001good evening everyone it is Tuesday November 1st 2022. at 5 44 pm and we are calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I would like to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those that are here in person to observe as the Board of Education conducts its official business I want to take a moment to highlight board policy 2310 which states Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect
002for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General statute 143-318.17. we do have a quorum with all nine board members present as well as superintendent Moore and our attorney Mr blumberg I would ask that you join me all in saying the Pledge of Allegiance please rise [Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right thank you we now move on to the information portion of our meeting which begins with superintendent comments superintendent Moore good afternoon chairman happy board members three of our school counselors were honored for outstanding service last week first Kirsten Taylor a school counselor at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary and the current Wake County Public School System school
003counselor of the year was named the North Carolina school counselor of the year she was recognized by the North Carolina school counselor Association for her contributions to developing and implementing comprehensive School counseling programs she has made an impact at Lincoln Heights by coordinating the grow ambassador program the rotary readers and the kindness Club she also secured a grant to provide calm down kits for all classrooms Ms Taylor was surprised this week with the news at Lincoln Heights surrounded by friends family and School staff as well as the president and president-elect of the North Carolina school counselor Association she will be recognized later this week at the association's annual conference at the same conference the school counselors at Willow Springs Elementary Luanne hedick and Lauren Garrett will accept the North Carolina School counseling Diamond award on
004behalf of their school the diamond award is given to schools that align with the criteria set forth in the American school counselor association's National model as well as the North Carolina professional school counselor standards Willow Springs is now eligible to receive designation as a recognized ask a model program or ramp school which is the highest National Honor a School counseling program can receive the work of school counselors has never been more important so it is heartening to see the hard work and dedication of these professionals be recognized congratulations to all there are also two causes for celebration for our school psychologists first congratulations to Erica Nivens a school psychologist at Lead Mine Elementary and Wakefield Middle who was named the North Carolina School psychology association's practitioner of the Year miss Nivens was honored for her
005advocacy for students and families both in schools and within the community she has been a school psychologist for 18 years and is a member of the school Improvement team and intervention team at both of our schools she serves as the case manager for students with behavioral intervention needs and moved by a student's experience she began training to become a guardian Adel item to advocate for children in the foster care system next week we'll offer an excellent opportunity to show appreciation for all of our school psychologists during National School psychology week our school psychology department is home to 104 full-time School psychologists 13 preschool psychologists a part-time psychologist and two full-time interns I'm grateful for the many ways our school psychologists support the behavioral health and academic needs of students I encourage you to honor them
006next week and to share celebrations on social media with the hashtag wcpss School psych week Vernon Malone College and Career Academy last week received a 25 000 go set go Grant from Hendrick Automotive Group this initiative is focused on financially supporting stem-oriented educational programs throughout the U.S Verna Malone will use the funds to support a project-based learning opportunity in which students will build a race car as a part of the award presentation students toured the Hendricks Center for Automotive Excellence and learned about wake Tech's automotive technology and collision repair programs they also participated in a q a session with Hendrick race car driver and defending Nascar Cup Series champion Kyle Larson the race car project will be an excellent opportunity for Verna Malone and College and Career Academy students to home their 4C skills and
007gain Hands-On work experience I look forward to seeing their finished product don't know if I'll take it for a spin though finally this evening I have recently had the privilege along with many of you to attend the ribbon cutting events for two new schools and one renovated School we celebrated the opening of Apex friendship Elementary and the Wake Early College of information and biotechnologies as well as the fully renovated Fuller Magna Elementary campus my thanks to the Wake Tech Community College folks for their partnership on the Wake Early College of information and biotechnologies which is located on the new RTP Wake Tech campus in Morrisville I'm also grateful of course to the Wake County Commissioners and the Wake County Bond voters whose generous support made the construction of Apex friendship and the renovation of Fuller
008possible now take a look for a few moments to the ribbon cutting ceremony at Apex friendship Elementary of a video Friendship Community has a long history of being a welcoming community that creates opportunities and Bright Futures and now Apex friendship Elementary will continue that mission each of our new schools incorporates the latest in sustainable learning environments to make extensive use of natural light and create collaborative spaces and enhance learning new facilities also provide a place for Community for students staff and families to make connections that will last far beyond the time that the children are actually in the building our current motto is from here anything is possible and when you have that mindset of setting your goals trying your best and asking questions you will be a star I mean you all came together
009and now you are a class you are a chorus you are working together and that is powerful I also want to say a special thank you to the teachers parents and the Apex Friendship Community who have worked tirelessly to support students during this transition to building all the times we look at just the end result we don't look at where Thief begin and when I look around and I see these wonderful kids these shooting stars and what they will become and what they will accomplish I'm just amazed that concludes my comments thank you superintendent Moore um I had the opportunity to meet with some high school students at Green Hope High School and they very nicely accommodated me virtually as I was a little under the weather to talk to them about their Civics project
010that they are doing as well as some questions that they had about school start times and so it was interesting to hear their feedback even though they are seniors providing that feedback as we're going through this process and hearing from folks um we had our board advisory council meeting as well where our chief facilities officer Mark Strickland came he spoke about the four departments that he oversees as well as their successes and challenges um being Transportation CNS maintenance and operation and facilities and design and construction and for my fellow board members I highly recommend having Mr Strickland come if you have a future BAC and that's all I have by sure Hagerty thank you chair Mahaffey a few things I'd like to mention I did have the honor last week of participating in Chief Justice
011Paul Newby's task force on Ace's informed courts and this is an ongoing effort where the leaders of our Judiciary are looking at Juvenile Justice at ways that you know students do through their earliest adverse experiences get put into a situation where recovery is difficult where they're put into a position where they might end up going through the correctional system through the criminal justice system and what we can do early on in the intervention process to identify and provide services for those for those students there were a lot of great ideas exchanged some of the things that we looked at in terms of what's going on in schools right now we talked about our support staff and the ratios that we have versus the ratios that are recommended Nationwide for our school counselors for our school
012psychologists nurses social workers and others we looked at just the ability to put more adults in the room if we have more instructional assistance if we have just more individuals especially at that K5 level who can give the individual attention that some of the students really crave and need and where we do have vacancies and we have teachers come covering other shifts you don't have that time that individual attention to watch and check in with every student in the room and how you know how so very important that is and the Chief Justice himself had a lot of interest in screening and the screening processes and how we can really Identify some of these problems very early so it was very encouraging I appreciate and we also talked about the school Justice Partnerships and better
013ways for collaboration you know in our local communities so I appreciate the opportunity to meet and collaborate with our judicial officials and I'm really encouraged that they're really want to work together with us to try to see what we can do to improve situations and have the best outcomes for our students I also I'll congratulate our Runners we had our cross country regionals this week we'll have a number of Wake County schools that will be going on to States Athens Drive Broughton and Sanderson all have boys that will be running and representing the state and that was great to see there was I was a little confused about some of the women's results but I'll take that offline um and I did want to mention it is election season as I think we've been reminded
014a few times around the table um but I want to emphasize the good because while I want to acknowledge the issues that do divide us and there are there you know we have divided opinion in the community about a lot of issues I think this is a good time that also to remind us of what unites us and as I've been out at the polls and talking with people of other candidates other political parties other voters there's been a lot of great opportunities for feedback and discussion and and really trying to find some common Solutions we had a great conversation today in relation to our Boolean policy and we talked about those unseen socially withdrawn students and talking to people in the in in the mental health profession about their observations and what we do
015and what can be improved there was a great suggestion that was talking about you know looking at our pay for Mentor teachers and the role that these teachers play in helping facilitate you know better culture and better teamwork and better instruction within the building and that's a real leadership position and how we treat that and these weren't partisan ideas these were these were ideas that were offered just by regular everyday voters people in the classroom people parents with kids in the schools and it was just great to see us come together and and talk about real ways to make everything better so I'll remind everybody to do their civic duty and with that I will yield the floor back to chair Mahaffey Q Miss cash um thank you I do appreciate the the bipartisan approach
016that we have for things that are bothering our students in our schools and we did get a good conversation today on bullying and I think the board will continue to move forward with addressing that and um I do think that victims need to be protected I think those that are the perpetrators for bullying need to have consequences for that because kids are hurting Words Words are Weapons and they are they are rough and when they come into hospitals and and Air in Urgent Cares and things like that with hurt feelings it gets into many areas but I also just feel like this board is trying to do a lot and I know we need more bodies in our school to look at our kids and keep them well as well as educating them but keeping
017them well and so I was encouraged by our discussion today at the board table and um I want to continue to help to do whatever we can to help these kids I I also want to be sure that we talked a little bit about cyber bullying and um that's a hard one for schools because sometimes that's happening so much of it is happening off campus but I just want to remind parents that the social media is not a great place to be for our kids and that being responsible parents and watching what their children are doing with social media everybody has a phone and that has an awful lot of channels for kids to do to each other with their words but we do not think is best for them so please as parents help
018us in our schools to keep our children well um did spend some time at Millbrook High School over the weekend with some different uh Tennis Championships that were going on I'm going to give a full report on that later I'm not sure there was so many results there's so much going on our schools are so good at um at Sports and extracurricular activities and you can't keep up with all the things that we keep winning I mean Wake County Public Schools we are we just keep winning so many cool events so I want to talk further about that and however I do want to end with um a tragic story that we have one of our young students a junior at Millbrook High School lost his life tragically last night and Xavion Lawton has lost
019his life and I don't have a secure understanding of all the details I wanted into it so I will won't go into that but um I would like everyone here and those in the public to join me for a moment of silence thank you um keep your kids close to you we never know I believe another student may be in critical condition and again I just want to be sure that um my prayers and all of us our prayers go out to their impacted families their friends the community young men losing their lives at these young ages is senseless and I hope we can continue to work to lose no more thank you cash Miss Johnson hosler thank you Miss cashion thank you to the Millbrook School Community who like many of us our schools
020took that took took all of that into consideration today when they started their day for their students so again thank you to Dr Saunders and all of our administrators who recognize the importance of noting what's happening in your school Community to your school Community it does matter to give name and face to such tragic incidents so thank you Miss cash for acknowledging that um superintendent Moore cover great things that are happening in District Two so I won't belabor them but hats off to miss Traylor um at Lincoln Heights and to Willow Spring both elementary schools for receiving their ramp and I still have been sharing with other schools I work with some of the amazing things they've done I think you all heard me my first one is they built under their desk a safe
021space for students to take a moment and they have wallpaper and LED lights and all kinds of great things so every time all those of us who've been fortunate enough to go to our schools as they're applying for ramp for their school Counseling Services which is the highest awarded superintendent more so I always find Innovative so that's my favorite Innovative for this year thus far congratulations to East Garner Elementary School two of our schools were chosen thank you again to our forever great Community partner week at partnership Office Depot gave them nearly ten thousand dollars in digital coupons it is a beautiful thing to surprise somebody especially a administrator especially ones like me who's like why are people coming to my door so when we walked up you could see the principal like at like
022trying to figure out why there were balloons in her parking lot so it was a great day and I also got to speak to a fourth grade class which guessed what they were on they were on government so we got to talk about elections and my favorite is a young student followed me down the hall he was like you didn't give us your address but I was like you can look it up because I wanted to all know that if they could vote for me if they were old enough to vote so we talked about districts and where you live in proximity but we soon realized as he continued to talk to me that he was like no I'm going to come visit you I'm not old enough to vote yet and I was like
