Board of Education · Regular Meeting · December 19, 2024

Moment of silence.

Thank you we will now move to celebrations Miss. Cooper thank you and good evening chair Rogers board members superintendent Lewis DPS colleagues and Durham Community welcome to the Celebration portion of our meeting each month we come together to shine a spotlight on the outstanding achievements and contribu within our school district from the incredible accomplishments of our students to the unwavering dedication of our Educators and staff tonight is all about recognizing the moments that make our district a place of Pride we will begin with our student of the month followed by our alumni of the month we will honor our teacher and employee of the month and conclude with a spark pin presentation please welcome principal Kesha Futrell of Durham performance Learning Center in Holton career and Resource Center to introduce our student of the.

Month good evening to our esteem Board of Education Our Guest colleagues and constituents welcome and thank you for having us tonight I have the pleasure of introducing a wonderful young lady Miss shamie Castro Romero is a junior who will graduate in 2026 she truly Rises as a phoenix she has an amazing work ethic and maintains A's and B's in all of her classes she has embraced the culture of PLC Holton that is a place where all students can grow and rise to be great she supports her classmates with pure tutoring and not because she's asked but simply because she wants to help she is The Unofficial cheerleader for many of her friends and classmates encouraging them to work hard attend school and do their best shamie is an amazing person with a br bright outlook on life her future plans include applying to the Durham Early College of Health Sciences to be a dermatologist she helps out at home with her brother and her sister and she's a proud daughter of her parents we.

Are honored to honor her as our Durham performance Learning Center dplc December student of the month please join me and welcoming and honoring Miss shamie Castro Romer. Congratulations shamie please come forward we have a few gifts for you this evening to recognize you for the amazing person and student that you are first we want to present to you your official certificate of the month for being our student of the month next you receive a DPS spark pin for exemplifying the core values of Durham Public Schools it keeps coming wait wait wait our friends from triangle e cycling want to make sure that you are powered for wherever your future takes you so they are presenting you with a laptop this.

Evening and please welcome Banna Kennedy chief of programs for the DPS foundation for a special presentation and then following our recognition of our alumni of the month Banna. Thank you so much for having me and thank you shamie for exemplifying DPSS core values at Durham Public Schools Foundation we know that a well-funded public school can make all the difference in a students 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 you shamie as student of the month and we are pleased to share that we'll be giving you a $500 gift card to go along with all of the goodies that are in this basket including a piece of new swag First time seen you are DPS made we are so very proud of you shamie I'll catch you in the hallway to give you your other goodies good job and great.

Work thank you all so much.

Watch for.

Back again DPS Foundation is partnering with the school district to honor alumni whose lives were shaped by their time in Durham Public Schools and the Educators and staff that nurtured them I'm proud to announce that Sony Gus osaji is our DPS Alum of the month for December a little bit about Sony she attended Parkwood Elementary Lowe's Grove Middle School and Jordan high school today she serves as the vice president of strategy and operations at Focus Features part of NBC un unal where she works on strategic initiatives that shape the future of the film industry Sony is unable to join us tonight but we are thrilled to celebrate her journey and achievements during her time at Jordan High School Sony exemplified the DPS values of hard work and determination balancing academics with Athletics as a track and field competitor under her leadership her team achieved multiple conference championships and she maintained an undefeated individual record competing at both the regional and state levels so Sony reflects on her DPS experience as transformative helping her build.

Confidence and resilience she credits her AP US History teacher Mr Merill as a key Mentor Who challenged her to think critically Express her ideas and prepare for the demands of college graduate school and her career Sony also recalls the joy of forming a strong community Through Athletics and cherishes the collaborative Spirit of her teammates and peers her advice to current DPS students take advantage of every opportunity outside the classroom from field trips to extracurricular programs as these experiences can provide valuable skills and New Perspectives while Sony is no is unable to join us tonight in person we celebrate her accomplishments and are proud to honor her with a DPS spark pen along with a gift card and basket of goodies from the foundation thank you all so much you can learn more about Sony on our website by visiting www.b cityschools.org alumni and if you have an alumni story that you would like to share you can do the same by visiting that link thank you all.

Again thank you Briana and thank you to the Durham public schools Foundation at this time we'd like to welcome Michelle hazes executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition to present our teacher and employee of the month.

Recognitions good even evening chairman Rogers member of the board superintendent Lewis and cabinet members good evening today is the day of course we celebrate every month our teacher and employee of the month every month a teacher and an employee a non-teacher is nominated for Teacher of the month these individuals exemplify exemplify greatness tenacity perseverance and Leadership and they are nominated based off of the theme of that month this is a great way to celebrate our teachers and employees they feel so honored when they are recognized for their hard work and dedication to their profession due to prior engagements and a family emergency our November teacher of the month and our December employee of the month will be recognized at our January 2025 board meeting so this evening we're going to recognize our December teacher of the month and our November Employee of the Month our teacher of the month is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis program the tonsa chapter of Omega scii Fraternity Incorporated and DC L Consulting LLC and.

Our employee of the month is sponsored by the office of human resources for our November Employee of the Month the theme is leading by example being that role model this is the individual who inspires you someone who sets a good example and someone who wants who wants students fellow teacher employees and parents to imitate our November employee of the month is DR Sanders bwith IB coordinator from Hillside High. School so first we would like to congratulate Dr Ben with he just received his doctor last week.

Yeah Dr BWI is a wonderful leader and contributor to the hillside academic agenda he meets and leads within his IB team of teachers and supports staff regularly providing dat datadriven discussions and approaches to any decisions that are made to improve the quality of instruction for our students to receive and what our teachers provide congratulations to DR Sanders bwith for being named Durham Public Schools November employee of the month so he will receive a plaque a bag of goodies and a spark pen.

Walk the way ACR.

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A December teacher of the month is Naima Brooks from Hillandale Elementary. School Miss Naima Brooks is a first grade teacher who exemplifies inclusivity she is always working to involve all students in class she supports all teachers and is willing to step up and take the lead on supporting all students Miss Brooks is very open and eager to learn new ways to include all students in classrooms discussion and activities she's enthusiastic loving creative and uses those attributes to find ways to make sure all students have a voice in her room she has become an integral part of our community jumps up whenever needed and is highly loved and respected by her teammates and her families congratulations to NAA Brooks for being named during public school December teacher of the month coach Lawson from North Carolina Central is out of is out of the country right now but he will stop by Hill andelle and give you an additional token for your hard work thank you so you will also receive a bag of.

Goodies and a spark pen thank you. And oh.

It is an honor to introduce this month's spark pin recipient Mr Freddy Rogers a Cornerstone of dedication and service within Duram public schools with an incredible 60 years of active service in the North Carolina Retirement System and 24 of those years devoted to DPS Mr Rogers has exemplified unwavering commitment to our students and Community fun fact Mr Rogers was an electrician for Durham City schools and was responsible for wiring this very. Building have served as a school bus driver and now serving as a full-time safety assistant Mr Rogers has made a lasting impact through his compassion positive attitude and ability to build meaningful relationships with every student he meets he consistently goes above and beyond to support his colleagues and students alike embodying the spirit of teamwork and resilience when asked about the key to his longevity and success Mr Rogers credits his approach to being a team player maintaining patience and continuously learning from both his students and his work he also highlights the kindness and moral support of his DPS colleagues as.

Essential to his journey emphasizing that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you despite facing some challenges this year Mr Rogers remains steadfast in his dedication showing up for his students and his Transportation family because as he says they depend on me his work ethic and passion for his career Inspire us all and his contributions remind us of the Limitless potential we can achieve together please join me in congratulating Mr Freddy Rogers for his well-deserved.

Recognition.

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This concludes our celebrations this. Evening thank you the next item on our agenda is the superintend update Dr Lewis thank you so much board chair Rogers good evening board members members of the public as The Godfather Mr Rogers is is still in our presence I just want to say thank you to him publicly again for his many years of of service to Duran Public Schools we wouldn't be able to conduct this meeting without Mr Rogers we wouldn't have any lights so thank you so much Mr Rogers and also saw his Pastor there Pastor Washington back there we will plan a date to recognize him at church as well and so thank you all so much for being here to honor such an amazing human being and I will tell you he is well revered among his Transportation peers they they call him The Godfather you know and and and as he said they do lean on him and and it's just a joy to hear them talk about Mr Rogers so I just can't say.

Enough about the amazing work that he's done in this district for so many years and still comes back every day so thank you Mr Rogers also want to acknowledge the unfortunate loss of Two Souls and injuries to several others at the hands of a gunman in Madison Wisconsin Christian school on Monday our hearts go out to our fellow Educators and to their students and families in addition earlier this week here in this Community we lost a young Soul the loss of a young life is indeed a tragic occurrence we send our deepest and sincerest condolences to his family and we are embracing our Scholars and Community as we grapple with this loss you know gun safety is an important matter and we don't get into the debate of you know gun laws or anything like that but gun safety is an important matter and this is where everyone can take an active role if there are guns in the home lock them up lock them up because the lives of our students and staff are.

Important to us and so as adults just think about what can we do to keep our Scholars safe and please know that this issue will remain a priority for during Public Schools so more to come on on that next slide please secondly I want to acknowledge that this is the last meeting for our dear colleague Dr AA Lin who was retiring at the end of this month and every time we're in spaces and we recognize her she gives a cheer you know so we certainly appreciate the work that she has done in this district for many years to hire recruit retain excellent staff and certainly wish her well in this next chapter as she prepares to enjoy retirement enjoy retirement and then we'll probably be calling you to to come back in some capacity so would you please help me thank and congratulate Dr a Lin.

Speaking of Excellence next slide I want to acknowledge Miss turkor Parker media coordinator at Lakewood Elementary School and the founder of Mrs Parker's professor's Bull City Food razor this was her 10th year coordinating the effort that serves food insecure households at not one not three not even five but 12 of our schools Miss Parker and her volunteers which include her husband students Educators retirees fraternities sororities and a number of additional community members packed nearly 5,000 bags of food that will provide a week's worth of meals while we're on renter break congratulations on another successful food drive Miss Parker thanks to your heart and your initiative our Scholars and their families can look forward to sustenance while our school nutrition professionals take a well earn break so thank you so much for what you do for our Scholars Mrs.

Parker next slide dur public schools has been recognized with a business energy Excellence award from Duke Energy the district's participation in Duke Energy's rebate program garnered a rebate total of 360 3, 2787 this year last year DPS reduced its energy consumption by 16% the district sustainability division shares reminders throughout the year including breaks which we are upon now during which employees are asked to please turn off the lights unplug devices shut down computers and displays and close doors to save energy so thank you so much to our partners and all of our employees who play a vital role in securing funds did I say that what did I say million oh let me be clear on the record here now thank you for that correction it's not 363 million 363,000 which is still a lot which is still a lot yeah okay $363,000 187 savings which is still a lot of savings thank you for that correction there next slide that makes a difference a huge difference reliable transportation is is vital to our.

Students and we're continuing to push to recruit more bus drivers one of the most critical roles in a school district is that of a bus driver timely that we're having some of our amazing bus drivers walk in the room right now I had the pleasure of riding a couple of buses about two weeks ago and it was an amazing and enlightening experience and it further reminded me of the power of our bus drivers it further reminded me of the skill of our bus driver because there were some turns that I knew I probably would have took all the cars and trucks out on that on that road but it also further remind me of the value ad that our bus drivers play and the work that our teachers and other staff do in the buildings every single day A Smile as a student loads a bus a have a good evening as a student gets off the bus the picture that's on your screen is a bus driver affectionally known as Miss Peach is and.

This particular day Tony and I were riding this bus and the joy and the smiles that would be on the students faces when they saw her as soon as she opened that door was just remarkable to see and I finally got permission from Miss peaches just yesterday at our holiday celebration to share this story story publicly you may have heard me talk about in some spaces a bus driver that noticed and so this was this is a bus driver among many of our bus driver and and Transportation safety assistants and bus monitors that notice our students and notice a need and pitch in well there was a particular student that had holes in his shoes and Miss peaches noticed and not only did she notice she went into action and purchased a brand new pair of shoes for this student and this is a student that was bullied this is was a was is was this was a student that had poor attendance but because he has a brand.

New pair of shoes he's no longer going to be picked on he can come to school every single day the power of a bus driver and so if you want to be a driving force in a student's life please please come come drive with us because there are many more stories that they're not even written yet that you can have an opportunity to be a part of and so our top priority remains solving and resolving the transportation crisis More than 70% of our Scholars depend upon School transportation and we are actively working on long-term strategies to improve bus routes and communication systems to better serve our students and families and you will hear from our transportation team tonight I want all of our trans Prof Transportation professionals to know just how very much we appreciate their hard work because of their commitment We are continuing to safely transport our Scholars while genuinely improving our route efficiency and increasing our pipeline of drivers additionally we are considering family responsibility zones and express stops as I mentioned.

What you'll hear more about tonight to support us and easing The Strain on our overall transportation system we certainly appreciate our parents and families who who have had to step up in a major way as well as your cooperation and patience as we've worked through this dilemma we will continue to keep you updated as we determine new approaches and a huge shout out also to our Duran Public Schools found Foundation for again noticing a way that we can con value our bus drivers and so on tomorrow I don't have the times in front of me but Coco cinnamon I think is between 1: and 7 p.m. tomorrow and at Dunkin Donuts there's two locations for Dunkin Donuts they'll they'll receive this information if they have not already received this information our foundation are creating what they call open tab events where Transportation professionals can go in and get a a a drink or treat compliment of our Durham Public Schools Foundation that's just one way of many that as a community we can step.

Up and value our amazing bus drivers who have a tremendous responsibility of transporting our Scholars to and from school so thank you to our Duran Public Schools foundation for they working if you haven't read president executive director Erica Wilkins most recent newsletter on on the DPS Foundation website please read it Bull City schools.org thank you so much for that next slide as your superintendent I am tasked with ensuring our Scholars academic success and I wish to thank our Durham association of Educators or Dae for its consistent advocacy for those who work to fulfill our mission to educate our Scholars to their full potential I will tell you that the work done thus far is historic and we will continue our discussion regarding the confer process and decide collaboratively on how best to move forward however the only way that we will get there is through true collaboration and ensuring that more worker voices are at the table because that's the objective of a policy such as this and I feel strongly that we must.

Maintain our focus on the role that meeting confer ultimately plays in educating our Scholars and ensure we bring a student Focus policy to this board inclusion which is the ultimate goal of the meeting confer process ensures that the voices of our employees not just members of Dae are are heard in this process there must be diversity in position income race and ethnicity and all employees should be assured of representation we want to create an opportunity for broader more Equitable input we also want to prevent exclusivity and separate this process from collective bargaining because it is indeed not the administration's approach allows for collaboration among a broader group of stakeholders fostering unity and representation rather than division including employees who are and who are not members of DEA ensures that all voices are heard and that the conversation is not dictated by the organization's members we do recognize that Dae is our o and so better progress is made when we collaborate together so this approach will strengthen the channels already available for accessibility.

And input and finally it is worth noting that Labor Management collaboration is not a one-size fitall process and so this claim that allowing nonunion representation is not done anywhere else is simply misleading different districts and organizations adopt various approaches on their unique needs and circumstances and boy I will tell you dorm is unique rejecting Innovation or alternative models simply because they differ from traditional practices stifles creativity and adaptability DPS should be empowered to design a meet and confer process that best meets its specific needs and challenges and so this version of Mee and confer will strengthen and further demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity to equity and collaboration amongst all employees and it is not anti-un or it is not this notion of union busting but rather coworker in the broader sense ensuring that all worker voices are heard and respected and so our goal is to adopt a policy that serves the entire DPS Community students first workers administrators and amilies in the most inclusive and effective way possible so.

We look to look forward to continued collaboration with our partners at Dae next slide as we look ahead to the new year we're focused on striking the right balance with our budget priorities it's about making sure that we invest in the things that matter the most from essential services to long-term growth all while being mindful of our Financial Health completing the previous year's audit is a priority and a key goal as it helps to ensure our financial records are accurate and transparent and so once that's done we'll be in a stronger position to share clear straightforward updates with everyone about how we've managed our funds and so our commitment to financial transparency is something I've been hearing since I've been here to ensure that we are building trust and staying accountable and making sure that every dollar is working hard for our Scholars and their success and so we look forward to a year of sound financial stewardship as a result of thoughtful decisions next slide as I approach 100 days as your.

Superintendent on June I'm sorry January 15th I have enjoyed engaging with Scholars with families staff and community members to gain deeper understanding of our District's strengths and areas for growth and so after the new year I will share my postentry plan for moving the district forward and Ensure that we remain laser focused on every aspect of our Scholars development and so look forward to continued partnership and engaging with you as we continue to work on behalf of all of our Scholars next slide many of you know that the North Carolina House of Representative voted last month to override The veto bill that would increase funding for private school voucher programs by the tune of $463.30.

It contains some unrelated immigration enforcement measures and so I chose to share this image because it really depicts what's happening with this Voucher Program where dollars are reverted from our public schools to private schools where there's no accountability to private schools where there's no stipulations as to certifications of of teachers from public schools who are the Bedrock of society Bedrock of community to to private schools and so we are asking as we're continuing to craft our legislative priorities that everyone in this community gets involved in the process of advocating on behalf of of public education and next slide I know there's been some concerns some Communications about the upcoming Administration from the federal government standpoint and this notion of what will happen to the United States Department of Education and I will ask this community to tomain maintain some sense of skepticism that the United States Department of Education will be eliminated since there is no concrete evidence or there's no concrete proposals in Congress right now to eliminate it there's no proposals to.

Delegate the funding and hundreds of responsibilities that the department has to other agencies or to change any of the funding streams that the United States Department of Education manages one thing that is important important to note is that even if the United States Department of Education were to be broken into pieces in subsumed by other agencies that doesn't mean that funding under things like Title One idea which is the individuals with disabilities Education Act or other critical funding streams would immediately or even definitely vanish just a historical perspective prior to the creation of the US Department of Education Title One and Ida and many other other programs they operated under another agency that was known as the US Department of Health education and Welfare and this department administrate administered these grants at that time and so the abolishment of the US Department of Education would not necessitate the elimination of these programs like titlean or Ida these formulas could continue to be funded and administered through other agencies and so what when.

We think about this in this totality what's most worrisome is whether or not that these would become block grants to to the state or or voucherize if that's a word in any way which are easier to cut in the long term you know once they are once they do become block grants or they're voucherize but then even changing the underlying Title One formula would require just to even begin that process of changing the title one formula would require a huge and massive rewrite of the education I'm sorry the elementary and Ed secondary Education Act and then with that it brings up other a host of other policy related questions and issues around formula that would take months to to negotiate and so I just wanted to provide that update and some sense of ease to our our school Community here please know that we are watching we are in constant communication with our partners at the Association School school superintendent Association I'm on calls frequently just just monitoring that and so once I learn more.

