23-3-21 Board Meeting

001she's foreign good evening everyone and welcome it is Tuesday March 21st at 5 40 p.m and then we are going to call this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I'd like to welcome all of you that are watching at home and those of you that are here in person to observe as the Wake County Board of Education conducts its official business our meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the business of the school system the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe 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

002of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143-318.17 we do have a quorum with all nine board members as well as superintendent Moore and our attorney Mr blumberg I ask that you all stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you we now move on to the information portion and we will start with comments from superintendent Moore good evening I'd like to begin by officially welcoming Dr Stacy Wilson Norman as our new chief of academic advancement wave hahaha the chief of academic advancement provides administrative and strategic leadership support for the district's curriculum and instruction priorities her duties will include overseeing elementary middle and high school curriculum and instructional staff Career and Technical education AIG Services special education services student Support Services English as a second language and

003early learning this is a homecoming for Dr Wilson Norman who began her career as a teacher at Wilburn Elementary then served as an instructional resource teacher at Smith magnet later as an assistant principal at Apex and York Elementary Schools she has been and is awcpss parent she served in numerous leadership roles in North Carolina districts and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction including roles as principal Deputy superintendent and chief academic officer we are clearly fortunate to have someone with such a long track record of successful leadership in our district and so with that I will say to Dr Wilson Norman welcome home congratulations are in order for Julie Stivers the librarian at Mount Vernon Middle School who has been named the librarian of this the year by the school library Journal this is a

004national recognition Ms Stivers who is also the current North Carolina School librarian of the Year received this National recognition for instilling of Love of reading in her students and tirelessly advocating for them to have access to the books that Inspire them a cover story in school library Journal noted that Library circulation increased by more than 150 percent after Miss cyber's first year at Mount Vernon and continues to grow that's largely due to the collection that cybers has curated to reflect her students identities and interests she has quadrupled the fiction section and increased graphic novels and manga section more than 20 times since she has arrived students leave her notes say things like thank you for making me love reading again this is the first book I've ever finished how did you know just what I

005needed Chris Tuttle School librarian at South Garner High says Miss divers is recognized for the beautiful inclusive joyful space she creates for kids and her dedication to an equity centered program that validates values and celebrates all students Ms divers will receive a 2500 cash prize and a 500 collection for the Mount Vernon Library as well as an all expenses paid trip to the American Library Association conference in Chicago in June we know that students who love to read have more success inside and outside the classroom I'm profoundly grateful for librarians like Miss divers who go the extra mile to inspire their students to embrace the power of reading finally this evening I would like to take a moment to remember Leon Walker Herndon Senior an educational Giant in Wake County who passed away on March

00616th a native of Apex he began his career as a teacher in Saint Paul's North Carolina before taking a job as at what was then liggin High School in 1963. in 1968 in the early days of school integration in Wake County Mr Herndon joined Enloe High School as a science teacher and then a short time later was named assistant principal in 1972 he was named principal of Enloe High School making history by becoming the first black principal of a predominantly white school in Wake County in 1983 Mr Herndon returned to his hometown as principal of Apex High School and later became principal of Carroll Middle School before retiring in 2001. but he wasn't done making a positive impact in the lives of young people in Wake County following his retirement from the wcpss he joined

007his wife Shirley in operating Bright Beginnings Child Development Center a five-star preschool in Cary that diverse preschool is described as having a lovely and loving and Lively yet structured environment where Hands-On learning and active thinking are encouraged it has been visited by North Carolina governor Roy Cooper and the U.S department of edu education secretary Miguel Cardona among other dignitaries and praised as a model for early childhood education for six decades Leon Herndon dedicated his life to helping children of all ages find a successful life path and that along with the love of his devoted family and wide circle of friends will be his legacy rest in peace Mr Herndon and thank you that concludes my comments thank you superintendent Moore certainly someone who will be missed but has a quite a legacy in Wake County

008Public Schools I had the honor last week with some other board members to go see the shed competition it is an annual competition put on by local business partners and non-profits to get our CTE carpentry students some Hands-On real world work and we got to see Holly Springs High School who once again had an all women's team along with I think three schools from Ms caufield's District who may or may not have swept um the competition and uh and also a local team from Wake Tech as an expedition team with their wake Works project this is a great opportunity for students to learn from construction partners all of the buildings are inspected by local building inspectors so many thanks to the towns who gave us their building inspectors for the day and of course to

009carry high school for hosting they also hosted the volt competition which helps students that are interested in electric work and being electricians and that also was one by Roseville High School by a all-female team I was excited to go see The Wizard of Oz at Fuquay Varina High School with their new Auditorium it was the largest show that they have ever gotten sold out for four nights we were also treated to an art show and my youngest child was very excited to speak to one of the artists and so for our high school students that are interested in theater in the Arts in athletics or any other work your time working with younger children they see you and they see you as the big kid who knows all the things so many thanks to Fuquay

010Varina High School for having those artists available to talk to because it was a huge deal for my kid and I'm sure many other kids that were there the Wake County future Teachers Program is uh still looking for applicants if you are a senior in high school and you are excited to be a teacher it is one of the best possible jobs out there I miss it every day um please look into that and that is found at wcpss.net Future teachers so you can find out more applications close on March 31st and just a reminder to our families to our educators that Ramadan begins tomorrow so if you have students that are of the Muslim faith just be cognizant of that as it is a month-long fast and if you need resources please ask one

011of your fabulous school librarians I'm sure they have something available to help your students understand and those are my comments Vice chair hegarty thank you chair Mahaffey and I actually had a wonderful experience yesterday I got to run into not one but two people that were re-entering the teaching profession here in Wake County both at different schools one on the western side of the county one on the Eastern side of the county and so I just want to let them know how appreciative we are and we're glad they're back so um I want to highlight two events recently I was able to attend and represent the board at the Jewish Federation of Raleigh's intercommunity seder that was held this weekend and this is a wonderful Interfaith event that was held um you know for my

012district it went from soapstone United Methodist Church on the Raleigh side all the way to the Hindu temple in mandir in Morrisville on the on the western side it was a great Community event with several speakers we had refugees from Ukraine who were integrating into American society who'd come here looking for Safety and Security but the one thing that kept coming up was the need for people to stand up to stand together in the face of violence in the face of hatred which even with a great Community event like this is ever present in society um and so again I just want to thank them for the invitation and thank for thank them for that message of unity um our board advisory committee was held last night in partnership with Mr Swanson and District nine

013uh Panther Creek High School graciously hosted and we're able to hear from our senior director of security Russ Smith I know everyone around this table Knows Mr Smith and the great job he did again we're so appreciative he stayed late answering parent questions until we had to kick them out because they needed to turn the lights off um we also took the opportunity to update everyone on our superintendent search this is incredibly important work we talked about we encourage the participation in the community survey and the staff surveys that are present um picking a superintendent is one of the most important things if not the most important thing we do as a board and while it's not a popularity contest well it's not a referendum all of the feedback that we collect will be instrumental

014it'll be key in developing the leadership profile that we use as we go out and look for the best candidates and evaluate them as they apply for this job and so if anyone is interesting everyone has opinions on this if you haven't participated in either the staff survey the community survey please do access them and get your feedback in in the next few weeks we really value that and um that's it thank you well thank you because that reminded me that I had one more thing that I meant to say but I didn't write it down I had it here please fill out those surveys those are sent to the North Carolina School boards Association so it is not someone from Wake County Public Schools that compiles that information so please fill it out I

015had a teacher ask me do I fill out the parent survey or the staff survey and I my feeling is and this is just me personally you are both a staff member and a Community member so I believe both because you can look at those two things with different lenses but again that goes to the school boards Association not to anyone in the district we do have two public information input sessions for folks that want to share and feel comfortable sharing publicly it's not required it does not mean that your survey does not count but for those that would like to we have one right here in this boardroom on March 28th at 7 30. and the sign up form will be available earlier that day and then we have a second one on April

01618th at 6 30 p.m at Southeast Raleigh high school I'm sorry Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School in their media center and more information will be posted on the calendar for those um as well as opportunities at different board members bacs but please please please fill out that survey um Mr Hershey why don't you start us off thank you I will be relatively quick this time um I want to start by thanking central office and recognizing them for bringing proposals to us today on Master's pay and also to provide an attendance bonus for bus drivers safety assistants and mechanics and I'm pointing this out because I want the public to know that and our Educators to know that they are working hard to try to address inequities maybe particularly with the Master's pay we are very

017excited to be voting on that tonight we know that transportation is a problem and it's important that the public knows that our staff is working really hard on trying to solve this problem I know we wish it could be solved very quickly and very easily but that is not the case um and lastly I just want to Welcome to our meeting today are OTS and PTs who are coming to speak to us and coming to share with us what they do for our incredible students and I I'm so happy you all are here and I look forward to listening to your comments thank you all right thank you Dr Ing good evening um I had the opportunity to go visit a couple of schools this past week Heritage Elementary and Heritage middle and um it

018was uh it was a a nice um tour of my in the my neighborhood and um uh the I just this is the first Middle School that I've actually went to tour and I just realized wow these kids are taller than I am um and I was very uh impressed with the the thoughtfulness of the uh of what the the teachers were doing one of the classes I I went into was talking about uh World War II and asking the at the children the the students you know what would you do in this case uh talk about the uh Normandy invasion and what what happens you know the pros and cons of certain tactics and and I thought wow this is Middle School content I didn't remember that when I was in Middle School um

019so that was very impressive and and then also I I I just noticed uh I know that the the special education uh programs there and um and just the experience that they have in helping um those tall tall tall kids with special needs uh handle the um some difficult situations and they have actually have a room for them to kind of quiet down and um so that was I was in um pleased to see that uh and I I just feel like um uh there everyone who works with our children with special needs and I have one at home and it's it's they're they're angels and I just really appreciate those who put that commitment uh on that special population um including you know teachers and pts and OTS and um you know I I'm

020a rehabilitation physician myself and so I have a keen awareness of the of the needs of our uh of our patients that that I have I serve but also people with special needs that have really different type of Rehabilitation needs so um I I definitely am looking forward to hearing from our pts and ot's today thank you Miss Edmonds thank you I was also going to talk about um the honor that Julie Stivers the media coordinator at Mount Vernon that superintendent Moore lifted up I was going to talk about her but you said it so much better than what I had written so I will just um add to that that the journal put her on the cover of um their issue this month I guess and it's a really beautiful piece that they wrote

021about her so I encourage you to find that link on the team wcpss Facebook page since our last meeting I've been fortunate to see some of our CTE students in action I went to Fayetteville for the regional skills USA competition where I watched some some of our cosmetology students over at Vernon Malone College and Career Academy compete they did a great job and came away with some wins and some medals and then as Ms Mahaffey pointed out I joined her and superintendent Moore and Tyler Swanson over at Kerry High School for the shed build I'd known about that event for several years but it was my first time seeing it in person and it was a lot of fun I continue to be so proud of the CTE offerings in our school district and it's

022my honor to support those offerings as part of this board and promote them out in the community I'm still visiting schools in District Five last week I was at Holly Springs Elementary in Holly Ridge Elementary tomorrow I'll be on the Dillard campuses and Thursday night my husband and I went to last Thursday went to a band concert at Athens Drive that was amazing um Dr Marco he's been there for nearly 30 years and he's an amazing talent and that shows when you see his students perform finally with regard to the superintendent search I want to join my colleagues in encouraging the public and staff to complete that online survey students you can fill it out too and citizens you know can provide that input that is so important and that we need we've got the

023two public input sessions that Ms Mahaffey mentioned and I wanted to let folks know that I'm going to have like other board members I'm going to have that as part of my BAC meeting on Monday April 17th but the day before I'm having because that's a Sunday afternoon I wanted to give folks an opportunity that that when where a weeknight public comment session might be a challenge I'm going to host one in District Five on Sunday April 16th at three in the afternoon I'm waiting for the facility to be confirmed but the location but once that's confirmed it'll be put up on the district website on the public calendar and I welcome anybody in or out of District Five to come and provide input on the superintendent search you do not have to live in

024District 5 to attend that thank you so much thank you Miss Waters thank you chair Mahaffey as the month of March draws to a close I appreciated the opportunity to participate in the women's History Month read-in at Poe Elementary with our first graders we read a book called Harlem's little Blackbird the story of Florence Mills and she was a singer whose Talent helped open doors during a time of racial segregation and I was so impressed by the thoughtful questions and responses from the first graders and so I've really grown to love first graders and part of that I think is attributable to my um wonderful Jasmine Barcelona who I see in the audience who gave me my first opportunity to read to first graders so that's really a sweet spot for me so anytime I'm

