001have to keep that in mind you can you can make response or 535 and then we'll get started well now okay all right all right Lindsay is here so now we'll just wait for Miss Johnson [Music] hos no no no no no no no I'm just just because we just we just had three in our house all go through a bunch of cruds so all right all right we'll call this meeting to order okay good evening everybody it is Tuesday December 19th 20123 at 5:35 p.m. and we're calling the regular meeting of the way County Board of Education order I want to welcome those of you watching at home and those of you who have joined us here in person today our meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of
002the school system the public is cordially invited to attend and to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting meeting will be subject to action in accordance to North Carolina General statute 143 31817 and again we do ask for everybody's safety that all attendees take a seat and remain seated during the presentation all right at this point uh I want to uh establish that we do have a quorum we have um seven of our members here present and we have one of our members Lindsay mfy
003who is joining us online and so Mr Malone when we vote we'll have to to remember remember to record Miss maf's vote all right and so at this point uh let's everyone stand and we'll recite the Pledge of Allegiance flag unit States andice for all all right so turning to our agenda uh the first thing that we have are um our comments we begin with our superintendent's comments and any updates Dr Taylor thank you Mr chair uh good evening to you Madame Vice chair members of the board and our esteemed attorney uh it is a holiday season so I will say happy holidays to all of our family members and constituents uh that are a part of Wake County Public Schools I'll start by talking about our hour of code uh dozens of our schools
004last week participated in hour of code the annual event that has become a Cornerstone of Computer Science Education here in Wake County and across the world hours of code seeks to demystify the field of computer science helping everyone learn the basics and inspiring some to pursue further study and even careers in technology a many hour of code activities in our district this year focused on the benefits of design thinking principles which encourage students to use critical thinking and creativity to solve real world problems uh I had the privilege of attending an hour of code event at East milbrook Magnet Middle School last Tuesday uh alongside the state superintendent Katherine truid uh students rotated through eight stations including one where students help design an Adaptive keyboard for people with limited Mobility which is great to see
005them engage in that event uh it was inspiring to see how fully our students engag with the challenges set before them and how depth they were in employing design thinking principles initiatives like our code help inspire a generation of Learners who are fluent in technology so they can thrive in an increasingly Digital World of course technology is used effectively in each of our schools each and every day uh to support student learning uh with support of our District's digital learning coordinators teachers are continuously learning new ways to use technology in the classroom this is a shining example of our strategic plan's first core belief which states that students deserve to be challenged and engaged in relevant rigorous and meaningful learning every day I'm grateful for all those who continuously adapt instruction to help our students
006gain the skills they need to succeed uh congratulations are also in order once again for Winston Pierce to principal of Farmington Woods Magnet Elementary and the rainning Wake County Public School principal of the year who last week was named the principal of the year for the state's North Central region it was outstanding uh I was among those who surprised Mrs pierce with the announcement in front of her entire school on Friday I know uh uh board members Tyler Swanson was there with me and and we had an opportunity to celebrate her together uh Miss Pierce is every everything a principal should be caring committed hardworking and constantly looking to improve uh she has worked for the weight County public school system for more than 30 years including the past 13 at the Farmington Woods principal
007uh under her leadership the school has attained National recognition as a model for magnet excellence in 2018 Farmington Woods was named the top Magnet Elementary School in the country by magnet schools of America uh and earlier this year became a certified demonstration Magnet School denoting it as a school that exemplifies magnet school ideas such as diversity Innovative curriculum and academic Excellence by name uh by being named Regional principal of the Year Mrs Pierce is now a candidate for North Carolina principal of the year I put a lot of pressure on her because I told her that I expect her to bring home the top prize uh so I wish her best of luck and thank her for many years of exemplary service uh 12 of our talented students visited the governor's mention last week as
008finalists in the first ever spoken word contest hosted by the United Arts Council of Raleigh in Wake County I was there along with the proud families and teachers to help cheer them on Amy Lee of Green Hope High one first place uh with Gracie hatch of Southeast Raley Magnet High School finishing second and Olivia Ric of Green Hope placing third uh it was not uh my intent for us to sweep the priz but you know I will claim it every time uh the talent and passion of these young poets and performers is evident I encourage you to visit the Wake County Public School uh Facebook page where you will find the full list of finalists and the link to video showcasing each of their performance finally this evening in the spirit of the season I
009would like to commend the students and staff at three schools for their outstanding effort to raise money for charitable causes the annual in low charity ball raised $80,000 for neighbor to neighbor a Southeast Raleigh based nonprofit that helps students reach great level proficiency through one-on-one mentorships over the past 18 years enll students have raised more than $1.9 million for local charity Charities I think this is outstanding students from the Chick-fil-A leader uh leader Academy of South Gunner High School recently visited Barnwell Road East Garner and Brian Road elementary schools to reach to student students then provide each of them with a book in a Chick-fil-A gift card the South Garner students visited more than 1,000 students in 67 classrooms in a single day that's outstanding and the students staff and families at families at Sanderson
010High School donated more than $30,000 in nearly 2,000 pounds of food to the food bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina that equals 154,000 m so we know how very important that is this time of year Sanders has been collecting donations for the food bank for now now for more than 25 years I know these are just a few examples of the community spirit and generosity embodied by our students and staff I'm proud of everyone who found a way to give to those less fortunate uh this holiday season uh Mr chair that ends my comments all right thank you Dr Taylor um ho ho ho everybody uh as we come to our last board meeting of the calendar year um it has been an exciting year um you know I I think I don't know
011anyone who's not ready for the year to come to an end and move on but we'll have some exciting and really great things coming up um in 2024 it's been an eventful week There's eventful couple of weeks there's been some great things going on and I don't want to steal the Thunder from some of my board colleagues about some of the events but I do have to make at least a quick mention mention about the southeast Raleigh Magnet High School talent show oh my God y'all this was this was amazing I will let the District 4 representative speak to it because she played a very special role in this program she was not the winner of the program but she still played a very special role and if you did not go then you do
012not know what it's like to be a bulldog um I want to give uh special recognition to uh the folks that attended our district 7 board advisory committee meeting we had a fantastic program I want to thank thank our speakers Laura Wood and Bianca Howard um Miss Wood is a teacher in our program uh a North Carolina board certified teacher one of one of our teachers with a master's degree who is the Environmental connections integration specialist at one of our magnet schools specifically she's the Lincoln Heights environmental connections Magnet Elementary School integration specialist you've heard Miss Wood speak at a number of our meetings about sustainability Bianca Howard works with weight County government in term talking about sustainability and things that are part of the County's efforts and this is all part of what we've
013been talking about in facilities committee the need to come together and look at what we do districtwide in terms of the sustainability of our District Operations but then we also had an opportunity to look at sustainability and curriculum and the lessons that our kids can learn just from the functions and things that go on inside the building we had fantastic feedback from our principes from our parents our PTS leaders our board our board uh staff there and we were able to collect a lot of great feedback that we'll be sharing with our staff um one thing that I do want to address as we conclude the year you know when you get back I know it's hack NE to go back and do a best of or uh you know hit all the highlights what
014I want to do I don't want to be negative but I do want to to address something that I've seen progressively get worse through the year and challenge you all on the board about ways that we might be able to address it going forward and that has been the rise in what I'll call fight culture we've talked about bullying we've talked about cyber bullying we've talked about incidents of violence but a lot of these really seem to be connected and they seem to be connected through social media now we've had conversations we've seen in the news where different school school districts around the country have brought actions against social media companies for some of the harm that they you know that they're alleging that they cause we've seen attorney general's offices from around the country
