001or post it on your face foreign all right good evening everyone thank you for your patience as we begin this meeting good evening it is August 15th at 5 35 and we're calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order and I'd like to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in person these meetings are conducted for the purpose on care of carrying out 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 and 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
002other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143-318.17 we have eight of our board members president Mr Hershey is uh not available this evening we have Dr Bridges and our board attorney if you all stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right I'll now turn it over to Dr bridges for superintendent comments thank you madam chair members of the board attorney Malone first I'd like to introduce our new Chief technology officer at areas back there started work yesterday and we're glad to have him and welcome on Saturday August the 19th in partnership with the town of Kerry and the national amateur sports we are staging a football kickoff event at
003WakeMed soccer park the event which is sponsored by the U.S army will showcase four Wake County Public School high schools in their season opener the event is the first of its kind in Wake County and the first time football will be played in the stadium at WakeMed Park since it opened 21 years ago at four o'clock Millbrook High School will play Apex friendly high school and at 7 30 Fuquay Varina will play Middle Creek High School all board members are invited in the Hope department will attend this event thank you madam chair I just already got my ticket so I'm ready to go I know Miss Johnson Hustler will be there you're out of town oh no all right I'll wear extra orange for you um I just I don't have many comments today I
004just do want to thank all of our School District employees um we've heard about shortages during our work session especially when it comes to transportation and I just want to take a moment to thank each and every person that works for Wake County Public Schools and uh we're getting some kind of an alert here flash flood all right we're good thankfully not a tornado warning um and uh just thank everybody that takes the time to work and volunteer for our school system it does take a village and we're very very grateful that you all are a part of that village with that I will pass it over to Vice chair Hagerty thank you chair Mahaffey I will also keep it brief I do want to give an official welcome to shawana Jacobs the new principal
005at Leesville Road High School sorry Miss Mahaffey so sad but so excited for the pride uh principal Jacobs has a wonderful reputation at other schools that may or may not be located in the Western Wake area but is is now very pleased to be principal at Leesville Road High School and principal Jacobs had a wonderful meet the staff and Meet the Parents event and received a really warm welcome I think everyone is really excited for her time and uh her upcoming tenure so um I know that from time to time we like to commemorate different events I will have you all know that August is National civility month and I'm just going to let that one hang there for a minute National civility month is a time to celebrate and recognize the importance of civil
006behavior in our communities first established by The International Institute for civil leadership in 2014. this celebration is a way to spread awareness about the need for respect and consideration for others throughout the month we're all encouraged to spread compassion and empathy for those in your workplace on the street and in your community as a whole and again I think we do a good job on this board of practicing Civility and respect for each other and I just want to encourage that in the Greater Community at large thank you very much right let's start with Dr Ing all right I'm not used to starting first um well good evening and um let me pull this up I hope that you all are coping with the extreme heat as best as you can I know many of
007you are dealing with failing hvacs at home and and uh you know we're dealing with that here in our schools as well and so we're you know doing the best that we can we are we're we are aware of your plight and we're hoping that we can solve these issues as soon as possible um so that all the students can learn in Comfort um since our last board meeting I've had a pleasure of visiting two schools in district three Mr Tunstall the principal at Pleasant Union Elementary School was very gracious to give me a tour of that school um it's a precious little gem tucked away in the woods it's got our dedicated teachers but even more importantly they they've got a dedicated parents who have made that school shine I also had a chance
008to visit Durant Road Middle School and even though the school had just started principal Fair cloth was kind enough to steal some time away from her busy schedule to show me around I was able to see the agricultural elective class in in action and my understanding is that they hope to expand the classroom size and also transform the adjacent Courtyard into a garden and they are even thinking about adding a chicken coop I was also able to learn about their approach to Career and Technical education I have offered to be available if they ever want someone to talk about the career in healthcare um I would love a chance to explain how I got from being an immigrant with little knowledge of English to a physician taking care of the sickest patients a lot of
009it is hard work and perseverance but the first step is to have a Direction so Zig Ziglar once said if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time so I commend the efforts at Durant Road Middle School to get the students to start thinking about career options it's never too early to think about your future and what it takes to get you there take a good look at yourself in the mirror and have an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and set some goals for yourself then make a Daily Commitment to work towards those goals thanks be in thanking um not just our current um staff and bus drivers in particular but a huge thank you to all the people that have applied to be bus drivers and no matter where you
