001foreign all right foreign good evening it is Tuesday June 20th 2023 at 5 30 p.m and we are calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I'd like to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in person Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject
002to action in accordance with General statute 143-318.17 [Music] um I will note we have 40 people that have signed up for a public comment uh which has exceeded last times numbers um and the social studies teacher in me loves the public engagement but um I do want to let you know that we're going to go for 45 minutes I am going to say you can speak for up to three minutes you do not have to speak for the whole three minutes so we can get people in time um I will also note that this is superintendent Moore's final board meeting um so how much time you wish to share with her is your gift to her but brevity no I'm just kidding brevity is uh always welcome and appreciated and as always if you are
003not able to stay [Music] um and you not called in that first 45 minutes you are welcome to email us all [Music] um and that is also a piece of public record so I do want to let you all know that that is possible if you are unable to stay or don't wish to um we do have a quorum and so I will ask that you all stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic to which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we will now move on to superintendent comments good evening through hard work and the support of their families and School staff the class of 2023 earned more than 150 million dollars in college
004scholarships that impressive dollar figure represents thousands of students who are well on their way to achieving great things in college and career I'd like to take a moment this evening to recognize just one of those students who earned a unique scholarship not only because of her strong academic performance but also her commitment to equity Victoria Hall who graduated last week from Leesville Road High School was named the recipient of a two thousand dollar Dr Martin Luther King Jr scholarship from the North Carolina Association of Educators Victoria has a 4.595 weighted GPA and has been accepted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of South Carolina and NC State University in addition to her excellence in the classroom the philosophies of Dr king led her to an intense commitment and engagement in her
005community she built a little free library for her neighborhood after the local library area was destroyed by fire LED School drives organized tutors for middle school students and created a service project recycling crayons to address environmental waste and lack of art supplies in local schools it's inspiring to see students like Victoria already affecting positive change in the world at a young age my thanks to her and all of our graduating seniors who are committed to making a difference four wcpss music educators recently were recognized by the East Central District of North Carolina band Masters Association for outstanding service to their students Helen Bishop received the Award of Excellence the highest honor of the association bestows Daniel Jarvis of Apex High School was named band director of the year of West Lake Middle School and Patrick
006Shipp of Garner Magnet High School both received the young director Award of Excellence Mrs Bishop taught in our district since 1997. she has been the band director at Apex Middle School since 2012 following a 15-year tenure at Ligon Magnet Middle School the Award of Excellence is given to a band director who has had an exceptional career in all areas of instrumental music education Mrs Bishop's bands have performed all over the state as well as at concert and Jazz Band festivals in Philadelphia Nashville Chicago St Louis New Orleans and other places in addition some of her former students have since gone on to become School band directors Mr Jarvis named band director of the year has also served as director of bands at Apex HIgh since 2015. he is responsible for directing the concert band's marching
007band spring musical pit and Jazz Band during his tenure the Apex Wind Ensemble has received Superior ratings each year at North Carolina music performance adjudications and the Apex marching band has won numerous local Grand Champion Awards Mr LaRosa Gonzalez and Mr ship each received the young director Award of Excellence which is given to outstanding band directors with seven or fewer years of experience Miss De la Rosa Gonzalez students at Westlake Middle have successfully placed in Solo and Ensemble All County and all district honors bands and her ensembles have received great feedback in a number of recent music festivals Mr ship is a Garner High alumnus who returned to become a band director at his alma mater in 2020. he's a proud member of the North Carolina music educators Association and the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
008Arts education plays a critical role in the growth and development of thousands of students every year and it takes highly trained and dedicated music educators like these to help students make the most of their talents congratulations on these well-deserved honors in closing yesterday we observed the Juneteenth holiday a commemoration of the end of slavery after the Civil War the holiday marks the occasion on June 19 1865 when Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas to inform Enslaved the black people of their freedom Juneteenth was made a Federal holiday in 2021 and our board voted last year to make Juneteenth a holiday for students and an optional work day for teachers many year-round teachers also took the opportunity last week to help their students learn more about the significance of this federal holiday one of
009those was Megan Floyd a 7th grade social studies teacher at Herbert Akins Middle School take a look at this brief snippet video of the lesson she led on Friday talk to me about what happened June 19th in Galveston Texas students at Herbert Akins Road Middle School knew they would have the day off for Juneteenth but 7th grade social studies teacher Megan Floyd wanted to make sure they understood why now it's a fairly new holiday that a lot of kids just don't know like what it is and I mean anytime they have a day off school it's important for them to understand like what is it that we're celebrating students were given the opportunity to dive in depth to learn a little more about this part of our nation's history and then I asked them what
010ended slavery and they had to do a little research tell me when did that event happen and how did that help bring it in slavery and then we shared what we learned and they watched a Ted Ed video that kind of Summer Freud felt that it was important that her students learned about freedom and what it can mean freedom is such an American ideal and I think it's important for us to always remember those freedoms and why we have our freedoms [Music] thank you superintendent more um appreciate the district taking the time to highlight the Juneteenth holiday in help understand parts of American history that some of us grew up not knowing about and understanding um our history helps us move forward so I appreciate that it is the time of clopening so our year-round
011schools are getting ready to end and reopen and we know that that is a big process and a big lift and I just want to wish them well they're experts at this at this point but I think it is a feat that is unique to Wake County Public Schools and I just want to lift that up and acknowledge it um our traditional calendar kids and our track one kids have been out for a while um and it is the time of Summer meal programs if you go to wcpss.net page 30967 you will find more about meal sites that are sponsored by the county and also by the state you can find those also at the um on the NC site finder map or by calling 1-8663 hungry or by texting food to 304 304 to
012see those locations that are near you you put in your address and it lets you know the three closest locations to your house I'm going to try this in my very Rusty Spanish okay thank you it's other folks can do better I do want to take a moment to thank um Russ Smith Russ has been our senior director of security for as long as I've been on the board he has in addition to being a familiar face at our board meetings worked to establish relationships with different law enforcement communities around the county gone to numerous BAC meetings PTA meetings to talk about something that is very near and dear to every parent and every school employee's heart and that is safety within our schools and I just want to thank Mr Smith for the work
013that he has done it has been tireless it has been huge and it is under his um direction that we have had our school safety audit that is leading um our direction to get safer schools which is always a noble goal in this day and age so thank you Mr Smith we appreciate you very very much um I also want to thank our 11th board member Mr Jonathan blumberg who has been advising and guiding us for quite some time he is taking a sabbatical I believe attending a wedding and um we wish you the best of luck um graduations I had the honor and privilege of going to 34 different graduations with superintendent more and during that time you not only see 11 000 students cross the stage you see the culmination of 13 years
014of work longer if they've been with us for Pre-K and it is joyful it is beyond joyful and it is soul filling and a reminder of what we do but I was able to talk to a former High School principal of Conan Morgan who we mentioned the last time that we were seated before you and um you heard many words about Conan but one of the things that I learned is that he was a leader in his school and that principal called him in and said we need to update our rules our school rules for the handbook and he had four rules and I think as we close this school year out I think it's important to share Conan's rules with the broader community there's only four take care of yourself take care of others
015take care of your community take care of your school that's it I think that resonates with so many of us in this room and superintendent more after sitting through 34 graduations beside you I know that you do not like the spotlight or any attention and knowing that this is your last board meeting and being respectful of your wishes I am simply going to say merci again by sure hegarty thank you chairman haffey so it is both a time of a time of completion a time of success a time of renewal we attended graduation ceremonies from students all over the county and it really was a wonderful and uplifting event that really helps to reinforce the the why I think behind behind what we do and I was pleased that I got to attend with so
016many of my fellow board members got to meet with so many of the parents and talk to the students and hear about all the wonderful things our students and our graduates are doing um like chair Mahaffey I have seen at some of these graduation ceremonies that our um dear superintendent is not one for the spotlight and in therefore in lieu of a long recounting of her many years of service to the district and all of her accomplishments I want to avoid getting one of those Roy Kent from the Ted lasso show looks so I I just want to give a very heartfelt thank you for for everything that you've meant to the district through your career thank you and um I think maybe I was cheating off Miss mahaffey's paper I also wanted to um
017acknowledge some other retirements that we did have I did want to congratulate and say thank you to our direct for our director of security Mr Russ Smith Mr Smith um a heartfelt thank you for your service um particularly for coming out to all the community meetings either live or on Zoom that I've asked you to do and you did with a smile over the years um thank you for providing a a voice of calm reassurance when it was needed an ear for sincere feedback and input when it was needed and for always being a reliable source for information thank you and then likewise I didn't have them as a district 11 I had him as District 10. uh we want to want to congratulate um Mr blumberg on his upcoming time off many of you
018may or may not know much about Jonathan blumberg status in the field of law but we are blessed that we do have one of the not only one of the top education attorneys but one of the top employment attorneys in the state who's been providing us good and solid and reliable legal counsel for quite some time Jonathan in addition to the solid counsel and advice and endless patience I did want to say thank you to you as well I hope you enjoy your time off buddy and I'm sure our paths will cross further down the line somewhere thank you and then with that um there are there are other plenty of other retirements in our districts special thanks to Andrew Livengood at Pine Hollow Mike Regan at Mills Park Faye Jones at Carpenter but there
019is one I do want to give a special shout out to because he became a principal in my district about the same time that I came onto the school board and I really feel some special recognition is warranted uh for my friend Ian Solomon if you don't know uh Ian Ian started off in Wake County Schools as an assistant principal at Cary high school at Durant Middle School got to leave go back to his hometown and work in Lenoir County um in the central office and as a principal before we lured him back back to Durant Middle School helped a lot of the great work they were doing at the Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy um before you know joining uh Leesville Road High School in 2019 to present he is the father of two
020he's the proud father of two Wake County Public School graduates including a graduate who is a member of the class of 2023 and so as both a friend as um you know seeing him retire as an educator and a leader of the school and then also just as a proud father I want to wish um you know Mr Solomon all the best and thank you for all the great things he's done for Leesville Road High School with great academics great Athletics and all of his support for the Arts and I hope you get some time off and get to rest and relax a little bit before taking on your next big challenge thank you Mr Hershey I can call somebody else no I'll be very quick um I just want to acknowledge our graduates but
021also I just want to say thank you to the families that have been in Wake County Public School those that are will no longer have a child I thought I was being pretty clear wow that was fantastic timing [Laughter] so as let me clarify to our families for supporting Wake County Public Schools those that are current those that are to come and those that no longer have kids in our Wake County Public Schools and um lastly I just want to say thank you to our staff for choosing to work in Wake County Public Schools it's a huge range a lot of a lot of people who make our schools go and as we're coming to the end of the year thank you for being here and please stay and that is all thank you Dr
022Ing good evening I just wanted to congratulate all the graduates this year I I had the honor of attending several of the graduations in my district this past a couple of weeks at Millbrook High School as well as Heritage and Wakefield and I was a specially moved at Wakefield and and Heritage when the kids with special needs came went across the stage it was very touching to me that they they were given the same acknowledgment and everybody applauded those times when those children was reeled across the stage and so it was very touching and also I had a chance to go to the project search on graduation as well and that was just a very encouraging to see as well the the the uh the students who graduate from that program with special needs that
023are that was held at the Embassy Suites which is where they also do all their on-the-job work and it was just very encouraging to see that the this hotel was able to give these students a chance to to shine and to be able to contribute to society and to make them feel a part of um you know the greater world and so I'm very encouraged by that and I I just hope that there will be more businesses that will be able to come alongside project search and and expand this type of a program and um and um you know I um this is my first time being a part of this uh these graduations and so it was just um very uplifting to me to see the the future of these students and and to
024see that you know that that the future is bright um and so um kudos to all of them and um just uh I'll be you know praying for them not in specifically to individual people but you know in general thank you Miss Edmonds thank you congratulations to all of our 2023 graduates it was a pleasure to celebrate so many of you since our last meeting and I'm looking forward to continuing School celebrations and end of year events at the year-round schools in District 5 in the coming weeks last Wednesday I attended the student health advisory committee meeting also known as Shaq and for those that may not know out in the public but also even on this board I am the board liaison to this committee however I have missed most of their meetings because
025it almost always conflicts with our facilities committee meetings but we're going to get that fixed so I was finally able to participate last week and wanted to share just a few things that um from that meeting they reviewed topics discussed from their meetings of the past year and they're preparing to a report to bring to us sometime in August that's their target time frame a couple of takeaways that I expect them to mention when they come to us they have had have spent rather a tremendous amount of time discussing the current Mental Health crisis more so than topics surrounding food or exercise they express concern that programs we have in place now with both our Employee Assistance Plan and efforts to support our students are not meeting the need with regard to mental health and
026we do know this but I expect them to share more with us when they when they come before us they also noted that our Jewel settlement um that they'll advocate for us to use that money on tobacco use and vaping prevention and I encourage them to hold us accountable for that I know that that was our intent that was expressed in the press release and we have all expressed concern about vaping in our schools and this settlement certainly offers us the opportunity to really invest in prevention and I look forward to hearing what those prevention efforts will be and how they'll be implemented I want to Circle back to our last meeting we heard a lot of hateful comments directed at our lgbtq plus community including comments directed at our lgbtq plus staff and students
