001e yeah good evening everyone it is Tuesday October 3rd 202 3 at 5:39 p.m. and we're calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I'd like to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in person 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 and 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 speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to
002action in accordance with General statute 43- 31817 we have a quorum of uh eight board members our board attorney and for his first board meeting Dr Taylor welcome [Applause] and now if you'll join me in standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance i al to FL of the United States of America to the for it stands Nation indivisible with liy and justice for all right we will now move on to our superintendent's comments Dr Taylor Madam chair Mr Vice chair members of the board uh members of the community and staff say good evening uh I wanted to begin my remarks by saying thank you to this entire Community for the warm welcome I have received as your superintendent I still have a lot of folks to meet places to visit is it work I'm just
003making sure it's time okay good so have a lot of uh folks to meet places to visit and important information to learn but I can already tell this is a dynamic and caring community and I'm being reminded at every turn what a tremendous privilege it is to lead a district of this caliber I've been traveling all over the district doing my first 100 days as superintendent to give you the opportunity to learn more about me while I learn more about our communities I'm also looking forward to listening learning and connecting with you all so thank you for the warm welcome that I've received and it's certainly my pleasure to be here uh this week is custodial appreciation week of time for all of us to celebrate our hardworking custodians and thank them for keeping our
004schools clean and safe uh the work of custodians ties directly to the third priority of our strategic plan operational effectiveness which calls for every school to provide an inviting and safe environment it is all too easy to take for granted everything custodians do to make schools great spaces for teaching and learning so this week provides a welcome opportunity to let custodians know they are valued and appreciated allow me to take this moment to say thank you to all of our custodians for the invaluable service they provide each and every day the business of educating students simply could not happen without your dedications schools will be finding special ways to honor their custodians this week so look for tributes on our social uh media under the hashtag # custodial appreciation week we're also taking time in
005the month of October to observe disability history and awareness month a chance for all of us to learn more about and celebrate the contributions of people with disability ities this year's theme is breaking barriers and shaping Futures schools have been provided a number of resources to help them promote common language and understanding through class discussions social media posts an art or video projects celebrating students with disabilities look for disability history and awareness month activities on social media under the hashtag wcpss breaking barriers congratulations are in order for Sanderson High student Benjamin Cashwell and Hillburn Drive Academy teacher Amanda hmel who will receive newly created awards from our friends at the Wake Ed partnership at the 10th Annual stars of Education Gayla next week Benjamin will receive the emerging Star Award for being a vibrant member
006of the school Community he is an active member of the DECA entrepreneurship program and serves on the WC PPS Equity steering committee Benjamin was one of 40 Wake County Public School students nominated for this inaugural award so we're very proud of him Mrs H will receive the star Among Us award for her work as a pre special education teacher at Hillburn Drive she supports students and their families by helping them gain access to lifechanging supports such as specialized Wheelchairs and other adaptive resources she was one of 900 nominees from across the district so you know that's a great um award I am grateful for the selfish contributions of these two outstanding members of the Wake County Public School community and I grateful for the wakeid partnership for recognizing their great work my congratulations to them
007both lastly our schools have been observing Hispanic Heritage Month which is September the 15th my birthday for those who are wondering uh through October 15 with a variety of learning activities and cultural events the purpose of cultural awareness observances like Hispanic Heritage Month is to help all students and All Families see themselves lifted up in a positive light within our district and to allow the entire School Community to learn more about other cultures North Forest Pines Elementary had a large turnout for his uh turnout for his Hispanic heritage night the result of intentional planning enthusiastic promotion by school leaders and Community Partners uh so take a look at this video and I think we're going to pull that up North Forest Pines Elementary School helped to usher in Hispanic Heritage Month by hosting a family
008engagement event as one of our school Improvement plan goals um we wanted to reach out to the Hispanic Community um so we started planning the beginning of our school year in July and um we also included YMCA um they provided a bus for us that went to some neighborhoods and actually allowed some people that might have not had Transportation um to make it here as well so we were very excited have the turnout that we've had students and families had the opportunity to participate in a Zumba class have a Hands-On learning experience with Hispanic art and sing along to Encanto have you ever done Zumba before you have so you're an expert okay um we hope that they're just able to celebrate um either their own culture or to just learn a little more about
009um Hispanic cultures um that our school is made of [Applause] right Madam chair that concludes my comments and I'll be sure to lean a little closer to the mic the next time well I have no other comments except you brought a video on your first day so that's a strong strong start um I do know uh somewhere in the community there was a rumor that we were voting on the assignment plan tonight that is not true so um I know many of you are here and curious about that and I just want to dispel that now we are not even discussing the assignment plan tonight um and so that's all I have to say other than you know again welcome Dr Taylor so Vice chair hey thank you chair mfi you know many times I've
010waved my board comments unfortunately tonight I think I'm going to have to take back all of my time um it has been a very busy couple of weeks and with a lot of important work going on a lot of it maybe that we can't get into tonight but I wanted to summarize and then we can expand upon it as needed district 7 will hold hold our first board advisory committee meeting of the year coming up on October 10th at 6 pm at Barton Creek where we will host our brand new superintendent Dr Robert Taylor as part of his uh first hund day Journey to meet families and learn more about our community our staff and um everything about Wake County uh and we're going to be meeting at the new Barton Pond Elementary School um
011I hope some of my other board members will be able to do justice to this next event but I wanted to take a moment just to congratulate AP Sebastian ship and principal Brian Saunders for the mil or the milbrook staff and their PTA as well for the wonderful centennial celebration that they held just a couple weeks ago in the middle of her orcane or guess tropical storm ofilia um there was a wonderful celebration for the oldest school in Wake County that surprised me that it was in fact the oldest one uh there was a heartfelt remembrance for principal Dana King and there was a great chance to hear from a panel of dignitaries including the mayor of North Ry our former colleague Miss Roxy cash um you know often times we get asked about the
012school's role in larger societal issues and sometimes people forget that schools are part of a larger community what goes on in the schools doesn't just stop and start at the school's doors and I was pleased to attend along with Miss Edmunds an event held by the Wake County Juvenile crime prevention Council on which our own Dr Maurice pedford is a council member um it's I guess it was about the need for better resources to prevent and divert potential criminal Behavior to reduce recidivism and I'm hopeful we can talk some more about it in the future um and I have to be honest I actually ask miss Edmund if she could carry on a little bit more about it for me um um recently I also attended the funeral of one of our former school board
013members and former chair of this board several times over Dr John Gilbert and again miss Edmunds had spoken eloquently about Dr Gilbert's service to our community but I wanted to pay my additional respects John Gilbert was also one of my first professors way back when at NC State and I had the opportunity to attend school with members of his family worked with him as a school board member and a school board chair relevant to his work today the memorial service actually featured a number of members of our community and guests that came out to talk about you know all of the work that went into not just the merger of our County and City School System but then truly integrating them and the work of Dr Robert Bridges among others with the creation of our
014magnet school program and as we work today toward implementation of our strategic plan and oper I can't stumbling over that word to operationalize our Equity plan I think there are a lot of valuable lessons in our history that many in our area may be unaware of especially with many newcomers as we have in Wake County and I hope we can return to this as well uh tonight we'll hear from the Sha the student health advisory Council and I won't steal any of their Thunder but please know that one of the issues related to Student Health that this board continues to work on a lot behind the scenes and maybe we don't talk about about as much as the board t has to deal with fighting VAP fighting vaping by students you know at our last
015meeting Miss Coffield recently talked about the work by Wake County government to restrict the availability of vaping products uh within certain distances from our school and I hope other local governments will that have the authority to do something about this we'll consider similar measures I think everybody knows that The Vaping problem poses a serious health risk to our students you know they're not the safer cigarettes that they originally were marketed as but but many people may not know that even secondhand Vape emissions contain very dangerous chemicals that can hurt the health of our students and even if our students stay far away from these products our educational environments are disrupted weekly sometimes in some schools daily by false fire alarms that are set off by students vaping in the schools now this board like many
016others around the nation came together to fight back to take on the ecigarette companies and we won we helped expose their willful and shameful marketing to Youth and we thought we won a solid Victory but what we're seeing now is that through legal games and manipulating definitions many of the controls that we thought we had won are now being circumvented by manufacturers they're simply changing the delivery products for their vaping fluids from cartridge based to disposable products you know the Disposable but it's not just even that they're making these new products that they say aren't really ecigarettes they're making them in the same fruit flavors and bubble gum flavors that specifically are targeting our younger children so we have to stand up to the manufacturers and these kinds of games and I've drafted a letter
017and I I've shared it with my colleagues and I think we'll have many members of the board sign it calling for our Congressional leaders to take action to close these loopholes and to enforce the important safety and health regulations of all vaping products including the disposable ones now finally as I look out in the room it's like nc5 540 because to the north I see I've got my kids Creek and Austin Ridge people and over here to the South I see I've got my all my Parks side people I know many of you came tonight to talk about reassignment I hope that there wasn't a misunderstanding about a vote tonight there as chairman happy said there won't be a vote tonight but this is public comment and you are all welcome to speak here on
018our thought exchange and at the public hearings that we're having now as many of you know under state law right we have to restrict the number of students we can allow in kindergarten through third grade classrooms and when we in when we have that law in place when we run out of room we place enrollment caps on our schools and even schools that are as new as Austin Ridge Elementary and Parkside have hit the level where we have a cap in place and as we see more growth coming in we're going to see students capped out as far away as Brier Creek Elementary for Austin Ridge and as far away as Adams Elementary for Parkside so when we see the growth coming in and we can't keep capping students you know far enough we don't
019have the bus resources to take these students as far away from their homes we do have to re look at reassignment and we know reassignment is disruptive and we know it has an impact on families so we have to maintain a safe and effective learning environment at the schools but I've heard many from many of you directly that I see here today who brought many legitimate concerns about this reassignment plan um I've heard concerns I guess one of my strongest concerns is Shifting families on their calendars so that you would have students going kindergarten through fifth grade in Traditional School sixth through 8th grade and multi-track year round and then back to traditional calendar for high school and particularly for families that have multiple children that can be just extremely disruptive trying to get children
020on the same schedules that's not the only reason and I know we're not debating reassignment tonight but I wanted to raise those issues I think some of you tonight might be talking about issues with trans transportation problems for some of these routes and questions about future residential growth and the impact they could have and also what we might see with a new Middle School being planned in an area where these families you know the families here are seeing a lot of reassignment year after year after year and I think that holding that stability is very very important so I can't get into all the issues that you've discussed I wanted to thank you I've gotten many documents this one from Kitz Creek and Austin Ridge Middle this one from Parks side about a public meeting
021just individual emails yall have sent on your own I've reviewed all of these I'm going to be sharing these with our staff and we are going to try to look at what solutions that again we have to comply with law we have to look at the enrollment numbers and bring those enrollment numbers down but we also need to be really aware of the impact that's going to have on all of on all of our families in these areas and see what Solutions we can find so thank you very much and thank you for coming out today Miss Johnson Hustler thank you very much um I will pick up where um Mr Hagerty did so um in terms of I did not bring all of my um showand tell materials but very similarly I won't repeat
022what you just said in terms of um how student enrollment is not anyone's favorite job up here and we also understand the need for stability um and continuity in our district and we also um as Mr Hagerty pointed out have growth gr number laws that govern that that are parameters outside of our complete control in terms of student assignment and student enrollment so similarly um we have Oak Park and Magnolia Park um here as well tonight that'll be talking about Brian road so you did a great job of kind of giving at least a pre carser um as to why we have movement and the fact that it is our first draft we are not voting on it tonight and our staff um who I'm sure if they're not in here or listening um are
023very diligent in your feedback um whether you send it to us as individual board members or through mail Courier um or hopefully some of you on October 5th which is Thursday we'll attend the virtual session um to hear from staff and also are using thought exchange all of those are tools that our staff Ed to do Digger dive deep deep dive into what your requests are and bring those things back to the board so again just echoing your sentiments Mr Hagerty um since we realized that people thought we were perhaps voting this evening um so thank you very much for outlining that um I'll also just continue with your followup um I'm guessing it's me that you thought would continue to talk about milbrook um undoubted undoubtedly everyone knows that milbrook holds a special place
024in my life and I'm so texting Miss cash that you said she was the mayor of North Raleigh um but it it it was indeed um again I said this when Dr Saunders were was here to get um our approval to to name the thorough fair that runs through milbrook mostly where our students park Dana King way um it speaks to our Legacy building of our Educators and the support and especially to see the love um of an educator um from her family her students her um um teachers who taught and were hired by her there were some that had been there as long as she had at milbrook high school um it was also super great to hear that they had um a coach who was 97 years old who did the coin toss