I definitely will will share more next slide and this is the final slide as we approach the holiday season I do want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you everyone that plays a vital role enduring Public Schools thank you for your commitment to our Scholars whether you are a scholar striving for excellence a teacher inspiring young minds a staff member supporting our operations or a family member partnering with us you play an invaluable role in our Collective success there's certainly been a lot of holiday cheer U around this District a lot of dancing going on around this District a lot of winter programs at schools performance is Spirit Week Department holiday celebrations and the generosity of the DPS Foundation as I mentioned offering that open tab at local establishments for our bus drivers and so I I I I will say this to those that are willing to to do more or those that are willing to to notice as well can take an active role by also.

Donating to our DPS school foundation and they will ensure that your donation goes to where you wanted to go and I'm I'm asking for donations to continue to support our amazing bus drivers you know it's certainly heartwarming to see our staff students and families all come together during this time but also recognizing the vital role that schools play in terms of when school is out and and providing that the lack of consistency for for our Scholars so we're certainly aware of of that as well and so I wish you and your loved ones a restful and joyous season and may 2025 bring growth transformation and abundant opportunities for our DPS families thank you so.

Much thank you Dr Lewis colleagues we are now at the point in our agenda where it's time for agenda review and.

Approval move approval of the agenda as presented second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Carter uton to approve the agenda is there any discussion Miss Chávez is joining us.

Online so we will do a roll call vote tonight thanks for being here miss javz greetings everyone I am Emily Chávez and I vote I Mr Tad all hi Miss Carda-Auten hi Miss berer hi Miss heral goof Miss umad hi i v i the agenda passes unanimously next item for review is our monthly meeting minutes from November 21st.

2024 move approval of the minutes from November 21st 2024 second thank you it's been moved by Miss buer second RIS Chávez to approve the minutes from November 21st 2024 is there any discussion all those in FA well sorry Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez and I vote I Mr tab hi Miss Carter uton hi Miss berer hi Miss Herold Goff hi Miss Umstead hi I vote I and the minutes pass unanimously. Next item on our agenda is general public comment tonight we have 43 people signed up to talk so before we bring in those 43 speakers I will do a quick review of the rules we're asking everyone to State their 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 1 minute when the yellow light comes on you will 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 are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety or students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers we're doing one minute the light will come on you will have 30 seconds left the yellow light will come on you'll have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep and it will indicate your time is up.

I'm GNA try to call names really quickly we have elen oh I'm so sorry I'm going to mess up names too Elan Jas sanasi oh sorry Izzy Riley Katie mconnell Joselyn Dawson Larry Dixon Lee Rodeo.

My name is elen jasinowski and I'm seating my time to Izzy Riley I'm Izzy Riley and I'm seating my time to Katie. Mcgonnell it's been a while Katie mcgonnell since I've been here my schedule hasn't allowed me this opportunity to speak in my time off my colleagues and I have had the opportunity to sit down with another board member she got to see what our reality is she was not impressed she encouraged us to continue our advocacy I've been tuning in during my sabatical I watched the specially called meeting the other two weeks ago I was happy to see the first quarter of that was devoted to the transportation crisis but I did in fact when the conversation shifted turned it off Dr Lewis I have to be completely honest with you as a multifaceted stakeholder I do not care about your strategic plan or your vision for Durham what I care about as a parent of two DPS students Scholars is how and will they be able to get to school for the.

Remainder of the 24 25 school year and Beyond as we continue to grow together next year we're opening up the secondary and the high schools and you still can't get the elementary school students to school what am I going to do as a teacher Elementary School getting my kids back and forth what I care about as a mom is the completion of Northern High School it's been a year and a half and we still have unfinished athletic fields it was recently described in an article as a well-lit Costco warehouse or an airport hanger as a taxpayer I am I rate that we are still talking about a$ 260 $200 million new DSA when your 96 million new Duram is still unfinished that makes me very angry why are there still pay discrepancies for our classified staff after we fought and won a historic budget what I care about is your employee is my Integrity you showcased our school and our tours have begun rest assured Future Families don't see the empty middle.

School hallway lined with the furniture that should have been in our school in our building assembled not by volunteers but by you in August it's December 19th we do not have one fully furnished or supplied classroom in our of out of the 11 that you opened this year not one not one two certified monu teachers out of those 11 I my Integrity is on the line what I care about is stopping the bleeding of these dis District self-inflicted wounds what I care about is allowing.

Time thank you so much happy. Holidays good evening I'm Jocelyn Dawson I'm the PTA president at the H Valley Elementary School I'm here to speak about the proposed no bus zones so we've been hearing from a number of our families that buses are essential to keeping them in the workforce it's especially challenging for single mothers who rely on older siblings or babysitters to get their kids to school to get their kids on the bus in the morning during the rotational bus schedule we've seen staff members have to walk children home because the parents weren't able to come and get them we also have a real concern at our school about safety we have 120 students within our half mile group at our half mile radius and they these students going to be Crossing both University Drive and Chapel Hill Road so we would respectfully ask that you consider serving us with crossing guards for at least the two weeks hopefully throughout the whole school year as we get accustomed to any potential changes thank.

You thank you happy holidays good evening my name is Lee rodo actually DPS product myself class 2016 good to see I've had pleasure of knowing many of you it's good to good to be here this evening I'm representing Mount silan Methodist Church specifically Reverend Kathy Wilkinson and speaking to the imperative nature of extending Master's pay to school social workers and educational support staff mount silven my home Church partners with four local Durham Public Schools local schools that with for work that includes food Aid school supplies this year loone provided Thanksgiving dinner for 16 families Christmas gifts for 17 families 57 students impacted there and all together is packed thousands of food backpacks for weekend food supplies for students since the beginning of the program in 2008 I don't say that to brag on my church I say that to focus on the fact that none of that work would be possible if not for the work of school social workers thank you so much for what you do and please consider that.

Thank you happy holidays good evening superintendent board members my name is Larry Dixon I'm actually a school bus driver I want to thank you for your kind comments Mr superintendent we do appreciate that so very much but we as bus drivers and monitors we've been having a tough time on the school buses very very tough time many of us are definitely considering walking away because of what we have to go through to drive that school bus we go through a lot of mental verbal abuse that is just not sustainable for us we would love to meet with the superintendent we would love the superintendent to meet with the drivers and monitors and let you let us give you a true perspective of what goes on on these buses on a day byday basis that we have to deal with I get to the point where I have to go home and take two a SED every time I get off the school bus and go home got headache from.

Having to deal with these students and the disrespect that we get on these buses so please meet with us so we can let you know exactly what's going on as you begin to try to figure out how you're gonna get these buses back up and running thank you thank you happy holidays Rebecca McDonald Sarah Smith Ann Fields Marty. TRS do I start dear Board of Education I'm a parent of Henry a kindergartener at Creek Elementary can you bring the mic closer to your is that you can move it and adjust it also okay thank you thank you I'm a parent of henria kindergartner at Creekside Elementary School I spoke here last month about the bus crisis and I'm here today to express my gratitude for the improvements made so far to leviate the bus crisis in the short term and to reiterate my request for finding sustainable long-term Solutions at Creekside Elementary School the rotational bus schedule has immensely helped reducing the number of students that are absent or staying very.

Very late our school has been disproportionately impacted and we really appreciate the Equitable approach thank you also for continuing to prioritize exceptional students and those who are displaced from housing the EC students and mcken vento students it is so important that they make it to school I would like to ask for you to also consider prioritizing low performing schools they've worked really hard to put in place School Improvement plans but those will only work if students are present every day for these schools okay that's all thank you thank you happy.

Holidays hi my name is Sarah Smith and I have two children in in two different DPS schools I work every weekday Miss SMI yes just a second Miss Smith thank you go right ahead hi my name is Sarah Smith and I have children in two different DPS schools I work every weekday and my husband is temporarily working in another state for the next year so while I can make the current situation work for a few weeks the new plan that includes Express buses is just not feasible for me or for my family as a working mom without local support I'm at a loss of how I can make this work for my children Durham streets are not walkable my street does not have sidewalks or crossing guards like the town I grew up in as and you must know that not every street is is is safe in Durham for every near every School Durham parents have ordered their whole lives under the previous busing situation what alternatives do you have.

For parents like me are you going to open school libraries after school for teens like mine who whose parents cannot provide transportation during work hours will you provide more before a and after care for elementary school students what about the families without access to Vehicles the proposed plan will be a crisis for Durham families thank you thank you happy holidays.

I sincerely hope I now you all know who I am though I did think about singing Adele's hello can you hear me I will spare you this is to as to the point as I could get apologize harm has been caused to family staff in the community DPS and doe needs to own that accountability where are the maps where are the maps why have I as a parent who will likely be affected by a new policy in January have not received any information any notice literally anything why have the maps not been shared like could somebody seriously actually answered this question tonight trust Board of Education please stop saying that you trust DPS transportation to figure out the best solution they have failed you have failed it is time to own that and stop talking and presenting slides and start listening to the solutions that we have literally been handing to you for months listen the bus drivers are here tonight with their suggestions while while I don't.

Know exactly what those are I can almost guarantee they are better than any of the ones put forth by DPS Transportation thank you happy. Holidays hi I'm Marty Triggs I'm the PTA advocacy chair for Hope Valley Elementary many children at our school do not have coats pants shoes anything warm to walk to school you're asking almost 120 students at our school and many of those students come to school with broken Crocs shoes too small or too big no coats and the PTA has been trying to do a coat and shoe drive but we we need more time to do that our school struggles with fundraising most of our fundraising from the PTA goes to feeding our children and so while we try to keep a closet of items we don't have enough you've also I also feel that this new plan directly conflicts with the DPS policy about recess you don't allow children out For Recess if it's below 40 or raining so why are we asking these children to walk to school in this.

Weather if they don't have the proper clothing so at the very least if this is going to happen we ask that you help us provide the proper clothing and shoes for our students that you're asking to walk to school thank you happy holidays Norma Andrew Millie Rosen Ron lipsum Rea Nikia Ron Smith hello is normano.

Elementary.

Hello you thank you happy. Holidays hello my name is Norma Andino and I am one of the parents that are responsible by for the WhatsApp group on hob Bal this h b elementary this group actually right now is having 110 parents and they are receiving information about the schools in this group I am speaking for the 40% of the Hispanic students most of them I receive free lunch and traveling the bus with me right now I have 20 notes that parents send me parents that couldn't be here I'm going to be reading one of them I am a a single parent a single mother I have a student that is in third grade I need the service of the bus because I need my daughter to be picked up because I work and I cannot go take her my daughter again is in third grade my name is Martha Gonzalez thank.

You hi Millie Rosen seventh grade math at DSA I'm seaing my time to. Ron my name is Ron I'm a bus driver I'm conceeding my time to. ARA good evening my name is retha Daniel Ruth and I'm a veteran driver at Durham Public Schools I've been here over 38 years in a position as an IIA and as a bus driver for 31 I'm here to speak today on the transportation crisis it's really terrible i've been I've seen a lot of stuff but it's really bad now and one thing I want to talk about now is that rotation plan is not working as you see there are a lot of kids that are getting left out also when they started doing the rotation plan our supervisor stopped driving driving they need to be driving along with us because sometimes we've got people sitting out in the cars waiting to start a route and the drive and the supervisors are saying just wait until we call you and they may be.

Waiting for hours or they may not even drive anything at all so it is not working also I'm devastated and I'm angry because I care about my kids it doesn't matter what socioeconomic situation they're from they all deserve a ride every day to school not just when the four days and then you figure it out the fifth day that is not good also the solution here is work a voice we need to listen to us don't make decisions and then come to us as like a protocol and say okay we'll talk to you now but we've already decided what we're going to do also our demands for right now we want to keep supervisors driving while we're in crisis we want to fix our route efficiency we want to include Transportation staff and bonus pay opportunities we want to provide a clear and transparent system for rotation for extra Duty so that it doesn't appear as favoritism we also want to give transportation workers and access to school some of us are out there dancing.

Around hoping we don't wet our clothes but we cannot get in school we've been driving for two and three hours already please let us feel like human beings and treat us as such also as a proud Union member I want us to have a real meet and confer I don't need to meet with my co-workers I need to meet with the management I need to meet with the people who can make a difference as you can see my constituents also feel that way we need to meet with you all you all make the difference we have Solutions we have real solutions we can give you what we have but don't make a decision and then come to us and tell us oh we thank you for what you said but this is what we're going to do all right we want to start in the beginning phases also we're standing here to call on the Board of Education to do the right thing and listen to the employees thank you happy holid.

Ron Smith seing my time to Nisha. Watson okay is there an.

Ika are you Nikia I'm come on up Nikia is next and then it was Ry Smith and Nisha Watson but I didn't call Ron Smith or Nisha Watson yet go right ahead my name is Nik Street and I'm recing my time to Nisha Watson now okay Nisha Watson por Tucker can y'all come on in shm Graves Tash clay ebony leak Katie KY good evening everybody my name is Nisha Watson and I am a teacher in DPS I'm a bus driver I'm a product of the city and county schools I am DPS as a current educator at Eastway Elementary I can see firsthand how in consistency in transportation is negatively affecting our students academically and socially how can we fix this my students often come up to me and say coach Watson can't you just drive for us coach Watson I missed your class today a good friend of mine said Deacon McNair he said you're not anybody if you can't drive a school bus I never understood what he meant.

Until now good drivers and monitors set the tone for how students begin their day reliable and efficient and Safe Transportation impacts the entire educational process in so many ways how can we help call on us we cap we're capable we're reliable we can get theob job done call on us some of our students are missing school some of our students being left home alone we are DPS we can do this I believe just as you believe that transportation is a priority but we got to make it a reality how can we solve these School Bus woes by passing meet and confer with the explicit caveat of collaborating with those on the ground the drivers the monitors and the teachers to read this District of this culture of and spirit of intimidation retaliation and blame let me be clear drivers are not to blame for these School Bus woes it's been building over years we all know there's a hierarchy between leadership and staff and we respect that but we all have to be.

Accountable and included in decision making as a bus driver of three years these drivers have welcomed me with open arms and I really appreciate that but how can we help over 100 Transportation Drivers excuse me workers signed this petition help us before anybody else wants to leave this District because our students need us the children need us as a 26 year veteran they need us at a low performing School they need us they can't miss days we know this y'all know this we we preaching to the choir but we really need y'all to pass this meet and confer we need to invest in our students it pays great dividends as a student and as a a child of this city thank you thank you we are ready willing and capable and we need your help help us help you help us help each other who got my thank.

You my name is cor Tucker I have a lot to say but I lost my voice and I conceive my time too she make her grave.

Thank hello can y'all hear me all right excuse me I'm a little nervous my name is shica Grace I've been with d public schools for 11 years so being that I only have two minutes I'm just going to cut straight to the point I feel like that there is a lack of respect for the transport transportation department as a whole and the reason why I say this is because it's a lack of respect for our worth if we was respect it based on our worth we wouldn't have to sign a petition to ask supervisors to keep driving we wouldn't have to ask you all to help fix route efficiencies because we will already be included in the decision we wouldn't have to be asked to be included in bonus pay because we will already be considered because you all will value our worth we wouldn't have to ask you to in favoritism that's dividing us as co-workers and pting us against each other because you all will be respecting.

Our worth we would not excuse me my phone went dead sorry we would not have to ask for access to get into a school something so simple to use the bathroom because you will respect our work I look at my department and who I work for as the foundation of the school we are the first people those kids see in the morning and we are the last person those kids see when they get off the bus when we take our kids to school and drop them off we can tell you everything that's wrong with each single child on that bus they not feeling good they got a headache they had a bad day they ain't eat we can tell you everything about our kids I just ask that you all get it together and come and meet us before you no longer have the transportation department that you have now thank you happy.

Holidays good afternoon my name is tsha Clay I'm with the Southwest Division I am a safety assistant and I can see my time to my coworker ebony. Leak hi my name is Ebony leak and I'm a proud member of Da Dae I also work for Southwest Transportation dep Department I have been a bus monitor for them for going on 3 years and I work very hard for them I have built a bond not only with my kids that ride my bus whether they new or been working with them since I have started I have buil a bond with their parents their teachers there is an open line of communication we are extremely exhausted to the tee I'm here sick today to speak on behalf not only because I work for them because I also am a parent my son also suffers from the school rotation of this bus it is hard for me as a mother to make sure he gets to school by 9:15 at Hillside High School I.

Can't put him on the bus because they're shooting right there at the school there's fighting at the school there was just a fight with 10 girls at Hillside and you want me to figure out how to get my son ain't never R to C the bus it is hard working for y'all and and being a parent it is a struggle every single day hard if y'all can't see the values of the team that y'all have what is the point of us being here what is the point we get devalued by schools we get devalued by y'all we get devalued by the parents and the students where that makes sense it we can't take it all way around the pay that we get ain't even worth it it's not worth it but I stay because I love my kids I love their parents thank you thank you happy.

Holidays Katie KY lilyan clay Britney Frost Rita rraw tashir Smith. My name is Katie KY I'm a proud member of Dia and I seed my time.

To Junior in sou High.

School.

For.

For for.

Thank you happy hour. B good afternoon everybody my name is lilan I'm a mother of two kids that graduated DPS and I am also the mother of a student that is a junior and Southern I am here to explain the impact of the crisis on Transportation that we are having right now and how we can work with the workers and the drivers and work with what they are demanding so they can have a voice and be part of the solution since this started since the rotation on the buses started not only I have not have been having a bus on Mondays but also the bus has not been showing up on Fridays I have not received any communication about Fridays that's why my son has been missing school the last two Fridays even if I knew ahead of time that there's a second day that I have to take my son to school there's a limit in the quantity of days that I can be late in my job because.

That's three hours if I keep doing that I'm not going to be able to pay the rent and they are going to kick me out of my job the reality the sub reality is that for me and a lot of other parents you are asking us to take decisions that are impossible is between taking our kids to school or to have a roof over our heads or have food on our table also since this started since this rotation started there has been situations in which the students were left outside in the dark and the cold waiting for a bus that never came that happened to my son and thank to God KY was there that day if she hadn't been that day in there nobody could have been there to open the door for my son and I never receed a message to let me know that the bus was not going to come my son is not doing good in math and that's his first period he has been getting late in there.

Because all the transportation issues this is affecting his GPA and his future I am worried of what's going to happen if we don't give solution to this problem problem I know that a lot of kids are not going to be able to graduate and they are going to have less opportunities in the future when these when the kids are not paying attention in the school then there is. Trouble thank you my name is Britney Frost I'm a Durham Public School social worker and a Dae member and I see my time to read a r draw hi my name is Rita Rick straw I'm a school social worker and a proud Dae member and I seed my time to tashir.

