23-9-5 Board Meeting

001good evening everyone it is Tuesday September 5th 2023 at 5 36 p.m and we're going to be 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 business of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for 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 um we have all board members present as well as superintendent Bridges and our attorney Mr Malone if you will join me in standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'll now hand it over to superintendent bridges for superintendent comments Madam chair members of the board attorney Malone congratulations to Dr Drew Ware and his faculty and staff and students that wake stem early college for being recognized by the news and observer as the best house school in the Triangle foreign also four of our schools will be recognized as stem schools of Distinction by the State Board of Education on Thursday of this week and those schools are a b cones Magna Elementary Reedy Creek Magnet Middle

003Southeast Raleigh Magnet High and Vernon Malone College and Career academies these schools went through a rigorous process to demonstrate five overarching stem principles as defined by the North Carolina Department of Public construction those being student opportunities classroom environment School structures School culture and community community connections congratulations to our four schools during the board's work session we had a transportation update and 96 percent of our buses are on time arrival at our schools for the first week received over 100 plus interest forms for potential bus drivers in the future 50 candidates have been selected for our CDL class training starting September the 11th we have 17 bus drivers that have come on board 10 will be approved by the board tonight we anticipate hiring four to six new bus drivers each week in the month of

004September and October we've created learning labs in our schools and able to compensate our staff for providing support and working with our students who arrive at school early and are detained after the bill even through all these efforts it's really important that we keep our foot on the gas in terms of our recruitment for bus drivers for next school year and the last thing is that the board and staff engaged in the conversation this afternoon about school bus drivers for next school year and the opportunity to look at some things differently to make sure that we are in a great position next year when the school year the 24-25 school year begins and those conversations will be ongoing for the next several weeks thank you madam chair Bridges I would like to extend my congratulations

005to Josiah JoJo wheeler from Holly Springs High School he plays defense for the Golden Hawks and was Spectrum news's student athlete of the week it is incredible to not just watch him on the football field but Josiah also does dance so I was able to see him perform in the Holly Springs High School Nutcracker and I appreciate the fact that he shared that he enjoys both activities and he'd like to get a scholarship and Mr Swanson he wants to go to a T I'd like to also congratulate to Monty Anderson Powell anyone who has looked into the magnet program knows Miss Anderson Powell you have seen her on our Facebook pages promoting our magnet schools she's our director of Magna and curriculum enhancement programs and she was named one of Carrie Magazine's women of Western

006Wake and we'll be heading a panel on September 29th for their women of Western week Forum I'd like to also thank Darren Coe and his team and the athletic directors of Apex friendship Millbrook High School Fuquay Varina High School and Middle Creek High School for putting together the US Army be all that you can be clash and many thanks to the sponsoring partners that helped make this happen Dr Saunders as the district 8 representative you know I'll just say congratulations to Millbrook for running away with that game but we'll do better next time [Music] um and I I would like to take a moment to thank our ptas our parent teeth um teacher associations I want to thank you all for helping our students keeping parents like myself informed of school happenings when Spirit nights

007are and how we can support our school our teachers and also volunteer opportunities I know PTA recruitment is starting and has already started for traditional Calendars our year-rounds and please please please if you are fortunate enough to have a PTA and dedicated volunteers who have the time and ability to advocate for your school please join the PTA I also want to remind folks that be smart which promotes safe storage efforts for firearms um their resources are always available at bsmartforkids.org we had them present at our board meeting and various bacs and I know different ptas have them present as well and again they can be contacted at be smart for kids.org um this month of September is suicide prevention Awareness Month it is also deaf awareness month and I have absolutely no sign language skills

008and I apologize for that um but deaf awareness month is to promote communication in the deaf community and I want to thank all of our teachers and interpret interpreters that help our students um be a part of our school system and feel a part of our district and on the 15th We Begin Hispanic Heritage Month and normally I don't have that much but I think that is all and I also want to lift up the North Carolina School boards Association for having training last week myself Vice chair Hagerty Mr Swanson and Miss Caulfield were able to go and get some good information as well as some legislative updates so that's all I have so I'll pass it over to you Mr Hagerty thank you chair Mahaffey um you took a couple of my thoughts so

009this will be a little a little bit briefer not no worry one thing I will do is um I've had the opportunity a couple of times now I haven't really talked about it in board comment to be out in the community at events where our interim superintendent Dr Bridges has been on the panel or a guest or asked to present something and as you know Dr Bridges is our interim superintendent he will only be with us for a few more weeks and so I know this is not his last meeting but but but I'm going to get out ahead of the train and just I I did want to share based on some of our recent meetings how much you know I know I personally and I believe many members of the board appreciate your

010thoughtfulness your responsiveness your focus and your ability to take complex situations complex policies and really communicate them in a way that anybody it doesn't matter what the audience has been can can see them clearly and and help them understand those issues and it's it's really been an honor to have you with us rather than tell all those stories all at once of where you've been I thought I'd just wrap it up in one nice vote for you so thank you thank you Dr Bridges um I also um I want to say thank you we've had many parents reach out I believe many of my colleagues probably have as well about the transportation issues and I particularly want to thank the the folks that have brought really constructive suggestions questions that have really centered around a

011lot of the same questions and things we've been talking about at the board table which staff has been looking at many of the same things that were suggested by staff today that came up in our work session were some things that some parents had identified as some possible Avenues we might explore to look at more long-term change more systematic change so those are very topical as to those parents you probably saw some of those same ideas mentioned today and again if you if you paid attention to the work session or you caught it you know the progress we have made but know that we will be making more on that um chair Mahaffey talked about our lead training and uh our our recognition that so I won't go into that I do want to lift

012up one other event we won't be able to go to it tonight because we have our board meeting but there is a visual being held tonight for Dr Yan Dr Yan was a member of our County our community he was the victim of the shooting at UNC Chapel Hill um he was an accomplished scientist beloved colleague and neighbor a devoted father and we know his life was cut tragically short on August 28th please know that while we can't attend I know our hearts go out to his family to the community and to everybody whose lives were touched by Dr Yan thank you thank you Ms Waters you chair Mahaffey it has been a real pleasure to be out in our school communities in the last couple of weeks I had the great honor of venturing

013over into Mr Hershey's district and attending the um the open house for the Early Learning Center at Memory Lane which will eventually be at Millbrook Elementary I'm near Millbrook Elementary and will serve ages three to five and just want to wish them a wonderful school year and appreciate all that they're doing for our youngest Learners I also want to highlight Khan Elementary and their kindergarten team for making me feel so welcome at one of their recent play dates they had a Saturday morning opportunity for our for their students to get out and to make new friends so appreciate their hard work in another kindergarten group that also was very excited were our new po pandas going out to visit Poe Elementary is always a pleasure so very excited to see their school Community grow with

014some new kindergartners and we have so many employees in the district who do incredible work and some of them are often behind the scenes so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge hard work that I've been told about by one of our employees his name is Robert Moss Brook and he is a part of the wcpss maintenance team and he has done an incredible job of making sure that our schools are receiving the service that they need so just wanted to highlight and Express gratitude for the work that he is doing and it is always a real pleasure to think about the work that we're doing to advance equity in our district I came across an article recently that said Ruby Bridges will celebrate her birthday on September 8th and many of you know

015that at the tender age of six years old she had a huge impact on the civil rights movement and helped integrate one of the first elementary schools in the South and so she did that at such a young age and it was just a good reminder of the importance of the work that we're doing around equity and how we can all have our opportunity is to have an impact on the outcomes of Education in the public school system so thank you Miss Edmonds um last week a former District Five representative and three-term board chairpassed away Dr John Gilbert served on the Wake school board for 12 years he helped merge the Raleigh City schools with the County school system in the 1970s and was a champion for diversity and integration Dr Gilbert was a strong

016supporter of the magnet system he advocated for school bonds to include funds to renovate our older schools and not just be used for building new schools he went on to serve on the Wake County Board of Elections including eight years as chair of that board there he focused on the youth vote in ensuring more young people got registered to vote he had numerous recognitions and accolades including Tar Heel of the week and the Raleigh Hall of Fame I wish I had more of a complete list of those to share tonight I was unable to find his obituary this afternoon as I was looking for because I know he was recognized in so many other ways too I was fortunate to know and work with Dr Gilbert we met about 14 years ago he was someone

017who cared deeply about public education and the need for school boards to be and remain non-partisan he advocated for good governance practices and provided public comment at many of these board meetings during a very tumultuous time even though he was no longer an official board member those of you in the audience I hope you'll take a moment to find his photo out in the hall just outside of this boardroom um and we send our condolences to his family and loved ones the First District Five BAC meeting for this school year will be Monday September 18th at 5 30 at Fred olds Elementary in Raleigh we're still developing the agenda but this meeting is open to the public and it's posted on the district website and finally I want to thank all those parents and community