025they had a 96-year-old there who was there for the alumni Union um all the students had individual booths for all the decades um so you could flip through your yearbook and the students were taking photos of course Miss cash and I took a photo um so again it was great for me to see both our history but also the importance of our young people taking up the the manal of our history and really um making it their own and talking about the way they feel about milbrook and so of course we will forever be a wildcat family um Dana King was the first person who hired my husband um in County Public Schools and he tells the story never publicly and I think this probably the first time I've share it publicly but it's important
026based on the conversation we just had during our work session um my husband is a black math teacher and she was the only principal who interviewed him and didn't ask if he was a coach he has a master's in mathematics and he said he took the job with Dana King because she was the only person who wasn't looking for a blackmail coach but rather a blackmail teacher for her students um and and race matters in terms of our students seeing the reflection of themselves in those classrooms especially in classes where our black and brown students are often touted as not doing as well in and so again that's the Legacy she leads and I also would be remissive I didn't say she was also um the leader of the administrators who ask for forgiveness and
027not permission so she will also forever be known in the district as the person who took matters into her own hands um a as an administrator um but again that speaks to the importance of leadership understanding why the equity framework and my husband's been in the district now 19 years um and so the fact that we're still having this conversation to me this is why we're still having this conversation because we still hear these exact same comments um that I did not ask my husband to share permission so he doesn't watch this so you just don't tell him and he won't know that I publicly shared his his story which I don't do because in my work um I work in violence against women I don't tend to share people's stories without their permission but
028I think it's important that people he that's one educator in our district who has an experience of why this conversation is important um and of course um you all know I will no longer be able to say I have a child in the district because she graduated from Mil Brook Magnet High School um um this past June um but again for me to know that um that that the conversation we're having is personal um but it is also my role at this table professionally as well to to share those experiences um and to that I gave an interview today to a student who graduated from Sanderson High School um she is a goodn night fellow um at NC State and she is majoring in education and our conversation was around what's my role as a
029Schoolboard member which I always make a joke that people think that this is our full-time job it is not it is actually not even a job necessarily most of us have full-time jobs um if we're working in addition to this but um we started talking about policy and some of you have heard me say this um we cannot policy or legislate our way into Behavior change it is something that and there is the Center for Disease Control has a lot of theories on how we actually create Behavior change um and and I would say the equity framework lines up with the public health model of dosage you continue to talk about and provide people the information so you can't talk about it once you have to continue to tell people about it you have to
030make it assessible at every level so those interventions have to be both training but also mirrored in our in our media of the things that we consume that is how we create Behavior change and that is why it's important for us to talk about Equity because it requires all of us to have a behavior change and I often dispel the myth as I did with this um young future teacher hopefully she comes back to Wake County um in 27 when she graduates but I always share with people that the importance of behavior change isn't it's all of us so when we talk about Equity as a black woman there are my own implicit biases there's my own need to deconstruct what I've been taught about my own race all of those things are necessary in
031how we do this work so this work isn't just for one group of people it is for all of us when we talk about Equity um and so I think it's important and I shared that with the student today and she thanked me for saying that um because she asked the question that everybody asked why do I sit on the board and why do I stay as I approach my 10th year in December um and I said to her because I joined this board to ensure that all students had access to becoming acade academically excellent in the way to do that is to remove those barriers and that's my job through policy through the superintendent that we hire and through the policies we set and also through student enrollment those are the four big pillars
032that our that those of us at this table are charged with and of course there's a range of things that are connected to that to the great people who do the work in the district um but she shared with me her own experience in Wake County Public Schools as a girl of color and she said to me thank you for pointing me to this policy because the number one thing that is important to me of coming back as a teacher in second or third grade is to ensure students of color can see themselves and have a sense of belonging which we talk about in our Equity framework she hadn't read our Equity policy so I say that to you to say that that is a student who graduated from Wake County Public Schools just this
033past year who we hope will return to us in four years as an educator teaching second or third grade um and so for people who are asking the why that's why and for the people who especially around our around all the work that we do it is difficult work none of us go to bed at night thinking that what we did was easy peasy uh we are struggling with the work that we're doing to ensure that we're meeting the needs of all of our students and lastly I'll say that um when you think about Behavior change I because I'm a hoarder of email um it is my virtual um file folders and the first email I got was 2016 from NC child youth advisory Council around vaping we are now almost 8 years post the
034first email I got and the students came to speak to to us in 2017 they came to the board to talk about what changes we could make how we identify vaping and how we prevent it in our schools so that's an example of the long-term work you have to do to create Behavior change so vaping we're still here talking about that and thank you for our students who are here again tonight seven and a half years later talking about the work that we do we will be talking about Equity s and a half years later because both of those things require Behavior change on behalf of all of our citizens so while we struggle through this together public discourse is not a bad thing it's how we get to the right answers so thank you
035all for listening to my very long-winded comments tonight but hopefully it'll give you food for thought of how we have the hard conversations together right Mr [Applause] Swanson thank you chair mfan thank you Miss Johnson Hustler for your words of wisdom um and always reminding us of the work that we are tasked with so thank you um Dr Taylor welcome uh um day two and I am looking forward to the great things that are going that we're going to continue to do on this journey together um so thank you for taking on this task and um we have some great work ahead of us so I'm confident that we'll get through that and I also just want to thank Dr bridges for stepping in and literally filling in that Gap being the bridge uh to
036get us through this this this moment where um you know with changes it's it's not always easy it's it's a lot of unrest unknowns and Dr Bridges rode the wave with us and guided the ship the way it needed to be guided so thank you and I hope he's enjoying golfing and not worrying about the traffic from Alamance to um um to hear so also I I do want to just thank our custodians who also are the backbone of our schools to make sure that our schools are safe and clean and uh often there's sometimes the first folks that people see as they enter into our schools and they are part of our school community and so I'm grateful that we get to celebrate them not just this week but every day for the work
037that they do um and our principles this month is also National principal month and so we want to thank our principls for the work that they do daily that they're tasked with um and a lot of that work is not easy um and so we are grateful for them and the work that they are doing um tomorrow is actually National walk and bike to school day so families as you were driving to school uh you may see a little bit more foot company um so that may be a good thing for our transportation folks um but I will also be joining uh Carri councilwoman uh Lori Bush as we will be walking with the Northwoods uh Community uh on tomorrow so I'm looking forward to PR some good walking shoes as we walk and travel
038uh with them and so uh be on the lookout for those those students um also I I know last week the White House had issued a proclamation making last week National HBCU week um and I think as we're talking about this this work uh this is the first time we actually have two HBCU grads sitting at this board I attended the number one HBCU in the nation North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Miss Johnson Hustler and Dr Taylor are both Broncos they attended fville state so the reason why I'm saying that and I forgot Vice chair hey is a legal eagle um yes so yes so that HBC representation is is very important and our HBCU make up 40% of our members of Congress 12.5% of those CEOs are HBCU grads 40% of
039them are um Engineers nearly 50% are Educators 70% of them are doctors 80% of them are Judges and the list goes on and on um and I was going to throw a joke that 100% of them are vice presidents so we also have a vice president as an HBCU alarm um so in and the reason why I'm saying this is because in a couple of weeks there will be a free college uh application week and North Carolina has the most hbcus in the nation we have 10 um compared to anyone else and so as you go through and make and families and students are looking at colleges that represents their needs or they feel uh what's best for them look into our HBCU because our HBCU have such a rich history and are continuing to
040defy the odds despite what challenges they are facing and so um if anyone is interested in learning more about noron & I'm always happy to uh lend an ear um but I will also not belor the point as well but we do have great historically black colleges and universities in this nation um and also in a on next Tuesday uh District 9 will have our first BAC meeting at Farmington Woods at 6 pm and Dr Robinson will be our speaker as we go over our strategic uh strategic plan which is our work for the next five years so if you have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email again that will be on Tuesday October 10th at 6: pm at Farmington Woods that concludes my comment thank you Miss [Applause] Coffield oops
041well Friday was a great day as we welcome Dr Taylor is really nice to meet your family they were very excited for you and proud and we're just as excited to see where you will take us so an official congratulations and welcome I know Dr Taylor has already been very busy because on Saturday morning I ran into him at Wendell Community event for Whole Health there was many community members out there to see all the resources that were available to them and he also started his official first day really yesterday um again um in District 1 at Roseville Elementary School where I toured and got to meet the great staff and our students there so I'm honored to have him start with us in district one and I know that he has many more schools
042to get to he has his walking shoes on and he's excited to see them all might take him a minute to see all 200 but he's going to work at it um I was invited to join the Whole Health Resource and family fund day in W Wendell there's a lot of information there to help the families at this event and I'll be posting some of those resources available that was provided to me for for the families that were not able to attend but I was able to speak to many great folks about different programs available for all ages it had uh address to success it's a coaching and training program um Family Resource Center Telecom Corporation all kinds of care for pregnant and Pregnant and young moms and children with disabilities whe County public libraries
043was there um there were adult programs with for and assistance Family Support Network FS FNS NC who work to support groups of families with developmental disabilities and behavioral challenges Smart Start The Hope Center they help with crisis Moes mob Outreach even equestrian there was uh Corral is a a an organization that helps support people with disabilities and this October 21st in Raleigh they have fall on the farm for anybody that's interested and of course Wake County Public Schools had a booth there as well I hope that we can collaborate and share more information as we learn more for example I met a young lady who shared with me that her program the FN snc they have families at struggles uh fam families with struggles they have Mentor programs um that help both the parents and
044anybody they can help train them we need our student when we know that our student athletes receive type of mentorship from their coaches it really helps shape and even redirect some of those students and keep them focused on their goals and a great for Su a great path for Success having a mentor for any child helps our student make good choices it can provide outlets and help them Direct in a positive path avoiding possible discipline concerns and promote their focus on academics and mental health our guidance counselors can direct our families to resources and help them get where they need having a resource like a mentor can help many kids on their road to to success there were many resources that were promoted promoting this whole health and I recommend checking out these community events
045Wake Forest is planning their first Mental Health Awareness Day on October 21st at the Renaissance Center from 1: to 4:00 p.m. I'll be posting their Flyers soon in Wake County will also be sharing that information with the community as well so please stay tuned and save the dat again it's October 21st these events are important to our community they're meant to reach all ages wake for us will have some breakout groups art therapy Story Time and they'll even have information for veterans and the fire department will be there serving hot dog so if you want to bring your kids along they always like that it reminds me that mental health affects everyone of all ages there's many resources available but having them and knowing where to go is key mental health comes in many forms
046from depression and suicide social media pressures vaping and body concerns medical conditions and pains and even just understanding what your body and mind are going through and knowing that your peers feel the same way that you do you're not alone and there are people out there who care and want to help you so if you are a loved one is suffering please reach out there's someone out there that is a right fit for you there's treatment and resources that can help you if you're still at a school age please email or speak to your guidance counselor for helpful resources as well know that there are hotlines that could also help you I look forward to seeing some of our families in Wake Forest on October 21st and we'll post some of those resources as I
047receive them um on a separate note district one will have their first board advisory meeting on Tuesday October 10th at 5:30 the meeting will start at 6 o'clock at Roseville middle school and a reminder that October 25th I will be in Wendell for a tea time to speak with families and here about things that they might want to share as a way to engage with our families and that will be from 11: to 1: p.m. at 41 North coffee Miss Waters thank you chair mfy and I too want to welcome Dr Taylor and just let you know how excited I am to have a new neighbor um and in the short time you've been here you've already shown an incredible ability to make people feel seen heard and valued and that is such a wonderful
048leadership quality and so I'm looking forward to the great things that you're going to do and lead in The District so welcome and uh Echo many of the things that have already been shared um custodial appreciation week is really an important time for us to celebrate um some of our most important um Educators in our buildings and really thank them for the work I have been to so many schools where principales have let me know just the importance of the care that the custodial team does um in making students feel well cared for and for the community the school Community to feel loved and so really want to lift up um the work that they do and I also want to lift up national disability employment awareness month we talked about disability a little bit
