23-7-18 Board Meeting

001foreign thank you foreign good evening everyone it is Tuesday July 18th at 5 30 pm and we are calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I want to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in person Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings in order 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

002meeting will be subject in accordance with General statute 143-318.19 all nine of our board members are here and look fairly rested after a break and I'd also like to introduce our interim superintendent Dr Randy Bridges thank you for being here and for joining us in Wake County Public Schools [Applause] and we also have another somewhat new face to the table but not really Rod Malone with Arrington Smith who is our board attorney in Mr Bloomberg's absence sabbatical while he is gone so thank you Mr Malone if you all now will join me in standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance Allegiance one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we will now move on through our agenda and begin with our superintendent's comments Dr Bridges Madam chair members of the

003board the beginning of the school year is always exciting and promising it's a green one beginning of the school year is always a exciting time and promising for our young people and their families the 20 23-24 school year began officially last week when 32 of our year-round schools opened until approximately 20 000 kids we are particularly excited this year to begin the implementation of our new strategic plan which is developed based on feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders across Wake County the plan has measurable goals and aims at improving student Knowledge and Skills supporting student mental health and improving operational effect the plan also particularly emphasizes equity I'd like to thank everyone our students and staff and community members for supporting and engaging in this process you can find this information at wake countypublicschools.net

004strategic plan the wickhead partnership is currently hosting a school supply drive to stock the organization's free classroom supplies for our teachers and it's called Tools for Schools that sounds different the drive launched last week and concludes on August 23rd even though donations can be received afterwards Wicked partnership is a business backed non-profit organization committed to supporting Lake County Public Schools open Tools for Schools last year giving away more than 340 thousand dollars in new classroom supplies directly to our teachers Keith Poston president of wake head partnership says now that the word is Out Among teachers about Tools for Schools we expect a number of teachers shopping to go up significantly this coming school year and we want to be ready with fully stocked shelves Tools for Schools is addressing a real need as research has

005shown that our teachers spend an average of 926 dollars a year on classroom supplies there will be drop-off locations all across Wake County and monetary donations are accepted and appreciated you can learn more about it and the organization as well as how to donate by visiting wakehead.org Tools for Schools finally this evening our Communications team has selected a few outstanding members of the class of 2023 for senior profile videos I'd like to share the story of Nigel Hodges who just graduated from inlo from Millbrook Magnet High School since 2021 she has supported both her mother and sister as they have had battles with illness while still continuing to excel in her schoolwork she persevered with encouragement from the Army grotc program Nigel plans to go to basic training this summer and prior to enrolling at

006North Carolina a T State University please take a look at the video to learn more about her story coming in I was very quiet and to myself trying to find myself and build my character up so I joined the DRC program and that's just been my backbone all four years at Millbrook I just needed more discipline as a person I was very undisciplined and at the time the program was very a strong family and I knew I could get it from that and October of 2021 my mother started to become sick and recently she was a diagnosis stage two doing cancer with that she is just starting chemo and attempting to bite it headstrong my sister also had a tumor between her lung and her heart and it definitely affected me as she is my

007best friend but she fortunately got that removed with no issues with it my Battalion commander who also happens to be my best friend she helped me a lot and I met her through the drcc program like I said gmtc is a family so my first sergeant top and my colonel in Chief who had just recently left they were very supportive anytime I needed to vent or talk about it they were there when she told me about the situation I thought like you have shown so much strength and resiliency because of the way you you do in school she's been doing grading and she just learned more about herself and I think that's what drtc does it just help you learn more about yourself and what how far you can go so I'm actually going to

008basically Amazon come back from that for the Army once I come back from that I'll be attending a t University to do a dual major for psychology and animal science she is a really caring she's passionate she is opinionated at times that it's always good to have that when you have conversation with the students so show you that they develop she really care about others and herself being a professional I'm a part of society and I recommend recently joined the National Honor Society I definitely leaned on the friends that I have gained from those two societies and also I've been helping with math tutoring and helping be lower classmen as well I would just like to say thank you to all the faculty and staff they have definitely helped during my struggling time and Senior

009year and they've made it the best one so thank you [Music] thank you Dr Bridges I'd like to welcome our year-round schools back in action after a very brief break tracks one through three came in on July 11th and today we welcomed our newest group of kindergartners as they started in their permanent classrooms with their new teachers and I think those of us that are parents of older students remember that first day so vividly and now thinking about my own students how long it's been and it seems like it was very very quick so welcome back to our year-round students I know our few modified schools will start next week and track four will join later in the month and always always something happening in Wake County Public Schools I do want to take a

010moment and this is something we're going to speak to later on in the agenda but I do want to take a moment and thank the nine people that are on this board in the selected body who are sitting up here with me as we went through the superintendent process um many of you have seen in the news that today we'll be voting on a contract for our new superintendent this process has not been easy and it shouldn't be this process was thorough we were all shocked when superintendent Moore announced her retirement and quickly got into action on how we would go about setting a timeline making sure that that timeline was available to the public and that any changes to that timeline were communicated um we did the search for an interim superintendent hey Dr

011Bridges to help us during that transition as well and I just want to say it's it was a pleasure to spend that time to learn more about all of you and your what is important to you in this District I know being as we say locked in the room even though anyone could get a anytime they wanted um was not always easy we had good and challenging and robust conversations in order to get to this point and I know for five of you around this time you were filing to be school board members so what a year it has been um and Miss Waters I believe you had only been on the board for about a year with that starting so um thank you for going through that and I know it was not easy

012I know it was time consuming but I just want to take the time to acknowledge that and thank you all for bringing your full selves into that process with that I'm going to hand it over to Vice chair Hackney thank you chair Mahaffey so it has been a nice break we have been out in the community and continuing to work during this time I want to thank the town of Morrisville they had a special Proclamation that recognized our weight wcpss teacher of the year candidates or Teacher of the Year winners at each of their each of the schools located within within the town's jurisdiction and also recognize the teaching assistance awards that they give for the teacher assistant of the year and each of the schools in their jurisdiction so that was another great way

013that the town likes to partner with wcpss and really values education in our community again a lot of our year-round schools have opened seeing the school buses out there in the summertime sometimes can give you a little bit of a double take but the kids are there and they're doing great um you've been attending Community forums examining gun violence in our community and exploring possible solutions and I also had the opportunity to attend and represent the board at the Raleigh Chambers state of of the city county and schools with Dr Bridges and Dr Bridges I don't know if that was your first Wake County interim superintendent public appearance but I'll have everyone know that he he did he did very well at representing us and our district so thank you for that um beyond that

014I promised my wife I wouldn't embarrass her by wishing her a happy birthday during public comment so happy Bastille Day honey and a few days late thanks thank you Miss Johnson hosler thank you very much um just a few uh comments tonight and again I would Echo the sentiments for a job well done by all of my colleagues going through the process of finding a superintendent um the second time was not easier it is just what the process is which as the chair mentioned as it should be it is probably the biggest job we have next to our budget and so I feel grateful that we got it done with some excellent excellent candidates which was a great reminder that wake is still a great place to be um so if you update um many

015of you know I generally it's I hate social media but I generally do a live for summer feeding programs this year I did not get to attend the cook-off but I'd be remiss if it does if I didn't bring it up because it's an important thing that we offer during the summer um and you can find the locations it's still going on it and um depending on the location August 3rd or 4th but you can find it at wcpss.net backslash summer meals and it's where any you don't have to show student ID for anyone to go to those meal options and there are two that are situated close to my district but in Miss Waters district one at the black Farmers Market Hub and the other at Poe Health Center are locations that you can

016find our summer meals I am a gen xer and I grew up in the hip-hop era many of you have heard me talk about a colleague in Fuquay his name is Alex flowers and he's done an amazing job of as someone who's in the stem fill of looking at the cross section of stem and art and culture and so thanks to the City of Raleigh as we celebrate the 50th year of hip-hop he It's Been instrumental with the City of Raleigh of bringing what they call a stem crawl and one was recently held at Fuquay Varina High School where our own students were able to be involved but it's taking a look at the intersection of stem with hip-hop culture and so please look at the City of Raleigh website for the opportunities to be

017a part of I think they're calling it The Art of mathematics D apostrophe art of mathematics and looking at the intersection and again as someone who grew up in the hip-hop generation it is exciting to see that we're 50 years old and still doing great things for our community and so again important work that we're doing in my district but I'm excited that it's going to be bringing coming to the City of Raleigh and those are all my comments thank you Mr Swanson thank you chair Mahaffey and you threw us off by going on this side this is typically the closing side um yes welcome Dr Bridges um and attorney Malone welcome um and also welcome back to our families who are attending our multi-track schools in District 9 that's Adams Carpenter Mooresville Salem Elementary

018Laurel Park and Salem Middle last week I had the opportunity of attending Salem Middle With Mr Enz as they unveiled their um that's why you have to have notes in front of you there excuse me they're um book vending machine there it is they're a book vending machine which allows students to earn two free books of their choice uh during the academic school year um by meeting certain um also helps if I have the right there we are so yes it was a great opportunity to see those great books that were age-appropriate uh in their vending machine they're giving kids a new opportunity of engaging in books that they see themselves in and that was exciting to unveil that and and be a part of that process I also want to say to Vice chair

019hegarty I he did an amazing job representing the board at the County city and schools event that I had the pleasure of sitting there and listening to Dr Bridges and vice chair Hagerty talk about the great things that we're doing and I have to say for those who want to question the great things that are happening the business Community is is excited and we're excited about the great things that our district is doing um and so very and and in addition there is still great work to be done so we are as superintendent Moore said we're great but we can be greater and I think that we are on that right track um and I also want to thank Keith Poston with wake Ed partnership and Miss waters for allowing me to represent the board

020and and Southeast Raleigh YMCA as we kicked off the uh back to school drive and so please go to Wicked partnership I hope I'm not stealing your thunder there uh Mr Poston but I'm just going to do a little plug so folks can hear it twice um please please please please drop off your school supplies because it is important for Stu for students to have those tools and those resources and also to our teachers to taking that burden off of them because yet again the state continues to disrespect teachers with the salaries and the bonuses that we're seeing and well lack of bonuses and here we are 18 days with out of state budget so hopefully the folks on Jones Street can can get that going and while I'm talking about Jones Street I also