023I appreciate that you have my full name and you probably live very close to me so but but they asked great questions so again always pleased with our with our young people and got to see I was with Dr Oberman the area of superintendent so the teacher her son has interned with me before so I actually went up there to see all the great work that he's done of helping students become aware of historically black colleges and universities and so they really are paying attention both I saw this at East Garner and Smith Elementary of making the connection of K-12 progression and college and past High School opportunities and so that wasn't a conversation we had when I was in elementary so to see two elementary schools intentionally making the connection for post High School
024to our youngest of our students speaks to the work that our schools are the great things that are happening in our school buildings so somebody's going to enjoy spending this money at eastgarter elementary school so you all know that for the first time which I will I love this side to write it down so I don't forget Miss Mahaffey may also be familiar so Fuquay technically has two schools but Willow Springs height Willow Spring High School is in Willow Spring but um so they have dubbed their Community tagline as two schools one town one heart so Friday night which I was not able to attend because as you all know my daughter is a high school cheerleader but for the first time Fuquay Varina and Willow Spring High School played each other and now Fuqua
025did win this is Willow Springs first year of having a varsity team but they made it a huge Community engagement so they had the whole works Dr Martin prepared me at Wade Martin told me all about how they were going to have food trucks and vendors but the thing that they did is what two schools one town one heart is they did a food drive for the Fuqua emergency food pantry and Willow Springs may not have taken home the L the W for the game they did take home the W for the food items collected so Willow Spring collected over 1200 and Fuquay 570 food items for a total of over 1900 food items and they had Partners like Dairy Queen also donate Financial contribution so again I think it's important to it was called
026The Blessing Bowl which I also adore so indeed a great example of rivalry also means partnership and so hats off to our leaders at both Fuquay high school and Willow Spring High School for the way that they've brought that full circle to their community and to their students which I also think is important that those students realize that so the last thing I'll say for those of you who have high school seniors we have just a few hours before College due date officially ends at 11 59 PM I've received a thousand emails that today College due date ends at 11 59 PM so for those of you who still have a few things to do common app awaits you thank you thank you Miss Johnson hosler Miss Carter I thank you and I guess I
027feel like I've had since our last board meeting a real celebration of the Arts and I'll just so bear with me because lots of things happening in our schools I try my best to attend what I can I know I've missed some things but I want to highlight some of the awesome things that are going on first I was at Cary High School for their fall concert choral concert and all the different ensembles did a great job and the I wanted to point out there was also student Evan and I know you know who you are but he is in all the um performances not only singing But acting and he also just added something else he played the piano for one of their pieces and I was just like just blown away and all
028of those students just do such a fabulous job and they actually have a student teacher Mrs Goodman and the director Mr yasick I just wanted to give a shout out to all those students and green hope will not be under a done They did their fall Coral concert as well and they named theirs turning over a new leaf and it was a very moving and Powerful evening of different songs it I'll leave it there but those who went or might have watched it it was just fantastic shout out to their director Mr bobwick and pianist Mrs Meyers and then I headed over to West Cary Middle School they had their fall orchestra concert and they have a new director this year and he did a fabulous job and the musicians did as well and Mr
029Miller their art teacher always or at least past couple years has set up an art gallery kind of for us to go and see after which is very nice highlighting the great artwork the students are doing there and I appreciate him taking the time to do that and then we had Apex High School headed over there for a Walk Two Moons and their casts crew and production staff just did amazing I love the fall ones because a lot of them not all of them but a lot of them are on the stage you sit on the stage right with the students performing right there and it's just we just have so much talent I could go on and on um and then not to be again back to Green Hope um they had their uh
030performance and I was there for their final one and they also recognized all their seniors which was a special touch but um even though it was our last one they were right on point and did amazing and um the comedy level was just it was great and then I carry High I attended their football game but was right back at it Saturday for the Carrie band day and I learned my lesson from last year bring a towel because it and for some reason the bleachers it did rain a little bit Friday night but last year we don't know where it came from but we had to have towels so I had mine this year I was I was I was on point with that but uh just so they always open with the national anthem
031it's just awesome because they have Reedy Creek Middle East Cary and West Cary Middle students the bands all three of them combined and they perform it all together and it's just a great way to show Unity across our district and it was fabulous I then left for a little while came back and was able to see wow of course Green Hope Carrie high and Panther Creek Green level Apex friendship Enloe Cleveland High that was actually my mom's high school and they were wow yes and Morrisville high and then the command commandants on I hope I assume that right it's the United States Marine drum and bugle Corps and they were fantastic as well and just seeing out there because it wasn't just playing the instruments there were students dancing of course but singing acting it
032was really just um fabulous and congrats to Carrie high and all the many many many volunteers it took to pull that day off it was not an easy feat by any means and just thank you and I just want to in general say thank you to all of our folks who are out there supporting our students and their art programs their athletic programs for because it takes so much more than just um than our staff because it was our staff needs support and thank you to our staff who often are left caring a lot more at some schools because there's not a heavy volunteer base but I really appreciate all you guys do and also those who are willing to donate monetarily or with Goods or doing work that's needed so that these students can
033have these opportunities that are so important across our district and impact the lives of so many not only the students but our staff our community and it's just so important and speaking of that it's the winter sports are getting kicked off so if you're interested you have a desire they they need referees umpires officials because again you know without those things in place the sports can happen either so I appreciate everyone's willingness to step up and I too went to Green Hope like chair Mahaffey I was there actually with representative Gail Adcock and had a great group of students and I appreciate Miss Mackey for the invitation I'm answering a lot of questions related to their class campaign project and really a lot it was interesting some of the information that they did ask and
034kind of taken back a little bit about their understanding of the the need to work together and the need to be able to have disagreements um but not hate and I think that is um I it's very powerful and I think the students realize it but they also realize the struggle with that but that it is something that is very important we can disagree all day long but it doesn't mean um certain language needs to be used and it doesn't mean that we cannot still get along and I so I just appreciate all the great questions in the dialogue with the students we even had one stay after the dismissible so that says a lot right there because you know it's time to go and just sitting there continuing to ask but really appreciate that
035opportunity and I want to thank Mrs poem and Mr carosa for attending the back meeting that I had and it was about the draft two of the enrollment plan they did a presentation answer questions and even stayed after to answer more questions and to speak to some members of the public still there so I thank everyone and hopefully I didn't go too long thank you thank you Miss Waters thank you chair Mahaffey I'd like to start by announcing that the next board advisory council meeting for District 4 will be held on Thursday November 3rd this week at 6 30 pm at River Oaks Middle School and the topic will be Crisis Prevention preparedness response recovery and it will be presented by student support services and Human Resources so I hope we will have some of
036you all attend this is a very timely topic and looking forward to getting together once again with our BAC and very thankful to our BAC chair Tamara oyejide who has done an excellent job with coordinating and getting everything prepared for this upcoming meeting I'd like to also just celebrate a lot of wonderful things that are going on throughout the district and congratulate River Bend Elementary School for receiving the Excellence in education award from the Raleigh mayor's committee for persons with disabilities principal Gary major accepted on behalf of the school for their outstanding work in special education services and so very proud of that school unity and all the great work that they are doing I also want to thank wake up and read for the opportunity to participate in their parent leader Network and just
037when I thought I knew what all that wake up and read was doing I learned something more and I appreciate all their intentionality about helping parents to be leaders and to be good advocates for their Young Learners and superintendent Moore also already talked about the very exciting ribbon cutting at Fuller Elementary I was so excited to be a part of that event it was wonderful on so many different levels I think the kindergarten chorus stole the show and delighted all of us with their with their sweethearts and it was also humbling to see the school's very first principal Mr Alfred Perry and members of the first school class there to celebrate and to see the journey from where the school started and to see how engaged so many who have had so many impacts and
038touches with Fuller who are still a part of that community and I just love the way that they are all just so um excited about the school Community the new building it's beautiful and the legacy of Excellence continues into this new building so very excited for that school community and Wilburn Elementary School was kind enough to allow me to come over to read with their Partners read with the first graders last Friday so talk about cuteness overload and um just really appreciated the opportunity to read with our Young Learners and they were so excited about the new books that they received through wake head partnership and I'm very excited that Miss cash will be joining me this Friday so we can share the cuteness together and continue to encourage reading among our Young Learners and
039family school partnership is a really exciting monthly event for preschool families who have a chance to go out with their school preschool classes and this occurred for our preschool well across the district on last Friday so I had a chance to go out to Phillips farm with my son's class he's a student at Brentwood Elementary School and so wonderful time there but what was also exciting that there were a number of other school communities there as well so I got to see some Austin Ridge alligators on a field trip there and also appreciated seeing Scott's Ridge and I chatted with a kindergarten teacher from Scott's Ridge Mr frechette I'm very exciting to see all these young students out on the pumpkin farm and on the cow tractor and so I really appreciate the preschool services
040for allowing us to be able to engage with our families in that environment and probably the Highlight for my weekend was going to the magnet school fair and it was just amazing Enloe hosted it on Saturday morning and let me tell you when I got to the parking lot I said wow where am I going to park and so I was parking illegally and I got busted by someone just trying to get into the to the building because it was just so um so full there and just so excited to see so many people come and so I did I did find a a good parking space but wanted to get in there because I had my own two children there I have a preschool student which I mentioned who is in a magnet school
041program and so it was great for him to see his school Community go up to the booth and Brentwood had blocks and so he was able to engage there and also to have my middle schooler who was able to engage with one of his former administrators from years ago so they were able to connect but when you go to the magnet school fair you will be completely overwhelmed by the number of choices that are there I was really excited to see so many different representations of different programs that our families can take advantage of from Powell to Ligon I wish I had brought all the stuff here there was so much excitement and just really gives me so much joy to know that our families can all find a place where their students can fit
042in and nurture their skills and their giftings and I enjoyed um chatting with Millbrook Elementary and learning about their environmental program and so I learned about several new magnet themes that I was not aware of and so I will have a kindergartner in a couple of years and I have no idea where I will send this child because there are so many amazing choices so if in the future you ever have a chance to go to the Magna School fair I highly recommend it and I'm super grateful to be a part of this District have my children in this District having graduated from this District amazing things that are going on across and thank you for the opportunity to share thank you Miss Waters Miss Scott thank you and thank you to my colleagues for
043sharing all of the amazing things that are happening um in the county I feel like I've reached that time in my life where my kids are so busy that I'm missing out on all of the the other things so thank you for highlighting all of those great things I wanted to start out by congratulating all of the students who auditioned for the All County Middle School band for those of you who don't know all County band is something that is is unique to the Wake County Public School System and that we're a large comprehensive District we're able to uh offer this to our students so it's an audition process students prepare scales prepare a piece they audition in a a very intense it is on okay um they audition in a very intense setting uh
044then they they select two bands and these are it's just outstanding and also the all of the middle school band teachers who organize this we have a lot of new teachers so they this is something that hadn't taken place during covet and then it's like hey we're doing this and uh so congratulations to them and to all the students for for even auditioning um and looking forward to uh to hearing to hearing that concert which will be at Ligon Middle School um in November 17th I can't remember the day um wanted to give a shout out to the Eastern wake business Alliance that is a joint effort from Zebulon middle school and East Wake High School where they're um they many of our schools have business alliances and this is something that the schools have