015also come together and take on meta one of the bigger social media companies from some of their practices in terms of their irresponsibility in terms of um the communications the marketing to students but one thing that I haven't heard in all of this but I think it's something that we may be be able to address locally or if not then maybe we can just put our voice to it is just to call for these companies to do the right thing when it comes to fight culture and what I mean by this is I'm not going to single out any individual school but you all have seen them around we have some in our district there's others all around the state where you'll see a certain High School fights as an Instagram account or the videos
016that are taken of fights and bullying that are put on YouTube we know that fights and bullying are bad enough by themselves and the Damage they can do to kids physically and psychologically but when you magnify that this is a threat that they didn't have when I was a student to be able to take that fight capture it and broadcast it to literally millions around the globe to have it exist in perpetuity let alone just everybody at school knowing and that's before people start marking it up with their own comments with their filters with whatever you know photoshopping or video editing they might do I've studied you know as as you all know I'm an attorney I I've studied the First Amendment we've I've done first amendment work I don't understand how our social media
017companies can flag political speech and pull it down as inappropriate comment but can't do something about this because when you are promoting and perpetuating a video that shows harm to miners it may not be illegal but sure irresponsible and as we look to how we address a lot of the perpetuation of of violence in our communities maybe this is something we can do something about I I don't have the answer I'm just trying to raise awareness Ness of the issue you all have seen it in individual cases some higher profile than others but many of the cases that will come before us in disciplinary hearings that we have to review so it's a little bit early for New Year's resolution but if I could just ask you all let's make a commitment to try to
018find a way that we can address this in 2024 thank you and I'll turn it over hopefully for more positive news to our vice chair Miss Waters uh thank you chair Hagerty and thank you for um lifting up and um putting on our Radars um the need to really speak out against um fight culture so appreciate your remarks around around that and I'll I'll certainly have that on my radar and um I'm really looking forward to the holiday season as many of you all are looking forward to a rest break and um this is certainly the season that many of us refer to as the most wonderful time of the year but I wanted to recognize for some that this can be a time where extra comfort and support is needed um um particularly um
019the Mary E Phillips High School Community they recently lost a student who was very special to everyone so just wanted to continue to hold them in my heart and in my prayers um and we've certainly had Southeast righ High School in our hearts and in our minds for um the last um days and they will continue to be a real bright spot as um chair Hagerty showed uh shared was um their recent talent show which was their first and they started off with the bar very high um and um Miss Edmonds um I'm sure you you would um say that as well um so it was really nice to be able to experience the joy of the students in the school building and to see the talent um everything from uh Duets to spoken word
020to the drum line to the step show it was just a really great performance and a good time to really um experience what the Bulldog pride was in that building it was so contagious and so I had the opportunity to serve as a judge it was very hard for me to judge um because I have no Talent of my own and so all of them were so talented in my eyes and so just really um want to continue to just talk about the great things that are going on at Southeast and if you are out and about in the community please take a a time to observe the amazing new artwork that is now on the building there they've done an amazing job with the magnet theme to really talk about all the great programming
021that is in the school building there and so also I've been stretching myself a little bit this holiday season and I want to thank how Miss Brown class at Southeast Raleigh Elementary School for the opportunity to come over and uh read a Christmas book with a class and make a candy cane Rainer you can do a lot with pipe cleaner and a candy cane so a lot of fun um being with first graders um very sweet and very um kind class so I'm looking forward to getting back out to Southeast Raleigh Elementary School they've had a lot of great U programming in the last weeks to really bring in the community and bring in family so it's good to be a part of that and we don't often think about um our um school school
022reach on the weekends but I'm very grateful to have continued to be a part of the superintendent tour um as we have v u visited some local churches and on Sunday um the Temple of Pentecost um was gracious enough to invite us to their christas Christmas worship experience and um it was just um stellar and so really appreciate being able to see some of our students and our families out on Sunday morning and um thanks to miss web for um that opportunity to get out in the community and I also wanted to highlight some a historic moment um in our community I was really glad to have my middle schooler with me on uh Saturday morning to witness a historic swearingin ceremony The Honorable Jessica Holmes is now our state auditor Holmes is the first
023black woman to serve on the North Carolina Council of state which is a collection of 10 Statewide officials so um being able to see that was a really um special moment for everybody in attendance and I I think it also um it it really helps us to see the value of representation and how important it is um to have um everyone represented in all levels of government so that we can be a stronger Community as we continue to um Elevate the work that is important to all of us and I Echo um Dr Taylor's sentiments around the amazing fundraising that enow high school has done a neighbor to neighbor is an amazing organization that is near and dear to my heart and so to know that they'll have some additional funding to carry out the
024important work that they do is really exciting so as the season of giving and giving back um is here I wish everyone um Merry Christmas a happy holiday season and all the joys um that your heart can hold so thank you thank you Vice chair Waters uh we'll now hear from our board members and let's start with um the board member who's traveling the farthest to be here miss mafy all the way from Apex North Carolina where the flu is alive and well in my household so everyone please be careful this holiday season um I'd like to thank everyone who came to our board advisory council meeting last week um we were able to hear from Note in the Pocket and how they are able to um go through their clothing that they receive and
025every student um that receives clothing through them gets uh eight outfits that have gone through a rigorous process and any clothing that they deem unwear for our students gets recycled um and many thanks to former Board member Miss cash for bringing this organization um not to my attention but just to allow our BAC members to think about how um their students can help or be impacted by the work of this organization and thank you to Dr Taylor for coming and speaking to our board advisory council members and answering answering their questions We've ran a little overtime um but it was all um good work and good questions for sure I do want to take a moment to highlight Herbert Akens Road Middle School this is their second year as a school and they have state
026finalists in the Samsung South for tomorrow competition The Nighthawks are working to tackle the problem of wildlife displacement due to new construction and infrastructure in our area so very exciting to see a relatively new school already get recognized at the state level so many congratulations to The Nighthawks and I will uh wish everyone a happy holidays and happy new year thanks thank you so we'll go around the table we'll start with Miss edmans thank you uh congratulations to the Athens Drive cheer team they've had a good month winning the wcpss cheer competition comption and the state championship in the North Carolina High School athletics Association competition last week I had an amazing time experiencing talent in District 5 and District 4 I attended the Middle Creek High School holiday Coral performance band performances at Holly
027Ridge Middle School and Athens Drive and I joined as was mentioned chair Hagerty and vice chair Waters at the talent show at southeas Raleigh Magnet High School there truly is um an abundance of talent across our district and I want to give a special shout out to all the Arts Educators who work with these students our band directors Coral directors coaches and all the teachers that help develop and grow this Talent among our students um a special thank you to you another thing I experienced last week was an escape room developed by the seniors in Middle Creek High School's Adobe Digital Media Academy this was their senior project and it was based on the novel Brave New World this was my first escape room experience and it did not disappoint I was so impressed with
028their project um it was really a lot of fun they converted a classroom into this immersive space with sound and video and suspense and one thing I loved was that they Incorporated the use of the old school wallmounted cord phone um in solving the puzzle so it was definitely a Hightech uh you know event showed off the skills that they've learned in digital media but the use of some um of old technology was clever and fun uh I really was very impressed and can't wait to go back to see more of their work all of these performances the talent show the escape room the cheer competitions the spoken word that you spoke about Dr Taylor underscores for me what amazing opportunities that our students have in our school district and in our public schools and
