Board Meeting 02-15-22

001good evening everyone it is tuesday february 15th at 5 33 p.m and we are calling this regular meeting of the wake county board of education to order i want 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 persons who willfully interrupt disrupt or cause disturbances at an official meeting directed to leave by the presiding officer members of the audience should show respect for the speakers refraining from loud commentary or other disruptions for by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with general statute 143-318-17 please remember that a properly worn face covering is required to

002attend this meeting at this time we have established quorum i do want ms cash wants folks to know that she is not with us because she is recovering from surgery and she will be in attendance next time if you would all please join me and recite the pledge of allegiance thank you i pledge and to the allegiance for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we now move on to our superintendent's comments superintendent moore good evening i had the honor last week of surprising four winners of this year's diane kent parker first year teacher awards every year we honor an outstanding teacher from an elementary school middle school high school and special education these beginning teachers are recognized for navigating the challenges of their new job

003with grace and skill and for serving as models for their colleagues and inspiration for their students this year's winners are hannah rowe first grade teacher at sycamore creek elementary thomas fairbairn a sixth grade science teacher at dillard drive magnet middle samaria warsaw an english teacher at willow spring high and taylor brown a cross categorical resource teacher at buckhorn creek elementary first year teachers are nominated by their principals for this award and our winter's principles were effusive with their praise miss rowe at sycamore creek was called a humble and gracious leader and a natural born teacher mr fairbairn at dillard dr represents all the qualities that we hope to see in teachers who facilitate positive change in our schools ms warsaw at willow spring has rethought and restructured what a modern educational experience post-pandemic means to

004her students and the academic and social and emotional growth demonstrated by ms brown students at buckhorn creek is beyond any expectation that could have been set my hope is that these outstanding teachers will inspire others to follow in their footsteps and that they will continue to impact the lives of our students for many years to come congratulations to all of these winners of course we are always looking for the next crop of passionate educators it's why i'm excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for our eighth cohort for participants in the future teachers program this program is open to all wcpss graduating high school seniors who have been or soon will be admitted to a college university for the fall semester and who intend to pursue k-12 teaching careers in one of ten

005identified licensure areas all future teachers will receive annual summer professional development a stipend included during their breaks the opportunity to develop a professional network and a wcpss teaching position upon graduation while this is not a scholarship the future teachers are well positioned to hit the ground running once they begin their first teaching job the program has been a major success for both the participants and our school district 38 students have completed the program and are now wcpss teachers and 85 are currently completing their college education programs there will be a virtual information session about future teachers on thursday february 24th at 5 15 pm learn more at wcpss.net future teachers lastly february is love the bus month so i'd like to take this opportunity to personally express my appreciation for each and every one of

006our caring and hard-working bus drivers students and staff from all over the district have already been celebrating their bus drivers this month showering them with cards gifts goodies and thanks these are small but important ways that we're reminding our drivers just how vital their work is to student success it's no secret that we are contending with the bus driver shortage part of a nationwide labor shortage and it means that we've had to ask many of our drivers to take on additional routes in order to get students to and from school in a safe and timely manner i'm so grateful to all of those who have stepped up to the plate truly demonstrating their care and commitment to our students and families and if you're interested in joining our team note that the starting salary for

007bus drivers is now sixteen twenty per hour and that new hires will receive a twelve hundred dollar signing bonus you can find more information at wcpss.net bus jobs meanwhile we look forward to continuing to show our appreciation for drivers this month and throughout the school year you can find photos of these celebrations on social media by searching the hashtag lovethebus that concludes my comments thank you thank you superintendent moore last week we celebrated our school counselors with the phrase that's of school counseling better together we certainly thank our school counselors for all they do for our students and their families our students social and emotional well-being is a factor in their academic success this was very true before the pandemic and certainly during and will continue after and thank you to our community and to

008our county commissioners for their support to increase our student to counselor ratio many of our parents are aware that as a board we vote at the beginning of each month whether to require universal masking in our schools this is a vote that is required by state law last week state health officials issued new guidance as part of the strong schools schools toolkit that guidance continues to recommend universal masking in schools while cases remain high in the community of course we are also aware the spread of covid19 has slowed it must slow further to reach levels seen this summer or even prior to thanksgiving but things are improving for those reasons i expect staff will be closely reviewing the guidance from the state and continuing to talk with health officials in the coming days and weeks

009as we approach our next vote on face coverings which will occur march 1st we look forward to our march 1st work session when i anticipate we will discuss this topic fully the month of february as noted by superintendent moore is love the bus month i want to thank our bus drivers and what they mean to our students and to our school communities and to our parents we know that they are in charge of our most precious cargo and that they can use our help in addition to the bonus and staff raises that superintendent moore shared we also help train and cover the costs of physicals for those who are interested in becoming a bus driver we hope that you will join our team and care for our students thank you vice chair hegarty thank you

010chair mahaffey i don't have very many comments tonight i do want to wish a speedy recovery to our colleague miss cash i know we miss her and we all welcome her back at the table soon so hoping she recovers well um and then just finally a personal story not as a board member but as a parent in our in tribute to bus drivers i just want to thank my children's own bus driver for the kindness and the care that they show to our students they had i know a lot of students on the bus had a very special valentine's day surprise waiting for them and it meant so much to them individually it was the talk of conversation at our dinner table and so i just want to express some heartfelt thanks for that thank

011you miss scott thank you and my my daughter also received a valentine from her bus driver which was very sweet um the the last two weekends these were rescheduled from weather events but our students participated in all district band and all region jazz band and both were hosted at wake county public schools and of course there were many athletic events and competitions happening over the past two weekends as well and i just wanted to to give a shout out to our schools to our athletic directors to the teachers and everyone who's support and of course the parents who make their children practice and go to practices to for those to be able to happen because i know it means a lot to our students to be participating in these activities and it's phenomenal and of

012course the super bowl was this past sunday i'm sure a few of us our backs are still sore from trying to dance like we used to um 25 years ago but it was it was really neat my son said something i hadn't considered he said you know everyone's watching this together everyone's watching this at the same time and i thought for him someone who's grown up with streaming videos that that is an interesting thing and there are really only a handful of things that we do together as a society with watching athletics watching concerts and going to school and i've said this many times that it's you know our schools are one of the few places where our children come together and they learn together regardless of political um religious backgrounds and and it's a

013very unique and very precious and a very sacred place but going back to the the music part i know that freddie lee heath does an outstanding job advocating for fine arts in the wake county public school system and i know as we are considering funding and funding is so limited i did want to express my personal support that i hope we can try to make sure we're fully funding our fine arts because they do offer a place and not only in our schools where people come together they offer the chance for folks to listen to music to watch to be part of the audience and it's a truly special place so if that if we can't do funding maybe we can look at more intentional grants having someone in our grants department help music teachers

014help connect them it's a lot to ask freddie lee heath to do when he's looking at music programs at 190 plus schools but i do hope that we can continue to support that our fine arts to program our fine arts programs and our athletics they truly do exemplify the greatness of the public education system and all the potential that it has i want to move on i know this has this has been in media and some of it has not yet made the rounds fully but i only feel comfortable speaking because i know that families are aware of them but we've had to deal with again racist threatening social media in two schools in in my district and that happens after we saw horrific racial comments made at one of our employees horrific racist comments

015on social media and when adults are making those kind of comments on social media our children see that you don't have to have a twitter account to get online to see what someone has written on twitter what my own kids see written about their mom if they happen to see twitter but the racist horrific language is unacceptable and overall it's just unacceptable to use social media in that way my gosh people because our kids are saying that and at a time when kids are very stressed to go to school because of school shooting because of violence it just it makes me ill no matter where you fall on the political spectrum of any given subject we have got to do better collectively for our children because they come together each and every day in those

016classrooms and they do their jobs and they learn and they put their efforts forth i want to be able to show them where we no matter where we fall on the political spectrum can come together and serve without throwing out names without using racist hateful rhetor without making snarky memes constantly there is work to be done and every time someone either looks away when they see a racist comment or they don't call out their friend or they don't say hey that's not okay it keeps happening again and again and our children are showing that and it's unacceptable and the good news that i can tell you is that our principals who are at these schools who've been impacted are phenomenal and they're going to bring in their school community together and they're going to work

017through that so i challenge all of us to see what we can do collectively to support their work thank you miss carter thank you and couldn't agree more and i think um you know i even take it a step farther i think kindness goes a long ways um in what we're putting online and no stereotyping no lumping people together and i just think that could be addressed across everything like you said ms scott and switching gears a little bit i know miss johnson hauser and i attended an event together we didn't even i didn't even realize she was there until the end we ran into each other at green hope high at the wake county cheerleading competition and i just want to take a moment first of all to congratulate all the cheerleaders that competed

018all the coaches the volunteers it was a well-ran event and unfortunately i did want to mention an incident that did occur because it was on social media and i honestly i was in the stands and i noticed some running back and forth but didn't realize what had happened until dr hedrick spoke to me but there was a very unfortunate event of a unconscious spectator but thankfully officer brian l smith was on duty at the event and quickly began performing cpr and also kerry high school's athletic trainer mr hall quickly assisted he was running back and forth and ems arrived and the spectator was revived and i just want to thank um everyone who was involved with that and it speaks volumes as well because the audience there was some diversion and whatnot but like i

019said if you were up in the sands you did not realize the extent to what was happening which speaks volume they just acted they were able like i said revive the person and i just want to thank everyone that was involved and it really speaks to what i wanted to share just briefly what mr hall the athletic trainer from kerry high sent us sent an email and i shared it with the board but i just think it is important for incidents like this it kind of reminds us the importance of having not only our staff but community members cpr and aed certified and he spoke to having the emergency action plan and discussing it and practicing it so that folks will know what to do if something like this occurs and to me that was

