001so all right good evening and welcome to our wake county board of education meeting it is may 18th meeting to order at 5 47 so we are running a little bit behind i apologize for that but we just ran over a bit in our work session with some important discussions uh but we are all here all board members are here uh president here in the board room along with superintendent moore attorney blumberg so we're all here president accounted for we have a quorum so if you'll stand with me now and recite the pledge of united states of allegiance for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you so much for that uh and so we'll get right to it since we're running a little bit
002behind we'll start with our information uh comment superintendent moore uh good evening and uh turn it over to you good evening chair sutton board members congratulations to the 13 wcpss seniors who are among just 2500 students nationwide to be named finalists in the 2021 national merit scholarship program finalists are the students in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies each receives a twenty five hundred dollar scholarship these scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors they reviewed not only students academic records but also their contributions to their schools and communities the scholarship winners are shibangi patel tiffany lee jake park walters and cynthia yan of green hope high school rishi of enlow magnet high school alina islam
003baviki yendapali pranish pantha of panther creek high school robert english of wake stem early college high school and sabrine syed of athens drive magnet high school congratulations again to these outstanding seniors letter land day usually draws huge crowds at poland park but we weren't able to host letterland at all last year due to the pandemic this year we along with our partners got creative to make letterland a live three-week event starting may 3rd different letterland characters could be found at various parks in other locations around the city of raleigh families of students aged pre-k through second grade have already sought out such beloved characters as apple annie and carlson queen there's still time to find out what other letterland characters have to offer as the event runs through this sunday visit wcpss.net letterland hyphen day
004for a full schedule there you'll also find some online activities you can do at home special thanks to our partners the city of raleigh letterland international sinclair broadcasting and wake up and read for making this possible finally congratulations to two wake county band directors for winning top awards from the east central district band masters association paige newsom director of bands at middle creek high school was named the 2021 band director of the year and robin gorham recently retired director of bands at fuquay arena middle school received the award of excellence recognizing her outstanding career mr newsome is now in his ninth year of teaching from 2016 to 2020 he taught at eastwake high school leading the marching band concert band's winter guard and percussion programs to high ratings at local and regional competitions he's now
005teaching at middle creek high school and continuing the successful traditions there mrs gorham retired from a 25-year teaching career middle school band in june of 2020. throughout her career her students earned placements in district and state level honor bands and her concert bands earned superior and excellent ratings at concert band festivals miss gorham also commissioned several pieces of new music written specifically for middle school bands we know that students who pursue an interest in the arts are more likely to succeed in school and life i'm grateful for music educators like mr newsome and miss gorham for inspiring their students to excel that concludes my comments this evening thank you so much more for those comments i don't have much i'll be very brief and most of my comments i just shared at the end of
006the work session that again we've seen some fairly swift uh movement uh in the guidance from both the cdc and our governor uh as a as a board and leadership a governor's team we have tried to be uh throughout this pandemic as responsive as we can when that guidance change but oftentimes uh the the length of time uh is is difficult for us to just kind of turn on a dime but we are obviously uh aware of the new guidance and we'll be making uh changes very shortly uh both in our opera or in our operations uh as a board uh with respect to board meetings public access uh public comment uh and things of that nature so uh just stay tuned but for now uh as we have initiated planning under the former guidance
007that will be our standard protocol for this evening and our policy committee meeting on tomorrow and we will be revisiting those guidelines of that guidance very shortly so thank you for your patience and for your understanding bachelor happy thank you chair sutton i was able to attend last friday the north carolina school boards association board officers check-in always interesting to hear um from bruce mildurf what's going on at the legislature especially that final week of crossover and we had our final bac meeting i want to thank apex high school for allowing us to meet in person and although the weather didn't cooperate we were hoping to use their beautiful courtyard we were able to have some reflections on this past year looking ahead to next year and share some best practices on bac school and
008pta intercommunication and this past friday also got to meet virtually along with miss johnson hossler with the pique wave arena chamber and their education council always great to hear from this group of principals and community members and other school staff on what's going on in fuquay varina and hearing what they can do to help those schools in their community i do want to highlight that this saturday may 22nd there is a bus driver drive-through job fair participants are invited to drive through any of the four locations anywhere be from 10 a.m to noon to meet transportation team members and learn more about becoming a school bus driver in our district those four sites again from 10 to noon on the 22nd are southeast raleigh high school aversborough elementary apex high school and heritage high school
009you don't need to register but you will need to bring your driver's license number to begin the screening process and if you can't make that there is a virtual information session on the 20th at 10 am and that can be found at wcpss.net bus drops we hope that you'll come drive with us thank you thank you vice chairman happy mr hagerty thank you mr chair um again because the time will keep this brief first i want to announce that our final bac meeting will be coming up tuesday may 25th from 6 to 7 30 p.m we will hold it virtually to get everybody in and have as much participation as we can we'll be talking about the new school opening at barton pond in addition some conversation around year-round schools some of the potential changes
010that have been talked about and then just uh the upcoming assignment plan so again if you are in one of the schools in district 7 be on the lookout for that i want to also give some more condition to a young man omkar mohil who is a mooresville student at martin middle school who won the one second place in the mcintyre youth leadership challenge he put together interviewed myself and miss carter and then had to deliver a speech about his topic of choice which was the lack of middle schools and high schools approximate to the morrisville area so he won second place in his speech he did a wonderful job and he actually donated his winnings to the wake ed partnership so very generous philanthropic move by mr mohill finally i'm excited to say and
011i'll share the news that both of my children middle school students were able to receive their first vaccination shot this past friday and so they're excited to receive their second one they won't get it before the end of school but they are excited and ready to go back to school in the fall no one will be fully vaccinated and i encourage as many other students that are eligible to get the vaccine as well thank you very much thank you sir change up the order a little bit this evening ms johnson hostler are you ready not really but i can be i know you always the good news is i actually don't have any comments tonight thank you all right mrs cash yeah actually um i'm going to say some things that i just really want
012to express tonight so you know i'm one who really wants the public school system to survive and actually thrive and because it really served my family well while i was struggling as a young parent but last friday when we went remote again it had been if it had been at the time when i was a single parent raising four children working much more than 40 hours a week i would have possibly lost my job at the hospital one call out too many to stay home with children i was expected to be there because i was needed there and i was needed at home i'm saying this because i'm really struggling to support the remote learning or asynchronous stages they're being used right now and they're inconsistent and often not very long however before i get
013some frustrated emails from educators i am not talking about all remote learning my grandson had a full and energetic day with his teacher online at his home with his mother there many classes are running amazingly well remotely but many children have someone home with them to make it work but i don't believe that his environment is is not just the exception many people in our county work in the service industry from grocery stores to car repair many people work in the hospitals and health care in the triangle their supervisor cannot or will not let them stay off the next day with short notice and even though schools are not day care they are in fact a place where a child is to learn in a safe environment they are a place where they get fed
014and are not alone even for that one day and that is the reality and more the norm than what my grandson has so i had to say this because as far as people choosing outside of the public school in order to have some consistency it may not always be a privilege it may actually be it may be a sacrifice for some people i don't know because i am not going to judge everyone i just wanted to reiterate this fact about the remote and asynchronous days i've always been consistent with my message i want students in the classroom and learning in person it's my personal feeling it's not coming from emails or conversations it's always been my personal opinion i wanted to take a moment to express that because i felt this at one point where