029as this month Marks One year that I've been I've had the honor of serving on this board I just want to say what a joy it is to be able to experience all of these all of this Talent um and be be in our schools and be among our students and Educators I don't take it for granted and I'm so proud of the great work that is happening in wcpss and I'll just say finally that I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break and a happy new year thanks thank you Dr good evening um I want to express my thanks to the staff and students at Heritage High School for allowing me to listen in on the uh counseling advisory uh Council virtual meeting last Tuesday it was my first time participating so I
030was just there to listen and take it in um it was good to see that the students on the council were so willing to give feedback on um how to uh help um uh improve um the uh counseling staff's um work with the students and how to engage the students more effectively and to help them to plan their future um it's really a testament to the leadership at Heritage High School that uh the line of communication is so open uh between the students and the staff um I hope that uh you're all done with your holiday preparations um to all my Jewish friends and neighbors I hope that Hanukkah was filled with wonderful memories with your family um the festival Festival of Lights is a special remebrance of a miracle and I believe that Miracles
031can and still happen um as Christmas comes along next week I want to reflect on a poem by the American poet Henry wattsw worth Longfellow his poem Christmas bells was written on Christmas day in 1863 during the height of Civil War his son who enlist Ed to fight with the Union Army was severely wounded a month before at the Battle of mine run at the time he wasn't sure whether his son was going to make it Long Fellow was also still heartbroken from his wife dying in an accidental fire two years prior in the poem he shared his grief at what he was facing in his world but ended it with a glimmer of hope the poem was essentially eventually set to music and no I am not going to sing but it goes like
032this I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day their old familiar carols play and mild and sweet the words repeat of peace on Earth Goodwill to men and thought how as the day had come the belf of all Christendom had rode along The Unbroken Song of Peace on Earth Goodwill to men then later it says it was as if an earthquake rent the hearth stones of a continent and made for laor the households born of peace on Earth Good Will to men and in despair I bowed my head there is no peace on Earth I said for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on Earth Good Will to men then peeled the bells more loud and deep God is not dead nor doth he sleep the wrong shall fail the right Prevail with
033peace on Earth Good Will to Comm men so this song has become a classic of the Christmas season and I believe that it message is still fitting in our times no matter where you are on your faith Journey so have a Merry Christmas and a safe and peaceful winter break thank you Mr Hershey thank you uh chair Agy um first apologies if I cough and for all those who have a cough I feel your pain um three items first I want to thank Dr Taylor uh the Wake County or Wake County attorney Public School attorneys um for their leadership as it relates to our leadership acmy and the issues with st augustin's um I want to continue to ensure our parents that and our students that are highest levels of staff are working on the
034problems I want to um let you know speaking extremely confidently that you have the support of our full board we love our leadership acmy uh I thank them for inviting me to their the women's Leadership Academy for inviting me to their PTA meeting and giving me a chance to speak and answer some questions but I just want to thank staff in particular for their hard work on it it's not an easy issue um but to the parents we are working hard on it and this this is all about our students they come first in this issue um and we will continue to provide updates uh as we have them um second there was uh just a little bit of concern over the last couple weeks about a a rally for Justice at wake field high
035school um there was regarding the uh Israeli and Palestinian conflict which is of course incredibly complicated um as per I I don't know everyone's background but as a board member who lights Hanukkah candles I attended the rally just to uh so someone on the board could give have eyes on it um and the concerns about anti-Semitism or intimidation of Jewish students uh went completely unfounded um the students that I heard and observed were well informed they were respectful they were passionate about uh their causes um everything we should want in students it it was fantastic and there was in no way any sort of uh attempt to intimidate um and I think a lot of credit should go to uh principal bazelle I apologize if I mispronounced his name um but his leadership he met
036with both groups prior to the rally because he knew about the community concerns and just the whole staff at at Wakefield did an outstanding job the students did an outstanding job and ultimately the concerns of the community um are you know it was much I do about nothing as I have said to others if anyone has any concerns they can contact me directly because I was there uh lastly I want to thank Douglas Elementary School and Douglas PTA for hosting our BAC meeting the entire session was dedicated to Transportation um I want to raise a couple of points here at the at the board there is a feeling or a sense that maybe we could do a better job at communicating with our schools some of the possibilities that we're talking about when it comes
037to Transportation there was a sense that they really didn't know what was going on that was what I got out of it um that they're and that they're not really ever made aware until it just kind of happens so as we have these Transportation meetings I would encourage us to uh be very proactive and reaching out to our principles on that um a repeated theme was what are we doing for behavior problems on buses that is from pretty much every principle uh and so the question I would pose to staff and that I would like to hear about is what are we doing differently that if things are not working how are we changing how are we meeting the needs of our staff to support our bus drivers and our principles um whether whether it
038is poor behavior on buses or bullying I would like to know what we are doing differently from three years ago from six years ago what should we do different going forward because this is an issue that we hear about frequently um and we want to we want to help our students as much as we can and prioritize of course the safety and we and as I think uh Miss Coffield spoke about last board meeting is often times we know who the bullies are and there are they repeatedly have this Behavior so what are we doing differently to intervene to to prevent continued bullying because as someone who had who was bullied in high school uh it it stays with you and so this is a priority for me and so I I would like staff
039to kind of present that to us at some point what are we doing differently and what can we do better thank you thank you Mr Hershey coming back around the table swinging the other way we'll go to Mr Swanson all right thank you I was able to write out my remarks this time so hopefully I do not forget anything um and hopefully I don't take any of Miss Johnson Hustler's Thunder but um I have to say uh thank you to the uh Cary High interact club for inviting uh Miss Johnson Hustler and I to walk with them at the Christmas Carrie Christmas parade and so it was great to see so many uh friends and family out there as they were cele in the holiday spirit and passing out candy although we ran out a
040couple of times just an understand we ran out quite a bit but um it was great to see so many of the the kids out there and running into some of uh our County Commissioner friends as well I would also like to thank principal Allan and Dr sexon for the tour of Rudy Creek Elementary School it is always a great opportunity to see what is happening every day in our schools and to hear and witness the great learning that has taken place um and then that same evening I was able to attend their cultural um Cultural Arts night um where they were able to highlight various um um aspects of their school culture and really allowing their participate uh staff members to share parts of their culture as well so thankfully for them I missed
041all the dancing because I was not going to embarrass myself um but was really able to see uh those those students and families really engage um and then I had the opportunity of reading to the fifth graders at Farmington Woods Elementary School last weekend um the book that I was that Miss Pierce had picked out was saving America's beaches which was um really showing students the importance of using their voice to talk about those changes that they would like to see in the world and if you're familiar with the Farmington Woods um Learners they are very engaged in tackling big issues that are affecting their their their Community um and a lot of them had shared that they had actually started doing research on um pollution and uh various things that's causing harm to our
042our um communities um the students also were able to take some of the pieces that the author had shared about using the young lady was using her voice to advocate for policies around pollution at the beach that she grew up and so the students actually learned what board members are and so they wanted to know if I was Mrs Pierce's boss if I was able to write policies to extend their recess um change the dress code um and thankfully I did say those are all school-based decisions and that is your principal and so um they did decide they were going to do some research and write us some letters about some things that they would like to see change um so that was great and then I was also able to go back and surprise
