001oh Wing buddy I was going to tell you just to remain standing with your foot I didn't want you have to keep going up and down okay all right everyone good afternoon now good evening uh today is Tuesday November 26 2024 at 5:56 p.m. we're calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those of you that are here in person our County Ed 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 official business persons to willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances to an official meeting may be directed to leave by the
002presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or noises or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143 31817 all right I note that we do have a quorum and so those of you that are able please rise as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance Al to flag the United States of America to theice all right thank you everyone I'll wait just a second and then uh the first item on our meeting agenda would be consideration and Adoption of our meeting agenda but I'm aware that we have a uh uh quick amendment to make so at this point I will entertain a motion to amend the meeting agenda second well we
003need to know what what the amendment is um Miss ad I'll take this so um I don't have my laptop open but it's the item I'd like to remove off of consent the BAC ADV BAC nomination for just for District 5 um and pull that from consent thank you thank you Mr Swanson so there's a motion by Miss Edmunds to remove from the consent agenda The District 5 board member sorry the District 5 board advisory Council nomination Miss edmans oh and there's a second by Mr Swanson Miss Edmond yes and just for for the public and for clarity this has nothing to do with the person that is nominated I just need to um sign the form which I had not done so it it's there's no drama here it's just i' I'd like to
004do it on December 3rd thank you thank you Miss Edmonson again I'll lend my support this is just a technical amendment to make sure all the eyes are literally dotted and all the te's crossed uh so the motion was made by Miss Edmonds properly seconded by Mr Swanson all in favor of amending the agenda signify by saying I I any opposed all right the amendment has been adopted now we need to vote for the actual approval of the amended agenda is there a motion second we have a motion from Mr Hershey and a second from Miss mafy to adopt the uh adopt the amended meeting agenda all in favor of the meeting agenda please signify by saying I any opposed all right the meeting agenda has been adopted and so we will turn to the
005first item um oh okay I'm sorry there's there is one other issue but I will bring it up at the appropriate time um we'll go ahead and we'll move into the Public Public comment portion of our meeting uh speakers comment speakers wishing to present uh about items on tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be heard in order of sign up only the person speaking at the podium you will be able to stand again all attendees that are not speaking are to remain seated concerns related to Personnel issues or individual student matters that may be address through applicable wcpss Personnel policies the grievance policies and others should address those two staff rather than reveal confidential information that might be of a sensitive nature in the interest of
006maintaining Civility and decorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share should be handed to the board attorney Mr Rod Malone here at the end of the table either before or after your comments during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable and go ahead and raise them or lower them to where they're comfortable your time does not begin until you start to speak when you start to speak the green light will light up to show you that your time has begun then you will have
007three minutes the yellow light will light up along with an audible tone that you'll hear when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time when your speaking time is up you'll see the yellow you'll see a red light and you'll hear another audible tone when your time is up please um end your comments the next speaker will be called to the podium at that time and you asked to respect the time limit and speak no more than three minutes all right our first Speaker tonight as we do we bring bring all of our students up to speak first we have two student speakers our first is Rowan Bido good evening good evening board members tonight I'm going to start with a story and you may think to yourself why are they telling us this but
008I promise there's a point so last Wednesday I went to student services to use the restroom before second period That's the counselor's office if anybody's curious as I was leaving a boy walked in and asked the receptionist if she had any string because his belt broke and he needed something to keep his pants up as I do every day I was wearing this belt which I wear even if I don't need it on that day the belt was just for show so I took it off and told him that he could borrow it for the day he thanked me profusely and promised he'd return it to me all of the people in student services then started praising me and saying that I was so selfless I replied I had something that he needed it was
009just the right thing to do it didn't feel like some huge Act of service just common courtesy the next day November 20th which is important so remember that I went to Student Services again and they praised me again one lady even said it was the kindest thing she'd ever witnessed I thought to myself wow she must know a lot of mean people if that's the nicest thing she'd ever seen they all told me that I was so generous and thoughtful and I was really taken aback is common decency really so uncommon that such a small Act is worthy of such high a claim I mean there's plenty of selfish and hateful people out there but I always thought kindness prevailed throughout the rest of that day though I became more cognizant of all the nastiness
010around me and the severe lack of niess like how in second period our principal made the announcement that it was International transgender day of remembrance nobody in my class was respectful some of them even laughed and said it was stupid I commented that trans day of remembrance is a day set aside to commemorate trans people who have been killed in Acts of anti-trans haate so laughing at that means that you're laughing at the 350 plus people murdered internationally just this year nobody took it seriously I was frustrated but heartbroken more than anything since I was born a little over 17 years ago over 5,000 trans people have been murdered globally that means almost one person a day why are we laughing at that we honor memorial day in school every year and I never hear
011people laughing every year on September 11th we pay respects to the nearly 3,000 people that died in 2001 and nobody laughs at that either so why is it acceptable to laugh about this why is it okay to call it stupid or goofy there is one day a year November 20th where everyone should pay respects to the trans Community you don't have to be trans or even accept trans people but if you have even a shred of basic human decency then you should know that a day of morning is not the time for your transphobia everyone here has a community I want you to imagine your community it could be religion race anything and and then imagine that thousands of members of that Community were being murdered strictly because they're part of that Community imagine that
012there's a day set aside for honoring those lost lives and then imagine how you would feel on that day pretty sorrowful I'd assume but how would you feel if on this sorrowful day you heard countless people mocking it and discrediting it that probably wouldn't feel so great would it well that's how I felt for all of Thursday I cried so many tears for all of the members of my family who were wrongfully killed I cried for the 25-year-old woman who was shot and killed just the week before last in Greensboro I cried for the 16-year-old kid beaten in their school bathroom and who died the next stay from sustained injuries I cried for myself out of fear and dread I cried for my girlfriend out of Devastation that she may be taken from me before
013we can grow old together and I cried because everywhere I went people treated it like a joke so to answer my question from earlier yes common decency is so uncommon that people get so excited at the smallest act of kindness but why where has our decency gone the world feels ruined and we all need to be a little bit more decent thank you our next speaker is another student uh rejoy rajes rejoy good evening hello good evening chair Hagerty board members and Dr Taylor my name is R Rees and I an enll High School freshman this is my first time speaking at a Schoolboard meeting so please excuse me if I sound nervous I will address the parent informed passive consent case for the Youth risk behavior survey the ybc is a national survey conducted
014by high school and middle school students by the CDC it consists of questions about health th behaviors and takes an accurate snapshot of student well-being after the survey the CDC sends the results of the participating States and districts however the CDC does not provide weighted data to districts that have below the 60% threshold participation for the last several administrations Wake County has been an over samp oversampled District but has had too little participation for weighted data the primary reason being the lack of signed parent consent forms returned to the school W County uses active parent consent which means that parents need to provide signed consent for participation in the survey active parent consent is ineffective due to the effort taken by students to return it to school and is mostly ignored students aren't allowed to
015choose uh aren't allowed to participate without consent on the contrary parent informed passive consent requires parents to sign and return a form only if they do not want their student to participate in the yrbs parents are informed that their students will be taking their this survey unless they fill out a form opting them out wake meinberg Durham Winston Salem and chadam counties are over sampled and would be elgible to receive their local data if they met the SU % threshold wake is the only one that is active consent rather than passive consent and the only one that did not get weighted data passive consent is more effective in gathering more data and parents still get to choose if they don't want their child to take their Sur the survey why does w County need weighted
016data from the survey Wake County is unique from the rest of the state so Statewide data is useful for comparison but not for understanding Wake County students this survey allows students to express themselves and considers the youth population's opinions on issues affecting them student voice is essential in addressing needs the ybc is a means to allow student voice Nel Mandela once said if we are serious about empowering young people then we must begin by listening to their voices and allowing them to play a role in the decisions that shape their lives the surveys data can also be used by the school board of many nonprofit organizations like the PO Center for health education to develop and Implement effective programs benefiting the youth we can better understand the issues that are associated with our youth and
017create effective policies accordingly also local data that accurately represents the population provides an advantage in grant writing over communities and districts that don't have that data clearly you can see that the ybcs data is crucial in understanding the youth needs W county is isn't receiving enough participation from the survey to get accurate data due to active consent and we can see that parent informed passive consent should be used instead these are the reasons why I urge the W County School Board to amend the policy to allow the yrbs survey to be parent informed passive consent thank you thank you Mr rajes next we'll turn to our um adult speakers uh all speakers tonight are speaking on agenda items our first speaker is uh Margaret Belo and uh Margaret will be followed by Christopher English hello
018thank you board members and superintendent for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight as we review the budget and amendments I want to emphasize the significant portion of our funding that comes from the federal government particularly the large allocation for special education while we can't predict every potential change coming in the future we must begin planning for the possibility of reduced or eliminated federal education funding in addition to financial planning we need to consider policy updates to ensure access and equity for all students even if Federal mandates for those protections are rolled back the board as it stands today May prioritize these needs however again we don't know what the future will bring so we must lay the groundwork to safeguard funding and protections for all students particularly special education students looking at the proposed
019budget if I'm reading it correctly because I'm not an accountant and I don't foresee becoming one uh at any point in the future if Federal funding were lost the approximately $129 million deficit would far exceed what could be covered by current capital fund rollovers this underscores the urgency of long-term Financial Planning and proactive policymaking uh then jumping to another agenda topic tonight the new board advisory Council appointments I'd like to suggest that the board consider adding an advisory Council seat or seats for students in special education the ECS classrooms um or even outside of the ECS classrooms just the special education students while these students share the same schools as their peers their needs are unique and often overlooked under representation at the individual School level level frequently compounds at the subdistrict as well as
020further at districtwide levels leaving their voices unheard in critical decision-making processes by ensuring the inclusion of special education representation in the advisory Council the board would ensure a more Equitable and comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of all students this addition would be a meaningful step towards fostering inclusivity and understanding within our district and I'm early this time so thank you for your time and I hope you have a great start to the holiday season thank you Miss Belo our next speaker uh Mr English you'll be followed Follow by Christopher English followed by Caitlyn Trader good evening good even so today you guys during the working session you all saw this presentation right at the beginning uh and I reviewed it just as uh you guys were looking at it today and there are some
021concerns I have based on the information that was pres presented here so this is just the uh uh presentation for the enrollment uh plan for next year uh first off this the the data here is what dictates how you guys make the enrollment plan and as you can see the forecasts for 21 to 22 to 23 jumped up and down and this is kind of strange also given the fact that the graph start off with a rather flat and stagnant growth then go to a decreased growth and then the linear growth is not hitting until about 2028 uh going to a graph that I took from the Wake County website it shows that we have had linear growth within the population uh within the county since 2010 so how is the data that you guys
022are making your decisions on accurate and uh pertinent uh so is next year will the forecast look something like this with it being higher will it be lower uh or more likely it'll look something like uh this so the information you're being fed to make the decision I think it is not accurate uh moving on to this little graphic uh showing where the ups and downs are uh in the population uh zooming into the area of Apex where where I live we can see that there are some up arrows but there's also a lot of down arrows uh and then using the waiting that uh was included on the previous graphic I calculated that there's about a a an increase of about 300 students in this area and then all of these other ones cancel
023out each other and then there's a decrease in about 50 students over here so uh you get a a total of of by was it 2033 so over nine years of growth you get that and really the the uh uh this graph shows that there's probably going to be a growth in one year of about 140 students and then there's a lot more going on here that basically the current plan that is up for vote tonight is going to get you in a lot of trouble because of the data that it is based on thank you Mr English our next speaker is Caitlyn Trader who'll be followed by Meg Gandalf good evening I'm sure you're tired of uh looking at my face um change cannot be made until those who are unaffected are as outraged
