001e all right welcome everyone today is Tuesday February the 20th and we have a special meeting today where we will be swearing in the newest member of the Wake County Board of Education representing District 4 Miss Toshiba rice [Applause] all right so to begin our formal ceremony I'd ask everyone who's able to rise and will recite the Pledge of Allegiance pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for allat all right wonderful well welcome everyone uh we do have an overflow crowd today but we are so excited to see all of these friends and family members and community members who've come out to support our newest member of the Board of Education I would love
002to be able to recognize everybody in the crowd I know I'm going to fail and miss someone but though it will be there there there are some folks that I do want to uh I do want to make sure um are recognized here we have a Statewide elected official the first africanamerican female to serve on North Carolina's Council of State our former chair of the Wake County Commission Miss Jessica Holmes and she knows I could have gone on and on with that introduction too uh we have our former board member who is the newest member of the Wake County County Commission Miss Tara Waters we have one of wake County's state senators Miss Lisa Senator Lisa grafstein I do so we have a former water and so Water and Soil Conservation District superviser down here
003Nirvana crew trying to hide and and then let's see we have of course our the the dean of our delegation make no mistake everyone in the room should know our senior senator state Senator Daniel T blue Jr former speaker of the North Carolina house as well coming back over on the other side we have our wonderful chair of our weight County Commission commissioner Sheneka Thomas and she is joined by other members of our County Commission commissioner Don mile and vice chair Susan Evans former School Board member as well y'all we've got a we've got a record to uh keep up here all right it's been hard to see everybody around I want to make sure that I'm not missing anybody do we have any other elected officials over there oh and we have our wonderful
004Wake County Register of Deeds Miss Tammy Bruner proud proud parent of a w recent wcpss graduate and of course walking in right now we have to recognize commissioner Cheryl Stallings Cheryl Stallings everyone I don't know that I've seen this many elected officials am m in one place since the president came to town so um I am not going to delay any longer at this point what I would like to do is I would like to welcome up if not the most important person here the second most important person here our wonderful Wake County District Court judge judge Ashley Parker Judge Parker for those of you who do not know is one of our wonderful district court judges I'm going to brag on her because she is also a law school classmate of mine Judge Parker
005a wonderful advocate in the community with kaanis with the local bar association uh president or vice president maybe both of our Law School alum Association is that is that right yes about President yeah you can tell who needs to get their check in um Judge Parker thank you so much we we really just love that you take the time out of your day to be part of our ceremony and to help us celebrate our new member coming in from uh District 4 thank you so much standing judge for appointments he does seem to be our standing judge for appointments as well if you need a swearing in call me no thank you Mr chair and um Mr Taylor and to the rest of the uh board it is an honor and a pleasure to be
006here um again I feel like I almost live here um but I love it here I love the opportunity to swear in uh new members and members who are reelected um and it is a deep pleasure and honor of mine to swear in my good sister uh tsha rice I'm going to give away a secret because we like to manifest things we truly believe that what God has for us he has for us but we have to speak those things into existence and when I was swearing in uh commissioner Waters uh someone came up up to me and said Ashley I'm thinking about pursuing this um I pray that this happens if it does happen will you swear me in and I immediately put this date in my calendar ready to go so when she
007text me and said Ashley I got it I said congratulations it was already on my calendar so this has been manifested for you we know that you would do amazing work as y'all see I'm on mommy duty which is job number one um but it's for these babies right here that's what it's for it's for all of our babies it's for all of the future and so I'm excited to have one more person join you all to continue the wonderful work of this board uh for our children so um Miss rice if you will please come with your son you going be right here and this all right if you please place your left hand on the Bible raise your right and anyone who can take photos videos feel free I say this is her
008wedding day you only get one first one so we're excited for this all right if you will please repeat after me I State your name I tashiba rice do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws the Constitution and laws of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and laws and the Constitution and laws of the state of North Carolina of the state of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith not inconsistent therewith and that I will Faithfully discharge and that I will Faithfully discharge my duties as a member my duties as a member of the Wake County Board of Education of the Wake County Board of educ congratulations and welcome to the W County [Applause] Bo apprciate [Applause] you I
009love you you want me to take my favorite book welcome Miss rice you are the floor is yours if you would like to make any opening comment otherwise I will direct people toward our wonderful reception after all right I will make it very quick nichas I you want to take this cuz I can keep it cuz it's been my shield that got me here all right thank you all so very much for attending today I am Overjoyed with the love in the room you let me know and I'm going to get to this cuz I can talk too long looking at all of you here today and your busy schedule I am beyond elated you're talking about love and demonstration it is amazing so let me get let me say this really quick uh dear
010chair um Hagerty Vice chair Johnson Hustler fellow board memb superintendent Taylor my amazing elected officials a esteem Educators dedicated parents and beloved students family and Community I stand before you today with profound gratitude and a steadfast commitment to the noble mission of the Wake County Public School System as the newly sworn in representative for the Wake District 4 I am deeply honored to embark on this journey alongside each and every one of you throughout my tenure as a passionate advocate for student achievement attend Equity family engagement and teacher compensation I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of Education it is not merely a pathway to success but a Beacon of Hope a catalyst for Change and a Cornerstone of our community in the pursuit of Excellence we must prioritize Equity ensuring that every student regardless
011of background or circumstance has access to the resources opportunity ities and support they need to thrive this means dismantling barriers challenging bias and fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is celebrated and embraced moreover we must recognize the pivotal role of family engagement in the educational journey by forging strong Partnerships between school family and communities we can create a network of support that empowers students to reach their full potential and cultivate a culture of collaboration and mutual respect let us continue to create an environment where parents are not afraid to speak up and share their values expertise and experience in supporting our children let our schools be a welcome place for all parents and a collaborate collaborative space to produce success at home and school Central to our mission is the valent efforts of our dedicated
012Educators they are the heart and soul of our schools shaping the minds of Future Leaders igniting the Flames of curiosity and installing a lifelong love of learning it is incumbent upon us not only recognizing their invaluable contribution but to also ensure that they are compensated fairly and equitably for their tireless dedication and unwavering commitment as we embark on this new chapter together let us re reaffirm our shared commitment to Excellence equity and opportunity for all let us seize this moment as an opportunity to inspire innovate and ignite a brighter future for every student in our care let me be clear to my Divine and practical Mission every student matters their voice matters their ideas matter their emotional well-being matters and it is the sole responsibility of why we are here today to train and develop
013healthy children who will live self-actualization this will produce a society of future adults that first understand self-care knowing how to healthily love themselves then ultimately their neighbor this is a success for life thank you for entrusting me with this privilege of serving our community together let us chart a course toward a brighter tomorrow where every child has the chance to soar to new heights and fulfill their dreams thank you so much and before I leave here I have to let it be known our seating arrangements got a little shifted but I do have to declare who really is the presence of the room of why I'm here and that is my mother Annie Jordan who has advocated for me when when I was here as a student whatever challenges that I have she's sitting in
014the third row back there and I am so gracious to her to my family to my family that I love so dearly that have always Stood Beside Me no matter what every Community person in here I can't even name you all look how you filled up the room my best friend I can't even do it because we'll be in trouble and everybody has to go I love you so much thank you very much all right all right thank you new board member rice we have a wonderful reception coming up we also have a lot of I don't know if you saw them coming in y'all adorable elementary school kids that are outside that are coming in to present to us tonight at 5:30 so what I'd like is take your pictures get your selfies give
015as much love as you can to our newest board member and then we have a reception a little some refreshments just out this way go out this way around the door it's just set up in the other room get yourself a little snack feel free to stick around and socialize we will need to take Miss rice away from you so that she can start her duties on our Board of Education when we start right at 5:35 so thank you so [Applause] much e do sign e soon nope wait there it goes all right everyone welcome we're calling this meeting to order it is Tuesday February 20th at 5:36 p.m. and we're calling the regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order want want to welcome everyone who's watching at home and those
016that have joined us here today Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying out the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited 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 really any comments during their speeches or any other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting may be subject to action in accordance with North Carolina General statute 143 31817 phew all right well for many of you welcome for many many of the rest of you welcome back as you know we had a very special meeting
017just ahead of this to welcome our newest Board member Miss Toshiba rice Miss rice was just sworn in as our newest board member representing District 4 and so now I can proudly say that while we had established a quorum of eight at the last meeting we now have a full Quorum of nine so welcome Miss rice uh also at our last meeting in addition to establishing the Quorum we have already said the Pledge of Allegiance and since we have some wonderful students here tonight I don't want to be redundant and slow our meeting down so we're going to jump right into it with comments by our district superintendent Dr Robert Taylor Dr Taylor thank you Mr chair uh the first thing I want to do is is welcome our newest board member uh Mr Sheba
018rice um I appreciate the words that you shared with us during your speech you talked about gratitude and commitment and that is absolutely what board members commit to each and every day uh you you share the transformative power of Education I can tell you as a as a citizen of this great nation that is a thing I most uh appreciative of is the transformative power in education that allowed me to do the things that I do uh the shared commitment to Excellence and Equity uh I know the board and I appreciate hearing those particular words because that is the work that we do and last but certainly not least uh your thoughts on the idea that every student matters and so that is why uh I know that each board member does this work and
019this is why uh I have committed my life as an educ ucat so thank you and welcome to the Wake County Board of Education uh just a few comments Mr chair uh I'm pleased to have the opportunity this evening to celebrate some of our amazing staff members starting with this year's winners of the Dian Kent Parker first year teacher award this award honors a group of outstanding first year teachers from elementary secondary and special education this year's winners are Payton Pew a second grade teacher at Forestville Road Elementary Anna Armstrong a music teacher at Windell Magnet Middle Essence Morgan a math teacher at night Dale High and Peter Wester a special education teacher at night Dale High it was my it was a pleasure to visit each of these winners at their schools to surprise
020them with their announcements it was fun being a part of the prize Patrol uh we are fortunate to have many excellent young teachers in our district who are already making an impact inside and outside the classroom they are an inspiration to their students and their peers it is critical that we continue to cultivate the next generation of teachers to ensure Student Success well into the future and so you saw that with some of the programs that were presented during our work session that will certainly go towards supporting our teachers continuously so again congratulations again to these outstanding firste teachers and my thanks to all of those who dedicate their professional lives to educating young people congratulations are also in order for 106 of White County Public Schools Employees who in December achiev national board certification
021uh considered the gold standard in teaching certification in addition 214 of our District's national board certified teachers renewed their certifications our district recognizes the value of national board certification and remains committed to supporting teachers at every step of the certification process from the initial candany through the maintenance of the certification process I commend these teachers for their commitment to staying at the Forefront of their profession uh see a full list of these newly certified recently uh renewed teachers on our website you can see those there uh last week we named the 20 semifinalist to the wck county public school teacher of the year uh these outstanding teachers held from schools all over Wake County and represent a true crosssection of our staff uh who and what these teacher who and what they teach differs but
022they share in common and unshakable commitment to their students and families each one has demonstrated effective teaching practices that allow all students to reach their full potential I will tell you that one of the most difficult things in Wake County is being able to select a teacher of the year because we do have so many it's a it's a very difficult job so these team tender finalists will be named in April with a a winter announced in May uh to be recognized as one of the 20 best teachers out of a field of over 11,000 is a major accomplishment in and of itself so again my congratulations and thanks to each one of these semi finalists and again you can find them on our Facebook page and finally February 15th with school resource officer appreciation
