23-5-2 Board Meeting

001foreign [Music] all right good evening everyone it is Tuesday May 2nd at 5 41 pm 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 to observe Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public

002meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143-318.17 we have a quorum all board members are present we also have our board attorney Mr Bloomberg as well as superintendent Moore with us so if you will stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you at this time I will turn it over to superintendent Moore for her comments good evening it was my privilege last week to announce Terry Hennings a Civic literacy and African-American studies teacher at Gardner Magnet High School as the 2023 wcpss teacher of the year pennings chose teaching as a second career after serving in the

003United States Air Force for 25 years he has taught at Garner Magnet High School since 2017. Penny says of his instructional style my time in the U.S Air Force has provided me a unique opportunity to insert my own experiences and include personal culturally relevant experiences once students discover the personal connection I have with their culture race or ethnicity it increases the opportunity for Meaningful bonds to form my relationship with my students is the foundation upon which everything else rests Hennings is the faculty advisor to Garner High's black student union club and serves on the superintendent's teacher advisory Council he has also served and on the school's Equity team and as a Civic literacy professional Learning Community leader as teacher of the year Hennings will participate in the Go Global North Carolina international study program in

004South Korea next summer he will also have the use of a 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe from Capitol Chevrolet for the next year in addition to many other prizes donated by Community sponsors in a district with thousands of talented and hard-working teachers being named teacher of the year is a rarified honor my most sincere congratulations and thanks to Mr Hennings as well as all of this year's finalists and semi-finalists for your commitment to teaching excellence nine wcpss students are among the 840 winners of the first round of 2023 National Merit Scholarships in this first of four rounds of the prestigious scholarship program corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees who are residents of the communities of the comp that the company serves or who plan to pursue college majors or

005careers the sponsor wishes to encourage most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from one thousand to ten thousand dollars per year congratulations to all of these winners who are listed on our Facebook page congratulations to Green level high school senior danine Khan for being named the 2023 Rachel Rivers coffee High School journalist of the Year by the North Carolina Scholastic media Association Khan is co-editor of the green level high school newspaper the Gator's eye judges emphasize the strength of Khan's writing across different platforms as well as her leadership of an Engaged Newsroom one judge wrote danine displayed an impressive variety of writing in her portfolio handling news feature and opinion well showing that she has mastered many types of journalistic writing

006Khan will receive a three thousand dollar scholarship Olivia mattello of Enloe Magnet High School received an honorable mention and will receive a one thousand dollar scholarship the winners journalism programs will also receive a cash Award with green level receiving 500 and Enloe receiving 250. our mission as a district is to prepare students well for College and Career with the support of teachers and advisors these students are demonstrating talent and initiative gaining invaluable experience that will serve them well in any career path congratulations again to Deneen and Olivia and finally I'd like to invite um our Young Learners and their families to participate in Letterland days coming up on May 15th through May 21st Letterland is a fun and effective phonics program that uses engaging characters to help students learn the alphabet basic spelling and other

007literacy skills families can visit Letterland characters at various locations around Raleigh starting May 15th some will have pre-packaged activities that families can take home most events will be at pool and park which is open daily from 10 a.m to 7pm check to see where your favorite Letterland characters will be by visiting wcpss.net Letterland that concludes my comments thank you superintendent Moore and of course congratulations to Mr Hennings and congratulations to those students who were accepted into our future Teachers program we are very excited to meet you later this month and get to know you and thank you for choosing this profession this past Friday the board heard the leadership profile that community members and staff feedback helped us create um we are now reviewing our 28 applications we did build some flexibility into this timeline

008and I just want to let the public know that we will be meeting in closed session to choose first round interviewees and to determine interview questions now on Wednesday May 10th that will be updated on our superintendent search web page as well as access to that Community leadership profile and that is wcpss.net super hyphen search on Saturday Miss Johnson hostler and I attended the PTA reflection ceremony it was wonderful to see our students and their families to see recordings of their dances some of their photography and drawings and hear from our students who had prizes in the literature category many many thanks to our parent teacher associations and ptsas throughout Wake County the Wake PTA Council especially our Reflections chair Sandra fogelman and president Teresa Jones as well as to the Farmington Woods Community for

009hosting this event and last night the ptsas of Apex Friendship High School Middle School and Elementary School met to learn about school safety from our senior director of security and the school resource officer and I'd like to thank the ptas as well as Miss Jacobs Mr Pittman and Dr gamble for being available to answer questions from an administrator standpoint those are all that I have hand it over to Vice chair Hagerty thank you chair Mahaffey uh let me start with uh let's go canes we're into round two and I see some more of my colleagues have joined me knowing that in playoff hockey season there are no ties there are no ties during the playoffs so thank you for that support of solidarity thanks thanks except we'll come back to that one um I did

010I'm pleased to announce we have our last district 7 BAC meeting is coming up next Monday um May 8th at Sycamore Creek Elementary School and it will be on an import the important topic of Internet safety we were fortunate enough to get an Assistant Attorney General from the North Carolina Department of Justice who's going to talk about what parents need to know about Internet safety perhaps some self-defense strategies and some things that the department is looking at in terms of how it is trying to help keep all of our kids safe so again that's Monday at Sycamore Creek Elementary School um things to bring up yesterday if any of you were watching a Wake County Commissioners rolled out the county managers budget recommended budget and again the Wake County Wake County government pays for a

011number of important human services around the County EMS service they provide for our libraries Behavioral Health and medicine and of course they supplement public education there is one area though outside of Education that they brought up that I did want to talk about because I think it's important if you remember I think at a previous meeting Mr Swanson had talked about a great non-profit Youth Villages and the work they do around foster care and I know with a lot of the other topics in our community sometimes issues like foster care don't get the attention they deserve one of the key points that was brought up last night was that in Wake County in 2019 we had about 200 Foster families and by 2023 that number has fallen to 90. 90 children out there in need

012of you know a caring loving safe place again the ultimate goal with foster care is reunification with their parents sometimes conditions make that where that is not possible we have children aging out of the system going into the world without that that that Mentor that safe place if you have the capacity to be a foster parent or if you know someone who does and you'd like to learn more please go to wake.gov Foster and learn more about the Foster Care Program um another thing that came up at the end of our meeting you might have heard that we announced the settlement with Jewel um 6.2 million dollar settlement we'll see how much of that we actually receive um but this is specifically for the impacts of vaping in our school community and our youth and

013I think some of this really came to light just this week where we saw events at one of our high schools where they've had to actually shut down bathrooms because the extent of The Vaping was setting off the smoke alarms and this is not new this has been happening at this school and I know the school has tried many different solutions but the addictive nature of the Vape is that even with increased enforcement even with additional monitoring even with holding children accountable for the you know the the false alarms to the fire department and all of those calls with our First Responders the incidence of vaping just continue to rise and so you know we will be doing more as the settlement funds come in to look at what we can do as a school

014system to really try to cut down Cur and curb the youth vaping but this is a good opportunity you know Miss Miss Caulfield had brought up just the proximity of vaping shops to a lot of our schools there's one within walking distance of Leesville Road High School that students can easily access you know it's going to take more than just the schools it's going to take our community it's going to take a look we're going to have to look at the availability of these products and devices but the most important thing is if you haven't done it yet have this conversation at home with your students like so many of these issues the conversations about student Behavior have to begin at home and oftentimes if the only information they're getting is through advertising through things

015on the internet through peer pressure they're not going to get the whole story you know if if if you can convey just the the real gravity and the health risks involved you know the these ain't grandma cigarettes right you know one one Vape pod has the nicotine of what one two packs of cigarettes I have to keep checking because it just keeps going up and up um and and and the health impacts a whole generation are at risk so really please don't take for granted that your kids know better have the conversation with them about vaping about the health risks and about the responsibilities that they're taking on by vaping in our schools thank you very much Thank You by Sir Hagerty Ms Waters thank you chairman happy this is a great week to celebrate

016our teachers and principals thank you for all you do for our students and Mr Hershey if I may I'd like to say a special thanks to the incredible Pre-K team at Brentwood Elementary and the seventh grade team at Carroll Middle where my children receive great academic enrichment and so very proud of all the work that goes on throughout the district and I would like to talk about Teacher of the Year this is one of the most special events each year it was incredible to be in the room with so many incredible Educators I even saw one of my son's favorite teachers Miss Perry Sanders of Lynn Road and again Mr Hershey in your District so I was so excited also to see Mr Hennings and thankful for his service it's just so incredible to see

017his passion for his students and I'm just the joy that was seen when when we looked at the videos and so so excited for for him and thankful for the work that he has done and I also want to acknowledge we had a retirement last week Stacy Weddle who opened Riverbend Middle School retired last Friday she's left a legacy of serving our students very well and I'm so excited about her next chapter and I hope we'll get a chance to work together in some capacity in the future and last week was really a busy week the Boys and Girls Club luncheon last Friday was another opportunity to see our excellent students and to really learn about all the things that they do in the community the Boys and Girls Club is a great partner organization