015i could i didn't see anywhere else in the agenda tonight that i could thank you thank you mrs cash i appreciate you mrs carter thank you and i'll just echo miss cash's statements as well i just would like to say i know we've had some email exchanges because i've requested some specific information because i feel it's important that we are transparent to all of our families and staff to know how to plan for net school year so just making that statement i'll transition to me since the last board meeting i've visited several schools briarcliff elementary east cary and adams elementary i really enjoyed it seeing a wide variety of activities being done and students actually enjoying and asking questions and working in groups and working actually in small groups so that's been great and two
016art events i'd like to highlight is the gifts of gold the art night at in person at craftery valley mall just was a fantastic event it was great to be able to meet some of the student artists and their families and then just being there to see because they had it projected up on this large screen the students art and their name and their school because so many this this just an outlet for them and being able to have that experience in a in a public place where there were members you know that had had no idea what was going on and they were just walking by and several you know just asked like what is that and i was explaining what it was and then come find out one of the students was one
017of the young ladies with a student at athens drive so she stayed on her and her family did and actually ended up knowing one of the artists that was i had work in the show so it was just a great event and the other event was a hometown to hometown virtual event in support of save let me make sure i get the name right save the music i believe is the foundation it is in support of save our music foundation and those they're really focused on keeping music education in our schools and um just really again focusing on that impact that how music and like we're saying art in general can change the trajectory of students lives and how important it is for access for that and how that can have direct impact on their
018academics it can bring them back to want to be academically involved and just like it's again both the events were great and from my understanding i believe millbrook high received one of the grants from save our music or program so great event and i did as well have my final back meeting last thursday and i just a huge shout out i wanted to give to miss gaddis for the whole year you know school year all of her support and really mr because she's just done phenomenal she even called in one of my backups to my last meeting and for me personally for my back it was important for it to be more inclusive and part of that was bringing families who english was not their first language into the back and mr hofstedler hofstetler and
019miss mills have translated the back materials and provided live interpretation at our back meetings and i cannot thank them enough for that because without that support we would not be able to offer those families a seat and they deserve a seat at the table so i look uh mr cook was there sorry mr cook and miss maycomb was there doing a presentation on virtual academy and how that might look a little different the different changes for next school year and i appreciate that as well and this sunday just a reminder at 4 pm i'll be having another d9 connection virtual meeting informal meeting if anyone is interested in district 9. appreciate it thanks thank you mrs carter mr scott you're going back and forth here kind of caught me off a little thank you and
020good evening i don't have a whole lot of comments this evening i just wanted to congratulate again roseville high school they came up a little a little short in their championship football game but it was a great game i spoke to ms lasseter the principal the day before the football game and to hear her speak about the school to speak so proudly of the parents who are just so heavily supportive to speak so proudly about her students and just the changes that that have have taken place in a relatively new school is outstanding i also wanted to wish all of our early college students the best of luck on their final exams as they as they get ready for that and uh just looking i know we're all looking forward to the the conclusion of
021this school year um i just really wanted to also say a little something about eastwake high school i shared this on my social media which i think maybe five people follow so i'll try to be brief and share with you but that same day and i have to thank dr savage for i had asked him if i could do an impromptu visit to eastwick high school so he kind of reached out to the principal who said absolutely so i appreciate that and did not mean to take up so much time when i was there but we had such a fantastic conversation and east wake high school was one of the first schools that that i visited after i was sworn in in 2018 i did something very very similar to what ms carter is doing
022right now where i just wanted to get out to each and every one of the schools in my district and get to know them and in east rake high school mr alston the principal there was one of the first to respond like yes come here right now and just spoke so proudly about his school and and was very honest about some of the barriers and challenges they have and towards the end of that first tour back in december i believe of 2018. we stopped by the construction course and the teacher said well wait a second and he looked to his students and said you know it's not every day a school board member stops by your school do you have something you want to share and it took a few minutes but the students did
023share and of course there were some questions like why do i have to take my out if i'm not going to you know if that's not what i want to do someday that's out of my hands but um but they also had some some very real feedback and and and the teacher was right it's not every day that we get the opportunity to hear feedback like that so fast forward to this this visit uh almost or a week and a half ago i guess and uh i really wanted to stop by that room again and the teacher was there with a student she was filling out an application for wake tech and he explained she's going to be the first person in her family to go to college and he's you know helping her taking
024the time to help the student and then he wanted to show me something that his his students have been working on to uh to really he's a licensed contractor to to some some things around the school with beautification and and it was just so amazing and i in in my social media i said you know this is eastern wake these are teachers who care so deeply about their students and i'm so glad to hear that mr newsom who'd been the band director at um east week before moving to middle creek he he brought so much to the high school and that that is eastern wake and i hope that uh that folks can remember that that the care and the nurture because i believe it was mr simmons who once summarized that you know parents
025really want to know and when i send my kid to school are they going to be cared for i mean that's the fundamental question that we have and then from that yes will they be challenged will they be held accountable will they uh will they be helped will someone notice that they need help will someone notice that they need to be challenged and to see that happen in real time i mean to me that's that's the center of why we do what we do and why we want to be board members so i just i had to share that with you in case you're not one of the five who reads my social media and those are my comments for this evening thank you thank you mr scott mrs kushner you are jumping around but
026thank you keep us on our toes sir i'm on to echo miss carter and um and thank the united arts council of raleigh and wake county for the hosting the gifts of gold and that crabtree valley mall is going to continue to support um and work with the arts council to make sure our students are the arts work are being highlighted there so it's i missed you and miss cash by like five minutes they told me but it was fun to be with our students and see their beautiful visual arts and also um it was exciting thanks to wake up partnership for sponsoring stem posium really showcasing students stem projects throughout the county it was a fast paced hour and you can go on wake ed's youtube channel and get to see those projects i'd
027encourage you to do that our students are amazing and really showed their passion around the work um in stem focus and we have policy committee tomorrow at two o'clock it's an unusual time shifted um thanks for accommodating my family schedule but we'll have policy committee tomorrow at two o'clock thank you thank you mr kushner dr martin thank you as always we begin by thanking teachers students families everybody for engaging the end of the year is coming up and we get the excitement of graduations coming up this week we actually have our first graduations wake young men's and wake young women's leadership academy uh congratulations to those graduates look forward to joining you with that celebration on friday and many more graduations to come uh tomorrow at also at two o'clock uh i'm having a bac
028meeting with district five uh we'll have a briefing on the budget and finally as i've been doing lately i think it's important for us to have a covet update on the latest numbers from the wake county health department for the seven day rolling average have us for the first time in a very long time drop below 100 cases per 100 000 population it's actually down to 71 cases per hundred thousand population so it is on a downward trend vaccinations work we need to keep up that work and if you look at the north carolina health and human services dashboard again it's very important that this these numbers get normalized to the total population and not just give total numbers in each age group when you do that there's a slight discrepancy always because of the
029time of reporting north carolina department of health and human services shows 68 cases per 100 for all population unfortunately the five to nine five to 17 year olds which is our student age population are 82 cases per 100 000 so again we continue with our student cases now being higher than the county average looking specifically at the wake county public schools dashboard for the last two weeks we have seen a reduction in the number of cases among students and that is very good news we are still not below the highs of december well i guess this last week we dropped it just below the high of december so we've got a long ways to go it is important to note that the majority of that drop has been in the middle and high school cases
030more so than the elementary school cases to mr hegarty's point get your children vaccinated vaccinations work we really do hope to see those middle and high school numbers drop significantly as students get vaccinated that brings us of course to the challenge with our elementary school students because vaccines are not yet available for elementary school students in that regard uh as your son noted you know there may be some conversation about uh changing you know policies of how we operate uh i will state for the record that while i have been vaccinated and i am not personally concerned i will continue to wear my mask in solidarity with all students who are not able to get a vaccination so until vaccinations are available for all students i will like dr cohen in her announcement indicated i
