Good evening everyone. The Durham Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session. At this time, we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening. The purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents, staff, and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, educate, and empower every student to innovate, serve, and lead.
The interpreters for tonight are Karen Riaz and Vanessa Pina Ramirez. Thank you for taking the time to join us. The next item on our agenda is a moment of silence. Thank
you. Celebrations is the next item on our agenda. Miss Cooper. Thank you and good evening, Millicent Rogers, board members, Superintendent Lewis, DPS colleagues, and Durm community.
Welcome to the April celebrations of our scholars, educators, and staff. Tonight's honores span all corners of our district representing excellence in academics, athletics, and advocacy. Tonight we begin with our student of the month followed by our alumni of the month. Next we will recognize our battle of the books participants and members of our superintendent student advisory council.
We also have state champion athletes among us who will be acknowledged. Celebrations continue with our teacher of the month, employee of the month, a special presentation from the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching of the 2025 Burough's Welcome Fund NCCTTE Teacher of the Year. And we
will conclude with a special spark pen presentation. At this time, please welcome Mr. Emtt Alexander, principal of Northern High School for our student of the month presentation. Mr.
Alexander. Good evening, Millicent Rogers, board members, Superintendent Lewis. Miss Aaria Curtain is our student of the month. She is a dedicated and compassionate senior whose journey has been deeply influenced by her father who taught her the true meanings of empathy and kindness. His guidance helped her discover her passion for helping others leading her to pursue a future in physical therapy. After graduation, Arya plans to attend North Carolina Central University and major in chinesiology.
Her long-term goals include opening a private practice, teaching a teaching at a physical therapy school, hosting workshops and seminars, and working in a variety of settings such as sports rehab, pediatrics, and inpatient care. What keeps Aaria going is the excitement of how close she is to graduation and the bright future that lies ahead. She is an amazing student, but an even better person. She's proud to have served on student government and the prom committee, which are roles that gave her a voice and leading leadership experience within her school community.
One of the biggest challenges she has overcome is moving back to Durm from Arizona and adjusting to a new academic environment. But her determination never wavered. Outside of school, she enjoys planning events at her job, spending time with her family, and hanging out with friends. Her proudest accomplishment is being a first generation college
student. An achievement that reflects her hard work, resilience, and commitment to success. I have the pleasure of bringing to you a name that you will hear again, Miss Aaria Ray Curtain. Congratulations, Aaria.
You have certainly made Northern High School proud, and I can tell you that you make the entire Durham Public Schools community proud. We have a few items to mark this achievement this evening. So, please step forward. We have your official Durham Public School student of the month certificate. Because you are a shining example of our core values, we want you to wear this Durham Public School Spark pin proudly. Our friends at Triangle ECycling want to make sure that you are powered for success at the North
Carolina Central University. So, they are presenting you with a laptop this evening. At this time, please welcome Erica Wilkins, executive director for the DPS Foundation for a very special presentation and also our alumni of the month honors. Miss Wilkins, Millicent Rogers, Board of Education, Superintendent Lewis.
At Durham Public Schools Foundation, we know that a well-funded public school can make all the difference in a student's life, giving them a strong community and a bright future. That's why DPS Foundation brings together organizations and people who are ready to do whatever it takes to support our students and champion our schools. We are honored to support the DPS student of the month program and pleased to share that we will be awarding Aaria with a $500 gift card along with some additional goodies. We hope this gift card brings you joy, allows you to pursue your interest, and speeds you on along toward your bright future at MCCU.
DPS Foundation is also partnering with DPS to honor alumni whose lives were shaped by the time in by their time in Durham public schools and the educators and staff that nurtured them. I am proud to announce that Jakira Scott is our Durham Public Schools Foundation alum of the month for April. Jakira is a proud graduate of Southern High School where she led the marching band as one of the school's first female drum majors, captain the varsity soccer team, and immersed herself in a wide range of extracurriculars. For the past 20 years, Shakira has been a dedicated educator at Hillside High School.
First as a special education teacher and now as the school's special populations coordinator. In addition to her work in the classroom, she has coached girls soccer, led a student service organization, and mentored countless students through their personal and academic journeys. Shakira credits Durham public schools with shaping her values of love, leadership, and lifelong learning. Educators like her fifth grade teacher Kathy Williams, and forward principal, Dr. William Logan played
pivotal roles in her growth, inspiring her to give back to the community that raised her. Her advice to current DPS students, don't rush it. Embrace it all. Gain all the experiences that you can while while in Durham public schools.
Life be lifing sometimes, but you have to find the drive to keep grinding. Congratulations, Miss Scott, our April DPS alum of the month. We are honored to honor you. with a DPS spark pen along with a gift card and a basket of goodies from DPSF including our new DPSMade t-shirt alumni made exclusively for our student alumni of the month program. org to learn more about Jakira's journey.
[Laughter] always an educator and always a coach. Congratulations to Aaria and congratulations to Miss Scott. At this time, please welcome Heidi Perez, secondary literacy integration specialist, as we celebrate our Battle of the Books participants. Miss Perez.
Good evening, Madame Chair, board members, Dr. Lewis, staff, and community members. Thank you for sharing this space and time with us to celebrate DPS Battle the Books Champion Teams and their coaches. Here in Durham public schools, we empower all schools to participate in this literacy enrichment opportunity by providing the fees, books, transportation, and district coordination support for all elementary, middle, and high schools that choose to participate.
Every DPS school has the power. This year, we had 39 schools participate. Students at participating
schools read books from a list established by the state battle the books committee and then compete in quiz bowl style tournaments to test their knowledge of those books. And boy, they know those books. We have we also have a wonderful band of dedicated community volunteers to act as competition officials. When I announce the team that has won each level, the team and the coaches will come up to greet and take a picture with the board and the superintendent.
This year's elementary champion for Battle of the Books was Lion's Farm Elementary School. Lion's Farm placed fourth in the region 3 competition on April 5th at Current Holders Elementary in Zebulun. And the team will stay up front so they can get a picture with the
board. Get in there. Hold it up. Durham Public Schools Middle School Battle of the Books Champions is Durham School of the Arts.
DSA Middle School Battle of the Books team placed second in the region 3 competition on March 22nd at Panther Creek High School in Kerry. Durham Public Schools High School Battle the Books Champions here in the district competition was also the region three champion on April 9th uh at the AG Glenn building in Smithfield. That team is Durham public or Durham School of the
Arts High School team. principal. Go I ask that our board and superintendent uh Lewis and staff keep cheering for DSA. DSA will participate in the North
Carolina State High School Battle of the Books competition on April 28th at the Unity Center in Statesville. Thank you. At this time, we would like to recognize members of the Superintendent Student Advisory Council. I'll turn it over to Dr.
Lewis. Awesome. Thank you so much. I am so excited uh to introduce members of my superintendent student advisory council to the board this evening and to acknowledge their exemplary dedication and service throughout the year. The superintendent student advisory council met with me uh to offer invaluable insight on various issues and to
deliberate on the challenges confronting our scholars and the community. Acting as adviserss, the Superintendent Student Advisory Council addressed a broad spectrum of topics, challenges, and issues. Just to name a few, this year, the members engaged with me during my listening and learning sessions. They provided feedback on revisions to the state board of education's graduation policy.
that influence the district's budget priorities. Review the results of our social emotional learnings uh student climate survey outcomes. Uh discuss the implementation of restorative practices and contributed to the policy revisions of the code of student conduct. So they're doing legacy work.
They examined the uh superintendent's post entry plan, contributed to the development of the 25 through 28 local AIG plan. They attended a special reception and participated uh in North Carolina Superintendent Mo Green State uh listening and learning tour. Most recently began participating uh in DPS board meetings to lend their
student voice and offer critical perspectives on issues addressed during work sessions and board member board meetings. Um one of the superintendent student advisory council members served as an interview interviewer on our dollars and decision series. There she is. and it was just was a natural in that and asked Jeremy some tough questions.
Uh, additionally, uh, we wish to express our appreciation to our high school principles for recommending such outstanding and amazing young individuals um and talented individuals. There's a singer amongst them probably more as well. uh so super excited to uh spend some time with them and also to the families, the parents, caregivers, some of whom are present this evening uh for their unwavering support uh of these meetings and for nurturing such remarkable young people. And so at this juncture, it is my privilege to introduce the members of the 2425 Superintendent Student Advisory Council.
Thank you, Dr. Lewis. We have several members who unfortunately could not be with us this evening to due to prior
commitments, but we are excited to share the names of those who are with us this evening. From Durm School of the Arts, Kayla Cabera, also from DSA, Ella Rosselli from Durm School of Technology, Kayn Meyers from Hillside High School. Gianna Peterson from Ignite Online Academy. Cameron Alustin from JD Clement Early College.
Brian Alfro Alarro Chavez Carl Gimenez Sales Camille Varin from Jordan High School. Blair Brinsen from Northern High School. Josiah Batty, Aaria Curtain, Donovan Miles, Emory
Neman from the School for Creative Studies, Asher Oati. Thank you so much for to these students for their outstanding participation. the champs are here. And here to share more about our state champion scholar athletes from Riverside High School is athletic director Robert Duncan.
Good evening, Dr. Lewis and members of the school board and all those in attendance. Uh, my name is Robert Duncan, the director of athletics at Riverside High School. On behalf of our
principal, Dr. Gloria Wiz Weekes, and the Riverside High School athletics department, it is a privilege to be here tonight to celebrate the outstanding athletic achievements of Riverside's student athletes. First, I would like to recognize Philip Bloom. He has made an an incredible contribution to the Riverside running program over the past four years.
Philillips holds the school records in cross country, the 800 meter, the 600600 meter, the 3200 meter race, and the 4x8 meter relay. This winter, Philip achieved an extraordinary feat by winning the 3200 meter relay, I'm three 3200 meter state championship in the indoor track and field. Philip also placed uh by less than 03 seconds in the 1600 meter race by placing second. In addition to his athletic accomplishments, Philip is ranked number five academically at Riverside High School and has an impressive impressive weighted GPA of
95. Philip is accompanied tonight by his mother, uh Kiara. She's here. Next, I'm proud to introduce Stephanie Diaz Mendoza.
She is a talented junior athlete who has made history by becoming the first female state championship from Riverside High School in the sport of wrestling. Stephanie has had an outstanding season, finishing with a remarkable record in her weight class. She went 24-0 this season. She was voted the most outstanding wrestler for the conference.
Stephanie has battled against adversity all season while working towards her goals. She worked incredibly hard day in and day out uh with a determination that is rarely unseen. That's from her coach, Coach Hall, who's also here. Stephanie won the individual state championship and the 152 pound weight class and is a tremendous student and a
tremendous student athlete. Stephanie's accompanied here by her coach, Matthew Hall, and her drill partner in Josh Maximus Savage. Both of these athletes have shown incredible dedication, hard work, and perseverance, and we are so proud to have them represent Riverside High School on the state level. Thank you for your attention and support of our student athletes who continue to excel both on the field and in the classroom. We look forward to being back again to see you guys again next year as we were last year. Thank you.
Congratulations to these outstanding scholar athletes. This evening, we are honored to recognize our April teacher and employee of the month. We are grateful to our generous sponsors, the North Carolina Central University Tennis Program, the Tossai Chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated, and DCL Consulting LLC for supporting our teacher of the month award, and to the Office of Human Resources for sponsoring our employee of the month recognition. April's theme is restoration.
Our April teacher of the month is Mr. Caracus Jefferson, 8th grade cope teacher and case manager at Carrington Middle School. Mr. Jefferson is a true restorer of hope, energy, and joy within the Carrington School community. His unwavering belief in his students and their ability to grow beyond setbacks is both powerful and transformative. Each
day, Mr. Jefferson lights the path forward for students in the COPE program. With calm confidence and compassionate leadership, he reminds them that every day is a new beginning, an opportunity to reflect, reset, and rise. His message is consistent and clear.
Challenges are part of life, and it is not the end of your story. In a world where it is easy to focus on flaws and failures, Mr. Jefferson focuses on potential, choosing to nurture the greatness within every student. He is a source of strength for his colleagues, too.
Always ready with encouragement and a steady presence and a positive perspective that lifts the spirits of everyone around him. Mr. Jefferson just doesn't teach. He restores joy, confidence, purpose.
His impact is lasting and his presence is a gift. Congratulations to Mr. Caracus Jefferson as our April Teacher of the Month.
We have a few items for you and Mr. Lawson is here from North Carolina Central University. I know he surprised you um at Carrington um probably likely a day or so ago, but I know he has a few words for you as well. Um Mr.
Lawson, good evening board members, Chair Rogers, Superintendent Lutis. um on behalf of uh the North Carolina Central University uh men's and women's program, the Tallite chapter, and um today I'm representing DCL Consulting LLC. I'm actually coming from practice. Um we're competing in our conference tournament this week.
So, um but we were delighted to surprise Mr. Jefferson. It was kind of funny. he thought that he was in trouble or something when we showed up, but um it was a welcoming surprise. So um again on the on behalf of DCL Consulting LLC would like to present you
with a small token and again congratulations on your excellent work. Coach Lawson, can we congratulate you as well on being named the 2025 MAK men's tennis co- coach of the year. Thank you for your service.
Our April employee of the month is Priscilla Thompson, student information system coordinator in the office of research and accountability. Miss Thompson consistently embodies the values of greatness, tenacity, perseverance, and leadership. She has a rare and remarkable gift for restoring joy, energy, and optimism. Not just in moments of celebration, but in times of challenge and uncertainty.
Her steady presence and uplifting spirit serve as a powerful reminder that even in the most difficult times, hope and positivity can shine through. Whether supporting a colleague, encouraging a student, or uplifting an entire team, she brings a warmth and light that truly lights up the room. Her genuine kindness, compassion, and commitment to the well-being of others are felt throughout the building. Miss Thompson is more than
an outstanding employee. She is a restorative force in our entire DPS community. Her impact is lasting. Her presence is inspiring and her heart is always in the right place. Congratulations to Priscilla Thompson, our April employee of the month.
Our next celebration is presented by the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, recognizing one of our outstanding educators. With us this evening is Dr. Brock Wall, executive director, Dr. Karen Sumner, deputy executive director, Emily Langden, deputy uh development associated, and John Kirkman, executive director for the North Carolina Association for Career and Technical Education.
Please join me in welcoming them this evening for this special presentation. Good evening, board members, Chair Rogers, Superintendent Lewis. Thanks for having us here tonight. The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching provides professional development for North Carolina educators at our Kawi and Ochre Coke campuses in addition to online and school-based professional development. We're here tonight though to celebrate a very special individual. Tyler Dangelo is the INAT 2025 Burrows Welcome Fund North
Carolina Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year. Thanks to our partnership with NCAACT under the amazing leadership of John Kirkman, Tyler will also be the North Carolina representative for the National CTE teacher of the year award. At ENAT, we are proud to honor teachers in the teaching profession. And the celebration of great CTE teachers is something Dr.
Brock Wall, our executive director, is passionate about. We are here tonight celebrating thanks to his vision and belief in the importance of CTE. I'd now like to share some highlights from Mr. D'Angelo's portfolio. He is a dynamic agricultural educator, an innovative program builder, and at Jordan High School, he has transformed the agroscience pathway into a thriving highquality CTE program that blends academics with meaningful hands-on experience. His curriculum
exceeds state and district benchmarks. His horiculture 2 honors course reached 100% student proficiency last year. He regularly earns um his students regularly earn industry recognized credentials like the BASF plant science certification which prepares them for success in both post-secary education and the workforce. In just a few years, he revitalized the school's greenhouse and ear turned it into a school-based enterprise, generating over $5,000 in revenue, all while giving realworld authentic experiences to his students.
his success in securing over 65,000 in grant funding, including major awards from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, North Carolina Outdoor Heritage um GO grant program has enabled the purchase of a livestock trailer, the construction of an outdoor classroom, and the expansion of wor work-based learning experiences. And his leadership extends beyond the classroom. He's a former national FFA teacher ambassador.
He's mentored student teachers, presented at national conferences, state conferences, served on Durham CTE local needs assessment committee. Um, under his guidance, the FFA chapter at Jordan High has grown from just 15 to over 100 active members. Pretty cool. The chapter has earned premier national chapter status and receive state and national recognitions.
His students have competed and placed in statewide leadership events, earned FFA degrees, participated in internships at NC State, NC&T, and with local aggra businesses. Students and colleagues praised Mr. D'Angelo for his passion, his energy, and his care. A student described him as someone who pushed me to step outside my comfort zone, challenged me to grow as a leader, and inspired me to pursue a degree in agriculture. His mentorship has left a
lasting mark on students lives and career trajectories. We're honored to celebrate Tyler D'Angelo this evening for his commitment to his students, to agricultural education, and to the future of CTE in North Carolina. Thank you, Tyler, for all that you do. And we would like to present Tyler with this award.
He actually received this uh back in February when he was announced as the CTE teacher of the year, but we took it back to get it engraved. So now he gets it with his actual name on it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Congratulations again to Mr. D'Angelo and being an outstanding educator um and an example for all of our community and our students. At this time, we have our final recognition of the evening, our Spark Prim presentation, and I'd like to welcome Dr. Lewis back for this recognition.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Miss Cooper. Typically, Miss Cooper does the Spark uh pin uh presentations, but I get the amazing honor to do this very special spark pin award. For those who have had the privilege of knowing, meeting, and working with or alongside Erica Wilkins, she's now etched in your long-term memory.
Born, come on up. Born, raised, and educated in Durham, Erica pretty quickly forged a path with her goals in her heart and returned here to work with and for our scholars. Wilkins serves as executive director of the DPS Foundation. She brought an impressive resume to work
after graduating with a full ride from UNC Chapel Hill and earning her graduate degree from John's Hopkins University. Between here and there, she spent five years as a teacher and then held several jobs in senior leadership in public education, including vice president of equity and learning at the new teacher center. Uh she she's conducted audits and assessments designed to help nonprofit and educational leaders tackle disparities and put impactful equity focused initiatives in place. And little did I know um during my time in Kansas City, Missouri, while she was working with the new teacher center, she helped Kansas City public schools with their teacher evaluation tool and some other initiatives that helped uh Kansas City public school get full accreditation. So she's uh had impact around the country. While a class while a classroom teacher, Ero yielded a 93% success rate in annual success progress got all your business in her students core subjects by creating personalized materials and
experiences that benefited her student. " The DPS Foundation is a 501c3 committed to fostering a more innovative, equitable public school system where every student can flourish. They fulfilled their mission by raising funds, partnering with schools to expand best practices throughout the district, advancing equity, and making connections throughout the community. During school year 2324, the foundation awarded nearly a quarter of a million dollars to 39 schools through its innovation grants and the whole schools funds. The foundation also raised awareness about its college scholarship applications, doubling the number of applications, resulting in awards totaling $62,500 in scholarships to 27 DPS seniors from 13 schools. The annual evening to shine evening to shine arts and performance performance exhibition hosted by the foundation raises money
for college scholarships that draws thousands of guests to the Durham Performing Arts Center to observe our students art artistry. They also support educators through mentorship and professional development and DPS families through their engagement work. As Erica prepares for the next personal and professional chapters, we will remain grateful for her strong allegiance to Durham public schools, which she says influenced how she has approached her work as an educator. Erica Wilkins has sworn an oath of advocacy to public education in Durham.
And thanks to her, Durham public school spark is brighter. It extends wider and is even more vivid than she found it. and for her unrelenting spirit and love for DPS, we want to present her with this spark pen as a momento and token of our gratitude. Congratulations and thank you so much, Erica.
This concludes our celebrations this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations everybody.
Um the next item on our agenda is the superintendent update. You okay? Yes. Okay.
All right. Good evening again, Board Millicent Rogers, board members, and the DPS community. I am excited to share this month's update with you. Um quite a few wonderful things that are going on and exciting things that are going on in our district.
But first before I do that, I do want to uh welcome and honor our student board member this evening from JDC Early College, Camille Breen, who is with us, part of our superintendent student advisory council. So she'll be with us tonight. You get all the rights and privileges of a regular board member except you don't get to vote. Okay? But if you have questions of the presentation or board members may want your perspective on a particular um presentation, they may ask you. So pay
attention. All right, next slide. April 7th uh through 11th, we celebrated our amazing assistant principles during National Assistant Principles Week. Our APs are integral part of our school communities.