018they really build so many leadership skills for our students and give them the opportunities to highlight and showcase all that they have done and so so honored to be able to be a part of that event last week and I'd like to thank Ms Johnson hosler for the opportunity for my first time attending the North Carolina foundation for public school children's champions for children's gala this was a really nice event and one of the most special things also Ms Johnson Hustler made sure I saw my high school library in Miss Linda Gill class of 96 from Millbrook High School so that was a very sweet reunion and so I appreciated that great opportunity and lastly I want to close with the District 4 BAC meeting it will be on May 15th and that will be

019at Southeast Raleigh elementary school and I hope everybody will come out it's at six o'clock we're going to lift up equity and have some great discussion and also get an upper update on the superintendent search so if you're able to join us we would love to have you there thank you thank you Miss Edmonds thank you I joined everyone all of my colleagues and congratulating wake County's Teacher of the Year Mr Hennings it was an absolute pleasure to be among so many of our top Educators last week at the awards ceremony I want to thank all of them and all the staff that work to make that event so special for these Educators a shout out to Athens Drive High School for winning the Gold Crown award for a high school print yearbook from the

020Columbia Scholastic press Association Athens won the silver crown award some months ago and advance to compete for the Gold Crown which they won about a month ago this is the first ever such award for a wcpss school and the first in five years from any school in North Carolina this is among the nation's highest awards for Scholastic Journal journalism so well done students and staff of the Athens Drive torch that's the name of their your book finally I want to remind everyone to please pay attention to what's going on at the legislature there are many education related Bills moving quickly through both Chambers public schools and public school districts need your support and your advocacy there are too many bills to mention but I would know that any of us here on the board would

021be happy to talk with you about what concerns us and what would help us so please reach out to your board member be aware of what's going on and contact your house and Senate members in the general assembly and help us advocate for funding and policies that support our school district and the public school districts around the state thank you doctoring good evening um and I want to Echo the congratulations to Mr Hennings I one of the things that I just was impressed with is that he served the country first and then his second career was teaching and in in doing a remarkable job at it so congratulations to him and just so you'll know that the all the finalists of teacher of the year they're truly servants servant leaders and this past weekend I

022went to a Spring Carnival at um Brooks Avenue Church of Christ for kids with special needs and lo and behold Mr Ross Anderson was there he was volunteering and so I I was really you know just very impressed with the fact that you know not only the disease serve in the classroom but he also serves in the community um and I just want to Second uh what Mr hegerty was talking about in terms of vaping just from a medical standpoint I just remember the time when vaping was such a big burgeoning industry and right before covet and I remember being working in the hospital that there were many cases of people being hospitalized at a very young age in the Intensive Care Unit with severe severe respiratory problems where their lungs are filled up with

023fluid and they are on the ventilator and and you know right about that time there was some research coming around coming out saying the the damage of vaping specifically the the uh additives to the The Vaping the the inside and people were concerned about that but unfortunately you know covid um the the Epic the pandemic happened and all that kind of was pushed aside for a number of years so I'm glad that this this um uh I think withdrawal has come along so that we can highlight that the the detrimental effects of vaping on our young people and finally um I don't usually do this but this may is Asian American and Pacific Islander one but oh okay well but but seriously I mean I I I uh you know being a part of that

024Community I I just wanted to have a um highlight the fact that you know aapi is it's a shortcut term um and really there are so many different cultures within this community there's Chinese the Japanese Koreans Vietnamese um Indians um and and and all of them are rich rich cultures that have unique perspectives um and I you know I and I you know it's easy to just kind of group everybody together but I just want everybody to appreciate the fact that all these cultures are unique with a very rich history very rich uh cultures and and just you know to be appreciative of that and understanding of the difference and even within the the API community um so um I just want to recognize that um this month and um you know the the the

025uh the achievements of all the people that have um through hundreds and thousands of years um uh in the Chinese culture but you know the thing that that I uh came up um that you know it was in my heart as a chinese-american is the the importance of hard work the importance of studying the importance of an education back in the uh back in China there are these quote-unquote judges um and there was a very important position very distinguished position and people work very very hard and go through a number of years of school to achieve that position and so you know that I think though that kind of Heritage has come along and continued on uh in in my in my background so that you know that's why I I take so much um

026put so much importance in the the a good quality education and that's why I'm here thank you thank you and Dr Ing didn't know but has noted prior that you are the first Asian-American or Pacific on Asian American to serve on this board Mr Hershey congratulations on that should be proud um thank you madam chair uh reminder that our final BAC is it's now on May 15th at noon I want to thank them for agreeing to host um did that go out did my might go out try that again yeah um I want to congratulate the Broughton baseball team on their first outright cap six Conference Championship since 1991. um I want to congratulate the Douglas Elementary School second graders for their uh cool weather related theme Dance dances that I went to last week

027and then finally I I would like to apologize first to the lgbtq community we have received emails I meant to acknowledge that last week and I just want to say that I stand with you I am concerned about bills coming out of the general assembly on um all issues related and that uh you know I reject bullying in all forms and you know we don't want to see it in our schools at all or from anyone else about our schools thank you thank you um okay on the second third and fourth congratulations to Terry Hennings for winning teacher of the year and to all those teachers that are out there that do so much for our children I want to give a shout out to our Sarah Freeman in district one at Wake Forest High

028School and Joshua Shepherd of noose River Middle School also district one that were recognized also as runner-ups there they were recognized for their great work and I appreciate all that our teachers do Wake Forest High School had the sound of music and I also got to I got to see The Sound of Music at Wake Forest High School and also Mean Girls At Heritage High School so although we have a busy schedule going on I was able to squeeze those two things in there um I just can't believe the talent that comes out of our children it really is pretty incredible to see the broadway-like performance that they put up there and their energy that they have up there and their confidence is it's just really it's incredible it's incredible to to watch that I

029know when I was in Middle School in high school you would have never got me on that stage but they do it and they do it with uh just pure enjoyment and they really are very talented so not only do we get to enjoy their talents but we also get to see um their resilience their teamwork their problem solving because if you've ever been backstage you know what it is like with how hectic and crazy energetic and just complete chaos back there as they put it together and show up on stage looking like it just naturally happened also the confidence that they put out there it's all um I think for Wake Forest High School The Sound of Music it was just incredible to see their Tech Team came out and just built this crazy

030elaborate stage and every time the scene changed they would roll it around and piece it all together and then disappear like poof like it never happened and it was just it was really incredible to see how much work they put into it and it really looked amazing and the same thing with Mean Girls they just they perform and do all this work so I thank all the parents all the staff and everybody that helps put all that stuff together um it's important to recognize also their relationships that they build and how much that encourages all them around them which leads me to May is mental awareness month it's important for us to realize that the relationships be recognized and how important that is to our kids and our teach and our students not only just

031with their friend groups with whoever you class and everything that they have all the kids that are around them a lot of these children especially our teenagers need that encouragement and they may feel like they're not understood or they're alone but I want to encourage folks to reach out you are not alone and they're probably way more of you than you really will understand that feel exactly the same way you are so please reach out um thank you to Mr Wing for recognizing that about the Vapes and and Mr Haggerty also to recognize how important it is to be a community with all these things I think that is a that is a very key and important factor have the conversation with your children have it once have it twice have it many times so

032there is no information that you will give to your children that will not be helpful and even if they don't listen once twice if they hear it enough they will just think twice before they do something like that and it could affect their health it could affect their well-being it could affect everything so have the conversation thank you Mr Swanson thank you chairman happy and um yesterday I want to start by saying happy National principal appreciation day was yesterday and I just want to acknowledge and give a shout out to all the amazing leaders that we have in our schools that are doing the work every day to ensuring that our students feel safe seen and heard uh in their in their schools and also congratulations to our teacher of the year and to all

033those teachers that you know were recognizing those teachers that were not recognized who are doing the work uh without little to no compensation from our state legislator as we go into there so I think Mr Mr Hershey started the conversation so I'm gonna piggyback with you um so I know that we are fortunate for those for our teachers and as we celebrate teacher appreciation week next week I hope that all parents and teachers and students you know celebrate your teachers because not every superhero wears capes they have pins and juggling many things things and Grading many papers and ensuring that you are meeting the goals and the needs or whatnot so um May 15th many legislators will be it's bring your legislator to school day as they will be touring our schools and I hope

