22-9-20 Board Meeting

001thank you um thank you foreign [Music] good evening everyone it is Tuesday September 20th at 5 30 pm and we're calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order I would like to welcome you 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 the public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe the board as it conducts its official business persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances in an official meeting may be directed to lead by the presiding officer

002members of the audience should show respect for speakers but for 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 1.17 all of our board members are present today as well as superintendent Moore and our board attorney Mr blumberg um if you would all stand and join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance liberty and justice for all thank you all very much we're going to move on to our information items and we will begin with the superintendent's comments and I'm very excited for our information item today later on hearing from some of our students and families so superintendent Moore Jeffy thank you chair Mahaffey board members it was a day of celebration at

003Weatherstone Elementary on Friday when the news broke that Weatherstone had been named a 2022 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S Department of Education marking it as a national model of effective School practices this is one of the highest honors in education Weatherstone was one of 297 private schools honored Nationwide this year and one of just five from North Carolina Weatherstone was deemed an exemplary High performing school for the many ways it facilitates strong student achievement as a stem School Weatherstone engages students with project-based learning and science technology engineering and math Weatherstone also has a stem special that all students attend every week which focuses on digital citizenship the engineering design process technology and innovation the school prioritizes Partnerships with partners and local businesses which helps create a community focused on making sure that all

004students have the resources and opportunities they need to succeed these Partnerships along with the dedication of the Weatherstone staff were essential amid the disruption of the pandemic proud principal Tim Chadwick says our entire School Community demonstrated resilience commitment and Ingenuity to continue effective teaching and learning under unprecedented circumstances it took all of us working together to make this award possible Weatherstone is now the 12th wcpss school to attain this honor School Representatives will travel to Washington in November to officially accept the award congratulations to every Weatherstone student staff member and family on this remarkable achievement last week was arts in education week and we would like to highlight and congratulate Janiece Withers a visual arts teacher at Apex friendship Middle School who has been named middle level art educator of the Year by the North

005Carolina Arts Educators Association Ms Withers has been a visual arts teacher in our school district for 16 years she taught at East Garner Magnet Middle School and Centennial Campus Magnet Middle before joining Apex friendship Middle School in its inaugural year of 2018. Miss Withers initially wanted to teach Fine Arts at the college level but fortunately for us she fell in love with teaching Middle School when she was a student teacher stay there is an excitement in the Art Studio and I enjoy watching the students grow and develop as artists over the course of three years she says I can truly say that I am constantly growing and learning from my students how to become a better art educator Miss Withers will officially receive her award at the Arts Educators Association conference next month in Wilmington

006Arts education has many benefits for students including supporting the development of the 4C skills communication creativity collaboration and critical thinking as Miss Withers puts it the Arts allow us to express our thoughts communicate our ideas document historical events and bring communities together the Arts can be therapeutic and arts education allows students to work collaboratively with their peers which helps them learn multiple perspectives outside of their own my thanks to Ms Withers and all of our outstanding Arts teachers for the countless ways they support the growth development and well-being of our students actually please my comments thank you superintendent Moore and being in Miss Withers our classroom just like any of our art classrooms is always just amazing to see our students creating I was excited to see last week many of our schools announced their

007cast lists or what musical they would be doing or play and Miss Carter superintendent Moore and I got to go to the bands of Carrie preview at Green level high school which despite a storm instead of being on the football field as are many of our um teachers are able to do very quickly moved it into the gymnasium and it was incredible to see three different performances Miss Scott as a former member of the marching hundred and I think he would have enjoyed it a lot I'm sorry you weren't there but um it it was phenomenal and just very excited to see all the work that they are doing in our Arts programs um and we had our board advisory council meeting last night at Apex friendship Elementary School um and I'd like to thank

008the shooting stars PTA for hosting and they already had their fifth grade safety patrol ready to invite us in so everyone knew how to find the library it's a very unique carpool lane over there and a really interesting exit to that school um you go back into the woods um we talked Glenn kroza was with us to talk about assignment and although no preview was given just talking about how they come up with the plan and the four pillars and what we look at when it comes to assigning students and then heard from the friends of wake about the upcoming Bond referendum that will be on the back of everyone's ballot and with that those are my comments so I'd like to turn it over to Vice chair hegarty thank you chair Mahaffey just very

009briefly um I want to acknowledge that I haven't been present the last few weeks many of you know and I really appreciate the the kind words and the sympathy that's come out uh we did lose a family member this month and it has been a difficult time for the family so um I am behind I'm slowly getting back to respond to emails and phone calls and everything and we just ask for your grace and understanding as we move forward and now I promise we'll get caught up and we'll move forward from there but thank you all for your kind words thank you um let's start with Miss Kushner no comments this evening thank you Dr Martin thank you um uh we will be District Five will be holding its BAC on October the 3rd it's

010Monday the October 3rd at 5 30 at Combs Elementary School uh topics will be the student assignment and hopefully somebody from the uh friends of Wake County to discuss the bond issue I also want to highlight Swift Creek Elementary School in my district is getting ready to celebrate their 90th year as a school they're going to have a celebration on Saturday I'm not going to be able to be there because of family engagement uh in in Minneapolis Minnesota so but I just wanted to highlight that 90 years as a school is impressive that school has done a lot in that community and it will be fun to celebrate their history finally I do want us to pay attention as always to what's happening with respect to the covet issues last week there were 371 student

011cases 110 staff cases as perspective that's about 90 of what it was one year ago for students though remember that we were we're one week later but also important to recognize for students is that uh one year ago we were trending down but we're still trending up uh between last week and the previous week we were up by 16 percent so student cases are still going up like I said they were going down one year ago staff cases are at 2.3 times what they were last year so um whether you want to say the pandemic is over or not which help people do not say it is still here and if 110 staff cases were there that means somewhere on the order of 100 100 classrooms did not have a teacher in the classroom so

012we need to you know get vaccinated we need to take this seriously it is impacting employment and education thank you Miss Scott thank you and good evening um really thankful for all of our Arts teachers in the Wake County Public School System for those of you who don't remember last September our board signed a resolution to commit that Arts are education and they are a critical part of the experience that our students have in our schools not only do they sometimes bring people in to the school buildings where they may not be excited they have some things going on worried about a core subject but they are excited about a fine arts teacher um who they're going to to be spending time with and you could go on and on and on about the the

013research that shows that kids who participate in music have higher test scores but that's not really not what it's about it's about developing people as a person it's about empathy it's about working with each other it's about being creative collaborative thinking critical thinking all of this occurs in our Fine Arts and that's everything from dance to theater to music to visual arts and and so on so they they are education absolutely and the Arts are humanity and they they teach us empathy and I'm thankful that we uh that we have them and and hope that we can continue to celebrate our arts and I'm excited that we get to hear um some Arts this evening as well um I'll let Miss cash talk about the joint BAC meeting that we had last night but I

014did want to extend a a huge thank you to District three um for opening up their doors for our our joint BAC meeting and I was telling Miss cash my very first BAC meeting was a joint one uh with her so it was it was nice to still be able to squeeze one more joint meeting in before um our 10 years on this board come to a close um it was also instructional assistance day week I can't keep track of the day maybe well it's just it should be year round right um but I wanted to just say thank you um for everything that they do and and we need more of them in the school and please remember that there are the upwards of nine to ten thousand fewer state funded instructional assistance uh