023day so I wanted to take a moment to thank all of our SRO for everything they do to keep our students and staff safe protecting the physical wellbeing of our students and employees is our top priority and our SOS Sr are essential Partners in that effort in addition to providing a security presence many sro's become integral and beloved parts of their school communities uh if you ever go out to a school you will see those interactions between students and SRO and I think is a a special interaction uh but you don't have to take my word for it we ask schools to share tributes to their school resource officers and we ref flooded with submissions for example the folks at saor Middle School said of officer Daniel their SRO you can find him giving out
024fist bumps talking about the latest can's game with students are coaching the basketball team he builds relationships with students in the cafeteria each day lends a hand to staff members and most importantly helps protect our campus you can find many more tributes like this on our Wake County Facebook page once again uh thanks to all the SRO for being true Partners in protecting our students I will say that sro's go long way in making sure we have a a wonderful relationship between students and Law Enforcement Officers so we appreciate all the work that they do uh Mr chair that incl concludes my comments all right thank you Dr Taylor I hope everyone had a wonderful president wonderful president day we are now Midway through a little bit beyond the Midway Point through Black History Month
025I know last at at our first our last meeting we had a wonderful uh student presentation on Black History Month and we have another wonderful one that'll be coming up very soon shortly and I know we're all excited to to see that um at our last meeting I took a moment to honor some of our pioneering firsts in Wake County among some of our our black leaders to serve on our school board and as superintendent since that time I'd been traveling around actually miss rice going to several schools in District 4 and hearing stories meeting with parents and we really do have a wonderful wonderful cultural history here in Wake County I got to to attend a wonderful program with many of my fellow board members at Oberland Middle School talking about the courageous Joe
026Hol and the work he and other Pioneers did fighting for integration of our school system um we have another wonderful program coming up at Washington ele it's an elementary school now but Washington's Centennial is coming up it was the first public African-American graded in high school in Wake County it was part of the Raleigh school system um and again there's so many historic schools that we have you've heard me from time to time talk about I went to Crosby Garfield for sixth grade and I joke about it because that was the last class after us they closed it down I'm not saying I was a part of that but but what I didn't know even at a student at Crosby was that Crosby Garfield was that the school opened in 1878 it had been um
027again one of the um one of the one of the first black high school and graded schools that we had had but more particularly even in like 1938 it was lauded as one of the most um I want to get the quote right they called it the most modern and upto-date Elementary School in the entire state of North Carolina it was a gem in Raleigh in the City of Raleigh and in Wake County um and we have many of these kind of I'll say overlooked or forgotten Treasures around the county where schools have been converted after the merger where they have a really rich history and tradition whether it was John Lian High School which is now ligan magnet you know Magnet Middle School um you know they're doing wonderful things at Carnage middle to
028celebrate the history of the school building a whole history wall there um and I just hope that we'll take the opportunity Beyond this month to continue to celebrate that history we have a section on our website I know there was some interest going back to our history where we would feature a lot of the historical buildings in Wake County the schools and their alums sadly there's a lot more left to do to get that work complete but hopefully some of the work that we've done in the past and this month will spur us to add some more of these schools to that list um again we have more programs throughout the rest of the month we're going to have a wonderful one coming up at Southeast Raley Magnet High school that many of us are
029looking forward to uh so please let everybody take an opportunity to celebrate enjoy Black History Month on another note I want to uh thank Mr Swanson actually for uh getting me an invite to the very exclusive Carrie junor Roc uh programs ball that they had it was wonderful Mr Swanson I got to not only meet the young and inspiring Cadets they were uh a wonderful cross-section of our community I got to talk to AP Barefoot and the program leaders and learned a lot more about the program than I had known even just in my interactions before I would love to go back I hope I get an opportunity to participate again and I wanted to thank you for having them extend me that invitation so thank you um finally and again I don't want to
030I don't want to like talk past the sale but we are so excited to welcome our newest member um Mr Sheba rice Miss rice was one of many incredible applicants we had several people from all over District 4 many brought different Visions different sets of qualifications and it was you know for all of them to get up and stand before us it took a lot of strength and a lot of courage and I want to express my appreciation to all of them however for Miss rice in particular welcome to the Wake County Board of Education we are excited you are here I know that District 4 is delighted to have a full-time District representative again and and um just as I said I was traveling around District 4 I didn't get to every school I
031only went to a few of them but for those that I did some of them had a little something for youing under I wanted to present you with just a few tokens from some of the our wonderful District Four schools um I see principal Williams you weren't there but I got stuff from bug in here too all right so let me share this these are just some of our schools and they all welcome you and I know you no no no Dr Taylor's getting ahead of me um and I know that as we go forward you will get an opportunity to visit all of your schools and start your own collection but because you're coming into the term halfway I wanted to give you a little jump start so there you go so um again
032welcome welcome board member rice we're excited to have you um and that concludes my remarks Vice chair Johnson Hustler thank you I'll be brief I see our families and our students um again welcome U board member rice to the board we look forward to our continued relationship in this new way so welcome welcome and we're glad to have you join us um I thank you to all of our schools who've invited me to their Black History Month programs I will only speak to one very briefly because I almost forgot about it many of you have not heard of Rosen wall school so that's why I'll just lift this one up um the rosenwall schools were started by John rosenwall who is the president CEO of Year's Road book along with uh many of our young
033people will be familiar with the name Booker T Washington to open schools for underfunded and lack of schools for African-American Community the beautiful tidbit that hopefully some of you already know is the architectural design was by one of the first renowned black architects who graduated from Tuskegee University so that's my black history fact for our young kids I always challenge my daughter to use a fact that you haven't heard 25 times um so his name was actually Robert R Taylor um from Tuskegee I know I know from Tuskegee Institute so that's my black history back for today and again welcome and thank you all for joining us all right so as you have seen many of our meetings you know that we do go around and offer board comment I would turn to you but
034I don't want to put you on the spot first but know that we're coming to you second okay Miss rise all right next I'll go to uh Mr Swanson you know I was liking class I was hoping if I didn't make eye contact I wouldn't get call on so I was trying to make sure I did not neglect any emails about events so thank you for that reminder Miss Johnson Hustler um and welcome Miss rice um as our ninth African-American board member uh since the merger of Wake County uh public schools in 1976 so I just want to share that tad bit of of little nuggets so I look forward to working with you and and standing with you as we push our district forward to new heights um my remarks will be brief um
035I had the opportunity of attending Adam's Elementary with area superintendent um Dr Sexton as we announced the new principal Miss Elwood um to take over Adam's ele and looking forward to the great things that um is it's going to happen there and thank you chair hegerty for filling in for me at Carrie High School I thought I could swing both but I realized I need to be a good student myself and do some grad school homework that had neglected um and could not make it to that event and so I think I start a new tradition because Miss mfy made it when she was the chair and so I think that may be the standing tradition uh for District 9 to make sure that we have great folks there to see the great things are
036happening um in our schools each and every day and so I um look forward as we celebrate Black History I think I said this last time I just want to reiterate this that um black history is American history and we we do not need a month to celebrate the greatness that we have achieved and that we're going to achieve and also understanding that a lot of these struggles um that we have overcome as a community was rooted in so it was rooted in so many great beautiful things and so black history is American history that should be celebrated 365 days and to our young folks here you do not have to wait your time wait in line or even wait to be tapped on to make your voice in your your voice heard you have
037the ability to do what you feel is best and to speak up and to speak out and as Congressman Lewis once said get into good and necessary trouble uh because there is a lot that is happening in our society that needs your voice and when you look throughout this civil rights history young people's voices were at the center of the conversation it was young folks who were putting their hands on the civil rights on the freedom plow pushing and shifting this nation and I would be remiss and I didn't not get to say it last week but the beginning of this month as we always kick off black history month is a great celebration for those of us that are agies because we celebrate the ent4 and the ent4 you may hear folks say the
038Greensboro 4 but when the ent4 were protesting at the civil rights movement or at the woodsworth the city of Greensboro did not want them there and so at ENT we've reframed that and always call them the an for because it was those four young men that sat down to change this nation for the better and those four young men was jabril kasan uh better also known as elel Blair uh David Richmond uh Joseph mcneel and uh um Mr Franklin mcneel uh McNair excuse me those are the four men that that then inspired the young students to form what is now the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Shaw University um which is the home of every HBCU in this nation as we often refer to as mother Shaw because North Carolina an was founded in the
039basement and every other president that has uh uh represented or was a pres president Chancellor of these institutions all came from shawl University um so those histories is is there and and so I just want to pay homage to those young men that later started the Civil Rights Movement and so we saw those actions take off across the South um and that was also could not have been done without the ladies of Ben atent that ALS o help C- plan and that information is not often shared because during that time the Sittin planning could not happen on ant's campus but benett uh College opened the door and allowed those folks to come on and that's the only institution that allowed Dr King to come on campus Because contrary to the greatness that was happening nor
040CL did not want him on that campus to cause trouble so sha uh St um Bennett College thank you open up their door and let him speak at that chapel and so that's just the the history of our HBCU and it's it's also very important that you know we lift up the history and the struggles that are at at our HBCU including what's happening at charl University and at at St Augustine um and I think that's just a deeper conversation to talk about the lack of funding that we have not seen in our K12 institutions that's also playing out at our historically black colleges and universities so North Carolina has the most HBCU in any other state um we have 10 currently none of them is open uh because Barbara Scotia is is currently closed
041with that history there um which is great deep history because Mary mcla bethon also matriculated through that institution so I will stop my black history moments but I would also uh encourage you all to keep looking and keep digging and making the history that you want to be in your communities thank you Mr Swanson we'll go to miss rice well I don't think I have a quite detailed history as Mr Swanson um but I will celebrate and say thank you everyone for coming out tonight um chair Hagerty um I just do want to say just a just a very few things um Mr Swanson mentioned that I'm the ninth African-American person to sit on the Wake County Public School Board so I'm also a faith person so that's some fruitfulness so you should be looking
042for some fruit for me and the work that we do in this community right and so I do want to celebrate being this uh board member right now because guess what I literally get to represent in this capacity my Elementary School bug my middle school Carnage my high school bra I'm sorry in low first in low first let me get in low first but guess what's most special my ninth grade principal Mr Allan is here right so isn't that amazing that is amazing and I'm so excited that he still remembered me not cuz I was a good girl um and then ending it on out at BR and Mr Hershey so I'm a capping the end of a thing but it was them them them them uh en low Eagles right that that got it
043and so many of those folks came out tonight and so um one of the things that you may hear me say um just in my comments cuz I'm going to be very brief and I'm always going to talk about wellness and well-being because that is the vein in which I operate professionally and what I live I like to say I live by my brand right and so every time you I come around this table I'm going to talk about an eight dimension of wellness and tonight's Wellness Dimension is occupational wellness and so I want to encourage all of us who have occupations tonight to make sure and all of our staff that we serve make sure you take at least 60 seconds of your day every day to breathe just relax and forget about everything
044else you have to do and just focus on you because you matter and you are amazing and we are here to make sure that you have the best occupational life possible here at Wake County Public Schools so that's it for me just a little tip about wellness and self-care guys all right thank you Miss rice Miss Coffield thank you I don't know if this is it on um okay well this is on a different note I would say um this week district one um we have some uh Heavy Hearts over in district one with and along with our neighboring uh community in Youngsville and my hearts and prayers go out to all those family and students um that are out there and I hope that they can find a way to navigate through all of