024as those who are at tonight's work session Student Assignment stated they will be contacting families after the approval tonight not after the vote not if the plan is approved after the approval tonight the board has never not approved an enrollment plan nobody has a perfect record nobody so I'm here tonight along with several other community members to strongly encourage the board to vote no on this one there's a first time for everything this is the one guys this is the one to vote no on we're telling you our elected officials to vote no the public engagement sessions in 2023 did not include Ashley DS Pearson Farms Jordan Point wberry anyone from bacham or Olive Chapel Elementary School among many others the public engagement sessions in Spring of 2024 did not include any of us either
025student assignment has not been providing you with an accurate representation of public feedback among other things we will be sharing ing all the evidence along with a comprehensive report in the near future so look out for that we found out tonight that bellacasa has 2,800 homes to split them into only two schools is a miracle it's honestly impressive they should be split into several sorry basa people because of their enormous development they have three pools why not three schools and respectfully Miss mafy I truly appreciate you clarifying your position it it helped us understand uh the influence on the bellosta decision um but it sounds like you had such a horrible experience with student assignment in the past so much so that you cried in their office and then you took your kids out and
026put them in magnet schools so I assume to not have to deal with potential reassignments anymore where we don't understand why you haven't been fighting as strongly for us as we have because you've been here and you've experienced this firsthand in a previous work session a board member made a comment to student assignment and I quote I know that as staff y'all don't like to put new things into the second versions of the plan if they're not in the first version of the plan and then this past Friday Mr cza confirmed what we had feared that the public hearing was just for show and that nothing we said nor any documents or evidence would be taken under consideration after October 15th nothing after October 15th was responded to or had any impacts on changes made
027in the enrollment plan they just doubled down and what they had already stated I wish I could give you happy news and say this is the last time you'll hear from me but unfortunately You Haven't Seen the Last of Me it these last few months have opened my eyes to just how broken this system is I look forward to learning more continuing to to get involved and maybe one day even sitting on the board amongst yourselves at this point in the game we know that changes will not be made in our favor it's not about that anymore it's about the blatant lack of transparency lawyer lingo and policy 4150 which gives student assignment the ability to make whatever decisions they want and the missr misrepresentation of student assignments goals for their enrollment plans voting no
028is the way to go please listen to your constituents we're begging you at this point Thank you thank you our final speaker on the agenda tonight is Meg gandal good evening Miss Gandalf good evening so I am a Wake County uh Public School educated woman I graduated from Sanderson High School in three years and um Kathy bore actually was my principal so I know her well um unfortunately after this experience I have memorized the fact that allive Chapel Elementary has been um presented as currently being at 144% capacity with capacity being 856 students this means that oce has 1,232 students last week um I was looking over uh September 2023 is work session and I came across the base population and School population documents I noticed that some of the numbers weren't lining up the
029base population is those who live in the geographical lines but don't necessarily go to the school for whatever reason they might go to a magnet school um or you know transfers those types of things and then the school population is who actually is enrolled at the school at the September 3rd working session no one noticed that the base population and School population data was presented as the same figures for both data sets it has been it it wasn't until um I made Student Assignment aware last week and they made the change actually just yesterday um Susan pulan said to me in the response in in an email about the data discrepancy that please know that there was an uploading error only the correct data sets were used throughout the planning process and all information included
030in the actual presentation to the board throughout this year's planning process is accurate because the numbers weren't lining up for oce I did an audit of the last three years um of data and this is what I found first I'll say that there appears to be some adjustments that have been made I assume for kids who are leaving the school and for kids who are coming into the school um Wake County Public School on their website has that uh School utilization the definition is utilization of a school is defined as the student membership divided by the school capacity um um so for 2022 2023 I checked Fuller Elementary School and Laurel Park Elementary School and they both appear to follow the school population data set which is in line with your definition the 2024 2025
031I checked Apex Elementary and Holly Springs Elementary both check out to be school population for the 2025 2026 I checked bacham Elementary School and Olive Chapel Elementary School similar to past years bacham does check out to be school population however allive Chapel appears to have follow follow the base population data set and not actually the school population this means that all of Chapel capacity percentage was calculated using the wrong data set and thus inflated the outcome I can provide those numbers for you but because I'm short on time I'll just email them to you but trust me they are wrong okay um and so and not only that but uh I I just have to say I I would not be surprised if you're told that I that my math is wrong I had a
032Wake County Public School math teacher look at your slid and check my math I am right it is wrong and I can I can show it to you um if I'm even maybe a slightly correct you have to vote now thank you m guys thank you that concludes our public comment session tonight um the next item on our agenda is that we have a special information item we will call up um Dr Janine Perry Campbell who is going to speak to us about Native American Heritage Month good evening good afternoon chair hagy Vice chair Johnson holer superintendent Dr Taylor distinguished members of the board I am Dr Janine Perry Campbell director for student and educator engagement in the office of equity Affairs and it is a pleasure to come before you this evening to share
033some of the wonderful things that are happening in our schools as you know this month we are celebrating American Indian Heritage Month in our district district and in all of our schools in fact this afternoon we celebrated Native American heritage month at our American Indian education center the photos that are being shown are of today's event showcasing our students since the early 1990s presidents George H W bush Bill Clinton George W bush Barack Obama Donald Trump and Joseph Biden have issued annual proclamations which designate November as National American Indian Heritage Month or since 20 2009 as n National Native American Heritage Month these proclamations celebrate the contributions of the American Indians and urge the people of the United States to learn more about American Indian cultures in North Carolina governor roor Cooper issued a proclamation
034for American Indian Heritage Month as an opportunity to honor and celebrate the history and Heritage of the American Indian people in our state North Carolina is home to eight state recognized Indian tribes the kohari the Eastern band of Cherokee the halawa saponi the Lumby the maharin the okichi band of the saponi nation the saponi and the wakama suan in the Wake County Public School System we have a committee dedicated to overseeing the instruction and recognition of our cultural observances we work cross departmentally to provide resources for teachers that supplement curriculum and to showcase the events and special instruction happening in the classroom related to these observances we have prepared a brief video that shows you how the students at leeville Road Middle School are using their multimedia production skills and morning broadcast to inform all
035students in the school about Native American heritage month thank you very much and enjoy the video well we do a monthly segment um depending on which month it is so we are recognizing Native Americans this month and every single day we are having a new Native American representative from different tribes and just different things that they do and I think yesterday we had Johnny Depp and we were just talking about his successes and what they're doing um for the impact of the Native American Community throughout the month of November we will continue to honor Native American Travelers as like one one here at Stu it started off as me and our former president Ben Murray we were doing it and it was just like a shorter segment and we uh we would just say the
036announcements some birthdays what we would usually do cuz before we didn't have like a whole setup and everything in a TV and a Promethean board in here it was just down in the office and you'd read out the announcements on the intercom but we wanted something more inclusive so we started the morning news so that they could see the students that were speaking and we started doing a national day so it seemed more exciting and like I guess inclusive so they could have something fun to the start of their day Mia Burgess who is now our president of student council she um she was vice president last year the most amazing vice president and so she had wanted we started in February so it was black history months but it was amazing to bring it
037to film and to have the kids start picking who we were going to do every day um so we started with black history month and then we just continued on from there Roma is the first woman to ever serve as principal chief on Cherokee Nation breaking barriers and providing that leadership means NOS to gender she worked tirelessly to improve her community focusing on education Healthcare and empowering others through her courage and determination while were inspired countless people to believe in themselves and make a difference we like to have different types of people actors activists um people from the past tribe leaders and include all of the Native Americans that can be shown throughout our history and I feel like people only remember them as the people who got kicked off their land and Pocahontas and
038that's really all people know but this segment and like bringing awareness to having a Native American month is really important CU people can understand that there's so much more to them from all of us here at wlms we thank you for tuning in to our Morning News segment have a great day and remember we [Music] [Applause] all right thank you and uh you Dr Perry Campbell we want to thank you for all of your work on this project with our Indian education program you know we have an Indian education classroom and center that is located in Garner and our vice chair representing Garner has been a huge supporter of the program I just want to ask Vier Johnson Hustler if she had any comments she'd like to share thank you very much and um as
039I shared today um again thank you and all the staff and team who work to ensure that we have this opportunity to experience it we've done it multiple ways since I've been on the board both in front of us at our board meeting but also at the Indian education center um in Garner and I'll tell you a little bit why later today we probably had it there um but it has been my pleasure to support them every year of my tenure on this board um and they've experienced and shared today some of those Milestones being moving from a part-time um staff Miss Gwyn who we who we still hold near and dear for those of us who know her and her name was brought up again today we had a parent who attended wcpss and
040worked with Miss Gwenn um to now we have um Becky who is full-time which we are grateful for that um I will say um they've always been good at advocating which maybe why I feel akin to them as an advocate um and they certainly had asked the day the super superintendent was there to hear those direct ask um I think it was a pre a Prelude to the ask that will come um but but but I will and I have these to share with you both the program which the cover is the artwork by our student um that participates and we have a little ornament for those of us who attended to keep or a little Keepsake to remember the work that they do the thing that I would recommend all board members especially if
041you're not deeply familiar with this program and I'm sure staff can get you brochures to make sure that you have so that you can share with our community who may or may not know that we run this program in our district to ensure that all of our um Native American students have an opportunity to participate in their families um if they're interested um and then lastly I will certainly say it is always a pleasure um me and the Watsons I think grew up in this District together they are a family who attend uh schools in Fu in my district but they um it's a father who's a drummer and his daughter or hoop dancers and we realized today when Aspen and I were talking um that I've literally known her since she was four um
042so I didn't realize that until she and I were walking out she's like I'm almost as tall as you she was um but again I I say that to say that it is important that um and I promise them that a board member will pick up my love and commitment to their program to ensure that those families know that this is not just a commitment personally for me but a commitment to our board and I told them I would say this public because they ask that I ensure that someone knows that they feel strongly that the expectation be that they continue the support because not only should doct Taylor know those asks that are coming but the board should be aware of the ask that they have coming before forward to us and again I
043appreciate the families um who their parent advisory uh Council which again we've been very fortunate that many of them have actually been students at away County Public Schools and then just a reminder that we don't often Pat ourselves on the back um I lived in a community that had roughly 30% Native American students and they did not have Indian education in their schools when my um husband taught there they do now um but I share that to say that there are a little less than 20 programs throughout the state and so again another kudos to Wake County for understanding the need to ensure that our students um as it was put to share today and I think it was actually explained very well is that our students who are not our majority students do experience
044walking into two worlds and this opportunity allows both their education World in their world of their culture and their Heritage identity to be aligned and so this program not only talks about their Heritage but there are camps there's a Statewide organization and so I think I want to share that with those of you listening here with us today and our board members that it is much broader than what we've seen put in front of us um and so again I share that on behalf of the parents that I said I would share that with today and again thank you to the governor um um and Mr Richardson for reading the proclamation today at the program thank you Vice chair Johnson Hustler thank you so the next item on our agenda are our board and superintendent
045comments and we'll start with our superintendent Dr Robert Taylor thank you Mr chair and and I just want to add to uh the words by U uh Vice chair monik Johnson hosler uh that it was absolutely AE pleasure to be at the uh event today at our Indian education center uh I think is vitally important that we uh keep Indian education uh at the Forefront of what we do we know they've been a uh a vital part of our nation's history for as long as we can all remember uh I will also let you know that we're fortunate in Wake County that we do have a program um I've been in four different districts uh and there was an Indian education program in each district that I was in and I had the opportunity to