049but I think it's important to lift up um disability employment awareness month because um persons with disabilities make up the largest group of untapped labor in the US such a small percentage of um persons with disabilities are employed in our nation and so we have a lot of work to do to continue to advance opportunities so that our workplaces really reflect the communities in which we um work and serve it has been um a great pleasure to get out in District 4 um for some additional time to connect with our school communities and want to thank uh riverb Elementary U for a wonderful open house it was standing room only um principal major is an incredible leader and uh he's been recognized for his commitment to children with special needs and he has done a
050great job of cultivating an atmosphere where everyone feels um valued and there's a strong sense of belonging so just I'm so thankful for principal major in the work that he's doing at Riverbend Elementary and thank you to the town of knell for the opportunity to serve on a panel for their mayor's Academy Miss Coffield and I had a chance to share more about our um incredible school districts and to answer questions um that the community um in the night area had about um the things that we do and it was great to serve alongside three of our County Commissioners and to see just how vested our County Commissioners are in the work of the district and um just great to be able to connect with more in the community and um as Mr Swanson has
051said I will be walking to school tomorrow um with um Hunter Elementary and so looking forward to the opportunity to stroll um with those wonderful students and families as um they celebrate walk enroll to school day and um lastly there are a number of organizations that support our school communities and many of these organizations provide tutoring support and mentoring and many of them are looking for volunteers and so if you have some time and would like to make a difference in the life of a child um there are a number of organizations that are um currently looking and so to that I'll lift up our neighbor to neighbor um they have um a wonderful opportunity to connect you with students um they actually have two mentors for students so they have a list of students
052who are waiting um to be matched with mentors so neighbor to neighbor um you can Google that and find out how to connect um with their organization and also Southeast Raleigh Community Learning Center also has a need for tutors and there are um a wonderful list of organizations that provide tutoring and mentoring so um please connect um in that way if you would like to serve you don't have to have school age children or be um an expert um in working um with children you'll get training and support to be successful but I hope you'll consider um being a support and using your time to give back um to our school community so thank you thank you Miss Edmonds thank you I have to chime in too uh to welcome Dr Taylor I'm excited about
053your first 100 days and for the great work we're all going to do together under your leadership welcome I'm happy to welcome members of the Sha to tonight's meeting I'm the board liaison to this committee the student health advisory committee and I'm excited for all of you to hear from them this evening and um I'm sorry I didn't get to say hello to you all when we were transitioning into this room my apologies I will um add that I'm I'm gonna be walking to school tomorrow too I I'll be over at Colmes element Elementary bright and early I want to extend my thanks to our finance and policy staff for all their work right now in these weeks they're working hard to analyze the state budget and ensure that we are in compliance with new
054state law so thank you for all that work that you are doing I will um skip what I was going to say about the 100th anniversary of milbrook except to say that it was an honor to be there with Miss Johnson Hustler and Mr Hagerty and Dr Taylor and Miss cash on Thursday Mr Hagerty and I attended um an event that he referenced the Wake count uh hosted by the Wake County Juvenile crime pre prevention Council this event brought together Community Partners including Wake County Public Schools Dr pedford was there with some of his staff from our counseling and student services department and at the event there was an opportunity to network with these Community Partners learn what services are available for our youth and discuss strategies and solutions to reduce juvenile crime organizers brought
055leaders in from Charlotte orange and durm counties the County Juvenile crime prevention council is funded through the North Carolina Department of Public Safety on Friday Mr Hershey and I visit Vernon Malone College and Career Academy he's going to tell you about how awesome that is in a few minutes we saw kids actively welding and working in the cosmetology space washing and cutting hair we saw kids designing houses in the gaming computer design class and we spent some time with the nursing instructors their their kids were taking an exam so we didn't get to see them in action but um Mr hman and his team principal hman and his team gave us almost two hours of their time and we really enjoyed being there this week week is also National band books week the theme is
056Let Freedom read and there are activities planned including an Instagram live event tomorrow night at 8: a. with Lavar Burton a virtual event with student leaders on Thursday at 800m hosted by D Davian Daniels that event is called a seat at the table youth Advocates on fighting book bands and Let Freedom read day on Saturday October 7th you can find details about all of these events at ala.org the 13 most challenged books of 2022 were gender queer all boys aren't blue The Bluest Eye flamer Looking for Alaska The Perks of Being a Wallflower Lawn Boy the absolutely true Diary of a Part-Time Indian out of Darkness a court of mist and fury crank me and Earl and the dying girl and this book is gay as I've done several times at this table I want
057to express my support for our school librarians their profession their professionalism and their integrity their job has always been important but it is especially so now and I thank you for all you do to support students and their freedom to read again you can learn more about band books Weeks Band books week and all the events at ala.org the American Library Association and finally I want to acknowledge all the emails that we are receiving about the student assignment draft for 20 24 25 I'm reading all of those I'm not necessarily responding to all of those because I feel it's um best for the board member of that particular area to respond directly to you um I do strongly support the use of the thought exchange and that tool will allow us and staff to see
058all the concerns and the questions in one place and that will help us as we move into the next phase going through the process of going from draft one to draft two so I welcome your emails I know we all welcome your emails but please also use the thought exchange thank you Mr [Applause] Hershey well I I was going to say no board comment but I would feel I don't know if I get the Applause that you all got oh and I have to talk about Veron Malone which was awesome so I wanted uh welcome Dr Taylor is my mic on okay thank you um what I took away from Friday which I thought was incredibly important was that you laid out the challenge of being the flagship not just in the state but in
059the country and I think that's incredible I think it's needed I think from a board perspective it's it's I view that as then how as a board do we become the model board for the nation in our practice and our policies um I challenge staff as well to examine their own departments could you hold it up and say this is a model the nation should follow and if we're not there what changes do we need to make because we can actually transform every aspect of the school district that needs it we have the the Right leader in place to do that and we have a board ready and willing to do that as well um lastly I I will be very brief um we have a lot of people at public comment today and um
060what has happened at public comment occasionally is that we are having personal attacks um I apologize for not speaking up in the moment when those personal attacks happen personal attacks are not uh something that is protected when you are addressing uh your government um and that is a policy that I look forward to the board discussing and and potentially changing because we shouldn't have personal attx here they serve no purpose other than well I I won't go on with that they just serve no purpose so as you are uh criticizing uh if you want to say I'm a bad board member that's fine but if it goes beyond that and you want to say I'm ugly or something one that will not be true and two uh it serves no purpose it doesn't make us
061a better board it doesn't make us a better school system it doesn't impact policy at all and and it really only reflects on yourself when you lovey personal attacks and so until we get that policy changed I would ask that you please refrain from doing so um over the next month or so thank you board chair thank you Mr [Applause] Hershey at this time I'll take a motion to approve our meeting agenda so move second we have a motion in a second all those in favor please say I any oppos all right first up is an information item out of academic advancement and it is our school health advisory Council annual report or the Sha committee I will turn it over to Mr Brian glendenning welcome members of the board superintendent Taylor I am Brian
062glendenning I'm the senior administrator for healthful living for uh for our school system and I am also the district liaison to the school health advisory Council this is my 12th year in that role um school health advisory Council also known as the Shaq is charged with providing recommendations to the board of education and the superintendent the recommendations are in alignment with the 10 areas of the whole child whole school whole Community model this marks the 33rd anniversary of the Wake County Shack Jennifer Zera is the current co-chair and she is here to provide the council's report let's see um so good evening cheer mafy board members superintendent Taylor my name is Jennifer Zera and I am the current um co-chair of sha I'm also the proud parent of two Wake County Public School System students
063and I'm a health educator for the Post Center for health education this evening I am here to present the report for the Wake County school health advisory Council also n to Sheck and each year we provide recomend recomendations and commendations on a variety of Health and Wellness topics and I'm just waiting for my slides okay perfect here we are okay so this slide shows um the members of The Shack and so for those of you who may not be familiar it we are an Advisory Group group of school and Community Representatives acting collect collectively to advise the school district on the whole school whole Community whole child model or the Whisk model so from our prior school year as mentioned I served as the chair and Michelle M Mill was the co-chair Larry B was
064the secretary and Brian Glen Denning was the leaa shack for the upcoming year these roles will stay the same with Michelle and I serving as co-chairs and Larry and Brian remaining in their same roles we are grateful to each of our members who participate in our monthly meetings to help provide feedback for the report we also wanted to thank Anne Rollins who is here this evening for her many years of service and Leadership to the Sha as last last year was her last year as serving on our Council and we appreciate all that she has done for [Applause] us the healthy active child policy outlines the requirement for the Sha and outlines the use of the whole school whole Community whole child model for sha representation each year we review membership and try to ensure
065representation in each area this year we had Lynn Edmonds join the board um as our join the Sha as our member from the school board and we also W welcome Sher Brown and Nia Rose from employee Wellness in the upcoming year we will be looking at ways to engage community and school system members along with our students in our Shack meetings our meetings are public and they are held on the second Wednesday of each month with a virtual option in an inperson and for anyone that may be interested in attending the next two slides provide the framework for our annual report as directly taken from board policy 6140 this Wake County student wellness policy it states that a local Shack is to be established and maintained our Council has an important charge to assess the
066students and employee needs along with the school system uh environment including policies regulations um to help raise awareness with school health and wellness within the school system and our council is to be comprised of Representatives of the school system the health department and Community organizations and shall provide periodic updates to the board which is why I'm here this evening so this slide shows our 2022 2023 topics throughout the year we heard from a variety of number of presenters on a variety of Health and Wellness topics and we will go through the commendations and recommendations for each of these topics on the upcoming slides this year our format is slightly different in the fact that in Prior years we listed a topic had each of the recommendations and commendations on that slide um but we will
067do that for the first few topics but the last top topics of employee Wellness youth risk behavior survey and school-based mental health we will review Under the Umbrella of mental health as there were very um many overlaps in those topics so our first um area that we talked about and received an update from with safe routes to school so I appreciate appreciate all the board members that are going to be participating in walk to school day tomorrow um because that's one of one of our commendations here is those events um so before talking about this we wanted to recognize Jennifer Del who had been a long-standing member on um of the shack and she recently moved on to a new role and will no longer be serving on the shack and so we'd like to
068thank her for her support and her commitment to the students through the safe routes to school program so Wake County Health and Human Services received a new grant that expands the program to high schools which will allow for the addition of an additional person in the safe routes to school program and we look forward to working with these two new members um in the upcoming year so during our program update for safe routes to school we had several commendations the first is that a cross disciplinary team that was coordinated by safe routes to school with members of Wake County Public School System and car the Capital Area Metropolitan planning organization or Campo collected data on walking and biking to school this data is important in understanding the current state of act school and can help
069aid in the future development at a national level srts also rebranded their name from walk and bike to school days to walk bike en rooll for a more inclusive approach our next Commendation is regarding the all kids bike program the all kids bike program will be piloted at Southeast Raleigh Elementary Lincoln Heights Elementary and Powell Elementary and as a program to teach all kindergarten students how to ride a bike in PE class through this program schools will receive 24 balance to Pedal conversion bikes helmets a teacher instruction bike and eight online lesson curriculum the pilot was made possible by contributions through srts Wake County and the Health and Human Services Public Health Department finally we are happy to report that schools are going back to in-person events for walk and bike to school day with
070nearly 60 events last year being held and as you can see many more tomorrow um in regards to recommendations for safe routes to school we would like to see the cross disciplinary um Team continue and the second would be to support the implementation of the all bike um all kids bike program additionally we'd like to see clarification for principal regarding the no transport Zone or the walk Zone which is a Zone defined by the school transportation department there has been inconsistent understanding of what is meant for those that wish to walk to school in those areas next we covered the update process to the healthful living standards six Wake County Public School System healthful living teachers two from elementary two from middle and two from the high school as well as the senior administrator for
071healthful living participated in the Statewide data and standards revision teams the ncdpi process of formally reviewing the K through2 healthful living standards is underway with the first draft proposal having closed for comments on September 18th this process occurs every 5 to S years and is the time when language can be updated um based upon Emer new and emerging data vaping is an example of topic that has emerged since the last time the standards were written and we hope to see this reflected in the standards this process is driven by ncdpi and we commend the school system for supporting Broad purch participation in the process to update the standards and under recommendations we would like the board to receive updates about the proposed changes to the standards and provide comments where applicable during the last year
