001your mom [Music] I e e of [Music] all right good evening everyone it is Tuesday April 16th 2024 at uh 5:38 p.m. and so we're going to call this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order and to welcome all of you that are watching at home and those of you that are here in person so our 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 who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or other otherwise disrupting the speakers
002disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with North Carolina General statute 143 3187 so if everyone is here and everyone has taken a seat I note that we have all nine board members here and we do have uh Quorum established so if you're able now please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I know right all right we will open our meeting with comments by our superintendent Dr Robert Taylor thank you Mr chair and good evening to you all we thank you for your attendance at our board meeting uh first I'd like to remind
003everyone that our first family and Community engagement Summit is coming up on Saturday April 27th from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at Athens Drive magden High School school leaders and staff families and Community Partners are welcome to attend this event uh the summit will feature keynote speakers drors Steve and Margaret Constantino constan Ino as well as breakout sessions networking opportunities and more this is part of our continual effort to strengthen the connections between home and school and to learn how we can better address the needs of our students and families I'm looking forward to a strong turnout from our principles and school teams as well as our community families and community members will continue to receive the registration link through our community message shared each Wednesday uh the link can be found at wcps s.net
004slamily Summit so please register as soon as possible and I look forward to seeing you all um at this wonderful and engaging event I'd also like to say congratulations to Jordan uh zamin a senior ad a senior at Middle Creek High School who last week won the regional student television Award of Excellence this prestigious honor of often referred to as the student Emy is awarded by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Jordan who will attend the NC State University in uh NC State University in Fall impressed the judges with his animated short film Tales from the other world uh he not only wrote the script but also stared in the film showcasing his diverse talents additionally his skills in editing and animating seemlessly uh combined voice acting contributions from fellow Middle Creek students
005making this a truly collaborative project Jo G traveled to Nashville Tennessee on Friday to attend a workshop and the award ceremony uh which were held on the campus of Belmont University so Middle Creek High School was the sole North Carolina representative at the event the sole North Carolina representative so we are fortunate to have immensely talented students like Jordan who are supported by skilled and educated Educators so again congratulations to Jordan as well as his digital media instructor Luis Maldonado on this amazing honor uh this past weekend Lian Magnet Middle School celebrated 70 years since this it first opened as the City of Raleigh high school for African-Americans on Friday a panel of alumni participated in a Roundtable discussion uh to share their experiences with current Lian students and answer questions on Saturday I had
006the pleasure of attending the school's anniversity Gayla which featured guided tours of the historic School building displays of historic fot photos and notable alumni and a ceremony featuring student performances and other remembrances I can tell you those were some absolutely outstanding uh student performances uh it is important that we remember our history so we can um take stock of the progress we have made and remain grateful for the hard work and perseverance of all those who came before us congratulations to the entire Lian community on reaching and celebrating this significant this significant milestone finally I'd like to remind you that next week is National volunteer week we are grateful for the more than 37,000 family and community members who are registered to volunteer in our schools this year every day you can find Volunteers in
007our school supporting our staff and our students uh they chaperon our field trips help keep our campuses tidy lead fundraisers support athletic events and provide valuable assistance to our classroom teachers they also provide onetoone tutoring support to our students uh through the Wake together program a partnership between our district the helping education fund wake Ed partnership the YMCA of the triangle and many other youth serving organizations our schools will show their thanks to our volunteers next week through appreciation events and messages of gratitude our district will also highlight the impact of our volunteers through our social media media channels using hashtag thank you wcpss volunteers so it's never too late to register to volunteer with our district we encourage you to do that and you can learn more um by becoming a volunteer and going
008to our website wcpss.net volunteer uh and those are my comments thank you Mr chair all right thank you Dr Taylor um covered a lot of things I was going to cover so we'll keep it short um I will piggyback on Dr Taylor's endorsement and recommendation for the family and Community engagement Summit uh this is the first of its kind I think this uh continues the board's priorities on expanding Community engagement opportunities both that's in our strategic plan and then the work we're doing with our new community engagement committee um Mr Swanson was kind enough to put some posters up just outside the doors with more information there's a QR code to scan and register there's still seats left if you are interested we would love to have you participate and attend um again the John
009Chavis uh I'm sorry the John Lian high school I'm mixing my projects up um our John the the the Lian Middle School Gayla honoring John Lian high school was a tremendous event I'm going to defer to our representative to speak more about that but just um the only thing I'll add is that it is so important as we consider our future Renovations for the building that we find a way to preserve its history and you saw Dr Taylor how much the alums still hold that school in their hearts so um we need to treat it respectfully uh this is the time of year many of us have uh been traveling to see all the wonderful student performances uh everything from lay Miz to Mean Girls hopefully you'll get to your schools and support your young
010uh drama and uh music students and a lot of the performances that they're having it's been a busy spring with community events I know several of us attended the Interfaith seder that was uh held this weekend um and there's also been meetings with members of our Muslim American Community talking about things that are going on in the community and world events I appreciate everyone's participation in those events and being responsive to the folks that are um inviting us out to share their opinions um Miss rice and I got again I don't want to take it away because it's your District but we got to participate in a program highlighting the great collaborative relationships we have with our County um and I'll let you speak more to that as it it was in held in District
011uh in District 4 um meetings with school teachers members of our local Chamber of Commerce parent Advocates opportunities to meet with our governor our legislators about the challenges facing us coming up in the short session um it's been it's been a full ride and of course we have our budget pending and our legislative agenda tonight so I will end my comments and save time for that Miss Johnson Hustler thank you very much um again thanks for the reminder of the um amazing plays I forgot to post my videos for my last play because a lot of our adults got up and danced at the end um so thanks for the reminder I will post those um I had the great opportunity on Saturday to attend uh the Chavis way tedex um um miss Edmund and
012I and again not only did we get to hear um our students deliver amazing remarks tedex style the whole it was actually fully tentic so I should clarify that also didn't post pictures of that however they did not have a teleprompter Dr uh Taylor which I would have needed a teleprompter but I kept thinking about yours but that's somebody just in case they got off Q with a laptop in front of them but they did exceptionally well and I'd be remissed if I didn't mention one of the first students who I think gave the most eloquent way which I feel like from a young person to talk about the lessons that she's learned regarding restorative justice being a participant in Teen Court and it was interesting because I've never even heard adult say this she
013was like you know we sit in judgment in our moral High Ground until we really know someone's back story and I just think that as adults we should also that it resonated with me deeply so I just wanted to say that that's what a 17-year-old said is you know we make a lot of decisions from a moral High ground and we don't acknowledge that we are judging people from a moral High ground and have no backstory so wise words from one of our 17-year-old students I can't remember which screen she went to level or hope uh but um the students were amazing and they also had our students the triangle Symphony um perform um they had a dancer um perform so they did a great job of inter um Twining which you all know I
014love both I feel like our Performing Arts are integral to our academics as well so they did both of those um Mr Swanson and I got to go to the alpha Alpha Fraternity Incorporated deoy and Robison youth violence prevention and Mr Scott was also there um which and Dr Chavis spoke on a panel and also again amazing students from Carrie high school and the leadership academy young women's Leadership Academy um spoke openly about mental health challenges where we where our students are um the therapist also did a I believe an important role um letting and it was at one of our churches supported it there were several church youth groups there but a reminder that in my generation very rarely did you see a number of black students um attempting suicide and committing suicide and
015so they really openly talked about the impact um that Community violence and school violence has on our students and our students articulated ways that you could cope but also the real struggles um and their openness and willingness um to need our Behavioral Health supports um so again a indirect way to remind those of us who serve in this role that our students see us and know that these services are necessary and needed um and also um to dubv tell on that Miss uh cofell and I went to we've been in a series of meetings with Community Partners specifically weight med but we've been talking about how do we ensure these Health Services also um are in our community when our students don't want to use them in our schools and that's hard for us as
016school people to say but we need to make sure that students have options no where no matter where they are and where they choose to seek Supportive Services and so we do have committed Partners in our communities and last but not least I always remember of last year so thank you today uh to student achievement of reminding me wake up and read needs volunteers um this is not the place that I volunteer I generally do it before they get here and that is separating the books I have horrible allergies and every time I've gone I've been horribly sick because of the books of the Dust um but please if you have time please please please go help wake up and read um separate the books I will be in the schools to help deliver the
017books that is my favorite part so um I have not done my due diligence this year to remind us to volunteer for wake up and read major School partners for our students in our literacy thank you all right thank you Vice chair Johnson Hustler uh let's start down the table with Mr Hershey uh thank you um I just want to say that it would be nice if uh Miss Johnson Hustler did something with me since she is doing something with everybody else when I said the first one I said I should have said no names because then I need to remember that's right that's right um I'll be very brief uh our uh BAC reminder is on the 29th at ly Road Elementary School 5:30 to 7 and since we will still be talking about
018the budget um I welcome people to come and ask questions I'll be talking about it a little bit there uh as Dr Taylor will be there as well um two very quick items I both uh times when I was out in the last couple weeks I was at Sanderson High School uh one was a 2 to1 victory over Bron and their for their softball team which was fantastic to be at um I love uh softball as a former softball coach so it was exciting times um but also Dr Chavis and I were judges at senior um at their senior talks a couple of weeks ago amazing heartfelt speech is about real life and and the the challenges that that they have faced and overcome and so much vulnerability that they showed it was remarkable um
019again I when I hear people denigrate our schools and then I go to an event like this I just you can talk about a test score and I get it but when you hear the students and and you see the growth and you see their their willingness to put themselves out there it's remarkable and it gives me hope and it would inspire you whether you um think their test scores are good enough or not and uh that is the end of my comments thank you thank you Mr Hershey Dr Ing um good evening um I had the opportunity yesterday of visiting four schools in District 3 um as part of the bring your legislator to school day um I had the privilege of touring Heritage High School with um Senator bod and and then visiting
020Abbott Creek Elementary School with uh representative Sarah Crawford um principal Lions was proud to show off the Career Academy on Agra business and um Senator BDI was excited to hold the beard the dragon that was in the one of the classrooms um I kind of stepped back from that um and after that uh Senator bod was able to answer some qu very good questions from a couple of students about what it's like to to work in general assembly and why she decided to pursue this position in the first place um after that I was able to walk the grounds of Abbott Creek with uh representative Crawford the highlight of the tour was the chance to see the bluebird box with a group of students um we were all very excited to see the little bluebird
021eggs inside the box and the eggs were actually blue um in between these visits I was able to have a visit with u Dr rackin at uh Wakefield Middle School and principal keage at Wakefield Elementary School um to see the great things that they're doing over there um speaking of Wakefield uh Wakefield High School will be putting uh the musical on the musical your A Good Man Charlie Brown this week on Thursday Friday and Saturday um I think you can still get tickets at Wickfield theater.net um and uh as Mr Hershey says we are continuing our discussions on the budget and uh we are you know still hearing uh from teaching staff about the need for better pay um I believe that all of us on at the table agree that this is one of