025able to read with our students is so great and so I also want to acknowledge the wonderful math night at Khan Elementary it was so exciting it was a great event for our families to come out and there were so many families there it was so exciting to see them all coming out to experience the joys of math in all the way that math is now taught I just wish and when I was a little girl that they had so many fun and exciting ways to present math problems and so really a joy particularly having conversations with our kindergarten teachers at Khan and getting to know a little bit more about their work and really appreciate all that they do to engage our youngest learners and wake up and read had a day yesterday at

026Hodge Elementary and so I really appreciated the time there and the opportunity to help our students pick out their books it's so exciting to see the joy that they get when they find books and particularly books that represent them and when they see characters and books who look like them it's really exciting so really appreciated that time and in low high school recently had a program to introduce their Automotive students to careers in transit and so I appreciated the opportunity to be at Enloe and to see how many career options our students are exposed to and the ability to explore those at an early age I think is particularly important and also want to delve over into District Six a little bit and talk about Carroll Magnet Middle School they are a top Magnet School

027of Excellence and they had a visit from magnet schools of America recently and I'm a Carol mom so I got a chance to participate in their panel and it was really exciting because on the panel they had some student leaders on the panel and they were so impressive I didn't think I really needed to be there because they spoke so well about the school and their experience so very excited for Carol and looking forward to Great reports about their status as a magnet school so thank you for all that hard work and I also Echo and look forward to hearing from our pts and OTS also a special needs parent and appreciate all the work that is done and so thank you thank you I will start with thanking wake up and read as well

028borrow Elementary was up this week as our first school round of doing book distribution and it's always a lot of fun I learned a lot every year I learned a lot about books this year I learned that kindergartner first graders the only way they like chapter books is if they are comic books which the teachers kept referring to them as graphic novels and one little kid looked at me and said she's not right it's a comic book and I was like you're right I think it's a comic book um so again um I again I can't speak enough about wake up and read and the the joy of them getting their own new books but also the joy of watching them choose their books count their books look for themselves in their books nobody wanted

029Judy Bloom for the record I still like Judy Bloom I kept trying to pawn it off on kids um but they weren't hearing it um and Dr Ing I'm pretty sure they were taller than me by third grade um just so you know which I might have been decide in third grade too so um but again thank you to all the partners that wake up and read and one of the things that we've started to talk about is some of the traditional ways in which we used to see our kids far more engaged in supporting schools like line leaders and now kids are much more free roam in their school buildings than they were when I was in school but um I will say that the kids are just as excited to take on extra

030duties they were helping us get rid of boxes breaking down boxes packing up the things and so um so I had two fifth graders um who were like do you want to take a picture with us in our muscles absolutely honey absolutely I was taller than one of them though but again thank you to all of our partners and the volunteers and this and the staff I I don't think I've said that before but um wake up a redistribution takes a lot of volunteers and I always meet staff that I haven't met before uh who work either at other schools who are off that day or our Central services staff who are there supporting our young people so thank all of the volunteers who came out to support them and we will soon be at

031East Garner Elementary which is also in my district coming up um later next month we talked about this um last month but it is women's history month and there is a been a um for me an extreme increase in family and friends including my own daughter's friends who are experiencing peers committing suicide and so you've heard me talk about 988 before and we've had a very very long week so I'm going to take a little longer than I usually do to read these 12 steps out loud for those who do go back and watch our recordings it is from thehealthychildren.org website which I strongly recommend adults visit but there are 12 steps that it's for parents and and these are common sense but oftentimes I think it's important to even lift up those things so

032the first is if you see signs that your child's mental health is under threat tune in listen even when your child is not talking now those of us with teens they often talk without moving their mouths to their adults but but but this is also true for our little ones which we don't generally see as much not being expressive um to their parents um realize that your child might be facing suicide risks that you haven't considered yet um try not to dismiss what you're seeing as teenage drama I can't express this one enough again when we talk about bullying My Generation I'm a gen xer we often say that doesn't feel like bullying that's not how we experienced it trust your child's lived experience and how they choose to Define what's happening for them respond

033with empathy and understanding get professional help right away and you've heard me talk about 988 which makes it a very short or hope line which is here in Wake County remove or secure guns you have at your home do the same with other lethal tools and substances ask your child as your child's interest treatment focus on creating hope reminding them that there's still hope encourage them to see their family and friends to break the chain of isolation during this time and suggest exercise encourage balance and moderation and that's everything in moderation remind each other that this will take time and and just remember remember that your child is experiencing this and listen to the words they're used and reflect those back to them to determine how you can help them thank you all for indulging

034me and listening to me I've had to share this with way too many friends over the last week or two thank you Miss Johnson Hustler and what was that website again sorry healthychildren.org thank you Mr Swanson chair Mahaffey and yes sorry I lost my train of thought there thank you for sharing that Miss Johnson Hazard do you think it's very important that we speak these things out loud because this affects all of our students and if our students mental health is not intact as those their academic so they're all connected and I think as a community we have to consider those needs um I also want to Echo and thank Mr Smith for a great board advisory committee meeting in district seven and nine and so that was our first joint uh BAC meeting and

035hopefully to have some others uh as we address Western Wake and so um I know my colleagues have shared this regarding the superintendent search and I just want to add my voice to this as well because our two responsibilities are hiring and superintendent and the budget and so relatively soon this board will be doing two out of those big uh our our job duties so um please make sure that you go and and complete the survey add your voice to it because again your voice is extremely important in this process because you all are stakeholders whether you are a staff a Community member even if you have children do not have children in the district you're still a stakeholder because your tax dollars goes to the district so please ensure that your voice is being

036a part of the process and I also want to add that you know it's it's that deadline is the 18th so it's coming up and I'm fighting with this Mike so please forgive me um there we are I think this is a little bit better um so yes so please get that on your calendar April 18th fill out your your your survey there's some open-ended pieces on that as well um and yeah so last week um this past week and I had the opportunity to representing the board at the second annual uh holy event and uh Morrisville and so it's so exciting to see you know how our communities come together to celebrate and so I think it's very you know I always love being out in the communities and and seeing how our schools

037are reflective of that Community um in addition I had the opportunity of going to attend the Cary classic at Cary High School where we were able to see some of the jrotcs from across the state to participate and um just learning more about the JROTC program and I have to say that Carrie high is the only school that has a Navy JROTC program so always glad to go out there and celebrate in addition while I was at Kerry High I've been at Carey High quite often I had the opportunity of attending their play which was you're a good man Charlie Brown so I want to give the the folks the staff and students at kudos for a great performance um and I also want to thank think the principals at Dillard not Dillard Davis Drive

038and elementary and middle school for a great tour and I look forward to attending uh Reedy Creek Elementary tomorrow for a tour and Northwood so as I'm continuing to get out into the district to hearing those knees so therefore I know how to Advocate at this table and I'm also excited to hear from our West Cary community that is here in our OT so thank you all for being here and um I believe that is all of my comments so if I forgot something please forgive it forgive me charge it to my head and not my heart so thank you Matt up it is very important so thank you for addressing that and we're a constant reminder to close the to recognize the close of Black History Month and March's woman History Month there are

039two ladies that I had the pleasure of getting to know a little bit and I would like to recognize one of them is the mayor in Knightdale in District One her name is Jessica Day in 2017 she became the first black woman to serve in Knightdale Town Council she became the mayor Pro tem in 2019 and then in 2021 she was elected as knightdale's first black woman mayor so um I know she's I believe she's also the youngest mayor too yes so so kudos to her for that I know she's very excited about that and she's been making a lot of movements um the other one is our very own coach that is back up in Wake Forest to our track and field students her name is Dolores or otherwise known as coach d Todd

040she had a myriad of Firsts in her career as an African-American woman she told me that she's technically only 18 years old because she was born on leap year so I hope that works out actually when she told me her age I told her she was lying so I don't know maybe um she was a model and educator athlete and a coach but she was the first black woman woman first black woman to appear on Kellogg's Corn Flakes box in 1980. in 1985 she became the first African-American coach in any sport in the Atlantic Coast Conference or the ACC the first of African-American coach to coach in Northwestern University at Georgia Tech she was a three-time state coach of the year winning championship for in 1985 1986 and 1987. and I apologize it's a little

041long because she's got a lot in 1988 she became the first woman and the first African-American woman to serve as the assistant commissioner of the ACC which is the Atlantic Coast Conference she made history in 1996 Olympics as Olympics as a chair of the U.S Olympic Committee minorities in sports task force the first African-American woman to hold a position and assist assist coach for the U.S team in track and field she's a graduate a graduate of Winston-Salem University and in 2001 inducted into the it's very long but I'll just say the cciaa thank you a Hall of Fame and in 2002 Winston-Salem University's Hall of Fame she's a speaker for interact which is an organization that educates and supports awareness for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in 2005 almost done in 2005 she

042was the first female Athletics director at NC ant State University and in 2006 first female to serve as NCAA division one baseball committee she was retired and came back to coach in high school track and field and now director and head coach so we are very lucky to have her after our last meeting with Reed Across America I had shared that I had gone into read with some second graders and they entertained me very very much at Wilburn Elementary School and we spoke about Charlotte's Web and the book I read was who was Evie white and I shared the story with him about him and I received a photo following up a couple of days or almost a week later from one of the teachers of them reading Charlotte's Web and they were all holding

043up their books so it just reminded me that although I may have inspired them with the story and going there reading they were actually really inspiring me and that is the reminder of why we're here and how important this job is um I wanted to congratulate our students of district one in their annual Wake County Public School shed competition as you spoke about the students hand on experience day competition I love seeing some familiar faces of the students I know in D1 who was celebrating in D1 yet also D3 high school at Heritage High School and I know wing also shares the excitement as well as we share that area um they won first prize and nailed their inspections I know my husband would be very happy about that pun I think there were 97

044in 100 percent so their hard work paid off 5 a.m mornings working outdoors in the cold and I was reminded it was very very cold ten ten days of um hard work and it paid off they each won 500 worth of tools and a shout out again for women's month to a young woman Anna on their team so way to go Huskies I have the pleasure of another spectacular performance from our talented students at stars of the East more incredible Talent on stage there were schools from Wendell Zebulon and Knightdale very well done and I recommend recognize some of the familiar faces from pieces of gold so we're able to enjoy their performance not only once but twice so thank you for including us in that special show we're sending out the surveys I know

045that they've already spoken about it but I just want everybody to understand that this is important to you this survey will help us understand and engage with the public and let you let us know what it means to you and what the superintendent search looks like so these are your children it's important that you have a voice in what that looks like it'll be on the Wake County Public School site I believe it's also distributed to all the schools right and families to go out it's on our Facebook pages so please if you if you don't know where to find it or have not seen it please reach out to us we will send it out to you and share it with your family friends students everybody can fill it out our next board advisory

046meeting is joint with wing in district one and District 3 on April 17th still trying to work out a couple of details but we plan to be covering some of the superintendent search and stay tuned for more information on that and also coming up in April Wake Forest High School performs The Sound of Music tickets are available and the show is running from Friday April 21st to Saturday April 29th so not only will you support the Arts but our students as well and they really you'll really enjoy the talent that they have to share with us so I can't wait to go and see that thank you next up is the approval of our meeting agenda and we are going to have to remove our recognition item as much as we would love to celebrate

047Miss Fuentes she's unable to join us tonight so we will have that for another meeting so with that addendum of removing that item and that is item six recognition item celebrating our Wake County Public School System School social worker of the year is there a motion to adopt to approve the meeting agenda as amended so moved we have a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye all any opposed all right so we will now move on to public comment speakers commentating on items on tonight's agenda will be heard first um followed by speakers commenting on other topics that are off agenda if the public comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes board policy states that the board chair reserves the right to conduct other board business before inviting the remaining

048speakers to the podium members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed at substantive ideas actions or procedures of the board and individual board members the laws and policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual Personnel matters or student matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for public comment settings those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues and matters of General concern but should refrain from discussing confidential student information concerns related to personal Personnel or student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies during public comment when you come up to the podium once you begin speaking and feel free to adjust the microphones a green light will illuminate when you begin speaking a yellow light will light up