034that as they are touring our schools they are seeing the needs uh that our schools are facing and I hope that folks will be having those conversations about compensation and about retention and I know that when I tour with my state center I will be sharing these same concerns and I'm encouraging others to do the same and to see what's happening in our classrooms because the magic happens in the classroom with little to no resources so I'm hoping they will be able to take some of those things back to Jones Street so we're not constantly going to the County Commissioners to put further pressure on our constituents and on this County to do what is best by fully funding our schools in our Journal assembly is sitting on a billion dollar Surplus so the state

035has to do more as we vote tonight on our budget I will give you a little sneak preview of my comment but I'll save the rest for that time when it's more appropriate but the state has to do more the state has to mandate their their responsibility that is indicating their state constitution which they all have sworn to uphold so with that being said I will be I'm looking forward tomorrow to going to Weatherstone elementary school as I'm wrapping up my District 9 tours as so I'm grateful for Dr Sexton to setting these up and looking forward to getting to the other schools in Apex and Morrisville and so that concludes my remarks well thank you madam chair Miss Johnson Hustler take us home thank you very much I will certainly be able to eliminate

036some of my comments one was about vaping in our schools I had one high school teacher tell me that it feels like they're going to recess because they are being called out of class constantly with the number of fire alarms happening and I know it's a very bold move to make that kind of change in one of your high schools so but I think we're at a place where we are all going to have to make really hard decisions and very bold moves to address the impact that vaping has well while it's not our grandmothers I think about my mother who went to high school when you could actually smoke on a campus because they didn't understand the effects of tobacco and again I'm a North Carolina born and raised so of course we live

037in the south so I see somebody always like yes I remember when they could smoke in schools and the other piece that perhaps we can bring some of our students back in when this was brought to me literally in 2013 by a group of 14 year old students I had no idea and apparently neither did a couple of principles that some of those vape pens are so small that parents don't know where they are so in addition to talking to your kids I also strongly recommend speaking as a High School parent um as well as that you also have conversations about when they see something say something oftentimes parents talk to their kids and don't know what's happening and so one of the pieces of good friendship is also taking care of your friends which

038I also consider a part of how we do mental health work is so I tell my daughter all the time yes I know all of the rhymes about snitches but I also know what it means to be a good friend and that really shows up when your friends that are your friends at 17 will still be around by keeping them healthy and safe and so and that's what certainly a lot of the work that I've learned from the young people who have really brought to light the impact of vaping in our schools and I'd be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge from the work that a lot of our youth councils in post Center does as well around vaping is yes there is certainly nicotine in those Vape pills but there are also other substances

039that our students are having access to in those vape pens so the conversation has to be much broader than the impact of nicotine that some of our students are having access to in their vape pens and sadly enough that is where we are in this day and age and to that end and having conversations with a group of young people over the weekend one of the things that they also recommended I talk about is talking to parents about taking things snacks from their friends because we also are seeing an increase of gummies laced in our schools and being given out as regular gummies so my young people always keep me in the know and remind me what I should talk about at the table so another thing for parents to bring to the Forefront in

040discussions with our young people so now I feel like I'm telling my daughter a list of things as she leaves the house and I was like don't forget get your own Scooby Snacks out of the cabinet because that's our little running joke because again those of you who have heard me a long time know I believe in the strength based approach scaring our kids has never created change what has created change is ensuring that they have the knowledge and information to what the truth is and the impacts on their own livelihood and so trusting our young people enough to give them the correct information is invaluable especially in these instances so whether it's humor that you use or other information I certainly would echo my colleagues and parents talking to our young people about all

041of these things and also helping them figure out how to talk to their peers because sometimes our best Advocate are our peer Advocates so that's another addition I would add to that again always a highlight to see our young people with Mojave knows I love love little kids like she knows her little kid is not a little kid anymore she is grown up but so we got to see a lot of little kids at the PTA and one little girl I think she may have been kindergarten or first grade so we really think she should read her poem to the entire District because she talked very openly about differences and what it means and how we still work together as a community out of this little tiny five or six year old with cute little

042pigtails and so again out of the amounts of babes really speaking for me truth to power around how adults can learn from our young kids and so again a lot of amazing talent in our district as you can imagine but that I think it might be the first poem we heard really still stands out from the work that our kids are doing and also acknowledging that they see the way that adults are behaving and are speaking to it in their own artwork in the ways in which we tell them to behave as children they're emulating we should also do the same as adults and trust me she articulated it far better than I am as a little five or six year old the last thing that I will say is you know when I think

043about Mr Henning and again without a shot of a doubt you all know he represents Garner in District Two and so we are extremely excited but one of the things that he said to me first besides he did not believe that they were giving him a Tahoe but he also talked about the number of teachers who don't have the time energy or space to put forth what it takes to even apply for Teacher of the Year and I've always known that especially when I served as chairing you get to read the portfolios and see how much extra work goes into even applying for any of these Awards and so it's just a reminder that certainly I felt like he was saying to me that he was accepting this not just on behalf of himself but

044for all the teachers who don't have the extra time who are doing the same great work in their buildings and again that's always a sign to me that the right person was chosen when that they can be gracious with their own award and acknowledging that his BSA students can also see a reflection of themselves in him and we also decided that he should get a parking spot at the top of the student parking lot when he rolls out of his black Tahoe so he can really floss in front of the kids but but again just for me I wanted to for us not only my appreciation for the work that everybody in the district does to make it happen but also acknowledging that not all of our teachers have the time resources and energy energy

045to submit these Awards to submit to be a part of the awards and so to have an award winner representing our district truly reminds me of the goodness that we have in all of our schools thank you thank you Miss Johnson Hustler and I I will add that um I did forget to mention that it is also Jewish American History Month we know that attacks on our lgbtq um Community are up and acts of anti-Semitism are reported even higher than that it's not that attacks went down on our lgbtq kids it's just that anti-semitic acts went up so let's all take a moment and recognize that we can all you know in our hearts treat people the way that they want to be treated and that words have power to lift people up and also

046to hurt people um at this point um it is time to get a motion to approve our meeting agenda so moved second right we have a motion in a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay right motion passes we now move on to public comment speakers commenting on items on tonight's agenda will be heard before speakers commenting on other topics those speakers will be heard in order of sign up if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remaining speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism dedicated at substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members the laws and

047policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel and individual student matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues in matters of General concern concerns related to Personnel issues or student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes a green light will illuminate at the podium when you when you begin a yellow light will light up along with an audio tone when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and a red light along with an audible tone will signal when your time is up and it will be time for the next speaker to be called to the podium in

048the interest of maintaining civility in decorum however 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 and any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to the board attorney either before or after your comments Mr Bloomberg is right there for your convenience and also if you need to adjust the microphones please do so um we have five speakers on agenda and four off we begin with on agenda topics our first speaker is Dwayne Hansen and will be followed by Mary Richardson Mary Richardson followed by Amy Marshall good evening board my name is Barry Richardson I live in

049Holly Springs and I find it difficult to speak to this budget as there is no line item budget available anywhere on the website to look at with that in mind I'll start by saying that 650 094 842 is mind-boggling million dollars 650 million dollars there seems to be a lot of waste in the budget over compensated administrators when when the teachers are the ones that need the increase in wages maybe administrative wages could be cut and move those dollars to the teacher salaries or classroom supplies so teachers are not spending their hard-earned dollars for the supplies needed to teach our children suppose you dissolve the office of equity and affairs and move that budgeted money elsewhere based on an article in the north North State Journal in January of 22 the office of equity Affairs

050budget to date was over 8 million dollars and this office was formed in 2014 with a budget of 250 000 and that budget grew to a high of 1 million six hundred and thirty one thousand during the 2019-20 school year various initiatives such as Equity coaching cultural proficiency training and Equitable discipline practices are displayed on the website however there are no metrics or measures of accountability related to the effects effectiveness of the oea's endeavors how about move that million dollar budget to New Quality curriculum that will help our students learn the basics of Reading Writing and arithmetic because based on test scores Wake County students are falling farther and farther behind and my biggest concern is in the final statements on your online budget review the this will support the critical work happening under the

051essential pillars of high quality instructional core if you had a high quality instructional core the students would not be falling or failing the end of year exams Equity first focused practices you're spending too much of our tax dollars on your Equity practices and not focusing on the students learning that's all I have to say our next speaker is Amy Marshall followed by Daniel Grant King hello I'm Amy Marshall president and founder of the new educator Association Carolina teachers Alliance at carolinateachers.org we have a growing School staff membership in North and South Carolina our vision is an unbiased and academically sound education for all kids I'm here today first regarding the budget to thank the board for reinstating Master's pay that will go into effect July 1st you made the right decision to help retain and