020very evident that that had been done for how it went and he also spoke to the value of having licensed athletic trainers in our schools and at campus events being prepared having officers in the schools and at on-campus events so again i just want to shout out everyone for that unfortunate event but because of quick action and training had a better outcome so switch gears a little bit from that a more a positive more positive event not too far down the road here last week i attended the 4a swimming states finals at tac and i've never been to a swim mate encourage you it's quite an event and there were multiple records broken multiple and lots of swim lots of cheering and the men's championship state championship came down to the final relay relays are

021always fun to begin with but the green hope high school men not only won the relay they broke the record and they became state champions that evening so it was a great event the green hope women swimming and diving team or the runner runner up so i just want to congratulate both those teams and also all the competitors that were there there are many swimmers that made prelims and finals and wanted to shout all of those out the coaches and volunteers as well and a few more i also had the honor of going to cary elementary school for a one of the artists in schools events sponsored by united arts and it was a mosaic math workshop and the artist was jeanette brossart and it was great to see she was virtual and they had

022some interaction speaking with her talking about mosaics working in math the arrays multiplication all of that and fractions area and then they went back to their laptops and she had created a google sheet i believe it was where they created a mosaic and they got to then use fractions and put it back into and come back together but it was great event and to watch the students go different directions with the mosaics some found stuff online and tried to create that some did completely abstract some i thought i was looking at minecraft for a moment because they were pretty it was pretty intense so just a wonderful event and speaks to again the importance of our arts fine arts in our schools and the connection it makes with many of our students and i'll close

023with a beautification day at kingswood elementary this past saturday it was a great event the staff there are really working hard to bring in native trees and plants to on the campus so many students and church members were there other community members and families digging holes planting trees hauling mulch and sticks it was just a great event and i just want to thank everyone for coming out and i will end it there i guess and thank everyone i just want to thank everyone for your feedback and all your emails and i appreciate hearing from everyone thank you miss johnson hustler i actually didn't actually have comments this evening but thanks miss carter we didn't realize we were at the same event until the end and for all of my administrators who now like uh marlo

024gaddis understands my love for caffeine the principal also offered me a soda at the end i was like i think it's the words going around wake county public schools that miss johnson hollister liked caffeine because i thought that was interesting she's like i got a soda would you like a soda that's what principal hendrix asked me at the end of the at the end of the event but i do like caffeine for the record um but but one of the things i do want to lift up that ms carter mentioned from the athletic trainer is one of the workshops i attended at the school boards association back in november was actually about the importance of athletic trainers and it's what you know you go to a lot of trainings and you're like oh that's great

025but to see it in action i will assure you it made a huge difference and i actually did know the student athlete whose grandfather it was there and the kindness that was displayed and so you know back to ms scott's point we all we generally see is um is the tension or or visceral reactions that we're all having to all the things that are happening in all of our lives but to watch them not knowing who this was or what the knee was immediately respond not just to the grandfather who was unconscious but the the love and care that they took to the whole family and watching them at the end not considering who they were what walks of life what their beliefs were what their ideologies were but they actually took the moment to

026hug each other one the family was thanking the emt and the athletic trainer but they were also grateful for the family who trusted them because they literally had to give instructions to the family who had immediate reaction and so it was a moment for our student athletes who got to see that to see we are bigger than all of the trials and tribulations we're watching in the media we're hearing adults spew at one another but we actually got to see without any shadow of a doubt that love and kindness still exist and those are things that we should continue to lift up this card thank you miss johnson hudsler and it's lovely to hear that that person is okay and and the quick actions of our staff and those on available to support were were

027there dr martin thank you i'd like to begin by noting that last week i was able to go to visit the carpentry class at cary high school and they are getting ready like teams across the county for the shed competition the shed competition will be run march 22-24 it's an exciting time where teams in carpentry programs across the county compete to building the sheds they're judged on the quality and how well they build these but employers from across the county also come and take a look at these kids because our carpentry programs like many of our other cte programs really are equipping our students with not just skills but a mindset that really will help them when they go into uh their their careers so i'm looking forward to the actual shed competition i'll be

028out there swinging a hammer uh with uh uh with the team uh it's always a lot of fun um i'd also like to go ahead and and give the covet update as well as address several of the questions that have been regularly coming in email first of all in the wake county public schools uh website as of last week there were 350 reported cases that's 307 students 43 staff that needs to be seen in context of the uh i mean it's lower than the ridiculous high in january the previous high before this last spike was 557 students uh there are 557 total cases so 550 70 350 we're still at a very high level it's also important to recognize that it's almost certain that 350 cases is an underestimate of the number of cases when

029you do look at the disaggregated number uh from the ncdhhs website if you take the total number of cases from people ages 5 to and recognize the way county public schools are 75 percent of the school age we have about 75 percent of the school-aged children in wake county 75 of those cases would be 655 cases we only have 307 reported so almost certainly the wake county public schools dashboard since it is only voluntary reporting is probably under reporting nearly by 50 percent so i think that it needs to be taken into consideration when you look at the wake county health department numbers uh the data as of last night notice at 409 cases per 100 000 population again that has dropped dramatically from the uh by almost a factor of 10 but from where

030we were at the peak last month the caution that we need to have is that the rate of drop is slowing and if anybody takes a look at the johns hopkins website where they track data cases around the world we have followed the europe uh several countries in europe uh with a delay of uh two to four weeks and unfortunately be please be aware that europe and many places in europe have seen a fifth spike that fifth spike was even worse than the fourth spike so we're seeing it i have no idea whether we're going to repeat it but if we don't make changes we're likely to repeat it but right now we're tracking what europe did and so people should be cautioned if we track what europe does there will be a fifth spike

031and it will be a large one when you look at the north carolina department health and human services disaggregated data for the last week reported there were 394 cases per hundred thousand population for the whole uh wake county population the five to nine year olds were at 602 cases per hundred thousand population the 10 to 14 year olds were at 431 the 15 to 17 year olds were 319. i will note that the two to four year olds last week topped the infectivity rate with 683 cases per hundred thousand population so the top two infectious cohorts are currently the two to four year olds and the five to nine year olds um so we are clearly down from where we were at the extreme peak but we would only call those numbers low in comparison

032to the extreme peak if we looked back to the prior situation where we had the very high peak in august september we are still very competitive with those numbers so care needs to be taken i do read every email that comes there's no way i can respond to all of them there's just not enough hours in the day but uh particularly on those asking for masks to be removed i'd say the common themes that i see are that covet is not more than a common cold that kids are suffering that masks don't work and then we need to follow science and data so i can't respond to each one individually so let me uh address some of those comments um uh right here the idea that it's not more that covet is not worse than

033a common cold that is the case for some people but as of last night there were 249 people in the hospital in wake county infected with covid when i look online as best i can tell there are one thousand fourteen hundred and eight one one thousand four hundred and eighteen hospital beds in wake county that means seventeen point six percent of the hospital beds in wake county are currently filled with cove page patients and that's substantially down from where we were at the high just a cold does not fill up 17.6 percent of the hospital beds in wake county looking at the data at the johns hopkins uh website where they track uh coveted cases and deaths around the world and in the country what we see as as of yesterday the average daily number

034of deaths in the united states was 2402 per day for wake county on average four deaths per day last i checked the common cold does not give 2 402 deaths per day in the nation covet is not just the common cold folks may remember that we had an event 21 years ago where 3 000 deaths occurred in one day very tragic absolutely no question very tragic what was our response to that to complain about something like masks no we've had 20 years of war with trillions of dollars spent that doesn't affect each of us individually but each of us individually when we go to an airport we're still willing to take off our shoes take off our belt not take a bottle of water through the security line come on folks talk about something not

035related to the event and that was one days or almost one just just under one just over one day's worth of deaths right now and 21 years later we're still willing to not take a water bottle through a security line and our freedoms are being infringed no there must be something different masks require our responsibility that water bottle allows us to be afraid of the other to tell that those middle easterners must be bad and so 21 years later we're still willing to give up our freedoms because of hate and fear i hear a lot that kids are suffering sorry folks i did not know we were such a fragile population i have seen people suffer i've seen people suffer trying to gasp for air i've seen people stuff suffering from malnutrition i've seen people

036suffering from physical and emotional pain i've never seen anybody suffer from a mask and i'm sorry if it sounds a little angry there masks are an inconvenience you bet they are i don't like teaching in a mask i can't teach as effectively in a mask as i can without a mask but i'm sure going to wear a mask when i'm with 55 undergraduate students at nc state it's an inconvenience it even hinders learning a bit but it's not suffering i have seen people suffer when they've lost their caregiver i see people suffer when the economy continues to be hindered because of this pandemic let's work together as a community let's do everything we can and you know what even if per chance these don't work which they do but even if perchance they don't if

037there was a hope that they could help our economy recover it's irresponsible not to wear them we got all these comments about masks don't work people want made hay over the cdc report the cloth masks don't work very well it's true cloth masks are the least effective masks but if you've ever been around kids and frankly if you've ever been around adults we spit when we talk we all do so even those of you who are wearing your masks improperly below your nose you know what you're still doing some good because your spit is caught by that mask and your spit carries virus so even a poorly worn cloth mask helps does it prevent virus transmission reduces it yes prevent it no that's what the study said and what the study said is you should