015now than there were about 10 years ago so it is not the doing of this school system that is coming from the way our state funds education and I would hope that folks who are critical about that might take a look at the way our funding works in the state of North Carolina when it comes to education but our our instructional assistants do so much um and I wanted to just give a shout out to them it was an instructional assistant who'd changed the trajectory of what my why when it comes to education I've told that story many times before but a person who took the time to really get to know students and told me more about my students things that I would not have known and uh and it turned me around from

016from realizing that I it was my job to to lift up students and always looking for ways that we can tear down barriers that might be in their way so thank you to them and uh that concludes my comments for this evening thank you thank you Miss Scott Miss Johnson hosler thank you very much and I echo my colleagues sentiments um regarding our our appreciation for our for our our IAS and um expressing the grave need I've as I said earlier I've had the great opportunity to speak to several of them who are offering theirselves to do more with less time giving the need to to meet the needs of our students and so my sincere appreciation to all of them and um just a few updates our BAC is next Wednesday at Bryan Road

017one of our schools that will be going through some assignment changes so um to make sure people know it starts at 6 pm and we'd love to hear your comments and I also will Echo that we'd like to also make sure you put those comments on our thought exchange since they're being rated so we'll have both places for you to be able to engage in conversations as District 2 under ghosts probably some of our most substantial assignment changes in my tenure on the board so I look forward to having that conversation and thank the student assignment staff in advance for joining me at Bryan Road next Wednesday and then the last thing I'll say is um I adore my district and many of you know I went from one high school in my district to

018three and Garner never disappoints we had the Garner Bowl on Friday so I will say now that South Garner has had a high a varsity team last year Garner won this week in South Gardner Mr cook are you shaking your head over there he couldn't even control it but it is it is an amazing time everybody comes and everybody's excited it is it is truly truly a community event at the school and and I still love the fact that the Garner the little water tower Bowl has both schools on each side which I almost forgot when they were running with this health card I was like oh my God the Garter side's gone but they hit it very well so that we would only see the South part decide who won so um it was

019indeed a great time and thank you to all of the support that our community comes out and and supports our high schools and again the beauty of seeing no surprise this side of the table loves our Athletics but we also got to see all of our our bands and our not just our marching bands but our dancers and our cheerleaders and the amazing school spirit so again the Garner bowl is another one in the books and I appreciate the town and all the community support and I'm just going to next time ignore Mr Cook's head nodding at me thank you Miss cash um yeah I'm gonna miss homecoming from Millbrook High School but Miss Johnson hosler will be there and she will be taking good care of everybody Miss Johnson house and I actually did

020visit Millbrook together last Tuesday and had some time to meet with Dr Saunders and some of the all the AP staff was coming our Direction they know when we're there and they're so friendly there they just came and we we spent a lot of time we had a good time and we got to talk about a lot of things that is going going on at Millbrook High School and it was it was a good visit I think it was a really good visit um and yes um art I love art uh my daughter is an art teacher and she is a wonderful artist but when she went to school in Wake County they all all four of my children got great educations she struggled a little more than the boys did but if it wasn't

021for the great teachers that literally understood that art was her passion and got her involved in art like drawing a map in geography or whatever they call that and doing art in every class so that she would learn the facts while she was doing it and then had the best art teachers through Hunter and ligan and then Millbrook High School and went on to be very successful art teacher and that was her success so I I appreciate art so much and it did a lot for much of my family and the back meeting that we did have our board advisory council meeting was last night and Heather and I miss Scott and I had a really good time of having our two bacs together and remembering how we started it that way we had almost

022100 people there between the two bacs so it was a it was a it was a very informative night and we had lots of good questions and I thank the West Mill we were at West Millbrook Middle School and they were all ready to show us their new school they've been waiting for for so long and it was exciting Kelly amen the principal there was just so excited to show her new school they decorated the the um the cafeteria all up for dinner that we had prior to going in and then to the media center and Russ Smiths and his staff were there and did a really a very good presentation on Safety and Security went back and talked about the risk assessment that we had started in 2019 long before a lot of the

023things had come out recently so we we were looking at this for a while a lot of questions a lot of conversation about Safety and Security in our schools good answers good discussions and we also have a little bit of information about where you can sign up to be a tutor for the Wake together so we put that out there and talked a little bit about the bond and then I I got a brick presented to me by Miss amen from the the oldest part of the building from the West Millbrook and it um she had had the contractor there the Builder had put together bricks for all the teachers and three or four extra ones and had actually cleaned them all up really good from the oldest part of the building put little felt

024uh little felt things underneath them so I wouldn't scratch wherever you said it and so I got mine presented to me last night it was really excited and met a lot so it was a good night last night that is so sweet oh my goodness Miss no we didn't get a break from you oh Dr Robinson uh Miss Carter hard to follow that I'll try um I had to I did want to follow up and I appreciate fellow board members recognizing IA appreciation day as well that was last Friday I know I know I've said it a lot but being a former special at IA um I've seen a lot of transformation from a district perspective within the district on the respect and value that has become more evident and more to me pronounce over

025the several years with the creation of IA empowerment days with professional learning and various the and pay raises that helps as well but truly I have seen a transformation more pronounced because sometimes it would depend and I know what it's like some feel like you go unseen in the school building and folks aren't quite sure what you do but the students that you work with especially if you're in special education those parents will sometimes come and say say to folks well this IA does this and this and this and folks are like really I had no idea or if you go and you push into a classroom to help with students and having folks be like oh had no idea and I just think um the more we spread I guess information about their roles

026and it can vary and I think that's also something that is unique you can show up and one day you're doing X and another day you're doing why and the flexibility that is shown in being able to wear so many different hats I just appreciate all that you all do and appreciate you continuing to show up for our students and staff and I do want to congratulate Weatherstone elementary school that is a huge honor and I just shout out to the all the staff there and the students and the families superintendent Moore spoke a lot about that so appreciate that and for athletics because yes we love our Athletics over here I enjoyed Apex versus Green Hope soccer game that was interesting but I did want to speak the goalie for Apex really impressed me

027one of the Green Hope kids well I shouldn't say kids I guess or high school has to call them all kids students went down and he left and checked and really went over and spoke to him and to me that meant a lot because he didn't have to do that and it to me speaks to character and so I was very impressed by that also before my back meeting I attended the course I did early got the carry High versus Green Hope High JV volleyball couldn't get the varsity varsity and due to timing but it was great to be able to catch some volleyball action and then Green Hope and versus Apex friendship football game and always enjoy the band the dance team cheerleaders all of that and had several students that kind of um

028took over the crowd shall we say because I love to sit in the student section I don't sit actually I stand the whole time I don't I don't I don't we don't and so I mean like they took charge and it was pretty awesome they had so much teams uh just the spirit going running back and forth had the thing literally rocking a few times I was like okay are we going down you know okay we're all good down together if we do uh but it was just great it was a great that's what it's about um just the atmosphere uh even if the outcome isn't what you want on the scoreboard I'm keeping that going um so um had a blast and yes the bands of care event I I always loved that I