045that um unfortunately we're continuously reminded of the important work that is going to surround mental health substant AB abuse and the dangers around drugs alcohol vaping um so I'm looking forward to more conversations and some of the changes that we have as a result of our Jewel settlement that'll allow us to bring um resources and hopefully some better Wellness to our families and students and our staff we need to keep the conversations going and frequently I hope we can continue to do more at a state level county level and town level as well collaborate with everyone on a lighter note once again I was blown away by our heritage huskys the incredible Talent at Heritage High School they did The Adams Family now I don't want to date myself but I did grow up watching
046The Adams Family so it was really awesome to not only see that they brought some uh adult humor in there to keep us all involved um it was a little sad at the end though because I watched the last show and I realized that all of these seniors that were announcing where they were off to and what they were doing um I've watched them all grow since they were in kindergarten and here they are in their senior year going off to explore it in all different ways everybody had something different up on stage to say where they were going but um it was a little Bittersweet a little sad for me to to to know that I'm not going to see them anymore but also to see the giant Smiles on that stage I mean
047just the collaboration from the the choreography the stage the tech people behind stage and all of the teamwork that comes together to do such an amazing show and when I say amazing I mean it I mean it is like Broadway the kids are ridiculously talented so just kudos to all the people involved and and how they put all that together it was an amazing show I want to mention uh read Across America is coming up from March 4th to March 8th it's a nationwide event it highlights and encourages students to have fun with reading um you do not just have to be a parent in order to come and help out in your community so I think sometimes people um oftentimes I I hear well I don't have students in school anymore but you have
048more time if you're retired you can come down and help the students they all appreciate it the teachers appreciate it and you will definitely have loads of funds with these with the students so you don't have to be a parent just call up your local school and ask them what the volunteer um opportunities are and they'll tell you how to sign up and as a volunteer um there are several programs that we do have and I'm sure they'll be highlighted as they come across read to achieve wake up and read um along with this read Across America but I'm just saying that one because I know that it's coming up soon you could also donate books not just your time um to help the teachers and the students and um want to also mention our
049next board advisory committee is February 26 we'll be sending out questionnaire to collaborate with our families and have some open discussion and last I want to welcome Miss rice and I'm excited to have you as our new neighbor all right thank you Miss carfield we'll come back around this way um Miss mafy thank you I just want to say welcome to miss rice and I'm going to end my comments there because I'm very excited to hear from our students thank you Miss mfy Miss Edmonds thank you welcome Miss rice so I view this as an Ascension you've been doing this work a long time and now you just are doing it in a different capacity with a little higher profile so welcome uh since our last meeting I've been to several schools Yates Mill Elementary
050welcome made there um to learn about their school Improvement plan going to their quarterly review I got to read to kindergarteners at Washington Elementary and ab coms and thank you coms for inviting me to participate in my first clap out student leaders at coms recognize the helpers in our community by hosting a breakfast and clap out for local law enforcement and First Responders they had members of the Raleigh Police Department fire department the Wake County Sheriff's Office Capitol Police members of members of Raleigh's Acorn team which I love this team it's a small team of social workers that act as First Responders or with First Responders to those experiencing a mental health crisis in the City of Raleigh so it was a great event and I was honored to participate um like uh chair Hagerty
051said uh several of us went to the oberin magnet middle tril Bladers event um Who and the guest uh one of the guests of honor was U Mr Joe Joe Holt if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak he's so compelling and so engaging I highly recommend it um he is a a champion for sure in our community and worth your time tomorrow night I'm going to be at Penny Road Elementary for their PTA meeting I very much appreciate them reaching out to invite me to the PTA meeting and I welcome those invitations from any of the PTA in my district last week um I attended the Sha meeting as the board liaison and we heard a presentation from be smart be smart is a gun violence prevention program that aims to teach
052adults about safe storage and preventing children from Gaining access to unsecured guns I know that some of us have had them at their at our BAC meetings and we heard from them as a board last year and I hope that we can support them as they seek to do more presentations and get in front of more of our ptas this year you can learn more at bmart forkids.org this Thursday there is a day of action outside the North Carolina Supreme Court calling on them to uphold the Leandro ruling issued in November of 2022 many State dollars are owed to school districts across the state and there is much more concern that the court May throw the case out so there's a day of action on Thursday um if you're available to attend it's open to
053all you can learn more at everychild inc.org and get all the details about where to go when Etc uh my District 5 BAC meeting will be on Monday March 4th at 5:30 pm at Washington Elementary and my final comment is I hope you notice that I am wearing my I voted early sticker today I was there at 8 o'clock this morning I encourage you to all go um vote early voting is going on now through March 2nd and there's a lot of very um consequential elections uh in the primary do your homework go vote you can learn more at NC voter.org thanks thank you Miss edmans Dr Ring well welcome Miss rice I'm looking forward to working with you and I was very encouraged to see the faith community coming out to uh celebrate with
054you um so two weeks ago I had the honor of speaking uh to some students at Durant Road Middle School um I first want to thank uh principal Faircloth and Mrs uh Tracy leam the career development coordinator for inviting me to speak at their academic breakfast uh which was to honor all the students who had achieved honors honoro or principal list on the report cards for the quarter so when I got to the cafeteria I was really happy to see the room was filled up with students and there were still students coming in um they were so excited to get their donut but you know um but they were also you know just celebrating um with each other you know the excitement of of of that more that moment um so I had a chance
055to tell all the children what I do for a living and the road I had to take to get there um for me it was you know tackling learning the English language and um when I came over uh to United States at 9: and then being blessed with a series of wonderful Public School teachers uh in middle school and high school who um believed in me and helped me to excel um I told the children how I got I first got interested in the field of medicine um which happened to involve an allergic reaction to Diet Coke and then all the years of sacrifice to become a doctor so I told them that they were going in the right direction by working hard in school and doing their best um after I finished the students
056had a chance to ask some very good questions one of them was do you perform brain surgery and he like no I don't um but I do take care of people who who have had brain surgeries um but you know they were very intrigued by what I did um and the last two weeks I also had a chance to visit baileywick Road Elementary uh West milbrook Middle and East mil Brook Middle Schools and I had a uh I asked each of the principals to show me what they were most proud of and you know they show me around the campus show me you know some of the kind of the fancy stuff but you know what they were most proud of were their teachers and the students they were bragging on them and uh I
057want to thank principal Greg at baileywick and U principal Aman at West milbrook Middle for taking the time out to show me around um but I I want to express a special thanks to principal Marson at East mbrook Middle School um because I he allowed me to tag along on Valentine's Day to see him in action um I got to see him first you doing the fist bumps with all the kids in the hallway and then um when um I tagged along and was able to witness how he skillfully handled a difficult classroom situation um so I can see that he really truly cared for the kids and the kids really responded to it so I really came away with a much greater appreciation of the important work the of the principal um our next
058uh District 3 BAC meeting will be on uh this coming Monday February 26 at 5:30 p.m. at AB Creek Elementary School um we plan to have um Glenn Caruso and um Susan pum from the office of student Affair Student Assignment to uh talk about the topic of student assignment and what goes into the decision to cap and uncap the school um and I wish to extend an invitation to everyone in the community uh to come and learn about the process thank you all right before Mr Hershey before he begins I just take a quick moment Personal Privilege Miss mfy had warned me several times that as chair it really is a very demanding job there a lot of Demands on your time a lot of stress and so eight days ago we were in the
059process of trying to determine who our district our district four representative would be we had seven uh potential candidates at at that point and so I'd made it a point I wanted to go and grab some of those items for whoever was going to be selected and I knew I couldn't get to all of the district four schools but there were some that I really really wanted to get to and we still had to get here we had to conduct the interviews there were things to be set up and in my haste I accidentally strayed beyond the boundaries of District 4 into Mr Hershey's district and so Mr Hershey you also have a gift from some of our wonderful principles oh oh he can got it was actually from mors Square the principal was very
060very gracious and she wanted to go ahead with it anyway um as a special token of gratitude for your service so Mr Hershey take it away is it's actually perfect because I was going to say I need you to go to my schools and get me swag Miss rice congratulations well earned um to the other candidates you know it's it's it was incredibly difficult process you have one opportunity which is much different from a campaign and you've got to answer questions so I just hats off to you but also to the other candidates that were here it is it's incredibly impressive to just put yourself out there um I will now be very quick because I want to get to our students as well uh as you finished at Bron I went to the queen
061of hearts at Bren which I I don't even know how to explain it it is it is over 80 years old it is fascinating and it does highlight as many as all these events that we list that I'm listing our students are so talented so much more than some test score on a given day it is remarkable um I was a little disappointed that our vice chair did not mention that I'm going to did not mention our uh Sanderson High School is Black History Month celebration um I don't know what I'm allowed to say but uh uh the vice chair's husband was performing and his shirt was special and I hope he brings it forth um to to display yes yes uh one thing that came up at this um wonderful event that Sanderson hosts
062every year and they do a terrific job is how do we get these Role Models these students these performances in front of our middle school kids that was my thought when I was at Sanderson is we have Carol middle school students that would benefit from seeing seeing these uh brilliant talented young men and women who are clearly Role Models um and to help get that buyin into the different schools so I don't know how we do that but that's something that I would I would love to do I know it's been spoken about by two of my my colleagues already but Oberland Middle School uh was uh an amazing uh oberin's Trailblazers first in the school integration fire um I won't say anything more about it other than Dr Taylor you have an outstanding principal
063at Overland Middle School who came up with this and put this together and uh I didn't ask to speak on her behalf but she was I mean I was as I was emotional watching it she was there was a great sense of Pride and she she just really did a tremendous job with this presentation which led me to think how do we get more of these events these these wonderful I I don't even know how to describe it it was emotional it was educational we've got to have a way to highlight these on our site on some site not just across YouTube but if we're going to level up and we've got all of these terrific events that we're going to we've got to make them more accessible to people so I can see them
064so my my co so people in the audience so when we bring them up they can go back and say man we this conversation at Overland I want to go see it and so how do we highlight that and I would actually ask that we prioritize uh a story I'm sure we will anyways on our our main website that talks about the events of this month and and has links to a number of the presentations that were done uh so people can access them um two other quick items uh my BAC meeting for district 6 will be next Monday at Martin Middle School from 12:00 to 1 uh facilities will be presenting um also tomorrow after facilities committee meeting um I will be at the Bron PTA meeting for however long that is um and
065now I'm greatly looking forward to what everyone really came for which is not to hear me all right well thank you Mr Hershey so with that introduction we will now turn to a special information item that we have tonight I'd like to introduce uh my friend Dr Janine Perry Campbell oh got to approve the meeting agenda to approve the meeting agenda second all right um we have a motion to approve the meeting agenda um that now I remember why I wanted to go ahead and do the information items even though I couldn't um but I know we also had an a member had a motion to amend the committee agenda yes um I would like to pull the um con consent agenda to act um uh to the action agenda the whole consent agenda sorry
066I'm sorry the the grant proposals within the under Chief of Staff so this would be under chief of staff Grant proposals the it getss better project Grant would move from consent to action to the same action item where we're already considering another Grant is that clear does everyone follow that all right is there a second for the motion second all right there is a motion uh from Dr in a second from Miss Coffield to pull the iits better project Grant from the consent agenda and to place it on action with the other Grant proposal that we're considering all in favor of the motion say I I any opposed say nay nay all right uh we'll do a roll call uh Mr Hershey uh Dr ining Nay I'm sorry I okay so so this just to