052attract high quality teachers the second reason I'm here tonight is about Senate Bill 579 titled prevent harm to children that was unanimously approved by the bipartisan North Carolina Senate yesterday this bill increases the penalty for showing obscene materials to kids from a Class I felony to a class H felony where obscenity falls under the North Carolina's obscenity law General statute 14-190.1 class h f felony convictions carry jail terms from 4 to 25 months this the law goes into effect after December 1st at on December 1st Wake County Public Schools retains many books with content meeting the North Carolina statute description of obscenity my question for the board tonight is why not act now to remove the obscene materials from wcpss libraries I have here just one of many examples retained by the district these are

053sexually explicit images of graphic oral sex between males and it is from the KO Bobby book genderqueer this book with these pornographic images is still available to 13 and 14 year olds at three Wake County high schools Broughton Nightdale and Panther Creek I would ask each board member to go on public record stating whether you support retaining this particular book that violates the North Carolina obscenity Statute in light of yesterday's unanimous Senate vote librarian Julie Stivers spoke here recently claiming only a small percentage of parents want obscene books removed yesterday's unanimous Senate vote shows it's no small number as you view these images from a book remaining in your schools and I'll hand this to attorney Bloomberg when I'm done would you proudly show this to your children if you answered no then please stop

054the showing of this obscenity to our children this book has no educational value and is harming kids so on behalf of our Carolina teachers Alliance membership here and Beyond I ask you to make the right decision and direct your school principals to remove the obscene books like this one before SB 579 takes effect thank you our next speaker is Daniel Grant King see here this evening no all right Christina Spears followed by May Mitchell good evening chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty and board members hello superintendent Moore and District staff I'm Christina Spears wake ncae president it is the height of spring in public schools I want to start by thanking you all for your diligence Public School workers are tired but I know you're tired too in the middle of the budget process and the

055superintendent search I want to start again by appreciating superintendent Moore's clear reminder last week to the board about its role in the budget process saying the board's role is to communicate the needs of the district to the County Commission and that role is clearly articulated on our public-facing website so I'm here asking you to articulate those needs in our final budget proposal to our accounting Commissioners and earlier today Miss Edmonds reference Community comments on the budget saying some believe it's adequate While others do not and I encourage you to ask yourselves when you vote tonight who is harmed or impacted by an inadequate budget as you've heard at this Podium and in the last two meetings are classified staff are directly impacted when they are not compensated a living wage when our non-instructional staff that's

056our instructional assistance bus drivers Child Nutrition workers safety assistants are impacted our students are impacted too Miss Caulfield I appreciated you pointing to student achievement in connection to this budget proposal Public School professionals both certified and classified know that when workers are overworked and overpaid we cannot adequately meet the social and academic needs of our students ultimately impacting student achievement not only are we asking you to articulate our needs through this budget proposal we are asking you to lead we are asking you to be bold with your leadership and with your vote tonight by doing what you know is right for public school workers and our students proposing a budget to the Commissioners that provides the compensation in school facilities we need and deserve if you can show Public School workers that you are responsive

057to our needs in this case being clear that 17 an hour is not enough and we need to move closer to an hourly wage that is comparable or the same as other County Employees you can Galvanize us workers to come out and support your budget at the County Commission in the coming weeks if you demonstrate that responsiveness tonight with your leadership in your votes we are looking forward to fighting together with you alongside you and our community allies to win a fully funded budget increase from our County Commissioners and rest assured wake ncae and folks who love our Wake County Public Schools will be using our power and our voices at the upcoming budget hearings in the coming weeks at the County Commission I hope folks will join us on May 15th for the public

058hearing and a rally beforehand but for now for tonight it's your duty to respond to the needs of public school workers and constituents listening to public comments and stories from this Podium reading electronic feedback and considering the material impacts on people's lives by promoting a budget proposing a budget passing a budget that adequately meets our needs thank you our next speaker is Mae Mitchell followed by Donna lupus um my name is May Mitchell I am a parent to children in the Wake County Public School System I know that in the last board meeting there was a group of very vocal parents demanding to ban books I'd like to voice a counter response and support for both the staff of our public schools and our diverse student body and their experiences I have printed handouts for

059board members on the statistics of banned books collected by the American Library Association this is the highest number of attempted book bands since the Ala began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago according to the Ala president the unprecedented number of challenges we're seeing already this year reflex coordinated National efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us young people in particular of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of our personal experience my mother's family fled from mainland China to Taiwan because of the cultural revolution I grew up with the knowledge that censoring books and only allowing certain ideas to be discussed within public settings especially the classroom is a form of authoritarianism book bands are rooted in white supremacy and homophobia organizations with

060the political agenda are spreading lists of books they don't like efforts to censor entire categories of books reflecting certain voices and Views show that the moral Panic isn't about kids it's about politics by restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought censorship undermines one of the primary functions of Education teaching students how to think for themselves such actions assert Free Speech proponents endanger tolerance free expression and democracy we are not living in a system of individualism no matter how much our society would like to convince us the reality is that we're all interdependent that our experiences impact one another and books are tools for us to understand each other's realities reading expands our ideas and thoughts they do not merely reinforce what we wish to be true books Inspire us to engage in and debate an

061exchange of ideas but too many of those advocating for book bands would rather censor the freedom of thought I understand parents wishes to protect their children I share that wish however Banning books that contain ideas that scare us is a weak response and I encourage you all to trust the professionals that have been hired to educate our diverse body that listening to someone else's story will encourage empathy and Humanity which is the value we all share thank you our next speaker is Patricia or sorry I'm sorry Donna lubis followed by Patricia Roby robiso I never plan to come back here but evidently I have a following so people are listening to what I'm saying I'm a teacher of many many years 30 years in Wake County and we are this t-shirt because I was a

062teacher every year at one point um I need to address two things I didn't plan to say I need to address uh and I I'm not prepared for this but when I think oftentimes when we talk about book Banning people think we're taking knowledge away I think most people when they're talking about book Banning they're talking about banning pornography that children are seeing like the lady was just talking about things that are not children are should not be seeing I think that's the book Banning they're talking about book Banning shouldn't isn't the term that should be used okay well let me get on to what I was going to be talking about since talking last time I was the last time I was here I've been taking time to speak to uh colleagues that are

063still in the field they're still in the school's teaching and asking them things like what would it look what what differences would I see if I came back to school now what would be different and um I kept hearing the same things over and over again it was an obvious pattern the biggest thing seemed to be lack of discipline there's the children there's people I I had even T teacher assistants saying to me if I discipline a child in a cafeteria for throwing food and all that I have no backup for disciplining the child uh and the other thing is the administration will does not do anything if you have unruly children in your classroom you cannot teach them they need to be listening to you to you like you are if you were all

064turned to each other and started talking and I just try to talk over you you're not and you're not internalizing what I'm saying but discipline over and over again um the other thing these are a few comments that some teachers have made to me when they have to teach something that is uncomfortable to them they ignore it they don't do it an example would be CRT they find that they're they don't want to instill any more hate and division amongst the children in their room and they just ignore these things um oh boy really um uh okay that went fast I found out today just sitting there do you know how much you pay for each child in in Wake County Public Schools 11 846 dollars a child and you still need more money that

065is insane um and another thing I'd like to just bring up because I got off track uh mental health days what are they mental health is a kid stay home from school and no no academic instruction wow I don't get it don't get it our next speaker is Patricia robiso followed by Donald dembling MS robisio my name is Patricia Robison and I am from Raleigh that's okay my apologies it was cut off thank you for clarifying yeah that's okay um I've spent the last 35 years as a teacher 20 years in public school and 15 years in private school and I've spent my life supporting students teachers administrators board members like you and all of the staff that provides our children with the education that that they need I'm here tonight to bring my support

066to solving the pressing issue of school safety we are in a crisis right now all around us all over our country and I've never been in a place like this before I've never felt the fear that I feel when our children get on the bus and go to school or enter an elementary school or a middle school or a high school just last week Middle Creek had a code red and in that school was my granddaughter and I I don't I don't know how we're going to solve this huge problem of school safety I know it involves more than just putting machines up to scan weapons as they come into the building but in Middle Creek there was a gun in the building and it was another student who reported that that gun was there

067that can be prevented it's prevented as I enter an airport it's prevented as I enter the buildings in Raleigh and it can be prevented in our schools right now I've learned that Johnston County has machines that that it's free-flowing you can just pass them and it doesn't just pick up metal detecting it picks up an image so it doesn't stop people with a watch or whatever that's metal it actually will stop someone with a weapon and I've forgone whatever and I don't know how we're going to get the money Mr Swanson was talking about this money that we have that the state has I don't know what to do on one person right now but I I want to do something and I want to do it urgently because I can feel it it's not