029mean I went last year and it was at Green Hope and it was outside it was totally different because some folks still were comfortable because that was a big crowd it was outside this year I felt like we were just packed and so many folks there supporting everyone and kicking it off to me I love the first number which is when they all come out performed together the national anthem it's all bands and it's just to me that's what we're here for right they're going to be competing against each other you know but that first United performance is awesome and getting some sneak peeks into what their performances are coming up and uh I just love it so I also had the opportunity to visit Laurel Park Elementary School it's a little different a visit

030it was a teacher working on her master's degree and taking a school Law class so it was interesting it was kind of learning more about that class and then part of her assignment was she had to watch a board meeting and then interview board member so different role but it was interesting I I did my best to answer a lot of questions uh but uh I had my I guess assignment I guess uh I also I appreciate the opportunity to visit Morrisville elementary school and it's a new coming to D9 so it was great just to see the school learn and uh got to meet quite a number of Staff members and students and learned that they apparently have a lot of quote-unquote animal visitors at times during recess so I love to hear some

031of those stories and some of the students following up about what happened yesterday and how was that duck doing or whatever type of wildlife I was so it was interesting and I did have the first back meeting for this school year and wanted to thank Cary high school for hosting it and their culinary arts department those students just did an amazing job with the dinner I you know my idea was for back means we could just go around and learn all about the CT culinary arts programs all the different things and put it seen in action I just really enjoyed being able to Showcase those students abilities and talking to each of them before to see if they really like this outside of school and it was very interesting to me how some love cooking

032for others others don't they wanted to cook but only if it was just for themselves so but they all like cooking outside of school which was awesome and I enjoyed and really appreciated Miss Honeycutt coming out and speaking to the back about the CTE offerings and really breaking it down by school and also the credential tools and it was a real I thought it was very important but very helpful because we often get questions about or I do about what school offers this and what school offers that and how does this all work together and it was great to see that all in a presentation and just for those who are wondering I'm going to go ahead and y'all can our next back meeting is in October and it's October 24th and it's going to

033be at Apex High School at 6 pm and it will be on by then we'll be on draft two of the student enrollment plan so that will be our topic for that evening but if you're interested and then I'm going to close with because y'all know I love my place so I wanted just to hit on a few in case you're looking at your calendar and thinking what can I do in the next month or so Kerry high school will be performing a clue September 28th through October 1st at 7 7pm Apex High School will be performing Walk Two Moons on October 20th through 22nd at 7 pm they will also have a sensory friendly matinee at 2PM on Saturday October 22nd and green hope will be performing leaving Iowa October 20th through 22nd at

0347 pm so appreciate your patience with that and I encourage you all to come out and support our students whether it's in the Arts Athletics just come support them thank you Miss Waters thank you chair Mahaffey and so many wonderful things going on around the district I had a chance of over the weekend to run into one of my sixth grade classmates from East Millbrook Middle School and so it was great to see her and I actually recently found my t-shirt from 1989 90 school year but it was not magnet back then and so miss cash has promised me a visit to East Millbrook so I am I'm not sure if I'm going to wear that shirt but I'm I'm looking forward to getting over to East Millbrook and I'm so excited to share about

035the District 4 BAC meeting we have a wonderful new BAC chair her name is Tamara Oh yeah today and she is working really hard to get everything set for our meeting which is going to be on Tuesday September 27th at 6 30 pm and thank you to Enloe High School for welcoming us and being willing to host us and also one last thing earlier today I had a chance to go to a meeting that was held up held at wake up and read it was a meeting of lots of different organizations that depend on volunteers and so I learned so much more about what wake up Marie does in our communities and so I love when my children come home with their orange bags and so it's it's amazing to see that they are also

036working with other organizations like the green chair project and the Marcus Harris Foundation to send books out to homes in collaboration with other programs so wake up and read is amazing I love running into a Marissa Beth and Lori I see them at so many events and I appreciate all that they do to increase literacy around our for our children and to make sure that children have access to books so very grateful for wake up and read and so thank you so much Miss Waters and Miss Kushner something came to your mind thank you for coming back to me just wanted to um thank the counselors at the Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy which is a new school to District Six for inviting me and giving me the presentation for their ramp National model counseling

037presentation it was really great to these um as you all know it's a grade six through early college and they have two counselors one from middle school one for high school so those two women wear many hats for many students so it was really great to hear their updates on how they're focusing on students who need extra assistance as well as the whole school so thanks to them and best wishes for them as they get their designation thank you there's one thing that we did not mention and that was intentional because we have a very special presentation for our information item and that is to celebrate um the start of national Hispanic Heritage Month which began on September 15th and goes until October 15th and so we have some folks here Dr Chavis Dr Rangel

038to um to share some information and we're always excited to see our students here as well so thank you for being here good evening chair Mahaffey Vice chair Hagerty board members and superintendent Moore we are so excited to be with you all this evening and we have a special very special treat for you National Hispanic Heritage Month is an annual observation starting September 15th and going through October 15th which recognizes the contributions and the influence of Hispanic Americans to the history culture and achievements of the United States the start of Hispanic Heritage Month marks the independence of five Latin American countries Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua the designated period also includes recognitions of individuals from Mexico and Chile who celebrate their independence on September 16th and 18th respectively this evening district and

039school Representatives will share and highlight some of the ongoing efforts and honor and celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in the Wake County Public School System I yield now to Dr Maria Rosa Rangel director of Family Academy and Community engagement of the office of equity Affairs for a special presentation thank you it's always a pleasure to be in front of the school board and just a little bit as you know we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month so we need to know a little bit about what's the impact so they are and thank you they are 6.6 million Hispanic Latinos as of July 1st 2019. making us a Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic Croatia minority Institute 18.5 percent of the nation's total population there are 12 12 states with a population of one million or more Hispanic

040Latinos as of 2019 let me read them to you and see if you recognize one of them Arizona California Colorado Florida Georgia Illinois New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Pennsylvania and Texas I wonder what the the population will be in North Carolina let's find out over the last decade NC Hispanic Latino population has grown by 25 of the State uh population and now greater than one million people with a thousand and I'm sorry one million 26 000 residents in 19 uh in starting 2019. Hispanic Latinos compromise one in 10 NC residents 17.9 percent students in NC public schools are Hispanic Latino 14 of first-time full-time students in NC Community College are Hispanic Latinos and there are 30 201 wcps students in in Wake County Public Schools let me tell you how many are

041in elementary and how many are in middle and high school they are 12 985 Latino students in elementary school we have some elementary and middle schools and there's 95 students in the high schools we have 9 683 Latino students in Middle School seven thousand two hundred and fifty two in the Middle High School we have 115 in the special option schools we have 71 making us a total of 30 201 Latino students and I wonder how many wcps employees we have let's see there is a total of one meal one sorry one thousand 102 out of 1980 841 so a thousand one hundred and two are Latino Hispanic descent they are 462 teachers who are Latino out of ten thousand eight hundred and thirty five and Central Services 154 out of two thousand seven hundred