I heard about the many ways that they have honored and they were honored and appreciated for the many ways that they show up and support our scholars, educators, and staff daily. And we want to thank all of our APS for their work that they do in DPS. And speaking of APS, next slide. As we celebrated our APS, we announced the assistant principal of the year.
So congratulations to Dr. Quincy Farmer of CC Spaldin Elementary School. Yes. Let's give him a round of applause.
Very well deserved. He's our assistant principal of the year. Dr. Farmer leads with heart, dedication, and a deep commitment to student success. his passion for serving the students and families of the of the community that he gets the amazing opportunity to work with at CC Spalding stands uh it's evident in in everything that he does and so thank you so much Dr. Farmer for your leadership
and your unwavering support to our scholars and staff. Next slide. April is autism acceptance month and as we amplify the voices and lived experience of our individuals with autism within our schools, community, state, and nation. Uh one in 36 children are diagnosed with autism.
And many of those children who are diagnosed in our community are served right here in Durham public schools. So this month during the month of April, we honor our amazing scholars with autism. Next slide. April is also Durham Public Schools School Library Month.
Our media coordinators open doors to the worlds near and far for our scholars, sparking curiosity. Uh our social media has highlighted our media coordinators throughout the month, celebrating them for the magic that they bring to our scholars, and we certainly appreciate all the amazing things that our school librarians do each and every day. Next slide. as and this month another uh of the year winners is
Creekide Elementary Sally Winstead, our DPS media coordinator of the year. Congratulations, Miss Winstead. Certainly appreciate some fans out there, too. Oh, she's here.
Hey, congratulations. You're here. You're here in the flesh, right? Typically, it's just pictures, but you are here in the flesh.
And so, thank you so much, Winstead, for Miss Winstead for all the work that you do for our scholars over at Creek Side. And we certainly appreciate the service uh to our scholars and our families and also for exciting and creating uh the the the love of of books and reading. You know, we often talk about the science of reading, but it's our school librarians that focus on the love of reading. So, thank you so much for what you do.
Yes, that was perfect. And I didn't know she was going to be here, so that's great. That's great. Next slide.
Hot off the press. Congratulations to Burton Magnet Elementary School. This is
Burton's eighth consecutive year receiving this award. Uh Eastway Elementary School in Lakewood Elementary School for being named the 2425 Capturing Kids Hearts National Showcase School Award recipient. Yes, we can clap for them. These schools are recognized for their excellence in creating safe and welcoming environments where students are uh relationally connected and eager to learn.
And this award recognizes outstanding educators who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the children through training and character curriculum for our students. So congratulations to Dr. Boss, Dr. Teal, Miss Jackson, their staff, and the students on this honor.
Next slide. uh the great philosopher I think it was DJ Khalat said all we do is all we do is win. So that's CC Spalding. So another congratulations to CC Spalding. Uh we just announced yesterday our instructional assistant of the year TZ Quaws from CC Spalding Elementary
School. We surprised her yesterday uh just before dismissal as students line the hallways. We celebrated her accomplishments. So, congratulations again to Miss Calls over at CC Spalding Elementary School.
Next slide. Uh, the Polaris yearbook staff at Northern High School has been named the grand prize winner of the Truring Nationwide Graphic Design Competition. They're all in all, I'm sorry, all in the details. I'm sorry, they're all in the details homecoming spread stood out among hundreds of entries across the country.
Congratulations to Principal Alexander, yearbook advisor Lauren Castine, and the Polaris staff for this national recognition. So, congratulations to Northern. Next slide. Congratulations to City of Medicine Academy student Elizabeth Luna Lopez. Elizabeth is one of eight finalists for the 25 2025 North Carolina International Science Challenge and will present her research at the University of Nagoya in Japan this June.
Wow. She completed her project entitled Adapting Green Solid Face Peptide Synthesis Procedures using HBTU as the coupling region. We all know what that's about, right? through the North Carolina American Chemical Society project seed program at North Carolina State University.
So, congratulations, Lisb. Next slide. Congratulations to Forest View Elementary's team, Astron Astronomical. There's a focus on that O there, so I know how to say that word, but it's astronomical Odyssey for placing first place in the North Carolina Odyssey of the Mine State Tournament.
Their stellar performance earned top scores and now they're headed to the world finals at Michigan State University in May. So congratulations first of your team. Next slide. DPS hosted some of our state legislators as part of bring your legislators to school day. I certainly want to thank Dr. Hower and the students
and staff at Easley for an outstanding program. Uh we were blown all blown away by these scholars, their questions, their suggestions to the legislators, the passion, their advocacy for our teachers. Uh all of that was certainly inspiring. So thank you Dr.
Hower for being so gracious to host and allowing us to show our legislators the important work that we do and how critical they are to that work. And I think one of the comments from our legislators was, "Wow, thank you. " Next slide. Uh, state superintendent Maurice Mo Green brought his Mo wants to know tour to Durham earlier this month.
He visited our DPS hub farm, toured the culinary arts facilities at Northern High, and connected with students, staff, and community members. From meaningful conversation to tasty food prepared by our awardwinning Northern Culinary Night Scholars, it was a day full of learning, listening, and celebration. So, thank you, Superintendent Green, for taking time to
engage in our DPS community and the Northern Central region. Next slide. We are so proud to celebrate board member Bettina Umstead, um, one of our amazing board members for being selected to serve on Governor Josh Josh Stein's advisory council on student safety and well-being. This council brings together educators, mental health experts, and public safety leaders to tackle critical issues like school safety and the role of cell phones in classrooms.
Uh Betina's voice and leadership will help shape um safer, more supportive learning environments for all scholars across North Carolina. So, thank you so much, Miss Umstead, for representing Durham and putting students first. We know you'll do an amazing job there. Next slide. Thanks to our crayons to calculators volunteers who helped to pare down the
amount of money that teachers spend on classroom supplies each year. Uh on average, teachers spend about $400 a year on things like pencils, tissues, paper, and other resources to supply their classrooms. Crayons to calculators and the Durham Public Schools Foundation hosted an open house on Tuesday morning for our community leaders and supporters. So, a huge thank you to those who volunteered and attending attended to support our educators through this effort.
Next slide. Seems like that's all we do in Durham Public Schools is win as well. So, a huge huge congratulations to Durham Public Schools Office of Public Affairs. They guess you know typically when you win a when you win a Grammy, they say Grammy award winner.
So now when you refer to OPA award-winning OPA. So they brought home 19 awards from the North Carolina Schools Public Relations Association Blue Ribbon Awards. Uh the award ceremony honored excellence in communication efforts uh completed in
2024. They either even had to get some other people to help them in the in the picture hold all of their awards. So, three awards for digital media engagement, two awards for excellence in writing, one for marketing, two for electronic media, one for photography, um three for publications, seven for special events and programs. Um and I I hear at the ceremony they had photographers coming up to to Tony asking how do you get your pictures like this?
And so he was providing and these were veteran photographers across the state. So they were g providing professional development at the same time. I mean, I hear that Durham Public Schools is always one that um different school districts flock to to learn from. So, I couldn't be more proud of our amazing, award-winning Office of Public Affairs.
Huge huge kudos to our OPA team for their incredible work. Next slide. Missed a couple of slides. Um, so this one, um, our Office of Federal Programs and Community Engagement will
m. m. This is a free event featuring a vendor fair, um, academic and social emotional sessions and hands-on activities for children ages 5 through 12. So, please join us.
Next slide. Uh May is mental health awareness month and on Tuesday, May 6, we are hosting a safe minds safe school summit. We extended invitations to our sheriffs and police departments as well as community partners, organizations uh for an evening of meaningful dialogue with our administrators, educators, students, and families. Information is available on our website and we will and it will be shared with directly with families with registration details. and we invite um all of our community students as well to join us as we continue our efforts uh to create environments for a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment. We will have an opportunity to hear directly from our students as they will tell us um what they need to continue to feel safe um in our
schools. Uh this past Monday um our cabinet participated in a retreat that focused on prioritizing um u buildings uh central offices practices that support um school leaders. And one of the seven practices that we discussed at that retreat was centered around setting the expectation that schools are the central offices clients. And so, um, we will continue that work throughout the year and and flood that throughout the, uh, this remainder of this school year and this the upcoming school year.
Uh, the Discovering Durham field trip with Carrington Middle School students, sixth grade students was this this past three days. And so this was a walking field trip that focused on discovering the rich history of Durham and is designed for students to learn about their community as well as practice ELG standards based EOG standardsbased questions based on uh history. So a huge shout out and thank you to Carrington teacher Amanda McCall. She actually designed this field trip years ago and
it has certainly grown into something that all of our students look forward to yearly. And so, thank you to Heather Alus uh for the invitation and thank you to all of our parent volunteers, the Carrington staff and other DPS staff as well as board chair Rogers for volunteering uh to spend time with our scholars during this walking field trip. Next slide. And that's all I have.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Colleagues, the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval.
Um I was notified at the last minute um that Sheriff Burkehead is unable to attend tonight. Um disappointed and look forward to inviting him back in the future uh so that we can have a conversation about the partnership between DPS and the sheriff in terms of keeping schools safe, keeping our students safe, and keeping our educators safe. Um, so I would ask that we remove
that item from the agenda and ask if there are any other changes to the agenda that colleagues would like to see. Madam Chair, I would ask that we consider moving item 5A, public consulting group Medicaid contract under consent to as a new item G. Okay. Thank you.
Is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended? I move that we approve the April 24th, 2025 um agenda as amended. Second. It's been moved by Miss Umstead, seconded by Emily Chávez to approve the April 24th, 2025 agenda as amended.
Um is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I.
Um all oppose. Same side. It passes unanimously. Thank
you. Um awesome. Next item on our agenda is the monthly minutes uh from March 27th, 2025. Move approval of the minutes as presented.
Second. It's been moved by Miss Byer, seconded by Miss Harrell Goff to approve the minutes as presented for March 27th, 2025. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I.
I. I. The minutes are approved unanimously. Thank you so much.
The next item on our agenda is general public comment. Um, we have a long list of people signed up tonight. I appreciate everybody being here and hope that everyone will have an opportunity um to share their thoughts with the board. We are setting a 30 minute time
limit and each person will have one minute. Um a quick review of the rules. Miss Smith, will you set a 30-minut time limit for us? Timer for us.
A quick review of the rules. First, please state your name. If speaking for an organization, please state your name and the name of the organization. Second, speakers are asked to present their comments in a specified time.
Tonight, that's one minute. When the yellow light comes on, you'll have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep, which indicates your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we're very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of students, or to the operation of the school system. Finally, the board members will listen carefully, consider the comments, but we do not engage in a
discussion with the speakers. I'm going to ask that when I call people's names that they'll come in and form a line at the podium so that we can get as many speakers in in the amount of time that we have available. So we have Sarishia Dawson, Shana Bour, Elena Maya, Luis Menddees, Brian Alfaro Chavez, Alex Turner, Kenya Feriona Lunar, Chair Rogers, could we consider offering um remaining with one minute for each person, But continuing until we get through the list this evening, it looks like we have 48 people on our list this evening. So if we only allot 30 minutes, that's not enough time for everybody. I would agree with that as
this is one of the only ways that people have access to sharing their uh comments publicly. Thank you. state statute requires 30 minutes um per month and the policy allows the chair to make the decision and I've requested a change to this policy since July. So, we're going to do 30 minutes tonight.
Please go right ahead. Excuse me. Can I mean Go ahead. Good evening, board members.
My name is Sisha Dawson and I'm speaking to you as both a mother and an educator. On March 28th, we learned that something horrible happened to our child who is non-verbal and lives with congenital musculardrophe while in DPS after school. We were given no details. Days later, we were devastated to learn the truth and not from the district, but from Durham Police Department Special Victims Unit. NIA was caught on video grabbing my son's arm and kicking his wheelchair,
causing it to spin out. We are heartbroken and deeply shaken by the Fuller building's failure to communicate with Caleb's family. We had to ask for a protective plan of care, something that should have been immediate. As a school leader, I understand that incidents do happen, but it is the response, the urgency, transparency, compassion that determines whether trust is broken or built.
We are asking for district-wide review of how incidents involving non-verbal and disabled students are handled. Let's let my child's experience lead to change. Not for him, but for every child who depends on him on you guys to protect them. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello, my name is Shaya Balone and I'm here with Student U and with Unboxed, DPS's student food advocacy council. Students are a number one priority and it's important their voices be heard, especially when it comes to food they eat that fuels their learning.
Students are the patrons of school lunch. Without them, we would not have a school lunch program. Today, DPS students are going to talk about their experiences with school lunch. Good evening.
I'm Elena Minina with Student U and the Unbox Group and I seed my time to Luis Mendes. Evening. My name is Luis Mendes. I'm a DSA student with Unbox and Sunni.
And I uh like to seed my time to Brian Nafaro Chavez. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. My name is Brian Aaro Chavez. I am a ninth grader at JD Clement Early College.
I am part of Unbox, the district's youth food policy council. I'm here to advocate for better food. For most of my life, I have been a DPS student. And because of this, I know that DPS is open to student voice, student voices, and student voice advocacy. Let me lay out something for
you all. Today, April 24th, my school ran out of food. Today, I had a cafeteria worker, a generous cafeteria worker, lend me their lunch. A month ago, my school also ran out of food.
This, keep in mind, this is during lunch hours. Fortunately, there was some leftover yogurt from breakfast. Imagine going 5 hours in multiple classes with only a Pop-Tart as fuel. Imagine receiving looks because your stomach was grumbling so loudly.
Imagine not being able to focus properly because you were only allotted a sugar square for breakfast without any other nutritional value. This is the unfortunate truth with breakfasts. Food is an essential part of a student's day. I am one of the many students who depend on their schools to provide them with healthy, nutritious and appetizing breakfasts and lunches.
I know that schools are doing a humanitarian service by providing students with food. So, thank you. But it does not have to be either nutritious or delicious. Let me lay out something for you all. We speaking in general here, healthy
growing teens are given less sodium than what the USDA labels as those who are high risk. This criteria also included those with chronic kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes, etc. So, our system is flawed. But what can be done?
While it seems like hands are tied because of laws and regulations, the truth is if we go back to serving more scratch-made food in our schools, we can better regulate the taste and follow guidelines, therefore solving both problems. Another thing that can be done is allocating resources towards initiatives like the DPS good food program which advocates for fresher food in our schools. You can find more about them in the DPS website. Practice what you teach.
What I mean by this is that DPS has already invested time, resources, and money towards teaching and training culinary art students and cafeteria managers about fresh food and how to handle it. We know the difference between healthy and fresh food versus nutrient blocks with preservatives. And I stress nutrient because some of some
most food options aren't even nutritious. For example, that Pop-Tart that I loved during breakfast. If this is taught to us, why isn't it served to us? Let our Durham public schools be the district that makes the permanent transition to more natural, healthier, and more delicious food for the better and for the future of food for all students.
Thank you. Hi, my name is Alex Turner. I'm with student U and the Unbox group and I'm going to seed my time to Kenji Florenio Luna. Good evening.
My name is Kenya Florencio Luna. I am a student at JD Clement Early College High School and I'm here today with Unbox and Student and I'd like to seed my time to Alejandra Marlejo. Good evening. I'm Alejandra Marlejo, ninth grade student at Riverside High and part of Unbox District's Youth Food Policy Council. I'm here to share some concerns regarding the quality of the school food and the future it may hold.
Being a lifelong student at DPS, I've never had a singular moment in which I felt satisfied by the meals. It's not just me. " every day. Even those who aren't served it remark on its poor quality.
With the introduction of the DPS good food program, an initiative that's that strive to serve high quality and local food to students at DPS, I felt as if the wishes of every student were fulfilled. But now that is at risk. Once I saw that DPS has ended its contract with Firsthand Foods, a local meat distributor connected by the DPS good food program. I lost a bit of hope.
When this happened, I started to see mystery meat paste being served as protein in conjunction with the build your own menu, which is from the DPS good food program. Even though I thought DPS was beyond serving this nauseating item. When I saw this happen, I did not feel human. I felt much more rather like a statistic to prove that DPS is adequately providing food for students.
DPS was taking a step in the right direction. Yet they have retreated to acting frivolous despite food being an incessional investment in the health of thousands. I heard that there are discussions related to renewal of a contract with firsthand foods. Yet I did do not expect DPS to be committed to continue finding healthy and quality food for students like us.
We need to take action. Action that invests in the health of the future just as good food does for our students. What is the purpose of free meals if they aren't desirable to students? Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Kamaria Mason and I'm a registered dietitian here supporting the students of Unboxed. You've heard from the students that the good food program is important to DPS students. I urge you to support the good stu good foods program by intentionally funding and allocating an annual fixed percentage of the DPS budget to maintain a minimum of 75% of existing contracts with organizations like firsthand foods and Red Hawk Farm who provide local sustainably sourced meat and protein.
Secondly, as students are the heart of all that we do, I encourage you to support groups that amplify student voices. The unbox student message is clear. DPS can serve nutritious and delicious foods. Ultrarocessed foods are high in preservatives and sodium.
Let's support more scratch cooking. More scratch cooking equals less sodium. Thank you. Thank you.
Asha Sharta, Jen Story, Amanda Baker, Lydia Benavos, Frederick A. Davis, Norma Patia, Jamie Smith, Anne Ays, Sally Winstead. I excuse me before you go. I still have a question about the policy that we're referring to about the time limit because I'm not seeing where the chair has authority to grant a certain time limit. I do see it mentions a 30 limit 30 minute limit, but I don't see where that mandates that we have a 30 minute limit. And perhaps our lawyer, our attorney could weigh in.
Sure. So, policy 2310 does reference that there will be a 30 minute limit on um a 30 minute period set aside for the purpose of public comment at the beginning of the regular action meeting. Um so to wave that policy I think would follow the normal process for waving a board policy um which would be a motion and a vote I believe of two/3. I'd like to make a motion that we wave policy 2310 um to allow for um each uh person signed up for public comment to make um comments of one minute in length.
Second. It's been moved by Emily Chávez and seconded by Miss Harrell Goff to wave board policy 2310 and allow everyone signed up to speak for one minute. Is there any further discussion? Missstead. Yeah, I appreciate this motion. I think it's been our practice to allow everyone
that's come to speak and so if we are going to make a change, I don't suggest that we need to make sure people have noticed and are aware of what those changes are going to be. Um, that's just want to make sure I add that and I'm happy to support this. Thank you. Any further discussion?
All those in favor say I. I. I. It passes unanimously.
Go right ahead. Thanks for the consideration. Uh my name is Ashish Sharda. I'm a parent um of a first grader and rising kindergartener at Creekide uh elementary school.
And I'll be waving or I'll be seating my time to Amanda Baker. I'm sorry. You can only seize your time to the person right behind you. So that would be Jen's story.
Hi, I'm Jen Story. I'm also a parent of a first grader and a fourth grader at Creek Side Elementary. I'll be seating my time to Amanda Baker. Thank you. Hi, I'm Amanda Baker, a parent of two children at Creekide Elementary. Good
evening. Um, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. I want to begin by acknowledging a difficult truth that we are all facing. There is a lack of funding at the state level and this reality is having a direct tangible impact on our local school districts, especially as we look ahead to budgeting for the 2025 2026 school year.
With that said, we believe how we choose to allocate the resources we do have will determine how well we can serve our students. And right now, our priorities need to shift. We urge the board to prioritize school-based positions, the individuals who are face toface with students every single day. We understand there may be a reduction in force at central office and we hope this does not trickle down to the school level. We also want to note while we are topheavy at the assistant superintendent and executive director levels, there are other departments such as HR that are stretched thin and cannot provide the level of support principles and schools need while at the same time our schools are left to navigate staffing shortages, growing class sizes, and increased student needs. One example is the
projected allocation for classroom teachers in grades four and five. Historically, the staffing for formula has divided the projected number of students at each grade level by 21 and a half. Next year, the proposal shifts that ratio to 25 students per teacher. 5 may no longer be feasible, but 25 is too drastic.
We propose a comp compromise dividing by 23 or 23 and a half. It would be uh a better balance between physical responsibility and the reality of classroom management and effective instruction. In addition, we are deeply concerned about the lack of support for elementary MTSS's. There are no coordinator positions, no intervention teacher allocated.
The roles are essential for identifying and addressing learning gaps early and without them, students will fall further behind. The same is true for restorative practices. There is no elementary coordinator to support this critical work. If we are truly committed to equity and student well-being, we must invest in the systems that support behavior, relationships, and accountability. We
also ask that you strengthen elementary EC services by providing instructional assistance for our exceptional children who are placed in general education settings. These students deserve equitable access and the support to thrive. Multilingual families also need stronger support. We urge you to expand the multilingual resource center and increase the number of interpreters to improve communication engagement and access for all families.