Smith hi I'm tashera Smith a DPS parent a children of of two children at Forest View and I'm a proud ussw worker leader I'm here concerned standing and solidarity with Dae for the second time transportation work fighting for their voice to be heard and their demands to be met I'm a single mother a service worker and I don't have a car on Friday which is my rotational day I can either pay $15 each way for Uber or LIF to get my kids to school or I can choose to leave them at home with my mother who has PTSD to homeschool them I can't I have to go to work on some Fridays because I can't afford to spend that money every week I already have to pay for Uber 3 days I have already paid for Uber 3 days out of the last month that's cutting into Christmas gifts that I have playing for my kids I don't think that's fair I don't think that I should have to.

Make that sacrifice I don't think it's fair that my kids are missing school cuz my daughter causing my daughter to cry because me giving her busy work at home is not the same her as her seeing her friends and teachers at school I don't think it's fair that when I dropped my kids off at the bus stop on Tuesday a little boy had to cry because he was forced to get off the bus because four kids was to a seat and there was no room for him to sit I don't think it's fair that transportation workers are underpaid undervalued and disrespected I think if the driver that I had originally would have stayed and felt value heard and appreciated maybe she would still be here today staff retention is the solution and to do that we have to listen to what the staff need give the transportation workers access to schools bathrooms for their break doing their shift give them bonus pay opportunities you said stated during the PowerPoint.

Presentation that they were open to this as an option let's get it done cap that Roots at three routes per worker offer each worker the opportunity to pick out additional routs with one hour per bonus per pay for each additional route to compensate for the stress of rondom mouse RS you as DPS leaders of you as Leaders of DPS have a choice to either continue with the broken status quo and every year more families will leave DPS and send their school kids to Charter Schools and private schools or you can listen to the majority of transportation workers take action on their petition demands and pass Dae meeting comper policy now education and transport work transportation workers being at the table cross management discussing issues is DPS gives us parents a sense of relief when we can send our children to School each day and be confident knowing that they are getting the education that they deserve the transportation workers and bus drivers and monitors are getting them to school.

Without any hurt harm or danger and that we can go to school go to work with a sense of relief that knowing our children are getting the proper education they deserve thank you thank you happy holidays laki pre Kumar Kem Kumar JB hen Megan steel wagon Amanda sale Ryder Salmons Anna Benfield good evening my name is lxmi premkumar I work at Force Elementary and I seed my time to JB hen good evening Dr Lewis and members of the board my name is JB Howen I'm the school social worker at carington Middle School it's good to see many of y'all this past Saturday at that Durham County parade so thank you'all for being out and representing us DPS is right now at risk of losing 30% of our school social workers mid year and honestly after hearing so much of what bus drivers are saying too I'm honestly afraid we're going to be losing a lot of bus drivers too if something doesn't change quickly in regards to the issue of school.

Social workers and other instructional support staff who were promised Master's pay and have now been excluded I'm sticking to my words and that I'm going to keep fighting for this until this is passed for this school year I know that DPS is already over budget by more than a million dollars for the Master's promise but it honestly y'all feels like DPS is punishing School social workers and making School social workers and other instructional support staff pay the consequences for the mistakes that have been made at management I know at the last board meeting on December 2nd you told us that you support us but I'm going to be completely honest I don't believe that words only go so far you have to back up your words with action on the November 21st board meeting when you were all discussing the Master's pay issue Dr Lewis you clearly said we will deliver when talking about the Master's pay issue you stay that you only needed 4 days to get a resolution.

Respectfully sir it's already been 17 working days and there has been no clear answers or Solutions we're looking to you to fulfill This Promise for this school year and while I'm up here speaking I just want to shout out you know co-workers in the transportation department too I ask you'd please listen to them and meet their demands they similarly to school social workers serve some of our most disadvantaged students so just meet their demands too thank you thank you happy.

Holidays good evening my name is Megan stagen I'm a DPS school social worker first I want to elevate the voices of our transportation workers they have faced mounting challenges reliable transportation isn't just a logistical issue it's an equity issue transportation workers have already shared solutions to these problems listen to them now Masters pay the projection shared to the December second board meeting regarding Master's pay were exaggerated and served as a scare tactic disguised as Financial stewardship an impossible scenario was presented in which every eligible employee would earn their degree this year why can HR still not provide an exact count of those excluded from Master's pay this lack of basic follow-through is unacceptable we don't need apologies apologies don't retain staff they don't provide the pay or support that workers need and deserve what we need now is action the adoption of the DA's meet and confer policy would be a major step forward we are the experts in our own work to truly serve our students we must invest in the staff.

And listen to our Union words of sympathy and regret won't solve these issues only decisive action will thank.

You my name is Amanda s and I'm a school social worker I'm speaking again today to remind you what is at stake and urge you to take action for us our transportation workers and to pass the Dae meet and confer policy DPS is dealing with many critical situations and while Solutions take time the delays and setbacks are causing the crisis to grow and the trust to erode as support staff left out of Master's pay we're asking you to consider the impact of these broken promises how would you feel if your job promised you pay and then not once not twice but three times or more took that back would you feel valued and while we struggle with feeling disrespected we continue to show up for our students this year alone my two schools have conducted 17 suicide safety assessments and I work with elementary students our students are struggling we are also addressing record rates of chronic absenteeism and that is further Complicated by the transportation issue Transportation staff have provided Solutions and.

Suggestions as time for the people in power to listen to the real experts our co-workers on the ground doing the work every day this further highlights the importance of a meet and confer policy that allows workers to have a voice and a seat at the table with District leaders thank you thank you you happy. Holidays my name is rer Sammons I'm an AP environmental science teacher at city of medicine Academy and I seed my time to. Anna my name is Anna Benfield and I'm a DPS occupational therapist parent and Dae board member currently serving as the EC director for students with disabilities consistent School attendance is foundational to their ability to move through school routines and make progress towards their academic and functional goals for a full month this fall I had a kindergarten student in a developmental needs classroom who didn't come to school a single day because her bus wasn't running this is egregious and it's a violation of her legal right to a free and appropriate.

Public education I'm glad that EC buses have now been prioritized but lasting damage has been done and most EC students don't ride EC buses They Ride Genet buses top down Solutions aren't working how do we fix the transportation crisis listen and act when transportation workers tell us what they need they know best what will work and we stand shoulders to shoulder demanding a real seat at the table through the Dae endorsed meet and confer policy this is the long-term fix not only to this crisis it's the way that we avoid the next pay debacle the next EC lawsuit the next wave of resignations EC providers are creative tenacious Fierce advocates for our students why are administrators so bent on keeping us powerless just like our Union siblings on the buses EC workers also have great ideas about how to make our district stronger and to serve our students better the offramp from crisis to stability requires a new way of doing business a proactive approach to collaborative problem solving no more round.

Taes no more listening sessions pass the union meet and confer policy that puts worker representatives across the table for district this version of worker voice makes real change possible which is why DP thank you Lori model Francisco J dos Leah earlom Micah Hunter tweet Meer Geer Mahajan Aiden mendua Mendo Maya hello my name is Lori model I'm from Northern High School I'm a DA member and I'm seing my time to Francisco J dolls good evening my name is Francisco J dos I teach physical education at Pearson toown Elementary and I'm a proud member of the Durham Association of Educators I have been a DPS teacher for for 2 years and I pre taught previously taught in Florida for 10 years let's face it the current top down solutions to this Transportation crisis are not working some students may not get to school on days when their bus is not running causing them to miss valuable instructional time and perhaps even the only meals they would get on any given.

Day in addition the stress being placed on our transportation co-workers is unnecessary unfair disrespectful and avoidable for months we have heard and seen it all from both the board and DPS admins about how much they hear us and how much they value our opinions and voices to be clear hearing us and valuing our voices does not equate to a real path forward nor does it get us any closer to a policy that requires District admin to meet with us as a union and solve problems together allowing just anyone a DPS worker for example to be appointed to the superintendent to be on his team with create a conflict of interest and it is highly unethical as it would Pete workers against other workers it is way past a time to ask for this board to listen or hear our voices it is time for this board to act and side with the thousands of workers and community members who are completely invested in our schools if you choose not to act and.

To not provide reliable transportation for students and to not protect workers then you will continue to see a mass Exodus of Highly qualified workers and you will once again experienced disruption and very clear precise loud and palpable opposition thank you thank you happy holidays I see my to m m. Tweet good evening my name is Micah tweet Meer Riverside science educator of 16 years and now president of Dae our Public School staff Union it has been 11 months and we are still waiting we've presented our case to the board participated in meetings and compromised wherever possible but we will not compromise on union rights or the definition of meet and confer the board now faces a choice between our Union's version of the policy and the administrations which lacks worker voice and accountability our policy Fosters Collective worker Voice by enabling Democratic organizations like ours to send representatives to problem solve with District administration this is the standard practice for unions Nationwide to oppose this is to oppose the very essence of.

Unions and worker rights Dr Lewis's version undermines Union principles and allows the superintendent to select non-union and non-administrative employees to represent the district which is not how meet and confer operates anywhere else this not only pits workers against each other but also encourages favoritism and undermines worker democracy the superintendent already has numerous ways to gather individual input our version would not diminish individual workers voices there is not a single genuine reason why Dr Lewis cannot collaborate with unionized workers through meet and confer and individual employees through other channels we have a solidarity letter that was sent to the board and Dr Lewis today that was signed by over 40 labor leaders from around the country calling out this Union this policy is union busting it was signed by presidents and officers from education unions like Chicago Teachers Union and the Lawrence Kansas Education Association it's time to it's time to demonstrate your Progressive values by passing a real meet and confer policy and collaborating with us happy holidays you can leave it with our clerk.

Thank you. My name is k Mahajan and I have two kids at DPS we are now in our fourth month of the DPS Transportation crisis much like the spring 2024 classified staff payroll crisis where staff were forced to accept reduced pay today families are being asked to accept increasingly reduced transportation services these poorly constructed policies and even worse implementation efforts efforts must stop DPS students and staff deserve better and let me tell you more and more DPS parents and Durham voters are asking if these are some of the board members who have gotten us into this mess time and time again how can they possibly be the ones to guide us out of it thank you happy.

Holidays Aiden Mendoza Maya. Yini mangua Wendy Pinto Dasha. Matutu good evening my name is Ado Amaya a student at Durham School of the Arts and a leader from sunrise at Durham School of the Arts I'd like to start off by thanking joy and Jessica for attending our visioning session and thanking Melissa and Natalie for meeting with us transportation is a critical part of students everyday lives and are how many students are able to attend school and go home every every school day that's why we've decided to add clean transportation for all students as a pillar of our resolutions right now Transportation CH challenges are creating significant barriers during the first school of week during the first week of school I personally experience this I had to wait two hours outside in the Sun every day in 90° heat or higher and I know I'm not alone some students have missed multiple days of school because buses aren't showing up or hours late others are stuck waiting outside for hours just to.

Get home because they have no means of of Transportation this isn't just about inconvenience it's about Equity safety and access to education thank you thank you happy holidays for.

Hello good afternoon my name is s mat I'm a parent from Hope Elementary I am here to talk about Transportation as we know about 70% of the students in Hope Valley need transportation and more than 20% of these students are going to be affected if we keep doing the transportation like it is right now I think we need to look for a solution for example I am a single mother I work from 7 a.m. to 5:30 so it is impossible for me to do certain things and I think this is not difficult only for single parents but for everybody I think that we need to look for a solution in my casee I live close to the school but regardless of that my child is at risk is at risk of walking outside and especially with these temperatures thank you thank you Ashante Scarlet David Klein is Wendy Pinto here Yani mcen Shante Scarlet David Klein.

No hello everybody David Klein I have no prepared remarks tonight somebody signed me in but I'm happy to Steed the time back and to be frank there's nothing I could really add that's more powerful or data driven than what's been shared already so see the time back thank you thank you that concludes general public comment. Okay hello I'm Christy Clen physical therapist haven't been here in a couple months try to take a mental health break from this hoping there would be some positive news yep got my haircut unfortunately I don't feel like I'm coming back to positive news heard social workers say they're waiting 17 days for an answer classified staff has been waiting 11 months for an answer that's from the EC supplement being implemented poorly not getting any answers about those that are left out what's going to happen with that our current pay scales that are posted for the higher end of otpt those reflect a 201718 pay with that posted I'm not going to get a.

Raise for several years still no information from the September meetings on what that's going to be like I have heard Dr Lewis say that's not his goal we're going to increase every year by what pennies transportation they didn't ask for a cup of coffee they asked for the five things on their petition if you want to show that you value and respect them don't window dress it with coffee ask them what they need thank you happy holidays. Please good evening good evening Quinton hen Riverside High School MMO e c a o CS i a what more can be said my Champions have come to you once again asking for you to listen to them I have taken a back seat hoping that changes could be made hoping that you finally listen to The Very hardworking men and women who are standing steadfast every single day to make this school system the best that it can be but yet I keep hearing there's no movement I keep hearing changes are not.

Being made adequately and then I hear my students cry my EC kids crying because adapting to change doesn't come naturally and it doesn't really go well with them note y'all said in a policy that these bus changes and these route changes would not affect DC I come to inform you you have sadly mistaken adapt to the Dae meet and confer and give the bus drivers the attention they need at this moment thank you happy. Holidays colleagues that concludes public comment the next item on our agenda is the consent.

Agenda move approval of the consent agenda item second it's been moved by Miss Carter Aon seconded by Miss Harold gof.

To approve the consent agenda items is there any discussion Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez and i v i Mr tab I miss Carda-Auten I miss berer hi Miss haral go hi Miss Umstead hi and I I the consent agenda passes unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda is a transportation update Dr web.

Good evening Madam chair Dr Lewis and board members all in attendance thank you for the opportunity to speak to you again tonight I will invite Mr Matthew Palmer to come up and provide you with updates and for since we met last some updates and we come prepared tonight to request a motion so I'll I'll ask Mr Palmer to outline those and and then we will field your field your questions so thank you for the opportunity Mr.

Palmer thank you Dr Webb good evening chair Rogers superintendent Lewis members of the board it's nice to be with you this evening in addition to those team members in the room with with us this evening in addition we have director Harris who is available remotely I would ask if we could check with Miss Smith make sure that director Harris has audio connectivity Joe can you hear. Us good evening yes I can wonderful thank you okay with that Dr Lewis would you like us to begin okay wonderful okay well good evening board we're here with a followup to our presentation from December 2nd we want to give you additional information as requested we look through we've been working hard this last few weeks to bring additional updates to you and with that we will go to the next slide thank you overall as we look at our transportation issues we have worked with Administration to identify three phases for response the first one is the rotational coverage which we are currently running and have been running.

Since December 2nd talk a little bit about that and provide an update there in addition to that for phase two is we look to come back from the new year and into January our opportunities to enhance service through balancing the overall number of routes that we're carrying in alignment with our staff that would include a review of our family responsibility Zone recommendations with the board as well as Express Stop opportunities for the administration we do have writers ship updates as well and then for phase three and importantly the long-term investment in our transportation Workforce that is the Holy Grail as far as where we're trying to go in our efforts beyond the immediacy of managing the resources that we have next slide please and so I want to lead with that and I want to provide the community the administration and the board an update as far as where we are with our intentionality to bolster and grow our transportation bus driver Workforce for the past year DPS Transportation has been working to.

Recruit new bus drivers to join our Workforce we have learned a lot through that Journey working not only with our existing staff but also other Transportation Professionals in the transportation sector as an industry transportation is struggling with Workforce particularly through Co for example in the trucking and truck driving industry there is a 90% annual turnover rate just alone in that industry what we understand through that process is that we cannot hope that it rains we cannot hope that people choose to Simply bus drive a bus we have to be intentional so with that we've reviewed the process that it takes to become a bus driver I'll share a little bit of that on the next couple of slides in addition to that what it takes cross functionally not only from Transportation but from the school system and the community around leadership and accountability for Workforce Development you've heard this evening and historically about employee value proposition question was asked why would folks want to drive a bus with us and.

Again we stand firmly in the belief that this is one of the best jobs in America if not the world getting students to school we heard earlier even from our own students around access to education equity and safety that is what bus drivers do that is why they're so crucial when they open the door they open the door to opportunity for students agility and that includes responsiveness we continue to work through that you'll see some of our Updates this evening and so with that let's go to the next slide the five stage process but really 32 steps to becoming a bus driver and the first step is important a willingness and a desire to drive a school bus it's raising a hand and saying I'm interested that can occur through submitting an application on the DPS website but we also have now just as of September 1st the very first two Recruitment and training specialists in North Carolina that focus on bus driver development we'll talk about the early yields of their.

Effort connecting with our rtc's connecting through our online application portal is a great way for us to ensure that we know you're interested in driving a bus secondly once that interest is expressed we have to do our work to ensure that candidates are eligible to drop a bus that includes what we call CRC background checks in conjunction with human resources and as well as a review of driving records to ensure that candidates are eligible to drive a bus with children on third once we've cleared those initial Gates the interest and the process for background checks for eligibility then we talk about a 4-day instructional class there a folks that are working with ncdmv we seat those positions in coordination with the MV and taking that 4-day class culminates in a test in addition we call it a UDS a urine diagnostic screening as well as a ncdot physical to ensure that candidates have taken the initial CDL class they are eligible to drive and they are eligible to drive not only from their.

Understanding of what it takes to drive but also physically as well once we get through that third stage talk about the fourth one though candidate is now holding a CDL permit for 14 days however they must do the behind the wheel and Road skills testing that is a hard one that is where much of our bottleneck and conjunction with the mv's other Staffing shortages resides talk a little bit about that on the next Slide the fifth stage and this is the graduation stage our onboarding and rad assignment so with that let me go to the next slide and review where we've come so far these lines in stages one through five are additive so each of these lines is an individual set number of Durham community leaders and residents concerned folks that want to help just as many of us do tonight we have 160 folks that are in the candidate pool those are folks that have either applied to Durham Public Schools or connected with our rtcs to ensure that.

We are where they want to get into that class they want to go through the background and criminal checks the driver's license reviews in addition to the 160 we have 37 folks that are right now waiting to get into class they are eligible we've done their CRC background review and we've done their DMV driver clearance that right there is 197 candidates between interested and waiting to get into class in addition we have seven folks that are taking their DMV class in either December or January those are the two months three in December four and January seven total that'll be coming with us shortly here once we get them into class I have to go through the class and pass the test and the physical requirements that go with that on the screening level in addition to that we have another eight candidates that are through those Gates and are now really waiting to get into the DMV road skills class which is a 4-day class as well as the final ultimate passage of that process.

Just last week we graduated two of our own bus drivers through this process that have joined us one's a full-time driver one's a part-time driver and since September we've graduated 12 bus drivers through this process just in the last few months again our rtcs started September 1st so they have been hard at work looking at this overall pathway okay next slide please we wanted to talk a little bit about phase one and where we are with our rotational coverage next slide thank you rotational coverage is a shared solution for all it is a very short-term band-aid and Patch as we look to address the long medium and long-term phases 2 in three issues we can't take our eye off that long-term fix as we talked about in the earlier slides with regards to bus driver Recruitment and development it's a shared solution for all four days a week of coverage with one alternating day should add that we are now carrying all EC designated bus routes as well as Lowe's Grove Middle.

