Board Meeting 10-5-21

001so good evening welcome everyone to our wake county board of education meeting call this meeting to order october 5th about 5 37 we have a quorum all board members here are present and uh physically present here in the room along superintendent moore and council jonathan bloomberg so we do have a quorum if you always stand with me i'm sorry the pledge of allegiance all right we'll get right into our agenda and start with comments we'll start with superintendent superintendent's comments and superintendent moore good afternoon chair sutton board members this week is custodial appreciation week and students and employees are finding all kinds of ways to recognize their trusted custodians so i'd like to take the opportunity to also pay tribute to the amazing work performed every day by our custodial staff custodians have always been

002an essential part of the organization but never more so than in the past year since students and staff returned to school buildings amid the covet 19 pandemic they have worked diligently to clean and disinfect school buildings and strict adherence to state and local health standards simply put we could not have in-person instruction without them so my sincere gratitude goes out to every single custodian in our district thank you for everything you do to ensure safe and healthy environments for our students and staff last night i had the honor of speaking at the virtual stars of education gala hosted by wake education partnership six were inducted into the wake county public school system hall of fame these are outstanding educators alumni and community leaders who have either deeply impacted wcpss or dramatically added to the quality

003of life in our city state or nation the inductees were j.r richardson long-time band director at brocknet broughton magnet high school and more recently a music teacher at underwood magnet elementary who has dedicated more than 40 years to teaching and advocating for arts education in wake county milton center a dedicated educator and legendary baseball coach at fuquay verena high school muriel summers the multiple award-winning former principal of combs magnet elementary she partnered with franklin covey to create the globally implemented leader in me program a model currently being used by more than three thousand schools worldwide greer webb a sanderson high school alumnus morehead kane scholar and organizer of student-led advocacy group campaigning against gun violence gordon brown who as chief financial officer of alfred williams and company has supported wake county children and schools through

004his leadership and service with the boys and girls club and wake ed partnership and victoria scott miller the founder of liberation station bookstore an independent pop-up bookstore amplifying black voices in children's literature in addition to these honorees former governor jim hunt received the robert e bridges lifetime achievement award and mandy cohen secretary of the north carolina department of health and human services received the vernon malone friend of education award as our strategic plan core beliefs make clear we need dedicated principals and teachers as well as strong support from community partners to meet our goal of preparing students for productive citizenship as well as college or career there's no question that those honored on monday night have made a lasting impact on the lives of countless students congratulations to all on these well-deserved recognitions october is

005national bullying prevention month and schools are leading a variety of activities to bring awareness to all our efforts to stop bullying those include participation in the ninth annual stand up speak out bullying prevention video competition schools will also be participating in unity day on october 20th by wearing orange to unite around kindness support and inclusion look for these and other activities on social media using the hashtag speak out wcpss we are committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all students my hope is that these awareness efforts will encourage everyone to do their part to prevent bullying of any kind in our schools lastly i had the pleasure along with many of our board members to attend ribbon cuttings in the past week two new schools willow spring high and south lakes elementary and

006two renovations fuquay varina high and khan elementary it was remarkable to witness the joy and excitement on the faces of students staff and community as they celebrated their beautiful new facilities these moments would not have been possible without the foresight of our school board the careful planning of our facilities team the commitment of our county commissioners or the generosity of wake county voters who have supported our capital improvement bond initiatives i left each one of those events with a renewed sense of gratitude for serving a community that values its public school system and is willing to invest to make sure students have world-class facilities for decades to come so thank you to everyone who made those special celebrations possible they really were a great event that concludes my comments thank you superintendent moore i want

007to echo those comments regarding the ribbon cuttings i had a chance to attend a couple of those again as i know other board members did and everything you said was spot on and so thank you for those those comments and thank you the community for supporting those new schools just one item that i want to share was was pleased to be able to be on a virtual call and an induction ceremony if you will as we as the wake county affiliate of the national association of black school educators the north carolina wake county affiliate wake county became the third part was one of three affiliates installed last week along with cumberland county and winston-salem forsyth as the newest affiliate members of the national association of black school educators dr kimberly burton was installed as the

008new president and cedric williams was installed as the vice president so hats off to those two newly installed officers all of the new members and those that have been a part of making uh uh the becoming of the wake count affiliate uh a success to this point so i know that there are a lot of folks that think that have been part of that effort over the years and that has finally become our reality so thanks to all of you i don't want to start naming names and leave people out but certainly recognize our new leaders and look forward to participating uh with those educators as they work to continue improving education for all students but particularly our students of color so thank you to you to you all and congratulations vice chairman happy thank

009you chair sutton as superintendent moore mentioned several whip ribbon cuttings i would be remiss if i didn't highlight the fuquay verina high school ribbon cutting ms johnson hossler and i were in attendance and we asked their student vice president what her favorite part was and she was speechless for a while and i think she went on to say the outside areas the fact that that was kept the school that they had been used to that they left as freshmen was similar you just didn't need your waiters to go through the courtyard it is still arts and education week month and i would like to congratulate oh i guess it's october now when to finish off arts and education month then to congratulate our all-state choral performers students have to get selected through a team we

010have many students throughout wake county who have been selected for this but i need to highlight holly springs high school under the direction of miss jenny patchett where she had 10 of her chorale students selected for this honor and finally just continuing to love on our scotts ridge elementary community as they mourn the loss of one of their colleagues our school-based crisis teams were out last week and just continuing to to help and lift up those educators as they deal with the loss of someone that was very near and dear to them thank you thank you vice chairman happy start on this end today former member carter okay all right thank you um chairman sutton um and since our last board meeting i wanted to highlight one school that i visited for this is a

011school that folks might not have heard of or know much about but i encourage you all to look them up the connections academy it's another one of our what i think a very important school and the staff there and the families and students are just doing just amazing work and important work so check them out i also attended several football games green hope versus panther creek and we'll just leave it there and and then i'm just going to stop there and then davis drive in west cary middle school and it was great to see just all the families the staff other students and at the green hope high they also had the davis drive middle eighth grade band joined their band so that was um pretty cool i thought um and it was just uh

012nice to see everybody out and supporting one another and the cheerleaders and the dance team i'd beaver mess if i did not mention them um because they they keep it hopping so love it the energies is great and tomorrow night looking forward to a performance at cary high school the 12 angry jurors and if anyone has time they're actually doing it four nights tomorrow night through saturday night at seven pm tickets are sold at the door for five bucks so try to get there at 6 30 it's only tickets at the door so i'm looking forward to seeing it in person it should be exciting and echo a lot of i know there's i feel like this month there's a lot of awareness and all of that and i just wanted to highlight a few

013others i know we talked about bully prevention month but also it's disability history and awareness month dyslexia awareness month and i just encourage caregivers and parents if you have any concerns to please you know speak up mention them to your teacher because and work together as a team to see about possible next steps and any support needed and then the last awareness i just it's breast cancer awareness and i just know personally of a lot of uh or multiple educators um in a short time frame that i knew were all going through it at the same time and i just wanted to let you all know that you are strong and you can push through and your school community can be your support as well and my mom is a breast cancer survivor so i've

014seen it personally and you can fight and win and a couple just switching gears a little bit my next district 9 back meeting i just want to go ahead and give dates are all on the board calendar for the rest of the school year but the next one is november 18th at 6 00 pm and we'll be deciding on if it'll be in person or virtual as we get closer to that date and then also this coming up tuesday october 12th at 7 30 i'll be hosting a d9 connection virtual meeting thank you thank you board member carter mr hagerty thank you mr sutton thanks so again i was able to attend some of the other ribbon cuttings and topping off ceremonies and other celebrations around the district that we had both for the opening

015of new schools that we've constructed and the renovation of some of our older almost historic schools that have played important roles in this district i got to go to khan elementary fuller elementary led by enlo graduate miss culbertson i have to throw that out there but then also as we've opened new schools around the district as well this is important to remember as we start our reassignment work because you know addressing school growth and school enrollment is a multi-faceted issue we build new schools we renovate and we improve existing schools we look at school calendars we look at capping we look at all of the changes that we can make to best use the resources we have we've just taken a look in our work session at draft one the first draft of our reassignment

016plan no doubt there'll be some suggestions for changes we've had our board advisory committee in district seven which got to take a look at some of the considerations going into this plant and i was able to take some of that feedback take it to staff and ask them to incorporate that into the plan and i know we're going to continue to keep taking that feedback one of the important pieces of information that we got that i was glad to see in the plan was an interest in a lot of families to attend more proximate schools schools closer to their neighborhoods in areas where we could where we had schools with open seats and schools that were further away that were overcrowded and really trying to rebalance that and i want to thank staff for all

017of their work incorporating those suggestions into the plan shifting topics coming up you'll see on our agenda we will talk about some of the issues i think with some state funding and leandro then decision and important decisions that our state legislature is considering right now in terms of funding for schools as you know state funding for public education in north carolina is key living in a county like wake county we're fortunate enough to have a county commission that supplements our education revenues as they do but really the true basis for that funding is our state government they need to live up to their constitutionally mandated duties but the last thing that i want to share is on an area that we've all around this board talked about and that's the need for improved funding for

018special education and special education services and this is something i know some of us on the board have heard from our congressional representatives about and we have good news to report so you know first of all in the american rescue plan that was enacted we'll see another 2.5 billion nationwide but for state grants for idea with a significant portion of that coming to north carolina but in the budgets that are being considered right now with all of the things you hear pro and con what's in what should be out all of that right now there's a proposal that would increase uh the funding for idea it's 15.5 billion in increase of 2.6 billion over last year for additional state grants this is something that if you're interested in supporting additional funding to support our children

019that have ieps that have special education needs the best way to do that right now is to reach out to your senate and your house delegations representative ross representative price senator burr senator tell us and tell them that you stand with them in support of funding for our students that need special education services thank you thank you mr hagen former cash thank you um well first of all i mean we've had a lot of ribbon cuttings and i had fun at those and also i do believe that the stars of education event was done really well considering it was virtual but it was done really well so that was done yesterday i also got an opportunity to go with miss heather scott to one of her high schools roseville high school to meet with principal

020lasseter who i had heard many good things about and wanted to meet and mark savage helped us do that and hope to visit some other schools i missed one and i will do better next time but that was a good visit i did want to offer some remarks about cyber bullying it's something that's very important to me actually right now um and i'm going to say that some of you may have just read in the wall street journal facebook has documentation that instagram is toxic to young girls quoted in the article teens blame instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression this reaction was unprompted and consistent between all groups that have been on instagram among teens who reported suicidal thoughts thirteen percent of the british users and six percent of american users

021trace all their desires to kill themselves back to instagram forty percent of the instagram users that are in the nation today are 22 years and younger we know that instagram is not reality it is only the best shown to others of your life but it affects adults as well the article is very good so please read it out of the wall street journal so it is of course not just instagram and it is not just girls another extremely lethal site that we have is called change.org the site is used considerably in schools and here in wake county and any student can put up a petition against another student even if untrue and circulated to thousands in a very short time it usually leaves with a catchy phrase such as sign this petition if you believe

022this and it could be any remark that most people would sign but then they call out any student by name and send it change.org does not check the validity of the petition they confirm that they do not ever check the truth of any of these petitions the practice is very real in our schools in wake county and i'm not sure yet that our policies protect the victim from the assault policies that we have state disruption of school practices activities very specific to the school and during school hours or on school property these references tend to cause our principals to pause on discipline for the perpetrators senders of these messages have become very smart about sending the message an hour before the school day but it is open during the school day and the victim is

023mortified and as a teen we know when you are embarrassed with your peers life seems pretty impossible at that time it supports what i see in emergency room and hospitals and i have looked at the data from other hospitals because the effects of social media is apparent we see young adolescents wounded coming to the er their wounds are deep but they're invisible their wounds are not treatable quickly by sutures or casts or cleaning of the wound their wounds are from weapons but they are from verbal weapons and if the wounds caused often have a lifelong effect or cause death cyber bullying is a problem in this nation and in our schools and often when the crime is identified the victim is encouraged the victim is encouraged to transfer schools rather than the students that are

024identified are held accountable police say they cannot interfere with the process in our schools i am not sure what is stopping us from helping the students that are being cyber bullied but i would like to help them not end up in a hospital or worse there were parents that were going to come this evening to speak about cyber bullying but for fear of their children they stopped from coming and i respect that this month is national bullying prevention month and i would like for this board to do more thank you mrs cash this is johnson hustler thank you i'll pick up there this month is also domestic violence awareness month which many of us have on hues of purple which is a representation which also includes teen dating violence which also of course a subset

025of that is cyber bullying violence as well as verbal which are certainly wounds not seen so i think it's important to note that it coincides in a month that we are acknowledging bullying and hopefully our schools and our students but more importantly our parents and our community will see this as something that we all address we've certainly seen the impact of social media especially the school year since everyone primarily in our district is back in buildings and we're seeing the manifestation of trauma in their community trauma in their home and trauma by peers manifesting physically in our buildings through what most of us would say are school fights but are escalated by multitude of ways including social media platforms and i think it's a great way for us to make the connection of the importance

026of leandro of having adults in those buildings who can actually intercede on behalf of our students to provide the support that they need to ensure that they get the services they need whether they're internal to our buildings or external and we need adults in the building because ultimately i believe in this work that i've done my entire career so you've heard me say this is hurt people hurt people and without intervention and proper intervention and it's not just a school but i do believe that leandro is a way for schools to intervene in that and i also believe it's a way for those that we can bring into our schools to make sure that they're making community connections and helping parents and community members understand what they can do and certainly in my own district

027we had quite a bit of a disruption that started online started in a community then went to online and then actually finally blew up in our school building and i will say for me the benefit was we had a community organization reach out and say how do we help how do we inform parents so my plea to our community around all of this is the more adults we have engaged in finding outlets for students that don't include bullying or letting their trauma be inflicted on someone else that we do that and i think that we have the capacity to do this in wake county and so that's my plea this um this evening based on both many of us not just myself have heard these pleas and cries from our families and so i certainly

028hope the general assembly hears the plea for what they can do to support our schools and the folks inside of our building so teachers can teach and students can learn that we have those other adults and so that is my plea and other highlights um it is custodian awareness week and i want to celebrate what i did not know but thank you to the staff for letting me know we have one of the schools in my district eversboro elementary has had a family in the school building since its inception for over 50 years averys borough elementary has had a mcpherson family and it began with the father mr william fearson who was head custodian for 24 years at aversborough his wife worked there and then his son who just retired on september 30th was the