027and it is still pride month and I want to talk about what happened five days later at the 2023 Tony Awards two openly non-binary actors became the first ever to win Tony's for acting Alex Newell and Jay Harrison gee gee is a North Carolina public school graduate they graduated from ee Smith High School in Fayetteville Oscar winner Ariana Dubose an openly queer graduate of this school district hosted the Tonys for the second year in a row so in this time while our queer friends and neighbors Educators and students allies and others are under attack including here in this space by way of public comment know that history and progress are being made and this board will continue to support lgbtq plus staff and students finally thank you superintendent Moore for your many years of service
028to Wake County I am so sad that we won't get to work together longer but as someone who values the work-life balance I am truly excited for you to enjoy time with your family and your friends and experience new adventures so I wish you all the best and I hope that our paths cross again Miss Waters thank you chairman happy it is June my favorite month of the year for many reasons including my birthday and so [Laughter] has so many celebrations to attend I am so still on on high from all the graduation and including the graduations of our youngest Learners those Pre-K graduations will steal your heart and so glad that so many parents and loved ones show up for our Little Learners and this year I had a chance to attend the graduation
029of my high school Millbrook High School so that was extremely special and and so thankful for all of our graduates and want to congratulate everyone whether you're going on to college to Career to military service to change the world in some way your impact is going to be felt so so proud of everyone and want to shout out a couple of our maybe unsung parts of our graduation ceremonies are ushers we had some really amazing ushers who brought personality and style and grace to our graduation ceremonies and also our Orchestra is so impressed by the pop and Circumstance at all of our graduations so for those who are musically gifted which I am not I really applaud that that special time that we had with our Orchestra as well and I want to also acknowledge
030our school counselors at Southeast Raleigh high school they invited me over for a wonderful presentation they were all dressed in really cool shirts I hope I'll be able to get one in the future but just to talk about the work that they're doing in our community and I really appreciated their intentionality to make sure that all of our students are getting the supports that they need to be their best and so look forward to having them share in a more broad audience about the great work that they're doing in our community and I think chairman happy for bringing up the summer Mill program that is a really important benefit for so many in our community so thank you for making that announcement and I would be remiss if I didn't shout out as everyone else
031has those who are around this table I've been on the um the board just over a year in this the seating has changed so much but a couple who were here when I um joined the board and who have meant so much I'm looking over at Jonathan Bloomberg who is such a person of character and integrity I just really value valued his just really strong desire to do what was right and I always really appreciate your integrity and I think that will always stick with me and so I thank you for your your dedication your service and your your heart for um for integrity and for what's best for our students and I of course have to I'm sorry I'll get in line but I I I've shared this story before but my first meeting
032with superintendent Moore was me running her down in public as a parent with a problem and um and she really made me feel at that moment that my child was the only student in the district and not knowing that you know months later I would be sitting next to her on the board so um she's everything that um that that you hear about her I'm just really a passionate educator in looking forward to um seeing some pictures of her and her grandkids um in the coming months but a life of service and education I think is just a great legacy and so so grateful for the time that we've had to sit next to each other so wishing you well so thank you thank you Miss Waters Miss Caulfield foreign I don't know if this
033is on okay I wanted to say congratulations to all our our seniors this year I had the pleasure of celebrating with Knightdale um Wake Forest High School Roseville Heritage High School and East Wake high school I felt honored to be on stage to see all those smiling faces and excited faces across the stage and accept their diploma and they walk off on the other side and start their new Journey they will all that it'll look different for all of them and hold on a second I just kind of I'm not having a very good day with technology today so my first speech disappeared um yeah I got it um that that'll all look different for many and I wish the best of luck to all of them it was very impressive to hear the amount
034of scholarships that were earned by our students I and I did have it in my honest speech because I kind of not jotted down what they had but it was it was an incredible amount of scholarships that our students earned so um just a big pause and kudos to them we have many talented students they've worked very hard and they should be proud of their successes and their accomplishments it was definitely my pleasure to see the faces that were new to me crossing the stage but I was also very honored to see faces that I have watched grow up all these years into fine young adults um it's an exciting time and I'm sure our graduates had mixed emotions of excitement to be done with high school but also a little nervous about what was
035on the other side of that stage and what that would bring now it's the time for you to go shine so enjoy your summer and your next chapter I've not had a tremendous amount of time to work with superintendent more but I wish you all the best in your retirement and everything that that will bring along with Mr Smith so this is uh I guess over there and it has not been a long time for us to work with everybody but we have spent plenty of hours together so we've gotten to know everybody a little bit so I wish I wish you both the best of luck and it was my pleasure um and I will miss having my neighbor Jonathan next to me but enjoy your time away congratulations I hope you will come
036and enjoy and join us again but if you don't I do hope that you um I wish you the best and I hope you'll send us some photos of you relaxing somewhere Mr Swanson thank you um okay just make sure there we are it's like this thing is not on um yes so it does seem a little odd not being able to drive down to the convention center after spending as many times down there um but congratulations to all of our uh to the class of 2023 and such an inspiration just seeing the folks walk across the stage to begin their new journey and you know it was to your appoint Mr heckerty it's our why of why we do this work and seeing the lives we've impacted and the lives we may not impact
037just seeing the great things um was great I also have to give a very special shout out to Carrie High the imps for being voted as the high school mascot in America um I have to say Carrie high and all the schools in District 9 hold a special place in my heart but Carrie High congratulations um and I also want to congratulate principal Ray at Crossroads Flex on her retirement and all the staff that are retiring um thank you for your service and your dedication to students and along those lines to Mr Smith I also want to say congratulations and thank you for the work that you do every day and it's not a tough job um but you you do it with Grace well you've done it with Grace and and dignity and I
038applaud you for that and I want you to enjoy your retirement and and and enjoy um superintendent more I'm just going to say thank you as well and not going to belabor but thank you for everything I will say I'm going to miss institutional knowledge and all of the questions that I've raised knowing that you have an answer to that so I appreciate that and our next person has big shoes to fill and to the 10th board member I want the record to be known that I gave Mr Bloomberg that that title and Mr Bloomberg it will stay with you um but congratulations and and enjoy your time I will most definitely um you do keep us I was thinking that Miss Caulfield was going to mention it but you do keep us on our
039toes and keep us organized and dignity so I thank you for that and enjoy your time um trying to make sure I do not miss anything else off of my notes but if I did please charge it to my head and not my heart um and to the students of of you know to those folks that are ending the school year congratulations get your rest and looking forward to another successful academic school year in a couple of months and to close this out yes sorry I I did I it's what happens I wanted to close with this I mean Miss Edmonds kind of circle back to and I just wanted to read this that I thought was very fitting and I did not get a chance to get this button but I read something along
040the lines but just dealing with all the the hate rhetoric that we've been hearing this the quote is not mine that just simply says why be racist sex is homophobic or even transphobic when you can simply just be quiet so I think that's very setting so please know that so that will be my last remark all right and intentionally I wanted to have Miss Johnson hosler uh close us out who was the board chair when superintendent Moore was hired so Miss Johnson Hustler thank you and I should have cued you to go to the back so that light I in which I'm a person that's very similar so I'm going to let you know that you'll be last so if you want to exit and watch me on YouTube but in later you can uh
041so I will stop because of course I'm going to say more than thank you um but I will start by thanking our Educators who joined me on Friday night in Fuquay for the two day for the first day of the Juneteenth celebration called manifest so thank you to Emily Jesse and Paige McGovern for joining me and it was talking about the um the impact or what you may or may not believe the impact on hip-hop and Hip-Hop culture is to stem and I abs and Pedro govern wanted everybody to share their favorite hip-hop song except for her so it was a great time so thank you to those Educators for being willing to get on stage and use the cipher which is a concept that's used by the hip-hop culture so thank both of them
042for joining me on the stage with several other colleagues but those were our two Fuquay Educators who joined me um I could go on about graduation it is it is certainly the culmination of the why but this year I had my own why that led me to this seat and that is my own daughter who I cannot thank Dr Saunders and Mr ship at Millbrook High School enough for initially agreeing to let me stay in there but then surprising me at the end to allow me to give my daughter her diploma and um she is the reason why I ran for the school board because I saw the importance of ensuring that kids like her and people like me were reflected in the conversation and as my one of my favorite heroines Shirley Chisholm says
043is that we have to make a seat at the table and I hope me being here was really about her seeing that she deserves a seat at the table and so does everyone else regardless of their race class gender or sexuality to Mr Swanson's point to say that we all deserve our voices to be heard we don't have to agree but we deserve the right to be heard so certainly it was a pleasure and she also let me hug her on stage which I was totally not prepared for what I was prepared for is her licking her tongue at me that Mr Swanson tried to catch but he missed um that's what I expected I call her Sour Patch Kid sweet and sour it depends on the day so thank you to Millbrook for allowing
044me a moment that neither of us will remember and I beg my family not to yell but when you're in the moment trying to live in the moment I could hear nothing except for the fact that she really was embracing me on that stage and on the other side of that stage is going to be a New Journey for her and which is a reminder to me I'm extremely proud of our graduates and hopefully as my Titans at South Garner say whatever whatever e they're going to enrollment enlistment employment or entrepreneurship that that their days be bright but also to The Villages like mine who allow me to sit at this table and still rear an amazing human being 11 000 of those students also had Villages and sometimes it's their parents and sometimes it's
045not but the villages who made that possible thank them because sometimes as parents we aren't always the one there and also as they get older we're not they're Confidant so thanks to the Villages who insured those students got across that stage whether it was summa laude or lordy lordy as a personal hardiness Southeast are all he said so either way thank you to The Villages who and are in that Village includes every one of our Educators who touch that student's lives knowingly or unknowingly so so thank you all for that as well um so is just having noted um my tenure as chair was like most chairs had lots of things that I didn't expect to deal with this chair I will start with Mr Smith we had a horrific incident at one of our
046schools in eastern wake and he two of them actually one at Roseville one at elementary school and he held my hand and walked me through the process every step of the way and if you probably know I'm certainly opinionated lots of them and a few times I certainly let him tell me how to navigate the situation because I didn't know and I trusted you because of your calmness your integrity and your love for all of our students but also for every single person who sits at this table regardless of who they are you equally valued us and I always knew that and even when I did what you asked me not to do like call the D.A for one of our schools well you didn't tell me not to you recommend it we deal with
047it internally but thank you for still supporting the through my tenure and certainly those were two incidents that I could not have done that without you thank you very much um to Mr Bloomberg again is Chairman happy knows you have your weekly call and sometimes they're tinies and sometimes they're not but I do certainly consider you a friend and I think our paths will continue to cross we've talked about cheerleading with our children and and people know I don't I use I don't use that term loosely but it's people who are value added to you as a human being and you certainly were value-added to me during my tenure and continue to be and your kindness I mean people talked about your Brilliance as an attorney but your kindness also is something I think is
048important you still check on me you still say are you okay Miss Johnson Hassler um I mean people don't always do that right we take for granted because people are here and present they're good but that's a kindness that I there's one thing I haven't heard that I certainly have experienced in and I'm truly appreciative for um the relationship that we've developed but most importantly making sure that I kept the district in good standings throughout my tenure especially so making sure I didn't make any mistakes at work so thank you very much so it's our 10th board member um superintendent Moore I had the great privilege of being chair when you were hired and I consider it a privilege um and there's so much I could say about you but um and I've said to
049you multiple times that I feel a kindred spirit to you you're strong yet vulnerable You're direct and firm yet kind um but I also know that underneath that exterior you care deeply which is why this is hard and that is something people don't get to see and I will repeat what I said to you then is that your vulnerability is your superpower and I'm glad you let us see that through easy decisions hard decisions um your character is Bar None um it just is um and when we don't agree we're going to have a conversation because I know that you care and you also knew that I cared um I will also say as a woman in leadership one of the things that I know that you will pass on to your daughters is that
050women often undersell themselves and undervalue themselves and I know that you also remember when we were hiring you I said if this was a man they'd be asking us for the moons and you didn't you said I am doing this because I love and care about this district and every student and I know that you meant that to the core of your being and I personally won't forget that because again people know now because we're hiring for our next superintendent but it is a negotiation in your negotiation with me was about the love of this district and that will forever ring true to me no matter what so again my apologies for doing something neither of us alike which is the spotlight but I would be remiss if you walked away from this without me
051publicly thanking you for also doing this with me right I've been chair with a superintendent who had longevity of being a superintendent not just in this District but other districts and I certainly felt that it was a partnership and it's also what I would say to the next superintendent and chairman happy that it should be a partnership when someone's new because you were learning to navigate new Waters and you did that with integrity but also with your heart on your sleeve which is why this is hard for you so thank you for giving Wake County Public Schools and every student and every educator and every one of our employees so much of you and I know your family especially those greens are going to be glad to get you back so thank you for everything
