to work with Chief Luton if that'll be helpful to to perhaps get more information out that the public can consider Miss Parker I think that's a wonderful solution I think folks around the table are nodding so great um whatever you need from us to make that happen we're in support thank you all right thank you Miss Parker so now um based on our amended agenda we'll move into the um consideration of our federal legislative priorities so this was on our agenda make a motion oh I'm sorry I thought we had
127two naming prices oh we did but we did that before you arrived you have in different order I apologize and my apologies for being late that's all right thank you Miss Parker all right so now um based on the amended agenda we're moving to review of the wcpss Board of Education federal legislative priorities this was discussed at our work session two weeks ago came back up for review at today's work session a copy of the legislative priorities is found in assembly and was discussed during the work session um for the benefit of those who do not have not seen it on the screen the Wake County Board of Education seeks to provide a relevant and engaging education for all students who graduate as collaborative creative and critical thinkers prepared to lead productive lives in a
128complex and changing world the federal government plays a vital role in supporting education to ensure National Security and produce citizens that contribute to a strong thriving economy the document then goes on to address four issues that were deemed priorities of this board that are affected by federal policy the first was continued support for the Department of Education and the programs funded through it uh the second item was student mental health and well-being the third item was infrastructure funding and okay the fourth item was the school lunch program um board members identified many federal issues that were important to us but these four were deemed to be the highest priority and the ones that were um the most times sensitive so at this point I have some comments that I could make but I'll defer to
129the other board members first um to see if there's any discussion or motion Vice chair Swanson I was going to make a motion before the discussion started um a motion to adopt the Lake County federal legislative agenda second thank you um I'm sorry thank you Vice chair Swanson there's a there's a motion from Vice chair Swanson and a second from Miss mfy for adoption of for adoption of the agenda um now that the motion is on the table is there any debate or any discussion Miss carfield I just wanted to make a quick note I think the um what we have on the legislative agenda we're covering a lot of um important topics um and just with the the school program um you know I'm going to vote for the legislative agenda um my only
130comment there is I understand the point of having Universal breakfast and lunch but knowing that we're trying to be sustainable and we speak about like some of the things that happen in lunchrooms and the wayte that's thrown out and people that may not need to have school lunch is I would prefer for them to focus more on the quality with the money that we're asking them for rather than everybody having Universal if we don't need it because then it zones the money in to exactly where we want it to be these children need to be need to eat it is imperative but we've already heard that how expensive it is to have that extra quality food so that was my only concern I will support it because I know these subjects are important um but
131I just wanted to make that a note thank you Miss corfield Miss Russ um if if we could ask um superintendent Taylor to just recap in reference to uh the funding and how it was it's already kind of put in there that we know that every child isn't going to eat if you can just a brief synapsis of of that again that it's that the money actually is being accounted for for who is going to eat and and who's not yes ma'am and so uh with each school lunch program um uh the cafeteria will look at the number of students that will be eating and they prepare that number of meals so a school may have 1,000 students but based on uh the numbers that they have on average it could be 600 meals that
132they prepare 700 meals that they prepare uh and and so you will still have a large number of students that will bring their lunches to school and not participate in the school lunch program uh but that will be based on uh the numbers that they have and they prepare meals based on what they expect uh students to uh participate each day so good point thank you Dr Taylor any other any other uh questions any other discussion about the agenda Dr in um just for the listening audience uh can we clarify who will be the recipient of this uh letter this this not thank you so this is the first time in my memory miss m you can correct me if you've got okay that we've we've addressed a a federal agenda to uh you know
133to the federal government here when this was contemplated the idea was that this would be directed to our Congressional Delegation uh specifically I guess the priority being the Congressional representatives and then are that represent weight County and that would include our two US senators but then also we have North Carolina Congressional Representatives that serve on very important committees relevant to these issues so for example a Alma Adams or Virginia Fox may not represent Wake County but they represent North Carolina voters and many of these issues are also issues that might affect school districts within their part of the state and so we would certainly share it with them at that point the question comes well why not just share it with the whole North Carolina delegation I don't believe there's been any thought of sharing