042and seventy five and 134. Central service employees not including cafeteria staff bus staff IAS or teachers principals that's what I really want to know how many principles we have 7 out of 199 and 14 assistant principles out of 403. so you know I often wonder so now we know but also we are very very proud of the intentionality of Wake County Public Schools as you know we have our first Latina woman superintendent here Kathy Moore got to get us more and we are so proud of her and obviously now we have our chief officer of communication Lisa luten so we are very proud and of course we have many dedicated uh teachers and it is my pleasure but obviously before I introduce you to our guest speaker I want to tell you something that Latinos

043contribute contribute to the economy and we are everywhere you can find us across Spectrum in North Carolina for example are you aware that we contribute 25 million in the economy that impacts North Carolina that is 25 billion dollars that we contribute and of course we are hard workers that's something that it's a proud trade of Latinos and we work in every aspect you could find us in construction trades that's According to Jim Johnson he's a veteran uh UNC Chapel Hill business professor and he actually does a lot of research about the impact of Latinos in North Carolina and he says that we contribute in the construction agriculture me processing tracking janitorial make services and of course there is a substantial population of professionals as I mentioned we have our healthy kiddos more superintendent here who

044is a top-notch superintendent in pro-latina as well as Lisa lute but also there is a teacher that I want to talk to you briefly about in the Smitha Edwards and she's being Teacher of the Year 2006 and 2016. and she is a teacher that everybody knows her in Zebulon and Knightdale every parent knows Miss Mita Maestra Mita Edwards I met Mr 20 something years ago and she's very instrumental in US promoting our culture because she started a dance group at the time at cebulon elementary and she brought together a group of students to instill in them the pride of being Hispanic Latino and the culture and she did it through something very interesting dance and if you know anything about Latinos we love to dance and she used the Mexican folklore to do that so

045without further Ado let me introduce you to Mr Edwards that by the way she's going to be highlighted during the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration October 5th everybody's invited for her outstanding contribution to the wcps families and students so meet back without further Ado thank you and good evening everybody thank you for your kind words the Mexican culture is one of the most prominent cultures in the U.S one form of culture in the Hispanic Community is the folkloric dances in 2006 I was hired as an ESL teacher at the Zebulon Elementary GT magnet school and my former principal at that time Marion Evans asked me to build a bridge between the Hispanic community and the school therefore our founded which in English means Latin Soul and pride algorio and Alma Latina gave the my students and

046parents a sense of Pride and the opportunity to share their culture through their folkloric dance performances uh the school principal Mrs Evans kept the school building open late days during the week for dance rehearsal opened the buildings on the weekends for the students to rehearse and went beyond the extra mile to support a Hispanic community in the Eastern Area both students and parents were totally dedicated to this dance group the students gave out their play time during the week and weekends so they could rehearse the parents worked extra jobs and hours in order to purchase dresses Authentics from Mexico as you can see and the dance group also performed not only in the Eastern Area they also represent the Wake County Public School System in festivals like the International Festival Raleigh International Festival they've been

047in Wilmington Azalea Festival they've been in El Pueblo for 16 years they've been dancing throughout the area so has been led by the um uh instructor Mr Fabian Vargas right there and um this month they are celebrating their 16th they're celebrating 16 years yeah they've been dancing for 16 years now and today Angel from Fox Elementary and um yeah Angel and Alexander from Wildwood Elementary are proudly represented their Hispanic heritage through uh called Floric dancing from Jalisco Mexico and let's all give up [Applause] just please [Music] closely [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you bravo bravo there are 45 dancers and we thought we cannot bring them all here it's that's not enough space but there are 45 dancers and we just brought a little taste of what they can do

048but also during his friend here with this man the celebration keeps going and going because we celebrate for a whole month so just so you know we have developed a wcps Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight and people Hispanic Latino teachers and faculty and staff can nominate themselves or somebody can nominate them so far we have 75 employees that have self-nominated themselves or somebody nominate them and that is awesome it is awesome to see their pictures their little bios and I'm so proud to tell you that we got some great workers that really care about the education of students here in Wake County Public Schools we also have the uh join the wcps Linux education Alliance as you know we have an alliance of Educators here and so far we have 40 something new uh Latinos that

049will join this science of Educators here where they come together and they learn a cultural competencies that they could bring back to the school and share with their other colleagues we are also having our annual Hispanic Heritage Month which all of you everybody is uh invited October 5th at Dillard Drive Elementary 5 30 to 7 30 you don't want to miss it it's going to be great and then also we have he's been a Heritage Month classroom resources that are being circulating so that teachers could use when they are teaching the lessons and I just want to say muchas gracias foreign just like to say one more time thank you for coming and sharing your gifts your talents your culture with us this evening I can think of no better way to live out our

050core belief number five which states the Board of Education superintendent and all staff value a diverse School community that is inviting respectful inclusive flexible and supportive thank you again for sharing us with this evening foreign [Applause] I mean if we could have that blend of arts and education month and you know Hispanic Heritage Month that that was incredible and a huge thank you to Miss Edwards for starting that program Mr Vargas for teaching and Angel and Alexander for being brave enough to share their talents with us today instead of in a group of 45 and I just love that Oreo and ialma pride and soul um we are now going to move on to public comment public we still need to approve the agenda oh well yeah we're going to do that first thank you

051Miss Johnson hosler and I was just so moved that I just skipped right past that one yep thank you um all right thank you Miss Johnson hosler and Miss cash for your motion and second of approving the meeting agenda and keeping me in line um all those in favor of approving the meeting agenda please signify with a sign of I any opposed nay and now we are going to move on to public 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

052to Personnel issues may be addressed through the applicable wcpss Personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies those offering comments to the board including students may discuss issues in 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 the following citizens have submitted comments as part of our public comment portion for this evening's agenda these comments are linked on the same online agenda that we are using for tonight's meeting 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 two written comments from from members of the public the topics and speakers

053who comment are attached to our online agenda as follows one on education Equity policy 1150 and one other comment um included um and for those of you that are here in person during public comment you may speak for up to three minutes a yellow light will illuminate at the podium when there are 30 seconds remaining in your time and then a red light will signal when your time is up 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 time any materials you wish to share with the board should be handed to our board attorney

054either before or after your comments Mr blumberg over right there we have 11 people signed up for a public comment and we're going to begin with Aaron Schultz good evening my name is Aaron Schultz my pronouns are she her um first I want to Echo what everybody said about the IAS just it's not on my topic but I just have to say it uh we have the best IAS in the world um just have to say that um the first thing I'd like to do is commend Wake County Public Schools and the school board on the steps that you all have taken to make Wake County schools safe for gender diverse students staff and families Wake County is way ahead of many other areas in the state and the country in having inclusive policies and

055procedures that is seen and I hear comments from around the country and we're way ahead transgender students are a growing minority approximately 1.4 percent of 13 to 17 year olds identify as transgender in the U.S applied to Wake County Schools that's approximately 1200 students it's not an insignificant number it's a lot of kids and that's just in middle and high school that doesn't count grades K to five I couldn't find the statistics on those but there are a lot of them um so that being said our non-binary students are facing significant challenges it's easy for binary kids but we need more clear comprehensive policies for non-binary students bathroom usage there should be Universal non-gendered bathrooms it shouldn't be a source of anxiety we need to make an effort to train our teachers in inclusive language