Please continue supporting media media coordinators who are vital to literacy, technology access, and school culture. And finally, we recommend ending travel and professional learning conferences for non-school-based staff. Hello. As the BT3 dance director at Club Boulevard, I am actively choosing to advocate for myself, my students, and my program. So, how can I instill and inspire my students and I not speak at this meeting today? I believe dance must remain a core part of our students education.
Dance is not just movement. It's a tool for developing the whole child. It bids physical health, confidence, discipline, and emotional expression. Dance also supports academics.
Movement helps with memory, focus, and pattern recognition, key skills in math, science, and literacy. Plus, it promotes equity by celebrating diverse culture and giving every student a voice. Dance teach um dance teaches creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. It supports social emotional growth, helping students express themselves through regulating their emotions and pers perseverance through challenges.
Most importantly, dance um teaches and reaches students who may not be connecting through traditional academics. It gives them a chance to shine, succeed, and feel seen. In short, dance is not a luxury or an extracurricular. It is a vital part of a well-rounded, high quality education.
Thank you. I'm Frederick Davis. I represent several organizations uh for 33 years. I've been a citizen here in Durham, North Carolina. Been a former school board
member of the Durham public schools. Now a grandparent, two elementary school children. Used to be three until the system failed one of our grandchildren. Uh, so I say this quickly and to the point.
As you prepare to vote on the budget before you, remember that there are citizens of more than one organization that you represent and that there are more funding needs that must be a priority. And if we are to maintain a school system of excellence where children are first, children are first and parents who must trust this system to send their children to you. So please keep in mind now let the truth be known. Ethiopian proverb when spiderw webs unite they can tie up lions. Good evening. I'm Norma Portillo and I'm
a PLA PTA president tonight and I want to highlight two important points. First, I want to express my gratitude to the dedicated staff to in our school cafeterias and the C and the good food programs. It is truly encouraging to see the significant increase in the numbers of students receiving a school's meals at this time. This support is an invaluable lifeline for many families within our district providing essential nutrition and easing financial burdens.
Secondly, I want to address the vital dance program boulevard. This program which has enriched the life of our students for over two decades goes far beyond teaching dance technique. It fosters confidence, creativity and physical health and a strong sense of community among our children. At the time our at time when our schools face challenges and changes, programs like dance are crucial for providing a stability, joy and opportunities for
hol and dance program. Hello, my name is Jamie Smith. I'm a media co coordinator at Spring Valley Elementary and a proud member of DAE. And I'm going to see my time to Ann.
Hello. Hello. My name is Anne Ays. I'm the media coordinator at WG Pearson Elementary.
And I'd like to seed my time to Sally Winstead. Hello. Hello, my name is Sally Winstead and I stand before you with immense pride and gratitude as this year's recipient of the Leonard Award, naming me Durham Public Schools Media Coordinator of the Year. It is truly an honor and a privilege to receive this award, and I could not have achieved it without the incredible Creekide community, the support of my school administration, the talented, hardworking media coordinators across DPS, and of course, your continued support. Today, I'm not here just to
celebrate my own recognition. I want to take this opportunity to show you why I believe I earned this award. Not as an exception in our district, but as one of many. I am just one example of the dedication, effort, and passion that media coordinators bring into our schools every single day.
At Creekide Elementary and DPS, I wear many hats. I serve on our school's leadership team. I am also on our school's tech champion, splitting this role with another wonderful educator. On average, I spend 5 to 10 hours a week assigning and repairing laptops and supporting schoolwide technology needs.
I coach our Battle of the Books team, which meets weekly throughout the year. I have the joy of inspiring fourth and fifth graders to read an incredible collection of books, and work together as a team. I also serve as a media lead for elementary schools across the district. For two years now, I've helped run monthly meetings, support other media coordinators with cataloging, inventory, and lesson planning. And most importantly, I help create a space where
we mentor and uplift one another. And underneath all of that is my heart. I am the media coordinator at Creekide Elementary School. I've served in this role for eight years and have been an educator for 20.
Each week I teach 27 classes, 45 minutes each, reaching 580 students, I think around there. And during that time, we dive into literacy and research skills, critical thinking, and the joy of storytelling. And yes, we check out books. We are currently at 15,000 books checked out.
Please know, I do not say all of this to boast. I know the work I put in every day, and I'm incredibly proud of it. But I need you to understand, I am not alone. I am not the exception.
Across our district, media coordinators are doing the same work and more every single day. We are leaders, educators, tech support, coaches, mentors, and champions for literacy. The role of the media coordinator is vital. We cannot afford to take steps backward. Our positions,
our resources, our staffing levels, they are not optional. They are essential to the success of our students and the smooth functioning of our schools. I urge you, continue supporting us. Ensure that every high school has Caroline Herbert, Alexandra Cody, Kim Gagino, Gagino, I'm sorry, Jenny Umbberger, Love Anderson, Jennifer Johnson, Daniel Kimp, Micah Hunter Tweet Meer, Millie Rosen, Sonia Lopez, Good evening.
My name is Caroline Herbert. I'm one of the media coordinators at Hillside High School and I seed my time to Alex Cody. Good evening. My name is Alex Cody. I'm the proud media coordinator at um Southwest Elementary and a proud NCDA member and I seed my time to Kim Gagino.
Good evening members of the board and Dr. Lewis. I'm Kim Gajino, the high school media coordinator at Durham School of the Arts. As we wind down celebration of National School Library Month, I want to take a moment to reflect on what is necessary for full and robust library media services and programs that promote literacy, support all curricula, and develop and honor the varied needs and interests of the children we serve.
Media coordinators are certified educators. We be build reading levels, teach research and digital citizenship, co-plan with teachers, and create safe spaces for students to explore their identities, interests, and voices. Um, as one of DPS's media leads, I have observed that thriving media centers have two things in common. Full access to their budgets as allocated by the board and protected time to do our job.
At DSA, we are very lucky to have supportive administrators who provide both. Thank you for historically placing money where we say our priorities are by funding libraries and library personnel. As you are making tough budget decisions
for the upcoming year, please continue to fund our libraries and keep two media coordinator positions at the secondary and high school levels so that we can continue to provide exceptional resources and services to our students. During the work session earlier this month, Miss Umstead wondered aloud about the impact of the 15% reduction in funding for our libraries. This reduction resulted in the loss of approximately 175 books at DSA, which roughly equates to the amount necessary to purchase all of the middle and high school books needed to run our Battle of the Books programs. For schools that do not have full access to their board allocated funds, they may not be able to run a Battle of the Books program next year.
With these cuts, as books are purchased in the spring for the coming year, if Battle of the Books titles were spared at a school, such as at DSA, some other specific need had to be reduced or eliminated. At DSA, we were unable to fully fund uh to support fine arts and sports books, which was an area of focus in our five-year collection development plan. I hope you've been able to read about some of the amazing media coordinators highlighted in the DPS
spotlight on excellence for school library month. If you have not yet had an opportunity to see Sally Winstead, our media coordinator of the year and one of our elementary u media leads in action, you are missing out. She is a shining in example and a true spark of excellence in DPS. These professionals along with all of the other amazing media coordinators throughout the district continue to step up to curate collections, develop and teach lessons, collaborate with staff, and manage programs.
But we can't keep doing all of that if our roles are absorbed into unrelated responsibilities like technology and testing or positions are eliminated. Tonight, I'm asking you to protect dedicated media coordinator positions and preserve full funding for our school libraries because if Hello again. I'm Jenny Umbberger, the middle school librarian at DSA, finishing my 28th year in education, all in Durham public schools. This is my
24th year as a school library media coordinator. I'm also a proud member of DAE. Proposed Senate Bill 511, information literacy skills in schools, requires that the state BOE um adopt standards for age appropriate instruction on information literacy for K12 students, which will go into effect next school year if it also passes in the House. The standards identified in this bill include instruction in such things as the research process, how to use information sources, methods of research, how to access peer-reviewed print and digital library resources, and the ethical production of information.
The bill also states that PSUs shall consult with library media personnel when developing curriculum for the information literacy standards. Eliminating school library media positions now with SB511 on the horizon would do a disservice to our students, staff, and district as a whole. We need dedicated, trained professionals. Hi, I'm Jennifer Johnson and I proud
member of DAE and I seed my time to Daniel Kemp. Daniel Kemp, DAE, I seed my time to Micah Hunter Tweet Meer. Good evening. Micah Hunter Tweet Meer, Durham Public Schools educator of 17 years and president of the Durham Association of Educators.
Over the past two weeks, the union has met with all seven schoolboard members to discuss our nine urgent spring demands and proposals. We would have liked to have been conducting this process through meet and confer with district administration. We know that the district administrators are the ones with all the information and are the ones who should have been in those conversations. We also know we've been working on this for almost two years to finalize meet and confer and there are still some important parts of the policy that need to be resolved before we can bring it back to our membership.
We have made it known to Dr. Lewis that it is very important for our members that we meet with him to finish the process and create a final version of the policy. Dr. Lewis, you are invited along with
your DPS administration to a public meeting in May. Our team has reserved the evenings of May 13th, 14th, and 15th. At this meeting, we will discuss the union's proposals that the majority of schoolboard members committed to moving forward, including article three, no collaboration with ICE, article five, full restoration of master's pay, article six, printed contracts, article 7, collective grievance policy and representation during the grievance procedure and potentially modifying the meet and confer policy. You may have noticed that there has been a lack of collective celebration with regards to the meet and confer policy that was passed on the 10th.
While we are proud of the amount of progress we have made on this policy this school year, our members are shocked, frustrated, and disappointed with how things went. As you know, we have a serious concern about the 6% threshold undermining worker democracy and the integrity of the process. Also, being
completely cut out of the discussion on the 10th felt really disrespectful after all of our members hard work and dedication to developing a policy that we could be happy with. And there being a surprise vote on the policy despite multiple board members expressing interest in a higher threshold and/or mediation felt needlessly divisive. Board members also had little time to review the draft that was voted on and there were unttracked changes in section B2 that make the policy completely unworkable for us. The process of finalizing the policy without us and having these unttracked changes will make it very challenging to celebrate the policy together and begin to reunite our district.
Having said this, I believe it is critical and possible for us to figure out a way to finalize the policy more collaboratively and reach a conclusion to this saga that we can all feel good about and celebrate together. I think we are positioned to do that. We look forward to meeting with you in
May. Millie Rosen, seventh grade math teacher at DSA, proud union member of DAE. seeding time to Sonia Lopez. I'm Sonia Lopez, social worker and I'm seeding my time to Anatos.
Hi, I'm Ananda Goch. Um, you're not next. That's Amanda Clark. Amanda.
Oh, I'm sorry. That's you. Yeah, that's me. Thank you.
All right. Can I have my time back? She's gonna restart the clock. All right.
Thank you. Uh, I'm an Andigos. Um, 10 year DPS employee, 13-year DPS student. I'm with DAE.
I'm on the meet confer team. We've all met recently. Um, I want to thank y'all. Uh, I want to thank you for taking worker voice seriously. The contrast between what was portrayed on Monday's Spark Mail and what we can see in tonight's budget presentation is stark.
Um, I y'all must have been working hard behind the scenes because you must want the extra information that the rest of the DPS workers and Durham community want to know before y'all vote on this budget. In this late hour, we do have that new information. New to the budget book tonight is a breakdown of how many positions the administration is planning on funding and cutting for next year. DPS is budgeting for 27 more directors and supervisors compared to last year while cutting nine assistant principal positions and 112 teacher positions at the least.
Administration is trying to frame these maneuvers as reallocations, but these are frontline cuts. Schools are losing positions, students are losing caring adults. This will affect the classroom. To be clear, I'm not talking about the 27 central office positions that are being cut. It's commendable to cut those positions. Just happens to be the same number as
the 27 extra directors and supervisors that were not on the books before. I also commend the new finance team for finding this all out. This new information confirms in plain numbers what the Durm community has long suspected. DPS is so topheavy the administration can barely keep track of who they're paying to not be with kids.
Our administrators ask classified and certified employees yearbyear to take turns getting raises, asking for patience, asking for sacrifice while directors and supervisors take their salaries off the books. As many of you remind us all the time, we work for children. The decision on whether to vote tonight or not for this budget is about children. You use state allocations to justify these frontline cuts, but we know the state only pays for 25% of those 101 proposed directors and supervisors, which is more
than the 86 assistant principles y'all are trying to leave us with. Let's put workers back in You're Love, right? Yes. Love Anderson.
Okay, welcome to the podium. Sorry we skipped you somehow, but welcome. Go ahead. Uh, my name is Love Anderson and I am a former Durham public schools teacher and I'm the founder of Breastfeed Durham.
19 years ago, I began teaching in Durham public schools. 14 years ago, I returned to work nearly 14 years ago to this day to pump on the bathroom floor of the teacher's bathroom to create milk for my preeie. I was desperate to be able to feed him and I was struggling during standardized test time. " 10 years I be later, I became a peer-to-peer lactation support provider. I founded
Rusty Durham and every August I had teachers crying about going back to work. But today marks a change. Today Durham public schools will proclaim that their support of lactating teachers and students and even parents coming into the classroom. Today we know change makes time takes time but I'm very grateful for your support.
Lisa Gerardi, Caroline Brick House, Angela Ebron, Asia Pope, Angela Park, Angel Parkstone, Christy Clim, Kelly Mumford, Charles Faulner, Tatina Clay. Hi, Lisa Gerard, DAE, and I seed my time to Caroline Brick House. Good evening board members and Dr. Lewis. My name is Caroline Brick House. I'm a DPS parent, Durham taxpayer, proud DAE member, current DPS employee, and
former DPS teacher of the year. As board member Tab would say, I am a stakeholder with quite a bit of stake in the success of our district. I am here because there are many things said during last month's board meeting and the recent public meetings between the board and DAE that have given me pause. Most importantly, the possibility of a budget proposal being passed this evening despite this board not having all of the necessary information to make the most informed decisions that also fulfill the needs of DPS employees and Durham voters.
We have now dealt with two years of monetary issues due to budget mismanagement. Enough is enough. I want to respectfully and firmly remind each board member here tonight that it is your democratically elected duty to do your due diligence and thoroughly question and scrutinize any budget proposal brought to you by the DPS administrative team before you vote to pass it. Questioning Dr. Lewis and his team and seeking all necessary
information prior to passing this budget proposal as well as its transparency is in no way an affront or an establishment of a lack of trust in him or his team. It is your responsibility. Placing trust in previous leadership is what got us into this mess. To the newly elected board members, I urge you to learn ear learn from past board mistakes because our students, families, all DPS employees and your future in politics depends on it.
I'm Angela Iber, DAE, and I am seating my time to Asia Pope. Hi, I'm Asia. I am a DPS classified worker for the past 17 years. I'm elected representative of DAE's mean confer team and I also work another
full-time job which I had to take off to be here tonight. I'm here to talk about what it means to have budget transparency and what it looks like to treat workers with respect and dignity. Board members, this budget request is not ready to vote to be voted on tonight. At our meetings this month, you acknowledge that there are huge questions about our district's finances.
Why did we just find out find out this week that the budget calls for $1 million to fund 27 more directors and supervisors downtown while also calling for a pay freeze for classified workers like me and cuts to hundreds of school level positions? What can I expect next year? Will I still need to work a second full-time job? And what money is in the bank? Why are you scheduled to vote on this budget despite the massive unanswered questions? Without these answers, there can't be budget transparency, no accountability, and no collaboration.
Without those things, none of us can know whether this budget is really prioritizing what our students need most. Tonight, you can vote blindly on another budget that will leave students and classified workers in turmoil, or you can delay this vote. commit to real transparency, demand answers to these questions, and collaborate with workers. Lastly, I want to address Dr.
Lewis. We've invited you to another meeting, and I look forward to your RSVP. When you walked out of the meeting on the on March 25th, I felt disrespected. I honestly expected better leadership from you.
I expected for you to treat us as well as you treated your workers in Lawrence. Since that meeting, all seven board members actually listened to the unions. Please email us the rest of your comments. I'm Angel Parkstone, 28-year veteran,
and I am exceeding my time to CL Christy Clam. Hello. Christy Clam, physical therapist, classified employee, DAE. um hear enough waiting to be invited to dinner with somebody.
Um but I do want to ask what is DPS's commitment to classified employees? Last board meeting we again heard it said that classified may not move up to schedules. I know we'll get our year of step experience because we've worked six months this past year, but second year in a row of wait and see what the state does for you in the fall. I want to know what DPS is going to do for us now.
Current salary schedules have increased the compression and lowered the max pay for different positions. Haven't been able to compare all the positions because that list of old pay grades to new pay grades that I've asked for in multiple ways multiple times still never got. But I spent my holiday last weekend calling classified to find out what was your old grade? Check your payub. Give
me your new grade. Let me try to compare on my own. You've heard me say veterans are going to be frozen. It's way more than veterans.
You've seen some of this information the last week, but for IAS, anyone on step one through 21 will be frozen between one and 19 years for what our current pay is to our Eerie schedules. I believe that's what's referred to as held harmless. Um, admin admin assistant one to step one to 13 frozen for 1 to 19 years. I would have to go back and look to see where in that range it falls.
1 to 27 for CNS. They're frozen because current pay is higher than Erie scales. And now we're talking about freezing all 40% of classified employees one more year. Current pay compared to Eerie maxes.
IAS are going to cap out at year 22. No career raises after that. Nurses, they're capping out at year 15. OT's pts
19. This is comparing Bumpford, ECIA at COP um in the COP program. Murray Massenberg, DAE member, member of the meet and confer team. I see my time to Charles.
My name is Charles Faulner. I'm part of um Southwest Transportation. I concede my time to um Tasha Clay. My name is Tasha Clay and I'm a safety assistant bus monitor from Southwest Division.
I'm a proud DAE member. I've been a monitor for four years on a EC bus. We're supposed to get paperwork that we never get that can tell us about the appropriate accommodations for our EC students. But I have 12 students in the morning from the E program. I have
10 from the elementary and in the afternoon from the high school. I have 22. We're the first places the students see in the morning and the last before they go home. They share about what's happening in school, things they like and the things they don't like.
Right now, they are overwhelmed with testing. So, um I help them stay calm and I also help the older kids find work in the summer to keep them busy. The hardest part of my job this year was seeing the fear that my immigrant families are facing because of the uncertainty of the ICE and their immigration status. That's been a couple of times when the parents refused to come outside to meet us at the bus stop.
We couldn't let the kids off the bus basically about every all of them from the elementary school except for a few. Either the parents will crack the door and immediately shut the door or they'll have a older sibling come to the bus stop. People shouldn't have to live that way. I can tell the students feel jittery and scared because of what their family is experiencing. That's why I'm a
proud I'm proud to be part of the union where we fight for our staff and our students and families. DPS needs to adopt the DAE's no collaboration and ICE policy now so that our families don't have to live in fear. Instead of creating more positions downtown, show those of us who work with students every day that we value. Tonight, we need you to take action.
We need a budget that includes safety assistance and monitors in a $200 a month transportation supplement. And we don't need a classified pay freeze. We need a 2% local salary increase for our classified workers. When we fight, we win.
Thank you. Na talla Daniel Rudy I'm sorry. Taveta Caps Aiden Mendoza Kayla Sorry, I can't read your handwriting. Maybe it starts with a C or an L.
[Music] Um, Lincoln Harrington, Ezra Norbert, Owen Ambrose, Melanie Smith, Alyssa Platt. Hey, I'm Sonia Tolamer and I seed my time to Retha. My name is Retha Daniel Ruth and I'm a bus driver and I'm conceding my time to Tabitha CS. Hi, my name is Tabitha and I'm a proud DAE member and a bus monitor for Southwest Transportation.
My driver is Mr. Walker from bus 29. We are a team and we transport EC students from Southwest Elementary. Our students are amazing and special. They've touched my heart and I want to continue to be a positive role model to them. The parents support us and see how
we take care of their students and DPS should see that as well. When I started working for DPS, I was working in the office answering the the telephone and I made $19 an hour. Now that I work with parents and students, I make just$,750. Do you think that children who have autistic and special needs are not worthy?
I think they are, and so do my co-workers, and that's why I'm here. I've always wanted to care for people with special needs, and I feel like I was guided to do this. I go above and beyond to make people with special needs feel like they're the same as everyone else. And we are teachers and aids all at once.