022our top priorities um and uh we are all feeling the pain of our current economy um trying to make ends meet um with the money that we bring in you know grocery costs more it takes more money to fill the the gas tank housing prices are continuing to go up and people have to live farther and further away from the city um eating out um even fast food is becoming ridiculously expensive I PID $10 at McDonald's the other day um inflation is hitting all of us very hard and each of us is in our own ways is having to make big sacrifices and as a school district we will also have to make some big sacrifices um and uh we are you know making those hard decisions now um but we cannot do that at
023the expense of um educating the students one question I do pose to everyone is um how was life like for you four years ago are you better off financially now than back then this new economy that we have now is the result of countless decisions made in Washington DC elections have consequences and you have the right and the duty as a citizen of the United States to choose a better future for your children uh come election day in November um lastly uh we will be having our next BAC meeting for District 3 on Monday April the 22nd at North Ridge Elementary School at 5:30 um we have invited Miss Allison Reed our senior director of digital learning and libraries to come to speak to us on the subject of artificial intelligence uh what is it
024what do we do with it and what concerns should we have so everyone is invited to attend thank you thank you Dr in Miss Edmonds thank you I have been out and about in District 5 um since our last meeting and um been to some wonderful events and been around some you know remarkable children and tomorrow morning Dr Taylor and I are going to Vernon Malone college in Career Academy I always love going over there um it's a amazing campus but this evening I'm going to focus my comments on the budget um we are faced with some tough tough decisions talk about school choice uh we don't have any good choices with this budget um that the cuts that we have to consider in order to raise the supplement which is seems to be a
025priority for all of us so to put everything in context with what um how the state is not supporting us uh the nor in North Carolina our beginning teacher pay is near the very bottom our average teacher pay in North Carolina is below the national average around 36 in the our per pupil spending is near the bottom more and more burden is being pushed down onto local County governments and local taxpayers to fill gaps not funded by the state a recent state budget included supplemental pay for counties except five of our most Urban counties including Wake County so the state gave some money for supplement local supplemental pay for teachers but Wake County was left out of that they have refused to fund Leandro which was upheld by three state supreme court rulings including Republican
026judges the house Ed committee that chair Hagerty mentioned at our last meeting found that we're not paying teachers enough so they know it and yet they're focused on pouring millions and millions of dollars into private school vouchers in recent years they stripped retirement health benefits for teachers that started in 2021 and later that doesn't make the profession very attractive in this state um and again they're continuing to pour millions of dollars per year into private school vouchers for wealthy families and complete and completely um eliminating our corporate tax rate uh if the legislature would fund Leandro this is a document I know it's hard to see on camera this is from every child Inc it's a county profile for Wake County of what we would gain if the legislature would fully fund Leandro and some
027of the numbers it would be a 291 million increase in our budget we would get roughly 97 more positions for nurses psychologists school counselors social workers 140% increase for textbooks and instructional supplies and Wake County overall not just the Wake County Public School System but County overall would see a 362 per increase for Smart Start for early childhood education so these things matter elections do indeed have consequences Dr in um instead they are seeking every possible way and Avenue not to fund Leandro and it's going to hurt our most vulnerable counties the most by not doing that so as I said in our last meeting that what we are doing the work we are doing with the Wake County Public School budget proposal that we will take to our County Commissioners is about asking for
028what students and Educators need and it is not for this board it is not for the superintendent it is about kids and Educators thank you thank you Miss edmans Miss mafy right um thank you I want to thank we had about 10 schools that hosted bring your legislator to school day that is a big lift to have somebody come and see your school so many thanks to the principals staff and PTA members that um were able to rearrange their day in order to make that happen I think it's really important that the people that Miss Edmunds referenced who are making decisions on how their budget impacts our kids be able to see how it impacts our students um and what is needed in those schools and many thank you to the 10 legislators that were
029able to come I know one of them had to reschedule but I know she will be there um parents community members just put it on your calendar Teacher Appreciation Week starts May 6 I know that I need that this is more for my own accountability as much as everybody else's um but it is coming and I want to highlight one um teacher who went above and beyond for for one of his students the the art teacher at Green level High School Mr map um reached out and said do you know anybody near in the fire department and I was like wait what um he had an AP art student who created a project that needed to as part of it be set on fire and it was this weekend on Mr map's birthday that the
030Carri fire department went to the fire training center and help that student's art project come to life honestly Saturday also so a huge shout out not only to uh council member Craig who was able to put us in touch with the carrye fire department but to them and to Mr map and to the creativity um of not just his student but all of our students and all of the teachers who take that time not just in the 9 to5 that they're with our kids but beyond um and be sure to get out and volunteer it can be done online now so thank you to miss Johnson Hustler and our HR folks for making that happen because you don't have to go and sign up on an iPad in the office anymore all right thank you
031Miss mafy coming back around Miss rice had a good evening everybody had a really enjoyable and on your use Miss Coffield well there it is I I love this is I'm reenacting the press conference that we attended on last Tuesday um at Southeast Raleigh High School which was absolutely phenomenal um hosted by the principal Mar Hill there we at Wake County Schools um shared a two pilot programs um in partnership with Wake County um in reference to Neighborhood networks and student engagement teams um and both are true collaborations between the hard work of social workers and school counselors of the um of Wake County Partners um School staff um identify students and families who would be most beneficial for one of the programs and then connect them with the appropriate County liaison and that's the
032uh neighborhood networks and the student engagement teams uh what was really amazing as well um to see to hear uh the admins who are participating in the programs to directly get to communicate with the uh Neighborhood Network uh Lea zones that are supporting within the DHHS system they were excited about how they're able to connect with families they wanted to know and be able to connect with more resources so that they would best know how to serve the families but what was really fantastic too is that it f it it landed beautifully because commissioner Waters and I uh had a scheduled listening session um for parents to be able to share with us what were their barriers um for Education economic progress and this neighborhood networks and student engage engagement teams is all about eliminating
033barriers for families to be successful and working in a case management type model uh so that we could be able to do that and so we had about 58 um parents in those districts that registered and attended every seat was full uh and parents were active we had the amazing Equity Team come out and share uh our data and our numbers of where we were or where we are currently and the our residents were able to tell us what they felt their barriers were were able to give us feedback on the data that they were seeing and so we have that presented not only from our Dr Chavis Equity Affairs team but also the chambers mistake do ston um from the Chamber of Commerce as well and so we were able to get a great
034snapshot which was even um also equally important was the fact that our partner which was uh Dr uh nette bo uh also attended the session that night to actually get to hear in real time in raw data what families are saying which are the ones that she served we were able to make wonderful collaborations that night to continue to expand what the work of that pilot partnership is actually doing so that they can get a snapshot they were able to connect with people in other programs to help us make that program very robust and do exactly what it's intended to do um the other thing that we did was was on April 13th which happens to been my twin boy 28th birthday I pulled away um to attend Lian Middle School's um 70th year anniversary
035uh principal Deval of Lian middle school did an outstanding job as well as the PTA uh that supported in the magnet coordinator I believe as well um to share their Rich culture and history um that was shared about their 7th year anniversary Mr Penny who was the Secretary of Department of Revenue spoke about how engaging relationships from school staff was essential to helping him succeed despite not always having the best grades doing that he also was the I believe 1971's School president at the time when it was actual High School uh during that time so we spoke about the transitions that integration had within uh impacting on Lian and where it was left as a middle school at the end after integration and uh they're just so amazing folks that come together and really support
036our students at that school I was so excited to actually be amongst it in the halls of it also we had that same night um I was saying that uh our Department of Revenue uh Mr Penny uh spoke like I said he also spoke about the success of numerous students that attended Lian um that are making great contributions in the society right now so despite the challenges that history has shown us around this school and integration they were still able to have wonderful people like himself who's leading departments who's doing who surgeons who are all these magnificent people despite the challenges in the 50s and 60s that are still successful today which included our very own County Commissioner Don M who also was um honored by being added to the wall of fame that day
037so it was really amazing to see in real time the story of History unfolding itself and how they encouraged us to understand that despite our challenges and differences we really can produce some really amazing people who can really lead our society and communities on today so I had a really great time in these events just want to share that on April the 22nd um there'll be a District 4 BAC meeting it'll be my first one as the newly appointed School Board member and so I'm excited about that it'll be at night Del Elementary School at 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. um excited about what's going to happen on that night and the last thing that I want to continue to share with us is talking about what Wellness we got you know I'm not going
038to say it I got to tell you about it and so I want to encourage people to continue to reach self-actualization with intellectual wellness I need you to do a thing I need you to go find a self-help book of your interest or go and possibly um take a course that will help you reach your personal goals but remember despite it all take care of yourself and put yourself first and then help someone else thank you Miss rice give a moment to get your mic all right Miss Coffield well that's going to be hard energy to follow oh my goodness my last board advisory meeting um uh was last night until September we did some breakouts and had some vertical conversations about transitioning from school from one school to the other like prek to kindergarten
039Fifth and uh to sixth and sixth to 9th there was great conversation shared about what would be helpful to close up some gaps some struggles and what were some some things that could help with those transitions one great thing that I take from these breakouts is bringing people to the table sharing ideas exchanging thoughts and solutions and our budget is one of the most important jobs that we have and this is a lot of information packed into our budget many categories challenges lots of roles and the need for a lot of these same sentiments that I felt at our board advisory meeting um I still stand on the same issues as when I came here a year ago um which is academic recovery safety parent engagement and getting the politics out of the classroom so
040we can focus on Reading Writing and math and supporting our teachers so I look forward to the continued conversation in our uh new work session that we just added in our work session today for April 30th to work more to collaborate and find the best way to navigate our large variety of needs it is is a huge District we are the 15th largest in the nation we're the size of some states and it takes a large amount of staff and commitment but while we talk about all this I just want to say to all the people that are listening and the staff the teachers bus drivers everybody that we continue to talk about at the table we hear you and when we view our budget you know I I need to see some money going
041to where it is that we need to have and shifting our priorities May you know be the answer to that um I support our staff working with our students in our classrooms and our drivers and that those drivers are the ones who are getting our our students to school to and from every day safely our teachers are the ones who are teaching them some very valuable lessons and I think in order to show them our support we need to speak for them and this budget is definitely going to be a challenging but yet hopefully successful way of doing that on a different note Wendell is honoring autis autism awareness and the town of Wendell is lighting all the buildings blue for the month of April to raise awareness and show support Wendel mayor gray proclaimed
042uh April 20th as Autism Awareness Day in Wendell it is uh April's also child abuse awareness month Lake mea who hosted our board advisory yesterday um I did not get the copies in time but I will submit them and send them out um but they are in Wendell they will be having a sensory walk on this Saturday on April 20th from 2: to 5: this event is aimed at raising awareness for the autism Community they will have interactive experiences and educational activities they'll have bubbles bounce houses sensory stations information tables face pounding face painting not face mounting oh my God none of that and food trucks it is designed to better understand the challenges that our artistic Community face they will Lake meor will also be celebrating their 15th year on May 3rd from 5:
