17-10-23 Board Meeting

001e all right good evening everyone if you could please take your seats it is Tuesday October 17th 2023 at 5:38 pm and we are calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I want to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in in person way County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its 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 from refrain by refraining from loud comments or other disrup disruptions

002by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143 d318 one7 um and speaking with our security team we ask that all attendees take a seat and remain seated and if you have to leave the room please exit the building as this is the only room that is currently open to the public at this time um and we have a quorum of all board memb as well as our board attorney and superintendent Taylor round two sir if you will all join me in standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance i al to United States of America stand well I know as a parent I have been receiving all of his blog posts and updates but I'm going to turn it over first to a superintendent

003Taylor who has had a whirlwind tour and is continuing his Whirlwind tour of the district so sir thank you Madame chair uh Mr Vice chair members of the board uh good afternoon uh good evening to you all and as always thank you for your service uh this is round two and uh I'm still here so I had the pleasure of announcing our principal of the year and assistant principal of the Year winners at the annual awards banquet on October the 6th and I'd like to take one more opportunity to recognize our outstanding School leaders uh Winston Pierce of Farmington Woods Magnet Elementary was named principal of the year and Leslie Anderson of Willow Spring High was named assistant principal of the year uh Mrs Pierce has worked for the Wake County Public School System for

004more than 30 years serving for the past 13 years as principal of Farmington Woods uh Mrs Pierce has built a strong and cohesive School community at Farmington Woods that Embraces the school's IB Magnet theme in 2018 Farmington Woods was named the top Magnet Elementary School in the country by magnet schools of America uh one key to her success has been empowering her staff to make school Improvement decisions with every staff member participating in one of five leadership teams uh Leslie Anderson has worked in our district for 10 years and has served as an assistant principal at Willow Spring High School since 2021 Miss Anderson has created many opportunities for Meaningful Community engagement and she can coordinates regular communication to keep all members of the school Community informed uh she has also served as co-chair of

005the school Improvement team and as a member of the PTSA and athletic boosters having served for many years as a principal I know well how many challenges and joys of leading a school can be uh to be named principal of the year or assistant principal of the year in a district that is full of talented and experienced School administrators is truly an outstanding accomplishment so we want to uh congratulate our winners this year and our finalist and my thanks to all of our principles and assistant principles for their tireless service to students staff and families I also like to say congratul ulations are in order for Angie Headley of ab comes Magnet Elementary who was named the 2023 North Carolina School librarian of the Year I'll say that again the 2023 North Carolina School librarian

006of the Year [Applause] absolutely Mrs Headley taught 10 years in Kentucky before moving to Raleigh in 2009 when she became a fifth grade teacher at comes in 20 13 she was offered her dream job dream job of school librarian her principal Julie sexon says Mrs hedley's passion for reading is Contagion contagious without a doubt our students are better leaders and Learners because of the positive impact she has made we know that students who develop a love of reading early on have a much better chance of academic success clearly our school librarians play a crucial role in supporting student literacy so I'm grateful for school librarians like Mrs Hedley who believe in the power of reading finally I want to um uh I was fortunate last week to participate in the Wake Ed partnership's annual stars

007of Education Gayla uh where we pay tribute to people from various walks of life who have left an indelible mark on our school district I'd like to take a moment to recognize this year's winners Tom Bradshaw received the Vernon Malone friendship of Education Award presented to someone who has made significant contributions to our community and shares the qualities of the late Senator Vernon Malone who advocated tirelessly for every child to have Equitable opportunities Mr bro is a Brockton High School graduate with a long and successful career in business politics which includes becoming the youngest mayor in Raley's history at age 32 uh he has been a key player in every successful Wake County Public School bun campaign over the past 50 years and is deeply committed to the public school Forum of North Carolina which

008has Ser uh which he has served for more than 30 years uh most recently Tom served as the leader of the transformative Southeast Raleigh promise effort that included opening a new state-of-the-art school and world class YMCA facility in southeast Raleigh uh this year's other start well I do want to say I want to go to brogen high school and see if Tom's name is written in the bell tower at the top um I have to check that uh this year's other stars of Education honies were Freda Lee Heath the recently retired director of Arts education who led more than 500 art instructors of all disciplines in more than 160 schools across Wake County after a successful career as a dance instructor for seven schools Paul dor a retired leeville Road High leeville Road High School

009soccer coach and teacher who led multiple boys and girls soccer teams to state championships earning numerous coaching Awards along the way the late John palore Palmer uh former Chief technology officer of wolf speed formerly cre uh who co-founded cre with several fellow NC State graduates and who believed strongly in giving back to students in Wake County uh Cassandra love Watson of UCB biosciences Incorporated who has been an active PTA member since 1998 when her daughter started school and has served in many leadership roles on the Wake PTA Council uh the late Leon hearnen who made history in 1972 at enoh High by becoming the first black principal of a predominantly white school in the country in the County's history later serving as principal of Apex High in Carol middle and John Johnny Hackett Jr brockland

010High School graduate and the founder of the black dollar Corporation and online directory for black on businesses across North Carolina all of these honores in their own unique ways have made a positive impact on our students and our communities uh it's a reminder that our school district doesn't exist in a vacuum that we need the support of our entire Community uh truly to uh Thrive I'm grateful for this year's winners and to all those who have given of their time talent and treasure to be uh to better the lives of our students and I can tell you that I was truly impressed by the wakad partnership and the work that they've done I think this most recent year they raised over $500,000 for the benefit of Wake County Public Schools uh and I'm truly grateful

011for that service uh with that Madam chair I'll turn it back to you all right thank you superintendent Taylor and just a reminder that wed partnership not only hosts the gala um but they also provide a lot of professional development for paid professional development let's lead with that for staff members um in their stemposium um as well as uh opportunities for our students to connect with careers outside of the K12 spectrum and uh volunteering opportunities like Partners read so we have opportunities to volunteer at your schools we have volunteering opportunities with the um YMCA program for the um high impact tutoring and then Partners read where you go in and you read with um young children and develop a a rapport with them um and I believe Miss Johnson Hustler you do Partners read and

012have done for a while and Miss Waters too excellent um and then on Friday I got to meet with the fugu Arina education Council um and it was great hearing about that their upcoming plans on honoring teachers in the fug Arina area and I want to give a shout out to our County Commission um this year we have reached out to them as well as other municipalities um and I believe five municipalities have already passed an ordinance to not allow a new Vape or tobacco shop within a certain number of feet within a school and the County Commissioners were able to pass one yeah absolutely passed one uh last night and this only applies to unincorporated areas of Wake County um but not allowing new uh Vape or tobacco shops um within a thousand feet

013of a school um there are other restrictions you can go to wake. COV and read the whole plan and press release um I'm really hoping um and I know other board members sitting here are really hoping that other municipalities sign on um and look for ways that we can keep um tobacco products nicotine products out of the hands of our students unfortunately is becoming an issue in our schools um not just our high schools but our middle schools as well and so as parents I think it's important that we educate ourselves on what these look like because they come in all different shapes sizes colors and flavors um but many thanks to our partners on the County commission for setting a very strong standard for this ordinance and we hope that it will help again

014uh an existing business that's already there will not be impacted but future businesses um will be and so with that I'm going to hand it over to Vice chair hegerty thank you chair mfy a lot of the great things we've been working on since the last meeting have been covered um Dr Taylor and chair mfy did highlight Our Stars of education program and the wonderful accomplishments that were celebrated around around the county uh we even had a surprise appearance there from uh certain Miss uh Ariana deos I thought that was uh kind of a nice surprise there in honor of Freddy Lee Heath um you know Dr Taylor has been on a countywide whirlwind tour and it seems like last week I saw him more than I saw my own kids um he came out

015to our BAC meeting got to meet a lot of the families in district 7 um answered a lot of questions stuck around a good while we appreciate you coming out there to Barton Pond Elementary um in addition to seeing him at the stars of Education uh he also was hosting various listening sessions Community roundtables with I guess about what 150 people per area yeah and I got to I got to uh step into one of those and it was really wonderful to see um everybody involved with that and there was a lot of great feedback a lot of great celebrations and a lot of areas of you know challenges of improvement they identified too so I thought that was just a wonderful start and a great way to introduce yourself to a lot of folks

016in our district um I will say uh you we had our work session earlier today talking about the reassignment plan I don't know how many of you were able to tune in and watch that uh draft two of the reassignment plan has been re-released or has been released there's a lot of things that we've been working on a lot of feedback that we've gotten from the community that well some was addressed in the report other specific things weren't addressed in the report but staff has assured us those are still under consideration and we'll get a response back on very specific recommendations that have been made pros and cons feasibility and other ideas and we're continuing to get new ideas I'd gotten a new new idea this weekend that has come out so we'll continue to

017look at that if you do have positions on reassignment but you haven't seen those you know positions reflected in draft two know that draft two is not the final plan and we are still continuing to work on this uh finally I want to wish a happy birthday last Friday was uh the birthday of new leeville road High School principal Shana Jacobs who on her birthday not only hosted homecoming for the rockus leeville road High School crowd but also chaperon the dance until midnight on her birthday so if you happen to see principal Jacobs please wish her a happy birthday and let her know how much we appreciate her dedication and it was a nice birthday gift um you know I I don't do this often but our alma mater played leeville Road and we gave

018them 49 points and asked nothing in return so thank you chair mfy so so generous to do that on her birthday U Miss Johnson Hustler thank you um I I will um be brief um again congratulations to both our principal of the year and our assistant principal of the year who who is at Willow Spring High School and the only other announcement I have this evening is the worldwind tour will continue in District 2 um on tomorrow evening for district 2 uh board advisory council with Dr Taylor at Willow Springs Elementary School tomorrow that concludes my comments Mr Swanson thank you um yes I want to also just give my appreciation to the wied partnership and Keith uh posted in his leadership and his team for the support that they have for way County Public

019Schools and our teachers with their Tools for Schools um Supply drive and um in addition I want to say that I uh in addition to that um last week I believe uh Dr Robinson and his staff did a very high overvie high overview excuse me of the Strategic plan for District 9 at our BAC um so great dialogue that was there and it's really given the public an opportunity to really see that this strategic plan is not just housed here in Wake County but this is a community effort and it's it's really all of us doing this work together so I really want to thank him for that and uh looking forward to doing a part two to that um because there was so much information that we did not get to get into at

020that um um and also since Dr Taylor's tours are going on I had the pleasure of uh being here on Saturday when he did his focus group with the students um which was very powerful to hear voices and to allow them to express numerous opportunities that they believe that we can level up as a district and so looking forward to achieving some of those great things and um just looking at how talented our students are and hopefully hoping that we can recruit some future teachers Future Leaders of the district to really take part of this work um and lastly this week is college uh application week so seniors that are um looking forward to taking that next Journey um this week certain universities in North Carolina are waving their their uh college application so please