045been trying to get going and and I think every business who is located in Eastern wake should absolutely join this Alliance to support our schools and I want to thank those teachers who who keep putting out this information over and over again to support their students because there's a lot of great opportunity I think this is something that as the Wake Tech East expands so will this Alliance and I look forward to the opportunities for our students um Wake Forest Elementary School I know we have magnet um here this evening to celebrate but oh my gosh they're already just totally embracing their new magnet theme um the the town uh is is also doing their best to highlight and amplify the great things that are happening there so huge congratulations to them and of course
046all of the district one athletic teams from soccer to football to I mean to everything that that are about to um be part of the football playoffs start very soon so really quick I know we have we have a lot of people here and I thank you for your patience as colleagues share what they've been seeing and share the good news and and challenges um that that are happening throughout the county but I did want to acknowledge um the the hurt that is happening in eastern wake particularly the students and families of and the employees of Eastwick High School um there have been there there is a consistent negative vibe that is hanging over the school right now and when I go in there and I was in there last Wednesday it's it's unfair because
047it's really not deserved we have the most dedicated Educators in the in that building um we have dedicated Administration it's just an impossible game of ketchup within the school right now to not not the condiment but of catching up with all of the needs and addressing everything and once you start to gain a positive trajectory something else happens the national recommendation for counselors per student or students per counselor is 250 and East Wake because of decisions made by their leadership was able to get their number down but it's still 335 students per counselor that's that's a lot that's too much and when I say through leadership of the school they were able to be creative with months of employment those months of employment are not given by the state they had to be creative and
048what they asked and how they um they they made their own budget at their school and the last thing I'm going to say is to the community you know some of this responsibility if not a lot of it is on us Facebook groups are great for finding lost pets and selling your old jogging stroller but they're not great to solely exist as a complaint Forum because it just breathes and breeds this toxic message and of course you're concerned about your own child and the experience that they're having in that school and how when these types of things occur it takes away from from the education that your child deserves and and the state says they should have but the community has got to Rally around the school acknowledge the hurt acknowledge the trauma and find
049your own part it is not going to happen from complaining on a Facebook group it is not going to happen by by saying every negative thing so and so didn't get this class or every negative thing It Is by lifting up the school what can I do to change this what can I do to change the way people are saying what can I do to highlight a good thing and we have to to look at that when we had our policy as it was mentioned the bipartisan nature of this quarter we had our policy committee meeting last week the nine board members for a long time we I don't agree with this I don't agree with that I okay this is what we're doing but we were sitting in front of each other we were
050looking face to face when you pick up your phone and you're typing something on Facebook or you're sending out a mean tweet you're not looking someone in the eye you're not looking your child in the eye you're not looking your neighbor and we have to come together I know that my tenure on this board is coming to a close very soon but I'm optimistic about the support that the community Town leaders are showing and some very involved parents and I hope to be a part of those discussions moving forward in my capacity back to community advocate but we have to make those changes and so I beg you beg you beg you care that deeply but change those statements into proactive change that is tangible and so needed and deserved by our community thank you
051thank you Dr Martin thank you I'd like to highlight a couple of community change organizations that got to participate in activities last week um not I guess two weeks ago Communities In Schools had a reception and it was an outstanding reception communities and schools for those who don't know is a non-profit who does a lot of work at mentoring and counseling and providing educational opportunities for people who otherwise wouldn't have had them one of the very first Community organizations that I was introduced to more than a decade ago when I got on the board uh amazing organization they brought back an alumnus of that organization and boy was she energetic but what you see that changed their lives and trajectories of people most people cared people willing to spend time uh and and Mentor build
052relationships and community in schools does that phenomenally uh and I gotta say I was absolutely amazed because the current local president of communities and schools is a graduate of communities and schools there are a few organizations that will do that she was right to highlight that that this was an organization who now is put into leadership the very people that they reached out to help many many years ago phenomenal organization doing great work thanks for that great event uh the other great event was wake head partnership put on the annual stars of education and many of us were able to attend highlighting the many people in the community who contribute back to the Wake County Public School System making it exceptional I had the privilege of sitting at the table a table sponsored by the
053Boys and Girls Girls Club of Raleigh and had great discussions with folks and I want to highlight that them particularly because in relation to some of our discussion at work session thinking about the summer programs they were asking me how is it that we can partner better because transportation from our schools to our boys and school boys and girls club facilities is a barrier to making that activity available to more children so you know they're struggling with it we're struggling with it we've got to come together great Community organization um and we need to look at ways that we can facilitate that um but we also need more bus drivers so Transportation uh just those Logistics oftentimes get in the way of really important work and we need to continue to work at that but
054anyway thanks wake Ed partnership for what you do thanks Boys and Girls Club if for what you do amazing activity finally I again want to as I've done for a while highlight the latest covet statistics in our schools two weeks ago that we were down to 67 cases which is a good lower number um and but then went up again last week to 90 cases so we hit a bottom and uh if we're following it looks like we're almost mirroring Trends from a year ago we've hit that bottom we're going to start to see a little blip before we get the big winter blip it wasn't actually a blip it was a major spike at last winter so everybody please be careful the trend is starting to go in the wrong direction students have gone
055up to now half of what they were a year ago three weeks ago the students were at a third of what we were a year ago so student cases are going up staff cases are still about two times what they were one year ago so please everybody be careful we need to keep this under control it's not just covet it's flu RSV many other diseases the way to keep them all under control is pretty much the same good hygiene good distance good practice and masks in densely populated areas are never going to hurt thank you last but certainly not least Miss Kushner thank you and there is a lot going on we're only two months into traditional calendar school and there's just as you see a lot going on a lot of stresses as well
056as celebration so I'll start with celebrations it was great to be at Carol with Miss Waters and and thanks to Office Depot and wicked partnership for supporting Carol and East Garner Elementary with um generous donations for their staff and Educators I also enjoyed Carrie Dan day I probably wasn't there as long as Miss Carter but it was able to enjoy millbrook's outstanding Jazz performance as well as Willow Spring Middle Creek and of course Kerry and congratulations to Panther Creek Millbrook and Middle Creek for winning Champion awards at Kerry bande it was a really fun time and again as Miss Carter underscored many many thanks to parents and families that support our students and and band staff because it was in a Monumental undertaking and it was fun to be at Broughton to on honored Jack
057Spain and with the naming of the stadium for Jack Spain stadium at Broughton he's so well deserved I usually am very cynical about naming things for for people but this one fit this one really fit he was um gracious and um and it was great to celebrate with him as well as to be at Fuller and to our celebration of Wake Early College so there's so many wonderful things going on but there also is a lot of need Miss Scott thank you for for your comments but also I want to encourage our community to to continue to sign up to support our schools I got my final assignment for weeks together I'm excited to start did my training so I'll be um I'm heading out there later this month and so I would just encourage
058you if you get those emails from Wake together please follow through and and make sure that our students get the support they deserve and the most important thing you can do for our students and Educators is vote on November 8th there are a lot of Clear Choices and it's a free day for um you know no school for staff or students so please make sure your voice is heard please make sure it's very easy to be cynical about politics right now it's gotten so divisive and toxic on many levels but it also is hopeful on many levels so I hope each and every one of you who is eligible to vote will vote if you haven't registered you can still register at early voting through Saturday November 5th so please make the time so all
059voices can be heard in our community I'll now entertain a motion for the approval of our meeting agenda chair Mahaffey I move approval of the agenda we have a motion and a second for Miss Kushner on any discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay correct that passes moving on to our information item the first one coming out of the chief of schools department and that is our magnet schools of choice celebrating their 40th anniversary pretended more is there anything you want to say go camp is that who's it who's who's coming up to the podium all right Tasha good evening I am Tasha Haynes and tamani Anderson Powell's going to join me and we are here in place of Dr Lane who is home ill right now creatine's chair McAfee superintendent
060Moore and members of the Board of Education we are here today to announce our 40th anniversary of magnet programs in the Wake County Public School System so we are here with our team they're wearing bright green t-shirts so everybody's stand up laughs and we have a student from Enloe Magnet High School who's going to speak in a minute Heidi dittus who's also here with us tonight over the last 40 years our schools of choice program has grown to include 56 magnet and early college schools with the most recent additions at Wake Forest and Wildwood Forest Magnet Elementary of over four decades the work and wakes magnet schools has become a catalyst for change as well as a national model of best practices in terms of school integration Innovation choice and academic attainment in honor of
061our 40-year celebration the magnet and curriculum enhancement program staff will be celebrating the voices of our students beginning tonight with Heidi dittus and continue on with sharing 40 stories over the school year but before we get to Heidi I'm inviting tamani up to share some of the historical moments that have led us here tonight to this celebratory moment thank you good evening so I want to share with you quickly a little bit of History magnets actually began before 1982 they began in 1978 our first two magnet schools were Hunter Magnet Elementary which is still a magnet school today offering the GT program and Phillips you may not know that Phillips was one of our first magnet schools the introduction of magnet programs in our community occurred after the 1975 merger of the Raleigh City school
062system and the Wake County Public School System the goal of magnets was and still is to feel under enrolled schools and to promote School integration so in 1982 which is our official birth year the Board of Education adopted the schools of choice plan this plan significantly expanded the magnet programs from 2 to 28 schools and those 28 schools hosted some of the same things we have today gifted and talented and International Studies but they also included classical studies and extended day during the 1986-87 school year the first director of magnet programs position was established and Peggy churn was named to fill that position Ms churn was also honored recently posthumously was inducted into the wake at partnership stars of Education that was in October in 1986 we also received the First Federal magnet schools assistance
063program Grant to revitalize existing magnet schools so we've been at this grant thing for a long time too in 2006 seven 2006 2007 school year we opened our first Early College the Wake Early College of health and science which is partners with Wake Tech and WakeMed and is located on Wake Tech's campus at WakeMed Hospital and in the spring of 2022 our own superintendent Moore was named superintendent of the Year by our parent organization magnet schools of America and on October 1st 2022 we received our most recent magnet schools assistance program Grant this is the 11th MC Grant since 1986 bringing a grand total of 88 million dollars to our magnet school since 1986. impressive [Applause] so to commemorate our 40th anniversary of schools of choice here in Wake County over the course of this
064year we will share 40 stories about our magnet programs stories told by our students Families Our magnet coordinators principals teachers staff and District leaders stories that lay bear why magnet programs and weight continue to impact the lives of so many so at this time I would like to invite Heidi dittus who is a senior and may have a college application she's working on so we won't keep her and she attended Hunter Ligon and Enloe so Heidi please come up so one of the questions we wanted to ask Heidi first is why did she and her family choose a Wake County magnet school I was a very inquisitive kid from a young age I was an Avid Reader I loved Math and Science but I was also very creative I played piano I love to draw
065and paint and my parents wanted to choose a school that both academically challenged me while still allowing me to explore my creative interests so they had heard great things about Hunter and they decided to enter the lottery and I ended up switching it down during my third grade year all right and then we've asked Heidi to share with us three things that have been a highlight from attending Hunter liggin and and Lyle I think the first thing that stands out in my magnet education is the diversity of opportunity that all of the magnet schools that I've attended have provided uh Hunter I was able to be the first person to play French horn and they're banned by band director supported me in trying out a new instrument I was able to participate in the Science
066Olympiad and quizful teams and explore my interests in biology and medicine starting from a very early age my teachers encouraged me to get into science and explore my love for literature even from my third grade education at ligand I was able to take classes in engineering but also in sewing and 2D art at Enloe I've been able to fully explore my passion for medicine participating in our HOSA future health professionals program our Medical Academy and doing a research project last year on philosophy and medicine and where those two Fields intersect through our AP Capstone program the second thing that I've Loved about my magnet education is that a diversity of my peers around me I feel like I've been able to meet a wide variety of people from all different backgrounds and cultures and through