043Mrs Pearson uh Mrs Pierce um who was as Dr Taylor mentioned our um 2024 central region principal of the Year by DPI so so many great things happening and it was such a great surprise to her um and as we were able to surprise and so I know Dr sex and I were actually and Dr Chavis was there to read some of some books as well and so Dr Taylor next year you'll have to come back and read to those students um and actually we hope that you'll join us in the parade as well so those are the great things that we're doing um so I will conclude by saying um happy holidays to all of those and we get to say The Best For Last uh Mr Mr chair see y'all could y'all couldn't
044see what Miss Johnson Hustler was doing over here Mr Swanson was speaking so he's getting a little bit of Revenge by putting her on the spot so we don't have it we don't we don't have any walk up music for you Miss Johnson hler but you can finish us off absolutely thank you um I I I was kindly trying to use my grandmother charm over here with Mr swansson it did not work I'm going to practice harder next time um thank you Mr chair and Mr swansson um again you've already heard from um one of my colleagues um no surprise everyone you all know I'm a dieh hard cheerleading fan so congratulations to all of our uh student athletes um again I have to remind us that they are student athletes for our cheer leaders
045um at both their Wake County and their state conferences um and congratulations the beauty about um cheer and it's a conversation in my house cuz I am married to a coach is if you can if multiple people can win the same award is it really a competition um I say that it is they are winning on very different talents that they're looking for in the scoring so congratulations to all those athletes um also congratulations to our Valentine fireflies it's been a while since I've talked about their LEGO League they're one of our most I think they are the school with the longest standing LEGO League teams in County Public Schools and so postco um this is their first time back in the championship so I'm very glad um to see our fireflies at Valentine Elementary
046School back in the Lego league and made it to the regional competition so we'll keep sending our well wishes to our students but also to all of the adult advisers and the volunteers who assist our student our little F fireflies um and also um I as long as I've been on the board I have not known about this and so um I did a little bit of research and went to the Chick-fil-A and Garner who sponsored this um thank you to Chick-fil-A and Garner for their leadership academy um and their participation with South Garner High School students the goal for the Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy is to distribute 1 million books and the South Garner High School students were able to do a th books in three elementary schools East Garner Elementary barwell elementary and Brian
047RH Elementary so again always great to hear about the public private Partnerships with our schools and that concludes my comments and everyone have a restful and rejuvenating winter break all right thank you Miss Johnson Hustler so at this point uh we're at the point on our agenda where we would approve the agenda so is there a motion some move second um let's see I'll take the motion from miss Edmund second from Miss wat Vice chair Waters all in favor of approving the agenda please say I I any opposed all right the meeting agenda has been approved I thought I'm sorry I thought you were going to amend the agenda to add the Personnel item before the next closed session we had talked about that I didn't see anybody offer the amendment I zoomed right by
048it I think voting on it at the end so Mr Malone we can move to add an item to the agenda we can move to amend the agenda in progress it just takes a different motion is that right yes I mean yeah you can do that you can do it now you can just do another motion now to amend it Mr chair I will amend the motion to um note the change that will approve our employment I can't remember where they go to um to to address the human resources appointments that we appr chair I put you almost hot you're like I don't know Monika yes to approve our human resources appoint all right we do have a motion um and we do have for Miss Johnson Hassler and a second for Miss Edmonds to
049amend the agenda to add consideration approval of those Human Resources appointments that were made in closed session all in favor of making set Amendment to the agenda please signify by saying I any opposed Mr sponson was thinking about it no okay thank you so now the amended agenda has been approved and continuing on with the amended agenda our next item will be an information item uh from the superintendent um yes sir Mr Swanson I realized why my my hesitation was there we have to do get capture miss maf's vote since she's on the web app because it was a roll call vote a roll call so Mr Swanson is correct so let's take that vote again a roll call vote I'll go around the table hold on M Mr Hershey I I I I will
050call your name prior prior to the vote and I will I will go around the table so we can capture miss mf's vote all right all right all in favor of adoption of the amended agenda we'll go around the table Mr Hershey Dr in hi Miss Edmonds hi Miss mfy I I'll vote I Vice chair Waters Miss Johnson hosler I and Mr Swanson I I believe it's unanimous all right the the amended adoption has been properly recorded and um at this point I will tell you that I have gotten some materials coming to us to assist us in parliamentary procedure that will be coming in in 2024 and you've just shown that it was a wise investment all right um so now Dr Taylor after all of that after all of that I will turn
051it over to you do superintendent Taylor will provide an update on the activities of the 100 day transition plan and share initial information on the themes identified with the feedback Dr Taylor thank you Mr chair um I can tell you that uh I've had a a really great time these past uh several months in the district and I just wanted to uh provide a quick update to the board uh of what um uh has transpired over these last 80 days I was in a meeting with uh Mrs mafy and she reminded someone that I had been in the district for 65 days and and so I said I better start counting these days so I think it's actually 80 calendar days in roughly uh 50 school days uh so this has really been a great
052process uh for me uh one of the things I want to do is is definitely share about the input process that I've that I've used during this process uh and I think someone is going to be driving a PowerPoint for me at some point oh there you go all right uh but but this has I think been the really the most important part of this work that I've been able to do is uh is to really get out and and get feedback from the community uh part of that has been uh working with the nine area uh attendance areas we had focus groups uh we also had a student focus group this was one of the one of the really great processes to be able to get feedback from students about what was important to
053them uh and what we were doing that was great and how we level up uh the same with the teacher advisory team Focus Group group as well as the principal focus group the Central Services focused groups uh and I've just taken tons of notes and I'll talk briefly about uh the community roundtables uh but we had over 6,000 comments uh and I've also had an opportunity to look at past survey data uh these are all the the the focus points or data points uh that I've used to really guide what I've done over the last 100 days and where I go from there um I know many of you had an opportunity to attend the Roundtable events um I can tell you that this event turned out probably a thousand times better than I had
054imagined uh we um talked to over roughly 1,600 participants uh which was a huge number I can tell you that the first two events that we had there were on the same day we got a lot of uh requests to be excused from the meeting because they didn't know what to expect uh but I think by the time we got to the McKim Center people were crashing the meetings because they wanted to be a part so I hope that's uh a trib to what the participants were able to do uh so you can see the numbers in terms of the number of people that we talked with I do want to say that of those Community Partners that did include parents Civic leaders uh business partners uh people from higher ed uh and so uh
055the the feedback that we received from them was tremendous uh the student Round Table did include both middle and high school students we had contemplated taking it down to Elementary but we wanted to leave it at middle school and um and that feedback I think was tremendous and one of the uh the greater events that we had to hear from students on a rainy day and I can tell you um I think 98% showed up to be a part of that uh so it was a wonderful opportunity to hear from our students uh I'll talk briefly about uh the five goals and I know as board members you are familiar with these both from uh when I had the opportunity to interview with the board and and what I've discussed at various BAC meetings and
056other events um I I've talked about uh the relationship piece and relationship building and I do want to share with you that part of this 100 days has been visiting so many different venues in the community whether that's meeting with Commissioners meeting with uh Town managers um uh law enforcement um uh um Deans from universities I can tell you is that um all of these people have shared with me uh what is important to them as it relates to Wake County Public Schools uh but more importantly how they want to be able to engage uh with the school I've taken those same opportunities to engag with stakeholders I've visited uh so many different departments I've I've visited a number of schools uh I know the board uh looked at me to say you have an
057ambitious goal to visit every school by the end of the year uh but I can tell you that uh that work is going really really well and I absolutely love what I'm seeing in the schools um I do want to highlight what the transition team has been able to do for me uh they have been integral in the planning of the round taes uh as well as collaborations we've had with the uh senior leadership team uh as well as planning the share out event that we will have on 25 January at uh Brockton High School um and and they've really given me the guidance of the events that I should attend over the 100 days and and as I've shared with everyone this team has been integral in making sure that uh my 100 days