049along 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 three minutes are up and the next speaker will be called to the podium 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 other members of the General Public we ask that you remain at the podium during your speaking time and any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to our board attorney either before or after your comments and I want to thank you all for being here today I know it's not easy we do have 20 two people signed up I believe so first are

050our on agenda topics and we will begin with Michelle lesniak and Jamie weinland will be following Michelle successful high school graduates from Lake County schools from Middle Creek and the mom of a son that will hopefully be part of the first graduating class of Willow Springs High School I'm also a school social worker and I've been a School Association worker for 25 years with Wake County schools and have served as a School Association worker in over 21 different schools today I'm fortunate to work in a leadership role for our department and provide support to our new school social workers it is in this position where I have seen the negative effects of the decision to not pay school social workers for their master's degrees we have hired smart educated qualified enthusiastic and passionate School social

051workers to join us here in Wake County but when when we are unable to pay them for their degree that they need to do to do this job well we cannot compete with the other opportunities that they may be presented with I've seen the struggles to recruit and retain these individuals I've seen School social workers that have been here for several years have to make tough choices to resign because they could not afford to live in a county where they are not compensated for their degree and expertise currently we have 140 School social workers in Lake County every single one of them has a master's degree but we also have 45 of those School social workers not being paid for those degrees the school social profession is the only one in Wake County Schools where

052only Master Level candidates are hired but not compensated for their degrees we have had an unprecedented amount of school social workers resign when I started with Wake County schools at long long time ago we did not leave these positions until we either moved or retired once we were hired most of us were dedicated in our lifelong careers to serving the students and families of Wake County Schools currently we have 15 vacant School 15 vacant positions that serves 22 different schools so that is 22 schools that do not have a school social worker currently in their building for when a student might be experiencing homelessness or when a student is in desperate need of mental health support or might be a victim of abuse or neglect when a student is not coming to school because they

053don't have clothes to wear or shoes to wear these are the kids that we work with and why School of Social Work is so important we remove barriers to learning and those barriers can be a lot of different things when the school has a student facing any of these barriers to learning they're going to want a highly trained Master's level social worker in the building to support those students we all know that children cannot learn until their basic needs or social emotional needs are met Master's level social workers are the ones most equipped and trained to help students by connecting the school the family and the community their experts in research based School interventions that increase school connectedness they have the clinical proficiency to address the overwhelming mental health needs our students have been facing

054since the pandemic and they have the leadership skills to assist all members of the educational community I chose to be a school social worker because I truly believe that all children should have equal opportunities to attain the best educational outcomes so I'm here tonight to ask that Wake County School Board please consider reinstating the master's degrees pay for school search workers I don't want us to lose one more amazing School social worker and I don't want a student or a school to not have a social worker there when they will need one the most thank you our next Madam chair I don't know the protocol for this but it's my understanding that our next few speakers who are OTS or pts would like to read in a specific order their comments but I don't know

055if that's permissible I'm not sure because I've never had that request before it was just made so I'm going to call in order but I don't know who you are thank you madam chair so just I'm assuming you're all signed up so just let me know who you are and and if it yeah yeah okay so go ahead good evening my name is Tamika Harris and I've been an occupational therapist for 22 years I've spent 10 of those years in Wake County Public School but non-consecutively because of the concerns that we're going to present today the following speakers occupational therapists and physical therapists we consist of 86 therapists combined and we provide instruction to over 5 100 students within Wake County Public Schools with various disabilities as well as unique needs school-based physical and occupational

056therapists are fairly mandated under the individuals with Disability Act and it is part of the larger Federal mandate for school districts to provide free and appropriate public education p please provide direct and indirect instruction to students to improve their Mobility skills to help them participate in their school routines and academics as independently and safely as possible occupational therapists provide direct and indirect instruction to students to improve their fine motor visual motor and sensory processing skills helps them to access their education curriculum they participate in activities such as feeding and dressing handwriting play peer relations and self-regulation to facilitate each student's access and participation and their education we also support our teachers our school administrators other school-based staff bus drivers and Central service office staff and training and collaboration OTS typically support two to five schools

057per therapist and PTs typically support an average of 11 schools per therapist additionally occupational therapists are now IEP evaluation team mandated to determine the eligibility for approximately 4 266 students with autism currently OTS obtain a master's degree and physical therapists earn a doctor's degree to practice in our given fields we maintain both state board licensure and a straight code of ethics and practice guidelines to begin our careers we have to pass a national board exam and receive national board certification just like the slps our hours to maintain our state licensure exceeds those of speech-language Pathologists and are equal to teachers within the past three years we have begun participating in a professional growth performance appraisal and which is also comparable to the speech and language Pathologists both of our departments are Revenue producing through Medicaid

058billing making us one of the few departments within Wake County Public Schools that actually produce revenue for the the county PT's and OTS contributed to 8.1 million dollars in the fiscal year of 2021-2022 we're coming to you today to share ongoing concerns with Recruitment and Retention of our staff salary discrepancies and classification inequalities and pay for our leads thank you for your time and attention thank you we are going to pause for a moment because our timer is not working I have no doubt that school Personnel timed themselves before doing this but we are going to make sure that it is and if not we're gonna if not I'm going to ask our board attorney to time and then hold up when there's 30 seconds left so get ready Jonathan you might be up I

059think it might I think it may be dead yeah but it's not it's not holding a charge all right so change of plans well Melissa can you test it it's not working yeah all right all right it's been it's been with us for many many years um here pass that down so you will still get three minutes um Mr blumberg will hold up a sign when you have 30 seconds left and he will probably just say something like time into the mic when your time is up um so please just yeah I didn't have a Sharpie in my bag but I did have highlighters um and so we will continue so thank you um who is up next from our otpts all right just make sure you say your name you ready hi thank you

060for having me my name is Marianne barrisau I am a pediatric physical therapist I've been working with Wake County schools for 12 years this may every day I apply Physical Therapy interventions to support preschoolers through high schoolers who have diagnoses such as Down syndrome autism Strokes cerebral palsy and many many more I work with these children to teach them motor skills so they're able to for instance play with their peers on the playground walk in line with their classmates to lunch and get in and out of their wheelchair when they need to use the bathroom and right now I'm here to talk to you about the ongoing salary concerns that exist for the OTS and PTs frankly we are significantly underpaid that that's in relation to other Healthcare professionals that work in Wake County who

061hold similar professional licenses such as the speech therapists and the psychologists we are significantly underpaid compared to OTS and PTs of our neighboring County school districts such as Guilford Chapel Hill and Johnson County and we are also significantly paid less than our OT and PT counterparts who work in Hospitals and Clinics in our very County right here I'd like to describe to you my personal situation regarding salary as an example as a PT choosing to work here I'm on average making eleven thousand dollars less per year than if I were to choose to work in a hospital or clinic in Wake County per my pay scale I will be making thirteen thousand dollars less than a Wake County psychologist and eleven thousand dollars less than a speech therapist in Wake County also per my pay

062scale I will be making nearly ten thousand dollars less than if I were to go to schools in Chapel Hill and almost six thousand dollars a year per year less than if I were to go to work in Johnston County Schools um to add to this according to my pay scale I'm actually scheduled to receive a zero dollar increase for the next three consecutive years what's the impact of a non-competitive salary like this it's poor retention of Staff which leads to inconsistent access to education for our children with special needs over the past two years the PT department has experienced a 33 turnover rate in staff due to the widening Gap in wages for our profession between Wake County Schools and the local market and neighboring school districts the attraction to those settings is getting

063a lot higher the Department of Public Instruction held a board meeting in November last year in it they specifically charged North Carolina School Districts to provide competitive compensation for OTS and PTs based on their specific local market value to rectify this we're asking that you align Wake County OTS and PTs with the Wake County job market value and be comparable to our neighboring school districts thank you thank you right who's our next speaker come on up and please introduce yourself my name is Katie Willett and I have been an OT with Wake County schools for seven and a half years there are significant discrepancies OTS and PT's face when compared to service providers with similar roles such as speech therapists within our County and across the state as previously stated Masters or Doctorate Degrees are

064required in addition to our state licensure to practice as an occupational or physical therapist despite our licensure comparable roles and higher levels of Education OTS and PTs are positioned on the classified scale because of this our work calendars pay an additional compensation do not align with the roles and responsibilities we complete certified staff work on the certified instructional staff calendar Wake County pts and OTS follow the Central Services administrative and clerical staff calendar despite the majority of our work being direct instruction to students based on these calendars pts and OTS are required to work at least three to four additional days per year as compared to our certified counterparts over the course of a 30-year career within Wake County OTS and PTs lose between 90 to 120 additional annual leave days when compared to other

065certified staff or approximately four months of leave that could be used towards retirement or paid time off while our roles and responsibilities performance appraisals and licensure mirror our certified counterparts our compensation does not conservatively over the course of an OTR PT's 30-year career this discrepancy equates to over 170 thousand dollars based on current pay scales these pay differences affect more than just our immediate salaries our average final compensation as a career therapist is also compressed during our retirement similarly OTS and PTs are not included in bonuses awarded to other professionals as an example during the 2021-2022 school year OTS and PTs were required to complete training sessions with other certified staff members because we provide direct student intervention certified staff members will reimbursed one thousand dollars for this trainee when OTS and peace tees asked

066about that pay we were told we would not be receiving it because we're classified staff we have reached out to our human resources department on multiple occasions regarding ongoing inequities with pay in calendars we are informed to Advocate and pursue changes with our state legislatures which we have for over 10 years 10 years Boards of education and surrounding leas such as Chapel Hill carborough Johnson County and Guilford County have recognized the flaws and inequities of an and have enacted changes within their leas they took action by putting the pts and OTS on certified calendar calendars and putting these therapists on the SLP pay scale Chatham Durham and Alamance are currently conducting salary studies as the largest and most Progressive District in the State Wake County needs to follow suit Wake County sees the value in

067our state licenses and certification when recouping money for the district based on the direct student interventions we as OTS and PTs provide when we ask these licenses to be recognized through compensation calendar and equality to our peers Wake County conveniently seems to forget these licenses exist [Applause] hi my name is Karen Merchant I've worked in special education for 19 years starting my journey as a special education teacher before shifting to my role in occupational therapy over the last several years Staffing concerns within the otmpt Departments have impacted Service delivery for our students and our ability to support the educational teams that we work collaboratively with for the otmpt Department's qualified individuals are available for employment but therapists do not accept the positions because the salary is too low or positions are not allocated to expand

068our departments we are hopeful to continue to hire and retain highly qualified staff but we need your help to make a desirable salary schedule so that we can compete with surrounding counties to hire the best therapists and provide the best services to our special students otmpt departments have traditionally been understaffed which means current staff are responsible for workloads that exceed the guidelines outlined by ncdpi understaffing with MPT departments results and concerns with the safety and mobility of students delays with staff training delays with delivery of necessary equipment and may limit some of our most unique students access to their least restrictive environments OT services that are unable to be provided due to Staffing impact participation and Independence and core academics and daily routines in addition OTS are unable to provide much needed support for self-regulation

069and sensory processing which affects the positive engagement of some of our most neurodiverse learners and adequate Staffing leaves our special education staff unsupported and the students denied their legally mandated but poorly funded free and appropriate public education Wake County is then financially responsible for funding compensatory Services which are often provided by contractors at much higher hourly rates delays in the provision of services or inability to provide related Services also erodes family relationships which can result in due process or litigation turnover rates Impact Staffing and can create shortages and experienced staff needed to support the onboarding of new hires currently 50 percent of the PT department and 27 percent of the OT department has less than five years experience as a school-based therapist experienced therapists may not have time in their work days to provide mentorship

070because of the demands that come with the high workloads those departments would like to thank you the board for the three additional positions provided in last year's budget and encourage you to uphold the agreement to provide additional positions to each department in the upcoming budget adequate staff positions contract and contract otmpt positions are imperative to providing quality services to our students and to supporting our schools thank you [Applause] hi my name is Callie Boyette and I've been a physical therapist in Wake County schools for the last 13 and a half years I spent my first few years serving schools in North and Central Raleigh and have been serving the schools of Knightdale Wendell and Zebulon over the last 10 years I'm currently serving as an area lead for the PT department and I offer mentorship