056instead of saying all right boys and girls or you know pick a side or the boys over here and the girls over there there are other options if you want to divide kids you know ask them blue over here right over there what's your favorite color what's your favorite pet cats and dogs we could we can move past boys and girls you know when addressing entire groups of students let's say students that's what they are they're students and that includes boys girls and everybody non-binary it doesn't take much um and I think that there is some training that's needed for teachers and admins in using those inclusive terms um and also with families if they're addressing groups of families they should use that word families Guardians instead of moms and dads moms and dads excludes

057not just gender diverse families but Foster families families with grandparents aunts and uncles and a lot of other situations so in an effort to be inclusive we should be careful with our wording um let's see gender diversity and particularly understanding non-binary students should be part of continuing education for all teachers and must be mandatory if it isn't mandatory we're never going to reach the teachers who need the most education um but to be fair most of the teachers that I have encountered and most of the teachers I'm aware of are sensitive to these types of needs so we're doing a really good job we could just do a little bit better our next speaker is Fallon Seabrook good evening Mr heavy um I've been coming to East meetings since last year and I hear that

058teacher should be respected I understand they need to be respected but us parents should be respected too um and I feel like we're being neglected I feel like none of us are being heard and it's not fair um I've been last school year I was battling my daughter's school at ready Creek Elementary they they suggested I put her on a phone floor plan because she's been battling bladder issues since she was about three or four and when she went back to in person I told them that she had blood issues from day one this emo makes it like I never even said anything what the teacher didn't address is that um I had already discussed it with them they made it seem like I didn't tell them anything there's no transparency I used to wonder

059why that was until you all are the cause of no transparency and we need better thank you our next speaker is Andrew Horner uh good evening Lake County School Board I am Andrew Horner a seventh grader at Harris Middle School I want to speak to you today regarding DreamBox and why the current requirements are inequitable I feel that students should not be required to do five lessons to the DreamBox each week and I would like to explain why this is an inequitable requirement first and most importantly DreamBox takes a very long time to complete for some students and not for others many students spend 45 minutes on one lesson and many other students can complete more than fair goal of Five Lessons a week in only 10 minutes the lessons differ for each student but

060students who are doing above grade level DreamBox lessons spend way longer on lessons than those who are doing DreamBox lessons that are targeted below grade level based on our needs second of all one of the biggest time issues that students have is figuring out what DreamBox wants them to do instead of the actual math lesson and any and many of the lessons students know how to do math it's a DreamBox layout and knowing what DreamBox wants them to click on or do that takes them so long at last often times there is not a dedicated DreamBox time during the school day which means lessons have to be completed from home and this can be hard due to the due to the reasons I have stated I hope you will consider modifying the DreamBox requirements and

061thank you for your time thank you Andrew [Applause] Julie page good evening board members and superintendent more I haven't been here for a little while so I just like to remind you that I'm just a mom not a domestic terrorist um moms for Liberty of Wake County held a school board candidate Forum last month to which the four incumbents seeking re-election were all invited none of you attended but at least we heard from Miss Johnson hosler or Miss Mahaffey and Miss Waters we never heard a thing from Mr hegarty that should be very telling to the community as to the type of board member and candidate that he is our chapter made of local moms dads and grandparents voted on our school board candidate recommendations and I'm pleased to inform the four of you that

062none of you made the list the parents of this County are ready for change we have had enough we want better and our kids deserve better I have a question for all of the board members tonight do you agree that parents have the fundamental right to direct the education Medical Care and moral upbringing of their children it's really a very simple question either parents have these basic rights or they don't another question will you agree to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision making increased transparency defend against government overreach and secure parental rights if your answer is no to either of these we have a major problem this week I will be emailing all of you a parent pledge to sign and return to me the responses or lack thereof will be shared with

063the public for those board members that are considered lame ducks at this point you will also be asked to sign this no one is off the hook here after all it's election season and a time for accountability is now we know who each of you have endorsed we will be sending this to all School Board candidates as well as others running for public office the community will know who cares about parents and who does not before I go I'd like to let you know that President Biden has officially declared the pandemic to be over so you can drop the mask recommendations and other covet protocols now it's no longer necessary for Dr Martin to bloviate on case numbers anymore we're all sick and tired of hearing it early voting begins about a month from today

064November 8th cannot come soon enough to finally flip this board I and many many others in Wake County cannot wait to celebrate thank you our next speaker is Amy Williams somebody dropped something good evening board um I'm here as a pair of three children attending Wake County Public Schools and I'm not a terrorist I'm not running for office and I'm not out for any of the teachers and staff in fact I really want to publicly thank our elementary school Vance that my children just recently attended the principal teachers staff at that school was very involved with the community and the parents and responding to mine and other parents concerned and they loved our children and it showed and I want to thank them but as a mother I'm responsible for my children's health safety and

065well-being and after March 14 2020 it became very clear that parents were not seen or heard in the eyes of the public school board our children are our future entrepreneurs leaders and civil servants of this country and parents knew that these closures were affecting the well-being of our children Mass mandates were affecting the health and the lack of the school board safety is now a grave concern in my own School District Board member has never once responded or acknowledged any of my 12 emails that I sent after March 20. thankfully the school did not follow in her footsteps watching or attending these school board meetings since March 2020 parents have begged you to remove the porn books begged you to change the math curriculums ask what's going to be done about the learning loss and

066now it's addressing school safety but instead of including or acknowledging us with our concerns you spend money in ways that don't remotely address them and all this time doing your Roundtable public speaking United board members brag and commend yourselves on how awesome it is being in school you spout cobit numbers you bring up parents Rights bill the 25 year old Leandro case but none of you ever mentioned the academic achievements at these school boards that our children are reaching ever foreign I believe the direction of the school board system is steering away from what it was set up to do to educate my children to his or her Highest Potential in Reading Writing math science and social studies I want to quote some words from speech by Ronald Reagan before he was president in the

067mid-1960s and you can find this speech under the myth of the Great Society Society but since most of you will take this out of context I encourage everyone to listen to or read it in about 28 minutes into the speech he speaks these words and I quote well if the government is going to build the schools buy the books issue scholarships make judgments exert pressure what if one day that pressures of a political nature not to our liking education is the bulwark of freedom but you remove it too far from the community and the parents control and education becomes a tool of tyranny end quote I stand here today I want to publicly ask this board to get back to academic Excellence to put math reading science English and history on the Forefront of teaching

068education and spending to no longer ignore us parents to keep politics out and parents in we been ignored since March 2021 we are right about the harm being done to our children maybe it's time to join ourselves and work together our next speaker is Daniel Grant King I would like to first of all say good evening excuse me for my voice is not well I am Mr Grant King and currently I am running for the Wake County Board of Education District Four come this November on this evening we have had perfect examples excuse me we have had perfect examples of the far right once again trying to destroy the progress they're Schoolboy members have made and as an educator and now as a candidate I have really realized that it is time it is high