134it Beyond um the borders of North Carolina Mr Hershey thank you um first of all I'm I'm really happy we are doing this um this is something that I've wanted us to do is it possible or or I think we should share it with at least all the other school districts to let them know here's what we're doing you know not necessarily to coign on it but if they feel compelled to also do some of that advocacy work they know that we're taking the lead on putting a federal legislative agenda and I think if the board agrees I think that's something that Dr Taylor can handle with his uh contacts but that's I would like to get it as far and wide within North Carolina as possible thank you Mr Hershey and we have a
135we have a board meeting of the North Carolina School boards Association this Friday and if the agenda passes and the board is so inclined I'm happy to share with all of their members in their legislative team as well Dr Taylor did you have any comments or thoughts no I was just going to say say that once it passes uh it will certainly be information that school board um superintendent share with each other and so I will share that uh with my colleagues and make sure that they are aware of what we've done absolutely all right thank you I don't want to interrupt anybody if anyone else has any more um I do want to set some context for this um you know we think it is important to direct a legislative agenda to Congress at
136this point in time if you look at what's at stake with some of these programs Wake County Public the Wake County Public School System receives over 144.5 million in annual federal spending making up 10% of our operating budget these dollars directly impact over a th000 positions ensuring teachers school counselors and support staff are meeting our students needs oftentimes these programs go to benefit some of our most vulnerable students whether it's through a free and reduced lunch program or whether it's students that are experiencing homelessness or abuse and are receiving Services through our schools to get them to school when they may not have a parent or a bus route that can get them there uh special education we've talked about before I've told you that more than 20,500 students with disabilities rely on federally funded
137programs including 29.9 million in idea grants again the idea was a federal program passed by Congress it is is a federal mandate that we provide these Services any other given year we would probably be advocating for Congress to fully fund what it costs to provide these services but here I think we're making just the request to keep the status quo and keep those essential dollars going to these most vulnerable of students for things like speech therapy occupational therapy and support services again Wake County North Carol wake the Wake County school system with over 20,000 students with disabilities if you pulled those students out they would by themselves be about the 14th largest school district in North Carolina and so that's losing These funds would be disastrous for them additionally 8.3 million in Medicaid funding pays
138for critical school-based physical mental and behavioral Support Services when we talk about some of the student well-being programs and how essential they are whether these are Health screenings mental health support these are all things that are vital for students that might not be able to receive these services in other ways um support for low-income students and Title One schools you heard today about our restart programs and our works in our student achievement committee and how often the restart programs and our title School Title One programs go hand inand nearly 28 million in Title One funding supports schools with the highest percentage of low-income students this provides funding for teachers academic interventions those resources to help close the achievement gaps when we talk about academic achievement and we talk about test scores this funding is a
139crucial and vital piece of that if you look at where our test scores are lowest and you see the students that struggle the lowest it's often times those students with the fewest resources so the These funds have a direct impact on student performance our magnet schools are special are specialized academic programs again these have been nationally award-winning programs that provide vital services in schools that they that would not otherwise be available these are all on the cutting block early intervention funding and pre Services making sure that all kids arrive at kindergarden with the skills they need to to interact with with their classmates and to be ready to learn Le to have those basic building blocks of literacy already established when they're coming into kindergarten is just a a a proven Head Start for all
140of these students so you know we have a a very strong agenda here I know it doesn't have everything that everyone's looking for but I think with nine individuals from nine different backgrounds and nine different opinions coming up with a consensus document about how important these Federal prr programs are really makes a statement so I'm not allowed to make the motion but I would entertain a mo or I would I will call the question on uh Vice chair Swanson's motion if there's no other debate no other discussion all in favor of vice vice chair Swanson's motion for adoption of the federal agenda please say I I any opposed all right thank you and so I believe that concludes the business business agenda so now we will turn to board comment um again it is at