018members and staff who continue to advocate for safe welcoming spaces in our schools I have heard from a lot of people expressing their concern about the harms of Senate Bill 49 not just as potential harm to our lgbtqia plus students but to our teacher Pipeline and Recruitment and Retention efforts I need to I share those concerns and ask that you continue to speak out and continue to support our Public Schools thank you thank you for that tribute to our former board chair Dr Gilbert um doctoring good evening I hope that everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend my family and I were able to spend this weekend connecting with old friends and new neighbors as the school year ramps up I wish everyone a good school year I know that last week was a little

019chaotic so I asked for patience and Grace as the leadership team tries to do their best to get your children to school safely and efficiently more importantly we need to ensure that wcpss keeps to our end of the deal to provide a solid education I know that all of you have entrusted your children to the school district with that task and so under this social Compact and under North Carolina Constitution all children are guaranteed the right to the privilege of education and equal opportunities to shall be provided for all students our schools have had a long history of providing excellent opportunities for education but we are still working on how to ensure every student can access those opportunities so with that learning loss we have all experienced due to covid lockdown its effect on our

020children's social and emotional development and worrying about what kids are learning and not learning at school on top of the moral and societal upheaval going on around us I do not fault parents for questioning everything we were asked to trust the experts but we are now faced with wondering whether the experts have our best interest in mind it is your right as parents to keep all of us accountable and I respect that a law was passed that enshrined those rights as we navigate how to implement the newly enacted parents Bill of Rights we understand that people will have polarizing opinions of this law so again I ask for patience and Grace on a different note I want to Echo Vice chair hegarty about the brief and impactful time that Dr Bridges have had on our

021school district it's been an honor working with you in with traditional calendar school starting up I plan on continuing to visit the schools in district 3. District 3 will have its BAC meeting on September 18th and our speaker will be Joe McKenna assistant superintendent of special education services and she will be providing us an overview of special education services and how it fits into our current strategic plan thank you Mr Hershey thank you madam chair I want to start by thanking uh Miss Edmonds for her closing comments well done three items uh real quick so I had the great pleasure of attending the young women the Wake young women's Leadership Academy yellow rose ceremony which they do at the beginning of every school year and they do it to celebrate the students and their Journey

022as outstanding women leaders it was amazing all parents lined up on either side it was for all the new students they also recognized new staff there and the students March and they had a nice presentation and they all carry their yellow roses it was really wonderful to see in this they were ready to go at 7 30 A.M um I also had a very productive meeting with at Sanderson high school with their principal Transportation team parents band director JROTC um and a lot of good came out of that a lot of positive conversation this will not mean much if you are not at Sanderson or have not been at Sanderson but they did submit a request to do uh to review the parking lot configuration um if you've been at Sanderson you will understand the

023importance of that we have some who have been to Sanderson uh lastly I would like to take the time to recognize two of our outstanding school counselors um I confess I had to go to Brooks Elementary School today because I had to learn how to say one of their names but the North Carolina School counseling Diamond award is a joint collaboration between ncdip School counseling and the North Carolina school counselor Association to recognize School counseling programs that demonstrate an exemplary data informed and outcome-based comprehensive School counseling program the counselors at the school had to do a presentation it took months to put together they have to do a presentation in front of their board member so it was my honor to sit it was a few days after traditional schools or graduation end it last

024year this last June and they emailed me and let me know that they have in fact won this award and we are talking about Heather Roberts and Jesse Barrett at Brooks Elementary so I am very uh honored to let them know congratulations well earned that means they will be up for the ramp recognition which I am not going to jinx but I feel confident that I will be able to announce something on their behalf in the next month and a half or so so congratulations to Heather and Jesse well deserved at Brooks Elementary School Miss Caulfield thank you um I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day um some last minute rest while we all continue to dive into this new school year welcome back to all and to all of our traditional now

025that they're back in we're like in full swing I wish you a healthy great year ahead Now's the Time to sign up and help out at your school and support our students the teachers help help student help a little extra around the class with reading programs and help around the school and also to sign up for your PTA you can contact your own school to find out how to sign up for the school for your school PTA and all the ways that you can be a part of your school please sign up to volunteer and know that you have to actually sign up in advance before you can get into the classroom some people forget to do that it's much appreciated by the staff the teachers and the students I wanted to reach out in

026each one of our my areas in district 14 talk time we would and now that would be a good time for us to sit down and talk we would be able to talk about what's happening in the school any updates any feedback that you have that you would like to share any concerns and also things that are working well for your family that you would like to share the first one that I will be having is this coming Tuesday September 12th from 11 to 1 pm and that is going to be at Wake Forest Coffee Company so I hope to meet some of you there and I will be in Wendell next and that date will be announced and that is kind of all I have today Mr Swanson thank you madam chair and please

027forgive me mine may be a little long tonight but there's so many great things that are happening in District 9 and I just can't talk about all of it um so first I want to welcome say welcome back to all of our traditional families um as we embark on a new school year and I wish all of our students teachers and families a year of success last week I also had the a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of touring uh wake stem early college and seeing all the great things that was taking place there in Dr Ware and his staff do a really great job of preparing our students um for all the great things that takes place at that school and the partnership at wake at NC State I also want

028to thank area superintendent uh Overman for organizing that tour for us and going there and listening and learning on the first day of class I had the pleasure of spending the pretty much the day with Dr sext in the western area superintendent as we watched Mr Bryant direct traffic watched and saw the PTA direct the school decorate the school to uh with for the seniors and their theme was SpongeBob so it was very nostalgic for me watching and seeing how their themes was and looking at the little Krusty Crab in the back and SpongeBob's home and Patrick so it was it was really really great and watching with their their shirts and whatnot after that tour we and I have to thank Mr Brian for letting us pop into almost every class you can I

029always love going to the schools because you can see the excitement that the principals have and just wanted to show all the great things and so I hate that we had to cut that one short but we also went to Reedy Creek Middle School in Reedy Creek Elementary School to welcome those families in and so Dr Kearney who was the interim principal had did an amazing job and you know just seeing the great things that was taking place at Reedy Creek Elementary School and watching the little ones come in and how they had it so organized with kindergartners going to the right end it was just great to see it and sing some of the little ones come in that was a little too early for them and it showed in their expression but once

030we popped into those classes we were able to see how they were excited to be back um and I also just wanted to say an outdoor quick plug there and you know just thank all of our interim principals Who come out of retirement to serve the district please know that your work is not in vain and to that thank you Dr britts for stepping in and doing such a marvelous job with us in this midst of this transition and raising the tough questions for us as a system to do better and to think how we can continue to strive and and with that my Community Coffee talks will take place this Saturday at from 9 30 to 11 30 at a steam coffee you can find me in the back at the picnic tables where

031I can hear from folks and families to hear what their concerns are for the upcoming school year um I would announce my ba well my and my BAC for District 9 is not until October so we have a little bit time but save the date October uh 12 at uh five six o'clock and that is going to take place at um Farmington Woods and Dr uh Robinson is going to be our speaker as we talk about their strategic plan which is our work as a district for the next couple of years so those are all of my comments and if I neglected something please charge it to my head and not my heart and again welcome back families and wishing all of our folks a great academic school year and Miss Johnson Hustler thank you

032very much um it is a it is a new year for me as a parent without a child in K-12 I'm slightly still adjusting we just took our daughter to college over the weekend so luckily she got to go later than most of her friends so that me a little bit more time home with her but welcome back to all of our traditional calendar schools and may it be a great year it also means I didn't have to worry about our day out of school as well because I didn't have a kid but we are but we are certainly but I'm still mayor to an educator who did have to be back at school on the first day of school so welcome back to all of our Educators as well in our traditional schools um

033as best Mahaffey mentioned it's Suicide Prevention month so the only thing I'll add there is 988 is the number for our students family as friends who may need to use that number it is an easy number and we will continue to plug it for both awareness but also support um along the same lines as my other colleague Garner high school did receive from DPI their recognition with the leadership of Miss Stephanie Nielsen who is our counselor of the year for Wake County Public Schools they received their Diamond award and I talked about it similarly when I went through their presentation and appreciate the great work but also the creativity that our school counselors and their entire departments are coming up with in ways to address the needs of our students and in so many cases

034especially for high school it's absenteeism not of the whole day but sometimes of just a particular class often after lunch or at the start of the day but I appreciate learning from them each time of where the pockets of cut gaps are and that they're recognizing them and finding innovative ways to address those things so congratulations to principal price and his team on the diamond ramp award um onto Sports um uh thank you similarly to Garner High School for hosting the volleyball Showcase with High School athletics again you all know that I miss Friday Night Lights but only because I was driving my daughter to school but I will be back to Friday Night Lights because I do love Friday Night Football of our high schools and with that said we have an amazing young

035woman Caroline Plummer at Willow Spring High School who has been noted as a player of the week for two sports for this season she is the kicker for both Willow Spring High School football and the soccer team so hats off to Caroline Plummer and then ending on the sports note is very very timely and appropriate I looked over there and saw my former colleagues named Miss cash and was like where are you she sends her regards and I told her I will see her on the 100th anniversary Dr Saunders so I will still get to see my colleague but she does send her regards and regret of not being in this room to see all of our faces and the great work that we're doing so that in my comments Miss Mahaffey thank you very