052that you gave to the district and especially thank you for what you gave to me and most importantly which I was going to hold it up but I forgot to dig it out my bag of scarves the superintendent and I both are very very OCD um and I have said to other board members they did not have to follow our crazy but we like to match every graduation and there's certain shades of colors that we were not able to accomplish and so she found the last two shades um to match all of our high schools that I did not have so I promise board members that as the as Mr Swansea says is the OG of the board I will share for those of you who want to pocket square or a scarf at graduations
053I am not attending next year so I will share but thank you very much for leaving not just your legacy and your thumbprint on this District but also our love of being OCD thank you superintendent more thank you very much I love the caveat of that I won't be attending I noted that um I did have a backside to my page which was one item long and I just want to wish um the person that keeps my head on straight as chair and our calendars organized um and sits in the back of the room and I I want to say I think herding cats is part of it is a kind way of saying it maybe but I is um just wish Melissa Allen a happy birthday so a milestone birthday yes and so with
054that we will move on to a motion to approve the meeting agenda Mr Swanson Madam chair I would like to make an addendum to the uh agenda I would like to move item I I under Finance number letter B to action okay and thank you for requesting that ahead of time and Miss Alan will make that note um is there a second second all right we have a motion in a second to approve the meeting agenda with um moving the I believe it's the explanation of voluntary benefits to action which was discussed during today's work session all in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right okay we now are going to move on to public comment speakers commenting on items on tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics and
055again on agenda means things that we are voting on whether on consent or action um not necessarily things that were heard earlier today in committee meetings or work session all other speaker speakers will be heard in order of sign up and again as we did last time we are asking our students to go first and that is are you are you guys Cadets or ambassadors ambassadors all right um we've got some Die Hard Girl Scouts here oh hold on I got a lot more to read [Laughter] but I mean the Girl Scouts are prepared all right all other speakers will be heard in order of sign up if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy State said the board chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting
056the remaining speakers to the podium again I'm going to put a 45 minute timer on CE those 45 minutes has expired however any speakers go through we're going to stop public comment we will go through the rest of the um the meeting agenda before we get to closed session and then we will finish with the remaining speakers again if you are unable to say you are welcome to email us or come back another time um 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
057students may discuss issues and matters of General concern concerns related to Personnel issues or student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies in the interest of maintaining civility into Quorum speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the board of education and to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general public please remain at the podium during your speaking time at any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to the board attorney either before or after your comments I'm also going to ask that if you have materials that are you are sharing during your comment piece please bring them with you to your seat and not in the aisle during public comment
058you may speak for up to three minutes please note that the microphones are adjustable and when you begin speaking the green light at the podium will illuminate showing that your three minutes has begun a yellow light will light up and you will hear a brief audible tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your three minutes and when your speaking time is up there will be a red light and an audible Tome signifying that your time is up when your time is up the next speaker will be called to the podium speakers are asked to respect the time limit and speak for no more than three minutes you may choose to speak for less time With That Girl Scout Troops 653 Jasmine Chloe Dakota Kira Teresa and Layla you are all up [Music] a concerned
059about the lack of mental health resources that are available to high school students today based on our on our personal experience the Mental Health Resources you get in school are a coin toss depending on who your counselor is same with a psychologist and school nurse some counselors don't provide enough or the right resources that could help students that are struggling this is something members of our troop have experienced and has led them to see that help isn't widespread and is and as available as it should be this raises another concern that even if a student is able to reach a counselor they won't be able to get the help or resources they need due to counselors Focus mainly on academic support instead of mental health issues in September 2022 WRAL reported the Wake County school
060system is now offering in-school mental health services at 40 schools provided by 16 therapists with plans to expand again soon after reviewing the school mental health Improvement plan policy shlt003 we were concerned that only 10 schools will be added to the rotation in phase three and wondered about the timeline in adding those schools in Wake County there are 198 schools with 69 being middle and high schools so even though 40 schools were served this year the majority of students are not being offered mental health assistance at their school there are resources for help on the main wcpss webpage under counseling services but not many options for resources inside the schools the pamphlet we have created is not only in physical copies but also online so it can be easily accessible for students this pamphlet has
061a collection of different resources relating back to mental health from offering help to students who are struggling with depression and anxiety to students who may be facing abuse whether that be at home or an unhealthy relationship some of the resources included with within our pamphlet include links and QR codes to the National Suicide Hotline the Trevor Project the National Domestic Violence Hotline and many more we aim to create a collection of reliable sources that offer the most help to students our goal is to get these resources to as many people who need them as possible we know there is more work that can be and should be done to increase mental health support and hope the board will support our efforts and allow these pamphlets to be shared with Wake County high schools and even
062more in the future thank you foreign Bodie followed by Mary Richardson [Applause] Harold Bode and Mary Richardson will follow Mr Bodie good evening my name is Harold Bodie I'm the CEO of neopart thank you for the opportunity to speak today my company is the other choice on an item before your agenda today called services to provide inventory and parts ordering services which is essentially picking the business to run the parts room that provides all the parts to the maintenance facility in addition to the three million dollar management fee the the school district will buy about 30 million dollars of Parts through this contract from this vendor so there's about 33 million dollars at stake in this contract uh which I think underscores why it Warren's taking a closer look first I want to commend the
063county on running your parts room with a third party many school districts and bus fleets around the country are moving to this type of business model and my company has done this for 16 other bus fleets around the country it's a growing trend I'd like to give you three reasons why you should pause to more thoroughly understand the contract you are approving first potential savings on the table here is several million dollars the savings on the management fee alone ours versus theirs is 2.3 million and that equates to 49 annual teacher salaries and about 129 000 hours of more bus drivers this savings is only the management fee portion as well an aspect of our proposal was guaranteeing savings on the 30 million dollars of part spend uh next second that there is clear evidence
064that a very thorough procurement hasn't been done here the RFP was issued to the public only two weeks before the due date and no site visits were allowed this is highly unusual uh this these big procurements are usually open for several months and bidders are invented invited to visit on site but more than anything else that I can say today the fact that the incumbent's first offer was selected without any negotiation is truly shocking uh the fact there was no attempt to negotiate a better price I think is a red flag that this deserves to be the whole procurement deserves to be looked at a little more closely finally uh you have a viable option to more thoroughly understand this Choice hire a third party consultant to evaluate the procurement the payoff and savings would
065be 100 fold uh if if there's a different decision made but even then but even without that you can can save a fair amount of money just by negotiating with the party that's about to be selected thank you our next speaker is Mary Richardson followed by Caitlin Daly good evening I'm Mary Richardson I live in Holly Springs the original topic I was intending to speak on tonight was not listed on tonight's agenda you're budgeting is what I landed on instead once again and looking over the budget items set to be voted on tonight I found the Consulting contract for 23.24 to be quite interesting the board is being asked to approve 1 million sixty thousand eight hundred dollars to bring the total contract value to 10 million 392 674.50 for Cummings Management Group Incorporated it's
066currently providing direct executive management oversight to the facilities design and construction Department okay I'll give you we need nice buildings for our students to come to but Cummings is also working on facilities organizational alignment review and refinement of processes and procedures and capacity development in areas including stakeholder relationship management and professional development stakeholders who are the stakeholders I say it's the students and the parents of the students but funding is available for this contract because the CIP program management budget was canceled and an annualized cost reduction to this contract of 687 440 is being realized as a result of transferring the contract position to in-house staff well maybe we need to transfer more things to in-house staff instead of Contracting to consulting firms although maybe you do need a consulting firm for your bus repair
067I'm sorry but those numbers just don't add up to me 687 440 is quite a bit short of the total contract value of 10 million 392 674.50 I saw contracts for landscaping and janitorial but nothing to invest in quality curriculum or library books they're not sexually explicit how about funds to provide additional tutors for those students that are still struggling as a result of two years of closed schools I think your budget priorities are a little skewed toward the outward appearance of the building and grounds and not on the actual stakeholders which are the children you are responsible to educate the parents that are entrusting you with their children are expecting them to learn reading math reasoning skills and not to be turned into sexual deviance because you would prefer to provide them with inappropriate
068material during the school year I would request that you stop wasting our tax dollars on the consultants and Equity projects that you're not providing a valuable return on our investment our next speaker is Caitlin Daly followed by May Mitchell [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Caitlin Daly I am a Wake County mom and I felt compelled to come speak to you even though I do not like speaking in public after the last school board meeting where I saw attacks on my community the lgbtqia plus community um I came to voice my support for those of us that do not support the Banning of books and the removal of books in our Public School classrooms I want to thank the board members who are focusing on actual barriers to learning instead of culture wars um
069and I want to thank you for focusing on barriers such as food insecurity and providing resources to students that they may not otherwise get at home and not on illustrations that any teenager with a computer can find much worse on Google for free um I also want to thank those board members who are doing what is within their power to advocate for paying teachers and support staff a livable wage thank you our next speaker is May Mitchell followed by Ashley Reynolds my name is May Mitchell I have two children in the Wake County school system and I've had an opportunity to speak before and I imagine I will probably continue to speak even though my words and thoughts are not new or original I am hoping to provide balance feedback to counter a very vocal
070minority because of the importance of speaking in the face of bigotry and hate and the cost of Silence to our staff and students one of my favorite quotes about the late Justice Ginsburg is about the power of descents descents are written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of a court and the descents are not law however they can connect can carry significant weight and they're often cited and used to make changes and even reversals and the Very laws that they're written about her quote is descent speak to a future age it's not simply to say my colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way but the greatest descents do become Court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant View so that's what the dissenters hope
071that they are writing that for today but for tomorrow a dissent or a thoughtful criticism that makes a real contribution takes so much time and effort because they're not reactive they're proactively creating what's next I see a lot of reactions in this space I'm witnessing these meetings becoming more and more divisive and I'm witnessing people discharge Their Fear and rage on all of you and this is not the appropriate place to do that and it feels important to me to acknowledge that publicly I want to also use this time to Express gratitude the Wake p-t-a-d-e-i team hosted a courageous conversations workshop for the community there are many people on the panel from a school psychologist to a house representative from our state but what I found most powerful from the panel was the voices of
072two students in high school one who's an African-American young man and another high school student who identifies as queer it was incredibly meaningful to me to hear from them the harm of book bands and how important representation is to them and their friends I will continue to say that one of the biggest strengths of the school system is a diversity within it I also recognize that can be incredibly challenging because of having to meet such a wide area of needs I also want to express my gratitude to the school board members Tyler Swanson I voted for you and I appreciate your voice and represent representation of my community I've had the privilege of knowing Miss Monico Johnson Hassler in a previous professional role and I'm thankful to have your voice on this board to speak
073for students families and staff I do not have the privilege of knowing everyone on this board I recognize that you have chosen this role to support our public schools and regardless of whether we agree on what that support should look like I appreciate that you have chosen to act I'll end with the brene brown quote that I am trying to internally time is up thank you very much our next speaker is Ashley Reynolds followed by Susan book hello sorry my name is Ashley Reynolds and I am a Wake County Parent first of all thank you to the board and especially thank you to all the teachers and Librarians and our Wake County Schools I would like to address what I want for my child at school and my parental rights I want my child to
074feel included and accepted so he can be his best self so he's comfortable to raise his hand and participate and so he can absorb information without anxiety over his identity and he does thanks to policy code 1150. now on to my parental rights it is my right to know what my child is being taught and I do thanks to policy code 3210 I also read the syllabus I volunteer in the classroom and I talk to his teachers another thing I want my child to have is access to books even books I don't like I look forward to having difficult conversations with my son that I might not otherwise have it's my parental right that he has provided reading materials deemed appropriate by his school librarian for some of you this may be surprising but I
075also get a pit in my stomach from things in books sometimes I feel uncomfortable I take a deep breath and I use that and teach it into a teaching moment but has my son ever come home and shown me things from the school library that gives me that feeling no I can go to his school library and see what he sees I can talk to his librarian about the books he's interested in and I can talk to him about books I don't want him looking at and I can access that information my parental rights are fully intact within his school library we parents who are not offended by books still have worry and fears over inappropriate information just like all parents Roblox PornHub Fortnight Discord these are the information Outlets we worry about on these
076sites we have little to no control over what is seen and heard these things are not allowed in our schools policy code 3226-4205 and for that I am grateful so thank you again school board members of our school staff and especially librarians our next speaker is Susan book followed by Carolyn bahey Susan book followed by Carolyn bahy superintendent more I am not sorry farewell superintendent more and thank you for all the many ways you've served Wake County thank you for doing what you could to keep my child and every child safe in very dangerous times that for that is one of your Legacies don't be ashamed of it wear it proudly you've heard us rant and rave you've stoically endured you've represented represented us very well here at the board but also in our community