031will stand in solidarity with all students thank you thank you dr martin thank you board members for those comments uh i do want to extend my appreciation to mrs cash for expressing your uh heartfelt comments and thoughts about how we use our asynchronous days you know i don't know that anybody even knew or heard what a synchronous day was before the pandemic and so i would just say that this is something that you know is still new to all of us still new to the district it gives us an option uh if you will uh oftentimes when we are faced with emergency situations challenges that impact you know our community uh our society and it's and we know that one it's not at any time probably the most optimal learning environment we we know we
032know that um but i think our our biggest concern we're faced with challenges is making sure that we provide you know some level of access to all students to all teachers and to all employees uh across the district there's no way to you know really know sometimes or even see feel or understand the impact of what might be happening if it's an inclement weather day or if it's emergency situation like last week's gas shortage no way to often predict when those things will come and how they will how they will come and how they will impact uh and i know it seems to the community that we often times uh make those decisions uh last minute and that can be frustrating but i would say too that it's always a difficult and even sometimes gut-wrenching
033decision for us and and we're always trying to analyze data uh look at uh scenarios and and crunch numbers uh and i think at the very end be it oftentimes when we make decisions about the pandemic and closing or opening schools or in this case when we're using a synchronous days we want to see kids and and students and employees in schools in our buildings and we're often i think holding out until the last minute hopeful that we can we can get students into school and into the buildings um but when we start getting calls from uh our own employees families and students who say i can't make it to school i can't make it to work um we just simply don't have enough gas to to do that we've got to make a decision
034that oftentimes uh is in the best decision uh for the whole and for all and i know that again that can be frustrating sometimes can be inconvenient but oftentimes we feel like what is the best decision uh on behalf of the majority of students and employees in the district so um we will continue i think to work through those to try to find some consistency if you will some guidelines on how we use those but i don't know that we will ever arrive at a place where we can predict every scenario every emergency situation and be able to predict or give give families or parents the the ability to predict what we might use in a synchronous day that's sort of why they are what they are so um with that uh i will will
035wrap up our comments and just again thank all of our students all of our community all of our parents and those um thank you for your your patience uh your grace uh and your understanding uh even if again you sometimes don't agree with the decisions of the uh the district and the red county public school system we appreciate you with that uh if i can entertain a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda as printed chair sutton i make a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda second motion from ms mahaffey uh second from ms johnson hofstra i think uh that was to approve tonight's meeting agenda was there any discussion hearing none all those in favor share by signing any opposed nay eyes have it tonight's agenda is approved as printed in our materials that takes
036us to public comment residents wishing to address where county board of education may submit their comments or video by noon the day of the meeting that link can be found at www.wcpss.net based upon capacity restrictions due to covert 19 limited attendance and in-person public comment is allowed the guidelines for in-person attendance and public comment can also be found at our website any member of the public who is unable does not wish to attend in person may provide comments in writing or by posting a video again at that same website the following citizens have submitted comments as part 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 we have 65 written comments and one video comment from members of the public
037the topics and speakers whose comments are attached to this to the tonight's agenda are as follows there are 41 speakers who wish to speak on the mask mandate three speakers who wish to speak on the topic of sros two speakers that wish to speak on the submitted comments i should say on critical race theory seven speakers on the topic of miscoded excessive absences two speakers on the bell schedule and 11 other speakers on a variety of topics including wcps providing vendors parent email addresses parents not allowed in school buildings public comment not read during covet covert money for special education services summer school bonuses covet policies number of missing unaccounted students north carolina high school athletic association hearing board members state all state complaints ocr complaints considering feedback from members of sale and the community
038on equity policy and summer school so those are the comments submit submitted for written and video comment we have several speakers who are here tonight in attendance for public comment the first is tracy taylor wcps has guidance cdc guidance medical mask exemptions and learning laws hello superintendent moore board members attorney and everyone else please refer to the data that i've given to you to start off 99.85 percent of north carolinians do not have covid right now that's excellent 57.3 percent of adults are partially vaccinated with natural immunity that number is 70.5 percent this is all per the ncdhhs website see page one of what i've handed to you please this is a longitudinal study that was released on may 7th and it shows that the naturally infected people are protected for at least 13 months
039we'll know more as time goes on pages two and three of the wake county in north carolina cases as of noon today they're all trending down the two to 17 year old population they are not the drivers of the spread they're not you can see that in the data that i've given you and if the numbers don't make sense you can look at the pictures that leads me to talk about medical mask exemptions tell me why they're denied at a 50 to 80 percent rate for wake county students with ieps and an 80 to 100 percent rate for all other students medical max the medical mask exemption team is comprised of a principal a nurse a counselor and or a teacher this nurse is going against medical advice by denying the written medical doctor instructions
040she could lose her license because she is bound by her practice act you guys are then telling people who are denied that the va is an acceptable alternative if that's truly the case then why are we talking about learning loss why are we asking teachers to teach this summer we know as can be seen by the data in your hands that zero to seventeen-year-olds are not the drivers of spread yet you deny these legitimate examples and these uh these exemptions against governor cooper's executive order and against medical advice but none of this matters because you all don't vote on the guidelines or the guidance do you in recent news we saw that the cdc wrote guidelines but then the aft the union lobbied to change to keep schools closed the wake county board of education
041doesn't write the guidance or vote on it central office staff like paul coe do they write the guidance as directed by superintendent moore and mandy cohen's toolkit ms kushner requested several ncae members to lobby the staff who write the guidance to keep masks on our kids why scientific data and evidence doesn't support this as we've seen locally nationally and internationally the cdc and ncdhhs have been corrupted by unions and they have bastardized science as a former research scientist and now a healthcare provider that is disturbing that's not science it's political science enough daniel cosumino hmm okay robert waldrop robert waldrop yes thank you all for your hard work and good intentions i respect you for your contribution to education i'm just a concerned citizen i think i registered as unaffiliated on my driver's license politically
042i will use covet and coven 19 interchangeably with sars cove too i'm not a medical practitioner i'm not trying to provide you with medical advice i'm a data analyst and i build technical data sets in the health health industry i'm presenting my opinions based on my own research for the sake of the health of my child who i'd like to enroll this fall in wake county schools however if you'd like me to prepare a more comprehensive reference packet or facilitate meetings with experts locally or nationally i'd be happy to invest the time if that would be helpful first i'd like to dispel popular opinion about the effectiveness of masks myth one mass block particles from coughing and sneezing this is deceptive because they don't block covid n95 max masks are not designed to block costs
043or sneeze in many cases because there's too much flow associated with that for the mass to handle myth 2 stopping some amount of virus with mass reduces risk of infection you can't stop a tidal wave even if it's shorter than the bigger tidal wave there's just too much to stop because one virion is adequate to infect someone myth three airborne covalent 19 ranges in less than six feet each new and subsequent study that's coming out shows that it's a longer range because of the size of the the virion scientific papers overwhelmingly show that wearing mask works this is also deceptive because to my knowledge there are no papers which show that there's a real epidemiological impact to wearing masks and in fact in fact the best data alignments show that wearing masks have provided no
044effect in mitigating the virus vaccines i'd like to say secondly they are a risk to our children there's a lot of very concerning uh data out specifically about the covid19 vaccines and the risk to our children third i'd like to speak to the safety of problems associated with using mass mass negatively impact respiratory physiology lower oxygen and raise co2 levels they are a breeding ground for viruses bacteria and mold including covid19 there is an increased risk of getting covet 19 from wearing masks fourth the relative risk of a child contracting covid does not justify the health risk of these ineffectual prevention techniques morbidity rates preliminary that have come out show less than 700 deaths probably more like 300 and the infection curves show that countries with mass have not seen particular benefits or reduction in
