001so all right uh let's get started i want to say good evening to all of you all both again uh those face-to-face good evening again to you and those that are joining us for the first time either face to face or virtually good evening to you welcome to our wake county board of education meeting called this meeting to order it is 604 p.m we do have a quorum i can say that visibly now not have to do a roll call vote i believe we do have all eight members here physically and we have ms vice chair roxy cash who is with us virtually she is out of town uh on some uh family uh event at this time uh so again we do have a quorum if you all would stand with me and join
002me in the reciting of the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice as i stated in our previous work session this represents the beginning of a new normal for us and so i welcome all of you just to familiarize everyone with sort of where we are in this first new face-to-face meeting we are limited to 25 people in our boardroom this evening so we have all nine or eight board members uh superintendent and our general counsel along with our chief of staff and other key central office personnel that help our meetings run smoothly along with a limited amount of media and five members of the public that are here with us
003and participating in the meeting and we will also have some additional members that will of the public that will come in and out to provide public comments so for those that are viewing virtually just to give you a sense of what our room looks like at this point as we are all socially distanced across the room uh wearing masks and everyone having gone through temperature checks and the like coming in so thank you all for being a part of this meeting thank you all for adhering to our policies and respecting our wishes to wear a mask and keep everyone safe and healthy we certainly appreciate appreciate that moving into our agenda we'll start with our information items and begin with our superintendent's comments superintendent moore good evening first i'd like to congratulate stephanie veder a
004preschool social worker in the office of early learning who has been named the 2020 2021 wake county public school system social worker of the year miss veeder has been in her role for 10 years and serves as part of a three-person team in the office of early learning together they support families of preschoolers throughout the district as they navigate the special education or title one process helping them access school and community resources they also support pre-school assessment teams throughout the county and serve as mckinney-vento liaisons mrs veter has also partnered with the green chair project to create the sweeter dreams program with the goal of providing beds to any wcpss student who may have been sleeping on the floor couch or with siblings so they can get a better night's sleep and be better prepared
005to learn the next morning to date they have provided more than 3 500 beds to students of all ages she also works with note in the pocket a local non-profit that provides clothing and shoes to low-income students mrs vieder says at the office of early learning we are on we are the first door to a family's long relationship with wcpss and i believe we need to welcome our preschoolers and their families with open arms to help them feel they belong and are appreciated if we can do that at age three the foundation is set for a positive relationship with all of our schools moving forward my thanks to mrs veter and all our inspiring social workers who go the extra mile to meet the needs of their students and families i'd also like to congratulate
006aaron steele who was recently named the 2020 2021 north carolina art education association secondary teacher of the year mr steele who is also a wcpss teacher of the year semifinalist is in his 13th year of teaching and sixth year at nigel high school as a visual arts teacher he believes teachers should show students how their abilities can shape the world around them and that great teaching means thinking beyond the classroom walls he put that belief into practice last year with a large-scale project involving all of his visual arts students they planned and designed a mural called equity and equality in america to be painted on the school's outdoor basketball courts students individually designed a concept for the mural then collaborated to decide on the final design students also appealed to community organizations to support the
007effort raising more than five thousand dollars they had begun to work on the mural before schools had to close in march mr steele and his students are eager to complete the project but he points out the process of designing it had great value saying students gained real life work experience confidence in their impact on the greater world and the ability to engage in crucial conversations this project is an excellent example of the four c's in action and the relevant and meaningful instruction our teachers strive to provide every day congratulations again to mr steele for this well-deserved honor that concludes my comments thank you superintendent moore for those comments i'll just provide some brief comments as i've had an opportunity to provide a good bit of commentary already this afternoon so i'll just add that last
008friday couple fridays ago i had the opportunity to participate in our principal of the year assistant principal of the year interviews this is where we or i joined with other principals teachers and other staff in the district to interview our five final finalists for both principal of the year and assistant principal of the year i just want to share with you that we are in good hands it was an awesome opportunity to really get an in-depth look at what not just what our principles do but some of the talent uh the skills that they bring uh to these positions uh and certainly uh conceive why that they are competing for the top spot uh in terms of administration uh here in our district uh so i want to just thank uh the the 10 of
009those founders uh that participated in the team i'm sorry i don't have the list of all 10 uh but you've heard them read at a previous meeting but just wanted to real really give kudos and shout to all 10 founders thank you for all that that you do i know that there can only be one winner at each at each level but i think all of them were fantastic representatives of their school communities and as i said before we are in great hands so with that uh i will go to vice chair cash uh with comments and we'll go around and hear from each board member vice chair cash are you ready yeah i think can you hear me yes we can okay thank you um thank you again uh terry sutton and superintendent moore
010and staff for allowing me to uh be able to be in ohio today i i'm really glad we're in person board meetings again and um i am happy to be in ohio to greet my new grandson um henry so he was born this morning so i would be there if i was not here of course so thank you for that um and i also do want to give out i think you men mentioned superintendent moore um i want to give a shout out to the sweden dream fed program i had an opportunity to do some work with some of the people those 3 500 beds that went to fame for children of families was amazing and i don't even know how they got it done but that was a great project i'm looking forward to
011the meeting tonight thank you thank you vice chair cash i'll start to my left this evening mr scott thank you and good evening to everybody last week i was lucky to thankful to participate in a planning committee focus group in the town of zebulun they are growing by leaps and bounds and i you as i've said very much i appreciate the relationship and the importance of having a relationship with our municipalities they invited uh all of the schools leadership from the schools in the area and also dr betty parker and michelle i'm sorry masala rory were there as well and just sharing information and it was a great a very great conversation to be able to hear what goes on in our schools how the how they are able to absorb growth challenges that we
012have and expanding to absorb growth so it was just a really great conversation and i hope that we continue to have more conversations like that with our municipalities because they are amazing partners for our schools as we are looking ready to open i appreciate that the work that we've non-profits have done like you mentioned with delivering beds to families who need them the northeast backpack buddies is ready to go and to serve you know backpack buddies throughout the county i'm sure are all ready to go to serve our students in the way that they can acknowledging the work that our cns has been doing to provide meals for students already and so i'm really looking forward to that and i just i do want to also offer an additional congratulations to mr steele on the
013on his award i had the pleasure of meeting him at the for the first time face-to-face right before the impact of covid uh knightdale high school had their curriculum uh night at the towards the end of february and i just was congratulating him you know from being a top 10 finalist for teacher of the year and i'm not quoting him exactly so my apologies for this but he he said to me you know i'm doing this for all eastern teachers so everyone can know how hard we work and and how much we care and how much talent there is in eastern wake and that just struck me he is such a selfless person and and i think that that is exactly what we see throughout throughout wake county and certainly i've seen that uh in
014the visits to to eastern wake those conclude my comments for the evening it's nice to see everyone all right i'll stay at the table mr hagerty and then we'll go out to the gallery so to speak thank you i think i'm now feeling i think i'm going to hold my tongue tonight thank you mr sutton okay thank you uh so we'll start with the table uh mr fletcher and just go down the road i've got a slight emergency i just need to attend to just for a second so if you all just go ahead with the comments and i'll be right back thank you mr sutton um i i want but it is we are all receiving a lot of input from parents and teachers through email primarily i want to say i appreciate that
015and i have let you know that i read every email that the gualium is such that i'm not able to respond individually to each email they have been informative and i appreciate people taking the time to share their thoughts um and as we inch toward reopening school for face-to-face learning and we share the challenges of in the process of phasing in process i appreciate the community seeking to understand as well as the board continuing to seek to understand the perspectives of our community so thank you and that's a conclude my comments this evening i'll keep us going um it's really good to be with you all tonight it's good to see you and be in this space and i appreciate the the work that had to go in to make us be able to reopen
016our board meetings to in person and it is an altered school board meeting just as our schools will be altered when we reopen them and our students and our staff will i appreciate the seeing the videos that the system is putting out so that students and staff will know what to expect because we need to alter our expectations because um everything is altered in our in our current world right now and we've done these changes in order to stay safe and to keep each other safe so i'm um and want us to embrace that cult culture certainly but our i think as chair sutton said in the work session our work's not done we need um to be working on clear plans for re both the reopening plans that we have dates for and those
017that at the high school level what work needs to be done to um get co-curricular activities going again i was glad to see the arts um schedule being put online so the phase in continues and i think the phasing in is the responsible safe healthy way for us to get our students back um in our staff back in front of each other just as we're back in front of each other tonight so um i also want to echo mr fletcher's gratitude to the community for the feedback we are still receiving a lot of feedback from parents from staff from community members and that feedback's conflicting and contradictory toward amongst each other so we have to also recognize that we're doing the best we can to consolidate our thoughts around conflicting and detailed feedback and it's
018a big lift but i have trust in this board and this and the student superintendent's leadership team so thank you for all the work that's going into our continued work together good evening i'd like to begin as i try to always do by saying thank you thank you to the teachers and staff in our schools who are working very hard thank you for the students who are working hard thank you to the parents who are helping their students work hard particularly at this time we hear a lot of discussion about reopening schools and i want to make sure we all recognize that schools have been open since the beginning of school and i know that every educator and every student feels like they have very much been open we haven't been in person so we're
019really talking about a transition we're not talking about reopening we have been open we stay open thank you for that work it is very hard work you know during this time it's it is the time of an election elections are intriguing times but they give a unique opportunity uh for all candidates whether you're incumbent or new to talk with constituents and so in addition to all the emails i just want to give an appreciation to people throughout the community who have engaged with the candidates in this election process i think it's extremely important that you get to know your your candidates what they stand for and you know we need people at all levels of government who are trying to move us forward to a better and stronger community so uh you got a few
020more days to register to vote i encourage anybody who hasn't to do so and then early voting starts october the 15th runs through the october the 31st and of course election day voting is november 3rd so just a public service announcement make sure you get registered make sure you vote and thank you for engaging with your candidates um i think it's also appropriate to acknowledge particularly for teachers and staff and students and parents that you know what we're tired this week i got an additional challenge because someone covet infected not wearing a mask infected a workplace where my son was working fortunately he's tested negative is not showing symptoms but i'll tell you what you take the normal stress and add on top of that isolation because we have to be smart it's challenging and
021so i just want to acknowledge particularly to all of our teachers and staff as well as our students it's okay to be tired we're going to keep working because that's what we do we're going to keep learning because that's what we do but we're also tired but thank you for what you do i echo my my colleague sentiments thank you especially to our staff who we probably don't acknowledge enough that are working tirelessly to answer all of our questions all the public's questions um excuse me so i i think mr sudden said it earlier today the yeoman's work is really the heavy lifting that each of you are doing and that includes our teachers who have been constantly doing the heavy lifting since august 17th of the opening of schools while also trying to determine