071to the PT staff that served the northeastern part of the county when I started working for Wake County I developed an immediate passion for school-based practice I'd always imagined that one day I would apply for it and hopefully become the lead PT in this County a vision changed drastically when I learned that moving into the lead PT position is considered a lateral move our department has multiple exceptionally qualified individuals who would make amazing leaders for our department yet the lead PT position has been vacant for more than two years now the fact is no one wants to take on significantly more responsibility and liability for no additional pay the lead PT is responsible for managing a staff of 21 therapists and services to nearly a thousand students the lead OT oversees 67 therapists and services

072to 4 300 students these roles are completely administrative within special education and there are no school-based Services typically completed by the lead the PT and OT leads are responsible for hiring support and supervision of Staff including completing performance appraisals and managing contract staff they also manage the department budget support regular and special education initiatives and collaborate with school and central office administration to support the students and staff in accordance with the larger scope of special education services I'd like you to imagine for a minute asking a classroom teacher to take over the role of principal at their school for no additional pay in fact under the current terms an OT or PT could be asked to lead their department and make less money than many of those they supervise the PT and ot to Bar

073departments in Wake County are among the largest in the state and are significantly larger than would be typically found in a hospital or outpatient clinic setting the leaders of these departments deserve to be fairly compensated and respected for the service they provide multiple other smaller counties in North Carolina have already taken the step to provide lead pts and OTS with additional pay and we hope that Wake County will recognize that a leadership position in this County comes with significant responsibility due to our large student population and that should not go uncompensated we are asking that in the upcoming budget you adjust the PT and OT lead salaries to be competitive in the Wake County Market relative to a team supervisor position in order to recruit and retain a qualified candidate for the PT lead position

074thank you our next speaker that I have is Elizabeth oh no you guys are you're Jamie all right and then Elizabeth you're certainly not the last speaker good evening my name is Jamie weinland and I have been an occupational therapist for 23 years six years ago I stood right here advocating for equal pay and treatment for the OT and PT departments after speaking to the board answering many board follow-up questions and making it to the top fold of the news and observer the result was a substantial pay bump for staff whose salary had been significantly compressed by the year spent on a band schedule we were moved to the speech therapy pay scale and we're told by Kathy chantos that all future adjustments will mirror that of speech it saddens me to stand here again

075and tell you how this has slowly eroded over the last six years year after year we wonder why we are treated so differently than our certified counterparts currently the governor's proposed pay increases and the pay increases that you are discussing tonight for certified staff are significantly significantly higher than classified yesterday the WRAL article that covered who qualifies for the proposed raises States and I quote those other Educators include School psychologists guidance counselor speech language Pathologists and audiologists just because you don't legally have to pay us the same doesn't mean you shouldn't the only difference between our licensure and speech therapy licensure is one additional form through DPI for an educational license is that a good enough reason to pay our team significantly less money than our Wake County colleagues I guarantee you the OTS and

076PTs are willing to fill out this form if given a chance both of our departments have been actively working at the state level to officially get our classification change to certified but have been met with cool response this has been a greater than a 10 years effort these issues contradict the third priority of the Strategic plan we will prioritize establishing structures and processes to provide timely and consistent service for every student and core belief number three of well-supported Highly Effective and dedicated staff are essential to success for all students OTS and PTs can work in a wide variety of settings and we choose to be here we love working in the schools with the kids in their natural environment but if we aren't supported by you why should we stay we urge you to consider

077the information we are presenting while developing the draft budget for All subsequent academic years we urge you to consider this critical information which directly affects wake County's ability to recruit and retain highly qualified staff we are asking you to better understand the salary and equities that surrounding leas are acting upon by establishing competitive and reasonable growth with salaries we are not asking you to make a certified staff but we are asking you to treat us as such we are asking you to value and respect us as professionals thank you hard neck our next speaker is Elizabeth Amy amay good evening my name is Elizabeth Amy and I've worked since 1994 as a school social worker with Wake County Public Schools I'm grateful to be currently working at an awesome school called Forestville Road Elementary School

078in Knightdale for the amazing Miss Jesse Hafner and miss Patricia Owen I am also serving part-time right now at Windell Middle School along with another school social worker due to they do not have a social worker at that school for the lack of Master's pay I'm grateful for the opportunity to have worked in such a progressive and excellent school system and to have been a student of Wake County Public Schools I'm here tonight to continue the calls of my fellow School social workers to restore Masters pay our department has incredibly talented motivated and driven women and men who work tirelessly on behalf of our students families and staff our work is often unseen and we work with so many people whose voices are unheard voices unheard but not unimportant we see as we know that

079you do that there is as much promise and potential in the student living in an overcrowded motel room as there is for the student living in a million dollar home as school social workers we have the opportunity to serve all students and families because all students and families regardless of income or race religion have times in their lives when they need extra support and school social workers are a big part of this we work as members of a team with Incredible school counselors School psychologists School nurses every day and I'm grateful to these amazing people and very happy that they are being compensated for the degrees that they hold and the work that they do it is time that our County steps up and does the same for school social workers and teachers I believe

080in the power of Social Work and you should too when there's a crisis at a school believe me the school social worker is a person you want to have on hand School social workers are daily involved in threat assessments and screenings for suicide and self-injury and child abuse and neglect we work to interrupt the cycle of violence and prevent harm we support students in social emotional learning we connect families and students with mental health services we link families with resources such as food and Furniture clothing Transportation domestic violence support we off we spend a lot of time serving families without permanent housing and set up transportation and resources to help them when our public conversations turns to school shootings and guns on campus and people throw up their hands because there seems to be no

081Solutions remember that having school social workers in our schools is a vital tool to keeping our schools safe there's no one answer but we are a vital piece of that I believe in the power of prevention and public education and I believe in the power of Social Work in order to continue to attract and keep staff we must restore Masters pay in Wake County Public Schools I believe that you can do it and we must do it thank you Amy we now turn to our off agenda speakers just a reminder that the timer has been changed due to technical difficulties um so please keep an eye out for the 30 seconds and for the um jaunty tones of Mr Bloomberg's phone um our first speaker for off agenda topics is May Mitchell followed by Robin

082dodsworth hi um can you all hear me okay Baba lovewise thanks um I'm using my time to speak as a Wake County Citizen and parent who has two school-aged children one of the reasons we've been very intentional in sending our children to Public Schools is that it is one of the few places that truly reflects the diverse community that we live in and that is something that we're incredibly grateful for last Tuesday the house K-12 education committee gave a favorable vote to HB I would like to request the school board to follow Durham Public School Systems action in creating a resolution against HB 187 the public school Forum of North Carolina said HB 187 would limit Educators ability to discuss the reality of racism in the United States would restrict students engagement with history and

083current events and would hinder districts efforts to understand and tackle the root cause of inequities in our schools we must ask what problem is actually being solved through the legislation how does this legislation promote equality when it inherently discriminates against certain groups and topics the only way to truly achieve equality is to bravely and honestly reckon with our country's complicated past and present I hope that as a parent and as a community we can support our teachers and provide tools to educate our children rather than legislate on an agenda based on fear and misinformation thank you for your time our next speaker is Robin dodsworth and following Ms dodsworth is Michelle Wilson hi I have two children at Wiley Elementary I'm also a professor of linguistics at NC State which means I study the science

084of language my four-year-old son is in the wonderful preschool class at Wiley which by design has a mix of deaf students and hearing students the classroom is supposed to have an American Sign Language interpreter someone who can give the deaf children exposure to fluent ASL and thereby give them Equitable preparation for kindergarten I was surprised to learn that this position has remained unfilled for the entire school year because there's a shortage of interpreters who were able or willing to work in schools I know from from speaking with people in the school system that they care about the problem including Mr Hershey Renita Hunter and Dr ashburn's office Don Newman and Jenna Ramsey in the office of early learning I'd like to tell you why the absence of an ASL interpreter is a crisis for our

085deaf children and what we can do about it first why is it a crisis signed languages including ASL are full languages like English or Japanese most deaf children don't learn ASL at home because their parents don't know it so the children have to acquire it as their first language in preschool in some unfortunate cases as in the Wiley classroom this year deaf children don't learn ASL well during early childhood because there's no one to give them constant Rich exposure to fluent ASL they have to learn it later crucially research shows that this interferes with their later acquisition of English not ASL only but English they never require the complexities of English in the way that they would if they acquired ASL earlier and they never learned to read as well this is because when we

086have consistent exposure to a language spoken or signed fluently during our early years we developed the cognitive Machinery Machinery we need to learn our first language and to learn a second language relatedly if our deaf kids don't have fluency with ASL they won't benefit nearly as much from having an interpreter with them in kindergarten they won't be able to communicate well with anyone at all this is a big Equity problem what we can do about it is get our kids in the company of someone who uses ASL fluently with them three and four-year-old children have amazing brains they soak up language and somehow acquire its mind-bending complexity as long as they're immersed in it I've suggested that we change The Interpreter contract so that we can hire someone part-time for the rest of this school

087year even just a couple days a week next year we've got to have a full-time person another idea is to partner with either community volunteers who use ASO or with the school for the deaf and Wilson either during the school year or during the summer as a linguist and a mother I know that our kids at Wiley need regular exposure to ASL this is the only way to give them an equitable education thank you Michelle Wilson followed by Jerry hatzel hello my name is Michelle Wilson and I'm a mom of twin sixth graders at West Cary Middle School and I'm also the advocacy chair on their PTA and I'm a substitute teacher at the school I wanted to speak here tonight because West Cary Middle School has been moved down the renovation list for too

088long now the building is the original building from the 1960s and it is long overdue real changes there are schools that have been built after us that have already been rebuilt the plumbing is the original Plumbing in our school and the bathrooms break constantly there is water damage on the walls of some of the classrooms the HVAC doesn't work consistently in most of the halls there is a weird damp odor in the media center the town of Cary Greenway Trail doesn't have a strong border to the school so random people walk onto the campus during the day which raises safety concerns and that's in addition to lots of aesthetic issues like paint peeling significantly off all the walls in the school while we appreciate the updates that have been made over the years like a

089new fire alarm system and door locks once carry needs to be moved higher on the priority list of schools that need major renovations because of the poor conditions of the school lots of our neighborhood families do not choose to go to West Cary they choose to go to magnet schools like Reedy Creek middle or Martin middle and its West cary's turn to be taken seriously the school is under enrolled and has become an overflow school because families are choosing not to attend there I understand there are funding issues in our public school system and that this goes up the chain to our state legislators we are very grateful for the work the school board tries to accomplish across Wake County with over a hundred and eighty thousand kids in the school system we are also

090very thankful for Tyler Swanson and Mark Strickland and Dr Saxton for taking the time to visit our school as well the reality is the kids at West Cary noticed the other schools are in better condition and they feel disrespected and I'm sure the teachers and staff must feel it too it is not a good learning environment for kids when it's unbearably hot or cold in the classroom or when the bathrooms are constantly not working I'm asking you to please move West Cary into the top 10 schools that need serious repairs so when there is another Bond we are insured a better facility the school has been around for 60 years and it's our turn now thank you for your time and consideration our next speaker is Jerry hatzel followed by Norris Collins good evening my

091name is Jerry Hartzell I've been a taxpayer here in Wake County for 46 years now our kids graduated from Enloe in 2004 2006 and 2008 our oldest grandchild just started Cohn Elementary School we think our tax dollars have been excellent Investments our kids got excellent educations thank you and thank you for being members of the school board I know you don't do it for the money I know it's not a springboard to a higher office the only reason I can think you do it is because you care about the kids that's something we got in common what I want to talk to you about for just a minute is electric school buses electric vehicles are more than just Teslas school buses are ideally designed for electric Drive trains they follow prescribed routes so there's not

092an issue about range anxiety they can be charged on off hours when demand does not Peak we and there are reasons other than just climate change and climate change is a big deal there are reasons other than just climate change to Electrify the school bus fleet among other things diesel exhaust harms children in ways it does not harm adults yesterday my wife and I were past walking past our neighborhood Elementary School Wiley on our way home from the grocery store we saw one of the buses there idling by the curbside it was 3 24 in the afternoon School wouldn't let out for a few minutes and I couldn't help but notice the exhaust pipe and those buses is right about chest height for an elementary school kid this afternoon when I drove past the school

093on the way back from the airport I noticed there were two buses idling now it's not just an environmental issue it's not just a climate issue it's also an economic issue folks I I gave you the sights here in the handout but if we switch to Electric school buses between federal grants and avoiding the need to spend 140 thousand dollars for diesel you will save money you will not have to go out of pocket for a new vehicle that will not get a that will not last its entire 12 years whatever you're buying right now in the way a diesel buses if if you if it runs for 12 years you're talking about through 2036 for the reasons I outlined on this sheet I would ask you to help those of us who are citizens