038wear the most effective mask that you can in the setting in which you're working that's why i wear the can 95 masks you know to say that a mask doesn't work because if i wear it wrong or use it improperly it doesn't work it's kind of like the people who you know take the lap the the the shoulder harness of your seat belt and you know tuck it down around their waist and they get into collision and wonder why they broke their nose when they hit the steering wheel it's not because the seat belt didn't work because it was the tool was warning was used improperly masks are the same way so to say that masks don't work it's simply not correct finally over and over again i hear follow the science follow the data

039with all due respects i know a little bit of something about science both the good and the bad of it just because scientists say something just because it's published doesn't mean it's correct we have a review process we have a process where we actually collect data from lots of different experiences and pull it together that's called the public health department so if you hear a pediatrician or a geriatric a person who specializes in geriatrics if either of one either one of them is trying to make the case solely on their anecdotes they are not being a good physician they are not being a good scientist we have to collect all of the data bring it together and that's how we make scientific decisions are the guidelines like the cdc right or wrong they're the best

040analysis that we have at this time science continues to advance and improve and i'll tell you what there are times where science needs to be challenged i've been working on challenging the theory for crystal growth i've been doing this for about the last 10 years i don't get to challenge the theory by going to the press and saying these guys are wrong i don't get to challenge the theory the the theory by popular vote i don't get to challenge it by just anecdotes and i sure don't get to do it by bullying and hate speech the only way i can change science is by collecting the data demonstrating the new ideas putting clear metrics in front of us testing those metrics over and over again and even then it takes years sometimes to change accepted

041theories now no we don't need years to deal with covid and it may be that the guidelines will change the threshold numbers were put in place by the cdc unique for the covet virus they may evolve at some point but for any physician any scientist to speak against those numbers in public is frankly irresponsible work with the cdc when the public health numbers change then we will know what we need to do our job as elected officials is not to pretend to be scientists i'm a scientist for chemistry not for public health i will follow the public health unfortunately we have quite a history at the intersection of politics and education we talk about data all the time we talk about being data driven using science-based decision-making hogwash if we really did we would not

042put or politicians would not put the faith that they do in standardized tests we know they don't work they give us some information but not for how they're used by politicians suspensions we know they don't work they really do not change discipline we know the data it's clear but we're not data driven enough to actually do something about it so unfortunately it saddens me but all this discussion about masks is just one more piece where we don't really care about data we care about politics and i am tired i am tired of politics making decisions about science and education my vote will always be and i encourage everyone at this table's vote to follow the guidance of the public health department if we do anything else we are letting politics not data and science determine

043how we operate i'm sorry for the lengthy comments but i believe it i needed to do that based on the hundreds of emails that i've gotten thank you thank you dr martin we are now moving on to the approval of the meeting agenda is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda chair mahaffey i would move adoption of the meeting agenda second we have a motion by vice chair hagerty as second by ms johnson hossler any discussion all in favor signify by sign of eye any opposed nay okay uh with that the motion passes and we will move on to our information items the first one coming from the office of academic advancement celebrating black history month and we have some students i believe that are with us tonight always wonderful to hear from our

044students ahead and get started i can't tell you how excited we are to be here with you this evening chair mahathi superintendent moore and board members as we did at the february first board meeting we appreciate the opportunity again this evening to share with you some of the outstanding work that's happening in our schools and classrooms across the district in recognition of black history month there are so many different wonderful celebrations events school activities classroom lessons that are happening all over the district it would be impossible for us to share all of those and mention all of those in a single presentation or for that matter a series of presentations so rather than attempting to do that our intent in the next few minutes is to again highlight a couple of examples that we believe

045are emblematic of the collective efforts that are and have been occurring across the district and importantly not just necessarily in the month of february and i'm going to keep going irrespective of whether or not the powerpoint is on the screen because it's really not important necessarily what's up there as much as what's back here so in that spirit i'd like to first welcome to the podium miss tiffany carter who is a teacher at vandora springs elementary school who was joined this evening by principal rhonda curtis assistant principal ashley byers media specialist melanie matthews and if i missed anybody i apologize and most significantly perhaps she's also joined by fifth grader christian williams who will share with you as well and speaking of students just as a point of personal privilege christian is the son of

046boston who was a former student of mine who i have not seen until i just bumped into him in 22 years so boston and mr williams thank you for having your son here with us this evening so with that i will turn it over to ms carter and let them share a little bit about what's happening at vendor springs elementary good evening to the board members to fellow educators parents in the community thank you for allowing this opportunity to share about the great things that are happening at vendor springs elementary i am tiffany carter i am a proud special educator of ebs 1 at vendor elementary and this month we want to highlight black history the staff and students are excited to share about the history and current events that surround the great history of

047black americans at vendora the students are actively engaging excuse me researching and preparing presentations on a black american of their choice they are rigorously gathering information and creating a podcast presentation to share with other students in the school as well as create visual presentations that are being showcased outside of our media center for students to view as they pass as we are actively engaging in learning more we are so excited to host a black history month read-in which will be held this thursday with virtual and in-person volunteers parents friends and fellow wake county employees will read a book by either a black author and or about someone or an event in black history we're hosting volunteers who are bankers marketing specialists pfizer employees and even national achiever society students from middle creek high school all

048who are very eager to read and engage with our students the purpose of this event is to allow black and brown students to see themselves in the future all while gaining knowledge knowledge of where black history was cultivated and where we are going we hope to encourage our students with literature to be their best selves and know that even with barriers anything is possible we appreciate the board for highlighting the amazing things we're doing at vendor and for allow us the opportunity to share about black history and now i'm going to turn it over to christian williams who's going to show about his presentation [Applause] hi my name is christian williams and i'm going to be reading you a page of what i wrote about cindy portier no that's after okay was born february 28

0491927 and passed away on january 6 2022 at the age of 94. he was born he was born prematurely in the u.s while his family was on was visiting from the bahamas he grew up in the bahamas and ver and returned to the u.s returned to the united states as a teenager he served in the u.s in the u.s army just like my papa and my uncle have [Applause] thank you christian that's amazing and i love that you found a way to connect mr poitier's work with your own family's history and their service thank you miss carter and thank you christian as well in addition to celebrating and honoring black history this work is part of our district's broader ongoing efforts to ensure that teaching and learning opportunities are consistently inclusive and supportive of all

050parts of our community specifically and as is reflected in our district's core belief statement number one our intent is to ensure that all students and families see themselves lifted up and reflected in a positive light in every school in every classroom across the district and not just in a single month but every single day by intentionally sharing resources with and educating school staff and leaders on the culture and heritage of our students who truly are lead learners we will bring in we will in the long term increase the ability and capacity of school and district staff to create meaningful instructional activities where every student accurately sees their culture and heritage reflected in their learning instructional design is the creation of relevant and engaging experiences for students that allow them to make connections to their own

051learning teachers can create inquiry-based lessons and utilize primary sources from multiple perspectives while also focusing on student voice and constructing their own understanding of history across the student's instructional day they might engage with a black composer in music a black author in english language arts black mathematicians or scientists a student's encounter with black history should ideally be throughout their school day and the school year again as the core belief states relevant rigorous and meaningful learning each day this learning takes on many forms both in everyday classroom activities but also through a variety of enrichment and extension programs that expand and support opportunities for all students one such program that you may be familiar with is the wake county public school system's summer writing institute which allows rising 8th through 12th grade students an opportunity to

052participate in enriching creative writing and arts program that amplifies student voice identity and expression and the very best person that i know to share a little bit more about this program is the person that helped to found this program in our district a few years ago miss teresa bunner director of engagement in the office of equity affairs who is here along with a few of her students this evening ms bunner and students thank you mr cook good evening chair mahaffey superintendent moore and board members and all of those listening my comments will be limited probably to the surprise of those of you that know me because the focus tonight is on student voices specifically on three amazing young ladies who are summer riding veterans and are here to share with you as they come forward

053they will introduce themselves to you as we celebrate black history month it is vital that we remember that black history is not just an important part of our past but an integral part of our present and future our summer riding institute is a space where our young people are invited to enter as their complete selves there is space and place for the fullness of each person who enters summer writing seeks to offer our young people a space to consider those writers and artists of color from the past who have influenced us be mentored by those writers and artists who are influencing us in the present and invites our young writers and artists to consider how their voices can impact the future in our writing community we believe that each piece shared is a gift as

054the audience we are invited not to measure or judge but to value and honor the vulnerability and beauty each artist offers us the three young women here to address you tonight are a bright part of our present and i know will be great contributors to their future and our future i invite you to listen with open heart and mind as lauren jordan and faber share the gift of their voices with us tonight [Applause] hi i'm lauren taylor i'm a senior at green level high school as i close out my eighth year as a student in the wake county public school system i found the time to reflect on what i was taught what i learned how well i learned it and most importantly who taught it to me it is no secret that the number

055of african-american teachers across america is is disappointing and the path to dismantling the systems that continue to produce a disproportionate number of black teachers is long however i found that the summer writing institute is a place that can begin to address the lack of diversity found amongst staff students and in much of the content that is absorbed by students every day not only was i in a room or in my case zoom call with many other underrepresented students but i had the opportunity to meet some of the most talented creators from a variety of backgrounds take nick stone the new york times bestselling author of dear modern odd one out clean getaway and many more the self-proclaimed slickster told stories of trials and tribulations of creation and destruction and of success and failure this was

056the first black author i ever had the chance to speak to in a school sanctioned setting i won't lie and say i'm suddenly going to be a teacher and come back to teach in wake county but there is something to be said about the beauty of representation summer writing institute built a home for the underrepresented students of wcpss a home i believe wcpss should continue supporting and investing in thank you thank you lauren good evening my name is jordan allen and i'm a junior at roseville high school i want to begin with the new creativity aspect my personality has not only been expanded into a universe of its own but i have strengthened my grasp for life's challenges as young black women summer writing has helped me open up and write with my own ingenuity