021take advantage of that um and yes looking forward to seeing the great things our students are going to achieve and hopefully getting to their dream colleges and that will conclude my remarks for the day Miss Coffield thank you um a couple of things October is National bullying prevention month and bullying comes in all shapes and sizes and forms it's very serious an individual who's trying to overpower intimidate or take over someone's ability to have peace and respect should not be tolerated anywhere in our society whether it's intimidation abuse violence mental Avenues bullying is an intent to overpower silence or suppress someone that is UN and it's unacceptable and shouldn't be tolerated at any level and with it become comes responsibility of self-control and a level of respect on on the flip side it could also

022be countered with kindness shown by another person as stepping in either spread awareness or shut down any of the types of bullying or overpowering see something say something is something we often hear in our schools and it could also mean to help or protect your fellow student or staff member we see this in politics in boardrooms and classrooms in and out of the classrooms and on buses I hope we continue to share awareness and we can bring a bullying policy um to the table to be a little bit more specific spe ific about our clear expectations and consequences of bullying and that it won't be tolerated along with resources for our staff and students if they experience any of these situations if you are someone you know is struggling please speak up and reach out

023and please reach out for help or reach out to those who you see struggling it could make a world of difference October is also breast cancer awareness month I have my pink on in honor of those families and I'm sending prayers out to all those families who have struggled and are struggling with this horrible disease I know two families just this last week that are struggling and have watched families and friends struggle and navigate through it I pray for all of you for your health and for your support and for prayers from strangers around you and those organizations that provide efforts of support that surround you all I hope one day that we do actually find a cure this past Friday at Heritage High School everybody had their pink on to honor those families and

024friends at their varsity football game the entire student section stood cheering with I mean incredible excitement all dressed in their pink deck to the nine reminding me once again that together we are really a force to honor the battles of these families and even more excited that they filled the entire stadium and then ran out onto the field after their first ever Victory against Wake Forest High School cougars it was a very exciting game and both teams played super hard but I'm going to have to give a shout out to Heritage Huskies this is also um October is also super a cyber security awareness month and it's really important for us to protect our youth when it comes to Internet Security we're surrounded by technology devices and apps and this comes with great responsibility to

025every parent to take note of what their CH child uh does and learns on the internet this is also seen on the Alicia project that I've mentioned before where she teaches children and students all of the United States of Internet safety I hope one day to see her here in our schools teaching about safety along with many other tools and res with our children I believe knowledge is power and we give the power to our children to use these devices we also have to be aware of not only our knowledge but theirs please log into the Elisha project to learn some more about that this past week we had our uh district one had our first board advisory committee and we broke out into two breakout sessions uh where we did positive reflection um and

026they gave a lot of feedback we broke into Elementary tables to our Middle School tables and high school tables we got to see what families and schools are experiencing in their schools and what is working well and they also gave us what are some of their challenges we're going to actually log that in the comments and they're going to provide that back to the famili so that they could all learn from that um everybody was really excited about being able to engage with other schools and learning and then I went to Dr Taylor's Round Table where we did that on a much larger scale um after that um and it was a great opportunity to hear from all our community members and at each table they had um a parent a principal they had a

027counselor they had um a special teacher a regular teacher um and it was just really good to hear all the feedback from everybody and I think everybody was very engaged and one of the comments from a parent when they stood up to to share was that she was so tou touched and she actually was a little bit emotional um how much everybody really cared and how much everybody was coming together how many people were there to share and our concern for our children so it's great to see that Community feedback and I hope we see a lot more of that I look forward to getting the feedback from everybody once we're done with um the work that Dr Taylor is is doing and a reminder that this Saturday Wake Forest is having a mental awareness

028uh day at the re Renaissance Center from 1: to 4: they'll have several wendor vendors there and Wake Forest uh Community will um I'm sorry Wake County Community uh school system will also have a table there and they will be there to help any families and provide some resources so hopefully you'll be able to attend that as well and that's it right Miss Waters thank you chair mfy I join in the congratulations to principal of the Year Winston Pierce and AP of the Year lesie Anderson the impact of their work is going to be felt for generations to come and we certainly have experienced a lot of um joys in the last week has have been shared um wakad partnership and also an opportunity to celebrate the incredible um work of volunteers who support our

029CTE programs um and so so glad to be able to participate in those great events also want to um take a moment to talk about a summer time of reflection that happened recently in our community last Friday marked one year since the mass shooting in Hingham a beloved neighborhood in District 4 where five people sadly lost their lives we probably all remember where we were when we heard this tragic news but sadly there has been no legislative changes to address these Horrors that have become too familiar across our country so it is important that we can continue to talk about protecting our communities from tragedies like this especially as we reflect on the fact that Firearms are now the leading cause of death among children in the United States millions of children live in homes

030with unlocked and loaded firearms and so securing Firearms um is an important part of keeping our family safe um please visit bart.org for more information on safe storage we were fortunate enough to have um a presentation from be smart as I believe many others have as well welcomed them to their BAC meetings and grateful that um we have them as a resource in our community um and uh speaking of BAC meetings the next District 4 BAC meeting will be held on Thursday October 26 at 6 pm and will be hosted by Lian Magnet Middle School we will proudly welcome superintendent Taylor as a special guest and we will also receive an update on Student Assignment TR transportation and maintenance so hope to see many District 4 families out at that event um I want to

031um also lift up um a lot of organizations that are supporting our students and make the appeal to members of the public who want to support the academic success of students we have multiple organizations that provide mentoring and tutoring and some currently has some students um are currently on weight list to be match with a caring adult and so there can be as little as a one hour per week commitment to help children be successful um in the school buildings and so I hope you will consider that and if you would like some information on um any of those organiz um please reach out to me I'd be glad to um help you find a good a good fit to be able to serve um with our students and I'm glad um Mr Swanson lifted

032up college application um week um and in the opportunity for uh students to be able to apply to um schools at no cost including North Carolina aent State University um I saw that on the list as well as all 58 community colleges in North Carolina um so I hope um we will have a lot of a lot of um our community take advantage of this great opportunity and lastly I want to thank uh Dr Jackie Jordan Dr Ellen Ashburn for affording me and Dr Wich Havis the opportunity to meet with some very passionate in low Magnet High School students who rais concerns around what um sb49 could mean for the health and safety of students and so I appreciate um having the opportunity to hear from them and um their lived experience and hopes to

033be able to be a strong at um for the work as we continue to move forward so thank you Miss Edmonds thank you um first I was uh felt left out because I didn't have Dr Taylor on my BAC agenda so we moved it um I announced that it was originally going to be in mid October but we have moved the District 5 BAC to November 27th at 5:30 p.m. still at Penny Road um elementary school but but that was to allow Dr Taylor to attend and I'm very grateful to him um for working that out with us and I'm very grateful to our BC members for being open to that and welcome to that I know they're excited to to see him um I've also been attended one of your round taes last week

034um and it really is a testament to the commitment to our public school system from members of this community both Educators uh were there and parents and community members um and I'm going to try to go to the one uh this Friday too thank you also Dr Taylor for lifting up Miss Hedley over at Colmes Elementary the librarian librarian there she is definite definitely a testament to the critical role that our school librarians have for our students so thank you for for mentioning her um I join you all as we con congratulate the principal and assistant principal of the year and um also lift up those recognized at the stars of Education Gayla on on October 7th Dr Taylor and I attended the color of Education not together I think we spotted each other it's

035like hey you're here too um the color of Education conference um is a full day conference hosted by the public school Forum of North Carolina and The Dudley flood Center for educational equity and opportunity and um the local education giant himself deadly flood was in attendance it was an outstanding event um the two keynote speakers were children's author Jerry craft and educator and researcher Lisa delpit um the theme was the path forward co-creating Equitable spaces I've been attending this conference since 2018 when they started it and this was one of the most engaging and bold um agendas as far as the workout uh excuse me workshops and breakout sessions many times throughout the day points were made about the harm of limiting students access to history and books about the harms for all children if

036if they don't learn accurate honest history this is especially true for black and brown students I want to lift up one quote from the keynote speaker um Miss delpit uh she said quote despite current guidelines that are happening all across the country it's really important for black students to know about Black History Literature art music and the historical Brilliance of Africa the world's first libraries and universities the civil rights movement and the special place young people have had within it end quote I know that our Educators believe this in Wake County Public Schools and I'm grateful for them and everyone in leadership here committed to this work I want to lift up the superintendent CTE volunteer Awards breakfast that was held um that Miss Waters uh lifted up this event celebrated those community members and

037business partners that work with our CTE students in their classes and in their Pathways the general public I believe just doesn't have doesn't know how robust our CTE program offerings are in this district and it's something that we need to continue to lift up and celebrate and promote um we have more than 20 careeres spread across 20 of our high schools and those are not reserved just for magnet schools it's a true asset to our community to have these acmis that can help students find lucrative careers in CTE and I want to give a shout out to the students and staff at middle Creek High School specifically um they handled all of the digital media um from the digital media Academy at Middle Creek they did all of the AV for the program for that

038day the videos the sound Etc um they sat at the back of the room with their teachers and just did a phenomenal job also students um in Middle Creek's interior design program created the small floral arrangements that were at the tables and they were complete with roses and miniature pumpkins and candles it was it was lovely and it was just a great time of spotlighting RCT programs and it left me wanting more um you've heard me talk a lot about veran Malone college Career Academy because it's in District 5 but there's so much more available um across the district and I invite families to explore our CTE options on our website or reach out to any of us and we will try to get you the information that you're looking for and the last comment

039I have is I want to congratulate um former superintendent cat Moore on her appointment to the State Board of Education I am thrilled that she's there she will be a huge asset um to the state of North Carolina serving in that way thank you Dr in hi good evening um I had a chance to attend the West milbrook Middle School ribbon cutting ceremony last week um a real big thank you to principal Aman for spearheading the effort over the years to get the children a beautiful new building for the children of North Raleigh also in attendance was uh Miss Roxy cash um who was also instrumental in advocating for building this school um I really appreciate all the efforts by the community to make this uh into a reality um I I'm also looking forward

040to the groundbreaking ceremony for Rex Ro elementary school that will be happening tomorrow um while it's important to celebrate the shiny new school um and is a great event um to to celebrate that um but this highlights the need for the community to continue to advocate for our aging schools um that need a lot more TLC um you know please note that you know in the midst of a recession the continued growth of our County and competing priorities for building needs we need to be wise in how we use our resources uh not all of our aging schools will be in a position to have a new building but I am hopeful that in the coming years there will be more of a focus of resources to the exist existing schools so I hope that