046be an IND Indian education coordinator for eight years uh but it also shared uh lets me know that most distri dists don't have this program and so I think we are very fortunate that we do uh and I feel very fortunate as an individual to be in four districts that did have the program so with that I I'll begin my comments i' I'd like to start by congratulating Dr Stephanie Nelson school counselor at Garner Magnet High School who was named one of five National finalists uh for school counselor of the year uh Dr Nelson previously had been named for the Wake County school council of the year and the North Carolina school council of the year in 2023 uh she has worked at Gunner High School since 2007 and she is highly regarded as a
047leader both at her school and within the school counseling profession uh Dr Nelson led the Intensive effort to get Garner designated as a model school by the American School counseling Association she also was instrumental in the schoolwide initiative to improve the school's graduation rate working with the school school Improvement team she provided individual counseling and other support to subgroups that were struggling to graduate on time including Latino young men her principal Matthew price sums up Dr Nelson's impact at garard this way Dr Nelson Nelson consistently leads with kindness even in stressful situations her demeanor allows for those around her students teachers and peers within her Department to respond in a similar manner while de Dr Nelson did not receive the national school council of the Year award as a finalist she would get to travel
048to a celebration in Washington DC in January and will participate in a series of virtual events during National School counseling week in February as we are all keenly aware our school counselors and other student support Personnel play a critical role in helping students overcome challenges to go on to succeed in High inside and outside of the classroom so we are fortunate in Wake County to have a high caliber professional um like Dr Nelson who are committed to our mission of seeing that every student reaches their full potential so again congratulations to Dr Nelson for representing our district so well and more importantly for the outstanding work she has done and will continue to do to help her students U speaking of supporting students I'm pleased to share the news that our district has been awarded
049a five year $14.1 million Grant to expand and enhance our school-based Mental Health Services uh so White County was one of 23 grant winners in the only awarde from North Carolina again the US Department of Education Grant will fund 27 New School positions over the next 5 years as well as additional training uh for current School Personnel so we're proud of that uh also congratulations to the students uh and staff of green level high school which was named the 2024 ESPN honor rooll for outstanding commitment to the Special Olympics unified Champion school program uh the aim of Special Olympics unified Champion schools is to incorporate special Olympic sports leadership and Rel related activities into whole school uh movement for inclusion so we are proud of the work that they will do there um and I
050will in my comments uh with saying that I I received um uh an email today that noted that bu County uh had uh five or 15 of the top elementary schools in the state and three of the 15 top middle schools in the state so I haven't had an opportunity to go through and review all of that because I did get it today uh but I wanted to share that to let everyone know that we are doing outstanding work in Wake County uh and uh these kinds of Articles show that work and the work that our schools are doing so I wanted to share that with the board and Mr chair that will end my comments thank you Dr Taylor so um there is a lot to report today however because of the time and
051hour I am going to try to condense things um I do want to specifically though address uh the comments that uh Mr Rajesh had made and let you know it's not on today's on this meeting's agenda but on our next meeting agenda the very issue you raised was raised by our policy committee chair Miss mfi and in our last policy committee we specifically addressed these surveys and our board as a committee put together a recommendation that we should change that same behavioral survey to an optin rather than I'm I mean to an opt out rather than an opt in so we've we've heard that same issue um Miss mafy had brought it to the attention spoke to the board and at our next meeting you'll see that on our school board agenda so thank you
052for bringing it up but I just wanted to give you that update thank you all right um some good news I wanted to share and and I wanted to um recap a couple big events things that we've been involved in uh Dr Janine Perry Campbell was here earlier I think she has stepped out but I wanted to uh lift up some of the other good work that she's done and also some of the good work this board has done I'm going to close my comments with just a recap of everything I think we have accomplished in this school board year because we have done a lot and I think sometimes when you're in the midst of it you don't fully appreciate everything that you may have done all the different issues you've addressed and what
053you've accomplished um one of the things that we did do that I was going to talk about were our discussion of the food program and specifically this idea of our Angel funds this was something that I know a lot of board members latched on to spoke about at the board table and committee and really took an active interest in promoting because of your direct efforts I'm pleased to announce that our district has just received a grant from the AJ Fletcher Foundation to provide I believe $155,000 into our district Angel fund and that is due to the work that we did to elevate that issue and so I wanted to um bring that to your attention and let you know that these attempt that these efforts to go out and advocate in the community are heard
054and can produce results Dr uh uh Dr Janine Perry Campbell had also worked with another issue working with a student who spoke at us before on one of her student Equity teams uh some of you might remember Miss Leia chodri from enll High School Miss chodri came together working with Dr Perry Campbell to bring a grant proposal to us to take Student Activities like student debate speech and debate which are available at some of our high schools but not available at others and provide funding so that we could have more equity and more opportunity for these activities in districts in in schools in our district which currently don't support those activities at one time all of these activities were funded by the district you know when I attended enll High School the debate team was
055started my freshman year and the district paid for the coaches and their time their extra Duty time they would pay for the transportation for us to go on the trips today with the resources that we have these costs now are pretty much borne by the students the students that want to participate have to pay their own way and so for students that have funds they're able to participate in this great Student Activity but as you know we have a lot of students that can't pay for it and through this work brought To Us by a student come working through Dr you Dr uh Perry Campbell and the student Equity teams we've now gotten funding to give those opportunities to many more students who could be some of our Generations you know the Next generation's Great
056Debaters but just haven't had the opportunity so I wanted to specifically call out that that great work as well members of our school board attended the state school board association's uh annual meeting and I know it was um a very very uh productive meeting we had several work sessions on a number of topics and I think these will inform a lot of our debate and work going forward specifically I was able to attend sessions uh that talked about the problem that we've talked about before with our housing costs in Wake County and the difficulty our teachers and staff have in living in the same neighborhoods where they teach and where they work and so we got to hear some really innovative ideas that I'd like to bring to the board about opportunities for student and
057staff housing we also attended a wonderful uh presentation on AI in schools and I know Dr Ring has attended some conferences on this as well where North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has specific recommendations not just for how we approach the use of generative AI in our schools but you know actual policy considerations things that we might need to take up in addition to how we teach about Ai and terms of it being a CTE skill a job skill that students will need and employers are looking for but also how it relates to bullying and harassment and the potential dangers out there with deep fakes and altered images and what that can mean in the lives of our students as well as just how students if they use AI it should be properly credited and
058acknowledged and so these are just you know several things about Student Activities and engagement the links between proficiency and academic success and attendance and how we can you know how schools have been able to boost attend attendance through greater student engagement and how we make those opportunities Equitable as well so there was a lot of great um a lot of great lessons learned a lot of great information shared some of you may have your own sessions that you do wish to talk about and bring up I won't go into too much more on it but I do encourage us especially as we go into to our board retreat coming up to share some of those Lessons Learned some of those ideas that might have been generated and how we can use those experiences in the
059coming year um finally I did want to just take a brief opportunity to recap this past year that you have served on the school board this will be the last meeting that we have before for our uh swearing in ceremonies and our our our leadership meetings um but you've done a lot and I know sometimes that doesn't always come out you know we began the year with a lot of work talking about mentoring and tutoring programs and we had presentations and we worked uh to learn more and to promote like the helps program to do more to try to bring adults into schools we reached out to our fraternities and sororities with the divine nine about opportunities where they could become more involved and we saw uh Miss rice and I particularly at comes Elementary
060just the direct impact that tutoring had on the academic success of those young men and women in terms of student safety you know we have now ensured that we will have none in every school in Wake County and we will have staff trained to administer it the potential to save lives we have we we adopted gun safety resolution and worked with law enforcement Partners to promotee safe storage of firearms we have made important facilities upgrades and come up with a plan to adopt many more physical changes to our buildings to make them more secure for students we entered into the social media uh class action suit a litigation to help protect a students social and emotional well-being and have strengthened our policies for our student mental Wellness plans the budget this year and you know
061for for those of you you know that have come in just last year you know the contrast between this year and the previous year but for those of us have been around longer I have to say this budget that we adopted probably had more direct board involvement than any budget in recent memory for wcpss and that you all worked hard researching and advocating your positions and we found a way to fund important staff compensation improvements to bring bus driver pay to $20 an hour and you know avoid compression for those veteran drivers we even found a way to keep the building subs and a lot of that was due to your hard work your research and your advocacy and not being you know and simply just not being satisfied with the status quo and that's
062something that this board this collection of individuals did that I think is amazing and should be commended um we had incredible policies this year after years of work we finally adopted a sustainability policy after years of work we finally adopted the crown act policy we have additional policies on employee leave and the modernization of much more work and there's much more work that still needs to get done but we've made good starts we've had good conversations on bullying and harassment and where we could go in some of those areas the process we've done more with our new superintendent to engage the Comm community and really uplift Community engagement creating a new community engagement committee that was chaired by our vice chair uh monik Johnson Hustler we had our first Community engagement fair you know if
063you remember earlier in the year that hundreds of people attended and were connected to all sorts of resources that previously were available but many were not aware of you know we've streamlined our processes we've brought attention to things like School nutrition we've expanded our participation found ways in the c c program to make sure more students do not go hungry throughout the day we've again I've talked about the angel funds which we've promoted and we're seeing the community step up and help us to provide more of those meals you know we've I don't even want to get to know how to how we talk about the whole transition of the leadership acmy and the challenge that was as well as other challenges we've had with school facility sites and the Investments we would make academics
064the assignment plan uh so much has been done in this one year and I hope now that the elections are over and maybe some of you you will have time to Exhale and breathe a little bit you can fully appreciate all of the good work that this board has done and so just as your chair this year I wanted to say thank you for that and with that I'll turn it over to our vice chair Monika Johnson Hustler thank you very much um I will be brief since thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak directly to our Indian education uh program um I had and again thank you Dr Taylor I can remove congratulating Dr Nelson also from my list uh who as you noted um we was our um counselor of the
065year for Wake County and a finalist for the state and now a finalist again so again thank you to Dr Nelson and all the work that she's done at Garner Magnet Senior High School um so um I will also note thank you Mr refres um po Health Center has been amazing in sending young people to advocate for this change um so I am glad to hear that it's finally making it to the policy agenda so you can take all the credit not the previous people who've talked to us about it so it's all on you when you see it P you should come back and celebrate with us but again it is always refreshing to have our young people come share their thoughts experiences and quite frankly the request of the board so thank you
066um and your perod of Guardian um and support system who's joining you today you were not nervous at all you did a great job um speaking of young people uh Miss Evans joined me this weekend it was a surprise um I am a public speaker all the time I don't generally like to speak in public so I was I was not prepared to have someone who actually knew me at the event on Saturday um then I had to switch my whole speech after the person who went before me um but um um some of you may not be familiar with NC child it's an organization that actually used to be the Covenant for North Carolina children in the 90s which is how I got my advocacy start in the state of North Carolina and so
067it's it's always been full circle to watch the work that they're doing and now the CEO is actually on my BAC um so all these full circle moments are happening which is a sign of departure for sure for me um but they invited me to come speak to their inaugural Statewide youth advocacy Council um which was um which I think I got invited because I've spoken about the work that the Wake County Youth advisory council did um they are the reason um for Wake County to start looking at vaping in schools before it was an issue that we were talking about across the country um it's I'm going to tell you how long ago was and this is I just was recounting this with the staff um Dr Chavis was a principal at fuay middle