072we also completed the first triennial assessment which was outlined in board policy 6140 and that is um an assessment to determine the district adherence to the policy during our review We noted that policy 6140 should be compared to a model wellness policy such as the iance for healthier generation policy to determine if recommendations for future updates are needed for policy 6140 additionally there were two items where it was not clear whether or not the district was meeting the policy requirements these two areas are in the areas of competitive Foods being sold and also whether or not food is being used as punishment or a reward in schools and we recommend adding these two items to the principal's annual survey to obtain data next we heard from Child Nutrition and services under the commendations CNS implemented
073the community eligibility provision also known as C in seven schools and will be expanding to 12 schools for the upcoming school year students in C schools get breakfast and lunch at no cost and families with students attending a c School may get other benefits such as income wave discounts off home internet services and Technology device purchases CNS was also recommended and received the North Carolina School nutrition Association lunch Bell award for 100 strong Productions of the film resilience food for all this award recognizes the interpretation of reporting on the importance of school nutrition and the Child Nutrition programs in public schools in meeting this need 100 strong Productions award willing film highlighted food security issues and good work being done to address them in Wake County and in North Carolina finally CNS had an exceptional
074administrative review demonstrating compliance with complex regulations and financial constraints while still achieving great results in its ferally mandated administrative review and for recommend recommendations we would like to see Child Nutrition Services continue to evaluate the feasibility of expanding C into more schools and we also recommend that the board support or endorse the school meals for all North Carolina initiative by signing the letter of support our next topic was tobacco prevention and control and I appreciate um Vice chair's comments um about the support to combat vaping in in the opening statements in commendations we have on April 18th 2023 the post Center for health education in partnership with Wake County Health and Human Services and the public school system held its third annual L youth Le Wake County tobacco free community Forum a total of 85
075people participated in the hybrid event via zoom and in person at the post Center participants included elective officials from the board County uh Board of County Commissioners and local Municipal Leaders The Forum celebrated the passing of three tobacc free smokefree written regulations in Wake County and encouraged attendees to continue being involved in advocating for additional tobacco free policies the Wake County sha would also like commend the public school system for being the first in North Carolina and then joining other school systems across the country ensuing the once popular ecigarette giant Jewel and receiving a settlement of $6.2 million under recommendations the federal age to purchase tobacco is 21 but our state age is 18 which means it is extremely in difficult to in force um due to the age discre discrepancy this is concerning due
076to the continued e ecigarette epidemic among our young people there are efforts across North Carolina to increase awareness and build support for raising the age to 21 one way the Board of Education could support this would be to sign on to the tobacco 21 resolution supporting raising the age in the state to purchase tobacco to 21 the Wake County Shea would also like to recommend that when the academics Department develops its plan to utilize the funds from the duel lawsuit settlement that they be used for evid evidence-based tobacco prevention and control strategies to ensure a comprehensive approach to address the continued youth epidemic of vaping among Wake County Youth this would include initiatives such as updated and comprehensive evidence-based curriculum in middle school and expanded to Elementary and high school evidence-based alternatives to suspension programs
077addressing youth tobacco use something we've heard from the youth is needed support staff being trained in youth tobacco use treatment and providing tobacco use treatment to students promoting and referring to evidence-based youth tobacco treatment resources and the use of hard-hitting media campaigns aimed at use cessation and tobacco-free advocacy in their schools we'd also like to promote and support youth-led peer-to-peer groups including training for the Youth involved something you will be hearing about from our youth this evening we would also like to recommend additional support and enforcement of the tobacco free schools law and the youth vaping at the school level though a lot has been done at the school system level to address the vaping issues among Wake County Youth continued challenges remain at the school level next we reviewed the youth risk behavior survey
078data for North Carolina and while there were a variety of Topics in this area we will be showing you five sets of data for the state of North Carolina the first looks at electronic vapor data which we had just discussed the importance of and then we will look at four slides regarding mental health this data directed The Shea to intentionally focus on Mental Health as a critical topic after reviewing these data sets we will look at the summary of recommendations and commendations for this topic so as mentioned this first slide is for the electronic vapor products and cigarettes please note this is North Carolina data it is not Wake County specific data as there was not enough local sampling done to obtain local data on this slide we're looking at vaping and cigarette use for
079high school students in North Carolina while we were happy to see a decrease in vaping from 2019 the electronic vapor product use is still well above the levels of cigarette use when it was at its highest we need to continue to work around vaping prevention and education through the recommendations that were just outlined under the tobacco prevention and control slide our next slide is from the data collected on the survey for the question that asked during the past 12 months did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities we see that 56% of our high school females in North Carolina and 31% of our high school males in North Carolina are experiencing feelings of sadness and hopelessness with
080a trend that is continuing to increase and while this data is North Carolina specific it does mirror the trend for the entire US population that was surveyed using the same data regarding the feelings of sadness and hopelessness for high schools in North Carolina uh for females we can see that when it is compared with physical activity an intervention that is known to support overall Wellness the decrease in movement correlates to an increase in sadness and hopelessness this is not to say that a decrease in movement is the cause of these feelings it just highlights that we need to focus focus on teaching kids about the importance of interventions that we know support their mental wellness and help them create habits to build healthy life Lifestyles our next data looked at suicidal behaviors again this data
081is from the state of North Carolina and what we are seeing is those are increases in those who seriously considered attempting suicide during the past 12 months and those who have made a plan for suicide during the past 12 months our final slide builds upon the prior slide but is split by population and we see that the suicidal behaviors in the lgbtqia plus population are three times higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts these data sets are heartbreaking as a parent and a health educator they tell us that it is imperative that we must focus on Mental Health topics and interventions in an effort to support our students as well as our staff while we know that there are several programs that support mental health within the school system this year we heard updates from
082the employee Wellness Group and also from the school-based mental health so our commendations regarding these areas are first the creation of the employee wellness and support program which included hiring two full-time employees for the school-based mental health program we are pleased to see that the pilot has been completed and services have now increased from 28 schools to 40 serving 37 6 referrals this program has the benefit of running through insurance provider and counselors limiting the cost to the school school district additionally two counselors were secured pro bono which will allow for an additional 50 students to receive Services next the school system and ahc worked with the post Center to provide youth Mental Health First Aid training for 95 School nurses and finally we are pleased to see the continued participation in the yrbs survey
083data collection so next we'll look at the recommendations so our overarching recommendation that you will see carried across the the top of the next three slides is to create a coalition between academics and student services that includes parent and community members for mental health of students and staff we feel that there are many great programs and services in place and that a broad Coalition can help to create a comprehensive program for students and staff and ID by identifying any overlaps or gaps and this Coalition so first on this slide we'll highlight items that are specific to students um we would highly recommend that the yrbs be oversampled so that we can so that we can have local data as we just see see that data is extremely important um it's also important for Grants when
084we try to apply um by having local data uh for the school-based mental health program we would like to see the consideration and expansion into teleah Health Services which would help to further increase the capacity of this program finally specific to students we would like to see substance use disorder treatment especially tobacco use treatment to be included in the school based mental health services so on our next slide if we carry over it's still that same recommendation for the Coalition but this is focused on efforts uh the sub bullets for that are specific to staff so first we know that the school system has programs in place for students for a variety of support and different areas such as social and emotional learning and school-based mental health we want to ensure adequate and comprehensive programs
085to include staff as well additionally we commended the creation of the employe wellness and support program and would like to see this program broadly communicated to ensure that these services are going to the are getting to the school level additionally we believe it would be helpful to provide referrals or resource lists to staff to obtain education about mental health such as trainings in Mental Health First Aid Teen Mental Health First Aid Andor QPR training finally we would like to understand what the EAP offers to see what gaps may exist or overlaps might occur and our last slide applies to both students and staff so as always we would like to see a data driven approach to create actions for students and staff this again highlights the need to have local yrbs data in our discussions
086there does appear to be silos of information where School administration security and safety and mental health are working independently with students with issues but there is limited opportunity to share risk and support information and we'd like to see that happen finally we would like to ensure employee Wellness school-based mental health and other programs support each other with a comprehensive approach to adequately serve the student teacher and staff and stakeholders of the school system thank you for your time this evening if you would like further information about any of the presentation don't hesitate to reach out directly or via board member edins and we appreciate the opportunity to present to you this evening thank you so much are there any questions from board members Miss Edmonds thank you I just want to thank you again for
087being here and bringing this to us I had um just a couple of comments about the youth risk behavior survey thank you for that recommendation that wake do better so that we can have this data for Wake County however um with new legislation and surveys such as this being opt in I'm afraid the response rate is going to go down Statewide so we I don't know what kind of Statewide data we will get going forward um but I support Wake County doing whatever we can to get that data for I think it's important for us to have thank you any further questions or comments thank you very much oh yes sir I I forgot to say I'm walking with Green Elementary School on Friday it is this is fantastic work um I appreciate you highlighting
088uh because it needs to be said over and over again um the suicidal behaviors you know that we we hear people who come to public comment and and talk about certain things and this is what we're talking about people need to look at these numbers and absorb them it is real and thank you for highlighting them it's very important work thank you Miss Waters yes I do thank you for this information um super enlightening and I appreciate um the recommendation to evaluate the feasibility of expanding the C into more schools um as we um see the growing need um as our um schools communities and families are facing um great economic challenges so thank you for lifting that up thank you Miss Coffield I guess I second and third that thank you very much for
089this it's very um important and and and I appreciate everything that you put together there um I noticed that the charts are up to 2021 do you know when they update the information so the survey is done every two years years and I'm not sure when the next set of data will be out so it's done in the odd years it's concerning seeing the rate that they're at even in 2021 which is right after Co and we know that many of these children um and adults as well um a lot of their experiences progressed after they got back to school so I'd be curious to see what those numbers are and and what we can do to help it thank you very much thank you and we look forward to seeing you guys I think
090next year again but maybe with some new team members and Miss Rollins thank you again for your commitment to this group and this program in health and wellness in our Greater Community um I just want to take a moment again to thank you for that because I don't know a Shea with I just did you see the email from Drew cook um I don't know if Mr glenden okay thanks sorry all right uh we now move on to the portion that many of you have been waiting for and that is public comment speakers commenting on tonight's agenda of which there are none will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics we are going to put our students that are here first because they do have to get to school in the morning um and
091all other speakers will be heard in order of sign up the public comment portion of the agenda will exceed 30 minutes because 35 of you have uh signed up today today um and that is an hour and 45 minutes if you use all three minutes of your time um I know we spent a lot of time talking up here now let's double that um and we'll see where that goes um board policy states that the board chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium after 30 minutes I'm going to split it into 50 minutes and then 55 minutes so if your name is not called in that first 50 minutes um you're welcome to wait but we are going to get through the rest of our
092business that does include our action items our consent agenda and our Clos session and then we will come back out here to listen to the remainder of public comment you are if you are not in that first initial 50 minutes uh welcome to email us as well um and again as miss Edmund said we do have the thought exchange I'm doing this by minutes and not by number of speakers because if some of you speak for I don't know Channel your inner Micro Machines person um for Less um that will allow for more people to speak and get through before we have that break okay um members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed of substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members the laws and policies
093of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individ ual student matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for public comment setting those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern concerns related to Personnel issues or 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 in individual board members staff or members of the general public or that should say and members of the general public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to our
094board attorney Mr Malone who's over here either before or after your comments during public comment again you may speak for up to 3 minutes you do not have to take the whole time um please note that the microphones are adjustable when you begin speaking the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that your 3 minutes has begun a yellow light along with an audible tone will let you know that there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and when your speaking time is up you will see a red light and hear another audible tone at that time it's your job to exit the podium and the next speaker will be called speakers are asked to respect the time limit and speak for No More Than 3 minutes and again you may choose to speak