041more of the capital Improvement dollars will go to more schools that are in need in the years to come the quality of a school and the educational experience that the children have do not rest solely on the physical plan or the structural appearance but if the health and safety of the children are impacted then we ought to make a priority to address these issues I will continue to work with our leadership team to make sure that we exhaust all options to make our schools a welcoming place to learn and uh one last thing was uh you know bringing up the um The Vaping issue and I'm really glad to hear the momentum is building um and you know just something I I kind of um brought in a few months ago you know just that

042when I was just a lowly physician working at wake um before Co I know there a whole bunch of these uh young people were in in the ICU and um didn't know why except there was some correlation with the use of uh vaping um um the cigarettes and uh you know it kind of got overshadowed by Co when it happened and now you know uh in the in the literature there's actually a name to it is called e valy e cigarette or vaping products Associated lung injury and so it's a serious thing um it's important for us as uh adults and parents to to um um counsel our children about what they're putting into their bodies and also send an example too um so that uh they know um that um you know uh the

043body is important the body is a temple of God and uh it's important to to do the right thing for our bodies and to and then set an example for them and just as much as you know putting the right uh uh things in your body but it's also important to put the right things in your mind so you know again you know as parents um you know you guys ought to be the ones to be able to um uh counsel and and help the kids to know what is right and what is wrong and what kind of material should be um going into the so that's all I have to say Thank you Mr Hershey uh thank you I I was joking when I said I had no comments earlier I'll just be very

044happens to all of us well I really want to see my name come up on the TV so uh wait there we go all right very quickly uh the Early College uh and uh application period is open now along with our magnet um applications the next ma uh magnet parent information session is October 19th it's a virtual one there are some in-person ones the next one is November 2nd um I got very loud and uh I just meant I have to bring this up since almost all of my schools are either Magnet or application schools but the early college application uh period is two months it started yesterday it goes till I believe December 14th and the college or the magnet school goes to started yesterday I think it goes till uh January 25th or

045so um but now is the time so please uh check out our schools and if you have any questions uh don't hesitate to email me or anyone on the board or any of our great staff and that is it thank you madam chair and unlike colleges the applications aren't just free for one week they're free the whole entire time and there's no tuition all right um we now will take uh a motion to approve the meeting agenda chair MF chair maafia I move adoption of the agenda second all right we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say I I any oppos nay all right we now move on to public comment um we do have quite a few people speaking tonight and a very robust um agenda so we are

046going to um I'm saying this UPF front after 30 minutes um we're going to pause public comment go back to the board meeting and then we will come back to public comment um again if you are unable to stay we fully understand you are welcome to email us um so that your comments get put into public record and we're able to read um what we may have missed because of that time um I would like you to pay attention as um we have changed some of the the wanted to things that we wanted to highlight um or if you're listening at the doctor's office your menu options may have changed um 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

047of sign up only the person speaking at the podium will be allowed to stand we ask that everyone else remain at their seat again all attendees that are not speaking are to remain seated as said before if you need to leave this room please um we've been asked that folks exit the building and not uh stay in the the lobby or the vestibule out here um if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the 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 policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns

048involving individual personnel and individual student matters are confidential and therefore 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 Personnel issues or other student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies in the interest of maintaining Civility and decorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff members or 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 the board attorney Mr Malone right over here either before or after your comments during public comment you may

049speak for up to 3 minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that your 3 minutes has begun a yellow light will light up along with an audible tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time when you're speaking time is up you will see a red light and hear another audible tone and 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 3 minutes you may choose to speak for less time and again the first amendment is a weird Wild Wonderful part of our constitution in our country you will hear things that you agree with you will hear things that you disagree with

050it was really important that we're able to hear that speaker so if you are uncomfortable with what you're hearing we do ask if if you are unable to hold those emotions to yourself you are welcome to go and we and come and go as you need to um again um so we are going to begin public comment we start with Rowan Bido and followed by Renee [Music] seckle I didn't think I was going to be first okay um good evening board members I'm here to talk to you about fear it is spooky season after all a lot of things that are happening right now are rooted in fear people fight against things they don't like because they don't understand and or because they are afraid of change people want to censor things they disagree with

051because they afraid of people learning about things that they think are wrong change is not something we should fear differences are not something we should fear I personally don't like pie I think it's gross but I don't think pie should be taken off shelves and grocery stores and I think if someone likes pie more than cake there's no issue I shouldn't I also shouldn't go to hold rallies and protests about how p is weird and disgusting because people are allowed to like pie I also think people that put Ranch on spaghetti are a little weird but it's not like they're putting Ranch on my spaghetti so they can do what they want with it it's their food now I'm hungry um anyways my point is that each individual person has their own opinions thoughts and

052feelings everyone has their own experiences in lives people should not be afraid of everyone being different I for one would be afraid if everyone was the same that was me being vague but now I will be direct censorship and book Banning originate in fear they are used as scare tactics to say that we need to censor things because people are committing suicide or breaking laws or turning gay is a way to make people scared to say that a book about gay worms leads to child mutilation is something that is said to make people afraid I'd also like to add that correlation does not equal causation we need to rely on scientifically collected data to find correlations for example I could say that the prevalence of hydric and hybrid and electric vehicle cars skyrocketed during the

053same time we saw an increase in negative mental health outcomes in children therefore electric cars cause depression and suicidal thought but are you afraid of electric cars we should fear inequality discrimination hate Prejudice oppression Etc but people want us to fear inclusion love acceptance autonomy free will freedom and liberty which by the way is the state of being free within Society from oppressive restrictions imposed by Authority on one's ways of one way of life so why is Liberty being used as a guise for oppression when that's the opposite of Liberty our next speaker is Renee suckle followed by Susan look hey y'all I want to start tonight by saying that I really truly appreciate um with regard to the policies that you guys are considering tonight um enacting or forgive me as I remember how

054to speak again uh enacting s49 I very much appreciate the sober and cautious tack that our staff and presumably legal council have been taking with those policies staying within the four corners of the law and not trying to interpret what they think that the legislature might have meant or to go broader than the law I I truly appreciate it and applaud all of you for your restraint now with that said it was suggested a couple of weeks ago that the mere presence of books in a home could turn children into characters in those books or impart aspects of those characters and you know at the time I was not only annoyed but kind of confused but you know I went home and I did some soul searching and I started looking at the books on

055my shelves and I started thinking of oh my goodness what if they're right what if this is true then I started thinking of all the books that have to go I mean and's a teacher and look I'd love it if one of my kids became a teacher that would be amazing but she lives in rural Canada and god the commute so an's got to go let's see oh this one's better uh H uh what's her name Harriet Bay she is a graduate of Oxford if I could make my kid into a graduate of Oxford without going through the whole expensive college admissions process yay 100% love that but on the other hand she'd have to live in England in like the early 1920s so Harriet's got to go Princess Leia now she's amazing right but

056if the commute to Pei is bad I don't even want to know how much it cost to get my kid to a galaxy far far away so I guess starw war is gone and then then it occurred to me oh no what happens I've been thinking all these times that my kid would turn into the main character in the book and so that would be super swell Ann Elliot is an amazing character but what if she turned into Mary or got Elizabeth so I guess that one's got to go but all is not lost because this little book here God I read this decades ago it's been hanging out on my bookshelves it's about a group of women who got together and started an investment club and they became bajillionaires so I think this is

057it I think this is the one do I have to buy a couple more copies do you think to get my kids to turn into these characters just wondering Susan book is our next speaker followed by Nathaniel [Applause] Dibble I'm used to following Renee thank you to the school board and greetings to our new superintendent although there is a new face following Along online there hasn't been much change since I took a break from coming to these meetings in June I hope we jump start changing that narrative today I was following some of the policy meetings and I want to thank you all for your thoughtful and careful consideration when discussing policy 3210 I was actually lucky enough to go to my son's curriculum night and I was absolutely impressed by the amount of information

058about what my kid would be learning reading and when I feel as if my parent rights in this area were never in question and now we have a stepbystep guideline to ensure that I hope as a county and you as a board and us as a c community are ready to move on to bigger issues and those issues that directly impact our students my student would like to remind you all about the science behind sleep and our teenagers and ask you really look closely at that bell schedule again as a parent who recently attended the District 9 BAC meeting I have other concerns I'd like to see disability looked at more closely when we look at our strategic plan it's a very ambitious plan and and in some ways especially if one listen to the

059finance committee meeting today I'd like to challenge our board I'd like to challenge our board in all of our policies at the top to include diverse individuals who have disabilities and neurodiversity I'd like to highlight their uniqueness we need to make sure that we aren't creating a neurotypical mold and setting too many goals for our narative students to fit that mold we should know by now that that doesn't work and adds to trauma and eventually Behavior discipline issues that traumatize both students and teachers I instead ask that we think about Big Ideas that our mold expands to include all that we know about neurodiversity and disability and how neurodiversity is intersectional that leaders in education here really understand what communication looks like every day for our neurodiverse kids and how that impacts how they begin

060to collaborate when we take a strength-based Approach at the top of planning as well as at the individual School level we create a better school life for our neurodiverse and disability kids and as a parent and an advocate I hope that we begin to tackle the Big Ideas together thank you our next speaker is Nathaniel dible followed by Daniel Grant King hi uh tonight I'll be commenting on the proposed changes to policies 7300 3210 and 4720 um while I wholeheartedly agree with the wording of the changes and uh the spirit of dare I say malicious compliance I would like to ask for some small changes for the parental inspection and objection policy 3210 does a great job of addressing parental objections I praise the inclusion of the off office of equity Affairs in the decision-making

061process I feel they are an important part to the process mainly because of the nature of the book ban efforts across the country and I'm glad you recognize that in the policy It also says that superintendent or design can appoint up to two students attending High School within the area superintendence region when challenges Arise at high school level with parent Guardian consent I always have been and always will be a supporter of student engagement and influence in governing decisions for this reason I'd just like to ask that instead of granting the option for up to two students to be included it should be required that at least two students be included middle and high school students are often uh underestimated as a group and as a group capable of critical analysis they deserve the right

062to their own governance at least in the uh at the very least in this aspect of their education not only that but the books that they have access to are directly connected with the development of a student's free speech furthermore it would provide a more consistent process across superintendent and board changes uh in the case that superintendent chooses not to invoke their right to bring students onto the board I recognize that this was a move for I recognize that the change in policy uh was a move forced by NCGA and that you are doing your best to counter it but my heart still hurts to see the changes in these policies I want to be able to be happy about the way you're minimizing the harm of these anti-queer laws uh because it truly is

063a good good thing and I thank you guys for it but we must remember above all else that nothing can cover up the harm that these policies will do to students teachers and families lastly I'd just like to show you some Lil scene appreciation from the public on behalf of queer students and community members and our Public School strong group which is here today um thank you thank you for making the effort to truly listen to our public comments meeting after meeting thank you for uh through through it all you've listened to our stories of losses of of wins of Pride and of Shame you've listened to actual students and actual teachers who have the biggest stakes in our schools thank you for taking the time to talk to us after these meetings and for