010are in that process I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you for stepping up to serve in that critical role congratulations to winners of the stem schools of Distinction these Reedy Creek Middle Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School and two schools in District Five Combs Elementary and Vernon Malone College and Career Academy this is um an award given by the State Board of Education and they'll be recognized at the state board's meeting on September 7th since our last meeting I've been to Middle Creek Elementary and Yates Mill Elementary I want to thank our facilities department for working to get the Yates Mill playground ready for the start of school and I appreciate Dr Jenkins for letting me come and see it I joined some families from Washington Elementary for a play date at
011Chavis Park and I joined Dr Sykes and some of her team from Dillard Drive Elementary for the second time at her popsicles with the principal event thank you to all the staff and parents who have welcomed welcomed me to these events over the summer I want to thank Vice chair Hagerty for your comments let's make sure that's still a flood thing yeah I want to thank Vice chair Hagerty for your comments at a press conference yesterday on the impact of a stalled state budget thank you for not only advocating on behalf of this school district but on behalf of all districts across our state I hope the public will join us in putting pressure on the legislature to get a budget passed now finally I want to give a shout out to Dr Robinson and
012all the staff that was involved in hosting the summer Leadership leadership kickoff it was such an impressive event and an inspiring event um I was there with Mr Hagerty and Mr Swanson I was honored to be there and truly truly Blown Away with the program including the student performances and the keynote speaker so thank you for everybody that was involved in that event and thank you for including us board members okay Miss Waters thank you chair Mahaffey I have been a little out of pocket recently I'm my little one had his tonsils it had noise out and somehow I ended up with a sore throat and so I've been out of out of commission a little bit so I haven't had a chance to engage with as many of our school communities as I normally
013would but super grateful for all the work that is going on around the district for all of us who all of the schools that have already started and all those who are preparing to welcome students back and I just want to take a moment to really thank all of the community organizations that are rallying around to make sure that our students and our Educators have all the resources that they need to be successful this school year just on this last Saturday I had a chance to attend three different back to school events one at the Tarboro Road Community Center one at Sanderford Road Community Center and one at Southgate Park all of these events were super successful they had backpack giveaways and they also had a lot of community organizations that are able to support
014support and provide resources to our students I saw every organization from admit Advanced Community Health Oaks and spokes Zeta Phi Beta sorority Incorporated lots of wonderful organizations who are doing important work to make sure that our students are prepared to go back to the school year so just wanted to acknowledge that wonderful Community Spirit to make sure that it is a successful year especially as we see economics really impacting our families in a in a really really strong way this school year so thank you for all that work and if you are interested in supporting students and their needs there are a list of organizations that provide all kinds of resources so I hope you will consider supporting one of those amazing agencies thank you thank you Miss Waters Ms Ken to support our teachers
015in our classrooms I know Mr Hershey is not here but he was also there and for some of the time he actually had his son come along with him thank you to UNC health and the wonderful staff that organized this event to see how you can help more please go to wake ed.org forward slash Tools for Schools I also had the pleasure of meeting our Wake Forest Boys and Girls Club which I they kind of filled me a little bit about the history of it and it was established in Wake County in 1967 but it's been around nationally since 1860. thank you to Mr McLean Miss Heather White and Miss Ashley for the tour the club is more like a family for these kids as they grow up with the same mentors year after year
016they themselves have been running the club for anywhere from 10 to over 30 years and you can see they simply just love being with those children what I loved about it is how the community comes together with donations and supplies from anything from private individuals corporations the town itself and even local companies like page 158 had just done a drive and donated all the books for the children there it does take a village and it truly was the community coming together with support they have a lot there to offer the the children there they have art room Library gym anything from academics to sports and I could see why the children really love it there the room was filled with laughter cheering and lots of energy both from the staff and the children they partner
017with the soccer Foundation soccer for success for the third and fourth graders ice hockey with capital city crew where they can earn scholarships they have teachers volunteering to help them there with their homework a computer lab endless games so there's something there for everybody Miss Ashley shared with me about her wonderful success with the art program they won a photography award a congressional award from our very own Deborah Ross they have artwork in DC right now and they also won a Chips Ahoy championship and have nine teams that went to Dallas Dallas National Keystone Championship out of 1400 students Nationwide some of these teens were able to meet politicians firsthand which is a great experience for them to learn what it is like to not only see the people live and in action but also