021want to voice my opposition with Senate bill 90. that pretty much allows that distance that usurps the power from the Board of Education do our constitutional duties which is alarming and so I would hope that the folks on Jones Street will continue to have dialogue with us to build a partnership and not restrict our power and not necessarily taking things into their own hands and yes I am all for parents rights and I respect parents decisions and I also respect the voters who have elected the nine of us to be their voice at this table and I think we are doing a great job of being their voice and as I close I also want to thank the public for their process and trusting Us in this in this superintendent search and thanking the public

022for doing these surveys those surveys guided our discussion they guided the the principles that we're looking forward in our next leader and um so we thank you all for your partnership and for your trust and as this school year kicks off we we look forward to continuing building that trust with families as we maneuver through a successful Academic School year um and that will be the all of my comments for the evening thank you thanks Caulfield foreign thank you I don't have too many comments today I just I hope everyone's enjoying their summer so far and welcome back to track one two and three students I hope all the seniors of 2023 are enjoying their summer break as they are getting ready to take on their new Journey um the board is really excited to

023be wearing our little pins that says thanks to our chair mahaffrey says that we survive the superintendent search of 2023. more on that will come later but we're excited to welcome my new neighbor um and then Dr bridges for joining us and um the anticipation of our new superintendent that's going to start in October it was a huge process I think a good process um and I'm excited to see where we will go that's it Mr Hershey thank you I will be very brief first I want to just um welcome Dr Randy Bridges thrilled to have you here and same with uh Rod Malone thrilled to have you as a part of our board noticeably quieter during the work session than our previous attorney uh we'll have to work on that a little bit um

024it is also good to see all of our speakers on both sides all across this room I missed you greatly since we didn't have a meeting a couple weeks ago uh two two very quick things I just want to commend our board chair on leading the process for the superintendent search it was certainly not something that I expected to be going through early on there was it felt like chaos early but I think ultimately the entire process was tremendous you did an outstanding job leading us and I could not be happier with the end result um so well done Madam chair and lastly uh in the spirit of me being a coach and uh officiating starting soon Tonight is the last night for a lot of our Wake County Public School swimmers as it is

025the last swim meet of the outdoor season for them and it's been a pleasure to meet students and their parents throughout this swim season and talk about schools and getting them excited about our future new superintendent and about our current superintendent as well and that is all Dr Eng good evening and welcome Mr Malone and Dr Bridges and um I had a hope that you all had a great summer break um and I want to say welcome back to those who started the school already I know that for some it was too short but I know that many students and parents were looking forward to resuming the school routine um I myself took the opportunity to spend some quality time with my friends and family and we had a chance to catch up on a

026couple of summer movies I do plan to visit more schools in District 3 in the coming weeks we recently celebrated our country's Independence Day and it's our annual reminder of our founding fathers fight for their freedoms and the freedom of future Generations speaking of freedom I had the chance to watch a movie that depicted modern day slavery and the story of one man's courage to win back the freedom of children who were victims of human trafficking I have to say that afterwards I felt a little like hugging my girls just a little tighter and I am reminded again that the problem of abuse of children is not a problem on the other side of the world instead it is a problem right here at our doorstep we must be mindful that as a society all

027our viewpoints policies and actions have untoward side effects to our children we as parents have a responsibility to protect our children from harm both physical and emotional are we robbing our children's innocence by making them grow up faster by subjecting them to ideas and images through books video games and social media that their brains are not prepared to process to borrow from another Summer movie we need to remember that with great power comes great responsibility on this month of celebrating our freedom As Americans we need to make sure that we mean what we say one side says the other side is limiting free speech by the so-called Banning of books but at the same time some are proposing silencing others from the right to exercise their free speech simply because they don't agree with their

028viewpoints is that what we are trying to teach our children our freedom of speech is necessary not just to protect the speech of those we agree with but to protect the speech of those who have dissenting opinions in order to honor those who lost their lives for our freedom we need to be good stewards to protect our freedom and the freedom of future Generations I think we can do a better job and we need to do a better job thank you Miss Edmonds welcome Dr Bridges thank you for working with us these next few months uh welcome back to school um to The District Five year-round schools Middle Creek Elementary and Oak Grove Elementary the Westlake schools are single track four and they'll start at the end of this month and Centennial Magnet Middle School

029is on modified and they start on Monday so I wish all of the students and staff of these schools a great year and I want to remind staff and ptas that I love coming to visit you at your schools so I want to give you a minute to get going I don't mean to invite me next week but please know that I really do enjoy that and I welcome the opportunity to come to your performances and celebrations and I'm also happy to attend PTA meetings where appropriate and when possible an example Penny Road Elementary hosted me at their last PTA meeting of this previous school year and I had some great conversations with parents so just know that that's something that I welcome and look forward to last week I was fortunate to tour the

030Raleigh Girls Club this is part to the greater Boys and Girls Club in Wake County thank you to Heather Bros white and Hugh McLean and other staff for welcoming me and giving me that tour this group is a critical partner for us as they serve some of our most vulnerable children and provide much more than child care they provide academic support and even job training for our older students several of the staff that I met on my tour were in the Boys and Girls Club as children and they have come back to us to serve as Camp counselors or even full-time staff I'm eager to visit some of the other locations and learn more about this program and explore how we can support their work and strengthen our partnership with them Dr Bridges took the

031great opportunity to lift up Wicked Partnerships Tools for Schools and I had a little blurb I was going to say about that which I will I will Skip and just invite people to go to wake ed.org tools slash Tools for Schools and that's the number four to support their school supply Drive I would like to lift up that some students were spotlighted 18 of our students across various schools participated in the skills USA competition in June that took place in Atlanta this this is a where we see many of our children in our CTE programs across the district really shine in CTE courses and it is a goal of mine to not enough people in our community know and understand how robust and Rich the CTE programs are across this district and so I want

032to lift these students up there's 18 of them and quite a few of them from Middle Creek High School and Vernon Malone College and Career so I may mention their names next month finally I want to remind the community to please ask the community to please continue to pay attention to the state legislature thank you for your comments Mr Swanson the a horrible horrible bill was introduced last week Senate Bill 90 and it actually was a gut and replace bill from a earlier version I'm not going to detail the many destructive components included in that bill it's an easy internet search but it will say that the general assembly is working diligently to privatize our schools by vastly expanding access to private school vouchers they're doing nothing to support our anemic teacher pipeline doing nothing

033to support the Recruitment and Retention of Highly qualified Educators and with bills like Senate Bill 90 they will further harm students even putting some students in danger if they are part of the lgbtq plus Community we need to pay attention and we all need to do everything we can to support our Public Schools thank you Miss Waters thank you chairman haffey I would also like to take this opportunity to share how nice it has been working with Dr Bridges his level of expertise is highly sought after in his warm and caring personality is of great benefit to our students and Educators during this period of transition and really enjoyed his remarks about Community engagement at the Raleigh chamber event that was mentioned earlier along with remarks from our vice chair really highlighting the important work

034that is going on in our community and so glad to see Mr Malone here as well looking forward to to working with him I also want to take time to celebrate and acknowledge an important anniversary that is coming up more than 30 years ago on July 26 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law this is historic civil rights legislation that protects the rights of people with disabilities advancing access and Equity is this year's theme and we can all do our part to help ensure that we affirm and protect the rights of people with disabilities against discrimination in all areas including employment government access to transportation and education so that's coming up next week and as I talk about our disability Community I want to highlight so many of our Educators who are

035in the buildings right now and particularly want to uplift those who are working with the extended school year or esy it's a great opportunity for students to receive direct support that helps ensure that they continue to make academic progress some of this important work is happening at Athens Drive High School in your district and I want to really take a moment just to acknowledge on principal Stephen Mayers for creating such a welcoming environment so that students feel connected to the school Community while they were there so I dropped my own child off and I'm just really appreciated how the environment was so friendly and welcoming and so thank you to the Athena Drive School Community for all that they're doing to support our our Learners during this time and I also want to lift up

036a couple of our partner agency I'm on the email distribution list for a local non-profit Note in the Pocket they help ensure that school-aged children have clothing so that they can focus on their academics rather than worry about their appearance in the email that they sent out recently they said they're already receiving requests from social workers stating that several students had to miss the first day of school because they lacked appropriate clothing so if you're able to support this organization their work addresses a barrier for our students as they prepare for the new school year so there are a variety of ways to support including being able to volunteer there and finally one of the highlights of my summer has been returning to East Millbrook Middle School Dr ing's District to help with the gardening

037project through communities in school it is a school that I I attended when I first moved to Wake County and was really transformational in my life and so it was really glad to be back after more than 30 years it looked a little bit different but still the passion that the Educators have in that bill building continues to to live out and just want to lift up all of our Educators those who are right now in a season of rest and getting refreshed for the new school year and for those who have already come back and who are already welcoming our students so many Educators and various roles are doing important work and just want to express the Gratitude and appreciation and and so thankful to be able to be a part of this work

038in the Wake County Public School System so thank you Miss Waters and for that reminder that it is disability prac month in July um before we move on to the approval of the meeting agenda we have an amendment and that is simply moving three items from the consent agenda to action and those are items to e fund balance appropriation for targeted enrollment item 2f fund balance appropriation for local textbook reserve and item 3G fund balance appropriation for before and after care programs ba overages with that I will now entertain a motion to approve the meeting agenda with the amendments okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say aye aye any posting all right we now move on to public comment speakers commenting on to items on tonight's agenda will

039be heard before speakers commenting on other topics other speakers will be heard in order of sign up [Music] 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 we do have 15 speakers that are on agenda and 11 that are off so that would be if everyone speaks for three minutes an hour and 18 minutes so we are going to stop after the on agenda items um and those of you that are signed up for off agenda are welcome to stay if you are unable to stay um then we ask that you send an email but again this is so we can get through our board meeting and our official business your

040comments are important to us we do need to though continue with our meeting 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 and matters of General concern concerns related to Personnel issues or student matters that may be addressed may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies in the interest of maintaining civility into Quorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the

041board individual board members staff members or members of the General Public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to the board attorney either before or after your comments and again Mr Malone is over here to receive any materials that you have 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 that your three minutes has begun a yellow light will light up along and you will hear 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 in here in audible tone when your time is up