068school that is how long ago this was when the youth advisory Council brought this to Wake County Public Schools so again for those of you who know he's been with us here and he was a principal at ow very long time ago they were the first students who began to come speak to wait County public schools around this policy issue um it was amazing to listen to these young people of course we had a Wake County Public School student there was a superintendent in the room there was another school board member a county commissioner um in addition to the students uh families and support system and um this board um I will share with you something that has been near and dear to several of our hearts and several of us have talked about this
069but they focused on Mental Health um and they had two recommendations um one of of them is not a part of Wake County Public Schools but several of the schools I'm familiar with do this as a part of their ramp program um and that's enrichment courses and so um the young woman who talked about it from her school who actually bills in enrichment courses um was very profound that a school district is actually building in the work for students to explore who they are what they want to be when they grow up um also concrete skills like time management and career development and applying to college um so I thought that was I mean it was that was their first um goal and it was interesting um because several of the people that I also
070talked to post meeting also did not have enrichment courses built into the entire school district for high school students um and then the second effort was a mentoring program which they did get a lot of questions but miss edmans and I both were biting our tongues to not engage with some of the adults who were not giving our young people the space um to continue to flesh out this idea but it was mentorship that your 11th and 12th graders would be mentors to n9th and 10th graders um and there was a lot of questions about going younger um but they had thought through all of their reasons why the focus should be there we talked about the training they would need how to screen and interview those students who would be mentors but their perspective
071was true for someone who has um a young adult in my home they're more likely to share with their peers what they are really experiencing before they will even for with a trusted adult um and so they had built out this mentorship program so again I was very impressed um there were lots of names but I'm going to tell you cuz I will never forget the president was Chase and Chase had on a suit and he was waiting outside of the building to welcome us all into the building and Shake our hands to uh give us appreciation and a direct tour to come upstairs um in the building and so again I share that to say it's not they did a great job on building out a program but more importantly we were able to
072watch those students Blossom um with their experiences they they were sharing around leadership development it was by far and I've experienced a lot of Youth councils I run one for my own organization it is the most diverse uh Council I've ever seen I mean for every demographic you can imagine they had done the work um ncch had over a 100 applicants and this year they already have 175 applicants from across the state um and I I just applaud that lift that up for our board to know that yes Wake County had a student um her mother thanked me afterwards because apparently her daughter's very shy and very sof spoken um but she was there to appreciate it having both miss Edmund and I there to support and see but I take that time to say
073that our students are doing amazing things and they are speaking truth to power when adults can't and I for one believe that that is who should guide this board in our decisionmaking because we might get caught up in our own values and morals but the truth of the people that we serve are our young people and so I encourage us to listen to our young people when they come before us because they truly are talking to us and telling us what they want and we should be listening thank you thank you I'll ask our parliamentarian if he is uh available for comment at this time sure hopefully my coffee kicks in because I'm not going to be on my parliamentarian duties today um that is true um so yes so thank you to this students
074um and as a former inlow teacher there's greatness that always happens at inow in all of our schools but I just had to give a very special plug there as a a former teacher um and I'm sure miss rice would appreciate that as the district for member um I also want to start by thanking Dr Janine Perry uh Campbell and uh Dr Crystal Johnson for um allowing me to participate in the Teen Summit 2.0 event um Dr Taylor I hate that I missed you there I had to leave a little earlier but it was a great event that centered our young folks um primarily our young black men um of students um ranging from uh Middle School to high school to share their experience and give us some nuggets and so I participated in the
075barber shop talk but don't I didn't cut any hair because I wouldn't want anybody to mess up my hair so I wouldn't cut anybody else's hair but it was a great opportunity to really hear from the students I was joined on that panel by some great distinguished leaders as well to share their perspectives but it was great hearing the students telling us guiding us on what they need to see in their schools um and what they want to see in order to feel loved and seen and valued as a student because those you you I I always say you cannot focus on a on academics without focus on student needs first it goes hand inand relationship building is key and they reminded us that you know saying good morning as they walk in this building
076really boost the the morale of students and really having those conversations um about what's happening to connect with them more versus just focusing on the academics because they do go hand inand um secondly and lastly I also want to thank uh principal Nolan Bryan who had a town hall conversation about a event that happened across the street from Cary high with parents um talking about the needs for school safety and addressing gun violence but as the conversation went on and I I shared in that space and I'll share here as well is we as a board do take school safety and violence seriously and you know I thank the board for supporting the resolution um about school um gun safety because we're doing our part but we need the community to join us in these
077efforts um we need you to Advocate with us down on Jones Street at the federal level and even the DA's office um because we cannot continue to fall in our our Echo Chambers and it takes all of us to bring forth real change and um you know the conversations was was a it was some great suggestions that those families had lifted up and um it also just shows that as a community there's nothing that we cannot achieve together and so um that concludes my comments and I wish everyone a happy and safe holidays thank you Mr Swanson Miss Coffield sorry thank you um some of our board were at the North Carolina School Board Association the annual conference where we went into several breakouts as chair Hagerty had spoke about and I look forward to
078collaborating I won't cover over some of the stuff that you said um but I look forward to collaborating about what we learned in our upcoming Retreat which is December 17th and 18th um uh our board advisory for district one is on December 9th and I just wanted to address as for the student assignment decision I know that we'll probably have comments later but um just to not take up too much time then um I don't want families to think that we are not listening or reading all of the emails um a lot of emails have come in and it's it's a lot to go through so if we have not addressed each and every one of them know that we have read them we've discussed it we've shared it with staff we've discussed it with
079staff we've had meetings we've had some more meetings we've had conversations input and we've listen to all the input so please know that you have been heard um the documents that we've reviewed meetings it's been a very long process and we have been advocating for possibilities and choices um student assignment has been giving us a lot of details and scenarios and we've asked even more and more questions um there's many things to consider and as a parent who has been in this very position myself I can appreciate the stability and uh the grandfather rules is what we used to call it stability rules is what they call it now um it really did make a difference for my family um but it was still really challenging and stressful so I do understand and I just
080want families to know that I think everybody on the board has advocated in one way or another how we are listening and we do understand but sometimes that there are things that are coming into to play um you know we've even met in my district we've met with the town to discuss how it does affect the schools you know the town is is um they're taking care of their growth and you know what they need to do to accomplish their goals but we met with them to let them know how it really affects us we have the state class size um you know I actually appreciate the class size I know that it puts strain on us but I know that teachers love it and I know that it does good for our children but
081it puts strains on strain on us as a as a a district and we have serious capacity issues grow we're growing in leap Leaps and Bounds um and it affects our staff our teachers it also when we're considering this we're allowing for gradual transition from for the principles and that does trickle down to our students because when we have full capacity our students and teachers are not getting the time and and just everything supplies the time the effort that they need and it really does affect it so I know that student achievement has really been trying very hard um I'm sorry student not student achievement student assignment has been trying really hard to accommodate and I do believe that they have and some of the things that we've asked they have accommodated it and changed
082things around in the early part of the process um and so I just want you to know that you have been heard and I don't think anybody here at this table is taking it lightly we know that we have to go with the growth we know that we have to accommodate our children and we're just trying to find the best way that we can do that so that we don't have our kids on the bus for hour traveling and you know we take consideration with the traffic patterns and everything in there so I just want you to know you are definitely being heard um last I would like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope that you are surrounded by loved ones and filled with many blessings and remember to reach out and perhaps
083include others in your celebration or just simply check in we often find ourselves rushed during the holidays but it could be a really challenging time for many and Time Slips by us very fast so sometimes those blessings are just hearing from a friend a neighbor or a loved one so I just want to end with wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving thank you Miss Coffield next we'll hear from Miss rice good evening everyone uh I just wanted to continue the comments in reference to Dr Janine Perry Campbell in the office of equity Affairs um who was represented as well tonight I want to echo part of our Chairman's comments but I want to add to them and say that when Equity is applied it works and it saves taxpayers money so many many things
084that highlighted tonight I just felt it was appropriate to say that um I want to invite families to attend our District 4 board advisory council meeting our focus is special education services where families will learn how to navigate the IEP and advocacy process we're going to do transitions from prek to adulthood and family and Community Connection so I heard family speak up and out tonight in reference to special education so know that District 4 is on top of it and we hear you and we're going to work um connectively together to get it done I'm excited for families to have a more detailed discussion on our special education population so please join us this um Monday night coming on Tuesday no sorry Monday December 2nd um at 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Riverbend Middle School
085um tonight our eight Dimensions of Wellness focus is financial Wellness the holidays are approaching and it is possible that our financial Wellness will impact our emotional Wellness due to limited funding so here are two Financial Wellness care tips during the upcoming holidays one I want you to plan for lowcost or free holiday celebrations encourage simple meaningful Traditions by hosting free or lowcost events such as potluck crafting nights or Community carolling this shifts the focus from Material gifts to creating memorable experiences provide a guide to lowcost Holiday activities something like free light displays or Community festivals um that families can enjoy together so schools can also organize like a holiday swap event um where family staff and students exchange gently used items like books toys or decorate um decorations instead of buying new ones and the
086second thing I'd like to support you with is promote smart spending habits so share some um tips for budget friendly holiday planning you can create a holiday budget and stick to it I'm working on that myself um prioritize needs over wants and avoid last minute shoppings to curb overspending highlight Community Resources offering Financial relief such as food banks utility assistance program and holiday gift drop tries introduce a holiday Financial Wellness change um possibly for even our staff and families and encourage them to save a small amount weekly use cash instead of credit cards and focus on homemade gifts so these tips are to help you Foster Financial mindfulness while emphasizing meaningful connections during your holiday seasons so that you can have a positive and productive day thank you Miss rice coming around the table go
087go to Mr Hershey um hang I just gotta wait till I'm up there no well um I have uh no board comments tonight we have serious stuff to get to and I'd like to get to that as soon as possible all right thank you Mr Hershey Dr Ring good evening um on November 18th that we had our BAC meeting at Wakefield Elementary School and uh big thank you to principal ke and the Wakefield Elementary PTA for hosting the meeting and taking good care of us our uh guest speaker was Charles Patton the director of digital content and instruction and we talked about AI um and you know it's a really rapidly advancing technological tool um it's providing great opportunities for productivity but at the same time it's uh there's a danger for of of it
088being U misused and so so what does it mean for our children um you know we because we live in a digital age so we have an obligation to prepare our children for this uh both in its usefulness and in its danger um and just like in the medical field the ethical debate on the use of AI especially generative AI has not caught up to the technological advances um you know when I was in um medical school and residency you know we talked about the ethical um uh aspect of Medical Care care and you know and it's still going on and so um we we have to figure out how that impacts our society are we able to harness it for its uh its power or are we going to be enslaved by it I
089mean we already have issues concerning um you know concerns about our use of cell phones and social media and we need to carry our concerns forward to the issue of uh the use of AI um on a different note we had our session today on the final draft of this the enrollment plan and and I reviewed a lot of the emails from the many concerned citizens and and I raised some of those questions myself um and I empathize with the frustration that many uh parents felt regarding the changes uh and I do feel that all my questions were addressed uh which directly came from the emails um I do appreciate Miss poam and Mr Cora for their hard work in getting the this plan together uh and um I am comforted by the generous stability