018reflect in seeing themselves in those roles they have a youth of the Year Sloan scholar and they hang the plank the plaques up on the wall so not only do the younger kids get to see like what they could work towards to get for these programs but they also get to see the people who have their plaques on the wall they get to see themselves there and what they've achieved right now we have um one of them is our third grade teacher here in Wake County and another one is at ECU so it's nice to see their successes there there are seven clubs in Wake County five of them are in Raleigh one is in Zebulon and one is in Wake Forest and they host school-aged children anywhere from the age of 6 to 18
019and they're focused on youth experience and driving them to success they're open from 8 AM to 8pm and they also have a summer program and it's all for 7.50 a year so I highly recommend checking out what your local Boys and Girls Club can offer your family and not that I'm ready for pumpkin spice just yet but they do a gobblers run each year around for Thanksgiving and they have well over 2 000 people attending to raise money so please put that on your calendar for this year it's their 17th gobblers run from 8 to 9 A.M while your turkey's in the oven hope you can check out their program in your area and I appreciate all they do for our students thank you Mr Swanson thank you chairman haffey excuse me can't take this
020off um I first want to start by saying congratulations to our semifinalist principals and APS of the year and there's some outstanding candidates that are across the district and some great principles in District 9 that I will shout out or you can go and see those for themselves but just grateful for those principals who are preparing and doing the work to get their school year back started um since our last meeting I've been all over District 9 trying to get out and visit schools that did not get the opportunity to visit last school year um I had the pleasure of attending um Laurel Park Elementary School that used to be in chairman Happy's District um I'm sorry disregard that comment but anyway I was there at Laurel Park um with the uh introducing the new
021principal uh principal uh Lovett who was going to do outstanding things with Mr ends I also had the opportunity which these two schools were used used to be in Mr hagerty's District Morrisville Elementary and Carpenter Elementary School so I'm grateful to uh superintendent area superintendent Williams for engaging and scheduling these tours and meeting with principal Batten and assistant principal Thomas at Morrisville and Dr Jones at Carpenter Elementary School and although everyone knows I'm a proud Aggie and so I have to say to Dr Jones I want to give a major shout out to the very intentional relationship that she's built with North Carolina's Central School of Education and seeing those those uh young men and those folks come over and and touring the schools teaching the schools a lot of those students have actually did
022their student teaching at Carpenter Elementary so it is true that that we can see that there is some great some greatness in our hbcus and seeing those great folks matriculating to our district to be even greater teachers um also on September 9th at 9 30 I'm hoping members of District 9 Community will join me at esteemed coffee for my coffee chats I will be posting that more when the time comes so 9 30 a.m to noon you can have some coffee with me to hear some of the concerns in District 9 and give you some updates of what we're doing and I will also announce that at the next board meeting so those are my remarks they're short and sweet and wishing our families that will start school in the next two weeks a very
023successful school year Miss Johnson Hustler thank you very much um also very brief and again thank you as I said during our work session for our families our our employees who are being patient as we continue to figure out solutions to our ongoing Transportation problem which directly impacts our educational success of our students so thank you for your patience and more importantly thank you to a number of principals Educators and parents that I've met with literally over the last three days Who provided me with a dearth of information much of what I described earlier today almost every piece of feedback or option I gave today was based on those meetings so again thank you to those community members for sharing their experiences but also their recommendations and hopefully we'll continue to provide as many options
024and opportunities as possible for the district to explore and it truly does take a village in our community is really showing up in a great way to do that as is our community and our partners are continuing to show up to support our schools particularly now we're in this last board meeting it was thanking people for the work that they've done for our year-round schools that have begun and now there are numerous Community Partners including the North Carolina foundation for public school children who will be working with Helping Hands this weekend to also give out book bags so thank you to our many many partners who are continuing to prepare our students who will start the traditional school year in literally two weeks or week and a half so thank you for getting those kids
025and those families prepared and ready to start school at the end of August um also thank you to my amazing Sorrows of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated and the other members of the divine nine Greek organizations who have so willingly began to open up our schools to be there to support our students and provide mentorship and last time I only mentioned the churches I was so nicely reminded that there were several Greek organizations who were also at many of the first day of schools for our year-round schools which gave me the great opportunity to remind them to also be there for the opening day of our traditional schools but again the number of Partners who are supporting our community especially for those of us who sit at the table and often don't get to hear