042the 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 um and as a reminder from before I ask that UB cordial when people are at the podium and speaking um and again I did say that before but I did hear some booing like not okay guys please keep your internal comments to yourself if you are not at that Podium um that is a respected and sacred three minutes of time that people have whether you agree or disagree I hope that we can all agree that it is important that each person be heard our first person to come up is Caroline Smith followed by Kaylee Murphy hello school board members I'm Caroline Smith

043and I am 16 years old oh and I'm also an asexual and non-binary lesbian and proud which by the way I did not realize from reading a book and I read a lot of books I actually don't think I'd ever seen any lgbtqia representation until after I realized I was gay anyway I won't take long but I decided I wanted to just come up here and thank those that respect me and those like me thank you for your support of us the lgbtqia plus Community by helping kids understand that being a part of this wonderful Community is not a bad thing as some may try and make them feel we cannot change our identity no matter how hard we have tried and believe me when I say many of us have tried by showing your

044respect towards us we feel hopeful that someday we will have a fair chance at life I think I speak for all lgbtqia plus kids and teens when I say that you listening to us means a lot more than you can imagine because we are often not listened to but please do not see this as a reason to not do anything to be an ally to the community you must do things and not to say things my mom has always taught me and told me that actions speak louder than words and that is very true I thank you but don't think that sentence means you can kick back and relax on these issues one last thing we are dying lgbtq plus kids are dying a majority not by hate crimes but suicide we are killing ourselves

045children are killing themselves and it is not because we are being forced into being gay it's because we know just how many people hate us for something we can't control when you do nothing to help these kids when you act against lgbtqia Community publicly you are contributing to dead children don't forget that thank you our next speaker is Haley Murphy followed by Amari Fletcher Kaylee Murphy followed by Amari Fletcher evening members of the board I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about one of my greatest fears once I graduate I am currently a rising senior at Cary high in Mr Swanson's District I am worried about the threat of banned books for future committing students and them not having the like commitment and opportunity to learn things about our world

046and the real life ahead of them I have been concerned about rumors I have heard all throughout summer and throughout my junior year about the group of moms for Liberty who have made it very abundantly clear that their motive is to protect young minds from the material available in our libraries ranging from the lgbtq plus I Community all the way to the Holocaust it is a parent's right to shelter their children from the material they read however it is inappropriate and extremely arrogant for them to force that upon the public eye based off of personal views and personal feelings I am a member of the Wake County student body community and I am a student leader myself and I find this active endorsement to be ignorant and short-sighted in my freshman year I read a

047book by Eli weisel titled Knight he was only a few years younger than I was at the time when he faced the horrors of the Holocaust and learning this from a young adult's perspective of my own age of such a horrific scene it not only hurt me to read it was so hard but it really made an impact as to how I see the world and how I see people because everyone has their own stories and they should be heard I wanted to address this because I am worried that I will have this taken away from me I have my 12 year old sister with me today who is only in the seventh grade and if this is taken away from her this could be detrimental to her mindset and her education we cannot continue

048to climb as a society in New and positive ways if our education is limited and our eyes are closed the rest of the way I really hope that most of you hear me if not all of you and you take what I'm saying into account and you really think about the children and the future not just yours your grandchildren your great-grandchildren I don't know if any of you are married but if you are congratulations thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today I am really happy I could be here for this and just to close off on my statement I wanted to end with a quote by Benjamin Franklin if all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody very little would be printed

049thank you so much for your time our next speaker is Amari Fletcher [Applause] Amari Fletcher our next person signed up holding Caulfield perhaps he's on a train to New York uh Carey Whitaker followed by Dwayne Hansen thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I'm Carrie Whitaker the parent of a rising first grader in Wake County Schools I've observed the past months as a small but very vocal minority has come before this board to speak almost exclusively on the topic of book Banning a speaker at a past meeting spent his allotted time lashing out against a children's book in which two worms get married outraged that these worms were not traditionally defined as male or female now I personally would not be distraught if my child happened upon this book at school and even if

050I were to stop by it I would recognize it's not my right to limit others access to a book but I do realize that certain materials make people uncomfortable and I appreciate that the board has been working on policies to allow for the review of educational materials I'm sorry that the board has had to endure angry folks spouting excerpts from selected books the grandstanding and the name calling we've seen only detracts from the ability to have civil conversations about book content so while the worm book isn't top of my list as a parent in Wake County Schools as a top of my list of concerns I can tell you what some of my concerns are so one being physical safety of our students we know that school shootings are an epidemic in our country and

051this board previously heard a group of very brave middle schoolers come and talk about how they didn't feel safe at school my child didn't make it through her kindergarten year without a code yellow and nothing makes your stomach drop more than that text message saying the school is locked down you cannot come pick up your child it's not safe right now I urge the board to continue doing everything in its power to expedite safety enhancements in our schools secondly mental well-being a prior speaker stated not tonight but at a prior meeting stated that schools are not a self-help space not a place for Counseling and as a licensed clinical social worker I could not disagree more for some children School may be the only safe space the only place where they see themselves affirmed the

052only place where they can look for inclusion and for guidance and we've heard students at board meetings talk about the lack of Mental Health Resources in schools so it's imperative we're providing adequate Equitable inclusive Mental Health Services across all schools after all mentally healthier children now will equal healthier adults just a few years down the road and then thirdly sound curricula being taught by qualified teachers I see a lot of teachers leaving the field due to lack of adequate compensation lack of support unreasonable expectations and that is devastating to see a qualified passionate dedicated teacher leave the classroom for that reason so we appreciate the board's continued advocacy for teacher pay and benefits knowing that the Recruitment and Retention of quality teachers drives positive student outcomes So Physical safety mental well-being thorough curricula qualified teachers

053I urge the board to keep sight of these and similar goals and I thank you for being willing to Wade through the sensationalized distractions that are brought before you I encourage those who have concerns to about book content to instead utilize the proper processes to have their concerns addressed and I think this board for your dedication to Public Schools I am thankful to be on this team with you I'm thankful that we're in this together thank you our next speaker is Dwayne Hansen followed by Lisa Mead I'd like to read a story about the Mrs weisheart spell w-i-s-e-h-a-r-t in the town of wake Wakefield stood a store called the Guardians Emporium it's a Gathering Place for children seeking Discovery peace and belonging the older Miss weisshart had exclusive power of what went in the store

054what went out of the store but trouble arrived when dangerous drug called seductive Secrets made its way onto the shelves this drug preyed on vulnerable young minds with false premises of escape from their inner struggles Miss weisshart knowingly allowed the drug pushers to continue freeing loss of her power and respect interestingly the pushers represented only about 17 percent of the population deep down Ms weishaard understood the children's struggles where everyone's part of growing up she knew the mental disorders could be addressed with genuine care and support from mental health professionals counselors and spiritual leaders not dollar hungry surgeons are happy hormone surgeons yet the pressure from the drug groups knew that a new social norms clouded her judgment she Justified allowing her store clerks to stack drugs and clear each of any age child convincing

055herself that she was being compassionate and caring for their confused feelings instead of facing reality the children suffered silently particularly those with single parents and lower income trapped in addiction and false identity deception while their parents remained unaware Miss wiseheart's child exploiting guilt grew each day since she was complicit realizing she is complicitly in the hurt inflicted upon those impressionable young children of God one night she faced a reflection in the mirror and saw the store owner she had become betraying her moral principles out of fear and pride in that moment courage United within her she realized her true power lay in protecting and nurturing those in her care with Newfound determination she began the Journey of redemption she rallied the community she replaced the drugs with high quality books art supplies and toys they

056fostered growth and creativity wholesome entertainment she found allies and parents and grandparents Partnerships were formed as mental health professionals and Educators providing the children with care tutoring and Remediation that they deserved the Guardians of pouring transformed and so do the lives of children Wakefield witnessed a remarkable chains in the young minds flourished Improvement and effective ways to cope with the challenges growing up she learned that true power comes from protecting innocence letting go of Pride and dark worldly desires she became a guardian shielding the innocent Youngs from harm the story reminds us of even of even under overwhelming pressure it's never too late to choose the right excuse common sense and help the lives of young children and Mrs weisheart's grandchildren neighbors and colleagues were so proud of their Brave Legacy she left and doing

057the right thing at the right time for years to come our next speaker is Lisa Mead followed by Don Clark [Applause] thank you for thank you to Wake County Public Schools for allowing the Wake County PTA to be an active participant in the education advocacy of all children in our Public Schools I am Lisa Mead and I have served on this on the board of the Wake PTA since 2018. the Wake PTA Council officers and committees have been hard at work this year today I wanted us to look at some of the highlights beginning with our advocacy group the advocacy committee hosted School Board candidate forums along with the Wake education partnership in Raleigh Chamber of Commerce for all nine districts we provided a voter education toolkit to all PTA units organized a transportation form

058with Community groups and facilitated workshops on voting tobacco vaping period poverty School meals and school budgets engaging the community members of our board attended four trainings and professional conferences and we're invited to speak to others around many topics related to family engagement best practices for ptas in creating a school environment where all children can thrive our diversity Equity inclusion committee facilitated a podcast study provide assistance to schools interested in starting their own di committees and our leaders were invited to speak on panels the Dei group also conducted a de conference open to anyone wake PTA also facilitated workshops on cultural programming supporting mental health supporting our lgtbq plus students and I'm going to add an i because I heard that earlier how to honor Black History Month in diverse learning Additionally the Wake PTA was

059busy supporting new schools too we chartered four new units providing leadership training to 85 PTA members from 47 schools we responded to over 200 inquiries for assistance from our local units and provided one in-person and five virtual workshops we provided scholarships for local units to attend the state conferences and awarded three Dei grants to local units along with our standing Partnerships with Wake County Public Schools the way PTA held parent input sessions for the equity policy presented to the school board on the equity policy held input sessions for the office with the office of curriculum development and participated in the Wake County Public Schools family engagement committee our health and wellness group was active as well we facilitated workshops workshops on on preventing underage drinking in the impacts of social districts Green School Partnerships and

060bike to school day use tobacco-free Forum School recycling programs starting school Gardens and we collaborated with advocacy to raise a resolution in support of tobacco 21. our Reflections program was busy too we processed over 400 entries from 47 schools and submitted 124 winning entries to the state PTA to move on to the competition as we plan for the next school year we wanted to express thanks to the board and school administrators for the support given to the Wake County PTA and the local units and we are excited about working with our new superintendent for those in the audience ptas the nation's oldest child advocacy organization and we encourage you to join for 2023 and 24. thank you our next speaker is Don Clark followed by Colleen Miller Don Clark okay Colleen Miller good evening um