069time to have a true champion and true Champions that will continue the advocacy regarding our teacher pay regarding our safety in our schools and of course as I run this November along with my campaign we have done a four-week part series and this week of course we will focus on school board policies because we see once again that the far right has been allowed allowed to just say whatever they wish and not be held accountable so as I run this November and as the voters will choose and they will make it very clear who will represent them because truthfully it is not about ourselves each of you took a oath that you uphold and for that I say thank you but now we have to make it clear before you leave office I am urging

070you as an educator to make it very clear that these type of actions against the educational system shall and must not be tolerated because for far too long I have sat here and advocated for the issues of the people and yet I've been attacked and this is why I've had to hire a legal counsel from out of state and of course I want to also make it clear that I will not be signing anything at the far right has tried to attempt and my reason for this is to make it clear that our educational system is about the people our students our Educators and above all the families that represent this school system in closing I would like to thank superintendent Moore and many others for this evening as we celebrate National Historic Hispanic month

071and let us continue to advocate for the needs of the people thank you our next speaker is Danielle sellers called good evening everyone my name is Danielle sellers I go by D my pronouns are they them I'm non-binary and I'm a member of the lgbtq community here in Raleigh my wife and I have a 10 year old daughter who's attending Wake County Schools this year and I'm here tonight because I believe that representation and visibility matters I had no idea that we'd have an ally in the audience tonight when I decided to come speak but the voices of community members like me aren't typically represented at school board meetings but there are a lot of anti-lgbtq voices that are elevated throughout the country with groups like moms for Liberty as a new Community member here

072in Wake County I felt compelled to bring my one voice to the table to ensure that you heard from a family like mine um I was an lgbtq youth without any support system I want to ensure that I'm doing my best to support the Youth of the Next Generation in my community now more than ever I specifically wanted to speak because September's National Suicide Prevention awareness month and the last meeting that topic was brought up and we talked about mental health and we acknowledge the way that this issue touches everyone including close to home and in our own schools suicide's one of the leading causes of death for people 10 to 24 and in the lgbtq community our youth are four times as likely as their straight counterparts to attempt suicide and in fact according

073to the Trevor Project 45 of lgbtq Youth have seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year with half of transgender and non-binary youth considering it and I bring this to you the school board because the reason that our youth are so affected by this topic isn't because of their identities these kids are pushed to thoughts of self-harm by marginalization in their Community nationally I'm seeing that there's a rise in right-wing groups pushing School boards to ban books and discussion of families like my own stories of experiences like mine as a queer person attacks like floridas don't say gay legislation censorship of books media anything that gives kids exposure to healthy happy rewarded people like them Banning trans athletes from participating in sports Virginia Banning kids from using their preferred pronouns and forcing adults that might

074be supportive to out them to their unsupported families these things I'll send a message to our kids that their right to exist is under debate that their existence is a threat to others and that they're less deserving of love and respect than the other kids in their community and it hurts kids to never see themselves represented represented and it endangers kids when we keep Educators from helping them through a difficult time I'm here just to ask that you hear as you're hearing from voices like moms for Liberty who are louder than my one voice more persistent than my one voice and more organized to silence the voices of community members like mine that that you listen and that you take us into account and you protect our kids as well thank you our next speaker

075is Becky Lou Hobbs good evening once again I come before the board a concerned mom questioning the priorities of this board as we're still waiting on the board to approve the final budget let's review a few things on the agenda tonight for academic advancement is a contract with the committee for children based out of Washington State this one-year license for a social emotional learning program will cost 467 thousand dollars how many SEL programs has this board now purchased it's an example of wasteful spending of this board who refuses to focus on the basics of Education Reading Writing mathematics Science History when kids are months and years behind in their learning the board continues to make poor financial choices you know we've talked for a long time about learning loss you know that learning loss that

076the ncae talked about as a false construct even some of you board members mocked us parents as we would ask about it okay so now let's turn and compare the current operational budget to the budget from 10 years ago many of you were on the board at that time so in the past 10 years the board has increased the budget from 1.2 billion dollars to 2.1 billion dollars it's about a 68 increase in that same time period student enrollments only increased about six percent which is about 10 000 students also in the past 10 years when you compare the budgets the employment months teacher employment months has increased 14.5 percent um principal and assistant employment months have increased about 37 percent and then when you get to the superintendent level all levels assistant superintendent area

077superintendent Chiefs directors Central Services that's increased by 46 percent so the six percent student enrollment increase positions have increased 46 percent and budget 68 percent it just shows how financially irresponsible this board has become and just did you know with these positions Executive Administrative superintendent positions about 115 make over a hundred thousand dollars it's totals about 13.8 million dollars giving each teacher a thousand dollar raise to cost about 11 million so in our resources wisely education the quality education that they deserve we need to change things for our kids because they are our future I'm Becky Lou Hobbs if you want to find out more about my campaign go to beckyforwake.com thank you our next speaker is Monica Ruiz hi my name is Monica Ruiz I'm running for Wake County School Board District 2. data

078data is what administrators say that they need when they are evaluating students academically and even behaviorally however the board and other higher-ups fail to examine the data of their students poor proficient proficiency scores they tout their 90 graduation rate but their proficiency rates are abhorrent let me give you some stack stats the office of equity or inequity as I like to call it Affairs or oea was created in the 2014-15 school year in that year their budget was 250 thousand dollars in that same school year the non-proficiency rates for grades three through eight were 37 percent in math and 34 in Reading fast forward to the 2017-18 school year this was the first year where they differentiated the student performance data by subgroups for the sake of time I will focus on a few subgroups

079that had the largest rates of non-proficiency in grades three through eight in 2017-18 and 2020-21 in 2017 to 18 63 percent of black students were non-proficient in math by 2020 to 21 79 of black students so in grades three through eight were non-proficient in math so nearly four out of five black students were not proficient in math for third through eighth grades four out of five in 2017 to 18 58 percent of black students were not proficient in reading by 2020 to 21 66 percent were not proficient in Reading in 2017 to 18 56 percent of Hispanic students were not proficient in math by 2021 75 percent of Hispanic students were non not proficient in math three out of four Hispanics were not proficient in math for grades three through eight so what does this

080tell us the oea page is inaccessible to the public so the public does not have access to their mission statement one can assume the office of inequity is striving to improve the academic outcomes of our students of color ESL students students with disabilities and our homeless and Foster Care students by the 2020 21 school year oea spent 1.3 million thus spending 8.7 million since its Inception in 2014. however the data shows that while they have spent this money there's nothing to show for it our next speaker thank you [Applause] thank you hi I've been here before and I've shared with you that I taught K2 for many years in Wake County Public School during my early years I taught at a time when I taught at one of the largest elementary schools with over a

081thousand students had the highest free and reduced lunch and it had the district's most amazing counselor he implemented the second step program for children for young children at my school he regularly trained and worked with parents for the short lessons that they would present to children they would use puppets and picture cards and they'd teach relevant lessons on being kind or being a friend or a problem solving it was a terrific program and it was well managed by our skilled counselor that program though was discarded years ago some veterans chose to hang on to the materials as they saw value however I have concerns about the second step program that you're getting ready to spend almost a half a half a million dollars on I took it I took a look at some reviews is