094learn how we can keep abreast of school bus electrification how can we can learn about your plans and how we can help you help us to Electrify the fleet faster thanks for considering this and thanks for your service Mr Hartzell our next speaker is Norris Collins followed by Danny losh hello and good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak here today I'm very happy to be a Wake County employee of 10 years and that I've gotten to spend all of those years at West Cary has been a blessing there have been countless truly amazing people to come through our school both staff and students alike unfortunately while so many of us are proud to be members of the West Cary Community it's often hard to be proud of the building that we work in

095that so often feels as if it's deteriorating all around us and has been for as long as many of us can remember in fact many of us remember a time not too long ago when West Cary ranked much higher on the priority list however as the years have passed and the school condition continues to worsen West Cary West cary's position has dropped at times it can feel as though West Cary is falling through the cracks so at the beginning of the year after having discussed the state of the building a group of us put together a survey to try and quantify how the building's condition impacts the professional performance and the physical and mental well-being of the staff and how the state of the building might affect our students as well ironically enough the very

096first day we met to begin discussions about what could be done about the building a classroom across the hall had a pipe burst and flood out as anyone as someone who's closely reviewed the data we collected the issues were numerous and wide-ranging the stories shared some of which you'll hear firsthand tonight include but are not limited to classrooms leaking or flooding from pipes occasionally bursting or heavy rains various points over the last several years both the 7th and 8th grade Halls have had issues with sewage the smell of which is not easy to forget other stories from across campus describe classrooms either being freezing cold or too hot including our music rooms which have had several students faint throughout this year the more surveys we collected the more issues piled up from major cracks running

097along classroom walls in the sixth grade Hall to The Moldy and dingy walls and floors throughout the building and many more the list is extensive indeed but one of the major themes to arise was that of safety we have a unique campus one that is very open and and spread out but many of the staff have raised concerns over the safety of the school grounds whether it be because the layout and the well over 20 points of Entry including open areas that students must move through during class changes or the fact that to get to our main athletic field and track students must use a public Greenway based on the overwhelming feedback we received the team put together a petition a petition which has collected over 80 staff signatures one for every one of our

098colleagues and so it is that with this that we come to you because at the end of the day we love our students our jobs our community and it is our hope that you hear our stories consider the asks that are in our petition and take the steps needed to enable West Cary to be the learning environment it deserves to be having said that I'd like to personally thank Tyler Swanson who has already taken several steps to make us feel seen and heard and as a whole I appreciate everyone's time and consideration on these matters thank you our next speaker is Danny Loesch followed by Emily hooks hi my name is Danny Lodge I've lived in Cary for about 24 years and I'm here as a parent and a citizen um I've driven past West

099Cary many times but never realized the State of disrepair it was in um today I'm here to talk about very needed and overdue renovations to West Cary Middle School counting students and faculty these changes would impact over 900 people not to mention their family members I recently went on a tour of the school with my daughter who is a rising sixth grader instead of feeling excited about this next big step I was very dismayed at the rundown appearance of the school I'm a military brat and I've attended schools all over the world and this is one of the worst I've seen seen and smelled during our tour I noticed an odd smell in the media center possibly mildew I don't know I'm not a restoration person but the HVAC system not working in many of

100the classrooms windows were open to cool down the room which presents a security risk damage to some walls and the athletic courts and Fields were terrible um very much in need of serious repair in addition I was alarmed that there were so many open breezeways for kids to be out in the open I've been told that the door locks also need to be updated needless to say that I was shocked and dismayed that in this day and time that these things remain unaddressed to to put it bluntly I spent a lot of sleepless nights after uh my child was accepted into West Cary metal I'm very concerned about our children learning in an environment that is not healthy but especially that is not safe established in 1965 West Cary Middle School impacts not only its

101students and faculty but also the community it has the ability to draw families toward or away from the area because of my situation I don't have a lot of choice in where I live or where I send my children to school if I did have more choices I may or probably would not have picked West Cary due to the shape of its shape it's in and its security I asked the school board to strongly consider some much needed and long overdue renovations to West Cary Middle School I am very sure that I'm not the only parent who will lose sleep over the lack of security and safety I thank you for your time and humbly ask you for your help thank you our next speaker is Emily hooks followed by Stacy Tash all right so

102you've heard from all the adults now I want to hear I want you guys to hear from our kids so this is straight from their mouths and I called it from the mouths of babes Wes Carey student voices so the prompt that they were given from a student to them was what would you like to see change about West Cary so I have 19 students responses student one definitely the actual building itself it's really old and there's lots of bugs and I'm really definitely afraid of bugs student two the AC inside my socialized classroom gets really hot student three maybe if we could change up the way the drainage system works so there won't be any mishaps in the female bathrooms the air conditioning student five I like to have a longer lunch because I

103don't think I have enough time to eat my lunch and I also like to talk with my friends and stuff student six one thing I would like to see changes are the walls and the ceilings because the ceilings are starting to fall apart and the walls have paint coming off student seven maybe one big building instead of these individual buildings because I really don't like walking outside I don't feel safe student 8 renovate the bathrooms so that the stall locks work and are usable and the sinks are usable also try to fix the sewage problem because that's also very bad and smells bad student nine I like to see the outdated buildings be repaired as well as the air conditioner because sometimes there's rooms that get like 89 degrees and that's very hot student 10.

104I would like to take the lockers out of the hallways to make hallways wider because there's always jams student 11. I would like to improve the door so we can in and out easily and we don't have to bang on the doors to get inside student 12 the locker rooms student 13. I would like to see the classroom AC get fixed for example Mr Collins or Miss grissom's AC doesn't work on some days it can be up to 80 degrees especially on hot days and can be really uncomfortable and distracting if you're trying to get your work done student 14. I would like to see the walls painted and make everything new student 15 the bathrooms student 16. I would like to change this into a whole new school with whole new technology new offices

105and new classrooms student 17 the gym student 18 probably School food and the building because it's really old and worn down and there's just lots of bugs and the school food isn't good either student 19. I would really love them to build a new building because it's getting pretty old here and I want to see more modernized stuff and everything even though it's a great school you need to have a good learning environment so I would need them to build a new school maybe someday soon as you can see our students are greatly attuned to our school buildings needs and want their voices heard and taken seriously they look forward to hearing from what the school board can do for them and their time here at West Cary we also want to extend a special

106thank you to Tyler Swanson for coming out to West Cary and walking the entire campus hearing the voices of our teachers and students and being able to advocate for all of us thank you so much Tyler our next speaker is Stacy Tash followed by Leonard Fisher hi good evening everyone um my name is Stacy Tash I'm a parent of two elementary kids in Wake County and one I wanted to say thank you for all you do thank you for the OTS and the pts here one of my kids receives OT right now he does not get it but I thank you for all your services and social workers and just everyone here but the reason I'm here to talk to you today is for my daughter who goes to Wiley Elementary School my daughter is

107fully deaf and as a parent who is hearing and has also two other children who are hearing it was very shocking to have a deaf child but it has been a blessing to be immersed in this new culture new environment new language and we were really excited for her to be placed at Wiley into their preschool program and making sure that she has all her services including a full-time ASL interpreter she had that last year but unfortunately this year she does not have one and many of the kids in the classroom well everyone doesn't have one and the a school her teachers the staff have been amazing and they do sign but she and all the kids do deserve a full-time interpreter that is how she's going to learn that's how she's going to communicate

108that's how she's going to increase her language skills and be prepared for kindergarten our goal for our child is not to send her out of the county our goal for her child for her to remain in the county or go for her child is to get her services within the county she deserves it as every other student in this County my son gets his Services I'm sure other parents and their children get their services so I'm just asking the board to really consider finding somebody full-time for Wiley Elementary School and for any child that is deaf or hard of hearing in the county to make sure that they get their services that they need so that they can grow like any other child here they can play with all the kids not just having to

109be in one box and fit into only one community that they can expand their their experiences in the school system with their deaf friends and with their hearing friends and so I just ask that you guys even if it's the remaining of the school year find somebody part-time um that's all I ask but then really hope that for next school year that there's a full-time interpreter and that when she is going to kindergarten that they will be an interpreter for her so I just want to say thank you and thank you for listening next up is Leonard Fisher followed by herb Thames I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing your name correctly everybody good evening and thank you for having me my name is Leonard fetcher and I teach seventh grade social studies at West Cary

110Middle School and I've been proudly working there for 10 years now um I'm here tonight to talk about the school conditions the building at West Cary Middle School I teach in a classroom with no working HVAC and many of my colleagues have had the same conditions in their classroom as well when it gets hot and humid outside in the fall and spring it makes learning extremely uncomfortable for my students I have students with asthma bad allergies uh it is sometimes very difficult for us to breathe at times especially for those of us still wearing masks due to covet other teachers who have worked in this classroom before me have had those same concerns over the years our amazing head custodian Miss Murray has had to put in multiple requests to the county over the past

111four or five years um to have this issue addressed and it was actually finally approved this year and we are actually awaiting an installment of our HVAC in the seventh grade hallway our students and our staff deserve safe and comfortable classrooms to learn and to teach in also across the hall there are classrooms that have leaks in their rooms every time there is a hard rain the carpets get wet and mildewy Miss Murray again our amazing custodian has used a fan to dry the carpets one of the carpets in one of the classroom a few years ago had to be replaced because of the smell of mildew and mold got so bad it was starting to grow [Music] um however there are still leaks in that very same classroom um Miss Murray had to put

112in multiple requests to the county to have that issue fixed but nothing again has been done about it again we've had students with asthma and allergies that shouldn't have to breathe that in that mold that mildew our students our staff deserve safe and comfortable classrooms again to learn and to teach in all I'm asking all we are asking is that you hear our concerns on behalf of West Cary Middle School and please act in the best interest of the students and the staff thank you so much for happening us and for hearing us tonight thank you since we're at the halfway point of our off agenda folks I just do want to have a quick reminder because there is no timer working to keep an eye out for Mr blumberg at the 30 second you

113guys are all doing great I'm just the teacher in me has to do that reminder every once in a while um and just keep an eye out and thank you so much um Mr Fisher fetcher things I'm sorry thank you for keeping me on task no problem no problem Mr Mr Thames thank you for being here thank you good evening superintendent Moore Other Board Mrs Swenson thank you very much for what you're doing uh my name is Herb Thames and I've been an employee here at West Cary for oh too many years to count started at West care in 1988. so y'all do the math what's Kerry is Like Home to me I left in 95. unfortunately I lost my mother had to move away to South Carolina but was returned to Wake County because

114I love Wake County have two sons that were educated in Wake County Public School System went back to West Cary just to say hello and they said you want your job back and I see I would love to have it back I was disappointed though in coming back because uh we had just had Renovations done and the school had just left Davis Drive had returned back to West Cary and coming back I saw some of the same things that I had left saw some things that had not improved at all termites coming through the floor at that time I was a helpful living teacher and I can remember before I can start my class I would have to take a mat to put over the termites in order to have class that problem continued we

115have leak in the floor had a trash can that sat in the corner every morning I would walk in if I didn't dump the trash can I asked one of the kids to jump the dump the trash can the trash can ended up becoming a big full-blown trash can that problem consisted until one day I walked in the gym and walked into two inches of water across our gym floor we know water and wood doesn't go don't go together so after the water was gone what do we end up having a floor that was a bunch of waves so we can imagine now after all this time as I was talking to my son last night he reminded me that that was 20 plus years ago I said really 20 years and we're still dealing

116with this I feel unsafe for the kids not knowing if they're going to fall through the floor because we know again with the termites with the water damage there's no telling what's under that floor facts or perception I asked myself that as I was thinking about this presentation facts or perception when I talked to my colleagues that come in and I have to tell them it was like that before and they say really do they care about y'all I said I think they care fact our perception when we have to take that four minute walk down to the football field to do a track unit or anything factual perception when I look across and I can't see the students because the field has a crown not a crown that has a hump on it factual