090transfer um that is allowed for the many of the impacted schools um but at the same time the information from today's public uh comment from Miss Gandalf is giving me a lot to think about um so I really really appreciated it um Thursday um this week is Thanksgiving and for my family it's always been a time for you know extended family to come together and spend time enjoying some good food um when I first came to the United States I celebrated my first Thanksgiving I was quite amazed at how big the chickens are here in America um and I grew up in Texas so I was told that everything was bigger in Texas um and As I Grew Older I have learned that Thanksgiving is a time to thank God for his provisions and no
091matter what happens whether it's good or bad I I trust that God will work things out Accord according to his plans um I hope that you all will have a blessed time with your loved ones and I hope that you have a time to rest and reflect on what has happened this past year and even if things may not have gone according to plans I do hope that you can find things that you are grateful for and to be thankful for thank you thank you Miss Edmonds thank you that was a little making a comment about me and my mic anyway um I also hope everyone has a great holiday and enjoys time with friends and family as well as taking some time to rest and find jooy whatever that looks like for you um
092Vice chair Johnson hosler I cannot believe that you said that about being surprised with me um showing up um but rather all nine of us could have shown up or all eight of the rest of us could have shown up and you would have been just as you know exceptional as you always are so you did a great job that was no surprise to me um and I know that uh the students and the families really appreciated your comments so thank you and the one comment you made about the kids there were some adults in the room that asked these kids some what what we felt like were unfair questions of them and and this great um idea and wellth thought out um plan that they have and these kids answered them with poise and
093confidence and just thought on their feet and had excellent responses without being defensive or um it it was really impressive and so I I think I think we're going to be okay um in general like with these kids as our Future Leaders our current and Future Leaders so at the last meeting I expressed my deep concern for our trans students as they were targeted over the course of the 202 before elections and I said that I was turning that concern into action but I was vague on what that was because I needed to wait and hear from a specific organization so tonight I'm excited to share that what that action is I am working with parents and other elected officials across the state students and community members to start a Statewide chapter of glissen glissen
094has been doing this work for decades and what I like about them is that they have a very specific focus on the safety and well-being of CAS K 12 youth and ensuring K12 schools are safe spaces for lgbtq plus youth I and a parent of a trans child in our district is meeting with glesson next week and um to learn our next steps and in the meantime I invite anyone who would like to join us to please reach out to me you can learn more about glisten at G LS en.org and I just want to finish with this point um and I'll mention my BAC as well but with this point public schools are open to all students and these are our children our community's children our District's children they are not going away they're
095in our schools today they're going to continue to be in our schools over the next four years and it is our responsibility and our duty to ensure their safety and well-being while they are in our care I am committed to that and I know many of you are as well so let's rise up on there behalf my District 5 BAC will be on Monday December 9th at 5:30 at Athens Drive and we are going to be talking about um a potential cell phone policy in Wake County schools so um they're open to the public 5:30 Athens Drive Monday December 9th thank you thank you Miss Edmonds and Miss mfy well I'm Gonna Save my assignment comments for when we are at the uh correct portion of the evening um I do want to thank Dylan
096Matthew from safe routes to school and Keith Poston from Wake Ed partnership um for coming to my BAC last Monday um and Mr Hershey for being my alternate to the delegation for the school boards Association so that I didn't miss my BAC um a number of schools in my district have uh gained no transport zones and so bringing in safe routes to school will not fixing the issues with no longer having bus transport ation um can provide Alternatives and uh the most interest was out of the bike program that I know is being piloted at many of our schools in Miss race and Mr Hershey's District um where younger kids can learn how to ride a bike during PE and the startup fee is $99,000 for equipment and curriculum um and then Keith Poston uh
097formerly of the public school Forum um now with wake Ed partnership not only talked about the work that wake Ed does but also talked about um how school funding is done in North Carolina and we have a lot of new parents as board advisory reps in my district and so it was a nice primer to our upcoming budget season all right thank you and that will conclude our board comments portion of the agenda I'd neglected earlier when I was entertaining the motion to amend amend our agenda there was a second amendment that I needed to entertain as well and so I'd like to do that at this time um I've been informed that we uh will not have a panel of student assignment appeals this evening in our closed session as originally planned and so
098I would like to entertain a motion to amend the agenda to remove the student assignment appeals um the item about confidential student information protected under General statute 115 C from our agenda so moved we have a motion from Vice chair Johnson Hustler a second from Miss Coffield to uh amend the agenda as so described all in favor say I I any opposed all right thank you and I apologize for that oversight earlier so now on the on the board agenda we'll turn to our consent agenda board members have had the opportunity to review the published agenda of items that are being submitted for approval by consent is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda chair Hagerty yes ma'am do we need to restate the fact that it was amended the consent agend ear the
099consent agenda from that we should for clarity thank you Miss Edmond sure um again if you remember we did amend the agenda to remove an item off the consent agenda It Was the removal of the District 5 board advisory council member submitted for nomination I'd like to make a motion to approve the amended consent agenda Mo we motion from M from Miss mfi to adopt the amended consent agenda and a second from Miss Edmonds any debate all in favor of adoption of the consent agenda please signify by saying I I any opposed all right thank you now we'll turn to the action agenda item and our uh primary item of our agenda tonight the 20 consideration of the 2025 26 wcpss School enrollment uh School enrollment plan uh this draft will be consider be presented
100by Susan pum and or uh Mr Glenn carosa assisting CH chair hegerty Vice chair Johnson Hustler superintendent Taylor members of the board I'm here to present the 2526 or 2025 26 School enrollment plan I would first like to begin by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who played a role in shaping this year's enrollment plan this has been a complex and collaborative process and it could not have been completed without the support insights and expertise of many individuals and teams first I extend my thanks to the board of education and our senior leadership team your guidance and support have been invaluable as we work to draft revise review and finalize the plan I would also like to recognize the collaborative contributions of the school choice planning and assignment departments in particular my gratitude goes to
101rob cwick in the geospatial analytics office Kim Lane and tamani Anderson Powell in the magnet office Marcel a Rory in long-range planning and Betty Parker in Real Estate Services your thoughtful Reflections encouragement and part partnership throughout this process have been essential I extend my gratitude to Dave Bernett and Elizabeth sharp from facilities design and construction their collaboration ensured that we had the most accurate and up-to-date information needed to align our planning efforts with School Readiness Milestones special thanks goes to our colleagues in transportation Bob SN Miller Bonnie Sloter and joy Milan for their collaboration in refining recommendations aimed at improving Transportation efficiency as well as to Sandy Honeycut and Carrie Fuller and Technology services for ensuring our student information systems are ready to support implementation the geospatial analytics team Ryan STI Judy and Molly deserve
102recognition for their incredible work in organizing and visualizing our data as well as developing user-friendly tools to help our families better understand the plan I also thank Mike Miller with numer LLC for his work in developing and running models and scenarios his experience supporting the district provides a wealth of knowledge that guides the most technical aspects of this complex process I would be remiss if I didn't thank our area superintendent especially John Enz and Ashley Thompson as they support the regions most directly impacted by the opening of new schools their Insight guidance and unwavering support throughout the planning process ensured that we thoughtfully considered the implications for both current and new schools including staffing needs and overall School operations their leadership has been instrumental in aligning our plans with the unique needs of these communities
103this year we hosted an open house for the first time in several years bringing together staff from numerous departments to support families these dedicated team members provided reassurance and Vital Information as families shared their questions concerns and uncertainties about transitioning to a new school Under the assignment plan their Collective efforts ensured families felt heard and equipped with the resources they needed to navigate these changes with greater confidence I'm personally grateful to my directors Eric chansy and Louis ambrio along with our entire enrollment and transfer teams zulma Haley April Ashley Jimmy Carrie Sandra Cynthia and Sarah for their dedication your efforts to Center the needs of our schools and Elevate the voices of our families throughout this process have been unwavering and their willingness to provide help and support at every turn has been extraordinary a
104special acknowledgement goes to corali now in the Communications Department her invaluable support in brainstorming public engagement strategies and crafting clear timely messages for fames community members principles and internal Partners has been instrumental Coral's dedication to ensuring transparency and accessibility in our communication efforts has played a crucial role in fostering meaningful dialogue and participation throughout this process and finally I want to express my deep appreciation uh for assistant superintendent cor Roa and chief Ellis your consistent support and encouragement have enabled my team and me to do our best work and last but certainly not least to our wcpss families staff and community members thank you for your honest thoughtful engagement in this process whether through pre-draft discussions or feedback on the published plan your participation has been instrumental in shaping this final recommendation now back to
105the 2025 26 enrollment plan with four new schools set to open in 2526 school year bowling Road Elementary Pleasant Plains Elementary Rex Road Elementary and filon Grove High this year's plan addresses multiple priorities these include relieving capped and overcrowded schools optimizing the use of underutilized schools and continuing our commitment to revisiting historical assignment areas while enhancing Transportation efficiency the plan incorporates base assignment changes and calendar application adjustments to meet these goals along with generous stability provision to support impacted families and promote continuity in their school assignments the development of this year's plan began in Earnest in March of 2023 we hosted a series of in-person Engagement sessions with families to gain deeper insight into the perspectives of communities projected to be impacted by the opening of new schools particularly in high growth areas these efforts
106continued in the spring of 2024 with additional sessions designed to refine feedback gathered and provide even greater Clarity on the concerns and priorities of these communities both rounds of Engagement sessions were followed with focus groups or AI supported interviews to gain a deeper understanding of specific factors that surfaced during these efforts the planning process Advanced with an initial discussion during a board work session on May 7th 2024 where preliminary insights and considerations were reviewed a summary of the feedback collected during the Spring engagement sessions was shared with the board at a subsequent work session on June 18th the feedback gathered from these sessions along with input from the 7th work session and a district-wide analysis of needs informed the development of the initial draft of the enrollment plan the initial draft was reviewed and presented
107at the September 3rd board work session after that meeting staff launched a thought exchange and hosted four virtual public information sessions as long along with an open house to engage Our Community in Sharing thoughts comments and questions regarding the recommendations included in the initial draft a review of feedback received along with revisions to the initial draft was presented at the October 15th board work session after that meeting staff launched new thought exchanges and hosted two virtual public information sessions to again engage Our Community in Sharing their thoughts comments and questions regarding the revised draft and to further discuss opening bowling Road Elementary on a yearr round calendar Additionally the board held a public hearing on November 12th to solicit feedback and capture that feedback from the community regarding the recommendations included in the proposed enrollment
108plan the plan was most recently reviewed and presented as a final draft earlier today during the board work session the total number of students projected to be reassigned is just over 3,500 which is approximately 2% of our current student enrollment and roughly 48% of those students are eligible for a stability transfer which does not include their siblings so it'll be even higher when given final board approval the final draft of the plan will be implemented for the 2025 26 school year families directly impacted by the approved plan will be contacted as soon as possible with Specific Instructions regarding the process for requesting a stability transfer stability requests from students eligible under the stability rules included in the plan and that are submitted in the designated window will be approved such transfers will be valid through
109the last grade of school that would be 5th 8th or 12th respectively tonight we request the board's approval of the 2025 26 enrollment plan as presented during the work session held earlier today chair her thank you Miss pum so we had an opportunity during our work session to go through uh staff presented comments that had been made about the plan uh the staff response to those comments you also saw um the different projections that were you know made in the plan an opportunity for some discussion is there any discussion for here at the board table on the reassignment plan at this time all right um we'll start with Miss unless Mr Swanson has any VI Johnson offer we'll start with Miss Coffield and we'll work our way around the table Miss celd thank you I
110appreciate it and thank you for all the hard work that you put in there and answering I know my thousand questions so I appreciate it if you wouldn't mind could you just go over um discussing the difference between the ADM and actional student enrollment for the families to understand certainly um the district will often publish ADM which is average daily membership and that is a calculation that averages a student's membership over a particular period of time time and that's what DPI will use for funding purposes that is much reduced on the order of two 1 to 2% from the actual enrollment in the school because it does factor in daily attendance so we are always planning for enrollment which would be headcount how many chairs or seats do we need for students but funding usually