082by the Utah parents United and other websites and sources for the 8th grade bullying curriculum and here are some of my concerns these are very important things that we need to do and get right first off bullying is seen through a racial lens power and privilege were listed as one of the reasons for bullying for what I glean the lessons used almost always portrayed white students as the aggressor lessons are intended to encourage students to plan disruptive strategies for for changing attitudes disruptive would that be defined as Rowdy unruly strategies or groundbreaking Innovative strategies one of the lessons has the students design a service project to reduce gender or sexual harassment so everyone in the community can feel safe students may be asked to plan strategies for Lifestyles that they or their families do not

083support when discussing sex ed and healthy relationships hotlines and websites are given one such site is the loveisrespect.org and it has controversial content including a Power Wheel and I'm not talking about the writing toy but a power and control will take a look at it for yourself the site also includes five tips for the first time and dating in the closet now I'm afraid that students are going to be expected to discuss very personal and sensitive subjects in mixed settings with the curriculum that I've seen referenced where the professionals that are trained to present the lessons and lastly the parents are not even part of the children's support system when telling children they can they the list of people they can go to for encouragement and advice they're at the bottom of the list why

084this used to be a great curriculum please do the right thing bring on Educators community members and teachers to take a look at that curriculum do they really address bullying or are they something else our next speaker is Cheryl Caulfield [Applause] Cheryl no okay that ends our public comment next up our information items continue with our superintendent updates Ms Moore good evening again um during our work session today we covered two topics the first one was a staffing update from Human Resources with Dr matillo we have made progress in a couple of areas we continue to have about 340 teacher vacancies with a higher rate within special education teachers we are you know 97 percent fully staffed but the three percent is well that's a good percentage less than three percent we are they are

085disparate across our schools not all of them are evenly distributed it comes out to an average of less than two per school but we've got some as we heard today with as many as 10. I think that human resources talked a lot about the recruiting things the things that are working well the things will continue into the school year and Beyond um but I and I think I also mentioned that I do believe that one of the challenges that we're facing this year is that vacancies are likely to last longer or be open longer simply because the pool is not as plentiful as it has been in the past so this will be something that we will need to continue to problem solve um with with our folks here at Central Services and in direct

086communication with our schools about their needs the second item for the work session today was draft one of the enrollment plan and while this next school year coming up in 23 24 we are not opening any new schools the enrollment plan that was proposed today focuses on looking at our overcrowded and under enrolled schools looking at changes that will support proximity more than they are now and that will also provide some Transportation efficiencies so is this just draft one we encourage folks in the community who didn't have a chance to listen to the presentation to access the materials and assembly the address lookup website is live for families if they'd like to see if they are potentially impacted in draft one there's a calendar that is a part of the presentation that also provides the

087timelines and the dates that input sessions will be occurring with families across our district and encourage all to please take a look at what's on there so that you can be informed about what is in the enrollment plan draft one and provide feedback through the various portals that we have available draft two will then be coming back to the board in a couple of sessions and we hope to have the enrollment plan as per usual adopted by around the end of November that's right thanks thank you superintendent Moore We Now move on to our consent items is there a motion happy I'm sorry may I ask for a summary of the finance committee do you mind um superintendent because I think it's important um thank you we had a finance committee prior to the work

088session today and in the finance committee we asked our staff from finance and budget to really provide a more in-depth view than has been provided recently to our board members sort of lockstep around all of the fiscal transparency practices that are in place the things that we do that are above and beyond as a school district as practices to ensure that there are not conflicts of interests that there are third parties when necessary that our processes in place are transparent and available for the public to look at again those documents are also available as part of Simply items and the attachments that are there and there's a lot of information that can be found on our website thank you superintendent well I think it's important for the public to recognize the 15 years of line

089by line audits that are on our website publicly that we have our budget clearly stated that we have an internal audit we have an external audit committee that looks at our budget and look audits each aspect of our two billion dollar budget I think it's important for the community to recognize that thank you very much superintendent thank you yes thank you and thank you Miss Kushner and we learned that there are no less than five external audits done on our budget during that meeting so um appreciate you bringing that forward and thank you superintendent Moore for adding that to the update and Miss cash for bringing that to finance committee as our finance chair yes ma'am I have something I do want to say too even though I know everybody I did give it was

090in my comments that I gave Russ Smith's credit for coming to my BAC meeting but the person who really did the presentation put it together was Kendrick Scott I want to be sure I add that and he kept Russ in in task on task all right thank you Mr Scott he often have to do that and with that I'm going to move approval of our consent items thank you Miss Kushner all right we have a motion a second to approve our consent items all in favor any questions or comments or discussion okay all in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right we're moving on to our action items and those come from our policy committee the first is board policy 3102 online instruction for first reading Mr cook welcome I'm chairman happy superintendent

091Moore and board members as a follow-up to our discussions at the August 2nd work session and also the August 30th policy committee meetings we're bringing two policies before you tonight related to Temporary remote emergency instruction the policy revisions that are being recommended are in response to Senate Bill 671 and will ensure alignment with the new legislation the first of the two policies we're bringing for first reading is policy 3102 online instruction the policy is currently written already authorizes the Wake County Public School System to conduct classes remotely but the recommended revisions will include the maximum amount of instructional days or hours that can be used for temporary remote instruction as defined by the legislation So to that end in section B remote instruction the first revision that you'll see is to add the language quote

092for up to five remote instruction days or 30 remote instruction hours during emergency situations as the maximum amount of time that can be used for remote instruction while also in that same paragraph striking the phrase referencing ongoing remote instruction since that is no longer applicable under the law the next revision that you'll see in policy 3102 is to ensure that the definition of an emergency situation and our policy is parallel to that of SB 671 the updated language there includes quote energy shortage and power failures end quote as an emergency situation to match the language in the legislation and finally we've also included a legal reference to gs-115c-84.3 in the policy as well one important item to note on this policy going back to the discussion that many of you had in the board policy

093committee on August the 30th we will be incorporating language into the associated rnp that outlines additional parameters that the superintendent will follow in considering a move to emergency remote instruction and specifically a section will be added to the rnp that states something to the effect of quote in addition to the emergency parameters outlined by law the superintendent will consider the use of remote instruction days only in circumstances where all Bank days and work days have been exhausted for the applicable instructional calendar or when scheduled vacation days or additional school days would be the last remaining option for use as makeup Days end quote we will be bringing 3102 rnp with this revision to the board for further review and discussion at next week's policy committee meeting on September the 20th 27th at this time happy

094of course to answer any questions or share additional information as needed questions comments discussion Ms Kushner chairman happy I move approval of the revisions to policy 3102 online instruction for first reading and as Mr cook has said in detail it is really to align with State Statute and and limit the use of remote instruction only during um absolutely necessary times in accordance to state statute thank you Miss Kushner appreciate that as you being chair of our policy committee is there a second okay we have a motion in a second any discussion Yes No Maybe yeah yeah Now's the Time I just had a question because this policy is also well it also impacts the next one that we'll get to in a minute but then at 4 400 attendance because I will be going back