117perception when our kids go and visit other schools and they say coach why is our school don't look like this Factor perception we just want to even play in surface I don't want our school to be continued to call the ghetto School because we were once the celebrity school where the Charlotte Hornets the stain came in and we presented The Hop sports program to Wake County we invited schools from all around Wake County to come and see what we did at West Cary one of the first middle schools to have a fitness in Aerobic room all that's now been deteriorated and gone away we like to see the card holders on the right side so the kids traffic can be on the right way next up we had a special request for the Middle Creek

118High School theater Department to talk about theater in schools months so Maddie Bella dare Jack Wren and Hope have a presentation for us and they're going to do this all in three minutes y'all hello um we are act one we are Middle Creek High School's theater leadership team my name is Bella Gonzalez and I'm current president of act one this month is theater and schools appreciation month this month highlights the importance of creating well-rounded students by integrating the Arts into a student students curriculum more specifically theater our goal for this month was to help others understand why theater is so important to us this month we posted various things on Instagram where students were able to submit quotes or videos to talk about why theater was important to them and how it has affected them

119throughout the years as well as coming here and speaking to you personally for me theater is a different way to learn about the world around us through storytelling and design theater is a way to process emotions and create new bonds with everyone who participates hello I'm Ren I am the international thespian Society vice president for our school and a future theater educator I love theater because it is a place where I feel wanted and valued for who I am as a human hello my name is Maddie and I've been a part of my school's theater department for the last four years each year in our theater Department we have a theme that both of our shows Encompass this year the theme for the shows is all about the family you find and this theme is

120not only true for our shows but for our whole theater Department without theater programs and schools so many passionate people will not be given memorable experiences and interactions with the people who share their same interest and they would not be able to form their own found family hello my name is Hope bird and I'm the international thespian Society troop president at Middle Creek and if you would like to support us in our program we will be putting on the musical James and the Giant Peach on April 20th through 22nd tickets go on sale on March 7th and March 27th and you can follow us on Instagram or Twitter with at the handle MCHS underscore theater for more information and links provided James and the Giant Peach is a great show for anyone of all ages

121so we hope you all come to support thank you so much for your time and we hope to see your continued support for theater in schools thank you thank you all next up we have Tawana Murray followed by Kimberly mctarian hello my name is Tawana Mary I'm the head custodian at West Cary Middle School and I've been in Wake County for almost seven years I've been a floater for a year and a half until I came to West Cary Middle School when I first came to Mary I mean West Cary Middle School Miss people our sister principal hired me and they walked me around the school and they asked me what is wrong with the school and I begin to tell them the walls is dirty the paint is coming off it was just so

122filthy they was like well can you clean it up I said I can try so I tried and it didn't work so I went to Mr James as our sister principal and I told him I said we need a paint job in the cafeteria in the bathrooms and I fought for that for a year and he got it done for me now it's back peeling and I'm gonna talk about safety on Friday we had a guy that pulled our door open and came in our school it's not safe for the kids it's not safe for the staff and I'm the one walks the school every day I'm in the school at 5 30 in the morning and I make sure our kids and our teachers is safe I do not let you come in our

123school so I know who you are thank you Miss Murray thank you for all you do Dr mctarian and you will be followed by John amancio chuku good after well good evening Board of Education members my name is Dr Kimberly mctarian I am the proud president of save our sons and the CEO of SOS consulting firm and as a history teacher I'm often reminded that history means in the past but it is a dangerous thing for our history to follow our present and as you can remember May 30 of 2020 we heard the cries of George Floyd scream for his mother for his very life well I can assure you that there is a population of black men who may be heard but not understood why because they are the black artistic of your population

124and yes they will grow up and they won't look little anymore they will be adults that could be someone's target practice and so today I asked of you Wake County Board of Education along with your racial equity and inclusion to protect this population why because we have gotten received stories where officers assume that they have done something wrong and pull guns on our children before getting on the bus now the wonderful scary portion of this is that anytime an officer uses excessive force it is protected under General statute 168-168 which means it's under Personnel records and that our children's encounter with the cops is not brought to the public which means if our children do not tell you that they encountered an officer with a gun no one has to tell it can you imagine

125sending our children from the poorest neighborhoods to encounter an officer with a gun get on the bus and now have to take eogs and eocs this is not nor should it be normal I'm not here to practice or talk about critical race Theory because race is not critical hate is critical and hate protected is dangerous I am asking the Wake County Board of Education to pass a resolution that protects this class disabled and African-American I hope that you will support an action that protects with your racial equity and inclusion thank you our next speaker is John amancuku followed by Adam tolerund all around the country this image is used as a depiction to explain equality and equity but here's the flawed logic of equity tall gentleman has to give up his crate so that the

126short person can stand on the creek here's a better idea instead of watching the game for free from defense how about purchasing a ticket to get in the game and sit in the bleachers along with the rest of the crowd the office of equity started in 2013 and this year marks a 10-year anniversary of this Pet Project since 2014 8.7 million dollars and Counting has been spent on Race baiting race hustling reducing standards CRT grooming and normalizing transgenderism instead of appropriately labeling it as gender dysphoria and where and where are the measurable outcomes from the equity office this is what we do know nearly 50 percent of our graduating class in 2021 failed math and reading standards while we tout that we have a 91 graduation rate all students have a 6 out of 10

127chance to pass State exams in grades three through eight black students have a 4 out of 10 chance to pass All State exams in grades three through eight this is the hard truth that no one will tell you Equity will not fix the dire marriage rate in the black community eighty percent of black homes are led by a single parent and statistics show that this has a negative impact on children mentally socially and academically going woke won't bring Daddy home the answer is not diversity equity and inclusion the answer is Faith Family morality and education void of special interests Equity is the transmission of a disease called communism Equity lowers the bar overlooks Merit and puts the focus on skin tone only Equity is legalized theft because it takes from the productive person and gives

128to the unproductive person in the early 2000s there was a two to three year wait list wait list to be a Wake County teacher today we're approximately 400 teachers short the general feedback that I hear from teachers is that the focus is on Equity Equity Equity Equity more equity and more and more equity instead of focusing on the equity the teachers don't have the ability to even discipline the students and correct their violent behaviors I believe that we need to take the money from the equity office and put it towards repairing West Cary Adam toleran followed by Christine janeca um good evening uh and you got my time right awesome thanks man appreciate you appreciate you uh I'm a teacher at uh West Cary Middle School um I taught um fifth grade for four years

129at Bug Elementary in southeast Raleigh before that super pumped to come over to West Cary and teach helpful living because Doug on it teaching one subject is way better than teaching uh however many I taught before so uh West Cary is an awesome place um and if you haven't figured out yet I'm going to be talking about West Cary talking about the building and the people there um I was really struck as you know coming over as my first year at West Cary I was really shocked by a couple of things first of all was when I got there the people that were there it was very very apparent that I mean if you know teachers the teachers that stick around they're there because they love kids and they're doing something that they love we're

130not there because we get paid good but uh we like what we do and we care about kids that's why we're there right um and the second thing I was struck by was the way that I felt when I walked through the building and around the campus okay so like if you ever go there you're gonna see the stuff like what I'll tell you about what's wrong right you can see it um the student is going to tell you about it but like I I was really struck by the way I felt when I walked into the building and I walked around that campus because you don't got to walk very far to see something that looks like it was forgotten when you walk around that campus you feel like you are in a place

131that has been forgotten okay so I want you to think about the last time that you felt forgotten think about where you were when you felt forgotten okay did you want to go back there were you super psyched to go back the next day okay so um we could talk all day you know and all night and I know there's other things that we got to do but we can talk all day and all night about the stuff that needs to get fixed the fact that we do need a new school like there's too much to fix but we have to fix the stuff that we can't fix to get through till we can get the new stuff right or a new place but I really want you to sit with that because that's what

132we do every day and that's what our kids do every day we go back to a place where we feel like we are forgotten and we just don't want to be forgotten anymore thank you for your time appreciate it next up Christine janeca followed by Daniel Grant King for this opportunity and I'm happy to see Anson he came to West Cary Middle School and we were all excited to meet him and see him involved my name is Christine Janika I'm a special education teacher and a self-contained classroom in West Cary the room that we're in is uncomfortably cold most days of the week so the air conditioner it runs very strong and actually causes the temperature in the room to drop as the day goes on because my teaching area is special education self-contained the

133students and the three staff members are in the room all day so we don't change rooms with the bell schedule so many of the children because of their disabilities have difficulty with wearing extra layers or tolerating appropriate attire covering up and the distraction caused by this discomfort so we tried opening the window on mild days to bring in some warmer air but this has also proved distracting to the students not to mention the possibility of bugs or birds or noise outside noise entering the room when we spoke up about this to the administrative staff members back in I think it was December the temperature became quite comfortable so this was only for a couple of weeks though so During the period of mild weather one of our students with communication difficulties told me he was

134cold during seceded instruction time sometimes we get up and move around for an extra brain break or try to go outside for for warmth and to move around but this is not practical it's not a long-term solution so the adults and students in the room where we wear coats from morning till afternoon and our classroom is in a part of the building not slated for the HVAC replacement so I hope the board will consider the needs of my students the rest of the students at West Cary and ensure that our school gets the needed repairs foreign T King it's Mr Grand King here our final speaker is Pamela Buddha Miss Buddha are you here is this and this isn't working that's not working so I set up my phone 30 seconds you don't have to

135worry about that Mr blumberg has it he'll let you know when there's 30 seconds and then you'll hear his phone when the time is up okay good evening um school board members superintendent Moore and attorney Bloomberg appreciate the time tonight to share I'm here to follow up I was here last month I was here asking about money that's owed to us and I'm here tonight wanting to get that money um I wanted to follow up last time board chair you have asked a Wake County employee who was um the chief business officer to meet with me and nothing got resolved so I wanted to and I have the my the documents back at my desk so I'll give that to you attorney Bloomberg after but I'm here requesting that Wake County be transparent and accountable

136and financial auditing areas and budgeting areas I'm here tonight to request that since 2021 we've been asking for receipts from Wake County Public Schools so that we would know that the reimbursement check that was given to us or sent to us 2020 was actually accurate and I was just doing due diligence in good faith to say hey send us the receipt so we know that this is accurate you overcharge just by 645.17 that's a huge error so how do I know if this check is true and accurate and then I want to cash it if it's not because I don't want to go through a year or two of someone's saying no you cashed a check and you owe us something and I had just gotten a check from someone and they had in that

137check on the bottom of it said when you cash this you're cashing is saying you know that it's true and it was like I didn't even ask for the check so I called that company asked them we clarified and they're like yeah you're owed that check so I did the same with Wake County so I'm asking for due diligence and um you know we asked we we acted in deal with diligence to not catch the check and to wait until we got the receipts we weren't given any copied receipts and at this point I wonder if any receipts even exist it's been from 2020. the check has not been cashed some concern that wake Board of Education investigates before the state a statue of limitation expires because there's been so much pushback to actually resolve

138a very simple matter and then is how much time do I have does it say and then I'm asking for Wake County to address if interest is due to us so with the chief business officer I said no one has addressed whether we or have interested in us our money was taken we were overcharged it was over collected and then it was held the field trip ended in March 5th 2019 check was issued in June 2020 and we were never given interest due even though you had my personal money and I think many other parents personal money so we'd like to know if there's interest in we'd like Wake County to address it they haven't addressed it with us finally I'd like to know they said the check was moved to the state I don't

139know why Wake County would send a check that hasn't been proved accurate and if it had been proved we would have cashed it why did that check go to the state who sent to the state where is it at the state and how do we get access to our money it's been just kind of the big goal is to help inform what those big goals would look like the groups that have been engaged in providing feedback and the additional work that will be done with the draft goals to get additional feedback there was also a discussion about what metrics might look like that would be provided publicly on a dashboard and moving forward this is just continued work we'd like to continue to ask the board and those who see the draft presentation to provide

140feedback on what's there and staff will continue to do the same the board also received an update on 24 25 calendars for traditional modified and then multi-track year-round and the subset single track year-round that are those 23 24 has already been adopted we work way ahead of time when we can 24 25 calendars for traditionally modified are pretty straightforward in terms of them following the the parameters that they always follow they comply with the North Carolina calendar law and are similar to The the calendars that have been adopted in the past 177 days a minimum of 1025 hours of instruction with at least three Bank days available in terms of hours for every school elementaries as I said have far more than that um and then there were two options that were provided to the