029head custodian for 24 years and mr mcpherson though that dad got to actually see the new building which not new anymore in which county years but in 2008 so he got to see it when his son had his parade its farewell parade and so that for me is just like our ribbon cuttings it reminds me that the love runs deep in this county and we don't actually get to bask in the greatness and the commitment to from our staff and employees in wake county and that's an exemplary way to show that the commitment is long-standing not just from individuals but from entire families and so thank you to the mcpherson family congratulations to mr mack who has now retired from aversboro elementary and now they no longer have a mcpherson in the building after 50

030years additionally i can't say enough about we had our the only school that opened last year which my district is a slower growing district and so we were excited for south lakes elementary to officially have its ribbon cutting although they've had kids in the building since last october and i will say it was super exciting in our new buildings to see students and staff watching what's happening with the ribbon cutting because of course they all can't be there but at south lakes they they use their google meets so every single classroom got to actually experience what was happening in the ribbon cutting and again all of our ribbon cuttings engaged our students in multitude of ways which always makes me happy to see our school district ensuring that our student leaders are being highlighted and

031even those who don't think they're leaders being highlighted in um at south lakes we had a little bitty who could barely reach the podium couldn't remember her words but again the words that she did remember it's like a for me a easter speech at a church we were all like yes congratulations and she and again that's cultivating our leaders by ensuring that they have the information they need and that we support them and we saw that by our administration and again we had great sunshine on a rainy day at willow spring high school and i have to thank the fuquay slash willow springs community for opening their arms to two high schools in a small community that's unheard of as you all know and it is for me an amazing feat to see that their

032their pta split so that a new high school would not be lacking a pta and support and that truly for me again yet another reminder of the greatness that does happen when we're consumed by the things that aren't and so i said this year my word for as long as i can remember is patience and if you wait long enough the goodness will certainly show up and that's i think what we've most of us have seen and expressed over the last week and so the bright reminders of the great things that are happening and lastly i'd be remiss if i didn't like my colleagues thank wake ed partnership every single year they do greater and greater work and i have to say as you heard superintendent moore mention they inducted their first student although greer

033martin is now um in college he is also i was chair when he called me and told me he was doing a press release on what happened at sanderson and i was like oh sure and the next thing i know i turn on the news and he is literally doing a press release on jones street so indeed this young man deserves the the induction and then lastly i will say it was also great to see our student leaders interview the the inductees and so again a great honor to see not just in our public school system but our public school partners invest in our young people and their leadership thank you thank you mr johnson hossler mrs kushner welcome back thank you chair sutton it's good to be here with you all thank you for

034the grace you gave me while i was um away and um also wanted to echo the appreciation for wake ed partnership and the excellent celebration last night and if you go on their website and look up at the stars of education event i would encourage you all to click on the link stars among us so that you can send directly a thank you to teachers custodians bus drivers and child nutrition workers to our ias to all of our staff members who are working around the clock right to keep our schools safe to keep our schools in person and to have make sure our children are getting instruction in our schools it has been a yeoman's task a young woman's task as well but i just recognize the stresses the strains and the excellence and the

035forgiveness that's going on in our schools and i just want to send out a great appreciation to them and i encourage you to go on wake ed's board website and reach out to our teachers to give them your gratitude also echo my colleagues on the anti-bullying recognition there was a great discussion in policy committee around the free speech decision that recently came down from the supreme court but that this free speech that students have free speech rights off campus that does not include bullying or harassment or cyber bullying so that your free speech rights do not protect you from harassing and bullying and cyber harassing fellow students those are disruptions to schools that we as a board i think take seriously that we want our administrators and our school-based staff to take seriously so i

036appreciated that discussion and the continuing discussions that our legal team will have with administrators and principals so that we have some clarity of discussion on that and finally the district 6 bac will be meeting next wednesday october 13th at 5 30 at lacey elementary thanks to the lacie lyons for hosting us and i'm looking forward to discussion on coveted relief funding and the student enrollment plan that was reviewed today and work session and thank you cheerson i'm sorry mr sun my bac is tomorrow so please district two we literally have movement this time so please it's at six o'clock with the south garner titans thanks thank you both dr martin thank you for i first want to say uh thank you to all of our teachers our students and staff in schools uh keep on

037keeping on i've heard particularly from a lot of teachers and staff it's an exhausting time but we really do thank you and appreciate um all of the work that you are doing um last week we had our district 5 bac meeting chris nordstrom came and gave an excellent presentation on the leandro case helping us understand the history of that what got us to where we are and understanding what that impact would be even here in wake county schools as well as the impact across the state so thank you very much chris for a very insightful presentation i want to also acknowledge on [Music] i guess two weeks ago maybe three we had the cte recognition breakfast uh mr hagerty was there superintendent moore and i were there but i just want a huge thank you

038to the business alliance all of our business partners the internships that you provide the uh and we've got rich cte programming in all of our schools the cte academies are outstanding you know we see the graduation rates of basically a hundred percent for our students who participate in those cte academies and none of that could happen were it not for the business alliance who really uh helps make that possible so thank you so much i'd also like to extend a special welcome tonight they're watching online but the park scholars from nc state university are on their learning lab too normally the learning lab 2 goes to washington dc where they focus on a national related issue but with covid actually the last two classes have not been able to take that trip to washington dc

039but right now they're looking at the national issue of how do leaders approach issues related to equity and access to high quality k-12 education so a very important topic it was a topic that i worked with my part class back more than a decade ago on a very similar topic and that's part of what led me to the work here on the school board but really important work as they dig into looking at national topics i've had the pleasure to work with them this weekend thank you superintendent moore for addressing them several of our principals did thank you to the wake county schools for actually hosting the group um at our crossroads facility but the park scholars are uh thank you all keep up the great work great group of folks go pack um and

040uh you know i think some of the discussion that we've had over the last couple of days you really uh and the whole community needs to understand the extent to which education really is the foundation of our society and you know the founding was because without public education you're not going to have a strong uh democratic form of government governance and you're also not going to develop the talent that we have across all sectors of society so whether we'd love to have several park scholars join wake county public schools but as some of the discussion really showed every citizen needs to engage in the the public school system because it is what we need to keep uh our country functioning so thank you and welcome and finally uh as i've done throughout the pandemic i'd

041like to give the update on where we're at with respect to covet cases fortunately here in lake county public school system we had over the last two weeks we have we had a drop of about half the number of cases so that's very good news you look a little bit uh behind deeper though and we're still 2.5 times the high that we were back in january so going in the right direction but we still have a lot of work to go um we also need to recognize that our high schools our high school cases high school student cases dropped 58 last week that's good our middle school cases dropped 53 percent last week but our elementary school cases dropped only 24 uh last week so there is a differential i think that is uh you

042know evidence of increasing vaccination please everybody who's eligible get that vaccine to protect those who can't be vaccinated it's also important to recognize that the highest incidence rate among our staff is among the elementary school staff so all of those things are correlated good news is that well we did have cases in 116 schools uh last week uh last week 156 schools had two or less cases so that means that most of our schools are are are seeing just the small numbers that you might expect given still the high incidence here in wake county but we still do have spikes in a few places and as of the data last night uh wake county is at about 195 cases per 100 000 population that's basically double the cdc listing of high transmission rate so we

043still have a ways to go to the entire community please be aware we were seeing a pretty steep drop from the high of a couple weeks ago but that drop is starting to plateau just a little bit and those plateaus are not necessarily a good sign so we can't do like we did back in june when we saw things go down we relaxed a little bit too quickly and things turned right back around so we're seeing the drop there's a little bit of a plateau community please everybody work together and let's drive it down let's not let that be an upturn so everybody please redouble your efforts when you look at the disaggregated numbers last week the week of 9 26 so this is from the north carolina department of health and human services data

044so it's always a little bit delayed and and these numbers always go up in the following week but their report was for all of wake county there were 190 185 cases per hundred thousand population five to nine year olds were 330 i'm sorry 337 cases per 100 000 population 10 to 14 year olds 256 cases per hundred thousand population and 15 to 17 year olds 185 per 100 000 population now the thing on those numbers so and remember a hundred cases per hundred thousand population is what cdc calls high so we're still uh almost everybody's double that our elementary school age children are triple that but the biggest concern is that all cohorts all age cohorts decreased last week except for our elementary school five to nine year olds and they went up by six

045percent uh uh last week that number is going to be even higher next week when the full numbers come in uh from ncdhhs so the data is clear um we're not out of the woods and frankly the reason why i think all the other cohorts are going down and the elementary school are going up is because elementary schools are not yet eligible for vaccination as soon as they are i encourage families to work with your physician uh and and consider that very carefully vaccines absolutely do work that's what's helping keep things going down we need to continue that effort redouble our efforts because i don't want to see that plateau turn to an increase so thank you and keep up the work we can get through this thing but we've got to work together to

046make it happen thank you dr martin mr scott thank you sutton and good evening as ms cash said we we enjoyed a nice visit to uh to roseville high school to talk to ms lasseter who i believe in 2014 was principal of the year in the wake county public school system so she's an outstanding leader and to have a conversation with her you realize um it is her life's calling to to serve an education and when i as dr martin started out his comments thanking our teachers i think everybody everybody who's still here hanging on it it is their calling and i'm so glad you you keep hearing that call because we need you our kids need you and the work that you do is just so important and i'm certainly hoping hoping that our

047when our state budget comes out it reflects how valuable you are but one of the things that ms lasseter mentioned was student voice and really listening to her students and coming from middle school and then going to high school and that's it's critical to have those relationships with your students where they you feel they can they where they feel they can come to you and through student voices where you adapt how you're presenting what you're presenting and that's that's it's very important very important to do that and miss lasseter uh said that it reaffirms hiring decisions in terms of ensuring that her staff reflects her students um bilingual staff hires i mean just really getting to know your students and and that um when i think about the the anti-bullying efforts that we have i

048hope we can take a moment to to ask our students what really does work my children are are brutally honest as i think most are and my son was talking and please i hope no one takes offense to this um but he was talking about a video that he watched an anti-bullying video and he said i'm i gotta be honest when i'm like i don't know how i don't know how effective that's gonna be and i said well i'm like i actually appreciate that feedback well what would be effective he said well i'll get back to you on that and so i'm still waiting for that um but but that was important feedback to know that yes the effort's there he understands the why but we need to make sure that we're doing everything we

049can to amplify student voice and i appreciate that i have heard since being elected in 2018 i have heard from students who have felt comfortable they found out my contact information and reached out to me i've been able to meet with them and i know all of my colleagues value that at graduations and any opportunity we have so i just i wanted to extend my my gratitude that during the information item that we're hearing uh directly from two students and i also wanted to thank ms melissa allen who was able to forward an email that she received from two students uh to to me and to uh staff members so that that are in for a information item because it's also national hispanic heritage month these two students took that initiative and reached out and

050i wanted to extend my gratitude to staff and ms allen for for listening to student voice so that we can hear directly from the people that we serve thank you thank you mr scott and thank you board members superintendent moore for your comments i do want to just take a moment and thank everyone in this room for adhering and respecting our mask mandate i certainly appreciate you doing that and wearing your masks uh diligently uh um i know that there are different opinions uh about wearing the mask however we appreciate and not just myself but the board and superintendent i appreciate that you wearing those masks with fidelity keep them over your mouth over your chin and nose so sincerely thank you thank you all for that at this time i would like to before

051i get into approving tonight's agenda i want to amend the agenda by removing two items from consent to action one of those is item 2 c board of education general counsel second amendment would like to move that to action and then the second item is senate bill 5d no item item 5d which is senate bill 654 okay so i still can't find it but so those two items i like to move those items from consent to action if i can entertain a motion to approve the amended agenda with the remove of those removal moving of those two items second got a motion from mrs cash second johnson hossler to approve tonight's uh agenda as amended sharing the discussion hearing none all those in favor shall about sign of i oppose nay as have it tonight's

052motion on tonight's agenda is amended so board members if you would hit your home button there and it should refresh shortly all right with that we'll move to our information item first item up is from our team with academic advancement national spirit hispanic heritage month so gartner members of the board good evening it is a privilege to have this opportunity to join you tonight and in our district to celebrate national hispanic month national hispanic month is a designated period from september 15 to october 15th in the united states for recognizing the contributions and influence of hispanic americans to the history culture and achievements of our nation hispanic heritage month always starts on september 15th a historically significant day marking the independence of five latin american countries costa rica el salvador guatemala honduras and nicaragua the

053designated period also includes recognitions of individuals from mexico and chile who celebrate their independence september 16 and september 18 respectfully in addition to celebrating the many outstanding achievements of our hispanic and latino students and families in our district and broader community tonight we also want to celebrate the achievements of local latino entrepreneurs latino small business owners are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in our united states over the past 10 years the number of latino business owners grew 34 percent compared to 1 percent for all business owners in our nation according to a recent study conducted by stanford university it is an honor to have with us tonight two students kavya saram and alana payne from athens drive high school in their effort to increase awareness and equity in the hispanic community they created a

05430-minute documentary over the summer interviewing local hispanic business owners about their struggles their experiences and their successes they have been sharing it throughout hispanic heritage month and they have been featured in the triangle business journal on cbs and wl newscast and are currently working with the town of kerry and the city of raleigh to display their work as well i know you're going to find it a pleasure to hear from them tonight about some of their work in addition to our two students to join us from athens drive high school we also have dr maria rosa rangel from our office of equity affairs and i am honored to share with you tonight that she recently was named by the governor as chair of the governor's advisory council on hispanic latino affairs what an honor to

055have one of our own members of our district in this distinguished position in the state so at this time i'm going to invite dr maria rosa rangel to the front she is going to introduce her students later we have a slide deck as well if you want to go ahead and display that that will support some of the comments tonight thank you thank you dr garner good evening everybody buenas tardes yes so we are celebrating hispanic heritage month and did you know the next life please that there are 60.6 million hispanic latinos as of july 1st 2019 making people hispanic latino origins the nation's largest ethnic or racial minority hispanic constitutes 18.5 percent of the nation's total population 12 is the number of states with the population of 1 million or more hispanics residents in