077you have been a shining star for Wake County my child got to go to the right school for a small period of time it's a research School and I have you know that not only do they let their children graduate the school but all employees go through a graduation as well so I hope today you feel that you have graduated into a new Wonderful Life the first time I met you of course I confronted you about the crisis in special education and I still feel that this is an ongoing crisis and I urge the board to take up this this problem this crisis I urge more then and I urge you all now that um sorry um that this is an all hands on deck problem this is not something that we can just put
078aside we need all hands on deck so you've done a lot superintendent Warren I thank you but there is so much more left to do our next speaker is Caroline Becky followed by Janet Peterson hello my name is Caroline behe and I live in Raleigh North Carolina I'm the mother of a rising kindergartner so I hope to come visit you for the next 13 years here now um class 2036. um I've had the privilege of going through the process of looking at kindergartner kindergartens and elementary schools for the past six months and it has been a journey I have visited three different elementary schools and we've finally settled on one and all three of their schools are incredible thank you when I took my child to the elementary school she's going to style the first
079thing she walked into was the media library and her eyes just lit up she's so excited and as a parent I just I can't believe she's old enough to go to school but it's amazing to see her so excited and I just want to say as a mother I do not support Banning any books and I um thank you that's all I have our next speaker is Janet Peterson followed by Janet Weiss thank you hi um I want to talk about the pavement education project the website is pavementeducationproject.org or.com it's a group of citizens that have read and reviewed books that are located in Wake County Schools as well as books and schools from 19 other districts throughout the state we have emailed you we have read these books to you we have all but
080begged you to do something about the inappropriate materials that are in the schools maybe when we get a new lawyer maybe you'll take another look at 3200 and work on defining pervasive vulgarity in books maybe you will Define it and develop criteria I brought a lot of signs last time with the word count it's not just the content it's the word count and still we get Silence from you see I don't really understand I want to tell you about someone called Jamie Wyckoff he's a lifelong resident of Burke County he served his community professionally he was a volunteer for two decades a parent and he made a series of YouTube videos that featured him reading excerpts from several books that can be found in his County and in Wake County okay and every one of
081his videos included warnings about what he was going to read and and we also have that on our website and in spite of that his YouTube channel was shut down for explicit content and policy violation if the content found in these books are too explicit for YouTube how can they be appropriate for minors so I really don't understand that so my point is why are you working so hard to keep these books in the schools I also thought about policy 3210 um why are you just saying parents have to challenge the books there are lots of Administrators and teachers who are unhappy about some of the books that are in schools probably as well as in supplemental reading um they you talked about students having a voice and what's appropriate I think the administrators and
082Educators also need that voice I want you to do your job I want you to uh help make those decisions on what is appropriate and what is not appropriate this is not about books that we don't like this is not about um about what your sexual preference is other than we don't need to know children don't need to know what your sexual preference is we don't really care what kinky thing you're into children do not need to know please do your job our next speaker is Jennifer white and Miss Peterson if you could please miss Peterson as stated before can you please take your materials back to your seat thank you Miss Jennifer Weiss followed by Charles Washington ma'am they were yep just took them away thank you good evening Madam chair Mr Vice chair
083and other members of the Board of Education my name is Jennifer Weiss my husband and I have lived in Wake County for more than 30 years we raised our children here over the years I have volunteered in Wake County Public Schools and most recently I was hired as a literacy tutor at a title one Elementary School for the 2022-2023 school year every school day after saying the Pledge of Allegiance the school receptionist reminds the school Community to remember our frogs friendship respect order and safety good judgment and self-control tonight I would like to talk briefly about respect every child in our schools and every child's family deserves to be treated with respect Children and Families come in all shapes sizes and colors they have different backgrounds heritages and faiths children come to school to learn
084and no matter how they look how they learn or what their background race ethnicity religion gender gender identity or sexual orientation or anything else that I've left out they deserve to feel safe and respected I am deeply troubled by negative comments and attacks on members of the lgbtqia plus community whether they are school children or family members of school children staff teachers or administrators attendees of board meetings they are members of our community and deserve to be treated respectfully I'm also here to speak out against efforts to ban books in our schools the fact is that many of the books that are being objected to are written by people of color or depict people of color or lb lgbtqia plus characters residents of our community should not have books stripped from their shelves because a
085small vocal minority reads passages out of context and or distorts the value of books if those parents don't want their children to read certain books from the library that is a matter that can be handled between the family and the school but they should have no right to prevent other members of our community from having access to book access to books period thank you superintendent Moore for your many years of service and your leadership and thank you to our members of the board for your leadership and service thank you for this opportunity [Applause] I'd like to remind folks to be respectful to the speakers our next speaker is Charles Washington followed by Tom Everly Charles Washington all right Mr Everly are you here all right you will be followed by Amy Williams my name is
086Tom Everly my wife and I are long-time Carrie residents we raised our kids here and they attended Wake County Public Schools from grades K-12 I'm speaking in support of our school board teachers Librarians and School staff and against those who want to force policies in our schools it would take us back to the 1950s we are supporters of our public schools that create a great learning environment support our children on a daily basis we appreciate their efforts to constantly try to improve we're concerned about the extremist groups that are trying to Gaslight the public into believing that there is something wrong or nefarious with what is going on in our schools the truth is that every day our hard-working teachers show up to provide a learning environment where all children in our diverse Community can
087be can be can learn and thrive one of these extremist groups is moms for Liberty here are a few facts about them their leadership at the national and and Statewide locations have a history of harassing school boards teachers and Librarians including being arrested and requiring police presence they will not reveal their funding sources they are aligned with organizations that want to privatize schools they have stated that utopians socialists totalitarians and the U.N are using public schools to undermine freedom and Christianity they have shown up alongside the proud boys of white nationalist extremist group at multiple protests they actively reveal private contact information about you board members teachers and Librarians who are then harassed at their homes and places of work they are considered a hate group an extremist organization by the several Southern Poverty Law
088Center these extremist groups did not want to recognize the fact that our school population is diverse it includes children of color kids from other countries and ethnic backgrounds and kids that are lgbtq Plus yes kids they want all children to be raised in some fictitious Leave it to Beaver Our Father Knows Best white patriarchal school system that ignores reality they want to turn back the clock on progress that we've made to times that never really existed in reality the good old days were a time where people of color and lgbtq plus Community were repressed and hidden away to make life conform to some straight white paternal image where those people who fit that mole could be comfortable well change is uncomfortable but it's inevitable we've come a long way since the good old days of
089repression in the 1950s and 60s and I'm not going to head back there we need to keep and improve our current School environment where our children can all succeed and where they can read about and model people that are like themselves and learn how to support those that are different thank you our next speaker is Amy Williams followed by Ben Chapman Amy Williams followed by Ben Chapman okay good evening um I have some really heartfelt things to say here I'm just a mom a wife and a mother of three kids here and my husband and I are parents of three children that have attended Wake County Public School since 2015. and I had a very dear close friend of mine asked me if I was against public schools and that question kind of struck me
090because I thought no I'm not against public schools I'm a graduate of public schools my husband's a Kerry high school graduate right here and I have immediate family that are teachers and staff in public school systems all around the states I mean I was first front and center in line trying to get the schools open make masks mask optionals attended and spoke at board meetings I mean I was one of the first speakers coming in here after the shootings in Texas last year I've been about elected officials and board members on school policies you see I've been trying to get my kids in in school with a sense of normalcy since 2020 since they were in third and fourth grade and now we've since then we've watched our daughters struggle in math and there have
091been many tears at the kitchen table homework time and now I understand that couple that used to come here week after week about the math curriculum I get it now permission slips are still coming home that they have the right to mask our children I've been forced to have a conversation with our daughter at 10 regarding sexuality where she was really too young to understand it we've also hardly had a week or at least one of my three children come home to tell me about the fights and the disruptions in class and let's not talk about the code red and yellows that are more frequent in Wake County than not so my husband and I finally sat down to write the pros and cons to keep them our children in public school and the result
092was the only thing keeping our kids in school was their friends the cons or the lack of school safety disruptions in class school government overreach subject matter being taught non-age appropriate books decline in academics busing which is why we carpool and no textbooks or curriculum set home so about six months ago we started researching other options particularly homeschoolers homeschooling and we were shocked and surprised to find out during our due diligence about the amount and abundance of parents researching and walking in the same direction that we were it was phenomenal it was clearly apparent we were not alone I was even more shocked to find out that many of the co-ops are capping and quickly due to the rapid increase of enrollments and this really surprised us we've had the privilege of sitting in and
093watching some of these various Co-op classroom settings where they've been taught Latin to stem and I'm here to tell the board and the staff and the parents if they're listening that it is night and day these kids are very smart attentive well-mannered kind welcoming and they love learning they don't have all this other static around him clearly we have felt it was a better choice for our children so the question that started this whole speech am I against public school system the key word is system I really wish Public Schools were better but until the system has changed and we're we're pulling our three children out I'm disappointed that all this time I was trying to keep my kids in school when in fact I should have pulled them earlier from a ship that I
094think will sink if these policies don't change they're not coming back to Wake County this fall speaker is Ben Chapman followed by Colleen Miller Ben Chapman followed by Colleen Miller um hello my name is Ben Chapman I was born in Raleigh and I'm a graduate of Wake County Public Schools a Millbrook class of 2012 so go Wildcats when I was a freshman we had a freshman seminar to pick some topic presentation for the class in which we would conduct original research and 15 years old in 2008 or 9 I chose same-sex marriage I wasn't even out to myself yet but I was clearly curious and in order to do research I recall that I had to use the library as well as a school computer I wanted to share that story and introduce myself as
095a local gay Advocate and information professional I attended NCSU and then UNC Chapel Hills School of library and information science for the last four years I've been working as an archivist and history consultant in Johnson County North Carolina on June 6 I delivered remarks to the Smithfield Town Council and it happened to be the day that the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency for lgbtq plus Americans I was there to relate to incidents that I won't get into here but I broadly just wanted to ask you as members of the Board of Education to understand your duty to students and staff that identify as lgbtq plus within the context of this national state of emergency there are people that I know in Johnson County that are looking at Wake County and looking
096at Wake County schools because of the bullying discrimination and harassment that they are facing there I think many of the other speakers spoke to some of my other comments but really I just want to say I'm thankful for the work that you're doing guiding public schools in Wake County I'm the beneficiary of K-12 education here in Wake County and broadly I want you to think about lgbtq plus identity not as controversial not as obscene and it really is not a matter of sexual preference I really don't like that that phrase because the more inclusive term that really addresses the core matter is sexual orientation um and I understand that there might be some people who are snickering at me um but quite frankly I've been emboldened to stand up and proudly Proclaim myself as a
097gay North Carolinian because I'm here I'm queer and I'm not going anywhere thank you just a reminder whether you agree or disagree please be respectful that someone is taking time out of their day to speak to us and if you cannot find yourself able to do that you are welcome to watch this on YouTube and when it's your time to speak if you have signed up to speak you may come rejoin us or send us an email our next speaker is Colleen Miller followed by Jennifer Smith my friend's gonna hand out I've got letters for each of you with a handout with the books that um have discovered in our Wake County Schools well I really don't know where to start you know what um wow I really don't I'm I'm looks like I'm gonna
098be going all script here um I'm really you know what when did we start celebrating our sexuality yeah you know I'm offended but there's all this pride month thing we take a whole month to celebrate your sexuality why is sex such a big celebration we have one day Memorial Day to honor those that died for our country to honor them those that fought and died for the liberties we enjoy today I'm glad you know I love my gay friends and family I love them I respect them but they're not out there my hairdresser the other day we were talking I said what do you think about Target they were I said I said what do you think about that he said it's too much he said it's in your face this is my gay hairdresser
099whom I love and I respect so why do are we getting out getting it out of the bedroom keep it in the bedroom It's A Private Matter I don't care what you do in your bedroom as long as it's legal all right I went off script there I apologize I'm the grandmother of a middle schooler and Wake County Public School I'm also a member of the pavement education project last year I read cover to cover 40 about 40 obscene books that I found in the Wake County Public Schools and I want to tell you they made me sick to my stomach I felt dirty and wish I could undo the images I saw and the vulgar text I read and to think these books are readily available to minor children in our schools how dare
100you allow that to date the payment education project has reviewed almost 200 books in Wake County's Public Schools and identified at least 85 titles and the list has I've handed out they violate North Carolina obscenity laws the content of these books range from explicit sexual activities nudity involving anal oral vaginal intercourse and explicit references or two explicit references of deviant sexual activities such as sexual assault bestiality s m i mean seriously why are minors reading this material if they want to get it on the internet and their parents allow that fund books we don't have room for we need good books in our Public Schools books and what educate children in a manner that will help them to succeed in life in adulthood in careers in college I was going to read a book tonight