067make make sure we're clear this is Dr ing's motion to amend the agenda to pull this item going to action tonight to take it to action tonight all right so this was taking the item off the consent agenda and putting on on action for tonight are there any questions about the the motion all right I want to make sure everyone knows what they're voting for all right by because there was there was not a clear voter result we're taking the vote again by roll call we're starting with Mr Hershey Dr in hi Miss Edmonds nay Miss mahath nay um chairl vote I Vice chair Johnson Osler nay Mr Swanson no Miss Coffield I and um Miss rice nay all right I will leave that to Miss Allen how did that come out with five NOS
068to Four Eyes the motion fails so it will stay on the consent agenda all right so the motion to amend amend has failed now we are voting on The consent agenda sorry no we're voting on the agenda to adopt the agenda not any particular item on the agenda just to go forward with the agenda as it was originally laid out so moved motion for Mr Swanson second second from Vice chair Johnson Hustler all in favor of adopting the uh current committee agenda please signify by saying I I any opposed all right we now have a cons now we have a agenda it has been sent and the very first and most anticipated item on the agenda is now Dr JPC Janine Perry Campbell who is our director for student and educator engagement Dr Perry Campbell
069please take it away thank you very much good evening chairman Hagerty Vice chair Johnson holster board members Dr Taylor and our leaders as Mr Hagerty said I'm Dr Dr Janine Perry Campbell director for student and educator engagement in the office of equity Affairs again I am so honored to be before you tonight as we culminate our Black History Month Marcus Garvey once said a person without knowledge of their Roots is like a tree well I'm sorry a person without the knowledge of their past history is like a tree without roots throughout our district many schools have created Brave spaces and belonging for their black students by deepening their understanding of their roots and allowing them to Center their voices through their Black History Month celebrations and recognitions these recognitions have not only empowered our black
070students but they have empowered all and every student in Wake County Public Schools because as Mr Swanson said black history is American history it is also world history this year the black history theme is African-Americans in the art we're so elated because the office of equity Affairs will be hosting our African-American in the Arts D to dream program this Thursday at 6:30 at Southeast Raleigh what we're most excited about is we have over 2 Wake County Public School students who will be performing through step dance song and some special things that we want you to come excuse me come and see so we hope you will join us and wear your K stoves that you were received at the last meeting now before we get to our little ones we would like to share a
071video with you showcasing the amazing things that have occurred in our district this month and if you look closely you may see some of your [Music] colleagues [Music] e [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] thank you very much now I have the honor of introducing Mr Adrien Rogers a singer at Heritage Middle School we have Khloe and Kyle Clark students at dard Drive Magnet Elementary School Ava Anderson McKai Williams Jamari May students at bug Magnet Elementary Center and Mason Wright a student at Hunter Magnet Elementary School come on up guys he's like I'm at high school Heritage High even though we Face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream is a dream deeply rooted in American's dream the hill we climb if only we dare is because
072being am is because being American is more than a pride we inherit it's the path we step into and how we repair it I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out of the true meanings of its Creed we uphold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal so let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with every breath for my bronze pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wound front I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia and the sons of the former slaves and the sons of the former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table Hood the table of Brotherhood I have a dream we
073arise from the gold Lim Hills of the West we ar when the wind left Northeast where our forefathers first realized Revolution we will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states we will rise from the sunbit south we rebuild reconcile and recover and every no Nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and Beautiful Will emerge battered and beautiful when day comes we step out of their shade a flame and unafraid the new blooms as we free it for there is always light yes yes yes yes yes Round of Applause we're not done yet y'all yeah I didn't think so when day comes we step out of the shade a flame and unafraid the new dawn blooms as we free it for there is always light if only
074we're brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to see it if only we brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to see it if only we are brave enough to see it and we believe Wake County Public School System is brave enough to be it thank you great job great that we [Applause] get you all okay thank you Dr Perry Campbell we'll take just a quick moment to transition let our students get home uh prepared for school tomorrow and likewise let our staff get a jump on their day as well oh I love it that's what I wanted yeah I got you really told you sh she put build that's right he Ain going yeah but you know he ain't going all right thank you Miss L all right
075all right then if we are ready to resume our agenda thank you everyone our next item on the agenda is that we have a second information item uh wake together update and I understand uh Dr sheno Mo Lawrence will open and introduce this item good evening Dr morl good evening we'll start by what just came but we will do our best testing testing testing one two testing one two testing right awesome thank you good evening board chair Hagerty superintendent Taylor and board members my name is Dr shenica Mor Lawrence and I'm the senior director of K12 academic advancement I and my colleagues who will introduce themselves as a step to the podium are excited to be with you tonight to celebrate wake together a district and Community literacy focused partnership that has demonstrated a positive
076impact on literacy outcomes for participating students not only do we celebrate the literacy gains of those students but we also celebrate the success of the collaboration with our Community Partners and volunteers and are eager to launch a call for volunteers this evening during our time with you we know wake together is an initiative that will assist with the goal of ensuring that all wcpss students are reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade we recently did a detail presentation during the student achievement committee meeting and so this will be focused more on celebrating and launching our call for volunteers next slide please Advance please please oh here we go thank you we are confident that the work of weight together is align with our strategic plan party one its goals and
077its aims focused on enhancing graduation proficiency and growth outcomes for all students and on improving the life prospects of all Learners eliminating barriers to Opportunities and moving our students toward a more Equitable future furthermore we are confident that the work of weight together is aligned with our strategic plan priority two it's goals and its aims focused on providing learning environments and programming that support not only our students academic success but also their well-being attendance and confidence in their Limitless potential you may be asking yourself who are these Community Partners that have joined wcpss to accelerate learning outcome comes for our students as you can see from this visual we have an extensive partner roster including wake Ed partnership the YMCA helping education wake up and read communities in school the Daniel Center C City of
078Raleigh read and feed and the boys and girls club we are pleased that this evening you will get to hear directly from one of our partners leaders Keith Poston president of wake Ed partnership while our current Partnerships are extensive we are always seeking ways to expand our reach and to get others at the table for this collaborative work the work and impact of weight together is strengthened by our utilization of helping early literacy with practice strategies also known as helps currently in wcpss the helps model features both one-on-one and small group instructor for elementary age students delivered by volunteers and Educators trained in the helps curriculum can you imagine the power this literacy work has across our district via teachers interventionists instructional assistants volunteers and even within Community organizations thank you during the 2022 2023
079school year weight together was launched in 25 schools and during the 23 24 school year our goal is 62 schools recently we had a meeting with principles eager to learn more about weight together and based on initial responses we are anticipating our parti participation numbers to Skyrocket in the next few weeks on the next few slides you will note that the literacy support inclusive of training and coaching from helping education is provided for both volunteers and School staff and is rooted in the use of an evidence-based reading fluency model this slide also captures that volunteers recruited and placed in conjunction with wake Ed partnership deliver the helps curriculum one to two hours per week with students one to one here I'll add that school staff utilizing the helps curriculum are utilizing it as a small
080group intervention at this time I'm going to turn over to Mrs Becky foot who is the senior administrator for enrichment and Community involvement Becky thank you Dr Mo Lawrence and good evening everyone it's a pleasure to be here it really has been um a a highlight of my career to be involved with this program wake together and now I have the opportunity to share data with you about the impact of this initiative on the literacy growth of our student students in our inaugural year which was 20 2022 203 as you can see over a thousand students were served in Wake together last year they received small group support one-on-one support or both models using the evidence-based program helps that Dr Mo Lawrence described it's also exciting to share that we serve students who were identified
081as below Benchmark in oral reading fluency at the at the middle of the year and made tremendous gains as we progressed through the year and used our mclass oral reading fluency measure to measure their success it was not unexpected that these students were largely African-American or Black Or Hispanic and Latino at midye when we measured student proficiency we use the oral reading fluency as I said and by the end of the year the percent of students make sure I've got the right one the percent of students who met benchmarks um grew significantly when the students were served using the helps evidence-based program and our partnership which we call wake together in fact they outperformed all students in grades 2 through five by a large margin I ask that you look at the slope of the
082colored lines in the slides the growth is notable with students served in small groups increasing from 13.1% proficient proficient at midyear to 36.9% proficient by the end of the year you can also see the growth of our students who were served in the 1:1 model from 12 .7 to 38.6% proficient and an even slightly greater growth for students who were served using both programs it really is remarkable that the students across subgroups made significant gains regardless of whether students received helps in small groups oneon-one or both the the percent of students meet proficiency benchmarks clearly climbed in my mind this is indicative of the fact that that evidence-based programs work when they're implemented with Fidelity and are aligned with student need we know what to do the research tells us that and in this program
083we did it we are taking the time to collect data and measure our impact on Student Success it is now now my pleasure to introduce one of our esteemed principles Miss Beverly Smith from Smith Magnet Elementary School Miss Smith is a strategic leader who has embraced this support for her students and who creates a culture of collaboration and student advocacy thank you thank you Becky to our board chair Mr hag hegerty to our um Vice chair Monica Johnson Hoff our area our superintendent and other leaders thank you for having me I'm excited to be here this evening I'm excited to talk with you a little bit about the power of and appreciation of the volunteers and staff that are facilitating the helps program at Smith Magnet Elementary while I'll be giving you a few numbers
084and some data shortly in addition to what Becky has already shared with you to support student academic achievement and success it is the volunteers and the staff that are making a daily impact at the school we are seeing great gains in student accuracy rates growth in fluency and accelerated growth rates in The Help small group program we are seeing the greatest gains okay um before break and mid your data we had 15 students involved in the help small groups and as many students and many as many students need a review or ret teaching on decoding skills 47% of the students met their goal for Accelerated growth and oral reading fluency however 87% met their goal for Accelerated growth in oral reading accuracy even students who did not meet the fluency goal made at least 20
085words or more worth of gain in their overall fluency rate and will continue to grow with more time in the program accuracy remains a skill in important to develop even before automaticity so our teachers could not be more pleased with these results all of these students came as Becky said from our nest subgroups in mid December we actually had three third through fifth grade teachers one interventionist one instructional assistant and one one NC edore tutor also trained they now have begun serving an additional 40 students in need fast forward a little bit currently we have 11 trained staff and volunteers two of which are our NC edore instructional support staff and we have four one-on-one volunteers even after starting placement tests and then analyzing midyear mclass data 10 students were moved onto comprehension interventions due
086to meeting mclass benchmarks m year and also consistently meeting the help's target even in the 3 weeks of sessions they had hopefully you can see the human impact and response to implementing this program it is something to celebrate at Smith Magnet Elementary School teachers instructional assistants and volunteers alike complement the ease with which the program is implemented and supported and speak frequently about the prog ress of their students the coaching materials and access to data after every session maximizes the impact we have for students with little to no preparation or burden the daily interaction with students on their progress and reviewing the graph also allows them to buy into the program enjoy it and celebrate their achievements on a much more frequent basis this allows our students students as I mentioned in the neediest subgroups
087to experience success and even if not meeting the exact above average growth goal they are experien significant growth in Positive Directions in conclusion we have learned the importance of matching this intervention with the right students the right staff at the right time in their school day to maximize success we look forward to continuing this work and sharing our story with others we too are committed to Excellence and equity and we are thriving in our Hive thank you thank you principal thanks Beverly hello everybody chairman haggy they all told me I only had two minutes and you know how that is all right but I but first of all welcome this rice congratulations on if if the people the company you keep say something about you you had some of the best people in Wake County