045risk why are we imposing these risks of mass on children who are at the minimal risk category if the reason is that we want to put kids at risk for general public health then i think we're being selfish and cowardly bottom line master not safe they are not effective especially for school-age children coveted vaccines are not necessarily vaccines they are not safe and they are not effective we need to put kids back in school and let them breathe let the kids breathe [Applause] holly higgins wheelchair hi good evening ma'am do you have a mask i have a medical exemption thank you good evening dr higgins wilcher parent of an eight-year-old in the wake county school system here to talk about my concern for our students our children in relation to wake county virus mitigation mandates
046the data we have is clear regarding the avalanche of harm we are causing our children tonight i want to speak to you about the score their bodies are keeping the trauma we are registering in the minds bodies and spirits of our children with these mandates here's some of the story of that score my breathing is dangerous breathing close to my friends or my teacher is dangerous to them and to me other children breathing are dangerous they could make me sick if i breathe fresh air close to my friends i will get in trouble and i will get them in trouble i could get my teacher in trouble i am dangerous i could call someone to die i can make my friends sick by breathing close to or hugging them i can make someone die by
047breathing close to her hugging them if i have trouble breathing with my mask i cannot take a breath of fresh air or i could get in trouble my breathing is harmful to other people i could make other people sick or die just by breathing or hugging them i am supposed to harm my body to ignore my pain and discomfort even if it is difficult for me to breathe or speak if i feel short of breath or dizzy i need to ignore my body i am supposed to harm my body what my body feels is not important i should not disobey my teachers even if they ask me to do something that is uncomfortable even if it is painful uncomfortable hurts or feel it makes me sick i should do what an adult i trust tells
048me to do what my body feels is not important these are the messages our children are receiving as adults we should be teaching children how to listen to the cues their bodies are giving them to keep them well and healthy instead we are teaching them that they are vectors of disease to ignore their body's messages we are teaching children that harming themselves for the benefit of others is a good choice what any when any part of these messages is repeated in the minds of our children weekly let alone daily it is psychologically damaging persistent fear of the world of others of breathing fresh air can create terror reoccurring terror leads to trauma trauma their bodies and brains are recording the internal story that every cell and neural connection is writing is a nightmare finally we
049have no longitudinal studies to show the effects of these experimental medical interventions on our children none facial coverings are an experimental virus mitigation strategy for which no informed consent has been provided to parents regarding the risk and possible adverse effects we are experimenting on our children our children placing everyone who has taken part in requiring these mandates in direct violation of the nuremberg code of 1947 and in defiance of unesco's declaration on bioethics and human rights these are officially crimes against our children an unnecessary trauma under the guise of protecting the health and safety nelson mandela said there can be no keen revelation of society's soul than the way in which it treats its children i call on each one of you to bravely rise and end these unnecessary trauma against our children please make
050masks optional to families in the school system thank you davon robinson hi everybody i briefly spoke at the end of the last meeting uh basically just talking about division and the thing that i want to create so i'm going to reiterate that and expand on a little bit so basically i'm just a young man from richmond virginia who just graduated college a few weeks ago and since the age of 12 i've always had a vision of creating a job in the school system something that i felt has always been needed so i want to become the first traveling recreational social worker with an emphasis on teaching kids life skills through activities so basically i want to teach kids how to love themselves cope with bullying cope with stress and handle you know things like that
051and also you know have teamwork leadership skills and do that all through activities that engage their brain you know we're doing something that they want to do but also putting the lesson to it and so as for structure and curriculum um it's pretty you know not complex at all i'll always have basically the same structure it would always start with an introduction of myself basically let them know what we're going to do and how we're going to be doing it then i would go into an activity then after that activity we will break it down like what did we learn from this you know how can we get better and then how can we apply this to life and you can't really tell because of this environment but i'm a pretty energetic person so when
052the kids first come in you know i introduced them with these things called repeat after me songs and so basically i would say a line and they would repeat after me and i would start by doing that just get their brains warmed up and get them ready for the day but basically i believe that this position should exist because it's something that is much needed i went through a lot of struggles early in my life and it was something that i heavily needed and i want to be able to start that now and basically be the person you know there for them that wasn't there for me at that young age and i'm willing to do this by volunteering and i'll volunteer this whole entire summer you know with hopes that we can you know
053make this into a real thing you know and also when it comes to making into a real thing you know i'll be very interested in you know whether you know contracting my arm and contracting my own llc uh just contracting with the school or even just working through the administration to actually create a position you know any way possible i would just love the opportunity so when i see uh miss roxy cash has my email and my phone number if anybody wants to contact me about it but basically i just want an opportunity to showcase what i'm capable of um i think this can go you know to great lengths in the school systems and how i want to do it is i want to work through second and fifth graders and you know while
054working with those second and fifth graders i would actually love to actually branch out with them when they go to middle school so therefore i still be with them and then when they go to high school you know i still be there for them they need to contact me but i would go back to the elementary school and then start with the next second and fifth graders and just follow under middle school and just so on and so on in the cycle but basically you know i would really love the opportunity just volunteer and show what i'm capable of and just have a chance to prove it thank you guys [Applause] thank you mr robinson amy marshall hello i'm amy marshall president of carolina teachers alliance north carolina's new teacher association we're at carolinateachers.org we
055have teacher members in wake county public exemption i do actually yes i have a medical mask exemption thank you um i'm also as i was saying we represent teachers in wake county public schools as well as teachers across the state of north carolina i'm also the mom of three kids in this school system i'm here today to ask you to lift the mask mandate for the remainder of this school year and for the fall we're asking that superintendent moore and wake boe send a letter to health secretary mandy cohen and to governor cooper requesting that the indoor mask mandate for public schools be lifted we know that governor cooper's latest executive order 215 states that future school face covering decisions will be reflected in cohen's school toolkit we believe that you as the largest district
056in north carolina can influence what will be reflected in that toolkit given that governor cooper lifted the mass mandate overall in north carolina the mass mandate should also be lifted in public school especially in wake there is evidence masks are harmful to children not only do the mass carry harmful bacteria and fungi that is inhaled mass are harmful to the mental health of children this quote from a california journalist sums it up best masks are dehumanizing they erase our facial expressions and discourage communication children need to see what adults and other kids are feeling part of socialization comes from reading and interpreting the facial expressions of others on the simplest level kids need to see smiles kids are suffering in masks all day their social relationships are being damaged and their oxygen is being restricted
057the masks are hindering learning and achievement the benefits of no masks outweigh the risks of wearing masks also it defies logic that groups of kids can be in very close contact with each other with no mass want that once they step off school property yet inside school they must wear a mask mass conditions inside the schools need to reflect the mass conditions in society at large right now they do not many states are dropping mass requirements north carolina is behind the curve on this also we have teachers and students carolina teachers alliance has teachers whose mask exemptions are not being honored so carolina teachers alliance would urge you to honor the mask exemptions requested by your staff and by the parents on behalf of their children and i'll request a little extra time due to
058the math question please do the right thing for our kids and urge the governor and cohen to lift the mass mandate in public schools it's time to stop living in fear it's time to stop teaching kids to live in fear be brave and stop hiding behind mass let the kids return to normal let them breathe free the smiles thank you jessica lewis i have a mass exemption too so you don't ask me the question okay thank you for allowing me to speak tonight i have a first and third grader i also have a 19 year old who graduated last year and thankfully did not have to endure the pain that the share of the school has caused is time time to let my voice be heard and to advocate for my children and the many
059other children that have suffered this school year y'all were elected to ensure our children are well educated i will say thank you to roxy cash and karen carter for responding via email to my concerns the rest of you i am not so sure why you are on this board because it doesn't seem like you have the best interest in our children my six-year-old has had three suicidal screenings this year due to the virtual schooling in the isolation my son became very depressed and angry saying i hate my life i want to die why did god even make me sorry put yourself in my shoes hearing the desperate cries of my six-year-old while he is punching this computer because he does not want to learn through a computer screen there should not be a virtual option