095for less time all right first up is Katherine Stevenson followed by uh Vishnu Vish you put a pronunciation guide in there now I'm even more nervous about messing this up V vishu ra rabu this is what happens is I um yes and my apologies all right Catherine start us off hello as you have heard my name is Katherine lunis Stevenson and I am a transgender woman I Katherine Luna Stevenson am frustrated I am frustrated about sb49 and I'd like to thank the board members for delaying that implementation I be frustrated about the looks my G my transgender peers and LGBT peers receive in the hallways of our schools and I am frustrated with our with the Banning of books that even mentions something different from the conventional CIS head ideals so I would like to
096do everything in my power to get rid of or mitigate these anti-lgbt State reforms and that includes preventing book books like gender queer Melissa and Lawnboy from being banned these books may contain some explicit content however it's nothing that children can't find with this a single search on their devices these books are valuable to Young minorities that teach them about experiences that are often looked over in classes such as racism homophobia and transphobia I've been passing for the vast majority of the time I have been out so coming here today is terrifying I worry that I could get bullied stared at and even lose some of my friends this is an everyday EXP experience for hundreds of students in the county but I'm tired of just sitting back and watching it all go to chaos
097I I hope everyone here hears my words and realizes the harm that's being done to the LGBT students in our schools I know I won't be able to convince everyone here but I can hope I can convince you the school board about uh to do everything in your power to protect us protect the minorities at your schools my name is Katherine Luna Stevenson and I thank you for listening Rob Basu followed by Aran [Applause] pona so do I press anything okay start thank you Dr Taylor and chair Mafi and the entirety of of the rest of the school board for allowing me the opportunity to speak today and all that you have done to support me and my peers my name is Vishnu rabotu and I'm a junior at enll high school and I stand
098before you with the proposal to reduce vaping by raising awareness with an escape the Vape week campaign I will Begin by I will Begin by discussing the story of Solomon win a 15-year-old kid who lived in Wilmington North Carolina who was deeply immersed in football and Athletics when he began vaping according to Daily Mail Solomon was a healthy teenager Who Loved football and the gym however his health deteriorated rapidly after developing a cough leaving him unable to walk more than a few Paces without stopping to catch his breath Solomon later later collapsed on June 16 2023 and and died the following day his stepmother later stated it wasn't that it was something accessible to him it was something he got through his friends we even joked about him having a family someday none of these
099things are going to happen now we have memories that's all we have on a more personal level I have witness my peers vaping in both Middle School and High School including in the bathrooms and in the hallways sometimes in front of teachers it imposes a great deal of uncomfortableness for many students but further damages the health of the students vaping as well the Allure of vaping often Mass the severe health risk it poses especially to young people whose bodies and brains are still in the crucial stages of development the aerosol in ecigarettes contains harmful substances like nicotine which is highly sub addictive and can impair brain development affecting attention learning and sub Suess suceptibility to Addiction in the future the flavors and marketing Strategies employed by vaping companies disproportionately Target teenagers obscuring the reality of
100potential lifelong Health complications including decreased lung function susceptibility to infections and the risk of nicotine dependence these facts are reflected in the recent statistics provided by the North Carolina Institute of medicine which states that between 2011 and 2019 ecigarette youths among North Carolina High School students had ballooned by 1,1 129% there are numerous factors that contribute to teens partaking in vaping including peer pressure surrounding family flavored vaping products relieving stress and the misconception that vaping is a s is a safer alternative to traditional smoking this is what our campaign aims to reduce which my fellow student Arjun kcha will further elaborate on in summary I've covered the health risks associated with vaping statistics that represent the growth of vaping in recent years in the teenage population and factors that influence a teen partaking in vaping
101I hope that you all are not only more aware but more fearful of this silent killer thank you next up Arjen kcha followed by Elizabeth [Applause] I wanted to start off by thanking uh Dr Taylor chair maaf chair mafy and the school board for the opportunity to speak today um and thank you to Vice chair Hagerty for your comments on vaping earlier today my name is arjin kuncha and I'm a senior and L High School uh like my Pier vishu was saying I first noticed vaping being a problem back in middle school school ever since first witnessing it I've had several experiences and observations with substance use among my peers I've seen people hiding Vapes and lockers using them in bathrooms and even sometimes in the back of class I've even been offered Vapes while
102using the bathroom and was never told what substances it contained or what was in it I was unsure of how to respond and felt less comfortable going to bathrooms after that and many of my peers agree I wanted to do something to combat Vape use among teens and that's why I joined the the post Center Youth Empowerment Group in Youth Empowerment I've had the opportunity to learn more about Vapes and their effects and how the community can help prevent use I've been able to present at conferences meetings and forums around the state of North Carolina and this past summer I got the opportunity to go to an international substance use prevention conference in Dallas there I met Youth Empowerment students from around the country and learned about their efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco and
103vape use among youth at the conference I met a high schooler from Cincinnati Ohio named Lee and she did a presentation about her efforts and her school she did a week-long Escape The Vape week campaign to promote education misconceptions and highlight resources I was hoping that we'll be able to do something similar districtwide here in Wake County last year I created the enll students taking on prevention Coalition and spent the year doing community service related to creating tobacco free spaces around campus and educating students with our Coalition I want to do a week-long campaign to reduce the amount of vaping in our school that would consist of weekly or a week of daily announcements Daily Posts on social media um posters around the school a pledge to be rape free banner and an educational lunch
104session talking about the substance use with interactive trivia activities to dispel myths this way we can engage the youth additionally we will promote alternative healthy activities and provide resources for quitting our main goal with this weeklong campaign is to ultimately raise awareness for this underrepresented cause in our community the truth is the majority of students don't vape and they don't want to be around it but they feel like they are in the minority we want to get people talking and encourage those who need it to seek out help if we are able to get this implemented districtwide we will be able to get people talking in all of our communities we would like to implement this in November during the week of the Great American smokeout and rename it to the Great American vapeout week
105with your help we really believe that we can build a safer Community here in Wake County schools and thank you so much for all that you have done to support us in vaping and other things and thank you so much for listening to me [Applause] today our next speaker is Elizabeth sen followed by Rowan rtz ladies and gentlemen of the Wake County school board thank you for being receptive to input from students like me my name is Elizabeth sen and I'm a senior at Athens Drive High School I'd like to address the implementation of s sp49 in schools and the ways in which confusion about the new law is affecting teachers and students earlier today I ran a club meeting and took comments from students and my adviser on S sp49 one student described the
106situation for lgbtq students in schools as frustrating and heartbreaking another said that the language of the law undermines students trust in schools and makes students feel that their rights to privacy and respect don't matter teachers are uncertain about what they are required to do and they fear for their jobs because of this confusion students don't know what's safe to say at school anymore I have personally read the law and I can attest the language surrounding these issues is vague at best the law forces some students to choose between being outed to unaccepting families or sacrificing their identities at school where they feel safe of course parents should be aware of what's going on in their child's life but if a child only feels safe at school it's a different story and while the law does
107attempt to account for these situations the unfortunate fact is there's often no way to tell whether outing a a child to unaccepting parents will cause neglect or abuse until it's too late in light of these factors I'm asking the school board for guidance please obtain and deliver clarification about what the law means to teachers please think of the students all of the students I know that it's difficult with this law but students Cross weake County are desperate for someone to help and protect them the statistics we saw from The Shack earlier speak from themselves about the mental health of lgbtq students further confusion and stress will only make matters worse we need Clarity we need safety thank you our next speaker is Rowan RT followed by Rowan Bilo we have got to stop meeting like
108this ladies and gentlemen I would like to begin my time by calling out some discrepancies I noticed last time I was here first I noticed that the majority of people who are calling for sb49 and book Banning were roughly the same age as my grandparents with all due respect my grandparents when they were my age um my country was still ruled by the Soviet Union and they had to have drills to hide under tables to you know hide from nukes so I think it's safe to say that times have changed a good you know amount since then I would also like to talk a little bit about the parents Rights group that we see here so frequently and dispute a a few of things about them while the label parents rights seems harmless at first
109it is vague enough that many different people use it as a front for many different things all disagreeing on its meanings in this case I'm referring to the people and organizations like Ms for Liberty a hate group known for targeting topics about lgbtq plus communities or critical race Theory and I'm also referring to the people who worked to formulate this bill these people call for transparency within schools however they want transparency due to the fact that they want control they want to know what books are in our libraries so that they can deliberately remove those which mention race or sexuality those are two perfectly normal things that are seen in everyday life yet suddenly are in the Forefront of trigger words and politics they want to know what curriculums are being taught in schools so
110that they can refuse to let their children learn about the history of race racism in the United States and how deep rooted it is in our everyday lives and they want to push this bill a bill so vague and misleading that it's very existence is a paradox designed to hurt us Bard your number one priority should be protecting our education and the most ironic thing about this situation is that me being here and you actively allowing this bill to continue affecting your students is harming my education I'm currently a senior at KY High I should be applying to college or doing my AP calculus homework which I know subtle Flex however instead of that I am here fighting for my rights the rights that should be insured as an American citizen and and yet they're
111not Governor Roy Cooper said that this bill was dangerous and yet it's still passed he stated that it would be detrimental to the safety of students in schools and yet it still passed while I thankful that the bill got pushed back it is not over and frankly it feels almost like stalling if this Bill gets fully implemented there will be grave consequences and as dramatically ominous as that sounds we are already seeing issues we want the board to ensure that there are protections for queer teachers so that they can freely Express their own queer identities without suppression and that no matter what this transpubic slew of parents and legislators says teachers need to support transgender students the bill itself is an attack on our rights to speak out it is an attack on our first
112amendment rights and by pursuing this and by letting it continue you are breaking what country was founded on the Constitution thank you our final student is Rowan buo followed by Becky Lou Hobbs man I I thought my name was unique Rowan I'm sorry that I you have come up and I keep butchering your last name I'm going to keep working on it I'm so sorry you're so close it's okay um okay good evening board members as you may or may not know this month is domestic violence awareness month that's a really important thing and it's the topic of my speech tonight domestic violence is a form of interpersonal violence and so is child abuse there are certain things that schools can do to educate on this violence however recent legislation prevents that education from happening
113and that same legislation actually provides more of an opportunity for that violence to happen if kids in K through 4 aren't being taught about the real the very real threat of sexual violence they're not going to know it's wrong and they're not going to know what to do if God forbid they experience sexual violence and another thing about that if young kids aren't taught about periods they may end up like I did on my period at 9 years old thinking I was dying this education is inherently important for kids nobody wants to go teach little kids about having sex but sexual education is more than that if people aren't taught about their own bodies they're going to be very confused and if people aren't taught about sexual abuse how will they know that it's wrong
114and how will they know that they can get help um one way to discuss difficult topics for child safety like sexual abuse and domestic violence is by reading and discussing if we continue to ban books we are preventing kids from having access to this valuable education um there are other parts of this law that are concerning as well if a parent has the option to opt out of Wellness surveys what's the point of course if a parent were abusing their kids they wouldn't want their kids to then take a survey asking are you being abused at home uh and if a teacher is legally required to out a student it's highly possible that they will be abused because of it I'm a perfect example my mother was a victim of domestic violence although I prefer
115the term Survivor my sister and I were both affected by that before both before my mom left and after our biological father spent time in jail so I hope that shows you how serious it was my mom left him when I was pretty young but my sister and I still went to see him sometimes there were a few instances of abuse to me and I'm not sure about my sister but I would not be surprised at all if he hurt her too my father did not totally like the fact that I'm transgender he used that as an excuse to abuse me more to the point where I had to cut ties with my own dad it's sad but undeniably true that there are other parents like that in the world in the country in the
116state and in our County it's dangerous to kids uh kids with parents like me and it's dangerous to let parents opt out of Wellness surveys it's dangerous to limit education that all people need these laws are dangerous to kids so please keep doing your part in preventing violence our next speaker is Becky Lou Hobs followed by Mark [Applause] Peterson hello my name is Becky Lu Hobbs I'm a longtime resident of Wake County momed to three amazing children and Chapter Chair of moms for Liberty and quality education that's all I ever wanted for my children but because my children were not receiving quality education from White County it's why I started coming here my children never learned cursive never learned about the Constitution they had learning gaps in math and reading it's why so many parents
117are taking an interest in our new superintendent wondering what direction we will go when will we return to providing our children quality education but I am hopeful and I'm encouraged Dr Taylor statements Friday at the Friday ceremony and then seeing you visit schools so quickly I I found that very encouraging and I look forward to the community meetings that you'll have and hearing more about the plans that you have for getting our schools back to Quality education one of the statements that you made that was published it's not our job to agree or disagree with the choices that are created our job is to put the best product on the table and hope parents choose us and that's all we've ever wanted is to make Wake County Schools the best educational opportunity available to all