036much I will take a motion or before I take a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda um we are moving a finance item 2C recommended changes to bus driver sign-on incentive and new incentive for bus driver attention to action so once you hit the house button and go back into your agenda that will be updated once the meeting agenda is approved so that is the one change so with that change is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda second all right we have a motion in a second any comments questions concerns all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right so I will ask my colleagues now to hit that button and go back in I Believe Miss Allen is always fast on this and has already put those changes in

037so we should be able to see that reflected um up next we have what is a Bittersweet moment and that is a recognition item and that is to name a thoroughfare on campus in honor of a former principal um and I don't think anyone who came into Wake County Public Schools was here along without hearing the name Dana King um and before I hand it off to Mr McCabe and Dr Saunders I am going to ask our former Wildcat parent if there is anything that she wanted to say to to start this off absolutely again those of you who which is many of you who attend our board meetings are listen live you all know that I am just recently have a wildcat graduate but additionally my husband also taught at Millbrook and I was

038just teasing Mr King over there that my husband had a key to Millbrook High School for probably almost 20 years because Dana King said he could always come back home uh but he continued to both coach at Millbrook and Sanderson once he went to Sanderson but that to me speaks volumes of who she was and my first football game as a board member Miss cash and I were there with her grandkids and my daughter and my husband came in late and when he entered uh the fields she on the loudspeaker says Mr Hustler you are welcome back to Millbrook anytime you'd like that for me is who she is who she was and what she stood for for our family specifically so as you can tell our she and her family have a special place

039at the Hustler household because my both my daughter got the great opportunity to be in school under her leadership and my husband got to work under her leadership so I know from both places the Legacy that she leaves to the Millbrook community and I don't have to tell the people who are sitting there looking at me nodding their head that we have a great leader who I would say not this I don't don't take for granted that you respect her Legacy and have continued to propose to promote her Legacy Dr Saunders that means a great deal to me to watch and that speaks to your character as a leader I think when you first met where Roxy cash and I you were like I understand who she is and I will never forget um you

040came on board just before graduation and the way that you still created the space to honor her so thank you and thank you to the entire Wildcat family for what they've given and follow her Legacy and the gifts that you've given and the King family has given my daughter and my family and again thank you to The King Family for also acknowledging my daughter and her Stellar hard work as a student for the first inaugural Dana King scholarship so the king family will also always be a part of the Hustler family so thank you all so very much thank you and thank you miss my happy chairman happy for allowing me to speak personally on the relationship that I was able to develop with Dana kinger leadership I don't know that anybody at this table

041could speak to her better than you having known her so well in so many different facets and so with that thank you for starting this off and I will pass it over to Dr Saunders and Mr McCabe about thank you Miss Johnson Hassler for your comments they're received well good evening superintendent Bridges board chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty and board members I am both honored and excited to be with you tonight um albeit bittersweet to present a request to you to recognize a very special long time and former principal in the Wake County Public School System and recognize her in a very special way so with me like you know is Dr Saunders current principal at Millbrook High School he is going to bring you more details on the request and I'll turn it over

042to you Dr Saunders Board of Education members Dr Bridges District leaders and everyone in attendance both in person and online is it is my true honor to stand before you this evening to discuss the request you received from the Millbrook Magnet High School PTSA and Wildcat Club board of directors to name one of the primary thoroughfares or streets on the Millbrook campus in honor of long-time principal Dana King Dana was millbrook's principal for an unprecedented tenure of 19 years and earned a number of accolades that I will detail in a few minutes Dana tragically passed away in March of mere days after her retirement celebration at Millbrook and mere weeks from beginning retirement she gave the better part of her life to the students she served in our school district and to the countless Educators

043whom she impacted forever and I'm here tonight to request that we honor Dana King's Legacy in a very special way on the Millbrook campus that she loves so much I'm not alone tonight joining me tonight are Rick King her husband Katie King gamble her daughter Jenny had I believe a family trip already planned for this week but but Jenny would be here otherwise Jody Balmer our PTSA president doing her second term she has returned to that role Liz mossler is our president of the Wildcat club and then beside them Kelly Aman was one of Dana's assistant principals and she is now the principal longtime principal at West Millbrook Middle School magnet middle school and Tara Drew hard was also an assistant principal under Dana and Tara is now the principal at Sanderson High School allow

044me to now share some background and details of the project as we began to discuss the plans we were aware of board policy 9300 which addresses the naming of facilities this project more than meets the guidelines required within the policy we considered for a long time what would be most appropriate to name after Dana what could we do to best represent the legacy of this leader you're talking about someone who was an educator for over four decades with 36 of those years spent in the Wake County Public School System she was named the wcpss principal of the year in 2010 having already secured the international Baccalaureate program for Millbrook High in 2009. an accomplishment that cannot be understated in the history of our school becoming an IB World school was a pivotal moment in its

045100 Year history after gaining magnet status Millbrook went on to be named either a school of Distinction or a school of excellence multiple times under Dana King's leadership Dana was awarded the order of the Longleaf Pine posthumously earlier this year perhaps our most notable accomplishments though and she would take little credit for it was her widespread impact on others Dana literally changed the course for hundreds of students directly during my short tenure I have heard personally from several former students who were saddened to hear of her passing and who shared her impact on them with me Dana was well known for counseling individual students who needed her the most she likely scheduled many of them but the stories that I was privy to that were shared shared a common trait that principal King was accessible

046students needing some time with her could pop in and see her and no doubt Dana would share firm but fair motherly type advice with these students one parent can be quoted as saying as a parent she made my oldest daughter feel good about being herself and not following the norm my favorite moment was when she was in attendance for my second daughter's IEP meeting her comments were so simple yet they meant so much she referred to her as beautiful and intelligent and from that moment on my daughter knew she was welcomed and belonged at Millbrook beyond the students Dana King was a powerful professional presence in the lives of countless educators choral director and millbrick teacher Eddie Adams had this to say I took on a leadership role as part of our state's music educators

047Association in the fall of 2019 and was nervous about it when I mentioned it to Mrs King she said let's meet tomorrow at 9am in my office and we'll talk through it tomorrow though was the day before school started on that day Mrs King sat with me for two hours as we discussed my concerns and she provided advice for her thoughts on leadership of this scale it was immensely helpful from Knightdale principal Keith Richardson Dana was a veteran High School principal that any one of us could go to for advice after I was named principal at Nightdale Dana spent a whole day with me sharing her resources including their daily order of operations at a comprehensive High School Lisa Cummings from the Wake Early College of health and science Dana King's influence is immeasurable she

048modeled how to lead with love showing Grace with firmness Fierce competition with raw emotion and knowing when to wear the pointy boots versus the dressy shoes Dana was there for you she would walk you through any storm hand you a tissue for a good cry or enjoy a good belly laugh oh how I missed that laugh green level principal Karen Summers shared that Dana's gift was modeling how to lead through authenticity there was a dogginess in her efforts around a cause that she believed in Broughton principal Janiece dilts Dana King was one of the most strategic leaders I've ever had the privilege of knowing or working with she had very specific goals for me to accomplish while at Millbrook to make it better besides being a strategic leader one of Miss King's most lovable qualities

049was her love for her students whenever we had an assembly with our students she would find you would find her coming in the doors of the gym with the biggest smile on her face she loved the Millbrook Community but especially the students in it from Enloe principal Jackie Jordan Dana was my principal when I completed my admin internship at East Millbrook moving forward for the next 20 years Dana never stopped encouraging and supporting me no matter what I needed or when she was there because the work came first Dana was fearless and unashamed to go hard she loved the fact that the same students she served during the day were the ones who checked her out at the grocery store one memory that will always stick with me was Dana telling me about getting her

050first AP role when she was supposed to be on maternity leave Walt sherlin said Athens needed her and Dana answered the call she described her husband bringing her baby to basketball games and holding her up in the stands for Dana to see while she was on duty I can still see Dana's beautiful sparkling eyes hear the signature tenor of her voice and remember the times we laughed together she was a kind genuine authentic soul and a true friend and Dana was so gracious to me in the transition period I had an opportunity to meet with Dana twice during that time she opened up her school building to me she allowed me to meet with the team of six assistant principals beforehand she was remarkable and to bring this back to the school that she loved

051long-time friend and colleague John Williams shared the word big is easily associated with her Legacy big personality big contributions to the schools she served big help to anyone needing it big guidance to her staff and students and a big intellect to perform the tough job of the high school principleship seemingly effortlessly it has been said that a great institution is the lengthened shadow of a person Millbrook High will forever Remain the great school she directed so one can see that the dedication of something on campus needed to be big we settled with something extremely visible on campus something nearly all visitors to campus were likely to see we identified the street on campus that runs from Dixie Forest Road on the Southeastern side of campus to John still place in the northeastern corner this road

052on campus is a major thoroughfare for all types of visitors as it includes a portion of our car rider Loop and its total length is approximately four tenths of a mile we would install four new street signs along its path one near Dixie Forest Road one at A T intersection in front of the football stadium one near a y intersection and the final one near the baseball stadium not only is this thoroughfare on campus heavily traveled such that these four street signs identifying Dana King way would be seen but this particular Road was selected because of its proximity to three iconic landmarks that Dana King had installed during her tenure the black iron fence that runs the perimeter of the school along Spring Forest and Dixie Forest roads the blue football Press Box that Dana