064listening to our concerns and ideas it sends a strong message for us to be able to see where our concerns and our ideas have impacted the wording of the policy thank you for enduring the vital and hatred that you have to listen for every public comment session we know that so much of it if not all of it is directed at the queer community and it's not easy and make the choice to Bear the brunt of the attacks thank you our next speaker is Daniel Grant King followed by Margaret Bido all right okay there we go all right good evening everyone superintendent Taylor welcome uh I'm sorry I had missed uh your swaying and ceremony but on behalf of the PTA of North Carolina which I am a board of director's member we welcome you

065and we look forward to partnering with you um as well for our families Educators and students um this evening I would like to thank this board for the Swift action of presenting uh the salary changes and necessary step increases for all Educators I know that our state failed us once again uh with a late budget but in through it all Wake County has always uh gave due diligence and Swift action and I look forward for that discussion and approval this evening um to continue and My Hope um is that we Educators families and community members know that this is just the beginning um because when I looked at the budget that the state did along with the board back in the early spring I realized that there was some confusion um about far as the

066actual like year-to-year um steps especially with the um I guess with the scent uh different with the scent differential um far as how that is governed Within the actual um budget also um I would like to continue to thank uh Equity Affairs uh for their uh work as they continue to make our um schools uh safer regarding uh um trans students in our lgbtq plus uh Community um and I spoke um with their office about some concerns that I've had and that it was a very pleasant conversation and I look forward to continuing to work with them as well um I highly encourage and urge the board when it comes to the nest budget cycle um to please continue advocating to state legislator and holding them accountable because they do um are obligated under the

067State Constitution to provide fully funded Public Schools we are seeing left and right once again teachers resigning vacancies are going unfilled but yet we know the reason why reason why is because State doesn't care obviously about the work and the um compensation piece that goes along with it to provide for their families so again thank you to the board and I look forward um to the Swift action on this evening thank you our next speaker is Margaret Billy do followed by SAA Hatley hello superintendent and board members thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak I'm Margaret billu mom of two schoolage children in the district domestic violence awareness month is a fitting time to address student Safety Research consistently highlights that certain conditions and behaviors are essential for Effective learning with safety being

068Paramount we cannot expect students to focus on their education when their basic physical and emotional needs go unmet it becomes a vicious cycle where suffering whether physical or emotional obstructs academic success studies show that when lgbtqia plus Stu plus youth View School personnel as supportive they feel safer at school report less absenteeism experience less victimization based on their sexual orientation and gender identity feel like they belong in their school community and maintain higher grade point averages it's crucial to recognize that discrimination affects all students as it sends a dangerous message message that bullying and marginalization based on immutable characteristics are acceptable last meeting I mentioned that I started attending school board meetings as soon as my children reentered the district I was also present at the NCGA with my kids and first on the list

069to provide public comment when sb49 was being discussed in committee on June 21st sadly at the last minute public comment was denied citing a lack of time idea requires general public comment including input from individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities prior to adopting or amending policies and procedures to comply with idea s sp49 significantly impacts K to4 augmented communication users and children with language-based learning disabilities and yet no public comment was allowed my son happens to be non-verbal and is in the beginning stages of language acquisition he doesn't know what pronouns are let alone how to use them his language Services through Public School began at age four this is where his language acquisition is required to be provided and where he will learn the language of identifying his own family who

070appears in his language acquisition program program children like my son and all children have their own thoughts their own opinions and they have a right to autonomy they also have a right to access vocabulary s49 raises significant concerns and legal questions for our school district but it also underscores the pressing need for open dialogue inclusion and support for all students I appreciate uh the proposals that I've seen that you guys have been working towards and I realize it's a very difficult position for you all to be in and I appreciate all the thought and effort you've put in um during domestic violence awareness months let us not only remember the victims of domestic violence but also reaffirm our commitment to creating safe inclusive and nurturing learning environments for every child thank you for your efforts

071to do just that for wcpss school communities our next speaker is SAA Hadley followed by David Clays hello there again I'm SAA Hadley um last time time I was here speaking on behalf of Oak Park and Magnolia Park in Garner related to the potential uh reassignment now for draft two I was at the school volunteering at the book fair when I got a whole bunch of pings all of a sudden when draft 2 was released so I have read it um and we have seen um unfortunately that there were no changes for Oak Park in Magnolia Park for draft two of The Proposal so I got to thinking you know we have a lot covered and you know we talked we all attended the virtual sessions and saw that a a good amount of families

072are being accommodated with the stability transfers but at the same time I feel that it's too much to ask of a 5-year-old to go to a different School than the other kids on their street and it's too much to ask of a 5-year-old to wait up to an hour to get home after dismissal when their their neighbors are already home within 10 minutes it's also too much to ask of a 5-year-old to start their school Journey at a school that has inadequate proficiency ratings in addition to school climate scores uh you know we hear these news about this being a wonderful place to live and I agree it is um but we also don't hear the voices of those too young to articulate the situations this rapid growth is creating and creating um opportunities and

073challenges which are not their burden to bear now keep in mind that you know we have been in contact with the town of Garner and I'm going to be continuing to go to their Town Council meetings as well because I do understand that there are you know two pools and we're talking about the gray here um and I you know we've gone so far as to produce a dash cam video so you can literally see what it's like to go from aversboro to our neighborhoods um there are two very large health clinics being built on Benson Road we it's essentially what we're considering inaccessible um so we just want to make sure that we're continuing this conversation you will continue to hear from us and we do appreciate your time and um we will be

074putting an effort on both sides communication with you guys and the school board coming up with some solid plans in addition to work with the town of Garner so just wanted to articulate that and you guys already have this summarized in your emails as well thank you our next speaker is David cags followed by Joseph Hudson hi so my name is Dave cleus I live in the Providence Place Community I have a fourth grader at Parkside Elementary and a sixth grader at Alon Ridge Middle School um I would like to thank you guys for letting me speak today I will say I was disappointed when I read draft 2 and despite all of the overwhelming you know comments and concerns from people in my district district there wasn't a single change to the draft plan

075but that being said my advice and suggestion is that you guys have a lot of strong reasons to delay any reassignment decisions for Providence Place for kits Creek at this point in time we know that Parkside Middle School is coming down the line we know that Morrisville High School is coming down the line and we know that there's a very good chance that these same neighborhoods are going to get impacted again so now we're not just talking about communities families children getting impacted in Elementary School they might get reassigned in elementary they might get reassigned in middle school and they might get reassigned in high school so I think it would make a whole lot more sense to wait until we can have a comprehensive plan for their education that looks at them through Elementary

076to Middle to high school and decide accordingly based off of that we also in the town of Morrisville where our communities live on Church Street there's currently two roads for us to get across the railroad tracks to get to Pleasant Grove there's McMan Parkway and there's Hopson Road they're currently planning huge constru construction at the Crossing with McMan Parkway who knows how long that will take with construction in our area but that's going to leave one main access point for us to get our to and from our children's school what if there's an emergency what if there's an accident a hops in you know that can make things very difficult I know you guys do not control the roads but you do have the ability to delay these decisions until those projects are done the

077other thing I ask is why the urgency to relieve the cap constraints at Parkside Austin Ridge right now Parkside was capped in 2022 other schools in our area Cedar Fork has been capped since 2016 it has you know trailers to help um ease the overcrowding I saw on the assignment proposal when they were looking at Pleasant Groves numbers every one of them was capacity with trailers there's currently no trailers at Parkside Elementary so if that really is an overcrowding concern why is there not even a line in that proposal that says this is what it would look like if we put trailers at that school and could it buy us the time we need to wait till we can make an intelligent decision around the middle school intelligent decision around the high school um and

078really really look at the stability pillar for our children um those are the main things I have today I can certainly ramble on for hours but I have three minutes so thank you very much appreciate the time our next speaker is Joseph Hudson followed by Steph Loa good evening I'm Joseph Hudson And I want to welcome uh superintendent Taylor to Wake County Schools it's been a couple weeks but welcome uh I understand you're doing a great job getting around the schools and getting input soliciting input from all the different schools different Stak stakeholders and uh including me tonight okay a school system am I coming through loud clear okay a school system should do what is right good and supportive for students a school system should do what is right good and supportive for students

079that's obvious right let me go on a school system should educate a school system should not indoctrinate educate our students please teach them subject matter Reading Writing Math Science and so on Art music prepare students to face the World and Achieve success in life prepare students to face the World and Achieve success in life this is right good and supportive for students and the proper role of the school system wake schools are doing a Soo job on this at best on the education part with lots of room for improvement now addressing indoctrination indoctrination means taking advantage of the developing minds of children the the minds are still developing and manip ulating those undeveloped Minds to produce sexualized social justice whiners ashamed of their race and ashamed of their country this is not good not right

080or supportive to these students but it's very wrong bad and harmful indoctrination is practiced in our schools and Must Be Stopped one glaring example of indoctrination is exposing children to pornographic books how can anyone think this is right good and supportive for children this is well documented in Wake schools but the board refuses to do anything about it the board refuses to do anything about it a school system should do what is right good and supportive for students obvious right that was early on in my my thought next speaker is Steven loha followed by hont vishwas okay please do what's right and good for students that's ask Stephen Loa hello I'm uh I'm Stan Loa um just a father defending my CH uh my children's access to Brian Road Elementary School so I'm pending this

081little note to share my absolute Delight with the 2425 student enrollment proposal apparently they've got this ingenious plan to whisk my kids away from the Fantastic Brian Road Elementary School and deposit them into the ever so illustrious osbo Elementary School I mean who wouldn't want to swap Paradise for well the opposite of paradise our decision to move here was basically us declaring we choose you Brian road for the ultimate education experience but now they're suggesting we should embark on an epic journey to arboro which ranks 80% worse than uh uh other elementary schools in North Carolina compared to Brian road which ranks 80% better than uh other North Carolina elementary schools it's like trading a Disney uh it's like trading a trip to Disney World with like a trip to the DMV Brian Road has

082been our child's academic Oasis where they've thrived thanks to top-notch teachers nurturing atmosphere and a real sense of community so naturally we're thrilled about this cunning proposal to yank them out of their comfort zone and throw them into the abyss of uncertainty but the real kicker here is the information session oh what is oh what is aoke uh it was a joy it was to have our questions selectively edited to maintain the element of surprise it's almost as if they're guarding a secret you know the one where this proposal proposal magically turns aosb into an ecademic Wonderland for our kids thank you our next speaker is hamont vishwas followed by moit Dia uh good evening everyone and U welcome and sorry Dr Taylor you are being welcomed by some disappointed parents yet again um I

083would want to First say thank you to Mr hegerty uh thank you for the questions you posed after the working session today that does tell us that you are listening you were reading to all the emails that we have sent not that they have gotten answered or um rather I don't know that one hour was a waste of time frankly because nothing has literally nothing has changed in that draft for none of the districts everyone is saying the same thing this gentleman here also said the same thing and we are also saying the same thing nonetheless some things that I do want to uh correct what uh I don't know her name so sorry the lady who was speaking today uh she said that these communities have only at best been real assigned twice in