118the children in Wake County but I do have a few questions what do you mean by instructional greatness how does this can translate to providing our kids a quality education and you've also talked a littleit bit about distractions to education I'd like to know more about what you're referring to because to me it has to do with Equity this is a distraction from education today's work session focused almost entirely on Equity but just look at the reports this weeks that have come out regarding Boston University ibram kendi and Dei over $30 million spent and he's failed to produce any tangible results one reporter stated the failure of ibram kendi at Boston University is a poyant reminder that we should stay on high alert against mediocre Minds pedling hate and fear in the guise of diversity
119and inclusion so I ask you look at the millions Wake County has spent on diversity and inclusion since 2014 what has It produced right now four in 10 elementary kids cannot read at grade level that translates to 4,000 out of every 10,000 it's a lot of children and they need to read learn to read so they can continue learning in the upper grades I also want to point out October is dyslexia awareness month it's very important to reading and moms for Liberty has put out this week about this week is teaching kids to read week because that is the foundation of learning I do look forward to you being here at Wake County I look forward to you leading our our schools back to having the quality education that all our children deserve our next
120speaker is Mark Peterson followed by Matt Arnold got a little problem here four weeks ago I had this sign behind me Mr Peterson if you could start your comments when you get to the podium please can I have this sign held up behind me while I'm talking sir if you could just be at the podium and speak can I have someone hold this sign up behind me while I'm talking as long as it doesn't obstruct anyone good thank you but but you know what Mr Peterson your comments have begun what oh nice nice okay where do I begin this sign by the way is for P payment education project this is a website that was created for the sole purpose of educating parents in Wake County and now across North Carolina on the books that
121are in dispute over whether or not they are appropriate or inappropriate I would like for anybody any parent of Wake County uh school students to look at these books and see for yourself if you think they're appropriate okay now some of the books or most of the books present child characters engaged in the wildest range of sexual activities some of the books promote cross-gender ideology and are written for the youngest of students over half of the books were published in the past decade during that same decade we have witnessed a decline in academic performance as well as mental health among miners teen suicide has nearly doubled we we've we've seen the evidence presented before us tonight academics going down suicide and depression going up these figures should ring alarm Bells I predict these Trends will
122not will continue until these policies are changed what I said last two weeks ago was intended to point out and to show the clear evidence that children raised with this ideology of cross-gender uh you education Mr Peters let's not revisit those comments I'm going to State what restate what I said two weeks ago if you immerse a child in transgender ideology for years they will become transgender this is a fact that's been presented guys let him speak what this ideology does is confuse children on their own sexual identity okay I've shown you the harm of doing this you start with A Book Like worm loves worm and you end up with a A Book Like jender queer and you you end up with children who want to do this to their own bodies you have
123some of you have daughters some of you on this board your mothers of daughters do you someday hope to see grandchildren this woman will never see grandchildren from this girl this is tragic so when I made that statement last week or two weeks ago at the end of my speech it was like throwing a grenade in the room Mr Hagerty threw himself on that grenade and changed policy and wouldn't allow me to hold this sign up behind Colleen Miller when she was speaking so I don't know what you want to do about that and as far as accusing somebody of attacks I have some I have papers here these are copies of uh screenshots of somebody who attacked me two weeks ago before this meeting was even over they attacked me they attacked my business
124they slandered me they defamed me our next speaker is Matt Arnold followed by Jennifer theion good evening everyone my name is Matt Arnold I'm a 14-year resident of Providence Place Neighborhood in Morrisville I'm also a product of wck County schools go imps I speak for my neighborhood as well as kits Creek Mason forarm Estates Hamlet ever Crossing and Shiloh Grove when I say we strongly oppose the student enrollment proposal as Illustrated from over 200 responses from our community survey a great deal of comments on the thought exchange and my neighbors here in attendance with me tonight I'll keep my comments brief because I know there are a lot of people that want to speak so I'm going to touch on a couple of things that the board and the Sha group discussed already first off
125mental health I think we can all agree that asking kids to uproot schools especially in my neighborhood multiple times in the past decade is damaging to their mental health that damage to mental health results in poor educational outcomes it increases bad behavior like bullying and it decreases engagement in students and in parents also again mentioned by the board earlier this proposal inexplicably shifts kids from a year round to a Traditional School calendar disruptions to track out plans for next year and a tough summer are not a good start to a new school it's a recipe for chaos it puts a lot of stress on our families looking ahead just a year later these same kids would change calendars back to a year round calendar Middle School that puts a lot of families on two different
126calendars we all know that happens with the transition to high school but younger kids need more child care this proposal places an undue burden on families with younger kids Parkside Elementary in particular is only capped in the second and fifth grades this year that means possibly only third grade will be capped next year Parkside had 30 yes 30 open seats in kindergarten earlier this year Parkside even lost five students on net last month we have four job postings Pleasant Grove is a smaller school and they have 14 job openings during the virtual s session last week it was said that this would be a stable assignment that would last for a long period of time we are skeptical of that statement according to wake County's own projections Pleasant Grove would be at 99% capacity by
127next year and they don't even have enough staff for the smaller number of students they have right now our kids educational experience should be stable to help them Reach their fullest potential this proposal does the opposite our children should stay at Parkside in Austin Rich stop tossing them around a football Wake County leave our kids [Applause] alone so our next speaker is Jennifer theion and I know those of you that are here to support um the speakers when it comes to school changes we see your support in the shirts I'm just going to ask that you do stay seated just because we don't want to obstruct anybody's view but thank you and we appreciate appreciate you taking the time to be here um and after Miss theion uh is Susan W thank you chair mfy
128um board members and Dr Taylor welcome day two um so you know I'm sitting here listening and I don't I don't envy being in your position um any more than we are in ours to be honest um we're all trying to solve a problem that none of us created and that we have no control over really and and so you know over the past two weeks in kids Creeks we've been living and breathing this proposal we've gone through it every way forwards backwards we've looked at every single pillar we've gone through and looked at every single School within our districts that border us and we're trying to find a solution over that time we've met with Town Council Members principes data managers at multiple schools Schoolboard members PTA parents committee representatives and most importantly our
129neighbors that are of course behind us we've identified some possible solutions or at least levers that we think your staff might be interested in looking at and we've delivered that to you via the proposal that representative Hagerty showed earlier um we put everything into these and ultimately to get to a solution it requires the collaboration of representatives hegerty mafy and Swanson in order to figure out a strategic plan that's best for all of Western Wake not just within our individual District So the plan I really encourage you guys to read it it includes some of the things that we included on the thought exchange which honestly is like talking to a brick wall um the lack of two-way feedback and limit of 300 characters is somewhat limiting and that's the reason we put together this
130proposal So within this this plan we go through a couple different areas none of which I'm going to go into full detail on but things that you can't see by looking at a map so things like where's our nearest railroad crossing and how similar is Kit Creek in Providence Place To The Stoke situation that you have and are solving this year through through the plan we have an aging population in kid Creek and I say aging you know with some quotes because we are moving into our 40s and 50s and that boom of children that you saw out in Austin Ridge is not going to continue at the same rate and we are also not using our cap currently at Austin Ridge so we realize there might not be enough time to evaluate all of
131these levers in the plan before the next draft comes out but what I ask of you guys is think of a strategic solution instead of a short-lived plan where we have more apartments that end up pushing us out of Pleasant Grove later and back to another school within the districts I think that before we uproot thousands of students it's time to look at it from a strategic perspective and not on a 2year to three-year basis thank you for your time our next speaker is Susan Wen followed by Mark [Applause] Dixon good evening superintendent and board members my name is Susan WN from district 7 in a community on Church Street in Morrisville I'll let you um guess which community thank you for the opportunity to speak about transparency and suggest solutions for overcrowded schools in
132a virtual session on the 2024 enrollment proposal the presenter consumed 60 out of 90 minutes in what seemed to be a stall tactic to answer very few questions from the community the staff announced more than seven pages of questions but only select easy ones were answered the intention of meeting was to engage parents of affected students but wcp SS failed and left parents feeling ignored to remedy the issue I suggest a question and answer Forum to address the outstanding questions in the spirit of transparency in future meetings please also have a second person answering the chat questions during the presentation our neighborhoods of kits Creek Providence Place and surrounding communities have had our base schools resigned over and over again the past decade while other commun ities in equally crowded areas have been left unscathed
133we hope to propose solutions that provide stability and the longterm for all communities please note that it's is not the responsive parents to propose Solutions as we are not privil to all the relevant information but we have been told that suggestions would be considered here are some ideas to reduce overcrowding in Northwest schools make fire Creek Pleasant Grove CED Fork Green Hope Davis Drive and Horn Creek year round because it increases capacity by at least 30% and it might eliminate expensive trailers make Pleasant grow a STEM Magnet School there are no magnet schools nearby in the northwest corner of Wake County make pleas Pleasant Grove an overflow school for Parkside Alon Ridge and other nearby schools we validate residency for current students there are rumors of family not updating their addresses when they move to
134keep their student and desire schools reassigned the Brickyard Community to Horton Creek because of par we assign Committees of the east of the train tracks to Pleasant Grove to avoid long uh train delays overall the 2425 student proposal was Ill planned ill announced and unsurprisingly Ill received however there is still an opportunity to fix the proposal please create a question answer form to meia concerns change all Northwest traditional schools to year round make Pleasant girls stem and a STEM Magnet School and also an overflow school for Northwest schools reval residency for current student and reassigns communities where you see fit thank you for listening and have a good evening Mark Dixon followed by Santa Hadley Mark Dixon followed by Santa Hadley uh good evening uh welcome uh superintendent Taylor um unfortunately I have to deliver
135a message that probably won't be well received but a lot of people are thinking it so I'm going to you know just take it as constructive criticism um in my opinion the delivery of the draft was not well executed and sort of without compassion I was sad to watch the work session from two weeks ago as the draft was read to you the the reaction from my district seat Mr Hagerty was was to comment on the large change for our neighborhoods for which the response sadly was laughter um I think a more appropriate response would have been from of our neighborhoods further I question The Coincidence of the virtual engagement one could easily speculate that Morrisville residents would have had would have the desire to reach the Town Council to relay this information and to
136ask for help some could say that this was not intentional but the flow of the meeting I would infer it may have been a tactic to quiet the backlash that you know was coming uh the model for the virtual session is one that should not be considered for for future public engagement in summary many of the parents took time to read through the draft and ready questions for the presenter with the hopes of getting some clarity on the situation instead many felt that it was a massive waste of time for the presenter to exhaust 60 Minutes on the presentation that everybody had already read and then answer just a few easy questions I hope this is not a new and Innovative way to communicate with your families and is kind of U this is the
137kind of meeting that that should not happen again uh note that there was you know like uh like previous said there was over seven pages of questions and they didn't get answered so I hope that your staff proceeds uh with seriousness and compassion in considering the base school and calendar moves one of my children and myself were affected by the move to Parkside El when it opened and the change was significant but I did get this shirt out of it so um I encourage your staff to consider many of the Alternatives before moving families from their base schools um of course Mr hagy has been delivered a summary of our thoughts and uh please give this document and consideration and and I hope you conclude that uh maybe there's a way to not move our
138our our neighborhood based schools thank you Santa Hanley followed by Stacy [Applause] Campell hey there everyone thank you for your time I'm SAA Hadley I am uh you know thankful to be here and and welcome Dr Taylor um I am uh just the voice that is saying words for the the collective voice of over 200 families that have um as Miss John Johnson Hustler knows um in communication um regarding the first draft of the new student enrollment proposal this um includes uh affecting two adjoining neighborhoods of Oak Park and Magnolia Park and they're currently assigned to Brian Road Elementary and being potentially reassigned to aversboro Elementary I'd like to point out that there is a marked difference between the school rating and performance of Brian Road Elementary's higher rating compared to aversboro additionally Brian Road
139Elementary can be accessed from our neighborhood by walking or a short thre minute drive down non- major roads in comparison aversboro Elementary is three times as far down heavily traveled single Lane roads further pushing the need to depend on the strained bus system as compared to car pooling or walking with ease currently our children are attending the centrally located community school with very involved PTA members and teachers and are home within 10 minutes of School dismissal these neighborhoods have community members that have helped built Brian Road Elementary from the ground up even before the school was opened hundreds of families including many diverse and minority families have purchased in our neighborhoods and have traveled up to 7,000 miles all centered around the fact that Brian Road Elementary is the Beating Heart of the community zooming
140in even with stability transfers our community will be affected at the street level causing disruption for the youngest and most vulnerable Among Us this is for them an example a second grader lives next to a kindergartener and a rising kindergartener sibling they as is currently written would be eligible for uh the stability rules however two additional Neighbors on the same street that have a four-year-old that are not eligible for stability transfer would essentially create a Brian Road Elementary higher rated um situation compared to the aversboro elementary kids in congruity please don't break up the Oak Park and Magnolia Park Family up like this so we have reached out to the town of Garner um and making sure that we're working on a fair and equable approach to redistricting um we are seeking partnership and advoc