057being able to attend summer writing added to my life experience preparing my mind to write about what stands out the great perhaps is something i constantly expressed in the search for limbo teenage libel to be specific well these ideas are things i've read about in young adult novels which truly reflect the ingredients of my life as a teenager some writing has been a grant opportunity from my creative standpoint it has inspired me to take rigorous creative writing courses during my school year i now also make time to write and discuss my thoughts within my free time because i've found that having a creative output from the standards about adolescent life leaves its stresses black history month has been a widely important value in my life and i've shared my appreciation of the recognition through club

058projects as my moonlight analysis for a national achiever society and just simple conversations among my peers even in my academic writing for free response questions i now take the time to fully comprehend and add my ways of addiction and syntax that i've grasped from my two past summers at the summer writing camps with experiencing situations of limitations due to encounters of biased opinions there is a true appreciation for the way we are able to express our true morals and values through words being granted the opportunity to sit down virtually lost the pandemic and make conversation and learn from visionary figures and authors has become something i can ultimately boast about in essence i want to leave you with my provisional standpoint on how a great population of students truly do appreciate programs wake county has

059offered for the discovery of creativity and i want to leave off with a quote from james baldwin the paradox of education is precisely this that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated thank you thank you jordan uh hello my name is favorimagu i'm a junior at sanderson high school writing has taught me the importance of voice how it can be a powerful tool to change the world and those around it writing has the effect of making one more intellectual it has been a bridge between communication and the cultures for people in today's society it has been revolutionized and has set the laws and standards of our country it has also created new ones for us to build on for example the declaration of independence

060a form of writing that set us free from britain the 13th amendment that abolished slavery so much of our country is built on writing and is built by writers and we will continue to grow it by writers and by leaders of tomorrow in the wake of black history month let us remember the importance of writing and how literature taught broad themes and taught themes of freedom equality and equity of course we should remember this all the time not just during black history month we recognize writers who revolutionize this country and what it stands for writers like w-e-b-w-e-b dubois maya angelou frederick douglass and ida v wells and so much more it would be an understatement to say that i look up to them in fact i aspire to be writers just like them black history

061month isn't just one month for me black history month is every single month every single day so let us grow and write just as these black leaders wrote the importance of representation of all people in all areas of literature goes beyond writing but we are making progress summer writing institute is leading this progress introducing us to writers like nick stone a role model for young black girls like me and we'll grow older and we become a new generation of writers so i'd like to thank summer writing institute for introducing me to someone who was just like me thank you thank you wow um i don't know if there's anything that can give one more hope for our future than hearing from the voices of those four students so thank you miss bunner thank you students

062and staff i don't think there's much more that i need to say after hearing these firsthand observations and experiences i will simply close by thanking our staff members and our students for taking the time to join us this evening in highlighting and celebrating the efforts that our schools are engaged in to teach and learn black history both in the month of february but more importantly and more significantly and more impactfully as we just heard each and every day throughout the school year and in the case of the summer writing institute even outside the school year that happens in the summertime and with that we will leave you by highlighting another one of our district's core beliefs which makes clear our collective commitment from the board the superintendent our staff and our community to ensure that

063each of our schools our classrooms across the district is a place that values diversity while also providing an inviting respectful inclusive flexible and supportive learning environment for all students and while this evening we've highlighted some of the great work that is happening both this month and throughout the year we also recognize and acknowledge there is still much more that we can and will do to turn this core belief into a reality for all so we want to say thank you again for the opportunity to share this evening thank you to everyone that came out fighting traffic driving across town navigating the parking lot getting in the building we can't thank you enough for all that you've done so thank you thank you thank you mr cook and a special thank you christian lauren jordan and

064favor for taking the time to share your gifts with us and what you've learned and we look forward to seeing you beyond wake county public schools and what you're going to do for this work and christian maybe you'll see your principal someday back in this room thank you all very very much thank you all next up we have our superintendent updates from superintendent moore good evening again a couple of just quick things updates from the work session today and then one additional item we had two items during our work session today the first was the work that the board did to continue reviewing and providing feedback and input as the district develops an updated strategic plan the focus today was looking over the language that's in our current mission vision and core beliefs and to

065provide feedback to see where we can strengthen the work that we've already begun as we move into our next strategic plan the second item in our work session today was an academics update that was originally scheduled for student achievement committee in january that was canceled due to weather and this update was specific to our work with letters training which is a training for elementary school teachers specifically designed to provide teachers with training on how to be explicitly competent in the teaching of reading for elementary students as i said earlier it is a training that every single one of our k5 pre-k5 teachers will have there's training for administrators there is some training for ias and we are working on expanding that training for ias because they provide valuable support in the classroom and this is

066really the first time that this type of training has been made available to all teachers who do not get this level of training in a university degree program to be explicit and competent in understanding how to teach reading support each individual student and understanding and diagnosing what their needs are and then providing support we do and it is a lot of work it's a two-year commitment we're not going to be done until spring of 24. so there's there's a lot a lot in that um the second half of that update was related was actually related to that in that is community support around our efforts here which was to highlight the work of wake up and read in our community organization that partners with lots of organizations in the community that are focused on literacy

067and ensuring that our students read at grade level and starting from birth on up through school wake up and read is best known probably for the big book drive that they do every year but they really do so much more than that i encourage you to look up their website wake up and read dot org to learn more those were the two main items in our um work session today i do want to um provide a couple of additional comments uh this was not in the works session but miss mahaffey did mention um in her opening comments some updates have been issued by health officials in the last week specifically regarding contact tracing and exposure notifications in schools with regards to coveted mitigation strategies one of the most important pieces of that guidance is that

068students no longer need to remain out of school unless they are coveted positive or have coveted symptoms children who have coveted like symptoms but test negative may attend school it is possible in the next few weeks that we will see updates from the cdc and or from north carolina dhhs regarding mitigation strategies and metrics we expect additional information in the coming weeks from our local health officials or government officials and potentially even from the abc science collaborative and we do expect that um we have invited dr benjamin to come to our march first meeting and that work session on that day the information that's provided by these entities the cdc north carolina dhhs or wake county government in the coming days is what staff will use when offering a recommendation i don't want to leave

069this topic also without making it clear how much we appreciate the staff students and families who have allowed a successful return to in-person instruction the relatively high vaccination rates among our students and the compliance with universal masking in our classrooms have improved both the academics and the health of our community it's difficult to understate the stress and challenges that this has also presented though in our school communities but the efforts have greatly benefited our community and we all who have contributed to the success a huge thank you as we prepare for the next phase of this pandemic i want to once again encourage people to get vaccinated for communities with low spread one of the most plausible pathways to safely removing masks is high vaccination rates our school community is relatively well vaccinated compared to

070others but there is room for increasing that rate and as ms mahappy has indicated i anticipate a full discussion in our march 1 work session thank you thank you superintendent moore we are now moving 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 in the interest of maintaining civility and decorum however speakers are encouraged to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board individual board members staff or members of the general public 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

071may be addressed through applicable wcpss personnel the grievance policy or other applicable policies speakers 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 agreements policy or other applicable policies we have many citizens who have submitted comments as part of our public comment portion of this evening's agenda these comments are linked on the same online agenda we're 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 130 written comments and three video comments from members of the public we have 103 on coveted preventative measures including math requirements on

072support for school board and school staff 5 on book censorship two on sustainability eight on compensation step increase for brailleis and one on bell schedules one on criminal background checks for vendors one on address scammers and one on allowing only pta parents in schools for those of us that are in person for 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 that your time is up 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 and mr blumberg is right there our first person for in-person public comments is madeleine

073ashraf hi i am madeline and i am in third grade i go to the north forest pines elementary school thank you for letting me speak today i am here to ask you to stop making us wear masks wearing a mask makes it hard for me to breathe because you are in them for a long time and it gets more humid so it is hard to breathe wearing a mask also makes it frustrating for me to do work because i get really hot and it makes me frustrated another reason i do not like masks is that when i do activities like tag running and more it makes it hard to breathe and i get really hot because it gets really humid running and tagging more another reason why i do not like masks is that on

074the bus it gets humid because it takes a long time to get to my house while wearing a mask on the bus bye and thank you for letting me speak today thank you madeline our next speaker is karen gerke austin hi my name is karen gokey austin and i'm with the triangle area dyslexic advocacy facebook group we are a group of over 830 members banding together to improve literacy instruction across the state according to the ncdpi report cards the percentage of students in grades three through eight earning a college and career ready score at the end of the on the end of grade reading exam is an appalling 29 percent beginning in the fourth grade children use reading to learn other subjects in school like science and history children who reach fourth grade without reading

075proficiency are less able to keep up with their peers have more behavioral problems are more likely to fall behind on future assessments and continue to be poor readers in high school they have more behavior and social problems and subsequent grades and they're more than likely to drop out of high school other data i found regarding students in our district the students with disabilities category leads in short-term suspensions and they're also the winners in the in-school suspension category they're in second place for long-term suspension and expulsions y'all have not historically been accurate in identifying students appropriately so odds are good that those numbers are higher than reflected these statistics are not just numbers though they're real people with real names like john or art or george who now goes by melissa and you have a legal

076obligation to provide them a free pathway to literacy a failure to do so has huge societal consequences so why is there such a strong correlation in struggling readers and behavioral issues let's hear what some of your own staff at the local and district level are saying to parents from the words matter reality bite series on literacy moms nc maybe it's best if you just roll enroll her in a private school that was an lea i can't spell either that doesn't mean he needs dyslexia support a principal if your child doesn't meet the goals in the iep we just change the goals in slp if he hasn't learned to read by the third excuse me if he hasn't learned to write by third grade there's no point adding it for a goal area he'll never learn