141the end of the agenda I know it has been a long meeting and I know we could be facing some inclement weather I want to thank all of my board members for their hard work as we deal with a lot of issues and a rapidly changing landscape I know there's a lot of uncertainty I know that we all respond to it different ways I want to thank you and encourage you to continue your hard work encourage continue you know encourage professionalism and attacking these problems headon and working together we will find Solutions there's more than I can say but there's not the time to say it so I will defer my further any further comment and turn it over to Vice chair Swanson thank you chair her and I will be brief um I want
142to thank the um briercliff PTA for inviting me to their Spirit night last week at Dairy Queen uh where I was able to connect with families and students and hear their concerns and some of the issues that they're facing in their communities um also congratulations to our semi-finalists teachers of the year I look forward to learning more about them and the impacts that they make on our students um the lifelong impacts they make on their students so I want to thank them all for their dedication um and also recognize um Dr seon Who is also retiring effective March 1 who was the Western Wake area superintendent who I've had the pleasure of working closely with over my term and so just want to thank her and chief fellas for their dedication to our students teachers
143and families of Wake County that concludes my remarks Mr chair thank you Vice chair Swanson Miss mafy thank you and I will add a Miss Parker and Miss Rory to the uh list of folks to thank it for their service to this District um I want to thank our bus driver I believe last week was love the bus week um I had the opportunity to go to Turner Creek Elementary for stem night and it was amazing to see many organizations volunteer um s a lot of robots um and I am grateful that the school board does not make decisions on school closings for inclement weather so thank you Dr Taylor to you and your team stay warm everybody thank you Miss mafy Miss carfield thank you um with me a second here so I wanted
144to address a few things today because I think it's very important to do so Dei and seal are certainly a heated topic and it is um a relatively new push I fear it's not going very well for our friends and if we look around and see how our children in our lives have anxiety and depression how many struggle in school struggle with social skills we've just started to acknowledge that the technology and social media play a role in their developing Minds our children are challenged with all of these new ideologies but bullying and discipline issues continue to rise not decrease our proficiencies and ape scores continue to be challenged and strained our mental health is on a steady decline and growing to the point that we cannot keep up are we really creating a space
145for Unity or Division and confusion we should question and worry our youth counts on us to guide them and protect them and are we doing that is their well-being really at the heart of what we are doing the anxious generation along with other along with a lot of other good reads breaks down all of these new experiences we are putting before our children and it's okay for us to reflect it's okay and rather good good for us to correct some of the things that might not be going well the definitions of Dei and seal really had another tone that folks are worried about everyone knows it here well diversity is always a good thing it's what America is built on different cultures and experiences and yes build a great this great home that we call
146America Dei is not handrails we have Ada for that that has existed since the '90s it is not a non-smoking section that started back in the 70s and 80s it is not an interpreter because we have accommodations for special needs 504 and IEP accommodations that address and Target their special needs the concerns that folks worry about and what is making it heated come from ideologies where a second grade class is assigned to play where the actors are students read scripted words seemingly confused and somewhat stressed as they struggle seeking their word for the day and in the play their trusted adults describe that sometimes you may feel like they them and at the end of the play the actor is relieved that they finally chose their words of the day they them that is social
147influence let me repeat that this is second grade not learning the basics of one 123s and ABCs and how to write and read words if this is the fake the focus I Now understand our nap scores even more the Dei push in schools also leaves us with an instructor in PE standing kids in a line and making them taking a step forward and backwards based on selected questions asked about them questions like as your parents divorced take a step back or if you feel uncomfortable by a sexual traumatic experience take a step back how traumatizing or ret traumatizing actually in class with their peers that is not Unity it is not creating a hierarchy of needs and last week a very good point was made and brought up about the ma maslo hierarchy of needs
148which is intended to nurture the basic needs hunger sleep love feeling valued achieving personal accomplishments things that Empower our students to flourish it is not the push the it is not to push the idea that students are different stand out because of the color of their skin or should find and focus on gender identity their gender identity it is important that our children know that they are smart and safe and capable of learning anything that they put their mind to give them all the tools guide them to read and figure Concepts and learn our history which is always good bad and ugly give them the foundation so that they know how to learn and that becomes a lifelong skill to explore their dreams Dei is not helping them find that dream it breaks them down