095to edit that to make the definitions match up or so I just thought about that but it's LinkedIn 4400. because I was going back to look over the different stuff because the next one I'll bring up that question but so we we can definitely go back and ensure that any cross references are aligned as well to 4400 in terms of definitions or any other language yes ma'am okay I I do appreciate the parameters that are being put forthcoming next week in the rnp thank you no more hands all those in favor please say aye any opposed nay all right motion passes Mr cook you're staying on for policy 3300. yes ma'am the next policy that we're bringing before you for first read this evening again related to emergency remote instruction is policy 3300 school calendar

096and time for learning the revisions that have been made to this policy are in section D school calendar you'll see that number 10 now reads quote the superintendent with notification to the board may choose to use up to five remote instruction days or 30 remote instruction hours during an emergency situation as permitted by law and is outlined in the rnp on online instruction for purposes of this policy an emergency situation includes a natural disaster inclement weather Public Health Emergency energy shortage power failures or other situation that threatens the health and safety of employees students or the community end quote this language again aligns with SB 671 again you'll note the reference to the additional parameter owners that will be outlined in 3102 rnp that provide further guidance to the superintendent on additional factors that should

097be considered beyond what is outlined in the legislation and finally again we've included legal reference to gs-115c 84.3 in policy as well again happy to answer any questions for the board policy code 3300 school calendar and time for learning to align with state statute for on first reading a promotion is there a second thank you Miss Johnson Hassler Miss Carter and then Vice and I guess my question was I guess more of a technicality since the rnp hasn't been updated yet but the policy to me it reads like it's outlined already in the rnp so I guess it's more of a since it's not really there then does that make sense I mean the only thing that I could say sure is is that this is here for first reading so the idea would be

098that the rnp would be done by the end of this month and by the time this comes back and is approved you would have an rnp but it's a fair point to make and yes that you would want to have the rnp done by the time that the board finally approves the policy but this is first reading and we did this we did discuss exactly that yes ma'am thank you and and this is also a timing question um Mr cook I don't want to put you on the spot if uh Dr krant is available to the we've had some discussions before recently about school calendar which is included in this policy and you know whether or not as board policy we would want to provide direction to the calendar committee and the calendar folks for

099example like surrounding School attendance on Election Day I know we have a schedule for policy migration and you know we're trying to advance the policies as fast as we can but is this a situation where because we've brought this one up that we might want to go back and provide any direction since we've talked about this individually at the board level or was it better and I guess I'm just asking for staff's opinion because of other pending pressures should we go ahead review just this change in isolation and then consider those changes in a different policy revision I'll let Miss crying jump in and I'll share my thoughts I was going to suggest that um something along the lines of of ensuring that the calendar committee had I mean we don't we don't generally put

100calendar committee Provisions so to speak in policy that either could be something that is part of rnp perhaps that that we may want to add um in terms of our the preferences that the board has expressed or it could be something along guidance and guidelines that are provided to the calendar committee either one but I would I probably wouldn't put it in policy because it's a preference of this board and put it in rmp instead or in guidance yes thank you you're welcome and there's already so many states you know State statutes that got guides and restricts our calendar so I don't know if we would be able to even more parameters we may never get a calendar well but that's the honestly I was I was going to let it go I was going

101to let it go but in response to Ms kushner's comment part of the construction of the policy is so specific to all of the specific state requirements that we do have which as we know could change at any time and so do we want this level of specificity within the policy such that we'll have to keep bringing it up every time that there are any state mandated changes or additions you know as we've seen over the last few years or is it something that our policy should be maybe more flexible you know to mirroring and complying with with with the state requirements but not necessarily having to come in and require an amendment to policy every time the legislature suggests we have a calendar change I don't know I just throw that out there Dr

102Martin I was going to say if I could make a point to that that's part of the reason why we have everything aligned with the school boards Association because right the alignment they really are are flagging when there's a change at the legislature and when we have it aligned we're going to get that flag and can make that update and so uh our policies need to reflect the state statute some most of our language and policy we actually take direct statute language so statute changes obviously we have to change it but that's again why we have it parallel with School Board Association so that when statutes change beat the flag and they become straightforward to bring it to the board longest two-year policy migration ever Mr Bloomberg so Dr Martin said what I was going

103to say um which I appreciate um the um in terms of the timing I mean this is a legislative change that we should include in this policy and and it aligns with the change that you just approved on first reading on the last one so I would not wait to get this one in place that said you know the board always has that authority to look at this and if there's certain important philosophies that the board has about calendar that you want to put in policy you can do that I'm mindful of superintendent's position on it but I mean just in terms of board authority if there's certain key principles that you feel like you need to have in policy that are tied to the calendar then it can be considered in the policy committee

104and added to it so I just that's this word but in terms of the here and now my guidance would be that you'd get this legislative change approved okay thank you so I I will concede and I will let this one go but the thought being that we can have some future discussion about it because while we do follow the recommendations that come from the school boards Association I can't think I mean of about half the policies that come to us through the migration we do end up customizing somehow for Wake County and just for our own individual systems so we do take their lead but again we do customize as well here for our our families and our staff and everyone thank you perhaps a policy committee would meeting would be good to see

105what the school boards Association has taken from our changes because I feel like there are a lot of updates that we've provided that they've been adopted we have been a consultant for the system yes and now we have to pay them yeah no we pay them all right hearing no further comments or questions all those in favor of adopting policy 3300 school calendar and time for learning on first Reading Please signify with a sign of I any opposed nay thank you both very much thank you up next is board policy 6402 participation by historically underutilized businesses on first reading and with us is Mr Mark Winters our finance officer thank you chair Mahaffey superintendent Moore and members of the board I'm here to present to you the first reading of policy 6402 participation by historically

106underutilized businesses this is a new policy created by the North Carolina School boards Association as part of their policies to lead the school's manual and as part of the policy migration project it was reviewed at the March 29th and August 30th policy committee meeting please note we added language that aligned with our existing prohibition against discrimination harassment and bullying you'll see that added language at the beginning of the policy tonight we request the board's approval of the first reading of policy 6402 participation by historically underutilized businesses Ms Kushner thank you chairman happy and on behalf of the policy committee and but make a motion to approve revisions to or their new policy participation by historically underutilized businesses 6402 for first reading we have a motion in a second any discussion comments or questions from Mr

107Winters Miss Kushner thank you I just wanted to ask uh I mean thank Mr Winters and his staff because between March and August he did take our feedback under consideration and brought this revised policy so thank you sir yes Ma and to my Boardman the fellow board members who gave that that useful feedback I think we came up with a very good policy thank you seeing no more hands all those in favor of a proving first reading of board policy 6402 please signify with a sign of I yeah any opposed nay all right we did go into closed session after our work session and in that we heard our age our our human resources recommendations for appointments and employment if we could get a motion to approve the HR recommendations thank you we have a

108motion from Dr Martin II from Miss Scott um all those in favor please signify with sign of I any opposed nay all right we then um will be returning to closed session I do not believe we need to read just uh I was previously stated agenda and for previously stated reasons okay so you can find those reasons on the printed agenda and previously stated at the end of our work session so chairman chair Mahaffey at this time I would move that we returned to closed session for those reasons so stated in the uh public agenda it's I think you Vice chair hegarty and Miss cash um all those in favor of returning to closed session please signify with a sign of I uh any opposed say nay all right we return back into closed session

109thank you all very much foreign [Music]