I have 15 special needs students on my bus and they all want my attention. I pingpong through the bus, pumping them up and communicating with parents. I am an important part of their lives. Just this week was there was a shooting at McDougall and one of my students came on the bus and her mom was crying. I bought her a card and flowers
and we've got two students at a shelter. I got them Easter gifts. They hugged me and they were so happy. And I do it because I care.
They trust me and I listen to them. And one student's been singing on the bus every day. " And we make it a fun, safe environment that really captures their imagination and tune into their heart and each of their individual needs and talents. So what about my individual needs?
If you treat people what they're worth and acknowledge our work, then people will stay longer. I love my job. I really do. And I'm not planning to leave.
But there may come a time when co-workers and I can afford to stay. So tonight, we're just asking you to pass the the budget that includes includes bus monitors and the transportation supplement of 200 a month that includes the 2% classified pay raises. 15 cent step increases just
aren't enough. And I thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Aiden Mendoza Kayla is next.
If y'all come on up. Go ahead. Good evening. My name is Aydah Mendoza and I'm here presenting DSA Sunrise.
When we met with many of you um oneonone, you asked us to assess the feasibility of the Green New Deal resolution and how we can make it more fit for our district. So, we have spent the last two months doing just that. We met with Jonathan Klein from Undaunted K12, the CEO of a national climate education organization to learn about
what he believes our district is capable of accomplishing. We met with the Sunrise Hub leader from Denver, Colorado, where they were able to successfully pass a Green New Deal. We met with your chief um operating officer, Larry Webb, to get a sense of what is being done at DB DPS buildings right now to make them more sustainable. After that, we met with DPS purchasing and logistics manager um DJ Lynch and Mrs.
Blake Reed to understand what the plan was for for the new DSA building. We have done all we can to determine feasibility. Now, this is all on you to work with us to create a plan. Thank you.
So, I think the next person in line was Kayla Cabrera. Um she was not able to be here. She had to leave early. Um, so I am the next up, Lucia Harrington.
Thank you. Go right ahead. Um, hello. My name is Lucia Harrington.
I'm here with Sunrise DSA. First, I'm so inspired by all of the educators who care so much about us. Please listen to them. Today,
you all are deciding on budget. I would like to talk about money and climate policy. Money will always be an issue. Money is also a big reason it's easy to dismiss us and our demands as unreasonable, unrealistic, and not a top priority.
I would like to offer two alternative pers perspectives. Switching to renewable energy saves you money. Efficiency saves you money, and those funds can go towards teachers salaries and other things that you need it for. And not everything we're proposing requires significant funding.
You have staff, educators, community members who care. With what you have, you can educate students about climate change earlier and more in depth. You can make sure there are opportunities for students to learn about jobs and careers in one of the fastest growing sectors. You
Hello, my name is Ezra Norberg. Um, I'm a member of Riverside's Sunrise Club, but I'm here on behalf of uh DSA Sunrise Club. Uh, as we have met with you all, we've been instructed to meet with operations and to figure out the logistics of this plan. And as you have heard earlier, we are willing to put in that effort.
We are willing to make a plan, but what we need first is a resolution, a symbol, a signed promise from you all that you're willing to support and collaborate with us on this effort. Having this resolution signed will give us the authority and the initiative we need to meet with officials and progress in climate advocacy, not the other way around. We might be facing challenges, but that doesn't mean we are incapable of doing anything. Our district needs to promise to do what it can.
We need you to sign a Green New Deal. It's a promise to make a plan. We'd like to work with you. We can organize a student board coalition that can work together to create and plan the execution of a climate action plan. But we need you to show that you care, that you want to work with your students, that you want to work.
Hey y'all, my name is Owen Ambrose. I'm with DSA Sunrise. Thank you all for listening to our comments tonight. As I speak, we are sending you an email with a digital copy of the finance packet, which is a packet describing uh the financial viability of climate uh policy, another copy of our resolution, although I hope you guys have read that.
uh and a request uh that you all come with us within the coming week with the next step and how to revise and pass this resolution. We have provided you with the document. We have provided you with the resources. We've shown that our students care and we need is action and progress from you all.
We know you all are busy, but we want to value your time and the most productive change students can make can only happen after this resolution is passed. We are holding a study protest on May 1st in coordination with the 50 50-51 and the Mayday movement protests taking place across Durham. We will be in Durham's main plaza sitting in school desks holding signs, leading chants, informing people about the Green New Deal. Um, I don't have enough time, but thank you for your time. We'd also like to say that we are completely in support of all the demands
of DAE and all the staff and community members who are here just like us for the betterment of DPS. Thank you all for your time. I have this Melanie Smith. Hi.
Hi. Hello. My name is Mommy. I'm in the fifth grade and I'm here to spread autism awareness.
At my school, people don't know how to act towards people who don't look like them. They hurt you. They'll mock you and run. And I want to change that.
We are all the same, learn the same things, and breathe the same air. Capturing people different. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, brown, autistic, or not autistic. We are all people.
And I would also like to talk about bullying. If you see, if you have been doing that, think twice. And
if you see this happening, step up. Don't let them push you and stand up. The planet doesn't need any more hate speech. All we have to do is accept people for who they are.
Thank you. Alyssa Platt is am I am I in right order? Okay. Hi, my name is Alyssa Platt.
I'm the parent of a fourth grader and second grader and a rising kindergartener at Club Boulevard Elementary. I'm also the PTA secretary. I'm here tonight to ask you to please work with us to preserve our award-winning D dance dance dance program. Dance has been an integral part of club's curriculum and culture for over 20 years now and is part of the fabric of who we are as a school community. Club is a title one school that through the course of growing together has gained a wonderful DLI program only accessible to a maximum of 25% of its population and in course of
that has also lost an ESL teacher, our dean of students, a classroom teacher and reduced social work support. Now we stand to lose our dance program. Though we understand and support the goals of growing together, the school board must recognize that just as every child has things that make them unique, so do school communities. Dance is something we love and is part of what makes us special.
Please, please work with us to preserve this program. It is much easier to destroy something that is working well than it would be to rebuild it. Thank you. Thank you.
Next item on our agenda is consent. Move approval of the consent agenda. Second move by Miss Ber and seconded by Miss Unstead to approve the consent agenda items. There any further discussion?
All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed use the same sign.
passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is the proclamation of support for infant feeding practices in Durham public schools. So, I can introduce this. Um, I just wanted to say, um, thank you.
My apologies. I I didn't see your name. Sorry. I would have acknowledged you if I had seen that.
Okay. I'm sorry. It's not on the prey. There's no pricey.
There was a praces, but it didn't get uploaded, but that's okay. Okay. Um, but um there um this proclamation was brought to us by Breastfeed Durham and so I want to thank them um for um working with us on this and thank you to Love Anderson who spoke in on behalf of Breastfeed Durham um earlier. And we also wanted to place this on the agenda at this time because this is national uh minority health
month. Um so a an appropriate time to recognize um all the supports that Durham provides for lactating parents. Um so with that we can go ahead and and read it and start with Missstead. Yes, ma'am.
Sorry. Proclamation of support for infant feeding practices in Durham public schools. Whereas families are the priority in the Durham public schools and part of helping families to thrive is ensuring that there is employer and community support to develop and sustain healthy lifestyles. Whereas according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and other leading health organizations, human milk is the optimal food for infants. And whereas breastfeeding and chest feeding benefits the entire family and is associated with lifelong health for children including
social emotional development and lower rates of childhood illness such as obesity, diabetes and infectious diseases as well as maternal benefits such as a reduced risk of maternal breast and ovarian cancers and a faster recovery from childbirth. And whereas providing adequate time and comfortable lactation spaces that are clean and not bathrooms to nurse or express their milk supports our teachers, students, and staff to continue to breastfeed and chestfeed and offer express milk when they return to work or school. And whereas providing a written policy and sharing it with employees and families reflects our commitment to promoting and supporting breastfeeding, chest feeding, and human milk feeding. And whereas encouraging schools to include breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding curriculara as outlined in the North Carolina standard course of study normalizes breastfeeding by providing learning opportunities and
books that illustrate nursing animals and babies. And whereas providing sufficient refrigerated space ensures that all lactating teachers, staff, and students in our schools are able to properly and safely store their milk. And I'm sorry y'all. Um, whereas providing a family friend I got too many tabs open.
Whereas providing a family-friendly environment includes actively inviting breastfeeding and chestfeeding families to volunteer at our schools and welcoming them to nurse their babies and whereas by providing a supportive and welcoming environment, lactationfriendly schools encourage families of all races, ethnicities, and family structures to initiate and continue optimal infant feeding and nursing. Well, thank you all very much. And um I'll just note uh one last thing, which is that Durham public schools um did
achieve the uh step 10 of a breast of the uh breastfeeding familyfriendly community initiative. Um so Breastfeed Dorm has information about that on their website. Um which you'll find is um kind of in in line with what we have here in this proclamation. And this is just one important way that we support our our staff and our students.
Um, so thank you all and there a motion. I move that we approve this proclamation. Second. It's been moved by Miss Harrell Goff, seconded by Miss Umstead to approve the proclamation for support of four infant feeding practices in Durham public schools.
Um, is there any further discussion? Um, thank you to I will say thank you to um, Breastfeed Derm, Emily Chávez for bringing this proclamation. As a mother and parent,
um, that had to pump in a stock room. I continue to be triggered uh by the fear of somebody walking in on me or um other concerns of not being able to provide for my own child. Um I look forward to um helping to ensure that this is adequately addressed in Durham because it was not at D. Um, all those in favor?
I I Any oppose? Same sign. It passes unanimously. Thank you all.
The next item on our agenda is the 2526 recommended budget. Mr. Teter, thanks for joining us. Yes, U.
Millicent Rogers, board members, and Dr. Lewis, I'm especially excited to be up here. I've been itching to get up here
for the past 30 minutes during public comments. Um, and so look forward to sort of talking through um this presentation um touching on some questions um and it appears also touching on some misinformation tonight. So looking forward to bringing some further clarity. Um, so I think before I go into the presentation, um, just maybe wanted to touch on a few things that feel pertinent, um, and that are important.
And so I think, um, everyone that spoke in public comments tonight shared their background, um, their connections to Durham, their histories, um, and so I will share my history, um, in this piece of the puzzle and, uh, in the profession. Uh, and so, um, I've been in Durham since November 4th, um, as your chief finance officer. Um and in the course of my career have been a finance officer in various sizes of districts across North Carolina through different periods of time. Um and also had the privilege uh to serve as a consultant for 27 districts in North Carolina of varying sizes and degrees
with different challenges. Um, you know, and some of those that's been a really great privilege for me. And some of those assignments were were very difficult and and included districts that were seized by the state of North Carolina and the state board of education due to partly their financial challenges and things that they had to work through and uh folks that were unable to work together. I was very proud uh to be part of those solutions and pulling things together.
And I'm very proud uh to be part of this difficult puzzle uh here in Durham. And so, uh, we've heard a lot of, uh, concerns about transparency or lack thereof or what kind of conversations are we having or we not having. That's all we've talked about for six months. Um, is is the status of the finances in Durham.
Um, and there is uh certainly a lot more um that we do in finance beyond the budget, right? And and we had some interesting conversations today about the work that we do with accounting and supporting our school treasurers and the purchasing functions and all sorts of areas that we focus on. But this budget has been um sort of my work for the past
six months. One uh unpacking in some cases on live TV uh where we stand uh in the current year in Durham public schools. You can't get much more transparent than that. Uh I lost count of how many microphones were in front of Dr.
Lewis and I just a few months ago when we unraveled uh what the challenges were. Um, and we've made available um, uh, as we move into thinking about the next year, we've made available every line item of of the Durham public schools budgets. And not every district does that. Um, every district um, goes about it in different ways and and some districts keep it a very high level overview uh, where they talk through what it's going to cost.
They just so the first 20 pages of this book basically is what a lot of districts do and then and and then there are others like Durham who go through this exercise of making every line item available. We literally open the books um and as we have um gotten questions along the way, we have um responded to every question um that we received about the budget book. Whether it has been from uh the
Durham Association of Educators, right, we received a very uh very compact list of six questions um seeking understanding about a variety of things and and we answered those and um and as of this board meeting, we've answered um every question that we've gotten from individual board members. And so we um so I really I'll echo um what we heard in the public comments earlier from the one speaker that challenged you to do your homework and and ask the tough questions of us. You've done that. Um and and we celebrate that and we were excited to be partners in that and and we we welcome it as a staff.
We're we're very open to the tough questions. Um and I think it was also accurate in that same comment. Um that that that in part is why we're here. Um, so we we we have talked about that for the past few months um with the the budget book that was developed for Durham last year had some gaping holes um that we had to to solve and address um including um so let's do that. Let's So I think that's a
perfect segue into my first slide. And so yeah, but but before you do, as you were talking about your your your journey, I think one point that I want to to to point out in terms of how you approach this work as well, not just as someone who has a significant and a tremendous amount of experience in the finance world, but you enter that field of education as a teacher. Yes. And so that's hugely important to to keep in mind.
You know, you don't often get CFOs that has once been a teacher. And so that's important in terms of how you approach this work. Thank Yes. Thank you.
Yeah. And I was going to touch on that in the in the other presentation as well. But right and and I will say that um I I relate to the speakers tonight because I was a teacher during a very difficult economic time in North Carolina. Um and so we were um and really the country, right?
So it was the last great recession. Um and and we were on the heels of making very difficult choices uh in North Carolina. And um I saw um in my first year as a teacher 40 of my colleagues lose their jobs. Um and
um my job was protected uh because I worked at the alternative school. " And so we've I've experienced that and and and um uh you know, and at that time, M's pay was very pertinent to my time in the classroom as well. when the state started having those conversations about taking it away. And so totally get it.
Um and so I I do carry that um you know as I as I think about this work and and um as someone who had six preps every day and and worked with middle and high school children who who needed that extra help. So thank you for for bringing that on track. Finance has been such a big part for a long time that um that's where I jump to. Um so the just wanted to kind of pick up a reminder of the budget history right just um sort of on this trajectory of transparency. Uh and so on the next slide uh we just sort of list out a reminder of the issues um that we uncovered as a as a new
administration. um and just think things primarily that were missed um in the last book that we've rectified um in this current year's budget um and have built a clean base budget for the building block to next year. Uh and so those positions and vacancies on that top row, right, last year's budget book was missing 315 positions um in Durham public schools. Um and so this this is really sort of married also to some of the public comments we heard tonight.
Uh, and there was a really keen focus on central office and downtown and central office administrators. And that's fair. I was critical of that um when I was a teacher as well. Um, I didn't understand the work they did and and and things of that nature. Um, and so I think it's important to note, right, that um we had to accurately reflect in this book the number of positions that are in the district and and where they are and what types of people they are and and things of that nature. Um and th those positions were not
corrected refractly correctly in in previous books, right? This is a category that was not correct. Um the the director roles that we heard a lot about tonight. Um and so I can understand um as an outsider looking in.
It would be very easy to infer there's been a surge um in in directors of central office. And so, um, what I'm asking for, I think, just from all stakeholders is that, um, moving forward, um, and and as as I'm your finance officer and you have the current budget team, this budget book we're looking at now is your new measuring stick. It's your new it's your new goalpost, uh, for measuring us moving forward. Uh, because we know this data is clean and and we're able to stand on that.
Um, and and so just recognizing the work that we did to to bring things in line with the reality in our documentation. So, uh, but it's a fair question that was asked and I wanted to make sure I address that because it was very important to a lot of our comments tonight, uh, and some of the written questions that we got. Um, so they were certainly a part of this category of things. Um, and as we have worked
through the aotment process with Dr. King and Miss Hager in HR, um, we continue to sort of unpack decisions that happened um, behind the scenes that have shed light on some of these variables. um just decisions um that have been made around um adding certain enhancements to elementary schools and and other positions. Um they were not budgetary considerations and they were sort of find the money moments with staff.
Um and so we've um so it makes more and more sense the deeper I get um into the work. It makes more and more sense how things got to where they were with that. Uh and so I um eerily calm because it makes sense now. Um other categories um other categories we see right that were just underbudgeted um and u we heard some comments about child nutrition tonight right and so this was an area that was of concern budgetwise uh and um I am thrilled um with the child nutrition director in Durham public schools uh the work that he has done in the last couple
of months has been tremendous uh to bring that program back in line um with its financials um and um we're um look we're on track for next school year that we're not going to have to provide him local support, right? And they're going to be able to stand on their own two feet as a program for the first time in several years. And so it it it was almost night and day um sort of the changes a after we saw the restructuring with that program. It was night and day um with Jim Keaton back in the driver's seat of child nutrition.
So I just want to give him that praise because that's very hard work. child nutrition director is very difficult work and I would not want to do it. Um and so um so again we've just got these other categories that you all are intimately aware of and just these are all things we had to tidy up. Um and and we've been transparent about what we found. Um and then we you know we've talked about some of our short-term solutions that we put in place in order to survive this year uh and not have to make difficult decisions around compensation midyear. um you know
we were able to manage this through um reducing supply aotments and service supply service aotments and things of that nature and we really tried to shield people um in in the short term u to get through this year um some of the things that we did this year um we're not going to be able to do next year we're not going to be able to lean on Mackenzie Scott next year we're not going to be able to lean on uh indirect cost revenue that we assessed from ESRE funds uh and other sort balancing acts that could help us on a onetime basis. Right? So, we've had to in tandem with this year's challenges think about next year and how do we solve a long-term problem. And so, uh we see some solutions that have come forward and we heard some public comments about some of those solutions tonight and I'm going to talk about those next.
So, we did kind of work to the next slide. Um and then we'll do one more slide, get past my title there. Um, so we talked we've talked somewhat right at board at board meetings and and in other meetings about
sort of our review of how the state funds us. Um, how has Durham been a loting um, teaching positions and um, what are we recommending to try to shore that up and bring that in line um, with with our means. Um, and so in the it's important to note that in the K through three space, we made no change um, in terms of of how we're operating uh, with our staffing. aotments for next school year.
Um those are very um very tightly governed by general statute and we have to be very careful uh to not exceed those limits. Uh and and Durham very wisely has built in a little bit of cushion. Um, so we a lot just slightly better than what's required so that if we have surprises uh with children that show up in those grade levels, particularly kindergarten, we've sort of already set ourselves up to be successful to manage those surprises and we're not trying to add a kindergarten teacher in August or September. Um, and we're able to get those high quality teachers early on. Um, the grade levels above three, above grade three, right,
we have more discretion. Uh, the state the state provides funding. They make recommend recommended ratios. Um and so uh for that fourth and fifth grade level that we did hear one comment about tonight, uh Durham had been doing a 1 to 22 and a half and and we're moving forward with a 1 to 25.
Um the uh the state funds that at a 1 to 24 with the assumption that they only get 90 minutes of planning per week. Our teachers get planning every day and so we have to weigh that in to our calculations. And so that's why we do that 1 to 25. Um I'll share that I've been in a number of districts where that's 1 to 27 to 1 to 30.
Um and so it's definitely higher uh in some other areas. Um so just wanted to bring that perspective. 5 in terms of those ratios. Um and so we're um actually kind of so we're recommending a 1 to 24. So we're trying to keep six through eight handled the same way. They're under the same roof.
So just trying to manage them the same way. Um and be mindful of how those administrators have to build those teams. Uh and so that hugs pretty close uh to the same logic that we've talked about with fourth and fifth grade and in meeting those demands. Um a number of districts a lot middle school a lot like high school and they you see larger class sizes than that.
Uh and so we're we're still trying to be we're trying to balance and be cautious at the same time. um high school um we just simply could not go that far. We could not go as far as lining it up exactly with how the state allotss it. It would we recognized that it would have been too severe of a change um at one time uh with what we were doing there. And so we pulled back a little bit and we did a 1 to 27. So we did deliberate on these things um and and tried to stress test um and I think um you know in that same in that same vein uh we thought about media coordinators in the same way and we've heard just a watershed uh of
public comments about media coordinators and and we did we challenged our administrators to make business cases for why are we structured with some of these things the way we are. Uh, and so the two the two media coordinators um is something that is um sort of unique to more urban districts, right? I've seen it in Durham, I've seen it in Wake. Um, but there's not a lot of districts that that follow that model.
Uh, and so it was important for us to to press pause, ask questions. Uh, and so it it did startle our high school principles u when they initially saw their aotment sheets. And I'm just being very honest. Um, but they uh did a spectacular job of making that business case of why they do that.