043to 7: um believe I want I'm not sure if I want to call it a festival but they do have that posted on their site so they will be celebrating that um in the category of mental health Miss Johnson Hustler did ex uh touch on that that we met with wake Med and we will continue to do so and have open communication on how we can partner with them on Mental Health they have some great ideas we shared and we had um our staff member Miss uh Michelle Woodson came with us from student services and we shared about what we have in place and how we can learn on what each other can do and how we can partner expand and reach our families and I really appreciate this continued relationship and all of us
044that are committed to learning learning and ongoing commitment to the mental health that is around us and how different that looks how unique it is for our children and our staff needs and I do believe that's all I have for right now thank you all right thank you Miss Coffield Mr Swanson thank you chair Hagerty I want to start by saying congratulations to Farmington Woods Elementary principal uh Winston Pierce who was recently selected as the magnet school of America's Region 4 for principal of the year um Miss Pierce is also currently our uh principal of the Year here in Wake County um so just great to see the things that she's doing and the great things are happening at Farmington Woods um I also want to thank uh representative Maria cvan for spending her morning
045uh the first part of the day with Dr sex and principal Lori as they toured Briar Cliff and then I was able to join them as we toured uh Kingswood ele Kingswood magnor ele Magnet Elementary School excuse me um and heard from their student ambassadors and I I was really impressed by hearing some of the needs and the challenges that their students are facing and I have to share that uh representative Sania had raised some questions what do students need to be successful and what do those parents and teachers need to be successful and how can she join them in this advocacy work which is very important and so I I know since elections do have consequences that as we use our voice voice and our vote that we support candidates that believe in public
046education that censors the needs of our students our teachers and our families because what we're facing with our budget is not just a Wake County issue it's a North Carolina issue every District across the state is having issues and or are coming up with tough decisions on how to allocate dollars because since the co relief dollars coming to an end where we were finally seeing investments in public education although it took a pandemic to make that happen we're now on the back ends of that and so we cannot go back to business as usual and I hope that these legislators as they were touring these these schools were raising the questions of how their votes are having negative impacts on our schools and how and what they can do to work with us and with
047other uh districts across the state to ensure that teaching that the teaching is happening the learning is happening but we're also giving our students the resources that they need to thrive and survive and we can't be number one in business when we are absolutely dead last and education as it relates to funding so those are my qu my comments so thank you Mr chair all right thank you Mr Swanson and so that concludes our board member comments the next thing that we have up on our agenda is the actual approval of our meeting agenda you all have a copy of it in your materials is there a motion so moved we have a motion by Miss mfy a second by Vice chair Johnson Hustler all in favor of approval of the meeting agenda please signify
048by saying I hi any opposed all right thank you we've adopted our meeting agenda so we have a special information item tonight on academic advancement stand up speak out and our bullying prevention program and I see my friend Miss Chrystal rean coming up good evening Mr ran good evening chair hegerty members of the board and Dr Taylor of course it's my privilege to bring you this evening the winners of our 11th annual um Wake County Public School System some standup speakout against bullying video contest this contest was organized originally in 2013 by our Wake County Public School Systems bullying prevention committee which is comprised of representatives from student services from intervention services schools including principles parents and the community the video contest is one of the means for getting schools and particularly our students engaged
049in and excited about the efforts around bullying prevention I'd like to recognize Mr Cecil coats and Dr tamaron Hamilton Simmons who are seniors administrator senior administrators for School counseling and the coordinators of the bullying prevention committee for our district they've been instrumental in organizing and implementing this video competition I'd like to thank the members of The Bullying prevention committee who each give so willingly of their time in order to focus on bullying prevention efforts in the Wake County Public School System I'd also like to just take a moment to thank our incredible Communications Department who makes so many magical things happen behind the scenes and are who um are helping us tonight to be able to share the winning videos so we opened this contest up to all schools in the district and we're pleased
050to say that we had 23 entries we are recognizing the top three videos at each level elementary middle and high all students who participated have received a certificate of recognition and tonight we proudly announce the top three schools and recognize each first place winner so let's begin with our third place winners third place winners are bug Magnet Elementary REI Creek Magnet middle and Green Hope High School our second place winners Southeast Riley Elementary REI Creek Magnet middle and Wakefield High School and now we're going to take a moment to celebrate our first place winners our first place winner at the elementary level is Yates Mill Elementary principal Dr Vonda Martin Jenkins The Faculty sponsors are robian Morgan and Eric kab basis and I think we have some of our students here from Yates Mill Elementary
051let's stand up and and and give a shout out to our students and we'd love to share their video with you all [Music] hidden in the school Shadows where the children play something negative stands up Whispering a voice of Shame it's coming from the dark side let me out say there are voices voices are voices we need to find a way to break this chain and let the people's voices rise again it's time to stand up up down the Bulls steing in my heart but there someing up standing up they're coming to the light with faces High they're flying they're reaching for the sky and kindness let the voes BL people come together and the Darkness Willow with Open Hands kindness let the voices flow let have mercy yeah Victory will come kindness let the
052voices blow we come together and the Darkness will open hands is let the voices flow let's face ADV let's face adversity let's face adversity yeah Victory will come woo adapted my ma I should add that part of the charm of this competition is that these are student Le videos while we do have faculty sponsors that support them um they're student Le so that's pretty incredible and congratulations Yates M our first place winner at the middle school level is pan Hollow Middle School principal Dr Justin Carrington and the faculty sponsor is Mr Graham Brown and I think we have students here from Pine Hollow as well so let's give them a shout out and we're going to take a peek at their video as well bullying is a widespread problem a significant percentage of students experience
053it during their school years bullying can be physical verbal social and online [Music] cyber bullying can happen [Laughter] [Music] 24/7 bullying is damaging to people's mental health if you you witness bullying you can be a part of the problem by staying silent or you can be part of the solution by telling a trusted adult stand up speak out stand up and speak out stand up speak out stand up speak out stand up speak out you see something you say something stand up speak out stand up speak out stand up speak out [Music] bullying causes harm to others stop bullying today bullying hurts us all use your words for kindness bullying hurts everyone stop bullying [Music] today good job and our first place winner at the high school level goes to Green Hope High School principal
054Allison Cleveland and the faculty sponsor is Katie Andress and I think we have folks here from Green yep we've got our we got our back row folks here from Green Hope High School let's take a peek at their video bullying manifests in many forms not just physical words can hurt almost one out of every four students report being bulled during the school year however identifying the victims in today's world can be challenging and it's possible that even you have encountered bullying at some point sometimes all we need to do is just wake up open our eyes and take in our surroundings if we know the signs of bullying we can prevent it signs include self-injury loss in interest social withdrawal and difficulty of sleep don't wait for change start it report stand up and the
055easiest way everyone can do is to Simply raise awareness [Music] what's the difference between a service animal congratulations to all of our winners and as always thank you all so much for your support thank you thank you Mr Eran let's give all of our students and all our participants another round of applause all right it is a school night if any of the students do need to leave we'll give them a quick minute before we move into our public comments section thank you all for [Applause] coming [Applause] yay all right thank you all so next we'll move into our public comment section of our meeting as you know speakers commenting on items on the night's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be heard in the order of
056sign up only the person speaking at the podium will be able to stand and again all attendees that are not speaking are to remain seated if you have to leave the room please do not remain in the building as only this room is open to the public it's after hours the rest of the building is closed so if you have follow-up conversations just please do you take it right outside into a lighted area and you can continue on there if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the chair reserves the right to conduct other board business first before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed at substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual
057board members the laws and policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individual student matters are confidential so therefore not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern if you do have an issue concerning a specific Personnel issue or a student matter we ask that you address that through applicable wcpss Personnel policies the grievance policies or come find us after the meeting and we can we can direct you to the appropriate staff member in the interest of maintaining Civility and decorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the Board of Education that's us up here and must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general
058public including specifically other speakers tonight please remain at the podium during your speaking time if you have materials you wish to share with the board you can deliver those to Mr Rod Malone here waving his hand on the end on the end of the table either before or after your comments and they will be distributed to the board and be made part of the public record during the public comment you may speak speak for up to 3 minutes please note the microphones are adjustable depending on your height please move them up and down so we can best hear you when you begin speaking the green light will illuminate showing you 3 minutes have begun yellow light will light up with an audible tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and then finally
059when your speaking time is up you will see a red light and you will hear an audible tone when your timer is up please uh please end your comments the next Podium next speaker will be called to the podium you are asked to respect the time limit and speak for No More Than 3 minutes all right so our first Speaker tonight speaking on agenda is Joseph Deon speaking on Grant proposals who will be followed by Elizabeth Riley on the budget good evening Mr Deon when I was little my parents attended Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech in in person my father taught night school at Morgan State the HBCU in Baltimore he expressed more satisfaction from teaching there and his relationships with his students than from his day job and so I was
060interested in the grant proposal uh from the organization race forward that aims to foster a just multi-racial democracy which we all want I I read through their extensive web site they make many important points worthy of discussion regarding the origin of disparities among racial groups and education health and wealth housing Etc but race forward is clearly an activist and issue advocacy organization with a particular political Theory and the problem with allowing any activist group into the schools via grants or other means is that they will invariably portray one side of a complex issue as all good and just and the other side as as all bad and then the schools would be supporting uh one side unless you're prepared to invite opposing sides uh for just one example if you let race forward sponsor a
061project on voter suppression you would need to let somebody else talk about election Integrity these complex issues are important topics of public debate but I don't think the schools are the place for activist groups to push their ideas especially if the schools you know select one Viewpoint and I don't think it's a good idea to make um schools a Battleground between something like MSNBC and and fox news either either two months ago the the board majority approved grants uh from from two organizations including it gets better which aims to reduce suicide among lgbtq youth which we are all concerned about but the founder of that organization held a rally at Bowling Green State University when I was working there 12 years ago and I have to tell you he said some things that I won't
062repeat here that were degrading of the human person and human nature and so there's a danger to accepting grants and materials from activist groups under under the banner of some otherwise laudable goal thank you trouble with my mic thank you Mr dayon all right next up is Elizabeth Riley who'll be followed by John bog good evening board good evening you hear me um my name is Elizabeth Riley I am a school social worker at Northridge Elementary School in Raleigh um and Miss rice I want to thank you for highlighting the neighborhood networks program because we are also a neighborhood networks uh school and we love the program and cannot stop talking about it um I am one of the 30 social workers that were hired at the beginning of the 2023 2024 school year using
063Esser funds I'm here tonight to advocate for the board to prioritize these positions in their upcoming budget data from the Department of counseling and student services indicates that there are currently around 5,600 students who qualify for the mcken vento program for families in transition who lack a fixed nighttime residence data from last school year showed that number around 5,700 we all know that the covid pandemic only exacerbated the housing crisis in our in our County and families are still feeling the effects of that time we also have 330 students in our County who have been identified as being in foster care the work that school social workers do to support both of these populations is critical to the well-being of these families the families that we work alongside are caught in the crosshairs of multiple