053secured from the Carolina Mudcats organization complete with its own elevator and the Beautiful clock tower at the Y intersection Dana poured herself into making Millbrook shine and Dana went about these efforts with Fierce passion so we all felt it apropos for this thoroughfare to carry this specific moniker of Dana King way this impactful and dedicated leader certainly had a way about her and those around her benefited from her style Millbrook High School went to new heights with her at the helm and she is considered by several of my colleagues as a trailblazer blazing a trail implies the presence of Fire and Dana King had that fire in her when she set her sights on something big excuse me or small that would benefit her students or her faculty she went after it with every bit

054of her soul in this way Dana King is an inspiration to the rest of us and certainly to me there is no time for excuses no time to waste when young lives hang in the balance we all have work to do because the kids are depending upon us it has been my honor to present this project request to you all tonight out of millbrook's 100 years of existence one individual led the school for nearly two decades if you see fit to approve the project to move forward our plan is to formal formally unveil it as part of millbrook's 100th anniversary celebration on Saturday September 23rd in the Millbrook Auditorium you are each cordially invited to attend this momentous occasion thank you there's anything left to say [Music] except that is very apropos I'm glad you

055didn't go with Boulevard foreign this thank you Dr Saunders and and many thanks to the king family and to the PTSA and to all of you that are here to to honor her Legacy um this will be on our consent agenda but we did want to lift it up before that um I don't think there's going to be any objections to it though now and if there is please submit them to miss Johnston or but thank you for taking the time to give such a I would almost say brief account of all of Dana's accomplishments in this District um we know that you could go on for pages and pages about what she did and um you know I heard most of my Dana King stories through Miss cash so we'll leave those there but

056thank you all for being here is there anything else anyone would like to add yes is it possible to vote on this prior to public comment so they can be here for it and not have to wait through public comment I'm going to refer to our attorney I think we have specific rules on how our agenda is laid out yeah sorry no pressure rod I would assume that you without looking at all your policies you can make a motion to amend the agenda to pull this item from consent I guess um and to move it above public comment I mean certainly if the majority of the board is going to support it I don't see that it creates a problem this is without looking at your policies though so but I feel pretty good about

057it Mr Hershey so moved second I think we have a motion for Mr Hershey to amend the agenda pull the item from consent and vote on it prior to public comment and a second from Miss Johnson hosler is there any discussion all right all in favor of that motion please say aye any opposene all right all those in favor of naming a thoroughfare on campus in honor of former principal also known as Dana kingway I noticed you didn't go with the possessive I'm sure you thought about it please say aye aye any opposed all right thank you all very much we look forward to the 100th celebration right we now move on to public comment speakers commenting on the night's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be

058heard in order of sign up if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the board chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed at substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members the laws and policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individual student matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues in 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

059speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to the board attorney either before or after your comments and again Mr Malone is seated right there during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing you that your three minutes has begun a yellow light will light up with a brief audible tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and when your speaking time is up you will see

060a red light in here another audible tone when your time is up the next speaker will be called to the podium speakers are asked to respect the time limit and speak for no more than three minutes we have let me make sure I'm on the right 19 speakers for tonight's agenda and we begin with L Prince followed by Holly Atkins you know is there on the oh my goodness I am so sorry so we'll have Miss Prince go first and then I'll correct my mistake my apologies thank you hi I'm Elle Prince I have twin Juniors at Enloe last week I got a phone call from a teacher due to legislation he said and because my trans child would like to use the same name they used last year I emailed a cease and desist

061to the principal and teacher to convey the legal weight of his actions his call created legal exposure for this County and in our case there wasn't even a change in name or pronouns of profound importance when considering SB 49 is that clearly outlined in ncgs 115c 76.45 C2 is an exception to parental access quote when a reasonably prudent person would believe that disclosure would result in a child becoming an abused juvenile or neglected juvenile end quote paraphrasing staff who believe the parental notifications for name and gender changes could result in abuse or neglect May simply opt out if you hear nothing else that I say please hear this all North Carolina School Personnel in every County regardless of their board's policies have the right under the current law to just opt out of these parental

062notifications the solution is simple you don't need to be a lawyer simply read the new law therefore I ask that our policy do five simple things one number one advise that due to Title IX opting out is the only way to follow state and federal law number two instruct all Personnel to immediately opt out of notifications three remind Personnel opting out protects their job by adhering to District policy and federal law and is the most legal ethical prudent and efficient way to adhere to sb49 four informed students of their right to use any pronouns and acknowledge there's no way to document a pronoun change pronouns are not stored in PowerSchool Personnel have no way to know what pronouns are used one day to the next notifying parents that a student has changed pronouns creates liability

063for this County five inform students that all Personnel have been instructed to opt out but they can always confidentially share their name and pronouns with a counselor and the council will share their name and pronouns with their teachers for them without anyone notifying their parents I've heard of plans for this board to distribute name change forms leaving students without supportive families to either use the form and out themselves or not use the form and suffer through being misgendered and dead named these forms violate Title IX and expose our district legally these forms emotionally disregulate students which disrupts our primary function to educate children who feel safe these forms are not required but if they are used please distribute them to every student make them freely available throughout the schools have forms returned to counselors only

064to preserve confidentiality include verbiage on the form to inform students that counselors will opt out only when any student asks advise of the rights outlined previously and the right to have a counselor explain the form in conclusion opting out a parental notification is clearly outlined in the law reduces workload on the school system and better support students and protects Personnel from violating federal law thank you our next speaker is Rowan Rowan bladeaux followed by Holly Atkins Rowan Bluto and my apologies you were first on my list and I did not see it that's okay I thought it was going to be last I can start okay good afternoon board members I'm here because I want to ask the board to please continue supporting and representing all of your students and their families I've been to

065a few of these meetings and I've heard what people say and ask of you as a sophomore in high school I can truthfully tell you that I've never experienced the things that are talked about at these meetings last school year I read a total of 35 library books and nothing I read was remotely pornographic or inappropriate I was in a counseling and mental health class in which we talked about equality racism homophobia Etc but these topics are scarcely talked about in core classes I heard about the index cards with a pregnant man why is that a problem I am the kind of man who can get pregnant not that I will because I have had access to appropriate sex education my little brother goes to school goes to the school with those cards why can

066he not see his own family represented but he can see other families as a transgender kid I grew up hating myself thinking that something was wrong with me and wanting to kill myself I never saw kids like me on index cards or in books so therefore I thought my existence was wrong that was over 10 years ago and I'm so happy that we've come a long way since then kids of all backgrounds are represented and no longer believe that they don't deserve equality I am not currently in public school but I am in Wake County the reason I'm not in public school is that I was genuinely worried and scared for my safety especially with new legislation that's been passed I ask no I implore you please continue representing all families and kids and showing

067them kindness equality respect and inclusion I don't want more queer kids to grow up learning that who they are is a problem I'm scared and worried for children who no longer have a safe and welcoming place at school thank [Applause] you I think Atkins followed by Andrew branch my name is Holly Atkins president and founder of Hope for teens hope for teens is an anti-bullying organization dedicated to the advocacy and support of teens and tweens that identify as part of the lgbtq plus community and I have two requests I am here today to ask when Wake County school plans to provide comprehensive mental health for all students mental health makes for great talking points on the news but actually following through will require input from many different viewpoints we all saw the news outlets view

068these talking points and how the school system wants to provide mental health regardless of budgetary limits but it seems our Visions are very different I initially had optimism when someone from Office of diversity equity and inclusion attended attended Out Raleigh on June 24th and informed me I would hear from them that Monday June 26th on ways to partner and support here we are in September and that email is still not received from them but you are all aware of that since I sent an email on August 22nd to everyone including the Dei office relaying that information and I've not received one response from anyone my first request is not to ignore the lgbtq plus students approximately 15 percent of the students identify as part of this community and current statistics show over 50 percent of

069of students overall are either part of the community or are a strong Ally an environment of equity and inclusion is what students need to see in order to stop feeling less than an environment of inclusion and not division helps our schools feel more welcoming for any potential families looking to relocate similar to those working for Google or Apple as examples my second request is to remind all School Employees that federal law supersedes state legislation all principles Vice principals counselors teachers and any other employee needs to be reminded that Title IX is a federal law and therefore supersedes SB 49 also where sb49 looks like it requires teachers to outminers in actuality it does not according to General statute 115 C2 disclosure of changes to names or pronouns are not required when a reasonably prudent person

070would believe that disclosure would result in the child becoming an abused juvenile or neglected Juvenile and those terms are defined in general statute 7B 101 there have been teens beaten thrown out of their homes sent to conversion therapy and other malicious activities just for being who they are I would consider these actions to be abusive of a juvenile or neglecting a juvenile we can all assume teachers and administrators are prudent people therefore we're asking schools to follow federal law risk multiple complaints being filed lastly we remind you that a lot of these students are voting age are coming to be voting age these students are seeing a direct relationship between their lives and their hurtful divisive rules and laws currently being pushed unnecessarily and against the advice of doctors and psychiatrists if you truly believe