0562019 arizona california colorado florida georgia illinois new york city new mexico new york and guess what north carolina pennsylvania and texas let's look at hispanics in north carolina over the last decade north carolina latinx population has grown by 25 percent in the state now greater than one million people with a thousand and twenty six thousand residents in twenty nineteen there are three hundred and sixty four thousand hispanic latino students in north carolina public schools while latinos compromised one in ten nc 17.9 percent of students enroll in nc public schools and we have 14 percent our first time full-time students in north carolina community colleges they are 116 latinos hispanics in wake county twenty nine thousand three hundred ninety three wcps students are hispanic of latino fortune well latinos also contribute to the economy hispanic latino

057spending power in north carolina exceeds 25 billion in economic impact annually according to an nc banker association study hispanics are now distributed throughout the ncaa economy says jim johnson a veteran unc chapel hill business professor who studies immigration we can be found in the construction trades agriculture processing plants trucking janitorial may services with an increase of professionals like myself moving to north carolina it is my pleasure to introduce you to two celebrities from ethan drives high school they decided to vamos local which means let's go local to create a documentary on the importance of equity within the local hispanic latino businesses without further ado let me introduce kevia chiram and alana payne come on girls hello everyone my name is kavya and i'm alana and we're so glad to have this amazing opportunity to speak

058at the board of education meeting to start off we're going to just discuss why we wanted to create this documentary our first reason was to combine our interests she's very interested in business and spanish and i'm interested in film production and our second reason was to promote hispanic and latinx businesses and bring awareness in light of covet 19 when many small businesses more specifically hispanic and latinx businesses were struggling in the area to stay afloat so while we made this documentary we learned a lot about their struggles successes and overall experiences first of all their struggles due to kobe 19 all five businesses struggled tremendously with gaining customers with newer regulations and just overall operations one of the places that we interviewed la leh which is the largest spanish radio station in north carolina had

059a big problem all three of their radio announcers got covet 19 at the same time and had to continue their radio show working from home it was pretty funny because they told us how they had to create their own radio show at home and bring their boots and all their equipment and this was because the hispanic community heavily relies on their radio because the majority of them speak spanish also there were many strengths a big one was their relationship with the customers because most of the customers speak spanish and live in an english-speaking country the owners were able to form a deeper bond with their customers with many of them being regulars and people that they would just talk to casually we also observed how friendly the workers were with the customers they were forming

060deeper bonds and were like friends and family this is important for the hispanic and latinx community for many reasons one being that we wanted to lift the businesses the marginalized businesses and hispanic community and to focus on inclusion efforts with the immigrant hispanic and latinx owners as a part of hispanic heritage month we also wanted to particularly promote these small businesses during the pandemic when a time of racial inequity was very clear and had exacerbated overall we hope our documentary will promote these small businesses and will encourage people to visit smaller businesses especially in light of the pandemic thank you so much on hold on come here girls come here i just want you to know that the celebration continues the wcps latino educators invite everybody to join us virtually we will be showcasing resources

061within wake county public schools as well as wake county they are supporting latino communities we are so fortunate to have many resources here within wake county as well as wake county public schools and dr garner please it is always wonderful to hear the voices of our students and i know you are as equally as proud as i am of their accomplishments ladies thank you for what you are doing in our community the vision you have for this project the leadership you are demonstrating in your school and in our community thank you and to recognize your contributions we want to present to you two certificates for helping us celebrate national hispanic lot and to recognize the work you are doing in this community and i know there are many more media outlets that are going to

062cover your work in the future so we look forward to that so i want you to also share with the board how they can access your documentary if they would like to see it and let's give our students one more round of applause before we so our documentary is available on several news outlets which have them linked such as cbs if you search up cbs and nos vamos locale which means we're going local in spanish you can find the documentary it's also available on youtube as well so we hope you are able to watch it and thank you so much members of the board thank you again for this time to celebrate national hispanic month thank you thank you dr garden again thank you ladies dr michael thank you as well all right next up

063superintendent's update let's have one brief item for update today from our work session board members were presented the draft one of the enrollment plan for the 2223 school year it is important for those who are those who are impacted you'll receive an email with information the address lookup went live earlier this afternoon until you can see if you are impacted the information is available on assembly if you want to see the presentations there are info sessions that will be held virtually during the month of october for those who are impacted draft two will be presented to the board on november 16th the board is currently contemplating a called board meeting for public hearing on the enrollment plan only on november 30th with a scheduled vote for no december 7th for the final enrollment plan for

0642223. there are a number of other dates that come that are spring after that in terms of the transfer period the magnet fair a number of things that come online after that so please be on the lookout for additional information you can find it on our website and if you are an impacted family you should be receiving notification already those are my updates thank you so much and that takes us to public comment uh consistent with the august 18th 2021 declaration by the time i carry requiring face coverings in all indoor settings properly worn face cameras are now required for those attending board of education meetings to number the spread of covert 19. in keeping with the town's declaration and face coverage must be secured to the head with ties straps or loops over the

065ears and fits snugly against the side of a person's face board members wcpss employees and the public must wear a face covering even if vaccinated a properly worn face covering means the nose mouth and chin are covered if you are unable to wear a face covering because of a disability you may watch the live stream of board meetings all this and by phone if you are selected to give public comment and we are unable to wear and you are unable to wear face covering due to a disability or other reason please let us know when completing the registration form only those indicating a disability on the registration form will be permitted to remove their face coverings during public comment if you are unable to wear a face covering you will be asked to wait outside

066the building until you are contacted prior to your speaking time after you are contacted you will be allowed to enter the building into the meeting room to give public comment you will then be asked to leave if you do not properly wear a face covering during the meeting public comment is accepted in writing via via video or in person during regular meetings of the full board during the public comment session you may speak for after three minutes you will see a yellow light at the podium when you have 30 seconds remaining then a red light when your time is up if the comment portion of the agenda exceeds 30 minutes the board chair reserves a right to conduct other board business before inviting remaining speakers to the podium the following citizens have submitted comments as

067part of our public comment portion of this evening's agenda their comments are linked on the same online agenda we are using for tonight's meeting that agenda as well as guidelines for those wishing to submit comments for future meetings can be found at the school district's website wcpss.net under the tab label school board we have 66 written comments and 15 video comments from members of the public the topics and speakers whose comments are attached to the agenda are as follows there are 59 comments regarding covet preventive measures including the mass mandate these are both in support and opposition there are eight comments regarding bus drivers and then there are 14 others on a variety of topics those speakers that are here tonight that are providing their public comments in person we'll start with those john scarborough

068evening superintendent moore chairman sutton board members i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and i'd like to express my gratitude for your continued support for the mask mandate it clearly is an effective measure to help prevent the spread of kova 19 in our schools at the last meeting on-site rapid testing was a topic that chairman sutton among others was pushing for i hope that in the intervening two weeks that a plan has been formulated and is ready to be discussed and approved this evening testing is such an important tool for the district to track and control this disease all anyone needs to do is to look at the success of school districts across the country who have drastically reduced in-school and community spread of the virus by implementing a testing program

069clearly we can see how important it is to do the same here especially in light of the many suspected cases that are still pending results on the covet 19 dashboard it's unclear which direction the virus is going to take but it seems that there is just an opportunity at this moment in time for the district to formulate and finally execute a later approach to dealing with the likelihood of a new variant emerging or a new surge of delta within our community this winter many people have pointed out that over the last 18 months the response the district to the pandemic has been inadequate what i and every other parent of a student in the district wants to know is what are you going to do going forward what is the exit strategy for getting our

070schools back to a more normal educational environment because frankly it doesn't look like anything is happening of any sense of urgency do you think that any of us want our kids in masks all day and in socially distanced learning no but we want our children to be as safe as possible when we entrust them into your care to that end i strongly encourage you to take up the mask mandate to implement a comprehensive testing program and to enact a layered mitigation strategy as recommended by public health officials as soon as possible thank you good night melinda wiggins breed good evening all right i'd just like to thank you guys for allowing me to come up here and speak with you today my name is melinda wiggins breed i was in dentistry in the state of

071kentucky for over 30 years i'm a board certified akp from the university of louisville dental school one thing i do remember you know i when i started in dentistry a long time ago was we came out with the hiv virus but nobody had this kind of a panic i've never seen this kind of a response to another deadly virus that nobody knew anything about we sure as you know heck didn't slap masks on our kids um you know there was no testing there was no talk about vaccine mandates there was no rush to make a vaccine and as early as 1983 the who described a sick building syndrome which people living indoors experienced acute disease relevant effect increased by the time of their stay without specific causes or disease a syndrome affects people who spend

072most of their time indoors with subliminally elevated co2 levels well masks over the children's face caused the elevation in co2 levels in their bloodstream you know i again i can sit and go through all this you know all this information that i've got but what it boils down to is these masks are doing more damage than good um they're actually decreasing the amount of oxygen that's in our lungs which then makes the lungs more susceptible to the virus i think you're mixing up state numbers with local numbers you know i understand people's fear i get that i'm comply i can empathize with that as a parent but you know when my son comes home from school because he's had this thing strapped to his face for eight hours complaining of headaches and just difficulty concentrating

073you want to talk about bullying this is bullying this is complete bullying for the kids are psychologically affected by this thing on their face union county schools their positive positivity rate is lower than uh than that of wake counties it's not statistically significantly different yeah it's not yeah and and they they're not they've decided not to to make or they did they've decided to make masks optional and you know i just i understand parents concern but it's do a little bit more research to find out what these maps are actually doing to our kids respiratory system increasing their heart rates it's just it's it's really of another form of bullying thank you [Music] katie long so in the last meeting dr holly wilcher tried to give her speech on brain developments you could not handle

074the truth so you kept interrupting her about her mass wearing because it did not fit your policy even more disrespectful when you offer her one of your masks if masks really work why hasn't the cdc provided peer-reviewed documentation on the efficacy of mask there's no peer-reviewed documentation on the so-called vaccine either the gene modifier drug pfizer has not disclosed the entire ingredients in this vaccine nor has the fda fully approved it my parents fled from communism you do not know what socialism is until you live in a communist country your behavior and dictatorship make me feel like i live in one you pledge to that american flag i do not think you understand what that american flag stands for otherwise you would not be suffocating our children with their own toxins i do not have

075a license to practice medicine nor do i want to pretend that i'm a medical expert what i do have is common sense and i think logically if there's a real pandemic you and i will be killing each other for this vaccine the corrupt government officials would not need to bribe me or convince me to get it this vaccine is so safe that they have to bribe us to get it scare us guilt us shame us and find us hospitals are terminating thousands of workers because the staff refuse to the vaccine mandate is this really about our health a true story the main street mainstream media would never cover but let me cover it in here my sister's brother passed away from from a stroke recently hospital coded his death as cobin why because hospitals are

076getting paid handsomely for deaths coded as kovit i follow the science but i only follow real scientists doctors who took an oath to help save lives not driven by money and power this is the land of the free this is the we the people government we elected you and we can unelect you are you willing to stand up for the liberty and justice that our american flag represents do the right thing stop hurting our children with your policies free the smiles no vaccine mandate no testing and i quote freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction we didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream it must be fought for protected and handed for them to do the same or one day we will spend our our sunset years telling our children

077and our children's children what it was like once like in the united states where men were free you and i have the courage to say are to our enemies there is there is a price we will not pay there is a point beyond which they must not advance we will preserve our children this the last best hope of man on earth or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness ronald reagan united we stand so again i'll just ask regardless of your position on any of the issues please be respectful of our speakers please no loud uh outbursts or just disrespectfully destructive behavior will be tolerated thank you wendy carter hi um it's my understand my understanding the school board is considering taking away a parent's right to

078make medical choices for their children before you take such action show me the science where are the studies of the long-term side effects of this gene therapy on our children do you know where that information is let me tell you there is none at all that is because mrna gene therapy treatments never made it out of animal trials which has been a requirement for every vaccine in the history of our country in the animal trials something called antibody dependent enhancement occurred which basically results in the virus replicating at a higher than normal rate and the immune system going into a hyper reaction in response to that virus this resulted in 100 percent of the test animals dying upon re-exposure to the vaccine or to the virus and this could be the reason we're seeing that

079between 62 and 74 percent of those being hospitalized currently are vaccinated individuals dr robert malone who is the primary inventor of mrna technology which you can find multiple interviews with him at warroom.org said in his expert opinion forcing anyone under the age of 18 to have this shot should be viewed as child abuse because there are no long-term side effects studies another important factor to consider as a typical vaccine medical trial last 12 to 15 years this one was done in a matter of months and bypassed all the normal stages of the trial process i am not an anti-vaxxer my son has been vaccinated throughout his life but given the lack of testing and reliable facts we are not getting the shot and no one has the right given this lack of information to force

080anyone to do that if another person decides to play with their health that's their choice and i will stand up for their right just as i'm doing now for their choice as for masks they do not work they cannot stop the nanoparticles of this disease and it weakens the lungs they collect bacteria and each time the children touch these masks they spread that bacteria to everything else they touched afterwards plus it forces the children to bring breathe their own toxins toxins the entire day in the emails released from mr fauci in his own words he said the mass do not stop the spread so why are we subjecting these children to this abuse my child like many others who remembers how school used to be hates going to school the kids are not allowed to

081socialize and the teachers and administrators now spend the entire day yelling at them about following protocols when they should be teaching caring and educating our children we are teaching the children that they should be afraid of one another and live in fear you are going to create an entire generation full of anxiety disorders like we have never seen before mask should be an individual choice just like the vaccine please respect the right of parents to make the decision for their children free our kids let them breathe laugh play and smile again thank you [Music] is samu nigro okay good evening my name is isabu nigro and my wife and i are current middle school math teachers in the district i'd like to address the vaccine mandy proposal for district employees i do not support a

082cova vaccine mandate for a number of reasons let me be clear i support vaccines that have a proven track record a record of long-term safety and efficacy however i do not support mandating people to be injected with a new type of vaccine that was produced and tested in a short period of time no one knows the long-term side effects of covered vaccines because they have not existed for more than a year to say that these vaccines are like any other vaccine as naive first i acknowledge that these vaccines reduce the chances of hospitalization and death however they do not prevent infection you can still contract covet after being vaccinated this is proven in current figures in duke university's covet testing tracker where covet tests have yielded 864 positive cases where vaccination rates for students are