022what the transition is going to look like and feel like and the community has been i would say very um helpful um not just through the email feedbacks but i did a a facebook live it was actually a platform i've never done but it was a group of therapists who were asking and really talking to me about they heard my interest in how do we provide the support for our teachers because of course i spend a lot of my time talking about the mental health and social emotional well-being of our young people but jim said it best people are tired overwhelmed exhausted anxious all the things that we know to be true and so i certainly will continue to talk to our staff about ways in which we can ensure our educators also have access
023especially as we go through the next transition and remembering to i haven't said it in a while but to grant us grace and to assume good intentions people are extremely emotional every last one of us are and so we also acknowledge that while we have philosophical differences that doesn't mean that we can't be kind to each other in the midst of this so i'll end on reminding people to be kind it goes a very long way especially when we're exhausted and anxious and we talk about this all the time that that's a large part of building resiliency and i hope that our community remains committed to building wake county public schools resiliency thank you these past few weeks have been difficult i think tired a need for a reminder of kindness hearing from multiple members
024of our community having differences of opinion reading through emails and making sure that we are able to do our best with the information that we are given and balance all of the information that we're hearing from our constituents i want to to formally take a moment and honor the memory of coach kevin todd who is a teacher at apex high school he was had passed and although our students and staff couldn't get together on campus they found ways to honor his memory keeping the lights on in the field and sharing memories of of him via different platforms and the the box office became kind of a impromptu memorial place so um you know you'd see flowers or cleats with a message written on it for for coach and um even during this this hard time
025getting together and making sure um that we're caring for one another in different ways is is very very important um my family and i last week had our first asynchronous day um and we found it as a great space where i could work individually with each of my girls there are three of them so sometimes we're being pulled in three directions and they could share what they're learning in class with me and and it was a time for them to reinforce what they have learned during the week i know it's also a time for our teachers to evaluate and look and have that time to reflect on their own instruction during this new time and so thank you for the work that came into that it is also school custodians week we heard at a
026board work session in june how their job has changed and how they are working hard to keep our schools clean and safe in a in a way that we've never seen before so certainly a big thank you to each and every one of our custodians that are in our system um it is an incredible job that they are doing and finally ms johnson hostler and i had a chance to speak with the business community down in fuquay marina and give an update on our schools certainly our board meeting last week changed the topic of that update a little bit but being able to connect with the members of our community who may not have students in our schools but still want to know what's going on and strengthening those ties between our schools and our
027local chambers of commerce is always welcome so thank you thank you all board members for those comments and mrs ms my happy especially thank you um for lifting up the memory of coach todd he passed a couple weeks ago but i think in our excitement around the reopening that we forgot to to recognize him so thank you for that and thank you for reminding us the school custodian's week i was not aware that this was the school custodian's week so thank you for that so as we get down to business tonight if i can entertain uh a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda chair sutton i'm approval of tonight's meeting agenda second correct and which item is that the the austin right so before i entertain that motion i'm sorry uh yes i'll amend my
028motion to as guided mr hegarty i'll withdraw my motion and you can make it sir so before you do uh no i just need to move there's one item on consent that we want to move to action and that is item number i believe it's item 5a 5a the outstation contract for professional development we're moving that item to the uh action item and so with the that amendment if i can entertain a motion to approve the amended agenda for tonight's meeting happy to make that motion to move the approval of tonight's agenda with that change to move item five a to action and i'll second that all right we've got emotional question for you thank you mister got a motion and a second to approve tonight's uh amended agenda all those in favor shall sign
029an opposed nay eyes have it and that includes miss cash who is virtual gotcha roxy yeah that's a roll call okay so tonight's agenda uh is approved thank you for that and uh sorry for leaving that item off that takes us to uh our public comment um so again let me just again say a little bit about public comment uh tonight and as we are into this new normal and new face-to-face meeting we we're doing a little a little different tonight so please extend us a bit of uh as ms johnson hospital said grant us some grace and please assume good intentions as we try to move through this smoothly so tonight as i mentioned we have five members of the public that are here we also have additional guests that are here for public
030comment the board has decided to allow for 10 public comment speakers to participate in tonight's meeting five of those are here in the room with us again we're limited to five members of the public there are also five public comment speakers that are waiting outside that will come in provide their comment and then exit after providing a comment uh first we'll list uh that provide the names of those who have submitted written comments um as i have done in the past i will read those names and their topics then we will move to our actual speakers who are who are present with us as we have done in a previous fashion uh the podium for the speakers is here to the right uh the same time limit is recognized the buzzer and all is still
031there the microphone so i think all of you all have been before us in the past at some point i know so you're familiar with our procedures and so we will move in that in that part 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 that agenda as well as guidelines for those wishing to submit comments for future virtual meetings can be found at the school district's website wcpss.net under the tab labeled school board we have written comments from 17 members of the public the topics and speakers whose comments are attached to this agenda are as follows gina lawrence and amy smith on returning high school students marcus peterson on high school
032teachers in classrooms lisa marie hobb on virtual learning for high school students adrian brewer on transition b timing francis caudle on school reopening jessica coley keep schools closed beth brazwelk sro's mariah williams sros and administrators principal's judgment call shirley tang parents concerns addressed in bl board of education election candidate questionnaire and defective and misleading questions in sro survey anil daswani practical solution to reopening schools greg smeller pc 19 nc double ncaa eligibility laurel kincaid wcpss staff edu twitter accounts nina benson kagat testing and iowa iq testing barry jober nominations of principal and assistant principal of the year and charlotte humphreys principal survey results student focus group those are the written comments from members of the public now moving to our list of speakers that are here with us this evening starting with cindy tomlin on
033the topic of superintendent's reopening updates it's thompson if you'll come to the podium there good evening i would like to begin by voicing my concern that you have not decided to return high school students under plan b for this semester what i heard last week is that this isn't feasible because students weren't properly scheduled across the cohorts to balance the classes so let's be clear about this it's not that social distancing is not possible in high schools it's that the scheduling doesn't wasn't done properly to maintain it there are three months to correct the schedule for high schoolers so they can attend under plan b for the second semester please remember that that second semester starts on january 4th for some students there's plenty of time to adjust these schedules and that cannot be an
034excuse three months from now i also wanted to address the leadership academy's return to school i thought at the end of the meeting last week that staff would be coming back with a recommendation for these alternative calendar schools i'm kind of disappointed not to see that plan b for middle school students for these schools it started two weeks earlier so in order to have all three cohorts rotate through twice before exam week you would need to start on october 25th along with elementary school students as it with y'all starting on november 9th most of the students in these schools will only have four days of in class this semester additionally these schools contain grades six through twelve my eighth grade son has two classes with ninth graders part of the reasoning for not bringing high
035schools back one grade at a time is because of mixed classes that same thing applies to these schools at wake young men's leadership academy plan b students there are 156 students in grades 6 through 12. if you brought those back on a plan b rotating three-week cohorts only 52 students would be in the entire school across two campuses so um saint augustine students are in person at saint augustine's taking their college classes so basically you've got six through eight in school you've got 11 and 12 in school and you've left out 9 and 10. so i would like to make an argument for bringing this entire school back on a plan b i also just wanted to mention that just in general i feel like the year-round alternative calendar schools are kind of an afterthought
036left out you make all the plans for everybody else and then you just kind of make them fit into these calendars i wish in the planning that these schools would be given the same full consideration full debate and really thought about um i guess that's about all i have for right now it's just you know you need to get these kids back in school they're suffering kids with adhd you know i see my kids struggling they were all a and b students and they're not doing it thanks our next speaker is amy marshall on curriculum transparency and reopening amy marshall is our next speaker so good evening my name is amy marshall and i'm the mother of three teen sons in wake i hold a master's degree in education and i'm a former weight teacher
037now a college adjunct i also serve as an nc textbook commissioner i'm here tonight to express my frustration with this board on three issues reopening curriculum and sros on reopening this board has chosen to let high school students languish at home in front of computer screens you've set no date for in-person return of high school students and it's not on tonight's agenda all students should be in the classroom now local private schools have been back since august most of america's large school districts have returned in person safely wake has 170 000 students new york city has 1 million students and is back in person florida's miami-dade with 345 000 students is back georgia's gwinnett county with 180 000 has been back since september wake is the outlier this board has brought back two thousand children
038of wake employees daily please give staff a date for full in-person return so they can make plans it is your duty curriculum this board continues to allow brazen political activism and biased curriculum to be taught we saw the political beliefs quiz at broughton high where students were asked quote the current problems with our government are mostly the fault of the blanks and the two answer choices were the democrats or the republicans the correct answer given by the teacher was the republicans it is illegal for federal law to survey students on their political beliefs we saw the pro-writing and pro-looting curriculum video at moore square middle where students were taught that looting is okay later that day we saw riots and looting in raleigh we saw the pro pedophilia video at allston ridge middle we saw
039the pornography book bechtel's fun home we saw the kite runner book with male child rape and pornographic language this board supports inappropriate curriculum you also support politically biased teacher training from the oea all curriculum and teacher training should be posted publicly well in advance for parents to review sros you terminated contracts effective next july your plan to replace sros with peacemakers will make schools less safe who will protect students in an active shooter situation you're about to breach your duty to provide sros which could cause harm because no sros were there the sports decisions are hurting students therefore i ask the public to elect a new school board november 3rd in voting for prickett in d1 han and d2 moore and d5 mills d7 bergstrom and d8 and carter and d9 thank you our next
040speaker is geo bates on the topic of school reopening geo bates good evening thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is jill bates i'm a mother of a middle schooler in wake county schools as leaders we're held to higher standards do your policies and decisions protect those who cannot protect themselves closing schools without clear goals and mind milestones to achieve reopening certainly does not the number one protector against negative effects of mental illness is social support has been associated with loss of vulnerability to both ill health and premature death clothing schools takes this protective factor away placing those most vulnerable at risk a 2018 department of health and human services report found that teachers and other educational staff were responsible for more than one-fifth of all reported child