School bus routes on a daily basis all five days and our mcken vento Scholars are receiving support through our van services for shuttle service direct from Transportation want to thank the office of public affairs for the communication with families we can never be 100% but we can do everything possible to make sure notifications and information is going out and again we recognize that this is all of us working work together to get as many students to school as we can on a daily basis next slide please there are some successes but there is absolutely room for growth with rotational coverage let me share that the last two weeks we've carried all of our routes having said that that is carrying the routes that is not talking about timeliness of service and we recognize there are still challenges there as well working with our principles on communication and coordination on a daily level we've talked about procedures for communication not only with families but but also with schools many school many.

Families will contact the school first to ensure what we know and the better that we are working together between transportation and school leadership the more families will have accurate information the third part here about bus drivers on coming to work on a daily basis we've mapped out the first two weeks of rotational coverage can see there the byday call out rates as far as those are daily callout rates we're averaging around 11 A Day In addition to that we have a toal of 10 drivers that are on either medical leave or workers comp so when you put those two numbers together we're averaging on a daily basis 21 drivers rotational coverage affords us the ability to have a Grace of 25 so on some days we have one two three or four drivers that are not aligned to a route and on those days those drivers we are working with to identify as in those moments Safety assistance riding along with other drivers next slide please in regards to updates for ridership and.

Routing three points of information to bring to you all we have worked with our school leaders on family responsibility zones I personally have driven every one of these streets and intersections to review where we are what we're looking at what are the considerations in feedback with principles and in our own safety reviews we've made adjustments at five schools that has reduced the overall impact or number of Rider requests saved from we had roughly a thousand before we are less than that now in addition that local context I know there are questions from school leaders and families of how can they help how can they get involved we're positioned to work with school leaders on disseminating best practices on a variety of options from carpooling walking school buses and bicycle trains and Beyond we cannot singularly leave that we can be a team working together with school leaders and school communities to identify best resources and practices along that to ensure that there is a plan at a localized level with regards to express bus stops.

For secondary magnet schools we have integrated that within our routing system we've looked at what are the implications for that we are currently today and I mean today within the last hour Miss food is here with me tonight as well we have integrated that into our modeling and our existing route packages happy to share that the direct impact is eight routes and there are additional improvements that will be available particularly for high schoolers in that third tier at the 9:15 start time what that does is it frees up those drivers to be able to service the tiers before after an express bus stop at the middle second tier so we're seeing increases and benefits as we've integrated our Express doop service and lastly with with regards to ridership and routing analysis actually since we met last we've seen an increase in the overall number of writer requests by nearly 200 again those come in on a daily basis so as we are looking to manage ridership we still every day.

Receive 50 new writer requests of a variety of forms everything from a family new to Durham to a family moving within Durham we integrate those updates into our overall writing package but we are now coming back up right about 19,800 writer requests in the district next slide please so in summary with regards to the family responsibility zones again those are established at a district level I did want to highlight the importance of establishing family responsibility zones versus implementing family responsibility zones we see that as an opportunity for the board to establish and staff to work with local leadership on the implementation side saving up to 20 bus routes there in addition for Express Stop service for our secondary programs we have here saving seven routes as our analysis came off the press today we're continuing to work that again I want to lift up our Tims ridership routing team we have three Tim's Riders as well as Miss Annie fullwood who supervises them they are truly working around the clock and.

Through the weekends and know we're coming up to the holiday season but these folks don't take time off they are here to get the problem fixed so we in summary we have benchmarked one of the things that we learn from our rotational coverage is there is a I don't want to even say a magic number but there is a target as far as with rotational coverage that's 25 routes a day we have on one day and actually if we could go back just for a second to slide eight I wanted to highlight that you the other way you could go back a few more there we go that's the one you'll see on Wednesday December 11th if you add up the additional drivers on medical leave and workers comp as well as those that called out that day that's 26 we have a Grace window up to 25 and once we cross that threshold we're now pulling folks off of the phones and out of our positions that run the transportation.

Department what that means is is that what we've learned through reputational coverage when we get can get 25 routes covered we are able to run our routes on days when more people come to work there will be an opportunity to bring those folks onto routes and other forms of support for our students and our staff but as we think about the opportunities for family responsibility zones and express stops that Target that we're talking about is that 25 that gets us to that ability to have people in the right positions to support our families our Scholars and our schools if you could go to slide 12 that's a review and discussion slide and our team is here this evening assistant director Annie fullwood for student ridership and routing Miss Kristen brooksher our transportation planner and Miss Katherine Bamberg who has led our Workforce bus driver Staffing plan we're here to answer your questions and thank you for your.

Time thank you all for being here for this presentation colleagues comments questions Mr Tad thank you thank you Mr Palmer for presentation my question is more so about what I'm hearing from the community and what you have presented is my understanding that there are routes that are still not covered but I just saw us just on the slide it said 100% so there were bus drivers who saying that students still weren't being picked up in the RO in the rotation but is that that true I'll be happy to pull down our geolocated time stamp data for what schools what routes arrival the rest again for the for the first two weeks December 7 2nd through the 13th we have been able to carry all of those routes I cannot speak to the commment of others that is something that we were intentionally working with our School principles on is there a route is there a school where service did not run for those first two weeks all of the available information that we have as.

Well as in conjunction when partnership with our school leaders we are carrying those routes again I would emphasize if a route is delayed and again we do we have had days where the call out rate is higher than what rotational plan got us for coverage so in those instances we had to pull folks out of the office that again were not able to provide customer call support and in those instances that's a assistant area manager going and driving the rat to cover the additional above and beyond but as far as what our information says where we're at working with school leaders the data that we have available we've carried all routes the first two weeks okay I saw the information about that you have a lot of drivers that are potent potential drivers when based on the slide that you showed with people that are in the process what percentage of those people do would we need to fulfill one every driver that we need to cover all all of our.

Routes what we can look at from our past few months and I'll actually reference the slide that's in the board packet there with regards to our Workforce Development progress thus far we have graduated through our Workforce bus driver training program 12 drivers over the last three months we're averaging right about four to five a month we would love to dial that up what we are going to need to do that is to truly call in all of the favors from DMV to have our DMV tester get additional support from Raleigh that's pulling a tester from another County that has their own challenges I think you're aware it's a state Regional and national issue on licensing drivers not only with regards to the yellow bus but but all vehicles frankly if we can increase that testing bandwidth from DMV that's going to accelerate that program it would be reasonable to think right now if all else stays at the DMV level which is one tick beyond our control we're looking at.

That four to five a month so to get to the 25 to 30 that we would ideally be targeting you'd be in that five to six month window if nothing else changes if we are to able to app apply an accelerant if we can get DMV to provide additional testers that's going to dramatically accelerate that process best case scenario in a vacuum when there are no limitations from DMV you know and I'm saying best case scenario we could do a five to six week turnaround from walking in the door being interested in having you behind the wheel but there are some processes here particularly that permit window the 14 day as well as the two weeks of testing that can't be circumnavigated so it would be reasonable to think as you look at it we have two that just passed we have 15 more that are right around the corner and then another 37 that are coming to class shortly so as we look at that that is at the 50 Mark actually.

52 if we can accelerate that with the MV that'll accelerate that time frame are we currently losing drivers so as of today I just pulled our staffing report since we had 141 when we met two weeks ago we're up to 43 today so as far as are we losing drivers that's an ongoing daily conversation it is not a static number though let me be very clear there's a lot of stress on our drivers rotational coverage adds to that that's one of the points that we want to emphasize is this is not a long-term fix it is a crisis response to try to get as many children to school as possible and to spread out that burden across the community so I think you you know we were talking about are we losing drivers we can bring drivers in and there a variety of reasons that drivers leave some of them are workplace frustration pay we can go down the list of what we've heard and some folks are retiring we have drivers as.

Superintendent Le talked about tonight Mr Rogers has been with us for 60 years thank you thank you Miss Carter Aton thank you Mr Palmer I have a bunch of questions but I sent them to you yesterday so I'm going to try to be selective about the ones I asked tonight and then assume that I'll get responses to the others later right the my first question actually wasn't a question before I got here because I thought it was resolved and it is bathrooms what is going on with bathroom access for the bus drivers because we've talked about this before I think you raised the issue for us and we still have bus drivers saying that they are not allowed into schools to use the bathroom or they have to push for that so what more can we do to make sure that that is not an issue for our drivers I think that is a very good topic for leadership to respond to I think that we've got you know we are DPS.

Employees in transportation and the arrival at school and the servicing of children I couldn't Envision an administrator turning away a bus driver to use the bathroom that said the improvements we need to make at the lots are very real we talked about I think several board members have been to our facilities recently we have two at each facility we have two bathrooms for 75 employees at each Depot so as far as using bathrooms well on Route I can't speak to any one circumstance I know that we've advocated I'm unaware of any principle that would forbade a bus driver from using the bathroom but again I would need to know more about that I'm not aware of any practice or policy that would preclude a bus driver from using our facilities I'm the queen of followup can I follow up I appreciate your unawareness is this the first time that this kind of complaint has surfaced or been heard could prob maybe director Harris could speak to it or something Joe are you able to hear.

Audio good name yes ma'am in regards to that we have had that complaint before and we've asked for specifics from the actual employee itself on what school and we have addressed that with the actual School itself so as it coming again at this at this time I have not had an actual conversation from any employee that has brought it forth in the last immediate sense but what I will do is PVE on tomorrow to find out to make sure and if so then I will gather that information to make sure it is brought forth and have that conversation if that is acceptable or if there's any other direction at this.

Time thank you and during my conversation with bus drivers that was brought up to me as well and I haven't heard of instances since we addressed it I addressed it with all principles as well and I think this is a huge opportunity too as I share with principles to because there were some concerns about you know some of the staff didn't know who the bus drivers were and they didn't see the badges so I think this is a huge opportunity I share with our principles to begin the year with when you're doing your professional development or just thinking of ways that we can include our bus drivers as part of the school Community because they are driving a rolling classroom as a part of that school and so I haven't heard any since we addressed it with with the principles now again if there's consistent or another example of that happening after we address we definitely would want to know about that y and Dr Lewis if I could tag on to that I know.

Director Harris is on the call as well for our drivers that are here tonight or those at home if there's an incident that we need to follow up with directly contact myself directly contact director Harris we are we do not intend to sit around and and wait to sit on I'll leave that there I think there's more that could be done thank you Dr Lewis and then you have more questions Miss Carter and I think Miss said had a followup just can I I I think like I understand that as indiv idual grievances come up we need to address them but I also want us to start thinking more proactively about this too and so especially as we have different bus ders rotational routes if you have the same person every day that front office or the people around in the Bus Loop will get used to that person but since we got so many different folks who are coming in and subbing how can we standardize a way.

That bus drivers can be known when they go to a school and come in like I just want us to think a little more proactively about what that process is and not maybe wait on our bus drivers to have to bring a concern and grievance to us so is it making sure everyone has a badge so they show their badge and they can get in I understand schools want to be mon you know monitoring who's coming in and out their building and is there a special door or somewhere for them to go like let's standardize that a little bit more and be proactive on that end Miss Carter so my no that was helpful thank you the my next question is about community support and I know I it feels like the we've talked about this at other board meetings you mentioned it a little bit tonight about ways that the community can partner with schools and that and kind of the limitations of what how challenging that can be so I'm.

The community still wants clear information on how to be a good partner as we roll out these different Transportation challenges and so when can we expect some clear information on what administration is able to provide what schools are able to provide and what families are able to provide I just feel like we've said this like 15 times now so when can we get like at this board meeting we're going to get these plans for you or here's when we're going to roll out information to schools about exactly how they can partner for walking school bus or exactly how they can partner for rides for families because without that guidance from central office then schools are left to Fumble on their own families are left not knowing how to support but really wanting to so can we do something concrete make a concrete plan tonight for a plan so that we can move forward on that absolutely I my response is enthusiastically affirming of where you're going and working between Administration or School.

Leaders and our school community and parents we've been in communication with our principls on our basket of resources that includes arrival and dismissal procedures that talks about how to work with Walkers and what those procedures might look like looking at other school districts that also have that we have individual resources Miss pire is here with me this evening I'm wanting to to answer the question directly and say to the question about what can we do to work with school leaders we are in communication with every one of our schools right now on this exact topic talking about the resources that we have available providing Direct resour sources to school leadership and understanding that the school leadership family connection constitutes that school Community the more that we push in at a central office level from Transportation we're trying to respect the intimate nature of we've worked with our principles we've looked at the maps we've gone through all of the gates as far as that local feedback ensuring that the Geo the geographic part is correct.

The additional opportunities to work across School leadership with our families in our school communities we are right there with principles and that is that's consistent M Carter I want to make sure that I'm fully answering the question in its intent yeah I think so I just want to make sure that as we move forward I recognize that schools need to do a lot of this and you're already providing them with some information and some resources but I want to make sure that where any guidance is needed or resources are needed or that could make it go any more smoothly for them or any easier for families to who can who have resources to help during this process that that's being done it looks like Dr Webb has a response thank you madam chair Madame Vice chair I wanted to point out to Mr Mr Palmer's Point we had several meetings with our elementary principles to discuss family responsibility zones we introduced the concept then we brought them back we fielded the.

Questions and we we didn't just say here take this and go it was a good two-way conversation where they actually said have you thought about this have you considered this can you help us with this and there were group questions group conversations and then individual questions and conversations as well this wasn't about the resources but it as a result of that conversation and and and collaboration partnership with our principles holding locking arms and trying to figure this out together some of the walk the family responsibility zones were changed or reduced and and elements that the principal knew that we couldn't glean from a God's eye view or from even driving it but some of the things that our principles knew that was for the family responsibility zones and we have also done that same begun that same process with our secondary schools to not only hear their needs but to hear their ideas is for the U Express stops not only the the schools that are whose children are.

Moving through that but the locations as well so that conversation is has been very rich and we very much covet the input of our principles who are the experts on their school and that has opened up some really good conversations and I some of and our principles have seemed to respond very well to that our principles and our principal supervisors so that conversation has been very helpful in each of those Sation there was conversation about what the resources that we can help through Miss Brookshire to offer families ideas resources you know we can't tell them walk this way to go to school we can't give them that level of specificity but here are some options here are some things to think about here's some resources and that that package is still part of the conversation with the principles what we push to the school what can we push out but it is the intent to make that Avail in information available well before roll out and that's a fair statement then and and Dr.

Web to that point and sometimes we bury the lead because there's a lot that we're trying to convey in a few slides u in our DPS web page we have a safe to school program landing page that has really the compendium of resources brought together not just exclusively about this immediate topic but more broadly around the resources available for school communities looking to activate many the programed volunteer activities that you're discussing so those at home or those board members that want to look the PSNC you can search the safer school program web page and in there miss Brookshire has brought in all of our resources that align quite honestly I I believe where you're your question is leading us towards we would agree and and we're not we can do more to lead with that I think there's opportunities for additional communication there as well that's great I'm so glad to hear about all the input that you're getting from staff and and again as we as we think about this as a.

Community effort right we're asking the community to partner with us we're saying that we can't bear this weight alone we need their support we need to just make that as easy as possible lastly for now I guess what I was not seen in the slides tonight that we've talked about before also is the impact that the bus that the transportation challenges have had on our students and specifically around like absenteeism data I know that we've again talked about that and I know you guys were tracking it so when can we see absenteeism data disaggregated in all the ways this board likes to see it disaggregated for those that are newer we can teach you about that and then when can we see a plan for how we're going to be addressing learning loss that has happened in the last now almost five months or so as a result of our transportation CH big good questions thank you ma'am I I think it's a fair effort that we can present you some information on the the.

The absenteeism working with our I mean we've just just been in this the the brief period of we wanted to of since we've implemented the specific code that shows an absence related to a bus you know we have have to get I I personally have not seen haven't required but I need to inquire where are we on inputting not only the new absences but looking doing a look back because this is not a a quick job where our data managers will are having to go back and recode so I will inquire to that and we will endeavor to bring you information in that next board meeting U as far as the actual learning loss piece I would defer to Dr King before before Dr King responds Dr web welcome to Duram thank you ma'am I know y'all are asking for approval to move to the family responsibility zones yes ma'am how does Administration plan to measure the effectiveness of the family responsibility zones on absenteeism without data from this current period of.

Time that's a great question ma'am and and we have to have that data we don't have it as of yet because our we are inputting with with the new code into our attendance rack tracking software they're not just started from the when that we implemented the new code but doing a look back trying to identify what with absences in September that information will be very helpful from our standpoint our Focus has been and that's it's a valid valid question but our Focus has been our initiatives that we're proposing will increase the number of drivers will increase the the number of routes that are run will increase our children moving forward I mean we can't go back obviously and get put someone in school that wasn't that missed it a couple of weeks ago but we we're trying to through all of our efforts increase getting our children to and from school moving forward so the a quick metric will be for us it will not be in the achievement will not be in the.

Those are the long reaching ones achievement and attendance but our quick metric will be are we running our buses are we getting our children to school so that is a great question question do Dr. King board members I want to be clear about what we can and cannot provide you with we will never be able to provide you with a definitive statement about how many absences were directly related to this issue I I just want to be clear about that we will be able to provide you with information and and in fact my team has has started to gather information about the number of times schools are recording for students the specific code that we have authorized them to use to account for these absences when the appropriate criteria has been met.

E e.

You have the data based on the the code the iil code that we are using for students that are absent based on on the bus that we shared that we would Implement so as of today we got some data on how many students have missed one to three days based on that that I code when we return principles will be engaging in the middle of the Year data I don't know if you call them data consults or where we can principles can and their teams can to begin to identify those students that may need additional academic supports as a result of the busting so we'll these numbers are tied to students and so we definitely can break that data down by demographics but again it's based on this I code that we use that our data managers are are.

Inputting I know originally we had talked about doing this at the semester end as a kind of a time period where we could look a little bit deeper and hopefully maybe get enough time for some data managers to go backwards and I understand that's not still clean data but allow us a little time for that but then I heard the next meeting I want to be make sure staff has the time to do what you need to do and get that data to us so we're doing it the second meeting in January or the work session in September be the right I'm looking to y'all not sorry September I'm sorry I apologize February February so so so data manners were given they were asked to have that work complete by winter break but we recognize that you know some of them you know are further along with that process than than others and certainly there are circumstances that may have led some of them to not you know be able to get.

That done and we have wanted to be respectful of the fact that this is additional work that we're asking them to do that that they would not have otherwise found themselves needing to do and so we we we present that information or I'm sure Dr Lewis will present that information with the clear notion that it is incomplete information at this point but we but we recognize that our data manager are working fervently to get that data into the system as quickly as as they possibly can and please know thanks to Dr King and his team Dr roster's Department we do have data that says what schools are 100% complete and when they expect to have all this data in so we can share that that data Miss heral goof thank you everyone I I have a I want to lift up the concern around robust messaging about resources for families that are experiencing barriers and hardships as a result of the rotational coverage and proactively thinking about messaging around resources to support families.