088here tonight with you so uh congratulations um I'm Keith Poston for you don't know me that well yet but I'm president of wake head partnership is the best organization in Wake County because all we do is support the Wake County Public Schools and teachers and students and families of Wake County so I mean you know who's who's got it better than us right is um but part of how we do that is through our programs we have programs like Partners Reed we got summer stem we got career accelerator and everybody up here's program Tools for Schools we were jam-packed today it was a teachers work day so we were slamming Miss rice will have to get you out there volunteering and bring Tyler and and chairman Hagerty out there and come help them see these
089teachers get all those school supplies they need but I'm here today to talk about wake together um it's an effort we've been engaged with since its Inception but just in the last few months we've taken on a different role to really do two things to help recruit community-based organizations to be part of it and the other is to recruit more volunteers the first is the community- based organizations our goal here is to Target groups that are already serving students so it's either in after school settings or in summer programs and they we'll do that then train the staff and the volunteers at those programs in this exact same curriculum that's being deployed in the Wake County Public Schools and so by doing that we can effectively reach uh more students where they are and also
090us do it the same way that it's being done in the schools and one of the best parts about it because this is something we tried to do with some of our other programs we're going to be able to track the progress and the data offsite at these programs feed it back into Wake County Public School System so the teachers and the parents and the schools can track that progress and the students can celebrate how they're doing so even if no matter what the gains are even if it's in the summertime it'll be part of that student's record we've got three programs there were a couple that were mentioned at the beginning that are officially now part of that the Daniel Center um some of youall know Kirby Jones uh the reading feed program and
091communities and schools so those are the first three that are getting trained to start deploying this with their students the second part is y'all we need some more volunteers if we're going to keep doing this it is not a big lift but the reward is amazing once someone expresses an interest in volunteering it's a 4-Hour training that's it it's a very it is a very easy program to learn and then based on their schedules and preferences we then Place those volunteers into the schools to work directly and we're asking for volunteers to give one to two hours a week I mean it's not a lot but the number of students that can be reached during that period of time are amazing and I just want to wrap up by just reiterating what Becky detailed folks
092this program works I mean I have worked in a lot of programs in education the last 10 years to see some of the most struggling readers the most challenging students that we have that are dealing with the with with reading issues reading at 12 to 133% of where they should be in terms of how many are meeting Benchmark in six months being 40% of them meeting it you don't find that other places and so and to see the biggest gains in in our black and Latino students which again historically the most marginalized in the biggest achievement Gap so I would just say just to to help us find more volunteers we're going to be talking to you we're going to be talking to our business Community to try to get some of their employees involved
093in a more broadscale thing but um I'm excited about it I think it's a wonder program and I love the progress that we're making so going to bring it back to you to finish up Shen thank you thank you so much Keith we appreciate the great outstanding partnership that you have with us as we pursue this districtwide literacy campaign do want to highlight that in 2023 wake together received a paay Setter award from this organization and the payet award application noted that our community collaboration our evidence-based practices and our culture of continuous Improvement was evident in this initiative we are anticipating more organizations and volunteers to heed the call that we are making today as we highlight aspects of our district work in the area of literacy and Community engagement we definitely want to do
094a quick plug for wake up and read where we are supported by a coalition of Community Partners our children's book drive is continuing through February 29th please consider donating new or Gently Used Books providing a monetary donation to purchase new books and or volunteering in various capacities to make the drive happen and we thank you in advance for that in closing we hope that we've shared this evening something that illustrates that our district schools and Community have been committed to sustaining work like wake together beyond the pandemic we will continue to enhance all aspects of our infrastructure via programming Financial investment allotment of human resources and more to demonstrate that we are devoted to expanding this work to reach more Schools students volunteers and partners thank you so much for allowing this time this evening
095back to you Mr chair thank you Dr Mor Laurence we really appreciate it we know that was a hard act to follow but this was also a wonderful presentation so thank you so much thank you we appreciate you all right thank you everybody uh now we'll move into the public comment portion of our meeting speakers commenting on items on tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be heard in order of sign up only the person speaking at the podium will be able to stand again all attendees that are not speaking are to remain seated if you have to leave the room also remember the building is closed it's after hours so please do not remain in the building building as only this room is open to the
096public after hours if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy says we have the right to reserve the uh the end of the meeting to we can conduct other board business before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directive at the substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members laws and policies of North Carolina provide the issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individual students matters however are confidential and therefore those are not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern concerns related to specific Personnel issues or specific student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other
097applicable policies in the interest of maintaining Civility and Quorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and must refrain from from personal attacks and insults directed to the board individual board members staff and members of the general public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to our board attorney Mr Rod Malone down here at the end of the table and either you can you can provide those either before your comments or after your comments during public comment you may speak to up to three minutes note that the microphones are adjustable we are experiencing some technical difficulties so we will like have to be keeping time manually so Mr Malone the aforementioned Mr Malone at the end
098of the table will give you a signal both when you have um 30 seconds remaining and then a signal when your time has expired when you see Mr Malone signal you please conclude your comment when your time is up another speaker will be called to the podium please do not pretend not to see Mr Malone because I will see Mr Malone and we will still call the next speaker up to the podium speakers are asked to respect the time limit and to speak for no more than three minutes and again you may always choose to speak for less time I always say that no one ever does so um thank you all for coming out we will go to the uh speakers who are first speaking to items on the agenda and our first Speaker
099tonight is Teresa Jones who will be followed by Renee CLE Miss Jones welcome good evening electric personality no I'm here tonight to ask you to support grants that will allow students or to allow schools to apply for funds for diverse books I have been here several times in the last year or so uh talking about the importance of representation in books and my favorite quote from rudine Sims Bishop about mirrors windows and sliding glass doors it is not only critical that students have access to books that reflect their experience but books that give them insight into the lives and stories that are different from their own in order to provide our children with the education to be successful productive citizens we need diverse books in our schools books that represent and celebrate the wonderful diversity
100of our community during February we celebrate Black History Month but black history is American history and should be written seamlessly into our curriculum including the painful Parts the parts that makes make us all pause and think critically about the history of our nation and the complicity of white privilege this is the only way to heal and move forward and diverse books can play an important part in this process I can distinctly remember many years ago volunteering in my child's classroom in elementary school when they were reading the Watson's Go to Birmingham this is what Dr Bishop would call a window book A book that provides the reader with a look into the lives and the worlds of people people who are different from them window books expose children and all of us to new experiences
101ideas interests perspectives and ways of thinking about and doing things window books Provide support building connections and understanding and can help break down stereotypes biases and prejudices yes it was very uncomfortable for me but that was me looking through the lens of a 45-year-old woman with white guilt the kids that were reading the book however only had empathy for the characters and curiosity about the history our kids also need books need diverse books that are current as wonderful as the Watson's Go to Birmingham is it was written in 1963 all students also deserve to see themselves represented not just in the difficult history but en Joy accomplishments and everyday struggles and celebrations this is how we build understanding and empathy in our culture and prepare our children to be collaborative and engaged World citizens thank
102you the next speaker is Miss Renee sule after miss seckle that will conclude the speakers we have speaking on agenda so then we will go to the speakers who are speaking off agenda and the first person on that list will be Joseph Deon all right good evening mle good evening um welcome M rice it's nice to have you on the board um I have spoken here many many times about how strongly I feel that our schools need diverse books so that every child can see themselves reflected joyfully and in their entire Humanity in school book so I'm not going to belor that point today I'd really like to talk about and forgive me it's going to be rough how important it is for children who are not of a marginalized Community to see students who
103are marginalized in books books in the curriculum everywhere so that they can be aware of the diversity of human experience and what's out there if we have had if we had so many books and if such books weren't under such deep attack then maybe a precious 16-year-old non-binary child who was beaten brutally to death in a bathroom in Oklahoma at her school would be alive today at their school good gravy sorry would be alive today these are matters of life and death we cannot continue a away the way that we have been going in this school system and in this country with people coming in and deciding and not you all but people coming in and demanding that certain children be told they're less than that they no longer belong in school that there's something
104inherently wrong with them on that note I'd like to provide a little bit of information and Mr milone I'll hand this to you in a minute but I can only manage to make one copy uh about what lies behind these attacks on students and attacks on schools because as you are all more than well aware it started just a couple of years ago with people coming in and demanding that we stop teaching CRT in our schools well these attacks are coming from somewhere they're coming from right-wing extremist influencers I I hesitate to call them intellectuals though they do work at places like the Claremont Institute um one of them Mr Dr Scott yor of the Claremont Institute was recently his his emails came out and were printed in the New York Times and he has
105a lot to say and I think it's important that we understand where they're coming from uh in some of his emails he debated whether they should reveal some of the true goals of this anti-crt and now we're seeing anti- Dei and anti-al movement the belief that a healthy Society requires patriarchy for example and their broader opposition to anti-discrimination laws Mr yor also at some point spoke disparagingly of the very people who come forward at our school board to seek to ban books he called CRT and its Associated ideologies a lot of smoke or boob bait for the Bubbas now I don't know about you but I don't think I want to follow any thought leader who would think I'm a Bubba whatever the heck that even means furthermore as we hear so frequently at this
106school board meeting people demand that politic oops am I done I apologize I didn't see you apologize second I think you missed the 30 second I yeah totally missed it I apologize no that's my problem not thank you Miss suckle all right our next speaker will be Joseph Deon and uh Mr Deon will be followed by John bot good evening Mr Deon good evening I always watch the documentaries on the civil rights movement because the struggle for America to live up to her ideals is such an important part of History many of these are broadcast on unctv at home learning so I assume the public schools make uh use of them but I I've also read a lot on my own and I find that there are some important voices that have been omitted from
107the documentaries last time I told you about uh Dr Paul cornley who said that the recommendation of the 1972 population commission to give contraception and instruction to miners would destroy the foundation of the family and now that is highly relevant to your deliberations on sex education today as a man who suffered discrimination Dr corn decried how the commission labeled a whole segment of humanity as unwanted children and as a public health expert he blasted the commission for misrepresenting statistics to claim that abortion was safe and decreased maternal mortality and for greatly EXA exaggerating the number of deaths from self abortions and we know that he was right about that because the founder of Nal Dr Bernard Nathanson later confessed that he had pulled the estimate of 10,000 deaths per year out of thin air to
108Advocate advocate for legalizing abortion while studies put the actual number around 200 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee has covered extensively but not their opposition to Family Planning policy in the Johnson administration because it aimed to limit the numbers of black and poor people instead of alleviating poverty and its root causes similarly it's never told that black Muslims Black Panthers and other black nationalists called Federal family planning a genocidal plot and the opposition to abortion by civil rights leaders like Ralph abery and and Jesse Jackson is also not mentioned if you aim to uh present an accurate inclusive history of the Civil ER Rights era these voices must be heard too and well thank you and and welcome and congratulations to our new uh our new board member thank you Mr Deon our next speaker is