077iep member and this is my favorite we can make it look like any child has had vape district employee i've been speaking on this topic since before speaking at school board meetings was cool but reading is a fundamental life skill and should be at the absolute forefront of your efforts to turn out fully functional members of society thank you our next speaker is jessie campbell good evening board members and fellow parents i stood up here over a year ago asking you all to consider making masks optional for wake county children in august of 2021 i withdrew my second grade child from wake county public school to homeschool this wasn't an easy decision we loved our school our hard-working teachers and our principal but due to mass policies i was watching my child struggle with anxiety

078having issues hearing the teacher focusing understanding instructions to the point i would get emails that he was crying in class at night he'd eat dinner in five minutes because at school they had to eat mask and then they could speak he would tell us his favorite part of the day was recess because he could see his friends this is just the short list of issues we were dealing with he is now thriving catching up on the learning that was lost and happier than ever we even have him in a great in-person program roughly 30 to 40 other kids where masks are optional and they are operating safely and effectively my rising kindergartner will not be attending wake county schools she will be attending a private school in the fall because things aren't getting better here

079my husband and i work full-time jobs and we are not a family that can really afford to do this but you have chased us out of this school's system you have chased this out wake county is the 15th largest school district in the nation yep so many other counties in the country have been masked optional since the beginning of the school year i agree politics do not belong when it comes to education so i think it's really interesting to see how you'll vote on march 1st or potentially next thursday judging by the timing of your decision we know that you are merely following orders handed down from political leaders which confirms that you don't have the ability to make any decisions of your own as elected officials of wake county instead of working with us

080you have ignored us our children are pleased the data and yes the science you have called us names labeled us and even degraded us on social media all we needed were leaders and not followers someone to work with us towards compromise compromise i will end with this to honor black history month and to honor next month which is women's history month miss rosa parks said memories of our lives of our works and our deeds will continue in others each person must live their life as a model for others you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right a truly inspirational woman that got tired started a movement and never gave up we the parents and taxpayers of wake county we will never give up and we are not going away

081[Applause] our next speaker is melanie mater's head good evening my name is melanie matters head i'm a parent of two wake county elementary school boys in district one i'm also a current wcpss substitute and an instructor at wake tech i'm here tonight to speak about masks i know the vote will not come until the next meeting and i applaud the school board for not caving to angry demands for a vote tonight i want you to know that as a parent and an educator no one wants to unmask our kids more than me i substitute weekly wearing a mask i teach at wake tech wearing a mask my kids have been in preschool and now in elementary school consistently wearing a mask without complaint i'm ready to throw them away but i'm also absolutely willing to

082wait until it's safe for everyone not just for me and my kids as a community we must work together united we stand divided we fall we must continue to work together on this so that we can collectively celebrate the day when our mass can come off in school but now it's not that time our current positivity rate is still in the double digits things are trending in the right direction and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel but we are not there yet i can't reiterate enough that the parents of wake county support this we support the school board's decision to keep all 180 000 of our students staff and their families safe by requiring mass in school with that i want to commend each of you for blocking out the

083noise and alternative facts that you are constantly bombarded with i commend you for firmly adhering to the guidance set forth by the north carolina department of health and human services led by dr betsy tilson the state health director and chief medical officer additionally the american academy of pediatrics and the cdc both continue to recommend universal masking in school our medical leaders have spoken and their message is crystal clear masking in schools is still necessary school board representatives i implore you to continue consistently following the guidance set forth from the north carolina department of health and human services when they find that masking in schools is no longer necessary then we can all celebrate but until then i along with the parents in wake county will support your vote to continue the mask mandate in wake

084county public schools thank you our next speaker is shelley hill jelly peel hello your policies your decisions and your legacy is all built on a house of cards so first earlier this year you limited meeting attendance literally pushing parents out in the cold you tried to elect a board member who didn't live in the district you voted to keep mass mandates when two vaccinated and mass scoring board members had coveted you allow books with sexually explicit material to remain on bookshelves hiding under the guise that we're anti-lgbtq we're not paul coe gained national attention when he proposed masking toddlers to help prepare them for future mask wearing when parents were depicted as conspiracy theorists you liked it and then villainized us for hate speech you obviously have the media on your side who shamefully tried

085to affiliate a parent's activism with q anon it has come to our attention that school staff are asked to take a survey to disclose their private health information without their ability to keep their information private in good faith and consideration i want you all to hear us we will fight for you everyone deserves equal justice for our children and for you the world around you is finally realizing that we the parents were right all along your house of cards is falling cdc says cloth masks have little effect dhs removes school quarantine and now the county mass mandates are falling like dominoes harnett county our neighbor they've been mass optional since october they're still there house speaker moore filed legislation to make masks optional statewide connecticut delaware massachusetts nevada new jersey oregon recently lifted statewide school

086mass mandates the new york times the washington post cnn and the atlantic all report masking children need to end even dr daniel benjamin duke pediatric infectious disease expert says school districts should reconsider mass mandates so you now have permission to do the right thing otherwise you are perpetuating the harm that you've already caused our children you can no longer say you didn't know we the parents demand mass mandates then permanently and immediately with no stipulations the stipulations have been met cases per hundred thousand doesn't matter because covet is mutated making it much less severe vaccine rates don't matter when you aren't even including herd immunity the percent positivity doesn't matter when the harm of wearing masks far outweighs the benefits when we're forcing kids who are the least susceptible to pay the greatest price when

087the rest of society's moved on i'm here to tell you it is okay it's time to free the smiles thank you our next speaker is chad stahl good evening i have another video to play for you the voice there is a voice inside of you that whispers all day long i feel that this is right for me i know that this is wrong no teacher preacher parent friend or wise man can decide what's right for you just listen to the voice that speaks inside that's my nine-year-old well eight at the time last may as a poetry class learning thing and that poem resonated with me then as it resonates with me now and i'm sure it has to resonate with you guys also that voice that is inside of each and every single one of

088us has to at some point in time be heard the last two years this board has utilized this education system to put the burden of a virus on the backs of children for the last two years you have disregarded every other responsibility that you have as a board of education you have stripped education away from children you have stripped their access of education away from children and all for what to protect them from what from a virus that does not even hurt them does not even harm them i'm happy to see that the toolkit has now adopted that has been your crutch for the last two years right oh well the toolkit the guidance the guidance the guidance okay well now the guidance says guess what children are okay around each other whether they have

089it they don't have it as long as they're not asymptomatic then the children are okay so now that the toolkit has updated where you don't have to restrict them you don't have to keep them out of schools you don't have to keep them home you don't have to do that stuff what will be your next excuse jim martin in september said this virus is not something that's deadly to children but there are lots of viruses that he doesn't want them to get he doesn't want kids to be sick at all so what does that mean is that a belief that this board is going to follow the town of kerry has said you know what we don't worry about the masks anymore the tool kit is no longer going to restrict access to education based

090on an optional versus a required mass setting so what now are you going to vote and say well jim martin says let's mask these kids forever so let's support him and let's support that effort is that what you're going to do is that where we are right now that you're going to take the belief of an ideologue and put that on the backs of the children in wake county is that is that really your intentions are you going to wait for the political parties now to come and be the hero for all the children start writing laws to remind us that our kids are always free is that what's needed you guys could make a huge difference right now the guidance support said please do the right thing our next speaker is adina safka adina

091softa good evening i'm here to address this board and your actions that you've taken during this pandemic i want to start by reading a quote from the united states constitution the power under the constitution will always be in the people it is entrusted for certain defined purposes and for a certain limited period to representatives of their own choosing and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest or not agreeable to their wishes their servants can and undoubtedly will be recalled george washington with that thank you for showing up tonight after all you work for we the people as a resident and community member of wake county i realized that it is my duty to show up for the parents and the students and to stand in unity to put an end to this i was

092born in a communist country and i was raised in a post-communist society and one that i will do everything in my power to protect the children of wake county from many people like myself run away from third world countries and we run to the united states of america why because freedom freedom from oppression freedom from suppression and freedom of expression the north carolina constitution also states the following in the declaration of rights section 15. the people have a right to the privilege of education and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right in order to not violate section 15 you need to put an end to you need to unmask our children you need to put an end to the unconstitutional mandates and you need to stop the child abuse

093you need to choose children in their education over money and power with that 333 million dollars does that ring the bell esther funds elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds it's time that you let the parents and children of wake county know that you've sold our children in their education for 333 million dollars the deadline for the third round is september 30th 2024. these funds get applied to mental health services learning loss health preventions and precautions for covid19 and so much more so when parents stand up here and pour their hearts out about their children and mental health it's music to your ears right because it's a checkbox for you to get that money masks don't work parents decide what's best not you and our children deserve the freedom and liberty that you enjoyed when

094you were growing up if this is still a pandemic i will ask this again how many deaths we the people will stand up we the people will not back down and mark my words the children will win this and we will win before november 8th the greatest victory is one that doesn't desire self-interest we the people are here and we're not going anywhere thank you our next speaker is zach campbell zach campbell oh hello my name is zachary campbell i've been a bus driver since october 2019. uh i'm not here to talk uh oh sorry i'm here to talk about uh working at wake county all right so i'd just like to give a general rundown of my day-to-day activities i think my work is valuable and so deserves a living wage i do not