064systems such as intergen intergenerational poverty homelessness unemployment Community violence immigrant ation child welfare and so many more students who receive intervention from on any level from a school social worker and other student support services such as um counselors psychologist School nurses are less likely to have incidences of chronic absenteeism failing grades academic retention Behavior challenges unmet mental health needs and frequent School changes due to evictions and other housing challenges there are many factors that are out of our control that affect our family such as the rising cost of living and County and the strain put on community agencies providing critical services to those in need as you Ponder on the importance of continuing the contracts of these identified staff members such as myself I urge you to think about the impact of the work that
065we do to ensure that our students and families have what they need to be successful thank you thank you our next speaker is Mr John bog who'll be followed by Christina Spears welcome Mr bog well thank you uh good evening board members thank you for your time Kudos K through3 literacy program improvements are higher than National 22 versus 12% so very good job uh what is different perhaps the parents Bill of Rights passed last August no gender identity in grades K through four overall Wake County schools are not grade level proficient percent wise reading by 39 math 37 NC math 167 science 27 what changes from grade three to high school what is your product students who become productive citizens how is your product fairing another year another school budget superintendent $330,000 senior admin 89,000
066chief of schools 233,000 senior directors 108 to 133,000 in the real world if the products we produced buildings iPhones medicines surgeries were only 30 to 60% proficient or only met goals we wouldn't have a job or a product rightfully so the average salary increase in the real world is 2 to 5% what is your product students who become productive citizens one way is uh for this budget to go through is stop all Dei easy to approve when it's not your money it's my money 47% of my tax bill it's our money are we getting our money's worth what is your product perhaps you're teaching confusion are our children she or he or perhaps they them z z e s if I wanted to confuse a child I'd have them do a project to create a
067statues for a wax museum I'd add five transgenders to the list of suggested athletes for inclusion I'd make sure this project would only be for fifth grade and above but students in lower grades will be able to view the project a big shout out to an elementary school in Apex doing all they can to skirt the parents Bill of Rights law if I wanted to confuse a child I'd load up their laptop with hundreds make that thousands of games many mind list some harmful asked the mother who found porn star and stripper as job options for his her Elementary student those choices have since been removed thank you do you know what they use for the guide in that game a happy little sperm have you actually reviewed what is on the laptops you hand
068out are there guidelines for your ITT Department to vet them our goal students who become productive citizens if I wanted to protect our children I'd use my god-given right to cast a vote and instruct others to do the same we would start locally with the school board then countywide oh thank you Mr bog next speaker is Christina Spears who will be followed by Joseph Chancellor good evening Miss Spears good evening everyone um quick thank you to Dr Taylor and Mr Mark Strickland for visiting Safety assistance at the Rock yesterday to discuss their facilities these concerns um I'm Christina Spears a proud product of North Carolina Public Schools wcpss special education teacher currently serving as the Wake ncae president I'm a Wake County resident in District 3 and a voter and I believe in democracy so
069I'm going to do a little something different tonight in our Union we often say democracy is an endless meeting we meet to plan we meet to strategize to debrief to pre-brief we meet to vote we meet to discuss our own budget and you all meet as well you meet for work sessions you meet for board meetings you meet to vote you meet to discuss your budget our budget we also meet to celebrate and we meet to hold each other accountable democracy is an endless meeting the word democracy comes from Latin and Greek roots democa from deos meaning the people all the people across lines of difference and catea meaning power or rule democracy meaning the people have the power the power to rule and I'm grateful for the opportunity to engage in these endless meetings
070in embodied democracy democracy invites us to engage in welcome struggle as Dr batina Love would say and all of you have said this board has hard decisions to make when preparing a final budget request and as elected officials you were elected not only to represent your constituency and to also engage in the real Democratic work that happens in between elections and yes the general assembly has been shering their responsibility in our democracy I got words and votes for them too but right now the process is in your hands so in closing just a reminder for the record y'all that 3,000 workers signed a petition that we delivered almost a month ago asking for an increase in local supplement and I've heard what you said about that being a priority we've done our part in this
071democracy voting for elected officials who value our Public Schools signing petitions asking those officials to do what we need and we've attended multiple board meetings to testify during public comment so I hope you'll do your part in this Democratic process welcome struggle in your meetings including more work sessions which I heard you will do and make whatever hard decisions are necessary and if you make it so as you have the power to do we will continue to commit to the messiness of our democracy and show up at the County Commissioners Chambers and meetings to fight for a fully funded request if it includes an increase in local compensation thank you all so much thank you Miss Spears our next speaker is Joseph chancellor who will be followed by Cecilia Joyce hello board members my name
072is Joseph Chancellor I'm a parent um in carry with school AG children I want to tell you about the early 1900s when tuberculosis was a problem uh in dirty cities tuberculosis is a highly infectious airborne bacterial illness and there was no cure for tuberculosis at the time that would come later New York set out to eliminate tuberculosis from the city and um they they opened a special tuberculosis hospital called cvw so patients could be cared for and isolated and that would stop the spread of the disease and it actually saved money for the city um but the problem was in 1929 tuberculosis was still the um although the infection rates had come down it was still the third leading killer in the city and the fourth globally and C view was actually having a nursing
073shortage some of the nurses had actually gone to World War I and not come back but um other other nurses uh were actually quitting because the job was too dangerous and the numbers I have was like one in seven um nurses were actually dying from tuberculosis and so given this nursing shortage what did the hospital do well this book talks about it um they recruited Black nurses uh to come from all around the US and they would pay for their schooling and they would pay to you know they they'd give them a job and it was a great opportunity but it was a super dangerous opportunity because of the risk the hospital took some airborne precautions um so they opened windows but primarily uh they didn't have the the nurses wear mask uh they focused
074on cleaning Linens and surfaces and uh the most important thing they did was handwashing uh and I'll just read from the book regularly uh the head nurse held handwashing meetings calling the nurses around a black metal sink built into the wall to reinforce the proper technique standing beside it she lifted her own hands and held them Palms facing out toward the nurses hands she would say needed to be scrubbed for 2 minutes before and after the patient um and to keep the nurses from becoming LAX the head nurse made daily unannounced visits to the ward but fear of becoming sick kept her from spending long times uh uh inside so she would she would teach them to hand wash but she wouldn't spend much time uh with them because of the risk and how did
075that work out for them despite their diligence most of the nurses had tested positive for TB 5 to 12% fell ill for the rest the bacteria remained dormant held in check by the immune system although sometimes for unknown reasons the microb escaped and began insinuating itself in a lung liver kidney or bone and uh they were told to try to build up their immune system so they were all infected but they were told to build up their immune system and remember at the time there was no cure so this was an unsafe working environment now here's some um parallels I see we have a lot of Airborne illnesses uh in this workplace uh there's no cure for most of them there is pathogen persistence 25 % of folks with a covid infection have viral persistence
076for over a year U there's a failure to make a safe workplace environment there's widespread Transmission in the workplace there's a minimization of Health impacts um on the staff and children and it hits marginalized communities more um if you do 1930s Public Health you'll have 1930s results uh elections have consequences and infections have consequences thanks thank you our next speaker is Cecilia Joyce will be followed by Jennifer lobs all right good evening hi good evening board um I am a school librarian at Dillard Drive bagnet Elementary uh my name is Cecilia Joyce I am also the parent of two former Wake County Public School students and a taxpayer in Wake County in district 7 Mr I'm here to respectfully ask for you to include an increase to the local supplement for all staff as outlined
077in the previously voted on multi-year plan increased pay would mean that my co-workers might be able to to quit their second and third jobs it could mean that my co-workers won't have to cover classes when positions aren't filled or people are absent so they may use their planning time to actually plan I would also mean that Educators might not feel compelled to move to other states to receive the pay that they deserve my belief is that the County Commission and while I know um you all are the school board but just for folks who may be watching my belief is that the County Commission needs to increase property tax rates that may sound unpopular but please allow me to explain with an example I know a fellow educator who may be moving to Virginia in
078the county they would be living in the tax rate is 85 cents per $100 while in Wake it is 65.7 cents per $100 they also do have programs for folks needing property tax relief there such as folks living in neighborhoods experiencing the effects of gentrification with increasing home values so it is possible to raise property taxes in a way that works for us all people come to Wake County from other states and get a huge bargain in regard to property taxes while their children received an excellent public school education and enjoy all the other wonderful things our county has to offer Parks libraries Trails community centers and more we believe that if the state continues to gut our public education system as they have been wake must do everything we can to protect our students
079and communities that includes pushing the County Commission to make large investments in our schools we would like to invite the superintendent and the board to lead with us to make an Ask of the County Commission that matches the complexity of the crisis that students and staff are facing let's make it clear to them that this situation is urgent we need also Wake County Public School families and our community allies to stand with us and asking for a living wage when parents workers and communities Stand Together we can win what our students and Educators deserve thank you thank you our next speaker is Jennifer lobs followed by Kim Mackey thank you board members and superintendent for allowing me to speak I'm coming to you today to support our Wake County Public Schools and its plan to
080reach every student every day even prior to the pandemic I watched and observe a steady Statewide legislative attack on our traditional Public Schools through laws and policies I love our school system but there are challenges uh to keeping it the way it is and moving forward many difficult choices will need to be made by you and other elected officials my husband is a school teacher here year he went to a public school system in Virginia where he graduated with marginal grades he went all the way through and he really wanted to go into college and he wanted to be a teacher he wanted to teach history he loved history um when he got there he almost failed out and um his Professor couldn't understand why and his professor's like you're one of the top knowledgeable
081people about history here and so one day his profess Professor took the Scantron you know the little bubble things that we used to take he flipped it around he realized that my husband had dyslexia he went all the way through school not knowing that that simple little thing of learning those tools and how to overcome it would be a way for him to be successful I say that because um because I want our children to know that you can overcome something something and I want us to support our kids looking forward I want us to find those little things and they don't necessarily have to cost a lot but it comes from experience so if we want to have our teachers make careers in our schools and pass that wisdom On to the Next Generation
082we need to really support that what would it take for you to be able to want and be able to make a career of being employed in our schools I want you to think about that what would it take for you to start a career a family and all of that is it a preference do you want to pick you know one school over another or one profession over another I he teaches um high schoolers and there are kids that are like hey what I would like to be a teacher like you well we want them to do that and pass it on um other times it could be barriers um affording basic rent things like that um there are different things that we can do as a board and as a community to support
083our teachers and staff to have that longetivity and reach every student every day thank you thank you our next speaker is Kim Mackey who'll be followed by Becky lobs good evening board members my name is Kim Mackey I'm the proud mom of two well in middle school now um one Elementary School and one middle schooler I'm also an economics and personal finance teacher and today I collected research projects where students investigate some of their own areas of interest and start to think about how to take that out of high school as they graduate and effectively advocate for those things so I'm here to practice what I teach within that research project students have to start with narrative facts so that way they have to show that they understand the background before they prescribe changes so