026the appreciation from our community members it is certainly great when we see them showing up for our entire school district and our school community so thank you to Our Community Partners lastly thank you to Wake Tech and Advanced Auto Parts Foundation scholarship they awarded students from and I'm saying this because it was one of the students was from South Garner but scholarships to become technician technicians at Wake Tech they were Wake County Public School students from South Garner which is in my District Green level East Wake and Knightdale High School so again thank you Advanced Auto Part foundation for the scholarships to five young people in Wake County Public Schools that will conclude my comments Madam chair all right thank you Miss Johnson hosler we now move on to approval of the meeting agenda is
027there a motion to prove second all right we have a motion in a second any questions comments concerns all right seeing none all those in favor please signify with a sign of I any opposed nay we are now going to move on to public comment speaker is commenting on the on the items of tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics all other speakers will be heard in a order of sign up if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remainers 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
028and policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individual student matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for the PO for the public comment setting those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern concerns related to Personnel issues or student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies policies in the interest of maintaining civility since it's the month of August and decorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and to refrain from personal attacks and insults 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
029to the board attorney Mr Malone over here or either before or after your comments during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable and when you begin the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that your three minutes has begun a yellow light will light up along with a brief audible tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and when your speaking time is up you will see a red light and hear a tone and when your time is up the next speaker will be called to the podium speakers are asked to respect the time limit and speak for no more than three minutes you may choose to speak for less time we have 12 folks signed up all our um on topics
030that are not a part of tonight's agenda and we are going to start with and I'm going to editorialize a little bit here the fabulous Laura Wood who is one of our teachers in Wake County thank you so much agreement up here miss wood thank you ladies good evening superintendent Bridges chair Mahaffey and board members my name is Laura Wood and I am the environmental connections integration specialist at Lincoln Heights environmental connections Magnet Elementary School and I'm also a member of the Wake Green Schools partnership our partnership has been working very hard for the last four years to engage Wake County Educators in sustainability and environmental literacy education with professional development opportunities additionally we've been discussing how the district can be more green I have been with the Wake County Public School System for over
03117 years in those years there has been great forward progress in environmental protocols we now have a no idling policy for buses district-wide commingled recycling provided by Wake County Solid Waste compostable trays in our cafeterias water bottle filling stations and more we have schools that are recognized as Wake County Soil and Water Conservation District Watershed stewardship schools U.S Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and we are a U.S Department of Education green ribbon District all of these examples and accolades show just how far we have come however there is still room for improvement in our green and sustainable measures as the largest District in the state and one of the largest in the nation and a leader in so many areas we are not at the same level in our sustainability efforts our district needs
032a sustainability coordinator someone dedicated to identifying our areas of need setting goals and then working to achieve them don't get me wrong there are some schools doing amazing things but there is not Equity across our district with those initiatives all of our schools should have water bottle filling stations all of our schools should have safe routes to school for students walking and biking we need someone to coordinate and navigate within Wake County and the 12 municipalities that we serve a sustainability Coordinator would work with Wake County Solid Waste to identify schools that need help recycling to their full capacity to divert materials that can be kept out of the landfill a sustainability coordinator could elaborate excuse me collaborate with the head of Grants to apply for and secure EPA funding and then facilitate with CNS
033to put dishwashers back in kitchens so our postable trays aren't going to sit forever in the landfill a person in this position could work with schools that have issues with storm water runoff to apply for Grants from the City of Raleigh or their municipality and coordinate with facilities to have rain Gardens installs we could increase the number of students able to safely walk or ride to school by working with safe routes of Wake County we should be removing invasive plants where we can and ensuring that native plants are planted where possible in remodels and new construction projects these are just a few examples of the many possibilities that exist please consider creating this position in order to advance the district as a leader in green and sustainable measures the same as we are leaders in