149into boxes and has everyone hyperfocused on what separates them let's stop focusing on that and unify them with what they are young brilliant and capable Minds to be clear we have amazing teachers this is a reflection of what is happening from the top down I don't just mean at Wake County I mean all the way at the top down one of my favorite parts of watching my own boys grow was when they were in a group of their peers Young innocent and full of exploration and all the little children just want to play they don't care who's in the sandbox division is taught they care that they have little people just like them playing in the with them in the sandbox and they don't care what they look like they just have a playmate but
150we encourage them to play nice together and join each other in the fun school is a place to join their peers and learn together collaborate and explore we shouldn't be creating little activists because of that's when we lose the sight of our goals our Nae scores show that we would serve our children well if we focus on math reading and life skills at the Senate confirmation hearing they spoke about today onethird only onethird of our high school students graduating can read proficiency proficiently that means 2third of our children cannot they are about to enter the world so digest that for a moment the this is a declining situation and it's not covid so let's get Back to Basics and I want to be clear this is not just Wake County we're struggling as a nationwide
151with our grades and our proficiency and our students a dear colleague letter was issued given school districts 14 days to remove such content and I'm requesting that our board comply it has been asked of us so I'm just going to be clear in the last meeting we do not all share the same opinions with language name calling degrading dismissive nature I just I certainly have the most admiration for many of the Great men and women who shape this amazing country that everyone else is flooding to by the way America is something to be proud of and I think it is shameful to degrade that history men like my grandfather who was an incredible man who simply he lived simply and loved with all of his heart and filled everyone else's heart who knew him he
152fought for our country for the people to have the freedoms to speak even if it's condescending and rude and you don't agree with it my uncles who also for for our country and all my cousins that continue to do the same all very very far from mediocre so we do not all share the same rac's point of views and while sitting at this board it's ironic to hear disheartening phrases around our students like low PRI priority it shows how biased our board is being for the record I do not agree with those words that are spoken and it is definitely not a shared opinion for all of the board members I know that there's been a lot spread that adds great concern to our public around the concerns of closing the Department of Education and
153what that could look like I recommend everyone listen to the entire Senate hearing where they interviewed Linda McMahan for the education secretary confirmation to add Clarity it was repeated many times the funds like free and reduced lunch and special education and pel grants will not be affected rather restructured through and written by different departments for example the funds for CNS would go through the Department of Agriculture title one could go through the department of of Treasury Department OCR could go through our justice department and that idea will not go away and in fact important to our special education Stu students it was repeated many times the funds to these programs would not change rather who writes the check removing the extra layer of positions that lay between the Federal Department of Education and our students
154I think it is worth noting that the federal funds are 10% of our budget that means 90% of our funds come from state and local they wish to send control back to the states to repeat they are not taking away the funding for our CNS nor our title one nor the special education or pel grants I felt it was important to give the public that Clarity and encourage you all to watch the interviews in entirety it is very informative thank you chair Miss rice good evening everybody um I want to uh say I'm very thankful for everyone being bold and speaking their truths today and um one of the truths that were spoken was some great work in KH Elementary School um through a conversation night called money talk talks and those students did an
155outstanding job um as they asked their board member about how we spend our money and where do we put our money at and so um we had a presentation that was done by the con PTA advocacy um Team um that did a um money 101 budget 101 excuse me and so I just want to highlight the amazing fifth grade students at KH Elementary that asked me some pretty tough questions and told me where they think that the money should go within their budget and so I was very excited about those fifth graders I'm sorry I didn't get the picture to our chief Communications Miss Luton um that we took together but parents that came around the table um asking questions about our budget as we know we're heading into budget season so I was very