111comes to us with that ADM calculation thank you and the other thing I wanted to ask is if you could just kind of briefly go over the details with the stability um the stability transfer rules because um we don't normally um I wouldn't say wouldn't normally but it's not always an um an exception that we can allow and in this case it's extended quite a bit so could you just describe that for families who are maybe just listening for the first time and also give any specific dates on how and when they're supposed to do that yes ma'am thank you so historically and by policy the only stability transfers that we are required to offer are for the terminal grade so a student Rising into to 5ifth 8th or 12th grade uh what we've done
112with this plan based on community feedback and tested a little bit last year with the Woods Creek Elementary opening is to expand that so at the elementary level rising fourth and fifth grade students so we've added a grade level to that our eligible for stability transfers in addition their younger siblings are also eligible for a stability transfer and different from times past they would not NE they would not need to be assigned to the new school once the older one ages out they would actually get to stay at that current school that their older sibling was at um in addition aside from stability rules I we talked about this during work session stability rules are specific till sort of the day the plan gets approved in future years if a family has a a rising
113kindergartner that will come in maybe 26 27 that student would still be eligible under your normal transfer rules to be able to join their older siblings so there's a way for a family to have continuity at that one campus if they'd like at the middle school level we don't have any new middle schools opening so we'll talk about those in just a moment at the high school level we do have the new Felton Grove High School opening they open with just 9th and 10th grade so all of those students will initially be assigned to the to the new school however any of those students that have a rising 11th or 12th grade student who would be of course remaining at their current high school they would be eligible for a stability transfer and again as
114an extension not just for the one or two years that their older sibling is there but through the 12th grade if that's what they would prefer and then of course those Rising ninth grade siblings in the future could join them at that same campus if there's enough of them to Warrant that type of connection for any other recommendation in this year's plan again a departure normally we would apply the same types of stability rules for an existing school to an existing School reassignment normally we would still just do the fifth grade the e8th grade the 12th grade we're we're going beyond that and saying at all grades so any student who's currently attending one of the schools that is impacted would be eligible Rising first through fifth grade Rising seventh or e8th grade or Rising
11510th through 12th grade would be eligible for a stability transfer and again those incoming siblings would also be eligible and so those are all vastly more generous than historically we've done as a district thank you and I appreciate the timeline December 4th is when we're targeting opening it up depending on conversation here today we're we're technically ready to go for December 4th to the 18th barring any surprises thank you I appreciate that and I just wanted to address it we did have that concern about you know because some of the families came to us and said that they could walk to school and it was very proximate so allowing them that stability allows them if they still want to either walk to school or carpool that that could accommodate that family and it could be
116very helpful absolutely thank you m Russ do you have any comment or question I just want to say uh thank you thank you all for your hard work uh I definitely want to say uh thank you to the families that were very involved their input um was heard and received um these are not easy decisions uh I've been in the district my oldest child is 30 years old so I've raised three way County public school graduates and a current one there I'm still in school right now so I have been a part of these assignment plans for a very very long time some has affected my children over time and it's different when you sit in these seats but I do hear and see what families are going through um we have these projections for
117a reason that we collaborate with the county to determine what we're going to do if I don't know anything else about Wellness change is not always easy even positive change is not always easy to do and so um I just want to thank the staff for all the work that they've done what they've heard from us as a board um and taking consideration to to change and listen and to bring Clarity and understanding to areas we may not know uh best so that we can make the best decision possible so I just really wanted to give a comment and just say um thank you and I know it's not easy uh to hear everyone's opinion right um I listen to a lot of opinions in my professional world but I still have to be the
118one who makes the decision for a family and so you're listening to quite a few opinions and and we know it's not easy um and we just want to say thank you to families as well as staff thank you Miss rice Mr Hershey um as I emailed you now over an hour ago uh would you like to just kind of address The Olive Chapel numbers and how that you come up with those numbers thank you um so one point of clarification the base population and uh School population reports that were attached on September 3rd was brought to our attention the day I found out was the day that we made the correction so we do appreciate the community for keeping us honest and auditing Us in that way um I can say that that as
119I mentioned in the email and was was quoted it was an uploading error only all the data sets that were used to inform the plan were accurate uh the other thing is that those are population reports for this current school year uh which is the current attendance for this school year uh so there's a different set of numbers that are used to project into 25 26 um in addition one thing that I feel like we've explained but maybe not clearly and obviously we don't talk about these reports a whole lot um is that when we make the projections for the enrollment plan itself we do look at the fact that certain schools like Olive Chapel are capping a number of students out to a different school that actually properly dutifully live in the base attendance
120area for Olive Chapel and so that is included in those projection totals which is why the numbers seem much higher than what's actually attending the school today because the cap prevents us from letting all of them attend because the cap stops US at a particular number and then they have to start overflowing so that you can get a sense of the real impact of how many students are actually assigned to this school um and so that's that could be where the discrepancy is because it's a projected number it's a number looking future to the to the forward year and it's a number that looks at the overall impact of the crowding of the school B because of the the overcrowd the Overflow situation thank you I think that's excellent Clarity and I think in the
121future we should repeat that one specifically because it can get lost absolutely we'll work on some more explainers to put um in thec but I I appreciate all the work that you all have done um you know we have to approve some form of a student reassignment plan so I know um some of the languages we have to fill up schools uh the new school so um I know when you said when you approve a plan I mean we can't not approve a plan at some point um so I just wanted to clarify that in case anyone had any questions about that but um I appreciate all the hard work and the feedback and um you know a lot of us asked a lot of questions that we don't that people don't see we were
122very I certainly was very engaged in this um and staff was always quick to respond with everything we we asked and often we were asking questions on behalf of the community so I just those are my comments on this and ready to move forward thank you thank you Mr Hershey Dr ining did you have any comment yes um thank you so much for um yeah answering all a lot of our questions and and that was the same question I had regarding uh Al Chapel um and just to clarify um in in in the num the the statistics the num the percentages that you uh estimate uh of um utilization uh before and after the the moves for any particular school that's already taking into account any kind of ins and outs of of all the
123the kind of uh uh various factors of different schools that you know that are being affected at the same time right as we discussed during work session it really takes into account I don't want to use the term worst case scenario because that's not the right phrasing but if if everyone moves and everyone takes the assignment in year one so you can see what it could look like should everybody take their new changes in assignments we know with the generous stability rules there's going to be some some adjustments there so in reality what we'll see on the ground will probably look a little bit different from what you're seeing on those projected slides but it's to give you a scope a perspective of the the magnitude of the recommended changes thank you Dr in Miss
124Evans yes I just want to acknowledge um that to miss Rice's Point um well really miss Coffield made it too these are not easy decisions and we I I appreciate you know the thousands of hours that staff has invested in all these many months as well as the thousands of hours that the community has clearly invested all of these months um that's very evident and we do we we read it all whether or not we respond to every email um and for me personally you know I feel it is only appropriate to yield to the board member of the particular District you know whatever the move is and so I also want to lift up Miss mfy while I was not present with her in every conversation that she had whether it was with staff
125or a Community member I know that she did the work I know that um she's got the experience as she has been her district has been impacted um even before you were in that role District 8 has been impacted for a long long time because the growth is so saturated in that area so I lift all of you up um and acknowledge your time your effort your energy that's been that's been put before us thank you thank you Miss edmans Miss mafy it's 8 years is a long time um but it doesn't make this process any easier because um I I'm not much of a crier I am more so now than I used to be but uh to to I remember that emotion and I remember that feeling that I had when I thought
126there was an easy fix to an issue I had that was assignment related didn't didn't work out um the way that I had expected and I remember that emotion and I know that I could never conjure that that's a hard emotion to conjure unless you're you're in it and I want to acknowledge that that's the emotion that many of our families have felt um in this room and Beyond this room um advocating at this level is lifting up those voices making sure we're reading talking points I think Miss pul and I were talking two to three times a week in person on Google meet on the phone um in order to look you know what is this particular neighborhood looking for how does how would that impact the broader district and those two things are
127often in Conflict um you know I my kids being in magnet schools were mentioned that was a decision that I made as a board member remembering that emotion that I felt and not wanting that to cloud my judgment when it came to these decisions that was part of the reason there were other reasons but that was a big part of it um and you know put them in a magnet school that was brand new that year and under enrolled and um but that was a decision that I was able to make um and no we have not been impacted by reassignment since but that's part of the magnet school piece but my reason for doing that was partially so I wouldn't be in those personal feelings while having this go on for folks that are
128assigned to a new school whether brand new or new to them building new relationships and expanding your community is going to be a big part of of what you'll have to do going forward and that'll be hard because that involves saying goodbye in some ways to the community that you exist in for those who are able to stay through stability rules it's maybe figuring out the carpool schedule and who's going to be able to get which kid on what day and relying on neighbors that are also staying or other friends in that community and that can also be a change um um there have been so many changes to this process in my eight years on the board and Miss Johnson Hustler can back me up on this it used to be that this was
129just shared at a board meeting and then families were notified after the board families would provide input on the back end not on the front end and that doesn't mean that these changes aren't important um facilities utilization numbers used to be a little more flexible and now they're standard um but that doesn't make this process any easier for families um and at the end of this decision depending on what's approved families will have to make a choice next as early as next week and for some it's exciting and for others it's awful and part of that choice is figuring out what's the better and and maybe the better term is what is the least worst choice for your family and I think it's that's the part that doesn't make this any easier and um you
130know the changes that we've made to this process have been based on feedback from families in previous years um being able to see the community pieces um is very very important and again I just want to thank everyone that's been involved in this process uh whether you came to an early planning meeting on the front end whether you got involved later sometimes times it's hard to know things are happening until it's happening um and so I do have one question for Miss pulum because this one has come up a lot in my emails if a child let's say they're not in fourth or fifth grade and they have no older siblings um has an issue whether it be a medical issue or an IEP or another hardship um what is the process for families to
131apply to remain at their currently assigned School sure so if a family is not immediately eligible under the stability transfer rules they wouldn't get the special invitation to participate now in that sort of December fourth time period but the regular transfer window is open to all families in the district regardless so we would encourage those families to consider looking at the March 3rd to I believe it's the 14th time period to put in that type of a request or look at all of our wonderful magnet schools and see if any of those might help solve in of the challenges or issues that they're dealing with because that application is already open and will stay open through the end of January um what I will say is that first as a staff member of the district
132all of our schools are ready and poised to welcome and support all students so I would hope that families would first reach out to their new school and see what that Comfort level is and that's just a plug for please reach out to your schools first but if it is truly a unique and individual hardship concern it would go through that transfer process I will say based on your guidance as a board because asking for something that goes against the stability transfer rules or against the brand new assignment plan staff would most likely have to deny the request just because that's consistent with policy but those families would absolutely be eligible to appeal those decisions to the board for your consideration and then there might be one or two where we could have leeway within
133policy to approve them but I would say let's be prepared and then I know I had asked this previously in the in the other room but um wanted to kind of rephrase it just to make sure that um for the I mean we had anticipated back in March that Pleasant or not Pleasant Plains um Parkside Middle School would be opening uh that is no longer the case it's now going to be a high school um and so we didn't see any Middle School changes um specifically for the group that is moving into bacham Elementary from Olive Chapel and and Salem um and so putting in a calendar application for those families to go to Apex middle can you talk about the reasoning of not just switching the base assignment to Apex middle and what families