071the best interests have of our students in mind your guidance on the 15th will include the reminder of Title IX adherence as well as a sincere effort to seek ways to support all students thank you our next speaker is Andrew Branch followed by Teresa Jones [Applause] hi my name is Andrew branch I substitute taut here but my uh Health did not allow me to finish my licensure the dinner table is a safe place to talk about things that don't feel safe you all are welcome at my dinner table but this is a school board meeting and that must affect my tone and my words sb49 is law embrace it and get to work like Charlotte through fourth grade and with parents involved afterward you cannot teach a vulnerable child to disassociate her identity from her

072body that sexual fetishes or one's core identity that some women have penises that you can draw a square circle California and New Jersey are suing districts for policies like SB 49 that stop teachers from hiding gender transitions from their parents speakers last month in Durham decried outing students from their parents even letting parents know what their kid checked out of the library we believe this still teach in your schools we are endowed by our creator with rights and responsibilities Psalm 100 it is he the Creator who made us and not we ourselves that means your identity is given not self-discovered it's not found in our feelings the Declaration rightly says the government does not Grant rights it recognizes rights SB 49 is not the government Danning to stoop down with the polite courtesy of letting

073parents know their child's sexual confusion it was never your authority to hide our very social compact is at stake you cannot take powers that are not yours to take nor frankly are they ours to relinquish Wake County never had a policy like Durham to hide things from parents but it happened here my friend found out from a stranger connected to his in-laws that a teacher was calling his sister a different name and pronouns this law protects teacher safety Liberty is responsibility as parents we will exercise our responsibilities to our children with or without you even against you if necessary many of you self-identify as people of Faith or even Christians but if you don't believe the first chapter that God made man male and female you only bring more judgment on yourself we know we're

074outnumbered and it is difficult to serve diverse families but any pluralism cannot allow us to Define for ourselves essentially the meaning of the color of stoplights our schools or that proverbial pile up we pray that this school board repent as an office like it or not the Ten Commandments are inseparable from the history of our English common law and we wish you to Advocate as those who know the law Giver and the full implications of a risen Christ who said all authority is given to me in heaven and on Earth at the very least use your office to Foster cooperation from a more Firm Foundation that starts with knowing what a woman is and that education requires involved parents our next speaker is Theresa Jones followed by Colleen Miller [Applause] good evening I am here

075to talk about the importance of inclusivity and representation in books as you consider policies and procedures related to SB 49 as president of wake PTA Council it has been my honor to serve on the leadership team of wake up and read wake up and read is the local affiliate of the campaign for grade level reading and is dedicated to ensuring that each and every child in Wake County regardless of race ethnicity and socioeconomic status will read proficiently by the end of third grade I have learned a great deal about literacy intervention and representation through my work with this organization over the past several years there are several ways that the Coalition Works to improve reading proficiency partner agencies such as read and feed YMCA Raleigh Parks and Rec the Boys and Girls Club communities and

076schools Wake County libraries and the helps fund provide learning opportunities outside of the school environment and they were instrumental in the in the creation of week together reaching families raising readers recognizes that parents and caregivers are a child's first teacher and provides resources and education to help families succeed but my favorite part of my time with wake up and read has been the book distribution wake up and read partners with schools Child Care Centers to provide diverse books that reflect a student's interests and experiences and I think many of you have been at those book distributions and there's just nothing quite like the thrill that you get as an adult when a child picks up a book and they see themselves in that book studies show that students are more motivated to read when they

077have a choice in their book selection and that's just what wake up and read does last year wake up and read distributed over 135 000 books at 15 partner schools 16 Child Care Centers 21 Little free libraries and 75 community events so why is representation important rooting Sims Bishop a renowned author and professor of children's literature explains it best and this is how I learned about representation through my work with this group she says that books are windows mirrors and sliding glass doors books are sometimes Windows offering views of the world that may be real or imagined familiar or strange these windows are also sliding glass doors and readers have only to walk through an imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author and when conditions are just

078right this window becomes a mirror literature transforms Human Experience and reflects it back to us and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the greater Human Experience please don't take that opportunity away from our children our next speaker is Colleen Miller followed by Mark Peterson good evening members of the Wake County Board of Education thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I've compiled a letter or my group the payment education project has submitted a letter uh that's going around I'm going to read that letter so the group here will be able to hear what was said on August the 16th the North Carolina legislature ratified Senate Bill 49 the parents Bill of Rights into law this legislation now chapter 114a parents Bill of Rights codifies the rights

079of parents and Guardians to guarantee their direct oversight and involvement in their child's upbringing Education Health Care and mental health of their minor children the overall intent is to improve the transparency of public school education and to hold the system accountable to parents and citizens as the local government and body of the Wake County Public School System you're responsible for the implementation of policies that are consistent with current laws chapter 114a enumerates many rights of parents that need your immediate attention for instance the board recently policy code 3210 parental inspection of an objection of two material instructional materials this policy now is in direct conflict with the new law as it severely restricts parents from challenging the presence of of objectional books and other materials please respond to the following questions and concerns what are

080the board's plans to comply with the parents Bill of Rights of the as the bill cites the legal rights of parents and their child's education how will the board implement the following steps to assure compliance to the law increase the involvement of parents in schools including their right to inspect and participate in the process of selecting textbooks and other supplementary materials respond to parents who ask to review available records of materials their child borrowed from a school library and media center restrict instruction on gender identity sexual activity and sexuality in the curriculum provided in K through fourth grade as stated in the law curriculum includes stand intercourse of study support materials curriculum locally developed curriculum supplemental instruction textbooks and other supplemental materials note the content of many books in schools libraries media centers and even

081classrooms violate the statute as they introduce gender social transitioning stories of minors transitioning physically establish opportunities for how we establish opportunities for parents to participate in school advisory councils and in other activities establish a means for parents to object to textbooks and supplementary instructional materials parents and other citizens has discovered thousands of books in Wake County public schools that are educatedly unsuitable vulgar or inappropriate to the age maturity and grade level of the students the public education system must be a trans transparent and accountable to parents working to improve student outcomes instead of advancing partisan political agendas that must be which it seems to be the goal the parents Bill of Rights allows for greater accessibility of what's being taught in schools notified as parents so child's well-being being and keeps curriculum focused on core

082subjects thank you speaker is Mark Peterson followed by Dr Rosaria Butterfield [Applause] hello I'm a graduate of Millbrook High School uh sir that's sir that thank you sir participating in the comment one person is speaking we don't know this is allowable do you want to censor this is that what you're saying it is sir sir we can't disrupt and I'm sorry I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave you are welcome to submit your questions or comments to the board thank you I'm a graduate of Millbrook High School I have two sons that are graduates of the Wake County Public School System um over the past year and a half I've been in associated with members of the pavement education project I've helped them some people consider me part of the team

083but the uh in during that time we have been falsely accused of being hateful homophobic and transphobic and the truth is we neither hate nor fear miners who identify as Gator trans what we fear is the harmful effects of the current trends in children's literature on the lives of children the parents Bill of Rights begins to address our concerns gender ideology is now prohibited from K4 curriculum but it remains to be seen how the wake's County School System will respond to this new law these books that fit this category here's a few of them it feels good to be yourself introducing Teddy worm loves worm there's a bunch more but we feel like these these books here plant the seeds for gender confusion and it leads children to a path that they where they will

084ultimately hate their own body parts and fantasize about body parts they can never have that is basically if you span the spectrum of these books this is the other end of the spectrum this is a book about a girl who hates her breasts by the end of the book she's talking about having them removed and she fantasized constantly about having a penis her fantasies are so deep that she she forms a club of girls who watch gay porn because gay porn has nothing but penises in it but where that All Leads is to children that wind up doing this to themselves their parents allow this to happen the the uh mental health system is allowing this to happen does this girl look like she's happy is she pleased with having her breasts removed and having

085this scar on her chest how about this girl here this girl if you'll notice this is a fresh scar here she is covered in Cut marks this girl is obviously having mental health issues before this happened this woman here her mother obviously was giving a false choice of you know would you rather have this is what they're commonly told would you rather have a live dog a live son or a dead daughter this is basically a Sophie's Choice a modern-day Sophie's Choice this is what we fear we don't fear the children we fear what's happening to the children and we feel like these books are the beginning of it will you please get these books out of the elementary schools and while you're at it get this book out of the middle schools it does

086not belong there it promotes the suicide our next speaker is Dr Rosaria Butterfield followed by Joseph Deaton [Applause] my name is Dr Rosaria Butterfield I am a retired tenured professor of English women's studies and queer Theory from Syracuse University in my 20s and 30s I lived as a lesbian and I worked hard to Advance lgbtq Plus freedoms including writing policy and testifying before New York legislative legislators but today I am not a lesbian How Deeply grateful I am that during the season of my lesbian confusion I made no irreparable decisions that caused harm to my body I share this not to offend but to show you that I have thought about these issues from different points of view SB 49 parents Bill of Rights is now law it overrules The Unofficial practice that Wake County