083at 98 second the efficacy of these vaccine vaccines wanes over time recent studies show evidence of this and the fact that the cdc recommends a booster shot at least six months after your pfizer vaccine series is more evidence along with many others i'm unwilling and uncomfortable to get jabbed every six months with a new vaccine third there is little to no mention of natural immunity to covet after getting infected why doesn't the abc science collaborative address address this topic they have not provided any research on this topic despite growing evidence that natural immunity to covet is broader meaning you are immune to multiple variants and longer lasting up to 12 months of protection in a recent study based on this evidence dr danny benjamin should research and address the efficacy of coveting antibodies before any

084vaccine mandate is considered the reality is that a little more than two out of every hundred thousand children are in the hospital due to coping even dr benjamin noted that the death rate around point zero three percent for children ages five to seventeen who contract covet is lower than the children's death rate from influenza anyone from the general population of country who contracts covid has less than a one percent chance of dying from the virus i do acknowledge that elderly people and people with immune deficiencies or underlying health conditions like obesity or diabetes are more susceptible to hospitalization or death from covet these are the populations that will benefit most from the vaccine vaccine mandates for healthy individuals or individuals under the age of 50 are unnecessary based on scientific evidence the truth is that

085the covet vaccine mandates are divisive and authoritarian the pandemic is not just about public safety any longer already in different parts of the country including north carolina nurses teachers and law enforcement are being forced to get the vaccine or lose their job we cannot afford to lose any employees given the current shortage of teachers bus drivers et cetera within our district besides since when is it acceptable to use soft coercion to influence a person to do something against their will my family and i left california in february to flee the authoritarian state where students are now being mandated to take the vaccine the argument that everyone must do their part to keep others safe derives from the collectivist mindset the common good before the individual good this mindset is the basis of communism fascism and

086socialism it is not foundational to our american republic the idea that the rights of the collective supplants the rights of the individual is unamerican the those that pledge blind allegiance to authority and experts are giving up their personal freedoms and liberties my body my choice argument is the same in principle regarding opposition to vaccine mandates individuals have a right to inform consent when it comes to medical procedures thank you tomlinson good evening superintendent more chair sutton and board members first i would like to thank you all for all that you do i'm before you today to bring awareness to a little known but growing fine art in north carolina schools and that is school competitive dance wakefield high school has been a pioneer not only being the first competitive dance team in wake county but

087being the first team from north carolina to make it to nationals in 2019 where we placed 14th in the nation the following year apex friendship went and placed 23rd as first-year teams these placements were incredible and we represented north carolina well adding to our numbers green level and green hope had just started competing and unfortunately everything shut down in 2020 the arts were unable to compete just like the rest of the programs in wake county however in 2021 athletics were able to have abbreviated versions of their season meanwhile the fine arts were still not able to practice in person much less have their performances and competitions in person we did enter a regional virtual competition however our region included kentucky indiana and south carolina who had been practicing in person and wakefield high who had

088two years prior coming 14th nationally came in dead last regionally this year we're so happy to find out we'd be allowed to practice in person and we're thrilled over the summer to learn that field trips would be allowed which meant we could finally compete again in preparation our team held a summer camp at our school as well as fluent an nda choreographer to teach our competition dance routines we brought costumes and the girls and coaches have been working their hearts out to try to build back to where we were in early september our dance teacher received unexpected guidance around field trips that stated that not only will overnights not be approved which completely ruled out the florida nationals but we can't go more than 125 miles or across the state lines unlike most other programs

089for competitive dance those restrictions took every opportunity to compete away from us again you see north carolina does not yet have a school dance organization only studio dance therefore north carolina does not have school dance competitions as the school dance program grows in our state we hope to see that change one day until then we have to travel to states who have these competitions with wake county restrictions the way they currently are our only option is to enter a north carolina state cheer competition where we've been told we'll be dancing on asphalt as they do not have a dance floor for us and will likely be competing against ourselves this is the equivalent of telling the orchestra they have to enter a marching band competition and learn to march while playing their instrument and not

090an acceptable alternative i know you're closely following metrics and trying to make the best decisions my goal in coming here was hopefully to educate you on the opportunities that are not available for our very small but growing program across north carolina please understand we need to at least be able to get to south carolina and virginia to give our dance teams the same opportunity to compete as the rest of the programs and teams within wake county please do not let us go a third season without being able to do what we do our students truly deserve this opportunity again thank you for all that you do [Applause] kirsten hagopian hi good evening board thank you for having me i am a mom of four wake county public school students ages 6 through 11 so none

091of them are eligible yet for the vaccine and first i want to commend the board for your steady navigation in this evolving pandemic and always acting with integrity in the best interests of our children and community in mind in spite of ongoing displays of misinformation and hostility from a vocal minority and i just want to point out that someone has been kind of tracking the sentiment of the public comments and i know that you just speak to how many there are but if you look at the sentiment again the overwhelming majority of people who submit comment aren't supportive of the precautions in place so i think the arena here skews different ways but definitely feel like the majority of parents and citizens in wake county appreciate your efforts i recognize that every person every parent

092has an opinion perspective on pros and cons of covind mitigation tactics but i appreciate that the public health decisions that impact my children are being driven by data and public health experts and not those among us who really prioritize their individual freedoms over the health and well-being of those around them i appreciate the board continuing to look to the public health experts and we all agree that their important in-person learning is invaluable but i would not feel comfortable sending my kids to school if the precautions were not in place so we as dr martin pointed out we're still seeing elevated cases hospitalization even clusters in schools in wake county so this is not a time to loosen restrictions but a time to be doing everything we can to protect our schools so i hope that

093the board will not only maintain the mass mandate but also expedite implementation of the other recommended tactics as part of a multi-layer approach to keeping our kids safe in school during this pandemic thank you [Applause] kelly grappington good evening and thank you for your time as the board you have all been made aware of the negative impacts on your child on our children's mental and physical health that comes from wearing a mask proverbs 31 says speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves for the rights of all who are destitute speak up and judge fairly and defend the rights of the poor and the needy i stand before you asking you to please stand up for what is right and just my husband's family lived through world war ii and saw the oppression in

094the tyranny my 13 year old son who is studying world war ii now in school has told me that mask and mandates remind him of nazi germany i'd like to read to you a poem by martin niemoller first they came for the communists and i did not speak out because i was not a communist then they came for the socialists and i did not speak out because i was not a socialist then they came from the trade unionist and i did not speak out because i was not a trade unionist then they came for the jews and i did not speak out because i was not a jew then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me as a mom i'm speaking out for my children and as

095a board i ask you to speak up against the tyranny we need to stand up against injustice even when it's uncomfortable uncomfortable i'm asking you to please make mask optional as i heard the mother just spoke earlier i have three my husband and i have three kids in school and my kids were in school two days a week last year because they couldn't go every day and every day when those two days when i would pick them up they continually complained of headaches and i told them it's only going to be for this school year next year we will get back to normal it hasn't i filled out an exemption form for my children and now they're being separated because they're not wearing a mask so they can't even sit with their friends they have

096to be put in a separate part of the room whether they're by themselves or they're with other one or two kids that are not wearing a mask as parents we're just asking that it's optional i understand that there are fears with with covid i understand that everybody's at a different place all we're asking is that those parents who want to send their kids with mass that they can do that and also with vaccines i don't want to get my kids vaccinated with this vaccine i have no idea what the long-term side effects are and i don't want to have the pressure of wondering if my kids are going to be able to go to school or not because they don't have the vaccine that's all thank you very much for your time thank you michelle

097craig good evening my name is michelle craig i am a parent of a second grader and a sixth grader in wake county public schools i am also an educator here i tried to decide if i would be speaking tonight as a parent or as an educator and ultimately i decided it doesn't matter the goals are the same for both tonight i'll be speaking a hodgepodge of things but safety and funding first we must continue masking in school our our students roughly sixth grade and below which include both of my children have not had the opportunity to be vaccinated yet we must mass to slow the spread of cover 19. we know that transmission rates are lower when children and staff are masked in school optional masks do not protect our children everyone must wear a

098mask to protect everyone second we need funding primarily i'm asking that you please vote to pass the leandro resolution the state owes our public schools billions of dollars the money is available without raising taxes and the state needs to fulfill its constitutional obligation next we need to fairly compensate our staff we need to pay our classified staff better i currently work as a special educational instructional assistant and if if i was not in a two-income household i could not afford to do what i do i am certified and left the teaching position in june 2020. the pay was more than double what i make now almost three times but i wanted better work family balance we asked teachers to do a ridiculous amount of extras and they aren't compensated for those extra hours extra duties

099etc the demands have increased now with staff shortages educators are covering other classes and they should be compensated as they are in other districts and of course we are waiting for step increases because the state budget still hasn't been passed i know this is not your obligation but as our local public servants we call on you to call on our state legislative legislature to step up again i urge you to continue masking in schools pass the leandro resolution increase pay for all classified staff and compensate educators for extra duties etc this part wasn't part of my planned comments originally but as an educator i wanted to comment and say that i i'm actually very happy to say that our students are extremely happy to be in the classroom and to be with their peers they

100are very social despite the masks my own children feel the same way and i would bring them but due to safety concerns we were just limiting contact outside of school but again i think we are able to keep our students in school without quarantining by having the masks thank you karen torres good evening my name is dr karen torres i stand here as a female hispanic and a mom i'm here this evening to address my concerns regarding constant masking testing vaccinations and the discrimination these actions are bringing with them i am a dentist and owner of my own dental practice in my dental office we have never and will continue to never discriminate against any person over their own medical condition or any other reason this is how it has always been one mask on

101one mask off could you imagine having to show proof that you do not have any or all of the conditions listed on an entry on a form to any medical provider or even worse be denied until you can provide such proof let that sink in when was your last hiv test our children are already facing issues with other children when a little nose pops out the mass police are quick to yell put your mask up instead they could be asking are you okay can you breathe okay that makes sense to me even our principals are taking liberty with how they want to get children to comply i know this because our family is facing this now my eight-year-old was threatened by his principle with all day isolation if he did not wear a mask my

102son told me that as he started to cry in response to such a statement he heard his principal laugh is that really the goal is it again this is our reality our child's reality it is interesting that is that this is national bullying prevention month i for certain feel that this type of behavior is a form of bullying my stance is that we should all have more compassion for each other there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this madness we must work together in community listen to one another our children's future depends on it and lastly free chad saul his voice deserves to be heard thank you lana wits members of the board and superintendent moore i passed i had mr bloomberg pass out if you would pull those out briefly i'd appreciate it my name

103is lana witt i appreciate the time that you give to allow us to bring public comment on the second page of that form that's a quarantine order my question via email has been who signs each of these orders demanding that each student be quarantined what is the appeals process for students being quarantined based on anything other than a positive coveted test and at what point will wake county public school system stop punishing the healthy kids in honor of bully prevention i also shared a glimpse of abusive characteristics the narrative of safety right now actually is very abusive those characteristics include harassment at work at school isolation which prevents or discourages people from seeing friends or family or going to work or school keeps track of what you're doing all the time and criticizes little things

104humiliates in front of others controls what a person wears or how they act demeans a person privately and or publicly embarrasses or humiliates a person in front of others is unrealistic in their expectation and is unpredictable we gather again today based on the right to petition government for redress of grievances every citizen's right to make a complaint and or seek the assistance of one's government without fear of punishment or reprisal two weeks ago in an attempt to prepare to participate and attend this regularly scheduled wake county public schools board meeting i was singled out via email the day prior for wearing a virus shield at past meetings and requested by chief of communications mr simmons to alter my face covering to compliance with the town of cary's ordinance upon arrival and check-in authority had implemented

105a new policy i was denied access to the public meeting upon arrival due to my utilizing a scarf as a face covering yet the town of cary ordinance staff requested in writing that i adhere to states that a face covering may be factory made sewn by hand or improvised from household items such as scarves bandanas t-shirts sweatshirts or towels during public comment at that time the same meeting wake county citizen who has respectfully attended prior board meetings to offer public comment was also singled and bullied out she was shamed due to another spontaneous policy implemented upon public arrival to the meeting that those offering public comment were now required to wear a face covering during public speaking even though socially distanced an activity which under our own governor's expired executive order was an exempted face

106covered in active activity dr holly wilcher was interrupted and singled out by vice chair mahaffey your time is up thank you chad slaughter superintendent moore chair sutton members of the board i rise tonight to bring to your attention obscene material that is currently available in the media center of the wake county school that one of my children attends now i feel grieved and embarrassed to even discuss this issue in a public forum but in defense of the innocence and the decency of not only my child but their classmates i can't remain silent i contend that it's absolutely intolerable for any adult let alone the adults that we trust are to educate our children either to knowingly or through their ignorance permit the dissemination of objectively obscene material to children and it appears that this is

107what is occurring in some of the wake county schools i ask that the board immediately initiate a thorough and transparent review of both the books currently available and the process by which they're chosen now although my concerns span multiple titles tonight i'll reference one book that my child found in their school library just last week the book is entitled lawn boy by jonathan everson subject matter vividly depicted in the text of this book includes illicit sex between minors in a vehicle while one partner is intoxicated spelled out sexually explicit curse words underage drinking sexual favors rendered by an animal and a 10 year old child who engages in oral sex during church youth group behind a church parsonage now i'll spare you and i'll save myself the mortification of reading directly from the book but

108i will read to you from north carolina general statute 14-190.1 which pronounces it a class one felony if any person intentionally disseminates material that depicts or describes in a patently offensive way sexual contact that includes vaginal anal or oral intercourse whether actual or simulated normal or perverted the process by which books and materials are added to our public school libraries is at best broken and at worst corrupt it's broken if an elected or unelected person or committee failed to properly vet this book and others like it and prevented it from coming into our school the process is corrupt if an elected or unelected person or committee vetted the book and others like it thought they would add value to our children and then source them intentionally to a wake county school so again in defense

109of the innocence and decency of my child and their classmates i say again it is unacceptable and reprehensible for public school libraries to source books and materials that contain sexually explicit content and i ask please initiate a thorough and transparent review of both the books currently available and the process by which they are chosen thank you for listening ann overton so good evening board superintendent moore my name is ann overton i'm a long time wake county resident i have two daughters one a 20 20 graduate of enlow high school and the other is currently a senior at enlow it is readily apparent that the mass issue is a controversial one however if we can filter through all the political rhetoric and misinformation and focus on the scientific outcomes of mask wearing it is possible to