060for next year kids do not need more screen time they need hands-on learning and socialization the mental health of our children has greater long-term effects than if they were to possibly get this virus now that my kids are back in school the inconsistent roles are still affecting my children my kids were kicked out of school for a week because my six-year-old had a runny nose due to allergies they both had negative tests and were told they still could not come back until they had a doctor's don't my third grader was exposed to covet for from classmate last week i was told she cannot come back to school till may 27th but my first grader can come back without even a negative test the last two days i've had both my kids and carpooling while only
061one of them is allowed to get out of my car my question is there if there's such a concern of this student exposing my daughter then where is the logic of my two kids who play together non-stop and then letting my son back into school in a different classroom without a negative test the rules make no sense at all also why do our children still have to wear masks and deplete their oxygen levels all day in school when our children are still going to get kicked out of school for 14 days makes no sense take the masks out for children and let them breathe let the parents choose what they think is best for their kids we all tested negative after the exposure but this she still has to remain out of school for 14
062days her doctor said that she will write a note stating my daughter is allowed back to in school because she tested negative my question that i want answered is if i bring her doctor's note stating to allow her back in school will you let her back in school to get an education please do not deny her in education anymore as that would go against what you all were elected for when she gets back in school may 27th she will literally have 10 days left of in-person instruction steve bergstrom okay you owe it to her to start being a voice to wake county parents wake county parents past experience with with this board has been this grievances and issues that do not align with your ideology are summarily dismissed without any real explanation you consistently ignore
063the very real complaints brought to you by parents whose combined knowledge and understanding far exceeds what you individually know you have often overlooked the very crucial fact that the population at large has vastly more total knowledge then your small group of elites in this room whether it's citizens complaining about mvp math reassignments budgetary mismanagement critical race theory or medical professional after medical professional who has come in and given warnings about prolonged mass mandates that you ignore time after time you have disregarded the valid grievances by a vast majority of parents you are supposed to represent on a purely political basis you choose to dictate and decree not based on facts you hide behind a wall of bureaucracy and claim that there is nothing you can do undoubtedly you will respond to those who you represent
064who have voiced these concerns here today that we are simply waiting on health and human services or the state guidance to lift mask mandates for schools and yet one of your own christine kushner has actively mobilized her political base to come and advocate continued mass mandates through next school year quote we are receiving quite a few emails from parents who are pushing for lifting the use of mass next next year i hope you will consider speaking out with your views as one example at our last two make that now three board meetings public speakers spoke against masking citing ill effects for children there was no speaker in favor of masking i have witnessed why in my visits to elementary schools i have witnessed widespread compliance with masking and no incidents of light-headedness or oxygen depletion
065even when visiting at the end of the day just because you did not witness it doesn't mean it's not there if you have to beg people to come in and speak in support of your political ideology then you owe an apology to all those who you represent to those who want to wear mass please wear them to members of the school board i ask you to start being leaders stop waiting for political directives from on high and start listening to those who you profess to represent start being a voice i ask you to be proactive and tell the state to lift mass mandates at a minimum for next school year thank you christy zellman and i'm aware that you have a medical exemption thank you for letting us know in advance yes i have a
066medical exemption hello board members my name is christy zellman i am the parent of two school-age children in wake county i also have a master's degree in physical therapy i'm here to advocate for all children it is past time to put an end to masking our kids overall and in school while i understand that this board may not have all the power to make or change these rules you are in the position to assist with the rules speak up for our children and work with the powers that be that influence the decision of masking in schools as steve said i'm aware that members of this board are encouraging parents to speak up in favor of continuing to mask children members of this board are quoted as saying you continue to be intrigued by adults who
067state masking is not effective if that's the case then clearly you've done no research and you've not seen incidences of lightheadedness or oxygen depletion while visiting schools but just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean masks aren't causing irreparable harm with that said as backed by actual science data and research we know that it is rare for children under 18 to get or transmit coven it in the highly unlikely event that a child does get coveted they have statistically a zero percent chance of dying so a hundred percent chance of survival there are zero unbiased scientific studies to support the wearing and or efficacy of masks to prevent the transmission or acquisition of covid masks negatively impact mental and physical health behavior social interaction and emotional development of children as per the fda and osha
068masks are not worn properly or of the proper fit or material to prevent transmission or breeding grounds for dirt and bacteria and are causing more health issues than helping masking skips the entire hierarchy of safety and controls as set by osha the best methods for stopping or lessening the transmission of a virus is a hearty immune system proper hand hygiene as well as good ventilation and fresh air if you want the links video testimony from experts in the field of osha masking etc i'm happy to provide those however surely by now you've seen them and you know the truth the bottom line is that we know we all know that masks are not effective are doing more harm than good and we demand that these mass mandates be removed immediately enough is enough and if
069parents are concerned they have the freedom to choose to continue masking their own kids because if they feel masks work then they should feel their children are protected thank you for doing the job to which you are elected to listen and serve your constituents and to help end the child abuse that is mandatory masks in school did you ask me our number good evening thank you for having me again i'd like to start by saying thank you for bringing the kids back in person my family is grateful my two boys are two different people and we couldn't be more grateful for that so i'd like to start by saying thank you to all of you who supported that decision and i'd like to say that it was beautiful seeing the hockey game last night and
070it was beautiful seeing some some sort of normal becoming to come back it was and we have started that by bringing the kids back in school in person and many have spoke about statistics and scientific reasoning why the masks should be at least at least optional this is a mask my son was wearing for hours the stain has faded it's been weeks when he got in a car the stain was very wet and it took a lot of me to keep it aside and not throw it away in the trash this is his mask from today if masks continue to be required and mandatory in schools does this school take liability to put my son at this risk because last week i had to keep him home he had a cold and fortunately he tested
071uh negative for covid but he had a very bad cold and my son is autistic he doesn't even know how to blow his nose he wouldn't know how to clean himself properly so i kept him home because i didn't want him to breathe in all that yuckiness and grossness for hours and i knew no one would be able to go close enough to help him are you going to take this liability for my son to keep breathing all those viruses and bacteria and fungi and whatever else is gross in there growing how long does it take for him to get sick because of that i wonder minutes hours does he have to stay in contact reading all of that i'd like to ask this board is this risk greater is this risk not big enough
072for you to remove masks are you willing to take this risk that's all i have to say if you're willing to take this risk i'd like you to take responsibility for any consequences that may cause to my son for example i speak for myself thank you for having me and thank you again for listening to us dylan trussell i just want to say we're medically exempt and i'm going to let him go first if that's okay and then i'll go is that coach this is my son dylan thank you okay i'll have one of you signed up should i move mike down that's because he's a miner okay i put both of our names on my slot did you not get it no if i was supposed to no one told me dearborn dear board
073members my name is dylan and i'm a fifth grader at holly grove elementary we have been wearing masks masks for a very long time and now it's time to make an option going to school used to be really fun and exciting now it feels more like a prison it's stressful you aren't allowed to see people's faces and they aren't allowed to see yours there's there is barely any communication you can't see people and their emotions it's hard to feel a friendship towards others it makes me feel less human we are forced to wear something we did not agree on and did not vote on at lunch with our masks off they don't even allow us to talk to each other the environment is not a good one for for learning students are stressed anxious stressed
074and anxious it's hard to understand what the teacher is saying because it the sound is all muffled through a mask and then when you do get an answer right you don't get to see a smile for a job well done i have adhd and the mask doesn't help it's a big distraction to me i touch my face hundreds of times more it catches all my sneeze my sneezes and coughs if the purpose of a mask is to keep me safe it's doing a lousy job i have i have allergies so it catches my runny nose too and then it sits there for the rest of the day making it hard to learn with a rat and gross piece of cloth sticking to your face and making it hard to breathe i often come home from