156thankful for that um the other thing I want to support in the amazing things that are happening with District 4 where we are achieving High marks and doing great things and that is the uh Southeast Raleigh High School magnet high school debate team right and so that debate team participated for the first time I'm sorry I don't have the right name of it and they um actually won in their competition and so we're very proud of them and the great work that they are doing which are showing that our staff is doing a great job with making sure that students have opportunities to show off their amazing academic performance their ability to communicate which translates over into great people who can speak in community as they continue to move forward in adults so I will
157close out my comments tonight with just encouraging people to focus on just one tip tonight on financial Wellness um of the eight Dimensions of Wellness and it is budget season and so I would encourage everyone to please take the opport opportunity to determine what matters to you and your household and your community and take the opportunity to create a financial plan that impacts not just you but maybe other people in your community where you might be able to donate some time some finances and some resources and also take the opportunity to participate in upcoming budget conversations and upcoming um opportunities for Grants is also granty season for other people that we may need to engage in and so I just want to encourage everyone to just focus on their financial wellness and for those who
158like to participate in what goes on in our school district participate in it um we need your input and we value it and we will make the best decisions possible um to do great for all students in Wake County thank you chair thank you Miss rice we'll come back around the table to miss Gordon good evening um chair and the rest of the board um it's been a busy and exciting first two weeks as being um on uh the Wake School Board um I wanted to frame my comments tonight around the very message um that I sent when I applied for this position um around inclusive and affirming school um environments and family and Community Partnerships um I hit the ground running um by meeting with um and talking with several Educators um specifically with
159some of the amazing dedicated Librarians um in our district um I also had an opportunity to meet with some families um I want to send a thank you to the fu Verina Elementary School families um that invited me to their book breakfast um they are their campus is temporarily being housed in the need need him uh or I'm sorry the need more Elementary School and um they have a beautiful beautiful for big uh Library um but also um being able to meet with some Community leaders at the ribbon cutting at the new Hilltop Needmore Town Park Community Center um which will open up great possibilities for students and families um even after school because we as we know students experience better out School outcomes when giv after school opportunities um and so I've done all
160of that and I've been listening learning um I've been taking in all of the all of the emails and all of the comments um and so I'm very appreciative of that um and I am looking forward to more school visits thank you thank you Miss Gordon we're glad that you're here Mr Hershey uh thank you chair um I want to acknowledge everyone who showed up tonight whether with words of support or with constructive criticism from meor this board it's crucial in preserving our democracy that all people continue to have the guaranteed First Amendment right to address their government I want Eric Shepard to know that I took his words to heart and I want to personally apologize to him I could have made the same points two weeks ago by being more nuanced and without
161coming across as demeaning to anyone Mr Shephard and to those who feel I demean their own life I am sorry um and those are my comments thank you thank you Mr Hershey Dr ining yeah yes good evening uh sorry I wasn't uh able to attend earlier I was in a open house for a um Rehab Hospital in Apex um that I am part of and so um just want to uh give you guys um update uh Heritage High School uh has their production of hairspray this weekend hopefully it will happen uh last weekend the MAA show was canceled because of Cass illness um and hopefully the weather will cooperate enough that it'll happen this weekend um you can go to the school website for more information about uh the update information and to obtain tickets
162um District 3 will have their next um BAC meeting on February 24th at baileywick Elementary School uh we will have Chief uh uh of Staff Dr Robinson and Dr Julie crane from our director of strategy and policy to help facilitate a discussion on the proposed policy on cell phone use in school um so um dinner will be at 5:30 and the meeting start time at 6: um so uh we hope to gather some more feedback on this issue from um uh the uh people that will be there um um yesterday was President's Day um and the day in which we honor the birth of George Washington um his actual birthday was is on uh February 22nd um and it was established as a legal holiday in 1879 um but in 1971 it was moved to
163the third Monday in February under the uniform Monday holiday act I learned a lot um during this information search um and the term president day became popular in the 80s um but officially it's still called Washington's birthday um it is not meant to be a day to find a good deal on mattresses or TVs um it is a day to honor a great man uh whose vision for the new nation and the presidency shaped our country's direction for the next 250 years and he didn't do it on his own um because there were many great men who helped found this country and fought for the freedom from the British crown um and these men were not born great um as William Shakespeare wrote in 12th night some are born great some achieve greatness and some