041abuse cases more than any other category of reporter however during school closures there's been a sharp decline in reports of suspected abuse but an increase in evidence of abuse when children are seen for services single parent homes are being decimated by school closures with 23 percent of kids having one parent and single moms being at greatest risk surveys and forms used to inform decision making are good but likely bias and not representative of serving all populations throughout wake county as it depends on family and parent engagement in ordinary times the 16 percent absent rate is the norm this past spring some counties reported approximately 40 percent of students did not even log into the classroom and children with iep and 504 plans which were created for in-school teaching are not being accommodated as they should
042in the virtual environment because there's really no way to fully accommodate many of these plans in the virtual environment and not accommodating a disability is not lawful and that is a potential risk in the virtual learning environment in their hearts i believe teachers want their kids in the classroom because they can see the detrimental effects remote learning has on their education caused by schools being closed in this environment teacher workloads have tripled they have struggles with their work life balance and face many challenges to engage students fulfill reporting requirements communicate with parents etc this is concerning long-term effects for retention of teacher talent we must take care of our teachers both their safety and their well-being right now schools need to reopen we need to formulate a strategy that protects our most vulnerable populations and
043a one-size-fits-all virtual classroom is not the answer safe return to the classroom is important thank you so much for your attention i appreciate it have a nice evening our next speaker is christina hale also on school reopening hi i'm christine hale i have an elementary and a high school student in wake county i'm extremely disappointed that as a board of education you're not more solution driven with our reopening plan for our children's education needs if we're going with science and data it's clear that we should be opening more aggressively the north carolina department of health and human services shows that wake county as of yesterday only two percent of cova deaths have happened under the age of 49. that is seven total since april seven of the deaths are over 75 years old if i
044can find out this data you guys can figure it out too please know that i take this virus very seriously but with these numbers we can reopen safely and more efficiently for our children's sake comparing overnight camps to opening schools is like comparing apples and oranges the metrics are not the same 300 plus children in overnight camps for a week is not how we run a school what we should be using is real-time data from other north carolina school districts that are open that would be an actual comparable metric we have many counties around us that open on time with a b rotations harnett brunswick pitt onslow davidson and person just to name a few there are more that means a group goes monday tuesday they clean the school wednesday b group goes thursday friday
045this makes for a much more smooth much smoother transition back to in-person learning many of these schools are phasing back in full time right now as of the fifth we have many um sorry these plans um are working so why isn't wake county taking the same approach the data shows that we absolutely can approximately 60 percent of wake county parents did not choose virtual learning this means the majority of the parents you represent in wake county have not had an acceptable choice for returning to school one week on two weeks for two weeks virtual is not the best choice the parents who want virtual learning already have a choice the parents who want to return in person in-person learning deserve better from you we should be also planning for high school re-entry every meeting should
046be about getting our kids back into school nothing should be more important to the board of education than education high school students are at higher risk of suicide drug overdose alcohol abuse depression and anxiety we should be focused on a solution 40 percent of property taxes from wake county residents goes to wake county public schools our tax dollars pay for our buildings and our teachers we as north carolinians have a constitution constitutional right to an education and i quote the people have a right to the privilege of education and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right you as the board of education can edit the re-entry plan you should be supporting every child to the fullest of your ability you need to start making more productive decisions for all
047of our children getting back to in-person school thank you fernando martinez on the subject of survey to parents school reopening good afternoon superintendent more war members fernando martinez education justice alliance um i'm going to speak on scooter opening but first i want to um recognize that we as advocates not often recognize the intentionality and the work that you put in place in order to consult with experts so i do appreciate that you are consulting with experts when it comes to school reopening we do appreciate that you believe in science and do appreciate that when you decide to open the schools you consult with teachers and you consult with people that are directly affected and you open it in a safe very safe and way and take another precaution that needs to be taken i also
048want to appreciate i don't have too much time but i also want to appreciate the communication plan more specifically what you guys are doing to make sure that the parents who haven't updated their phone number or email do it i know we have several families that in the spring were not contacted and you're still working on that i appreciate that i appreciate the education messenger however i want to speak a little bit more on that when it comes to the school resource officer survey because it's not working but before i do that i want to say that you do have a long problem with transparency and i want you to address that i want you to pay attention to that number one when it comes to the policy subcommittee i do appreciate that you guys
049are approving some policies because it's an urgent and we are in the middle of a global pandemic but you are a waving second reading and we community and advocates are already left out of the process of providing feedback on policies and this is a very dangerous practice to continue on that path i really want you to think about how you're going to make sure that parents and families provide feedback on policy and i i've been noticing that you guys rush to a profit on first reading and that's really dangerous um and then the second thing is around the sro and i was speaking early about the uh school messenger because our parents including spanish-speaking parents have received this uh email about the survey but actually only the link to the community is in the email
050and actually say that the email the survey was sent through the education messenger but people haven't signed up for the education messenger so we don't have access to that we don't have access to the survey and i don't know if you're planning on sending it again and in the last 25 seconds ago mr bloomberg is going to get mad at me so i want you to recall the survey there are serious problems with the survey the serious problem with the survey and then misleading to students students that are directly affected by the police have no saying on who can intervene in different situations that you have listed there how come we don't have we need to work on that peace builders will not offer us an alternative mr bloomberg i see you but i need
051you to consider to work with the community and redo that survey carrie blah and you don't have a topic listed but i'm sure you let us know what it is it's math i probably can guess what it is you can get if you can't then i'm not doing something right um didn't start me yet right i would like to have an honest show and tell today about the type of curriculum resources our children have received in wake county so that you might get a better sense of our overall frustration you'll recognize these glue sticks and a 99 cent composition book these are ordinary classroom supplies that you might send in with your first or second grader however these are school supplies that are asked to use by students in high school this is my son's
052world history book this was the only way of delivering knowledge to students in wake county in honors world history last year whenever i hear talk about a generation of kids that are educated about the world that don't even know what the holocaust is i often now think that perhaps they just didn't glue that page in properly the saddest part is that this is one of the best resources our children have ever been given we are beyond grateful for this i'm using this as a visual symbol of just how low our curricular standards may seem to be coming down collectively all of us because take a very good look this is not college and career ready is this the best that we can provide to teachers and students because my husband and i wrestle with that
053question every day so when you hand our children these mvp and open up resource workbooks that contain absolutely no tangible useful math content and then ask our children who are struggling to watch hours upon hours of videos to make up for those math concepts and complete homework you ask us to accept these as a comprehensive math curriculum and frankly it still continues to be insulting and frustrating it makes no good common sense whatsoever because from our vantage point these math workbooks provide less learning opportunities for our children than a 99 cent composition book glue and a devoted educated creative teacher could if you want to make math fun do it go deeper do more word problems but give these kids the dignity of allowing them to see all the math they are supposed to learn
054in every given course there's no reason that you cannot provide both types of resources and i can't imagine that you think gluing the history of martin luther king and the holocaust into a 99-cent composition book constitutes high-quality history curriculum no more than we believe these workbooks filled with only questions and no real math content is providing our children with a well-rounded math foundation please stop overlooking the fact that a grotesquely large number of your students require outside math tutoring just to get by in these courses this is not a covered problem this is not a teacher problem and no matter when you decide to open up school time open up school full time we want to make sure that these students that our children will have reasonable math resources [Music] we believe in you i
055did good right peter blah mvp math open up resources curriculums so i'd also like to take a second just to say i really appreciate the amount of effort and work that you guys are doing to open our schools safely for everyone involved for the children for the parents for the faculty for the teachers for everyone i do think that you need to hear that as well simon sinek says if your actions inspire others to dream more learn more do more and become more you are a leader i recently went through an interview process where i was asked a question that due to covid things are changing and we are trying to implement new strategies and they asked me what my leadership style would be with my team trying to implement a new strategy one of
056the first things that you need to do to be able to correctly or effectively implement a new strategy is you have to get everyone on board everyone's got to be in the boat and rowing at the same time same direction for it to be successful i think covet has shown that you have got a way to contact me every five minutes on 14 different media to tell me what is happening yet when you were looking at new math curriculums to look at i didn't get a contact when you were looking at reassignment plans i didn't get a contact i'm looking it if you want us to be on board and to be able to do all this you have to get me involved early you cannot do it after the fact you can't hand me
057a resource and say how do you like this second once you have started your implementation process for you to effectively be able to implement change you have to listen to those on the ground level who are implementing it for you they're the ones that will tell you what is working and what is not you guys have talked about a whole lot of stuff going on here with emails from parents and things that are happening you have three over 3 000 comments that were made on the last mvp math survey that have been dismissed or at least from our view it's been dismissed these are people telling you what is not working with the program you don't have to change it just because a few people say so but if there are that many people tell
058you something is wrong you have to address what it is to figure out how you make the tweaks to make it better as my wife said there's no reason we can't have both a math curriculum that gives us gives our kids the foundation and the ability for them to think outside of the box with the mvp program finally i think the biggest point in the quote that i read was the word inspire for you to get people to implement what you are looking for when you have changes that big you have to inspire them you all start every one of these meetings with people in the community in schools and teachers that inspire you that you want to talk about but when i go around and i talk to teachers and i talk to parents
059and i talk to students i do not hear them inspired by what you are doing so i am asking you when you were doing these when you were looking to implement when you were trying to make change be the leaders we are looking for inspire us to dream more learn more do more and become more and you may not have quite so many emails coming at you when things aren't going right thank you steve bergstrom on parental engagement please keep your mask on sir oh i'm just following the wake county public school system masks policy that was posted should i not keep my mask on when making a speech now plea yeah please keep your mask on sir okay i won't follow that policy thank you very much you're welcome my name is steve bergstrom
060i'm not here as a candidate but as a father of children who are in the wake county public school system but i'm also here as an advocate for families whose voices are not being heard mr martin i respectfully disagree schools are not reopened right now i've received hundreds of messages and emails today alone from families of high school and middle school parents who are disturbed by what is going on with this reopening process students who were previously straight a students are now now failing in multiple classes students who were once bubbly lively kids are now going through therapy to deal with their anxiety and depression students who were students are now going to chiropractors and wearing blue light glasses to get rid of migraines parents are juggling crazy schedules and dealing with anxiety of their