061thank you for allowing us me to speak tonight um you know I've been here several times and I continue to address the books that we find troubling in our schools I've learned a lot in the recently about these books what we are seeing is a shift in the publishing major publishing houses from I think the shift began possibly 25 years ago when they were actually um leaning towards more activism environmental activism client activism and the books have shifted racist racial agendas and then now the sexual agendas are being pushed and books my understanding is Traditional Values are being replaced with books that embrace the new modern excuse me wet left-wing ideology and I'm opposed to that I like the more traditional values and books classical literature is being purged from our school libraries and even

062our public libraries to be and being replaced with books that are um embracing ideologies that I I find actually troubling for young children to read I don't doubt you all are very intelligent people and basically law-abiding citizens what I don't understand is why you continually to violate obscenity laws mark my words there will be there will be consequences for this inaction restricting inappropriate materials to minors age and appropriate materials to minors is um is what should be done otherwise you're setting yourself up for criminal and civil liability there will be a day of reckoning you've abused the exemption for schools in a manner that's never was never intended by the legislatures who drafted these bills they never imagined a culture as depraved as the one we are now living not long ago teachers Librarians and

063principals at my daughter's schools ligand Underwood and Enloe would never have allowed these books inside the building the moral compass of my daughter's Educators was Guided by character traits that appear to be lacking today that is morality integrity and respect I ask please get back to the job for which you will hire that is creating a safe learning environment for students as well as improving educational outcomes such as literacy rates start stop promoting activism over education the religious fervor we're seeing in our society today which activists Educators where they're supporting critical race Theory which is actually racist agenda social emotional learning which is Marxist based and the sexual and gender ideologies that have replaced the passion to teach students that would accelerate subjects that would accelerate their academic performance as well as their ability to

064develop and use critical thinking skills skills so they may become productive members of society understand tonight you're voting on 32 policy 3210 I encourage you to um to listen to the suggestions we've made and we need more parent involved speaker is Tom Capps followed by Cecilia Joyce thank you good evening good evening I am Tom Capps and tonight I want to encourage the board to do the best it can to care for all the children of the county by ensuring they receive the best Guidance the best education and the best preparation for life my life is all about encouraging others helping others to find the best way to live and by removing or helping others to navigate obstacles they encounter I am here to appeal to the board to do the same as you lead

065the education of public school children when I was growing up in North Carolina I was surrounded by adults who cared for me in the best possible way my parents protected and provided for me and everyone in my community accepted the responsibility for guiding me along a healthy path every famine every policeman teacher Merchant had my best interest and best interest at heart served the surrogate parents and did everything possible to help me succeed as a responsible citizen my young years were protected by adults that strived to show me how to live in a harmonic harmonious and beneficial manner I am truly grateful for the loving care that I received as a young person today is very different we have a society that is no longer protective with children instead we're plagued with human trafficking how

066a society that is overwhelmed with materialism rapid sexuality selfishness and greed we have many children there come from broken homes and have only one parent when actually it takes a father and a mother to successfully train up a child in the best possible way as a result single parents have the toughest parenting job and the least resources available today we have too many forces competing for control of the lives of the most important asset of our nation our children the most important element of our society is the family and yet the family is being torn apart by politicians corporations and schools that should be providing encouragement healthy instruction and removal of obstacles so I appeal to each member of the school board to do your best to reverse the destructive Trend that exists for our

067precious children are appeal to you to make decisions that only encourage the absolute best for children of all ages appeal to you to provide the best possible training for each child so they know know and do what is right finally I appeal to you to remove every obstacle that corrupts young minds that divides and destroys families and that confuses the hearts and minds of young people you have a great responsibility to provide the best possible education for the children of the county and if you fail to do your job well every child will be suffered from the lack of followed by Renee suckle hi I am Cecilia Joyce I'm an elementary school librarian here in Wake County and I came to this profession late in my career in education I love all the joys and

068challenges of my bustling School library I'm going to stop for a moment and just answer one thing the gentleman just said about that schools are not a place of protection anymore and I will take issue with that strongly please visit any of our public schools and see that that's absolutely not true um one of my favorite things that sometimes happens in my library is when children get into a topic and ask lots of questions like rapid fire questions see we're a Spanish Immersion in Global Studies magnet schools so we talk a lot about the world cultures and various beautiful differences of the people in it these are my favorite times because in education it's critical for students and Educators to have an open exchange of ideas our job as Educators is to challenge our students

069to think critically about the world and be informed engaged and feel like they matter and can take action to change the world books help shape kids too they open up Windows to see the world and offer mirrors so that kids can see themselves reflected endorsed for them to journey to new possibilities and perspectives as you know there are people who want to ban books especially those by lgbtq folks and people of color the book banners who are motivated by fear of people they consider other in some way book banners are attempting to tear down our public schools and to challenge professional educators this is dangerous because our public schools are the great equalizers and game changers for our nation they are the very Foundation of our democracy this may sound melodramatic to some people but

070ask an educator and they will tell you so why do I stand here and tell you things you may already know because we are at a Crossroads literally literally and figuratively at a Crossroads where we you need to decide if we will let the professionals do their job or whether we will attempt to bend our will and policies to try to appease people who won't compromise won't listen and won't respect our professionalism Librarians are on the front lines of this fight and do not be mistaken it is a fight it is a fight that we will gladly take on because it's for our students all of our students especially those most vulnerable we will continue to fight this fight until our students have their given rights and freedom to learn and to be their beautiful

071and True full selves so if you're wondering what you can do to support and defend our democracy and our students please join with us in this fight thank you our next I would remind speakers that your comments are to be directed at the board and not other folks in this room our next speaker is Renee seckel followed by Diane Chandler good evening I'm here tonight to tell you that I support the challenged materials policy I will never remember the number I apologize in its current iteration I've listened to the last few policy meetings but I also want to read you a book because this book was heavily criticized in the last school board meeting and I think it is emblematic of the kind of books that will be banned if we keep allowing outside National

072groups who to come in and complain about everything that they don't like worm loves worm let's be married says worm to worm yes answer's worm let's be married wait says Cricket you'll need someone to marry you that's how it's always been done I'll marry you now can we be married ask swarm wait says Beetle you've got to have a best Beetle naturally that would be me now can we be married ask swarm wait wait wait say the bees you need bride speeds can we be the bride's bees please please please yes this worm now can we be married well you'll need to get rings to wear on your fingers of crickets that's how it's always been done we don't have fingers it says worm well we can wear them like belts says worm wonderful says

073warm now can we be married just make sure to have a band so that we can dance this Beetle but we don't have feet to dance with says worm or we can just wiggle around says worm like this fine says worm now can we be married well but you still need a white dress a tuxedo a top hat lots and lots of flowers and a cake with frosting say the bees but we don't have heads or hats in the worms and we don't have hands to hold flowers and we only eat dirt says worm wait says spider I can attach the hat and flowers to you as my sticky web thank you see worm and worm but who will eat the cake says the bees I can eat the cake along with Cricket and beetles

074as Spider uh what did you say that's crooked and Beetle nothing it's a spider with a smile now we can be married says worm but which one of you is the bride ask the bees how can we be bridesbees if we don't know who the bride is I can be the bride says worm I can too says worm but one of you has got to be the groomer how can I be best Beetle ass beetle I can be the groom says worm I can too says worm we can be both amazing says spider really ask Beetle and the bees wait says Cricket that isn't how it's always been done then we'll just change how it's done says worm yes says worm and so they were married because worm loves worm I just want to remind

075you it's been a long time since I last dissected a worm but they're hermaphrodites they shouldn't have to be boy or girl that's literally the purpose of worms um but this is the kind of book this wholesome cute adorable book is the kind of book that folks are seeking to have band in our schools and I believe somebody called mental rape last school board meeting so thank you very much for your work on the policy I support it and it's full and urge you to pass it thank you our next speaker is Diane Chandler followed by Mary Richardson welcome to introduce myself I am a parent of two Wake County students a PKA member a school crossing Garden District Seven and a professional Bookseller of token first book professional Bookseller I can tell you that

076we do not mean sexually inappropriate material in order to provide arguing with quality and diverse literature we are not book banners we are not racists we are not biggest she would simply want you to uphold our station of synergy and child pornography pornography lives when it comes to books available to underage children in our school libraries I try to share a picture from one of the books in our school library stand your queer on my Facebook profile in a comment and my Facebook profile got restricted for 30 days for going against uh Facebook Community Center for sexual content and nudity okay and not okay for Facebook please looking for a token it doesn't make sense do not pass 432 can I get stance now good few comments with it number one having a pocket start

077with each individual principle leads approxibility of overreach banking of poker books only number two children should not be involved that could be obvious we are the adults children do not have formed mental capacities they can have opinion the gay should not be making decisions number three a two-year limit if you if the challenge doesn't go by limit the ability of future parents are coming through the system who might have a challenge to get book and limits their right to speak against the book and they don't see appropriate for their children but no matter what counterpockets you put in place we parents must have awakened control why children are exposure of her multiple times from the other side that we don't have a right to control what they are training can assure us the same should

078be said for our kids no matter what we should be absolutely sharing the elderly would not have access to Asian improving sexually graphic content so you can shut up a radiation or Flash learning book challenge books and then have all parents opt in to those books if they want you or you can take them out of the whole because truthfully no child should have access to them you give guy which courses but you must do one or the other our next speaker is Mary Richardson followed by Felicia Moore good evening board um I want to start by thanking you for allowing us to speak at your meetings it does take up a lot of your time after a long day and I understand that you have most likely already determined the course of this policy

0793210 the parental inspection of an objection to instructional materials I know that you've received emails in the last few days regarding changes to this policy as you've got it written now while this policy provides the opportunities for parents and Guardians to inspect and object to teaching curriculum and library books available in their child's School the process is very lengthy and is lacking in clarity and clear definitions of terms terms like instructional materials supplemental materials and core instructional resources while parents May review books in the library or the curriculum they most likely aren't going to get free access to books that the teacher may bring into the classroom to use so let's take a look at the process first a parent that is aware of objectional material must speak to the school principal who in turn