058is Meaningful uh one of the things that has um really stood out to me is goal number three in terms of the fiscal and organizational Health uh Health um uh what I've determined and what I've I've discovered doing this particular phase is that we've got to pay close and strong attention to our organizational structures um I can tell you that I have to say hats off to the central Services organization because we do have um a structure that is designed to support way less than the number of schools that we have uh and and I would say that support structure is really about 120 130 schools so part of what I'm now doing is looking at school districts and organizations that are uh similar in size to Wake County and and to look strongly at
059what those structures are to support systems of that size uh but that is an area where I know we are going to have to have uh great attention uh um um everyone that knows me know that knows that uh the instructional practices is is huge for me I can tell you that we are engaging in in an academic reorg I do like the work that Dr Stacy Wilson Norman is doing and she will be sharing more about that uh I know the board has even recognized that we want to do more with principal coaching uh and so that is a structure that we are addressing um we know that strong structures to support uh uh to provide Provide support across the board is is really important and so I talked about this Focus uh for
060supporting low performing schools but what I can tell you is that uh while they may have the low performing status what I do recognize is that they are doing a lot of work to grow uh and so we want to do that but that structure also has to be how we support student performance in all schools not just low performing school so I know the board has paid close attention to that uh and last but certainly not least uh when it comes to our strategic plan uh what I'm doing these 100 days is looking to make sure uh that what I plan to do in terms of leadership does align with the Strategic plan um and there's opportunities to vet what we have put in the Strategic plan uh and these round taes that that
061have been conducted have given us the opportunity to make sure uh that we are tracking in the right directions we do have the right components in the in the um strategic plan and we can go back and make subtle adjustments based on the conversations that we've had uh so I'll end with uh the um um the reporting event that I will do in January um and this is going to be I think the culmination of this 100 days and and ultimately what I want to be able to do is to share uh what our community has has identified as those celebrations uh one of the things that was very important to me is that uh I know and understand what the community believes that we're doing well um and how uh they want to continue
062to see those things happening and so I've had that opportunity to not only hear from our public but also to see those things with my own eyes um what has been really important to me is talking about how we level up as a district and so we've talked about uh how we are the largest District in the state and the 15 largest in the nation uh but the community has shared a great deal about um what they believe is necessary in order for uh this District to level up and so they've talked tremendously about Equity uh how important that is they've talked about resource allocation how we need to look at how we allocate resources how we need to identify what we need additional resources uh I think one of the biggest concerns that I've
063seen from the community uh is Teachers uh and and how we ensure that we have quality teachers we know that we are struggling with um teacher shortages Across the Nation but now that is absolutely impacting Wake County uh so that is a concern uh to our parents but when we talk about uh leveling up we've had conversations with our community about how we become the premier district and so they've shared all of those different components about how we do that not just being large uh but also being great uh they've acknowledged some of the problems that we've identified in the district uh one of those is when I talked about uh our organizational structure and so they identified those same things uh uh what we can do to have better communication so I'll end that
064event talking about my charge to the community again that strategic plan alignment uh specifically about what the community can do to support the work that needs to be done and I and uh what I wanted to do was to make sure that uh we were in line with our community and so that uh if it's something that's important to them uh then it makes it that much easier for us to talk about it uh and engage the public about doing that and certainly about the Partnerships that we can develop the resources that we will use um in and really the visible changes that they will be able to see moving forward from that 100 days uh and so for the sake of time I will end there but I will tell you that um the
065last 80 days have been outstanding uh you all know I've been burning the Rubber and getting to as many places as I can uh um uh and so I look forward to the uh the report out event and I do hope that all board members will be able to be in attendance uh but I know my board cheer will be there because I have a a place on the program for him so but thank you if there any questions I'll certainly answer those but if not I'll turn it back to you Mr chair thank you Dr Taylor are there any questions for Dr Taylor just this is sort of a sneak peek at some of the great work that's been done so far and obviously we'll get a much deeper chance to get involved in
066this later on but if anyone has a burning question we'll take it right now Vice chair Waters not a question but just a comment I I just super grateful of how accessible you have been um I've um heard numerous times that um a lot of our community members um have not met the superintendent before and I think that is so special um to be able to um to see you out in the community to see you in schools and I I know that requires is a lot of work and a lot of effort um but it is very meaningful to to um community members to teachers um to families and to the kiddos most of all but um so thank you for prioritizing um being accessible thank you madam chair I know that as a
067large district is extremely hard for the superintendent to be accessible but I do know that um that's very important to the community and I can tell you I'll continue to do that work as long as I'm able uh but staff does encourage me to take a break every now and then but but I am a public servant and I take that seriously so thank you man and also all Mr Hershey yeah so on the 25th it'll be a bron High School yes sir that is in District Six I will most certainly be there um you know um one question about that though uh will people be invit it what's the if there are people that we know that would like to be there is there a process that we should inform you or somebody else
068yes so what I would say is reach out to uh me or um Leanne um uh Alfred and she's taken those names down so we are inviting people I think we're planning for roughly 3,500 people and fantastic yeah uh and so just uh get in contact with us and we'll make sure that uh those people have seating that you want to invite thank you so much all right uh Mr Swanson I just had a comment not a question just echoing what Miss Waters said and you know thank you for hitting the ground running and um which is something you said in your interview and you are definitely a man of your word enduring the Lord's work and so I appreciate that and it's great to just see how you are zigzagging this big dist again
069um so I'm grateful and hopeful hopefully you'll get some rest over this break as well so you can kick into the second gear um so you have our support and looking forward to this um Community report out so thank you Dr Taylor thank you sir all right I'm just checking online um make sure no comments from Miss mafy all right um or do you have you received a comment question no I was just checking make sure but I have question all right Mr Johnson hosler um I certainly echo my colleagues um sentiments and appreciate it my question is because you have been accessible and I also appreciate that you been open to the push to make all of our events more accessible to people if we have not explored the option 3500 is a lot
070of people for one space but it definitely is still a drop in the bucket to our district so do you know if this will be live streamed or recorded so that it's available for other community members to yes as I understand it we're going to live stream it and we're also considering doing some additional um um events if you will in other districts uh after this this one so that is part of the plan perfect that is very exciting I'm so glad we're moving into the 21st century in 24 all right any final comments around the uh first 100 days the report out or anything else um from our superintendent's uh information item all right well as you've heard Dr Taylor aboard is very excited and looking forward to this and we just want to
071commend you on all the good work thank you sir thank you all right so at this point on the agenda we come to the public comment portion uh speakers commenting on the night's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics and as you know we have a new policy that allows students addressing the board to be given priority to speak first 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 please do not remain in the building as only this room is available to to the public otherwise the rest of the building is closed because it's after hours if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that
072the board chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed at substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members the laws and policy of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual Personnel or individual student matters are confidential and their therefore are not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern uh in the interest of maintaining Civility and deorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and must refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the public again just direct your comments this way