061own because the children they love are in pain families on ieps and 504 plans and special education students are falling behind there are heartbreaking stories of children who are actually physically harming themselves because they cannot deal with virtual learning where is the empathy there are schools around north carolina and school districts across nation much larger than ours who are safely and effectively reopening for all ages instead of following their example you're telling wake county families that you know better the ncae recently the wake county ncaa leader kristen beller said that they are developing plans to get around the district's vote to reopen i am asking you please stop making decisions based on pressure from a union or whatever they are to put their interest first above families your plan shows a disregard for families that
062want a choice to return and can do so in their words you are closing your heart your ears and your eyes to the real issues all around you you do it in favor of what they can only assume is an attempt to appease a teacher union while hoping to not upset too many parents at the same time i am here as a parent i have two kids that are very much struggling with this process [Music] i am asking you to get about the business of returning kids to school now not three weeks from now not a month from now not high school students next year possibly maybe now they need to return to school i'm asking you to do so in behalf of my family and wake county families all across my district thank you
063so much thank you chair sutton sean paulins on school reopening good evening ladies and germs and i do mean germs because y'all haven't cleaned this desk off not one time in between speakers i'd like to thank this entire board for agreeing to meet in person during a time when movie theaters and theater theaters are closed and or viewed as unsafe indoor activities it is wonderful to know that this board thought the people of wake county would enjoy a bit of political theater tonight just like our brave president donald trump it is important that we have leaders like you to show us all that kova 19 is nothing to fear since we are engaging in theater here today i have decided to bring snacks and know my weight ain't got nothing to do with these m
064m's being missing okay i got my snacks theater and snacks go hand in hand anyway since it's perfectly fine for children to eat and drink in my mother's classroom she's 65. i'm sure that none of you will have a problem as i remove my mask now to eat some of these snacks please return my mask on oh that's what i thought why i mean i have been sneezing a lot lately but i'm sure that's just allergies i mean i haven't been tested for covet or anything but you did just screen me at the door right and those tests are always 100 accurate so it must be safe for me to take my mask off and eat here why can't i after all if it's safe for our teachers and students it must be safe here
065in this setting l-o-l-j-k i wrote that i know it's not safe do you teachers want their students back more than anyone but their classrooms are tiny this meeting is much larger is in a much larger space than any teacher's classroom and a classroom will likely have more students in it sitting more closely together changing classrooms throughout the day and eating and laughing with one another and it will be flu season are flu shots going to be mandatory i would hope so since your colleague died of the flu just two years ago i wonder what she would say to you all today if she hadn't died from the much less contagious much less deadly flu i truly hate bringing up her death but the ghost of my three dead family members who died of covid they
066asked me to mention it today and it's not just my family members ghosts on whose behalf i speak i also speak for the ghosts of many dead teachers and staff members this past weekend a third grade teacher named julie davis died in stanley county north carolina her family said she contracted coveted school but the interim superintendent denies that fact and released a statement saying that students absolutely loved being taught by miss davis her personality was infectious is this what we have to look forward to in the coming months from wake county how will each of you respond to the death of a student or staff member have you thought of that yet i have for me the terms depraved heart and criminally negligent homicide come to mind i literally decided not to run for school
067board this year because i thought it would be unsafe and unfair i'll finish in a moment sir because i thought it would be unsafe and unfair to force you roxy cash into a campaign during these unprecedented times i'm sorry your time roxy i don't want you to have to risk your life just to keep your job i never imagined that my concern for your life would leave me powerless to protect my own family i'm leaving thank you sir that concludes our public comment for this evening thank all speakers for for coming and for being here and for your comments both those virtual and in person now moving to our information items this evening we have two items before you three okay one of those is we'll start with our indigenous people's day proclamation and then
068this indigenous people's day is a holiday that municipalities and cities throughout the united states celebrate to honor native american peoples and commemorate their histories and cultures it is celebrated on the second monday in october this the wake county board of education with support from the wake county indian education parent committee officially recognizes monday october 12 as indigenous peoples day in wake county schools via a proclamation i will read that proclamation at this time a resolution of the wake county public school system board of education reaffirming the board's commitment to promote the well-being and growth of every student in our district especially of our american indian and indigenous students whereas the board recognizes that american indians who have inhabited this continent since long before their first contact with english settlers shared their knowledge of the land
069and its resources and have continued to play a vital role in the development of the local communities the state of north carolina and the nation and whereas north carolina is home to more than 122 thousand american indians and has eight historic tribes and whereas as of the 2019-20 school year nearly 400 wake county public school system students identified themselves as american indian and whereas the board values the many contributions made to our community through indigenous people's knowledge labor technology science philosophy arts and the deep cultural contribution that has substantially shaped the character of wake county and whereas despite this there are disparities in the fair treatment of our american indian tribes an insufficient acknowledgement of the historic destruction of our indigenous cultures whereas the board seeks to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote
070awareness understanding and good relations among indigenous peoples and all other segments of our school district and whereas the governor of the state of north carolina has proclaimed the second monday in october as indigenous people's day in north carolina and commend its observance to all citizens therefore be it resolved that all schools in the wake county public school system are encouraged to support the well-being and growth of american indian and indigenous students every day and especially recognize the contributions of native peoples on october 12 2020 indigenous peoples day that is the resolution of this board and i will take just a moment to allow any comments by board members in support of that if you so wish dr martin well i'd just like to extend thanks that we are now formally recognizing indigenous people's day i
071think this is a long overdue thing and i'm just very pleased to see it happening we have contributions from many folks across this county and i think it's important to recognize that we sit on land that you know was originally land of indigenous peoples you know i'm i'm i'm pleased that you know we recognized the the neuse river schools again named after some of our indigenous people so glad we're making this recognition and look forward to learning more and more about the indigenous contributions in this county but thank you is johnson hoslin i echo dr martin sentiments um to our board colleagues and also want to appreciate and thank those students teachers and parents who i think have done an excellent job relaying their experience in our public school system and advocating on behalf of
072our acknowledging of this day all right thank you for those comments uh our next item on the information agenda is the reopenings update from superintendent moore hello again chair sutton and board members waiting for the presentation to come up there you go thank you i'd like to share a brief update on our return to in-person instruction and activities for staff and students as it has been throughout this process the priority is on a safe a and phased return that support staff students and families we continue our efforts to ensure employees are prepared to support a safe and successful return to in-person instruction for our students as a part of these efforts we have shared the employee accountability plan and required safety protocols with all staff a.g matillo also shared this plan with the policy committee
073last week it outlines the steps every employee must take to protect themselves and each other these steps include understanding all health and safety guidance following all health and safety protocols implementing protocols with fidelity modeling compliance and addressing student and co-worker non-compliance this employee accountability plan also addresses consequences for violations and identifies in links to other board policies regarding safety in addition today principals received a school reopening checklist is a comprehensive resource that walks school leaders through steps that they must take to prepare themselves their staff their facilities their school communities for our students return to in-person instruction this is very similar to guidance that we provide schools at the beginning of the year for all of their opening of school activities it's just modified obviously it includes links to all guidance to support principles in
074planning for arrival dismissal recess food service class transitions setting up a care center and many other new processes and protocols that will be critical for a safe return to our schools principals will spend the next few weeks reviewing this document and checking tasks off the list they will submit a sign off to their area superintendent once all tasks have been completed also in preparation for our students returned to our school buildings we have shared with all staff the expectation that all employees without an approved accommodation or job modification request to telework are expected to report to their school sites no later than october 19th this provides time for all schools to practice health and safety protocols complete all the tasks needed to prepare for students return it also promotes the sense of community and cooperation
075in our schools that we need for students because students at all levels will now be in our school buildings and facilities in addition our central services supervisors have been working on their return to workplace plans for staff because many of these employees based in crossroads complex work in cubicles supervisors are creating work scheduled rotations and modifications to ensure social distancing guidelines can be followed supervisors should be fully implementing these phase-in plans by october 12th at that point all central services employees without an approved accommodation or job modification request to telework should be reporting to their work site per their department's return to workplace plan we do want to confirm also the start dates for return to in-person across grade levels based on the feedback that we received from principals since the last meeting we will
076not vary the start date between calendars we know that this will cause some imbalance between the amount of in-person time for specific cohorts on some calendars but the feedback affirmed that the variations on these start dates would cause more confusion and it would be easier for all families of the same start date was communicated for all calendars staff will work to balance this over the course of second semester so here's a visual staff and board have received some parent questions about whether or not grades 4 5 and grades 6 7 8 siblings would be on the same rotation the answer is yes you can see that on the chart in the slide when you we had a version of this before as well in our prior presentations but it just basically breaks out by week
077what the level of rotation or in person is for students and you can see that when we start the three week rotations for pre-k to three the one two and three and the gray and then we start middle schools in the blue you'll notice that cohort three actually starts on the week of november uh ninth so it'll be in the same cohort as their pre-k three siblings that are in cohort three as well so just a visual representation that might help some families understand that yes they will their siblings in four five and six seven eight should be on the same cohort so moving on as a part of the return to in-person instruction additional remote learning asynchronous days were approved and are shown on this slide as a reminder the dates on the left
078hand column were identified prior to the start of the school year and are being implemented in response to the legislation that requires all districts to include a minimum of five remote learning days in the calendar wcpss is adding the additional dates to ensure a day per week through first semester the remote learning asynchronous days will allow students and families some flexibility to take a break reduce screen time these days will also allow teachers to work in their plts to continue to support students learning in various modalities in person remote learning in rotations virtual academy as we know that many of our teachers will continue to support students in these multiple modalities as we move forward with plans for a return to in-person instruction we also wanted to spend a few minutes this evening to provide
079an update on some of the co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities that we are working to make available to students some of which are ongoing and others that are either planned or being explored as was discussed last week and in previous board sessions these activities are critically important in providing our students with a quality well-rounded educational experience both from an instructional and social emotional perspective while this is important for all students it is particularly relevant for our high school students as they remain in remote learning through first semester so we'll share a few examples of those activities and opportunities that are either planned or underway first you'll recall that a few weeks ago we brought to you a multi-phased plan to safely begin opening up high school athletics this fall as outlined in that timeline that was