084last 12 years that's not true 2009 was the first reassignment that happened after that 2012 again they started reassigning Bunches of kids by 2014 at least my Providence Place Community had literally every second lane going to a different School Weatherstone Carpenter CID Fork they Consolidated everyone to sidder fork and Carpenter by 2014 only Carpenter by before 2019 and then Parkside by uh 20 uh by at in 2019 when it was a a new school and they said no matter what you have to go there because it's a new school and the uh stability it was called grandfathering then it that that Clause it was the same fourth and fifth graders will move no one else will move because it's a it's a new school she said the same thing today that uh that new school

085in near Brian's Road or Woods Creek or whatever only fourth and fifth are allowed to uh stability because it's a new school we are not getting moved to a new school we are getting moved to an existing school yet only fourth and fifth graders of our uh School Rising fourth and fifth graders will be allowed stability if it comes to that that's the point I do want to request you guys to take a real close look at what is going on here we don't think this is correct proximity it seems like uh the board or the staff at least the goal shifts every time the definitions of these four pillars are being said today the new definition that we heard for proximity was oh proximity does not mean the school that is most proximal to

086the school it means the school that is most proximal and can accommodate your kids why does this not definition apply to the new families that will come tomorrow the unknowns that should go to them not to the existing families that have been sending their kids from day one uh David has already given the some proposals but we really want to uh again uh request you guys we have already given some proposals to you uh that uh look at certain newer communities that have been alloted to Providence Place or or to Parkside or uh Alon rdge and do something about those thank you right again as said before we're going to go for 30 minutes so um M you will be our final speaker and then we will go back to board business um we do

087have some folks we will be here to hear you um and again if you are unable to remain please know that our emails are available we will be um able to see um what you've shared with us but we understand that if you're unable to stay with us but we would appreciate if you did stick around all right sir good evening superintendent um Taylor and um and esteem Board of Education members um my name is Mia I'm a member of the Providence Place community and uh just like my um my previous speakers heon and uh David said I am also U very disappointed with uh uh draft to the proposal um our community members our neighbors uh spent countless hours um preparing um documents for uh Mr hagy explaining our situation um talking about the

088pillars um that b County um uh um decides on when to make these uh reassignments uh I think my previous speakers have already stated um the issues um the reassignment um so um I'm just going to uh urge you um all of you to uh work with the community uh we have given lots of feedback um um we given uh we've sent so many emails um so please work with us to uh find a solution which can meet all of our needs we understand that uh we also have uh you also stuck between a rock and a heart place but please work with us uh some other the solutions could be um like CED Fork already has uh trailers uh why not uh put trailers um in Parkside um uh one alternative could be to

089uh make um um sedol into a yearound school um and uh um as my previous uh speaker suggested uh there are um um so many things that we can uh do together um and you are seeing the uh level of um uh frustration right like there have been no changes at all uh we put so many comments we um lot of our members of the community came here last time and to see now that there has been no change whatsoever um it just uh disheartens her um and frustrates her so we would really like you to please work with the communities and come with a solution that uh you know um um works for all of us thank you so much great we will return to public comment right now we are looking for a

090motion to approve our consent items so moved second all right we have a motion and second to approve the items on consent agenda all those in favor please say I I any oppose nay all right we now move on to our action item um up first is out of Finance uh way of board policy 8101 for approval of the proposed 2023 2024 budget and joining us at the podium is our chief business officer David Neer Mr Neer thank you and good evening chair mfy members of the board and superintendent Taylor the board's proposed budget includes using 25.2 Mill million of available fund balance to balance the overall 2023 2024 operating budget further recommendations to balance the final operating budget for 2023 2024 made to you during your finance committee meeting today increase the amount of

091fund balance used to balance the budget by $3.88 million to a total of $29.1 million of fund balance overall the 29.1 $ million investment in fund balance uh in the proposed budget with the reconciliation amount added is more than the threshold allowed in board policy 8101 policy 8101 directs that the board will use no more than 50% of its unassigned fund balance to balance the future Year's budget and the unassigned fund balance as of June 30 2022 was $ 46.5 million the investment of $29.1 million in fund balance balance represents a 62.5% investment of the June 30 balance as a result staff is requesting the board wave policy 8101 so the board can move forward and considering approval of the board's proposed 2023 2024 budget including budget reconciliation recommendations staff has carefully reviewed this recommendation

092and we are comfortable in providing it to the board at this time we to this policy have been made in the past for similar reasons and I now ask the board's consideration approval of waiver of this component of the board policy all right is there a motion so moved second all right there is a motion to adop the waiver of board policy 8101 are there any questions comments Miss Coffield thank you um I know that we just discussed this in committee meeting but I just had um another question in regards to it um do we definitely use the entire amount with the budget or is it just something that is on standby in case we need it um let me break Miss Coffield thank you for the question let me break that apart into a

093couple components um the board is required by State Statute to have a balanced budget meaning that the projected expenditures in the board's budget must align with projected revenues in the board's budget that said in any given year a budget is just that it's an estimate or a forecast of what we believe will take place revenues from the state do fluctuate the county appropriation will not that represents about a third of the overall budget but the majority of the budget comes from the state and we Al although the majority of the funding from the state comes at the beginning of the year significant allotments come during the year as well transportation is one example significant percentage of transportation funding generally comes in the December or January time frame so those amounts will vary coming back to

094your question do we always expend every amount of every dollar of Revenue no we do not and in those cases um those amounts where revenues do exceed um expenditures and we are able to align that into local funding we cannot overspend our state funding uh we do have those amounts dropped down to fund balance and in some years during the Great Recession and early on during the pandemic we put in place expenditure restrictions for the very reason of creating increased amounts of fund F balance to manage through what we knew would be uncertain times and I would say we're still in those times with our fiscal transition and the amounts of unassigned fund balance now significantly higher than they were after we were on the other side of the Great Recession and I would anticipate

095or if we were in the same situation a couple years from now and I'm still here I would not be recommending similar amounts of unassigned fund balance to the board that the board is currently maintaining once we're on the other side of that fiscal transition thank you I think that's my biggest concern is that we are kind of in a um heightened world around us and inflation so I just worry but you did also comment during the committee meeting that for the past decade we have been using this fund and haven't really found ourselves in any harm or anything so thank you any further questions comments all right seeing none all those in favor of waving board policy 8101 please say I I any oppose nay Mr Neer I believe you're sticking with us for

096the buck budget reconciliation recommendations yes ma'am again at your finance committee meeting today staff reviewed recommendations for reconciling the board's proposed budget to the final state budget and local budgets and to the staff compensation increase recommendations that were made to you during the same meeting tonight we're asking for your formal approval of the budget reconciliation recommendations for 2023 2024 will bring the actual budget resolution to the board at a subsequent meeting once the 2023 24 compensation changes are implemented and these reconciliation adjustments are made that's really a formal resolution document that you'll approve but that will be at a subsequent meeting the budget recom uh reconciliation recommendations made to you today at your finance committee meeting include reducing the amount of County appropriation by $ 5.83 million to reflect the final County appropriation compared to

097the amount of County funding requested in the board's proposed budget also included in the reconciliation adjustments are Revenue adjustments increasing net revenues by $4.0 million increasing compensation costs to cover the cost of increasing the local salary supplement for our certified staff to 55% as compared to the 4 1.2% included in the proposed budget moving the occupational physical therapists to a salary schedule matching our speech language pathologist increasing the daily rate for substitute teachers to align with increasing teacher pay changes in estimates to the salary costs based upon final State legislation and covering a portion of the additional 2% increase legislated by the state for bus drivers above and beyond based non-certified increases um using local funding additional reconciliation recommendations including benefit cost reductions of $3 and A4 million to what's included in the board's proposed

098budget based upon final State retirement employer contribution rate for retirement and health insurance coming in lower than what we anticipated in the board's budget all those things when netted out still leave a remaining funding gap of $3.88 million and we recommend that this remaining Gap be reconciled by using the amount of increasing the amount of fund balance uh invested in the 2023 24 budget by that 3.88 million and that will bring the $25.2 million of fund balance that's included within the board's proposed budget up to the $29.1 million as you heard me mentioned during the prior pry staff is comfortable recommending this increased amount of fund balance to be used and we have made recommendations similar to this in the past that exceed the 50% threshold that is specified in board policy 8101 these recommendations

099do not accomplish everything we would like um in the proposed 2023 24 budget but they do allow us to meet the state requirement to have a budget whose expenditures directly align with projected revenues during ex sense of discussion today at your finance committee meeting the board provided to staff the superintendent and staff a detailed list of budgetary issues to discuss and bring back to you during coming budget cycle and even some things that won't wait for the next budget cycle uh As We Begin work literally we are beginning work on the 2024 2025 budget cycle the recommended recommendations provide basis for moving forward with essential staff compensation changes and other needs and do not require a resultant impact other areas that directly support our Core Business of learning and teaching we also continue to have

100our raadar on the future pandemic funds transition fiscal cliff is others are calling it we would like to think we're proactively managing it and look at as a managed transition um and while the current budget does make material efforts almost $13 million of f funding will be shifted from federal funds pandemic relief funds which will expire at the end of this year to other funds local funds we still have additional work to do beyond that with that context and support of staff's recommendation I now ask your consideration of approval of recommendations to reconcile the board's proposed 2023 2024 operating budget to available local and state funding thank you Mr Neer um is there a motion to approve the budget reconciliation recommendations yes Madam chair I move that we approve the budget reconciliations second the questions

101noted second we have a motion and a second um are there any questions comments from board members Miss Coffield so I really appreciate the work and answering all the questions I know it's very tedious and there's a lot of different things to understand um and it and if we can't do some of the things that we want to I hope that in the future we're able to consider that for the next cycle I guess um I'm just some of the things that we asked for that we did discuss in the it's just not sitting with me and forgive me because I feel like it might be more helpful next time if we are getting the budget if we have a little bit more than just an hour to digest um also the questions because it's

102coming before us and I believe we're trying to vote and approve the budget as it is is that that's the intent um and I just feel like with us having so many things in crisis with our bus our HVAC our teachers and I do appreciate your explanation from before it does make sense I just hope that going forward in the next budget if we can't do it this time that we do focus more on where we can pull those funds from I mean the supplement from our from our W County Commissioners is is a supplement it's supposed to make up for what we can't actually provide right it's like the gap between the state and what we hope to actually give them so I'm hoping that we could put more attention on those positions HVAC