110make a sound decision free from personal opinions with that in mind and given timer's constraints i'd like to share a quick overview of two of the three studies that were recently released by the cdc regarding mask requirements in schools study number one in gen at all released on september 24th scientists assessed the impact of mass policies on school-related covet outbreaks they studied over 1 000 k through 12 public schools in arizona from july 15 through august 31st at the time transmission was high in the area and vaccination rate vaccination rates were moderate 48 to 59 percent of residents had at least one dose approximately 20 percent of these schools had an established mask requirement before the start of school or an early mask requirement around 30 had implemented a mask requirement after school started so

111a late mask requirement about half had none no mass requirement at all the results less than 10 of the outbreaks and were in schools with early mask requirements over ninety percent of the outbreaks occurred in schools with late or no mask requirements and what happens when you have a cobit covid outbreak outbreak in school well the school can be shut down and that leads us to the next study in parks at all also released on september 24 scientists assessed the impact of mass policies on school closures due to covid the scientists systematically searched for u.s school and district closures from august 2nd through september 17th roughly a six-week time frame the results 248 districts and 384 individual schools closed down for at least one day due to coven these closures affected hundred schools and just

112under one million students and close to sixty thousand teachers across forty four different states southern states had the highest number of closures compared to other regions in this studies schools without mask requirements were three and a half times more likely to have outbreaks compared to schools with mask requirements in other words there is a much greater chance of covid related school closures when masks are not required the data clearly showed that mask requirements keep our kids safe keep our teachers and staff safe and keep schools open thank you for your time tamara spiegel so good evening i stand before you this evening extremely grieved for all the americans and the people all over the world that have been lied to over and over since the beginning of this last year when the covet nightmare began

113with with misinformation thankfully there is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel as more people and lawsuits are succeeding across the country against this tyrannical overreach on human beings good news the physicians declaration global covid summit has gathered ten thousand signatures of physicians and scientists internationally as of yesterday morning one of which is dr robert malone the inventor of the mrna vaccine stating we the physicians of the world united and loyal to the hippocratic oath recognizing the profession of medicine as we know it is at a crossroad are compelled to declare the following and i'll review whereas there is an unprecedented assault on our ability to care for our patients whereas public policy makers have chosen to force a one-size-fits-all treatment strategy resulting in needless illness and death rather than upholding fundamental

114concepts of individualized personalized approach in patient care which is proven to be safe and more effective i encourage you to read it in its entirety and sign it if you're a physician or scientist but of course it's your choice speaking of your choice no government on the federal state or local level or school board has a right to force upon or bully any human being with these illogical unconstitutional unscientific some of them immoral unethical illegal and dangerous mandates or restrictions for masks and testings and vaccines or whatever no one has that authority only then individual has an authority in the words of the declaration of the independence we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are

115life liberty and the pursuit of happiness if the almighty god that created the universe and created man in his own image in genesis 1 27 gave man the freedom to choose whether he would believe follow or worship him or not how is it so or why is it so that these authoritative human beings around us are trying to dictate what we should do with our bodies and the bodies of our children and not give us the freedom that the almighty god does this is a free country supposedly as of today and we'll remain free if we stand united and not divided the time is now will you make a stand albert einstein said never do anything against your conscience even if the state demands us he's a wise man choose this day whom you will

116serve will you serve god or man the lord is my god who or what is yours [Applause] renee siegel sorry no problem hi i'm here to talk about two topics forgive me i got the notice that the space had opened up late so i'm flying by the seat of my pants first leandro i know you all are familiar with the leandro case but in case anybody in the audience is not our state constitution guarantees our children the right to a sound basic education provided by the state in 1997 the supreme court of north carolina affirmed that right in 2004 it found that the state is not providing that sound basic education and since then then the state never has provided that sound basic education the case was allowed to language for years until 2017 when

117the parties finally got together and said this is not working the judge asked the parties to the case the state and the plaintiffs to come up with a plan to finally provide a constitutional education to our children and they did they came up with a plan it's a great one it fixes a lot of problems and provides billions of extra dollars for our schools that they've been denied for all these years unfortunately our legislature one of the state defendants is standing steadfast in its determination to defy their constitutional mandate to defy the court and to continue stripping our children of their constitutional rights so the courts are going to do what they're going to do there's a hearing coming up on october 18th but in the meantime we all the people of north carolina have

118to work together thousands of us throughout the state have been doing our part tirelessly for years now trying to get the word out trying to work on talking to our legislators talking to everybody who will listen about this we're asking that you guys start doing well not start continue doing your part tonight in passing a resolution calling upon the state to provide a sound basic education to our children and to comply with the order in the landro case we'll also be making the same request of our board of county commissioners who has been shouldering a much broader burden than it needs to for years to try to make sure that wake county's kids don't suffer as much from the state's probations as other kids in the state have second safety i hear a lot about

119freedom and i got to say i think i have a little bit of a different perspective because to me this mask mandate that you guys have all voted in and keep voting in provides my children freedom my kids are free to go to school in person because they have the protection of a masked mandate my kid the vaccinations that we have received four out of the five of us have received provide us the freedom as a family to feel safe sending our kids to school and feeling pretty safe that we're not going to get our fifth kid sick because he's too young to be vaccinated these mandates protect us they protect others and that to me is true freedom thank you very much who's forster you may not be aware of the information i'm about

120to provide as it's not readily available from cnn dr fauci or governor cooper's office instead you have to dig for it and employ critical thinking most of it sourced from the cdc or fda and from very reputable doctors and virologists some of whom have won nobel prizes mass provide very little protection for the from the virus they do however create a constant state of fear for the kids wearing them this has contributed to 25 percent increase in suicide attempts in 2020 versus the previous years kids are a very little risk from dying in the covet literally one in a million they have a greater chance of being dot of dying by a lightning strike if you want to save our kids lives i call on you to free the kids from the mass mandate let

121them regain their hope in the future since pfizer's approved vaccine community is not yet available anyone who's been vaccinated so far has been done so under an emergency youth use authorization and is part of a large-scale clinical trial as such we do not truly know the long-term ramifications of this vaccine on the human body what's more according to the nuremberg code all participants in a clinical trial must consent willingly free of coercion mandating a vaccination in order to keep your job is the very definition of coercion it's illegal i call on the board to keep your teachers and employees free of coercion by not mandating a vaccination according to the cdc and fda's adverse events database over fifteen thousand deaths have occurred due to the vaccine what's more there's been over half of a million

122of severe events logged these severe events include anaphylaxis thrombosis guillain-barre syndrome and primarily amongst the kids myocarditis and pericarditis again i call on the board to repaint refrain from any vaccine mandates so that the kids and wake county employees can be free from unintended health consequences from the vaccine do you know that in the most highly vaccinated countries like israel israel in the united kingdom and in the state of vermont you'll find a higher rate of infection than in lesser vaccinated locations one has to ask does the vaccine protect people from covet or does it facilitate the spread of covet what's more the people dying in the highly vaccinated locations are not just the unvaccinated people they are primarily the vaccinated people we need more truth and freedom not less at a more fundamental level

123our country and constitution has always supported freedom mandating a flawed vaccine with a quickly waning efficacy reflects neither wisdom nor freedom you've all sung the star-spangled banner that says it ends with the land of the free and the home of the brave keep us free be brave and keep us free thank you gio called hello good evening chair sutton members of the board and superintendent moore i'm gia call i'm a parent of two students here in wake county my daughter attends enlow and my son attends he ate smile first i just want to thank all of you for your service to our teachers students and families especially through the challenging times that have been upon us these past two years the challenges i'm mentioning have brought me here today specifically it's regarding the bus route

124for my son from yates mill elementary i'm sure you're aware of the transportation challenges that exist within the district and unfortunately i have been aware of them since the first day of school we were messaged by wake county transportation department about potential delays in the first weeks of school we understood that but as time has passed these issues have gotten worse i am here only today because i can't find answers or receive communication about the continued missed and delayed pickups and drop-offs of my son i have contacted transportation three times this year and i've also contacted the school and they've been contacting transportation and the only answer they receive and i receive is about the bus driver shortages while i understand this i do not understand the lack of communication to parents about the status

125of bus routes each day both morning and afternoon and there's no clear communication about what is being done to rectify the issue the here comes the bus app has been disappearing in the middle of my morning route only for the bus to not show up and just yesterday the bus never appeared at the app and then it appeared in our neighborhood and we were not there to get our son off the bus the only reason we knew he was there is from a neighborhood group text we have developed this group to try to help each other out for when the bus is going to come and maybe not come there are six children throughout our neighborhood that i know that have requested busing to the elementary school yates mill begins at 9 15 and if

126our bus doesn't and if it does arrive it gets to our stop at 9 10 to 9 45 and in the afternoon the bus arrives at the school closer to 4 45 p.m on many days and then in school dismisses a whole hour earlier at 3 45 transportation never calls sends notices about the lengthy delays and they're not consistent delays so from day to day it makes us impossible to know when to go or pick up our son my husband and i both work we depend on this transportation and it's very difficult for us to get our child to school after instruction has begun or for school to be over for an hour and then he makes it home possibly at five the school's doing the best to deal with this but it is an

127everyday occurrence and it can't go on the rest of the school year i know you have budget challenges but i really really would like to know um if we can reconfigure the route so the students in our neighborhood could get to school on time and get home reasonably and if none of those options are possible i would just really like clear communication when the bus will arrive for pickup and drop off thank you susan book first of all thank you all for serving our county during this tumultuous time and with a budget fight still ongoing and so much uncertainty thank you all for keeping children safe with masks especially those who are under 12. as we begin to feel cooler weather blow into our area i hope plans for safe spaces are being developed for

128those unseasonable days at lunch i urge you to begin a testing program sooner rather than later those of us who plan on giving consent are very much chomping at the bit to get testing protocol started at our schools we need equity across the board for all of our safety policies speaking of equity most i am here today to thank you for putting a local leandro resolution on the agenda some may ask what does our local school board have to do with a statewide leander court order although state legislators are ultimately responsible for passing the leandro plan local government entities can help deliver their students the education they are owed by passing a resolution such as this a resolution will encourage state legislators to fulfill their obligations to students while increasing local awareness and support for

129quality schools that is my purpose here today to go on the record as a wake county supporter of equity and the leandro plate the every child nc.org impact tool shows how the leandro plan will impact wake's budget but school boards will be responsible for ensuring these additional resources are equitably distributed across schools and are used in ways that benefits most students community input with help will help districts make smarter decisions while also generating local enthusiasm for leandro you all have a voice you all have a stake whether it's your own child in the system or the budget you manage a week class size chaos campaign took a groundswell to make the state move and that was just one small issue this is a once in a lifetime chance to transform our state's investment in public

130education for the good of students who normally either get ignored or treated with only terms that speak of their deficits and not their strengths leandro funding gives them resources to shine to their utmost potential and gives them support to feel a real part of their own school the eleanor ruling has the potential to address equity issues that have been in our schools far too long we need every voice we need your voice to move the needle for our children here and across the state thank you lindsay tobin thank you i'm under the impression that you are voting on the mask mandate again tonight and i do think that i am i'm happy that you guys are doing that i think that you need to be doing that on a monthly basis i think every member

131should be on record as to where they stand on that so they can be held accountable for it before i start what i was planning on saying too i just want to make a statement about the elementary school cases and it's very disheartening that we talk about them as being higher than others when we know they are being tested more because there is not a vaccination at that age and also we are making no distinction between if they are asymptomatic if they have a mild sickness or if they are badly sick so i think that that should be a big thing that we are looking at because if someone's getting if everyone's getting tested and these people have no symptoms they feel completely fine yet they come up as positive that is different than a

132child actually being sick it always has been in the past at least cases are going down and my real my main goal for you guys tonight is what is our implant with mask with testing we know that mass optional counties in the in the state are doing just as well as ours we know that when we really look at the science that surgical masks only provide about 11 percent effectiveness in slowing the spread and cloth masks are actually less we also know that while this infection is mild or asymptomatic in most children we know that there are many negative effects to the children wearing mask all day this is socially cognitively and in the learning process the eu did study the mass mandates and saw no difference between those people that were wearing masking masks

133optional so they have not they have recommended that children in the school grades not wear masks and i'm not sure why we are continuing to mandate math for all children if it's fear fear from liability or a mob of people coming after you or if it's for some type of control certain members have said that while the covet is not a deadly infection for kids they don't want them to get sick the kids get sick i recently heard that it's estimated that about 50 to 75 of children have already gotten coveted the vaccine does not stop transmission we know that so covet is not going away even if we get 100 of the population vaccinated it's still going to circle through the population like other coronaviruses do every single year and i think i'm not

134the only person who knows people who are vaccinated wearing masks all the time and are still getting it so really i thought a lot more planned to speak but we want to know what the the goal is if we're going to be testing kids every single week for a virus that they have no symptoms of if we are going to be requiring vaccines if we're going to be requiring children who aren't vaccinated to wear masks so they are publicly telling their private health information to everybody every single day and if you we want to know what's going on because i think that would solve if you continue to do that that would solve your shortages and staff because a lot of people would be pulling their children out so my basic plan for ask review

135tonight is to come up with a plan parents need to know thank you [Applause] well thank you that concludes our comment for this evening that takes us to our uh amendment consent agenda you should have it board members in front of you now um if you will hit your home button again and refresh your page so if i can entertain that motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as amended so moved second most from the johnson hosler second promise kushner to approve tonight's consent agenda uh as amended during the discussion hearing none of those in favor shall about sign of i oppose nay eyes have it so engine is approved that takes us to our action portion of our agenda first up is an item from our chief of schools regarding the memorandum of agreement with

136wake wake technical community college cooperative innovative high school along with the wake tech community rtp campus [Applause] good evening chair sutton superintendent more ladies and gentlemen i apologize for keeping you waiting a moment we're very pleased tonight to bring forward a memorandum of agreement we've reached with wake technical community college to memorialize the partnership between the board and wake tech to offer students technical programs that follow career and college promise including cooperative innovative programs to prepare high school students for both career and post-secondary opportunities this will build on the successful models of the vernon malone college and career academy and the north wake college and career academy with location of a similar cooperative innovative career and technical high school in western wake county on wake tech's research triangle park campus use of the school facilities