067that I think I've been able to hear a lot of different perspectives and opinions on the different topics that we've covered in school but also just from a more personal level the final thing that I've Loved about my magnet education is the quality of teachers that I've interacted with throughout my time in the magnet system in elementary school my fifth grade teachers pushed me to develop my love for Science and to start exploring what truly interested me in middle school I had science teachers that did much of the same they my eighth grade science teacher got me interested in environmental science and I was able to fully explore the things that interested me Beyond science teachers I've had teachers from every subject from social studies to engineering and art that have pushed me to explore
068my interest and truly find what excites me and I'm passionate about in high school I've had teachers that have phds in German history and I've been able to take European history with Dr Hoffman a PhD in German history holder at Enloe and it's been one of the most amazing classes I've ever taken I've developed a passion for history and philosophy through my time at Enloe that I hope to continue in college thank you so much Heidi and so Heidi is the first to kick off our 40th anniversary the one of the it's the first of 40 stories so thank you [Applause] thank you all so much we are looking forward to hearing more of the stories from our magnet office up next um we are going to hear a presentation and a bit of a
069celebration of National American Indian Heritage Month I see some Familiar Faces Dr Ryan Emanuel um who is the president of the parent advisory committee as well as Dr Shanika Moore Lawrence who is our senior director of K-12 instructional supports and Ms Becky Foote our senior administrator for Title One good evening chair Mahaffey board members and superintendent Moore we are pleased to be back with you this evening to dedicate a few minutes out of a busy agenda to honor and recognize November as American Indian Heritage Month as you know American Indian Heritage Month is a month-long celebration to honor American Indians across our state and nation and commemorate their histories and cultures it is celebrated each year by the Wake County Board of Education during the month of November and the Wake County Public School System
070with support from the Wake County Indian education parent committee it is important to share the significance of American Indians and it's also important to ensure that relevant learning opportunities for students are integrated into classrooms throughout the school year this work aligns with the following wcpss core beliefs core belief number three well-supported highly effective and dedicated principals teachers and staff are essential to success for all students by intentionally sharing Resources with and educating School staff and leaders on the culture and Heritage of our students we will in the long term create a greater likelihood that school staff will be able to create meaningful instructional activities where every student accurately sees their culture and Heritage reflected in their learning core belief number five the Board of Education superintendent and all staff value a diverse School community that
071is inviting respectful inclusive flexible and supportive this work is part of our District's ongoing efforts to ensure that our work is inclusive and supportive of all parts of our community specifically our hope is to ensure that all students and families see themselves lifted up in a positive Light Within the district I'd like to introduce three important people who are helping to lead this work we have Miss Gwen Locklear who is our Indian education grant coordinator thank you we also yes thank you we also have Dr Ryan Emanuel who's the president of the Wake County Indian education parent advisory committee and we have Mrs Becky foot who is the Wake County Public School System senior administrator and Title One and our liaison for the Indian education grant Dr Manuel is going to share a little bit
072about the work and focus of that committee and some of the resources and support that they provide to our students and families and the importance of recognizing and celebrating American Indian Heritage year long Mrs Foote will provide some additional information about celebrations and resources and introduce our special performance guests so with that I'll turn the presentation over to Dr Emmanuel and then Mrs split come on thank you all for inviting the title 16 education program to the board meeting on this first day of American Indian Heritage Month I'm Ryan Emanuel and I'm the president of parent advisory committee I've served on the committee since 2010 and this is my third non-consecutive term as president I'm an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and I'm the parent of one current Wake County student and one recent
073graduate both of whom have participated in the program so for anyone who's unfamiliar with title VI Indian education I'll say that the programs are funded Nationwide largely by formula grants from the U.S Department of Education to local school districts here in Wake County the parent advisory committee Works closely with Ms Gwen our part-time coordinator and with other staff to develop Implement and evaluate program activities and one unique aspect of Indian education is that the federal government requires close oversight of the program by the parent committee our responsibilities include approving the district's annual application for Federal grant funding and Consulting with tribal Nations about their needs and expectations on behalf of the district Federal grant funds provide tutoring cultural enrichment and other services for eligible American Indian students wake County's program has been around for more
074than 25 years serving several hundred students from dozens of tribes students and advisory committee members from Indian education are also also involved in Outreach and Leadership efforts at District State and National levels in summary Indian education is a small but critical program with outside impacts on the district and on the larger Community next slide please so as we commemorate American Indian Heritage Month please keep in mind that American Indians in North Carolina spent years fighting discrimination invisibility and Erasure and with that in mind we're pleased that the public is commemorating our histories cultures societal contributions and present-day experiences during the month of November but we would encourage you to to celebrate those things year round next slide please today North Carolina has one of the largest American Indian populations in the United States it's home
075to several tribal Nations who have occupied this place since time and Memorial Wake County has a thriving Urban American Indian population that represents various tribes from across the country and Wake County is and always has been Indian Country so thank you so much for this opportunity to provide an overview of our program in American Indian Heritage Month I'll now turn it over to Ms Becky foot from Title One thank you Dr Emmanuel I want to take a minute to share some information about two Indian Heritage celebration events that are being held at the North Carolina Museum of History this month for teachers students parents and community members on November 18th the virtual education day students and teachers can access live performances and other resources to celebrate and learn more about Indian culture and Heritage and
076then on November 19th the museum will be open to the public our Wake County Public School System title VI Indian Education Program Coordinator our very own Miss Gwen Locklear will host a storytelling event more information about these events can be found on the Museum of History website we've also assembled resources for our teachers and staff to review and use to teach and celebrate the rich American Indian Heritage of our students and Community the activities shown here are examples of the activities that will be provided to teachers to use as they educate their students next slide please and now I have the pleasure of introducing the very talented Aspen Watson and Skye Watson students at Fuquay Varina Elementary School they will be accompanied by their father a Dr Linwood Watson who will sing and accompany his
077daughters on the hand drum as they perform to an American Indian style women's dance thank you foreign Christmas parade so if you go to the Christmas parade just swing on by and he's in the history there the street you have a good time a lot to get seminars good demonstration of our culture and we're still here so hope to see you all out there Senator before Thanksgiving all right girls let's do one for Wake County Indiana [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] all right hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey yo wait high up [Applause] [Music] thank you oh hey oh hey hey hey [Applause] hey hey hey [Applause] hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey [Music] hey hey hey hey hey hey oh hey hey hey hey
078hey [Music] thank you wonderful thank you so much Aspen Skye and Dr Watson for that wonderful performance if there's any additional information or support that you may need in celebrating this year long please feel free to reach out to myself Miss Locklear the Wake County Indian education parent committee also to Mrs Becky foot and of course if you want some lessons Aspen and sky are available thank you for your time and your support this evening foreign thank you very much and a special thank you to Aspen Skye and Dr Watson for taking the time to share a part of your heritage with us and reminding us that it's not just something of the past but something that still continues this very day and lives within our schools and in our community so thank you awesome
079thank you thank you foreign comment public comment is accepted in video written and in-person formats 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 are confidential and therefore not appropriate for public comment settings concerns related to Personnel issues may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies 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 confidential student matters may be addressed through applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies written comments have been submitted as part of our public
080comment portion for this evening's agenda these comments are linked on the same online agenda we are using for tonight's meeting and that agenda as well as guidelines for those wishing to submit comments for future meetings can be found at the school district's website wcpss.net under the tab labeled School Board we have 10 written comments for members of the public topics are seven comments on the equity policy and three other topics including bullying stop bashing our schools and audit athletic boosters for those of you that are here in person to deliver public comment you may speak for up to three minutes a green light will illuminate at the podium when our speaking when our your excuse me when you begin speaking a yellow light will light up along with an audio signal when there are 30
081seconds remaining in your time and then a red light along with an audible tone will signal your time is up and the next speaker will be called to the podium in the interest of maintaining Civility and decorum however speakers are encouraged to address their comments to the Board of Education and to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the General Public please remain at the podium during your speaking time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to the board attorney either before or after your comments we have 20 speakers signed up today our first speaker is Jessica Lewis good evening well here we are at the last school board meeting before the election November 8th we as parents have been
082waiting for this day for a long time as a mom of a third and fifth grader in Wake County Schools I have never been more excited to vote for New School Board candidates we may forgive but we as parents will never forget we will never forget how our children children were treated the last couple of years and how their education was compromised I will never forget how you ignored the mental health of our children I will never forget how parents were ignored by you all time and time again I will never forget how my kids were kicked out of school several times and for many days at a time when they never even had covet and were not allowed back in school to learn I will never forget how the virtual schooling pushed on our
083children was a nightmare I will never forget how you voted time and time again to keep masks on our children despite the evidence shown that mass do not work and are harmful to children I will never forget how I had a four-month battle of getting my son's medical mask exemption approved by the school I will never forget how you all played Doctor illegally without medical licenses I will never forget that after the mass mandate was finally lifted in schools our children were still made to isolate and eat lunch on nasty floors I will never forget that the kids at lunch had to sit three seats apart we're not allowed to talk and told to keep their bellies facing the table I will never forget how you all spent coveted money on CRT and indoctrination programs
084instead of making sure our kids were proficient in reading and math I will never forget Lindsay calling the books in our children's libraries with explicit Graphics inspiring I will never forget Jim Martin's fear-mongering kova data that was not actually real science but political science I will never forget how you took my children's genders out of the school system I will never forget how you were opposed to having more sros for our children's safety I will never forget how you are sexualizing our children with gender ideologies I will never forget how you voted to extend Miss catty Moore's contract a superintendent who is failing our Wake County School System I will never forget how the school board has continued to hurt our children instead of helping them and doing so while laughing in the faces of
085parents standing up for their children the list could go on and on about why you do not deserve to have a part in our children's education I am not the only parent that will never forget how you have treated our children we will make our voice be heard loud and clear at the polls we will vote for candidates that put our children's education first let's flip the school board and give our children the education they deserve thank you our next speaker is Lana Witt good evening Wake County board members As We Gather for the final school board meeting prior to Tuesday's election I'm grateful for the continued involvement of the community that you see here engaging with board members in the education system that all of our tax dollars fund I'm also grateful for faithful
086parents in our community who've stepped up to courageously put their name on our ballots because of concern for policies or a lack of policies implemented the past few years while current leadership often blamed and continues to blame a pandemic or fear for failure as the polls again at the polls again today I heard misinformation that certain candidates seek to keep Public Funding in Public Instruction implying other candidates when they win will somehow have the power to remove Public Funding from Public Instruction I'd like to remind our community today that Public Funding comes from budget conscious policies of our North Carolina General Assembly members and they together with our Wake County Commission only have the power to create policies to cut back funding over 60 percent of our general assembly budget goes to goes to fund
087public education here in North Carolina Wake County Public Schools had 1 billion 32 million dollars for a budget in 2019 when covid hit for each student enrolled in 2019 over nine thousand dollars was received school buildings were closed from March 16th of 2020 until November 16th of 2020 which meant there was a whole lot of money not being spent on buildings and the administration in those buildings it's in grades 9 through 12 attended remotely through the end of the first semester of 20 2020 through 2021 that's eight months of time to install and prioritize healthy ventilation yet in 2021 and 2022 ventilation systems across Wake County Schools were still inadequate enough that parents and Educators began to creatively provide them themselves I'd also like to address the fact that for over two years now large