101but honestly I think I would throw up if I read the book look here's the content of the book I was going to read which is has been made into an R-rated movie and this is the profanity content it's disgusting so please you're spending about more than twelve thousand dollars per student use it wisely thank you speaker is Jennifer Smith [Applause] followed by Dwayne Hanson superintendent Moore and school board members I appreciate this opportunity to speak my name is Jen Smith and I'm a product of public schools in North Carolina my husband is a product of Wake County Public Schools and our kids are currently attending public schools in Wake County we have volunteered countless hours at each of our children's schools which has allowed us personal insight into how invested our teachers and staff
102are in keeping our children safe and motivated to learn going on what I have witnessed being in these schools and classrooms I wanted to share how much I appreciate our teachers teaching assistants staff including our library media coordinators who unfortunately have been targeted by those led by ignorance and not personal experience I also have spent time spending time speaking with teens who identify as lgbtq plus and what I've and what I've heard from them is they are reading these comments they are hearing these things from adults in our communities who somehow view those teens as more of a threat than gun violence underfunding of our Public Schools food insecurity or housing insecurities Etc so tonight I want to go on the record that I am thankful for our Public Schools I support our staff students
103and families including those who identify as lgbtqia plus and their allies and I am against book bands thank you for your time [Applause] thank you our next speaker is Dwayne Hansen followed by Teresa Jones and by my clock Miss Jones will be our final speaker until we pause before and then we'll return back to it after a pause and resumption of business I just want to congratulate uh Miss Moore and Mr Smith for keeping my kids safe as an experienced corporate management developer and one one of an army of grandparents I was recently brought to my attention and audit submissing items growing inconsistencies biases inequities in the posted 3210 policy code 3210 parental inspection of an objection to instructional materials where materials then productive Health reproductive health and safety signaled out for parent review while
104other subject like SEL and critical race Theory concepts are not addressed similarly the clear definition of instructional materials and challenge material is missing do materials and books containing blatant racism Marxism communism pornography and sexualization of children fall under the definition of instructional materials where are clear guidelines for determining violations of constitutional legal rights where are the guidelines for establishing a committee to review parental objections and their principle being involved in this process when do the principals teachers parents students Librarians media coordinators counselors and community members become involved and how what are the guidelines for an informal discussion with the complainant where are the timelines for each of the stage of the complainant process the policy assumes objections are rooted in constitutional legal rights but is suspiciously overlooks objections arising from personal beliefs and preferences ensuring
105diverse viewpoints and perspectives in the curriculum is vital for an inclusive and academically Equitable education in learning life skills what professional reviewing sources are considered and used the vegan non-existent selection process and composition of committees often leaves the door open to unfair and biased decision making by some political race or sex activists board our committee members where are the guidelines to accommodate various parental perspectives during the objection review and decision making where are the procedures timelines and criteria for appealing a biased or suspicious decision from the instructional materials advisory committee the sunrise we grandparents would like these issues fixed promptly and honestly so the policy promotes transparency fairness and respect for all stakeholders in Lake County being retired we have lots of time to follow up conduct periodic reviews take notes and check your progress
106I'd like to serve on some committees as we prepare for the next election cycle in 2024 now you know that we know that both policy code 3210 and 3210 rnp need to be revised to provide the highest quality academic centered education possible for our students including my dear grandkids thank you Mr totter we will not be silent our final um speaker for now is Miss Teresa Jones good evening everyone I'm Theresa Jones I am president of wake PTA Council and I wanted to come tonight to say thank you to superintendent Moore and because I thought maybe you could see uh use a friendly face here tonight after the last several sessions and I wanted to express my appreciation for you all um I crossed out all the stuff that I had written about superintendent more
107after everyone said that um she doesn't like public displays of appreciation but I do want to thank her for her um consistent attendance at our PTA meetings for coming to our trainings for making parents feel appreciated and as partners in the education system and for always sharing information and for more importantly listening listening to our concerns um I also want to thank the board thank you for maintaining your commitment to do what is best for all students and for not pandering to the demands of the angry minority thank you for recognizing that all students deserve to see themselves reflected in their educational experience from the staff to the curriculum to the books they find in the library all students and families deserve to feel welcomed and safe in our schools and that they are not
108just tolerated but but celebrated for who they are um I was going to stay on the positive and just say thank you but um this is also uh gun violence Awareness Month and the divisive rhetoric that has been broadcast across this Podium for the last several months I wanted to point out that books that our children have access to are not the problem words and ideas are not dangerous well angry parents have been stoking fear and hatred about library books there have been 800 children and teenagers killed by guns this year North Carolina ranks nearly last for Education spending and has the 14th highest rate of gun violence in the United States these are issues that we should be addressing it's time to stop inciting fear and hatred about books and pronouns and tackle the
109real threat to our kids there's only so much that can be done as a district and I appreciate the steps you have taken to increase safety but as concerned parents and community members we should be working together to demand that legislators pass Common Sense gun laws to make sure that the next school tragedy isn't in our own backyard my daughter created this t-shirt after Parkland and a walk out at Moore Square five years has passed since that and things have only gotten worse thank you again that concludes this session of public comment for those of you that are unable to stay past our action agenda just a reminder that you may email us and we will be able to access your commentary um we're going to take a five to ten minute break and we
110will return thank you foreign oh there we go all right and we're back um once again um we have paused public comment after 45 minutes and we'll return after our action items have gone through we're going to continue forward with the superintendent updates and again if you are not able to stay you are welcome to email us and those are emails are available on the wcpss.net website under about us School Board superintendent more thank you I'm going to recap all three of the meetings that we had beginning at 12 noon today first we started with uh policy committee meeting where we entertain language around and revisions to a couple of policies 3210 which is Parental inspection and objection to instructional materials that was I think the third meaning that the board has engaged in language
111around that policy which looks like it will be moving forward in the July board meeting agenda with changes suggested by the board policy 6327 students walking to and from school we did not get to a point of final review and approval with that policy it will come back to policy committee for further review but we did get through the initial language and an update on the different folks who participated in and provided review and feedback for that policy so it will be coming back for further review before it comes to the board for approval the second uh committee that met today was a finance committee that began in the vicinity of 130 and there were a couple of items in that committee meeting the primary item was an update a presentation on Recruitment and Retention
112and really that was to provide an overview for the board of the work that is coming out of our human resources department in collaboration with several other departments in the district to promote Recruitment and Retention of Staff in alignment with the Strategic plan and the drive task force and the equity policy and what our data is showing that framework showed six desired outcomes that had an intent to ensure that we are providing the best possible experience for both recruiting onboarding keeping and training staff at all levels of the organization um and then the a quick item at the end of that finance committee was a budget object update really just to set the context for the board for the interim budget resolution that is on your agenda this evening that is required to be adopted
113by the board because we will not have a budget ready for July 1 which is the new fiscal year that starts for us because the general assembly has not completed their work so you are required to adopt an interim budget until that happens and we can then balance the budget after the legislature is done with their piece then we went to the actual work session um four items on the work session agenda uh one was an overview of the public engagement efforts that have come out of the office of student assignment and growth and planning for the 24-25 enrollment plan the board received an overview of all the work that has been done thus far as well as the where we are in the timeline that will prepare you for an adoption of an enrollment
114plan for 24.25 late fall november-ish of next year or this year uh second item on the work session was a review of the voluntary employment benefits contract that is an item that is on your agenda this evening for Action that you will be hearing more later about today again these are the employment benefits that our employees choose um to exercise based on packages that are available from the district the next item was Community eligibility provision this was Child Nutrition Services um short is cep this is a program that based on the percent of students in a school that identify as free reduced lunch or direct certified from other community agencies provide an opportunity for the school to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to every student in the school the presentation you saw today
115will add five schools to the cep provisions with and that is as it was noted when the slides phase one this will be a multi-year plan to continue to look at schools that are eligible and continue to provide that that benefit in those schools the five schools that are being added are Rogers Lane Elementary Creech Road Elementary East Garner Elementary barwell elementary and Wilburn Elementary and then the last item on the work session today was an overview for the board of the fostering diverse schools demonstration Grant this is a U.S department of education grant that is valued at one to four million dollars a year the board approved it as a grant opportunity for the district to explore the last board meeting we thought it was important based on the size of this grant to
116provide some information to the board at this work session uh today so that you can see an overview of the work that's being done to prepare for a submission of that Grant we will not know if we've received that Grant until sometime in the fall that was our work session one more and I just want to take one last moment of privilege and I'll do this very quickly to Echo some of the statements earlier from today from board members and others I want to personally thank Russ Smith for his years of service to this District as a our senior director for security he and I have gone round and round and had many conversations and questions in the middle of night early morning all kinds of times he he is it is helpful to have
117people who um then that will allow us to sort of push each other which how we think in order to make sure that we are considering all perspectives and all angles as we make decisions and move forward and so thank you Russ for your service to the district and then secondly it just to Jonathan blumberg um I have joked with him on many occasions at one of these days I'm just going to become a lawyer and um uh because I feel like I've been to law school a little bit over the years in terms of the questions I ask how much I've learned and the perspectives and that he has allowed me to grow in and know even when we don't agree and so I think that's always helpful again it's good that we push
118each other so thank you Jonathan for doing that for me done all right just making sure um moving on to approval of our consent items remembering that um one item was pulled to action and if you hit the house button and go back to your meetings that will be reflected in your action items is there a motion to approve the consent items as amended so moved the motion in a second all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay as I scroll through moving on to you know well I'm I just a moment to just say these are all the this and last uh time we were here are all the contracts that we're renewing for the school year so there are a lot of them here we now move to finance the first
119item is approval of an interim budget resolution for the 2023-2024 school year a superintendent Moore noted this was discussed in finance Mr kneader the Wake County Board of Commissioners approved the County's 2324 budget at their June 5th meeting the board of education's proposed budget requested an increase from the county in appropriation of 55.8 million dollars the final budget that was approved by the County Commissioners includes a very generous increase as I shared earlier today to the school system of 50 million dollars that leaving a 5.8 million dollar funding Gap to reconcile and this on the heels of also receiving a 50 million dollar increase in County appropriation just a year ago so were incredibly fortunate to have these Partners in the county um as we shared at your finance committee meeting today we're still waiting
120for the state legislature to finalize its biennial budget the House and Senate have proposed their individual proposals um and until they finalize that and we see what fiscal implications that has on the board's proposed budget as well as the now known funding gap between the board's proposed budget and the final County budget we are not in a position to recommend adjustments to reconcile the budget and as the board this board is required to have some type of formal budget in place part of the beginning of the fiscal year that being July 1 and this being your last meeting between now and July 1 we are asking you tonight to consider adopting an interim budget I'm trying to think back in my 15 or 16 years when I have not been in front of a board
121and asked you to adopt an interim budget and I don't think I have um the interim budget resolution will allow the system to continue to pay salaries and ordinary expenses um effective July 1 and subsequently bring to the board recommended adjustments to balance the board's proposed budget to available revenues and at that point in the future the board will adopt a formal budget resolution for 23.24. this interim budget is Guided by a general statute 115 c434 interim budget which provides this ability to do this and at this point be glad to answer any questions and then ask for your consideration of approval of an interim budget resolution our motion to approve an interim budget so moved all right we have a motion in a second thank you Miss Johnson Hustler and vice chair Hagerty is
122there any comments questions or discussion at this time seeing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right the interim budget for resolution passes and sir I just want to say if you could tuck that your poster thank you I know you had done it before I appreciate that Mr kneader moving on to award voluntary employee benefits contract which has been moved to action yes thank you at the board's June 6th uh work session two weeks ago staff reviewed providing every Board of Wake County Public School System employee benefits including the voluntary benefits and listed out what those voluntary benefits are in their respective participation rates we also shared two weeks ago that we had issued an RFP for the voluntary benefits and would be bringing the results of that RFP
123to you today which we did at your work session um the recommendation and plan changes will improve benefit levels as well as reduce employee costs the initial insurance contract term will begin on January 1st of 2024 that being said in order to get into place work has to be done between now and then to get ready for the open enrollment period for our employees which will take place in the fall the contract will be for a three-year term with the option of two additional one-year renewals staff recommends Award of the contract to the Pierce group the recommended proposal has no direct cost to the Wake County Public School System and actually reduces costs for our employees is there a motion to approve the voluntary employee benefits contract Madam chair yes Jonathan Mr Bloomberg please correct