137allocated to the school system's instruction will be shared with wake tech when not in use with a high school wake tech included the space for the cooperative innovative high school in its planning of the new rt2 building that's recently been completed and is in service and open there are a few costs allocated to the board for provision of food services equipment to accommodate the cooperative innovative high school needs that exceeded the wake tech program space additional typical costs will be incurred in the startup of the cooperative innovative school for typical instructional materials equipment materials and supplies the agreement has a five-year term and it's planned to open for the 2022-2023 school year the school is going to begin with 9th and 10th graders that will all be located on the rtp campus and grow from

138there capacity at wake tech is limited to only 75 students per grade so we plan for relocation of the ninth and tenth graders to a separate facility to accommodate enrollment growth so we can get to the full complement of 100 students per grade to share a little bit more about the program we have with us dr kimberly lane senior director of magnet programs and curriculum enhancement and paul dominico director of curriculum enhancement while they're coming up i would just note that wake tech's campus has been established as a modern campus to serve a diverse population of learners their curriculum training programs will be tailored to rtp companies and focus on the needs of the workforce this high technology environment that's been created will help prepare learners for employment and future workplace interactions it'll be an

139excellent fit for collaboration and we're excited to work with them again dr lane thank you miss parker good evening chair sutton superintendent moore board members it's an honor to be here to celebrate another of our early college high school openings we have been successful in the county with our previous schools and we're excited about this opportunity we have numerous applications and interests in the program so certainly opening another one in a different area connected to wake tech is exciting for us all we are building upon the success that we've had at our previous early colleges and continue to look for those application numbers in the high demand as you know we have a very strong emphasis on first generation college students so we will continue to press that we're in the midst of starting our

140marketing for our early college fair which will be october the 16th and then our magnet fair begins april excuse me november the 6th so certainly marketing those programs paul's actually going to sit in our virtual magnet fair so we have some wake tech representatives that are going to be there with us to go ahead and start marketing the new program and i'll let paul come share more about the program itself thank you dr lane good evening board chair sutton superintendent moore members of the board it's great to see you tonight um just to briefly tell you about the programming for our new early college model that we're planning with wake tech community college the application for this new cooperative cooperative innovative high school was submitted this past week collaborating with our partners at wake tech

141community college we have submitted what we feel is a very strong application for the state to consider students attending this new early college will receive both high school credits and college credits earning their diploma high school diploma while the college credits will go towards their selected associate of a of applied science degree pathway they choose given its location at wake tech's rtp campus the four aas pathways for student choice include computer programming network management cyber security and biotechnology business partnerships in the rtp region will also be key to bringing authentic learning experiences relevant to the student's chosen pathway so needless to say we're excited about this opportunity for our students and for our continued partnership with wake tech community college thank you thank you two points i would add we'll be coming to the facilities

142committee to move forward with naming the school soon and for those who don't recognize dr lane dr lane has recently joined us in this position she's migrated in the piedmont with stops in forsyth in durham and we're just thrilled that she's here she's been great to work with with that if there are any questions on this item i'm happy to answer them we're happy to answer them but we would agree appreciate your support and approval thank you chairman sutton ms parker as you know there are a lot of people throughout wake county that are very excited about this project but especially so many of the citizens around morrisville and west cary and in the area where we're the new i have to make sure i say correctly cooperative innovative high school will be built and

143i just want to make sure that i understand you that there will be almost two campuses or two sites a site hosted on the rtp campus and then a separate public school site in mooresville off the campus is that correct that's correct we had planned to plant the school here at research triangle park and let it grow and as the building design developed we realized that we couldn't maximize the seats that are allowed under the cooperative innovative as paul mentioned we have more applications for these programs than we have seats so we need to maximize those opportunities because of that at our parkside middle site it's part of our design to provide a space there to accommodate our ninth and tenth graders in the future so similar to what's going on with our wake young

144wake young men's leadership academy and young women's leadership academy they have a base school system site and then travel to saint augustines for their 10th 11th or their 11th 12th and super senior years that will occur here but we are in effect incubating the program at research triangle park and as soon as our new space is built it will hit the time that we've filled our program we'll be able to parse the ninth and tenth graders into a school system environment and grow the balance of the program to the full capacity so it's a it's a multi-step approach but we could not be happier to work with wake tech and appreciate the opportunity they've given us to start out in their building thank you i appreciate that and just one last question for dr lane

145and i hope you can help me with this if not we can follow up later but what you've seen with our early college programs our leadership academies and some of our non-traditional high schools i know they draw from the entire county through application but do you tend to see more enrollment you know proximate to where a new school is located or is it really spread out evenly throughout the county i would say it's more spread out a lot depends upon what the offerings are so the the students are really attracted to programs based on what they're offering so we are very fortunate that they can come from across the county okay thank you ms cash just to be clear so the application is open for all students across the whole county yes okay and you

146said how many kids will be coming at the beginning 75 75 okay thank you for grade yes per grade correct and again it opens with ninth and tenth graders only and we will grow it up so that we'll add one grade each year until we're at capacity so if there is support for this wonderful program i would certainly entertain a motion mr chairman i would support adoption of the mou as presented second i got a motion for mr hegarty second from is johnson hosler to approve the mou with wake tech for the cooperative innovative high school campus along with the rt wtcc rtp campus [Music] any further discussion or questions for staff hearing none all those in favor uh shabbat shannon approved nay eyes have it that mou is granted so thank you thank you

147so forth i continue partnering with wake tech community college thank you thank you okay the next item is a nomination for the north carolina school board association board of directors the board is seeking nominations for uh it's this uh the district region the term of service is two years using normally four-year terms uh so this is the two years that are remaining on an existing term uh that board hoses meetings in person four times a year november march and june a virtual meeting in september each board member typically serves on a couple of committees that meet once or twice a year board member hegerty represent district has expressed interest in being nominated to the north carolina school board association board of directors what members you have attached so you see here the information sheet a

148one-page summary that describes how he could make a positive contribution to the north carolina school board association board of directors we have not had a member of this board serve on that board i won't say forever but i know it's been quite some time i've not seen anyone where we've in my 12 years here on this board had a representative on the school board association's board of directors so i'm bringing his name for nomination part of that process is that this board has to approve his nomination in order to go forward so uh i would entertain a motion to support the nomination of board member chris hegarty to serve on the board of directors of the north carolina school boards association sheriff sutton i am happy to make that motion i know chris will serve

149us well second and thank you for being a trailblazer got a got a motion from vice chairman happy second from johnson hostler to approve the nomination of board member chris hegarty represented in district 7 to go forward as a nomination to the north carolina school board association's board of directors is there any further discussion i think so too hearing no further discussion all those in favor share about sound of eye any opposed nay eyes have it for remember hegel would be our representative if he's successful so we wish you luck thank you sir thank you for your willingness to step up the next item is a supplemental resolution requesting the north carolina legislature to return this board to odd year elections for school board members with staggered four-year terms at our meeting on may 4th

1502021 the wake county board approved a resolution requesting legislation to return to odd year elections for school board members with staggered four-year terms following the adoption of this resolution the general assembly has taken measures to develop local legislation that aligns in substantial ways with the board's request specifically the house has passed hb 353 which is now pending before the senate the board appreciates the general assembly's effort to adopt local legislation in keeping with the board request and to provide stability in the manner of selecting or electing board members to the board the purpose of this general item is for the board to consider a supplemental resolution to reiterate the request for local legislation and to request that the north carolina general assembly revise house bureau 353 to provide clarity and improvements in the process leading

151to the requested four-year staggered terms a supplemental draft resolution for the board to consider is included with this agenda item so requesting that the board approve this supplemental resolution and this would go forward to the general assembly again to clarify our position and our request to return this board to staggered four-year terms mr cash i make a motion to support this resolution second got a motion from his cash second from dr martin to approve the supplemental resolution that we presented to the general assembly requesting them to return to odd your elections for this board along with staggered four-year terms is there any discussion mr shared segregated thank you um i appreciate everyone willing to take up this supplemental resolution as you know this issue came before us before with a piece of legislation that was

152drafted by representative rosa gill and rosa gill's legislation as is common in the legislature has gone through several changes from where it was in the beginning to where it was today and i want to really want to compliment our attorney jonathan bloomberg who worked hard to craft new language that i think addresses many of the issues that have come up in the public debate about the bill changes that have been made to the bill and conditions that have been applied to it that weren't in what we initially considered and what we voted on you know i think all of us are looking for stability all of us are looking to a system that we've used successfully for years and years and years in wake county but the bill as it's currently drafted has so much

153uncertainty in it uncertainty that when we run what our term link will be and there's even been ambiguity identified in determining the process for determining who would get a one-year term who would get a three-year term and those are points that we as a body need to address you know whether or not the legislature agrees with all of our points it's important for us to lend our voice to those principles as we did in the original resolution you know the principles as they have as the legislation has changed and speak out on aspects of the legislation that weren't there when we originally endorsed it so um i hope the supplemental resolution that jonathan has presented for us represents everyone's views and concerns and can be you know if it's not exactly the ideal way that

154every board member would like it it at least address addresses uh consensus of opinion that we have thank you thank you mr hegarty vice chairman happy thank you and just piggybacking on what mr hegarty shared bringing clarity to voters when they go into the voting booth to fill out that ballot so they know who they're electing for what length of term and that it be determined by the voters in that district and not determined by the rest of the county to figure out term lengths and so for me it's clarity for the voters and the electorate is a huge part of that as well thank you any further comment yeah i was going to make the same similar comment i mean i think the important focus is that this isn't about us this is about

155clarity for the voters the voters need to know are you electing somebody for one year are you electing somebody for three years uh that should not not doing it it's not technically violation of one person one vote but it's sure getting close so i think it's really clarity for the voters and stability for the school system that's way beyond any elected official we we serve to stabilize the school system to support and and and and improve the school system we don't serve for us uh and so i think it's just really clear important to be clear that the purpose of this is to improve the the electoral process for the voters for the school system for the citizens of wake county thank you board members for those comments that echo the sentiments of you all

156you know public policy is tough writing public policy sometimes even more difficult and so to the extent there can be any effort to make that public policy clear and understandable particularly for the lay person is a good thing so i think that's what this supplemental resolution does so there's no further discussion uh uh is there where we have a motion uh so i asked uh no further discussion all those in favor of the supplementary resolution show about sign any opposed nay eyes have it that resolution is passed we'll get this over to the general assembly thank you very much next up is another resolution this board resolution is in support of the leandro comprehensive remedial plan we've heard quite a bit about leandro over the years we've heard a few speakers tonight even talk about

157and share some of the history of that lee angelo plan and what this means for many districts across the state not just north carolina quite frankly more some of our more challenged districts from a financial standpoint that don't have the means and resources such as the wake county and so this leandro this resolution reaffirms that support and the fundamental right of every child to have access to a sound basic education in the decision the courts ruled that north carolina was not meeting this constitutional requirement and the rhythm requires that north carolina identify specific resources to to do so uh since that court ruling back in 1996 uh the whole kind of board of education rule ruling in 2004 that north carolina has struggled to live up to this constitutional requirement uh i won't go through

158all of that again i think most of you are pretty familiar uh uh with leandro and and where this stands and so again this is a board resolution uh in support of the comprehensive remedial plan that has been put forth to encourage state legislators to fulfill their obligations and to increase public awareness and support i think we all know that our particular wake county board of commissioners have stepped up to the plate over the years in providing much needed funding to the county and while we appreciate them helping to show to some of that burden i think we're all asking expecting hoping that the state will pick up its continued responsibility to fund public education in the way that it should and i think much of the research and data has shown that there is

159quite a bit of available resources in the state's coffers to do that now and so we are encouraging uh uh other electeds and the state to fully assume that responsibility and fully fund leandro and so this time entertaining motion to support that comprehensive plan and ms kushner i will come to you because i know this is something that you have encouraged us and felt passionate about uh for for some time and so look forward to you bringing this motion to us thank you chair sutton i think it's got a motion for available kushner uh second from mr scott to approve a resolution in support of the angel comprehensive media plan is there any discussion or comments yes i could and if i could add in support of that motion um again i'm grateful for the

160vote tonight i think that it's clear the state has failed to do its job the revenues are there it will not need to raise taxes in order to do its constitutional duty we heard from our wonderful staff this latest innovation of the of the rtp high school the innovation in public education dollars is happening in wake county in the wake county public school system we don't need more opportunity scholarships we don't need more privatization of charter schools the innovation the excellence is happening in wake county schools and we would be doing even more if we were fully funded from the state so i am thrilled to make the right investment the state needs to fully fund lander plan so thank you for this bringing this resolution forward and i hope you all will support it

161dr martin i absolutely will strongly support this resolution i think it's really clear to me it's important to make clear that you can fully fund the leandro and still have several billion dollars left over in the general revenue fund so you know this money should not be sitting around doing nothing it should be funding our teachers funding our uh instructional assistants putting more instructional systems in the classroom putting nurses and social workers in our schools the money should be it is our money as taxpayers it should be doing the work to build our community which you can't get better economic development than than through the school system so very strongly endorse this resolution but i also want to give the reminder that this the whole really nonpartisan west ed report for the leandro model is

162to get a sound basic education i don't believe that most residents of wake county because one of the most educated populations in this state should be satisfied with merely a basic education so i'm very proud to support leandro but i want us to remember that we can and should do more and uh let's not let's not lose that from our site we need a minimum of a sound basic education this is to get us up to the minimum but we need way more than that and in supporting that here in wake county we're not just supporting ourselves but we're supporting people all across the state if all we do is advocate for local funds that's great for wake county we can and should do that right that's the supplemental to differentiate the sound basic from

163what we expect here in wake county but everything we lobby for that comes from the state impacts every child across the state of north carolina and we really need that in terms of our instructional assistants nurses social workers you name it so this is really important not just for us but particularly for statewide education thank you dr martin and hi mrs kushner mr hagerty yeah dr martin sort of stole my thunder a little bit on his last point but i mean i have to add to it because this is what has made north carolina successful you know north carolina's economic growth its rapid rise in terms of quality of life in terms of median income all of these things that arose out of the 80s and the 90s were based on a strong statewide university