080gets to explain the process to the parent and provide them with a form to be filled out and returned not only does the complaint need to be in writing email letter or text message no that's not writing enough it has to have this form filled out which I went and picked up today at a local school so you send that in you have 20 days to send that in or the complaint gets dismissed you know parents are busy they're working it might take them 20 school days to get it so this we're talking about a month here four weeks next a reconsideration committee is going to be formed by the principal and they have 30 weekdays to review the material now we're looking at two and a half months if everybody took the full length

081of days to begin the process of the book curriculum or from the beginning of the process the book curriculum is our curriculum is still in use they haven't stopped using it because somebody complained and the committee that you that you uh gather to review it the media coordinator two teachers school counselor two parents and a principal that's not very Equitable five Wake County School uh Public School Employees against two parents if you want five School Employees you need five parents and from all I read it seems like you're designing this policy to drag out the process so long that the school year could be over be thank you our next speaker is Felicia Moore Felicia Moore is not here those are all of our folks that have signed up for items that are on the

082agenda as stated previously we'll come back to the off agenda items once we finish our meeting agenda if you are unable to stay you are welcome to send us an email when we thank you all for your time we are now going to move on to approval to an information item which is the superintendent's updates uh generally this is sharing what happened in the uh work session yes just briefly all right the board in this work session uh received a report on uh an assessment with the uh they had requested uh earlier um Dr will Chavis and his Department along with Dr Megan doe walked the board through the information uh very carefully uh kind of their first blush at it broke them into small groups so they could discuss some of the advantages and

083disadvantages of the process and the program and what we're trying to do in aligning our strategic plan with a very clear focus on equity um the board will have an opportunity to take a second deep dive into that work on August the 15th as we'll continue those conversations so that was what took place in our report session thank you Dr Bridges I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with a reminder that three items were moved to action this does also include um continuing our partnership with wake at partnership in the consent agenda so thank you for being here Mr Poston chair Mahaffey yes sir I would move adoption of the consent agenda second all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay

084all right the motion consent agenda passes we move on to our action items first one um is the approval of a permanent superintendent contract as stated earlier the board upon hearing about superintendent Moore's retirement worked with the North Carolina School boards Association to have a national search done in order to find the next superintendent this included finding our interim superintendent as well as reviewing the resumes and applications of 28 different candidates from 13 different states and territories in what felt like sometimes chaotic sometimes very long process but always a thorough process and a process that we took seriously the board is now reach an agreement with Dr Robert P Taylor for him to be our next superintendent of schools beginning October 1st of 2023. is there a motion to approve this contract for Dr Taylor

085chairman I will happily second Miss Waters motion well miss Waters you're gonna have to make that motion okay well I'll make it again I would move with hard to contain excitement the approval of the contract for our new superintendent Dr Robert P Taylor and since you need us to repeat it second all right so we have a motion for Miss Waters in the second from Miss Johnson Hustler board members any comments at this time Miss Caufield well I don't know if I should give my comment now or after um I'm super excited to have Dr Taylor come and join us um everything that we heard from him I I think that we're going to have some really great uh movement going forward and I really look forward to him um joining the board and being

086part of us in October um but I wanted to explain that I am actually not going to vote to approve the contract but not because of Dr Taylor because I'm super excited to have him but because of the salary content that's in there Mr Swanson your chair Mahaffey and I am also excited to welcome Dr Taylor to Wake County to lead our district and to take us to new heights it's very exciting and I'm grateful this has been a tremendous process of an exciting process one that I hope I never have to go through again while sitting in the seat and I am looking forward to partnering with Dr Taylor as we explore and and and move things to new heights with Dr Bridges as well and looking forward to this opportunity so excited and

087this has been something I think we have all been waiting to get out because it has been uh quite difficult holding this information in um and I think we did a great job of keeping that as well so excited and I'm looking forward to Casting my vote in favor of Dr Bridget Taylor okay Sam the chair Mr Hershey thank you so much I just am beyond thrilled with uh Dr Robert Taylor I cannot wait to get this vote because I I mean since the moment we came to our decision um I have just been looking forward to this moment I have the utmost confidence that he will do an outstanding job and I hope everybody looks them up and gets the opportunity to meet him and listen to him this is a fantastic human being

088this is an outstanding educator and leader and we are so darn lucky and I just cannot say enough that let's get to voting I cannot wait to support this this uh our next superintendent thank you Dr ring I don't know if your hand's not up I don't know um I um am also very excited about um Dr Taylor and especially uh with his background in special education I I really felt like it was something that it's just um uh very much needed that that advocacy and perspective um and you know I I and with regards to what Miss coffee will say you know the the way you know how the sausage is made is never pretty um and um and and so you know what we're talking about you know in terms of the uh

089the salary um and you know it's a um something that is uh I I struggled with but at the end I I agree that um you know the salary that was offered to him is at the top end of my comfort level and I you know I am um you know going to approve you know say yes to it it's just that it is at the top end of my comfort level Miss Edmonds thank you just um to reiterate uh that this was a um challenging experience and rewarding and completely I think for the five of us that are new none of the five of us well all nine of us I think did not expect to be um going through this process so early with in the tenure of the five newbies but um

090it is it has been extremely hard to keep this quiet and not share so for the most part in my world people respected and didn't ask me about it but for the few who did it was really hard not to share and um so I'm super excited that it's out now and that we're doing this and I'm very excited to work with him and Dr Bridges up we appreciate you in the transition process thank you for your work and um it is uh so exciting to think about where our district is going um in the future we had a tremendous superintendent and the bar was high and Dr Taylor certainly has lived up to the expectations of of what we desired in a superintendent and I can say that from a perspective of a lens

091of a parent of children in this District I think he's going to be really a gift to our community and I'll say with regard to compensation for all of our Educators I don't know any other industry where people have the level of expertise the level of education and the subject matter experts whose pay is always so controversial so for me the compensation is reflective of the quality of a leader that we're bringing into this district and I wish that um that he you could just get a chance to see how Dynamic he is and I look forward to the opportunity to work with him and see the next stages of our wonderful School District Mr Hagerty thank you chair Mahaffey like everybody else I am very excited about Dr Taylor coming and um serving as

092our new as our new superintendent I will say that as someone who when we first started reviewing all of our excellent excellent candidates I had some questions about Dr Taylor and I have to say at every level of the process he just exceeded um whatever I could have hoped for and the the the confidence and the leadership that he brings his accomplishments um I think he he will do tremendous work here and allow us to do even even better and greater things I did want to take this opportunity since Jonathan is no longer here to remind everybody that it is it is a confidential process that we did go through and that confidentiality remains and so as much as I really want to thank all of those candidates who applied you know I can't mention

093any of them by name but just know that there were many many qualified inspiring Dynamic leaders and I think all of the I I think you know many of them would have done great jobs for our district and even though they were not chosen I am very appreciative of the time and the thought and the effort that they put in the thoughts and the visions that they came and that they shared with us and for those that are current superintendents I know that they will continue to do great things in their districts and we really do appreciate everything that they came and they shared with us but again for all of those super candidates that does really speak to the Excellence of Dr Taylor who was just you know the the best of of of

094of a high quality field so um like everyone else I'm very excited Miss Johnson hotzer thank you um and again I echo my colleagues sentiments a great deal about our excitement and just two additional points that I'd like to make one we heard everything people said to us and certainly we cannot say we checked everything on the list that people requested but I do feel like we're in a place actually a colleague of mine who isn't from North Carolina said this about Raleigh that it's a big city but it feels like a small town and I hear that often from people who don't reside in the area and most of them of course but but I do think that that is the feeling that I got from Dr Taylor that he understood both working in

095a small district and working at the state level it would be able to actually bring what I believe is a huge part of what we need moving forward given how our public comment goes is bridge building to our community and that is undeniably one of the things that we all asked for in in all of our questions and trust me we asked a lot of questions or as we would know 20 questions with about five sub-text questions to each candidate and all of them were absolutely more than qualified and Stellar but that that is a piece that stood out for me of being able to move into this community and understand the Dynamics of big and Statewide and Bridge the the community because I think for me that is the piece that's most important moving

096forward is we're United in our community back to the way Outsiders see us and that's a large area but a small town feel and that's of course coming from a small town girl in North Carolina that um that that there believe that there's value in having that feel and touch and so so for me that that was a a standout quality the other thing of course some of my colleagues mentioned is salary which is actually a full compensation package and I certainly Echo the comments that Miss Waters said but I also think it's important to dispel all the myth that was touted quite a bit during our last election cycle the superintendent's pay is not teacher pay those things are not transferable the State Design decides the teacher pay and many of us said that

097over the last year or so but I do want to bring that back to the table as a reminder and also no surprise to any of you I'm still married to an educator who teaches at Wake County Public Schools and know that our teachers by far do not get paid enough and we will continue to Advocate to those who make the final decision on teacher pay and so before the rhetoric starts I felt it necessary for me personally who dealt with this quite a bit last year is to bring a full closure to how we choose compensation for our superintendent which is distinctly different from how we pay the rest of our Educators in our school system and again we look forward to and we hope and know that you'll all embrace our new superintendent

098with open arms Open Hearts and open minds thank you I do want to again thank the school boards Association and Sam Thorpe and his team for helping us lead this I'd like to thank Miss Allen for keeping our schedules straight during that time and I previously thanked my colleagues I'd like to thank those that did apply and that we did interview I think a lot has been said about the robustness of those conversations and many many thanks to you Dr Bridges we know you will be continuing with us so we can have a smooth start to the traditional calendar year and look forward to continue to work with you um with that being said we have a motion in a second all those in favor of approving the permanent superintendent contract to Dr Robert P

099Taylor please say aye aye any opposed nay the motion passes we are going to take a brief break and we look forward to introducing Dr Taylor to the community closer to his start time in the fall so again we will take a brief break and then we will come back [Applause] thank you foreign [Music] thank you okay welcome back everyone thank you for allowing us to entertain that brief pause um so we could formally adopt um that contract we are now going to move on to policy um and our next agenda item is board policy 3210 parental inspection and objection to instructional materials and joining us will be Miss Allison cook Allison Reed I've read Allison Reed and Drew cook and they came together and I'm sorry we got a new we got a new