134May anticipate in the future we knew in making this set of Elementary recommendations that Middle School recommendations would need to come shortly after but at the time we were under the plan that Parkside Middle would open in 26 27 while it's not proximate to this area it would have created a domino or cascading effect so we didn't want to get ahead of that and we wanted to wait to do any Middle School adjustments in the 26 27 school year now that Parks side's been indefinitely delayed we will still come back and bring you recommendations next year to stabilize this area as you can recall there's some C middle schools in this area um and other cohort continuity and calendar alignment concerns uh so for now to make sure that families immediately have that ability to
135use either year round or traditional uh what we the amendment that we made to the recommend commendations was that the that Apex middle be identified as a traditional calendar option for the families that didn't already see it there several already did and like the Salem portion um and so that way if they put in that request they'll do it in March if they'll put that request in they've got the BAM and they're asking for Apex middle for calendar alignment we've even put it on the website we will approve those transfers however if the families choose to use the stability option at all of chel then they'll already have lkin as their base at this time to have that K calendar alignment so we feel like this provides continuity for either choice that a family might
136make and then um is that a part of the updated Communications for families um in those areas to let them know when that Middle School piece will be coming if they choose to apply to we can certainly make sure we do that we'll do it in one of two ways first it's already on the website so anybody who's accessing that information which I know some people do and not everyone goes there on their own the other is we're giving a lot of information to our principles and their toolkit because we find that they're getting a a hold of the families much easier than we are are um so we'll make sure it's being provided in multiple formats yes okay thank you thank you Miss mfy are there any other comments or questions regarding the 2526
137the proposed 2526 uh School enrollment plan all right if not I would entertain a motion at this time uh Vice chair Johnson Hustler thank you Mr chair and as I've noted so staff is not surprised you know this not a I'm not a fan of surprising you um while you're standing in front of us um the student assment plan has multiple recommendations in it and so our both our attorney and our parliamentarian will have to make sure this is right um but I'd like to remove one of the decision points um so that I don't have to vote the entire plan down um so I'd like to remove the and make an amendment that the decision for the bowling row calendar be traditional and that it be a separate vote so I'm offering up an
138amendment to pull out bowling road to make it a traditional calendar okay if I may before before we have any discussion first we need to see if there's a second to the motion second we do have a motion from Mr Swanson now in order to proceed with debate on it I do want to um acknowledge staff and how because sometimes these things Cascade in terms of how how we'll talk about the motion and then we will have debate and discussion on it Miss P I just wanted to bring to your attention there are F wave Arena middle recommendations related to that calendar change so I didn't know if you'd want to broaden the scope to pull both of those items out so that you could discuss them as a unit um I don't need to
139but I can leave it to the board okay all right um is there any is there any uh discussion or any motion to amend the amendment at this time or would you rather proceed into discussion all right and then the other cascading point of course we've brought it to your attention before is that any uh reduction of capacity at this school in would impact the region as a whole so the likelihood that we would have to come back in a year or two three tops with some additional recommendations because of crowding are very high the likelihood is very high I actually had another recommendation to Mr cor Roa that I recommend after my departure from the board all right so at this point in time what I'd like to do is um to change um
140begin discussion on Vice chair Johnson Hustler's motion I will uh yield to the vice chair for to speak to her motion thank you um and again my colleagues have said all the the Gratitude to everyone including staff who've worked on this um this is a conversation that's not new it's just happened to be new to my district um so we've been down this road before and that is my personal intention but also clearly speaking on behalf of the people who it will directly impact which are those families that we will be real assigning to bowling road is to not have two different calendars on the same campus even though they don't have the same name most schools have a similar name elementary middle so that is a distinct difference but they are literally Shar parking
141lot thank you uh further discussion questions or debate Miss Edmonds so I just wanted to support um the amendment offered by um Miss Johnson Hustler and I know you already have a second with Mr Swanson but I'm expressing my support of this um it and and I fully understand to your point Miss pum what the impact will be with regard to capping Etc I would like to ask um Miss Johnson Hustler can you please repeat the point you made um I think it was the last work session not today but um before about the families that spoke in support of the Year range and I'm going to let you finish that thought thank you sure um but you might not want to count on my memory um and again and Miss pum and Mr CA
142have heard this because initially the response from staff was we haven't heard this from families well it's also my due diligence to say to families I'm glad you called me but you also need to talk to staff um and particularly they two things for me um and Miss behalf and I against SPL a district which is a significant amount of growth happening there the majority of my families do not currently attend year round schools so actually not the majority none of them because now even our track even our multirack are now single track in my district um Banks Road was that's not mine okay I literally do mean my district is traditional um in that area Willow Spring yours it is but they are back they were track 4 to that is my point we've
143switched all of my schools in my district that have ever been multitrack to single track and then we change it back when needed that is the expectation in the district and so I think that's important for two reasons one it is it is a conversation that I've had multiple times at the board table about equity and the need for care and child care um and I will constantly say that even if I'm not here I'll email board members and tell them to remember to say that that year round whether we like it or not is a privilege it requires people to have access to care so in addition to this being new to that community and it's on the same campus which is a whole another set of Parental Dynamics and we know that we
144have parents in this District who choose to send their kids to schools on multiple calendars I'm speaking directly to the parents whose kids will be assigned to that school who have asked distinctly not to be in a year round school and certainly not to have a year round and a traditional calendar um on the same campus and so again I the this district is going to experience differences no one is going to unfortunately always get what they want including those of us who sit at this table as hard as it may be to believe this is a painstaking decision but it is my responsibility for that District specifically to bring this up and again I don't know that I would have pulled it if we didn't have precedent set to look at ensuring that campuses
145share a similar calendar thank you vce Sher Johnson Hustler Mr ining Dr ining um if we were to to make it a traditional what is the projected utilization percentage for that particular school so we presented two different options to you over time one was to just go traditional and leave the footprint the same um the other would be to reduce the size of the base attendance area so we could avoid having to come back to this school and potentially make adjustments so the second option uh as presented at your November 12th meeting would be that at a capacity of 716 with reduced attendance area it would be projected to be 78 and then 79% again assuming everybody goes in year one I can pass this around if that would be helpful Miss Blom could you
146give us the date we could probably pull up the materials it was November 12th presentation November 12th and thank you Miss pum for being prepared that's that's why you don't surprise your staff so I can be prepare up there um but the other piece that I think that you that we talked about earlier which you just alluded to and that is these families will also have the same stability rules that have been talked about at this table so we don't know if they'll all come but I do think that's relevant and you said it at the end but I want to point that out too as a reminder of with that reduced capacity Buckhorn Creek would then instead of being reduced to 89 and 90% would be increased to 101 and 104 respectively because we
147would reduce it by returning some of that attendance area and not reassigning it I should say and that was the wh if adjusted slides on your November 12th presid presentation okay what what I'd like to do is if I could just give us a a pause so if anyone wants to go and review those materials for from the previous work session on the 12th uh they can have that fresh in their mind and then ask any questions so if you want to give us just maybe about five minutes just to look at that if anyone has wants to review that before for for thank you e e it's like do you want to allow an amendment you're just saying we want to pull it out so we can talk about it separately and then we
148would vote we are but it's a separate motion okay um I do have a question before the question we have uh point a parliamentary order that's been brought to us so in order to keep everything consistent with proper parliamentary procedure what we need to do is um restate Vice chair Johnson hosler's motion that the motion is the motion is whether or not we just extract this one part of the plan for consideration for an up or down vote so the motion and the second will the vote on that is just whether or not we separate the items and then we would vote on the plan and then we would vote on that we were told just now that we needed to restate that by the attorney so that's what what we're doing um so Vice
149chair Johnson Hustler would you like to restate the motion sure the first motion is to remove bowling Road calendar option from the plan and consider it separately consider it separately all right motion from Vice chair Johnson hosler second second for Mr Swanson okay I think you all understood that's what we were intending to do but I've been asked to clarify that all right so is there any discussion on the motion to consider this item separate from the plan all right all in favor of the motion to separate this item from from the overall plan signify by saying I I any opposed all right so we will divide the question and this item that's been described will be considered separately all right so at this point would you like to discuss the you know this item
150before the plan or do you want to discuss the plan okay so at this point is there any further discussion on the reassignment plan with the exception of this item that's been extracted I know we've gone around the table and everyone has spoken on it is there any is there any other final comment all right so at this point um we will take a vote on the proposed plan minus the section that has been removed as described by Vice chair Johnson hosler all in favor of the proposed 2526 enrollment plan with the exception of the one item that has been removed I don't think you have a motion no we had a motion okay yeah I'm pretty sure we had a motion didn't we not on the oh okay okay all right all right so
151at this time I'll entertain a motion any motion so moved that we adopt the assignment plan except for what we've just extracted does that work thank you Miss Edmond welcome is there a second and there's a second from Vice chair Johnson Hustler all right is there any further debate or discussion on the item if not we'll move into an immediate vote on the on the proposed plan with the exception of the item that's been extracted all right all in favor of the proposed plan please signify by saying I I any opposed all right the motion passes in the enrollment plan with the exception of the one item that was removed has been adopted so now we'll move into immediate consideration of the item of the element of the plan that has been removed as described
152by Vice chair Johnson Hustler is there any further discussion about the about the about this section of the plan I have ay I have a clarifying question so at the previous work session um we were given two different scenarios one if bowling Road was converted from multi-track to traditional and one if part of the base attendance area of bowling Road was to remain at its current school and so I would appreciate Vice chair Johnson Hustler clarifying which of those two scenarios she is advocating for I'm not advocating for either um so so two things and that's why I brought up the end around the stability stay um so the parents who are advocating that we keep this a traditional calendar on both campuses mostly have new kiddos or kids who've only who are in middle
153school now and would be on a traditional calendar um and so for me the families that want to remain on their traditional calendar can stay with stability rules so I follow up Miss MAV well I guess without a a clarifying motion I guess I'm not sure what we're voting on Vice chair Johnson Hustler so we're voting on so my request is that we vote to keep bowling Road traditional Susan answered the question of the two options which again which is probably why I wouldn't have voted on the plan first because the plan doesn't articulate a separate option that she's put on the table so she gave the two options that we talked about on the 12th which we have not discuss those options if bowling road is to be traditional so I think your question
154might be is which do we prefer I don't have a preference of which one but yes the board would need to decide to instruct staff on which option all right Mr Hershey do staff have an opinion on which option no we just wanted to present to you the because there's ramifications either way so if you were to go with the existing recommended base attendance area the likelihood that bowling would get full really fast similar to what we saw with Apex friendship in South Lakes and Brian road is is likely because of the the growth in the region uh which would mean we may be coming to you with an early cap or potential recommendation that it go multi-tracking around in the future um if if those are the triggers that you start to implore if
155you were to reduce the base attendance area that would give it a little bit more Runway uh it would reduce the impact on Buckhorn immediately however Buckhorn has a tremendous amount of growth in its remaining base attendance area so then that might be the school that would potentially need a solution so it's just yeah and I would just say that if you went with the reduced attendance area staff would recommend looking at the fu Arina middle portion because the adjustments there were strictly to make sure that bowling Road students could go to fqu Arina middle so we would ask that if you went with the reduced attendance area you reconsider the attendance area for fuquen Middle Miss rice I just want to um make a comment around uh to me it's similar uh we're speculating
156on what may or may not happen um I brought this up in work session today around my district and we speculated of what may and may not happen based upon who may feel and how we may grab other students depending on our marketing strategy around feeling that school and so I think that as um someone who has spent over 10 years in their District um advocating for these families um proving that um families believe in what they say by being elected multiple times that uh we should continue forward with the traditional calendar um and then leave the staff to do the excellent work that they always do um with the direction which we give um to see what that looks like um as well as um determining where we go where whether we switch it