084I think it's really important for the board to calibrate their understanding of those narrative facts particularly as it relates to student funding and teacher pay I this is my 19th year of teaching 17 with Wake County Public Schools I have worked over a year and a half for free compared to the purchasing power that I signed up for the state would have to cut me a check for more than $85,000 just to break even this year alone it's more than $10,000 and this is true whether inflation was 1% or 8% in my students in my students classroom and in my children's classroom the state would have to pay $120,000 per classroom by not restoring the purchasing power that was previously offered to students before the Great Recession our economy recovered our classrooms have not and
085by Design is why they have not the common Den denominator is the general assembly and the Republican majority there so I think it's really important that when we talk about politics in the classroom that these are the ways that politics are impacting our classroom and why one out of every 10 teachers in North Carolina have been leaving lately I want to be sure that when I look around and my my children are in high school that good people are still there and I worry about that the other thing we talk about is trying to propose solution Orient Ed um ideas and I think that we have been on track for solution oriented ideas as our local government tries to move the needle on teacher pay they certainly can't make up for the year and a
086half I've worked for free but it gives me hope that I can at least count on local officials to do what they can to close that Gap so I'm a little disappointed in this year's proposal when I don't see any attempt to move the needle despite some of the long-term plans that have been made made in conjunction with those County Commissioners when your hope Squad of trying to keep other people in the profession is having a hard time finding hope in this budget we need to make some changes because we are the most hopeful people we have made sacrifices because we care about this District but we can't talk other people into still seeing that hope if we continue if we go with this budget and don't move the needle thank you thank you than
087you miss Macky our next speaker is Becky L Hobbs who'll be followed by uh Delena Wen hey good evening Miss lobs hello good to see you guys again um my name is Becky lobs I'm the chapter chair of moms for Liberty in Wake County you know we've spoken several times about policies and budget but but this morning I was actually reviewing um the Wake County 2024 legislative agenda and after reviewing it I just was kind of shaking my head and it really didn't have much to do with the students um I emailed you guys the moms for Liberty legislative agenda which is all about the kids but I just want to focus on one thing because there's just not enough time to go through everything the um agenda starts with fully fund the needs of
088the student and while on the surface that sounds really good there are problems with that statement never once ever have I heard anybody Define fully fund what is that amount you know taxpayer funds are not an unlimited resource and your job as elected officials is to be responsible with those resources so in the proposed budget of wake counties from the superintendent the um average um uh price or cost per student is just under $122,000 which is on par with the state average so by fully fund do you mean to increase that to 13,000 per student 15,000 per student 20,000 per student 25,000 per student yeah I've said it before spending more money does not equate to a quality education so let's look at Union County they spend far less per student than W County does
089yet their students have a much better reading and math proficiencies and of course let's not forget during the pandemic who went to school Union County what county SIDS were kept out of school for a long long time and then in the budget there's a lot of comparisons to several school districts in Maryland but have you looked at their proficiency rates most of those um school districts in Maryland that you're comparing the budget to spend almost twice as much but they have even worse proficiency rates than weight County does so once again does spending more really equate to a better education you know we talked about this last time with in seven years the budgets increased by over a billion dollars but there's only 180 more teachers only seven more schools but there's over 1,200 more
090professional positions like Equity psychologist and so forth so let's get back to the basics let provide students with a quality of Education that's what public education is for Education reading math science and history thank you thank you next we'll hear from Delaney Wen and followed by Aaron windley good evening good evening my name is Delany Walkin and I'm a first grade teacher at Beaver Jan Elementary School I am here today to discuss the board to reconsider their lunch policy right now the policy stands that students who do not have lunch money and currently have an outstanding balance cannot receive an entree for lunch this group of students is only permitted to have fruits and vegetables this policy is unfair to our students for several reasons first a hungry student cannot learn the board has stated
091that one of its objectives this legislative season is to promote student access to lunch the board States nutrition directly impacts students academic performance and behavior in the classroom this quote address is the negative impacts hunger can have on students they are less engaged with our lessons they are more on edge and irritable which can lead to outbursts in the classroom they also may fall asleep in class the public school system has long been revered as a system that can lead to equity in our society no matter gender race or socioeconomic background each child has the ability to receive equal access to education in Wake County the system is no longer supporting all children by giving students limited access to Quality Food the policy is allowing some students to be placed in environment for growth While
092others are not given the tools to suceed like a meal based on Ma's hierarchy of needs students need to have their most basic needs met in order to learn schools can function as a system that ensures all of our students have their basic needs met if our students are worried in our schools that they cannot have food then they cannot pay attention to or focus on learning students need to know that our schools are safe for them next this policy affects the emotional well-being of our students having their school lunch thrown away or asked to go speak with a cafeteria manager is embarrassing and it can often be intimidating it is placing undue responsibility and blame on the child they are ridiculed for not having money and face consequences of choices that are not theirs
093again school should be a place of encouragement not embarrassment an elementary school student has little control or responsibility over their lunch money they're not able to make money nor are they able to convince their parents to give them the money School to be a place where students are free from the burdens that their home life may bring and are safe for them to have all their needs met Instead This lunch policy promotes inequality in our school system where things like access to a stable parental figure or socioeconomic status is causing their quality of Education to be limited in my school as this policy has been enacted we have students whose access to education has dropped one student was so hungry they fell asleep and couldn't stay awake in class because they were so hungry and
094didn't have energy one student was so embarrassed they cried several hours throughout the day their emotionally well-being was so negatively impacted they no longer could engage in school one student now refuses to enter the cafeteria because that is a place of embarrassment I say this not to place blame on my school but to urge the board to reconsider this policy no child should go hungry in our school system thank you thank you our next speaker is Aaron oh our next speaker is Aaron wendley followed by Colleen Miller good evening Miss windley hi hi my name is Aaron windley and I'm a second grade teacher at beaverdam elementary I'm here to also encourage the board to change their unfair lunch policy some of our students have been exposed to the policy says that students who do
095not have lunch money cannot have an entree for lunch the students Entre are being taken away thrown away and they're only given a fruit or vegetable I believe this policy is unfair to all the students in our County when I first found out about the policy I was disappointed I thought as a County we were supposed to provide and take care of all students needs I thought schools were supposed to function as a system that can ensure all students needs are being met when preparing for today I continuously pondered how I felt about the situation and what I thought should change I never examined how the students would feel or have felt so I decided to discuss it with my second graders I gave them a scenario what if one Friday they went through the
096line got their milk their fruit and veggie and their Pizza with ranch of course but once they got to the register the lunch lady took their tray threw their pizza and milk away and all they had was their fruit vegetable and they could get water I proceeded to ask how would you feel what would you do these are some of their responses I would be upset and cry it's like they care about food and money more than us when someone took my plate and threw it in the trash I was confused mad and sad I think they just care about the money these responses show the emotional effect this policy has on our students having their lunch thrown away or being pulled aside to speak with the cafeteria man manager is embarrassing students are not
097responsible for paying for their lunch they shouldn't be penalized for not having lunch money in our current eel literacy unit we are teaching students that we as people of all ages and sizes should do what we can to make this world a better place and that we are all equal although this is very important for Child Development it starts with us as adults showing students what it looks like to treat everyone as equals we are expecting students to come to school each day ready to learn and treat everyone as equals but how can we expect them to do that on an empty stomach according to the board we are supposed to provide students access to the food their bodies and Minds need to learn this policy does not allow us to provide all students with
098access to the food their minds and bodies need in conclusion students should go to school to escape the difficulties of the world around them they should have access to a quality education and have their needs met at the same time our county is responsible for taking care of our students needs and making sure everyone has access to Quality education that includes food food is medicine for the body but also the mind I believe that fed students are better students thank you thank you miss wendley our next speaker is Colleen Miller who'll be followed by Edith Jones thank you uh John you sort uh sto my thunder there thank you for mentioning the video game on a third grade child's uh School issued device the game was rated for a mature audience ages 17 and older
099due to the sexual content and Drug reference the game allows players many choices in role playing such as escort porn star Mill stripper and so forth a young mother reached out to me in January desperate for guidance after exhaustive attempts to protect her child from adult websites on his school electronic device it All Began on the school bus last fall when older boy showed her 8-year-old how to open the game on his Chromebook mom did a search history and found he had used the internet daily to access websites not approved by the school district some of the searches he had done were even in the classroom the mom reported her findings to the school and even showed a school administrator how easy it was to access explicit pornographic images at her request her son was
100moved to another classroom after his teacher refused to restrict the use of his Chromebook however the school did little else to assure that her son would be safe from obscene materials desperate for solution she even asked if she might provide her son with his own device their response was no in reading the school policies I did see that filtering devices systems are in place I also read that parents actually are allowed to provide their stud student with a device I see several failures for this student and his mom filtering systems on this his device failed student training and Internet safety was ineffective the tech user agreement was problematic it appears to assume a third grade student has the same intellectual function and skills as a high school student school officials were mostly dismisses dismissive of
101the mother's respons of their responsibilities and mom was denied the right to provide her child with his own device I implore Educators to take better steps to prevent this problem one way to stop students from viewing pornography in elementary schools is to replace electronic devices with textbooks extensive screen time alone is harmful to young children a teaching station with computers would be a better alternative to devices issued to every student schools should create a campus policy prohibiting pornography this can be enforced through bans on porn and libraries and school computers another way to to prevent porn from being viewed at school is to educate students about the dangers students must be aware that porn is harmful to their mental and physical health numerous studies support this fact porn in school is a huge problem but
102Educators can do much to solve this issue please remove all explicit sexual sexually explicit material from school libraries media centers and classrooms for elementary students who frankly don't understand school policies regarding the use of the devices it's time to remove these Chromebooks and other electronic devices and get back to learning by a long established method in-person instruction textbooks pen and paper our next speaker is Miss Edith Jones and Miss Jones will be our final speaker is Miss Jones here all right well if not that will conclude our public comment period thank you very our next item on our agenda will be a review and Adoption of our consent agenda second we have a motion from Mr Swanson a second from Vice chair Johnson Hustler to approve the consent agenda all in favor of the consent
103agenda please signify by saying I I any opposed nay I I heard two Nays I want to make sure it's recorded that was Dr in and Miss Coffield yes everyone else recorded in favor Roll All right we can do a roll call vote uh Mr Hershey I Dr in nay miss edmans I miss mafy I chair votes I Vice chair Johnson Hustler I Mr Swanson I miss carfield nay and Miss rice I all right thank you um the consent agenda or sorry the items on the conent consent agenda have been adopted so our next agenda item are our action items and we'll start off we have several policies we'll start with board policy 7511 annual leave on first reading all right good evening Dr matilla good evening ter hegerty members of the board superintendent Taylor
104um tonight I'm bringing four Personnel policies for first reading all of which were discussed at the March 12th 2024 policy committee meeting um I will present and ask for them um individually so policy 7511 annual leave bringing this is a new policy that summarizes the annual leave section of the DPI benefits manual and portions of our old policy manual 2280 3800 and 4800 if the board approves this policy it would replace um sections from policy 2280 3.1 on annual leave 3.2 on annual leave for catastrophic leave and 3.4 locally earned um leave for administrators hired outside of North Carolina so there were not any policy changes suggested at the policy committee meeting however um we did review these one more time and if it's okay with the board would like to present two minor changes