100staff member no Miss Allison Reed chairman happy co-chair superintendent Bridges members of the board tonight we bring for first reading the revised policy 3210 which is the ins parental inspection of an objection to instructional material revisions have been recommended by staff and reviewed with the policy committee at the April 18th May 23rd and June 20th policy committee meetings policy 3210 details the process by which parents can inspect and object to instructional materials instructional materials include core instructional resources supplemental materials and school library collection materials revisions that you have are shown in blue show consistency with a multi-step start at the school level and go up approach that is used throughout our current complaint grievance and appeal process practices they also show a team-based approach with greater representation than the current policy stipulates any language in

101green is language that was moved to another part of the policy we believe that the policy revisions provide greater transparency through the entire process at the start principals May accommodate a student parent or Guardian by offering an alternative alternative assignment or material from that point forward parents or Guardians have 20 days to determine whether or not to file a formal challenge or appeal a determination and at each stage of the formal appeal committee membership representation is shared as are the questions they will consider we've also added additional language to further clarify that a parent must have a student at the school where the books or curricular materials are housed in order to challenge their presence at that school we do have one additional revision that has been recommended advised by our attorneys to make in

102order to implement a change recommended by the policy committee when we last met in section b1b on page four I believe it's at the bottom of the page in the formal challenge stage 2 list of central instructional materials committee members they're on page four the numbered item nine should read for additional Clarity It should read additionally the superintendent or designee May at his or her discretion appoint up to two students attending High School within the area superintendent's region when a challenge arises at the high school level with parent Guardian consent this change would allow the superintendent or his or her designee the option to appoint one or two high school students on the central offices office committees but does not require it as did the former and earlier draft of the policy so that just

103slight language change was recommended in order to make that not a requirement with that we would ask for your approval on this first reading of policy 3210 parental inspection of an objection to instructional material thank you Miss Johnson Hustler thank you very much to the staff and Mr Malone for the noted change that meets our need from our last meeting so I'd like to excuse me move that we accept this as first reading and is it first reading we thought it was second this is first read because of the change yes okay Chris and I were counting four over here but thank you so I moved to Improvement on first reading thank you Ms Reed right we have a motion in a second thank you Miss Johnson Hustler Mr Swanson is there any discussion comments

104concerns questions at this time Ms Caufield so I just wanted to clarify that my vote is actually to support all children and Val and the value of their education well I believe that the book should represent all children and have positive messages to lead and learn from and also challenging books that are you know to learn about important lessons the reasons that I am voting against 3200 which is already voted for which is the content part but also this sister policy that we're here to discuss today at 3210 and it's because of the sexual content the graphic sexual nature I just I know that we hear a lot of comments about that this policy is to protect the lgtb community and I want to be clear that when I make that decision it has nothing

105to do with lgtb because there's plenty of books out there that people challenge the content that is also has nothing to do with the lgtb community I have friends family neighbors people far and close that are part of that community that also have children and they do not want their children to be exposed to that content so I want them to have a fair voice to be able to say what is acceptable and not so I want the community all communities to learn that my decision to vote no for the 3210 is really based on the fact that I don't um necessarily I I have a problem with the children being or minors being part of the decision making for other minors the two years I am getting a lot of feedback about that about

106the two years being something that is challenging especially when somebody moves on and another parent comes into that school that it kind of is hindering them um and I just want I feel like we need to be a little bit more transparent and accountable as far as our language and what is acceptable and not so before I voted no I just wanted to give an explanation as to why that is the reason for my vote I hear a lot of people saying that it is an attack on the lgtb and it really is about children minors and sexual content is the reason for my vote um thank you so much um and I do appreciate the edit that you made to that you guys made to that point about the children that is not a

107required requirement but it's optional the one thing that I do have concern about is um the actual the very the very beginning of the process which is you know having that conversation between the principal and the parents um and um and and and then and it's not necessarily to this particular um policy but in all subject matters that um you know if if the parents are not informed of the policies or how things work in the schools and and they're dependent on the parent the the principle to give this policy this process to them to to um to con to consider the um uh going through this this process it's a you know it's a you know I'm not saying that the principles you know are doing it maliciously or or what but it may

108be that something that's missed in some you know that and and the parents do not are not armed with that knowledge of how to go about doing this and so then they they end up finding out you know past the 20 days that it's too late um and I do appreciate that you know we talked about extending it from 10 days to 20 days which would allow a little bit more time for the parents to kind of figure out what what to do next and and whatnot but you know it's um it's still um requires uh communication uh among between the parents and the principal and and I just am concerned that that communication May uh may not be optimal um at some times so thank you Mr Swanson thank you chairman happy and I

109also want to thank staff for their hard work on this and listening to nine different opinions and and finding a way to marry all of our language into this policy but I do have a couple of questions and Tim I may break them up to give some other colleagues an opportunity to voice theirs if that's okay so um could you explain I think you've percent in the in your opening statements but could you just clarify the difference between instructional materials supplemental material because I think there was a comment in earlier and I just want to make sure that those folks are able to hear what the difference is sure absolutely I'll take a stab at this and if Mr crook wants to jump in with me so there are three different distinct categories there there

110are instructional materials supplemental materials and then library media collection materials I'll let him speak to the first two and then I'll jump in with the library immedi collection thank you I'm sure so I think core is that means it meets the standards and it's comprehensive typically across the district it is the primary resource in the classroom and then supplemental or any instructional materials that are designed by their nature by the term to meet the needs of the classroom teacher to the PLC the content area the grade level and so those are the two distinctions in terms of the instructional resources core versus supplemental yeah and so core is assigned supplemental is just what it says and then library media collection materials are those that for for which there is no requirement or expectation that a

111student they are Choice materials yes thank you I think that's very important and that those both of those are met by the requirements that are set by the state that's correct so the state sets the standards and it's up to districts to in schools to determine what curriculum resources align with those State Standards yes sir thank you I just wanted to make sure that because I was hearing out in the community that we're just writing curriculum and all this but I wanted to hear from the professionals that we do not do that the state is doing their job and we're following that um I have one more than if there's others I'll put myself back in queue chairman happy um so if a parent has a concern with the materials or or whatnot those parents

112still have options to ensure that their child can have other materials of learning absolutely absolutely um if it is core or supplemental materials the parent has the right to request an alternate assignment always and then of course if it's library media collection materials then the student it's it's a choice and you know the parent can request that their child not check it out for sure yeah I think as Mr Reed reference first of all it's been long-standing best practice in terms of classroom resources and materials anytime there is a parent that objects for any reason to content or resources instructional materials articles books we always expect our teachers and our schools to find a viable alternative that is also aligned to those same state standards so we're not unintentionally or unnecessarily penalizing students academically by

113having an instructional resource that's not aligned so that option is always there the other thing that I think is important to point out the new policy 3200 makes clear another long-standing best practice and that is we we do not have to wait for a formal Challenge and nor should we to re-vet and review curriculum resources and materials in our classrooms or in our media centers on a regular basis that's part of the job of our academics team that's part of the job of our schools at the classroom level it's part of the job of library media services that work is ongoing year-round and those selection teams are doing that work irrespective and apart from any formal challenge policy that we might be discussing here this evening so I think that's an important to point out

114as well our board policy 3200 speaks to the ongoing work and it and the other thing that I want to highlight that should not be done per the terms of policy 3200 in isolation or individually and I think one of the strengths of the new policy language in 3200 is we can debate everybody has an individual line perhaps about what is aligned to a standard first of all or what is age or great appropriate but the more people we have at the table who are professionals and who understand the standards and who are experts in that field the more likely we believe that we're able to hit the mark of what that Community bar is and so that's another distinction I think is important to recognize with our ongoing procurement policies you know we we

115shouldn't be doing that we're feasible in individual isolated circumstances so whether we're talking about a classroom teacher at the school level or District staff that are working to procure core resources across the district that should be done in a team oriented collaborative approach with a diverse group at the table keep going you've got Mr cook and Miss Rita perfect well thank you chairman happy so prior to prior to this policy do you all have a number of how many books was challenged prior to to this I know I know of two um and what I was going to say Miss Allen may be able to speak to this Miss Kendra Allen is our director of library media Services um and has been with us for quite a few years and she so that varies by

116year um on average I would say we might have roughly four challenges in a school calendar year and this is for Media or for for all all categories um that per the the existing process um in this uh the school year that just completed we had one formal challenge that came in um in July was decided at the determination was made at the school level in August and we had uh no formal challenges for which we followed policy per the standard of of policy for the remainder of the year so it can vary and swing um but I would say arguably on average we might have four formal challenges over the course of a year and all of those challenges started at the school level correct correct yes and I think it's important to note

117that many times if a parent has a concern they go speak with their school principal and most of the issues are resolved there through conversation this policy is about a formal process by which you would file a formal Challenge and this policy also starts at the school first correct in alignment with all of our complaint grievance and appeal processes throughout our whole policy manual yes gotcha sorry I when we went on break I went on break and didn't look through this but I think this is great conversation so folks can actually hear and families and parents did not have a problem locating how to challenge those potential four books or prior to this because it was listed so the the process and the information there um you know is available through that conversation with the

118school principal the school principal we provide support to the schools to make sure that you know because it as Miss Allen mentioned this doesn't happen all that frequently that we go to a formal challenge so we do provide support for principals but the parent begins with the principal at their school and it begins with those conversations and then the principal gives that information to the parent right and explains the policy or the process thank you both so much for your work and I'm chair I'm happy I look forward to supporting this policy as is written all right Caufield and this might go to miss Kendra I'm not really quite sure I know that we've discussed this in a previous committee meeting but kind of based off of what Mr Swanson asked he said that there

119was only about four challenges per year has it is this all the same books that people are having troubles with do we know when those books entered our libraries scope of the titles that have been under review historically in the district is a wide variety of titles um over the course of our our full level of record keeping um I'd whether they're titles that perhaps have been spoken about in in more public context um those don't necessarily constitute what we find are that historically uh the challenges were specific to a particular parent a particular student experience and so the variety of of those complaints is is wide in the course of things because what the incident may have been and the concern at the brought forth at the time has varied over the course of

120the iteration of the policy information it is part of the information that the committee would have but they have varied okay Mr hegarty and then I said sorry Miss Rita can you I get you to just clarify that so in terms of you know where a parent has a concern and just brings it to a teacher or to a principal but it doesn't rise up to the formal challenge I just want to make sure that I'm a surgery so we don't have any way to really track that or know because it's resolved between the parent and the principal right we wouldn't necessarily hear about it and it hasn't escalated up to that yes sir okay that's correct thanks okay all right well I want to thank everybody for the robust discussion we had in three