157to a multitrack at a later date or whether it may or may not meet meet capacity because again as we indicated earlier we don't know until it actually happens and so I would just like to leave us possibly out of speculation and just wait for raw data to determine what we go from there when that time happens to arrive yeah and and I didn't want to bring this up but but I talked to staff about the thing that we haven't done which again it didn't impact my district before so I will take for not considering this before the board has never discussed what triggers need to be be in place so we're not sitting in this conversation every year we have been literally reassigning since I've been on this board and we've not really discussed
158how to put guard rails on assignment before we start the process every year and so um Mr G and I look he he and I both knew of a school district in another state who actually has trigger points built into their policy and and I think we when I thought of it we were too far along in the process to start thinking about adding trigger points into the policy which does give parents much leeway to know when you're going to make calendar changes in a school district when you've put those guard rails in place and we just have never brought that to our district before but again going from a district that was stagnant in growth for a while to exponentially growing those are things that I wish we would have talked about when I
159first got on this board which is putting triggers in place so that board members aren't constantly spinning in community around these but we're able to go back to community and say see we put these guard rails in place and so now we're these are the things that we promised we would do and parents know ahead of time when they're going to do it and so that was my recommendation to staff and I'll certainly take credit for just being so brilliant to think about it way too late in this process thank you other questions other comments Miss Edmond so um all that I'm prepared to do this evening is support bowling Road Elementary um remaining on or or being on a traditional calendar to match the middle school that it shares a campus with I am
160not willing to make a change to Buckhorn Creek's assignment into bowling Road or the Middle School change that you mentioned having said that my understanding is how how this would play out is that if this is approved tonight to keep to put bowling Road on a traditional you would staff would bring us changes next year for the next assignment plan or would that be so for the 26 27 school year is that correct or no we would have to see how the projections play out if the school is able to fill a little bit more slowly and not quite as rapidly as let's say an apex friendship we might have a year um if there's any stalling in residential development so it's just a cautionary that we would probably have to come back at some
161point and talk about this region um at some point in the near future but it might I don't think it would be as well not even going to say that I can't tell you how fast a follow up Mr Point Miss EV thank you um just I I didn't articulate that very well what I meant to say is we would not try to make a change with regard to Buckhorn Creek or any other Middle School in 2526 so it rather it may not be 26 27 but it was be at some future assignment plan that's my question the likelihood is high yes is that that right okay yes but not sooner then okay Dr unless the cap is needed well yeah um so I agree with Miss Edmonds I'm I'm not prepared to make any
162changes to Buckhorn Creek um and I I was in that conversation with uh Miss Johnson Hassler about discussing the guard rails and and um I think that um it's high time that we do something like that to to to look at kind of giving giving everyone the base warning of what what what could happen if uh the the numbers get to a certain point that we have to Auto automatically think about triggering the changes um um right now um I I I'm um I don't want to make any changes to the Buck Horn Creek that's all I to say thank you Miss MF I I just need clarification uh when my colleagues say they don't want to make changes to Buckhorn Creek does that mean maintain the original proposed base attendance area for bowling Road
163as a multi-track and switching it to traditional where it would open at 92% or 90% or does that mean leaving a part of the Buckhorn Creek base attendance area I believe it was just yes because of the proximity of the other areas it wouldn't make sense to leave them out the Buckhorn was the most logical if you were to reduce the base attendance and I remember correctly that's a set of railroad tracks that was being used as a part of it yes yes okay which would put Buckhorn at 101% but open bowling Road at 78% yes so I guess I need clarification when you say no changes to Buckhorn Creek does that what what does that mean so I just want to I guess different people had expressed it differently I'll let any of them
164who want to answer it answer uh my understanding was that some children from B Buckhorn Elementary were going to be moved into bowling Road and what I'm saying is I'm not suggesting that we change that I am only suggesting that Bing bowling Road be put on a traditional calendar period and i' certainly yield Miss Johnson Hustler if I'm misunderstanding her motion you are correct it is the only motion I've made it is the conversation that we've had at every board meeting it was never so we understand that open it traditional will mean the school is opening at a higher percentage on a traditional track the conversation which is why I didn't have an opinion to your perspective Miss mfy is because that was not my perspective I was only voting to change it acknowledging what
165the capacity would be if every student went to that school thank you that was that is now more clear so for clarification if you were to look at slide 60 from the presentation during this today's work session it's my understanding your conversations are saying keep that map adjust the calendar only just need clarification my only request was to change bowling road to traditional no other assignment changes perfect so you know my my my comment on this is you know I I do want to be careful and make sure that we do anticipate possible side effects going along when I first joined the board we just opened Parkside Elementary School and there were many parents that were unhappy about being reassigned to the new SCH school a lot of claims that it would never fill up
166why are you sending my kid to this half empty school and then within two years it was capped and then we've had to move students and families out of Parkside which you remember from last year they were coming and you have oftentimes the the conflict between giving people what they they they're asking for right now and then having to come back and then move them in a year or two years and then we hear from the families that well you move us and you move our neighborhood every year I'm not saying that that's right or wrong I'm just saying that we have to be prepared if this is what we do that we can't guarantee that this family and this assignment base won't be required to move again um I also think that again it's
167unfortunate that we have to discuss this as part of the reassignment plan because I think the bigger problem is one that we know know about which is that there's often times not affordable trackout options for families and that the decision to make a school a year round school can affect the neighborhoods and the you the people the populations living in those neighborhoods very differently and you know I think if we see trackout or sorry if we see multi-track yearound schools as a tool for managing growth we really have to find some solutions that can make sure that the families we asking to go to multi-rack year round schools can get the trackout care that they need for for their kids and I know talking to Providers of trackouts sometimes it's not very intuitive right because
168they'll look at a map and say well the map shows that the school next to me is traditional so why would I offer trackout care but that's just where the school is that's not where the assignment area is and often times we might have nodes of kids that are being sent to year round schools that live right next to a community center that could provide trackout care but they don't understand the assignment process so long term I think we we do need as a district to really take that into consideration you know the the calendar is a tool we employ really for managing growth and utilization facilities but we we need to look at its impact on on on those families as well um and then if if we are moving forward with keeping this
169school on a traditional calendar then you know it might be the right thing to do tonight but just be prepared that we will have to look at this area again in the future maybe the near future and so we can't necessarily promise stability from future assignment in some of these areas but I think compelling arguments have been made Miss edmit so I just want to be very clear I'm not supporting Miss Johnson hustler because I think it's the right thing to do in this moment I think it makes sense long term that doesn't mean it won't have a ripple effect she will not be here to face the challenges that will or that ripple effect that will be something that we will have to deal with whether it's a cap or the suggestion of converting
170it to year round but in two years and four years I don't see myself um supporting it going year round when it shares the campus with a traditional Middle School that makes no sense and it's not precedent um and so yes I am crystal clear for myself that there will be a ripple impact I'm crystal clear that some of that Ripple impact will be negative for some families if we cap super early or you know have to send and cap and send children to further away schools but to me the sharing of the campus and being on the same calendar outweighs those potential hardships upcoming challenges however you want to classify them and I am prepared to defend this vote today based on future projection m mfy i support Miss Johnson hustler in this change
171and this is the conversation that I've had with Miss pulum and Mr Cora and and the reason is it's not it's not just the alignment piece but we have staff members that put their kids in that school and then we're asking staff members at either bowling Road Elementary to have students on year round when we in our own policy say that we're going to provide calendar alignment for our staff um and so for me that's why I support this and you know it's why I support when it's the same campus this is the difficulty that we have I know you know one of our schools has 70 kids in a school where just because of a shared campus situation and teachers being able and staff members being able to put their children in that school
172and so it's it's not as much the same campus but it's thinking of our staff at those campuses and and thinking of that piece um you know does it mean that a different School may need to change calendars at some point yes then we're dealing right I just I understand I just had areas in my district where you're going from a year- round Elementary to a traditional Middle School um there's areas in the Buckhorn assignment base that still are traditional and then go to yearr round for Middle School um and so for me it's that peace and that promise that we have for our staff that that I can support this um but I also want to acknowledge that parts of our plan went against this piece and it's that same shared campus piece which
173is what tips me over to this decision thank you any other discussion any other debate thank thank you um and lastly I mean I would and I think you brought up a good point Mr Hagerty and thank you for noting that it in your comments around year around the equity piece and and I will continue to lift that up and we did the due diligence we looked at the number of trackout spaces in Fuquay um they won't exist for those students now the staff knows that when we talked about converting F middle my top priority is creating affordable trackout count CS because if we are going to make year round schools in my part of the district then we have to make it feasible and affordable families we haven't done that those seats don't exist
174and this is a case where all of these families actually do live in that district there no nodes there's no driving those students all if you look at the map all of the schools that were opening between Miss mfy and I they are miles apart not lots of Miles not long drives they are in close proximity because there is a lot of growth there and we have a whole another Elementary School that we haven't even talked about yet that is coming on line that is also in District 2 so at the end of the day what we know to be true is not only are the families making an option on bowling road today or using stability rules parts of that district will be looked at that we're not look and the reason why we're
175not talking about them today is because we know that we'll have to talk about them for Hilltop anymore I mean so the truth is there is going to be a lot of transition which is again thank you Dr in which is why I spent so much time talking about guardrails moving forward because it is the first time that I'm feeling the pain in the conversations with folks in my district who haven't had it before um and again my sincere apologies to staff for not thinking about those guard rails before it directly impacted my district Mr Swanson did you okay well before we cut off debate I just want to double check Miss Miss Russ did you have a final comment right I I just wanted to say that um one of the things that I
176think that's been amazing of what Miss um Johnson Hustler is leaving as part of a legacy is the community engagement team right right which I love a lot and what I think that we need to do as an Innovative board is to recognize what challenges we're facing and the only way for us to survive as a county is that we work into governmental wise we have to communicate with our other governments um I think that our staff um Dr Robinson and Dr Alber Keith has been doing amazing job with communicating with municipalities um I believe because our students have to be served their parts and Recreations within our municipalities we need to communicate with and do better um and we have to be the Innovative ones to start those conversations um and continue to be
177um engaged and that's what community engagement is all about making sure that we are Innovative and we're education so we should lead the way we shouldn't wait for anyone else to lead we should lead because we have 160,000 people waiting on us to lead in a way that affects their lives so that they will then know how to lead and so I just want to encourage us um as a board um to leverage our relationships um and have these conversations with um internment and I just want to commend our staff for already doing that in their own ways um but they also need to know that their board supports them so that they can know to do Innovative things and bring it back to us so that we can then have a discussion about it
178to help possibly give them some direction and some support that's it all right thank you m rice so unless there's any other comment I heard a call for question by Mr Swanson all we don't have to take a vote on that um all in favor of Vice chair no I'm just going to go straight to the motion all in favor of Vice chair Johnson 's motion please signify by saying I I any opposed all right it passes and that concludes the action agenda for our meeting Mr chair Mr Swanson thank you Miss Miss P I move that we go into close session to consider confidential personel information protected under GS 43-31 1811 A6 and 115 c-3 to consult with the Board of Ed Board of Education attorney and preserve the attorney client privilege as provided
179in gs43 d318 D1 I mean do11 and to consider the confidential student nope we don't have to do that one correct correct that was part of the amended agenda and to consult with the Board of Education attorney and pres preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in gs14 3 - 31811 uh due to current litigation gr by parents G JN NR versus WC WC Boe 24 Ed 00781 in in the office of administrative hearings second well done so we have a motion from Mr Swanson a second from Miss mafy to go into close session for the aforementioned reasons all in favor say I I any opposed all right we will we will recess to move move to Clos session thank you