088numbers of Wake County families continue to remove students from public school systems for a variety of reasons with each family choosing to remove that student that's about ten thousand dollars lost that's not a school board member removing funding it's a lack of leadership ability to retain students and meet the best interests of families trusting you to prioritize basic skills as we look to fill the leadership back vacuum do we all see the sacrifice of two years of student education on the altar of blame and fear as you shared Mr Martin illness is inevitable flu season is coming coming how will we prevent such learning loss from happening again thank you Miss Whit our next speaker is Gordana Herndon foreign yes hello I'm gradonna Herndon along here saw me and my two kids a single parent
089of three one I have going through something with inequality that's in the public school system at broaden High School equality the quality of being fair and impartial there has not been any fairness on behalf of the personal things I have been continuing to go through with the Injustice in the public school system with discrimination a child that has ADHD and IEP that has been not even once rendered to protect his prophecy and the rights of him as a student a child that has been forced to be removed from the home to go into alternative school at Tar Heel challenge because of the Discrimination bullying is no longer of the bullying of the children of the children but the bullying is now along with the principles assistant principles the resource offices the officers that are in
090the school system your falsified documents that are coming forth that my child could have faced two class L felony charges over assistant principal and resource officers lying to hide their hand of wickedness numerous times that I have cried out for help as a single black woman have not able to begin the help that I need as of last year with a child with ADHD take conservative medication with the IEP the difference a child that has been suspended from other things because of the dis-emotional harassment disability harassment and nobody took a stand and never heard his side a child that has gone through anxiety separation as I am going through anxiety separation as a mother and myself and his siblings are missing his brother because we're never been separated a child that was a junior in
091high school this year that are now is not would be able to receive a high school diploma that would now have to be forced to get a GED at education this is the things I heard y'all say with the liberty and justice for all but how was it liberty and justice for all there is not liberty and justice for all for the African-Americans as I stand when my children stand and I'm afraid as this child of a middle schooler that has to continue the year so now I'm thinking about taking my child out to homeschool because of the Injustice that African-Americans are facing at modern day time in 2022 so with that being said so it's time for us to come together to involve with equity and quality and with liberty and justice for all
092let's make it happen Adam holler Mr hafee a fellow board members I want to thank you for your service and I think you're doing a fantastic job overall and I have already voted and voted to re-elect my school board member and I reject it categorically those calls before me that made such disparaging remarks about this board but that's not why I'm here today I'm here to talk about student transportation there are not enough school bus drivers it's too much traffic too many injuries by crazy car drivers you know I was hit by a car when I was riding my bicycle to school in 10th Grade I was riding on the only place possible the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road and the driver crashed into me I'm thankful that the car had a
093normal Hood instead of the deadly front ends of large vehicles on the roads today I'm livid though in hindsight that there wasn't a protected bike path to my school fast forward to now 76 year old man walking in front of Carroll Middle School was killed by a hit-and-run driver on October 12th he was walking in the exact space where children normally load on the school buses on October 18th at Apex friendship Middle School a student was hit by a driver in the carpool area while he's riding his bicycle parents May disagree on much as we do we are unified though and that none of us want any child to be hit by a driver and there is an answer and you guys know about it it's called the safe routes of school program we must
094make it safe for every child to be able to go north south east west for at least a whole mile from every school in Wake County without fear on their own in addition to the safety benefits there are Health improvements from physical activity safe routes to school initiatives have been shown to get more kids walking getting that cardio they need to thrive kids who engage in active Transportation end up with fewer health problems have a greater sense of Independence and perform better during school a large study showed that over time the cost savings from a safe route to school investment pays off 24 times for each dollar invested and pure pure cost savings from fewer injuries and deaths over time on top of that St Francis School increases our property values as homeowners uh walkable
095neighborhoods are a valued feature St Francis school is not just for Traffic Engineers implementation requires all of us to come together School administrators can plan the exact paths that Walkers use to navigate in and out of school property just like a football coach plans players exact movements on the field indeed collaborate with those coaches and PE teachers reinforce the importance of active Transportation the board can re-up its commitment to work with County and City governments to make bike training part of PE programs lastly Six Forks Road is going for a major upgrade right in front of Carroll Middle and Green Elementary but it doesn't seem that anybody from the school system is coordinating with the city planners I would encourage you to make sure that that project is taken care of and that those Carol
096and Green Elementary get a really nice look with this big road project thank you board [Music] our next speaker is leitha Muhammad good evening so I'm here tonight to celebrate the first reading of equity policy here in Wake County Public Schools you all know I've been before you numerous times Champion Equity as a practice as a policy as a culture for Wake County Public Schools and so I thought it was important for me and other folks who championed Equity to show up tonight to let you all know that it's important that this policy is passed that we had a parent stand before us tonight and speak to the inequitable treatment her son and she has received in Wake County Public Schools and there are numerous parents just like her and so this Equity policy although
097it's not the perfect fix I have some critiques of it it moves us to a place of codifying equity as a policy and practice and culture and it allows us to have a level of accountability that has been missing throughout the district and so again I'm here just to encourage you all to continue on this path to move this this suggested policy to an actual policy for Wake County Public Schools because without Equity that's rooted and race social economic status religion gender sexual orientation we will continue to have young people in Wake County Public Schools and adults be harmed by inequitable practices thank you our next speaker is Christina Spears boyfriend good evening ditto Lisa Muhammad happy November chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty board member superintendent Moore and District staff I'm Christina Spears a special
098ed teacher by trade currently serving as wake ncae's president and I am celebrating the fact that the equity policy is coming for first reading as well part of me wanted to come to this Podium and just run back my public comment from earlier this October to remind you all the words of Audra Lord to be deliberate and afraid of nothing When approaching the scary work of naming our historical disparities our complicity complicity words complicity and inequities and taking action to disrupt them but after last week's policy committee meeting you all voted to bring it here tonight for first reading so I don't think you need to be reminded about the courage necessary to disrupt historic systems of Oppression every one of you voted for it to come here so I like Lisa I'm thankful that
099you chose to move our Collective work forward so I'll in the rest of my time reminding you to not let the great be the enemy of the good any policy especially in equity policy shouldn't sit on the table for months of months or years or being back and forth discussion around things like language and rhetoric right we recognize that this policy is long overdue so my hope is that you don't let rhetoric or language prevent this policy from moving to second reading really soon and as Miss Johnson hosler has pointed out to this body many times we love to revisit policy for improvement and change to meet the needs of our students staff and community so I'm hopeful that that will be true for the equity policy as well and you Revisited policy 1710 on
100bullying and harassment tonight at the request of Miss cash but I do want to note that I'm relieved to see the language of disengaged students not appearing in this Equity policy that's aimed at addressing the educational debt owed to traditionally marginalized students and staff particularly those protected identities by federal legislation which is a result of our country's history of denying access to educational opportunities to specific groups of people as Lisa named before me it's important to note that these two policies do not work in opposition to one another they should actually allow us to work together to improve outcomes for all students policy 1150 will allow us to look at policy 1710 with a critical lens and ask questions like what is disengagement who is disengaged and why what systems are maintaining that disengagement and
101how are we taking action to do something differently so I'll close by saying I'm confident that you all are going to pass this policy to Second reading tonight as it helps us live out our core beliefs two and five it aligns our strategic plan with those equity and Excellence priorities so I want to close by saying thanks for your work for voting this policy forward and continuing to be dedicated to improving our school system for all students thank you our next speaker is Dana Al Hassan good evening my name is Dr Daniel Hassan I'm a public health professional and an educator and as an educator I urge you all to adopt an expanded version of the equity policy currently under consideration by this board I agree this educational Equity policy is a positive First Step
102as has been previously previously described but the current policy draft does fail to protect diverse and inclusive teaching materials for all ages an expanded version of the equity policy will offer protection to all students and prevent individuals from making drastic choices that put children at harm it was only earlier this year we witnessed one individual who chose to remove inclusive materials from a classroom without cause at Valentin Elementary forcing a well-loved special needs preschool teacher to resign there is nothing inherently explicit or pornographic in lgbtq inclusive materials the current case of students for fair admissions versus Harvard UNC is another example of an attack on students this attack on affirmative action is another agenda to exacerbate white supremacy in the U.S we must be clear with the shadow don't say gay policy in the current
103draft of the equity policy means it is a direct attack on black brown trans and queer youth Educators must have the ability to identify analyze and Implement solutions to deep inequities in education this way Educators can develop the same skills in their students we must work to advance Equity not attack the provisions that promote it this school board cannot reverse Decades of hard-won Victories education Equity schools are meant to train children's integrate into society and be the Future Leaders of our world are we integrating children into a society that treats them as full human beings with creativity and potential or one that treats them as faceless low-wage workers we have to educate our students with a drive to excel knowing that there is a profession for them to excel in when they've left public school
104we need a school system that doesn't ignore the world in which the children live we need a school system that understands that children need Security in their homes regular food and safety and their communities before they can do well we need a school system that educates students because it is beneficial for all people right now lgbtq students feel unsafe at school where approximately 30 percent reported skipping a class at least once in the past month we demand meaningful changes to the proposed Equity policy 1150 and to put the students first you all have the opportunity to provide substantial leadership to the students and to affirm and protect all youth including lgbtq youth make a just Equitable and inclusive public education thank you all for your time our next speaker is Stephanie lormont hi after two-ish
105years of listening to a very small sample of Wake County parents complained to and about the board I'm pleased to see that the elected representatives of this institution have finally made forward movement on passing an equity policy as far as providing institution-based protections against the advancing threats of full-throated bigotry to this unenthusiastic and yet still habitual Democratic voter passing an equity policy is the most valuable use of y'all's remaining time on the board I'd like to encourage you all to pass this with all due urgency I'm just one person one Wake County Parent one voice and I've been around a long enough I've been around long enough to be among the parents addressing inequity at this Podium long before there was a pandemic I do wish there was more meat to this policy I wish
106the word ensure in section c had not been replaced with take active steps I mostly wish that this had been voted and passed years ago Mr Hagerty I want to thank you for your support of the word practice in place of belief in this policy I've had event elementary school kid bullied by both teacher and classmates over beliefs and maybe had this policy existed for him he wouldn't still call back to those feelings five years later and I think Public School Employees and parents with those full-throated bigoted beliefs will find an inclusive and Equitable environment so uncomfortable that they will leave and to those who want to use language to harass and demean whether that language be motivated by race gender expression or sexuality in reference to a child or youth in our schools or
107during these meetings I say good riddance let me be specific the very few yet obnoxiously loud extremist Christians and those they represent are working to install a Christian nationalist Dominion theology-based influence on government institutions like School boards indirect Defiance of our constitutional constitutionally guaranteed separation of church and state I'm an obviously white parent with white kids and what I found in my own home is that raising teenagers to question everything includes questioning myself often continually challenging who I am as a person with the help of the equity groundwork I have learned has repeatedly helped me become the adult I needed as a kid I think some of what drives the Absurd pushback against Equity are parents afraid their kids will see them for who they really are bigotry has been and will always be for
108some a choice any effort an institution as this can make to actively interrupt the choice of bigotry by staff and students delivers a net benefit for our shared Humanity you have time you have time to make a real difference in the face of this horrible horrible attempt to take over our children's lives you can you can do it most of you aren't even coming back you can literally just choose to do it thank you our next speaker is Renee seckel [Applause] different things well that's the fact to follow good evening I'm here tonight to speak up in favor of the equity policy and to urge you and thank you for passing it through on its second reading tonight um you might not have noticed but there's an election going on and um a funny thing's