080shared several of our high schools completed school site plans for workouts and began volleyball and cross-country voluntary workouts this past thursday on october 1st as the health and well-being of our coaches and student athletes is and will remain our top priority health screening training was provided for over 200 athletic directors and coaches at cary high school on september 28th which was a work day for traditional calendar schools the training provided a model of how the required screenings and protocols are to be completed initial feedback from the schools that started on october 1st has been very positive the screenings are going well student athletes and coaches understand and are following guidelines other schools plan to begin workouts the week of october 5th while the remaining schools are using the week of october 5th to practice the
081screening processes and develop school site plans or finalize their school site plans for workouts looking at our timeline the next sports that will have the option of beginning voluntary workouts will be swimming basketball and cheerleading each of which can begin on october 19th so needless to say we are excited and we continue phasing in these important opportunities for our high school students in the coming weeks beyond athletics we also wanted to update you on our plans to begin providing some limited in-person opportunities within the arts again keeping in mind that health and well-being is the top priority as these plans and protocols are developed and implemented just as a reminder and as you probably already know the arts are core subjects in the federal elementary and secondary education act and the north carolina basic education
082program as such arts education is included as a core subject that every child in north carolina should learn as part of a balanced curriculum we of course recognize and value the critical importance of arts education and strive to continue these activities to the degree possible while adhering to federal state and local health guidelines arts education activities must follow all wcpss health guidelines as of this week comprehensive return to classroom guidance is being provided across all levels the guidance includes information on best practices for health and safety cleaning face covering social distancing etc curriculum and procedures for rehearsals all of which was gathered and synthesized from national and state arts organizations over a four month period like so many other areas of our operations right now this work involved input and feedback from multiple central services
083departments and multiple school-based staff in addition to the return to classroom guidance information is also being provided on after-school rehearsals including appropriate coveted screening procedures developed in close consultation with kelly creech and our health services department after school rehearsals for two arts activities will be permitted per day among other supports freddie lee heath and his team will be working with schools to identify rotation schedules for schools as they develop and implement their own after-school specific rehearsal schedules this will include examples for band dance chorus drama and others additionally a district-wide health screening training that will include competency checks has been scheduled for october 23rd we'll have 25 groups of 10 for a total of 250 wcpss arts teachers that will be trained just on that day just one more important note on this as you
084might expect many of our teachers have emphasized that this will be a time to build relationships with students and to focus on social emotional well-being in a way that is of course more challenging to do in a fully remote environment i'll also add that these opportunities are not intended for course grading purposes for students who can or cannot participate moving on to co-curriculars extracurriculars as you know in addition to athletics and arts there are a wide range of other co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities that have traditionally been available to students that essentially have been shut down for the last six months we are currently working to find ways to safely bring some of these programs back in the weeks and months ahead again these guidelines are finalized as these guidelines are finalized in the near future
085and like the other areas that we've mentioned any in-person co-curricular activities that are made available will also follow wcpss health guidelines some examples of activities in this category may include student clubs or other student organization membership meetings in-person instruction or practices outside of the school day these may include courses and programs where instruction is directly linked to state standards and typically required for the mastery of standardized of course standards skills development or credential attainment examples might include programs like firefighter technology emergency medical training automotive technology jrotc another area that we'll be exploring is the is the potential for some in-person academic support tutoring sessions perhaps focusing on students that need additional supports or who are struggling in a fully online or blended learning environment and then finally the guidance that's being developed may also include
086some of those other after-school activities or events that may be unique to an individual school or program meanwhile it's worth noting that as we continue the work of developing and implementing comprehensive district guidelines and parameters to support the safe phased return of some of our more traditional co-curricular and extracurricular activities one quick glance at social media on any given day will give you an indication of just how creative our schools continue to be in providing fun and non-traditional opportunities to students that go a long way towards developing relationships and a sense of community despite all of the obvious challenges that are presented by the pandemic that concludes my information item for this evening i am sure you have questions or comments and we got lots of folks standing by as well so thank you superintendent
087moore for that reopening update any board member questions mr hagerty yes sir mr sutton is dr matildo available he is i'm sure he is one of the questions that we had been asking about were one of the questions was about accommodations and job modifications and i know that you've had many many many requests on those but i also know that there are a lot of people that are depending upon the results of those requests could you give us an update on where your office is right now in handling and processing those requests yes sir of course thanks for the question mr heggerty um first want to acknowledge that we still do have some teachers awaiting those responses we have received literally thousands of accommodation requests that staff have been feverishly reviewing trying to get back
088with employees we had every hope that we would be able to get them all done by monday we fell short of that and now expect to be able to have them done by wednesday we do have the majority done i think by by monday we had about 85 percent reviewed and communicated but we will continue to work through the rest and um have worked and talked with an email a lot of employees in the last few days and i recognize that um you know that does that has caused additional uncertainty for them i acknowledge that i regret that and apologize for that but we are going through as quickly and thoroughly as possible to be able to get those decisions to employees thank you dr matilda and as far as the process can you just
089explain a little bit more about you know your office's role versus the administrator at each school sure hr hr does review and officially approve deny those requests sometimes but it is an hr function while we may get some input from the schools we are handling the review of all those requests and oftentimes you know it is that back and forth with the employee if it were just uh employee requests and we say yes or no we could get through that process pretty quickly but um you know by the nature of the process it is an interactive process back and forth with the employee that hr goes through and that that does take some time sometimes and so if people have further questions about requests that they've put in should they communicate with your office or
090someone else yes sir hr is great they can communicate with me directly like i said i've fielded many of them over the past couple days and will continue to do so as they come in all right thank you yes sir mrs muhaffi thank you chair sutton i have a question about communication as we go through these rotations um is there a way that we can reach families via school messenger first of all the question being how will families know what cohort their child is in and i guess i'll let that one get answered first so principals um and anybody you know if anybody else has better information they can jump in behind me but principals have should have their cohorts ready they were working on them at the beginning of the school year and then
091making changes it was actually transportation who assigned the cohorts first and then the principals worked with transportation to make changes to make sure they were balanced their siblings were together that sort of thing so they are i'm sure they're looking at them now now that and you know after virtual academy enrollment was completely done and any new students that may have come in just to make sure that everything is ready and i'm not sure if there's a timeline for them to push that out that may be something that somebody else may have information about but i know that they've got it and it'll be school based in terms of the notification that comes to families about which cohort their children are in does anybody else have anything more kathy um i can tell you that
092a form um information was sent out to principals um last week and the communication should be sent to ka parents no later than tomorrow that is the plan and we provided principals with um communication templates and also um information with about how to verify through powerschool that their cohorts were ready to go out okay okay so that'll become through like school messenger or an email or will we just have to be looking in home base or powerschool or all of the above um the what we could ask them to um send out will be um probably through school messenger okay and then continuing on that um because this three-week rotation is a little different for families you know we know that other school districts have adopted different plans we heard very strongly that both families
093and teachers there was a preference for that consistency of having a week which is why we're on that rotation will there be a push out to families on cohort one letting them know for the week just a reminder it's remote learning this week or just a reminder it's you're in building this week is that form of communication being discussed on how we're going to make sure that our families are staying with us as we move through this this new phase [Applause] miss mahaffey i think a simple response to that indirectly is yes um i think we'll be using multiple we communicate that information um you know the week prior to make sure all of our students know which cohort is coming up in addition to um the written and posted calendars and communications that are
094out there and i think it's the same type of meeting um you know that our ab day schools um had to adjust to when making that transition um over the years so i think we'll be really intentional about making sure that we don't take for granted that everybody will go several button clicks potentially into the website to find the calendar and both the schools and the district um i think it's safe to say we'll be communicating that even something like the the little the holiday break right over thanksgiving it'll be important to make sure that we remind everybody the week before that everybody will be remote those two days and we'll be coming back i'm in a rotation the week after so i think the short answer is yes um and we'll use every means
095possible to communicate that information out thank you mr cook on behalf of my family and other families that will be having two schedules going on uh i we appreciate that um for our high school students um you know getting back to athletics getting back to extracurriculars having that support for family for students to meet in person whether it's for cte or whether it's for some additional instruction from the teacher has there been a plan or will we hear soon from transportation on how students who will be able to access their high school for those purposes i'm not sure that um i don't think we're running activity buses for example at this point in time so we would need to check to see if for the for athletics and we've only started with two right so
096i think we're trying to learn and be responsive from what we're seeing to see what else might need to change as we continue to bring in more sports but i don't think we're running anything like that just yet okay and then for the academic piece for those those kids so so you're talking about when we do extra like extracurricular activities and other things well you know when we have folks coming in for like uh if they have to do auto mechanics shop at apex high right yeah so so some of those programs are probably tied to the early college programs that they're in versus the cte but i would i'm not a hundred percent sure i would ask drew if it is the examples that we gave are primarily around our early college programs because
097i don't think that i'm going to miss more in some cases but i think there's some additional programming that we would like to see implemented um across the district and our comprehensive traditional high schools as well and so and to answer your question mr happy to kind of extend ms moore's response we have begun to have some conversations about the transportation piece obviously the fact of the matter is you know transportation is always a challenge when it comes to extracurricular activities although when you have the students there you've got half the formula half the problem solved it's a matter of getting those students home once they're at school and so now we've got the double challenge of getting kids to the school and also back home and so that is something that we have talked
098about and begun some planning around and i expect we'll have some additional information on how we might be able to troubleshoot some of the transportation challenges that i think we can anticipate both at the school level but also with district support so more information to come on but we do acknowledge that is a key issue in making sure that there's equitable access to these programs thank you i'm looking forward to that update my final question is i heard from one of our coaches that you know many of our teachers assume coaching duties we've worked hard on extra duty pay hearing that if a sport gets cancelled and i believe that would be through the the high school athletic association that they will not be receiving that extra duty pay can someone expand on that i