141board for review around the traditional calendar school the one that we always bring that complies with the calendar law that has 177 days and a minimum of 1025 hours of instruction that complies with the calendar law and then a second option that the board chair had requested to see that breaks the semester in the at the same time as the winter break which would require an earlier start to the school year so that is a calendar that is does not comply with all the requirements that are currently in the calendar law but it was important for the board chair to ask us to bring it as staff because we get so many requests every year from students parents community members to please make that change we are planning to bring a calendar or vote to

142the board at the next meeting for traditional modified multi-track year-round then the single track that are underneath that and we have asked the board to please continue to provide any feedback prior to staff bringing recommended calendars for 24.25 I I guess one last thing I would mention is that um part of the rationale in bringing um the other calendar of the version 1.7 or whatever it is um is not just the the request that was made earlier in the school year to bring it but also the fact that there is legislation pending in the general assembly I'm not sure where it'll go um that would grant that calendar flexibility the third item that we discussed today in the work session was a request from staff that will be coming in a few minutes as an

143action item to go ahead and have the board approve Masters advance and doctoral degree pay for all wcps employees that were not grandfathered that are eligible um beginning July 1 if board approval is received this evening then we will go ahead and change all of those salary schedules and have them ready for July 1. uh the fourth item uh was also a finance item that is coming for approval this evening that is an additional Transportation attendance bonus in addition to the work that has already been done to increase hourly salaries there is a current attendance bonus of a thousand dollars potential for the year 500 each semester that does include the ability for a few absences two for a semester four second semester and then this is an additional bonus on top of that that

144is uh next an additional hundred dollars per month um that where you start over every month so you have the ability to earn it on every every single month and that is also coming to the board this evening for approval that was a work session superintendent more we're going to take up five minute recess and we'll come back for our action items so thank you all very much or our consent agenda and then our action items foreign all right all right welcome back everyone before we move into our action items we do have to approve our consent items is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved thank you Miss Johnson Hustler and vice chair Hagerty all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say aye any opposed nay right we

145now move on to five policies uh that came out of our policy committee beginning with board policy 2120 code of ethics and responsibilities for school board members first reading Dr crane tonight I present the first reading of policy 2120 code of ethics and responsibilities for school board members this is a revised policy and revisions were suggested by the North Carolina School boards Association and staff Provisions were made on page two and numbered item four revisions in red were made by the North Carolina School boards Association and revisions in blue were recommended by staff and approved by the policy Committee in February the language that is struck in blue was originally supplied by the school board's Association as part of their policy revision it was reviewed at the February 28th policy committee meeting and tonight we

146request that you approve our first reading of policy 2120 code of ethics and responsibilities for school board members thank you Dr Karine for your work on this and a reminder to the public that we are adding in modifying quite a few policies over the next several months Madam chair moved that we accept this on first reading so thank you Miss Johnson's Hustler and Mr Hagerty any comments questions concerns with this policy all those in favor of adopting board policy 2120 please say aye any opposene and again that's on first reading we'll come back in second reading on our consent items next up is board policy 6500 goals of equipment materials and supplies and services for first reading we're joined by Miss Deborah Wallace and Trish Posey hello good evening chair Mahaffey superintendent Moore and members

147of the board so tonight we present the first reading of four purchasing policies board members reviewed these policies on February 28 2023 and policy committee these policies are part of the policy migration project with the North Carolina School Board Association to lead the school board's policy manual our first policy is 6500 goals of equipment materials and Supply services this is a new policy created by the North Carolina School Board Association the policy provides over arching goals for equipment materials and supplies services within wcpss staff request board approval of the first reading of policy 6500 goals of equipment materials and Supply services there any questions I have Deborah and Julie available as I kind of stepped into this about three weeks ago well welcome to your new role welcome to be standing in front of us

148thank you and thank you to the entire team who worked on this series of policies Madam chair I move that we accept this policy on first reading second all right we have a motion in a second any questions or comments Dr Eng um yeah thank you I just wanted to um for the listening audience just as a I look at this in the subsequent uh policies as kind of a whole entire package and this is kind of like the preface to everything else so for people that are interested in this this is why this uh particular policy seems like it's just a bunch of goals actually went back and watched the February 28th policy committee meeting where we had a lot of discussion about these so thank you for your work and you taking that

149feedback and bringing these back to us thank you for any further comments or questions yeah go ahead I I will politely defer you all heard my comments and policy I don't think these are necessarily needed but I understand for the purpose of uniformity among school districts we're adopting them anyway and I appreciate all staff's work and presenting them and putting them together for us so thank you thank you Mr hegarty all those in favor of board policy 6500 on first reading please say aye any opposed nay all right moving on to board policy 6510 organization of equipment materials and supplies services for first reading all right thank you this policy is a new policy also created by the North Carolina School Board Association it provides overarching themes of organization for equipment materials and supplies within

150wcpss the themes are management record keeping and issuing materials equipment and supplies staff request board approval for first reading of policy 6510 organization of equipment materials and Supply services again you've heard that this is a package and Madam chair move that we accept this on first reading we have a motion in a second any questions comments all right seeing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay motion passes we now move on to board policy 6520 use of equipment materials and supplies again for first reading yes thank you this is a new policy created by the North Carolina School boards Association that replaces part of current policy 2700 use of school services and equipment staff made revisions seen in blue to include the off-site use of equipment materials and supplies the strike

151through language in blue is a model policy language that is no longer needed are there any questions about that change Jonathan hossler Madam chair I move that we accept this one first reading second hopefully I have a motion and a second any questions comments or concerns all right hearing none all those in favor of approving board policy 6520 on first reading please say aye any opposed nay and to round out our policy portion of the evening we move on to board policy 6521 personal use of equipment materials and supplies for first reading this is also a new policy policy created by the North Carolina School boards Association replaces part of current policy 2700 use of school services and equipment staff made revisions based on the feedback provided on February 28th policy committee meeting and we

152are going to review those revisions by paragraph now in the first paragraph language in blue was added by staff to reflect language and policy 2700 in the second paragraph staff added the word system to reflect that the policy applied to all school system personnel and not just those at schools staff also added the words minimal and frequent and I will not and will not incur more than de minimis added costs for the school system to address the minimal nature of the frequency and expenses of such personal costs or personal personal use Excuse me further staff added the statement the permissible use under these conditions is intended primarily to enable staff to efficiently address a personal matter without having to take time to exit school grounds to signify the intent of the district is to allow

153such personal use as a benefit to employees the third paragraph in blue was added to reference personal use of technological resources already addressed in policy 4312 7320 technology responsible use finally the fourth paragraph in blue was added to demonstrate that no personal use of school system equipment materials and supplies shall be for the personal gain if you have questions about those changes and Deborah are both here yes German Huffy I move that we pass this on first reading right thank you Mr Swanson for the second Mr Hagerty thank you so I do have a question on this I know that there was effort put into rewriting to address a lot of concerns that were brought up at the meeting I do have a question maybe I don't know if Dr crane might be the appropriate

154person to address it but looking at policy 6520 which we just passed and how it works with 6521 6520 establishes the procedures that would allow for off-site use here when we talk about personal use and go through all of the things we have the Restriction that it's intended primarily to efficiently address a Personnel matter without having to take time to exit school grounds So reading those two in concert does that mean you cannot take you cannot use School equipment for personal use off-site that's managed in policy 3225 and I believe we referenced that we referenced that in 6521 that technological resources can be that policy addresses personal use of those materials off-site is basically what we're saying um the reason we put it in 6520 is because some so much equipment that we issue to

155teachers and employees these days is meant to be used not just on site they're not CPU workstations they're laptops they're not desk phones they're cell phones we don't use pagers anymore so we remove that language so we wanted to make sure that though the policy was kind of uh backward reaching that it that it was addressed the current technological resources that we do issue to staff but I guess the exemption is only for technological resources is that right well I don't imagine we would a principal would allow a member of staff to take a copy or machine home for the weekend or uh no I appreciate that I just wanted to make sure because athletic facilities tractor for you know there there are always lots of possibilities there are and if we have a policy

156that does allow for personal use I think that's the other one I just wanted to make sure that that that the personal use would not be off-site except we're specifically Exempted here for the technological resources that was the intent okay Mr Bloomberg that's right I think that's why that language was uh was added and I worked with Miss crane on on I think to try to kind of address this this very issue that uh to make sure that this policy is really designed to help staff stay at school and not have to break instructional time or otherwise to go off if so if they need one you know a couple Pages copied or something like that so they can stay in school it's not designed to allow staff to to you know take and borrow

157you know equipment from the school and go take it home and use it for personal reasons okay so I think that's right and it's a fair question just asking for clarity thank you yeah great question any other questions hearing none all those in favor of adopting board policy 6521 please say aye any opposed nay again that was for first reading and these were all reviewed at the February 28th policy committee meeting thank you up next of the office of the chief of staff we have summer remediation and test remediation plan for summer of 2023 and Dr McMillan will be joining us along with Mr Chris McCabe all right thank you good evening uh chairman happy superintendent Moore members of the board Mr McCabe and I are here tonight to request your approval for a very

158specific type of Summer readministration and Remediation plan to be approved by the board and then subsequently hopefully by ncdpi this particular program is part of the testing and accountability system at the state level they give districts the option of operating a remediation and re-administration program specifically for courses and subjects that have end of grade and of course tests at the end of the year um it is a voluntary program students May participate in it if they want we can we don't compel them to participate it is strictly voluntary and the purpose of the program is to increase student mastery in those particular standards and strengthen their foundational skills in preparation for the next year the only students who are eligible for the program are those who have met standards in the classroom so they are

159they have earned a passing grade in that subject or in that course but for whatever reason just didn't do well on the assessment on that one day they took it at the end of the year and this gives them an opportunity to brush up on those skills that they needed to be successful and then have one more opportunity to take that test before they move on to the next grade or or grade or course in a sequence and the reason this is important for our students is because in many cases end of grade test scores are part of a decision point whereby a student may become eligible for say an advanced mathematics class in middle school if they're rising out of fifth grade based on EOG scores we have state laws and regulations that to

160sort of govern that and so it just makes sure that all of the students who are demonstrating Mastery in the classroom are able to put their best foot forward on that assessment to make sure that they're eligible for whatever kinds of placements might be awaiting them in the next grade or the next subject last year the district operated this program and several thousand students and their families chose to participate it resulted in remediation for those students those programs were operated at the individual School building level and students retook about 9 300 eogs and about 2200 plus of them are about 24 percent resulted in a passing score the second time one of the other benefits of this program is that when students do retake those tests it replaces the students non-proficient score with the proficient

161score if they are able to clear that hurdle with with the second attempt at the district level this does not significantly impact the proficiency rate for the district only you can see only about one percent but there are a number of schools 19 who when these extra proficient scores were put into their results for the year saw increases of between three and five percent on their student proficiency rate and it allowed 10 schools to actually improve their school performance grade that the state Awards to them so say moving from being a d school to a c school or a c school to a b school as a function of these scores as well so the pro the plan that the district has put together for next year is detailed in a memo format as part

162of the attachment for this item and it basically follows exactly what we did last year for the most part District guidance is that all elementary and school and middle schools will provide students the opportunity to participate it will be optional at the high school level which is similar to last year you can see in that plan that the dates during which this remediation will occur are going to vary a little bit by calendar obviously but most of it is occurring on teacher work days at the very end of the school year we do know that there are some conflicts with some of these dates with required letters training for some teachers and also potentially graduation dates for some high schools who want to participate and so the district is committed to some additional pay to

163help those programs run on a day after a teacher work day to help offset that cost for the school area superintendents work very closely with schools based on the experience with the program last year and shared some initial guidance on this in late February just to give schools a heads up that this was potentially coming pending your approval and schools will share information with families about the option to participate pending your approval here tonight by the middle of May so that families can have an opportunity to decide whether or not their student wants to take part in this if in fact they are eligible at the end of the year so with that tonight we're requesting your approval of this plan so that we can submit it to DPI it is due to them by

164April the 1st in order for them to decide whether they will approve it because it is basically a very similar plan to what they approved for us last year we're not anticipating that that be a problem but it does require the board approval prior to being sent to DPI next week and so we have it here for your consideration and Mr McCabe or I would be happy to take any questions that you all may have about it do we have a motion and then we'll move into questions so moved all right thank you Miss Caulfield hi thank you for putting that together and bringing that to us um you had said that this was to increase if they met but they just they met the the grades but they just didn't do well on the