068far away now and and I want us to stop it before it happens thank you our final speaker tonight is Donald dembling good evening my name is Donald dembling I'm a resident of Raleigh and Pat Pat just said everything I wanted to say plus so I just want to encourage the board to examine this issue of guns in the schools and find a way that the gun will not get through the front door and before anything can happen I know that there's some examples of gun prevention in other counties and maybe that's a good place to start to examine what we can do in Wake County um yeah she actually did say everything I was going to say so which he usually does but thank you for your time thank you for allowing me to

069be here too thank you this concludes public comment thank you all for coming and speaking at this point we will move on to our superintendent updates superintendent Moore takes the time to share what was um said in the work session in case anyone's interested they can go back and watch on our YouTube channel thank you chairman happy the board covered three items during today's work session beginning with um additional budget work session as you prepared to adopt the board's budget to provide to the County Commissioners board members had additional questions that staff provided some responses to um some clarifications were made in terms of the process understanding the additional work session that the Commissioners will have on May 22nd that will be the final opportunity for staff and board members who are interested to answer

070questions specifically to the County Commissioners we also talked about the fact that um the county manager did reveal his budget proposal to the Commissioners yesterday so now the budget quite frankly is in the hands of the board and the Commissioners as we move forward the second item then you will have the budget proposal this evening for approval on the agenda the second item on the work session was the initial planning discussion for the assignment plan for 2023-24 as has been the practice of Staff they would bring in the spring the areas that they are considering the priorities they did provide the seven year sort of Outlook that included the last couple of years in the next five years so that we could emphasize the fact that while the staff bring a one-year plan at a

071time it is a multi-year process that is considered when that plan is brought of significance also is the number of community sessions that are being held in the spring that have already started so that families who could potentially be impacted by the plan are notified and and there are opportunities for them to engage in discussion and provide feedback um it was left open at the end of the meeting after everything was reviewed if there are additional questions of the board or things that you want to have answers to or make sure are included or reviewed by staff to please do so as they will begin working together to synthesize all the feedback they get from you as well as in the community groups to prepare draft one that will come to the board late August

072early September the third item in the work session today was a continuation of the discussion the board has been having for a while now around K-12 Bell schedules we started that discussion pre-pandemic we're sort of interrupted by the pandemic have picked it back up again this really is about looking at the research around start times in schools and adolescents the current three-tier system that the system currently operates in order to get our children to school and today's session included an opportunity to review feedback from focus groups that have been held with students with teachers a large survey that went out with I think it was 12 out more than 12 000 respondents which is really pretty good for us in terms of when we send something out um and and just reviewing that feedback and

073you know what we found is that you know on the one side academically people believe that the flipping some bell schedules would be helpful for things that are happening inside the school day for everything that's happening outside the school day it seemed to be the reverse the keeping it the way it is now is preferable for the things that happen outside the school day so that all of that to say there is still work before us so the board ended that with um asking staff to continue to maybe review what some other districts are doing in particular that have three tier systems like we do it's not common but there are some others uh that may have engaged in a change or not and why to potentially look at a Pilot that might involve a

074smaller number of schools as we move forward but generally to agree that it likely would not be something that would be in place for the 24-25 school year but after that as we would need to build a long runway for families and communities for any changes that was the work session from today thank you superintendent Moore and again that's available on our YouTube channel from today's work session at this point we'll take a motion to approve the consent items so moved we have a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right the motion passes we now move on to our action item first coming out of Finance uh waiver of board policy 8101 for approval of the pros 2023 4 budget Mr kneader good evening chair my

075happy members of the board and superintendent more at your April 11th 11th 2023 board meeting the superintendent and staff presented the superintendent's proposed 2023-2024 budget that proposed budget invests 25.2 million dollars of fund balance to balance the overall budget the 25.2 million dollar investment of fund balance is more than the threshold set in board policy 8101 board policy 8101 directs that the board will not use more than 50 percent of its unassigned fund balance the balance of future Euros budget and the honest on fund balance as of June 30th 2022 is 46.5 million dollars the investment of 25.2 million dollars in fund balance represents 54 of the June 30 2022 unassigned number as a result staff is requesting board waive this component of their policy 8101 so the board can move forward in considering approval

076of the board's proposed budget for 23.24. staff is carefully reviewed this and we are comfortable in recommending it to the board waivers of this policy have been made in the past for the same reason I now ask the board's consideration of approval of waiving this component of board policy 8101 all right forgement chairman I just was going to say I had a move that we waive policy 8101 thank you Miss Edmonds is there a second thank you Mr Swanson any comments discussion questions for Mr needer seeing none all those in favor of approving this waiver of board policy 8101 please say aye any post say nay all right moving on to approval of the board of education's proposed budget thank you after the presentation of the superintendent's proposed budget to the board on April 11th

077the board has conducted the following activities they've asked questions about the proposed budget and received staff responses the boards conducted two separate budget work sessions the board conducted a public hearing last week during the board meeting and the board has also received over 44 pages of public input that was provided through an online forum foreign that said much uncertainty exists and will remain into the unforeseeable future as we wait to see the final Wake County budget and the final State Legislative budget the proposed budget includes several funding parties that are part of a multi-year initiative and those priority areas include compensation increases for our staff to acknowledge we value their work and help us become more competitive in our capacity to recruit and retain viable employees the proposed budget includes raising our beginnings starting hourly

078rate for support staff to 17 per hour and requesting over 25 million dollars of additional local funding for increasing overall compensation for staff this is not where we need to be but it is a step in the right direction as we have been able to make over the past several years the proposed budget includes expansion of Behavioral Health support resources for students and families so they will have access to social workers counselors School psychologists and related support staff and specifically the proposed budget has a two million dollar request for additional local funding to increase the number of school-based counselors the proposed budget requests an additional 12.6 million dollars of local funding as we begin our move through the fiscal transition and sunsetting of federal pandemic relief funds this will allow us to maintain the increased

079level of funding for maintenance and operations for our school facilities as well as to maintain the increased levels of instructional support technicians to support what now has become a one-to-one student to student device ratio in the district the proposed budget also includes funding requests to support the opening of a new Early Learning Center to serve the increasing number of pre-K special needs students additional school-based preschool special education teacher positions and additional special education instructional assistance to serve in 10 new Regional program classrooms the proposed budget also includes additional local funds we are required to pay charter schools and meet increased an additional four million dollars while this funding is a request from the school board to the county the funding itself will not be available for Wake County students it will flow to the Charter

080Schools this is required of us by the state these priority areas and initiatives and others are the basis of requesting an increase of 55.8 million dollars in County appropriation from the county of that almost 56 million dollar request almost half 46 percent is associated with improving staff compensation the board has now wave board policy 8101 allowing to invest more than 50 percent of the prior years on assigned fund balance into the proposed budget staff is available tonight to answer any remaining additional questions and then we will ask your consideration of approval of what will become the board's proposed 2023-2024 budget right at this time is there a motion to approve the board of education's proposed budget for 2023-2024. cheers chairman happy I move adoption of the superintendent's proposed budget second all right are there questions

081comments I first want to take a moment and thank staff for putting this together and superintendent Moore I know this is not easy I know we all are aware of the needs that remain in our district and this will not fix them all and thank you Mr kneader for addressing that I also want to thank our board members for this is a new thing for many of you sitting at this table it is a difficult process and we heard over and over that this process remains up in the air as we wait to hear back from the County Commission as we wait to hear back from the general assembly not knowing when their budget will be improved approved and I know that this is not an easy task it's a complex task and I thank

082you all for your dedication to this process Mr Swanson thank you chair Mahaffey I also wanted to say thank you to superintendent Moore and Mr neder and staff for putting this together answering all of our questions and a few things I just wanted to clear up and I hate that our good friends left that was talking about teacher compensation because we don't control teacher pay we control the local supplement but the states the North Carolina Journal assembly sets forth the teacher pay only thing we can do is Advocate to increase the local supplemental pay for that you know trying to divert funds from offices to teachers that we can't do that that's not necessarily illegal I just wanted to clear that up number one number two um you know the journal assembly has a constitutional

083mandate to fund our schools it's not the county commissioner we're very grateful for the county commissioner that has been very generous to this District but it's not the drill it's the journal assembly and it is past time I I would quote lizzo but I don't want to well it is I'll quote lizzo it's about damn time that they actually do what is best um so I want to thank you all and I think this is an opportunity and again it doesn't it does not go it does not meet all the needs that we that we have expressed but it does do what's best and you know I look forward to having conversations with accounting Commissioners and and whatnot we express our needs because we can't recruit businesses to this County if we do not have

084a strong and thriving school system and having a strong thriving school system means having teachers in the building it means having Child Nutrition workers having bus drivers that to me is a thriving school system that we have that we can do more but again the bug starts and it falls at the journal assembly so those folks that are listening call your damn legislators and tell them to get off the buck and do what's best for our skits because we can't do what's best when we do not have the capacity and school safety is a big piece but it also means having our kids safe means having no vacancies and right now we have vacancies up and down that's because we have a state legislator that is not following their constitutional duty all of us have