099don't know if mr koh is here well that i mean i think that it's both hr and athletics so i because i'm on the board of directors for the high school athletic association indoor track was cancelled um that's the only one that was actually cancelled so that is an interesting question i'm trying to remember whether or not an aj might know if indoor track is a separate extra duty stipend that we pay or if it is one of the flex pays that schools have accessible to them if they have an indoor track program because not i don't know if all schools do so i think the concern was more of the hypothetical if let's say a swimming or a lacrosse season gets cancelled concerned that that so the the high school athletic association has only
100eliminated one sport and that is indoor track all other sports have a are calendared in terms of their competition season so if the issue is that for some reason the school would choose to not engage in the sport that year because they're not enough students or i mean i'm guessing that would be the only reason not enough student athletes i'm not i'm not sure that we've ever had that happen um so we'd have to check on that okay especially since i think we we have some requirements around fielding in varsity in particular not necessarily jv but in varsity as a member of the high school association all right we'd have to check i think more concerned like how we saw in the spring that the cancellation of of the sports due to okay in covet
101i believe was the the yeah yeah we did honor the stipends that were planned because people's seasons and opportunities were cut short through no fault of their own and to the extent that we are able to continue as we now have started phasing in workouts and all that is part of the work duty as well not just the season itself so okay so i would anticipate that we would want to have some flexibility there okay thank you mrs cash well i just want to i just want to clarify that about the code views i know dr matilda answered that last time that we were together and that was one of the reasons that uh the athletics we wanted to ask alex to get in for the kid's sake but also because it was a big
102part of the coach's salary that extra uh amount and they were going to take a second job so i think dr matilda you answered that last time that we met about how that was going to work out fine for the code use this time so just one day yes man we we have rolled out guidance and assured coaches that if the sport you know if we did have the sport they would certainly get paid for it we you know we will have to address it there's no work done at all toward the sport you know it's we can't necessarily justify paying people for that but we will take all factors into account we have adjusted a lot of our pay cycles knowing that sports have sports seasons have changed you know football coaches normal in
103the fall gets moved to later on i think wrestling might have been one of those two that generally is a winner and moved to the spring so we've done everything we can to to also pay coaches as early as we can in the season whereas we traditionally would wait until the complete end so we're trying our best to support our coaches we know they're valuable the schools and the students and and we'll continue to find ways to support them and ensure that they get paid um you know as quickly as we can well thank you for that i've actually heard really positive uh responses on that from some of the ads and coaches so i appreciate that effort yes ma'am thanks guys thank you chair sutton and um i just wanted to follow up on
104i've sent this already to um superintendent warren to um dr matillo but the october 19th report date for all staff given that our high schools are remaining in remote if you could flesh out again the thinking through and some of it you already have reviewed as far as getting some of our extracurricular activities going but if you could help me understand that date for high school faculty sure and i'll let dr matillo respond sure thanks for the question mr kushner and and we have thought about that and you know i read the the public comment this morning or this afternoon from one of the high school teachers and i just wanted to acknowledge that in a sense i get it you know the students will be home so we have a lot of high school
105teachers saying why can't i remain remote but as we look at this phase-in plan we have we have planned from the beginning that at the end of the phase-in plan when students begin coming back to schools that we do want our staff in buildings and we know that some high school teachers included will have accommodations and modifications where they won't report on the 19th but for all other employees we do think that it's important for high school and teachers and employees to return back to buildings some of it is that system perspective you know that um that we are going back to school as a system and that is important to us you know we've talked about regional programs most of our traditional high schools have multiple regional programs where students and those staff members
106will be in the building and while a lot of the the needs of those students are met within the regional program classrooms their ieps also dictate support from regular ed teachers across the building so that's you know another important reason why we just felt that it was we wanted high school teachers to transition back as well we also see high schools becoming a more active place in the next few weeks we talked about sports start and arts and other extracurricular activities and you know as conditions change we don't you know talk about tutoring as well we don't know when there will be an opportunity to bring small groups back in but when that opportunity arises we do want to make sure that we have the staff available to support those kids who come so i
107understand the concerns we've weighed some of them before this decision but still think that in the best interest of the system and the high schools that it is better to have high school teachers begin reporting back just like the rest of our employees well our child care issues would that be considered for an accommodation for some of our high school staff if they given the fast program is going to be changing from some of our elementary schools i would assume as our children as our elementary students come back in so is that a part of accommodations request it's not a part of our official accommodations request and we may have to see sort of i know we're reviewing fast right now and trying to make some decisions so some of it may um depend on
108that so i'm sorry i missed the first part of your answering my question yeah so i think we're still reviewing where we'll where we'll land with the fast program as folks come back so we may have to wait on that specific answer until we can see um how the district adjusts fast as students come back well i would encourage you to consider child care for our employees as as part of a accommodations request and i i'd like to think that i think we've put something out to staff to ask again what their needs are so that we can make sure that we know what that need is as we look at options thank you superintendent that's important to we did ask again yeah because at this point because things are changing so quickly and um
109and we are phasing in so our conditions are changing so i think um we've we've said we value our staff we said we will value our educators we need to make sure that we're showing them that consideration so thank you this is scott and dr martin thank you um at this point in time i've got a couple of questions but um at this point in time have we had to furlough any employees bus drivers cns to my knowledge we have not issued any furloughs of any employees in any category across the district okay that's that is good to hear um and i was sort of piggybacking off what mrs kushner was uh discussing uh but it sounds like you're still working on that so i was curious as we open up our elementary schools in
110cohorts how those fast rooms will work that are on the school sites will those you know will those still function and have those ever been open for teachers who whose own children are virtual academy or are those just children of teachers and employees who are who chose the plans i believe it i believe well tim i don't know if he's available and want to make sure i don't mess it up but i believe that all the fast programs in our buildings for children of staff have been open for any of the staff that are in the building but i'm not sure if they were working virtually whether or not they could have a child in a fast program right i can speak to that if you wish yes it was available to staff who were
111also teaching actually um i believe that's the question yes yes yes they were they are and those will remain how how long is it anticipated that those will remain open through well it'll they'll definitely be in place until we begin going back on the 26th but the reason for the survey that we put out recently is to determine what the need is going to be moving forward so that we can be responsive to that okay um ms scott just a little more detailed what aj was saying um that survey actually i guess that survey closed tonight so we need to look at the demand and then measure that against the employees that are available because obviously most of our cns and transportation employees will be returning to their regular duties um and then of course
112we'll need to look at space um because we're using the schools differently so all of that has to happen um this week and then we'll have a better handle but as of this evening it's it's a little hard to wrap our hands around what those variables are thank you i appreciate that i'm also curious how our cns will still be operating will they still have curbside pickup throughout is that something that will continue even through second semester will there be curbside along with in school i believe the intent is to continue the curb side uh because we will have students that are in remote even those that are in virtual academy right so we're going to continue the programs that we have already as well as the in-school service throughout the entire year okay that's
113i appreciate that um for for testing i know watching my own children who thankfully had headphones do their eye station testing i'm curious that so many we were able to distribute devices and chromebooks to to children but of course not every child has access to headphones and that's kind of a crucial part of being able to take that i station test with fidelity i'm wondering how how how are we going to how are we going to process that what are plans for processing that part of this remote learning such a an important task i mean yeah i think that's a really good question i'm not sure if um if anybody on our academics team has had any feedback from schools or teachers about uh an extended something else that we might need to provide to
114students to support the virtual environment or remote piece but i mean i think that's a that's something we need to take a look at and that you haven't already sure and that leads into like sort of a second a part two of that question is when i think about high school students remotely taking their tests remotely um there's those tests are a little higher stakes i mean that you know that's that's certainly um important and even middle school students who are taking those end of year math one so tests yeah so if i'm not mistaken i would love for somebody to correct me and i'm wrong here but if i'm not mistaken if it's a state mandated tests like an eog or an eoc those have to be taken in person so they have to
115be in school to do them and that is still that that's the case that is still the case that is why the sixth through eighth grade started a week sooner to have a week at the end of the semester that allows for all those middle school students that need to take the state required tests so because right now those have to be in person so when parents are looking at this calendar on slide um six is that yes with the the yes i slide six it should be it's understood that those are that when they see the word exam that means their child is expected to take that at school if if they are in one of the courses that re that they are required to be in person for okay um yeah that's i'm
116just i'm okay well that certainly explains that i was thinking about um how the the two questions and i think just to end first miss moore's response and confirm that state testing as a current guidance from dpi will have to occur in person and so we're in the process already of beginning to work with our high schools to develop plans on exactly what that will look like we also right now understand that the five-day semester testing window for those state assessments remains at five days we do have some concerns regarding implications for the amount of time the best may take obviously but in smaller pods and smaller numbers there are some challenges that we've through with our heights preparation for um those people and the other i think question you asked a little earlier in
117terms of the headset and some of the equipment needs of our elementary student on ice station i can tell you that just this week earbuds have i believe begun arriving in our elementary schools to be distributed to students we've also got orders of additional hits that i'm coming for we anticipate being able to distribute evidence in the near future make note of that ours to your your first question on ice station and equipment needs of students who would be assessing remotely i appreciate that mr coca because that even uh in non-coveted times that was one of the uh sort of anecdotal feedback i heard about teachers who were facilitating ice station assessments within their classrooms that it was just problematic for those reasons and this is another quick update since we have staff that are
118listening sure and so therefore texting the state is looking at a longer makeup window to address issues that may happen within the five-day testing window but they've not changed the five-day testing window okay and i i do want to acknowledge that is um that's that's such a challenge to be playing i mean just to plan for these tests alone and also on top of that asking principals to look at the the classes aside for second semester as we we you know are working to phase in students at those grade levels i mean this this is just not an easy thing at whatsoever and i appreciate all the work uh that we're putting into it thank you thank you for allowing me all those cheers welcome dr martin thank you a couple questions we talked about
119it a little bit uh last week but i continued to to uh get feedback and concern from some families particularly from our children with special needs who had signed up for plan b and are looking at what is has been is being implemented and don't feel it's quite what they signed up for um last week it seemed as though it was a little bit going to be a case-by-case basis i'm wondering are we moving forward at all on developing any kind of a structure for such families to be able to say this isn't quite what i signed up for here are my needs on can i retain remain in virtual or there may be some who started in in virtual and feel like that's really not working and and need to come back to the