109been happening because you know like Stephanie like a lot of others I've been watching for years as these people are coming here and else out into the community on Twitter I think blatantly racist and homophobic things and just nasty stuff about our kids calling them evil having telling saying they have serpent spirits that one sticks with me you know and so the election started and I was like what's going to happen you know a funny thing is happening I've been out of the polls poll greeting and the voters know the score they're walking up to people and they're walking to talking to the candidates in their surrogates and I hear them say well what about the gay kids you're not going to do anything to harm them are you and the funniest thing ever is
110these candidates in their surrogates the candidates who spent the last two years saying terrible horrible things call it disparaging gay kids disparaging black and brown kids disparaging Muslims go oh yes absolutely they're going to support the gay kids uh-huh yep sure they're just lying their faces off because they know and I know and you know that most people here in Wake County are decent human beings who want every child to have a safe and welcoming environment free from the kind of discrimination that This Woman's kids are facing free from Fear free from being treated poorly so there's clearly support for an equity policy I agree that it's overdue but hey the next best time to do something is today thank you our next speaker is Tisha Shaw good evening I'm the parent of three Wake
111County Public School students and a proud Wake County graduate myself I want to thank the board and office of equity Affairs and staff for your recognition of the need for an equity policy and for your hard work and thoughtfulness when considering finalizing the policy that we know is long overdue I'm grateful for the equity focus at some schools for we know that this is still very much school dependent and needs to be countywide when I first read through the policy I was reminded of a time when I was a child and a young girl in my class said that she didn't want to sit or stand next to me because she was afraid my brown would rub off on her when I looked around the classroom not seeing anyone who looked like me or never
112having had seen myself represented in any of the books or pictures in my classroom I sat there confused and hurt I also now wonder how that other girl's understanding of race or differences would have been different if she had seen and experienced more diversity in our school and learning materials as well obviously race socioeconomic status gender identity disability and sexual orientation are not contagious and no one can be forced to become an identity that is not their own but when people don't experience diverse representation and education of the many intersectionalities in our community fear bullying or biases erupt and make schools feel unsafe for many of our students the students who are facing inequities may also be those that are seemingly disengaged not because they don't care but because they don't feel seen and valued
113or are given support and equal opportunities everyone benefits from representation and inclusive practices and these practices facilitate greater engagement compassion and kindness has a speech pathologist I along all Educators know that the two of the first three levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs that must be met for our students to thrive are safety and belonging and this policy will be the initial steps to making sure these basic needs are met so all students have the opportunity to reach a full potential I think we all agree that we want our children to come to school and learn math reading and writing social studies and science but when there are students who carried the weight of discrimination and bias with them it inhibits their access to the curriculum opportunity and does not give them an equal playing
114field when we reflect upon the demographics of disciplinary actions versus the demographics of AIG and advanced course placements we can't ignore the disparities I personally have listened to the and tried to comfort young lgbtq students who fear um being outed at school or not having safe spaces to be who they are I've had the pleasure of working with many families who have been so grateful for the brown black and LGBT lgbtq representation in books and activities that I offer and I've seen the pure joy on these faces faces when they see themselves reflected the students have need when students have mirrors to which they see themselves around the school and with the materials they know they belong or seen or valued thank you Miss Shaw our next speaker is Mike Nutt hey my name is
115my nut and I'm a parent at Khan Elementary I'd like to thank the board for its consideration of the new educational Equity policy 1150 and encourage you to pass the policy but it's not ready yet I know the equity office sought feedback from several stakeholder groups I went to the PTA council's Dei committee session on October 12th I'd like to underscore one thing that Dr shave has reported to you in the policy committee meeting October 25th and tell you about a perspective at that Dei committee meeting that did not seem to be adequately reflected in his presentation to you one important Point voiced by PTA members and reported by Dr Chavis was that the board must take ownership of this problem I think this was recognized by Dr Martin that that same policy committee meeting
116where he said there are actually a lot of things that are out of your hands as a board but policy is not one of them the question remains whether you will take ownership of the don't say gay Shadow policy that it resulted in queer Erasure at Ballantyne Elementary School when a principal removed age-appropriate curriculum appropriate teaching materials from a classroom for political reasons speaking out against the fact that it happened is not the same as taking ownership of the policies that cause the problem the second thing I want to bring up from the PTA Council PTA Council Dei committee feedback session is that parents want this policy to have teeth it came up over and over again including from parents who feel that their schools are not invested at all in the kinds of equity
117goals set forth in policy 1150. teeth is not arguing for the word interrupt instead of eliminate those parents and this parent are looking for relief from the board in the form of policies that have teeth to require unwilling administrators to get on board now you know I've been asking to protect inclusive teaching materials all ages for months now I've been told by Dr Martin that there's no perfect solution but I still haven't heard a good reason why we can't remedy the travesty of what happened to Valentine with this policy 1150. I've been told by my representative Ms Waters that these concerns would be discussed but so far that just hasn't been true that I have seen you all still have the chance to make this right tonight for those of you still trying to earn
118votes show the Wake County Public School community that you will fight for queer and trans kids and teachers that you will not be intimidated by the fascists who come to this meeting for the purpose of doing just that for those of you who are not still trying to earn votes I ask you to consider your legacies make you can make it the last time a teacher is harassed into resigning by the right wing or you can regret that this happened on your watch and that you did nothing to prevent it from happening again please be leaders for your students families and teachers who need you to be leaders thank you our next speaker is Claire Clark ladies and gentlemen of the board I drove down from Asheville to raise my voice tonight you may be
119wondering why I came so far over what is usually viewed as a purely local matter I don't see it that way the Wake County Public School System is the largest in the state the policies this board implements a directly impact the lives of 160 000 students over ten thousand Educators and more than twenty thousand staff Wake County is a tone Setter and the decisions this board makes will reverberate throughout North Carolina I come before you tonight to urge you to adopt an expanded version of the equity policy currently under consideration by this board while the current policy represents a major step in the right direction it still has deficiencies and if adopted along current lines it will not ensure that diverse and inclusive educational materials are taught at all grade levels nor will it protect
120School administrators individual Educators and District staff from unscrupulous pressure applied by so-called parents rights Advocates who do not have the best interests of students families Educators or public education at heart in recent years the forces of the far right have made our Public Schools a Battleground in the culture wars and students especially lgbtq youth Educators and public education itself are all Targets of a reactionary assault on fundamental Democratic rights run through generations of bitter struggle this board has an opportunity to take leadership and be taught part of turning back that assault by adopting an equity policy with expanded language and protecting inclusive and diverse curricula at all grade levels and defending the autonomy of Educators you can speak loudly and clearly to say that our children and teachers will not be be offered up as
121a sacrifice to a fascist agenda queer children represent one of the most vulnerable segments of the American population queer kids face disproportionate amounts of homelessness bullying and sexual violence and attempts suicide at rates far exceeding their cisgender and heterosexual peers addressing this violence and mitigating these injustices begins with education and it starts in our schools lgbtq kids are owed an educational environment when where they are affirmed accepted and protected they deserve school curricula that help them understand themselves and provide positive and affirming representation of their lives and identities and teachers administrators and staff who provide that affirming education deserve autonomy protection and respect in the workplace this board has the opportunity to step up and provide the leadership that is too often missing you have before you the chance to affirm and protect lgbtq youth
122support and defend Educators and stand up for just Equitable and inclusive public education thank you our next speaker is Susan book s I'm not sure I can follow that um first and foremost Thank You Wake County schools for being intentional and writing a equity policy that will give us a start there will be those in our community who believe that we shouldn't talk about race that it is divisive yet I think not talking about race acting like racism doesn't exist is the most divisive action we can take we sorry we won't be listening to real honest voices from our past and our present and we have no hope to make a better future if we don't talk about race having a policy discussion about race is serious business and I know I was taught to
123believe that I shouldn't say a word race and Equity weren't discussions for my white Community to have at least allowed we might say something wrong but be brave Wake County let us be more honest and open and forward-thinking or we'll never get out of the hole we've dug ourselves the whole is obvious when it comes to discipline disparities who gets suspended formally in the 21-22 school year 49.2 percent of our suspensions were black children we had 20.6 percent of our suspensions where children with disabilities and that doesn't begin to count those phone calls that I know I have received to pick my child up with no documentation no nothing and parents don't know that there's a problem we need to document everything yeah and we also need to make sure that we're documenting the intersectionality
124of disability with race when we have suspensions it's a whole child whole family problem so let's tackle the problem head on without fear of the subject matter of racism and ableism and how they intersect I hope we take this Equity policy as a first step lens when confronted with new challenges and work and all the work that comes our way when we look at our most vulnerable students first we create solid policies for the rest of the children we seek to serve I hope that Equity is a forethought and not an afterthought again thank you and let's put words into action our next speaker is Serena Johnson [Applause] hello everyone I'm Serena Johnson a parent first Wake County Public School System I have children that have disabilities fought through the school system to make sure
125that Equity was available for my child who had cerebral palsy for over 20 years now like for for 20 years now with medical with education in every aspect of systems I had a fight and this is something that you guys can do now a majority of you guys like said before are not going to be coming back this is something that you can leave for us as some type of security blanket of what may be coming in a future with the school board so I'm just asking that you guys put in this Equity policy and get everything through so we can address all the issues when it comes to gender sexual orientation race economic status and religion we have to make sure that you guys are the heads of these decisions that's been made for
126Wake County now me I'm a parent I've been here before I've been here in protests I've been here just to have a comment about resources that need to be available within Wake County Public School System that are not available readily that should be by federal law is mandated to be available to every student now although I don't agree with everything that the right or whoever has to say everyone that's within the school system has a right to say and have resources available to them that is justly it's based off the Constitution and this has not been happening within Wake County Public School System and like what was previously said from someone before that Wake County is the largest county within the state of North Carolina you guys do have some type of precedence over what
127takes place in North Carolina so I'm just asking as a parent as an advocate and just as someone that has that should have human rights within a system that things are being done to address the needs of everyone and then you guys can see from your seat from home from wherever you are that things are not been done right and you have not been speaking on what needs to be spoken for the equity of all people within the school system so if you want my vote you need to speak out loud and say that this is what you're going to do and stand on it we have so many people coming through every year seeing what they they're going to do and are afraid what are you afraid of that's what I want to know
128what are you what's fearful of you of making rules and setting up policies that's going to support all students all students in this Native American History Month why are we only talking about Native Americans during the month of November and especially using Thanksgiving as rhetoric that this is what is bringing um a celebration to the natives this is when they were destroyed so let's talk about what really took place on this land and why it's so important for Equity to be brought up especially on this month of Native Americans their land of my land and I'm not represented as a native that I am you know I don't I don't see my native Heritage being represented within the school system and that's what I am I'm native so this is something that needs to be
129addressed when it comes to what is being taught in our schools thank you Equity our next speaker is Daniel Grant King okay first of all I would like to say good evening to everyone including superintendent Moore District staff chairman happy and fellow board members I am Mr Grant King and currently I am running for this for the Wake County Board of Education District Four and I am also uh the co-chair with the advocacy committee I was recently appointed which I appreciate the ncpta for that this evening you have heard wonderful examples of why we need a long overdue Equity policy as a graduate of Wake County Schools Garner Magnet High that is which is in District Two while attending they are my senior year not only I was racially profiled but my identity was stolen