124my motion if it's not correct but I would move to approve uh this this um action but I also like to add a piece of that that we opened the RFP at every additional two years to align it with the teacher work and condition survey to ensure that we're getting the feedback the feedback from the teachers to align with the benefits that staff is is requesting I don't know if that could be a cleaner motion but at least I think it's at least okay to do it for to bring it back in two more years I don't know if it can be forever but but certainly you can move to approve as you did this contract with the understanding that it would be another RFP would be done in two years perfectly promote acceptable promotion
125motion thank you Mr Swanson has made a motion to approve the contract with the understanding that we would open up the RFP process again in two years is there a second second all right is there any discussion comments questions Mr Hagerty um I appreciate Mr Swanson's motion because this is something that with the benefits that we make available to our employees it's always good good to get more feedback economic conditions change people's needs change over time and if there's a chance to go and Shop this around I think it's great the only question that I have is I just want to make sure when we contract these Services out is there anything about like the period or duration we're Contracting for where like two years is better than one year or anything like that is
126there any benefit of the duration of it or well I would want given this amendment and I would need to consult with my staff on what was negotiated and I do have our finance officer who is active part of this RFP Trish Posey and our senior director of purchasing unfortunately we did not learn this was being moved until action until Danny O'Quinn who really championed this overall as our senior director of compensation and benefits head already left and I would need to know if this amendment is in any way going to be in conflict with the terms of the RFP which is I just read speaks to a term of three years with two one-year extension and that could be an issue occur that could be an issue um correct uh if the RFP was
127for three years and that was what people bid on and gave you quotes on it and so on and so forth um the do you know whether the one year and the one year after that those are optional extensions I would want to confirm it generally those are optional so um I think in light of that thank you for your question um that that the unless the board wishes first have to go back and sort of start again that the if there is an interest in requiring that it be rebid I think that it would be better if it's the three-year term that you would approve and then say that after that it would be brought back it's it's up to you it's a board call but if the RFP has been bid on a
128three-year contract and that's what the quotes came in as then then there is some concern then about the board doing it for two years that would require going back to the bidder and asking and seeing if they're going to put submit a different bid and so on and so forth yes and I saw that and I thank you for that clarification but I I so let me just say my point peace the reason why I was pushing the way I stated the way I emotionally I stayed is because I do think it's important to read to your appointment so Hector that we hear from our staff because I mean we cannot necessarily control the salaries but we have an option with the benefits if we want to recruit and retain additional teachers in the building
129and staff not just teachers but all of our staff um so if I could amend and I think I'll amend it to do you know let's there's a three-year term so that's after the three-year term let's then open it up so we're not violating too many additional contracts um so I can amend that emotion to say after the three-year term that we open it up um after every additional two years to ensure that we're getting the feedback that we need from staff and teachers can we just interpret that as you withdrew the first one you've re redone the motion and if there's a second you can proceed with that that seems great thank you see Jonathan you're going to miss parliamentary procedure all right so that is the withdrawal of the three-year motion the two-year
130motion and moving to three years and um do we need to an additional second for that you still need a second okay all right we have a second for that all right with the three-year piece on the table are there questions Ms Caufield thank you um I'm just curious is the um is anything in the contract if it's three years does the terms remain the same or uh is it does they come up with new prices each year no so for three years we're locked into what they the terms would remain the same okay staff if no okay further comments questions Dr Eng um in line with that question uh I just want to make sure we're not um in the future after the three years that we're we're not necessarily tied to a two-year
131depending on what the negotiated you know whichever um a vendor um you want to you want to get the best price right yeah yes and go ahead well and I would um state that for any vendor to enter into a contract like this their upfront costs to develop the relationship develop the software put in place infrastructure to outreach to employees and well I can't predict what a vendor would do to your point Dr Ing if I was bidding on a contract and I knew I had it for at least two years versus three years my pricing is probably going to be higher and this is pricing to the employee Wake County does not pay this is voluntarians our employees that choose this benefit we provide the administrative cost to manage it behind the scenes but
132beyond that we do not pay any direct contractual costs so I think your point is valid what what I interpreted and board members please feel free to disagree what I interpreted was is that the sort of revised motion was that it would just be rebid after that three years and so that I don't think that's going to tie you to a two-year after that so I think is that correct okay you're absolutely correct okay thank you Mr kneader I'll point you to my comments that I made during Finance about just structuring when this comes back around in three years time just so board members can be more aware of what's available and um again many thanks to um Miss O'Quinn Miss Posey and and your team on this work we know it's not easy um
133to keep all of that straight and this is no way of a reflection on the work that has been done by staff we understand that but thank you Miss Mahaffey and I think as we've talked about it in the last couple hours we've talked about some ideas of how to take you've seen the tip of the iceberg of the offerings under these volunteer plans because even something as simple as a family flexible spending account has multiple options underneath it so I think we've got some ideas of how we can take very complex information and perhaps present it in a more understandable manner in the future thank you are there further comments or questions or question all right seeing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay thank you very much thank you
134we now move on to an item out of Human Resources this is for the center for International Education doing business as participate learning and Dr AJ mutilo our assistant superintendent for human resources will be joining us Dr mutilo thank you chairman happy good evening again board member superintendent Moore so tonight I'm asking your consideration I'll just call it the participate learning contract the cost of the contract is just shy of 3.9 million dollars but there is no actual cost to the district as the dollars that we pay are funded through a state conversion for each teacher that we hire on one of these J-1 visas through participate learning so you heard in finance committee today an overview of Recruitment and Retention and while we didn't explicitly mention participate that participate is another one of those
135strategies that support our staffing needs to the district so this year we have a total of 115 International teachers through participate really proud of our HR team and school administrators we've been able to double the new participate teachers we're bringing into the district for 23 24 as compared to the prior years that will further support our staffing needs and we still have a few months to go to increase those numbers but we expect to have at least a total of 161 participate teachers in our school system next year and it's not just about filling positions these are experienced International teachers that represent countries you know such as the UK Jamaica South Africa Mexico Belize China it's a really great and diverse backgrounds that these Educators bring to our classrooms and our students so we appreciate
136this this opportunity and with that request your approval of the participate learning contract this evening all right is there a motion to approve this contract as a go ahead so moved all right we have a motion in a second any comments questions concerns Miss Waters uh thank you Dr matillo I've heard amazing things about our participate learning Educators and have had a chance to meet and they are just Stellar one of the concerns that I have heard from administrators and even an elected official is the length of time limit and so just for clarification can you speak to the limit in sort of the challenge that sometimes administrators have voiced that after they've invested in the Educators and they've made such a good impact on their school community that they then are not able to
137continue in the district and are sometimes hired locally within other other systems so could you just for clarification kind of help us to understand what that looks like yes you can add HR folks and maybe the superintendent to those lists of folks who have concerns about that but the J-1 visas are International Exchange Visas so the purpose is that these folks would come the original agreement is for three years and then can be extended another two years so that they then return to their home country and can share also what they've learned in the U.S just as they're sharing their experiences with us here so that is that is the program it's a federal Visa program do some folks potentially circumvent that and get hired in in other districts or other states yes but you
138know as a sort of to be a true to the intent of the program we do lose them after five years and sometimes they do that Homestay and they come back to us so we do get them back sometimes but it is the stipulation of the Visa I'm just at a couple of points um maybe 10 years ago the J1 is a three year hard a hard three years and and that was it through a number of efforts with at the federal level because this is a Federal Regulation there are two one-year extensions allowed which now make that potential for a five-year J-1 there have there has been having conversations lobbying requests to extend it further that has not happened it would seem that rather than an extension they might need to change the regulation
139because any more extension and you're actually doubling the length of the Visa so um they're they're they just haven't moved on it beyond the three years and the two one-year extensions um and uh if if we had a path to keeping them longer we would certainly exercise it further comments or questions all right seeing none all those in favor of the participate contract please say aye aye any opposed name the motion passes thank you we are moving back to public comment yes sir uh did we want to do the HR okay thank you very much I appreciate that integrity this is a team sport here Mr Haggerty so chair Mahaffey if you are entertaining motions at this time I would move approval of the superintendent's ho recommendations and appointments and extension of the interim CTO
140position approved in closed session all right thank you very much and again I did not go down to actual items after closed session so appreciate you doing this we did have some time to go into closed session prior to this so thank you for that motion is there a second all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor of approving the HR recommendations as shared by Vice chair Hagerty please say aye any opposed nay all right so moving back to public comment I'm going to assume that I don't need to read that entire thing over again three minutes you start speaking Green Light 30 seconds left yellow light red light your time is up um I do want to say as a reminder to keep your comments directed at the board
141you're here to speak to the board of education and even though we don't respond during public comment this is your time to speak to your government officials and I want to remind people to be civil during another person's time and as adults in this room if we struggle with that again you may write us an email instead of giving board comments and you are welcome to watch this on YouTube um this is not my former middle school classroom so please treat it as a place where we can be adults and be civil even with people that don't agree with you starting off we will continue this with Felicia Moore followed by Cecilia Joyce was not prepared to go first okay good evening my name is Felicia Moore and I'm a Wake County resident of 15
142years and a parent of a current wcpss student and another wcpss graduate I just want to extend my appreciation to the board for your dedication to equity and inclusion I want the board to know that there are a lot of parents of Wake County students who want our children to have access to books and curricula that represent everyone I want my child to have access to appropriate sex education materials and as I've always done as a parent we also discuss those things at home for us parents who have always discussed hard topics with our children we very much appreciate when they are getting accurate and comprehensive information at school as well I also want my child to be taught and have access to Accurate historical facts I believe that teaching accurate history is one of
143the ways that we can help course correct our country's racist past and the mistakes of our country's past and lastly I would like to show my support to our lgbtq plus students family and staff many of whom I know and love and encourage the board to continue to support the community in your policies representation matters and I support the board's decisions along the way that have made it or will make it more clear that representation matters to you all as well thank you our next speaker is Cecilia Joyce followed by Eileen Johansen good evening board members my name is Cecilia Joyce I am a Raleigh resident parent of two in low magnet high school graduates goes and an educator with Wake County Public Schools I first want to begin by congratulating superintendent Moore on her
144impending retirement I would also like to thank you for your many years of service to Wake County Public Schools these last few years have not been easy and you and your team have shown courageous leadership thank you I would also like to comment on some recent events at board meetings that I have found troubling there have been some very vocal folks standing before you demanding that certain books or materials be removed from schools or libraries I implore you to continue to support policies which ensure students freedoms to read and have access to materials appropriate for their agent curriculum furthermore let's support Educators who continue to offer our children texts which make them think critically and offer narratives and perspectives that may be different from their own let's be clear book sensors these days find books
145with black or lgbtq characters or themes inappropriate but adults are doing a disservice to young people when they think that kids are incapable of thinking for themselves having difficult conversations or learning tough truths let's continue to trust Educators to do their jobs as the professionals they are list trust kids and families to choose what books meet their needs no one should be able to impose their views by making books inaccessible to an entire Community thank you our next speaker is Eileen Johansen followed by Taylor Cordes good evening uh I'm just going to read a little uh a little verse out of Luke it would be better for him the Milestone be hanged around his neck and he cast into the sea then that he should offend one of the little ones so we'll just start
146out with that but I'm 73 years old I'm probably the oldest person here I I was a High School honor student and college graduate I turned into a flower child during the sex drug and rock and roll era that didn't work very well for me and it didn't work well for many others I believe that today is the result of that today I thank the Lord that I recovered was married raised three three daughters and now have five young grandchildren for who I'm seriously concerned this former honor student is wondering what happened to public education and when did the Wake County Public School System begin promoting materials that are perverse and obscene you defy studies that have proven the negative impacts of pornography and other age inappropriate materials on the mental health of children you're
147promoting books that may put students in a higher risk for anxiety depression isolation sexual assault and suicide I've read some of these books and I'll tell you as a as an adult I couldn't sleep they were pretty disgusting so uh you know the very graphic nudity and all that so I I thought tonight I would you know no one has read anything so I thought I'd read a little bit a court of thorns and Roses that's in a middle school by the way two middle schools of Wake County and at least 20 high schools last time I looked the middle school students are not young adults so here here we go a little bit his kisses deepened as his fingers slid between my legs coaxing seizing I ground against his hand yielding completely to the
148writhing wildness that had roared live inside me I raised my nightgown over my head and tossed through the floor utterly naked before him I watched his gaze travel to my bare breasts to my abdomen to between my thighs you know what we can't go on anymore it gets more disgusting so I'll stop here you get the picture the book contains graphic violence explicit sexual nudity obscene sexual activities and Mild profanity I don't see how any of these books will enhance any child when I look at these pictures and I think about them throwing their nightgowns on the floor and writhing naked with our boyfriend do you like this are you buying pornographic books but do you keep them at home you don't spill them out for the world to know about sex is the Apple