087has employed to conceal a child's social gender transition from parents children who experience either the medical condition of gender dysphoria or the ideological social contagion of transgenderism need guidance from their parents the people who know them best love them most and can help them heal parents who entrust their children to the government for Education are not partners with the public school but are legal parties making a temporary contract sb49 does not Grant new rights it recognizes the rights that parents already have for many medical doctors the transgender movements rejection of the stable biological categories of male and female render it junk science medical anomalies such as intersex condition do not negate objective and biological categories of male and female to introduce non-biological categories of personhood in pursuit of an ever expanding plethora of gender identities

088there are 78 currently there could be a hundred by the time I finish my three-minute speech that is unnatural and harmful to the purposes for which God has made us I understand this I was really confused I was on the other side and I meant it fully public outcries and lawsuits from people detransitioning after quote unquote gender affirming care are rising the largest pediatric gender identity clinic in the world Tavistock in the UK shut down this year because internal whistleblowers lgbtq plus affirming Advocates risked their lives to outline the tragic harm done to children in the name of this bogus Medical Care the American Psychiatric association's Diagnostic and statistical manual states that gender anxiety in children desists at a minimum of 73 percent of cases I'm choosing the APA because that is a liberal organization

089I'm not even going with my people but in 73 percent of the cases if normal puberty is uninterrupted by cross-sex hormones or surgery they are fine social transitioning is not benign it derails natural desistence our next speaker is Joseph Deaton followed by Julie page [Applause] the recently enacted General statute 115c-76.55 states that instruction for grades K through 4 shall not include sexual sexuality sexual activity or gender identity this includes supplemental materials I call your attention to 16 storybooks for little kids that promote gender identity that are found in our elementary school libraries as an Exemplar I cite the book it feels good to be yourself this book asserts that people who thought one child was a boy when he was born were simply wrong I it was just that he wasn't able to tell his

090parents that he was really a girl until he he was older the book goes on to say that some people feel like both genders or anything in between and that some people feel like one gender one year and another than the next but as someone who has worked in the hard Sciences for over 30 years I can tell you that this is is anti-science know the people who said that the child was a boy were not we're not wrong they observed a physical reality and feelings don't determine reality besides being anti-science gender theory is directly opposed to many different religious faiths and even Aristotle public schools are violating the non-establishment Clause by promoting this one particular View I asked the board to uphold democracy and follow the general statute by promptly removing these materials now

091I I affirm that every person who feels that they are non-binary or transgender are created in the image of God and their lives matter very much but this is precisely why my conscience compels me to speak up what these children need is Compassionate Counseling to understanding what what the underlying causes are for for these feelings and that is now the policy of the National Health Services in the UK and Sweden and eight other countries after they have found that gender affirming care of children has led to bad outcomes in the long term thank you our next is Julie page followed by Chad Stahl I usually have this printed out but no time hi uh Julie page Chapter Chair mom's Liberty Wake County first Constitution Day is coming up and September 17th and I just handed

092pocket constitutions to the board attorney to give out to all of you it's just one of these okay American public schools that receive federal funding are required to hold an education program about the United States Constitution for its students on September 17th wcps says policy 3530 requires the observation of Constitution and citizenship day on or near the 17th the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the Bedrock upon which our nation was built and they set us apart from Every Other Nation on Earth to commemorate this important day we will be delivering these pocket constitutions to all the middle schools in Wake County for distribution to 8th graders we hope these young students will carry them close and use them as a guidebook for good citizenship interestingly the same laws that every classroom

093in this state should have a United States flag and a North Carolina flag is that happening in our schools does every single classroom in Wake County have a United States flag and a North Carolina flag I'd like to know let's talk about the parents Bill of Rights why has this not been discussed yet not in the policy committee meeting not in an email not a newsletter not a phone call do you not feel this love this law is important do you not feel parents would want to know about it and how it applies to their children in public school here are some key points for parents students May participate in protected student information surveys only with parental consent an employee who attempts to encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from his or her

094parent may be subject to disciplinary action parents have the right to seek a medical or religious exemption from immunization requirements parents have the right to inspect all instructional and supplemental materials including library books schools must now inform parents of student name or pronoun changes schools may not allow any materials on gender identity sexual activity or sexuality and grades k-4 I'd like to know what you guys are doing about that have they been removed if they have please let us know how did you do that did you still keep them in the elementary schools for fifth graders if so are they separated are they labeled are they tagged are they rated how do we do that how do we do that a lot in the classrooms also transparency accountability that's all parents want do the right

095thing thank you our next speaker is Chad Stahl followed by Jim Walsh good evening I just have a um I feel way off topic the um so we had our first week of school had a few schools had to let their kids out had to go home no air conditioning uh one of the families that works for me and my wife their daughter had to go home no air conditioning she's in kindergarten dad had to take a day off of work and I'm just thinking if if that's like 13 14 000 per child and a parent misses work I think you should give us a refund for that day like an insurance claim right because you're not using the money and the parents are having to miss work so they can't make the money so

096I think you should put your money where your policies are and when you strip education away and when you take that access away then you should reimburse the parents directly just a thought um kind of makes you think where does the money go when you charge kids to park at the high school like where does the money go and why do you force them to use an app where they have to pay a separate fee like a Ticketmaster fee to enrich a third party from your students why can they not pay you with a check or cash why do they have no options to save themselves that actually 10 bucks 12 bucks is there something wrong with that do you even know that that's a thing do you care because that's that's privatizing right that's

097uh isn't that enriching a private company through our public school system uh and then the million dollar thing for the math teachers I know it sounds exciting but I just want to read the front page here from the structure of the materials this is from mathematics Vision project the MVP classroom experience Begins by confronting students with an engaging task and then invites them to Grapple with solving it as a student's ideas emerge take form and are shared the teacher orchestrates the student discussions and Explorations towards a focused mathematical goal how do you coach a teacher on how to do that Mike what even how is that even mathematical brought in District Six hello 30 proficient in math 44 minority enrollment had to go home because of no air conditioning so I just kind of think

098you know the sign back there says committed to Excellence not committed to ideology so maybe just maybe we can make some room it's where we get back to some fundamental things and on a side note I heard the Sanderson Pop I made a promise to someone when I was on my little campaign Trail and they have one of the best drama clubs in the state of North Carolina I think it's called like an ensemble it's a fancy your name in the drama club so sorry the uh but anyway they need some new Lighting in the auditorium I think they've already done all the hard work they've priced it out I think it's only a couple hundred thousand bucks so there's just a side note and on another note the I think a few weeks ago

099they're talking about maybe some environmental stuff well as a republican environment is one of our platform policy issues I know you wouldn't think that right but it's printed in the platform and so I've spoken to the city happy to help bring some water conservation to a school thanks our next speaker is Jim Walsh followed by John balog good evening again uh I'm going to be addressing two two topics policy 3210 and SB 90 of 49. um with regards to the policy I've addressed it a couple times and I'm going to keep on addressing it until something's done we need a way to protect our children from the books and schools I just provided a list of books that are rated five and fours according to the rating system the books looks okay independent rating system

100five and fours are the worst fives I'll give you the definition they use material that falls in five categories defined as explicit reference to adherent sexual activities sexual assault battery bestiality say don't Mascus abuse in our inherent content and only for adults sink in for a minute there's six of those books in our schools we don't have adults going to our high schools the name of the books in case you want Jack of Hearts and other parts lucky push sold stolen Life and memoir and tricks let's go to books that are rated fours okay there are 86 of these books in our schools the definition is explicit sexual nudity depicts a sexual organs in the state of arousal and and obscene references to sexual activities involving anal oral vaginal intercourse fingerling analysts or ejaculation ejaculations

101material in this category is rated as no miners adult content no children under 18 yet we have 86 of these books in our schools why is that how can that happen who's responsible for bringing these books into our schools the state has a law that defines obscenity in pornography you all just passed 32-10 without even trying to Define what it is all you had to do is reference state law or if you didn't want to do that gee I think there is U.S love that does the same thank you our next speaker is John balog followed by Becky Lou Hobbs good evening thank you for your time your core and your service I hope you had a good weekend your core program description for sixth grade has no mention of sex education I'll get back

102to that in seventh and 8th grade students will learn about the benefits of abstinence until marriage and the risks of premarital sexual intercourse and strategies for remaining abstinent from sexual intercourse this comes from NC General statute 115c not the schools you are required to teach this starting in the seventh grade but I wonder how close you are sticking to your program a sixth grader came up to us we worked with a lot of kids on our block and they said they were told sexual Concepts that were not appropriate for them that was a sixth grader it's not listed in your curriculum perhaps the newly passed Senate Bill 49 will be helpful to get better transparency to parents that's the whole goal you do your students a great disservice with the amount and types of books