That would experience hardship or barriers as a result result of our the the family responsibility zones and all of the different options that we're putting in place to to proactively creatively think about how we continue you know get as many kids to school as equitably as we can I feel like that's some of that was coming through with what Miss Carter Alton was trying to was was saying that what was coming to me was that we're St still not understanding like we families are saying okay if this is all going to happen you know this is going to impact my family in this way and I don't know what resources to reach out to so I hear I heard Dr web and I hear that there is you know the engagement at the building level talking with principles about what specific communities are able to do I feel like that messaging needs to be more transparent so that families who are going to experience no matter what way we look at.

It are going to experience hardship are going to experience barriers as a result of lack of Transportation what are these resources that they're going to be able to plug into and how do we message that just as just as effectively as We messaged the fact that we were going to rotational busing if someone were to ask me now especially you know because there all of these different all these different challenges you know every school building is cultural every different route I don't know but how can we message that with Clarity so that so that our families can identify these resources or these places where they can plug in for supports and all these kinds of things are we able to do that is can we provide can that kind of data be provided robustly my Administration is that I hope I'm being clear Miss heroff I just want to kind of zoom in on the the request I think the call for messaging with Clarity around this may be coming what can I do.

The sort of response there I know within partnership between school leadership public affairs transportation we have mapped out an entire Communications plan and strategy around that I do I do want to point out the the intentionality also of if we are pushing out communication before the board again there's we're trying to get that Cadence right of administration cannot establish family responsibility zon so being focused and intentional about the families that we're engaging with we have 15,000 Elementary School families of those less than 900 live within a family responsib ility Zone that currently requests yellow service however the majority of students in family responsibility zones are already going another way to school that are not on the yellow bus walking biking car ridership or Transit so I want to pause for a second and and ask Miss Cooper to join us on the communication possibilities where we are with that again the resource Plage that we have here is dialed in with much of that messaging in mind before she before.

Before she comes forward I just want to clarify the attention of what I'm trying to say what I'm trying to ask is have some resources been identified for families that will experience hardship like are there already plans in place for those you know for for what you know because we're saying this is a community effort this is a whole thing effort I'm hearing that their conversations are there are there already some strategies and plans in place already you know coming together even before you know proactively or right now even with rotational busing for for families that are still experiencing hardship or you know with the one day a week that they can't get their child to school have th are those I'm I was assuming those conversations were being had with the principals and the schools so then if there are some resources that have been discussed are those resources being shared so that these families who are experiencing these hardships know how to plug into those resources that's that's more of my.

Question I I heard you know they said like we're talking and we're we're discussing these things and they're coming up with these Solutions is that messaging getting to the families that are experiencing the hardship can is it you know I don't know what those are if someone were to ask where do they find these resources great question and U Miss Brookshire has as I mentioned we we talked with the principles she's met with individual principles about individual situations and much of that assistance has been pushed out at the school level to those individuals so and as we move forward the whether it's the carpool whether it's the that she has been a resource and will continue to be a resource to our our families with individ not just holistically but with individual crisis and individual problems and concerns as well missad is it okay I jump in I just want to also be really clear about what DPS can and can't do what resources we can and can't provide and I feel like we're.

Talking around it a little bit but like if a family contacts us for an Uber card like is DPS doing a uber give card are we doing that kind of resource or are we also saying like I understand when we look at the safe routs to schools is talking about like roads you can take buses you can take but it's not I don't we're using resource here but I don't know that we're being really specific about what resource we are wanting to offer for families and I imagine different schools are going to have different things but I just want us to be clear because I feel like we're talking around it a little bit is that yes I I just say just on the real I mean I don't know what these resources are if somebody's asking you know School level or not if somebody if High School asks me what are the resources I don't you know where do we find these resources and who's you know even if.

Even if it's not for us if these discussions are being had as a part of this Transportation conversation how do we know what's going on so that we can share those Resources with those families so Miss Harrell Goff go I want to go back to just a couple of foundational pieces is number one we are able to provide direct resource with the other school bus after that we are trying to provide information again we can I'm actually suggesting that folks look at that saer it's the school program web page where Miss Brookshire and her folks that again we are bringing that together in conjunction with go Durham go triangle looking at Transit access looking at bike pet options the development of bicycle walk school buses the EXC me walking school buses is the technical term there there's a resource called School pool that we've shared quite with quite a number of principles we are intentional within transportation that our communication is directly going to our school leaders who are working with our families at that.

School level we're trying to do the capacity building at a district level to then allow and and work with support our principles on all mod that even includes you know everything from our crosswalks around the schools the infrastructure around the schools the needs that are there our intentionally within transportation is to work with our school leaders who are in direct communication with parents and again we have a district level page that is pointing to the resources that we have access to the additional things that you reference resources I think that it might help and maybe it's a clarifying question for me are you referencing information as far as what are best practices for developing a a group of parents that want a carpool or are we talking about direct monetary or service support directly to families I'm talking about all of it but like even like if if if there's if a building is identified you know a community organization a church or something that's car poing or you have.

Certain people who are walking how do we support support that information being equitably communicated so that people can access it and understand what's going on and I'm even thinking maybe even proactively like before like I I I loved how you brought up earlier the difference between establishing it and implementing so as we're establishing if there are you know if there are conversations being had of things that are being established how then do we equitably share that information with families who may need it so I'm that's not a you don't have to I just wanted to I wanted to lift that up because you.

Know like we had in public comment where people are giving you know talking about their individual needs where do we if these conversations are being had how do we share that information if they're just being had and you know I'm glad they're being had on the on the school level but then how do we hear back how can we you know plug people in and let them know just like you know we s even if it's not support that's coming directly from the district being able to communicate that might give another Community an idea or something and I think you are you are touching on something is that in many of our schools the majority of students that live within the areas that we're talking about for family responsibility zones you know the majority of those students are already taking another means to school other than the yellow bus from car pooling to working with neighbors all of those things what that also AFF us is that we have principles.

That are in communication with those families that they have developed those programs at an organic School level that also provides PLC and opportunities for school leaders and Dr web referenced it we're meeting directly with principles to bring our resources to them and say how what would be best to help with your school Community what are your needs the other point that I want to lift up there is that we are very intentional here in dur Public Schools about talking about multimodal access to school that sounds technical but what it really means is all modes and we're considering of all modes in public education especially here in North Carolina there's two modes that we've always talked about you either drive or you take the bus we're aware we're in an urban fabric here we have city bus stops at the majority of our middle and high schools we have a partnership with bik Durham that's providing pedestrian and bicycle safety classes to our elementary school students many of these deposits in.

Durham are bit unique we've been able to do over the last few years is think holistically about everything from car que to accessing from the neighborhood to the school that comprehensive envelope of all the different ways we could get to school those different ways are mapped out on that safeer school program web page and I hear you like that's great how do people know about that how are people being plugged into that I'm going to pause there and also ask Miss Cooper to share more about the communication Outreach strategy that we're we're working together on thank you Mr Palmer and good evening again one of the things that we know about the family responsibility zones is that we know exactly who lives within them so that gives us a great advantage to be able to communicate with them directly and effectively in conjunction with working with Transportation as well as our school leaders we can provide necessary tools that they need based upon how they best communicate with their families and that's the wonderful.

Thing about this we can truly have something tailored for each of these schools to make sure that their families get the information that we need so as we have an initial plan for how we introduce this to families and especially with those directed directly with those impacted families we'll continue to have this conversation and dialogue with our principles to tailor that communication for their families whether it's making sure they have printed items to go home as we continue to fine-tune and I clarify what those resources are making sure that they're readily available and accessible and again as Mr Palmer said a lot of this work is already happening within our school communities it's being able to leverage the opportunities that currently exist to make sure our families know how they can be able to support their students getting to school whether it's partnering with another family on their own or the school doing more collaborative work as well to make those connections within the school community commun so we stand at the.

Ready to be able to support our schools and our families to make sure that they are prepared so what I'm hearing what I'm hearing is that the what I'm hearing is that communication is going to be supporting the schools at at a school level to communicate with the families that that would be impacted absolutely Communications has been at the table since the very beginning and introducing and talking with our principles about this they've been very involved providing feedback we've been listening in on those meetings as well as working with our principal supervisors to ensure that communication is clear for our families so it has been a collective effort it has been a Hands-On effort we understand that we don't do this alone and many voices at the table ensure that the message is right and so that is certainly something that has been done throughout this process and that includes the resources not only that are from the district but also the resources that the school Community we can work.

With our principles and our school leaders for whatever resources that they employ within their schools because it may be different with any School community and we'll be ready to support them with that thank you thank you thank you Miss Chávez has a couple of questions not necessarily for Miss Cooper I have some questions and then we'll go to miss berer and then miss said Miss Travis good evening thank you for the presentation thank you for the updated data it it's good to see you know some concrete numbers I'm just going to say I also am very interested to see the attendance data so I look forward to seeing that hopefully in January with regard to the rotational bus service of you know kids who were assigned a bus that didn't come on Monday how many of them were not at school Monday Tuesday Wednesday Etc so look forward to seeing that also am interested to to support the development of a plan to address learning loss a parent wrote to us about that and I.

Think it's becoming a an increasingly bigger concern as we hear about kids who have been out of school for a significant amount of time I know we don't you know we need that data too on how many kids that is who have missed more than 5 days 10 days you know 20 days so but I do think that's something we should keep our eye on and attention on how we can provide extra support for students academically so to and then I had some thoughts and questions relative to this conversation around resour sources I think as I was listening to Miss harol Go's questions and and thoughts I think what I would have liked to see would like to still see are but I guess I want to talk about resources but also the barriers and perhaps you all have this listed out but but all the barriers that we would anticipate for some kids getting to school with family responsibility zones I think I've heard of some of those from from our community members parents.

Teachers I and I I would like to hear more sort of all the things that we're addressing with what resources things that have come up that I've heard about and I think have been mentioned crossing guards or volunteers or assistants or staff assistants U for like walking students along the areas of the of the Family responsibility zones additionally coats shoes that kind of thing I would like us to approach this and and the communication which I appreciate hearing about that I would like us to approach this in such a way that we're making sure to offer every single one of those resources that whatever it is whether it be material or you know Network social connections to every every single family that may be affected by this so I I think that you know we we know that we have a number of students who experience poverty and that affects people in different ways many different ways so I think we need to I hope that our in the communications there will.

Be sort of a non-assumption about what people do and do not have as we as we engage them and invite them to take advantage of whatever resources we can offer let me pause I can't see you all so I don't know can't read the room but do you have any response to any of that before I ask a couple other questions yeah yeah Miss Chávez I'm I'm going to ask Miss Brookshire to come up to talk a little bit about some of our early efforts to work with school leaders on on some of these topics the the barriers both very real barriers for some families particularly some of the things that you were referencing as well as perceived barriers and Miss Brooker even talk a little bit about conversations that you've had recently with school leaders on on that topic thank you good evening so I know the term resources can be confusing and so there's you know in addition to what's available online th that's General that's not customized.

Those are tip sheets and you know the transit guides talking to your kid your student about walking and biking to school benefits of walking and biking to school so I guess sometimes when I talk about resources I'm what I also mean is the technical assistance and the customization piece of that and so that is a list that we've shared and discussed multiple times with principles and that's that's not a list that appears on the website so that could be something to share differently but it still involves some person power from our team we hear you want to do a walking group we hear you you want to know where would might be suggested places to meet for a parking walk or like to actually work through those routes those locations together with the community or should we have one time point or two time points on our walk or what to do some of that planning support not be there every day to lead but just to be a thought partner whether that's.

Coming from community volunteers staff parents part of the list and my computer died when I said it here so I can't see my list anymore but we've offered presentations you know during school with students pedestrian safety education meeting with PTA meeting with school staff we've offered you know to develop Maps that show available infrastructure not the route to school but just so families know like well we could go this way but we might like they can make the decision that's best for their family so often when I say resources I'm I'm I mean technical assistance and and planning support so I hope that helps clarify I know you were you were trying you're being more specific with your question and I I he I started to hear the difference.

So miss have you also meent or Miss Chávez mentioned coats and shoes we have received one request from a school asking like how can we support we reached out to and I I can't think of the name of the local organization Michelle on our safe routes to team fac safe routes to school team facilitated this but made the connection between what social workers are already like working on themselves just to make sure that you know parent groups aren't doing one thing that social workers are already working on so you know we can't lead the collection but we can try to make some of those connections when we know about opportunities or how some schools are approaching it but I know that those conversations happen within those professional communities across schools too so thank you that's that's really helpful I think I like the idea of you're offering as a thought thought partner and I think the last thing I'll say is just my about this is that my concern is that schools without ptas because.

We do have some schools without active ptas that they might fall through the cracks a little bit more without that sort of like parent support you know Network I know that we have a number of very active ptas who do a whole lot to support the communities and so I think maybe even maybe you're you're already aware of that which schools don't have ptas or active ptas and just giving them a little bit more robust support as well where they might not have as much of a an infrastructure of you know of volunteers to come to start out with so but thank you for all of that I'm glad to hear about the work around you know coats and shoes we know we can you know January is unpredictable weatherwise so I I just want everybody you know of course our families to have what they need our students to have what they need in adjusting to whatever you know how we kind of lay out this next few months so another.

Question if we establish Family responsibility zones and express stops will every bus driver be able to keep their same route daily. Thank you Miss Chávez one of the in our in our recommendations we're looking at the total number of routes saved is 27 what the and that is a conservative number I want to be clear about that what we are also suggesting is as you can see from our daily attendance rates there's a we're right at the line as far as even one bus driver that isn't able to make it in that date for a variety of reasons tips it to now you know a typical bus driver each way of each day carries 150 students or 300 students a day so every driver that is aable to come to work that day we are shuffling to see how we can carry that route so miss traveis to your question that is the plan and at the same time earlier questions from board members with regards to our current Staffing levels.

Today we're at 143 that's bringing in the two from just this past week that will go up as we head through December and into January but that is also looking at our current Staffing levels if those numbers change we're aware that that we're right on that threshold so I wanted to be clear out about that as far as that is the intent and I will also add that our routes are going to continue to evolve and calibrate again I mentioned just this past two weeks we have 200 additional Rider requests every Rider request and every available driver influences what the W Designs look like but that is the intent again to miss Chávez's point I want to be clear Miss Chávez as well are you referencing routes that drivers have today or are you referencing routes once we come back or come through whatever updates we make on the routing side the second one just that they that bus drivers would have an established route my understanding is that with the rotational coverage people are.

Driving different routes than they're accustomed to and so but it is is a you know a desire of many bus drivers to have their route that they know when their kids that they know and are used to and all of that so that that's the interest of my question yes ma'am that is very much our goal there we understand that relationship between bus drivers their students the families and the communities that's a that's an intimate space even the proposal of rotational coverage doesn't come light late and we hear the feedback from our d drivers that it is not a long-term solution we are trying to get to that place where we can carry rats 5 days a week and those rats are stable for drivers as we talk about that school Community relationship with drivers as the front door that is where we're trying to get that is where we're going with our plans and recommendations okay thank you and then is there in talking to one School leader they had a.

Person at their a staff member teacher I believe at their school who had their CDL license could drive in the afternoon but they needed a bus at the school are do we have some schools that have buses at their schools or that allow for those with CDL licenses but who are you know in the classro room during the day allow them to to drive or is that how would that be worked out if if that was a possibility M Travis that that is in a perfect world we would love to have buses deployed at schools that could accelerate a whole host of things there are very real challenges that we have particularly with theft and vandalism of our vehicles you know these are large pieces of equipment from catalytic converters and the rest having said that I will ask director Harris who's on the call director Harris if you could maybe share with with the board and the public any times in where we have deployed buses at school and any.

Opportunities or limitations we would have with that yes good evening so yes thank you Mr P Mr Chávez just to answer your question that is yes we do actually have some schools that we have deployed buses that are actually assigned to that particular school that the bus itself stays there at the school for uses by someone on staff that has already been cleared by our invented by our process for school bus driving and that their actual information is current and valid at the time and they do help in the cases where there are situations where there might be some need from oncampus assistance yes that is correct we do have that and like Mr Palmer said We There are some locations that we're able to provide that overnight stay for the particular bus itself if there is adequate security for the bus itself okay thank you so much Mr Palmer and Mr Harris that's helpful to understand the last thing I just want to comment on is is around com.

Collaboration I'm very glad to hear about the it sounds like very positive and forward moving conversation with school leaders about how about the implementation of of these Transportation changes for their schools and the communication related I I think you know I heard as others did to a disconnect between some of the bus drivers experiences today and and what they're asking for or proposing as Solutions and some of what we're hearing right now and I of course want things to be connected and so I just want us to continue as much as possible the efforts at collaboration and and and dialogue and to make sure that's an integral part of our processes at all at all steps so as we're if there are other ways to enhance the collaboration or get more input I I I hope that we'll continue to you know look at those and prioritize those as well so we can make sure we're getting expertise from all from all angles so feel free to address that but that was my last.

Comment thank you Miss Chávez and and I want to lift up the work cross functionally between transportation and our director of classified learning Miss Terry Phillips we actually had a scheduled restorative practice circles with our drivers leaning into a lot of the pedagogy we use in our schools in building that trust and understanding between Transportation Administration that is under an incredible amount of stress and drivers who themselves as you heard tonight as we hear all day that that it is a tough job whether it's on the bus or when we get off right so we have to look at that comprehensively we look forward to picking that up we had events scheduled we had to reschedule those at a district level and there is an absolute opportunity there to build understanding between our folks that administered the transportation system and those that run it at the bus driver level we Embrace that and and I would also leave space for director Harris if he wanted to add any more there but.

We we see that opportunity is an ongoing challenge and quite frankly we're here for it we just I know many board members joined us at are staff celebration yesterday and you can see the community that we are focused on building these are not easy jobs these are not easy times but we're not backing away from trying to hear our drivers and do everything we can to lift that up to Administration on what we need for support director Harris did you have anything to add no sir not time thank you thank you thanks I have a couple questions.

My first question is my first question is will parents be able to access the maps I think Jessica spoke to that a little bit but will they be able to go in put in their address and the system say yes you're in the family responsibility zone or no you're not in the family responsibility Zone we have shared maps with the board and the administration our long-term plan would be to have a just my what we call it a school locator we're working with the city to build that type of functionality wherein there work CU but that's months in the buildout given our available bandwidth at a city level and a district level what we are able today to do is to pull down individual communication for any impacted family not just those who ride the yellow bus but all families in those areas providing direct communication from the district to those families in addition to that you know the publishing of the maps I think we've talked a little bit about at an administrative level.