034so many other areas this ties into our new strategic plan and strategic priority number three effective operations facilities and services core belief number seven all students and staff deserve to work in optimal learning environments supported by sufficient resources well-maintained facilities and sustainable operational systems I will be sending you a follow-up email with links to other districts to share with you thank you our next speaker is May Mitchell followed by Colleen Miller May Mitchell yeah sorry my name is May Mitchell I have two children in the public school system I'm here to speak to you about my concerns over HB 823 which is school choice which was approved by the house in June what this means is that public money would be going to private institutions I have a printed out copy of a letter from
035the Northeast Regional Education Service Alliance where they communicated their apprehension over the fiscal impact of this bill in public schools they write that the expansion will most certainly redistribute tax dollars away from school districts already struggling to meet the needs of their students and these private schools are not required to serve all students in the same way that I know firsthand public schools are I mentioned that I have two children in the school system one of them is neurodivergent this has meant that he has needed more resources in the school he's had to meet with the school counselor and social worker he's had to sit in the principal's office when his panic attacks have escalated my family is in a position that we were able to get private testing done to streamline his diagnosis and
036Advocate within the school for him I know there are a lot of families in the school system that do not have this privilege as a parent of a neurodivergent student my son is more than his diagnosis his anxiety is part of his humanity and it is as much a gift as it is a burden I believe that most parents who have children with a disability feel similarly I want to make sure that my child and all other children with physical or in an intellectual disabilities are supported in their schools my son is able to receive Services because of the individuals with disabilities Education Act it makes a basic promise each child with a disability is entitled to a free appropriate public education pursuant to an individualized education program in the least restrictive environment in other
037words public schools are required by law to provide services that a student needs to access the curriculum the National Education Association ranked North Carolina 41st for public school expenditures per student currently our state invests 12 345 dollars per student I previously met with House and Senate Representatives about this bill and I asked them to attach an addendum that voucher money will follow students should they decide to return to Public Schools many Charter and private schools are not mandated by law to recognize IEPs or 504s whereas public schools are required to provide a variety of services including Transportation because of the bill mentioned before for my children's School Briarcliff Elementary had 44 students come to the school after the initial count that determines the school's funding for the Year this means that Briarcliff was required by
038law to provide services without the 543 180 that was entitled to them even a portion of that could provide funding for additional staff members I am asking that as a school district you'll pass an addendum that funding will follow students back to public schools to ensure our school system can continue to provide services for students who need it thank you for your time finished and our next speaker is Colleen Miller followed by Crystal Barron good evening thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight I signed up to speak on academic achievement or advancement excuse me um chairman Mahaffey in your recent budget letter to the County Commissioners you submitted a request for more than 650 million dollars an increase of 55.8 million dollars or nine percent more than last year I sincerely hope that the
039school board will appropriate more funds to improving the academic achievement of students and less on promoting ideologies such as Dei CRT and gender Theory which create an atmosphere of hate Division and mistrust among students teachers and parents these initiatives are actually distractions from the core mission of public schools taxpayers invest billions of dollars in the North Carolina public school system to ensure that all children receive a sound basic education that will enable them to have an equal chance of success in their adult life unfortunately the most recent proficiency rates reflect problems there with math at 59 proficient reading is 60 proficient by the way these rates began declining long before the covet pandemic the Wake County School District appears to have lost its way it's time to redirect and focus on high quality and development
040mentally appropriate instruction I've spoken many times about the number of books in our schools that violate many obscenity laws from the outside looking in it appears these books are being used to expose minors to sexually inappropriate materials in the act of grooming that's just plain example if I were doing that to a neighbor child I would be grooming a child and would be could be arrested and should be let me read from one of these obscene books that I found actually this morning and several Wake County Schools I could see this book in a college setting possibly a psychology class or forensic class but not in public schools where the majority of students are under 18 years of age a stolen life this is about a 18 8 year old excuse me a nine-year-old kidnapped