095currently uh get or earn a living wage all right 5 am wake up 5 30 leave for work 605 leave for high school 20 kids 6 55 three minute break sanitized middle school 48 kids uh 8 25 3 minute break sanitize elementary 24 kids 9 30 sanitizing clean the bus leave for home 9 40 homemaker duties 11 engage in my second job as a miniature painter 1pm leave for work again 1 35 pre-trip and leave for high school 228 15 minute break high schoolers 24 kids 3 15 sanitize go to first elementary school 24 kids 4 o'clock sanitize go to 2nd elementary 24 kids 5 10 last child is delivered 5 30 sanitizing clean clock out 5 40 arrive home cook dinner zone out 9 pm go to sleep my message is to the board

096of education and the working class of wake county as you can see my day is chock full of work i keep at least 130 cars and kids off the road during the day every bus driver i know works just as hard as me or harder to transport kids safely to and from school so that they may realize their full potential we make parents days easier by freeing up around 8 hours that would otherwise be fully devoted to child rearing i think that's valuable but the raise we received only stretches so far the price for a gallon of gas has risen a dollar since i started working 2019 and inflation is skyrocketing every educator be they a bus driver custodian cafeteria worker safety assistant instructional assistant teacher admin and all others they all deserve a living

097wage also keeping the mask mandate ensures we can maintain a safe environment for our kids if you value our co-parenting our contribution to your community please join in the fight to deliver a sound basic education i'm not here to talk about any kind of culture war stuff i'll only say that we ought to keep on teaching true history keep affirming literature in our libraries and recognize all children as human beings anything less is criminal i'll leave you with a quote if america does not use her her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of god's children to have the basic necessities of life she too will go to hell martin luther king our next thank you our next speaker is lana witt good evening it's lana witt yes thank

098you for opening the floor for public comment many times i've asked you your greatest fear my greatest fear is an unending leadership vacuum that creates a spectatorship and leads to a dictatorship wake county public school board members as elected leaders your role is to lead since 14 days to flatten the curve begin you've literally hidden behind screens desks and masks limited parental attendance at meetings discouraged parent involvement in school buildings classrooms and taken no ownership of the disaster you continue creating mental health problems continue to skyrocket academic outcomes continue to plummet you've hidden behind a politicized toolkit that encourages educators to focus on potentially asymptomatic students testing tracking and tracing of covid in order to exclude students from in-person instruction instead of focusing on academic and inquiry in reading writing math and science you allow

099yourselves to be used as political tools and our students to be stripped of their right to a sound basic education promised in our north carolina constitution instead of leading creating and participating in innovative solutions you take the concept of liberty and freedom our country was founded on and you turn them upside down in past meetings our new vice chair hagerty accused parents of using national talking points i assure you no one assists us with talking points vice chair hagerty for these meetings which so many of us have faithfully attended since the meetings opened to the public in late spring every talking point comes straight from interactions and stories of families in this school district for the first time since i've been attending since late spring at the school reassignment meeting board members left their chairs

100at the round table to come out among the parents for the first time and hear our concerns many of us have asked for that compassion and interest regarding our concerns for months now instead of waiting for you to discover taxation with representation we have begun meeting across the street creating an open forum for parents to get involved and work toward electing new leadership the deep desire to be seen heard and action taken on our behalf is common to every human numerous north carolina school districts in our entire nation are leading in the area of unmasking and stopping the suppression of parent and student options union county remains the highest ranking academic school district in our state while wake county the 10th largest school district in the nation continues to be masked for 18 months our

101wake county public school community navigates the pa with patients the limited transparency of this policy making board my question remains where's the leadership in the 10th largest school district in these united states of america are schools the places we want medical procedures and medical devices what's the exit strategy thank you our next speaker is holly wilcher [Applause] hello good evening dr higgins wilshere wake county residents good to be here with you again the fact that we're still here a year later defending our children from these emergency measures is a reflection on each of you your over a year-long emergency use authorization mandates and therefore investigational experimental measures qualify as illegal and unethical experimentation on children even before their well-documented proof of damage and harm which makes the mandates outrageous at this point you must be

102willfully ignoring the evidence these emergency emergency measures have caused children that harm that they've caused children did you know that in mandating these medical interventions and therefore practicing medicine you have an ethical obligation to the hippocratic oath to first do no harm two striking and ethical values and you in using human subjects and experimentation are beneficence the act of doing good and non-maleficence preventing harm question where is the data you've collected on your human subject since beginning this experiment where is the data that shows none of these measures have caused harm to children you should have over a year's worth of data over nearly 150 000 human subjects at this point no data okay well i have data and because i care i will share here are some numbers for you let's start with zero

103zero the number of scientific rct studies that exist showing the benefit efficacy or safety of prolonged mass usage in a pediatric population or any population 15 the number of critical developmental milestones missed on average by our children over the last two years there are over 400 studies of well-documented of measure of inefficacy and harm to children and this data add this data to the anecdotal data of the gross loss of livelihood alarming outbreak of social phobias social anxiety cognitive distortions and chronic depression in the pediatric population these aren't coming from a pathogen rather they're coming from being treated children being treated like a pathogen the saddest part of this data is that their bodies keep the score of all the harms from two years their little bodies have kept the score of being told they're

104sick until proven healthy for two years the cells have kept score as we've suffocated them all day so they won't hypothetically kill the grandmother for two years we've treated them as vectors of disease instead of human beings with physical social and emotional needs for two years we've treated them as a threat to society before their children for two years we've used them as human shields to bear the burden that was never theirs to hold their bodies keep score they don't forget you see trauma isn't just a thing it's not even stored in one place in the body it's sort of the nervous system the psyche the brain and other times it's purely in the depths of the unconscious what if i told you i already told you what was going to happen you didn't listen

105for a year i've come to you repeatedly with warnings describing the details of the crisis to come and it's all come true the pediatric mental health crisis is here instead we have two years of sensory deprivation two years of social neglect for with the complete bastardization of the scientific method your condescending admonitions of us to follow the science should tell you by now the sciences on the side of children to be mask free they should have been the first to have these measured measures lifted and not the last you can keep calling us names we're not going to stop fighting for them we're loving parents who care for our children all we want is to make the choices we believe are best for them please immediately cease and desist your policies requiring emergency use measures

106thank you thank you our next speaker is crystal bay rand good evening my name is christelle behrend and i'm one of the librarians at nighttale high school i have a master's degree in library science i've been teaching for over 20 years i'm a national board certified teacher and have been a finalist for teacher of the year in wcpss i am also a mom a mom of two wcps graduates one last year and one who is gay i'm so thankful that she was in an area where her classmates teachers and community accepted her when she came out last year and and her junior year i would expect no less for we are wake county one of the largest districts in north carolina and yet when our lieutenant governor said and i quote there's no reason anybody

107anywhere in america should be telling any child about transgenderism homosexuality any of that filth and yes i called it filth my school system did not affirm its students you did not affirm my daughter no one stated that we think all of our wcps students are beautiful that they are not filth because they identify as transgender gay or lesbian maybe we were afraid to speak too loudly afraid of political fallout or afraid that too many parents would complain about a system that believes it's okay to just be who you are you censored yourselves as a district and as a board but your silence has had a chilling effect we are facing unprecedented complaints and challenges and misinformation people feel like it's acceptable to say things like serpent spirit in relation to our students read the most

108salacious parts of a text completely out of context and call for amazing librarians to be fired for doing their jobs i am here as a mom an educator and as a citizen we have to be better for our students and our community you who are not part of the lgbtq plus community are privileged to share your partners and your families with co-workers staff and students in other words you share your heterosexuality openly and without thought people who are lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer non-binary or pansexual have to make the decision to be seen if they decide to share they know that they are opening themselves to a world that will immediately judge them on that one thing that's discrimination and we have laws against that we also have spaces in the school system that protect

109against that safe spaces that we call libraries spaces where you will find representation you will see yourself in stories you can learn empathy by reading stories of people who are different than you but only if our school district has the spine to stand against the oppressors you've been silent as nobel peace prize winner desmond tutu said if you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppression oppressor librarians cannot fight this fight alone our lgbtq plus staff students and families need to know that our district speaks for them too thank you our next speaker is ashley special good evening my name is ashley cecil i've been coming here for months to discuss my concerns regarding the toolkit and quarantining of too many healthy children in response to coven since july

110of 2021 i've attended nine school board meetings speaking at six of them when i was selected i repeatedly ask you all if the toolkit followed statutory authority or was it a recommendation was contact tracing and quarantining of healthy children sustainable when schools were not equipped to do that why did the toolkit discriminate against unvaccinated children what about natural immunity were you comparing to the mask optional districts and their successes lastly i have been sounding the alarm regarding the negative behavioral health and educational impacts on our children unfortunately my questions were never answered by this board thousands of unpaid hours have been spent by parents around the state seeking the truth i have spent my time reaching out to the wake county health department the abc science collaborative the state board of education and the north

111carolina commission for public health i spoke with school boards and parents across the state gave speeches at three board of commissioners meetings personally met with ncdhhs ncdpi and last but not least with numerous legislators at the general assembly sometimes persistence pays dividends let's recap last week's events the toolkit was updated again guess what it was never a law but a recommendation the board and attorneys owe us an explanation for their misdirection the quarantines and contact tracing just disappeared and vaccine discrimination vanished just like that i had asked for metrics that would dictate our exit strategy none were ever provided what type of data supported last week's decision scientific data or political polling data i'm a speech language pathologist i will convincingly convincingly argue with anyone that non-verbal communication is equally or more important than verbal

112communication toddlers and school age kids need visual cues to learn social interactions and develop speech they need facial cues to discern danger happiness and sadness high school kids just want to see each other that's normal many special needs children and the hearing impair lean heavily on nonverbal visual cues i'm not here to bash you and say i told you so or point out that you never course corrected from your decisions as new information became available now is the time to change your action and fix the catastrophic educational and behavioral health declines caused by your decision becoming mask option at school is step number one for all the time money and resources spent to mass vax contact trace test and quarantine i implore you to equally try to repair the devastating loss of education and social