149Adam and Eve ate the apple and everybody here is eating the sexual apple and they'll be priced to pay our next speaker is Taylor Cordes followed by Tom Capps thank you [Applause] hi there my name is Taylor Cordes I am a proud product of Wake County Public Schools uh and low high school graduate myself um also have been an extended content standards for teacher in Wake County and I'm currently a substitute teacher um I'll keep it pretty short but I am here to say thank you to our board who is fighting to protect all of our students because despite what some people want to believe lgbtq or I guess what they don't want to believe lgbtq plus children do exist they do deserve to be represented in our schools I see it as a measure
150of bullying prevention just like it's normal for a little boy to have a crush on a little girl is no different than a little boy having crush on a little boy or a little girl having a crush on a little girl and if we don't let our children know that these are normal things for their classmates to feel you end up resulting in children who bully other children for being queer and I don't think any of us want that in our schools and so educating our children on how to respect those who are different from them is a very important part of our teaching process I also want to point out I someone earlier said that children are the stakeholders of Education I couldn't agree more I think they are probably one of the most
151if not the most important stakeholders in education because it is their education and I think it's important that we listen to them so tonight we had some students here speaking about Mental Health crisis and the need for mental health interventions in schools our counselors case loads are overwhelming they cannot meet up or keep up with the needs of our students we had last week we had students or at the last meeting students were here talking about school safety these are important things that matter to our students but the one thing we are not hearing our students come here and talk about is wanting Books banned out of their school I think it's important that we listen to the most important stakeholders in education and we prioritize the things that matter to them most which is
152not book Banning thank you our next speaker is Tom Capps followed by Becky Lou Hobbs good evening I'm Colonel Capps Air Force retired and uh I'm a retired pilot and engineer and also an 81 year old proud grandfather of six uh po to the school board to make decisions that benefit most of the children in our school system and to avoid undue addition to children that profess non-binary lifestyles we are blessed with an adverse with a diverse culture in America and I am amply familiar with multiple cultures I visited 80 Nations around the world I have lived in or served in five European countries and four Asian Nations I have visited all Western countries in Europe 10 African nations and 10 in Asia I understand the needs of children globally I come before you this
153evening in the authority of God almighty I live an awesome fear of him and I have no fear of any person because I receive my every need via the power of the shed blood of Christ I am not here tonight to represent any special interest political party or group that promotes immoral agenda I'm solely here to represent and defend the needs and future of every child in Wake County we all have the responsibility to guide and direct our nation in the way of Holiness righteousness and purity Jesus taught that children are extremely important to him and that anyone without the faith of a child will not have favor with God or his kingdom any person who participates in a political party an educational Union or a government organization that thinks God will allow evil lies
154and deceptions to persist will be subject to God's perfect judgment and will be rendered impotent I call on every member of the Board of Education to stand for all that is Holy righteous and pure according to God's standards I call on you to be to identify and root out and Destroy every evil agenda every false truth that undermines and subverts the freedom of any American citizen and especially every child thank you for serving on the Wake County Board of Education and for all all the sacrifices you make thank you for listening to my words our next speaker is Becky Lou Hobbs followed by Marianne kluckman [Applause] crowd in since they're trying to keep it off the screen hi I'm Becky Lou Hobbs mom and Wake County resident for well over 40 years many parents have
155come and addressed the school board and superintendent regarding their promotion of pervasively vulgar materials at the expense of our children's education as well as many other failures of the school system only to fall on deaf or condescending errors soon caddy Moore will be leaving Wake County schools so let's take a look at the state of Lake County Schools since she became superintendent in 2018 . so first the academic proficiencies of students have declined and here are just two examples reading scores for third through eighth graders have declined five percent overall and when you look at black proficiency rates that alone has declined 32 percent under her rule Hispanics the same 32 percent math 1 scores for middle and high school students have declined 34 overall when you look at black student proficiency rates that's declined
15642 percent Hispanics have declined declined 41 percent they're all now also more low performing schools under her leadership with now 19.7 percent of schools classified as low performing that's 38 schools so as you can see under superintendent Moore the quality of education for Wake County students has suffered particularly for minority students and because of this parents have begun to seek other options since Moore has been in charge approximately 3 500 students have left the system seeking other options in other words two percent of student enrollment has declined this decrease in enrollment is despite wake County's population growth of 2.2 percent on top of this she's continued to ask for Budget increases each year resulting in a 47 percent increase since 2018. so that's fewer students despite the increase in population and more money with fewer
157students during the pandemic Moore squandered the opportunity to partner with parents instead she implemented policies that kept students out of the classroom and later limited parent limited and sometimes barred parents from being present at all at one point her staff recommended masking preschoolers in order to train them to willingly comply with future orders and anyone in questioning this go watch the February 1st 2022 board meeting and while we wish catty morwell on her retirement the parents of Lake County are looking forward to a new superintendent she's allowed quality academics to take a backseat to social issues political agendas and Association demands she leaves behind a plethora of problems to resolve teacher shortages Staffing shortages Transportation nightmares poor learning lack of confidence with parents age and appropriate and pervasively vulgar materials just to name a few
158we sincerely hope that the new superintendent will put academics at the Forefront our next speaker is Marianne kluckman followed by Thomas hudspeth good evening board members my name is Marianne I've lived in Wake County since 2001. I've got two kids who were both K-12 in Wake County the second one just graduated last Tuesday I am here to show my support for school librarians who are being attacked I'd like to make three points the first is that there are many people who do not want Books banned from schools sometimes it seems like the loudest voices are the people who want to incite fear but trust me when I say that those people do not speak for the whole County and I can never think of a time where Banning books turned out to be the right
159decision two I would like to remind everyone and for those who don't know here in the audience that Librarians in Wake County are required to have a master's degree part of their schooling involves learning how to build an age-appropriate collection for their school they're hired for their knowledge yet sometimes it feels like the voices of the people who have no formal training are being listened to or trusted over the librarian's voices three once age-appropriate books are chosen parents still have a role right in helping their children choose books for themselves so let's say for example my kid is terrified of natural disasters so I would steer them away from a book about tsunami let's say but that doesn't mean that a student in their class can't read a book about tsunamis or that someone in
160another classroom in the school should be deprived of reading a book about tsunamis just because I don't want my children read a book about tsunamis now obviously I'm aware that people aren't very concerned about tsunamis and natural disasters but the principle is exactly the same just because I don't want my child to read a specific age-appropriate book doesn't mean that I have the right to say that a fellow student in their class or someone in the school can't read that book my role as a parent allows me to restrict books for my own child not anybody else's thank you our next speaker is Thomas hudspeth followed by Nancy Haywood Mr hudspeth okay we'll hear next from Nancy Haywood followed by Christina Spears good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board I'd like to thank you
161all for being here and for your dedication to our students teachers staff and parents I would like to thank superintendent Moore for the years of service you have provided to Wake County your replacement has high standards to live up to and I hope I run into you at the department store again and hopefully there will not be someone hiding underneath the clothing racks next time I am a product of White County Schools myself having lived here 49 years so I think I've beaten most everyone else I also have brought my children back to this County so they can be raised the same way I was raised in a very open-minded and loving environment so with that I come here tonight to speak to you about a newly recognized and I hate to say this that
162it's actually here hate and anti-government extremist group called moms for Liberty we hear them at our school board meetings every single time they speak about book bands something that is a discussing subject and as we can hear ma'am they continue to speak I'm sorry we're not going to interrupt speakers and we're going to add that time back thank you thank you I appreciate that they've been recently recognized in an anti-hate group and I would ask this board to please can make a policy to exclude them for being able to speak at future board meetings especially considering that many of those who are the loudest speakers do not even have children in our schools I would also like to ask that the two school board members who were backed by this group if you would consider
163removing that support publicly thank you our next speaker is Christina Spears followed by Julie page happy pride month happy belated Juneteenth y'all um I usually don't come up here and freestyle but spirit is moving all right um first I want to thank this board for your hard work today I've had a really long day so thank you for your hard work and sitting here and listening to all these public comments also um thanks for starting the process of reconciling the budget and keeping staff wages at the Forefront and I'm priority um and I came here tonight to talk about how much I love public schools and why I love them but I think lots of speakers have said that I love them because they're open to every single kid in our community and once they
164get into our doors they should have whatever they need and that includes books and I also trust the professional workers in art schools and that's why I love our school so much but I am going to keep it brief chair Mahaffey and actually use my time why I stuck around to give flowers to superintendent Katie Moore and no I'm not sorry just Susan book said I believe in giving flowers while folks could still smell them well this wouldn't we wouldn't do this after July 1st right um let me say I give you flowers for sharing your story with us your story of coming to this country to live with your family and learn in our Public Schools I wasn't gonna cry I give you flowers for leading us as an educator and a practitioner constantly
165calling on your experience as a language teacher and an administrator to make sound decisions for staff and students in this District I give you flowers both for your vulnerability and your bravery I give you flowers for keeping us as safe as possible during a global pandemic I give you flowers for fighting for an equity policy that codified core belief to and supporting my team in the office of equity Affairs while I was there I hope you'll find time before you officially transition and during your retirement to smell all of your flowers you deserve them thank you Kati our next speaker is Julie page followed by Renee seckel good evening given recent events I feel compelled to remind you that I am not a domestic terrorist nor do I hate anyone in this building or in
166the school system I'm just a mom that actually does care about public schools um I submitted 189 book challenges at the end of May after getting brushed off gas lit pushed back and condescended for the last 18 months I am met again with more excuses as to why these challenges are being dismissed Allison Reed sent a lengthy email full of incorrect irrelevant and gaslighting statements I will be responding to that email and copying all of you so that you can see for yourselves that current school policy 3210 and 3210 rnp are clearly being violated by your own staff interpretations and feelings are not policy now you are trying to change these policies due to issues due to the issues and red flags that I have raised I am thankful for Cheryl and wings Common Sense
167Lindsay Tyler Lynn Monica we see you you should be ashamed of these underhanded deceitful and dirty tactics this is wrong and it is not the way to regain trust with parents I was going to read from the nasty books but instead I'll quickly show you pictures of how to find your G-spot and get it off in sex Plus how to stimulate the clitoris and sex Plus how to massage the prostate and sex Plus disgusting I find it ironic and hypocritical that the board talks about diversity Equity inclusion acceptance mental health and safety yet you allow explicit and vulgar sex instructions in erotica on the shelves for any child to see how do you plan to keep this perversion away from kids whose parents don't want them exposed to it can you guarantee that they will
168be protected from this filth supposedly schools are safe spaces for all I contend that they are not revise redact restrict or remove finally regarding superintendent Moore's retirement you all sit here and praise her as if she's been the best thing to ever happen in Wake County Schools her failures are blamed on the responses to the pandemic which she developed proposed and pushed onto parents she advocated to keep schools closed and then Mass kids for as long as possible she proposed budget increases year after year despite student losses she has fostered an anti-teacher and anti-parent culture she chooses to focus on social justice and Equity during this pride month I ask you all to be humble open your minds and do better for the kids our next speaker is Renee seckel followed by John Fleming [Applause]
169hey y'all superintendent Moore congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your service to the school system it's really all I've got to say I will say to Mr Smith over there you all don't know me you've never met me but I have been at the back meeting a couple of times when you've spoken and I have appreciated the clarity with which you discuss security issues and the way that you kind of lay it out so that parents like me can understand congratulations to you too sir on your retirement um I'm not going to take out my whole three minutes I promise I just want to talk about one thing that happened in my one of my kids at schools I have kids in two different Wake County Public Schools and all three of them
170happen to be involved in the chorus program um both at Green Hope High School and because of the incredible diligence and strength of will of the Green Hope High School course director Mr botwick also at Davis Drive Middle School where he has started a chorus Club and I just want to kind of explain how it felt a couple of weeks back to be sitting at the chorus concert and see every one of those high school children stand up and cheer for the middle school kids as they sang we got go together from Greece they were my kids were so proud they were so happy and just to see the unconditional love support and acceptance that those high school children extended to the little ones was just I mean I can't well I cry at everything
171so that doesn't mean much but still it made me weep those kids are amazing our schools are amazing and they wouldn't be the way they are without in part the wonderful Educators and administrators and staff that they encountered day after day in our schools you all should be so proud of the work that you do and the amazing outcomes that you all produce thank you so much our next speaker is John Fleming followed by Mark Peterson good evening board members my name is John Fleming and I live here in Cary and I have two grandchildren in the Wake County Public School System I'm also a product of the Wake County Public School System I graduating from Broughton High School and I'm not going to tell you what year first of all superintendent Moore congratulations on
172your upcoming retirement I think it's well deserved and to the others who are heading into retirement I retired almost six years ago and I highly recommend it but I'm here tonight just to voice support to our our Librarians and our other school staff who screen and select the books that are carried into school libraries and are available for the students to read I've been reading a lot about the challenges and restrictions to various books recently so I've decided that it's time to come off the sidelines and to speak out in support of our Librarians and and our students I support the availability of a wide variety of books based on subject and content I know our Librarians work hard to ensure that the selection of books is appropriate and a good fit for the students