Certainly from my desk we've shared that with the administration the board and you know we'll seek guidance as far as the publication of that information thank you any information about the demographic of students that are going to be that are currently riding the school bus to school or would be currently riding the school bus to school that are now being moved into the family responsibility zones demographics were they are they at a title one school how many Title One schools is this impacting how many schools would have had C last year is this impacting you know the subgroups that we like to know about who's being impacted is it none of that information's available but I think that's information that we can work with our team on to assemble that that's a that's a data assemblage piece we don't have that at the ready within Transportation that's going to take a little bit of time but we can certainly work with the administration and pull that together that I don't know about my colleagues it.

Would be helpful for me to know that information to move me closer to being ready to approve family responsibility Zone colleagues anybody else interested so I'm just curious because we've gotten this far in this conversation and I thought that this was here for Action this evening it is here for Action okay it is okay my next question was my next question was can you give me two or three things that I may have missed maybe from the presentation or some background data that was sent to the board that evidences that this is going to really have an impact on improving transportation services and the ability of students to get to school two or three top things.

Just writing our notes down here and I will ask Miss food to join me up here one of the opportunities we've had is to identify down to the student of their home addresses identifying if they're a yes or no in power school so when we ran the analysis again today again with new ridership updates I have that information here quite lit had to be a screenshot but wanted to share again the majority of the students that live within the family responsibility zones in total if we look at again we have 15,000 Elementary School students we are talking about 1780 students overall and of those 9916 take another mode to school yellow walk bike passenger vehicle and 864 take the yellow bike plus so when we talk about the direct impacts what we're talking about is the overall number of riders that we're carrying from home to school again each of these geometries is between a quarter or a half or up to a mile we we've been through that those distances.

So chair Rogers to your question the evidence that we're looking at is taking it down into the individual student again within our transportation realm the demographic information from earlier we're looking at are you a yes no and ridership within that right we can load a school bus depending on the grade level Elementary Mill and high school all have different capacities because the kids are bigger at various sizes when we can fit three to a seat right when we take that number across typically in a in a transportation where we look at about 50 students per bus is about where we can get to at a healthy level without overcrowding the bus so as you look through through that right we are mindful that the additional opportunities that we have what we've been able to do and you're talking about evidence is take it down to the individual child look at where they live are they riding a bus are they living in that area we need to provide communication to both families.

If you're on the bus or you're living in the area we are now our next step then is to breid that into our overall route packages so talking about and this is the work that Miss fullwood and her team were doing up until she walked in the door but that's that's the very next step that is why we're queued up for which way the board chooses to go with the establishment of the Walk zones the other piece that we're aware of is that the rotational coverage has been a test case for us an ongoing conversation is how many routes are we trying to save what does that look like when we've been able to reduce service by 25 routes a day that is giving us our test case of when we're over that number we're pulling in folks from the area lots to cover the buses if we can get to that number when we talk about family responsibilities and express stops that gets us to 27 right recognizing that I should say up to.

27 so from that point from that perspective we've done the hard work of geoca every child bringing GIS data into our Tim's dat database modeling out the routing implications not just napkin mouth but actually taking it down to the bus level working with our school leaders on that being intentional about saying we want to get every child the school five days a week in these areas when they are very close to school there's a substantial amount of bus driver savings that we can bring to the board with response to the challenges that we have so chair Rogers for the evidence point we have driver attendance rates that's telling us what is that threshold what's our Target Mark we have brought it down to the student and we have begun the process of integrating that into the remainder to say from not just a napkin mouth perspective but a take it all the way how far can we go and what can we realistically anticipate Miss food's.

With me as well and I do want to leave space it's a very good question of what evidence is there but we're here to answer any questions that go with that thank you and then most schools aren't the full mile radius so every parent in that mile radi is is responding and think they are how are they being notified that they're not in that walk zone for their school so what we've done in conjunction with our communication plan and strategy is to pull down the student rosters of enrolled students at their schools I've already worked with principles to queue up that communication directly to impacted families again this comes to a little bit of the earlier question on the publication of maps or I think you're talking about do we have ability to type in an address to see if I'm in or out of Eligibility we would like to get to that point that functionality would be ideal that takes time so for a districtwide communication we need to be intentional.

About saying we're going to be working with schools to directly connect with impacted families we pause there check the room make sure that that aligns both on the communication front as well as a leadership front thank you I'm okay okay I want I do have one last question some of our strategic plan priorities are in the school family and Community engagement and at the end of the most recently Sunset strategic plan we had a list of Community Partners have they been called to the table and asked what resources that they can help support families in and support DPS in Partnership for all the resources if somebody needs an Uber card like I don't I know the district can't do that but maybe a church or somebody can Etc you know all the things want to stay in my line and suggest from transportation we haven't directly done that but I I see where you're going and see that was not an opportunity for sure yeah that was the.

Only thing that I would say Miss bu and Miss Umstead and then I'll entertain a motion I want to start by actually not thanking staff but thanking all the speakers that came tonight I think we learned so much from every one of you we felt the passion that you brought we felt the ideas and the suggestions and particularly from our drivers who were here and the concerns that they shared I'm so appreciative of their their voices their work their dedication I know those of us that went to the holiday party really gained even more appreciation for the love that they have for our students and look forward to ways both through compensation next year hopefully in our budget that we build in stronger and and also a lot of other ways that they've given us feedback Dr Lewis they continue to give you feedback on how they can they can be appreciated and their work can be appreciated and valued because they are essential and then I.

I I do want to just Express thanks to this board for the way that we vision and we want to do everything yesterday to fix this crisis right we want coats and shoes and we want resources for families and also acknowledge that as y'all are leading us through this crisis I want us to like help stay focused on fixing this as quickly as possible and so what I'm thinking that you're asking for and I'm trying to get your clarification is that you've communicated to families that F that rotational coverage will go through the 17th you are here asking us based on previous conversations it's kind of this push pull that we've done through all of this you you don't want to do a lot of work that we're not going to approve or we're going to shoot down right you're asking us are we ready to go ahead and do what is in policy 6322 which which already says that we can do 1 and a half mile walk.

Zones and I want to acknowledge like chair Roger said these are not at all typically one mile around a school the maps that we have seen that you guys revised from feedback they are like a fraction of a district typically they are they are small and and pretty close to school with a lot of safety considerations taken into into account and so I appreciate yall continuing to to work with schools on refining those and then the the policy 6322 does have reasons for us to consider applications for transportation so I want to make clear when factors are present that may endanger the safety of students walking to school when the student is medically certified is temporarily incapacitated and and this is not this is not inclusive of our you know our EC and mckenny vento students that that we are pledging to transport I believe and then it has a grievance or a a a student and parent grievance procedure that is at at the tale of that that.

Policy so I'm hoping that we can bring 6322 in January with any suggested revisions that you all have any ways that that we can lift that up to our community I think it already is a good starting place but but just acknowledge and acknowledge to to the parents and those that have reached out to us these are not easy decisions to make especially midy Year we wish that we had more time to communicate with with families but we find ourselves very much in crisis and I hear that our drivers are are extending themselves by doing rotational coverage they want to get back to their routes that are established with the students they know while we train and bring others in to join them so I guess I'm asking I don't know if I'm asking as yall have had we when we talked about the maps previously and you've revised them we've seen them as of today the reason that we didn't want to share them was some safety concerns about was.

That that the thinking y'all had other ways of thinking through how those would be distributed in the school within the school communities as yall have thought about that yes ma'am being able to identify to the specific student who is affected sharing that information with the schools and having them Aid Us in communicating with directly with the individuals as opposed to just pushing it out actually working on that personalized communication again at the school level that was part of the the the plan that is the our working plan and then the communication package that Miss Cooper mentioned enhancing that we're discussing what information we feel comfortable sharing publicly versus to you know operational methods that we want to make sure everyone is safe and to your point earlier yes ma'am we have we have been challenged to bring and charged with bringing options and in this case a recommendation and it is we are bringing the recommendation to pursue a a motion to enact family responsibility zones as as requested and our team.

Will continue to refine and and meet the needs surrounding that function but that's I think answered the question you asked and then the the statement you made a little bit. Earlier Dr Le yes thank you and I just want to be clear that when we're look I'm sorry when we're looking at this and we recognize that there's no easy answer here but please know that safety is a huge thing that we're considering if you recall when we initially talked about family responsibility zones we were looking at a little over thousand students that may have been affected and due to the work of the team and really looking at and thank you Matthew for driving some of those streets or all those streets we wle that down to about 750 800 we're we're right in that range yeah so based on the safety of existing roads right we narrowed that down and then again you know working with our schools and our transportation team and knowing that if there still is.

A safety issue one one by one we will definitely address that now I appreciate the communication plan and trust that what you all do will also be in Spanish Miss Cooper and and any thing that MRC can do to support different languages that families need interpretation in as you talked with principal I I was just curious about some of the feedback they gave on the concerns and best practices for releasing some of our youngest students our kindergarteners our prek students our first graders and whether there's forms that parents would need to sign if they walked with older siblings or did you all get to that part yet is that still to come as you continue to work through this still refining those aspects in accordance with existing board policy and practices and those are things that we'll be working on yes ma'am it will mirror our current practices and then we haven't talked much about Express stops but is are those mapped and available in the same way that that family responsibility zones.

Are so with the expressed Subs it's a little bit of a different Dynamic from the locational identification piece and part of that has to do working not only we just we're having this conversation today with principles about there's identifying Express stops within a transportation map let's say and what what ex set the most efficiency there and then at the same time ensuring that all parties all stakeholders at a at a effectively the receiving school and the hosting school all parties are understanding what the expectations are and what that might mean as far as the location of of those and again we would be positioned to notify families certainly as we come I think Miss Cooper as well we talked about the communication Outreach strategy there we've got it down to the individual student affording access to those Express tops within their regions and again making sure that we're providing direct communication to any impacted family what we've been able to do over the last year to two years is is.

Accelerate our use of power school and transportation data but particular on the transportation data side we're trying to work both ways that is affording us the ability to do quick communication strategies and deployment to an impacted family to the home address and all of the things that go with that and again that's a testament to the partnership with research and accountability Miss Thompson over Power School Dr Breyer and Mr seros we're working across departments to make that happen just finally as as drivers have concerns and we've seen a petition tonight and we've heard other ideas in addition to the petition where should they address those concerns to director Harris does that the the preferred means is there a suggestion box is there where where do y'all like to have those maybe Mr Harris is still on believe director Harris is still with us Joe are you there yes I'm here so currently those concerns will come to me but we do actually have a tab committee which consist of representation from every individual.

Aspect within the department as far as employees from mechanical staff to Safety assistance office staff members and and whatnot so we actually have a mechanism where we're able to sit down and discuss things that that are hot item ticket item things and things of that nature so yes to answer your question they will bring forth that information to me we can meet about those things in the tab committee but also too we have open Office hours on Friday where employees are able to come to the setting and express concerns that they do have and that happens each week on Friday Friday mornings and Miss P if I could also suggest for folks from a Community member to a driver there's no idea that we won't walk out and say can we do that will that improve the quality of life the Dignity of the labor the job itself and the respect that is deserving of being a bus driver a safety assistant a transportation administrator these are all hardworking folks feel free to.

Contact me directly director Harris as well we do receive daily you know dozens of have you thought about this have you thought about that right now we are very focused on skilled labor and ensuring that we're identifying the opportunities to make this a premier job here in Durham North Carolina we recognize its value and and we'll continue to work with Administration to lift those things up just a last thing there there was concern that supervisors there was a point in the petition about supervisors driving and needing to take their sh fair share can you reiterate kind of how we've pulled supervisors into ex extra work to work on these routes in that in that time frame thank you Miss berer we currently have again Transportation administrators at our bus Depots their role is to ensure that we have route coverage when we have rolling call outs when we are short drivers that day and Joe I really should pause this is this is your world and this is your.

Shop but please if you would share more with the board in the community on the role of our transportation administrators and why it's so essential that they're able to do their core function of providing call center support and the other functions of our administrative offices yes so as Mr palman stated we do have office staff that have to go out and drive it randomly as sometimes when we get past that threshold of around the 25 employee call out marks those employees will consist of like our assist area managers some of our Fleet supervisors Fleet mechanics actual mechanics themselves they take in that role of going out and help us to back F the actual need that we might have when we take those individual away from their normal duties it puts us in a situation where there's a possibility a phone call may go longer being on hold or getting answered from a Community member when they call calling in about a different any kind of concern that they may have but also too.

When we step in over to the mechanical side of course Mr leak leaves the department and he does an often job working with our mechanical staff to make sure that our buses are in compliance but when we start to move around that group of personnel then we look at buses that downtime more time in the garage more time for 30-day inspection things of that nature so it's almost like a effect when you fix one thing it it poses problems and open Avenues for error or concerns in different area so those staff members being able to be in the office to work over the past few weeks has been a great help you have those people those individuals are responsible for payroll as well payroll is not late getting in where they're working over or working on Saturdays and Sundays trying to get that information in so to make sure that our employees are paid in a timely manner so again it is something that fixes one thing but it poses problem in different areas some.

Said thanks y'all for this presentation and all the work to get here to the folks who came earlier today I have some questions I'm wondering who from the team like it's clear Transportation it's is working on this but who other what other folks are involved in kind of the day-to-day or maybe not day-to-day the weekly or so problem solving for transportation because it's such a cross-sectional like I heard Dr Kean talk about the principles I heard Dr we talk about these groups are these groups of folks coming together on a consistent basis to to think through this or no so one of the opportunities that we have is to be close partners with our school leaders I believe every principal in the district AP and Transportation contact I've I've witnessed it watching director Harris on three phones at one time it's it's a remarkable feat but the the point that I'm making with that is that the close relationships between schools and operations is essential some of the systemic.

Improvements we can make are are a larger level and that's an opportunity that we look forward to Administration and Leadership on so let me pause there I I think that's a big question but on the day-to-day ensuring that that we're one team DPS that's a that's a Daily Commitment and you know again we have multiple Avenues multiple channels whether it be white literally every method of communication we can with schools that's an active Endeavor and then yes to the broader Point some of the longterm Investments that we're making with bolstering our Workforce are we're going to require a cross functional team mom said Dr web also has a response for you thank you madam chair and thank you for that question mom said and I I think probably the the best example of a cross-section of our school system our school family stakeholders that that meet consistently to talk about this is with within the superintendent's cabinet where that represents some aspect of or every aspect of dur public schools in.

This room every every Monday we have these conversations we're brainstorming we're bringing in different perspectives and it and then it it trickles out to in each individual's Department I'll take this back he'll take this back she'll take this back so it the superintendent has got us grants us that time to have those conversations at a district level and then we each communicate within our with our own little world as well Dr Jani thank you for the question Miss said I think if I'm understanding you correctly is so the answer is yes there has been quite a bit of cross departmental collaboration for example just for we were at a meeting a couple days ago and Dr Spencer pulled me and to the side I then grabbed Matthew and Dr web and we're brainstorming around you know things to make sure that if how we would pivot and make sure that her schools and Dr frell's schools that are impacted by the family or could be impacted by the family responsibility.

Zones would make sure that they were agile in order to respond to that she was asking questions about things that needed to happen for her on behalf of her and Dr frell to make sure that there wasn't learning loss and how we were going to be tracking that Etc so it really is all hands on deck Dr Rogers called me last night at a little after 10:00 last night to talk about Express stops for her and Dr Logan and how we're working through those things and just on a dime we got all these people in this meeting with the principles to make sure that we hear their voices the elementary school principls are talking with us finance and HR m Michelle Hayes I know has worked with them for just extremely on Recruitment and Retention and incentives Etc through HR Miss Hager talked with them about Staffing and making sure that when they bring a name that we are moving quickly on that the finance department as well as making sure that they're costing things.

Out so that we can look at you know incentives and make sure our budgets are reflective of what it is that we hope that we will be able to do for our drivers I think that's the question that you're asking if it it answers my question I think what I would hope to see us doing moving forward is more intentional cross collaboration they sound responsive and I think it's good but like how do we get Elementary Middle High School principles or principles who are impacted by Express stops and parents and a couple other folk in the room to like think through this even sometimes and I know it's a chicken and an egg with when it comes to the board or not but I think what we're also hearing on the back end is a lot of folks with a lot of questions a lot of concerns they're calling now and it would been really good to have some of that vetted in the Forefront right of principles kind of already.

Saying you know I I don't know if I can let this five six seven eighty old go so we thought about that and so when it comes to the board some of that information is there because it is such an issue that is impacting so many folks it's urgent and it's important and we need different departments in that conversation so I think figuring out how to be more proactive people don't have to reach out so we're connecting all that tissue.

Together Dr gani I completely agree with you and I think that there were certainly and I've said this in the principal meeeting that there was a misstep and missed opportunities to not include principles around the table and get their input when a lot of these conversations started we've talked about it being missed opportunities to not include bus drivers like we spoke with them and again reactionary to your point but just given the crisis that we're in and we're trying you know finally starting to get fully staffed back in the operations leadership but for over two and a half hours at Showcase the school is just getting tons of information and ideas from them Dr Lewis has met with them and gotten information he shared he typed that up and shared it with us this past week and so those are all kind of to your point reactive but going forward your point is well made and we need to have a plan for how we're going to move forward in communicating and having cross-.

Departmental conversations and I think we are moving in that direction thank you and and I just want to be clear it's not just communicating it's like true collaboration right I can get on the call and tell you lots of things but how do we actually have that collaboration so folks feel like they're also helping contribute to the solution I think will be really helpful in that I'm gonna move to my next point I don't know if there's any other okay all right there's other concerns that have come up that weren't necessarily addressed tonight and I just want to know where we were with some of those so that includes like responding to student behaviors I think I brought that up maybe one of the first conversations that we had and how we're supporting bus drivers with those behaviors I've heard from some bus drivers that's with students and with some families that they are having some concerns and how are we supporting them with that I I have a longer list you.

Tell me if you want me to pause or you want me to keep going Mr Palmer keep if you'd like if you want to read through the questions I can yep so that student concerns one I think about like the crossing guards I know we had talked in our I don't know if the media meetings are running together a little bit so I don't know if it was our last meeting or previous meeting just talking about schools that might need some more support on that and how do we reach out to our partners and other community in the city or to help support with that I mean I even just heard tonight the DMV one we should follow up with some of our Durham delegation if we can call the DMV and get some things moving quicker I think that' be really helpful and then the other one I think is this one also just came up tonight we said we have a grievance policy for student concerns do we already have the.

Procedure in place for when a parent brings a grievance or something and I think we should be ready for whatever those next steps needs to be because as soon as this is approved there will be a grievance and there will be families who say I cannot do this and so what are how are we what's the proactive already who people need to Conta so that was a long list I'm sorry speak to the grievance that's the we follow the standard 1740 4010 grievance policy so I think people need to know where where that is and how do I get to that and is it a phone number is it an email like who who who do I go to and how do we blast that out so people know what that policy is that's a resource M go said U because because I just think people are going to know and they're not gonna know where to go anyway any any movement on the student concerns the crossing guards the.