120kind of in person so i mean i think i've heard this concern in general but i think where there's the greatest priority is children with special needs right someone i'm going to give karen a moment to get online but plan b as was proposed in the in the summer uh was a three-week rotation um and and what we messaged to families was choose virtual academy if you want a consistent experience for your child during the course of the school year because if you don't choose the virtual academy then you will be in whatever plan the district is in whether it's b or a you go back to c come back to b that that those plans would be fluid and possibly change based on the conditions and what we were able to do so that
121was part of the marker for how we messaged which families may want to choose virtual academy and and yet and yet i know that and you know i'll say it again and beat a dead horse that there's no such thing as a good plan b and it does not work for all students or teachers or families um so i'm gonna let karen speak specifically to any questions about the kind of flexibility they're providing families of children with special needs if the current plan is is not working or what their options might be well if i can clarify the main thing that i'm hearing is that the rotation sort of was a guarantee of a smaller size uh class and and so i think i at least a lot of what i'm hearing is a you
122know based on the the the three cohort rotation which we all i think many of us agree is very challenging to implement but i think many who signed up for it particularly those that i'm hearing from with children with special needs were anticipating smaller class sizes and i think i was hearing the same thing from teachers in that category so it's it's the class size issue here i think is is the big differential right and so this is so this would be um after three weeks of plan b being in a plan a for regional programs which should have been contemplated by families who didn't choose virtual academy because a was always has always been on the table whenever we were able to implement it and and i think should have been complemented it's not
123something contemplated is not something that uh i would hear if i were to understand that situation if i can jump in we are hearing from families on both sides like we're hearing families that are ready to have their children back in school and we are having families that are having a bit of buyers reinforced for whichever plan that they had enrolled in um we are taking a look at that built into virtual academy as an opportunity for principals to take a look at individual parent requests i want to i want to balance that against the reality of several conversations that i'm hearing so we need to have staff to be in classrooms when students return and we are also balancing that against the desire to have teachers be able to select accommodations and um we
124are in a squeaky space to see if all that can happen to meet everybody's desires so where we are with um plan b and with virtual academy as as parents have signed their children up for those if there is a particular case that is an opportunity that is available to them to have that discussion with their principal whether it's plan b or virtual that they may want to make a decision to move into however that is also balanced against we need live teachers to be teaching children in whichever of those options that students are currently in or they may want to move into and and and let's say i completely understand that balance i think my concern and the reason for raising and i believe that many are going to be worked out on an
125individual basis my concern and the reason i continue to raise this what are we doing at a system level is i recognize that um when it's at an individual level that really is dependent on the advocacy of the family and the parent and there are plenty of families who don't have the time energy resources for that level of advocacy and that's where system guidance i think you know and putting a plan in place uh makes sure that we're able to to pay attention to the families who maybe don't have as strong uh of uh as many resources for advocacy so i just want to reiterate that the plan that we currently have allows for families to talk to their principals i think that most families do have good relationships with their principals and i think
126even more so they have good relationships with their teachers and they are having those conversations with their teachers now based on the information that i'm getting i also want to reiterate and be very clear that we need to have staff on both sides of that we need to have staff in virtual academy and we need to have staff and plan b so um that balance that we are seeking is to inform families to remind them of the plans that they signed up for to provide opportunities in on the occasion where families may need to consider a switch for that and to also provide for teachers in classrooms and teachers in virtual academy for um to provide sufficiency in where that staffing would lock okay i understand the challenges somewhat related to that we're also getting
127a lot of feedback from families who are concerned about the date at which you sign up for either continuation on virtual academy or whatnot and at least what i am seeing and some of that feedback is concern about seeing what is the in-person rollout going to look like before making the decision because i think what we're already seeing here whether it's for our children with special needs or or or other families people are wanting to know what it is they're signing up for and and so what what are our thoughts about the dates um what we had said early on i think needs to be updated given the reality that we're currently living in so i agree um what i've challenged my staff with as we talk about the window for making a decision for
128second semester around virtual academy or whatever plan the district is in is the minute you put any dates out there a parent is going to say well how am i supposed to make a decision if i don't know what you're doing that is correct that's this is like my exact words and so um so we will be packaging that in our messaging probably at the next board meeting to let you know where we're headed go ahead and put something out there i think i had told the board it's not going to be long before you hear from us around plans for second semester we need to go ahead and get that out there it is a crucial piece to parents being able to make decisions for themselves about what second semester will look like so
129we will begin that discussion um with some options and and things for you to look at and and provide feedback on at your next work session okay i look forward to those updates i think that's something that's quite uh important my final question is related to are we what kind of guidance are we providing to schools related to assigned duties for example i heard today from a a specialist teacher who was concerned because uh at least the reason given to her was that uh you know she will have to be doing the health screenings because she does not have a home room and um i think well that's an issue that i raised early on i don't believe our teachers should be doing uh those kind of health screenings our teachers should be teaching um
130but so there there's a there's a assigned duties issue here there's also an equity across schools issue that i've somewhat raised before because some of these decisions are school-based for the school administrator to decide you're going to do this versus you're going to do this this is where i think there needs to be some district-wide guidance on but this also relates a little bit to the accommodation piece because it feels to me like you know we've got the hr process where you can get the account you can if you qualify for health reasons or other um qualify for the remote work but if you don't qualify for remote work it feels at least what i'm hearing it feels like you're all in to be assigned whatever you're told to assign and it feels to me
131like that we need to have a little bit more of a of a graded on accommodation structure because if teachers are being assigned to do health screening which i for the record don't think teachers should be assigned to do health screening but if that is happening it strikes me that that's a level of accommodation that somewhere needs some assessment process because i can see there being people who would not meet the hr accommodation guideline but would feel like that assignment would be putting them at risk so can you help me understand a little bit the guidance that's a little bit more nuanced and what's the guidance to make sure that we have some kind of equitable and reasonable expectations for our staff in schools so i fear this will not be a satisfactory answer you're
132you're asking about a gradient perhaps that is uh it's not it's not a bad idea but there there's not the the guidance around what a gradient would look like is around principle discretion they would be the staff member would be talking to them about whatever their concerns are in general in general speaking about teacher duties um there should be a balance in how principals are assigning duties in schools and because there are there are a number of duties excuse me that teachers are engaged in staff are engaged in carpool duty bus duty cafeteria duty call duty i mean there's all kinds of duties that are a part of running a school and so i would think that if if screening duty is now a duty and that's been the fear all along that that's what
133this is going to turn into that it it's incorporated into the other things that are going in the school so that there is some distribution and and and i don't know to the extent which perhaps there might be choice in some of this right so i think that's a question i need to go take back to hr first of all about this whole notion notion of a gradient and how that could be applied um but second the other piece that i can take to principles is really about because you're going to have less cafeteria duty if any uh than you've had in the past you you're going to have less carpool and bus duty in rotations than you've had in the past so there should be an opportunity to distribute staff differently across all of
134the duties that are still required in a building but that but that's a conversation that that we need to have with principles about how they do that and some follow-up that can occur through their areas if they have ideas or have needs and if a teacher has a concern in terms of where they take it i appreciate follow-up i will note that i think there may be more cafeteria duty than or lunch duty than otherwise because it'll be in every class very different that's right yeah yeah okay all right i'll look forward to some updates on that thank you uh mrs cash and then we'll move on to our next item okay you know i in all due respect dr martin um i just want us to not be in a situation we are but
135we are handcuffing our principles because i think when we get ingredients i don't know for sure if a teacher has time to be on duty to take temperatures if they don't do it who do you think is better suited to do it are you saying like we should send a child nutrition service person to do it or someone else i mean i i just don't know anybody i don't know who unless you would ask to do it that wouldn't be just as important you know what i've been calling since we need to have more staff and or create a volunteer core to do this so i know but we at this point i guess i'm not going to all right here's something i'm not going to carry the phone very long but i think i
136just don't want to handcuff our any more than we already are uh or we're not actually i would like them to be able to run their schools with the staff they have because we don't have anything else to give them right now yet and i know you and i have talked about that now i appreciate the the question and the discussion uh but i don't think it's appropriate for us to have a discussion about staff duties at this level of the board i think that's a principle site-based decision um that was my point actually okay mr goody well if if if we can you know this this is a topic that's come up and so we're here and so without getting down into that level of weeds where we're interfering with the principal's discretion i
137think it's a legitimate comment it's a legitimate question to bring up because we've talked about in a lot of our discussions about health and school and best practices right and so an our a suggestion that dr martin has brought up and it's one that i had early in the process but it seems like we've had evolving state guidance on it is what is the role of volunteers in the schools you know is it something and you know superintendent moore i don't know if you've gotten guidance from our commission or not but is there a role where we could have volunteers in the schools that are able to assist with these duties or does that potentially create a health risk i don't know i i don't have any preconceived idea of where that falls out but
138is it something that could help our staff and help our principals or is it something that poses a greater health risk what's the guidance we've gotten there's um volunteers are allowed in schools we do not have uh clear guidance or an answer on the extent to which the use of volunteers for screenings would be appropriate so but i i'll seek it out that would be a that could be a very helpful thing just if i'm sorry was johnson hospital i think all of my questions were asked except for one and i think mr matilda i've asked you about this before but in light of and you did give us some feedback on the number of substitutes who are ready to return so i guess i'm also curious as we talk about and as ms moore
139continues to think about the opportunity again based on the health risk if it makes more sense to have more people in the building is that a group of people that we can also have conversations with since mr matilda already has a sense of the number of substitutes who would be willing to return in person especially based on the earlier part of money that we talked about that we may be able to use i'm just curious if that's a place that we can go since they're already on our hr roster so i sent that email to dr matildo friday okay so about how we could more intentionally how we could more intentionally use our subs in our buildings okay yes thank you and they and i will just add that they do continue to to appear
140to be ready um you know to support our needs we've we've surveyed them very recently last week in terms of um willingness and special programs classes and and those kinds of things and and many hundreds are still ready to serve even currently so i do think it's a resource we can use and we'll continue to develop the best way to do that one one more follow-up now that i have you mr bottillo um i think i think you've alluded to this a little bit before when we talked about accommodations first for teachers so is that is that your thinking that we would be using substitutes in a classroom if a teacher is teaching virtually because they have an accommodation or are we thinking that somebody else would be in the room with those students so