And I'll give a lot of credit um to Miss Taylor at Jordan High School um for for really leading that charge more than anyone in helping to make that business case. And we listened um and and we recognized um what was happening. And so, you know, we've conveyed um to our schools that have the two media coordinators at this time that we'll we'll continue as is unless something
drastic changes. Right. So, we're we're staying we've heard that feedback and we're staying the course, but it's just important to ask questions um to understand where that is. Um the next slide um is another space where um you know, we heard some comments um you know, just about assistant principles and um it's I think it's no mystery um that in every school uh across the state of North Carolina um our our principles would like to have more assistant principles than what they have.
um that that's just never fails and they they do play an important role. Um and so I just spent some time just mapped out um you know some of these we've been managing in ranges in Durham and so I've had to do an average or a midpoint to apply the state formula to come up with approximately what the state would support. 5. Um, so doing a little bit better. Um, and then as we work our
way up to the elementary schools with 350 to 699, our allocation of one in the historical Durham formulas um is better um than what the state formula would allow. Um, and it's important to note that we we didn't propose any changes to how we're allotting the assistant principles. And really what we're striving for is to try to hug closer to our own existing formulas. So, we've um we have had a history of not adhering to our own formulas, and that's what we're striving for um is to get closer to our own um recognizing that it is better than the states in that case.
Uh because it it's not right. The state formula just doesn't work there. Um and and that's an area that hasn't been right in a long time uh since the last recession. Uh and so, um every district or a lot of districts kind of make that difficult financial investment to go above and beyond on on the on the APs. Um, so I think just wanted to lift that up and and on the next on the next slide I think it's a little more the next couple of slides really it's a little more
illuminating on what's going on. So um we had some questions about schools that are um eligible for um less than a full-time AP and we we've got those listed on the slide. So we do have a number of schools that fall below that 350 mark. Uh and so um this is something right just as a as a sidebar to this it gave me pause as your new finance officer to think um we may need to think about some consolidating in our future and and just you know and I know that's a that's a difficult conversation and that requires a lot of leadership but many districts are are making those choices to look at schools that are incredibly small and thinking about how can we uh merge some merge some elementary zones together or some other zones together to make that work better.
So, um, and there would be some perks to that, right? One, uh, you know, if two of those small elementary schools were to come together in the future, they'd get a full-time AP. Uh, and our the principal would be entitled to better
pay from the state of North Carolina due to the size of the student, the number of students they're serving. Um, we have less overhead costs, right? And we're just more efficient. But that's not something we're deciding this year or tonight, but just a seed I'm planting that we might want to contemplate as a district as we dig into this data.
Um, and I may get filed in public comments on that at another time. Um, the next, um, the next slide really focuses on my conversation about our desire to adhere towards our own formulas. And so, um, we've listed here some variances that have that occurred in the current school year, uh, where those formulas are concerned. Uh, and so we're looking at 10 FTEEs in the assistant principal space where we've deviated from our own formulas. Um, and so, um, and and sometimes there's good reason for it. Um, you know, we think about some schools in particular that have had exceptional challenges and we want to provide them additional support um to help them work through a tough
patch and and get on the other side um and make some improvement. Um, and in other cases, we just simply as a new team, we were not able to unpack why those decisions were made. And so we're we're in the throws of scrutinizing that and we're having individual meetings with principles and we're conferring with our academic side of the house to really understand where is this necessary and where is it not um to make that happen. So just know we're we're really trying to be methodical about it.
Um it feels like maybe some folks saw this slide and thought we were proposing that we cut nine or 10 APS. That's not where we are um right now, right? So we're thinking through that u we're thinking through that critically and so um just a space where we're asking questions and trying to seek business cases for why we're doing that. Um the next section we talk about counselor aotments. Uh and so we are um this is another space where we sort of felt
Durham was not hugging the normal Durham ratios. Um and but at the same time we're sensitive to the climate that we're in with mental health and and the supports um that our students need. And as a staff we were not comfortable proposing any deviation from what we're doing with counselors. uh we just could not none of us um were willing to hang our hats on making changes uh with individuals that affect social emotional health and support our children.
Uh so we um wanted to lift that up. Um in the next space we uh received some we did receive some questions about interpreters um and and that support in the district and we have a couple of different departments um who work together um to support that um to support that space. Uh so our um ELLL department as well as our multilingual resource center uh provide support in that. And so we've sort of detailed the ways in which they do that. Um, and we
did get a we did receive a question about how does this compare um to what we're seeing in other districts um and the I guess the ratio of that support. Uh so our folks in these areas are still doing some homework on that to give us a better comparison. Uh so I'm not prepared to really answer how we compare to other places yet. Um but you know was able to kind of call out um what we're providing.
So we we do have a good number of folks that are providing interpreting and translating um to be determined if if that's an area where we need to put some more focus or not um if we're making comparisons. Uh so the next um slide is a space where we had a whole lot of conversation this school year uh because it's it's a place uh where we had to make sort of a mid-year intervention uh in order to keep things afloat. Uh so uh column one column one on this reflects various funds that we push down to schools. Um and it's important to note that this
affects uh central office departments as well including my budget, Dr. Lewis's budget, the board the budget that supports board activities even um was a part of this. And so just want to make sure that's in the record. Um but um wanted to lift up schools tonight and show um so it's about a $541,000 impact um that 15% set aside across 57 schools.
Uh and so this is a space that I'm sensitive to. Um and as we work through the very we have a lot of unknowns still, right? We don't have a state budget yet. We don't know how our county partners are going to fund us yet.
uh and we don't know, we have some projections of how many students are going to show up at our door, but we don't have a final headcount on that. And so this is a space that I'm watching carefully and as an administration, we would love um to be able to get this back to the 100% level if we can. We recognize the importance of that. That's something that is very prominent on our radar. Um and anything that we can do to
work that back towards where it was, we will certainly try and and is high on our list. but wanted to make sure you knew that number um that that we're focusing on and that we're being mindful of um as we try to get things back to where they are. Um, aside from that, um, and the other comments I've made, um, you know, we did, um, you know, we did on page 21 of the of the budget book, we did restore sort of that that position chart that we talked about and and the various types of positions. Um, and you know, we've, um, sort of reacted to the various analyses of that.
Um and um happy to answer questions at this point um before we move into the other presentation that we have on the agenda. Um and also allow Dr. Lewis to make any additional remarks that he want may want to make. Do you have any
questions, comments, thoughts? Not right now. Thank you. colleagues, no questions, no comments.
I would entertain a motion. I don't know what y'all want me to tell you. No, no. We're going to ask questions here about this presentation.
Have a conversation with each other about this presentation. Miss Beyer, you want to get us started? So, Mr. Mr. Teter, I would just want to start with um conveying gratitude to you and the team for the way that you have um approached this work and led this work thoughtfully and with a heart um towards the classroom
and protecting frontline positions. Um I I did see your head shaking over there several times during public comment and and you see that um folks are um working really hard to dig into a new change in the way that you have been transparent about the budget. And so I really appreciate the level of detail that you have, but folks are digging in and looking for pictures or graphs or tables that they particularly liked. Um, did you get a chance to clarify all of the thelarity um or or confusion because as folks and I understand why people are are looking and digging. I I 100% understand that's exactly what you would be doing and I would be doing as well. So I can Yeah, I think there is one other area um that I did want to touch on um to I'm glad you asked, right, is the matter of compensation.
Um across the 15 school systems in North Carolina, none of us know what we're going to make next year. Um and you know we have um so when the state does ultimately adopt their budget um there will be a required raise um and they'll they'll address certified staff and they'll address classified staff they'll address uh central office staff and a lot of times they bundle central office with classified um as a grouping and sometimes they treat all the groups the same. every proposal that I've seen so far, um, they do they're approaching certified and classified differently. Um, in in the work that we've done with this book, um, you know, we forecast a 3% raise from the state of North Carolina, right?
That's sort of the actuarial assumption that we had to make. Um, and I feel proud of that. Um because I think when I compare that to the governor's proposal and I compare that to the current Senate proposal we
have, we're somewhere in the middle um of those two. Uh and so we normally expect in in the most recent political climate, we expect the governor's version to be the most generous and we expect the Senate version to be the most stringent. Uh and so um I hope the Senate version is not it because I I think it comes up short. Uh right.
3% on average for teachers and and it's really important to clarify that that's an average and they affect different steps on that teacher scale differently and and um sometimes is more generous. You usually we've seen that it's been more generous towards the early steps on the teacher schedule and it has terrible compression in the middle. We've heard that compression word tonight. Um and then and then the progress for our veteran teachers on those pay tables from the state, it's usually pretty minimal.
Uh right. And so that's been the pattern for several years now. Um and um the governor is looking for a little closer to 5%. Um classified gives me pause. Um
25%. Um and both proposals include a one-time $1,500 bonus um that that's paid in each year of that two-year budget. Uh, and I'm fear, you know, I I was fearful that some of those one-time things might pop in given the revenue situation at the state level. Um, and so, um, you know, so, you know, it's one of those cases where we hate to be right.
Right. When we we came up with that three number, we landed somewhere in the middle. Um and um when all of that comes to be and we know when that settles and we know what we're required to do um that affects the state resources that comes our way, right? We have some funding formulas from the state of North Carolina that are responsive to what is the raise uh that's built into the budget and it's responsive to those new benefit rates and it makes that money available to us um to make some things happen. Um, and so that that's a really
critical piece of information for us to have to know what our must dos are and how we have to react to those. Uh, and then we can reconfigure from there, right? And so we can figure out okay um if we if it is a 2% u that comes from the state of North Carolina the budget team and I would immediately pivot to adjusting all these assumptions in the book and what do we have left and how can we calibrate some kind of meaningful step increase in there for employees and so does that mean you know so does it mean that locally do we do more than what the state did um right so we have to kind of make those judgment calls once we have um all the pieces of the puzzle. Uh so a lot of there's a lot of work you know to be done in in other agencies that affect us and so we're watching that carefully and we um sometimes that's resolved um by July that's more often not sometimes it's September October and some years they've
not been able to agree um right that that has happened and so we'll have to watch that carefully and we'll make sure that we communicate um and that folks know what's going on but so that that's another thing I did want to touch on um that it's not totally in our control and and um we're going to try to do as much as we can um based on how all these other pieces shake out. I appreciate that. That is a um complicated answer to folks that are really, you know, frustrated with us because they don't see a number. And um can you also clarify that and just be explicit about our intention to freeze staff or not freeze staff?
Do you have y'all dug into that at all? Because I've heard some public comments that continue to reiterate that concern and that has never been the the concern or approach that I've heard this board discuss um through this entire classified. Yeah. Um so usually right so generally you know the process is you know we we hold in
place until we know what the state's requiring us to do we apply that and we move forward um and and in some cases right you know particularly where our certified employees are concerned our instructions from the state are often to hold them in place until we have a new schedule. Um and and so we we have to comply with that or we end up with lots of errors that we have to clean up. Uh and so um we hope that there's an agreement on the budget by July so that we can swiftly act on that um and people can immediately see the how everything's going to shake out. 25 for classified with that bonus. Durham, I know, like I know I've been here and I know I'm gonna have to do better than that or we're going to have to do better than that. U and so we're focused on that and and um we're we'll work through that when we have um everything that we
need to to build appropriate schedules for the new school year. Um and it's not lost on us um that there's more work to be done with our schedule in general. Um with the compression that we heard about tonight, um the min and the max conversation and those parallel columns, right? So, we know we know that there's some things that we need to touch and um been through salary studies and have administered salary studies and I'm happy to be a part of the team that does that and in in leading that work for us as we think about moving forward and and um and we'll um be very sensitive and and make sure that we learn from the mistakes um that have happened in Durham in the past um to to lead folks through that.
Um we it's a heavy it's a heavy load. Um but we're we're mindful. Um I appreciate it and I just appreciate that um you and Dr. Lewis have um inherited a lot of mistakes that you did not make and and continue to uh sit with
us in um times um resolving problems that you didn't make. Um, you know, I think I've told folks that that serving on this board during this classified pay thing was worse than the pandemic because it impacted each and every employee so so importantly. We broke so much trust by intending to do well and um finding that our budget was not adequate. And so I appreciate the way that you all have methodically spent the last six months building this um this puzzle that is um in support and focusing on students.
And just the last question before I turn it over to colleagues the on the interpreter slide are those in the MRC additive that is 7 + 9 + three folks. That's right. That's I just wanted to make sure I was interpreting that um yes ma'am information correctly. Thank you so much,
Miss Harrell Goff. Thank you. Um I wanted to lift up just three things from from um the information. First of all, um I appreciate the you know the how I've been watching this progress and how you how it's been.
Transparency is a buzz word in our district right now and transparency and trust kind of go hand inand so I feel like um when a lot of people are speaking about transparency what they're really talking about is not trusting what they're seeing. So I want to lift up in the presentation about what you said about the corrected budget book and this is square one like we're starting from here. Um, I've been seeing a lot of comparisons to things in the past and it's brought me confusion as well. Um, and so I'm excited about that statement. Here is here is square one moving forward. Um, when
we're talking about the budget. Um, very excited to hear that. So, I wanted to lift that up. um errors with our tools in the past or confusion about which tool to look at or trying to compare something that might not have been accurate to something that we're currently trying to work with.
Um I hope that we here to push all of that aside and now when we're talking information, we're looking at this corrected budget book. Now, I understand that some people may not trust that. Um, and when they're talking about transparency, they can still be looking at this and not trusting or or or even not even understanding the narrative yet, but at least we have this place to to start from. Um the next thing I wanted to lift up is um I heard a guard rail around social emotional health um in the budget and that was also that that jumped out at me um when when I'm
uh looking for narrative like what what story is our budget telling? It's those kinds of things that I'm listening for. Okay, I see how that jumped out and and in the way that it was presented. Um um and I also really appreciate um how you have been it's it's helping me uh you know articulate why our a lotments look the way that they do and it helps to elevate how challenging these conversations are.
But understanding the more we talk about that narrative, understanding why and how these um decisions are being made, the more clarity we get. That also along with the materials builds that transparency. So um I greatly appreciate everything that admin administration is doing that you are doing that the team is doing around um building transparency which I just wanted to say is also building trust.
It's going to be hard. You know we're ready to take the heat but um with understanding. So pushing for understanding. Thank you said um thank you Mr.
Teter for your presentation tonight and some of those clarifying remarks. I think that was really helpful. Um I want to say thanks to all the folks who have engaged with us over this budget process. We've heard from community members, educators, students.
Um we've had multiple meetings with our educator associations and other ways. Like this level of engagement is really good. And so I want to thank everyone who's engaged with us, who's sent us emails, who've called us, who's text us. Um I hope we can keep this up as we keep moving forward.
I think this process has been good and we have room for improvement like we always do. And so I think acknowledging the budget booklet and how do we get some more shift some things around, but knowing that this is ground zero feels like an important acknowledgement tonight. I went back to last year and was comparing
and I was like, "Okay, never mind. " Um, I know that we're also typically a little behind in our process and so I'm looking forward for us moving forward tonight so we can get this budget over to our county commission and they can be planning with our numbers in mind as they develop their budget. Um, and I know there's some still work to do around our salary administration policy which can help answer some of those questions as we're thinking about pay. So, I look forward to that coming back.
I'm glad that you also listen to our folks around the media coordinators and glad to hear that's going to be staying. Um, I love reading. I was one of those kids that was reading with my nightlight on in the room when I needed to be sleep. So, I'm glad to know we're gonna still have that going.
A couple things I would like to see for as we think about next year, and some of this will feel repetitive to my colleagues because I say it often, but thinking about how do we think multi-year in advance. I say y'all knew you knew where I was going. Um, we know we have growing together that's expanding different positions. We know that we want to be thinking about
uh salaries for staff members and we talked a little bit in previous and you mentioned it today about a classified salary study because I think we're going to need to we got to clean up those schedules. Um we got to do some work on that. Um and we need to start that work today so we can be prepared for next year. " Like that would be a failure on our part.
Um I hope we can we'll keep working on this budget booklet and like how do we get some earlier engagement with our community and educators. I think our um association the AE brought really clear a lot of ask but they came later in the budget process and that did not give the time for us to do the right research and analyzing and be able to make those um a part of some of the things we're seeing here. But I think it's important for us to figure out uh and I think that's a collective decision from the seven of us. Is there a majority of us that want to figure out do some of that analysis and figure out what that might look like to move forward with some of the things that they presented? Um, so we got a lot of work to do and I have some hopes for
next year, but I'm supportive of what we have created for this year. Glad to hear we're not touching um counselors. Glad to hear we're keeping this AP formula where it is and not cutting any more of those positions. Those are school-based staff that we know our schools and our students um need.
And this is my last point y'all. Uh the thing I think about when our budgets, it's our students and how all this money allocations, reallocations are impacting students. And I am curious to know for us to consider how do we track some of that work with schools that are impacted with some of these reallocations. So are we looking at um attendance?
Are we looking at um student academic outcomes? Are we also looking at discipline referrals to see how schools are adjusting in these times? I know that some of our schools that were previously application magnet schools that are not also lost positions and they are feeling that. So how are we looking at and understanding that how the changes that we're making in this monetary place also impacts what students and um are experiencing in the
classrooms. Um and then there's also a lot that could be done within our current budget like trauma-informed practices, restorative practices, improving food. we got to do better with that, right? Um, and doing more culturally responsive practices.
So, there's a both end here. We're going to keep moving forward and we got a lot of work to do to continue to improve and I want us to be considering how these sh changes are impacting our students. So, I would love for us to figure out how we can track that over the year. I would just thank you.
Yeah. And I'll just say thank you for that. And, um, in my past lives, um, the budget calendar has historically come out in October. Uh, and so, you know, I joined you in November, cleaned up base budget, right?
But just so you know what to expect kind of moving forward is that, you know, the the budget we'll be bringing the budget calendar to you in October for 2627 and and things will be underway kind of on that cycle. Um, and and fingers crossed, right, we have year we'll have year two of the bianial budget that will give us some numbers to start working with. Um, and and then we'll we'll push from
there. So, yeah, thank you for that. I thanks so much, Mr. Teter.
I'm super excited to have you here in the district. Um, one, because you're able to explain things in a way that I can understand really easily. So, thanks so much for your clarity both in your presentation this evening and then um in your additional comments to help clarify some of the concerns that came out. Um, that is uh very helpful for me at least.
Um, I just have a few follow-up questions. Um, as we're thinking about um, classified pay and um, salary studies, how often I tried to find this today, but I figured you would know. Um, how often do districts typically complete salary studies or is there like a best practices around salary studies that you could share with us. Um, so I know so when I was in the high so I did higher ed finance before K12 finance and our practice was always seven years uh, in that space that we looked at our peer and aspirants. Um, and so I think, um,
you know, in this space, in the climate that we're in now, um, I think every two to three years is probably more appropriate. Um, we're a little more what we're about to do is a little quicker than that, but we recognize that we got some stuff we've got to improve. Um, but just with the market that we're in and the way we're competing and inflation, um, I think, right, a more frequent cadence, right, of of two to three years is probably going to be where we are. That's really helpful.
Thank you. And thanks for providing some clarity around the what classified staff can expect um for increases and also the reasons for the uncertainty around that if that makes sense. Look forward to cleaning up the um salary schedules and having that you know policy in place and um the salary administration policy. I was wondering to um the so the local teacher supplement. So if we increase it as proposed in the budget um how much more would our staff be receiving annually
and how um and do we anticipate that that will allow us to just kind of keep pace with our neighbors or where is that also I don't think they've decided on where they they've landed. Yeah. So I mean I think a lot of them are where we are unfortunately. So, we're I think we're all in the same boat right now making difficult decisions.
And so, we're um this particular proposal would increase it by 700 per year. Um and assuming other variables remain constant around us to your point, it would it would propel us from number three to number two on average. Um but again other you know we don't know what other folks are going to do and and um so we'll see what yeah that but that's our goal is to keep pushing forward and making some kind of progress and that would propel us up an additional spot um if nothing changed on the list. Cool.
Thank you so much. And then um lastly thinking about transportation staff. really excited to see um a supplement for our um for our drivers in
the budget and um wondering um what was my question around this? Oh, can you tell us uh we've received some questions and have been talking in meetings about substitute pay. Can you tell us when we should expect to hear? We we owe you something on that.