085a constitutional Duty that we swore and we're uphelding which is passing a budget and it is hiring a superintendent that's our two pieces three two pieces but we got to get the general assembly to work with us and start passing legislation that that is smoke and mirrors against what the real issues are and the real issues are is recruiting and recruiting and retaining our teachers not culture wars not whatever's happening folks bedrooms and not the books it is getting folks in the classroom to make sure that we have folks to teach what's in the books not the other stuff so thank you again and I'm going to get my soapbox all right anyone else Dr Eng and then okay well uh thank you so much for this um all the hard work for preparing this

086budget um and you know I and I mentioned it in the meeting earlier you know I go into this kind of you know it's a sobering thought about what we're what we're having to pass um and I I go into it you know reluctantly um simply because I mean I I do appreciate the need to pay our staff especially our teachers a better wage at the same time I do have I understand realistically you know the budget that we have proposed we know we still probably going to have to make some difficult decisions to to cut certain spending and that's I am prepared to do that um and looking at what is necessary to to keep our teachers teaching their you know their students and to make sure that we the teacher the students get

087a great education now you know a lot of the the factors that have come into play in our society you know there's there's faults on both sides you know and and you know the things that have happened in in our society because of covet and and the the the people not wanting to work and then having to incentivize people to to work you know in everyday jobs has caused this kind of Rippling effect on wages you know and and I do want to have make sure that we acknowledge that people who have put in the you know years of education um to to try to teach the kids well it should be well compensated better compensated compared to people who did not get that kind of Education um you know and and it's just it's

088it's sober like I said to to have to realize that that we have to make these hard decisions so thank you Miss Caulfield the first I want to say thank you for putting everything together I know it is tedious and I do not want to be in your shoes um there is a lot that goes into this um as we're trying to digest five new people that are here um and I do have um a couple of questions and while I recognize that the general assembly and legislation really does affect how we operate I think that we still as a board have a responsibility to where and how we are delegating and allocating our funds so I don't think it is just in the general assembly yes we do start there there's no doubt about

089that that we start there but it is important that we reflect on all these numbers our resources and what we need for our children and our students so with that I do believe that we do need to be competitive with the the teachers and the bus drivers you know the children nutrition services everything that's out there we do need to improve that so I appreciate you breaking down the different ways that we receive all of our money and what that looks like to us and how we can try and look a little deeper into what can we do with that I know you guys work endlessly on that and as you've stated all year long um so I do appreciate that I do have a couple of questions in regards and these are questions that

090I had received I know we got lots of really good questions and comments and feedback from the public when it comes to our banded staff I know that we've broken down our teachers and our bus drivers and occupational therapists and so on where does that the state doesn't determine that correct we have the flexibility with those positions do we not we have flexibility within setting the ranges many of those positions do have state funding underneath them as well and so the amount of State funding we receive will influence how much we can afford to pay them and where we set the band and then my next part is just to clarify I think for me for everything we talked about and also for the public when it comes to the fact that we're talking about

091our teachers and occupational therapists and you know all those positions in all the different levels the state does determine but the state and local are the only source of funds we can't actually add more into that uh we don't have the resources to do that well our um our instructional staff as Mr Swanson said most of them are funded using State funds and then we put local funds on top of that as a supplement as many if not most districts do in the state to compete but the state sets the state base and similar for school administrators the state sets the school the school administrator base there are some Grant funded teaching positions perhaps most of them are state funded and then some are locally funded where the locally funded teaching positions would come based

092on the the individual teachers credentials will have a bachelor's degree master's degree um national board certification out they'll fall on the same schedule but that will use local funds to pay the state base amount and then also local funds to pay the local supplement okay thank you and um as far as the budget and as we reflect on it um I do I do agree with um the comment that we received today that it is kind of hard with the without having line by line but I do recognize that we have to really we're asking the County Commissioners we're hopefully in projecting what the household you know with the with State funds will be so it's really kind of hard to just balance and digest all of that and what we're actually looking at so

093I want the public to understand that it is kind of it's not just um it's not just looking at the numbers that we have in front of us we're trying to really project and then figure out what our flexibilities will be later and I don't agree that just adding more money will fix all of our our Band-Aids it's more about how we put things into the right places and do the right things with it it's a lot that goes into it there's a lot of you know decisions like this book in itself doesn't list a lot of things we all had a lot of questions but a lot of it went into just summarizing in that book so it is very complex so I appreciate all your time and effort Miss Waters and thank you

094chairman happy and Mr kneader Miss kimsey superintendent Moore and all staff who worked on the budget this is um an incredible document I'm the grandchild of a bus driver and I'm a product of Wake County Schools my children go to school in this district and I am really an advocate for compensating our Educators our teachers our subject matter experts they pour into our children every day they don't just do their job when they're in their school building they do it on nights and on weekends they give so much of themselves our bus drivers are there in the earliest hours of the day and so I appreciate you forwarding compensation in this budget and I don't think it's too much to ask for compensation for the work that our staff does every single day this is

095an investment in our children and our future and I don't think you can ever put a dollar amount on it but we have to because of the way the budget works and so I think it tells the story of a commitment to our students and to our educators that we have this ask and I know there is work and there this is a bold ask and I think that our our educators are worth it so I appreciate the work that has gone into it so thank you Mr Hagerty thank you um okay thank you um Mr kneader I know as we've gone through the budget process you've explained some things to us in different meetings you've explained some things to us in Pre prior years budgets but sometimes as we talk about these issues before

096the public some questions that just keep coming back up so I'd like to ask you a few questions that you may have explained to me once before but if you would hear me I'd appreciate you explaining them again one thing that comes out a lot is that when people hear the size of our budget it is a large it is a large dollar figure and so there's an assumption when they see what teachers are paid well where does all the rest of the money go and so oftentimes we get questions about administrators and administrator pay and Miss Caulfield was asking like where we set these these rates where this comes from have we ever conducted an audit or ever looked at comparative studies about what we pay our administrators we have we have done Market

097studies formal Market studies done by a third Independent party we also regularly reach out to other districts both in state most frequently in state but also out of state because again both in-state and out of state we're competing for some of the same people and we consistently find ourselves below Charlotte Mecklenburg is just one example But to answer your question yes we do and to perhaps just share one more um thought yes it is a very large budget no question over two billion dollars but that said one of the items that clearly is shown in the introduction to the proposed budget document which is online for the public to see that the schools get directly 88 percent of the funding another four percent supports our transportation operations um Child Nutrition programs maintenance and operations utilities

098hey the charter schools get three percent of our overall operating budget and if one looks at it in term I'll just the local budget because the state gives the charter schools the portion of state and federal funds directly they do not flow through Wake County it's only the local funds so if one looks at it in terms of well how much money comes to us from Wake County and goes to the charters that's closer to between eight and nine percent so almost a tenth of what we received from the county does not directly serve and support Wake County Public School System students and then finally if you look at the entire budgets not just staff not just administrators we've got a lot of support staff that do our accounting staff that support Miss kimsey and

099documenting this there are over three hundred thousand separate accounts that we have that were required by the state of North Carolina to maintain in each one of those accounts has budget has expenditures has encumbrances and has available or unused balances and then finally um between the Board of Education the superintendent's office Communications the chief of staff and strategic planning's chief of schools our academic advancement our administrative Services which includes our accounting Finance payroll human resources and our technology Services Group which supports the entire infrastructure for the district both centrally and every one of our almost 200 schools those make up if I'm looking at it correctly five percent of the overall operating budget and that five percent is much more than just administrators thank you Mr needer and I do want to kind of bring

100the focus back to just that whole comparison so looking at other competing school districts you're finding that even though we're the largest School District and you know for example like our principles we're not even look at central office staff but even school-based staff or principals are paid on a state scale is that right they are some supplement they are based on a state scale we do have local funding as well but do it but don't our principles like aren't our high schools much much larger than high schools in other districts across North Carolina in terms of the number of students I saw some of the pay scales we're looking at you know like the max rate was what like 1500 students and we have schools with 2400 2600 and and higher and I and I

101think that will vary from County to County certainly in a smaller County where they may have just one high school or a couple high schools and and so the point also then you've looked at other school districts have you looked at our staff our nons our non-certified staff and how their pay compares to the private sector and private sector opportunities we have done that also both through a formal third party review I was just talking with Dr matilla within the last week or two and we were getting ready to release an RFP to do another Market study and the pandemic came down upon us but we will be coming back to the board at some point in the very near future with our proposal to release another Market study for our classified support staff okay