121separate policy meetings and thank you to our policy chair Ms Johnson hosler for keeping us on track during those meetings and many thanks to staff for the different questions and iterations and of course all of those meetings for folks that are interested are logged on our YouTube page and so at this point we have a motion in a second all those in favor of approving board policy 3210 please say I I any opposed nay all right and the eyes have it and the motion passes eight two I'm wearing thank you very much thank you we're now moving on to finance we have three items that were pulled from consent all dealing with fund balance as we have done throughout this year we have pulled some things out of consent to kind of help educate ourselves

122and the public as to the why they are here um and so thank you Mr kneader for being here for this the first one being fund balance appropriation for targeted enrollment yes thank you good evening chair Mahaffey members of the board and interim superintendent Bridges tonight as a chair and a half you mentioned we have three separate fund balance Appropriations to request your approval of I want to provide some background overall background on what a fund balance appropriation is and this would apply to all three of these requests and then I will present the first request and then members from the academics team will present to you the next two requests and as you share normally these items would be on consent but this gives us the opportunity to share information in detail with the

123board allow the board to ask questions and also have the public here about it reserves can be made in the board's fund balance to manage specific funding needs that are not otherwise in a base operating budget and at the beginning of the fiscal year appropriation request to move specific Reserves from fund balance into the operating budget are generally made requests to appropriate amounts reserved in fund balance also will take place throughout the year as we go through um the first request is to appropriate one million four hundred and eighty two thousand three hundred and twenty eight dollars of fund balance to be used for what we term targeted enrollment and what these funds will be used for is to want resources to school beyond our standard allotment formula and to give some examples of when

124we might need to do this to manage unique class size issues as we've discussed students don't always come in neat packets that are standard allotment formulas provide for they also can be used for multi-track year-round schools to address track management issues to deal with Personnel leave issues and requiring additional staff and the amount requested to appropriate represents a remaining amount from the prior fiscal year where we had reserved six million dollars so this 1.4 million was not used in the prior year it's gone the fund balance we're requesting to bring it back out and as the fiscal year continues and as we work towards bringing the board the annual comprehensive financial report where we generally have specific reserves and review those we will likely come back and have an additional Reserve Beyond this 1.4 million

125dollars to address the need for Target enrollment we spent last year about four point six million dollars out of the Six Million that was reserved so I would now like to ask the board's consideration of approval to appropriate 1482 323 dollars of fund balance to be used for targeted enrollment be happy to answer any questions we jumped right into discussion so I believe we still need a motion in a second on this so moved second all right are there any questions or comments from board members Dr Ing um thank you so much for the explanation um can you further um describe um where that money you know the is coming from the money effectively at the end of the year that had been reserved and appropriated that was unused rules into the fund balance automatically

126and and I will also share with the board that when we do present the annual comprehensive financial report in the late fall we will give you a detailed review of all categories of fund balance these special reserves are just one of many different categories of what is reserved in the board's fund balance foreign I was just yes so are we going into this where I guess for the next three is it because the State has yet to pass a budget this is why we're dipping into our fund balance uh no sir that is not the reason um the reason and this was actually noted um in the board's proposed budget as a potential risk that we do not have funds for allotting resources to schools over standardized formula in the operating budget and the way

127we have managed through that for the past many years is to reserve funds and then request the board to appropriate them it is not related to that situation sir mm-hmm all right and of course all things coming from fund balance are for one-time use that is correct generally fund balance is not to be considered a recurring Revenue source and it generally should not be used for recurring expenditures all right those in favor of approving this fund balance appropriation for targeted enrollment please say aye any opposed nay all right moving on to fund balance appropriation for local textbooks textbook Reserve welcome back Mr cook thank you ma'am good evening chair Mahaffey superintendent Bridges and board members the last several years local textbook Reserve funds are specifically designated to provide professional learning and curriculum support for core

128subject areas across all grade levels in the district as you may know State textbook dollars provide funding for the purchase of instructional resources and materials but can no longer be used to support professional learning or curriculum support So as such local funds must be identified to ensure our teachers and staff are provided with the professional learning supports necessary for Effective high quality instruction in our schools and in our classrooms and as you well know the district's new strategic plan as reflected in our core belief statements the essential pillars and several of the Strategic aim statements outlines the critical importance of high quality comprehensive professional learning in all aspects of our operation this one-time reserve request of approximately 1.1 million dollars will be used to fund the ongoing creation in revision of K-12 curriculum resources professional

129learning contracts substitute teacher costs including costs associated with the state required letters training sessions while we await designated State funding to be available in a couple of months and also contracts for warehouse and curriculum recycling services this appropriation request will spin down the full amount of the remaining balance in the local textbook Reserve fund so we will be working to identify additional funding sources to support future professional learning and curriculum development and procurement plans for 24.25 and Beyond I will note and I think this is important to point out that in this past November student achievement committee meeting we shared with the board a new comprehensive multi-year curriculum development and procurement plan that will guide our future decision making and strategy in this area so we will no doubt be sharing more about those plans

130with you in the months and also certainly in the years ahead in the meantime staff is requesting approval for the local textbook fund request for professional learning and curriculum support as is outlined and we're happy to provide additional information or answer any questions the board may have all right do we have a motion improved to approve this fund balance appropriation for local textbook Reserve all right we have a motion and a second are there comments questions concerns Miss Edmonds thank you so um just a couple of comments this this excuse me illustrates the point that the general assembly does not support professional learning for our Educators they often will this is one of the many unfunded mandates that they require of Educators to get training professional learning on a particular initiative whatever but they don't

131fund it so they require us to do it but then they don't provide the funds for that training and Dr Ing and I did some training the last couple of days at the North Carolina School boards Association and I'm pretty sure at the finance presentation this morning at the training it was shared with us that right now textbook funding which I know we're talking about professional learning but just student funding for textbooks from the state level is it about 32 dollars per student right now so thank you having flashbacks to buying books in college Ms Caufield none of them cost thirty two dollars thank you for that and I could tell you when I was in college I don't think anything we did was 32 dollars just saying um I just have a question in

132reference to it it says including letters while waiting for State funding to be available um if the state comes back and gives us the proper funding um what happens at that point yes ma'am um and great question we will recode those expenditures back to the state funding so we would be then opening back up whatever that amount is for additional professional learning that the district can choose to provide great question all right any further seeing none all those in favor please signify with a sign of I any opposed nay all right and on to our final fund balance appropriation for before and after care programs and overages Dr Koh good evening chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty superintendent Bridges and board members we're bringing to you an action item for fund appropriation for our before and

133after school programs the board approved the fund balance reserve of 300 000 in the for the fiscal year of 2223 and this request is to carry forward the remaining balance to assist with schools that operated at a loss during the 22-23 school year and these carryover funds allow the before and after school programs to not increase fees for parents and caregivers and reduce the program and and prevent the reduction of program services for the 2324 school year and to ensure the sustainability of our B A programs in the long term we will be establishing a committee for the during the 23-24 school year and this committee's primary task will be to develop a proposal outlining a comprehensive plan that allows for the self-sustainability of our BNA programs going forward so we request board approval for

134this action item um so moved thank you all right are there any there any questions comments or concerns Miss Johnson hostler as a former parent who used the services I'm glad to hear we're going to have a committee to look at it it's it's a resource for working parents that is cost effective and cheaper in most cases than others but I also recognize that and I've been advocating to keep the cost low or no change but I also recognize it does mean it's hard to operationalize it because we are in many of our schools are able to use our IAS or other neuroclassified staff in those positions as well so I look forward to that work and will continue to be a strong advocate for the program and respect the need to to make sure

135it's self-sustaining but acknowledging that it is currently one of the most cost effective programs for families so I look forward to the committee in how to actually ensure that we can meet both the district but also our parents and families needs so thank you for bringing this forward thank you all right well said Miss Johnson hosler any other comments or questions seeing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right thank you Dr Cole we're going to move back to public comment for our off agenda items um I am going to read what you signed up for in case folks have left um so that at least their topic can be heard if they are not here with us again if you're not here you're welcome to email the board and

136thank you for your patience our first speaker is Steve Rao on Major League cricket in Morrisville uh chairman has left he has left and he has emailed there's actually a mail email from the town of Mooresville about the topic you want to speak about so okay board members can find it there all right Adam Clark signed up to speak on budget Mr Clark here Charles Washington literature and our Public School libraries foreign thank you for this opportunity I come to you today as a proud father of a 12 year old and a nine-year-old I was here at the last couple of meetings and I didn't get the opportunity to speak but I was shocked that our teachers that talked about that it was okay for our children to decide on different things and I'm thinking

137about children who don't know what time to go to bed children who don't know what the mortgage is children who don't buy groceries but we want them to decide on literature for me I'm kind of disgusted at the agenda in the direction of our public schools that they're headed in instead of children being galvanized to academic Excellence they're being groomed for sexual immorality I'm standing against the pervasive vulgar books in our Public School libraries books like Lawn Boy where I had it I had to read it because I wanted to find out what my son might pick up and when I read it I was just shocked it was a man that was reminiscing about his childhood to another man and he says I quote what if I told you I touch another guy's d-i-c-k

138I said Nick waved me off and turned his attention back to his beer what if I told you I sucked it will you please just shut up already I'm dead serious Nick well I said you would be a I was 10 years old but it's true I put Doug gobbles d-i-c-k in my mouth now if that's not vulgar I don't know what is at your attempt to be inclusive you are excluding families that believe in good morals education becoming a good citizen my question to the board is what about our kids you easily say Pride but you struggle with merry Christmas or Jesus Christ and with all the distraction that our kids must face it shouldn't come through our Public School System we shouldn't feel by sending our children to school that we're sending them

139to the slaughter but we're sending them to get sound teaching we shouldn't feel by sending our children to school that they're actually going to a sacrifice we should be fixed on what's true and not fantasy we still believe that God made male and female we still believe that boys are boys and girls are girls and if you don't educate from truth then how can you educate at all we give our kids to you not to be tricked but to be trained I've had a teacher in my Ministry who told me she said that she was she called a Boy by his gender and she was written up because one day he decided to dress just like a girl and then I got somebody else who came in there 14 years old and they don't know