075school with a headache when i need a break from my mask at school i get yelled out from the other students who are worried about other people and are not doing their own work this is not unity or learning when they yell they act like i'm not a good person or i'm a criminal just because i need a break to breathe it's very depressing kids may kids are afraid of something they should shouldn't be worried about the rules haven't made any sense and are unfair it feels like i'm a peasant begging for permission just to be there without something in the way makes me feel it makes me feel like i have less freedom because i'm forced to wear a mask and it doesn't make sense if our founding fathers saw style i think they
076would be disappointed that we are not given the choice choice to wear a mask or not please make a mask wearing optional thank you for your time hi am i supposed to get that reset i don't know thanks okay sorry i'm karissa i'm a mom i come from a family of seven i've got siblings all over wake county i've got sisters in morrisville to apex holly springs to carry my sister got an email when we were just you know trying to decide whether to do virtual next year or come in person and her pediatrician sent out an email that did not recommend virtual school for their patients they recommended that kids need to be in school in person and that was what their recommendation was the thing with that is that maths are keeping people
077from being able to go in person my other sister has kids that have severe eczema which is you know dry skin a mask when you have dry skin that has cracks in it a mask with that humid air makes it very susceptible and prone for skin infections because the bacteria gets in those cracks and they also have such severe eczema that they can't even use the hand sanitizer that they're making all the kids use the alcohol will burn and actually physically cause them pain from a friend i know they do virtual just because their girl has hearing aids and they need to see people's lips to be able to understand them and that's just not possible with a mask on so it'd be nice to have that as an option other kids are also having
078a hard time in school with a mask i have a friend that said her kid is having problems with social cues that not being able to see people's faces there were kids that were mad at him that he didn't understand that they wanted him to stop doing what he was doing and he got in trouble for that because he couldn't see their faces and the social cues that are needed to understand what people are thinking and saying my daughter herself and she's in a middle school had to see the principal because someone told on her because she was taking too long putting her mask on between sipping water and i mean i think we're just kind of pitting our kids to be tattletails against each other and that is not a good environment for learning
079let's see there's nothing else that we have done and made a big fuss over for something that has the survival rate of the 99.949 so we're just to me we're making our kids fearful they need the freedom from all these arbitrary rules and we shouldn't give up our freedom just for the illusion of safety there's a lot of science behind the mass not really being as safe as people once originally thought they were so i just feel like parents should have the choice to decide what is medically best for their children and that it's kind of sad when we did get a taste of freedom he got recessed recently and he was surprised that kids faces didn't look like what he thought they looked like and i thought that was really funny but at the
080same time we should know what people's faces look like in our in our classrooms so thank you so much for your time all right that concludes our public comment for this evening thank you to all of our speakers for coming and sharing your thoughts and comments next item up is our information item and an update from our superintendent from superintendent moore i'll turn it over to you good evening again chair sutton board members as per usual i'm just providing a brief update of the items that we covered in our work session today for those families and folks who may be joining us for the board meeting but were unable to join us for the work session this afternoon we had a presentation from dr anthony graham who is the provo at winston-salem state university and
081he is also the chair of the north carolina drive task force so he provided an overview of developing a representative and inclusive vision for education drive task force issued a final report and recommendations to the governor's office in the last few months and they are you know he's been going around the state and some different educational stakeholder groups and agencies and providing information about the drive force drive task force recommendations and final report and a lot of information about how important a diverse workforce is and the types of actions that districts can take universities can take stakeholder groups can take in order to support that work in a school system the second item on our agenda today for work session was an update on the summer extended learning program we provided you actually in the
082finance committee meeting some information about the compensation package for both certified staff and non-certified staff that the board will be voting on later this evening and then in the work session we provided information about the summer learning program and the requirements that have been set forth in legislation about how the program is going to operate and some of our goals about how to implement that program in schools the partnerships that we're having with um with the ymca who already operates a program in the summer that we can join with as well as the components during the school day of how we make sure that we are balancing the time that students are in school and making it valuable and productive knowing again that the summer program is one leg of a mini-leg school that we
083have to work towards in terms of making sure that the opportunities for learning and the challenges that have been presented by the pandemic and remote learning we can address and it is just a piece of that puzzle you also received a brief information item in the work session providing the timeline for the enrollment plan for the 2223 school year that enrollment plan will come in august of 21 but it is for the 22 to 23 school year where we are opening three new schools um barton's pond elementary herbert aikens middle apex friendship amex friendship elementary and i was going to go in alphabetical order and then i didn't uh thank you and so that timeline as per usual has a couple of versions public comment is a part of that and feedback is a part
084of that and it culminates in an adoption of an enrollment plan by the board at the first board meeting in december and then the last item that we spent a good bit of time on at the end of the work session was the you know the next sort of iteration of board discussion and feedback around potential options to change our bell schedules moving forward in response to the research and the conversations we've had over the years around the importance of or the impact of starting in particular high schoolers later than our current schedules mostly are adopted for high schools they start 7 18. so getting feedback from the board on a number of questions and options that were provided to you at a prior meeting and then we concluded that work suggestion activity with gathering
085some of your feedback so that we can bring that back and give that to you as well as to start our next steps so formulating how we're going to get feedback from the considerable number of stakeholder groups that we're going to want to get some feedback from and again reiterating that um most districts that have done this have done this through a multi-year plan we are not looking at any changes for 21 22 those bell schedules have already been adopted the earliest that we could we would be looking at anything would be 22 23 but it sort of depends on the flow of the work as we move forward where we'll end up with any recommendations that may come to the board that is a recap of our work session thank you superintendent moore our
086next item on our information agenda is srl memorandum of understanding and those divisions so that is being brought to us by russ smith and patricia robinson with barrington smith so smith we'll start with you thank you good evening board chair sutton superintendent moore and board of education members tonight we are here to present an overview of the sro program review and sro mou revisions there should be a powerpoint here we go so i'll start by saying that during the summer of 2020 the wake county board of education created an ad hoc safety and security committee this committee was tasked to review several areas of safety and security of the district to include but not limited to the review of the sro program this committee has met monthly on the fourth wednesday of the month since
087september of 2020 with several areas of focus for the year a review of the framework and components of the sro program and a review of the sro mou and determination of the district's future direction as tied to mou revisions and renewal the committee has taken a detailed look into several topics and focus areas since the inception of the committee meetings just to name a few sro training sro offense referral data for middle high schools an overview of restored practices and the peace builders program data from the sro survey results and associated focus groups a financial overview of funding for sros and allied universal security services a review of the use of force an overview of sros at elementary schools an overview of the safer schools task force report from 2013 and feedback and input from
088the sro mou results the district has performed an extensive amount of work around receiving stakeholder feedback as district staff began the examination of the sro program staff created a survey to gather specific information on the program this survey which was open for about a month captured high level thoughts and perspectives on the sro program the survey had over 54 000 responses gathered from community members parents students and staff to further unpack and explore data gathered from the sro survey the next step was district staff facilitated several focus groups let's take a deeper dive into the information that we received from the survey staff conducted a total of 15 virtual focus groups from the following stakeholders students teachers principals parents community members local law enforcement and the wake county public school system security team next district