113interaction the negative behavioral mental impacts as well as the coming tidal wave of speech language deficits thank you our next speaker is renee seckle hey y'all dr martin you did a really good job of discussing a lot of what i was about to say today so i'm going to try to keep this short we trust you guys i talk to parents every single day in wake county and they say no they're not going to remove the mass mandates we trust them we elected them we trust them and it's true we trust you and by and large you guys are doing a great job with one or two exceptions so i'm just going to say this we need to keep our mask mandates i realize that you have a parade of parents coming up here demanding

114that their children are not going to get sick and so therefore their children shouldn't have to wear mask masks but my worry is for all of the kids and you guys seem to be so far worrying about all the kids and i implore you to keep doing that because when we talk about you know we've had people come up here and talk about well the only people that kids aren't gonna die they're gonna you know they might have pre-existing conditions and those people will die well those people are people they deserve not to die they deserve not to have the chance of lifelong medical conditions because they've gotten coveted because somebody else finds wearing a mask inconvenient we talk about we hear a lot of claims about student mental health but what i wonder is

115who's thinking about the over 3 200 kids right here in north carolina who have suffered the loss of a caregiver due to covin what does that do to their mental health and why are those children less important or any other child who might between now and the time that this pandemic finally finally ends lose a caregiver masking is just the littlest thing we can do it is almost quite literally the least we can do to protect every one of our students every one of our students deserves to live our students with disabilities our students with comorbidities are students who have family members at home who are immunocompromised they deserve access to a sound basic public education they deserve to be protected too we trust you we have been trusting you and i please i beg

116of you to keep earning that trust and keep those masks for all of us thank you our next speaker is megan sumrell what a topic change what if you started every day wondering if you would be allowed to use bathroom for the next seven to eight hours ladies what if you were newly navigating your period and the only way you could use the bathroom was to stand up and announce loudly to your peers i have a bathroom emergency this is what's happening to the middle schoolers in our county and it's unacceptable we have middle schools with the following restrictions you can't go the first or the last 10 minutes of class you can't go in between classes and you can't go during active learning that leaves at best about a 10-minute window in each period

117where only one student can sign out to go at a time it's mathematically impossible for every student to visit the bathroom just once a day to make it even worse some teachers start their class announcing no one gets a bathroom pass today restricting access to restrooms causes both physical and emotional trauma in fact it's been deemed emotional abuse by certain national coaching associations in our country emotional abuse and forcing kids to hold their pee increases the risk of urinary tract infections now i understand or respect the need for some level of rules and boundaries around restrooms especially in middle school i completely support bathroom passes and remember using them myself but limiting access to this extreme is not a solution it's criminal i've been told to discuss this with the school administration and believe me

118i have more than once i've offered solutions that have all been turned down for example a simple offering to have my child raise her hand holding a pencil to signify the need to go denied the solution offered and returned to me from the school administration was the following she's to stand up and announce in a room full of middle schoolers that she has a bathroom emergency or break the rules and walk out why the teacher is telling her to sit down with the understanding that after being sent to the principal's office it'll all be worked out i ask you did any of you deal with middle school anxiety i know i sure did and according to the national institute of health at least 33 percent of middle schoolers have a diagnosed anxiety disorder i remember

119doing everything i possibly could to fly under the radar for fear of being teased and if you're a rule follower there is no way you will ever feel comfortable walking out of a classroom without permission thankfully these ridiculous bathroom policies are not at all of our middle schools other schools allow students to quietly take a bathroom break when needed middle schoolers have enough to be worried about and anxious about using the bathroom when they need to should not be on that list there are young students that are intentionally dehydrating themselves every day so that they don't have to go and others that are so focused on figuring out how to plan and navigate when they might get to use the bathroom that they're completely missing out on the instruction going on in the classroom now

120i recognize that allowing unlimited access all day long can lead to other issues but i am confident a better solution exists at a bare minimum we can at least open access between classes with staff monitoring the restrooms i hope you will look into standardizing bathroom policies across all of our middle schools thank you thank you our next speaker is mackenzie ashriff hi i'm mackenzie i am nine years old and i am in fourth grade i go to north forest pines elementary i'm here to ask you to please lift the mask mandate at school when i'm at school it is a little bit hard to breathe my mask on and all those kids that have asthma have trouble bleeding breathing without a mask and now with the mask they have more trouble breathing than before on

121my bus it's really hot and humid and it makes my mask damp and i can't breathe in a wet mask also understanding teachers is hard because you can't hear them as well i don't understand why other schools don't have to wear masks but our school and other schools around us do and also why do you not have to wear a mask at the grocery store or the gas station but at school you have to and why can thousands of people go to a stadium with no mask to watch a hockey or football game but you have to wear a mask at school all the people in my class go to hockey and football games and sit there without a mask and when they come to school the next day it's back to wearing a mask

122so please lift the mask mandate at school i ask you to please vote on this tonight and don't make us wait till much thank you for letting me speak today thank you mackenzie our next speaker is kim oli thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight and thank you to everyone who educates and prepares our children to take on the world i am here today asking that on march 1st you vote to put the decision to mask children in the hands of parents and makes make masks optional two years ago today my husband and i were gearing up to take our children to disney world for the first time we returned home to a world that was about to change at the start of the pandemic we were scared by this virus this unknown

123thing that was a threat to humankind so we took the proper precautions we masked up and we encourage others to do the same we understand the severity of kovid as we've mourned and prayed for friends who have lost family members these past two years have seen so much loss loss of jobs and businesses connections and experiences friendships and communities lives and livelihoods everyone has sacrificed including our kids they have done their part they have played their role my three-year-old had no schooling options for six months and was behind when he entered kindergarten my six-year-old was overwhelmed by virtual school bouts of tears over the frustration she felt in the loss of human connection she so needed since the start of covid anxiety and depression in children have increased dramatically and are now endemics teen suicide

124has skyrocketed young children are experiencing speech delays developmental delays and a decrease in social skills children with disabilities have lost progression we've asked these children to wear masks to protect those at risk now those at risk can protect themselves so why are our children still sacrificing they are the innocent ones those we are supposed to put first it's now two years later so let's look at where we are we have better data on risk associated with age and pre-existing conditions vaccines are available for those as young as five a significant portion of the vulnerable population is vaccinated we have booster shots available the case count is on the decline the omicron variant is milder than other previous variants and just recently the quarantine periods that would normally have disrupted schools has been removed the toolkit

125that so many were referring to this measure was updated based on the facts i just stated these factors have a huge influence on the decisions we make as parents community members and school board members the lockdowns virtual school and mass mandates all made sense two years ago when we were in the dark we didn't have any of these developments on our side but now we do and so new decisions can and should be made parents should now have a choice as to whether their children will or will not wear a mask masks inhibit cultural language speech and social skills that children should be developing this is the time when our kids develop empathy and understanding when they acquire communication skills that lead to individual achievements contributions to the community and that make the reputation of

126a school system ring true i am asking that come march first you vote to put the decision to match children back in the hands of parents and make mask optional thank you thank you our next speaker is lindsay tobin [Applause] good evening um i had a speech planned and i will go into that but i have to address the outrageous comments made by you dr martin leaders do not fear and hate monger trying to compare us in this to 9 11 still not delineating between those in the hospital with covet or because of coven just because there are greater things to suffer from in this world does not mean that we should just shut up and mask our kids apparently forever because there will never be zero risk masks are not merely an inconvenience for

127children there are a lot of educational and emotional implications for children and you may not care about that but we do these are our children and if you do not seem to care about this then you should not be leading our schools there is a lot of bad science going on like not using control groups when they do math studies like saying that science is settled when science is never settled and nothing in health and medicine is one size fits all like i said there will never be zero risk as you're aware many countries around the world have never masked their school children and finally after a year and a half many governors counties and school boards around our country are lifting the mass mandate in school and let's be very clear this science has

128not changed yet we have known for a very long time that cloth masks only give a two to five percent protection rate surgical mask around 11. we have known for a long time that healthy children are the least vulnerable population but what has changed is that the hypocrisy and outrage have finally started to affect leaders politically and become untenable for them in light of the changes around the country i like many parents emailed the board asking to have a masked optional vote for tonight's agenda as usual the only person who responded was miss carter i was told by chair that chairwoman mahaffey that there was not enough interest in the book from board members to add that to the agenda and with all due respect again we do not care what your personal interests are

129these are our children two more weeks and two more months of masking them will not change the trajectory of this virus it will only continue to inflict harm anxiety and learning loss once again you are leading from behind despite board members political leaders and media trying to portray us parents negatively as linked to conspiracy theorists or anti-science or anti-mask nothing could be further from the truth what we have been saying for months is finally being recognized as truth we have only tried to stand up for what is right for our children we realize that some children need every little layer of protection they because they have a condition or they have a family member that has a condition and we've never been anti-mask and we've never been anti-vaxxed we just simply asked to have the

130option to deal with rest best by our children since you will not make masks vote tonight on mask optional i'm asking that you would hold a special session on this issue our children should not continue to bear this burden for your inconvenience thank you thank you our next speaker is lisa meade our great nation is built on a strong public school education system the investment in educating our children is that is an investment in our society in our world i left teaching in durham public schools in 2010 after starting a family and eventually the cost of child care exceeded my salary now that my children are older i had some flexibility in addition to my part-time job and in february 2021 i answered the call for the urgent need for substitute teachers since last year