102so I guess just the final the final point that I'm trying to make is in your professional opinion based on objective data compared to other school systems in the private sector do you think that we have excessive amounts paid for administration I do not okay thank you Ms Johnson Hospital again I Echo the appreciation to you Miss kimsey Ms Posey everyone who's remotely touched all of this especially answering our questions at sometimes the 11th hour but most importantly is this is my first time cheering our finance commit committee and it has been extremely important and appreciative that you are and your staff have taken the time to walk us through that and we have more Lessons Learned on how to get better and better with insuring board members are able to capture and digest and

103actually hold because some years I digest and still forget the next year because it is extremely not just complicated but it's nuanced and as most budgets are even my home budget which is not even a modicum of this just because they're always moving pieces um so so thank you for all the work that you've done my colleagues have certainly said the human of what I would absolutely Echo but I do think it's important that our public not just here where the responsibility lies because it does lie at the feet of every one of us who have decision making power and Taxation power and funding distribution power so so that's that's almost all of the elected bodies I do think that what you've heard our colleagues speak to is where each of our roles are very

104similarly to how we spend our money and so if there's anything that I would say to the public about the confusion of the budget is acknowledging that everybody has a different role in this so if you think about it we make the first decision for our budget but we actually of course has the least amount of authority of how we get the money the federal government starts out they appropriate money across this country they often their fiscal years isn't even ours so we're lucky if they pass a budget on a continuation by October November or sometimes December every year and so we don't know their budget the state very similarly the same thing and then our County Commissioners at the end of the day as all of our colleagues have acknowledged are picking up the

105puzzle pieces for us and I think that also has to be acknowledged in acknowledging that the county does take up a lot of the slack where our state does it and certainly I would say for my now 10th year on this board every year I'm able to walk away saying we did the best that we can with the resources and puzzle pieces that we had that doesn't mean we get it right we certainly acknowledge that not paying a living wage when we certainly know and and I all of us have said multiple times that the people who touch our kids first and more frequently outside of their teachers and their parents are our classified staff and I'd be remiss if I didn't join the course in stating we acknowledge that this is a difficult decision

106and it's a decision that personally I think most of us are making under the risk knowing the ass that we're asking because when we ask the County Commissioners we're asking the public to support us and so again when we say to the public that as much as you come to us and go to the general assembly and the County Commissioners every ass we make is a public ask we're a public school system and every person hopefully they may not have this sticker that says I love Public Schools but hopefully they understand the reason Public Schools exist and why it's our job at this table to continue to make our Public Schools the best school for all of our students those who don't have a choice but to attend our schools because they don't have access

107resources and those who choose to come because it's the right thing to do to enhance all all of our students and so if there's nothing else I can say whether you're asking for a line item budget which you can get in our audit book which is also located on our website so we do do our due diligence we are a fiscally responsible body but also reminding each person in the public that this is your public school whether you support us or not and we hope that you choose to support us by acknowledging that there is no dollar amount that we could put on our classified staff or our Educators but indeed we can acknowledge the gross amount of work that they do in the grossly way that they're underpaid and so hopefully our public will

108support our Public Schools even if they aren't touting how much they love our Public Schools thank you Miss Johnson hosler further comments or questions Miss Edmonds thank you I just pulled up our finances web web page or the um yeah on our website under about us and I am looking at the numerous audit reports every year going back to 2007 also our adopted budget archives there's a phone number I see here for folks that have trouble accessing the information that they're looking for but Mr Nader could you please speak to the audits that are done and are you know results that we've received over X number of years yes certainly with admins we are required statutorily to have an independent external audit annually um by CPA firm and we have had and those audits are

109to ensure the accuracy of the financial statements there's some other aspects of the audit as well but the primary purpose is to ensure the accuracy of the financial statements and we had clean what are called unqualified reports which is a clean Report with no findings I mean Mr Winters back here I believe in over 10 over 10 years and even prior to that when there were some minor findings there were minor findings thank you and if I may those are presented to us the fall of every year I believe the one for fiscal year 2022 was given to us in October and that it that does take place at one of our open meetings and the public you know can listen in and watch those presentations and access the documents thank you that is correct

110and I would just add that the board also has something unique and that you have in addition to the audit firm coming in and that has required all leas in the state are required to have that the board has an independent audit committee made of again people independent of the Wake County Public School System these are generally people with a either accounting or business background the current makeup of the audit committee I believe they're is at least one attorney possibly two attorneys and this independent group's role is to separate from myself and our staff look at the results of the independent Financial audit and advise the board as to the results of it and the chair of that committee comes in along with the independent Auditors to present the audit findings each year and the

111other role that that board serves is to advise this board on selection of an independent audit firm so again that's not coming directly from staff to this board and through that we learned there are about nine different audits that happen annually throughout not just this larger audit um it really is a large piece all right at this time are there any further comments questions concerns all right we have a motion in a second all in favor of approving the board of education's proposed budget for the year 2023 2024 please signify with a sign of I uh any opposed nay the budget classes thank you thank you at this point we move on to the policy portion of the evening starting with board policy 3200 selection of instructional materials this is first reading joining us will

112be Drew cook along with Michelle Woodson Allison Reed Kendra Allen and Dr Julie crane Mr cook chairman happy Vice chair Hagerty superintendent Moore and board members the first of several updated policies being brought forward for first reading this evening is policy 3200 selection of instructional materials with final board approval it will replace the current policy 3200 which has been in place since 2017. over several months the revision process has been a collaborative effort involving technology Services which includes digital learning and libraries academics including our curriculum development team and others the draft policy was reviewed with the superintendent's leadership team on April the 10th and then by the policy committee on April the 18th I will note that it is often the case with policy revisions there has been a variety of diverse thoughts and perspectives

113expressed and considered throughout the process including at the policy committee table a couple of weeks ago but ultimately we do believe that the updated policy as drafted accomplishes the overarching goals of both increasing Clarity and transparency in the processes involved in instructional resource selection at the district school and classroom levels while also strengthening systemic consistency in district-wide implementation of the policy and related practices you'll recall that staff is also working on revisions in parallel to policy 3210 parental inspection of an objection to instructional materials which will be discussed and reviewed further at the next policy committee meeting later this month as always we've worked to make appropriate connections to and align with other applicable board policies that are relevant here including policy 1150 Equity 3100 curriculum development and also policy 3432 professional learning communities a

114key component of which is focused on the selection of curriculum materials that promote student learning across developmental levels and grade levels again for ease of reference revised or new languages in blue in the revised draft that you see green is existing language that has been moved or reordered in the policy so with that quick context some of the key revisions that we do want to highlight include the addition of language to elevate and better emphasize the critical importance of parent School Community Partnerships in the instructional process this language will point out is similar to references in other current board policies and is also aligned with the ongoing work of the district to implement a comprehensive curriculum implementation and review cycle which the board reviewed and discussed back in October of 2022. in section A on

115the principles governing the selection of instructional materials we'll note that 1D has been revised to read quote instructional materials should also be appropriate for the age maturity and grade levels and abilities of the students and address a spectrum of learning styles and not be pervasively vulgar end quote as we discussed in policy committee this incorporates language from applicable State Statute and available case law directly into the policy to ensure explicit alignment and Clarity a new language has also been incorporated into section A3 to outline additional governing principles to be used When selecting passages or texts for classroom read-alouds in sections b c and d on core supplemental and school library materials a statement has been added to make clear that selection teams whether at the school or District level always have the ability and discretion

116to review or revisit the selection of any material anytime to determine whether or not to keep remove or modify the material based on those governing principles outlined in section A I'll note that this discretion discretion and ability exists now but we believe again it is helpful to explicitly call this out in the revised policy the revised language in sections b c and d is also intended to strike a balance between providing clear and consistent parameters for schools and staff to work within while at the same time ensuring the necessary level of professional discretion and flexibility is available in order to feasibly design development or excuse me develop select and Implement literally thousands of supplemental resources instructional materials and classroom activities every single day the updated language also elevates the importance of team-based decisions and Collective

117agency as best practice in selection processes that's a quick rundown of a few of the more significant changes in revisions to the revised policy 3200 that were discussed on April the 18th I do want to also quickly point out a couple of revisions made since the 18th in addition to one revision that we're going to suggest that's not yet reflected in the updated draft that's been uploaded first all previous references to parents have been changed to parents slash Guardians per feedback at the policy committee table the phrase and representation has been added after the word viewpoints in section A under 1G and 2E I think that came from Miss Edmonds thank you and then in the second paragraph of both section c and d the phrase to quote temporarily discontinue the use of a particular

118material end quote has been deleted so that the last sentence now simply reads quote the principle retains the authority to refer the material to the appropriate selection team for reconsideration end quote the rationale for that adjustment is to avoid any potential Confusion by keeping perceived references to the challenge process contained solely in policy 3210 since 3200 as we've discussed is focused on the initial and ongoing selection processes rather than the formal challenge process uh to that end upon some additional review and consultation including with Mr Bloomberg we would like to recommend for the board's consideration this evening one additional revision to that same paragraph in section c and d of the final sentence and the second paragraph we'd like to propose adding a sentence that states quote nothing in this policy removes the principal's Authority