109Mr John Bok who will be followed by Derek Bird good evening Mr bog good evening so when you raise your hand is it 30 seconds yes sir and then the second hand when he raises then I'm in trouble that's that that'll work good evening school board members thank you for your time the following is found in multiple weight County School libraries I apologize for giving airtime to this book Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evon found in most high schools what if I told you I sucked it I was 10 years old but it's true I put Doug's bloop in my mouth he sucked mine too book Empire of storms by Sarah Mass found in multiple middle schools and high schools she dragged her hands through his thick hair over the muscles of his back as it
110flexed and ripped rippled each thrust that drove her toward that shimmering Edge again this was the least graphic of what was in that book using the content rating uh based rating both examples rate a four out of five which is not allowed for minors the problem is school systems are exempt from NC statutes in regards to pornography we are working to clarify that with the legislature we need accountability and financial incentives in our laws just because you can does doesn't mean you should if these are literary Classics which they're not any book not intended for minors up to 17 must be limited access age appropriate in all School libraries we are not looking to ban books although a nice plant would serve the bookshelf space better the school board is debating a grant from an
111organization called we need diverse books which includes Boy Meets Boy Etc you can go on their website and check it out yes we need diversity we need subject and curriculum diversity we need passing grades in math English science social studies music anything else must be consent in not behind our back consent out we have the right to freedom of speech and press but the school system does not have the right to overrule parental rights we have the right to bear arms but not the right to keep a loaded gun where a child can get it we have the right to assemble which is what we are doing here tonight some to voice our concerns about the power this board has over our children and parents the right to vote which will be of critical importance
112this fall both locally and nationally a parent sent me an email from awake County school principle they are doing a weekly bass behavioral intervention monitoring assessment system is that the 30 seconds thank you I appreciate it the opt out date was October 13th this parent States I already did the form but who says they didn't lose it I'm sure they'll do every student regardless no proof that you're actually on the opt out list it's all trust behind closed doors I would say you have a parental trust issue please make everything outside of the Core Curriculum opt in as you go through the school year Lord I pray unrest to those who defy parental rights and child safety thank you very much thank you Mr bog next up is Derek bird followed by Margaret Belo good
113evening good evening Mr chair Madam Vice chair board members I want to take the personal privilege to congratulate and welcome to sha rice to the board as we have uh heard about all of the uh uh wonderful uh experiences that folks have had and all of the celebrations around uh black history M uh this past month I wanted to come today to make you aware of the fact that for the third year Governor Cooper has designated and Proclaim February as family support Awareness Month highlighting the critical work of Home visitors and parenting Educators across the state early childhood home visiting and parent education programs strengthen the relationships between parents and children increase parenting parenting skills and build confidence these programs help to build a system of support for families and ensure children are ready to
114learn improve child help and keep children safe I represent and lead a uh Family Resource Center South Atlantic here in Wake County and also co-chair our family First Community Network which was uh developed as a result of many of our Family Support programs who worked alongside Safe child and other groups to develop a uh weight counting Child Abuse Prevention plan and so we work to uh expand and increase Community awareness and utilizations of all of our programs particularly our family support programs we want to promote safe and nurturing family caretaker relationships and we try to look at how we can provide and and um continue continue to bring these Services um with an racial equity and culturally responsive lens uh we wanted to come and share this with you this evening because we acknowledge and
115recognize all of the work and Partnerships um that many of our programs have with Wake County Public Schools to support our students and their families and so we uh again just celebrate and and thank you for your um willingness to um provide that level of partnership uh with many of our programs and organizations and we ask that you continue to expand on that and to en encourage and and help to uh really make us equal Partners in helping to support the students way County Public School Systems and we will uh gladly be willing to support uh that work in building a future fit for children and children fit for the future thank you thank you Mr Bur and I'll eat my words we had someone who did not use all of the three minutes thank
116you so much our next speaker tonight is Margaret Belo is Margaret still here there she is all right and then Margaret will be followed by eileene uh Eileen Johanson good evening good evening uh thank you uh board and superintendent for the opportunity to speak um I'm here tonight to ask the board to lend your support in asking for the comprehensive remedial plan also known as Leandro to be upheld um to provide every student in North Carolina with their state constitutional right to a sound and basic education regardless of their background or abilities education opens doors to Opportunities and enables individuals to reach their full potential yet across our state countless students are being denied this fundamental right due to inadequate funding and resource disparities among those who stand to benefit uh the most from these
117funds are our exceptional children these students with their unique needs and abilities have long been marginalized within our education system Leandro funding would allow us to enter an era of inclusivity and support for exceptional children in the Wake County Public Schools by investing in specialized resources trained personnel and tailored interventions to ensure that every child irrespective of their abilities receives the necessary support to thrive academically socially and emotionally the impact of these funds encompasses all students in Wake County by investing in our schools we can guarantee that every student has access to high quality education that prepares them for success in an increasingly competitive world through changes such as smaller class sizes updated Learning Materials expanded extracurricular opportunities and improved support services for students with diverse needs regardless of their background or zip code together
118let us stand in solidarity with the Leandro verdict and advocate for the resources and support necessary to uplift all students in W County Public Schools in North Carolina at large join me and others on February 22nd in Raleigh as we rally to ask the Supreme Court of North Carolina to affirm the Leandro verdict and release the funds to our for that our students need after 30 years the time for Action is now together we can ensure that every child in North Carolina public schools has the opportunity to fulfill their potential and make positive contributions to our shared future thank you and I just printed some informational fact sheets for everyone and all right wonderful thank you Miss B all right our next speaker um I believe is Eileen Johansson and I miss Johansson will be
119followed by Robin Livingston who will be our concluding speaker speaker for the evening I'm short it's all right okay good evening again whenever you're ready thanks Miss so there was a famous broadcaster named Paul Harvey and uh he has a warning for us today so I'll start with this if I were the devil if I were the Prince of Darkness I wanted to engulf the whole world in darkness I would start with the United States I would subvert the churches first to the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around I would confide that what's bad is good what good is what's good is square and the old people I would teach them to pray after me Our Father
120which are in Washington and then I'd get organized I'd educate authors in how to make laid Liv L literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa I'd pedal narcotics to whom I could I could sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction but I tranquilize the rest with pills if I were the devil I'd soon have families at war with themselves and churches and Nations and with Promises of of higher ratings I would have mesmerizing media Fanning the Flames If I Were the Devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions just let them run wild until before you know it you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every Schoolhouse door within a decade
121I would have prisons overflowing I'd have judges promoting pornography soon I'd have I would evict God from the courthouse and then the schoolhouse and then from Congress and it's his own churches would substitute psychology for religion I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money if I were the devil I'd make the symbols Easter just an egg and Christmas just a bottle if I were the devil I'd take from those who have and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of Ambitions and what do you bet I would have States promote gambling as a way to get rich I would caution against extremes and hard work in patriotism and moral contact conduct I would convince the young that marriage is oldfashioned that swinging is more fun
122and what you see on the TV is the way to be and thus I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure in other words if I were the devil i' just keep doing what he's doing amen right thank you Miss Johansson our final speaker of the evening is Robin Livingston good evening good evening Miss Livingston welcome Miss rice um it's good to have you here I just wanted to um I have a 10th grader at wake Young Men's Leadership Academy and um I wanted to thank Mr Hershey publicly for keeping us as informed as possible I know we it's still up in the air there's a lot of issues with St Augustines um but there is a lot of anxiety among parents
123especially of rising 11th and 12th graders because we don't know what the future is so I just um ask you just to consider the weight of the decision they only have a year or two left of high school so whatever happens um I think the promise of the Early College may be broken and that's a that's an anxiety that some parents have um I don't personally have it my son will be fine regardless but um it's uh I watched a little bit of the press conference yesterday um with the president Burgess makes me sad for them um and I and I really wish them well but I don't think that has any bearing on the decision that we make here um so I just wanted to emphasize like there's a lot of people behind this
124there's a lot of anxiety the sooner we make decisions the better for us and I again I really appreciate your press the your activity with our groups so thank you that's all I had thank you Miss Livingston so that concludes our public comment period next on our agenda uh we have consideration of our consent agenda um because I know there was a motion to um remove an item if we do move uh to adopt the consent agenda and second it I will ask for just a roll call vote all right motion to adopt the consent agenda we have a motion to ad adopt the consent agenda is there a second second uh motion by Miss mfy second by Vice chair Johnson hosler uh we'll go around for a roll call vote Mr Hershey I Dr
125in nay Miss Edmonds I Mr Sorry Miss mahaffy I I was jumping out of order there uh chair will vote I uh Vice chair Johnson Hustler I uh Mr Swanson I uh Miss Coffield nay and Miss rice I all right uh Miss Allen do you have the vote all right by a vote of 7-2 the consent agenda pass passes next we'll move to our action agenda the first item on our action agenda tonight I believe will be um the harmful impact of social media on students give me a minute to refresh my screen all right thank you all um today uh the Board of Education will consider whether to file a lawsuit against meta Google bite dance and snap for the harmful effects the company's products have had on Wake County students um excuse me
126yes I miss Lon didn't use all her time that surprised me um we had a lot of great speakers tonight so uh peer-reviewed results or sorry peer-reviewed research has revealed that social media products cause mental health issues in youth including anxiety depression suicidal ideation and eating disorders these companies have designed their products to attract and addict teen and Adolescent users using targeted algorithms constant notifications insufficient parental controls and endless scrolling resulting in what the US Surgeon General has described as quote just not a fair fight unquote between children and big Tech over onethird of of children ages 13 to 17 report using one of the company's applications quote almost constantly unquote student students experiencing anxiety depression other mental health issues are more likely to perform worse in school not to not attend school to engage
127in substance abuse and display disruptive behaviors all of which directly affects the school system's ability to fulfill its educational Mission this results in an increased need for mental health support and interventions in 2019 18.9% of high school aged children in North Carolina reported they seriously considered attempting suicide and and that number grew to 22.3% in 2021 the strategies used by the social media companies endanger our students health and safety and have placed a burden on our school system more than 200 school systems in the United States have already filed suit against these three companies and wcpss would be the 12th school district of North Carolina to agree to file suit against these companies it will seek to hold the action we're contemplating tonight would seek to hold these companies accountable for their roles in the
128youth Mental Health crisis um we have uh with us tonight um you might recognize uh This legal team that have represented Us in class action litigation before most notably re recently against juel and Altria so I'd like to welcome uh Miss Janet Ward black and Mr Matthew leg to the podium thank you chair Hagerty um Vice chair Johnson hostler and superintendent Taylor and all of you it's good to see you again we thank you for this opportunity to hear from us very briefly I I believe the chair has made a pretty good summary of the status of things we hear a lot tonight and we've learned a lot teaching is hard learning is hard resources are scarce and what has happened is a burden has been shifted to the schools to the teachers that is
129not a fair burden and there's an opportunity as a result of taking action through litigation against social media companies perhaps to get a modification of their behavior as well as potentially some compensation to make up for the health care costs that are being incurred as as a result of these actions we have a very brief PowerPoint and I'm not sure if um it's going to be brought up but I believe you have a copy with you uh and that you were provided in your packages so very very briefly there is litigation already ongoing let me make sure I'm not supposed to do something here okay there is litigation that is ongoing Federal litigation that is by many different entities including State Attorneys General but the hundreds of school boards that the chair mentioned this is