141advocacy as we are not subject matters in planning in schools but we do want to convey that we are ready to do the work we're not just saying come up with something for us we're actively involved with the Town Council um and want to make sure that you guys realize that you know putting a a voice and a face to uh what we have been discussing and I appreciate everyone and your time thank you next up is Stacy Campbell followed by Josh Walker Haagen Stacy Campbell okay is Stacy here all right Josh you're up followed by pratiba aapan I'd like to thank the board for taking the time to hear me out tonight um this is my very first school board meeting uh my wife and I our daughter just started kindergarten at Aon Ridge
142she's really thriving um so it's kind of a shock when we heard oh we're getting reassigned next year so we've got my my neighbors at kids Creek and Providence we're all kind of in the same boat and we're all hoping for the same outcome uh but one thing is I've I'm after looking over the proposals and you know seeing the data that you guys work with I'm I'm sympathetic to your cause I understand the tough spot you've been put in but uh when you look at it through a macro lens from you know the 10,000 foot view over a map it kind of makes sense on paper but the transportation aspect it's it's a world of difference in kits Creek between atin Ridge and Pleasant Grove Elementary uh namely that you have to cross the
143train tracks you have to cross Highway 54 to get to Pleasant Grove from what I understand right now our neighborhood kits Creek has uh three bus loads of kids that has to go to Alon Ridge and we're utilizing two buses to do that one of them has to double back I think that this it's impossible to have a bus double back if we shift to Pleasant Grove and I know that the busing situation isn't great um like I said this is all all a little bit new to me and obviously I have some very passionate neighbors and we're all on the same side we all want to come to a good conclusion but I just ask that you explore and work with us and consider any alternatives than to uprooting our entire neighborhoods thank you
144our next speaker is partia aapon followed by pervy Patel good evening good evening everybody Welcome Dr Taylor I know it's not been the easiest but as you see we have a lot of people who are not happy with the current draft and I'm one of the uh residents of Kit Creek and I am representing my neighborhood and Providence uh Providence Place and for the same cause my name is pratiba yapen I've been a resident at kits Creek since 2015 I will have a rising sixth grader and a rising second grader next year I'm also the vice president St of communications for the Aon Bridge Elementary PTA board my older child went to Carpenter Elementary for kindergarten and then we were moved to Alon Ridge Elementary when we were in first grade until Co when inperson
145class was resumed we were moved tracks from track 4 to track 1 to accommodate wake County's virtual learning program which was only uh happening in the track 4 schedule my younger child started at kindergarten at Alon Ridge Elementary last year and both kids finally were on the same schedule after so many changes the proposal to move my younger child to Pleasant Grove Elementary will be extremely disruptive to our family it'll cause significant stress for our immigrant family because we don't have any local support and I'll have a middle schooler going to year round school and a Elementary uh School uh School child who will be moved to a traditional calendar transitioning my older child to the traditional option that was that has been given to us West carry middle will also not work for our
146family because my child wants the support system he has grown up with he wants to retain his friends his connections and he wants to go where every all his friends are going our neighborhoods are going to Alon Bridge middle and we never know we also have Parkside Elementary that's come or Parkside Middle that's being built so we will be moved again in a couple of years when that school opens in 2025 now that you know my situation my situation is not unique there are a lot of immigrants who live in this area and this is not this is definitely not one of I'd like to make two distinct requests to the W County board members one is the board should keep kindergarten through 8th grade in the same calendar schedule it could be year round
147it could be traditional but that is something that is the least we could expect as families who are sending our kids to the kindergarten uh to W County uh this draft obviously proposes an anti pattern where our kids will start out as a uh traditional and then they'll go to year round and then they'll go back to traditional the second request I have is to use send new communities or communities that are coming up to underutilized or new schools I'm utmost grateful to the county for building new schools but they're not able to keep up with the um with the with the construction that's going on as I see families who are choosing to move into these new community communities are already making a change in their life then why go District family families who
148are already living there for so many years we've lived there for 10 years and we've seen four School changes thank you our next speaker is Kirby Patel followed by Lea [Applause] Mohammed hello I am B pel from Providence Place I a parent of a 7-year-old and as my uh neighborhood friend suggested that why are we moving the existing students and affecting their well mental well-being they have already grow go going through a lot during coid times even my 7-year-old daughter suggested to Mr Chris hegerty in a letter that why are we you moving uh us and my friends to new school that we don't know we I want to be in my uh current school that is Park Side so that is an easy solution for a kid then why aren't we following that all
149my uh neighborhood friends has C covered all the points I am as a parent and as a mom of 7year old I just re request that this kids are looking at us adults for their security their their emot security and we are here to provide them I just request that don't disturb the kids safe environment half of the time they are at school that that is their second home don't disrupt them thank you next up is Lea Muhammad followed by Jessica Lewis is Miss Muhammad still here I think okay Jessica Lewis followed by Ken trong good evening I am moms for Liberty Vice chair for the Wake County chapter I have ch two children in the Wake County school school system Lynn you are the rep at my son's school and Sam you are the
150new rep at my daughter's midal school I am happy to say that mobs for Liberty has 300 chapters now in 47 States we are a nonpartisan organization that is growing every day and we are not going anywhere as we continue to protect parental rights in the school systems a couple false claims that have been made is we are anti- LBGTQ we are not and have members from the LBGTQ Community as well as gaze against goup rumors support moms for Liberty as well we have also been labeled book banners people need to learn the difference between Banning a book and parents not wanting children to be exposed to pornographic material within the school system it baffles me how these meetings are about genders in everything Dei everything but um academics all I send my kids to
151school for is for Reading Writing and math to learn academics and battling the school board over the last years it's been crazy I mean I don't even meeting today a 32 page document on di Dei can you have a work session that focuses on academics my son is in the percentile of non-proficient yet these kids I'll read you the um where is the the oh 2022 2023 school year showed that only 53% 53.6% of students were proficient what is the school board going to do about the other 46.4% I mean what are you going to do there needs to be a plan of action I just um the other thing I wanted to say is I'm excited we have a new superintendent one that will hopefully finally listen to the the parents and I heard
152you're going to be at my son's school tomorrow um I'll be there also for coms walk the school day so I'm looking forward to it it's great tradition so academics that's all I have to say 10 TR followed by Colleen Miller is Ken here all right uh hi everybody uh my name is krong uh I'm with PR place but I think I speak here today is uh maybe to represent others um neighbor as well uh Mason Farm Sho and kri and many others so um my neighbor has covered many important point that they have bring you about the 24 25 proposal so I I think it's it cover the point I uh I can think of um I think stab is very important I have two kids in uh in Parks side and they enjoy
153the time there over time they build connection with many friends here uh I has CH to know my uh my my neighbor BS but just by uh so there's a community cohesion and also know the teacher better as well all these positive thing have happened like you know after the co bit which if demonstrating uh very uh bad for uh for the kids so this chain will kind of upload them again and my my daughter told me that she didn't she like to move what if she moved but her friend can cannot move uh so it disrup on these things and U put a lot of stress on the parents uh so safely is very key and um uh yes please so please consider this plan because it doesn't work for us for me and
154for many of my uh friends uh and then neighborhoods so thank you for your time Colleen Miller followed by Steve Lauderdale and Mr Lauderdale based on the um time that I'm seeing you will be our speaker uh our final speaker before our break uh welcome Dr Taylor it's nice to meet you we appreciate you being here and um being uh the head of the ship here and thank you School Board I appreciate the opportunity to speak um I was hopeful when I um first saw that the Wake County Board of Education had developed a plan for improving education but as I read the 32-page document today excuse me it's entitled Pathways to Excellence plus Equity I actually I have to be honest I was discouraged over the past few years I've learned a lot about
155equity and education and what I haveed learned is that public education has eroded since Equity began to dominate the K through2 public education systems throughout the country Wake County is now it appears fully embracing a failed system that interjects Equity at the core values for schools in our district in the past the traditional goal of Education was equal opportunity for all students now Equity Forces uniform performance outcomes an impossible task as noted by many including Dr Ben Carson the equity agenda pursues equal results among Races by lowering learning standards this will only exacerbate the learning crisis in our nation currently us students Place 26 on the world stage against International peers with more than 77% of public school students exiting grades K through 12 failing to reach Proficiency in core subjects so how will lowering
156learning standards improve education achievement I noticed that the aim of one of the equity focused practices in your plan is to eliminate over representation in special education and under representation in advanced coursework by race ethnicity and gender so the name of equity will you be removing opportunities for high achieving students including honors classes in the GT programs this luring expectations for all students yes no do I have a comment each student is a unique learner and Provisions should be made to improve learning ability so each child can become proficient in the course studies but what I fear is that an attempt to overhaul or as your document States interrupt or transform the system you're focusing on the wrong educational outcome an academic achievement will continue to plummet as evidence and test scores dumbing down education
157and the guise of achieving equity do a disservice to the students including those you say or you're supporting you're replacing excellence in education classical education with education of low expectations it seems that Equity is a big buzzword now another aim I found in your document is that eliminate over representation by race ethnicity and gender and student discipline referrals suspensions and absences will lowering the standards for student accountability help this I think not thank you for Mr [Applause] Lauderdale thank you my name is Steve Lauderdale I'm a Wake County taxpayer and a Morrisville resident I'm not part of any group that is here tonight I'm an independent voice of reason first I want to welcome superintendent Taylor I've got good news for him he's working with a very good board of education I have other good
158news for him he's got a great staff second I want to thank the board for all you do I recognize the K through three class-size mandate is a challenge with regard to Morrisville I recognize that prior to Mayor TJ colly the Morrisville Town Council didn't seem to be interested in working with the board or the school system there has been a very positive change under mayor TJ and I support his efforts to improve communication with yall I want to thank the board for the Early College in Morrisville the future Parkside Middle School in RTP and the future Morrisville high school thank you third it is that time of year I'm not talking pumpkin spice latte I'm talking about the staff work on planning assignments transportation in particular I want to thank Glen cor Roa and
159Susan pulley I live in Kitz Creek I'm in the Northwestern area of draft one the most significant problem in the Northwest area is that due to the cap on Parkside Elementary some of those residents in walking distance face a cap and a bus ride we haven't heard about Parkside uh I mean about Breen Ridge it's the largest neighborhood in Morrisville almost 1200 homes I'm not here for Breen Ridge I'm not speaking for Sati gamela as a taxpayer there are very good reasons to fix the Breen Ridge issue draft one does it by shifting Providence Place from Parkside to Pleasant Grove big bang for the Buck there there is a strong case to reassign Providence Place but there is not a strong case to reassign Kitz Creek the situation is very different I strongly suggest you
160keep kits Creek at Altin Ridge and make some other smaller shifts to Altin Ridge so please fix the Breen Ridge issue keep kid Creek at Alon Ridge thank you for this crucial conversation so we are pausing our public comment there as stated we are going to finish our work here um we you will see us go to close session which is in the other room we will try to make it as quick as possible and then come back if you are signed up to speak and you are unable to stay you are welcome to email us um and thank you all for coming we are now going to move on to our consent items is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second all right we have a motion in a second
161for our consent agenda all in favor please say I I any oppose nay being that there is no no it that there are no items on the action agenda tonight is there a motion to go into Clos session for the re I would move that we go into close session for the statutory reasons cited in the pry second okay all right we have a motion in a second to enter into close session all those in favor please say I any oppose nay all right we will return thank you e what's that zero I cannot do I've tried them all cannot do it the only D thing I can thank you e thank you for your patience we have a couple more items and then we'll return to public comment first up is there a motion
162to approve the um Human Resources appointments and recommendations for employment sub moved second all right we have a motion and a second all in favor please say I any opposed all right our board attorney will now announce a settlement Mr Malone yes the board has come to a settlement with Ashley escabedo in the amount of $25,000 that's all that's it okay that's it sorry all right so we are going to return to public comment you guys are okay if I don't read that long thing beforehand you've got that retained in memor wonderful perfect 3 minutes green light yellow light Light 30 seconds red light microphones will move up and down perfect excellent um we are going to start with Margaret Badu followed by Mega Bava hello um I'd like to welcome our new superintendent and
163thank the members of the board for allowing me to speak the month of October is recognized as domestic violence awareness month this year's theme is # everyone knows someone I stand before you as a Survivor with a heartfelt reflection on exp on experiences that profoundly shaped my life nearly 16 years ago it was during that tumultuous period That I Found the courage to end my abusive marriage while my oldest child attended a school in the Wake County Public School System shout out to Farmington Woods today I realized that I never truly expressed my gratitude to the district for the unwavering support they provided during that trying time my child's school did more than just educate they went out of their way to protect her and ensure her needs were met they created a Haven of
164safety shielding her from the chaos in her life and allowing her to continue her education it underscores a fundamental truth children need psychological safety to thrive in their learning environments when we deny them access to understanding and addressing immutable facets of their lives they begin their educational Journey feeling alienated hampering their ability to engage with the learning process domestic violence I must emphasize is not confined to adults startling statistics reveal that domestic violence extends its Insidious reach into the lives of our youth 40% of of girls ages 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has suffered abuse in a dating relationship and approximately one in five female high school students has experienced physical or sexual abuse from a dating partner we must also remember the child Witnesses of domestic violence who themselves fall