Uh and I think we're going to come together. We I've got it on the cabinet agenda for Monday for us to just iron that out and put that to bed. And so our goal would be to get that in front of you at the May 8th uh meeting to just knock that out. Awesome.
And then the you know we've talked extensively about bus driver access to bathrooms and schools. Can you all are y'all going to share something with us about what that looks like or um Dr. web that would be operational not in the CFOs's well there's are fiscal implications of that there possibly could be some physical implications of that u spoke of
furniture purchases today we have one facility completely ready um and then we're looking at the other facility not just using used furniture or making it a nice space um that possibly could have some budget implications on the capital outlay budget for next year once we receive that total. Uh we're working on developing that budget. Now um as far as there there are no plan physical changes to a build a building we have also uh thanks talking about access to buildings right the the badges but I like hearing about this too but yeah I was think I was asking I was Dr. is correct about like the key fobs and like access to so the last conversation was to pro that we shared with thank you for the clarity uh was to provide uh a number of employees with access to the buildings that we can they can get into um you know obviously security of a
building is an issue at all times during the day. Um so we're we're discussing the the the procedure for that but yes there will be an access to buildings um specifically the the two sites and then other schools as well. Yes ma'am for all schools. Okay great.
Thank you so much. Um and I'll just and by saying I sound like a broken record when I say this but I am excited about where we are this year and to have you here leading um our budget process. excited to start earlier next year and would like to see more um us continue to as I think you're interested in like getting more robust earlier engagement from community from my from our educators um and our students and our community members into the budget process and also to continue to work towards um deeper alignment with our strategic plan so we have our north star and we're measuring our outcomes and I mean I'm watching keenly how meet and confer will operationalize and where fit into that. So, we'll see. Excellent.
Thanks so much. Thank you. Miss Rain has a question. Okay.
Hi. Um I did have one question. So, is there like a miscellaneous or special project projects fund that supports student initiatives that we've heard this evening like school gardens or environmental clubs or um outdoor spaces? Any of those initiatives that may be miscellaneous?
really great question. Um, so I'm having flashbacks to my Hillside interview. Um, and so we, um, so, right, I think we do see a number of things, um, that happen in the district like you're describing. A lot of times it's the result of our teachers and their grant writing efforts and donations that we've received.
Um, and so we we appreciate um all of our, you know, so we want to make sure we give credit um to our teachers that actively pursue funding to make things happen special like that. Uh and so and we've been very fortunate that our community has contributed to Durham in that way. Uh and so um there are I think
in the work that we've done like you ask about kind of outdoor learning spaces of sorts and we do have some of that that started as a grant-f funded effort in Durham that has continued um through our local funds and so we we definitely do have some of that in the district and um we can uh and certainly if if it's you know the desire of the superintendent student advisory council we can do a deeper dive into that and and provide more details for the next time he meets with you That's a that's a great question. And what I'm used to is is the superintendents having a a larger budget just for that for students that they can approach the superintendent, they can um and and teaching the students those skills of presenting a proposal and sharing uh the data as to why we need this and then the impact, you know, similar to what adults have to go through when we um go off do go after grants and then have to share the impact of those grants. And so I would love to get to a point where financially where we can have those funds that students can access for those special projects. Great question. Thanks,
Emily Chávez. Thank you so much and thanks for answering our abundant questions. Um, I do I do appreciate your very clear answers to those. Um, all right.
I have more. Um but um some of them come from you know the questions that you've already answered. Um and the first thing I wanted to comment about was the AP allotments. I appreciate you digging into why some of the um allotments are not aligned with um the the formulas that were created.
Um, but I understand you you know you can't um understand all past decisions. Um, I I just want to name that I've I've raised this, we've talked a little bit about this, but um I have concerns about the about equity with regard to those. And so um because I can see that some
5 um but I'm I'm not I just I don't know myself why that was. So, um I just wanted to ask you to speak a little bit about um how you're working on a equity related formula or um something of that nature. Um is that accur accurate to say or do you need more guidance from the board in order to do that? There is certainly a charge from my boss um for us to move forward thinking about our formulas in that way and um I think Dr. King's spoken eloquently about this as well in terms of we've got to clean up what is our baseline so that we can use that as the measuring stick for then how are we achieving equity you know beyond that and um so that that's on our radar and we are and some of these situations that we see in the chart were sort of hold harmless situations and and
communication occurred at this time last school year of okay a year later you're going to come off of that and so we do have some of those scenarios that have kind of transcended administrations and uh some of these other scenarios like Lowe's Grove Middle we know was a school that needed some extra support and they've um had beyond and we think about the Lake View program and the complexities of the work that they're doing and and typically it's a lower enrollment but they're also dealing with some more significant challenges and so right so there's those kinds of elements um that you're thinking about and I think uh the work that we'll do with Dr. Lewis is just to kind of um maybe put some more clarity around those things. Dr. Lewis, thank you.
Breaking protocol tonight, but yeah, we've been having those conversations. I was just in Dr. King's office today continuing those conversations and talked to Dr. Logan just yesterday about it and obviously Dr. TER in terms of, you know, providing all schools the
the base, but in addition based on the needs of the building. 700 students in building A, it's probably going to look a lot different than 700 students in building B in terms of the needs of those of those students. And so making sure that we're looking at things like the uh number and or percentage of EC students, ELLL students, the number of new teachers in the building, pre- reduced lunch rate, a number of factors in terms of what additional supports will those building need when those buildings need and that's going to be a a culture shift, you know, in terms of um you know, people saying that's not fair that they get this. Well, if we truly understand equity, you know, equity is not about fairness, but what what what what do the students, do the staff need in those buildings uh to be successful? Just on that topic, sorry, Emily Chávez. Well, do have y'all unpacked these APS enough to know whether they might be using a part of another of their aotments to to make a whole a half position to make a whole like not that the district gave them extra, but they may have made different staffing
choices. Are y'all still unwinding some of that? Great question, right? And we do we do we have seen some scenarios right where schools that are entitled to a half based on the formula in some cases say okay this person is going to be half AP and then they're going to be halftime instructional coach and you see a blend of funding sources come together to make that happen.
Um so we we do have some some instances where that um has occurred and u off the c I couldn't give you specifics off the cuff but we do have some of that that happens. Yes ma'am. And it we had a lot of conversation last year trying to hope that we could at least get every school to one full-time, right? Because a half a person that is driving to a different school wouldn't be necessarily where what we would think a baseline would be in Durham.
So I I I appreciate y'all digging into it more. Um Emily Chávez, do you have additional questions or comments? Yes. Um thank you.
Um thank you Dr. Lewis for naming those variables. That's really helpful. And I think um it just helps us to be
able to explain decisions um financial decisions and a lotment decisions. So um I'm very appreciative of that work moving forward. Um so thank you around the media coordinators. I think it's a good call to keep our media coordinators.
Um let's see some of the obviously um you know we met with uh DAE uh representatives about the um about a number of priorities. So some of my comments um come from that. Um I just wanted to name that as I think you all have everybody seen um one of the suggested um pieces was around extra duty pay and kind of clarifying that. And so I just want to name that I think that's appropriate for the salary administration policy to look at. Um so cool. I I just want to I just want to lift that up because I thought that was it was very well done and um so
hopefully in collaboration with um administration we can kind of um think through that. Um okay uh let's see classroom ratios. Um, another question around equity, which we've already also discussed a little bit, but um, I want to lift up that I do have as we're looking at changing ratios, which um, you know, I know a lot of other districts already employ these ratios that we're looking to move to. Um but um I I really want to guarantee that we'll be able to commit to still having lower ratios for high need classrooms.
So um that is probably another kind of equity formula. Can you all comment on that and maybe reassure people who might have that concern as well? Yeah. So I think a couple of themes that I would say around sort of the ratio work is exactly right like these other
categories we've talked about tonight. Um you know Dr. Lewis will kind of work with the team to kind of establish um what are our kind of equity mile markers so to speak um as we move forward to future years. And I think the other thing that we have to balance um is that um throughout um the year it feels like every vacancy report that I reviewed from HR, we had over a hundred teacher vacancies in the district and we've had to scramble to find ways to cover those classrooms, whether it's substitute uh pulling other teachers, losing their planning time and things of that nature. And so we're so we're looking forward to maybe trying to strike some kind of balance of you know we have less positions hopefully less vacancies in tandem with that and more qualified highly qualified teachers in front of more children right and so just trying to strike that too right so that's another variable that we think about is making sure our students as many students as possible are in front of highly qualified teachers um and just
mindful of that pipeline right now yeah well I Dr. King, I didn't want Okay. Um I just want to I think I'm appreciative of that. Yeah.
Rationale as well because we do hear uh more often than we want to about um you know students have who have they have had a sub for such such and such time. Um and um so that's also important. Um okay, M's pay. Um, so I I want to ask, have you all considered because I I've said um I really favor extending M's pay for all who would have qualified in 2013.
Have you all considered looking at a letter lesser percentage but including everyone across the board? On the surface, no. Okay. Um however um depending on how things shake out um with the these budget variables
we've talked about tonight already, right? So we don't know what state's going to look like. We don't know what local's going to look like. It may be something we have to visit anyway.
Um and so I wouldn't want to commit to it, but would say we're not close to it and and we know we may have to evaluate that. Um, I know I asked you for more information about that in my questions and um, it uh, I guess a followup to to that would be can we do we know how much it would cost to include all of those people as we have them now without estimating or do we we don't we don't have that information right of who has a masters? That's right. I think we would need to be more we would need to be more intentional about quantifying who those people are and how many of them we have in those categories that we don't serve right now. Um and so so you know I'm so you've learned me by now that I'm conservative
budgeter and so I'm going to think about our worst case scenario and that's the best I have on that now and and but we can you know we're um we'll we'll keep working on that um is that you know so we're um I know this you know with this cycle um we're trying to um make whole the shortfall with the teachers and then um contemplating our social workers and this go round but um you know we We'll continue we definitely will continue to evaluate it and and I I do believe right HR has got a proposal forthcoming to that that we'll need your permission on um for us to move forward with um getting the best possible numbers that we can for that. Yeah, we want to make sure we get it right. Okay. Um I guess I want to propose that we consider even I mean if we do pass this this evening um like res like um looking specifically at that at at at
at including all who would have qualified in 2013 under M's pay can and shifting the funds around because we're approving a you know an amount but um yeah I think we're is that possible I have no issue you know developing a work paper to have prepared um so then as as we answer some of our other questions that we need to make other budget decisions. We have the information available and and we can move forward um with accuracy and confidence um if we were to make a decision around that space. Yeah. I don't mind doing the homework on it to be prepared.
Okay. And I'd be interested to hear what other board members think. See a thumbs up, but um cool. Okay.
Informally, I see thumbs up. So, okay. Um, I I didn't have a thumb, but I did want to clarify that the recommendation that the administration has brought and I saw
it in an answer to a question today that can you all read what your recommendation is for expansion of masters pay just to be clear because we've lacked clarity in the past. Right. So I think right summarizing for now right we would maintain um that focus on our our teacher classroom teachers that are teaching at least 50% of the day making that whole um and then we're looking at an expansion for our social workers um and the philosophy behind that is right you know pre previous administration wanted to put a focus on incentivizing those folks in the classrooms um and our social workers are in a space where they're not necessarily transferable to a classroom role and and we felt feel comfortable kind of moving forward with that expansion um to that to that particular population of employees. Whereas some of these other positions are transferable to a classroom and we may not want to at this point in time incentivize them and and that's why the recommendation is what it is and and and regardless, you know, we'll do our homework and and um you know, charged with making sure we can
answer that question for you. Uh and we'll make sure we're prepared to do that in the best way we can. Okay. Thank you.
I appreciate it. As you know, I just feel that we have to do our homework on that since we m Yeah, jump in on that board member umstead. Yes, go ahead. Oh, sorry.
Just to jump in on that point as y'all are doing your homework. I because then you're thinking about what will be classroom focused versus what might be, you know, everyone. So in some ways I would love to see that analysis of like what would it c or how many people are we talking about with a classroom focus versus everyone and maybe a a rationale or proposal of which way you all would recommend we go because I think that is a and what we would really love to happen is that the proposals at the state level to restore mast's pay will come through right and then and that uncomplicates a lot of right and so that's back on the and so right that's back on the table again and so um you know so we're
hopeful that that'll happen and then that that will just alleviate so much stress around this. Yes. But we'll still do our homework. Okay.
Um have you Okay. This it was one of the requests from um the DAE articles um about bus monitor supplements. Is that something you all have looked into? I have an opinion.
I I you know I would just say you know at this point you know we've calculated specifically u for bus drivers um we had not contemplated a supplement for the monitors um but we can right and that's another space again where we're happy to do homework and quantify that um and just put that on our radar for continued improvement um if we you know and I yeah so so happy to look into Yeah. Okay. I Yeah, just to echo, we
certainly can look at that number and we were and I mean you heard stories tonight of the impact of bus monitors and I was I've shared some stories of the impact of bus monitors and how we need need them as well. We were responding to the critical need of drivers at at that point, you know. So yes, and and I think a particular concern we had um was our drivers are heavily impacted by inclement weather and and um you know wanted to be able to them to have something in their paycheck that's predictable despite the weather. Um and um I think the supplement would be sort of more of a material benefit financially than the shift in the pay table that we contemplated. Uh, and so I think that's um important to note and um we do have some neighbors that pay classified supplements and um we want to be mindful of that, right? And that's perhaps something we contemplate
for classified employees in general as we continue to do our work around pay. I don't, you know, but conversations to be had, but um we've uh you know, so thank you for lifting that up. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I hadn't thought about it, but I think our bus monitors do do important work to support Sure.
allow the bus driver to focus on their work and um so anyway, I if you all if the board is also in agreement, would like to see that? Um yeah. Do we want to um take a moment to get consensus on maybe is that what you're going to say, Dr. Giovani?
Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I just wanted to share that the transportation team met for over two hours today and that was an area that was discussed what it is that we can do to make sure that we're um properly compensating our folks. So, I think we have a meeting follow-up meeting scheduled in maybe a week and a half, 10 10 days or two weeks and we'll definitely I mean this is some um
helpful feedback and we would like the opportunity to allow the transportation folks to kind of have that conversation talk with folks and get that input from bus monitors as well and not just kind of you know sitting in my chair figuring out what would be best for them or Dr. Web's chair. So, we would like the space to do that and then we would work with Miss Hager and Mr. teeter on a cost out of what the recommendation is from the team if that's okay with Dr.
Lewis and the board. Okay, thank you. That sounds great. Dr.
Giovanni, is anybody um have anything else to say about that or have any concerns about that? Yes, Miss can we just clarify what we're getting consensus? It sounds like there's going to be some further study about um uh the bus monitor. Well, generally is that maybe too narrow?
Do you want to describe that again? like just generally compensating um or incentivizing transportation staff um that will be brought back to the board which it sounds like it's already underway right now. You all are already discussing that and you're going to
continue to do that. That is correct. But I think it's important that the lifting up and ensuring that bus transportation safety assistance um I believe is the proper term that I was told um are properly considered in that and making sure that there's addressing compression. That's where Miss Hager, Mr.
cheater would come in and then just figuring out like kind of what those needs are and what the job description looks like and what the work is is being done. I mean looking at all of it globally and not just kind of just re reacting is what um we're asking for. It's just some space to talk with those folks, work with all of um the administrative team and then bring back some information. But I will say I do think that this is probably you know once the budget comes out and Dr.
Lewis and Mr. cheater will kind of look at that and see where it is that we land. But primarily some of these conversations necessarily would have to be in 26 25 26 26 27 potentially depending on where we are with the budget and what
happens in the state. But all of that being said, it is something that we are looking at and I do appreciate it being lifted up uh the work that they do. So I just want y'all to know that we are talking about it. Thank you.
Does that pro provide the clarity that you were seeking about the transportation um request or no? Maybe I mean it's I guess do we need consensus if that feels like it's moving in the right direction or I don't know if you were asking for something different. M Chavez, I I think all of that sounds great. And also I was um also specifically wanting to um know the cost out for the supplements for bus for um bus safety assistance.
So So here's my question for for us. I'm sorry. As we go forward, we have a long list of um we're voting on a budget tonight, I assume. Um and we need to um and we have a long list of things
that came to us late from um DAE and I welcome that feedback but it's it's late in this cycle. And so what I don't want us to do by continuing to direct staff to do little pieces of studying this and studying that and studying that is to give people some false hope that we're going to be able to address these because we are voting on an amount tonight that is built on the suppositions that you all have built. I mean the budget you have built. And so, while I want to give everyone more for all time, all the things, I don't want us to to present misinformation to our own employees and um further stir like dissatisfaction while we're trying to actually address critical issues. And so, [Music] um it's late to be asking people to cost
things out. Um and and the amount that we vote on tonight will be the amount we defend to the county. Um and so I'm I'm just I'm just unclear like what this consensus is if it's not forward study for for other um budget years. I that's that's my lack of clarity.
And um thank you Miss Byer. Did you want to say something Mr. Or do you I think what Miss Byer described is what we would be doing, right? Is just to know what would that look like for us and um you know and if the you know if the variables pan out for us better than we hope, okay, then we'll certainly try and we're prepared to do it. But I think it's very fair to say it might be something we're looking at for a future cycle. I do think to this buyer's point um there's a question of prioritizing right and
so now that I'm zooming out a little bit I do wonder if there's an opportunity for us to have some type of budget retreat um maybe before October to kind of think about all the different things that we would want to see and what are we prioritizing for um 26 27 and for years to come. That way, I also feel like we wouldn't have you all, you know, doing 12, 20, 30 studies and we don't know that we're going to prioritize one of those, right? So, how do we be smart about time? Um, and that might take some time for us to do some digging into looking at all the list and figuring out here's the three we're going to focus on for this year so that your study maybe feels a little more focused.
That's the idea. Thank you, Mstead. It sounds like the budget is what it is right now, but we don't know what we're going to be getting from the county or from the state. So, there will be a process um whereby we're making adjustments. Sometimes they're adjustments in one direction, sometimes they're in the other direction. And so, some of the um costing out could be used
at that point because there'll be decisions to be made and then some of it will be useful for the next year which we will hopefully start early. And I saw now Mr. Mr. Tab has not had a chance to speak yet, but I do want to give Miss Herald Goff, did you have something about this topic um that you wanted to and I think um Millicent Rogers does as well.
And then I do want to make sure to give Mr. Tab some space to speak generally. I just wanted to um agree. Well, um piggy back off of what Miss Umstead was saying about um the the word that I would use is guard rails.
Like really understanding again that's what I'm trying to say when I'm talking about narratives and highlighting what story are we telling and we need administration to help us understand what those priorities are. like what are our budget priorities? How are we telling that story? How is it articulated in the numbers? And this is something I feel like it's an ongoing conversation um so that we can better
understand what do we need to see, how do we need to get it. So, um, lifting up what DAE presented, you know, whether however later, whatever we got it, whenever we got it, um, having those conversations and putting those things out from the the all the various types of community engagement helps us to begin to identify all these different guard rails so that we can again prioritize um, this very living document. I mean it's it's going to be stagnant at some point but it's living right now and then the process of the budget will be living beyond what we decide now. So as we begin to understand what it is that we need to see and what our community needs to see that is why we lift this up even at the last minute.
So all of these things I think we're saying the same thing um about where we are right now. We understand we're coming from a place but we're also looking to move towards a place. So, um, appreciate you lifting
up, you know, the things that let's let's hear it so that we can begin to identify collectively what these guard rails are in our bud budgeting processes moving forward. My my question I I heard Emily Chávez talking about the um supplements for transportation particularly the monitors and I my question is is this is the supplement the only thing that's being offered are all the other incentives and things tenants bonuses etc for transportation staff going away. the great question. So the attendance bonus um is remains a part of our base budget and so that was something we had to rectify this year, right?
It was missing um that line item was not in there and we took care of that this year to build that back in and this continues that as well. Okay. And why supplement in lie of pay increase? Yeah. So the the
supplement piece, right, is more predictable. Um so right so our bus drivers are hourly employees. if we have um if we have like we missed three days of school one month this year it's three days without pay has a direct hit um you know to their earnings and so that that supplement is really a great predictable tool that's a baseline there um that can help smooth that over um and u I think that was really the main reason why we we looked at that route and I think also I guess maybe a part two of that um is some hesitancy to adjust the pay scale for one group and not others. Um, so we're just very mindful of that practice.