140how to read when I asked them to read a book they don't know how to read and so instead of us focusing on manipulation I believe we should still be focusing on education and consider our kids consider our Christian kids that also want a fair right thank you our next speaker is Eileen Johansen changes in educational processes hello again thanks for having me I don't really want to be here but I feel it's my duty a bit of History a personal story 27 years ago my daughter was in seventh grade I have three daughters she was in seventh grade and I got a little slip of paper like this just like that you know I don't think all the parents got a slip of paper because it was easy to slip away you know for

141these kids but I I read it and uh they said it was going to be a health class it was going to be a HIV and AIDS program okay there was a little opt out thing about this big I did not bad I trusted the school I trusted so the day came when the program was implemented and my daughter came home pretty upset embarrassed what the program was was Lafayette College I was in Pennsylvania Lafayette College had College college students come and they uh they had posters so uh what happens is these seventh graders had to pick a poster and they had a lineup and make sure the posters were in the line of how you have sex how do you start how you finish including when the penis would relax and after they take

142the condom off graphic stuff I didn't know this I thought I was going to get a science a science they were going to get a science lesson they had another set of posters these posters separated safe sex and unsafe sex of course there were condoms that was a good one no condoms but they also had um anal sex and oral sex and the kids had a line up and set their posters of course with the anal set with the um with the um oral sex they were recommending dental dams you know anybody know what a dental dam is do you know what a dental dam is what hookers use when they get blow jobs okay so needless to say I I was in the school office in the morning looking for the principal but luckily

143I ran into the superintendent of schools was right there in the office and I asked him if he knew what a dental dam was he almost fell on the floor I told him I didn't know either but my seven my seventh grader found out in the morning this is a this is an atrocity they also had um index cards so that they could write ask questions and those college students were going to come the next day I say that we're in worse today we're worse today and you all sit on your hands and allow worse much worse to happen to these children and I cannot believe that you could approve of literature of this sort our next speaker is Stacy Campbell on retirement and teacher issues [Applause] good evening again I was here last month

144regarding my mother Paulette Brooks who has been a teacher for 28 years and 18 of those years we're here at Wake County I explained to you all how she passed away in March and prior to that in the whole month of February I had tried reaching out to the school to retire my mother and with no response after a month I end up going out to three different schools my brother and I trying to retire our mother um we got to the school the school sent us to central office central Office Centers to HR HR sent us back to the school and when we finally did get the help we needed and filled out the forms my mother realized that when she had retired before she had assumed that the beneficiaries were reset however we

145found out and going at the school that they weren't so she signed well she had me signed because I have the power of attorney a durable power of attorney matter of fact the general one any military durable one that goes beyond her death that um she signed um making me uh the administrator um so basically even though she did that four days before she passed away because the pro the paperwork was not finished processing in the HR department we were told it was not valid so that's like saying you said a beneficiary today and this weekend something happens and you pass away on Monday your family is told that your final wishes are not being fulfilled and that sucks even though I'm the administrator of my mother's estate all the funds went to her estate

146and according to the state guidelines of North Carolina you have to pay their bills and the only thing that the children anybody or is uh allowed it is 10 percent of that and seeing that my mother set the beneficiary and someone somewhere dropped the ball but I'm here because it's stating that uh with the North Carolina Retirement System that it was not completed today I received the email from Mr mccotter stating that um that uh that it wasn't the fault of them not completing the paperwork that there was one more form that may have been needed out there first time I've heard of it today I'm going to be here at every meeting until this is fixed I'm going to come back with the news I'm going to put this on blast because this is

147not fair that's not the way it works simply because it wasn't put into the system I'll be back more to continue our next speaker is Eileen Allen and age inappropriate books desensitized normalized most of us have been desensitized to accept what we once found unacceptable Rhett Butler's final words frankly my dear I don't give a damn caused a lot of stir in those early audiences they found it offensive today when a person an adult says damn we don't blink an eye the word has been normalized we have been desensitized our students are subject to crude profanity defended by the board parents call this vocabulary demeaning and vulgar and intellectually bankrupt is this the vocabulary that you want normalized for your children and our students if not speak up and act you have the authority to

148change policy and remove offensive language but beyond profanity this board supports an aggressive campaign to normalize aberrant sex and criminal pornography case in point is it's it's only normal it's found in middle schools supervised by board members hegerty Hershey Swanson Caulfield and Waters well what's only normal for Wake students juvenile underage hetero homosexual oral and anal sex at any age with anyone an abortion a more alarming one book is call me by your name found in high schools supervised by Miss John Miss Johnson hostelers and Miss Edmonds it's about a 17 year old boy who romanticizes his being raped by a college professor pedophile who later then coerces him to have scatological sex board members do you defend defense desensitizing teens to pedophilia if not if the normalizing a pedophilia and sexual grooming your students

149conflicts with your conscience speak up and act Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned that the good people of pre-war Germany that silence in the face of evil is evil to not act is to act and to act as an agent of evil those ordinary Germans remain silent and evil prevailed I ask you to to look at your conscience you know the evidence of normal thank you our next speaker is Jim Walsh policies and discussion [Applause] good evening I have discussed with you many times addressing obscenity and pornography in our schools I have been following your reviews on revisions of your policies and your procedures a little overwhelmed that you approved them so readily today but addressing everything except pornography and obscenity there's a law for that and you bypass it you know my wife and I just finished

150watching Tom Clancy's Jack Ryder Ryan series and it's interesting before each episode comes up it says sexually explicit vulgar language Etc and then it says 16 plus so I turned off my Roku and I went back in as a child because we have grandchildren and I tried to find that movie guess what I couldn't find it hmm that's sort of interesting isn't it so what's the similarity here similarity is technology is there we live in the RTP and this can be solved easy we have a grading system of movies we have a grading system of books we have a grading system of games obviously all of this can and has been brought into play and managing technology by the way go home and Tech search Barber stall shaving cream you want to bet on how

151many ads you'll get for shaving cream let alone razors think about that for a minute and you're telling me and us taxpayers that pay for this crap in our schools that is not age appropriate we're not Banning anything I don't care what you do on your time I don't care what other people do on their time I do care about laws I do care about frivolous spending of our money you guys have to stop and use everything capable of protecting our children you have heard over and over again what this is doing to our children in our society and you're responsible you talked about million dollars here a million dollars here I bet you I could find a company that'd be in here in a heartbeat [Music] thank you our next speaker is John Bella

152Dei you don't want to miss this no that's right okay um Dr Ing mentioned a movie it's called the sound of Freedom exploitation sexual exploitation of children if any of you would like to see it you have my email send me a note I will pay for two tickets for anyone who wants to go to that movie it's that important so thank you for giving me three minutes and every time I come here and I see you working all this day I love retirement so much more it's great so I went through your Dei slides 29 of them um I'm here to say it's going to be a money pit many companies have tried it a matter of fact there's a bill going through Congress right now to stop it at the FBI and Department

153of Defense it's a waste of money it's not equality it's Equity there's a huge difference so the promises of this Equity is to get a 98 graduation a 90 proficiency a 90 growth in Wake County there's nothing to back this up I could say I can give you 110 percent increase in grades I have nothing to prove it this is in five years how much are you spending on this and how much will this grow I started at a health care business I did over 200 clinics and hospitals I built the Holly Springs Hospital I.T project manager zero defects I had a group of just like you equality I hired the best I didn't hire someone because they felt like a unicorn that week that's what I was told to start doing so my team

154did over a thousand Hospitals and Clinics in the state of North Carolina when we opened Holly Springs Hospital we had zero I.T defects why because I hired the best and so what we're going to do here is we started with a director of Dei and then the emails came out and then that's when I was instructed to start hiring not your standard folks don't get the people that have the background that can do the job go outside and get that let me just ask you a question who would you want for a surgeon for your heart someone who's the best that works at NC heart and vascular or someone who well I won't even go there so the point being equality is all of us we're all given the same opportunities the same path to

155education Equity is pull the person down that's up there so you can rise up that's that's the real definition you're going to end up with an executive director you're going to end up with a VP the money will never stop because it'll just grow and you'll get nice little emails um we're not trying to ban anything as the gentleman before me said we're looking at age appropriate second degree exploitation of a child North Carolina General statute 14 190-17 distribute distribute transport well anyway it's there thank you our next speaker is Lana Witt on K-12 [Applause] good evening welcome back school board members so glad you're here and not on vacation and welcome interim superintendent Dr Randy Bridges and thank you for the work invested in locating and Doc locating and hiring Dr Robert Taylor today

156likely as many of you a Twitter thread crossed my path this one caught my eye because it was a University faculty member addressing concerns seen in his university economics classroom he encouraged readers that students would be much better prepared for University studies in business and economics had they encountered a quality economics primer in school and then he gave a link to one for free he stated that since his first faculty position in 2012 he's seen students knowledge plummet this is strikingly obvious he said in his field economics but he's also seen it in his colleagues history and other fields of study he believes this isn't a failure of instruction he believes it's outright sabotage to University Educators roles because to teach students he has no choice but to spend University class time to help them

157to number one fill gaps in their knowledge and then number two educate them to clear away false beliefs this lowers their level in quality of college education they graduate knowing less than previous cohorts and his alternative would be to presume that students have the knowledge that they need and just carry on and I can tell you as a prior educator with many colleagues that there are many K-12 Educators who just pass their students so that they can carry on without missing a year it'd mean failing a lot of students instead of educating them he said he noted that his only reasonable conclusion for what he experiences is that students have been betrayed by K-12 education they don't learn much compared to recent decades or miseducated and poorly prepared he noted merely as his experience which

158is limited to a decade of University teaching others may have different experiences but what he hears among history and other fields are similar few have heard of Robinson Crusoe know why there was a wall in Berlin or can read or write well he shared that this is not the student's failure it's a failure of instruction he notes that University students also have a fair amount of false knowledge and judging from comments from the University educator today this is a development at the University that's been going on for much more than a decade I bring this to our attention tonight because in the past decade families have Faithfully shared their experiences their students have gone from very successful math outcomes and reading outcomes and now they're failing our next speaker is Becky Lou Hobbs for interim

159superintendent followed by Kim Manny review of instruction that concludes public comment will now entertain a motion to return to closed session for reasons previously stated chair Mahaffey yes sir I would move that we return to closed session for the reason so stated in our agenda returning to closed session thank you