041it contains aberrant sexual activities involving child molestation rate and references to bestiality sexual nudity violence drug abuse and references to animal cruelty I'm not going to read everything but just to give you an idea he takes off the he is making he takes off the cuffs and makes them in front of me instead of behind my back he forces my legs open and puts something hard between me I don't have enough time to read enough but anyway it it vividly describes rape scenes talking about her the popping her cherry her bleeding and how he has her masturbate him jacking off is what he refers to it um you get the idea it's pretty disgusting Crystal Baron followed by Dwayne Hansen Crystal all right Dwayne Hansen okay Eileen Allen followed by Robin Livingston hello Wake County
042Public School System is a sanctuary for for pornography outside of the reach of the law month after month and now year after year your neighbors have presented irrefutable evidence of age inappropriate pornography found in the schools that you supervise and this is not a case of a few isolated books but a long list of offenders the sheer numbers indicate that this is a focused aggressive campaign to normalize aberrant sex if there were any doubts the book called call me by your name found in the library some Miss Johnson hostler and Miss Edmonds schools confirms the efforts to normalize pedophilia it's about a 17 year old who is raped by visiting college professor a pedophile the boy romanced romanticizes about future encounters with the professor pedophile what is the message that we're giving to our teenagers
043in schools or even to our teachers the books with demeaning vulgar language graphic even aberrant sex and glamorize pedophilia are directed to children um this is this would be a crime outside of schools but those schools are exempt from North Carolina laws on pornography your conscience are not you are accountable you are culpable you are the provider and protector and promoter a pornography the victims are not consenting adults but impressionable captive children I believe for many these books do violate your conscience and your moral standards I ask you please please follow the lead of two of your board members that have opposed the policy of sexual grooming of children and I do want to thank Dr ning and Miss Caulfield for your courage and your character in facing the Goliath of Wake County school policy
044and Power May others find such courage our next speaker is Robin Livingston followed by Margaret bio do I apologize for mispronouncing that hey good evening um I wanted to let you all know I am a registered Republican I'm a Christian I'm a mom of three children I have two who have graduated from high school and I have one who's currently in high school I'm also a taxpayer and I am against censorship um we've heard a lot of commentary over the last two two years or so about books that are inappropriate that are in the school libraries and we've heard a lot of complaints about the challenge policies that have been in place for a while and what I found most stunning about a month ago is when we found out only one book was challenged
045last year so I feel like if people are going to come in here and complain and not use the challenge process they don't need to be listened to um that is put in place for our use so that if we do find objectionable material we can bring it to the principal there's a whole policy and it does take work it might not be easy but censorship shouldn't be easy the kids have a First Amendment right to read materials that are age-appropriate that have stories that they might not ordinarily hear in their own life a lot of us live very privileged lives and a lot of people don't and we don't always cross paths so to me it's very important to hear stories of people who live lives they're different from mine and I mean that's
046basically my conclusion the Supreme Court has ruled on this they ruled on it decades ago and you know you can't just violate People's First Amendment rights thank you our next speaker is Margaret you will correct me and I'll probably still get wrong and I apologize in advance followed by uh Jamie Livingston hi uh thank you board members for giving me the opportunity to speak I'm the product of fundamentalist unregulated homeschooling in Wake County I'm also the mother of two K-12 aged kids in Wake County as a military spouse I've had the opportunity to have my children in schools around the country I've been a substitute teacher and a volunteer I'm lucky to be the mother of three lgbtqia plus children and also of my youngest who is a medically complex exceptional child as the parent
047of a non-verbal child I can say that it is essential for a child to have access to communication services in order for them to access a free appropriate public education inclusion and Equity are also key components for all children to be open to a learning environment this is especially true for children who cannot advocate for themselves no matter their age learning language inclusivity is incredibly important for children with communication challenges both for themselves as well as for members of other and overlapping minority groups as a teen mom I can attest that sex education is extremely important having a degree in both psychology and sociology I can tell you that sex education helps to prevent and identify child sexual abuse this is incredibly important for all children most especially those who cannot advocate for themselves our
048children need to learn about context taken out of context a lot of things are inappropriate in context these are important learning tools for kids especially children who cannot advocate for themselves I want to encourage the board to continue on a path working towards equity and inclusion for all students my son and every child has a right to see his family and all members of our community represented and to see them all treated with respect and dignity thank you our next speaker is Jamie Livingston followed by Jennifer labs good evening my name is Jamie Livingston as you may have heard earlier my wife Robin she is a registered Republican I am a Democrat that makes for some interesting family discussions but there's one thing that we do agree on and that is censorship in all of