Thank you. That's all I have about that, Mr. Tab. Thank you very much. Um, Mr. Teter, thank you so very much for um, continuing to work with us through this process and thank you for answering all of our questions that we were uh,
sending to you and I really do really appreciate that. Um so just a few questions for you. Um I know that glad to hear about the media coordinators and your counselors and social workers. That's great.
I'm glad to hear that. So thank you so very much. But did we did have another you know group of people to come to the board meeting few times about the dance program. Can you give any commentary on where that is since they were here?
We have not made a decision around that um to be honest with you. Uh and so I know we are we have um we haven't we've got to schedule an aotment meeting with that principal still like cone club in particular comes to mind. Um so I think for so you we've still that's to be determined. Um correct we have still some a lotments that we're waiting for just around
magnets CTE AIG and we should have those by May 2nd from our other departments and then we'll be sharing with the schools and school leaders their updated aotment sheets. So we've already got that one on our list too. Thank you for that transparency as well. Appreciate that.
so they can hear where we are. I'll ask Dr. King to address as he did at the last meeting about that and this year of us holding them harmless with the dance and going into this year with the understanding that this will be the last year. Right.
Exactly. That that was the understanding. This this year was an additional year beyond uh what was agreed upon. Um again that program um was slated to be dissolved as a part of growing together shifts um and and was dissolved in several other schools as a part of their shifts but but uh given you know some questions about communication about that. Um we did
extend that program for an additional year but we're but we're quite clear that you know our plan moving forward was that this would be the final year of that program. Thank you. Um my other question is about um I know when you're looking at a budget you know sometimes there's just a line item and there's an amount of money. So, are we making sure that um teacher training is included in the budget?
Uh especially when you're talking about the deescalation training for teachers, students. So, yes, I think professional development um is a huge part of what we do. Um and we've got a collection of funding sources that support that. Um, so I know specifically, um, you know, from our our federal funds, our title two funds is an area that's explicitly for improving teacher quality. Uh, and so that's that is a space where we invest in that. Um, and
then we we have had conversations about things like restraint training and and making sure that we visit things like that. And um, we we've got the funds to make sure that those sorts of things happen um, in this budget. And so we'll continue to be on top of things like that. Uh last two, um in terms of safety for our schools, is that included in budget or is there some type of reform of what we're doing or we're staying the same?
I think that's um I when I think about safety like I think about a variety of initiatives, right? So I think um you know so no u you know I think the school resource component in Durham is a little bit different than what I've been accustomed to but I know that that support is there um and you know Dr. Web and I have had some conversation in passing about grants that we can apply for that support that work um that Durham currently does not benefit from and um we're not in the
season yet to write that grant. Right. The state normally opens that up at a different point in the year and so we're being laser focused on those opportunities. Um I think we think about facilities too um in terms of safety and so I think Dr.
Webs had a lot of experience with thinking about the safety elements of facilities and um that that's always a component of our capital outlay budget. Um making sure that we're doing improvements that impact safety. Um and then I also think about the mental health component, right? And so we've been very careful to tow the line on the resources we dedicate to mental health and we have some things in this budget that we did with ESSER funds that we're hoping to continue um that impact mental health in the district.
And uh I don't know Dr. Web, if you had anything else you wanted to speak to with the physical safety components. Thank Thank you, Mr. Teter. And you you hit the nail right on the head. I've challenged my team to come to me whether it's safety, security, building services, all those folks to come to me
uh with their ideas, their needs, their initiatives and depending upon the funding amount that we get for capital outlay. There will be a piece of that for a safety based projects. We'd like to wait to see what that looks like if it's the requested amount that we receive. But uh Mr.
Teter is is quite accurate. I There are some very lucrative grants available. That season opens up about October. Um, some of them are physical pieces of equipment and some of them are personnel related as well.
And I've had some success with writing those grants before. So something we want to look in and have look into and have discussion. Um, so at this point the answer is yes, but we don't have the specifics on that. Okay.
Thank you. And and it's on page 84 of the of the budget book. So, we'll continue that and always looking for ways to improve safety, which is a great plug for our May 6 safety forum. We'll hear from the community in terms of what more we can do to keep our students and staff safe. That's I was leading to that.
I wanted to highlight that that was coming. So, thank you very Thank you very much. While while we're plugging Dr. Lewis, don't I want to point out that you know, Dr.
Lewis and I met today with the DPI regional director for um the North Central region and and part of that conversation centered on opportunities uh through DPI that are that are uh likely to be coming down the line where we can identify some some possible grant opportunities that also address, you know, safety issues uh but more from the soft kind of mental health kind of safety support issues. Um, and so those are things that we're continuing to look at as well. Thank you very much. And, uh, my last question.
Um, so, and I've said this out openly before and I'll pose it to everybody that's here. We have not received an audit yet for Durham Public Schools. Will this because we haven't
received the audit. Will could the possibly this audit have an impact on the decisions that we make with this budget? Yeah, very fair question. Um and I I think while we're on that, like we'll just for the public kind of rehash the history on that as well.
Um and so when we um when I came in November, that work had not started. Um and so we've been managing that work um in tandem with um this budget work that we've done. Um and we are we're at the point where everything is in our auditor's hands um in terms of they they have our ledger. We've got that as clean from an accounting perspective as we can have it for them for last year. Um and um we we we've been engaging with them daily um just answering questions they have as they formulate what our financial statements look like for the past year. Um, and just, you know, what I can say at this point from looking at
those documents, um, that we've handed over to them is that, um, you know, we're not in one of those horror story situations that you hear about, right, where you you have districts that have negative fund balance and they're having to work through tricky things, right? Um, so we're um, so we're in a stable spot where that's concerned and and really we're at a crossroads, right? And and so what we know is that um just sort of a a preview of what I know is coming um right is that we know that there will be writeups and that there will be suggestions about processes in the finance department based on what they saw last year. And it's and that has happened.
It's not uncommon for that to happen in districts where you've had transition, you've had uncertainty and and right you've had pieces kind of moving around. Um and so we know that right there will be some concerns about just processes and timing of when things were done or not done and whatnot. Um but then but then in terms of your financials
um not really seeing anything that's concerning in terms of your in terms of the the the district's financial position. Um, and what we want to make sure that we do, um, is that as we close this year out, we build on that. And as we develop the budget for next year, we position ourselves to build on that further, um, and kind of re, you know, and reclaim um, you know, in the area of fund balance, right? Reclaim some of what the district had to invest in the pay issues.
Um, but, um, at this point, nothing with that that I've seen on last year's financials gives me pause about where we are now and where we move forward. and we're in we're in the driver's seat. Um and we need to control that. And I look forward to getting that audit report in front of you.
Um and so I will say uh when I interviewed to come to Durham, I told them that um in my time in the chair, I've never had a late audit. Um and I've never had an audit finding. Uh and so like that's a big deal for me. And so it's um so looking
forward to catching up on that history for Durham and we're very close um in that work um with the auditors. So um and then your next one will be on time, right? And so we're really happy about that. Um and we've been talking about the schedule for the next one and and when that work's going to get get done.
So but I appreciate you for asking that because it's it is very important. Thank you. That's all the questions I have, Madam Chair. colleagues.
Any other questions or comments? So, I want So, I wanted to comment on the bus monitor supplement, bus safety assistant supplement just to round that out. Um, I am interested in looking into the supplement for this year and because we can shift things around in the budget. So I am interested to know if that was um I think the you were
going to talk about compensation in general make a plan for next year and all of that but um I mean the budget isn't the number is not final till we pass it. So um that's why I was asking that's I just want to put that out there. Um I take the recommendations of you know uh of DAE which represents a lot of the staff. They did a lot of listening to other staff to come up with these recommendations.
So I take them seriously when I do my due diligence and finding out about the viability of them and to what extent you've already you know considered them as a um not only financially but as a strategy. But we'll do our homework and and then we'll be prepared. Um and then we we know that regardless we'll be back in front of you to sort of reconcile all the pieces when they fall in place and and we'll make sure we're prepared to have a smart conversations. Yeah. And I will say this too and Jeremy and I had this conversation today. You know, this
is our proposal to ask the county, right? And we're always thinking about, okay, what if we don't get that? And understand the critical need of our bus drivers and some of the other things that are in this budget. We're thinking, okay, if we don't get get this, where will we have to cut?
You know, what else will we have to bring to the board to cut? So, I just want to keep that in mind that there's other things that the board likes us to bring to the table and implement. Understand that we may have to come back with some other cuts in other areas. Yeah.
So, we'll end up like competing values. Absolutely. And I think I think it's always worth looking also of course at what we can cut and I think you've done a good job of that so far creating a process around it and um but but yeah I mean I think that's an important part of balancing the budget. Um just you mentioned this but um the 20 the what was mentioned in public comment 27 more directors or supervisors you're saying that's not the case.
I just want to I don't even know where we would physically put them. Okay. Right. I mean, but but yeah.
Right. It's great. Right. So, we've just got more accurate
numbers this year um compared to the previous book and um and so that'll be sort of our new measuring stick moving forward. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
And then um the other last thing I want to say is also that I am um concerned about the classified pay. I I guess I want to ask we have certified over classified in this budget. I mean certified overall is prioritized um certified pay because it's in line with what we is proposed at the at the state level not knowing exactly where that's going to fall. Is that correct or you know I would say we've had to consider both right sets of employees in this and and uh you know when we when we know what the state raises are going to be correspondingly right we'll you know our classified employees will be the space where we put the most evaluation
on here's the state raise and how much more can we do better than that right so I think that's um so I think we're we're you know so we're thinking about both groups um but I and I recognize maybe the perception right with that teacher supplement component um and that dollar value there. Um but but certainly there's things in here, you know, there considerations for both groups um in decisions we'll have to make um as everything comes together outside of Durham. Okay. I and I didn't mean to say that you're um choosing or don't care about classified staff um in Durham before and as in I'm sure other districts we have alternated by year.
So that's also a thing that has happened, but it got thrown off the last couple years. I have to walk in the door every day and look a lot of classified people in the eye. Yes. So yeah, I get Yes.
Yeah. Yes. I hear that. We're looking out for um I just want to say I favor a 2% race for classified. So how I
mean is there a way and you costed that that out for me. I asked about that. Thank you. Um is there a way to you know, to put that in here um or to modify that point, Emily Chávez.
I think the board would have to choose to do that, right? To direct them to do that. Yes, the board would have to do that. So, we'll love to hear if other people have that concern, want to see a 2% raise for um for classified and feel like other areas could be negotiated. And and I would just say right to clarify what we you know there is some action forthcoming right so we've um if the governor you know the governor's proposal is 2% the senates a little bit less than that we'll see what happens with those because it will whatever they decide will affect state funding we receive and so we would want to you just take an opportunity to get that and reconcile those actions um and I think
we'll be mindful right of right the hope that we at least do 2% for them in Durham, right? We'll be, you know, and if if the the governor's version prevails at 2%, then we have to do it and it'll happen. And um if we get a lesser version, right, if the Senate model prevails or somewhere between the two, we're going to go back to the drawing board and rework our figures and see how much, you know, and we're going to work to do to try to do better than that Senate version if that's what comes to be because it's that's just not it's not acceptable. Yeah.
Let me just add I think I can I sorry. Go ahead, Dr. Louis. If I could just add when I first came in, I think you've heard me say I'm very competitive and I believe and want to be the the best and if we could do two, three, five, we would we would want to do that because our staff deserve that and we are trying to work within our means as as well. So, I think what uh board member Umstead has been asking for is this three-year I
just said three year, but this multi-year budget that that folks can see, not this year, but it's next year. I'm I'm getting it next year, next year. And so, I think the more that we um are able to um operate within our means, make the cuts where we need to make the cuts, um spend more wisely, and get to a point where we have that multi-year bud budget so our folks can see, and that helps with retention as well. if they see a way that, hey, I'm getting these increases.
Um, but but please know, yes, we want to invest in our staff because that's what we shared with the with this board and with the community that we heard during the listening learning sessions as well as the uh public online form that came in number one, investing in our staff. We want to do that, but we also want to make sure that we're working with our means as well. Miss Carter add um I just wanted to also add that we we had also discussed earlier the likelihood of another salary study happening in the near future right which would um further adjust um
classified pay and I also we haven't talked about this but can you know you weren't here but I think you know the answer to this okay can you remind us what the um classified staff classified salary increase was last year with the state state budget, right, had a had a increase in that. Um, so one year of that state budget was a four and the other year was a three, right? So, u I think it was a minimum of 3% we did this last time. Um, and then Durham made a litany of other adjustments.
Uh, and so it ended up being 11% um that the adjustment was in Durham and then plus the 3% that came from North Carolina. Um and so um so yeah, that that that's what occurred here and and that was um you know, you had almost $9 million to accomplish part one of that and then there was separate investment in the continuation portion of the budget this past cycle to take care of the three that was in addition to the 11. Thank
you. That's that's what I was looking for. And then um uh yeah, I look forward to seeing what another salary study does and also learning from what other districts are doing and some practices for um how to compensate classifi how to compensate staff in such a way that especially classified you're really honoring um veteran staff members and some different strategies for doing that as we move forward. Miss Ber, I just have a motion when it's ready for that and I was hoping that we would be ready for that, but I don't want to presume.
Go ahead. Move approval of the 2526 superintendent recommended budget for Durham Public Schools. Second. It's been moved by Miss Buyer, seconded
by Miss Herob Goff to approve superintendent's recommended budget for 2526. Is there any further discussion? Oh, Miss Mr. Teter, after this, could you explain what happens next with our budget?
Thank you. Oh, any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I.
I. I. All oppose use the same sign. Pass says unanimously.
I think to answer Miss Umstead's question. Um, I was coming right back to you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Um, so now we will relay this to the county manager uh on the board's behalf. Um so now that you've it's become the board budget now. Um and so we will relay this to the county manager the specific amounts that we're
requesting. Right. So we're so we're requesting 222,71,527 from the local current expense fund and $8 million for capital outlay. Uh and so we will relay that.
Uh the county manager will then she's already been underway with her process and the planning that they have to go through because they've got a lot of other entities other than us um that they contemplate. Uh she'll be working with her budget team to compile her recommendations communicating with uh the county commissioners as well. And our understanding is that she plans to unveil her recommended budget on May the 12th. Uh from there that board will deliberate, go through their processes. um they're required to have um an approved budget ordinance in place um by July 1st, right? So, we'll um really be dialed into answering their questions and participating in that however they ask us to um and and watching very keenly um where that lands um as they go through their process.
Thank you. [Music] Um, I'm good. Okay. Thank you, colleagues.
The next item on our agenda is also belonging to Mr. Teter. Um, shoot. Maybe I needed the break. Um classified reduction in force proposal. Colleagues, I'm going to ask us to take a 10-minute
recess. Right here. I'll be right here. I'm right here. Of course. Okay.
We are now back in session. Thank you for your patience, Mr. Teter. Uh good evening again, Millicent Rogers, board members, and Dr.
Lewis. Um so the u the next agenda item um is the uh superintendent's classified reduction in force uh proposal. And um just wanted to just kind of in opening remarks around this just share um and just to reiterate that this that this conversation is just a it's a phase one of sorts, right? And that we're talking about positions um and that we are not focused on individual employees in this process. And so when um the board approves this reduction in force proposal tonight, it means the positions are no longer there and it would trigger a part two of events um that administration will lead particularly through HR and in tandem um with other partners um to kind of understand how does this impact people
and how do we support those people and what things will we do um to manage that and if we um any action that we need to take with people in part two still requires board action. Um and so we just want to be very clear about that as we move forward. So this conversation, you're just making decisions about positions and not people and a people conversation what happened later um as as we do our work um to tend to the people and that I see Kim nodding with me. Um, and so just on if we can advance a couple of slides from here um to the recommendation. And so just and and I'll just read this just um and just to make sure we don't miss anything. And so due to reduced funding and district reorganization, the superintendent is asking the board of education to eliminate 27 classified central office positions with 2,58,895,000 in savings effective July 1, 2025, aligning with the budget
presentation in accordance with the board policy 7921. Um so just wanted to um clarify what that means. Um and in the board's policy um 7921 that specifically addresses classified reduction enforce um there are three different rationes um that administration can lift up in in that conversation. And so in the next slide we discuss sort of the first rationale um under that policy and that is the district reorganization.
Um and so just a few bullet points um that we share there is that during the 2425 school year, Durham Public Schools was faced with a nearly $34 million budget shortfall that caused largely by unbudgeted positions. Uh the school system was able to rectify this for the current year with a blend of one-time um and longtime measures. With the expiration of one-time solutions, the district must reorganize itself in a way that curtails expenses and personnel costs in an ongoing manner. Um, and then the next rationale on the
next slide, we address specifically the decreased funding rationale that's outlined as one of those three possible rationes in the board policy. And we say with the sun setting ofund over $160 million of federal ESER funds, Durham public schools cannot maintain the same volume of staffing and resources it supported over the past four years. This decreased funding has occurred in tandem with rising costs of goods and services. Um so just wanted to lift up the two uh ration that are discussed in the board's policy um involving classified reduction and force.
Um on the next slide we sort of just discussed the process that we went through. Uh and so in my initial conversations with senior leadership um you know my my goal was to come up with 3 million. Um and as you'll see on the next slide, we didn't quite get there. Um, and that's obviously affected conversations I've had to have and other decisions that we've made. Um, and so in order to avoid impact on classroom, senior members of cabinet focused a
review on reductions of central office positions, right? And so we uh we're cognizant that as we make this decision, we we want to try to shelter schools where we can and think about how we're operating here. Um, so we carefully reviewed the positions for the most minimal impact on the district. Um and we had four distinct meetings with the senior leaders um of the organization um and right and so that was myself, Dr.
Giovani, Miss Hager, Dr. Webb, and Dr. King and then Dr. Lewis ultimately joined in with us as we neared the end of that review for us to kind of discuss what we came up with um as senior leaders of the team.
Um we identified so each of us identified a number of positions that fell under our purviews um that we felt like we could operate without um as we managed our respective shops and we came together and we challenged each other. We talked through that. We pressed um and and we challenged each other on are you sure you need that to operate your shop? Um
and um can you definitely operate without this that you're proposing? Right. So we really pushed each other as colleagues um and held each other accountable in that process to make sure that we were deliberate and meaningful. Um and then ultimately u we know that um there are some positions that are vacant um and that that fell in this umbrella of things.
Um and I think a great testimony to that um you know is in my department there are two vacant positions that I've contemplated. um the the budget work just as an example, right? The budget work that you saw that happened tonight and the the production of this document and and all of the work that goes into that. Um I was directly involved in that and that used to belong to solely to a specific person in the budget department, later turned contractor, later turned district tried to fill that position and and never did. Uh and so we we've operated without that position in finance and we were able to make that work happen uh with myself and and the remaining members of the budget
team. Um and another another example in our department right is we had a fixed asset specialist um who separated from the finance department. I've picked up that work uh in tandem with my team and we kept that moving. And so, um, so those are the kind of conversations I have with my colleagues of I'm willing to part way with these two vacancies, for example, in my department because we've proven that we can make the work happen and and we were able to meet our targets um in the finance department.
Just an example. And then uh in tandem through that process, we we did have very extensive consultation uh with legal um to make sure we conformed uh to the board's classified reduction enforce policy um and to detail what our steps would be and and and what our communications should look like. And they very carefully worked with us to craft the communication that went out districtwide. they helped us down down to the gritty of of crafting the precedes and and reviewing what we're lifting up in this presentation. So, very involved with them in the process,
talked them through uh with them things that might come up and um to make sure they were our partners in that. um the slide um that's on the screen now uh was really the the fruits of those conversations um with my colleagues and things that we lifted forward and and um we work to to apply a cost to those things that came forward uh and just to get a handle of what we're looking at there. Um and um on just on the final slide, I want to make sure I knock these slides out, you know, and then we can answer questions. Um, so in the next steps, right, we're very clear that if the board approves the reduction, the superintendent will determine specific impacts on staff in accordance with the process that's in your policy.
Uh, our human resources team uh would contact potentially impacted staff by May 1st of 2025. So that's next week. Um, the impacted staff would remain in the current positions through June 30th. Uh, and then we will make sure that we're
impacting the notified staff of opportunities to submit their name for other pis other positions in the district uh as they become open and and I think um there are some that potentially are open now and I see Kim nodding right. So we're we're mindful that there are some existing pathways that we can contemplate now and and others will materialize um as we go through this season of transition um with personnel. So um on the final final slide um you know we just and I might yeah we're just reiterating the superintendent's request um you know to eliminate 27 positions um for that for the savings identified um in alignment with your policy and happy to um answer any questions and I know we've got um legal counsel here tonight and Dr. Giovani and the other members of the team that work so hard on this and we will answer questions um as necessary and and work together on this.