Other d d indeed what one of and I'll I'll come back to this at high level it's going to require additional followup and in Partnership I'm glad to hear you mention the importance of working with the county sheriff as well as a chief of police and the offices the city and county level for law enforcement on presence the challenges is that any one of us might see the opportunity to go out to a crosswalk and put on the old safety patrol you know from when we were fifth graders and do it again that is candidly we can't do that here in North Carolina under the existing statut so it is required that we do have Partnerships with local law enforcement agencies on that front and to that point we in our ncdot award for safe R School includes a crossing guard evaluation Miss Brookshire spoke a little bit about that earlier those are ongoing conversations with law enforcement locally to bolster up that presence but I want to point out.

That not only many crossing guards we have and we need more but the deployment and where those locations are this is tying into one of the one of the spot checks we were doing is we were reviewing f frzs is to ensure that the critical crossings that may not have the physical infrastructure have the human infrastructure in those instances and invalidating that yes indeed at that particular school there is a crossing guard at that location so we we do need more and that's part of the crossing guard evaluation we do not control the deployment the hiring and those attributes of the crossing guard that is a multi-jurisdictional partnership with law enforcement so if I want to be a Carson guard who do I talk to that would be law enforcement that would be the Durham Police Department dur Police Department okay we might need to put that somewhere for families who have a little who want to contribute and I can walk you know I can stand in the in here and support students as.

They're walking across the street so how do we get that information out there student behaviors any traction there and that that's another one where I feel like that's a frost departmental kind of conversation. I'm G to give you the the answer that unfortunately we've not had that discussion we've been focused on the the mechanical the making the wheels on the bus go around and around it is a very valid conversation but it does as you to your point between the schools between those the discipline aspect of the school system the procedures on the bus knowing who is where in given time it's it's it's a lot of pieces there and the communication and then response so that is something that we do have to concern consider and and talk about and it's fear is not a quick fix because it is a it is a mind shift mind mindset shift and making sure that everyone is on the same page with expectations and B so I apologize we don't have that.

Information for you we will continue to work with our building principles and assistant principles as it relates to supporting our bus drivers when there are significant challenges as it relates to to behavior because as I mentioned bus drivers are monitoring the Dows and watching for safety and having to deal with with discipline we heard tonight the stress associated with that so ensuring that the bus drivers are part of the school not only just from a culture standpoint but that they're speaking the same language as it relates to the behavior expectations within that school and then knowing that they're getting support from our building administrators in addition we had some conversations when I met with the bus drivers around some common practices we can put in place there's a relates to bus drivers knowing when there is a any student really but particularly student or student that may have a a significant behavior challenge and some strategies that are working well in the school how they can work.

Well in the in the on the bus as well and then just knowing those strategies as it relates to those particular students and so if one of betina's trigger is getting in her personal space the bus driver needs to know that right and so those are some things we continue to work with our building leadership with I think those feel that feels really urgent and important and something that's very much within our control of how do we support bus drivers and student behaviors and you know if if will Johnny or whoever has been acting up for a couple days and the bus driver doesn't know like who do they talk to to help support them with that that just feels like something that is a part of a retention tool as well for us to help make sure that bus drivers can do the job do the job well you know not have to go home stressed about kind of what student behaviors were happening and.

I'll just say at the end of the day we will work with the the schools will work with the bus drivers bus rers work with the parents we'll work with the parents to support us in that but at the end of the day there may be have there may be some more severe consequences as it relates to ridership on the bus I mean I want all of our kids students to have access to the bus and understand that there's clear expectations when you're on the bus right of what we expect from you Behavior wise grievance policy procedure we GNA work on getting something done okay sorry let me go through my list to make sure I covered everything I I do know that there's a lot of community members who are also just interested in supporting DPS on this issue I don't know if there's any interest in starting a community Advisory Group or something that just kind of talks about this like I have you know people who are coming up to me not.

A parent of the school system but they want to do something they want to work on recruitment they want us do organizing strategy like they want to do stuff and I want to figure out how we harness that energy cuz we need need that energy and so I will leave it to staff to to figure out what that might look like but I think that there's a lot of folks who are interested in that and Miss berer kind of brought this up but I I do want us to think about policy and guidance around who can walk who can walk by themselves what the liability is here because I know that's a concern that's come up and I think we need to have really clear guidance on what that means for school leaders when it when it comes to leasing a student for transportation sorry there's one more question about followup in the original presentations we also T about after school staff to support students who are waiting for buses and that kind of thing.

I have a feeling that we're still going to be in that students are waiting around for somebody to come get them is there any strategies or finances that we I know part of the questions was Financial modeling of how to support staff who have to stay with students either who got to school too early or who are waiting for a parent to pick them up because I imagine you might end up with more students whose parents are like I can't get my elementary school kid at 215 I'll be there at 4 you know so what are we doing with that student who who might still be there and I don't know if we've had any more conversations around that I don't know that there's necessarily been conversations around those but those are matters that that building level principles generally you know manage at I'm sorry those those matters building level principles you know tend to manage on a site base and largely because it it's that's largely driven by the size of the staff.

The the options that they have we have had principles who have made any number of efforts to address that through a number of strategies you know some have gone to the use of extra Duty support others have used restructuring of the specific assignment of individuals that are working at the school so for instance we might take a a teacher assistant and have them shift the structure of their day so that they arrive 30 minutes early and leave 30 minutes late and in that kind of way we're able to provide that kind of support and oversight for those students without necessarily incurring additional cost for the school so we have you know continued to try to support schools as as they look to do that based on what they see as their specific needs and and based on what's available for them you know within their budgets so that has generally been the the approach and that is what we would likely continue to do obviously you know as we shift into.

This mode presumably if we identify the reality that that this is has becoming a a much more systemic scenario that we need to you know take a broader look at we certainly would do that but generally you know we we've counted on principles to use their you know their their creativity to to to figure out how to do that because again that's a specific that's a very significant significantly different structure if if I'm the principal of a school with 150 Kids versus a principal of a school with 700 kids right and so we certainly want to allow them the flexibility to do what they need to do and provide them with that support as as we can I appreciate that answer and I hope that we're again being proactive to say principles we know this might be a challenge here's call us so we can help you think through this and support you through that because I think that's going to also be just important it was in kind of I.

Think when we had originally like six different priority or six different options around Transportation it was in that presentation from a while ago I will just say I'm I don't know if this is possible but I am curious to know once we start communicating with families around this what families say I can't do this and I don't know if there's even a window to make a like or maybe it's a you know family you're in the if we move forward with the family responsibility Zone this is the grievance policy and we're able to track how many people are coming in on that policy I'm just I'm very worried that we're shifting who can't get to school and I think I've said that several times and I still worry that you know somebody who might have had a bus regularly now doesn't have a bus regularly and now will they be able to get to school was my question and so I don't I don't know if that's possible to kind of track.

Which families who are in this who are who could be impacted how many are like we actually can't make this work I don't that's just a thought I and we haven't talked about Express stops but I think I shared the last time that I like was in support of starting that in the middle of the school year I think a lot of families have counted on us doing transportation and I know it's a really important way to help relieve the routes but I just again worry we're shifting who can get to school and not so I just want to state that as well for everybody thank you Miss Umstead Miss Carter I'll try to be brief because it's getting late but I just I I wanted to follow up because I do have the same concerns that miss umet is expressing and I appreciate Miss berer referencing the policy earlier and then us talking about the grievance policy I guess I'm left like if I'm we we have a parent I I think.

Through all of your modeling and through what's being put into place hopefully we won't have many of these but if we have a parent who's just like I cannot do this it is my job I lose my job or my kid doesn't go to school they go to their principal and they tell the them that the principal then points them to policy 1740 is that what happens because as a board member I can't even this is a lot for me to sift through and so I guess when we talk about procedures I'm looking I'm wondering if we could have something that's more clear that School principles have that they can hand to parents or walk them through like here's what you need to do because I worry that even if we track the Grievances that's going to be a handful of parents who have the privilege to be able to sift through find board dos i' had never even seen board dos for a board member find board dos sift through.

This board policy figure it out then take the initiative to go through all these different steps right so I guess from my perspective we need some clear easy to understand easy to follow procedures not saying we open the floodgates but just to I just need a mechanism before we take this vote I need some kind of mechanism to protect those families whose kids may not go to school or who may be at risk of other negative outcomes for their family if we push this through without clear processes in place and just by just saying well we got 1740 we're good so let me if I could take a stab at that one I I think couple of things that that that I'd want to share with with respect to I think the point you were we're making my my my fervent hope is that when if that happens the principal's response is not going to be to go from that conversation to the grievance policy and if I know our school leaders there's.

Going to be there will be a a significant amount of time spent between that complaint and that step where that principle will spend time pulling together every resource available to them to try to identif ify a way to support that family in that specific need that having been said I certainly will work with principal supervisors and I think we can work on put pulling together some documentation that we can provide to principles that would provide them with some guidance about how we would want to see them move through those kinds of situations in terms of supporting parents and helping them understand the grievance policy if we have to get to that point so because I I think your point is well made that is a that is a dense policy to look at and we can C certainly look at how we might put together a step by step that will that will help parents if we get to that point but again I I think you know the principles that we have in our.

District in most instances I think will work very diligently to identify ways to help parents you know navigate those kinds of situations to the extent that it's possible I I hear that and I I know that you're right but what I worry there is that then we're just saying principles will take care of it they're going to handle it and that means principles are staying late with kids they're giving kids rides home when they you know they're they're they're having to make it work and they're not being given what they need from the administration to be able to make it as easy as possible for them that's my concern well I hope what I'm saying is that we are going to give them what they need to make it as easy as possible and recognize again you know the the notion here is that you know I want to be clear when when we when we look at a situation and we're talking about a bus you know for instance we had a.

Parent that come from a school today and talk about that school having struggled with you know Transportation before the rotational piece and that school having a couple of buses that were experiencing significant difficulty getting those buses to school that's 75 you know 80 kids right you know hopefully as as we look at this model and the structures that we're putting in place we're going to be shifting away from scenarios where principles are being are having to think about how to address this as an issue with 75 to 80 kids to a scenario where hopefully there are one or two families in that school community that find themselves in this place and those principles will have you know their pulse on the finger of those their fingers on the pulse of that community in a way that won't necessarily mean that they have to drive those you know students back and forth but the principal is the person who's going to know when when you know Lil Johnny's mom.

Come and say I can't get my kid here that principal will know that you know down the street from Lil Johnny there's a family that drives and that they might be able to make that connection with that family that certainly we're not able to make at the at the district level right and so I don't want to give the impression that we're going to say to principles hey you got to go figure all this out what I'm saying is that they're going to have you know the world withth all to do that and we're certainly going to provide them with the support they need to make that happen because it's going to be a different you know level of possibility when we're talking about one or two families as opposed to 80 families if if that makes sense thank you colleagues this is for Action I'll entertain a.

Motion Madam chair I move that the board adopt the family responsibility zones as presented by staff.

Second as we move by inspire seconded by Miss Carter uton to adopt the family responsibility zones as presented by staff is there any discussion I think we've had plenty I do want to share with my colleagues that myself and vice chair Carda-Auten have been in touch with the city the mayor about the crosswalk concerns hopefully we'll get some traction get some updates soon Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez and I vote I Mr tab hi Miss car uton hi Miss Bayer hi Miss Harold goof hi Miss Umstead no.

And I vote I it passes 61 would you be willing to accept a second motion on the express bus stops Administration has said they didn't need a motion for express bus stops that they could do those without I glazed over it at that point but that would be good but that's good if you don't need.

It I just that is corrupt we don't you're fine so my understanding is we don't need an emotion for express bus stops and I think we're expecting Administration to come back and tell us when they plan to implement if they plan to implement Express you need you need direction that the board is okay with express bus apps Miss Beyer did you want to offer a motion about express bus I mean you said it didn't need to be a motion I don't know how else the board would communicate with Administration that we're okay with the express bus St.

Yeah I am willing to make a motion I had separated them out because I heard folks have different concerns about different options and I wanted to leave room for that and not force a vote that and I hear I see lawyers I don't know if a straw poll or a thumbs up Mr M I guess I'm I'm just not 100% sure what the question from the board is are you asking whether is so staff has said that they don't need a motion are you asking whether they need a motion even though they're saying they don't need Dr Lewis is asking for consensus from the board that we're okay with moving forward with express bus stops and how does the board communicate consensus without a motion in a formal meeting well no you would you would need a motion to communicate that yes.

Okay Le can I take a look at the that's not in this policy though right but we've done the question the question is are we do you need consensus we have determined with our attorney that we have to make a motion to establish consensus the question is do you need information about do you need us to approve implementation or are you asking us to approve the the policy the the idea of Express routs are you authorizing are you asking to authorize further planning and then you'll bring it back to the board or are you asking now for us to authorize the implementation also yes that's exact God instead we would would need if the board is okay tonight for us to move forward with Express stops we need that consensus if the board is still has questions and we need we need further planning we need that direction as well so we can bring that back that makes sense with the implementation goal of still January 17th I think is what was on the.

Slide yes Matthew January 8 or 20 something I think the 17th is a Friday so the 17th is a Friday so after we come back deping on the y 21 and 27 I would move that we authorize Administration to continue planning express bus stops for secondary magnet schools is that enough of a motion to. Yeah second yeah I think I said I would authorize the administration to continue planning express bus stops for secondary M magnet schools would did I it's if it needs to be stronger than that then help me word Smith what you need I I I would assume communication of families needs to happen earlier rather than later so yeah we definitely have to get that communication out and so was that planning mean we need to bring something back on the 9th or the yeah the 9th will be the the board meeting but I also want to hear from our transportation team and I wanted to be crystal clear for the board around the impact of just fully implementing.

Family responsibility zones and the possibility of not implementing Express stops on the four 4-day rotational services does that make sense it does we want to be clear about and again going back earlier we looked at at least six tactics to address labor shortage and more service demand than theirs these two adjoined address first second and third tiers and it's helpful to think through those three elementary middle and high so yes to the point the family responsibility zones we've modeled that out we've done the bootstrapped work to find 20 buses there the additional Transportation savings from Express TOS yield an additional direct eight but then and that is a conservative number it's getting us to the point where one driver not being able to be at work that day is not having an impact for 300 children that's what we're trying to get out of that cycle of like I hope the board can appreciate that that that is where we landed on those two recommendations from a implementation and board approval.

Perspective so it's been moved by mpire seconded by Miss Chávez to implement family m Express stops for secondary magnet schools is there any. Discussion that was her motion what was the motion to plan continue to plan not Implement so what would trigger. Implementation I'm willing to make it Implement if that is the the what is needed I I do think that our families need to I need the communication and Clarity quickly. If if Miss Chávez would second that with that verb modification second for implementation Miss cararta uton has discussion I no forgotten it oh it's not all secondary schools that was one so it's not all secondary magnet schools is that an issue or because it was this is just authorizing you to continue what You' started you're just going to continue with the three that we've discussed I don't because that feels different to me than throwing in the other secondary magnet programs just kind of really quickly high level go over exactly because we didn't spend a lot of time on family I'm.

Sorry on Express stops tonight so I want the board to be crystal clear on what they're giving Administration Direction on thank you Dr Lewis to summarize we currently offer Express Stop service already at Creative Studies for the am service we are looking at that for all looking at for Creative Studies to be specific Rogers her and Durham schoolly arts those three schools for now AM and PM service we are working with our school leadership on the finalization of those exact locations which will then go into the communication to parents from the administration with regards to any service changes and the location and implications of that for individual families that is a conversation that we're having directly with families as well as with our school leaders so that's consistent across the three schools and at the same time being clear we're talking about AM and PM service of those three schools so it is a additional for it is a PM change for Creative Studies and for Roger and DSA.

It is AM and PM Express hob stop service to a regional middle and high school within your area and those locations we've been able to drill down and look specifically where do students live and where would those locations be most accessible so wanted to be clear about it is a service change to Dr Lewis's Point and we are very open eyed about the importance of that in conjunction with the family responsibility zones gets us to that healthy level of of daily service thank you that's helpful to have that additional Clarity and I remember my other question was am I understanding correctly that if we were to authorize the family responsibility zones but not The Express stops that then you we might still have buses not showing up here and there or we might have to continue rotational coverage or what are the real plane L the implications of this that's right that's right several of the scenarios that you've walked out we would have to continue to have those tactics for consideration for.

Deployment we aren't there yet we have reinforcements on the way drivers in the queue as we talked about early in this presentation again the Pass rates in conjunction with every day we can talk about a different Staffing level number as we bring in drivers we are mindful of a lot of the conversations we've been having about and I to credit Dr Lewis retention is as important as recruitment it goes both ways so as simple as I can say we are asking for both we have we appreciate the board's support on policy and in regards to implementation of practice this is a service change for those three schools okay and I do feel like I have more information about family responsibility zon so it feels more clear to me so just to with Express stops it feels like I know you've said said to a middle or High School in their region I guess I'm still concerned about the distance from somebody's house some of our regions are quite large so the distance.

From somebody's house to an Express Stop we still don't have that information that you could share with the board like how with the express or the family responsibility Z zones I'm feel more comfortable with that because I know how far they might have to walk or ride a bike but here it's a little bit of a black box to me and I'm again concerned about kids not being able to get to school if there's no other way for them to get there so there were a couple important considerations of locating Express stops at Midland High Schools one of them is Transit access and again in partnership with go Durham and I think chair Rogers mentioned those Entre those exchanges with City and County Partners we're seeing that now on the on the Staffing side too folks reaching out and saying let's huddle on how we can improve service at a particular school so want to thank the board and Leadership for that support those Express up location are critical for.

Access as we are locating and and I answer the question directly we have staff here who have done you know truly hundreds of hours on this exact topic those locations being accessible nearest to where our students are clustered in living is accelerating options of how to get there yes the passenger vehicle if the family has that mode but also Transit access walk by any of those means getting to your nearest school there and providing service from there to your final destination so we're intentional about we have some large schools that can be inaccessible we're also trying to find additional opportunities to bring those stops nearest to where our students are located as possible Dr web thank you madam chair Mr Palmer mentioned in his presentation a conservative estimate and the the numbers that we believe that they express stops will yield as far as routes drivers availability we view that as a minimum and we're not prepared to say expect this many more but we believe that as we Implement and adjust as we go.

Along the potential is there for this to even yield some more Drive some more some more routes down the road as it becomes more fluid and efficient and that is only good news so there is optimism above and beyond what we reported there is optimism of what we can find I'm not ready to go on record and say we're going to Grant this many more but it it does look promising the routing looks promising and the potential looks promising beyond the number that we shared so if that helps Miss mad I know if we're for the express stops we' be at different schools have we had conversations with staff at those schools schools about where kids will be who will be there who's monitoring and supervising children who are going to be in those steps all that yes ma'am today at 1:30 we had that we had a wonderful spirited conversation where we embraced their concerns and their questions of of the those not only the ones we are.