049its forms is evil it squashes the ability of people to ins to pursue a life better lived but that's not why I'm here what I wanted to come here for tonight is to say that I appreciate what you the board does I appreciate our teachers I think we should spend more time thanking them and supporting them and I wish that we spoke more about our students and how special they are and all of their diversity sometimes in our discussions as adults we forget about our kids but I want to remind everybody that the children that are in our schools now are our future leaders our doctors our Engineers our Architects our writers our poets our philosophers and we need to do everything we can to make sure that they have a smorgasbord of experiences to
050choose from and live so that they can pursue their future wherever it may take them with Grace and excitement and joy and with that again I thank you for the work you do we have a massive school system the job that you do I cannot imagine doing it myself again good night our next speaker is Jennifer Labs followed by Renee cycle hello my name is Jennifer lobs I'm the mother of two kids attending Ligon Middle School this year and the wife of a teacher at Wake County at one of our high schools and also a member of public school strong a network of hundreds of parents grandparents community members all over North Carolina who have come together to advocate for honest accurate safe Equitable and fully funded public education for all of North Carolina's children
051when my children were in the first grade I remember their principal Miss Pelton saying to me her goal for every student is to feel safe and loved this resonated with me and the rest of their Elementary School experiences and I will carry her message forward as I continue to support Wake County Schools I hope you will carry a message such as this and including your core beliefs When developing policies prioritizing budgets Etc and your work as school board members I would also encourage you to have a web page on Wake County public school system's website with Community Education on how schools are funded the roles of school board members and the superintendents function and what communities do and what committees do in the process I think I started learning about and listening to and following
052school board meetings about four years ago but I didn't realize how many hours of work and hard stuff goes into the background of of every policy decision before it actually comes up in and gets a vote thank you I also um I also want to say that this would help the frustration and then families understand why or why not something happens because there are a lot of policies and stuff that are up in the air because of budgets that are totally out of your control um and I think that would help families moving on for example most teachers and other Personnel living in Wake County work a second or third job in order to be able to afford to live in the communities where schools are located I know that there is um there's an
053expansion vote for the state vouchers I totally do not think this is in the right direction for our public schools and for every child to feel safe and loved I would also ask you to have a section on there with resources and ways that us as community members can support our schools for example Miss Waters you were talking about the Wake Ed partnership I think if we know as as community members and parents what are different ways that we can support our schools it isn't all Financial but that's a piece if we knew that we could be a part of a reading program or if we had other skills and assets that we could connect up with maybe that would be a suggestion we have an awesome school system let's continue to support all students
054so that they feel safe and loved thank you our next speaker is Renee suckle followed by Mark Peterson hello we started school shopping today school starts for my traditional calendar kids in less than two weeks and I'm not ready but it does have me thinking as I have one child still in middle school one entering high school and God help us all one child entering their senior year you know I'm feeling all sorts of sentimental about the experiences that they've had in the Wake County Public School System where they have spent the entirety of their school careers and I just cannot adequately Express the gratitude that I have you know not every teacher has been a perfect fit not every classroom has been wonderful but by golly my kids are prepared my eldest child got
055to go to a college program at a college this summer and they were very very well prepared for the classes that they encountered there in fact I believe they use the word over prepared and I just want to say you know Miss Caulfield you use the word Community earlier today and I want to highlight How Deeply important to our communities our schools are our schools are our communities my kids were proud dolphins and now one of them is still a panther and I have two Falcons but I remember all those years where God I had to chase them around science night or take them to movie night or the worst work the dance you know I remember the principal at the middle school greeting kids out of dance in the pouring rain he didn't need
056to do that but he did because it was important because these children feel the communities in their schools and they are so excited to go to whether it's watching the theater show or going to the chorus concert or supporting their friends in the orchestra all of these things build community these are our communities our public schools are Central to our communities and that's why it is so important that we stop tearing them down when we have Outsiders coming in who don't have children in the public schools but who want to foment suspicion who want to pretend that something nefarious is happening in our schools and you just can't trust them that is so far from the experience I have had and so far from the experiences many of the people I know have had and