130by a former white Caucasian educator of this school system and sadly I went through the process like everyone else and what was done absolutely nothing now why on God's green earth we had years and years and years as it's been explained why has this Equity policy not come to pass because many of you have been afraid to call the truth for what it is and so this evening I am encouraging each of you to call out the truth for what it is enough is enough folks it is time to put the partisan politics aside and get the equity policy to come to pass as voters have already cast their ballots and many of you are not going to seek reelection please do not let us down because if you do there will be consequences for
131your actions and the consequences are unknown if this Equity policy is not coming to pass but one thing I know is that the late doctor whoever in Martin Luther King Jr once said it is always time to do what's right and so I am leaving you this evening it is time Wake County it is hard time hard time that we do what's right because when we don't we fail Educators we fail our students and above all we feel our families thank you so much our next speaker is Naomi Miller hi everyone my name is Naomi Miller I like to first thank God for this opportunity thank you board and everyone in their respective places my reason for being here tonight is last Thursday an event happened at East Wake high school and I want to
132give a brief as to why I reacted how I reacted as a parent on January 3rd 2018 I received a call that my sister had been shot five times I won I would later find out that the same recording on the officer who was present at the scene of the shots two three and four um the the dash cam was the evidence that put the offender in jail for life okay so I don't trust my children at the hands of everybody so when I got the phone call from my son I was going to read from this but I have to read from the heart so when I got the phone call from my son I immediately asked for my daughter where is my daughter okay he said she's at school he signed out early
133he's early grad with a disability I had wish I had known about this board meeting when he got expelled in sixth grade and set to Longview didn't know okay so when I got the call I immediately called and try to get in contact with my daughter by the time I got in contact with my daughter my daughter was running through the field I said run because in that moment all I could think about was that I was not able to identify my only sister when I went to that hospital room in New Jersey I was not able to identify her so all the flashbacks came back and all I could think about was the safety of my children my daughter was suspended for leaving school I understand that the school has policies and regulations that
134we have to abide by but if somebody was to walk in here right now when I came in this building I looked at both exits I looked at all the exits if somebody was to walk in here right now with a gun you're not going to stand here and defend me you're going to run and try to save yourself so my child took off and ran to try to save herself why does she have to be penalized not once but twice she got suspended for school for two days and then they suspended her for the upcoming basketball season for two days not only that Mr Wade called me and suspended my daughter at home he called me 7 30 that night I called the school board on Tuesday I called the school on Tuesday nobody
135returned my call I did not get a response back to from anybody until Monday and on Monday Mr Austin called to tell me that Mr Wade told him my daughter left an hour and a half after the cold red was called documentation shows my daughter was hiding in the bathroom while this cold was going on that is wrong on every single level we just heard about how the school is not fair to us it was not fair that this that this assistant principal got the chance and the opportunity to lie on my daughter who is a a b student straight A B student since kindergarten and straight honor student Spanish student everything my daughter is an awesome student so to have been penalized for something when she's never been suspended before was Reckless yes our
136next speaker is Jessica coats Jessica coats no Drew Hicks all right uh howdy everyone that's talked before has pretty much said most of what I came up here to say so uh I'll let their passionate words kind of do most of the talking on that stuff but uh while I urge you all to pass the equity policy tonight and you know don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good uh I want you all to know that the language in that policy that mentions uh the materials need to be appropriate for students maturity levels that's not a dog whistle it's a regular whistle everyone can hear that what material uh that falls under that policy would be considered age inappropriate or inappropriate for maturity levels teaching about Equity is it history lessons about the
137legacy of slavery and mistreatment of African Americans in this country that's inappropriate is it lessons about the mere existence of queer people as real people as students and as families that's agent appropriate I want to hear an example of what the type of material that would be excluded as inappropriate for students maturity levels under this Equity policy would be like uh because until I hear such an example I'm forced to rely on what's been brought up here before y'all in the past such as an ABC board book that said s is for sex referring to when a baby's born the doctor saying it's a boy or a girl based on looking at its body if that's not appropriate for a third grade class then how are we supposed to believe that third graders know what
138boys and girls are as the same bigots like to insist uh this agent appropriateness is a definite uh call out to people who want to portray the existence of queer people as inherently pornographic as inherently explicit and inherently inappropriate for kids they want to make our school system a place where kids go out into the world after it and treat queer people like space aliens like people they've never met before you have the power to not let that happen here so I urge you all to do it thanks yeah our next speaker is Alex wall Alex wall our final speaker tonight is Kim Manny good evening everyone I'm Kim Manny I'm not running from offer office but I desperately want my child to be able to keep going to Wake County Public Schools and not
139see this board filled with individuals who whose motives are not driven by a foundational belief in the mission of public education my 11 year old asked me why I was uh Missing dinner on Tuesday again I explained that I was going to speak to the school board about the equity policy I read the draft policy to her and I really did if you have ever been in my kitchen there is a large display of the 2009 ballot so we talked about politics a lot at my house and she said good why wouldn't anybody oppose helping everyone to be successful in school I explained to her as I often do that some people are afraid they're afraid of masks of difference of history of truth of Science of books and of her as a brilliant brown
140girl they are afraid that everyone's success will mean less success for them of course Equity policies are about finding ways to make everyone successful which is why I hope this board finds a way to pass the one that's before them so I'm a Wake County parent who is in support of this Equity policy as a really good start and hope that there will be clear actions and measurements that are placed behind this policy to ensure that all students can be successful in our Public Schools thank you so much for your time this evening thank you yes this comment we do have a continuation of information items which is our superintendent updates followed by our consent items and then our items on action superintendent more good evening now um we covered three items in our work
141session today the first one was a quick item with the proposed revision to the 23 24 school year calendars those calendars have been previously adopted prior to a decision of the board to ask staff to look at every year ensuring that election day is a work day or a day off in some way that helps promote the concerns that are raised by the number of our schools that are used as polling places and the ability of of staff to have time to vote as well so that change was brought for the 23-24 calendars for all calendars and then additionally there was also a request from the board to look at year-round calendars and ensure that because they are in session in the month of June that we look for an observance of Juneteenth as well
142so those revisions will come to the board for a vote at the next board meeting in November the second item in uh work session today was an update on summer learning from 2022 and some work coming for 2023 I'm going to present it a little bit differently than work session the items that we did in summer 2022 that are continuing items were first the read to achieve Camp which is a legislative required camp for second and third graders and funding is provided by DPI for this camp we provided information on the number of students that attended the data that shows that they did make progress and then there are some questions from the board that the staff need to come back with and address regarding the number of students that are eligible the number that
143agreed to attend the number that actually attend how many days they are attending and seeing what work can be done given the benefits of the 10 to 12 Day program that we ensure that good communication and opportunity is made for all students to be able to attend um another item that is recurring item that we have done for years is credit recovery at the high school the update here and the difference here is the emphasis on providing a greater opportunity for credit recovery for more students to participate in years past it was really focused on seniors or Rising seniors and that focus and the resources has been expanded to include all grade levels so that it is a growing program and that will continue as well new in summer 22 were two programs that we
144spoke to you about the first was power Scholars this is a collaboration and a partnership with the YMCA at two of our elementary schools this past summer Bug Elementary and Poe Elementary this was a five-week program with a remarkably High rate of attendance and engagement of students it is a little bit different than the read to achieve program our our partnership with the Y A lot of a lot more flexibility they provided some resources we provided some resources in order to make it happen and what we are looking for really is how we can expand that to some additional schools in summer 23 while we continue at bug and Poe the second new summer program in summer 22 that we talked about was the CTE career accelerator program this program really also funded by DPI
145came from an acknowledgment that during the pandemic in particular with the different modes of learning that were going on that many students missed out on opportunities to engage in the normal Hands-On opportunities in the community that normally represent the experience that students have in CTE Career Technical education classes so we wanted to we provided that opportunity through the CT accelerator for the summer uh many students did participate and during that program not only did they have the opportunity to have Hands-On experiences be out in the community at businesses but they were also able to earn some additional credentials if they so desired there that is a first year program under review we plan to continue it as long as the funding continues to be available and see how we can expand and get more out
146of it as well there were two new proposed summer programs that were part of the discussion as well today one is a summer math enrichment for Rising 6th and 9th graders this really is the first time other than the legislated require summer program a couple of years ago where we are trying to intentionally engage with Rising sixth graders in Middle School to help provide a more successful transition to middle school and the summer math enrichment program is an effort that will be going on for sixth graders but also for Rising 9th graders to provide a transition to middle school and high school that supports their needs in math the second one is also a summer program called The Summer Bridge Academy also for Rising 6th and 9th graders this one to focus more on academic
147needs as well as well-being of students to promote successful transition to middle school or to high school and then the third item we discussed in work session today was a Board review and discussion to get feedback on our current bullying and harassment policy and to get information from board members and discussion in small groups about your understanding of the language that's in there the places where you see gaps the places where you see language that may need to be addressed and ensuring that the the policy language is language that supports how our families and how our students engage and in particular to look at the gaps from what is sometimes continued considered the federal definitions and the application of policy and the gaps that are Co that are caused by bullying or harassment that that
148may be occurring in schools that doesn't rise to the level of the language that's in the policy but nevertheless is detrimental and needs to be addressed um those were the items from our work session today uh the bullying harassment will be coming back with revisions based on the feedback from today so you will see that again thank you superintendent Moore now we go to our consent items is there a motion to approve the consent agenda chairman happy I will move adoption of the consent agenda second you have a motion and the second all those in favor please say aye any opposed name we now move on to our action items of which we have one um and that is board policy 1150 Equity policy first reading I believe Dr will Chavis will be joining us
149chair my happy members of the board superintendent Moore I am here to present the first reading of our new policy 1150 equity this will be a new wcpss specific policy and there is no corresponding NC school boards Association policy this policy was previously reviewed and the policy committee meetings on May 19th of 2021 and June 19th of 2021 with which you provided feedback it was then brought back to the board on August 30th of 2022 for a recap and to determine next steps the board provided additional feedback at that meeting and asked for revisions to be made to the draft a revised draft policy was presented to at the October 4th board work session staff was asked to collect stakeholder feedback and the results of the feedback was presented at the October 25th policy committee
150meeting the draft you see today includes the changes you requested at the October 25th policy committee meeting tonight we request that the board we request the board's approval of the first reading of our new policy 1150 equity it's Kushner thank you chairman happy on behalf of the policy committee and colleagues I move approval on first reading of the equity policy 1150 as listed second okay we have a motion in a second any comments questions or discussion from board members Dr Martin Dr Chase I want to thank you and the team for working at bringing this uh policy back uh I think your this last round of of what the last round under your direction of edits really has moved this to a much better place and I'm very pleased that uh it's it's before us
151today um you know I think I think as we've had lots of conversation you know policy strategic plan what is it uh we recognize that this is not a normal policy uh and yet is a very important statement of perspective and a lens through which we need to to see and I think it's you know as we've talked about yeah there's issues that all of us may have language here there but this is moving Us in the right direction for us to first see because if we don't see we pretend it's not there we need to understand the origins why are we where we're at we need to act and if we do that we'll see it in the outcomes so I I look forward to to seeing where we go not so much from
152a policy perspective but how this gets incorporated into who we are I'm glad to see the language in our strategic plan I look forward to seeing that embodied um uh I also um and saddened by some of the attack that we've seen in emails um uh across in response to this that anyone should see equity as something that we should not be striving for baffles me you know when we look across our school system there are schools that we don't even have playgrounds that kids can play on we have schools where no you can't take an AP class you have to take that online I'm sorry that's not equitable it feels to me like those opposing the idea of equity are those who want to see education as an entitlement to get ahead we used