105that are not in your materials but would loop around um on the consent item um you know next time you see it on consent so we're just proposing where we reference catastrophic illness to add the reference DPI benefits manual 3.2 and where we mention um annual vacation leave for New parents just adding the reference DPI benefits manual 3.3 so just those two little phrases where you see it in section c and d of that policy and again this is just to provide some additional Clarity for our employees if they want to reference that DPI benefits manual apologize for not getting that to you during policy committee but we always take one last look um so I if the board um would approve I'm requesting approval tonight for first read of policy 7511 chair Hagerty I
106make a motion that we approve this for first reading knowing that the upcoming amended changes will be coming on second reading for consent thank you Miss mfy we have a motion from uh committee chair mfy of uh second from Mr Hershey are there any discussions any questions if not all in favor of adoption of the policy on first Reading Please signify by saying I I any opposed all right thank you Dr matillo next one up yes sir uh policy 7212 which is our sick leave policy again this is to summarize the DPI benefits manual and portions of 2280 we don't have an existing separate sick leave policy so once given approval it would replace sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the old policy manual on 2280 um and just as a reminder for the board you
107know some of these new policies that we're bringing is really to help add Clarity for employees we had a very large long leave policy that was less accessible to employees so by breaking these out individually they'll be able to search better and get the information that they need so I'm bringing uh again your approval tonight of policy 7512 for sick Leaf thank you Dr matilla I make a motion we approve this for first reading and that's policy 7512 sick leave we have a motion to adopt policy 7512 sick leave on first reading by Miss mafy a second by Mr Hershey any questions or discussion all right all in favor of adoption of policy 7512 on first Reading Please signify by saying I I any opposed okay next up policy 7513 okay next I'm bringing policy
1087513 uh person personal leave for first reading this is a new policy again that summarizes the personal leave section of the benefits manual for DPI no changes proposed in the policy committee so tonight I'm requesting the board's approval of policy 7513 for personal leave thank you Dr M motion to approve for first reading motion from Miss mfy second for Mr Hershey any questions or discussion Mr yes sir Mr Swanson if I think I heard Dr Mello correctly is there's no changes from DPI with this policy are we not recommending any changes so there was no there were no changes recommended in policy committee um DPI we have this policy but it's it's also references dpi's policy manual so the reason why I just raised that question because if there's no major changes I was going
109to I was wondering if we could just make it instead of going through first and second reading just make it adopted right here and now but I'm looking to so is that a what would that be amendment to wave policy yeah I think that would just be a straight majority vote wouldn't it Rod to wave second reading yeah yes okay yes so MH any discussion on Mr Mr Swanson's uh proposal clarify for me which policy were referring since we went on this is policy 7513 personal leave and I believe the motion is just to wave second reading and then it would basically just move on to the policy manual right correct yes sir any discussion of Mr Swanson's motion no I'll second it um all right we have a prop we have a proper motion
110and a second all in favor of waving second reading and adopting policy 7513 on first Reading Please signify by saying I I I any opposed all right we'll record that one as uh first reading approved second weing reading waved and it will uh be adopted and enrolled finally we have policy 7540 voluntary shared and donated leave okay so last policy is the voluntary share donated leave for first reading this is an established school board's policy that's why your your new policy looks more marked up you'll see the strikeouts from the school board association's policy as well as some additional language that we've added just to clarify for employees um but again it largely draws from the DPI benefits manual as well and if once approved um it would replace 4.3 um voluntary shared leave and
1114.4 voluntary sick leave Bank in policy 2280 so tonight um again no changes were proposed at the at the policy committee meeting so asking for uh the board's approval of the first reading of policy 7540 right chair hagy I move we approve this for first reading uh motion Again by m mfy second by Mr Hershey any discussion any debate questions all right all in favor of adoption of policy 7540 on first Reading Please signify by saying I I any opposed all right it's been adopted thank you Dr matilla thank you all all right um I do have one item I had missed uh when we adopted our agenda I'd like the board to um entertain a motion to to amend our closed session agenda to uh include an item on legal advice if you all
112approve so moveed second I mean you could always say no but we do have a motion for Miss Edmonds and a second from Vice chair Johnson hosing all in favor of amending the agenda to add the item to our close session agenda please signify by saying I I any opposed all right thank you and again apologies for my oversight uh the next item that we have on our agenda is our 2024 legislative agenda so if you pull that up I don't know if we'll be able to project it up on the screen or not um but every member should have a copy of this available to them via assembly I'll give everybody an opportunity to make sure you have it all right so um it says here that I am to present it Guided by
113my vice chair and then discussion by the board members but I would like Dr Taylor if you could just tell us how we got to this final document uh so uh we put um um a bit of work into it we've worked with our legislative lobbyist um uh to walk through the document we um had discussions at our uh Retreat and and ultimately gotten feedback from the board we I think we've been through uh a number of iterations in terms of getting feedback from board members to try to make sure we captured the language uh that we felt was appropriate um I know the board has certainly looked at what was important for the short session versus um longer sessions and so um we just appreciate the feedback that the board has given um and
114this is always a process and um we're looking to move it forward whatever changes you make tonight our approvals thank you Dr Taylor and I do want to thank our Communications staff for all the work they put in taking the document that we had and transforming it into the document that you see here so um Dr Taylor did provide the the last this last copy to everyone in advance uh again a lot of work has gone into this I know that we are nine different individuals with nine different opinions and maybe nine different ways that we might want to word something or state something but I also know that we do have at least one item where there was um a material change that want that wanted to be suggested so uh Miss Edmond do
115you have an amendment I do I wasn't sure the process do I do that during comment ments are now I'd say let's let's uh just you suggest the amendment now and then once we have an amended document what's that once we have an amended document then I would put it up for a vote okay so I would like to amend the under support high quality classrooms and Workforce in order to promote academic achievement the first item says prioritize public dollars to fully fund Public Schools before funding private institutions and that does not sit well with me um we discussed this in the board retreat as we are not as a district um adopting a resolution or have yet made any um opposition statement or statement in opposition to funding of private school vouchers with State
116dollars I would like to change that wording to say um prioritize public dollars to fully fund Public Schools not private school vouchers or prioritize public dollars to fully fund Public Schools not the privatization of K12 education I don't have a strong feeling about which one but those are my two um changes and I would like to add that as I mentioned at The Retreat and these are the numbers that I had so that was I forget the date but mid-February uh 19 superintendent across North Carolina have come out against the funding of vouchers um for 40 or or more than 40 District leaders across um school districts in North Carolina have come out in opposition or passed a resolution of some sort um the State Board of Ed has expressed um opposition and I think
117we need to lead the way and it's important to me that that we do that and I'll go ahead and I'll second Miss Edmund's motion to amend I will say my preference would be for the first version because I think that's the most clear right the the threat that we've I think clearly identified have been the universal private school vouchers you know with no means testing no you know income requirements um and then continuing to draw larger and larger portions of our state budget uh we've heard this concern expressed at you know with other fellow members of the North Carolina School boards Association in rural districts in urban districts large districts small districts everyone sees this as just um you know a a a real threat and I want to make sure at least in
118my mind that it's clear what we're talking about and saying private school vouchers I believe is more clear than just saying private institutions so that would that would of the two choices that would be my suggestion read it again do you mind prioritize and I'm actually adding the word school I meant to do that earlier to to keep keep it as close to this language priority ize Public School dollars to fully fund Public Schools not private school vouchers all right so we have a we have an amendment and we have a second is there any further discussion on the amendment Miss carfield I'm actually not in favor of that um that decision I understand um that we are divided on this and it's not that I want any of our funds to go to private
119institutions I would hope that we would make all the um accommodations and changes that you know are asked of us of people that that we don't actually fulfill at this time um but before funding private institutions is really saying how to prioritize your money and I understand the whole idea with the public school dollars but when those children go to Charter Schools we are also not servicing them in the chair so my my goal is to get them back into public school with changes that we make within our district to attract them back um but to say that those children should not the funds should not go with those children because we cannot accommodate everybody's needs and we just don't I mean that's a reality that we have I hope that changes in the future
120but it is not the way that we have it right now in the eyes of parents who seek elsewhere I do understand that there is um also a complaint that there are people who are already in private school and this is a way for them to get money I understand that I'm not saying it's a solution one way or the other um but I do agree with the comment that was made before that fully funded is a very very vague word it's not specific we don't have a dollar amount there is no nothing that we're saying that we're asking there that has a definitive answer or goal that somebody could reach fully funded is very open that's just my comments okay thank you Miss carfield Mr Swanson I have two questions and I you know
121funding is such a complex issue I have a question I'm not sure if you or Dr Taylor could answer this so when students do go to a private school and they come back let's say they come back after the 20-day head count do we lose those dollars so it depends on the funding that you're talking about uh with State dollars we do not recoup those funds uh with the local funding that we do send to Charter Schools we pay that on a monthly basis and so if a student does return then we discontinue to pay for that student but the but the public dollars or the State dollars we do not get back so even if they were to come back we've lost money absolutely and I can't remember the number miss edmus that you
122Rec called um what was the number that weight County could potentially get from the state I'm sorry Mr chair no no you had said two questions and so I to get her that's the question M can you would you like to respond thank you this is specific specifically if uh the legislature would fully fund the Leandro comprehensive remedial plan it's a document that was produced by West Ed it's been through the courts Etc so that's where the number comes from $291 million or a 28% increase into our Wake County Schools budget so Mr chair yes sir Mr I propose that we put that number in our legislative agenda all right so um so we currently have a motion to amend pending but that motion hasn't been voted on yet so would you like to make
123an amendment to the amendment yes sir all right so we have a motion to amend Miss Edmund's Amendment further to include the specific number um would you could you repeat it for us again please to include 291 million yeah since fully funded was a little V we could just put the number in there so 291 million yes now that is I don't know I mean we're getting in the weeds but that might need to be referenced to every child's analysis you know of the landro funding but that's that's for staff all right is all right hold on there's a motion pending is there a second to the motion and then we'll have discussion second second VI by Vice chair Johnson Hustler so now we have a motion to from Mr Swanson to amend Miss Edmund's
124uh language as just read and it has been properly moved and seconded discussion of Mr Swanson's Amendment question go ahead um in references to uh Mr Swanson's uh question and I understand that it's different with the state funds that we don't get that back because they distributed after a certain amount of days charter school is monthly so it just stops if that child comes back and I know that we had this discussion in a prior meeting did we ever find out the number of children that leave Wake County Public Schools in a c in a school year and come back after that date okay and I'll direct that question to Dr Taylor and so I don't have that number I can get with financing we should be able to look at the number of students
125uh that we pay for uh for Charter Schools uh and what that number is from one month to the next that will tell us uh what that exact number is and so um uh Terry or Trish or David if you happen to know that number you can let us know if not we can get that to you hopefully by uh within 48 hours thank you all right Miss edmans I just want to be very clear that for the purposes of the legislative agenda and my Amendment it is specifically about private school vouchers and not Charter Schools or charter school funding thank you Miss Edmonds um are there any other comments or questions about Mr Swanson's Amendment okay I will oh Dr in um just have to keep in mind that this is a legislative agenda