173So to that end let me just say in general that I'm aware that some parents espouse the need to restrict access to some books in the name of preserving Family Values however I suggest that different parents may have their own definitions of the family values that they want to teach their children it's up to parents themselves to make decisions for their own families about what's necessary to provide a fulfilling education for their children those decisions should not be made by a small group of parents who may be pushing a different agenda and one thing that I love about being a Granddad with kids in the school system are the hard questions that they ask we have very many good conversations and I'm glad and I hope they continue to have the background and exposure to
174ask those hard questions so I ask that as you can as you please support our school staff and particularly our trained and qualified Librarians and provide a library and educational environment that's open and supportive of all of our young people thank you for your time diverse I'm here tonight to appeal to the board's better judgment integrity and Common Sense regarding the books that we've all been talking about or most many of us have been talking about tonight and there's been a lot of comments about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of these books I'm going to hold this up so that it can be seen clearly by anybody watching this they can they can hit this with their phone and they can look at I think the number was about 150 what's the number 85 better 85
175books represented on this website and it'll show you the content of those books it will show you the words we've shown you some of the words it'll show you the pictures but I I want to you know I want to take a moment to talk about banning books it's that that comment has come up time and time and time again I want to show you two books these are two out of six books that have been banned just in the past two years on March 2nd 2021 on National read Across America day a day that was established in 1998 by the National Education National Educators Association the Nea and on the birthday of Dr Seuss this is Dr Seuss's birthday on that day the White House banned his entire catalog from being read on National
176read Across America day and these two books I've got I bought these two books because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about what's wrong with these books why should they be banned I told you last time I was here a couple of weeks ago one was the word Dixie they're talking about the song Dixie the song Dixie is mentioned in this book this book is banned because of the name of a song this book this was if I ran Ran the Circus by the way this book and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street this book has been essentially banned because it has a picture you can't see it here but it's a picture of an Asian man which was stereotypical in the day that this book was created it
177says a China man who eats with sticks I'm showing this to you because the bar was set High to ban these books if that's all it takes to ban Dr Seuss then I do not understand why the books that are on this website these are offensive if this is offensive the the excuse was the content in these two books was offensive to some people if you're not offended by what's on these books that these these people here are complaining about that are on this website would you our next speaker is Julie Stivers followed by Isaac Moore I'd also like to remind folks [Applause] I'd like to remind folks that your comments are to be made to the board and the members of this governing body they are not for a YouTube audience Miss diverse hi
178I'm Julie Stivers I'm a school librarian and I'm a mom and I'm a reader when we think about book challenges it's important to remember that they are not new only mutated the American Library Association has been keeping data on book challenges for over 20 years but before 2021 most challenges involved a single book put forth by a single person at a single school it was personal and it opened dialogue between Educators parents families now and we are seeing this play out in Wake County just like a script challenges are not personal instead they are based on lists and websites shared out by organizations who espouse hate on social media and then they're copied and pasted at school districts across the country I know the Wake County School Board is too smart to fall for it
179a county that values critical thinking as one of the four seas for its students wouldn't give Credence to a challenge based on hearsay buzzwords or out of context quotes at its core these challenges which overwhelmingly Target stories written by queer and or bipoc black indigenous people of color creators these challenges are not about books or reading they're about erasing stories and communities from school library shelves they're about trying to tell us whose stories matter and as Educators we all know whose stories matter every student this is a direct appeal to all of you who will find yourselves in the future with decisions to make about books so some gentle reminders all students that walk through the door of a school library deserve to see books on the shelves that affirm themselves their families and communities
180their lived experiences and real accurate history please remember my student who said that they are still here still alive because they had encountered a book that made them feel seen this book saved my life said another student I'm still here and breathing because of this author said another so if you're ever deciding whether to remove access to a book please keep those student statements in mind do you want to rip those books away from students who need them who are telling me telling us that they literally saved their life and a last reminder if we care about parental and familial rights blanket book bands fly in the face of that think about it letting one parent make a decision for all of the other parents in their school doesn't sound like parents rights it's not
181representative it doesn't sound like Freedom it doesn't sound like Liberty Instead This intentional funded organized top-down movement of book challenges and bands sounds like a racer manipulation and harm and none of those are things Erasure manipulation harm that should be the business of Educators or this board thank you our next speaker is Isaac Moore followed by Michelle Morrow uh apologies for keeping y'all late um good evening my name is Isaac Moore I'm a graduate of Adams Elementary East Cary Middle and Carey high and as such am a direct product of the Wake County School System throughout my years as a student I engaged in conversation with students and teachers of many different Lifestyles affiliations and ideologies during that time I also engaged with many books in media a good deal of which are on the
182chopping block of modern bands across the country I can say categorically that this was nothing but a benefit to me there is nothing that breeds critical thinking and empathy for others like interaction with outside ideas and backgrounds it cannot be said enough that the efforts and calls to Banner otherwise attack access to media and curricula revolving around topics such as the black indigenous and lgbtqia plus communities are effectively an attempt to relegate them to the footnotes in history these are efforts to further marginalize the already marginalized individuals and groups peddling this hate and censorship will claim their concern as the safety of children do not be fooled by these wolves and sheep's clothing their concern is only to engage in a manufactured culture War predicated on hatred and exclusion if one so truly cared for
183children's safety perhaps they would have more to say on the issue of gun violence in schools other than throwing Tantrums on social media and brandishing their don't tread on me bumper stickers our school all our schools already opt to stay and cloak the true history of our country it thusly must be acknowledged that the Banning of books in essentially every case does nothing more than further Cloud Us in the ignorance of American exceptionalism and hegemony I urge us all to recognize these grovels and pleas from some of the more malicious and misguided of our community for what they are fascism at work and when fascism comes knocking at our door it should be met with nothing less than scorn and fervor thank you for your time [Applause] foreign I've been coming here for five years
184now and I was going to talk to you about some practical things that I thought you could change about 3210 but I've changed my mind I've been really confused over the last five years as to why we spend 45 minutes to an hour of every public meeting talking about how great everyone is and how great everything is in the schools and now I figured it out I figured it out because all these people came here to defend you all from hurtful words this is obnoxious let me just say there is one goal for the educational system it should be to prepare children to enter careers to be productive members of society it is not a counseling session it is not a self-help area it is not somewhere to find yourself and we should not be
185led by the children for goodness sake the children are called dependents for a reason they depend on us who have fully developed brains you cannot feel your way through life the issues that we are talking about we are bringing you statistics we are talking about Scholastics we are talking about funding we are talking about bussing we are talking about trying to figure out how to make our children be as successful as possible and I am sure that that is your goal and what we have been called tonight is what they're claiming that we're saying to children we're having an adult conversation there are not children in this room we aren't going into the schools and calling them names they call us marxists and hateful and bigots and everything else Under the Sun well let me
186tell you less than five percent of the entire population of North Carolina identifies as lgbtq you guys all claim you want democracy well you know what democracy is it's the majority plus one it's 50 plus one you know what more than 50 percent of the people in this state claim that they believe in God almighty God who made us male and female God who made marriage between a man and a woman God who said that we must protect our children the fact that we can stand up here and we know we can brag about all of the wonderful graduations but we know we know the statistics 50 percent of children did not pass their end of grade test what are we celebrating do you have we have children coming up here telling us how horrible
187the Mental Health crisis is why most of us went to public school and all of our all of our peers are not in mental health crises we have to ask ourselves what are we doing to our children I'm going to say we are discussing things with them that they are not emotionally intellectually and morally able to handle that is what is causing the anxiety that is what is causing the depression that is what is causing the confusion we need our children to be able to be children to be able to be innocent to be able to enjoy childhood and not know all of the drama and all of the difficulties in adult life that is what we want we want our children to be able to read and write and to think for themselves and
188we demand that the children who fear God are protected followed by Robin Livingston again the following John amansuku there will Robin Livingston will be our speaker to follow I come to read a book today entitled worm loves worm and this book is a form of mental rape because it assaults the soul it stains the brain and it robs children of their innocence it's not grooming even though that's appropriate it's not indoctrination although that's appropriate it's mental rape and every person who endorses mental rape you are a mental rapist that goes for librarians that goes for board members it goes for superintendents and all of the above it's mental raping this book talks about two worms who get married and the worms can be both grooms and Brides it's all interchangeable that's what this filth talks
189about and it's available for children as early as the age of five years of age in Wake County and this is what you call gender confusion kids go to school to find out that two worms can get married and one can both can be the groom and both can be the bride and they can both get married and just enjoy life and then it says in here it says you know it's not normally done like that where you know you could just be interchangeable and one can pick to be the groom and one can pick to be the bride and it says well you know what we'll just change how it's done and that's what the focus of this is to change normative behaviors I have a message that I receive from a homosexual Man
190by the name of Walt he sent it to me recently I'll read it to you it says sorry but I'm gay and even I understand that children are being groomed to adopt a form of sexuality early on this is not how children learn and grow but how children are deceived Preen and programmed to accept what was previously unacceptable and y'all can label my words as hate speech homophobia bigot a black man in America who doesn't know his place you know because I choose to not be a liberal you can call it whatever you want but at the end of the day it's Waltz using hate speech he agrees with me because Walt knows this that in order for a person to be homosexual it takes a person who is a heterosexual to create them because
191in homosexuality two men will never reproduce two women will never reproduce it takes heterosexuality Chris as you roll your eyes it takes heterosexuality to create a child not homosexuality and Tyler as you turn around your chair and you pretend to walk out as you're angry you too Seeker is Robin Livingston followed by Jennifer labs [Applause] Robin Livingston okay Jennifer labs followed by Sarah marianov destruction hello thank you board members for allowing me to speak today I want to speak on support of applying for the fostering diverse schools and demonstration grant that you guys talked about and learned about in your work meeting today I think it ties into the importance of equity policies and increasing socio-economic diversity I'm deeply concerned about the negative comments made during school board meetings that have attacked books and libraries
192and have gone on for months after months my opinion of the purpose of this is performative and to decrease the support for funding for North Carolina Public Schools including Wake County Schools if you want to really worry about books and materials I believe personally that is easy to do you can go to Librarians that are highly trained you can talk to your schools if you don't want materials to go home with your children the general assembly in North Carolina is about to move millions of dollars that will take some funding away from our public schools and reallocate it towards private schools that have no accountability Limited limited testing they don't have anything with curriculum or requirements of what types of books that that can be offered to students I think this is a travesty and
193that this will really decimate a lot of our public education schools I want my children to be a part of the school board I want them to be a part of the government and I want them to learn about that and I do believe that that they should be a part of the audience of this I as a parent will decide when I start to bring them to things like this but I believe when they are teenagers especially my children will be 18 when they are in high school so they could easily be in one of your positions when they turn and when they graduate from the from Wake County Schools so I think it's important for them to listen to it and if it is really about the materials then I would encourage parents
194and family members to say I don't believe in this for my child so I can do something different about it but to stand up and to perform and to read materials that are obscene is really exposing more children to those types of materials and restricting parents from actively participating in their government thank you our final speaker is Sada Mariano great hi my name is Sada marinov I just graduated from Jordan High School one week and one day ago in Durham North Carolina um yeah and I'm happy to be here firstly I'd like to thank everyone here for sitting through this meeting but also allowing me to speak um caddy Moore thank you for doing what you do you are a true role model for young women who would also like to be a leader so
195thank you no I'd like to say that we are living through a very dangerous time a time in which queer children are facing unsafe learning environments a time in which lgbtqia plus students are being attacked on the basis of their gender identity not only by their peers but also by some of their teachers and their peers very vocal parents I'd like to make everyone aware of this one very jarring fact queer students especially those who who exist in schools with book bands are more than four times as likely to commit suicide than their non-queer peers four times now everyone in this room has a choice you can either support all students or you can be directly responsible for endangering them you can either save an lgbtqia Plus student or you can be responsible for the
196death of one I prompt everyone in this room to resist the extremist push for the Banning of lgbtqia centered books all Queer students like myself deserve the right to receive and inclusive education free from censorship or discrimination thank you have a good night that concludes our public comment for this evening is there a motion to return to closed session for reasons previously stated so all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor of returning to closed session please say aye aye any opposed name all right that concludes this portion of the meeting I wish everyone safe travels home foreign