164system a very strong robust community college system and a strong public school system that those three pieces working together it didn't matter if you are a republican or a democrat if you're in an urban county or a rural county we knew that a rising tide lifted all boats and i remember the debates whether it was governor hunt or governor martin or governor hunt again you know talking about we had different ideas for how we funded our schools was it through an income tax was it through a sales tax but there was never any question about funding our schools and this is this is about wake county but it's about all of the counties of our state and if you get out and you travel to rural areas you know we are so blessed to have

165the resources we have in wake county even with all of our other existing needs and when you get outside of our areas right you know better the most you know it's it our schools are in crisis and i don't understand when we have legislative leadership that represents so many rural areas when those areas would benefit the most from this remedial plan why some action is taken whether it's the remedial plan whether it's above and beyond that i wouldn't fault them if they did more for those rural counties because those rural counties are in need but we have to at least raise the floor so you know this is something i think we don't pass a lot of resolutions but this is part and parcel endemic of everything we're about so as you know the largest

166school system we have to be leaders on this issue i want to thank ms kushner for pushing this issue inside our board and in the state legislation others for years so thank you for your advocacy and i'm glad we can lend our voices to it thank you ms johnson hossler i certainly echo my colleague sentiments and you know in my other life i also do a lot of advocacy for early childhood and that's and that is a piece that we don't talk about often enough is that leandra also recognizes that we raise the floor for our youngest children so that they are ready to come to our public schools and that's not just their education but their full well-being and so i'd be remiss if i didn't add in our early childhood education to the

167full circle of what what we all heard last night at wicked stars of education is a great reminder that education whether you believed in the public school system whether you ever attended was not political it was the right thing to do for all citizens of our state and every single person in the state of north carolina as a native loved to say that we were the great state of education and clearly sitting at this board we'd be remiss as board members not to say that we'd like to return to that place and this is the moment that we have the opportunity to do that without taxing our citizens it's it's hard for those of us who continue to push the envelope at this table but i applaud all my board members for pushing the envelope

168for the entire state because what we certainly know is people from across the state and across the country are moving to wake county so our investment in the state and in wake county beyond is still an investment in wake county so for our citizens who absolutely have the great privilege of enjoying the resources in wake county what we do for the other 99 certainly still impact wake county and thank you ms kushner and all of our colleagues who continue to push the envelope and remind us that as the largest school district as the state seat we absolutely have a duty to speak up on behalf of the entire state and thank you to my colleagues oh mr scott thank you and i wanted to say thank you to to mrs kushner to all my colleagues

169i'm glad that we have this resolution before us which i fully support as and everyone has is at this table because we care about education we care about children and this is our calling i mean i you don't do this unless it is is truly your calling as i said earlier and i'm grateful that wake county has the opportunity to use this platform to really honestly advocate on behalf of the rest of the state um and again as we heard last night there are people who also not only want to move to wake county but they look to wake county to see what we're doing and i'm glad that we're one of the first few school districts to just to support this resolution and in that same regard i hope that that we continue the

170work that we can do to make sure that within our own system we do have equitable funding and equitable opportunities for all of our students as well mrs cash i just i just want to say it's so nice to be on a non-partisan board voting for a non-partisan issue so that's what i like really well and i was i was just going to say i was a sophomore in high school when this came about and i could and i'm sure there are many parents who are in the same boat they were in school and now they have children in school and this still has not happened and i'm hoping and i'm hopeful and i'm hopeful that that advocates and and the work will we won't see another generation wait for this you know as we

171bring this item to a close i mean i'm glad dr martin touched on i thought we were always going to miss it uh the importance of the the westhead report uh and and what it does is bring it a brings a clear and realistic roadmap to funding liandro it's not just a set of recommendations that will sit on the shelf or create this sort of pine sky figure but a practical and realistic road map to how we can fund leandro but i think even more importantly when you take a look at the recommendations uh and and it's it's a it's a very profound report i think when you look at their top five recommendations the first three of those one being the focus on and you say that ms johnson quality early childhood education i

172think is number one and then two and three are a quality principle in every school and a high quality teacher in every in every classroom and and i cannot stress enough i think when you think about the funding that would come and just to be able to fully fund and support in every district in north carolina just those three things and how we would change change the trajectory of schools of school systems and of students all across north carolina if we had those three things high quality early childhood education a high quality principal in every school and a high quality teacher in every classroom so i'll leave it at that so if we're ready to vote uh all in favor of the motion to support the uh resolution in support of the leandro comprehensive remedial

173plan show by a sign of in the opposed nay eyes have it and that fourth resolution is approved and the last item uh on our agenda tonight uh i believe is the uh items two more okay board of education general counsel this is a an amendment to our contract with thereton smith each year i think we approve that contract during our annual meeting at this time there is a slight rate increase uh that will become effective on january 1st 2022 that rank rate increase is ten dollars per hour for each spinning rate for every any partner and a five dollar increase for paralegal services uh in that contract and so um mr when i see you here so any any uh i might have stolen your thunder well i think you did you said exactly

174what i was going to say i will say these rates are below the market value for the services provided by attorneys so i'll leave it at that so this uh i had a request to move this item from consent to action uh so if there is a motion to approve uh and then we can move to some discussion i think there might have been a question or two regarding this this item chair sutton i'm glad to make the motion to support the board of education general counsel's second amendment second i have a motion for mrs kushner second from dr martin to approve the second amendment to general counsels and tharington smith's contract during the discussion ms carter okay yes i guess i just my concern was really like i've raised before with other funding or

175raises or bonuses is just the timing and i understand that this would take effect in january but our school staff are all waiting um they're not going to get a 10 an hour pay increase that's nowhere on our thing and i understand it's not apples to apples but to me um it's a respect thing and it is showing them that we want to give them a pay increase we've been told we can't we have to wait um but and to see something like this being presented right after we've had i mean we've had multiple meetings i feel like where we brought this up and addressed this that's just the concern i have it's nothing against your the council nothing against i understand but you know our teachers our custodians our ias our hourly employees i

176mean like the presentation we had at the finance committee i mean i know it mentioned uh the council had not had a pay increase since 2019 but if you look at what we were presented in our finance committee ia's starting rate has increased by 52 cents 52 cents since 2008 2008-2009 school year so for me it's very hard to sit here and see this come right after we had a finance committee where we discussed this and there are so many employees who are waiting to hear what we can do for them and so that's my concern i hope i've stated well but to me i would prefer to wait to vote on this until we can also vote for what we can do for our school staff thank you mr bloomberg i'll look to you

177to see if you want to make any comment certainly appreciate the sentiment it's an honor for our firm to continue to represent the school system the the only comment that i would make is is that i've been mindful of the pandemic as i talked to our partners in the firm throughout about what we would do and and the last rate increase was october of 2019 so we have held off intentionally during this time but we do run a business and and we are trying to increase the the wages of our staff including our support staff and in doing that we have to be able to come up with some funding for it but appreciate the settlement and the opportunity to serve the board thank you what's tagging i do want to comment that the the

178rates that are proposed in the contract are by my assessment below market compared to what this type of representation would cost just like you could compare you know any other salaries and where they stand in the market we really are getting a good deal for this representation and this is representation that protects not just the board the administration but also our teachers and staff as you see in many of the appeals or other legal issues that come before us where there are you know suits that are lodged against staff and so i i really appreciate the the the motivation um and the the place where the opposition is coming from but i think it is a fair contract for an essential service that we need and respecting your message i will vote for it mrs

179cash um so i appreciate both my colleagues comments um winters and i spoke about this a little bit prior to this and i didn't know the timing was not not good but and i do think what the urgency is and i think we talked about this is that as soon as the state makes a move we need to get our our staff handled as quick as possible with what we know we get because it's urgent and every time we wait it sends a message so i hope that we can move fast yeah absolutely we plan on well we plan on providing some type of plan for salary increases as soon as we know what the state's going to do and then use the combined local money that we have set aside so our commitment is

180there to the staff as fast as possible i want to make that clear but thank you ms carter i appreciate those on a separate but unrelated note we are hearing that the general attorney may be presenting a budget for approval as early as mid-october now that depends on rather what the governor chooses to do with it but this year so my point is that if if we are successful in having a budget by mid-october then that gives us then some time to react fairly quickly to to what the state does with regard to compensation for our employees but that remains to be seen but i think we're all hopeful and optimistic that we'll see a budget this year well georgetown i think it's fair to also note to that point uh i mean we need

181the state budget but once it's passed is it not correct that salaries would then be retroactive back to the beginning of the fiscal year at least for the most part that's normally what the state will do there's been times where they've had other cut offs but usually we retroactive back to july first right so i mean this is not how things should happen but it's the way we have to operate and if at all possible that is what we will do all right hearing no further discussion uh all those in favor of the motion to uh provide a second amendment to the darrington smith contract for general counsel shabbat by any opposed nay okay all right uh notion passes uh that you get back okay all right thank you all right next up is uh

182item senate bill 654 the local face covering policy and i see mr koh is here so i'll turn it back over to you good evening chair sutton superintendent moore and board members we bring to you senate bill 654 and point you specifically to section 10 which notes that for the 21 22 school year all public school units will adopt the policy regarding the use of face coverings by employees and students and the governing body of the public school unit shall vote at least once a month on whether the face covering policy should be modified and you all as a board approved the pre-k-12 universal face covering requirement in alignment with the recommendations of federal state local health officials from the cdc ncdhhs wake county public health and also uh in alignment with what is in

183the strong schools nc public health toolkit and our district uses specific criteria uh vaccinations positive cases and cases per 100 000 per 7 days to make decisions around health guidance such as face coverings and as of september 30th our vaccination rates are for the students ages 12 to 17 with at least one dose is 67 percent uh students age 12 to 17 that are fully vaccinated are at 63 percent and our staff 88.9 of those who responded to our surveys are either fully vaccinated partially vaccinated or have plans to become vaccinated and for positive cases we're seeing a downward trend since approximately august 29th and for cases per 100 000 per 7 days we are at 191 cases and for the details of our current policy policy related to face coverage you can refer to

184the pricy and backup materials for these details but we are here requesting board action to approve and continue the wake county public school system face covering guidance plan with the understanding that staff has given operational authority to implement this requirement and there has been no change or modification to this guidance plan since the last board approval on september 7 2021 motion to support the staff's recommendation i got a motion from dr martin uh second from mrs kushner to approve continuation of the local face covering policy which is in senate bill 654 during the discussion mrs cash so just to be clear the face coverings for outdoors for athletic events has that already been in place yes ma'am so we we put in uh a guidance that said face coverings are required except when participating physical

185exertion and context contests and practices so the minute that if students are on the sidelines student athletes are on sideline at a football game face covering should be worn but once they're about to go in the game and exert physically the face coverings would be off and is that for the the people in the stands for people in this it's outdoor so outdoors face coverings are optional per the state guidance okay so it's um so again i guess just to clarify for the students that are playing athletics when they come to the sidelines they're usually out of breath and they are struggling with and i i think superintendent moore you and i talked a little bit about the fact that there will be options for them to be able to have some time to not

186just cover their face right away was that something we or what is no they can take them off yeah i think that what we're what we're asking is obviously after physical exertion they're going to and if they're coming off a field there's water there's distancing that's available in particular when you're thinking about football but once they are done and they're watching their teammates they should have masks on that okay so um so i think i think part of you know i've always not i wanted to indicate because i think mask outside especially i'm not going to move forward ever for a mass for children during recess because i think that's i think a lot of our our pro our we are really held tied to quarantining by the wake county health department and every time

187we don't mask when we're guided to by the health department our children are quarantined and sent out of school on a regular basis and i think one of our speakers did a very good job of talking about schools closing and and so every time i vote for mask it's in relationship to my realization that we are more than likely controlled by the wake county health department on our quarantines so i just want to be clear that i'm voting for math because i feel like i want to keep our kids in school i said this all along so this is nothing new but this is the only way we can keep our kids in school any further discussion mrs kushner thank you chair sutton and i um today received a petition that um our the wake

188county community equity leadership team through geraldine alchemy she was not able to attend so there are copies that will be distributed to the board but it's a petition requesting that mass speed the mandate for universal mass can continue and just want to read we the parents family community in support of vulnerable students in wake county sign the attached petition in favor of mass policy in wake county schools and there's 1057 signatures mostly from the 20 27 610 zip code and that will be in your board mail but she asked me to present that to the board she was not able to attend mrs carter okay so i i just like further clarification because before when we vote on this everything wasn't spelled out in the assembly so this is another presentation done a little differently

189so i'm trying to clarify are we now voting on the outdoor masking no we're voting whether or not we want to change any of the policies that we have around face coverings that are outlined in the pre-sea and you're voting exactly what on what's exactly what's listed in the proceeds i mean it lists each item in each category and each item and it's itemized out and so that that that's what you're voting on and um so we are voting then on outdoor mass you're as it's listed here yeah i mean there's there's some that's um as you see it here for athletics and specific situations but you're voting on on this exact exactly the way it is listed in here you got the main points and so on and so forth and then they're recommended

190for action and next steps and it's got it listed all bulleted out and that's what you're voting on okay and that's a little different than last time because we were told we could not vote on the outdoor because i specifically brought that up right so we were trying i think the staff was trying to be clear yeah and so in this pricy what exactly you're voting on so if you scroll down you'll see for example craze k12 face coverings optional for outdoor recess and pe so it is it's optional for fee it talks about athletics ban corporate activities face coverings required except when participating in physical exertion in both contests or competition and practices so it's this is what we're voting on okay so then my question is since we're now because now the vote's

191different than last month so i'm and i think it's important that folks understand that because it is a difference so because i do have concerns about the outside mask even for athletics and extracurriculars because i've heard directly actually from students in high schools expressing concern and i'm just trying to because this also impacts coaches or staff as well so i guess and that's up for discussion so um what information can you share about how that information was added i tried to ask dr benjamin on august 3rd if he had made that recommendation and he quickly kind of it was actually about all of athletics he resorted to testing and vaccinations and didn't quite answer that because his information he shared in august 3rd around outdoor masking i can pull it up to read it but

192it was pretty much saying they didn't really have anything to support it but we can try it but it wasn't specific to this it was in general to recess so i'm just trying to gather information about how that decision was made because no athletic clusters have been mentioned but they continue to be far below what elementary schools are seeing and i'm just trying to get information because you know if you're asking for opinion then for me that is an area of concern at this point i can support indoor mask and i will support that but the outdoor like i have stated before i you know if there's any information you can share i did ask abc science collaborative for information but a lot of it they said was out of their scope so i just