119as the school's budget manager to approve or deny expenditures end quote as many of you know this is already generally understood to be the case in current practice but this is another example of where we believe it is important for the policy to be more clear in order to minimize any potential confusion or uncertainty we'll note also as an alternative to the addition of that one statement in two different places another option that we might suggest is to add as a number of four under Section A under the principal section we could simply make that statement one time that would then and clearly be applicable throughout the entirety of the policy so that's another suggestion with that same statement that we just wanted to draw your attention to that we've revised just in the last

120couple of days so staff is requesting board approval on first read and of course we're happy to respond to any questions or provide additional information as needed just I'll jump in really quickly on the number of the options on it I would support the more concise version of just adding it one time about the principle it still has the authorities budget manager we figured you guys were talking and yeah so thank you all right thank you Mr cook and thank you everyone for making those changes that were discussed in policy is there a motion to prove board policy 3200 for first reading so moved second any discussion I guess yes Miss Johnson Hospital thank you I'm sure there's quite a bit of discussion but um first um also my first time chairing policy so thank

121you for the staff um for pulling together everything even these last changes that you've gotten from board members um I also want to thank our board members it's not often that a board is bold enough to take on policy that is really into thick of things publicly we usually we the collective across the country generally wait till things die down but I'd be remiss as chair if I didn't acknowledge that we have a board who's willing to talk about the difficult subject as an acknowledgment to the constituent request on both sides regardless of what people think about it that this board was brave enough to take this on and also digging very deep and saying we're not just going to pass it but we are going to talk about it we're going to be open

122to the feedback that we get and recognize that generally it's much easier for us to get a policy through and I acknowledge that this one may take a few iterations because I think there will be ongoing public conversation but also acknowledging that policy is a living breathing document and this is an example of the staff being responsive to both our request as board members but also the request of the public that we actually build out clear guidance and language and thank you to my colleagues who noted that we can also streamline this because staff you are really really went to the nuts and bolts on this one and so thank you to our colleagues who came up with ways to streamline a policy that is indeed as I say we're the red book makers at

123this board in addition to our budget it's how we guide our public and I think that this is yet another way that we're speaking into how we want to be seen and how we want to govern as a board so thank you to the staff and also to my colleagues thank you is there any suggestions on whether we mention the principal's Authority one time versus two times chairman haffey how would you how would you like that would you like that as an amendment or is it just a suggestion or procedurally I read it as a suggestion but I'm looking to our attorney I heard to tell me if I'm wrong I heard that his final recommendation but I'm reading into it was to say it once and so I I took them that's and I

124thought I thought that was emotions making sure that we are thumbs up on that okay I took it as the motion is just once excellent okay I will second whether it was board member blumberg or board member everyone I prefer um and so are there any other questions or comments at this time all right seeing none all those in favor of passing board policy 3200 selection of instructional materials on first reading please say aye any opposed all right moving on to board policy thank you um board policy 4003 language assistance for families first reading and we have Ms Lisa Luton our chief Communications officer good evening all tonight I'm bringing policy 4003 language assistance State language assistance for families for first read we appreciate that the policy committee asked staff to bring this policy for

125discussion we have a better policy as a result the revisions include a new title and an additional statement in the first paragraph that communicates the district's commitment to provide language assistance to families we reviewed this with the policy committee on March 28th and April 18th and tonight we request board's approval of the first reading of policy 4003 language assistance for families so moved all right we have a motion and a second to adopt board policy 4003 on first reading is there any discussion okay thank you um I want to reiterate um your thanks of staff and this is also for policy 3200 we had you know quite a workout on both of these and um so thank you for all of that work with the language assistance policy 4003 I wanted to ask you to

126please um I actually went back and watched the meeting again if you could talk about the language assistance plan that we use our staff uses and the difference between that because we are moving forward with an rnp um and again after having reviewed the meeting today because that's a more digestible document but that those things go together can you please speak a little bit about that yeah so the language assistance plan is a document that was created many years ago as the result of a resolution with the office of civil rights so that plan the district thanks to superintendent War took advantage of to make sure that we had a comprehensive plan for making sure that we serve all families who speak languages other than English the plan details both what we will do the

127services we will provide how we will measure our Effectiveness in those services and and how we work together as an organization to implement those services so as discussed in the work session or in the committee one of the things that we'll do as a result of this is both make an rmp that details out those requirements and then also do like we always do an annual review of the plan to make sure that we're implementing it to Fidelity and just as a follow-up that plan will be linked to you can to the r d or to the policy itself yeah that is a good suggestion and something that we will do make the plan accessible for families online in English and in other languages and I want to thank our policy chair for bringing this

128policy up in and providing an opportunity for us board members to suggest policies to be brought up so thank you for that Miss Johnson Hustler uh thank you yet another great recommendation by our board members to bring these policies up and also for me a reminder to the district has a lot of Rich history that everyone especially with five new board members isn't aware of and so um the lesson for me here is we pulled out something that has been in place oh my gosh almost 10 years now but that every board member nor Community member was aware existed and this board I believe at this point was able to make it more accessible more digestible but also lifting out what do some of these words really mean and what would make everything more accessible

129to parents especially when we use broad terms like important or pertinent and really recognizing that that has very different definitions and meanings for people so again thank you and thank you for making it available and it and an acknowledgment to staff that with five new board members that is a benefit will pull things up that we haven't talked about in a long time and times have changed certainly the climate has changed and this is one that I think is necessary and necessitates our efforts and energy in this climate to acknowledge all parent parental rights and access to our information so thank you seeing no other hands raised at this time all those in favor of passing board policy 4003 language assistance for families for first reading please say aye any opposed nay all right the

130motion passes thank you Miss lewton thank you next up we go to board policy 4220 student accident and catastrophic insurance programs for first reading and we are joined by Miss Trish post and Mr Cecil Bell yes good evening chair mahathy members of the board and superintendent Moore this evening we bring to you the first reading of the board policy 4220 student accident and catastrophic insurance programs we reviewed this with you on April 18th in policy committee the revisions you suggested were Incorporated we developed this alongside with the NC School Board Association our staff and legal representation so what you see in the revisions we revised the title and we also revise a language describing accident and catastrophic insurance offerings required by Statute so we would ask for approval a first reading okay so move Madam

131chair all right we have a motion in a second is there any discussion yes ma'am and I won't repeat this for the next one another example of working in tandem with the school boards Association who has very good intentions well intended and I I believe that the Wake County Board of Education is adding great substance and Rich dialogue as a result that I hope we are sharing this back to the school boards Association because our board members asked some really great questions I'm sure Mr Bill can probably agree we were asking him to quote policy that he did not have handily but he looks really ready this evening for questions but I just wanted to note that to the public is yes while we're doing this in tandem migrating our policies that our board is

132truly not just accepting these policies but making them very clear and specific to Wake County Public School students and families yes thank you all right any other all right seeing none all those yes sir just to that point I do need to let our policy chair know oops I do need a letter policy chair now talking with the staff that develops the policies at the North Carolina scoreboard Association they love and appreciate all of the fine work and they are endorse our ability to go through and tailor so it is noted and it is appreciated wonderful to hear that feedback after so many years thank you all right all those in favor of adopting or sorry um approving board policy 4220 student accident and catastrophic insurance programs on first Reading Please signify by a sign

133of I any opposed say nay all right the motion passes thank you thank you we are moving on to board policy 6524 network security for first reading and we are joined by Allison Reed our interim Chief technology officer well good evening chair Mahaffey superintendent Moore members of the board our last policy for this evening is 65-24 which is on network security this is a new policy for us here in wake and as part of the North Carolina School boards Association policies to lead schools manuals and adopting it for us tonight or adopting it for us as part of our policy manual as part of the policy migration project the language in this policy describes our efforts to provide security for computers networks and other technological resources know that while this policy does not replace a

134current policy that we have in place we do already have measures in place to that address security to our network and to our users we reviewed this policy with you on April 18th at the policy committee meeting and tonight we bring it to you and request your approval of first reading so move Madam chair thank you we have a motion in a second is there a discussion Hoffler you've already said it all right excellent anyone else I just want to say thank you Miss Reed for recognizing in your comments that we already work on network security quite heavily but this policy just cements that practice into policy and so thank you for bringing that up yes ma'am all those in favor of approving board policy 6524 network security for first reading please say aye any

135opposed nay all right the motion path is thank you thank you I'll now enter 10 a motion to return to closed session for reasons previously stated during the work session so moved all right we have a motion a second all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay all right we are now in closed session thank you foreign