141i think in most cases you know subs would not be filling in for a teacher who's working virtually generally that teacher would also have virtual students and would not necessarily have the need for it but subs would be available like if teachers needed to quarantine um you know things like that that are covet related where we could deploy subs um in those situations i think you sort of answered my question in terms of we could use them if need be in those classrooms okay thank you yeah so could i ask superintendent moore in your next update can you have some information around the volunteers the the subs along with regular employees and and included in that i'm sure that there are some legal concerns liability concerns that i think jonathan would want to chime in
142on as well as other management risks uh and that sort of thing and so we if we just have all of that as part of okay the update and have one all right thorough conversation about about that and sort of clear all questions at that time right so with that concludes our update on the opening okay moving on to our next item which is disability history and awareness month you don't look like cameron hamilton to me sir good an exciting information item um by decree of north carolina legislation in uh 2007 october is recognized as disability history and awareness month so in september of 2012 the wake county public school system school board passed a resolution that stated our school shall provide intensive instruction on disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement
143during the month of october and periodically throughout the year so we are happy to say that we are celebrating our eighth year of disability history and awareness month since the initial resolution and so here to share a bit more detailed information with you is our much better looking assistant superintendent of special education services ms karen hamilton thank you sir and i have another mask up here if you would like it nothing wrong with that chair sudden superintendent moore and members of the board thank you for allowing me to provide the non-pandemic topic and to kick off the it's actually the 17th annual recognition of disability history and awareness month actually it can't be the 17th and 7th to start us off we have the walnut creek elementary school sharing the 2019 theme of every student
144every day and as a reminder this video was produced before coven how is walnut creek elementary school the best school in all the land every student every yeah [Music] [Applause] so thanks to our walnut creek friends and to set the stage for today's presentation and i'm trying to see the video while we're doing this so give me just a second i apologize all right corley i can't see the video so i'm going to hope that we do this really well today together so in 2007 the general assembly of north carolina designated october as the disability history and awareness month in order to expand the public's knowledge awareness and respect for persons with disabilities later in the same year the wake county public school system school board issued a resolution outlining that during the month of
145october our schools will provide intensive instruction on disability history to persons with disabilities and the disability rights movement since 2007 our district engages an annual celebration of our students with disabilities led by their teachers and oftentimes in a celebration that includes the entire school and we should be on slide five the theme for this year's disability history and awareness month is learning enacting adapting together chosen to reflect our students strengths and abilities this theme is particularly relevant to our current learning situations in this unprecedented time firmly grounded in vision core belief one states every student is uniquely capable and deserves to be challenged and engaged in a relevant rigorous and meaningful learning each day poor belief five states the board of education superintendent and all staff value a diversified community that is inviting respectful inclusive
146flexible and supportive this year as in the 16th in the sixth previous years and despite learning environments that we could never have imagined our district will once again celebrate disability history and awareness month and would you go to the next slide please this year's instructional components include daily lessons and activities to build on the successful concepts and structures that allow schools to enter a celebration month as first-time participants or allow schools who have been robust participants to build on activities and lessons that have worked well for them in previous school years and built a greater level of presentation the next slide please with thanks to valenda prince special education coordinating teacher the offerings of activities tips and video highlights continues to grow and are available to teachers this year that they may use in their
147person-to-person and virtual learning environments school-level teachers can view content from previous years and plan on how to incorporate this year's theme into learning explorations even as our teachers work to meet the needs of students in challenging circumstances belinda is continuing to manage requests from teachers right now on how to include message messages and lessons for diversity and the last slide please thank you again for allowing me to join you tonight and point a spotlight on our students with disabilities this is a long time to continue a celebration and a tradition i look forward to many years to come but more specifically the creative way that teachers and students will celebrate this year learning connecting adapting together it's a great theme for an awareness month and a great launching pad for the 2020 2021 disability history
148and awareness month and thank you for allowing me to uh to join you with this topic this evening thank you for that assistant superintendent uh hamilton and on behalf of the board we are pleased to continue in this celebration and tradition of recognizing our students with disabilities thank you so much all right um moving on through our agenda uh we are now to uh this brings us to our consent agenda if i can entertain could i interject one thing before you i've seen emotion on that i i greatly apologize for it our law firm's contract renewal is on the agenda and i would just respectfully request that that be pulled at this point we there's no rate increase obviously with the pandemic and so on and so forth and we have an ongoing contract so
149there's really we have a contract in place there's not a need for renewal i just need to get some clarification from the finance office before that would come back so if if you could if the board would be willing this in no way affects our services which we greatly relish it's just again no change in rates i just would need some clarification yeah mr chairman i would move to pull that item from tonight's consent agenda okay i appreciate it thank you a second second all right got a motion and a second to remove uh item 5c which is the which is the board of education general counsel contract renewal from tonight's consent agenda any discussion just in indifference to mr bloomberg um we just need to review that item and then put it back before
150the board at a later date okay and correct me if i'm wrong does that not normally come in december when we also vote on our approval of council so that was that was the past the board changed the policy so there's no need for an annual renewal so for the last couple of years there's no need for an annual new or we have an ongoing contract that's really only changed when there is a rate increase and we are not changing our rates at all under the circumstances and having for a good long time and the last rate increase was only five dollars so um just want to get some clarification from the finance office on whether that needs to come back i appreciate the courtesy of the board on that okay all right here's no
151further discussion all those in favor share about signing by all right and opposed nay i'll have it uh that item is removed and so now if i could entertain a motion to approve the amended consent agenda mr chair sutton i make a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended second got a motion and a second to approve the minute consent agenda during the discussion hearing none all those in favor shall about signify all right in the opposed nay eyes have it our consent agenda is approved as amended now that takes us to our action uh item which there is we have one item and that is the eye station contract for professional development for principals and teachers so i'm going to turn it over to dr mcfarland and drew cook he just left yeah
152i think drew is online and and we'll introduce the item okay all right mr cook yes sir thank you chair sutton and um morgan this evening we bring for action a contract amendment to provide professional development um on the ice facing diagnostic investment the 21 school contract provides teachers the necessary training to meet the requirement blood placed performative diagnostic equipment for all three students be administered three times during the year and also a one-time reading assessment for all students in grade four the contract amendment provides ongoing differentiated professional development work throughout the school year for all stakeholders administrators teachers and school-based instructional support staff the contract allows for analysis of student data over multiple years data to determine learning laws due to school closure and data to validate learning gain during the 2021 study staff
153is requesting board approval of the contract amendment as indicated and at this time i'm happy to answer any questions or provide additional information as needed mr hagen thank you mr sutton and i appreciate everyone allowing me to pull this from the consent agenda i just thought this deserved a little bit of a closer look you know we've heard a lot of feedback about ice station there's a lot of drama about ice station and state government and i was just curious what the district was planning to do in terms of going forward in the future and if we had any idea what the state might be requiring from us you know we'll there's been talk about an option that we could choose something this year but then what will happen next year um any answers or
154elimination that we could get will guide us on what we want to do in proceeding with the contract thank you drew are you going to respond to that or did you want serena to respond to that i can take a shot at it and if i fall short then serena can jump in okay mr haggerty thank you for the question and i i think we can probably chalk this up and add it to the list of um issues and items where there are lots of thoughts and varied opinions um and you and other board members like us have heard opinions in on this over the last few months obviously lots of discussion at the state level essentially mr haggerty what what i think we can share is that this summer we convened a cross-departmental team
155also included school-based staff members instructional resource teachers instructional facilitators a couple classroom teachers all of whom were tasked with the responsibility of taking a look at what the options were that were provided by the state at the time and make a decision about which program to go with for the 2021 school year all recognizing as you pointed out mr haggerty that the state itself is it going to be initiating a new procurement process um to determine a a statewide vendor for these assessments for the 21 22 school year essentially we were given the option and that team ultimately determined for a variety of reasons back in the late summer that the best option for the wake county public school system given all the uncertainty at the state level was to remain with eye station for
156the 2021 school year and i think mr haggerty this falls into the category among other reasons and there are other specifics um as far as what what this assessment can offer and some of the technical benefits that it provides in terms of data support and those types of things one of the biggest considerations that i think the team who developed the recommendation that was ultimately adopted by our district to stay with eye station one of the primary factors was the issue of continuity if you and other board members will recall prior to the 1920 school year wake county and other districts across the state as part of the statewide contract at that time use the m-class assessment you mentioned yourself in the introduction some of the uncertainty and the politics that play at the state
157level that happened last year and all the back and forth after much back and forth wake county ended up going with i-state last year as did the rest of the state so that was a change and ultimately with all the other angels that our teachers and our schools were already going through um in their systems their structures their assessment platforms every aspect of their work we felt like if we could provide one one bit of continuity given all the feedback that had been gathered it was beneficial to do so for the current school year and as you referenced recognizing that we could very well end up with another vendor at the state level next year and so this recommendation provided some semblance of continuity after weighing out all the pros and the cons and again
158it also from a practical standpoint also provides our teachers and schools with year-to-year data that we now have to compare from the 1920 school year importantly to the 2021 school year that would have been exceedingly challenging had we gone with a different vendor for the current school year and so i think that's kind of a high level i guess overview of some of the factors that were considered in making making that decision sir great i appreciate that context and that information thank you mr cook all right seeing no further discussion entertain a motion to for approval to approve staff requests for the our station contract mr chair also moved got a motion and a second to approve staff's requests for the ice station contract for professional development for principals and teachers to any further discussion
159hearing in all those in favor share about signing by all right any opposed nay i have it that motion and contract is approved all right at this time if i can entertain a motion to go into closed session for the items stated on our agenda sutton i make a motion that we go into closed session to consider confidential personnel information protected under gs 143-318-118183 and to consult with the board of education attorney and preserve the attorney-client privilege as provided with gs 143-1 and to consider confidential student information protected under gs-115c-402 and the family educational and privacy rights act 20 usc two three two g all right got a motion and a second to go into closed session for the items uh just stated and as listed on our agenda is there any discussion hearing none
160all those in favor shall about signify all right any opposed nay eyes have it we are now adjourned and stan and now in closed session thank you all for joining us this evening uh we appreciate the attention uh thank you and good night