103available in your libraries these books have no bounds on what type of frivolous sex or with who you need to implement some type of age appropriate checking like in use today for game rentals or movies more than one million sexually transmitted infections are acquired every day worldwide according to World Health Organization they used to be STDs disease but infection sounds a lot better than disease so we're going to go with infection because you can get rid of those more than 30 different bacteria viruses and parasites are known to be transmitted during sexual contact eight pathogens are linked to the greatest incidence of these only four are curably only four are currently curable syphilis gonorrhea chlamydia and trick why is this important the number of reported cases of three major STDs in the U.S chlamydia gonorrhea

104and syphilis increased last year for the second year in a row reaching an all-time high a report was released this week by the CDC the group's hardest hit by this increase are teenagers and young adults imagine that where did the teenagers start with we're not talking adults but keep it in the library and we'll give it handed out to them as well as gay and bisexual men according to the CDC a total of 1.5 million chlamydia cases were reported to the cdtc in 2015. the highest number of annual cases of any medical condition that was ever received by that agency and it's just continues to keep going up Planned Parenthood we all love them STDs are infections that are spread from one person to another usually during vaginal anal and oral sex they're really common

105lots of people have them don't have any symptoms without treatment STDs can lead to serious health problems but the good news is that getting tested is no big deal and most STDs are easy to treat why thank you very much our next speaker is Becky Lou Hobbs followed by Renee seckel thank you hi my name is Becky Lou Hobbs I'm a Wake County resident and a concerned mom of three kids in the Lake County public school system so why has this board not yet addressed the laws that were passed by the North Carolina general assembly on August 16th it appears Wake County Schools is choosing to ignore them in particular the parents Bill of Rights in three weeks three weeks yet Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools already have a web page accessible for parents to look at

106set up to inform parents I'll send you the email or I'll email you this information this is one of the mandates of the law 115c-7655 B1 it's to inform parents of their legal rights so far Wake County has not done that did you think this law was just going to go away nothing's been communicated via email nothing's been discussed at the policy committee last week and there's certainly many policies that are affected by this nothing's on the agenda at today's work session and of course nothing was on tonight's agenda as well so what is Wake County Schools the superintendent and this board going to do to inform parents as required by law Also regarding the parents Bill of Rights Why are books discussing gender identity sexual activity and sexuality still available to students in elementary

107schools for Section 115c-7655 it clearly states these topics are not to be allowed for kindergarten through fourth grade yet in my elementary student school with a quick search I found six books discussing this topic when will these books be removed when will all 119 Elementary School libraries be reviewed to remove books discussing gender identity sexual activity and sexuality as required by North Carolina law and then there are the surveys sent to students parents have the right to opt in to certain data collection did you hear that opt in yet last week I received this parent student handbook on page four it clearly states parents opt out there's no communication from the principal or anybody else this has been sent to thousands and thousands of parents and it's a misrepresentation of North Carolina law so these

108are just a few examples of how Wake County school is not complying with North Carolina law we've not even touched on the fairness of women's sports Act so I ask you obey the law remove books containing gender identity sexual activity and sexuality and keep them out of the hands of kindergarten through fourth grade properly informed parents of their rights and correct your policies and distribute them according to a current North Carolina law thank you our next speaker is Renee steckel followed by Eileen Allen hey y'all so if you like me have spent way too much time on Tick Tock you might be familiar with the story of the Frankie family but for those of you who have more healthy Hobbies let me give you a rundown the Frankies are a beautiful family from Utah wealthy

109well groomed they have six beautiful children they're devout in their faith and at the height of their popularity they had a YouTube channel with over 2 million followers from the outside this family looked wonderful in fact they were so successful that the mother of the family started providing advice on how to parent children now over the years she said some stuff and people started kind of going oh wait so you know when she announced that her two youngest children would be told that Santa wasn't coming this year because they weren't very good but that they could watch their four older siblings open presents people said oh that's not nice and when she told them that eating was a privilege that would be given to them only if they did what Mom said people said oh

110not sure about that and then of course we found out that her eldest son had been sleeping on the floor for seven months because he broke some Rule and she decided that beds are a privilege so over time apparently some folks did eventually reach out to Social Services and to Utah investigated and they didn't find any reason to take those children away or take any further action and Miss Frankie kept right on talking sitting on a sofa and filming videos about the right way to parent she kept doing so right up until the moment her 12 year old son escaped through a window and went to a neighbor's house to beg them for food and water because he was starving and dehydrated and he had lacerations around his wrist because he and his little sister

111were tied up in the basement why am I telling you about some family in Utah because we know that parents abuse their children and we know that the parents who abuse their children demand that the schools become complicit by for example disclosing sensitive information that their children tell them imagine if a Frankie child had dared to come out at school and imagine what would have happened to them because remember a kid who accidentally eats pineapple without permission was denied food imagine what that Mom would have done if their child had turned out to be gay I am asking you to protect our kids to realize that when a child tells a teacher that they are in danger the teacher has every right and in fact the obligation to believe that child and not put them

112in further Danger finally I will very quickly say that just as somebody claiming that a book about worms is pornographic doesn't actually make it so the folks telling you tonight that SB 49 demands that you remove schools the library books also it doesn't make it so the law does not say one single word about library books supplemental materials does not include library books thank you our next speaker is Ellen Eileen Allen followed by Margaret bloodo thank you you've been presented with the preponderance of evidence from K2 through 12. that W excuse me wcps is systematically grooming our children to be victims of sexual Confusion And even slaves to aberrant sex in light of this evidence we appeal to a sense of Duty as our elected representatives to your logic as sexual overstimulation is the enemy

113of cognition and to your conscience as guardians of our children and today we come with the weight and authority of the parents Bill of Rights and much of this has been read to you already but instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity is not to be included in K through third grade material and that's where we're I'd like to look today um there are many books 1 000 dresses is one of the many boys and dresses books in our elementary school system the target audience is five through nine year olds K through fourth grade the book blurs and even erases the distinction between male and females it plants distrust between children and parents it feeds doubts in children that he and a child that he or she is a mistake and instills in the child

114the belief that feeling suffer supersede biological reality Bailey is a boy that's obsessed with dresses each night he dreams about wearing a different dress and each morning he goes to one of his family members and tries to persuade them to get him that dress Bailey is speaking to his father from this book dad I had a dream about a dress thaley says said the father a dress made of lilies and roses with honeysuckle uh-huh and I was wondering if you could grow me a dress like that Bailey what are you talking about you're a boy boys don't wear dresses but I don't feel like a boy she said well you are one Bailey and that's that now go away and don't mention dresses again ten thousand dresses and similar books are in violation of the

115law if a accessible to K through third graders you're accountable logically morally and illegally you are liable under the law please choose to comply with the law and protect our children thank you our next speaker is Margaret Liddell followed by John amanchuku [Applause] I'm sorry trying to find my place okay here we go hi thank you board members for giving me the opportunity to speak my name is Margaret biladu I'm a mom of four two of whom are K-12 students in Wake County I'm here tonight to request again that you continue to teach appropriate sex education and inclusive and Equitable language for all students here in Wake County we have people from all different sorts of backgrounds different religions different races different cultures different ideologies kids from these diverse backgrounds attend our schools it is

116a dangerous and slippery slope to only allow a narrow worldview to be taught in our schools the state legislator has apparently decided that sex education and lgbtq identities are perverse I am deeply concerned as we all should be about who comes next making a block of people in nasma in North Carolina Public Schools is inherently biased and discriminatory we have learned from this in our past and we should not be going back down that road in 2023 not ironically when I attended the recent veto overrides and was denied access to wheelchair seating when which was available for my six-year-old son and I pushed back one of the very local vocal members of the pavement education project who speaks here frequently announced something along the lines of I bring my son with me to force my

117way in as if my son doesn't have a right to wheelchair access in a government building what does that mean about the pavement education Project's vision for children like my son and their families in this school district I'm the mom of a non-verbal child who is in the beginning stages of language acquisition he doesn't know what pronouns are let alone how to use them he had an ifsp which was rolled into an IEP when his Services had to be provided through public school at age four this is where his language acquisition is required to be provided and now he won't be allowed to learn the language of identifying his own sibling who appears in his language acquisition program children like my son and all children have their own thoughts their own opinions and they have

118the right to autonomy the NCGA has robbed my son of access to acquiring the language of his own family idea fape and Title IX are all very clear about access to language and communication as well as who is protected from bias and discrimination I am so sorry for this horrible and tenuous situation that the state legislator has legislature has put you in in order to comply with state law you must direct Educators and administrators to violate the civil rights of students and their families I wish you the best of luck in formulating guidelines which protect all of your families from bias and discrimination which impact their ability to access a free and appropriate public education I urge you to adopt a resolution protecting lgbtqia plus students and their families similar to the Nea board template

119which I will email to you after this meeting additionally I just want to add one in four females who goes to college will be sexually assaulted those are people in our district those are kids in our district we have a duty to educate those kids for rape prevention our next speaker is John amanchuku followed by Michelle Morrow good afternoon board on August 16th the parents Bill of Rights passed in North Carolina overriding governor Cooper's veto statue 115 C 7618 references age-appropriate instruction for grades kindergarten through fourth grade instruction on gender identity sexual activity or sexuality shall not be included in the curriculum provided in grades k-4 regardless of whether the information is provided by school Personnel or third parties for the purposes of this section curriculum includes the standard courses of study and support materials