089staff launched a second survey to gather information on specific parts of the sro mou the current one that we have in place this survey had over five thousand respondents from stakeholder groups to include community members students parents wake county public school system staff at the building level and at central services law enforcement agencies to further explore the proposed draft of the sro mou at this time i'm going to hand the presentation over to ms patricia robinson attorney for tharrington smith thank you good evening chair sutton superintendent moore and board members i'm here as mr miss mentioned to provide an overview of the latest revisions to the sro mou at the outset i want to emphasize that this draft of the mou reflects changes that the board has proposed based on feedback from students parents staff
090and community members collected through the the various measures that mr smith just described this draft also reflects collaboration with law enforcement agencies specifically the raleigh police department and the wake county sheriff's office so in summary the the revised draft which has been posted with materials for the website this evening reflects the board's ongoing efforts to respond to and incorporate feedback from various stakeholders there are a couple themes at the outset that i would emphasize and the changes that the board has proposed in this draft mou and the first is increased communication with law enforcement agencies as well as opportunities and avenues for feedback from members of the community throughout the term of the mou with the goal of facilitating ongoing review of the srr program to ensure it's consistent with the board's mission and goals
091the second theme i would identify is clarifying the scope of sro interventions and when they are appropriate in the school setting both of those themes as well as the specific changes that you will note in the document proposed by the board are designed to align with the purpose of the sro program which the board has defined in this version of the mou as to be to support the school system in achieving its goal of providing a safe welcoming and inclusive environment for all students by providing law enforcement officers who are specifically trained to anticipate understand and respond to the unique needs arising from students of various ages and within the school setting i'll now provide a very high level overview of the sections of the mou and the changes that the board has proposed at
092this time article 1 is purpose and governing principles changes here include increased monitoring and review of the sro program on an annual basis as well as increased methods as i mentioned for members of the community to provide feedback on the sro program article 2 is duties of law enforcement agencies changes in this section include increased opportunities for the board to provide input on sros specifically a list of optimal characteristics for sros and in the event of a specific vacancy the opportunity to provide information about a school's needs and desired characteristics for an sro the board has also proposed adding language around training requirements and again aligning those to the specific needs of students and the school setting article 3 is expectations of the sro while serving on campus changes in this section reflect more clearly
093delineating the levels of student conduct emphasis on the fact that law enforcement and sr intervention should be limited to those instances of student misconduct that present an imminent threat to health and safety in the school environment and that are not more appropriately handled through another school resource finally this section includes a reference to the governor's 2020 report from his task force on racial equity and law enforcement as it relates to use of force article 4 is duties of the board and the school system changes in this section are related to the resolution of disagreements with law enforcement agencies as well as putting in a place putting in place a process for semi-annual feedback again an annual review of the sro program finally i'll move to article six that's employment status of sros change in this
094section reflects a proposal to set up a process for establishing a joint feedback form for members of the committee to provide feedback about sros or administrators as it relates to the implementation of this mou i recognize that the board is currently still receiving and requesting public feedback on the mou and may con continue to receive feedback and so this draft may be subject to further revisions and our goal remains to reflect and mou what the majority of the board desires to see in this document thank you all right again that was just meant for the board to buy some information and update as well as open up the opportunity i believe for the community to begin to provide us input and feedback on this mou and those revisions so we look forward to receiving that
095through board members encourage encourage you to be in contact and communication with those advocates and and folks that you know and we encourage them to also reach out to us and provide us uh with that feedback uh so that we can keep this process moving but at the same time uh encourage that input and have that reflected in this mou any questions or comments from board members at this point mrs cash when you refer to the public are we talking about our staff like principals and people in our schools how does that come in i think that would include that would include feedback from our principals and staff obviously there is a a way that that feedback is is registered through our normal uh chain of command not air superintendents and through simple tiny morris
096i mean they would they would handle that um but i'm assuming if you're in schools and have an opportunity to speak with principals they they may provide that i'll kind of the superintendent more i would also add that uh the principals and the community if they want to submit information to me i would be more than happy to accept that and put that together so you know so again that includes all all levels of stakeholders and credit feedback in this cash miss cash if i can paraphrase what you're asking is you want to make sure that in addition to any stakeholder groups that you may engage with like through your bac or other avenues that the district leadership is providing an explicit opportunity for principals to make sure they know it's out there in case
097they have feedback dr martin yes thank you sort of question sort of comment um i think it's important for the public to know that this document is not something that the board has total authority over saying it's got to be this way it is a it's an mou that is negotiated with law enforcement and so you know i think the call and welcome for public feedback to the board is is very much there but i think the public also needs to try to reach out to law enforcement um i don't know and so i guess the question is you know what is the mechanism to potentially for the public to communicate to some of the law enforcement agencies to support some of the things because not everything that the board has has would like to
098necessarily get into the mou is something that's going to be able to find agreement with the law enforcement agency so i guess my that's my bigger question is i mean we we welcome a lot of feedback there are things that you know like in any negotiation you know you're not going to get everything that you ask for but but how how would the public communicate to the law enforcement agencies to say you know maybe it's just that the governor's trek report is a priority for us the public how would how would we recommend making sure that it's not just coming to the board but it is also coming to the law enforcement agencies you know come on okay i don't know that honestly speaking i don't know that there is a really open channel of
099communication quite frankly where the public can reach reach out to law enforcement uh and you know i'll be honest i i think that largely depends on us uh and where the community has ability to communicate with us provide feedback um you know and and and there's that i think that depends on us as we represent that community and not just community boards but i would say the student voice as well is probably most important in that list of stakeholders and feedback and and i see us as being those advocates of the community to then as you say negotiate with law enforcement to try to advocate and push for for more change understanding and realizing that you know there are limitations in that because this is a negotiation and and not a demand if you will
100so point well taken that's why i'm saying you have anything to add i do not remember if i could just note that the you know the mou expires at the end of june and and if negotiations are successful a new one would need to be in place july 1st so um that feedback is welcomed quick feedback is more welcomed given the the timeline that we're on and that again any type of feedback is welcomed but i would say that targeted feedback at this point as to the current draft in any specific suggested changes would be i think particularly constructed since it's been sort of a year-long process at a higher level of getting feedback about the program and aspects of it thank you and again i think the the side dimension smith went through sharing
101the the different levels of feedback um you know there has been considerable input through the focus groups at different levels and that opportunity to provide that feedback and what we've done is really taken much of the feedback that we've heard uh and narrowed it down to those four areas uh so i'm i wanna say that there's not more to to add there's always room for additions and improvement uh but i think much of that has been captured but i think if if you know again i encourage the community you know particularly our students and those advocates if you have any thoughts ideas uh that are not already reflected uh please share those as quickly as possible and to get any opportunity that we can to schedule any meetings conversations again with those important stakeholders and
102we all know who they are now is the time to gather that feedback and and you know think about how we can again strategically move this move this piece forward because at this point time is of the essence as mr bloomberg said that that miu expires june 30th and we need to have a new one in place by july 1 which means at the latest we will be voting on this uh mou at our last meeting in june probably preferably probably the first meeting in june so that we've got some time and not waiting to the last the last minute so take the calendar into consideration please as well as we as we move forward so all right moving on with our agenda uh next item up is the consent agenda if i could entertain