126that the lobbyists are um obligated to use to speak to our general assembly uh folks and um you know on the one hand you know um having some specificity is good but on the other hand we don't want this document to become a a um political uh weapon um that would make for some people in the legis the general assembly be um defensive right off the bat so I just want to make sure that we have that in mind thank you Dr Ring um I'd like to comment I I understand exactly where this amendment is coming from I would prefer an alternative if I can explain which is I like Miss Edmund's suggested language better because I think we have two different issues here and even if the legislature were to fully fund Leandro I
127would not want them giving the amount of money that they're giving for the universal public the universal private school vouchers I would not tie those two issues together I would rather see them prioritize the public school dollars for public schools over any private institution any private any you know private school voucher and I would like to see the the funding that has been you know requested ordered by our state's Judiciary paid and so I think that's an important issue but given the choice of amending this language my preference would be simply to add add that as a separate item there's room actually right here under that same section we could just add it as a separate bullet point if you would be open to that what does everyone think about that okay all right well
128then rather than amending the amendment further um could we have would you would you be in favor of withdrawing the amendment we'll vote on Miss Edmond's Amendment and then I'll recognize you sure all right any further qu any further questions or discussion on Miss Edmund's Amendment could you just clarify what you just said I'm a little all over the place now so for parliamentary procedure Mr Malone I believe what we had was a motion that was properly moved and seconded but then the author of that Amendment withdrew the motion to amend the amendment Mr Swanson agreed to withdraw his amendment to miss Edmund's Amendment yeah but it was already seconded it was already seconded so I think the cleanest option would be to just vote it down okay I mean and then make a new
129amendment that is what you want it to be okay or new a new yeah and then do a new Amendment that's exactly what you wanted to be I think it would be cleanest all right but may I please Miss Evans so when we do this first vote are we voting on what Mr Swanson proposed only cor you're okay yeah you would be voting on whether or not to amend your motion to add his motion when that is denied then her motion is still sitting there and then you would vote on her Amendment and then if that passes then you would vote on the newly amended motion all right then well if that's the case I will call a vote on Mr Swanson's motion and I really appreciate you taking one for the team I'm just
130go down I respect that all in favor of Mr Swanson's motion to amend Miss Edmond's Amendment please signify by saying I I'm sorry that was you that was your motion do you are you in favor all right all opposed nay nay all right I'm sorry Mr Swanson the amendment to the amendment did not pass so that leaves Miss Edmund's Amendment on the table is there any further discussion or debate on Miss Edmund's Amendment Dr Ring um I I understand Miss Edmund's passion about this um I do have you know understanding that you know for those people who um do receive opportunity scholarships um the ones who have qualified are the tier one and tier two majority um which are the based on um income um um and so so the higher income uh families are
131not at this point not getting any of those funds um and so my take on it is that um you know like Miss Coffield said that there are some students that just cannot um for some personal reasons cannot be at um be able to uh fit in in a public school and they have to go elsewhere um of course would welcome them to come back um um but if if they need to have a um option for uh outside of Public School uh then um those funds are there for those people that can't afford it uh so it's really a uh in terms of you know you're talking about Equity um there is a a component of that where you know do you want kids that cannot survive thrive in public school to have an
132OP an option to go elsewhere um if we are not able to uh uh meet their needs and so you know I I'm that's kind of where I'm at right now um I I still uh feel like that um you know we need to F you know fully fund private I mean um Public Schools but um that the private school option is is still there and and it is um the um the funding is there to make it more affordable for uh kids families that cannot afford it otherwise thank you Dr in we have a few other people I know that are would wish to speak uh Miss maafi and then Mr Hershey yeah since we're getting into a philosophical philosophical argument on private school vouchers as someone who taught in a private school I
133feel like I can weigh in on this um in a public school it is publicly funded there it is publicly governed and there is public accountability which is why we're having this meeting right now which is why it's live streamed which is why the minutes um are talled which is why the agenda was posted early on then private school it is privately governed there it is privately accountable there are no accountability measures um for those private schools currently as the opportunity scholarship exists and as a taxpayer I philosophically do not want my public dollars going to a school in which there is no accountability to those dollars and so I would um well I was fine with the language that we had before I understand Miss Edmund's passion and um if we're choosing this I
134prefer to use the language that is currently on the table thank you Miss mafy Mr Hershey and then Miss Russ uh just very quickly um I said it before and I will say it more respectfully and politely this time I would just encourage everyone to remember that we are a board of the Wake County Public School System and that we are here to represent the is in the interests of Wake County Public Schools and that has nothing to do with private schools at all if I was on a private school board I would probably have the opposite opinion but I am not I was elected to serve a public school board and so when you think about the legislative agenda it may not you may not agree with everything on it but this is our
135role as a public school board member thank you thank you Mr Hershey Miss rice well I think Mr Hershey was over here reading my notes um because that's the very sentiment of my comment um I was appointed to be a part of a public school board um and as someone whose District probably serves the most opportunity youth since we want to use those languages um I know that our students would would benefit mostly from what we do here in our Public School within our district um I am like Miss mcfey aware of of uh private schools or the charter school processes and and things of that nature and it is often time um for one I'll say segregated um I think this Board District experienced the information of that um many years ago um in
136' 0809 in reference to when we look at our state um as a whole in reference to these types of schools we find there is Major segregation within the those schools and therefore funding also is still not appropriately um dispersed among schools and there's still high needs within those schools I think that wake has Improvement so I'm not going to sit here and say that there are no improvements that we don't need to make to continue to attract us but I am deeply concerned with my colleagues who desire to weigh a balance around where to send funding or language for a district that is specifically for public schools um like Mr um Hershey um then perhaps we need to be sitting on a different board if you desire to share or partake in funding something
137that does not effectively help the board that you sworn in to support thank you Miss rice sure uh Dr Taylor okay uh just for for Content purposes on the opportunity scholarships and I do feel that the Board needs to know this came out of the discussion that superintendent had today uh but with the the current iteration of opportunity scholarships and that has been exhausted by request that 55% of those requests were from parents uh families that would have before uh been disqualified because their income was too high and um and they are looking at possibly increasing funding by another $3 to $400 million and so uh just to add that as context that uh that it really does impact what happens to public school funding thank you Dr Taylor yes uh Mr rice and then
138miss I apologize and and and thank you that was the the numbers and data I was looking at but I do want to remind for the public to understand for educational purposes for families who are of low income who are receiving these vouchers it does not help you on your tax returns it helps a particular group of people which is what Dr Taylor just pointed out so please families be mindful as you're running to utilize what you believe to be an opportunity it is not necessarily helping your family and so you don't get to necessarily choose the higher Epsilon of Education that you think you may be able to attend because it'll leave you with a bill and a tax write off that you can't afford thank you m rice Miss edmans just piggybacking us
139that's the exact point I wanted to make Dr Taylor about specifically about the 300 million this is our this is our legislative agenda for the short session and um legislative leaders have gone on public record that they are looking to increase the funding as Dr Taylor said by three to 400 million more dollars so that is why I think it is a priority and needs to be in this agenda thank you thank you Miss Edmond so miss Coffield oops I just wanted to make it clear that um I am not out for funding private nor encouraging the private schools it's more about the options for children who are not currently succeeding doesn't mean that they can in the future or there might be a reason why I'm not sure why but if that's an option
140for them I mean if that's a choice and hopefully they do come back maybe they see that that's it didn't work but there may be children out there that it's just not working for them right now so I like the original uh verbage that was there because it just says before funding any private so it's still saying the same thing it's just not specifically saying absolutely not you're not getting it you're paying taxes just like everybody else but if this doesn't work for you you have no options thank you m Coffield and I I want to I I I do want to speak on the issue I've been letting everyone go back and forth but based on Miss caulfield's question comment there I want to go back to miss Edmunds could you go back and
141read the language that you suggested because I want to make sure I that that I'm understanding it correctly yes prioritize Public School dollars to fully fund Public Schools not private school vouchers thank you Miss Vice chair Johnson Hustler did you have a comment and then I'd like a comment I did um and I I thought Mr hery articulated my feelings so I thought my nodding would Echo it but but but I do want to close the loop personally for me no one else and thank you Miss rice for the public service announcement I do think it's important because often families um consider below the poverty l L are the most targeted for opportunity scholarship so thank you for providing that information I think the thing that I would say and again this for me is
142not about choice I believe everyone deserves the right to choose what I don't believe the state has the right to do is choose to not fun Public Schools but fund private schools so for me this this decision is about one standing in line as I said at the table if we have if I don't do anything else is to leave with my heart and at the end of the day we sit at this table for that reason so I don't disagree with the option of choice I absolutely believe people have to make choices for their children for a whole host of reasons and I support the parent making the choice of choosing the school that's best for them but I cannot stand by and again hats off to you Mr Mr Swanson because generally we
143would I would never Echo using that kind of number on a legislative agenda but truthfully I don't think you're wrong with cofi for asking let's let's articulate the number because again it for me articulates for us that we are at least and I just heard this from one of our um smart Chiefs um that over a decade the state has decreased our funding or our funding in their state budget has decreased over 10% so it is appropriate for us to say absolutely no disagreement on parent choice but absolutely a disagreement on not funding Public Schools thank you Vice chair Johnson Hustler so we have an amendment pending and I think we'll have a second amendment and then um we'll see if there are additional amendments past that I do want to really make sure that
144everyone around the board table feels you know that they've been heard and I want to acknowledge what everyone has said and again you know how you choose to vote on the Amendments is your own choice and how you choose to vote on the agenda is your own choice but I do want to say that you know I do support the amendment and I want to make it a couple things clear I I heard Dr in's concerns and I I think there's validity to that because we do not we we will not have an effective legislative agenda if it is seen as combative if it is seen as um you know very aggressive or insulting to the legisl and I think that's a very valid point and you know I've worked in this field Vice chair
145Johnson Hustler has worked in this field and I think we would agree but I will say that I Believe Miss Edmonds has done a very good job of crafting language that is respectful it does not throw bombs um and I think it brings more clarity than if we just simply said public institutions um I think the legislators let's just be honest y'all they know that we oppose the program so I don't think that we're going to shock or offend anybody by just very respectfully and plainly stating that opposition but even beyond that I think the language here to miss Vice chair Johnson Hustler's point is that I don't think Miss Coffield that we're saying that we're absolutely opposed to it but we've chosen to use this language of prioritize and I think that that is
146sign ific and I know again no one's we have nine different opinions and everyone's not going to see their preference in the language reflected um exactly as they would want it but I did want to make those points that I think this is a very reasonable very you know responsible way to to bring this issue forward and I think I think there won't be any surprises to Anyone who reads this to hear US state this this you know the way that it's been stated here so with that I'd like to call a vote um we can do a voice Vote or if you want we can do a roll call vote on uh Miss 's Amendment Voice vote all right all in favor of Miss Edmund's Amendment please signify by saying I I any opposed
147nay all right I record seven in favor two opposed all right just making sure giving everybody a chance to make sure that the vote's been recorded accurately all right so then uh Mr Swanson you had expressed interest in including some language about the Leandra decision and I think it would fit best there under the support high quality classrooms yes all right do you have suggested language I do not haveing to the just whisper he did he did just whisper I was like I need L paper so I can articulate that all right um Miss edmans if we may borrow something I will turn it over to our vice chair Miss Johnson Hustler to make a suggested Amendment abut yes let me look at this and say have to do too much words with yeah then