073to the board um you may hear hear from other speakers you may not agree with or disagree with but again the public addresses to the board um any materials you wish to share I know some members have brought some materials please share those with our board attorney Mr Rod Malone here and they will be either before or after your comments and they'll be distributed to everybody and they will be made part of the public record during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes please note the microphones up here are adjustable when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that your 3 minutes have begun a yellow light will light up with an audible tone when there's 30 seconds remaining when your speaking time is up you'll see a
074red light and hear another audible tone when your time is up the next speaker will be called to the podium speakers are asked to respect the time limit and speak for no more than three minutes um at this point we will turn to our list of speakers for tonight and uh per policy we again Grant uh students uh priority on on the agenda so our first student is Roman sorry is Rowan Bido Roman hi um good evening board members today I want to talk about bullying which is a large topic so I'll specifically talk about my experience um first I would just like to say that uh I am starting to get really tired of hearing people say that we need to stop focusing on equity and inclusion because um those those and bullying are
075very interconnected um as I've said before I'm trans and I'm queer I've been bullied for quite a few things but those tend to be the biggest um The Bullying ranges ranges from like Petty taunting to severe harassment I experience it every day at school in the hallway in the bathroom in class on the bus in the cafeteria the list goes on I transferred to this school in mid November and I've been dealing with this treatment since then it's been taking a toll on my performance in school because it's emotionally exhausting makes me uncomfortable makes me feel unsafe and takes up a lot of my focus uh some examples of what have been happening are in order of uncomfortable to Awful uh people laughing and pointing and staring at me in the hallways cat calling and
076moaning at me taking pictures and videos of me shoving and pushing me tripping me grabbing my butt asking me to pull my pants down trying to pull my pants down trying to lift up my shirt telling me I'm ugly and disgusting asking if they can pay me for sex asking to see me naked trying and sometimes succeeding to show me their genitals um telling me I should kill myself and the two worst um threatening to kill me usually said in a joking manner but it's not funny um and threatening to show me what a real man is which if you don't know is um threatening to assault me um all of these happen because of things I can't change about myself and it happens at school and it really messes with my mental health so
077I'd just like to ask do you think that teaching about equity and diversity is so unimportant and do you think that bullying and mental illness will get any better if we intentionally remove inclusion uh I just want you to sit with that I'm really tired of being treated like this and I'm really tired of people vouching for things that would make it worse thank you thank you next we'll go to speakers who are speaking on a topic on tonight's agenda and our first Speaker tonight will be Julie pagee uh followed by Margaret Bido takes me a minute these days sorry y'all no worries good even evening Miss pitch good evening all right um hello I'm Julie paig mom and founder of moms for Liberty Wake County and I want to address a few topics tonight
078first policy 1310 parental involvement why do you think schools are charged with student health issues why do you insist on opt out versus optin what are you doing about K through 4 access to gender ideology materials why do you call for parent training please vote no on this policy tonight so that appropriate changes can be made in line with the parents Bill of Rights next the contract with nothing but education I reviewed this thoroughly today I am beyond shocked and appalled by the waste of over $117,000 of taxpayer money on a networking event claiming to Showcase weight County Schools Innovative educational practices this when 38% of third grade students cannot read at grade level you cut the Accelerated Reader Program due to budget constraints but you can spend our money on a two-day Equity Extravaganza
079flying in speakers and attendees for $116,000 housing them for $27,000 and feeding them for $58,000 all the name of Pathways to Excellence and Equity to train thought leadership skills how in the world can you possibly justify this expenditure why are you not using our money wisely on the children and why is this just now being voted on when the actual process started in September for a February event um lastly weapons detection systems why do we not have these in Wake County the stabbing and death at Southeast Raley High School happened on Monday November 27th there was no detector two days later in Nash County a student brought a gun to school but it was found upon entry by wait for it the Evolve weapons detection system the reason the woke mob doesn't want this for
080Wake well it's a school to prison pipeline what a damn joke how about hurricanes to prison pipeline Wolfpack to prison pipeline Blue Devils to prison pipeline tar Hills to prison pipeline RDU airport to prison pipeline state legislature to prison pipeline line Taylor Swift concert to prison pipeline sounds ridiculous doesn't it every one of those places and events have metal detectors and police officers does that mean they're trying to send people to jail absolutely not they're trying to save lives and make safe places hm safe places sounds familiar are schools safe places for our kids these days I contend that no they are not on many levels please open your eyes open your minds evolve and do better our kids depend on it thank you thank you Miss paig next up is Margaret Belo and Margaret
081will be followed by David orstein hey there uh hello superintendent board members thank you for the opportunity to speak um I'm a mom of four and tonight I brought my oldest who started school in W County she now goes to college in Georgia um I I'm here to speak again about policy 4240 specifically the section addressing child abuse and neglect information and resources for children policy 4240 only requires providing information starting in sixth grade by which point those most vulnerable children have already endured years of abuse conditioning the family is the dominant primary method of socialization with with other secondary methods of socialization coming into play in early childhood the home is where children learn what is and is not socially acceptable how to interact as as well as how to function within Society while
082for most children the home is a wonderful and nurturing environment the sad fact is that this is not the case for all children whatever is going on in a home is what is normalized for the children being socialized in that Home Society identifies child abuse and neglect as aberant however for children who experience these harmful and damaging occurrences as part of their home life These Things become normal they don't know what they're experiencing is different than what any other child is experiencing they don't know what is and isn't a abuse and in fact they may view abuse as love according to data collected by the Annie E Casey foundation in North Carolina of children who are confirmed by Child Protective Services as victims of any form of maltreatment 70% are under the age of 10
083and 15% are between the ages of 11 and 13 the vast majority of children experiencing abuse at home will have experienced it far before they reach sixth grade these vulnerable children absolutely need for their secondary methods of socialization to provide them the safety education protection and awareness to address the travesties they're experiencing they need to see and learn representations of what is and is not healthy and acceptable and they need to see it as soon as possible so that it can be addressed and they can begin the lifelong healing process the school is a critical Cog in the wheel of child protection safeguarding children should be a priority rather than an afterthought we can't say that we're concerned about the mental health care of all of our students while simultaneously ignoring scientific data which tells
084us exactly what is hurting kids by passing policies that will directly contribute to negative mental health outcomes addressing all forms of childhood maltreatment is absolutely essential for every child at every grade level making discussions of all forms of child abuse taboo until sixth grade inhibits prevention and identification reinforces the secrecy that hides and normalizes abuse and fails the children who need help the most please Encompass all grade levels and providing information and resources about child abuse and neglect thank you and happy holidays you our next speaker uh David orstein followed by Ricky albino the delegation model currently in effect to manage and care for young students with type 1 diabetes is both ineffective and for serious harm to students who are not yet mature enough to manage their own care hello members of the school
085board I've come here today to speak to you regarding the injustices that my daughter and family had to endure in the short time she is attended wcpss my daughter is a kindergartener in Wake County Public Schools and has Type 1 diabetes this is a chronic condition in which her pancreas no longer has the ability to regulate her blood glucose levels and in order to do so she is reliant on an external source of insulin as a result she is battling hypoglycemia or blood glucose levels which have gone above the range considered safe and can lead to long-term organ damage and hypoglycemia or blood glucose levels which have gone below the range considered safe and can lead to Serious seizures diabetic coma or even death during her short tenure there she has experienced inadequate care that