103a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda sure sutton i'll move approval of the consent items is listed second got a motion from mrs kushner second from johnson hofstra to approve tonight's consent agenda uh as it is printed in their materials is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor share about sign of eye any opposed nay i have a consent agenda is approved we're going to try action items we've got a couple of uh items one on finance and a couple of policies uh first up is the compensation compensation incentives for staff for the uh extension of learning and enrichment recovery dr matilda we've had this discussion over in the work session so this is that item that now being brought forward for our actions thank you chair sutton good evening again members of
104the board superintendent moore um here tonight to present the recommendation for you for consideration and approval for the district's summer learning program specifically related to compensation of employees who work in the program we provided updates regarding certified staff during work session on may 4th as well as referenced in the finance committee today all employees who are in 10 or 11 month positions who are not employed during the time period when extended learning is taking place are eligible for the compensation recommend recommendations that we've presented specifically this evening i'm asking for your approval of an hourly rate for certified staff of 45 dollars or their regular hourly rate if higher and an hourly rate of 20 for classified staff or their regular hourly rate of hired we arrived at both of these recommendations as both of
105these hourly rates would be higher than most employees who would work in the summer learning program would typically earn during their normal rates for the summer for the small number of employees in both groups who would earn more that's why we do have the we would honor their regularly hourly rate in addition to the rates i'm asking for your approval of a wake county attendance bonus of up to twelve hundred dollars for both certified and non-certified employees employees would earn a bonus of four hundred dollars for three weeks of service or a two-week session for year-round schools and an additional eight hundred dollars for completing the full six weeks we're also asking for your approval tonight for the legislated teacher bonuses while it is not our typical practice to bring legislative bonuses to you for
106approval since hb 82 indicated the phrase from funds available and the state is providing say is not providing designated additional dollars we aired on the side of bringing this to you for your approval as we mentioned before we would use federal money that is available as a reminder these bonuses include twelve hundred dollars to any teacher who has received a past teaching bonus for reading in grades three four and five for math and in grades four five six seven or eight um sorry for one reading three four and five in math four five six seven and eight as well as national board certified teachers and then it would be a hundred fifty dollars per student any teacher who provided instruction to a student who did not demonstrate reading proficiency on the third grade and the
107grade reading assessment who becomes proficient in reading after completing the program so in summary we're asking for your approval for employees who are on a 10-11 month position and are not already employed during the period when extended learning is taking place three basic recommendations an hourly rate of forty five dollars for certified staff and twenty five dollar twenty dollars for non-certified staff or their standard hourly rate of fire away county attendance bonus of four hundred dollars for the first week or two or two weeks on the year round and then the additional eight hundred dollars for serving all six weeks and then lastly per hb 82 asking for your approval of the twelve hundred dollars for teachers receiving the past performance bonuses who are nationally board certified and 150 dollars per third grade student who
108enters not demonstrating proficient who then becomes proficient after completing the program happy to answer any questions this is cash before i come to you um yes attorney zone versus superintendent moore helped me a little bit because it seems to me that the summer school incentive and the performance might be separated into two would this be two separate um those that don't i know they're somewhat related um the the performance bonus doesn't seem related to the summer school piece right so we didn't separate it because it's kind of like a package in terms of the different components some of which are legislated and some of which are locally driven but it's it's it's a package so we brought it as one item okay all right fair enough this is cash so i make a motion that
109we do go ahead and approve the incentive package as mentioned by dr matilda and the funding source for it tonight second got a motion from his cash and a second from mrs mahappy to approve staff's requests for approval of the incentive package including summer school enrichment as well as the performance bonuses including hp 82. starting a discussion hearing none all those in favor shall about china oppose nay eyes have it that incentive package and bonus package is approved thank you thank you dr matilda thank you superintendent all right we've got two policies first up is board policy 4720 on surveys of students on his first reading dr private military good evening sir good evening uh chair sutton superintendent moore members of the board i'm here to present to you first reading of policy 4720 surveys
110of students this is a new policy created by the new the school boards association as part of their policies to lead the school's manual and it is part of our district's current policy migration project given that there is no current policy such as this should it be given final approval by the board it will create a new policy for the district this policy was reviewed at the march 23rd and april 27th policy committee meetings i do want to point out that you will see in the second paragraph of the policy that there is some language there in blue font and the reason that that is highlighted is it provides a more accurate more detailed description of what is and is not considered a survey for purposes of this policy which was requested by the policy
111committee at their most recent meeting where this was discussed it reads this definition does not include pedagogically appropriate activities that may encourage students to consider or reflect on information related to the protected topics provided that the teacher does not require students to disclose information on one of these protected topics we request board's approval of this reading of policy 4720 surveys of students this is christian thank you chair sutton i'd like to move approval of policy 4720 surveys of students as a new policy on first reading so thank you i'm a motion for mrs kushner second from mr hegarty to approve board policy 4720 surveys of students on his first reading during the discussion chair sutton i just wanted to add my thanks to the board for their participation in both march and april we did
112a real thorough review of this policy and it just um it is a new policy as dr mcgowan stated and it just reflects the practice that he and his department have and the school system have done so it's putting practice into policy thank you dr mcmillan for the work mr hagerty and and i just want to echo what ms kushner said i also want to thank the staff for the additional language that was crafted that we talked about in policy committee because sometimes you know we do get confusion we get questions from parents from the public about what you can ask students what you can't ask students and i think there is a general overall goal of protecting students and their information not soliciting private information and i think this does a good job of
113explaining the situations and distinguishing between what's a class assignment and what's a survey and then even in the class assignment setting some boundaries for it so i think these are wonderful additions and i wanted to commit junior staff i like all the comments of you both ms carter just real quick i just wanted to thank you for the additions and i just appreciate the fact that multiple spots are mentioned of guardians or parents having the right to ins to inspect or review and being notified and i just encourage those who are listening if you please look at it and read it and make you know if you have questions let us know but i think it's important to understand um you know what that process is as well all right seeing no further discussion all
114those in favor of the motion to approve board policy 47-20 on this first reading show about sign of any opposed nay as habit board policy 4720 surveys of students is approved on this first reading thank you sir next up is board policy 8305 federal grant administration coming to us on its first reading mr neither thank you good evening sutton members of the board and superintendent moore board policy 8305 speaks to the administration of federal grants policy was brought to policy committee on april 27 and approved by the committee to come forward tonight for first reading the policy outlines and defines fiscal management systems and controls for the administration of federal grants including allowability cash management and fund control procurement procedures conflict of interest required disclosures use of equipment and supplies procured with federal funds requirements
115related to independent audits and training the policy also references other board policies based on discussion in your policy committee on april 27th additional definition was added to the policy to more clearly define family members in terms of the conflict of interest section of the policy and those items are highlighted on in your backup information in blue i now ask the board's consideration of approval of the first reading of this policy ms kushner thank you chair sutton and with that i would like to move approval of the new policy as part of the policy migration 8305 federal grant administration for on first reading and a motion for mrs kushner second from mr hegarty to approve board policy 8305 federal grant administration on his first reading is there any discussion seeing or hearing none all those in
116favor show about sign of eye in the opposed nay eyes have it board positive 8305 fellow brandon administration is approved on his first reading thank you sir of course that's your major chair sutton i'd like to make a motion that the board go into closed session to consider confidential personnel information protected under gs 143-318-1181 and a6 to consult with the board of education attorney and preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in gs143-318.1183 and to consider confidential student information protected under gs115c-402 and the family educational rights and privacy act 20 usc one two three two g second got a motion from mr mahaffey second from johnson hofstra they go in the closed session for the items just stated and that's printed on the agenda during the discussion hearing none all those in favor show about
117sign of i oppose nay have it we're now standing closed session thank you very much for joining us this evening and we appreciate you have a good night she's like