165victim either directly or secondarily in a nutshell research consistently highlights that certain conditions and behaviors are essential for Effective learning with safety being Paramount 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 we must also address the Discrimination faced by lgbtqia plus students in our schools who often report negative physical and mental health outcomes compared to their peers it's disheartening that we continue to discuss discriminatory policies against these students creating hostile School environments that not only impede their learning but also jeopardize their overall mental well-being however it's crucial to recognize that such policies affect all students as they send a dangerous message that bullying and marginalization based on immutable characteristics are acceptable
166students consistently demonstrate that when lgbtq plus youth P perceive School Personnel is supportive they feel safer report reduced absenteeism experience fewer instances of victimization related to their sexual orientation and gender identity feel a stronger sense of their belonging um I just also want to mention that I stand here not merely to voice my concerns but to emphasize my proactive involvement I started attending school board meetings as soon as my child reentered the district I was present with my child and first on the list to provide public comment when s sp49 was being discussed in education committee on June 21st at the last moment public comment was denied citing a lack of time idea requir requires general public comment including input from individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities prior to adopting or amending
167policies and procedures to compli with idea thank you our next speaker is Mega bagara Bava followed by Cecilia Joyce good evening everyone thank you for letting giving me the opportunity I have been a resident of kids Creek since 2017 I have a rising sixth grader and a rising second grader my Rising sixth grader was moved from Carpenter Elementary School to Alon Ridge when she was just in first grade it was a huge transition for her as she was very near to the public school system and the yearound calendar the moment she got comfortable with Carpenter Elementary she was moved the same situation will be repeated with my son who is now Rising second grader and if now kids Creek is assigned to Pleasant Grove Elementary School it was a huge challenge for my son and
168me as a parent to move him from preschool to kindergarten and another chain will definitely be hard for him in 2021 we felt the need to move into a bigger house and after looking at over 20 houses outside of neighborhood we decided to stick to kids Creek and to buy our second home in kids Creek itself main reason not being able to making our kids transition in another time I was a stay-at-home mom for seven years and this is the year when I started a job thinking both kids are settled in good schools and I don't have to deal with any more changes of schools if this draft goes forward and gets approved it will create a havoc in my house moreover I'm not at all ready to send two kids to two schools which
169are in completely opposite directions the proposed resoning would affect the education and well-being of our students including longer commutes disruptions to friend ships and this will significantly impact stability which is one of the pillars of big County Public School System gits Creek is a strong connected Community resoning could disrupt the sense of belonging and impr involvement that currently exist please let kids Creek remain in Aon rge Elementary School and assign the new communities to new school they anyways have to begin from start while we are already adjusted and well settled thank you our next speaker is Cecilia Joyce followed by Melanie Harris hi thank you very much and welcome Dr Taylor um thanks to the board for allowing me to speak tonight I'm Cecilia Joyce um proud librarian at Dillard Drive Magnet Elementary I'm also
170joined by several other Librarians from Wake County um just wanted to um talk to youall about band books week um band books week is um All About celebrating the freedom to read and it also spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools for more than 40 years the this annual event has brought together the entire book Community Librarians teachers book sellers Publishers writers journalists and readers of all types in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas even though some consider unorthodox or unpopular the books featured during band books week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools by focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books and just to be clear any parent has the right to choose
171books to read or not to read with their own children Banning or censoring books means attempting to choose books for an entire school and that job belongs to library professionals who hold master's degrees in library science in according with the curriculum band books week draws national attention to the harms of censorship in a time of intense political polarization Library staff in every state are facing an unprecedented number of attempts to ban books the American Library association's office for intellectual Freedom has documented 1,269 demands to S to censor library books and resources in 2022 the highest number of inmed book bands since the Ala began compiling this data about 20 years ago the unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported in 202 1 of the record 2571 unique
172titles targeted for censorship most were by or about lgbtqia a plus persons and black indigenous and people of color tonight we have heard from Katherine the brave trans student and many other students in the lgbtqia community about the critical role libraries and books can have in the support and safety of lgbtqia plus students and students of color the theme for ban books week 2023 is Let Freedom read when we ban books we are closing off readers to people places and perspectives but when we stand up for Stories We Unleash the Power that lies inside every book we Liberate the array of voices that need to be heard and the scenes that need to be seen if you are interested in joining the fight please Google American Library association's freedom to read statement and sign it
173Wake County Public Schools please continue to stand up for students and Educators Let Freedom read thank you our next speaker is Melanie Harris followed by Willie Vic Melanie Harris she coming okay great it's okay Melanie I just wanted to make sure we didn't miss you good evening my name is Melanie Harris and I am a bus driver at Bron transportation I have been a bus driver for with Wake County Public Schools for a total of 11 years I wanted to welcome superintendent Taylor and to our district and I'm here with my co-workers and my union ncae to share with you tonight about the Urgent changes that need to happen with bus drivers I truly enjoy my job however there are some challenges we need and we have in have going on currently and transportation that
174need to change one of them being the way that we are paid the reason why we cannot keep or retain bus drivers is because of the way we are paid each month the frequency to which we get paid is monthly and a lot of our co-workers are single parents retirees and some of them they're just working there to have something to do but with the cost of living and also with um coming back off of summer break and coming off of you know winter break a lot of families are suffering because the the things that we need we cannot get them uh in the last meeting you guys asked what could you do to keep in retained drivers and it would basically be to pay us either every two weeks or pick two designated times
175of the month to pay if you did that you would be able to keep drivers you wouldn't lose them to places like the cat bus or to uh trucking companies and things of that nature I personally know that every driver that drives these kids they love them because these are our kids we are responsible for them as we drive them down these roads we pick them up from their neighborhoods a lot of these kids come from Bad situations and we are the face of Wake County I'm going to repeat that we are the face of Wake County we're the first ones they see in the morning and the last ones that they see in the afternoon and it is very disheartening that a bus driver has to go and care for someone else's child but
176cannot afford to pay for their family or take care of their child the way they need to because they have to wait a month in a whole to get paid a lot of us got paid last week and our checks were extremely short and it was very disheartening because I have co-workers who are trying to figure out how they are going to pay their rent so what I'm asking now what I am I am urging you guys to do because we are in a crisis please change the way that we get paid if you do not do this you will not have any drivers because they will leave and they will not come back and Wake County is a great District to work for but if you don't treat your employees right they will not
177stay Thank you thank you Miss Harris really Vick followed by pervine parara and I'm sorry for keeping the both of you out so late I know you got an early morning tomorrow that's all right I got to be up at 5 o'clock in the well 4:45 uh good evening everyone Mr superintendent to the school board um I just want to elaborate um my name is Willie Vic and I am a school bus driver for the a Athens District um basically uh what my uh Team my co-worker said is truth to it um we drive those kids we're we're the first face that they see in the mornings and I can trly say that um my first child that I pick up uh which is 10 minutes till 6 um it's a it's a privilege because
178simple fact that's my first child on that bus and the thing is with that being said um I take pride in my job uh the kids that we commute on a day-to-day basis uh we deal with a lot of kids with issues and problems that they can't discuss with anybody but that bus driver if they could trust that driver you you'll be surprised at some of the conversations that these high high school kids have with us um I agree with my coworker Melody it's very hard to support yourself I bought a house myself and it's very hard to pay that mortgage and the other bills that comes with that and wait until the end of the month to get paid I've spoken with various co-workers and basically a lot of them have gone to UPS
179FedEx and a few of them have gone out to the airport where they have utilized their CDL to drive and make money where they're getting paid by-weekly I can truly say that I I had to go and get a part-time job it's very hard to pay a mortgage and wait to the end of the month and then maneuver other bills and I'm asking the school board as well as the superintendent to take in consideration the drivers that you have a faithful drivers uh I mean anybody could anybody could drive a bus but it takes a person dedicated to stay and deal with whatever's going on with the system now uh you guys are Shor of drivers a lot of drivers try to go to durm because with durm County they get paid by weekly and
180um I just feel that Wake County should cherish the drivers that they have left it's not every day that somebody's going to go up at 4:45 in the morning and be on the school bus and then worrying about okay this bill has to be paid we get depressed we get stressed out but we still have a job to do and in making our job easier getting paid by weekly would surely release my stress and I'm asking you to be considerate of the drivers that you do have left uh if not as Melody said it's a lot of drivers considering leaving without drivers these kids will not get to school they will not be able to get to school but please take in consideration and consider paying us by-weekly instead of at the end of the
181month thank you thank you both for coming tonight all right next up Pine parara followed by moit Dia yeah uh good evening ladies and gentlemen thanks for giving me the opportunity to put our concern here uh I am uh I mean I'm here to put face to our concern which we have already submitted uh from Magnolia Park and Oak Park along with my friend s uh so I just want to give a example of my plight here uh we just moved uh two weeks back uh I have two kids uh one is a special kid and we moved here uh to uh because of some suggestions given by the special education director and the uh and and the uh specialist who is traing my second child that W count is good for her so we
182moved here like uh we joined her just last week and then we immediately got to know that school is going to be changed uh from the next year onwards this is a very concerning thing and then in last two months there are around like uh 20 families that moved into this community and there are another 20 uh who are in line to close their properties in next two uh uh two months so so at this juncture the only reason reason why we are all moving here is because of the school rating uh that is assigned to our particular uh address and then and then that is the only reason why I mean my Elder kid is a little bit uh I mean uh elementary school but uh Elder to my younger one who just started
183schooling this year she is like a special child as as I said and and we moved my Elder kid just because my younger one will get a better facility here and we we we sacrificed our Elder kids kids education uh I mean and we we were able to do that because bran road is a very well rated and now moving our kids from a very well rated school to a school which is like very low rated too is like doing a very big uh Injustice to all our kids so we we want to I mean I know mean I don't want to speak technicalities here we are not the subject matter experts we are we are there to collaborate with you agree with you but we need a plan for our kids how to how
184to approach to this particular transition without impacting uh their uh their education and then and then we want them to be sending to a good rating school so that is our whole uh intention uh for them to get educated better so that's that's I just want to put that concern before you thank you next we have moit diaa followed by weow Watson is moit here no okay WEA Watson no say k lunu is that what's your name sir sign no I'm sorry you have to you have to be signed up in order to be able to speak I can signed up Sir yeah okay say okay Michelle o'keef subba ready MAA ready good evening uh V County School Board and uh also uh W County staff for giving me opportunity to speak today so my
185name is subari m I'm from Morrisville uh I live in the vex c community I've been in the uh V County area for almost 20 years now why we moved here is because of the uh we feel this is the family growing area kids can have the better schooling system where we have so uh we had the same situation in the 2019 uh the school rejoining issue if you recall there are archives we presented the case how the family is going to get Disturbed with this rejoining issue uh without any sustainable plan so i' really support the uh Providence Place uh families and kids Creek families please keep them uh for the uh Parkside Elementary Schools where they are now and all kids where they are now because the my humble request because there is
186a reason if we keep moving those kids so our famili family's lives are really getting impacted the rules are made for laws made for the families our life Humanity please consider the humanity so to facilitate the new development new families and we are pushing the existing families to the carner and you are creating the space so that is not fair enough because the reason I'm telling because the the same pain I gone through that I want to expect the same pain because we as a humans invested our life as a parents okay let's go this place and leave there because we put the seven year seven years our kid when go to the elementary school when they go to the middle school so we invested our lives there all of a sudden you just moving
187uh so because after the five years they're in the miserable who moved so as a Humanity side we need to work with the Town Council why they are approving the new developments without any sustainable plan strategic development plan because that is going to that is I'm sure that is pushing us W County School Board to create the space for the uh packed scenarios that's what happened in the 22 uh 2019 when I worked on with the lot of families uh now when I'm going through the each and uh knocking the door I hear these stories families are suffering with the school schools with the uh uh substitute teachers so one of the parent was exping Sir we moved from the uh Maryland here by having our plan to the kids can have the better school
188and better area now my kids are ending ending up with The Substitute Teacher how can I expect the quality education here and now the kids are now again rejoining and we are shuffling them they're in the limbo State now as a Humanity we as a parents everybody has a kids sure your time is up thank you our next speaker is Renee SEO thank you again and Jennifer lbs are either of them here I think she also left all right that concludes our public comment period and our board meeting is there a motion to adjourn chair mfy I move that we would adjourn second all right we have a motion in a second all in favor please say I I any oppose nay we are adjourned thank you e