086is not for that if not for regular intervention by my wife and I she would have most certainly suffered serious harm the current model requires that a nurse contracted out by wch HHS supervis non-medical professionals to execute a health plan however the system is seriously flawed for the following reasons one the nurse is completely inexperienced and poorly trained in the care for type 1 diabetics I cannot stress this enough being an R does not make someone an expert in type 1 diabetes two the caretakers being delicated are poorly trained by the nurse and are forced to rely upon a health plan they themselves do not understand and three when we tried to educate the caretakers we were restricted from doing so by the administration even when they approached us asking for the help as a
087result of these factors my daughter was overdosed on carbs leading to hypoglycemia overdose on insulin and underdose on carbs when experiencing hypoglycemia as a result of these injustices we had no choice but demand that the local school nurse be barred from interacting with our daughter although this was granted it did not improve our daughter's situation over time the procedures utilized by wch HHS led to more conflict as they threatened to restrict care when we did not adhere to non-written requirements we never agreed to and forc changes to my daughter's health plan to prevent hypoglycemic events at the expense of causing hyperglycemia ultimately this led to my daughter missing school for 6 weeks while a on toone nurse was being recruited my daughter had returned to school where our nightmare continued as it became evident that
088local staff members who had opposed her necessary care um may have been influencing the nurse to the point where she had changed overnight from being a warm and friendly person someone who was cold and falsely accused us of misconduct and then ultimately resigned when my daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes I thought that was the most stressful day of my life but it Pals in comparison to what we are experiencing now and I know my family is not alone in this struggle let us not forget that the school buildings are here for the kids so they may not only be educated but be provided a foundation for developing a successful life yet my daughter's experience has done not much more than extinguish the Flames of her excitement to be there our next speaker is
089Ricky albino followed by Jennifer lobs just in case I've mispronounced it Ricky albino albino all right we'll move on and if uh Rick is able to join us before the end uh we can add them to the end of the agenda so then we'll hear now from Jennifer lobs followed by Barbara Walsh good evening good evening thank you guys for allowing me to speak here tonight I come to you as a parent of children in Wake County Public School System I am the wife of a teacher in a high school here and I volunteer in our schools and I care about our school system very deeply I listen to the first 100 Day speech and I really applaud you and thank you for coming on board with our school system one of the things that
090I heard from you when you first started out was reaching every student every day and I kind of think of that when I I walk into the schools and when I interact with the schools I want every child every day it's a lofty goal one of the things that um also rang out when you were talking about social media today um I am a person on Facebook I don't do it all the time but if you're passionate about something they tend to throw a bunch of ads your way well one of the things that caught my eye and that concerned me is that I got a flash for an advertisement local public school in your area now I'm rolling for your student in 2024 2025 school school year and I thought really you know and
091so I clicked on it and I was frustrated and um heartbroken and I've also seen and driving in other parts of the state and also watching TV all of the different ads for the schools that are now popping up it's hard to understand as a parent um what is a publicly funded School versus a County public school system and what are the things that differentiate between our school system and our schools and what we require to teach and what we require to have and um one thing that I'm asking is that when you move forward with responding to some of the mandated laws that you have to advertise and and talk about other opportunities for families and students to apply to or a chance to do I I implore you to have on there what
092it is that the public the county schools are mandated I implore you to to talk about the diversity the equity and that every student every day so thank you for allowing me to speak today thank you uh next we'll hear from Barbara Walsh followed by John bog drop off my show and share here you go so this is leans down but this is my daughter Sophia and this is nooo the brand named ncam and that's why I'm here to talk about fentel killed my child but it does not have to kill your students my name is Barb Walsh I live in ki in District 9 I raised four children all of whom were educated K through 12 in Wake County Public Schools and they were well prepared for college my 24-year-old daughter Sophia was at
093Apex HIgh grad she was also a grad from Appalachian State she was also professionally employed in 20121 Sophia drank a bottle of water unbeknownst to her this bottle of water contained 8 nanog of disolved fentanyl which is colorless and odorless she died instantly because nxone was not administered and 911 wasn't called Sophia is an example of how quickly and how easily fentanyl kills she is also the reason why I'm speaking to you today because I don't want another family in Wake County to feel this pain on October 30th President Biden and the US Department of Education issued a letter to all Educators and administrators and that is in the packet to ensure that every school has nxone and has prepared its students and faculty on how to use it nxone saved lives just like fire
094extinguishers defibrillators and epipens Wake County School Board takes student sa Safety and Security seriously that is why it requires all 75 school resource officers to carry Narcan or nooo however there are 199 schools in the Wake County Public School System meaning 124 or 62% do not have life-saving neone in their building these schools are at risk of experiencing a fatality not if but when an opioid or fentanyl emergency occurs 876 Wake County residents have been killed by fentanyl in the last 9 years students are Wake County residents you may not have experienced the fatality yet but but is coming ask our neighbors in Virginia fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid with legitimate medical medicinal uses however today's youth are dying from illicit Fentanyl and counterfeit press pills illegally made to look like Xanax adderal oxycotton
095and Percocet fentanyl poisoning is now the leading cause of death in America's youth Charlotte meinberg school is not waiting for ncdpi to issue State policy they are moving toward forward to stock n lockone in all schools I encourage Wake County School Board to do the same please educate teachers and staff on the symptoms of fentanyl emergencies this can be done annually on video training thank you Miss Walsh you're and again if you have additional comments that you weren't able to make you can give those to our board attorney and help they in the packets thank you thank you all right um next up we do have uh John bof and Mr bog will be followed by zel Lucas good evening Mr bog good evening school board members I hope you had a blessed Hanukkah and
096we'll have a blessed Christmas I'm going to jump down Dr Taylor thank you for speaking to the universities they're your stakeholders and they get the products from the high school so hopefully our students that graduate are meeting or exceeding their expectations so you can understand what the schools need to do thank you for doing that Forbes Magazine States in a tweet Elon Musk boldly declared Dei must deie you're probably not going to like this subject his critique addresses a real issue certain D initiatives initially aimed at ending discrimination May inadvertently introduce new forms of unfairness musk's concerns about rigid quotas and decisions based solely on representation ation rather than qualifications have logical Merit policies that prioritize diversity at all costs can foster resentment in those left behind and paradoxically ultimately end up undermining the intended
097goals of Dei Elon can send a rocket up into space and have it land on a landing pad so he probably has a pretty good idea um working with people and whatever he has to do to get this job done Dei is a form of racism against top performers when you introduce the Dei agenda the best and the brightest are bypassed in many cases students who put time in and go the extra mile to strive for the best grade they can in they can attain will see their hard work bypassed in the name of equity Equity is not equality those students who Excel must be given the path that allows them to grow so we can have Equity but we can't leave top performers in the dust you are I left a large organization building
098hospitals all around here because I was told to do just that I said no I'm done you are doing the Dei agenda but there is no line item in your budget in order to truly be transparent can we have made public the salaries and other costs for the DIA Dei agenda on your website budget please um also I read uh a disturbing report this week about North Carolina the headline reads at least 64 education employees arrested in 2023 57 of those had a sexual component I don't have enough info to get too deep into it I'm going to start digging it up but just to this point many of us stand here to implore you to use to use common sense and age appropriate restrictions of sexual materials primarily the school libraries and other materials
099that are being handed out hopefully there will be a positive change in 2024 as king Jehoshaphat prayed we do not know what we should do but our eyes are on you I pray that for each of you thank you thank you Mr bog uh next speaker is zel L excuse me it's Mr zel Lucas and he'll be followed by Leia dun good evening we appreciate you all so much you have a tough job here uh you may have heard my name my company name Lucas Transportation I've been around Upfront for the last 37 years doing this business I've got to tell you the first 20 years 37 years a long time working with special Kids the first 20 years was great the last 15 to 16 years has not been so great uh because and