103and problems and teachers going forward um and then if I could just make a request that we actually are able to digest I mean we had some good questions and next time that we have a little bit more time in between before we have to vote and digest on all of this sometimes people ask the questions and then you kind of digest and think also getting feedback from our community and and hearing from the people it affects I think having a little extra time before we vote is is is helpful so those are just my comments thank you others Dr in um thank you um even though I was not at the meeting I was listening in um and u i I really appreciated um uh all of us kind of hearing um from the

104different um people like the occupational therapists and physical therapists who um were uh voicing their you know concern about their pay and that we were able to accommodate some of those uh concerns and not only that but you know having the discussions with them um you know coming from a my field of work which you know I work closely with physical therapists and occupational therapists I know that they can get better pay elsewhere so um uh but you know these folks are just dedicated to the kids and and um I I think that they are you know um they well deserve the the pay increase thank you Mr Hershey uh either uh Madame chair or or Mr Neer can you just for uh Miss callfield can you say why we're doing this so quickly as

105it relates to teacher pay uh yes Mr Hershey and and I would also take the Liberty to agree with you miss Coffield that staff 2 is not does not normally like to ask the board to consider taking action on something that they have formally heard for the first time on the same um set of on the same day or during the same set of meetings and the reason we were bringing this to you and asking you to consider action on the same date is a result of the late date that we have been given by the state the opportunity to bring this to the board and our desire to get our payroll changes in place by the November payroll and that is it and nothing more in fact as I was going through my talking

106points for the next item which will be the salary schedules I went back to Prior Year's points and we almost to the day two months later this year than we were in the last cycle bringing this to the board for consideration and nothing more but your point is very well taken I appreciate that and it is by no means reflection of your work and the work of your team I know that it is a a lot of work that you guys are putting into it so it's not that I don't appreciate it it's just hard to digest than understood fully and appreciate it and you know for those of you who are new to the uh Wake County Public School System budget cycle we have to have our budget done in may we then show

107the County Commissioners what that looks like their budget needs to be done in June they generously give uh money towards local teacher salary supplements as well as ways to finance other things um in our budget we then wait for the state their budget is supposed to be adopted July 1st uh that date tends to be more of a suggestion than a hard deadline um and so the state just adopted their budget and so we're here tonight to reconcile that budget so that we can act inact all of those local dollars and raises that your teachers bus drivers um and our employees got as well as other issues so that's the expediency that um Miss Coffield um alluded to um just so you all are aware of where this cycle starts and comes from and as

108Mr Neer said they're already starting planning for next but budget year so um just so it doesn't seem like you we're talking you know amongst ourselves and fully want to make sure you all understand what's going on in front of you um all right further comments questions concerns all right all those um ready and willing to approve those budget reconciliation recommendations please say I any oppos nay all right now moving on to the next next item which is salary schedules okay thank you again uh tonight we are asking for your formal approval of the 2023 2024 W County Public School System salary schedules to provide a few highlights of changes certified staff will receive a 55% increase through the local supplement they will also receive a step increase and an increase to their state base

109pay based upon the state's f legisla salary schedules the over amount overall amount of increase varies by step again based upon the state's increase and it is fixed at 55% increase for the local supplement amount as to discuss during today's finance committee meeting staff will bring information back to the board as we go forward with a new cycle to determine what funding would be required to mitigate the impact of the state's current salary structure for teaching staff especially focused on our veteran teachers while the current focus of increases from the state seems to be focused more on the earlier entry level end of our teaching staff principles will see a 5 a half% increase over for 2023 24 assistant principles will mer what I described for our teaching staff based on schedule a as their

110compensation is based on that schedule with a 19% differential over the schedule a for teachers non-certified staff based upon the board's proposed budget and local funding requested not State legislation will move to a minimum hourly rate of $17 per hour effective July 1 of 2023 the step and grade differentials that have been in place for several years now to address compression proactively will remain in place based upon the proposed schedules and bus drivers will receive an additional 2% above and beyond this and be placed on their own grade within our graded schedule as a result of this um occupational physical therapists will be moved to a new schedule based upon the speech language pathologist schedule uh based upon work done as you heard in finance committee meeting earlier today work done between our human resource

111department and a team of professional OTS and PTs one thing I do need to mention here in the midst of presenting to you in your finance committee meeting just a few short hours ago Dr matillo got a call from one of those otps that was participating on this review team to let us know that we had a typo in the otpt schedule and is just a typo what is rep been represented to you and what was agreed to by the group remains intact but they found a typo on three of the lines in the schedule that was in the included in the backup materials on steps 15 16 and 17 those typos have been corrected by schedule has been placed into assembly the original schedule with the typos is also in there as well so

112we have an audit Trail and complete documentation for you nonetheless again the intent and plan to move forward remains as is and it was simply a typo additional highlights include increasing our substitute daily rates to align with increased teacher pay rates and finally I want to share this with you um and I shared it during finance committee earlier today and for perspective the $17 per hour minimum rate recommended for our non-certified staff compares to a minimum rate of $11.80 an hour that was in place on June 30th 2021 not that long ago not that significantly improving something that was woefully below standard deserves recognition as a great thing it's anything but that in my opinion but it does I think given the cont Tex demonstrate the significant progress that we've made but yet much work

113to come and as I shared in finance committee I hope I'm here standing before you a year from now with at least an $18 an hour minimum hourly rate for our classified staff there's much more work we have to do um finally upon board's approval tonight assuming you do support staff is prepared to implement the base compensation changes on our our November payroll and retroactive pay amounts going back to July 1 will also be made they'll be included at the latest in the December payroll and if we can include it and hit it in the November payroll we will that is our Target but accuracy is Paramount as well and just to reiterate our employees will see the increase to their salary definitely in November and the retroactive to the July 1 date with the

114when the budget was supposed to be done um will be definitely in December but we're going to try our hardest to make that retroactive piece in November all the above our correctness have I just want to reiterate that because I know that's the important part for many of our employees understood especially with the winter holidays coming up those are all accurate statements um is there a motion to approve the salary schedule SCH Mr Swanson Madam chair I move that we approve the salary uh schedules in addition I would also add to that motion that we ask that staff bring back information on the bi-weekly pay scale for hourly staff to the board by February 1st of 2024 all right second all right so that's a motion in a second and that motion does include uh

115looking at what it would take to pay our staff bi-weekly uh by February 1st 2024 I know this is something we have heard from staff members loud and clear and I don't think that's a surprise to any of us that this is here and in front of us so are there any questions comments concerns Miss Edmonds can we just clarify that we are speaking of um our hourly staff only because I believe Dr Taylor let us know that it's not possible for all staff to receive bi-weekly pay per state statute we're looking into that statute good we'll good Miss Garfield I just have a question as far as the retro pay and I don't know if there's any State statue with this or anything um will they be getting a separate check or is this

116just added into is it a big lum sum with their salary or is it a separate check for the Retro it is included with their regular check it is okay are we able to give it separate um no and there there really no tax implications it's no of doing it separate or together always good to check though yeah all right further questions comments concerns all right let's vote all in favor of approving these new salary schedules please say I I any oppose nay all right thank you Mr Neer thank you all right we are now moving on to policy starting with policy 3210 these were reviewed during the last policy meeting and thank you Miss Justin Hustler for a robust discussion there and uh we will be joined by Dr crane our director of strategy

117and policy good evening I'll be with you for a couple of policies to kick this off so um tonight I'm bringing for you first policy 3210 parental inspection of and objection to instructional materials for first read the policy was revised by the North Carolina School boards Association and staff within the context of Senate Bill 49 known as the parents Bill of Rights legislation our policy committee discussed these revisions at the September 26th policy committee meeting tonight we request the board's approval of the first reading of policy 3210 parental inspection of and objection to instructional materials for first read thank you Dr cran and for all especially for all the work and guidance for everyone who um assisted Us in making these changes to the policy um we certainly have heard another recommendation tonight and as

118we know that these will continue to have discussion as we continue to complete all of the changes for um C Bill 49 so noted with that I move that we accept the first reading of policy 3210 second all right we have a motion in a second any comments questions concerns Miss Coffield sorry I seem to have a voice today um I'm just wanted to explain because I heard some comments that were during public comment um last time I did uh vote for 3210 and I I won't be voting for it again just not because of the changes with the parents Bill rights but just because of to re to reiterate the content part of it that I don't feel that we are explaining enough same reasons that I did before um I prefer to have

119a rating um or some kind of parent permission slip I don't feel that we're specific enough with our language and uh pervasively vulgar I feel is uh extremely vague doesn't really commit to any clear language so it's really more the policy itself not the changes that we've made do to the parents right so I'm still going to be voting no because I still stand by that decision so I just wanted to provide an explanation all right other board members Mr Hagerty and Mr Swanson thank you um just a question for Dr Crane and then maybe more discussion after um you know we'd worked a long time on this particular policy prior to the recently enacted legislation and then the legislation came out and so you know I'm just curious how much how much leway do

120we have with various portions of this versus how much of it is Con strained by um by the recent legislation so for example like things like who serves on the committees or how often they meet or when they have to report by are those things that we can modify or are we kind of locked in to compliance with a state with a state scheme so it's my understanding and I'm going to keep my eye on attorney Mone here to make sure I'm answering correctly but it's my understanding that the law requires that we have these committees um and it requires that we offer parents the ability to inspect and object and the new law creates the requirement that parents have a timeline for addressing and having their con address stating a concern to a principal

121and then having that concern addressed within a 10day with an exception for a 20-day upon request and if that doesn't happen then what happens after that um so these things are set by law the way that we have structured um our challenge process is the way that our district has set out how we handle our appeals process so we've we have go gone ahead and put that in our policy rather than in our r&p am I correct on that yeah the changes that you've made here are basically a direct reflection of what the statute requires you to do be it in policy or otherwise is what the statute requires and and many of the other I mean you are you aren't making changes to the other portion of the policy just this one section right

122Mr Swanson I'm okay I'll I'm good thank you i' rather just vote on this and get this over right I do know that it was noted in public comment about um the piece about student um participation thank you and um this was something I believe we when we looked at this the last time and this is the second time this policy has come to us this year um there was a lot of debate in making sure that we could get two students to do it with parental consent and so uh having it worded this way was just to if a superintendent or designate cannot find to high school students whose parents are willing to allow them to be on this board that that does not um stop the review of the book so that is

123the goal and that's why it's but that's why it's worded that way um all right further questions comments all right all in favor please say I any oppose nay all right Dr crane I think you're still with us for the next one yes all right so now I'm bringing policy 4335 reporting criminal Behavior behavior for first read this policy was also revised by the North Carolina School boards Association within the context of Senate Bill 49 our policy committee meeting also discussed these at September 26th policy committee meeting upon refer further review our attorney suggested that we bring to you one additional revision you will not see it in your uh markup documents but we will provide a highlighted copy of this for second reading on consent if you approve this and I think Mr her