148I I think we can say very I would sorry sorry thank you thank you Melissa and dear Hagerty um I I think it's appropriate of us to say fully fund Public School fully fund White County public or I'm trying to look yeah we say wcpss so I would say fully fund wcpss to serve every child at $291 million I I don't think I would add much more to to it yes additional thank you for that clarification thank you for that clarification so could you restate that maybe okay how about we put the amount after the fully fund and then the two at the end is this an addition is this is this would be line four yes this would follow you'd see those three bullet points and then we would add a fourth point in
149that white space right underneath it and could you just explain while they're working on that little so the idea is to add a add an item based on like the Supreme Court's order and the Leandra decision which would be to fully fund wake count the Wake County Public School System the additional amount that's been calculated to ensure every child is entitled to um what is it of sound basic education I would just say sorry I just heard melissen back my mind saying turn on the mic um fully invest 291 million additional 291 million um and then with the sence you just St are we adding any wording about the Leandro or just asking for the dollar amount I don't I haven't heard specific reference to Leandro um but that is that is where that that
150number comes from and that language that miss Edmund cited is taken from the Leandro decision and also the North Carolina state constitution I I did send that document to everybody including Dr Taylor a few minutes ago so you have it in your email Miss Allen I need to send it to you I didn't do sorry I'll do that now so the question would be do you want to include Leandro state remedia plan or not I would not and I see Dr Ing agreeing with me I I definitely would not I mean again the emphasis is not to weaponize this um legislative agenda okay Mr Swanson I mean I I'm definitely not recognizing this but I mean it's a wish list because we know the general assembly is not going to do what they what is
151laid out here but if we can put some pieces here and some teeth it takes that funding burning off of the local off of our our local dollars off of the taxpayers to really remind the state of their constitutional duties that they have all sworn to uphold into to so um I'll just say invest instead of the funding all right then if I can if I can present some suggested language then based on what I've heard I would propose adding an item that would say fully in fully invest an additional 291 million in wcpss in order to ensure every student and or in in order to provide every student with a sound basic education can second that motion yes Miss Coffield um Lyn I did get your um Miss Edmond sorry I did get your
152uh your sheet here so thanks for sharing that um unless I am reading pass it too fast I I see that there's more teacher assistance textbooks instructional materials professional development but there's no reference to salary is that not part of it to increase the teacher pay their positions the positions okay1 all right y so um I Heard a second from Miss mfy is there any discussion on the proposed amendment regarding the additional funding Miss happy I mean if this works the conversation we had in the work session will be a lot easier thank you Dr r i again I I'm I'm fine with the specificity of a dollar amount I just I just want to be clear I just did not want to mention LeAndre specifically and again I think that gets back to your
153your other point about how we make the document as effective as possible chair Hagerty would you please reread your statement I think I got it all but okay so to re and again I apologize we we're not able to project it but what I had was fully invest an additional 291 million in wcpss in order to provide every student a sound basic education all right all in favor of the amendment please signify by saying I I I any opposed all right then I was just who made the motion we'll give it to Mr I was just making sure that okay perfect thank you thank you of us to come with ID all right then at this point is there any other discussion Mr Hershey are we on to other parts of the legislative agenda we
154are okay so I'd like to um put out one item that I'd like to have a change in it's on the first page it's the aligned school calendar with and I would rather us and because I'm seeing more actionist if people aren't following Carterette county is on the coast and they are challenging the school calendar law and I would like us to change our language a little bit just to say permit local school calendar flexibility in order to align and then with Community College calendars because we want them to give us the flexib the flexibility to do so it's a small change but I also want to recognize what another school district is doing and I wholeheartedly support their approach to challenging it based on the State Constitution and I don't want to redo the
155whole thing to support that right now but just a slight modification okay um I can read it again if need be yeah I think I got it but this this way we'll have it very specific language go ahead permit School law calendar flexibility oh that's not what you said the first time what did I say told you yeah you said you said permit I think I think you said permit I'm sorry local school calendar flexibility I'm reading my words permit local school calendar flexibility in order to align with so I'm just changing a couple words in there okay is there a second oh I make a motion that we do that I figured if you're I just not to get mad at me all right I second by Miss I heard Miss mafy um all
156right any discussion I I I would I would like to say that this is language that we spent a great deal of time on working with the legislative team and the lobbyists this is a legislative issue that's been fought over for decades and in terms of frustration we know that we have over I think 150 members is that right no I can't quite be right we have a we have a majority of legislators in both chambers that have signed on to bills to Grant this as co-sponsors but the issue still has not moved in decades because of opposition by legislative leadership yep and so trying to get something moving has been very strategic people have tried different approaches over over the years I know working with other school systems around the county there's a lot
157of Western count Gaston County I think more and um Lincoln and some others that are really going hard trying to get that flexibility so I want to stress that the language we use is very intentional but I do think that what you've provided permit local school calendar flexibility I mean I think that would still align with the advice that we got from our legislative team and if I could just follow just so people are where are as we talked about private schools earlier they all get to start and do start on August 15th so they start early August and our charter school friends get to start whenever they want so this would match the flexibility that they have as well okay any other comments Dr in um I I do like the change in the
158language uh just because it it it puts it all the more of the control over us ra rather than we are following the Community College calendar M thank you any other comments all right then all in favor of Mr Hershey's amendment to change the language to say permit local school calendar flexibility in order to align local school calendars etc etc please signify by saying I I any opposed all right thank you are we ready for a vote on the agenda are we not going to the back side oh well I mean we've we've we've that yeah I mean any it's open for any other discussion are is there any I I know that we had worked on this and we had talked about a lot of different things so when I was looking over it
159um I was wondering in the First Column I would assume it would go um we do mention the fact that our teachers freeze and I know that this has come up many times but they do freeze at the 15 and was it 25 year um I would love to have some literature in there that we could support those teachers to remove that freeze in terms of the step increases yeah yeah all right I I don't I just it's really uncomfortable for me and just baffles me that we that our teachers that become more senior and tenure and I know 10 years is not the right word for us but so veteran teachers so that we need them to recycle with our new teachers it's so important I agree 100% And that language is in there
160where is that so when it says preventing salary compression for veteran teachers That's What compression is it's taking like that salary when you would normally go up like stair steps and compressing it flat for such a long period of time is there so it's the idea is in there would you like to phrase it a different way yeah I'd like to spell it out do you have a suggestion um I was actually I couldn't think of like good verbage but removing the plateau or removing the freeze um just specifically stating that allowing them to get a cost of living raise um I'm trying to think of verbage and and in referencing our why that helps us retain our valued uh veteran teachers so how about this I know the salary compression phrase is something many
161of them will know but for those that don't for people in the public how about if we said and preventing salary compression by and then ensuring Equitable steps in salary structure or something there for veteran teachers we just put that we just put like a a buy and then EXP explain what it is if someone has good language about that Miss mfy yeah I was just thinking um and I'm going to need help on the figures but after salary compression for veteran teachers um who no longer see salary steps at year after year um why am I not thinking I'm 18 yeah thank you okay and um so and prevent salary compression by it's It's tricky because like we don't want to at the double negative or the so my thought was to kind of
162make it an explanatory comma and um I'm not I was not an English teacher so U Want My apologies to Dr crane for the runon sentence okay um but to then maybe put uh Dash or a hyphen after veteran teachers and then just as Miss Coffield is saying spell it out who do not see um salary step increases after a year I think oh I'm defer to my colleagues who are getting it all right we have we do have some hands up so uh I'll ask Miss Edmonds and then we'll ask Dr ring I I'm in support of this I just want to know um do we need to be careful because if they stay they do get they do go up a step at year 25 or something like that so don't want to
163we want to be accurate we were trying to yeah Dr I don't want to say after year you know 15 and then they take away that 25 year step or something could be 15 to 24 was necessary to articulate that's where stagnant is that I found say some hold on one second yeah Dr in please um I was just thinking that you know instead of saying after the health coverage comma and re rewarding veteran teachers by such and such and such I mean I know it's just a yeah something like that okay I've been I've have been informed that we are getting um staff will provide us with the exact steps so that we can get that accurate Miss Coffield I was just thinking um if we could add the word uh or the phrase
164by ensuring continuous step increases for all years including veteran teachers I like that say again and and where would you start um uh health coverage and preventing salary compression by ensuring continuous step increases for all years including veteran teachers that really being specific yeah no I think that's good by ensuring Contin did you say continuous continuous step increases for all years including veteran teachers including veteran teachers okay teers do get us sorry all right so I just want to read it back and then Vice chair Johnson Hustler so we it would say and preventing salary compression by ensuring continual step increases for all teachers including veteran teachers Vice chair Johnson hos so I'm trying to my computer's about to die so it's being very SL it's in addendum one so veteran teachers after step 24
165do get the increase so I think it's important to articulate the years that the steps are stagnant which my computer's slow but I think it's 15 to 24 but we can p I'm trying to pull it up it's in our addendum it tells us when the step stop or become stagnant so I had for all years not teachers but I mean we could play with that word but I I I felt that kind of left it open for it doesn't matter what year it is or what step they'll just continuously keep going so I I do think either would work either a more general or more specific just depending on you know the preferences around the table chair hay I think if we go with Miss caulfield's suggestion we just have to make sure that
166our our lobbying team has those exact years so that they can point to it specifically when they're asked what does this mean okay what do you all think about that we good do have to make a motion all right please I'd like to make a motion to make the amendment adding by ensuring continuous step increases for all years including veteran teachers all right is there a second second second by Miss rice all in favor of Miss caulfield's Amendment please signify by saying I I any opposed all right any other discussion of the leg ative agenda thank you on we've got uh now with the addition 19 items here and I know everyone's put a lot of work into this all right well if there's no further discussion then I will entertain a motion for adoption
167of the agenda sub sec I'm sorry who was the second okay uh motion by Vice chair Johnson Hustler second by Miss rice all in favor of adoption of the 2020 of the proposed 2024 short session legislative agenda please signify by saying I I I any opposed all right thank you and so now we are at the point in our program where I would entertain a motion to go into close sessions for the reasons stated in your assembly agenda so moved second I have a motion from Mr Swanson a second from Miss mfy all in favor of moving into Clos session does that include the item that you added because I don't know if that's an assembly I don't know how quickly assembly gets updated great question ah well all right so in order in order
168to um address the issue that Mr um Mone has brought up what I would do is I would entertain a motion to move into close session to consider confidential personal information protected under GS 143 31811 A6 and 115 c319 and consult with the Board of Education attorney and preserve attorney client privilege for legal advice as provided in general statute 143 31811 A3 and to consult with an attorney employee to retain by the board in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the board and the consult with and instruct board staff or negotiating agents concerning the position to be taken by or or on behalf of the board on the particulars of the acquisition of the real property interests of PH2 Stevenson Road thriftwood Drive Dairy down LAN Smith Road public infrastructure
169improvements related to the Felton Grove High School site and to receive the board's instructions as to the position to be taken on behalf of the board in negotiations in relation there to I see uh nodding is there motion so moved by Vice chair Johnson Hustler second by Miss Coffield all in favor of moving into Clos session for those stated reasons signify by saying I I any opposed all right thank you we are now in close question