130an opportunity for Wake to come alongside those other school boards to help make a mighty Force together to be able to change what's happening with social media and the addiction that has occurred to our students it is a mental health crisis it is hard enough for students as it is to function but if you have social media that's feeding into your anxiety into your depression into potentially suicidal ideation into Eating Disorders it is making it even harder for those precious resources to be used most effectively to be able to educate the students of this County the companies products have been formulated in such a way to cause addiction algorithms and different platforms are created so that individuals stay on them as long as possible so that more ads can be served up to individuals personal
131data is being collected there are insufficient parental controls there is insufficient age verification required as a result of likes and other kind of things there is a little dopamine hit that occurs to individuals when somebody dings them or you get some sort of reaction that makes people feel better and also encourages them to stay longer on a social media platform so what these schools have done the school systems have done is to file suit against these entities that you see on the list here meta which is responsible for Facebook and Instagram bite dance which is responsible for Tik Tok snap which is responsible for Snapchat and uh Google which is responsible for YouTube these companies have the ability to change their products that's what we seek in this litigation and I'm going to turn it
132over briefly for Mr leg to explain about the litigation and potential damages that we would seek yeah thank you very much and and so so we find that um that these social media companies as Janna wardis talked about have have reaped enormous benefits at the expense of school boards and others and we we see school boards as being on the front lines of this problem um and so this litigation is a useful tool that we we think can be used to go both get these um social media companies to stop doing what they're doing but also to equip them with the resources that they need both uh to replenish resources that school boards have um diverted in the past to deal with this problem but we do not think this problem is going to go
133away in the future so we want to make sure that school boards are equipped to deal with this problem going forward so um if you can see the slide here it's just a couple examples of some of the damages that we've seen across the country it's uh School resources diverting resources away from uh educating students I've been used to deal with this problem whether it's educating staff bringing on mental health professionals um and we also uh are finding that there's just time that been being taken away from uh the school's core Mission and we're um so we want to make sure that school boards have the resources to deal with it um considerations for Wake County uh we do not uh we charge on a contingency fee basis so um without a successful recovery we
134do not um receive a fee we will front all expenses going forward as well and um in terms of time investment we know you're all very busy uh we take on the heavy lifting in terms of any kind of administrative work that goes into it and uh sort of analogous looking at the jewel litigation that um there's a lot of parallels between how sort of structurally how that litigation went and how this one looks and it took about 8 to 10 hours of Staff time we would be working with somebody within the school system to move this thing along so um you know with that we appreciate your time and we're here to answer any questions that you have great thank you are there any questions anyone on the board has for uh the counselors
135first and then after um giving an opportunity to ask any questions then we can have just discussion among ourselves uh Miss edmans um a statement and a question so on slide 11 which we didn't get to it does show um some of the other districts in North Carolina that have already joined is that correct yes ma'am and then can you are you at Liberty to list some of the other districts across the country that have joined just for the Public's awareness um I bet you can come off the the top of your head better than I can yeah I certainly can't can't name them all but um you know Miami date is the school board that is joined uh if you look at Maryland you've got Baltimore County has has filed suit Baltimore the city
136of Baltimore has filed suit um Pittsburgh uh you see the Charlotte meinberg is filed suit um I could I could name all some others but some of the largest school boards across the country are involved other questions for the attorneys Mr Swanson thank you so much for this presentation um I just have a couple questions uh my first question is I see YouTube is um on this list I know that we use YouTube um for educational purposes so could you explain um you know what some of the pros and cons could be with with with uh YouTube being one of the uh agencies here that are being uh that's connected to this litigation well the litigation is unrelated to any kind of contractual Arrangement that's between wake and between uh between you two the issue
137with the prosecution is what's happening with with respect to the children outside of that context it's not it doesn't have to do with what the schools are doing with respect to google/youtube directly but rather what mental uh health effects are occurring on the students as a result of the algorithm providing content to them that they did not seek voluntarily great that works thank you and um I'm assuming this has already happened but I I well don't really want to assume because you know what they say when you assume um but has there any has there been some conversations with these um entities and talk about the harm that has been done there there's been a tremendous amount there have been a lot of effort and um sometimes change occurs by a two-prong approach legislation and
138litigation and you may have seen the pictures of the presidents of these organizations in front of the US Judiciary Senate Judiciary Committee uh week before last and you saw the audience full of individuals holding up the pictures of their children who had died uh as a consequence of use of social media so there's been a whole lot of talk but sometimes litig is what brings people's attention directly the decision Maker's attention directly to perhaps A change is appropriate uh as you may recall from the jewel litigation it was only when a case was getting ready to go to trial that the entire country's worth of claims settled so sometimes that two-prong process uh is necessary for Change and sometimes one just moves more quickly than the other great thank you so much any further questions
139for the attorneys all right we appreciate you coming out and making the presentation with us we'll have a discussion here on the board if you all just uh remain available we might have a question we had not yet contemplated thank you so uh board members you have seen um uh sample complaint um that uh the attorneys if we choose to engage them would file on behalf of wcpss against these named parties for the harms that they've identified and seeking you know several options for Relief um you know trying to immediately adopt Common Sense protections to protect our students and minors for some of this harmful even exploitive uh business practices um there would also be I think a demand for uh responsibility um in terms of like the resources we've expended in how we handle
140a lot of the harm that our students are are bringing to school um I know this is an issue that's been in the media I know as a board we've talked collectively sort of about the topic before I just want to go around the table and see if anyone had any specific questions reservations endorsement or where everyone was uh before we take a motion Mr Hershey uh I am prepared to make a motion and support this wholeheartedly thank you uh Dr a um you know I I've been pondering this um and I just think about you know how you know it's like a having a car you know a car is a tool you know the the internet is a tool and um certainly you know you can speed as you know like you know
141150 180 mes per hour but is that really wise um um so um you know speed limits were placed to you know uh promote safety um and I feel like you know what we're doing now is in some ways trying to provide some some uh uh strict um uh mechanism of protecting our children um and so um I I will be also supporting it thank you miss edmans any comment Miss mafy okay um all right um I'm just seeing nods Miss Coffield or Miss rice I know that you're joining us a little bit late into it Miss rice but do you believe that you have sufficient uh information yes I'm very much aware of the challenges around mental Wellness with social media imagine that's come up in your day job pretty much often thank you
142Miss carfield um I am ready to vote I I just I wanted to say that you know as far as having tools I think that it is a tool and as a carpenter has a tool um it's to use it safely and you know to have and wisely and I am actually grateful that we have this opportunity that is brought before us that we can actually have these companies be accountable for what it is they do and do it a little bit better so thank you all right um I do have one last question actually uh for Mr Le and Miss Ward black um you know it's been as as school board members I know all of us have gotten emails calls from parents who've been concerned about bullying Behavior you know threats that are
143made but our Authority as a school board is often often ends there on school grounds and so we our hands are often tied in terms of our ability to to take action or um try to protect students for actions that occur through social media offsite but I know that one of the things that we looked at in contemplation of this lawsuit has been you know do we have a chance for success and originally I know that there were questions about whether or not these companies could claim that federal law Shields them from lawsuits and the argument was that well they're a carrier so just like you wouldn't sue the phone company for someone calling in a bomb threat you shouldn't be able to sue them I know there's been some developments on that case to
144me it seems like rather than carriers these are more Publishers archists and even promoters of the content particularly with these algorithms uh that we're seeing what is your prediction or or what Assurance can you give us in terms of is this a case that can move forward um we are here because we believe it's the right thing to do um and that sometimes you just have to stand up we certainly cannot guarantee any kind of results but we think inaction is not the way for school boards to behave in this instance we think it helps we think the mass of school boards across the United States will make a difference that their voices will be heard and we would like for Wake to be one of those voices so if there's no other comments I
145believe I heard a motion from Mr Hershey you have a motion from me and I believe I heard the projection of a second from Mr Swanson yes all right so we do have a motion on the table uh for the Wake County Public School System uh to join in the uh potent in the potential lawsuit against social media companies for the company's role in the youth Mental Health crisis all in favor of the motion please say I I I any opposed all right we are excited and encouraged and we'll be in touch about next steps on how to proceed thank you all very much thank you if I may have one last word you may um we just thank you we thank you for the opportunity because people do listen to Wake County and we
146will do the very best we possibly can for you thank you thank you all right uh we'll return to our action items uh we do have another action item under Grant proposals we have our chief of staff uh Dr Clinton Robinson or his designate to present to us uh looks like Mr for is with us hello good evening even good evening chair Hagerty U Vice chair Johnson Hustler superintendent Taylor and members of the board uh policy 8440 states that District staff may submit Grant applications for funding opportunities that have been approved by the Board of Education during the current fiscal year and that align with the district's strategic directives staff that are interested in applying for a grant submit an intent to apply form to the grants office and the opportunity is reviewed to ensure
147eligibility and that the opportunity aligns to District priorities and guidelines it is then presented to the board for approval the grants office has received three intent to apply forms for from schools requesting permission to apply to we need diverse books and we are now bringing this opportunity to the board for approval we need diverse books as a 501c3 organization that was founded by marginalized authors and strives to diversify the publishing industry and make bookshelves more Equitable all to promote literacy build empathy and reduce bias they advocate for essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people their mission is putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all readers their Educators making a difference Grant provides up to $2,000 for K12
148schools to purchase books featuring diverse characters or written by diverse authors the grant can also be used to conduct diversity audits of book collections and provide funding for student or community events staff are requesting board approval of this grant opportunity all right thank you Mr for so this item had been on our agenda for our last meeting on the consent agenda and we had a a board member request to move it to action and staff had not prepared um all of the information which was available to us today so now we've heard the staff presentation on the grant are there any questions for staff Miss mafy chair Hagerty I make a motion that we approve the grant we have a motion from Miss mfy and a second from Miss Edmonds is there any questions for
149staff Miss uh callfield so I I do have questions I did submit it and I just wanted to basically explain um I know that in the title it says we need diverse books I agree 100% that we need to have diverse books our students need to see themselves represented um that was not my intent that had nothing to do with it I just wanted to know what was behind the Grant and when you look at the three companies that actually provide the money to them in their websites and in their financials when you follow all this through what they stand for there were some things in there that had nothing to do with cultural experiences that we were talking about but it got into um some of the words that they they used I'm sorry
150reproductive Health reproductive Health where they talked about abortions and birth control um and that was really where my concern came in and if you look at the financials and how it's broken down when they give out their grants they give out anywhere from a couple thousand to $10,000 up to$ 100,000 even some up to2 200,000 but they give $5 million to the gender and repr it's collaborative for gender and reproductive equity $5 million each and every year that is the majority of where the money is and all throughout each and every website right to the we need diverse books they all say that they are looking for people who are going to take the money to follow through with grants that represent what they want and that's where my concern was it has nothing to
151do with diversity and culture I think we do need that I think we need it all throughout our schools that was not the subject matter so I don't think that we should be having things like this in our schools or in our curriculum or a media center this is not something that it stands for and we had the parents biller rights come and we spent many months trying to redo a lot of the verbage in our policies stating that we will not do that and it's K through 12 so I just don't know how we would separate that and how the we don't have a grant that that spells everything out it's just a cover page so it doesn't say it's only going to be for this we don't have that so therefore I'm not