124she had asked a question about this and um uh Neil Remy did a little research um and and I think Mr Malone caught this to to to clarify bring some greater clarification they've suggested that we um insert the revision uh put that Revision in a second paragraph rather than have it inserted in the middle of an existing paragraph So the fifth paragraph will read for any notification to law enforcement a notification must be made to the alleged offender parent/guardian such notice must occur by the end of the workday in which the incident occurred when reasonably possible but not later than the end of the following workday that was existing in the current policy the insertion reads A a new sixth paragraph will'll read in addition the principal or designi must promptly notify the parents or

125Guardians if a school system employees suspects that any criminal offense has been committed against the parent or guardian's child including but not limited to any of the offenses required to be reported to law enforcement regardless of where the offense allegedly occurred unless the incident has been reported to law enforcement or the County Child Services Agency a notification of the parents or Guardians would impede the investigation so we think this edit will provide greater Clarity on the timeline for both types of Parental notification we will show that revision again on the second read highlighted in yellow um and with that additional revision noted we request the board's approval of the first reading policy 4335 reporting criminal Behavior right second motion to adopt so moved all right we have a motion in a second noting uh Dr

126Crane's uh upcoming revisions for second reading Mr Hagerty did you have your yeah I had a question yeah so I'm I'm looking at the new language and and just for clarification and clarity we have an exception there unless the incident has been reported to law enforcement or the County Child Services Agency but it it doesn't Define like who would have reported it or who may have known and I just don't know if we want to clarify I mean are we expecting like the school to know that like a third party could have reported it or would it only be if someone affiliated with the school has reported it or it just we have an exception there that I understand it it makes logical sense but then our ability to comply with that exception is going

127to be hampered by whether or not we have knowledge of it so the way I look at this is that you really only get to that exception if the school system staff is aware of the report right so I think it's okay as drafted because if we don't know then we would go ahead and report it to the parent but if we know that it's been reported to you know one of the one of these agencies and they've told us that they believe it would impede then we would not report so I I think it's okay but it's a reasonable question but I think it's I think it's okay I appreciate that thank you Mr Mullen Miss Waters and Mr Hershey thank you Dr crane I have a question about that same paragraph um particularly

128the um notice um time frame um but not later than the end of the following work day um just had concerns about um that um particularly as it relates to um an offense against um a child and so I would be um interested in seeing if um there is need to keep that additional time so so the the reason that we are recommending that you move the insert out of this paragraph is so that it removes some of the confusion and and if you go back so you basically are going back to your original language which would say that if the alleged offender is the student in this case then you would report to the parent no later than the end of the following day so the your in this case the student is the

129one who has committed the ACT in the other case the student is the victim and in the victim situation we're we're recommending that you stick with promptly if the student is alleged to have engaged in misconduct and you have that information then that's when you would use your original policy language and thank you for clarifying I still as a parent would want to know probably as soon as um and what until the end of the following day I could perhaps maybe see the beginning of the following day but that to me still um gives concern um at the end of the next day when something has happened that is serious enough um to arise to this level I mean that's a good point I mean it it actually says that you're going to try to

130notify them on the same day that it occurred when it's possible MH um but no later than the end of the following workday and I think some of this language is intended to deal with the reality that sometimes it can be difficult to get up with parents into building a building a little bit of time so but no but you certainly are free to revise that if you so choose but I think that I think it already is attempting to provide that notice on the same day well again I I'll I'll reiterate my concern about it at the end of the the next day and also that brings my other question what um is considered notification because um attorney Malone you you spoke about giving it's hard to get up with parents so um that

131would be my other question what would be really considered the notification that um is needed for this policy is a notification actually making contact with someone or is it an email um so those are questions that I have in terms of clarifying I mean it would depend on the facts I mean obviously you would try to provide the notice in such a way that it could be documented that it was provided typically is what we would obviously recommend to the school um but I mean if you literally can't get up with the parent then I mean you will do your best to try to provide that notice by email or some other way to try to comply but it would it may be very fact specific I'm a give set of facts I mean but

132again I mean I think the idea is that you're the school is attempting do the best that they can to provide that notice you know by the end of the next workday school day okay well thank you I'll I'll reiterate my concern about that time frame thank you no I think it is a concern as a parent because you if your kid is allegedly harming another kid you want to be able to address that as a parent and you want to know that other children are safe so are we is and I apologize I was in and out listening to this policy committee so so if this was answered um is there an r&p that's going to be or that is or going to be associated with this to help principles or whoever the school

133design is to contact UM on how to make those contacts and what's expected so this is the existing policy right so this was not really a change so it may not have been discussed in that way I didn't go to the policy committee but it may not have been discussed at the policy committee CU this is your policy as it reads today and the discussion at policy committee was based around solely the insert of this new requirement in Senate Bill 49 that we notify a parent okay if their child has been the victim of any crime regardless of where that crime occurred that's the big difference in the addition here yes you would want to notify a parent about if their if their child had been the victim of a crime on campus as it

134has been reported to law enforcement this new addition requires the notification to a parent if any School employee believes that their child has been the victim of any crime at any location okay not limited to these crimes that are already required to be reported to law enforcement right so that is the emphasis of the change here am I is that yeah exactly so the again the the change is for the student who is a victim this paragraph that we're talking about or the that we're talking about is the student is the alleged offender and again I'm not suggesting that you can't change it but that's just your current language right now in your policy for the alleged Defender reads as it reads here all right we can bring this policy back for further discussion and

135revision of this portion tonight and at our policy committee the discussion and these revisions are solely focused on being compliant with Senate Bill 49 and making sure our policies reflect those requirements understood thank you for clarifying that sure Mr Hershey and then Dr in I saw your hand so I do not like the word promptly because it can mean different things to different people and so I and in light of what Miss wer said too if if she's talking if you're talking about the part in red as the notification that we want to make um by the end of that day I would definitely support that change cuz if it's against a parents kid I mean you don't want to wait till the next day for anything um and I but I'm open to why

136we wouldn't have it that way so if a crime has been committed against a kid that day why would you why would we what's the justification for waiting a day or giving a day because I could say promptly means tomorrow morning because I'm so busy I'm just saying like that's I kind of read promptly as something that someone could Define on their own we kind of chatted about that before so first of all that's what the statute uses the word that's in the statute number one um two I think that our reason for recommending not I think our reason for recommending that you use this language is that um there may be situ if you were to there may be situation where um staff would need to be comfortable that it's not just some allegation

137they may need some time to investigate it to make sure that they um have some level of confidence in this before they would report it to the parent um and also it it it gives people an opportunity to just be reasonable about how they address the issue I mean I understand right I understand your your point but I think I think that's kind of our thought in recommending that you stick with the statuto language but if we if you're saying that they have to investigate potentially and it slows the process aren't doesn't that put us out of compliance immediately if we have to say the word promptly because the moment you suspect that suspecting and then an investigation and then it's you're not promptly doing anything so that I would worry about that well I

138think for for staff to suspect would be different than staff receiving an allegation I mean receiving an allegation does not trigger a person automatically suspecting right it's you just receive an allegation so I think the idea here is to give staff an opportunity to be able to do enough investigation that now they actually suspect that something has occurred okay and then that then triggers promptly L which is a separate issue Al together because once they then suspect then it's promptly if you feel comfortable I'm comfortable we feel comfortable yes okay thank you all right Dr in and then miss Waters um yes thank you it's does sound like we need to take this back to policy but I mean my my my thought in this was if you move that the that uh those wording

139to us a different paragraph um and then um the the existing uh wording in the black um pretty much tells you the time frame that we're supposed to be notifying parents my my thought was on that last sentence on that last par that paragraph um such notice must occur by the end of the work day in which the incident occurred comma but when it is not reasonably be possible not later than the end than the end of the following workday it's a Nuance there I I just thought maybe something to consider does that make sense yeah that makes sense what do you think I mean it seems to me that that the policy could be revised to address the change that's actually being brought forward tonight and then if the board wants to send it

140back to take a to back to the policy committee to look at the last sentence as it relates to um alleged offenders that you could um review that in policy committee and decide how to how to address that last sentence if at all they are actually two different situations so you don't have to de side both of them tonight miss Waters thank you just a clarifying question now are we talking about suspecting or when the situation is the first sence is um notification to law enforcement has occurred so that's where I guess I'm not understanding when is when when you've been referred to law enforcement or just the suspect and then there's an investigation um and that's exactly part of the reason that we're saying to pull the sentence out or this paragraph out and

141make it a separate paragraph so that the when when law enforcement's been notified which is the original policy link which is law you've notified law enforcement that the student is an alleged offender then that's when you would notify the parent at the end of the workday in which the incident occurred when recently possible but not later than the end of the following work day so when the when you've noticed cied law enforcement that's when you notice the other one is suspected and again that's when you suspect that the student is the victim and that's when you when you suspect that the student is the victim that's when you would notify promptly so they're again they're two separate provisions and just again from a parent lens I had a situation um where the school notified me

142promptly and I appreciated that and I I would want that kind of experience um for other parents whose child may be in a situation like that so that's why I do um place that advocacy so strongly and um hope we'll have further discussion around that you can speak Mr Malone it's okay no I was just going to say that the board I mean you're obviously free to revise that language however You' like for it to read but it's I I was just pointing out that there are two totally separate the main reason for separating them is because they're two separate sets of facts I don't think there's any disagreement in the proposed change to separate the two I think what we're hearing is there's questions about the reporting on one of those paragraphs and what

143that structure looks like um so I think the question now is I I actually heard a concern about the reporting in both mm okay Parts the the timeline for reporting for both sections so I I would propose if you are comfortable with this that we approve this revision tonight to separate these in two paragraphs and then and we'll approve that version of the policy and then they we will bring the policy back to you so that you can consider in these two separate paragraphs the timeline for notification for both situations if you are comfortable with that and would like to pursue those revisions then we can bring that back to you at a future policy committee meeting I think that sounds reasonable policy chair how do you feel well again as Dr crane noted at

144the beginning the entire point of this policy was just to be in compliance not to refute the whole policy so yes I would agree with Dr crane the point was to make us in compliance by the end of this month um before or actually sooner um so that we are in compliance all of these policies can always come back but we are currently not in compliance if we do not make these changes that are recommended today that was all we talked about at policy committee is only getting ourselves into compliance with synical 49 right thank you all right all those in favor of approving board policy 4720 on first reading noting that this will at some point come back to policy committee please say I I sorry it's not 4720 it's 40 33 335 I

145was getting ahead of myself um all right I'll in favor of 4335 please say I any oppose nay now moving on to board policy 4720 surveys of students first reading and thanks for sticking with us Dr crane absolutely so I'm going to bring to you now policy 4720 surveys of students for first read I know that there was a request to see a clean copy of this um and so a clean copy is provided in your backup materials I think Miss CFI you made that request so we made sure to provide that for you so you can see that with the changes accepted if you will what it would look like was revised by the North Carolina School boards Association within the context of Senate Bill 49 our policy committee meeting discussed these at se