164have greatness thrusted upon them the founding father s were not perfect people but they were at a crossroad in history and they achieved greatness because they Rose to the occasion to lead this land in a New Direction and some might say that the greatness was th thrusted upon them and that they were just reacting to what was going on around them nevertheless the important thing is that they acted at a crucial moment in history and so we are right now at a crucial Crossroad as well um as we try to figure out how to navigate the potential change changes that we uh and how we do education uh because of the executive orders from Washington DC as well as the our own budgetary shortfalls that we have to contend with we have to stick to
165our core Mission and that is the education of all children and that will require us to think outside the box from a budget standpoint we may have to ask make doe with less but how do we do that without compromising the children's education and are there programs or initiatives that we have already that have already serviced served their potent uh their purpose do we need to Sunset certain programs in order to stay compliant with the directives from the Department of Education and are there also opportunities to save money in the process as a board are there policies that we need to re re-evaluate or to make clearer so that we do not run the risk of losing federal funds that we need to operate our schools and more importantly are the policies in the best
166interest of the students education and are we preserving the parents voices how do we address meeting the needs of the most vulnerable without neglecting the needs of the rest of the students and when it comes to our special needs population who may not be able to advocate for themselves how do we make sure that we meet their educational needs and how can we help protect these children from physical or emotional harm this is an uncertain time and I don't pretend to know the answers to these questions but I would challenge my colleagues to act boldly together despite our differences so that we can have a better education for our children thank you thank you Dr in and Miss Evans if you'd like to finish it up for us yes I will thank you um congratulations
167to Annabelle tro I hope I'm saying her name correctly at Middle Creek High School who received a $1,000 scholarship from Spectrum new news I know many many many of our students um get lots and lots of scholarships but um I was invited to attend um where Spectrum news is going to come and feature her on a story later this week but I'm not able to be there anyway so I wanted to give her a shout shout out congratulations to francisa avar at Dillard mag Magnet Elementary for being named one of the teacher of the year finalist and to Kin Delio at Athens Drive Magnet High School for being named a first year teacher of the Year and thank you Dr Taylor I know you mentioned those in your comments as well thank you to the
168Boys and Girls Club for allowing me to be one of several judges at their student of the year that was last week and the students um were so impressive it was hard to choose Thank you to comes Magnet Elementary for including me in their Lead With Love First Responders breakfast and clap Out Raleigh PD the Wake Sheriff's Department um Capitol Police our firefighters NC State Police and others were honored I'm I am missing a couple but it's always a great event um so heartwarming and the District 5 BAC will be Monday night at 5:30 at Holly Ridge Middle School so um I was struck by something that was said tonight during public comment that we the um because of our woke agenda or however it was described um are like putting vulnerable students at risk
169and federal funding at risk and I thought wow that is uh that's rich so um who exactly is so threatened by the pillars and value of Dei are so threatened by pronouns that they would deny special needs students with the funding they need and deny Children's School meals own it uh own that short-sightedness and own that cruelty lastly to all those looking for ways to fight back I'll just ask you to keep standing with us stand up for the marginalized children and stand up for kindness and truth and Justice the goal with all of these executive orders is to destroy democracy the speed and Reckless approach is a strategy meant to exhaust us and make us feel hopeless so let's do the opposite of that let's show up here show up in the streets show
170up in the courts and if you're in a position that you can give some money I suggest Lambda legal who works to protect lgbtq Plus students and people democracy forward and the ACLU who are rapidly responding in the courts to these executive orders and to the Human Rights Campaign there's many many more but those were the ones I chose to highlight tonight our kids and our schools are worth all we've got to give in this moment thank you thank you and so that will conclude our board comments at this point I will entertain a motion for us to return to close session Mr chair uh motion to return to close session second we have a motion from Vice chair Swanson that we return to Clos session on our closed session agenda second from Miss mafy
171all in favor of returning to Clos session please say I I any opposed all right thank you we'll excuse everybody else and wish you wish you a safe travel home good night e