120locally developed curriculum supplemental instruction and textbooks and other supplementary materials but does not include responses to student initiated questions currently Wake County is in violation of having several books currently in their libraries number one introducing Teddy worm loves worm violation it feels good to be yourself a book about gender eye identity Jacob's new dress they love to put Boys in dress in dresses I am Jazz by Jessica herthol and Jazz Jennings a violation the no they she he and me it's kind of confusing to keep up with all of those woke terms free to be by Maya and Matthew violation not one thousand but ten thousand dresses Story by Marcus ewert illustrations by Rex Ray violation and finally Sparkle Boy a book by Leslie Newman talks about two children in particular Jesse is a girl

121then there's another character that they talk about that's a boy and this boy is constantly told that he can put on a dress he can put on sparkly fingernail polish he can twirl around like a girl and they use family members to affirm this this book is in the is currently in Wake County as well and it represents a violation so the question tonight is to all of the law abiding citizens on the school board why are you violating the law you know my mother would ask me a question sometimes and she would know the answer to it before she would ask me the question is have you removed these books Lindsey Mahaffey School Board chair have these books been removed is there an answer is there a response the answer is no because you

122are violating the law and you think you can get away with it but you can't [Music] our next speaker is Michelle Morrow followed by Nathaniel Dibble hey everybody believe it or not um I'm here to talk about busing but I I did want to just make a comment to miss seckel you might want to look up the definition syndrome I'm sorry I'll tell you watch housing syndrome by proxy let me tell you what it is as a nurse Munchausen syndrome is when you think that you have an illness but you really don't and Munchausen Syndrome by proxy is when you think that your child has an illness but they don't and so while it is hellacious that children are abused um and and those people that do that should be held to the highest standard

123of the law I will let you know that telling parents that them telling their children that they should not be concerned about changing their identity before they're done with puberty calling that abusive is the actual is actually the opposite of what it is as a nurse so you guys might want to look into that because I think it might end up being an issue here in the not so distant future but we're going to talk about busing two years ago our superintendent of schools Catherine Truitt told us that this was a year out in the in the spring of 21 told us that children the the learning loss that had happened it was going to take four to five years to get that back um you might not know this but over 300 million dollars

124of our Esser funds from the federal government went toward those studies done by places like Harvard and and um Yale and when they were asked how are we going to overcome that four or five years they were saying it was going to take our kids to get that back what they determine with that 300 million dollars was that children needed to be in their classrooms I'm very concerned with the fact that there are students now that are having to be on a bus over an hour during the morning and they're getting to school in stages 30 minutes late 45 minutes late some kids are going to have to leave early from their classrooms in order to make this work I think we need some practical Solutions we can all agree our children need to be

125in the classroom for as long as possible we don't need these disruptions we all know that when kids come in other kids are not going to be able to focus right when there's a shift in who's coming and who's leaving and whatnot so I think we really need to practically look at how can we make this work I think we need to separate instead of having people drive both the morning and the afternoon why don't we look at just doing four hour stints in the morning and another set of people doing four hours in the afternoon why because they could also have another job during that time so we they don't need to totally exist on the 18 dollars an hour I'm fine with you make giving them more pay right because I think they

126deserve it but I think we need to maybe stagger that the second thing we probably need to do is we need to acknowledge that we need discipline not just in our schools but in our buses I think there's a really good chance that people don't want to be bus drivers because there's Chaos on our schools the other thing we need to do is we need to put bring children to the schools that are closest to their families stop this equity and inclusion and that's the whole reason why we put so many brown and so many white kids in the classroom you guys said it yourself two years ago in May of 2021 that that's how you're determining who goes where it's time to stop that it's time to get us closer back to the schools

127make every school a great school and Miss Morrow Miss Morrow I do want to say every time that I'm here I recite the same things about who your comments are directed to and I just want to reiterate that please your comments need to be directed to this board and not members of the audience and as soon as you make sure that everybody does that and doesn't call us names then I'll be happy to comply our final speaker tonight is Nathaniel Dibble all right uh good evening to the board and thank you as usual for your time uh the time you dedicate to public comment um here's a fairly recent Garner Magnet High School graduate and a member of the queer community and also a person that's read a textbook since the 1960s um and I'm

128here to speak about last month's veto overrides by the North Carolina General Assembly there is no denying that house bill 8081 restricting gender affirming Care House Bill 5742 restricting participation in sports and their don't say gay law restricting Free Speech are all disgusting attacks on the voices in the very existence of queer North Carolinians not only that but I cannot reiterate enough that these laws hurt us all in the Wake Community gay straight cisgender or transgender as they teach the Next Generation to discriminate and hate we all suffer the sad fact is that this is simply the political climate we live in in the context of our schools these laws move beyond the legislative building to not just impede First Amendment rights in the classroom but also to enable those that sympathize with transphobia racism

129and bigotry when I was in the Wake public school system I already encountered these sympathizers and I don't mean students I mean staff these staff members were consistently wearing their bigotry on their sleeve negatively impacting the mental health of me and my friends this was two years ago before the political bigotry was even close to being as bad as it is today I can only imagine how things have changed for worse since I was in school I'm not at all asking you somehow change the national movement of hate or how people feel about queer issues I'm sensible enough to recognize that that's above your guys's pay grade and outside of your power I do want you to recognize so that you can do something that is within your power I'm here to ask you to

130make an official statement against the vetoes they violate your non-discrimination policy and policy code 1710 4021 7230 and they come right alongside an attack against your own public school funding in a public statement it must be made clear to all staff anyone that might be enabled by these laws that discrimination continues to be prohibited in Wake County in direct support of transgender students it should also be stated that the consistent misgendering is also against County policy included in your non-discrimination policy under quote verbal taunts name calling and put Downs epithets or derogatory comments or slurs alongside this public statement I'd ask that you promote your complaint process outlined in policy code 1720 4015 and 72-25 this is not a process that I was aware of while I was in school and I would be no

131I would not be surprised if plenty of people those who need it are also completely unaware of this policy I'd like to make myself available to you guys to talk further on how we can work together to do this don't let hate thrive in Wake County and I have documents thank you Mr Dibble this concludes probably comment we now move on to our consent agenda and again a reminder that the Dana King way was pulled and voted on earlier um and I believe Miss Allen has changed the consent items to reflect that thank you Miss Allen you are quick on your feet and we appreciate you is there a motion to approve the consented agenda Madam chair I move adoption of the consent agenda all right we have a motion in a second any discussion

132seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay all right we now move on to our one action item and that is recommended changes to bus driver sign-on incentive and new incentive for bus driver retention I believe part of this was heard during our work session that uh generously came before policy committee Mr Nader good evening chair Mahaffey members of the board and superintendent Bridges tonight staff is requesting your consideration of approval of recommended changes to the current bus driver sign on incentive and approval of a newly recommended bus driver retention incentive the recommendations are aligned with our ongoing efforts to recruit and retain bus drivers the recommendations also serve the support Direction provided by the board at their August 5th work session to explore how we can pay new bus

133drivers and 10-month bus drivers returning from the summer break a fuller paycheck sooner what is being requested for approval tonight was presented at your board work session last Tuesday August 29th is there a motion to approve second all right we have a motion in a second any discussion Mr Swanson thank you for are representing this I and thank you madam chair for acknowledging this um I know this information was shared during the public I mean during that previous session and so I had requested for it to be pulled just so we could show the public that we are taking Transportation extremely serious and that we are doing the best that we can to resolve this issue because none of us want our kids to arrive late as a former teacher it was it it was

134a distraction trying to get kids caught up as buses but we all know that that's stuff that is not in our control but the piece that I did want to go on script and really say because I was trying to address the comment in public comments but I digress my piece is that I I will be supporting this but I'm also concerned that it may leave some gaps in certain uh of members of our staff from lead secretaries to data managers our maintenance staff where we're also seeing some discrepancies and and some vacancies so I just hope that we can find a way to do something for all of our staff um that does the work every day to ensure that all of our students are taken care of so that's just the comment that

135I want to want to make and I think I had mentioned this when we did our three by threes a couple of weeks ago regarding this that I I'm supporting this but I also want to see something in the future that addresses all of our staff just so we're not putting pizzas instead potentially putting folks against our staff uh so yes that's all I have thank you for lifting that up Mr Swanson and I would be remiss if I didn't also say we're also waiting on a budget and many of our staff members are waiting on uh pay raises that would come from that budget so any further discussion all right seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay all right thank you Mr kneader thank you um we now

136uh need a motion to approve uh the HR recommendations for administrative appointments and employment these were reviewed during our previous closed session in the work session is there a motion second thank you Miss Waters and Mr Hagerty all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay and then can we get a motion to return to closed session for reasons stated on the agenda all right all right Ms Allen there are two motions I'll let you pick um all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right we are now back in closed session thank you all Mr Hagerty