Mr. Tab. Okay. Thank you so very much for this.
U just just a couple couple questions and know we're not talking about people, we only talking about positions. Uh we've had a lot of conversations about transportation, but I see on here that um we are the position of assistant director for transportation and we were in transportation crisis. So I just want to make sure that we're not moving back to crisis with this kind of movement. Thank you sir.
I appreciate that question if I may, Madam Chair. Um so that is u that assistant position was a supervision position over routing and that role has changed and they u the person who was in that role has become more of a a router. Um, so the team felt like that would be an opportunity to offer that person to work directly on the routing as opposed
to supervising the other routers, a person with skill and move forward and the work is going to get done. Yes, sir. That was that short answer to I short answers are not my forte. The work will get done on all of the transportation.
There's one that was there's some that were have been vacant. We have collapsed some of those. So, this is was not done in a vacuum. It was done with the transportation team to determine that.
And I'm sure there's a lot of thought to all this and I'm not questioning anybody thought pattern to any of this. I just wanted to make sure that we were in transportation crisis and anytime I see something that says transportation, I want to make sure that uh we're not taking any steps backwards with that. Um the last question I have was Mr. from your own department and I think I sent you this question and you answered it already but I just want to put it on record that with the AS400 uh administrator we are moving away from
AS400 and and so with moving away from AS400 that means there is another system that's going to be in place and I'm wondering if there's a new system that's going to be put in place how will we then resolve making sure that you're getting what you need in finance. Absolutely right. And so we this was a space that we talked about quite a bit. Um and and and it's an example of the exchange that we had as a team as we talked through this.
And so, you know, some of the conversation was around, do we cut some vacancies that are in technology? And then we thought through we've got some other opportunities here, right, of we we need to let technology have technology. And so some of these technology positions that are embedded in other departments. We transition that work um to the technology department and and allow the IT director to appropriately fill his vacancies that he has in IT. So um so I think you know that that model will work for us and and um you know the the new system we're
moving to um we're you know we've moved our our accounting side there and payroll is forthcoming in the next few months to move onto that software. Um it is um much less antiquated and um easier to to manage in terms of you know like there are folks on my staff who are super users of that software. they're able to get in there and do the necessary things um that we need to make sure it operates, but we'll also move forward knowing um that we'll have the support of our IT department uh and those folks as needed um to deal with issues that we can't handle. And so the last part of the Thank you for bringing up it with that. Um, so we're not putting more are we putting more work on on to IT folks and then we need to compensate them for the more work they're doing with that or it's all going to be put together and because I know if when you start giving more work to people then later they're going to say
is that you know are we compensated for that because we already talking about extra you know extra duties and responsibilities and all that that's come up. So I'm just want to put it out there. Yeah. And I would say right in the you know the techn the the director of IT um has a great interest in the processes that we have had in in finance with our system um and has since I've been here really been trying to press in of the people I already have need to know um what this position is doing in your department so that our help desk can handle it.
and so they've been very anxious to embrace that work and and he feels like they're at a place where they could absorb it uh without issue. So I think we're in a good spot there. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah, that's it. It's Harold Goth. Hi. I was just wondering um um this is asking to remove to eliminate 27 classified
central office positions. Um how many of these positions are currently vacant? Dr. Giovanni, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's 11 that are currently vacant.
just um acknowledging you know I I heard your statement we are talking about just positions here we are not talking about people um but we're still talking about people so I'm just you know I'm just being sensitive to that well I think we've acknowledged there would be a part two to the process where we would evaluate potential impact to the people um and we're we're going to man we'll manage that in in the way that policy dictates. Uh and we're and we're sensitive to people. Um and and so, you know, we're we're going to work as a team to make sure we take care of people in that process. Um you know, to the best of our ability and and
ultimately any action that involves specific people is still going to require approval of the board before we do that. And so, like this is not the last stop in the road for you all to to intervene. um if there you know if we have concerns about specific people in part two. Um so um want to lift up that that part two and um if anybody is seeing this in public record and try identifying themselves that to understand that this is we're talking about these positions that's part of that sensitivity. Um and that's that's all I just wanted to lift that up. 11 of these are vacant people might recognize themselves and so just wanted to look that up and I think right as we move into part two of the process we're looking at right you know we're we're seeing an additional column on this chart of is this a singleton position are there two people who do this are
there three people who do this um and making sure that there's an appropriate process to evaluate who are the affected people right so that's still to um if if this is um if if part one of this process moves forward, I was a little concerned about whether people saw this, you know, because it has to be public record for us to discuss it. Um and maybe panicking because they've seen it and haven't had those conversations yet. So, I just wanted to and I think that right and that's fair, right? And so, you know, and that's and so we worked, you know, carefully, you know, to to um develop a message that went out Monday to alert, you know, the whole district that this is something that was forthcoming.
And we, you know, and we made sure that we had this out ahead of the board, like that communication went out ahead of the board materials going live. And we're very, you know, meticulous about that and being sensitive of of that timing and and certainly right. It is it's fair, right, that that people will see this and have questions and um you know, we're very um
and we're as a staff, we've had to be very careful is to make sure we have consistent messaging. Um and that, you know, as we communicated with it, we're we're communicating in the same way that HR will and and that it just happens throughout. But yeah, it's definitely not um you know, I I agree. You know, I see the humanity in it and and the the implications.
Um and so we've just um you know, and that's forthcoming where we have to analyze that and and and make decisions and and involve the board in in part two of this. Um Thank you, Miss Carter. Um, thank you. I, um, and I just want to make sure I heard you correctly and I'm reading the, um, related policy correctly and that folks that that that there will be that when other positions open or if other positions are open that there will be some support for
getting people into other positions um, or not like what does that look like? Could you flesh that out a little bit or help just make sure everybody understands? I'm going to look to my HR oriented folks on that one. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, so yes. So at May 1st, we would work with staff to say here are the positions that are available. What are you eligible for?
These are classified positions. So we would know going into those conversations kind of what positions would be available to offer um folks and what their options would be. So, we're very sensitive when it comes to that, especially coming after the debacle with the classified salary study and really being sensitive to folks that to um Miss Harold Goss um comment about folks that have seen positions on that um inboard docks. Just really being sensitive and listening, providing options in transparency.
Great. Thank you so much, Miss Hager. So you're not
" Yeah. Thank you. " You know, already know if someone's coming to meet with you, what their background's going to be, what their skill sets are going to be, what's available, um the timeline around that, and being able to follow up, follow through, answer their questions, and that sort of thing. Um, thank you.
I appreciate your leadership in this, Miss Hager. Um, one more question for you, Mr. Teter, is we know that we're in a um the public education is in a challenging space right now um and that districts all over the country and the state are taking steps to um make the budgets work. To what extent are other districts like neighboring or that we are you keeping an eye on what others are doing and like to what extent do do their practices align or not with the steps that we're needing to take here in our district?
Fantastic question. Right. And so a a model that we watched and discussed very carefully,
you know, was in a neighboring district, right? So we looked at Chapel Hill, Carbor, and then the process that they recently went through. Uh and so that was very front and center for us. And then of course, you know, we're reading uh reading extensively in the paper about the decisions that Wake County is making on the other side of us and and what they're going through.
So um it's right. So I think that's very fair, right? We we've been watching that and trying to learn from that uh and um just be as careful as we can to adhere to policy and and make sound choices. Thank you.
Missstead is next and then Emily Chávez. I had a question based on um Miss Hagar's comments about helping the people as Joy is talking about. I don't know. We're not talking about the people and maybe this is a I don't know who can answer this. Uh can you tell us a little bit
about how this works with the how the RIFF policy works with the transfer portal that opens and the transfer window closing. And then um in terms of people or positions that are open right now um that people have been applying for and the people who may get the notice may not be um able to apply for because other people are already in the pipeline. Can you tell me a little tell us a little bit about how that process works and how they work together? So one of the things that we could think about and we can just decide I think um is how we prioritize right and so when we think about um positions that are impacted here the 27 positions or the positions that are filled um that do we prioritize those versus um someone on a
transfer list. So things that we've done in the past um is offer a priority for those folks, but that would be something that we would need to decide um kind of how that plays out in the um pecking order. The transfer window closes on the 30th um for folks to sign up. Yeah.
Yes. So that was extended. The transfer portal was extended. And when you say we, who is we?
We have to decide if we're going to prioritize those people. Well, that would be some discussion. I would hope that we make as administration or the board, but there would be in the past we've done priorities kind of based on, you know, where things may um fall out. So, so would these folks have a priority for reassignment? Thank you. Okay, Miss and Emily Chávez.
Um, thank y'all for doing this really hard, challenging work of thinking about um these roles and these positions. Um, we know why we're talking about positions, but I also recognize the folks that are in them and and I know that folks have seen their names um and are have lots of or seen not seen their name, excuse me, seen their positions and there a lot of questions and concerns. Um, can you talk a little bit about I know you talked about the senior folks who are around the table, but how did you involve other people who are impacted by some of these positions in this decision-making process? I'll go first and then I maybe some of my other colleagues can weigh in.
Right. And so I think that um right, you know, so I think about um just my department, you know, we're one of the smaller parties involved um compared to some of the other um units, but um just that direct one-on-one, you know, work with my team members, right? And I I mentioned some of the work that we've
picked up that other folks used to do. Um and and just kind of we've reflected on that of how do you think that went? Could we do that again next year? Is it sustainable um that the people who did that this time could keep doing that?
Um and and and things of that. Right. So just kind of getting that kind of feedback um you know from from my colleagues. And so that's what we did in finance.
And I know my um I know you know not to speak for Dr. King, but he he has a lot of departments under his umbrella and and his folks all came forward. Um they his folks had the opportunity to come forward and lift up like hey these are some things that we could that we could do right so he was very engaged and I think you know Dr. Web had some similar processes with his senior leaders in facilities and in and those areas uh about what that might look like and and uh you know so again it just consistent across the the the major cabinet members um we we went through kind of similar processes.
I'm sorry this is going to be a little annoying but can y'all speak to some of how you talked about your team were like you know we picked up some of this work what it would look like for us to do that again. Is it possible for folks to just give a little bit about how some of that was um worked through in your department? Dr. W.
Thank you, ma'am. Absolutely. Um after meeting with the main group and getting the challenge and the conversation, I took back that back to my operations leadership team and we built from the ground up. What look at who we have? what roles do we are absolutely necessary what can we reassign um in in in the case of operations many of these were vacant and we have been functioning without those roles being filled so those were easy choices and then we we looked at the harder choices and it it was again looking at the positions uh does does this position contribute as much as we possibly need it to or can we can we
share those duties So, Mr. Barnes and child nutrition, Mr. Barnes and transportation, Mr. Lynch and and Miss Blake Reed with all within the building services.
So, I pushed it to them, then we came back and talked about it and that was how we developed a list and then we called down the list from there and then brought that that product back to the group to the that was mentioned the people that are here in the room. So, lots of conversation um and not just looking at what we're doing right now, but trying to anticipate the work that we're going to have to do in the future. Uh this is a model we're moving towards. What are we going to require uh with this person or this group, this new hire? Does that make a difference too? So, I had a lot of thought partners in in the operations uh proposal part.
Right. I think and I asked that question because there's a lot of questions to us have been how were these decisions made, right? And how do we get to this um answer? And so I think just being able to d talk about what that looked like.
Um we know that 11 of these positions are vacant. There's 24 I think total. 27 excuse me. Um, do we have any sense of how and uh um I'm trying to think of how to phrase this.
How many vacant positions might match what's currently listed here? Does that make sense? It does make sense. Okay. Um, to me, we would have to do a little bit more work to sort of look at the skill sets again, look at what folks would be eligible for, look at the positions that would be available. Um, and that would be that next
step, but it makes sense to mestead. Okay. And I just it's um wanting to ensure that folks have have some where to to land. Um, and then Mr.
Teter, if we were the 11 positions that were vacant, how do we do you have a sense of how much savings that would cost that those 11 positions are? Yes. Uh, so that that particular component has a value of 1,248,014. So 1248014.
Thank you. Um, this is just I'll just say this is really challenging. Uh, don't like having these types of conversations. I understand this is part one. Um, because we also know we're I mean we're in a challenging climate, not just here in Durham, but um all over when it comes to to jobs and opportunity. So,
I'm not I understand this is my job that I've been elected to do to make these tough decisions, but just not enjoying um and feeling a lot of angst around this. Thank you for answering those questions for me. Dr. Jan, I think just to expound on Miss's point, I think it is two things.
Uh the first premise of how these decisions were made in Dr. King's defense if you'll notice there he has I think maybe the smallest number considering how large the department is and kind of we went into this with we stay away from the classroom right like student uh touching things. So academics was very much the um the last piece of that. So that was kind of the lens that we looked at when we started um having these conversations. And then the second piece of your question is that it is the intent that every occupied position on here that those impacted folks will it we will work to make sure that do everything within our power that they are placed into a current vacancy that
is needed in the district. So if that and I think my colleagues I would like you I think they're all nodding their heads that is um the plan do everything within. So that is kind of the expectation is that people that are in the impacted positions will be placed into vacancies that the district does need and that there's been a business case made for. And I could tell you I can only speak to the guts of right the three under my umbrella in this level of detail but right two of mine are vacant.
I know what's going to happen with the work and and I see a pathway that's transferable for my third right that that is occupied. So like I can see kind of a crystal clear how mine would sort out for sure and I know there's some work you know it's more than about mine but um we're we're definitely thinking in that way. Just one more follow-up question on that. We're also in a time where folks are maybe looking and interviewing as the school year ends and be transferring when is this a process that might
continue as far as evaluating what vacant positions might be filled or not be filled? like is there an ongoing thought process around this um as people might transition out of a position? I would and I would maybe need to defer to kind of some legal wisdom of what it would look like if we if we had new vacancies to come up and we wanted to reassess the positions where I don't know what that looks like. Can you rephrase the question please?
Mr. Cheetah got it. I mean, and it's uh if you know it's that time of the year where people are looking, right? So, if I'm put in my letter of resignation, I might leave at the end of the school year.
That's a newly vacant position. Will there be analysis of is this a position that we need to fill or is this actually a position that in order to keep kind of where we need to be as cost savings that we may not fill at the time? And I know there's probably some other things to consider, but that's just a question of we're in that
time where we're going to probably see some of that. Okay, I think I got it now. So, I think those are conversations that with the, you know, the cabinet team and obviously Dr. Lewis and Mr.
Teter and Miss Hager kind of when those when that does happen, a high functioning district is going to have those conversations. Can this work be assigned somewhere else? Can we split these duties out where it doesn't impact the actual performance of the district and obviously primarily student outcomes. So those are thoughts and I think Mr.
Teter I would ask him to kind of you know jump on this too but that's something that should always be happening whenever it's not just oh we've always done this so then we just fill it right but is this a is there a business case for this position and I think in the slides Mr. Teter references kind of attrition. So anytime there's something and Miss Hager is involved in that also. So the answer is yes.
I should have just retracted everything else. I said yes. There we I would add that that is a the natural cadence uh for us in academic services with the
understanding that we are unlikely to add additional positions. Each time a position goes vacant, we look at that position to make several determinations. um given the new normal or the new circumstance that we find ourselves in, does it make sense to fill this position as it exists or does it make sense to look at how we might use this FTE in a different way? We have a couple of positions right now um that have recently gone um uh vacant and I can tell you that for instance, we'll have probably the final discussion about that about one of those positions tomorrow.
Um and you know that is how we have made you know the adjustments in terms of the structure of academic services. Um that has led some people to think we've added you know multiple positions. But what we've done is reposi repurposed positions uh when folks have resigned um in order to you know make a way to to
achieve our our mission in ways that are more efficient um and and and allow our structure to be more effective. So that's our natural cadence and that will always be the way we work through those positions. We don't want to be in a scenario where we ever um immediately repost a position as is without working through, you know, a thoughtful process of whether or not that position continues to make sense given our current circumstances. Sorry, I'll be brief.
Um, thank you. Well, people have already underscored the part two was really important. I'm glad for the care that you're taking with that. Um, I want to name I think priority would be good.
Um, so that's how I feel about that. Um, for those individuals. Um and um and then I just want to say thank you for the um the process that you described because it sounds like it
involved a lot of dialogue and pushing pulling kind of you know challenging one another and I appreciate that. So I think that's you know again I'm just hearing like you know evidence of the of collaborative uh approaches to these decisions and not having them just made in a vacuum. So I I appreciate that it is um yeah it is hard when you're actually coming to the decision. Um uh but I think the work is um was done with integrity and I from everything I have heard and I and I appreciate that.
So all I want to say thanks miss buyer. So, I want to thank you all for the the work that you've put in, but also acknowledge this is um grim and somber work. Um I look back in our
um I don't think we've done this since 2016. That's the I mean that's the last time I remember doing this. And um I want to be clear that the people that are in these positions um this is not a performance evaluation. This does not indicate that your work is not valued, that you are not um respected by um Dr.
Lewis and the team, but also uh by your co-workers and colleagues, and that your work is important to the functioning of Durham public schools. Um, and so I appreciate you laying out the reasons that you've identified per policy. Um, and just want to hold up that this is incredibly um, somber and and difficult for people that that may be impacted. Um, I've also been here long enough to know that we've done this before and cut too deeply and had to rehire and had to
restaff. and we need to be ready and nimble to do that if that's what's happened here. Um, and I trust that you all will do that thoughtfully. I also I think maybe this is a question for you, Eva, that folks have a have an appeal or a grievance at some level in some of this process or have state statute offered that protection?
So, at this time there's not a proposal on the floor to actually you know, do any dismissals. I mean, that is a possibility, but right now, this is just eliminating the positions. And I think what we've been hearing is that there's going to be an effort to place those people in other positions. 11 of them are vacant, so that's 16 others.
Some of those will find other positions. And so, um, so there's a lot of ifs before we get to that point. But yes, if in the end there is a a person for whom a position is not found and
there's a recommendation that that they be um separated because their position was terminated. Um under your policy and under state law as a classified employee, they can appeal that. Yes. Thank you.
And then this is related but not In this, have you all looked at the possibility or other districts looking at the possibility of offering or is it allowable incentives for early retirement or people to retire? I don't think you really have control over that. You What does that mean? Well, because it's the state retirement system.
Um, and you either qualify or you don't. So, okay. We're we're offering bonuses to people to to to attend and drive buses. So, if we were to budget and set aside some
incentive to incentivize people that have fully vested, they're there 30 years. You're saying there's no way to do that or no district doing that? I've not ever seen it, so I don't know. But I have not seen it happen either.
Um, so I mean it would require some additional research. Um, I know we've we've heard some conversations about that in other tiers of government. Um, but um, yes, I think we would just I I would want to do some research with the state, right, and and and some other authorities before we did that just to make sure it's something that we could do and it didn't bite us later. Um, but and I think what she's asking if we have employees that qualify for retirement, but they want to continue to to work, is there incentive that we can offer them that if they're making I'm making this up. If they're making $90,000 and they have been in, you know, in the district for 30 years and they they are eligible for retirement knowing
that an entry level position may be $50,000. So that that's that's some savings there. I think that's what you're getting at in terms of an incentive to retire. I I do understand and the answer is I don't know.
I've never looked into it before and I don't know if that's permissable under the state retirement system. We could, you know, certainly look into it. That's fine. I think I've gone beyond what y'all have researched, but I do like us to think creatively as um as we're approaching this so that everything is under consideration.
Um but I I um thank you, colleagues. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Here's this is for action. Is there a motion?
I make a motion that we approve. We approve the classified reduction in force proposal. Second. It's been moved by Miss Harog.
and it's seconded by Miss Byer that we approve um the classified reduction in force proposal that has been presented. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I.
I. All oppose use the same sign. It passes [Music] unanimously. Um thank you Mr. Cheeter colleagues. The next item on our
agenda items on our agenda in section six are for information only including overnight field trip and the monthly change order report. Followed by those items is close [Music] session. As has been the case the last few weeks. Um, we will continue to come back into open session, but it will not be livereamed and there will not be um interpretation available.
Move that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. Second. It's been moved by Miss Spy, seconded by Emily Chávez um to go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. Is there any further discussion?
Awesome. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose use the same sign. We're now in close session.