152comfortable approving it so I just wanted to explain where that was coming from thank you Miss Coffield Mr Swanson thank you so much and I was not able to be here at the last meeting when this was brought forth and I believe someone which I don't see in the audience today but hopefully they're paying attention had talked about the abstract that was associated with this and that it was like 50 words per se which is the purpose of an abstract it's a a very brief summary um of what in what you're looking for and if if it doesn't fit your need you don't read it um and I'm also grateful to see that this aligns with the Strategic plan uh Priority One which this board did approve back in May um so thank you for
153lifting that up and also the last thing that I want to say about this is you know we talk about supporting teachers and we talk about the need of of keeping teachers from going into their pockets and yet when teachers decide to follow the process apply for a grant go through the appropriate measures and Also may point out that your staff is not that big to go through and dig all through this so I'm grateful for you and your staff for doing this I'm offended as a former teacher that you know for this District that we we have folks who don't quite understand the the nuances of goes on with this so we can't say that we're supporting teachers on one hand and then try to slap teachers hands for actually applying and doing their
154due diligence and finding grants that meets the needs of their students in their classrooms and so I'm sure if we dig through every money that comes through there there you know we may or may not agree with that but that's not the point the purpose of this is to ensure that students are able to see themselves in the windows and doors and sliding doors that our speaker mentioned today so I look forward to supporting this and I also thank you for making sure that this aligns with our uh strategic plan and lastly since the princial Bill of Rights was mentioned I don't believe Dr Taylor that anyone in this department and this staff would ever bring a piece of of action to this board that directly violates the parental Bill of Rights since we did
155spend all of last year uh looking at our former uh policy chair making sure that our policies align so I trust our staff I trust the Integrity of this staff and I know for a fact that nothing would come before us that would violate the constitution that would violate the laws and would put us in Jeopardy so I look forward to supporting this all right are there other questions or comments I see two uh Dr in and Miss Edmonds um just a a question first um you said that three have already applied or they what uh no so three schools have gotten in touch with the Grant's office okay and indicated their interest in applying and then we are bringing this to the board for board approval before they would submit an application no applications
156have been submitted this year and you don't have to name the names of the schools but what uh what level are they at they're three elementary schools okay so my my contention is that you know we have uh policies in which we are um following the parents Bill of Rights and not to discuss gender identity and whatnot uh under the um uh fourth grade um and having the books in you know allowing the books to be in the library you know although you know you may not say that it's a direct connection ction to having a discussion it's it makes me worried that how how is that um how are you going to safeguard this um not having the discussion and and and being complying with the parents Bill of Rights so you know I
157I will you I I celebrate diversity okay I mean I'm I'm I am uh I want to have you know people see themselves in in in the books and you know but I also want to see the kids also read books that they can they can identify a historical Legacy I mean I I brought books myself from my own Library you know Harriet tutman okay Abraham Lincoln Clarence Thomas I mean these are people that that we can emulate we don't have you know it's it's not just you know seeing yourself in the book books but also emulating people who have you know Heroes serve the country who have contributed to this to to this nation so so you know I think that um having them in the elementary school level makes me concerned I'm fine
158with you know following the you know the parents the the policy that is um um to allow it for for junior high and high school but in Elementary School I have I I have a problem with that thank you Dr in Miss Edmonds thank you so um I have not looked at all of we need diverse books financials but I did follow the links that you sent us today and in a 2021 tax report um there were seven organizations that gave money to them one of those is action family giving they action family giving not we need diverse books books gives money to a um I forget their full name but it's an organization that um supports reproductive health and gender autonomy I might be getting the anyway that's action family giving not we need
159diverse books the public does not need to perceive that we need diverse books organization is funding the um uh what reproductive health issues yes thank you um so the other you know six organizations are listed and that's just from 2021 because that's the only link that I was provided and I didn't have time today to go look at through since their Inception of the funding that they receive th this is so this is this manufactured hysteria about who people choose to have sex with when also also what these books will include are kids with disabilities um kids that come from all different kinds of families kids that have all different kinds of Life Experiences that's diverse books it's not just about things regarding sex and whether or not anybody in this room that was here
160earlier or is watching this likes it or not we have got kids in our district today that have come from all kinds of backgrounds have all kinds of life experiences and yes we need to put books in front of them where they can see themselves and how do we ensure that these other topics that um are covered in s sp49 won't be discussed because our teachers are professionals and we have a board policy that restricts them from doing so there's state law that restricts them from doing so I trust them and I trust their administrators to make sure they're complying thank you Miss Edmond Mr Hershey so uh generally speaking if somebody wants to bring something off consent I'm going to vote for it and I I I'm just fine with that but I don't
161understand what we're doing here this is $2,000 and we're worried about where the organization that we're applying for the grant is getting their money from do we really want to start creating a situation where we are digging in and investigating the background of every single person who makes a donation to this school system CU I don't cuz I know I don't agree with everyone who makes donations that's okay it doesn't need to be exactly what you agree with I mean goodness gracious how are we not trusting the teachers with this I mean this is offensive to me that this was brought off no no no you did it so you can own it and you brought this off about about $2,000 for whose agenda are you doing this for cuz I don't understand why we're
162having this conversation we need diverse books teachers are going to apply for this grant it's $2,000 I I'm sorry I I just don't understand why we're wasting our time with this Mr and it and to me it is absolutely a waste of our time thank you we we do have no I understand that we have strong opinions on this and we have several people around the table that that either haven't spoken or would like to say something um because that was a comment directed at you miss Coffield before we go to everybody else if you did want to respond um I'd call on I'd call on you now but I do want to get to people who have not spoken yet well first of all I think when we're talking about our students I don't
163care what the dollar amount is I think the subject matter when you're and and it's not very layered I mean that literally took me 3 seconds to C click on something that took us to financials and when somebody is is where you're getting your money from it is attached to your agenda and it says it all over the website that's very clear in their own words they are giving money to people who support and align with what they want they say it on their website so this isn't like something that is absolutely crazy I don't think we should have books about that talk about anything having to do with abortion or any kind of birth control those are not things that we should be talking about I'm not talking about diversity I'm not talking about
164people that you know come from different cultures and stuff I've already said right from the beginning that those are things I absolutely agree with I'm talking about subject matter and that doesn't have a dollar amount I want to know what it is that we are trying to put in front of our children why do we keep pushing these agendas instead of focusing on educational things it is an agenda I I no it is not TR to leave it out Excuse Me Miss Coffield one second what Mr Mr Hershey Mr Hershey Please Mr Hershey I will allow everyone to speak and express their viewpoint but I will not allow members to interrupt each other okay so let's just all be clear about that all right and if we'll continue with the discussion and I I appreciate
165that thank you Miss cofell would you like to continue your remark yes from one of these organizations that do fund and supply all the money to them I'm I'm going to uh read a quote um about what it is that they said um and I moveed my screen around so I can't read it I'm trying to find it but it's from the publish random publish um reading whatever it is and they basically speak about the fact that what we're putting in front of our children is very important and that it is very impressionable I can't find the quote right now cuz I moved my screen around too many times but that was one thing that really hit me is that these companies that are actually supporting this and part of this program they're the ones
166that are actually even saying that everything that we put in front of our children is very impressionable so for me it is very much about the children and I don't think that this is something that is really off-the-wall for me to say that I don't think certain subject matter should be in front of our young children and you stated that the people who are requesting this are elementary school kids so whether it be in the classroom or whether it be in the library yeah we may have you know rules that they can't see something from kindergarten to fourth grade but who's to say that if it's in that library that those kids are not picking it up it's just like the same thing with with all of these um with with the lawsuit that we
167just spoke about it's being put in front of the children and they don't necessarily have the the brain power can't I'm at a loss of words right now to actually look away and turn it off and say this is not the right thing of course that curious minds are going to look for it so I just would like us to be a little bit more purposeful about what we put in front of our children that's all all right thank you Mr fur yes are you able to tell us do any of these books have anything to do at all with reproductive health no sir they do not thank you and that was my question from the very start and so I I just want to caution us that sometimes there's a simple question and a
168simple answer and sometimes we can arrive at that point without a lot more and I feel like I'm being attacked but I just want to say it did actually start with an inquiry about what are the expectations when we receive a grant what are the requirements that from us and what are they expecting if we accept this grant that's what my first and initial question was so it turning into this was I did not get an answer to that question I got a lot of information so I do appreciate that but it was not we will not take a grant with that we accept books of that nature it was never said okay thank you Miss Coffield Mr Swanson I was moving uh I I was calling for the question all right before we did
169anyone Miss mafy has has been waiting patiently I would like to allow her to speak and then I'll entertain your motion thank Mr Swanson as the only board member at this table that taught at the elementary level who had a classroom Library um it's really hard to stock your classroom Library it's really hard to get funding for your classroom Library it is something that comes mostly out of your own pocket mostly through going through bargain bins and finding books that seem okay um or that folks have donated where the covers are slightly ripped and where the spines are torn sometimes you're trying to glue things back and sometimes you're having to say goodbye to a book because a student looking at it just wouldn't feel very respective regard respected regardless of the content inside of
170the book just because the book looks like trash if this had been available when I was teaching to get $2,000 for the opportunity to potentially restock my classroom library or to work as a grade level team to restock a set of classroom libraries I would jump at the chance I wouldn't take the time to look and see who was funding the project because it was money for books for diverse books the submission guidelines are your name any legal names you've had I learned to do that so you the your address your email your phone number a brief statement explaining how you intend to use the grant money to further diversity teaching in the classroom when you show a student for the first time a book where someone on that book cover looks like them it
171is a magical thing and believe it or not in this day age that still happens for the very first time I found a book for our previous superintendent um when we were talking about wake up and read and it had a family that was Hispanic and in the back of the book it had a recipe that her mother used to use it was an Ecuadorian recipe and to see our former superintendent see a home recipe that she recognized that her mama used to make for her at her age was powerful so I'm happy to support this um I trust our teachers I trust our folks and our staff to help our teachers go through this to make sure that this will be all within the legal rights but to be able to do this I'm
172not going to deny it on the front end just because of what might happen on the back end and I would love to call the question Mr chair thank you so um with a joint motion to call the question from Mr Swanson and Miss mafy we will now take a vote all in favor of granting approval for the uh described Grant uh please signify by saying I I any opposed all right by uh the vote I believe the eyes have it it is carried uh thank you Mr for thank you all right thank you I've been uh informed by our board attorney Mr Malone that while we did have a motion to vote to join the social media litigation we need a little more specificity in terms of the actual um retainer agreement so it'
173be nice for them to engage in this litigation but I think it's going to be asking an awful lot for them to do it without approval of the retainer agreement so move to approve the retainer retainer agreement so presented to us thank you Mr Hershey uh motion by Mr Hershey a second by miss mfy all in favor of approval of the retainer agreement uh that had been shared with you please signify by saying I I I any opposed all right thank you I believe that concludes our action agenda so at this point I would entertain a motion to go into closed session moved for the statutory reasons cited in the pry motion by Mr Hershey second by Mr Swanson all in favor of moving to close session please signify by saying I any opposed all
174right thank you we were now in close session we'll give everyone a moment to clear the room thank you