146on September 26th you also recommended that we add references to Statute in the first sentence so you will see those additions highlighted in yellow of reference to session law 2023 106 which is Senate Bill 49 That's the Law format for it and the protection of people rights amendment amendment is spelled out there both with the links to the text of those statutes again after further review our attorney suggested we bring one more revision this one is relatively simple I think section e at the end of the policy read uh speaks to quote other policies concerning surveys and related matters as required by the protection of people rights amendment a review of our policy manual returned no additional policies that speak to these parameters as you question further um accordingly um we are proposing to you

147that we therefore strike section e entirely because there are no other related policies that deal with this um again we will show that Revision in yellow highlighted in yellow when you see this on second read if you approve this tonight and with that we request your approval on first reading for 4720 surveys of students so moved all right we have a motion a second there any discussion Miss Coffield thank you and I appreciate the revisions um I just have a question in reference to some of the wording that we have um we put up uh several spots we say opportunity for the parents what do we provide as opportunity in in which context um let me see in section A Part B it says there is an opportunity for survey process I'm trying to scroll

148back to it hold on so for B parental notification parents will be provided the opportunity to review both electronically and in person the process for providing consent so if parental consent is required we do send a form home and require a signature um and we Prov provide the text for review either in print on paper at the school or electronically if we can we may not always be able to do that okay and then I think it said again in item number D I'm assuming is the same and hold on I had to scroll to that particular spot yes if a parent is offered the opportunity to opt out we will contact the parent notify them that the survey has happened in that their permission is required and that they can opt in or we

149will notify them that they may opt out in this case in section D that is an opt out okay thank you right Mr Swanson thank you Dr crane I just have a clarifying question I remember this discussion vaguely during the policy SE uh committee meeting but parents no longer can opt out Senate Bill 49 makes everything an opt in is that correct no not everything no there are certain pieces um certain surveys are for example the youth risk behavior survey is not required to be an opt-in the the budget Bill provided um a piece to say that can be opt out so we get to decide currently we operate that survey as an opt-in okay so that is our position on that on that survey okay thank you not everything is not everything is opt

150in required to be opt in I mean with the general assembly changing so much constantly is very difficult to keep up with what's happening and what's not happening um so thank you for clarifying that for me sure further questions comments seeing none all those in favor of adopting board policy 4720 uh surveys of students for first reading please say I any oppose nay all right moving on to board policy 6120 student health services first reading Dr crane sure oh so now I'm going to bring to you policy 6120 student health services for first read the policy was again revised by the North Carolina School boards Association within the context of Senate Bill 49 um our policy committee meeting discussed this one as well on September 26th with the uh revision that you can see there

151it's it's very minor um just to spell out that state law authorizes emergency Health Care um without consent um and spells out those details there uh we ask your approval for the first read of 6120 student health services so moved all right we have a motion and multiple seconds any discussion seeing none all in favor please say I any oppose nay all right and finally on policy agenda board policy 7300 staff responsibilities first reading and this is Dr muello thank you Dr [Laughter] crane good evening everyone um tonight I'm bringing policy 7300 staff responsibilities and code of ethics for the first read this policy was written by the school boards Association and we're bringing in as part of our policy migration you'll see multiple additions throughout the policy in blue and the majority of these

152come from current policies and r&p that this new policy um will replace once adopted I'll stop short of reviewing all the changes for you but essentially this is our U policy that speaks to our responsibility as employees to serve as good role models and examples and display High ethical standards honesty Integrity um the the policies that this would replace if adopted by the board 2300 responsibility for compliance with board policy 2303 criminal records check 3242 unethical influence 4202 responsibilities and duties and then 2305 that the r&p number one code of ethics and standards of conduct and if you're remember from policy committee many of those are really short policies that we've been able to incorporate into this one and somebody who accesses policy quite a bit any opportunity to consolidate is always a good thing

153um so tonight bring this request uh for board's consideration of approval on first reading of policy 7300 is there a motion so moved right we have a motion to approve board policy 7300 any questions comments concerns all right seeing none all those in favor please say I I any oppos nay right board policy see 7300 passes for first reading thank you Dr muello thank you madam chair at this time we'll take a motion um we did have some closed session items that we went oh you know what before we do that let's um approve our HR uh recommendations for employment and appointment um I move that we approve our HR employment um recommendations and hires all right we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say I any oppose nay all

154right all of our HR recommendations pass um we did some Clos session uh right after the work session we're going to go back into Clos session this is not we're just trying to get things done quickly so we can get back to public comment um and we just want to thank you for your patience with us as we finish this work so is there a motion to return to close session that's okay motion a second all in favor please say I any oppose nay all right we will be back e the all right welcome back back thank you for your patience we're returning to our public comment period um the next person on the agenda is Howard Kaufman followed by Mary Richardson is Mr Kaufman here miss Richardson okay uh Bill bab Mike nut good

155evening thanks for staying late uh I wanted to um welcome Dr Taylor from one Mississippi expatriate to another he's back great uh it's my great pleasure to uh welcome any Mississippian that joins me here in North Carolina their loss really ashamed at what happened but um you know how it is in Mississippi uh so I'm uh speaking to you uh in my capacity as uh the ad advocacy chair at con Elementary PTA um and I want to speak about the uh the public comment policy but I want to kind of tell you what's behind that uh one of the reasons why I uh signed up for the advocacy committee was because the people who come to our PTA At Con don't really reflect the the parents uh who I think are at con and who

156need our help the most uh most of the people who show up at uh PTA to participate are uh White and upper class um that is a concern to me I think there's a whole slew of problems uh that were probably not advocating for for our parents um so the the kind of impetus for this comment is to uh is that um I would like uh to help those families get engaged those who aren't engaged and to hear what their concerns are to welcome them to provide value to them uh to help them to know what questions to ask uh to help explain how to get involved and uh to come here to visit you uh to engage directly with our school systems leadership um however I don't think think it's super easy to do

157that uh so I would like to uh provide some suggestions on policy 2310 which I saw on one of your working group meetings a couple weeks ago it didn't seem like you got to it but uh if it's on your mind um a lot of my suggestions would simply be uh attained by um converting back to the practices that you established during the co pandemic uh so for instance allowing for written and recorded comments again uh single parent with two or three jobs probably doesn't have the time to come up here uh for a few hours and stay extra late um um or they may not have public speaking skills or uh like me when I broke my back last year they may have physical differences that make it difficult to get here uh finally

158there are plenty reasons to be afraid for your safety in a room full of uh lying fascists and hateful Christian nationalists who think certain people are filth none of these are reasons we should be prevented from having a comment on the public record and all could be circumvented with written or recorded comments uh please expand the window for signups uh and do it before the day of the meeting a single 5 Hour window on the day of the meeting makes it incredibly hard to plan or submit comments uh and uh confirm who gets a speaking slot the day before to help with that planning uh I think returning to the lottery system uh would be helpful a first come first Ser system that uh privileges those who are able to get to a computer during

159that single 5H hour window uh again privileges a certain type of person who is uh ready to click that button um and finally um there were uh Illusions to this today but I think it would be a good idea to codify that there should be no campaigning from the podium uh whether for your own candidacy or for a social media campaign uh last fall we had a lot of Schoolboard candidates who used the public dime to get free publicity uh just as we've recently had groups trying to run social media campaigns from this Podium uh so those are just some of the most obvious ways that you could adjust your procedures uh but I think the the question to keep in mind as you're considering these policies would be how do we welcome uh those

160parents who are most disconnected from our schools and make it uh the most welcoming and easy uh experience for them to speak to you thank you um Susan Wen eileene Allen Jennifer Labs Holly Atkins you're closing us out Miss Atkins am I yes well thank you for staying welcome uh superintendent Taylor my name is Holly Atkins president and founder of Hope for teens first I appreciate the difficult position you are in by feeling the need to comply with s sp49 which is hate filled exclusionary and overall wrong January 1 comes awfully early without proper guidance and a road map to understand it all a reminder according to General statute 115 C 7616 C2 disclosure of changes to names or pronouns are not required when a reasonably prudent person would believe that disclosure would result in

161the child becoming an abused juvenile or neglected juvenile as those terms are defined in general statute 7B 101 for those wanting to verify that's page seven of s sp49 further please also remember Title 9 we all go through training and while some may want you to violate those protections doing so is an illegal act they say the squeaky wheel gets the oil what if that squeaky wheel is a metal roller skating wheel from a pair of skates back in 1972 what if that skate no longer functions overall is unsafe and poses so many safety concerns it has been updated in advance to the skates we have now skates with rubber wheels that Glide better have a means to stop and are overall a better fit for all in other words those pair of skates are

162irrelevant and so are their squeaks I won't stand up here and throw books to the ground yell or otherwise try to make my position that squeaky wheel quite honestly a lot of passive have made their point without being that annoying squeak and I am quite surprised that some have forgotten what it feels like to be excluded ostracized and bullied all for being who they are Martin Luther King Jr wouldn't have had to be a peaceful protester for equal rights if racism had never been an issue neither would Gandhi Malala for women's rights and all the many wonderful people in the past I grew up in a biracial family in New York City and I remember that bullying firsthand my dad being pushed off his bike because he was riding with a white woman being called

163an Oreo and a Domin know all through elementary and middle school because my dad was black and my mom was white I have empathy because of my past experiences and I've seen that racial disparity firstand but now people feel the need to place that hatred on the lgbtq plus Community without remembering the pain of their own past Quick stats at least 1.8 million lgbtq plus youth aged 13 to 18 in the US seriously consider suicide each year out of a population of 25.2 million so in other words 7% more than 15% of our team te identify as part of the lgbtq plus community and are four times more likely to consider suicide over the CIS population 86% of trans youth consider suicide lgbtq plus teens knowing they have support and advocacy from adult increase decreases

164anxiety thoughts of suicide and depression our teens are watching politicians be hateful exclusionary and wrong all for wanting votes from narrow-minded uncompassionate voters this is the opposite of what the board has indicated in terms of wanting the best mental health for our students but in order to help our students feel safe that good mental health offer needs to be extended to the teachers and administrators if teachers and administrators don't feel safe being who they are in the schools our students never will and they don't please work on making the schools safer for all who Walk The Halls teachers and students thank you this ends our public comment um we have one more item on our agenda before we adjourn and that is the announcement of a settlement and I will turn it over to Mr

165Malone uh the board would like to announce the settlement of a personal injury claim name captioned enry KO Wake County Superior Court number 23 sp02 783 hyphen 910 the matter was settled in the amount of $20,000 right thank you Mr Malone um we've now reached time of adjournment is there a motion to adjourn motion to ad all right we have a motion from Vice chair Hagerty is second from Mr Swanson all those in favor please say I any oppose nay we are now adjourned thank you'all