057I just it hurts our communities not just the schools themselves not just the concept of public schooling but it hurts our neighborhoods and our towns and our communities so I'm going to call on everybody to please keep coming together support our community support our Public Schools thank you our final speaker tonight is Mark Peterson uh I brought my stack of Dr Seuss books again I want to remind you one more time there has there is a precedent for Banning books there are some banned books two years ago these six books were banned by the uh the Publishers and The Heirs of the Dr Seuss uh I've read every one of these books and the excuses I've heard for these books is that there's some pictures and some words in there that may be offensive to
058some people and make harm some people and uh I I respectfully disagree with the decision to ban these books the people who say they are against censorship I don't remember anybody coming up and speaking out and saying these books belong in the schools I happen to believe uh some of these books actually are very good at teaching diversity they teach critical thinking they teach kids how to rhyme and have fun doing it but they've been removed from the libraries for some reason they haven't been officially removed but I bet if you go in and check your libraries you're not going to find these books on the shelves they've been discreetly removed not officially removed yeah I've learned through the pavement educationproject.org there's 85 books listed that should be considered for removal because they are potentially
059harmful one an example that I've come across is uh 13 Reasons Why this book is about suicide some people believe it glorifies suicide if if you folks are concerned about the mental health of students in Wake County I want to know why do you have that book in 16 middle schools 26 high schools a book that glorifies suicide what are you doing what is your discretion you've put together a policy 3210 30 I mean in 3200 3200 mentioned something about pervasive vulgarity you might remove a book if it has if it has pervasive vulgarity there's no definition of pervasive vulgarity this is this is a a shell game that you're playing I got some signs here that show you the vulgarias this pervasive how about this one is that pervasive just the f-bombs there's there's
060almost a hundred on that one this one 127 s bombs this one 158 196. where where do you draw the line I want to know [Applause] all right this concludes public comment now turn it back over to superintendent bridges for um superintendent updates Dr Bridges thank you chairman happy members of the board and attorney Malone the board in his work session this afternoon had a report from the Transportation Department follow-up to our session a few weeks ago and I'll give you a brief summary the recruiting efforts are trending in a positive way 114 leads over the past several weeks 74 candidates in the pipeline 43 being invited to the next CDL training class on August 21st 16 have been cleared by DMV and CRC checks and passed the CDL class and our enroll or waiting
061to be enrolled in the DMV training we have 560 CDL drivers who will be transporting approximately 90 000 students when our traditional college students start on August 28th we will start the traditional calendar with all Riders including vendor Transportation assigned to a route with the permanent driver we were able to do this by adjusting on time arrival which is a practice that we've had in place for a number of years students could be 1 to 30 minutes late to school impacting approximately 3 000 students in some cases 30 minutes late the schools impacting approximately 230 students and we continue to work on that in those numbers hopefully will decrease even more before the 28th again I want to thank our bus drivers who are currently driving with our calendar students as well as the one
062who will start driving on the 28th they have gone above and beyond the Call of Duty and we appreciate their efforts in getting our kids to school safely also the mechanics and the transportation department who have been working on these lands for several weeks even including the summer thanks to all the internal and external people who Express an interest in becoming a bus driver those numbers are looking positive and we appreciate that and if you know of any others who would like to help us in this situation we certainly would appreciate that thank you manager thank you Dr Bridges it is now time to approve our consent items is there a motion to approve this so moved all right we have a motion in a second any comments questions concerns seeing none all those in
063favor please say aye aye any opposed nay all right we'll move on to our one action item of the evening which is a resolution for our continuous CIP appropriation reallocation we have Mr Mark Strickland our chief of facilities and operations to present Mr Strickland thank you chairman happy board members superintendent bridges for your consideration tonight as a resolution that's requesting an appropriation totaling 67 million 950 596 dollars for construction funding at Parkside Middle Wake Early College of information and biotechnologies also a reallocation of 35 million dollars from Parkside back to the Swift Creek Elementary project and that's needed to refund a previous reallocation approved by the board in July of 2022 an additional component is reallocation of about 2.5 million dollars from the hilltop Needmore Elementary back to the public infrastructure reimbursement fund the details
064of the resolution are shown in the attachment and we are seeking your approval tonight on this matter thank you Mr Strickland is there a motion to approve this resolution yes sir chairman happy I move adoption of the resolution the motion is second any comments or questions hearing none all those in favor please signify with a sign of eye hi any opposed nay thank you Mr Strickland All Right Moving On to our closed session if there is if someone can make a motion to approve to go into closed session for the reasons listed on the agenda chairman happy yes sir yes sir a move we go into closed session for the reasons stated in the agenda previously shared with the public we have a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye any
065opposed nay we are now in closed session thank you and drive safe everyone all right thank you [Music]