131i have clocked 76 days filling in within our classrooms and have 10 more already scheduled in the coming weeks by the end of the year i have been inside over 30 different schools in all grades k through 12. i have been a special education teacher pe science math and chorus but lucky for you i am not going to be singing tonight the situation of having a sub shortage affects a variety of people in the wake county community for instance when there are no subs available it makes everything more stressful to keep for the teacher because they know their colleagues are going to have to cover for them giving up planning periods which then impacts a whole other group of young learners in the midst of a pandemic shouldn't we be striving to make teachers feel

132more comfortable than ever to take sick days that they're feeling ill or not worrying about caregiving for a loved one i am up here for multiple reasons but mostly on behalf of all substitute teachers who answered the call this last year we appreciate the district recognizing our service and providing an increase in compensation putting us on par with other similar size school districts this was long overdue the pandemic has highlighted the struggle of low-wage workers in order to keep day-to-day life at a school running smoothly we need more subs available and to pay them an all non-certified staff a fair wage we need the general assembly to continue to increase funding because this is not the burden that wake county needs to bear after all we need the substitutes more than they need us public

133schools have been the backbone of the american dream they have enabled people to be assimilated into our society and to achieve however much their talents and dedication allow we must make it our mission to enable all children to fulfill their potential as empowered individuals constructive members of communities and engaged citizens of the united states and the world part of being an engaged citizen is helping win called and i want to ask the community at large to consider filling the vital role of a substitute teacher our teachers are stressed when you have an urgent situation not having coverage for a class can be so difficult education is vitally important to the strength of our democracy in our communities and therefore is our public responsibility if you believe this as i do please consider giving a fuller

134half day of your time even if you have another job with flexibility to our children and those who are educating them you will be surprised how fulfilling this low commitment opportunity to work in our schools can be the online application details can be found on the school system website thank you our next speaker is sherry shaver good evening my name is sherry shaver i will be talking about the ramifications of banning books and subjects i attended public school before there was women's history and black history month and before title ix i was taught the explorers discovered america and how this country was always righteous we skipped any topic that would be controversial like the vietnam war we learned about the segregated water fountains but not the terror and violence african-americans endured such as in wilmington

135or tulsa we learned about the different native american tribes but not about the treaties that the government intentionally broke i had the education that conservatives are promoting so how did the education prepare me for the future i excelled in the technical and managerial tracks in corporate america and then became a small business owner but the holes in the education showed through for example my office made from ghana accurately guessed that i could not locate ghana you see we never studied africa when i went to a corporate meeting in switzerland i was one of the only ones who could not speak multiple languages fluently when i taught at the universities in china i was not knowledgeable about the customs or the rich history of its dynasties we weren't taught about china i worked with managers co-workers

136and customers of different races faiths and sexual identities as a little girl no one would have ever guessed that i would travel to europe china and africa as an adult my father a retired teacher always said that education is a key that opens doors to opportunities i would like to encourage the dedicated school professionals and devoted parents to teach material that is broad and deep cover the tough and uncomfortable topics as well as the basics provide the keys so that the children may surpass your wildest dreams thank you our last speaker is cindy fettig okay good evening i'll preface this speech by saying i am not a domestic terrorist i'm not a conspiracy theorist and i'm not associated with q anon and don't you dare try to say that i am i am first and

137foremost a mom and in fact i'm a critical thinking mom who has done my own research wake county schools mission statement includes the four c's they are communication critical thinking collaboration and creativity these are great skills that will take our students far in life but i'm afraid that one particular skill is not being used among the decision decision makers on this board and that is critical thinking in the case of covid19 specifically masks and the covet shot i urge all of you to put on your critical thinking skills hat and follow the real science there have been a number of studies in the u.s and around the world on efficacy of masks each of these studies found no statistically significant difference in schools that require students to wear masks compared to schools that are mask

138optional our very own cdc conducted a study with 90 000 students in georgia this study also showed no significant difference between math mandated schools and mass optional schools critical thinking-minded school districts states and even governments around the world including the uk all of scandinavia the netherlands switzerland france and italy italy have exempted students from mass mandates so why haven't we kevin 19 is a respiratory virus and the real science and clinical studies prove that masks don't protect people from respiratory viruses so again to critically think about this if masks have been proven to not work then they shouldn't be mandated on the other hand masks are doing something to our students and it's not a good thing they are stunting the social and emotional health of our children and their language development now i'll speak

139to parents watching since we haven't been able to count on these board members to critically think as of yet as of yet parents please do your own research outside of the legacy news channels and mainstream media coven 19 may have been scary in the past when it was an unknown but now we know better we have studies that show there is no statistical significance of wearing masks and now with the cold-like virus and the omicron variant we have no reason to fear coven 19 is doing what every virus does mutates and gets weaker plus we all have a over a 99.8 chance of survival and kids have an even better chance of survival if they get coveted 19. we also have information on preventive and early treatment if you do get sick even the cdc

140states even the cdc states that children are far more likely to die of the flu a car accident a swimming pool accident or some other ailment than dying of covet 19. let's bring back respect and humanity i'm going to accept and respect you whether you've gotten the covet shot or not or whether you want to wear a mask or not thank you if the mask makes you feel safer then wear it but don't make others wear it when it makes no sense thank you it's past time do the right thing vote your time mask optional thank you we will now move on to our consent agenda um if someone would make a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second okay we have a motion and a second any discussion okay all those in

141favor of adopting the consent agenda please signify by saying aye any opposed nay okay we will now move on to our first action item which comes from our finance department which is a waiver of board policy 8101 and we will hear from our chief business officer david neader good evening chair mahaffey members of the board and superintendent moore back in december of 2021 at the december 7th finance committee meeting mark winters presented the annual comprehensive financial report for the year ending june 30 2021 and during that presentation mr winters reviewed the amount of unassigned fund balance as of june 30 2021 as being 44.6 million dollars and that was an increase over the unassigned fund balance from june 30 to prior year 2020 one is thirty five point three million dollars the increase on assigned

142fund balance year over year resulted from a reduction in some of our operating costs due to the pandemic expenditure restrictions we put into place at the onset of the pandemic not knowing what the economic impact of the pandemic may be and our capacity to utilize state and federal pandemic funding unassigned fund balance which represents 8.2 percent of the prior years county appropriation is intended to be used as a tool to assist in managing the fiscal cliff which will take place as the federal pandemic funding comes to an end and you'll hear more about that when we get to presenting the superintendent's proposed budget in a in coming weeks because we've got and i'm digressing a couple years to plan for that fiscal cliff board policy 8101 directs that we shall target maintaining an unassigned fund

143balance of six percent of the prior year's county appropriation and that any amounts in excess of that be returned to the county mr winter shared with you during that december 7th finance meeting that would be coming back to request that the board waive this policy specifically the component within the policy that unassigned fund balance in the amounts over that six percent threshold be returned to the county for the purposes of retaining that funding again to assist with managing through the pending fiscal cliff that we all know that we face i now ask the board's consideration of approval of waiver of board policy 8101 thank you mr nader do we have a motion to approve the waiver of board policy motion to prove the waiver okay we have a motion in a second is there any

144discussion just that i think this is important for all the reasons mr neither has discussed we've seen the situation come up before we know it's the responsible thing to do and we need it for the health of our schools so i support the motion all right thank you bye sure hegerty all right hearing no more discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye hi anya thank you passes attendance and feeding mr pesch will also present that policy and our last possibly presented the 4 700 student records will be presented by ms christina updates made on the north carolina school boards association and was reviewed january 25th to policy committee meeting given final approval replace policy 424 twelve and threats thank you there are one small changes section i can prepare where is that

145defining that would justify the magnification of the employee's license statute or involves physical child the legal citations are also thank you all right mr president thank you for highlighting those updates that have come um prior um all those in favor say bye any opposed all right thank you very much we have a next the board probably for attendance is presented as the revisions were updated by the north carolina support staff it was 25th 2022 committee meeting and given what will replace current public 4400 so on here on paper and a three remote instructions that stated with the exception of the initial document also on page three section leading school shop procedures students and their families assassin emanuel as this was more appropriate for r b and then finally legal citations were updated at the end

146of the policy thank you mr pesch for walking us through that dr martin again on behalf of policy committee thank you for those additional revisions uh i move approval of this policy on its first reading second all right we have a motion and a second uh is there any discussion ms carter okay i'll just voice it i know every time this has come forth i've voiced my concern around section three and i'll just be consistent with that that's around remote instruction days and the use of them thank you miss carter any other discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying bye sign of eye all right any opposed nay okay that the motion passes thank you mr patch miss riordan good evening chair mahaffey superintendent more members of the board i'm here

147to present to you the first reading of revised policy 4700 student records the revisions reflect updates made by the north carolina school boards association in an alignment with federal requirements when given final board approval it will replace the current version of this policy these revisions were reviewed and discussed at the january 25th 2022 policy committee meeting tonight we request the board's approval of the first reading of this revised policy thank you very much dr martin on behalf of the policy committee i recommend approval on first reading second okay we have a motion and a second to adopt board policy 4 700 student records is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor please signify by a sign of eye any opposed nay the motion passes thank you very much thank you very much that

148moves us on to closed session give me a minute to get get a breath so i can get through it it's a long one all right chair mahaffey i move that we go into closed session to consider confidential personnel information protected under general statute 143-318-11a 1 a3 and a6 to consult with the board of education attorney and preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in general statute 143-318-1183 thank you vice chair haggarty is there a second all right we have a motion and a second to go into closed session any discussion all those in favor please signify by sign of eye any opposed nay all right thank you very much we are no now in closed session i got your message [Music] um