100we won't call any names here because of a director that there uh for the special Transportation I fully believe myself that he came in with a mission and that mission was to eliminate the local vendors and he did so by putting obstacles and even tricks there to get rid of the local vendors and they're all are gone but me the longtime vendors Lucas's Transportation still standing there the biggest tricks was six years ago when he actually called the local vendors and said look uh he formed a committee and said you got to stand come stand before this committee and give us uh five minutes a five or 10 minutes presentation and venders only half of the venders showed up then so we lost the others they didn't show up but and it was because they
101knew that it was another trick I did show up there and I found out yes it was a trick there was one venor an out ofate vendor that was called there that was there that was not there they sent A F minute video and they were awarded 90% of the contract and you know something is wrong with that picture but I just want to say this I don't know if this is the right place to do this but I want I want to do this say this in for the record write it down I am giving my resignation and I'm gon to I'm going to follow the contract I'm going to honor my contract I'm giving a 90-day notice and then that's following the contract right a 90-day notice that means come uh March I
102believe it's March 18th uh our zel Edward Lucas will not be there and I regret that because I love my job I love what I do so I want for the record the the 17th now you know I regret this I hate it for the kids so you win sir uh but so many of our children with special needs lose and it hurts me to my heart to see this happens I don't know if this has ever been done before or not but to come before the school board and give the resignation saying this is it but please I ask you this please pay attention to our kids with special needs thank you thank you Mr Lucas all right um next our next speaker uh Leia dun followed by Jim Walsh is Miss dun here
103tonight all right then uh we will move on with the agenda uh Jim Walsh will be our next speaker followed by um well also had uh Miss Leia dun signed up second time so uh unless Miss Dunn shows up Jim you'll be finishing us off tonight good evening good evening first of all I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to all those who celebrated Hanukkah I trust their celebration of the light was successful I am mixed and somewhat perplexed since I am not a parent How can I talk about any item regarding how our County's public education is conduct conducted or protected current policies have been set up protecting The Interchange between a parent in the school I'm very glad to see this action being taken and look forward to our parents taking
104advantage of every interaction opportunity they have congratulations on the process and looking for much much more we must ensure the focus of Lake County Public Schools is an echo of the values of what parents Citizens Business and Technology is demanding for a successful future for the student how can this be done if input to decision making is being limited by removing citizen input and insight I look at the issue like a story a friend shared with me so I see a burgling process do I call the police do I let them know what I'm seeing do I give them information supporting what I'm seeing can this information be provided for the safety of the responding officers am I providing valuable input which can be interpreted into sustainable able action the answer to these questions is
105obviously yes the information is valuable to the officer on the phone with me who is interpreting and relating the information who knows the information might even be valuable in court so where is the Avenue for a taxpayer with regards to our school system I live in a state where over 60% of my taxes go to you all to educate our children I do not have the ability to provide input and feedback as to how our education system works really yes of course I can State a Viewpoint from here in this form and it is the only place for my voice or request interaction to be voiced however since I'm not a parent what value are my comments to the board of principal or school since policies block my ability to contribute here's a great example
106as a taxpayer State bills 49 is coming due and I haven't seen a word of what you're going to do thank you Mr W all right that concludes the public comment period at this point according to our agenda uh we'll move on to consideration of our consent items uh board members have all of the items listed on the agenda um for your review if you've had time to properly review them is there a motion concerning the consent agenda at this time so moved we have a motion from Miss Johnson Hustler a second from Mr Swanson for adoption of the consent items all in favor say I I any opposed I'm sorry we have to do that again we'll go around the table Mr Hershey hi M Dr ining hi Miss Edmonds hi Miss mafy Miss
107thank you uh I will say I Vice chair Waters I Miss Johnson hosler I and Mr Swanson I sounds like it's a unanimous vote uh the motion passes so following this we'll move to our action agenda um we scroll down uh one item tonight but it's an important one we will uh here from excuse me went too far sorry Mr Neer uh adoption of the 2023 2024 annual budget resolution um Mr Neer at this time if you'd like to uh begin the presentation yes thank you and good evening chair Hagerty members of the board and superintendant Taylor tonight we are asking to take the final formal step in approv approving the board's 2023 2024 operating budget going back to April of this year we presented the superintendent's proposed 2324 operating budget to the board and
108since then the board has conducted multiple work sessions on the proposed budget the board has held a public hearing on the budget the board has adopted the board's proposed budget and submitted it to the County Commissioners as required by state statute and the board has adopted an interim budget resolution to allow the district to continue to operate effect of July 1 the beginning of the fiscal year um without yet at that point knowing what the final state budget was um upon finalization of the state budget staff presented to the board budget reconciliation recommendations at your October 17th meeting and at that same meeting we presented to the board recommended salary schedules for all staff for the 2023 2024 year and the board did approve both the recommendations for reconciliation of the budget as well as
109the salary schedules in November of this year staff implemented the 2023 2024 salary schedules including retroactive pay for all staff to make those changes effective as of July 1st and now finally with those new salaries aligned within their respective budget codes throughout the district's budget we are bringing to you this evening the final Balan budget resolution for the 2023 2024 school year including detail by purpose and function as required by state statute for your consideration approval I now ask for that consideration thank you Mr Neer board members you've seen the budget resolution that has been posted Ed um do we have a motion at this time second we have a motion from Mr Hershey a second from uh Miss Johnson Hustler is there any discussion or any questions about the budget resolution all right well
110at that point again everyone has had time to uh see and review the resolution if there's no discussion or no questions Mr Neer I will take a vote all in favor of the budget resolution again we're going to go around everyone's pointing it took me twice Mr swans caught me but the third time third time he just had to glare and on new so uh starting again Mr Hershey hi Dr in hi Miss Edmonds hi Miss mahy I I'll vote I Vice chair Waters I Miss Johnson Hustler I and Mr Swanson I again another unanimous vote we have approval of the budget resolution thank you Mr nater thank you okay so at this point because we already amended the agenda we already approve the HR items that were adopted in closed session we will need
111to return to closed session um to go back to consider confidential personal information chair can we actually approve the HR oh we only put it on the agenda yes all right well in that case I would entertain a motion I would make a motion that we approve the HR uh recommendations that we approved in close session all right we have a motion for Mr Hershey we have a second for Miss Johnson Hustler again we will go around the table unless there's any debate or any questions hope not all right Mr Hershey hi Dr ining hi Miss Edmond hi Miss mfy hi I'll vote I Vice chair Waters hi Miss Johnson Hustler and Mr Swanson all right we will record that as a as another unanimous vote and uh the human resource recommendations made in closed
112session will be adopted all right then at this point on our agenda um I would entertain a motion to consider confidential information to move into closed session again return to closed session to consider confident confidential Personnel information protected under North Carolina General statute 143 31811 A6 and 115 c319 Mr milone that's aren't we dealing with the um potential real estate matter we are oh okay I'm sorry I I misund I maybe I didn't hear you I thought you said 115c 319 which is the Personnel statute oh I was going through all of them I'm sorry oh you going to read them all okay I'm sorry Sor right well upon upon advice from councel I will skip to the Chase and we will then also consult with an attorney with our board attorney employed or retained
113by the board in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the board in regards to um the particulars of the acquisition of real property interests for public infrastructure improvements related to Hilltop Needmore Road Elementary School site and to receive the board's instructions as to the position to be taken on behalf of the board in negotiations in relation there to so moved so a motion by Mr Swanson a second by m Johnson Hustler again we'll go around the table all in favor of the motion to return to close session um we'll begin Mr Hershey I Dr in hi Miss Edmonds hi Miss mfy I I'll vote I Vice chair Waters Miss Johnson hosler and Mr Swanson I all right so by unanimous vote we will return to close session to return to
114consider the items uh so protected by Statue thank you very much everyone