193mentioned that our conversations were about because you are correct um dr benjamin believes all athletes should mask should should not just mask but the real key is vaccination um or not participation and we were not ready to go in that direction so a layer prior to that a runway to that would be masking we had four clusters in our football program that caused cancellation of games and practices and so this layer was in support of maintaining the athletic seasons rather than cancelling the athletic seasons and the numbers of students that were quarantined and as ms cash has mentioned when the masks are worn you are able to lessen the number of quarantines and that's whether you're outside or inside mrs cash i'm trying to see the logic even though i'm likely going to support this

194but and i would like in the future and i know these are operational decisions not board decisions but as we vote on the masking it's hard to throw the indoors and the outdoors together and if we go further like into recess and i would have to vote against a whole masking which is not exactly my intent however when you're when you're looking at athletes on the side and then but then you have a whole stadium of students unmasked what is the what is the reasoning of why we just pick on that group i'm just i'm looking at the logistics in my mind when i'm out i go to a lot of football you go to more than i do but i go a lot of football games and when you look up at the crowd

195and you see the spirit section and they're not masked but then you look down at your athletes and you say you have to mask i don't i can't get the logic in my mind so is that our logic or was that somebody else's so i wouldn't say that we're not ever picking on athletes but i mean we are looking at them as a separate class and so even if you look at as the athletes when they're lined up in front of each other i mean you're already breathing heavily you're face to face without a mask so that's different from the spectators sitting in the audience and the bleachers they're not necessarily face to face they're not breathing heavily or you know don't physical any physical exertion so again when you look at that level of

196or the opportunity for transmissibility it is greater and at higher risk for those athletes who are not only breathing on each other in front of each other i mean there's they're tackling each other i mean so there's obviously physical touching there's no distance so that's very different from i think in terms of comparing to comparing that to folks that are sitting in the stands so just as if you the people sitting in the stands is one thing but when you look at the spirit side of the they're they're really not really far apart at all i mean they're like really closer than the athletes are but and then when athletes get off the field they go to the locker room or they wearing their mask so i'm just i'm looking at it logically but i

197i'm trying to decide who makes these decisions i mean our staff makes a decision tonight we are making that decision because again everything here is listed so i think that's the only thing that's different well i actually imagined carter's point is that i'm sorry we're having everything listed here in the agenda and while this has typically been an operational decision essentially staff is turning it over to us and saying here here are our recommendations we have them listed here in the tracy and we're asking or we're voting on each one of these items so i apologize i actually meant who what is the source of making that recommendation then i mean to the staff why would they ask i'm sorry well i want to ask a clarifying question to ms cash's point is it back

198to superintendent moore's point that it prevents the cancellation of a season i mean that's the difference in fans and the team is we want to make sure the team is able to continue their season and not get quarantined and have to cancel a game whereas if a fan gets quarantined they just don't get to come to a game but it doesn't affect our athletes being able to compete and have their whole season because they've lost so much last year no you're right now that you explain it like that it's a team that would really have to stop playing it doesn't really matter in the stands what's happening if i may just sorry about that i just wanted to add that the reason we decided on this operational strategy was that we were seeing clusters within

199the football teams right and so instead of just not doing something speaking to our public health officials this was the best like safest mitigation strategy we can come up with without restricting our athletes while they're actually physically engaging in the sport so this was the reason we decided on this on this decision to say masking outdoors but not while physically exerting and this was a conversation we had as a staff and it was to address that issue too you know to to the point that ms kushner made that you've made and superintendent moore have made that we wanted the seasons to continue because our student athletes deserve to play in the seasons and we didn't want the clusters to snowball into more clusters and cancellation of practices or games or even you know so that

200that's why we decided to go there and i think you know the sports themselves are a higher risk activity than when like to uh chair sutton's point versus just being a spectator outside so we focused on the problem and that's how we came up with this decision so i appreciate that and i'm going to re-clarify i think you're right we're actually not picking on the the athletes we're actually keeping them safe so they can continue their sport and i just want to make that really publicly clear it's allowing our teams to continue to play and we're voting on it monthly because senate bill 654 tests tells us we have to mrs carter i guess a clarifying question would be then for quarantining would they be asked to quarantine for playing in a game and all

201of that versus or playing their instruments out on the field for 20 minutes together would they still have to quarantine so this car i mean i wish things within covid were like absolutely clear but i think i would say it depends on the situation and the activity that students were engaging in and if if it was considered an exposure and remember an exposure is determined as when you are closer than six feet for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour periods cumulatively right and so those are the definitions we would use to determine who needs to quarantine and not which is why reiterating the importance of cohorting practices so students are safely apart so that should there be an exposure it minimally affects the team those are some of the practices that our sports teams

202have put into place so we're doing our best to not like it's not just a blanket statement but it depends on the situation okay i think that helps because most teams are together for more than 15 minutes and 24 hours unmasked or most i would think i could be wrong but i would think they're together on mass more in 15 minutes as well as banned members as well so to me then that goes back to you know that is a concern for me dr martin to that specific point ms carter i mean that's why mr coe talked about cohorting because you could take you can take a band section you can take a a team if you cohort then it's not the whole team but the point i wanted to make out to raise is

203i think this is working toward a reasonable compromise to keep things going and operating i think it's important to recognize the cdc has basically and this is this is globally it's not just you know the us but over 100 over 100 cases per 100 000 population is considered high transmission the formal recommendation in an area of high transmission is that there is no athletics and so i think that this is a a appropriate compromise measure to try to maximize safety uh and and minimize our clusters which we have seen so this is a a rational compromise to try to create opportunity but i think it's like i say it's important to recognize that this does not even meet the the cdc standard which would say shut everything down as long as the community rate is

204more than uh 100 per hundred thousand population and those standards were put in place before the youth the school age rates became the dominant source of transmission so right now our high schoolers are the lowest transmission rate among the uh our school population and they're at 190 uh 18595 cases per hundred thousand so basically double the cdc rate so i think this is a reasonable compromise so that programs can continue and i think that's dealing with the pandemic is all about compromises and i think that's what we need to do is what can we do to maximize the opportunity for our kids and keep everybody safe any further discussion so mr sutton i'm going to come at this from a different angle but then i have a question or two from mr co you know

205some of the stories i was reading today dealt with the rental assistance program that was out there that was supposed to help tenants that weren't able to pay their rent you provide some relief for the landlord some relief for those families and in all of these cases you know it brought up how many people lost their job because of school closings and how many people were out of work because they had to provide full-time oversight and child care for their kids they couldn't afford private child care child care options weren't available and while our schools are not all virtual we have the option for those that signed up in either the two virtual academy windows you know we've we've worked hard to get kids back in classrooms and we've seen the health benefits of having

206kids back in classrooms you know i think it's important to recognize that a lot of the mental health problems that are cited are mental health problems that were caused because of isolation that children were having when they were out of schools the same thing with a lot of the obesity and other health related problems it was the isolation and keeping them away from each other and keeping them out of schools and it disheartens me you know when you look at half the school districts chose to go mask optional and almost 90 percent of them then had to go back to mandatory masking because of the quarantines two of them went all virtual for a tip for a temporary period because when there's exposure in the schools when there are positive cases in the schools they

207shut them down the county health departments shut them down and we have to have for the kids who can and some kids will choose to stay virtual and that's their right and that's their family's right but we have to have this option available to kids to be in schools and if these the rules that were given to reduce quarantines you know that's what we have to that's that's what we have to do you look at how many homecoming activities have been modified and people don't like them but we didn't have these activities last year now we're able to provide something to be able to provide more you know so i you know i i think we have to keep following the advice to keep our schools open now i think people are curious and do

208want to know when the exit plan will be and i appreciate you presenting all of all the data in these reports we see the cases per thousand where we are and we can compare that to our targets we see our vaccination rates and we can compare those to our targets and i'm optimistic that when the vaccine is available for younger children obviously we'll see these rates go up and i believe we'll see transmission reduced again we know vaccinated people can't get you know can get the virus and test positive but i believe it reduces transmission it reduces positive tests the one thing on here we have in positive cases trending down since the end of august which is a good thing and i think that gives us some hope right that we're moving in the

209right direction and we can get to a situation where you know we can we can we can reconsider if not the entire mandate what some of the exemptions are do we have a target on positive cases right now we just have trending down in this is there is there a target area that we're looking at we've talked about some in the past i didn't know if that's modified since your last presentation yeah thanks for that question mr hegarty i think we're not trying to land on a singular number but it's kind of these three major indicators around vaccination rates the the trends of positive cases and the the cases per 100 000 per seven days we're trying to look at that as a holistic measure and to give you a sense you know when we

210see that the the case trends have been going down since about august 29th like not to the levels we were at you know before the august before the the the spike that we saw after the summer but it's it's the first time in a while we've seen a downward trend so i think that's a good sign for us but i think the other barometer is that when i first presented to you the the statistics on per 100 000 cases per seven days we were up around like 350 360. so we're down to about 190 and we haven't been under 200 in a little while so like when you look at that holistically and something that is a positive is that the vaccination rates of 12 to 17 year olds has steadily been increasing i think

211when i first presented to you it was around 53 percent for students who were aged 12 to 17 that had at least one one shot right and so now that's up to about 68 so that steady increase and then these downward trends that we're seeing in the cases i think all those kind of put together will help us see to what degree we're safe but we have to compare that against what dr martin's bringing up around the cdc kind of they have a rubric and they said that when you're actually at low transmission it's 10 cases per 100 000 per 7 days right and so we're not saying we need to set an impossible standard but it's just important to understand this holistically about what's going on within our community i appreciate that thank you

212mr carter okay just to circle back because i've heard multiple board members mention how this linking this to quarantine but i don't hear that as part of the decision factors by staff is that something that you are looking at adding because because that will keep being there and to me that's something we're going to have that concern for quarantine unless you go down the path of you surveyed staff unless you get on the path of finding out the percentage of you've got the county and this information for but you don't know the students our actual students and percentage vaccinated so if you're going to choose to go that path and use that as related to the quarantine but because i keep hearing that mentioned and it's not listed here i'm just asking if that's a

213formal factor of the staff for recommendations because if that is then that's you know kind of hard to know where we're going yeah thanks for that question ms carter so we we are tracking internally as you see on our public-facing dashboard the number of students that are quarantined each week and so we are tracking that but generally speaking the number of students quarantined compared to the number that are in schools in person has been under one percent since the school year started which is a sign of how you know good of a job our schools are doing and even though we're a large district so even being under under one percent it's hundreds of kids still right but it shows how much work our schools are doing to minimize that as much as possible just

214to clarify we have been at 2.58 percent of students quarantined and that was when our non-traditional students were in we're actually at rates if you look at the number of students quarantined we're like if you look when year-round students were in we have significantly dropped off from where we were we're at 492 last week which is to me still such a high number but when you look at when just year-round students are non-traditional students there was a week in august where we had a thousand thirty-one that's true and so we went from having what when non-traditional students we have um about 40 000 students and then the traditional 149 so to see our quarantine numbers not significantly increase based upon what the history there and actually it's almost significantly less last week so we have

215been over one we've almost been up 2.58 is the highest that we've been we're actually at the highest when only our non-traditional students were in which i think is yeah ms carter sorry for misspeaking when traditional schools were not in session yes we what you describe is true but i think as schools have opened with traditional um the general sense is that you know like we saw a significant decrease from last week to this past week so i mean two weeks ago to last week so we are seeing progress i think it's super difficult i think that an additional factor for the early on when just year rounds was in were in is that the mask on mass guidance ability to read to not have to quarantine had not yet started that did not start

216until the week of august 16th that's also true and to that point i think it's really critical that we are not the ones who set the quarantine guidance we are doing what we should do we are elected officials roxy is a pharmacist but the rest of us are not medically trained we each have experience we each have training but our job as elected officials is to work with our public health officials and they are the ones who set the quarantine guidelines we've talked with them we've we've raised issues about where the complications were and fortunately the mask on mask guidance came right that came from advocacy and them looking at you know what was effective and not so i think we can we can ask questions we can even advocate based on our experience but

217i think it's critical for this board to follow the guidance of the health department and they are the ones not us who should set the quarantine guidelines mrs cash i'm not the believer but somewhere down the line i don't know when to ask for this but i i just because that is their guidelines yes and i would like to somewhere see based on how often we're quarantining people do we have the numbers of the number of kids that get quarantined for 14 days but never have a positive because i really do i really do want to know for over quarantining and i i feel like the health department may have put it so strict on us that teachers lean towards quarantining versus thinking about it but somewhere down the line we might be able to

218look at that i think that's something other counties are looking at maybe or do we look at it it's it's not data we have readily available but we can we can ask the health department and work together to see if we can come up with something but i can't guarantee anything right now well don't ask the administrators to do it for sure yes we have asked we have asked i think the fact that that family see quarantine are under no requirement to let us know if their child tests positive or test them or do anything they can just bring them back after x number of days so there's no way to to track it and and it would be the health department who would have to let us know and that that that structure does

219not exist right see we're the only one really tracking our administrators we're the burden is really on our administrators and ourselves i think districts i think districts where the health department is fully responsible for contact tracing and quarantining decisions are able to gather that data for the district but that's not the case in a way right all right call for the vote uh there's no further discussion all those in favor of the motion to extend the local fast covering policy show by signing by opposed nay as habit the fast current policy is extended thank you all thank you all right if i can entertain the motion to go back into closed session mr chairman if i could um the uh since the board already reviewed the hr recommendations and closed session the if the boards

220would entertain maybe approving that uh or at least taking action on that before you go back into close yes sir motion to prove the the recommendations for employment and any other guidelines associated with it all the hr recommendations from the superintendent thank you got a motion from dr martin second professor mahaffey to approve the hr recommendations provided by the superintendent prevented further is there any discussion hearing none are those in favor shall i sign about signify opposed nay eyes have it hr recommendations are approved may entertain a motion and return to a closed session for the items previously stated so moved got a much from mr hegarty second by ms cass to return to closed session for the items that were previously stated and as listed on our agenda during the discussion hearing none others

221in favor of sound opposed nay eyes have announced an enclosed session thank you you