153to say that the purpose of public education was to give every child an opportunity that's what public education should be the great equalizer unfortunately we've seen too many of these days who want education not to be the great equalizer but the great divider but I'm pleased about the purpose of this policy to lends the vision is to move us toward being the great equalizer the great opportunity creator that education should be and we need to fight every instinct to let education be the great separator I'll look forward to voting for this policy thank you Miss cash so as you you talked about Equity I just want to be sure we understand that this is not taking away to give and so you know because I would never do that I would never take away from
154those that that have worked hard for what they have or those families that are doing what they can in our schools or in our schools every day working very hard so I know that you are supporting that and that this is not about taking away from anyone to give to somebody else okay further Miss Kushner thank you and I um and I welcome the chance at work session to talk about the um type discrimination and harassment and bullying policy I think it does it's important to put it in this reference it in equity policy but it's also important for us to revisit it so I welcome that we're going to do that on in at the November policy committee meeting because I do think we need to talk about how we create welcoming environments for
155our students and this policy is overdue as a way of us to um to put into words and to policy how we do that for our students who have been historically discriminated against and historically marginalized so I appreciate the work of all of our my colleagues on this policy throughout the years that we've been working on it I think it's critically important that we do this and I think it's critically important that we bring our community along as I think Miss cash is underscored um it's and I think that we've we strove together to come up with that language that I think is going to be a great first step for enforcing to our community the need for this policy the need to revisit bullying and non-discrimination on the basis of disabilities the other policy
156that's um that is cited in this policy because we need all of our students to succeed and it's not a pie it is expanded opportunity for all of our students it doesn't take away from anyone it's trying to help all students be successful as one of someone said earlier so I appreciate the work that we did in the last policy committee meeting to come up with this version thank you thank you Miss Carter all right thank you and I I guess there was one little change I was looking for I thought that was a compromise from our meeting that I didn't see in here but I'll I'm not going to hold this up on first reading at all but I you know I Echo some things that have been said already and actually I want
157to thank a green hope student had reached out Friday they're doing a story actually on this policy and some of the things that have been said is some of the things that I um had shared with this student and it goes back to that sense of belonging and that doesn't mean that another student doesn't feel it's about everybody feeling like they have a place in our schools and their families have a place in our schools and they don't feel judged or stereotyped based on anything and letting all that and to me it is about ending it it is about completely stopping it and while it might be seemed as lofty I do believe as we have that ability to do that and I mean I've worked with some students in the past where there are
158some in our society who do not believe that they can Thrive or succeed and I emphatically deny that and I can prove otherwise and I think that policy speaks to this policy speaks to that as well because I have said several times I feel like all students can rise is what I've said before and that just looks different for every single student because and that's what I think to me that is what this is about and ensuring that they their barriers are removed whatever it may be access to whatever it may may be so that they can rise and I'll leave it there thank you Vice chair Hagerty thank you um Dr Chase I want to thank you for all of the work you and your staff have put into the policy and all of
159the work going through everything with with the board um I specifically want to call out the inclusion of the addition of the word bias in the definition and I I really want to point this out this was a suggestion that was made you know Miss Scott and miss miss Waters have talked about the the original language in there and I think bias is a very noteworthy addition as I see the definition of bias bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing usually in a way that is close-minded prejudicial and unfair biases can be innate or learned people may develop biases for and against an individual group of belief and Science and Engineering a bias is a systematic error and it sounds like as we've talked about the work and
160we've talked about what we want to identify and what we want to correct and what we want to fix we want to look at both innate and learned bias we want to look at systematic error and we want to go in and correct that which is closed-minded prejudicial and unfair so um just thank you for working with us to that end again I know there's additional language I think some of us have looked at there's some things said tonight that I think deserve a look but we've also heard that there's urgency in the policy and not to let you know great be the enemy of of the good and so chair Mahaffey I don't know what our options are as far as the urgency in moving the policy forward um you know obviously I'm in
161favor of it on first reading and I don't know what our options are for Expediting the policy beyond that Jonathan do you want to speak to some procedure I mean there's there's always the um I mean this would be scheduled for second reading at the end of November right at the second meeting at on a consent item so that would be the the normal approach I mean otherwise the board would have to waive policy um you know I mean you'd have to waive policy and wave second reading essentially that in order to do that so that would require a essentially a procedural motion to to waive your policy that that uh that normally requires second reading thank you Miss Scott thank you um and I want to again highlight the compromise that our board through
162discussion at the policy committee meeting again it's it's incredibly important to have conversations with people face to face to look someone in the eye to truly listen to what they're saying and sharing and I appreciate on that same note the opportunity that you provided for feedback from various focus groups um there is a sense of urgency as we heard from the the people who who were speaking with us this this is an overdue policy there's a sense of urgency and um looking at the notes that I took from that meeting as really focusing on Equity as an action is is critical um for our students so I I wish there had been some language that had in the original draft was still there but I certainly accept and understand um the compromise and the why
163behind the compromise and support moving this forward and look forward to voting this evening thank you Miss cash I don't see any other hands up right now so I just you know again I don't I'd like to run through regular policy procedures to do this however I don't want people anywhere in this world think that this Equity policy makes all children feel welcome in our schools because as I said you know the disengage and our NCAA president does not believe disengaged are marginalized and however they are not historically marginalized they are not welcome in our schools they're not feeling welcome in our schools so I am not going to at all you know hurt this policy I will support this policy on equity but I do want to continue with the bowling policy and I
164don't want the public as a whole to think that this Equity policy now makes everybody feel welcome in our schools because I I take that very serious Miss Waters this policy is very meaningful for me personally as a woman of color as a mother of two children in the district who have disabilities so I look at it from a different lens I I don't think there is any intentionality to exclude any group and I don't think anyone at this table doesn't have concern for students who are disengaged but there is a need to address systemic inequities that have kept generations of students from achieving their full potential and I think this is overdue and I'm so excited for the opportunity to be able to give voice to students who look like me to students who
165look like my children who need something in policy that says that we are committed to making sure that we address the things that have gone on generation after generation to make it hard for you to achieve what you're capable of doing and we continue to work hard as people of color we do the work but there are systems in place that make it hard for us to achieve and this policy sets groundwork for us to be able to say this is where we need to allocate resources this is where we need to have conversation this is where we need to provide training to address biases and so I support this policy I don't know how as a new board member to um advocate for moving this policy forward but I would love to see a
166procedural change to be able to skip for a second reading and to be able to vote on this policy I I think it is that important I think it is that urgent and so I'm I'm I it is it is urgent for me to to see this policy past and I and I want to really reiterate there is no desire to exclude any group from being advocated for and supported but there is there is a need to look at historically marginalized communities and give voice to those needs and so I think this policy is is a way that we can do that for for our students for our Educators and to to give voice to what is long overdue for our students Madam chair if I could just one more time on the um the
167waiver issue not suggesting that there's support forward or not I just have heard it come up the your policy is policy 2420 adoption of policies and basically that policy says that you can that you can suspend or waive policies with a two-thirds vote um and um in that it says it would have to be an extenuating circumstances and the policy that you would actually be waving if the board had any interest what is policy 2420 which requires two readings of the board so that would be the the it would require two-thirds vote to do that um and um you know the where you are procedurally right now there's a motion in a second to approve this policy again not pushing this whatsoever if there were to be a an interest in it I think it
168would be to make a motion to essentially amend the original motion and the second to then add to it to waive the and also to waive the second read again please know in no way am I weighing in I just want you to know procedurally I actually counselor for me I want to be clear because there there is a motion on the table and there is a second I believe that part is parliamentary parliamentarily accurate however I don't know that that would preclude a subsequent motion to you know to waive the policy 2420 to move the policy forward you know onto immediate secondary you know to immediate second reading I don't know that that would have to be part of that original motion what am I missing so I think that that would be another
169way to do it to approve it on first reading and then to do a a another another motion to waive the second reading I think that if you did that and the board approved that by two-thirds vote I think there would still need to be like then a a it wouldn't just be to waive it it seems to me that there would be you would the board would need to then vote to approve it essentially you know on uh on first reading so that essentially could be I would the motion would be to approve this now based on the first reading and to waive the policy and that would have to be approved by two-thirds vote and that that's that's what I understood I know that there may be board members that support approval of
170the policy who may not want to suspend the rule but that it you know rather than at all being in one vote and I just want to Clarity on that but I do think that we could go ahead and suspend the rule if you know after a vote on first reading as I read it but again the policy says in extenuating circumstances Kushner um and not to get bogged down in parliamentary procedure but and I hear your passion Miss Waters I would I I would support going ahead and passing it first reading this time and coming back in our second meeting and doing it as we normally do um I I do have a sense of urgency we've been doing working on this for two years on this particular policy it certainly is but so
171I um I think we need to make sure we do it right we don't undermine the work that we've done by doing anything extra different so I would I think I would stand by my motion to prove it on first reading tonight superintendent more so I I'd just like to say a couple things I want to thank the board the community the staff the students the stakeholder groups that we're all a part of gathering feedback to get us to where we are today there's a lot of work that was done in the last few months with that Dr Chavis sort of outlined and I can tell you from my history in the district I recall actually going a little further back maybe like even the 2011 when we were doing raising achievement closing gaps conferences
172and talking about the potential of a policy then and I can take it back a little further to when I was still a principal at Sanderson High School in 2007 and we had a curriculum audit and one of the recommendations in that curriculum audit was to look at Equity across the district with regards to how our students were accessing and being successful in our curriculum efforts so there's there's been a lot of of talk and work that's led us to where we are today so I just want to thank all of the folks that have been a part of that that have provided the critical feedback the supportive feedback the pushy feedback the negative feedback whatever it is that has gotten us to where we are today and then I guess the last thing I
173would say I'm going to use somebody else's Words which I have used previously and some of you may recall these words many have devoted their careers and their lives to helping this system succeed much has been accomplished and there is more yet to do my hope is that the efforts of the past will like the path for those who are building the next 30 years of the Wake County public school system's Legacy now and into the future and those are the words of former Senator Vernon Malone in 2006. superintendent was raised so all in favor of passing this Equity policy on first reading please say aye any opposed nay okay this policy passes thank you we now go into closed session and I will entertain a motion there we go chair Mahaffey I move the
174board go into closed session to consider confidential Personnel information protected under North Carolina General statute 143-3 1811 A1 A3 and A6 also Scott V Wake County Public School System industrial commission file 16-762203 also to consult with the Board of Education attorney and preserve the attorney-client privilege is provided for in Gs 143 318-11 A3 due to current litigation es together with her parent LS and Wake County Board of Education 21 eastern district 5429 uh to consult with an attorney employee to retained by the board in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the board and to consult with and instruct board staff for negotiating agents concerning the position to be taken by or on behalf of the board in negotiation of price and other material terms of a proposed contract for the acquisition
175of real property in southern Wake County North Carolina having Wake County property identification number 0656-91-1743 and finally to consider confidential student information protected under General statute 1115 C 402 and the family education rights and Privacy Act 20 U.S code 1232g I think it was there a second we have a motion second to go into closed session for the reasons previous stated any discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay we are now in closed session thank you [Music]