165test um can you explain um why if the children did not meet the Mastery and so if they suffered in both categories why they were not eligible uh that's the way that the state has the program structure those are those are their rules so a student for example has to have at least like a passing grade in the class according to all the work they've done over the first 179 days and then it's just a case of a student who has a bad day doesn't get a proficient score on the test then those are the state's guidelines for who is and is not eligible so we're simply following their guidance there and so what what um what is the path or what happens with the kids that did not meet mastery uh based on the

166teacher's judgment or based on the test score uh well I guess both because I mean if if they're if we're saying that they can take this in order to retake the EOG and the EOC right correct but there are children that you're saying that did not pass like right below that it says that there was 93 310 children who had retaken the test and although it's wonderful 2200 and you know that I mean that's a huge number that's great that 2200 kids then passed the class that's a big gap between 9 300 and 2200 yeah it is not every single student is going to be successful on the second opportunity with the test you know it's a very short program it's only a few days because we have to operate it by the end of

167June 30th so presumably if a student was a little bit farther behind they might be benefiting more from some of the more robust summer programming that our academics folks put on that has a little bit longer of a runway for it these programs only often often openly operate for just a couple of days at the end of the school year to brush up on specific skills so students who are in that kind of situation probably would need a little bit more of a help for example third grade reading is not a place where we can do this because the state already has a very robust read to achieve program that kids who are not proficient at the end of the year are already slated for so um if I could just add I think maybe

168another part of the question is it um even for students who may not have mastered content or don't do well on the EO the assessment the EOG whether it's both or one or the other the final determination for grading and classifying in elementary school sits with I mean the EOG is only considered to be a portion it cannot be the sole reason that a student is marked as not having demonstrated content mastering its standard based grading so to receive a one or two in the class cannot be based solely on the performance on the assessment and so there are a lot of things that go into that and then when students do not receive a three or above grade level Mastery then whether or not that's a retention whether or not it's promotion with intervention

169that that is at the school level I remember having a program like this in my high school and granted we had I think two or three weeks to prepare to retake the exam but you know my own personal experience with that was my Regents exam score went up 10 points so I mean that was a huge deal so I I'm appreciative that the state is able to offer this I just wish we were able to give more time so we could see more results but certainly um appreciate that the states acknowledging that sometimes we just have a bad day can I ask one more question of course um so it mentions that the high school students there was a low participation and I could see that both because they wait for this some break they

170have their summer jobs Transportation but also I do know quite a few people that did take advantage of it or at least maybe parent-induced for them to take advantage of it and their feedback was that there was no really set guidance or curriculum it was kind of like come and ask me a question if you have it so they stopped going so that's just a little feedback um something I don't know how we can evaluate that or improve on that but just to provide a little feedback that that might be something that yeah no I appreciate that and I think as area superintendents are working with schools this year that's good information to help them with their planning and making sure that the experience for kids is what we want it to be yeah and

171the fact that they get what they can out of it right even though they're dragging their they're going to be there for the summer they might as well participate right thank you all right we have a motion to approve the summer of remediation and test registration plan for summer 2023 in a second all in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right thank you so much we now move on to our transportation attendance bonus we heard this earlier today during the work session we have Mr snidemiller coming to present good evening chair Mahaffey board member superintendent Moore today we bring an attendance bonus proposal to you for your consideration we shared information with you earlier today in your work session The Proposal before you allows for bus drivers bus team leaders safety assistants and

172mechanics to be eligible to earn an attendance bonus staff proposes a two hundred dollar per month bonus to qualify for the bonus the employee must have perfect attendance throughout the month the eligibility period will follow the traditional calendar of school year therefore the bonus is available 10 months with the ability to earn an additional two thousand dollars for the year the projected cost at 100 eligibility is approximately 1.7 million dollars the current attendance bonus available to bus drivers and bus team leaders would continue with the same requirements and payment schedule board approval is requested do we have a motion to approve the transportation attendance bonus second okay you have a motion in multiple seconds are there any comments or questions all right seeing none I think we're all excited for this Mr steinmiller and thank

173you to you and your team and also the work that you did to make this happen all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay the motion carries thank you thank you we now move on to out of Human Resources again something else that we heard during the work session this is additional local pay for Masters Advanced and Doctorate Degrees Dr mutilo good evening chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty members of the board superintendent Moore as we discussed in earlier in work session today in August of 2013 state legislators eliminated Masters pay for teachers and social workers except for those who completed one course toward that degree prior to August 1 2013 and went on to to complete the degree that same decision also eliminated the opportunity for all teachers and certified instructional support staff

174to receive Advanced and doctorate degree pay except for those employees who completed a course prior to August 1 2013 and went on to complete those degrees this has created a challenge for us as we have employees who are paid differently even though they have comparable years of experience and do the same work so tonight we are proposing to locally fund relevant Masters pay for teachers and social workers who miss the state's course completion cut off and would have otherwise been eligible we are also proposing to locally fund relevant Advanced and doctorate degree pay for teachers and all certified instructional support staff if any such employee missed the state's course completion cutoff date completed the requirements for the degree and would have otherwise been eligible so pending your approval this pay would be effective July 1

1752023 and we would use recurring local savings to fund this investment in our teachers and certified instructional staff so tonight we are asking for your approval thank you Dr mutilo is there a motion to approve additional local pay for Masters Advanced and Doctorate Degrees so moved second I have a motion in a second are there any questions comments Ms Edmonds thank you I'm very I enthusiastically support this I just wanna it's sobering to think that the legislature made this change 10 almost 10 years ago and it's taken us um you know this long they they're the ones that should have corrected it this this pay should have been restored with State dollars so while I'm excited to support it and approve it I hope we all continue to advocate for the funding that our public

176schools and our staff need and deserve at the state level thank you thank you Mr Swanson thank you and I too want to just Echo the words that Miss Edmonds had said and I also want to thank you and your your staff and superintendent Moore for moving on this so we can you know find ways to recruit and retain additional teachers uh to the district um but we know that this is this first step of many steps and I hope that the legislator will adhere to their constitutional duties and ensure that you know that they are fully uh funding our schools and then paying our teachers the wages that they deserve not only our teachers those uh all staff of our district and so thank you all again and I hope that this session we

177can see some Masters pay restore so we can use these dollars to address uh other uh positions that may not be eligible under this current uh bonus so I look forward to supporting this and I again am excited for this and thank you again thank you Mr Swanson yes um I I agree I'm very excited that we were able to be responsive to the needs of our staff that have been you know coming to our meetings so many times to uh Express their concerns uh so I you know I I also wholeheartedly uh support this now I do want to make sure you know we we all kind of keep in mind that this this is coming out of uh money that we happen to have um and so we still it's the challenge now

178is to kind of look at how how to move forward we're continuing to fund this uh you know I I just I I don't I don't want to make this into a a grand gesture without without the the the uh uh continued support in the future that's all yeah thank you drank so just as a point of clarification these are recurring funds and they are available Beyond this school year so um this is a commitment that will recur that will be built into the budget by sure hegarty and again just to you know keep the parade marching we really appreciate this is something I know a lot of us have talked about around this table but this board and then the previous board and the fact that you could prioritize this and make this happen

179now even before we go into the superintendent's proposed budget is is really remarkable um I know it's not easy but like like Dr Ing said this is something we have to make a commitment to it's not a one-time thing we have to stand by this and make sure this is a priority we've heard all the stories we all know the wonderful work all of our staff do I've heard stories after stories from teachers who've pursued their master's degrees that missed the cut off you know that they're here because of the love of teaching even though they know they could take their Advanced degree and be better compensated in other professions and I really believe or I'm really hopeful that this will be something that will help show some appreciation keep those teachers retained and on

180staff and again just anything that we can do for our social workers um I know we stand up we sit up here in public comment and there's so many things that we think and we don't get to respond directly but we'll just take this opportunity I think everyone here to express our appreciation for everything they do for all of our kids and all of our families you have to be just a very special special soul to go in and do that work and play such an important part in kids lives every day and I you know I wish we could do more but I'm glad we're doing this and so just a heartfelt thank you thank you Vice chair Hagerty yes so I think I'll be the Caboose on that that parade um but I

181just want to say thank you I wish there all the people that have were able to come up and sit in those chairs and a public comment and everything would be here at this moment to actually see us come to a photo on this and see us move in the right direction um and I just hope it kind of leads to you know just a lot of positive movement going forward and I'm glad that we were able to use this money and put it where I know people would be very happy about it so thank you for bringing that to us yeah thank you Ms Caufield and on behalf of the employees you cannot be here thank you for your support on their behalf got a resounding number of head nods in support of leaving

182this on our legislative agenda and we heard from board members tonight that this is the responsibility of the state and we would love to see them do that Dr mutilo can you tell us what's going on on March 25th and April 15th sure so on March 25th is our high needs job fair and then on April 15th is our big District job fair so anybody who was listening and would like to attend those job fairs you can still register so sign up all right and that's at wcpss.net careers is there any other comments questions okay seeing none all those in favor um please say aye any opposed nay heard of resounding eye many yes certainly more work to do but we're going to celebrate each and every Victory as we get through um and going

183back to my agenda all right um thank you Dr mutilo thank you all um we do have something that um we wanted to pull off of consent to give a little more information on um thank you Dr Ing for joining us this week this past week and that is our read to achieve Camp teacher signing bonuses and we have Mr Drew cook and Miss Sarita Smith who's our senior director of elementary school programs with us good evening chair Mahaffey superintendent Moore and board members continuing what I think is the positive Focus tonight on staff compensation and bonus pay we are requesting board approval of the 2023 read to achieve signing Camp bonus uh in the amount of twelve hundred dollars which each Lea is required to provide for teachers that meet specified criteria and I

184think Dr McMillan referenced a little bit earlier to read to achieve camp we shared a little bit last week if you may recall in the student achievement committee meeting and here this evening is Sarita Smith senior director for Elementary programs who will give a little bit more context and information about that criteria for this bonus thank you so good evening chairman half and he superintendent Moore and members of the board just to give you a little a small overview of read to achieve as part of the excellent Public Schools act all leas are required to offer free Camp to students in grades two and three who demonstrate difficulty with reading proficiency m-class is the screener used to identify these students the reading Camp must be held outside of the instructional calendar and offer at least

18572 hours of reading instruction a licensed teacher who has demonstrated outcomes in Reading proficiency or an improving difficulties a licensed teacher who has had demonstrated outcomes in Reading proficiency should be recruited to teach the camp so with the sign and bonus the legislation requires us to offer it of at least twelve hundred dollars for any teacher who has proven student outcomes with reading proficiency to qualify for this signing bonus teachers must have high growth in Reading Based on evos data that afforded them a reading performance bonus administered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction the North Carolina Department of Public instructions read and performance bonus is awarded to the top 25 percent of teachers in the state or in the Lea that have the highest student growth as indicated by evos if these teachers

186apply and accept employment to provide instruction during reading cap they are they should receive at least twelve hundred dollars in signing bonus at this time we'll take any questions you may have is there a motion to approve the read to achieve Camp teacher signing bonus second all right thank you very much are there any questions yes sir just two quick ones uh one for Mr Hershey's dictionary do folks around the table know what evos is yeah okay just making sure and then second the payment of of the bonus is that something that's upon completion of the camp or does it go into the regular salary how does that work um you know it is a signing bonus that they get before they actually start working in the camp okay all right thank you all right

187thank you for being here to bring attention to this we certainly appreciate it any further questions right seeing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right the motion passes thank you both thank you Mr Hershey I didn't realize you were the one keeping the dictionary for everybody oh okay is there a motion to go into closed session chair Mahaffey at this time I move that we go into closed session to consider confidential personal information protecting under North Carolina General statute 143-3 1811 A1 and A3 and mass chick versus Wake County Public School System I see file number 19-015296 further to consult with the Board of Education attorney and preserve the attorney client privileges provided for under General statute 143-3-1811 A3 due to current litigation wcpss versus Jewel Labs Incorporated at

188all three 21 cv079979 U.S District Court of Northern District of California also es together with her parent LS versus Wake County Board of Education 21 eastern district court 5429 MDM by and through SD versus Wake County Board of Education 23 eastern district 00801 AG buy and through LG and EG versus Don't Wake County Board of Education Office of administrative hearings case number 23 EDC 00778 and finally LM versus wcpss office of administrative hearings case number edc-04279 is there a second second thank you all those in favor and entering closed session for the reason stated by Vice chair Hagerty please say aye any opposed nay we are now in closed session thank you foreign