Confirmed that would be a a stop or a site of gathering for children but ones that could potentially so and in in the about an hour hour and 15 that we were in there today lots of questions then lots of ideas and lots of collaboration with and we shared with them the same thing we shared with the elementary principles that we not only want we need and and just actually CET the the the cooperation because they're the experts on their schools issues like we can't put it there because we have carpool but how about here so collaborative problem solving and then after the meeting was over Mr Palmer and his team stayed on to address individual concerns and and and help brainstorm and offer resources so that was a long answer just to say yes ma'am we we we have had this meeting I appreciate that I'm glad to know it feels like again another opportunity where we could have done this three weeks ago when we first had this.

Conversation so it doesn't feel like is something that's kind of being sprung on Folks at the same. Time thank you okay some motion is to continue to research Implement Express stops for school for Creative Studies DM School of Arts Rogers her before and after school Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez I I miss. Carda-Auten no Miss berer hi Miss haral go.

I miss m no and I vote no so the motion fails with a 3 three vote thank you everybody. Was it I'm. Sorry Jessica said no I said no patina said no was 3 three Miss Chávez said yep thank you for your help Dr k thank you Mr Palmer Transportation team do director Harris we appreciate you all Dr web I did want to ask you know that motion didn't pass but I also recognize that y'all are asking for this for to help alleviate where we are with Transportation so I don't know if there are other something you need to bring back or something we need or we just saying no no no as a board I just want to be mindful of this is a part of the the one two package as Mr Palmer says of how we're working to fix this.

Issue Miss haral goof thank you for for raising that Miss Umstead my the reason why I hesitated was because it it goes back to what you were saying about the implementation and the and the the planning and the implementation and I'm interested in what we need to bring forward in order to implement a solution and I'm caught up on what I'm hearing is that we want in the planning for there to be quick and robust Community engagement especially around resources like if a family somebody comes and says my child needs a ride this is not worth for me knowing that we're not just going to throw them out you know we're not we're going to do this and you know as it even even if it's a single person I understand that this is going on but how they access that that was the only missing piece for me we we know that this is complicated and so we want to we want to be we want to take care with our community because.

We know it's going to impact them and so with this motion is there a way to make this motion and to assure that that is part of the implementation is that this is we're going to have clear with grievance policy clear things around resources that families can access if they come and say my child is home alone what am I going to do you know or or I need I need I can't afford an Uber these kinds of like practical things that families are going to come with that is the thing that gives me pause gives me hesit gives me the hesitation we want to move quickly we want to solve the problem transportation is working on it they they have these solutions that was my only hesitation so is there a way to make a motion that way so that before we implement we know that we we can we'll be ready for that because the community is going to come to us with that can we make another motion.

What what do we need the nature of the motion would have to be different yeah okay and the intent of the motion would have to be different right maybe not implementation because it seems like the board's not ready for implementation Dr Lewis yeah and that Al that's was going to speak to as we think about we know what we're currently experiences as it relates to the driver shortage I don't have a crystal ball to determine if that driver short is going to get better or it's going to get worse but what I do know for a fact is that we are going to implement the secondary part of growing together next year and so as we think about again setting the system up for success is it no not right now or is it we will consider implementing Express stops if we had additional information on X or if there was a level of Engagement around this and so as we think about the tactics that were presented.

And this was one that we want to we were presenting to ensure that we can get back to the five and I think the team can take this information back and get us some the board some information as it relates to now that we are now we have the Family Walk zones what does this mean for 4 day rotation so those were my comments as relates to is it no Express stops forever or is it no tonight but if you bring this back or what additional steps do we need as we think about longterm setting the system up for Success well so since a lot of people had hesitations about at least what I heard was concerns about families that had scheduled and been promised this through their magnet application last year would members of the board be willing to entertain a motion of exploration of family wait Express stops for the three schools identified for the 205 26 school year there I don't like is that a motion.

That's different enough if I made it that we could continue to keep that in Exploration for the following School SCH year but would need to also be on applications that are up real soon right like our families are making choices are going to Applications will open soon for application programs and so I think I'm okay with exploring but I'm just mindful of people should know there's an option there might be an option that you need to provide transportation to an Express Stop Miss Carda-Auten yeah that feels very different to me and I would absolutely be in favor of that and I would vote to right now are you speaking to miss Umstead thoughts or Miss berer to miss berer because she had asked the board's appetite for that and I if that changed things for them for me part of the hesitation is around doing this in the middle of the year in a way and with still some unknowns around the support that could be provided for families the opt out systems what's.

Going to be given to schools the distance from the express stop and how kids are going to get there besides like their city buses so if we were to say next meeting we'll have more of that information and maybe we Implement later this year Andor we plan right now to go ahead and Implement in the next school year and that gives us plenty of time to prepare and to allow families to know what to expect when they submit their magnet. Applications Miss Beyer were you offering a motion move that we authorize the administration to plan for Express Stop service that what it's called sorry for school for Creative Studies Roger her and DSA for the 2526 school year second it's been moved by Miss Beyer seconded by Miss Carter Aton to authorize Administration to plan for express stop service for Rogers herd DSA and school for Creative Studies for the 25 26 school year is there a discussion Miss Umstead this answer can be real if if.

You can be Mr Palmer brief but Dr Lewis I heard you talk about secondary growing together happening next year and then it's my understanding that growing together is to support Transportation because there's schools will be closer students will be closer to schools that they may be attending so I don't want us to get in a place where we're saying that growing together is causing this crisis because I think I remember Mr Palmer you talking about before growing together is actually helpful we just have a shortage of people is that correct yes ma'am that that is one of the points that we would want to continue to lift up to the board and with empathy of understanding this is complex and and we that is correct yes so I just want to make sure that we're clear about that for the folks that are watching Dr web thank you ma'am to pertinent to this conversation and this vote but also more pertinent to Dr Dr Lewis's statement about either or and meeting the removing.

The 4-day rotation U Mr Palmer can you remind us of those numbers of what that looks like just so we're cleare eyed the the the number of stops needed and that will yield out of the family responsibility zones currently thank you Dr web currently again the rotational coverage has demonstrated for us that number of 25 is essential we are that that has been our our landmark in this last few weeks in communication with the board we'd love to get the 30 rat saved truthfully with the family responsibility zones that'll get us up to 20 again that that is looking at still a shortage of service that is looking at a shortage of service so I'm talking with my staff right now again to to be aware that rotational coverage as it's currently designed is designed to address the gaps in service right we've taken it across the district but family resp responsibility zones alone will not address the shortage of service providers we call bus drivers so I want to be clear about.

That that we are saying to the board and the administration those two interventions of the six that we originally looked at those were the two that were most ready to implement and if I may simply it looks like at current rate after tonight's decision we would still have a shortage of buses with only yielding 20 needing 25 so there would potentially be some rotational coverage would continue in some format so we just wanted to share that with you until such time we have sufficient drivers I'm dead we don't need to talk about this tonight because we have talked about it a lot but I was under the impression no matter what we decided rotational coverage was going to end on the 17th of January so maybe we come back in our work session in January to talk about this rotational if rotational needs to continue even with this implementation because that feels a little I a little confusing for me personally if we had voted differently though rotational coverage would end is.

That I mean hopefully right we're still in the that that that has that was the plan yes ma'am. Colleagues is there any further. Discussion Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez I vote I okay I'm sorry so this is the authorization of administration to plan for express service for 2526 oh wait maybe we do have more disc okay okay so then maybe there is more discussion I just I'm not comfortable with continuing rotational bus service past the 17th and I feel like we asked that and you like kind of said that we might have to do that but it was not very clear before we took the vote at least it didn't feel clear to me because I'm not ready to commit for us to do that that does not feel like it's sustainable to me colleagues thank you Miss Carter and colleagues my.

Question I don't think any of us want rotational coverage to continue but I don't think we came in understanding that you needed us to take action on the express stops nor do we. It's quite possible we don't have the information we need to say yes to express stops so I'm asking my colleagues would they be open to a special meeting to discuss that and in early January with more information about the express stops with the questions answered it still doesn't get over the hurdle of starting this mid year and is there other information that we all need to F to move those move us closer to approving Express steps Miss heral go I don't feel like any more discussion or special meetings is going to make me feel any better about any of this I feel like we have to do something this is where again we got to trust the people people become trustworthy so we have to do something because it's a crisis situation what I'm.

Concerned about is that in our action of doing something you know there's the transparency of resource is what I'm concerned about and so I don't feel like I want to see rotational like they've already said that is a very fragile Band-Aid that is on a situation right now my concern is that no we don't have all the answers about rotational services and things like that but if it can at Le you know what can we do quickly to address the barriers that will be created and can we move forward so that we can let the work continue I don't I don't necessarily want to wait another you know wait till the next school year if we have to do it in the middle of the year then can we my question is can we have some solutions for the barriers for our families when they come to us because there is no way to move forward and take care of all of it we know that we we're trading you know three.

Coins in this bucket for four coins in this bucket you know there's always going to be something in the air I think we our community wants us to move forward with Solutions so I don't want to stifle the forward motion but I also want the community engagement do we have the capacity to does the staff have the capacity to to problem solve those Resources with all these different components so that when the families address us when they when they and when they come and say I can't get my child to school well we know you need to talk to your principal we're when we're working really for we have this in place to you know try to figure out resources for our two kids over here or that's what I'm concerned about you know is that stuff in place and just like you know sometimes we do a really good job of communicating districtwide about what's happening and sometimes people miss it so I'm trying to prepare for what we're going to miss because we're.

Imperfect so that we can continue to move the the action forward you don't address a crisis by just continuing to plan for it you have to at some point we have have to try something we have to do it so and I still want the information so that's that's where I am I don't I don't really want to wait and I I don't think that keeping I I agree with Miss Carter Aon I don't know if if holding on to the possibility of rotational service is feels like the right move Beyond January 17th or whenever we say.

Miss Carda-Auten I wonder if there would be interest in a motion to move forward with the express stops with the agreement that there's no more rotational coverage and that at our next meeting additional information comes to us with clear procedures in place for families that for whom this presents too large of a hardship so the same thing we were asking with family responsibility Zone so not just the policy but the procedures and more information to just flesh out for us how we're supporting schools through this so we vote on it with the agreement that then we get that information on the back end knowing that's not ideal we would prefer to have had it earlier but we have to move forward with something okay so the motion on the floor right now is for the 2526 school year I am open to having a conversation about that middle ground Miss Beyer yeah I'm just looking for advice from parliamentary folks on how we move forward and don't get us box.

Ourselves out of where we're making the same motion multiple times and I can withdraw motions but I'm wondering if anyone that voted on the no on the other side would vote would like to change their vote with the ulations that Miss card has spoken to I think some might and some might not Miss sorry so because it was a tie it didn't really get defeated it just didn't pass so I do think this is a situation where you could make a similar motion if you were so inclined because this is not a situation ation where the motion Was Defeated and then you would need to have voted on the prevailing side to for some version of.

Reconsideration so could I modify my motion that we do sort of what Miss Carta auton said which is authorize it for as a solution to end rotational coverage that it comes forward in J January 9th with more detail and a clear kind of grievance kind of procedure right yeah ex yeah that's what my new motion is Miss Chávez are you still with us and maybe willing to second that yes yes second to that and then I also have a comment go ahead I just wanted to say I like I like this motion better than the original motion I think if we're going to have a a more robust conversation about the support and you know structures in place to ensure that all kids get to school with these changes I do favor having a separate meeting we have talked about transportation for nearly three hours and and we have at our last couple meetings also spent a lot of time on Transportation I think given the nature of this being a crisis it is appropriate.

To set aside an additional time from our our regular work sessions and board and board meetings to discuss it so I will just toss that out there that I'm in favor of having a separate time to dig into this when we're not pushing back other. Things thank you any further discussion Miss said can we just restate the motion please to authorize the administration to plan for express service as the solution to end rotational coverage beginning in January and to bring back the plans at the work session January 9th so this mean that we would decide on January 9th I see a head shaking so just I want to it would still be the start in 2526 no we would decide tonight it would be to start to as a effort in rotational coverage this year so on January 9th we're just we're receiving more information but we are we'll be saying yes to it tonight that's correct just just helpful for my clarity thank you Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez and I vote I.

Miss Carter Aton hi Miss berer hi Miss heral goof hi miss a vote no and I really want to say I do appreciate y'all transportation for all the things you're doing I think I'm really just concerned about students and family so I I want to say thank you and appreciate you please don't hear this as a a slight to the work that y'all do so thank you all the things Miss said said and no but it passes for two thank you.

Colleagues can we take a five minute recess so I'll see you at 11 11 yes here Rogers yes may may I say something just before we take our recess sure I am concerned about the time and the number of things we have on our agenda I want to ask if there are anything that any agenda items that could be reason postponed to January and I think that's best a question for Dr.

Lewis other than Dr Lin not being here in January I don't think there's anything that's time sensitive I'm looking at the. Team.

Yeah oh Chromebooks we got to approve that in poliy is it policy time since then and we we can work through the Strategic priority presentation without Dr L if need be it will be difficult in January but we can make that work there that happen you don't want to go out with a bang I'm sure she does but I think she probably would rather just go out at this point this. Time oh did did I hear correctly that Chromebooks needs action but the other items do not 7921 needs action and I'm looking at Dr King just to confirm that Chromebooks need action tonight or you mean two okay because I think it might be able to wait okay we can discuss during recess I'm assuming I'm sorry this not my meeting this is not my meeting take a five minute recess and we'll be back at 11:13.

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Oh there okay thank you all for your patience the next item on our agenda is the RFP for board governance training colleagues I am I have put this back on our agenda for discussion today we had several vendors apply to support us with governance training and we appreciate their application I think that we need to offer Administration a little more time to get our funing options available to us going forward and we also owe a response to each of the vendors and so I wondered if there was a motion to decline the offers for governance training at this time with an opportunity to review in the future not for this fiscal year but maybe some other Academic.

Year Madam chair I would move that we decline moving forward with any proposal for board governance training at this time second thank you it's been moved by Miss berer seconded by Miss Herold gof that we declin moving forward with board governance training at this time all those is there any discussion Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez and I vote hi Miss Carter uton I miss berer I miss hero I miss ID I and I vote I the motion passes unanimously 60 thank you the next oh at this time I'd offer also like to extend an opportunity to amend the.

Agenda Miss C I'd like to make a motion to to amend the agenda given the time of night and just try to keep the items that are critical to make decisions on this evening and as such I'd like to remove item five under academic Services 5B the Strategic plan priority 3 update and move it to the January 9th meeting second it's been moved by Miss Carter Aton and seconded by Miss Chávez to move the priority three strategic priority 3 update to the January 9th work session all those in favor or is there any discussion Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez I vote I miss Carda-Auten I miss berer hi Miss haral goof I miss Umstead I and I vote I that passes unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda is.

Policy 7921 classified Personnel reduction Dr Giovani thank you madam chair Dr Lewis board members I would like to make an amendment to the prees that you see before you on policy 7921 Administration is withdrawing its request to wave second reading so this policy comes before the board for first reading only this policy was was adopted initially 7921 in 2020 by the board and all boards across North Carolina have a classified Personnel reduction policy as well as a certified Personnel reduction policy upon review of this policy it was determined that we would are recommending that it be amended to track the reduction in Personnel that we find for certified staff so that it is more Equitable and equal when in the event of financial shortfalls declining enrollment or District reorganization decisions it becomes necessary for the superintendent to request approval of the board for a reduction in force for any of those various reasons I'm not going to read the pces for you I'm happy to entertain any questions I do want.

To point out that the track changes version of the policy was inadvertently not included in board docs and I will add that later so what you have right now in board docs is the current version and then the clean version but you don't have the version that shows the track changes to that policy I'm happy to answer any questions but I do think that given the withdrawal of the request for a second reading there's not perhaps as much given the time as much need for a robust discussion as the board would not be is not being asked to take any action but happy to answer any questions Miss I'm I just want to can we get the track change version in the agenda for the next meeting and maybe sent to us as well yeah I will be submitting it this evening thank you but I didn't want to do that for the because it seemed not transparent so I wanted to see it and then I will submit that this evening so.

That the public can see it as well thank you. Any further. Discussion thank you just to confirm bringing it back bring it back for a second read absolutely I would move approval of policy revised policy 7921 for first reading to bring to our January 9th work session for second reading. Second it's been moved by Miss buy seconded by Miss Herold go to bring policy 7921 back to the board for a second read on January 9th work session is there any discussion Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez I v I miss Carda-Auten hi Miss berer hi Miss haral goof hi Miss Umstead I and I vote I thank you for bringing this policy forward it pass for second read on January 9th the next item on our agenda is academic Services Chromebook sustainability Dr King good afternoon good afternoon good evening board members at this time I'll call our interim executive director for IT services Paul Mimi to the stand to the podium yep midnight stand yes good evening board members Dr Lois cabinet.

Members du in the interest of time we'll try to make this pretty fast and summarized but yeah we're here today to present an update on the district one to1 Chromebook program we'll give you a little overview of what the statistics look like right now some of the challenges that we're looking at and steps for sustainability which will include the recommendations we're making tonight kick off the slide next slide please yeah to kick off the slide I wanted to acknowledge that team right there our director of it support Angela tson who's here tonight Ana zman Our IT project manager dsql database developer and ginaa who's our it asset control manager that team has worked tirelessly for the last one to two months to make sure that the numbers that we have make sense they've been working with the schools with the tech Champions with you know anybody out there to make make sure that yeah that the numbers that we have in our system do make sense that way.

We can make informed decisions so I just want to acknowledge them that they've been working tirelessly tonight next slide real quick want to give you a little history of where we've come from and how we're here and why we call this protecting us our investment in 2020 we purchased that many Chromebooks 20,000 of them approximately $ 7.23 million 2021 we bought additional Chromebooks using Essa funds 2022 we did the same thing we bought 8,000 Chromebooks using Essa funds and ECF funds 2023 24 we bought 4,000 Chromebooks again using the last bits of Essa funds that were out there approximately 1.89 million and this year is why we're here trying to again keep our Fleet going and we are recommending buying an additional 1500 Chromebooks using pc5 which is the School Technology fund from the state and we're hoping these will and help us leap to the next year but I just want to give you a little overview of where we've been and how we've been leaping along next.

Slide so yeah the team that I looked at the team that I acknowledged before this is the work they've been working on currently with the enrollment that's eligible to receive a Chromebook because prek does not receive one to one Chromebook we have 31,3 Chromebooks that are active out there now all these might be some might be in the closet some might be sitting somewhere but from the inventory reconciled we show that 31,000 Chromebooks are out there in circulation of those 27 thou 27,000 57 have been assigned actively to students now this number was taken two weeks ago so this number has gone up from 27 to probably 29,000 because we just distributed 1,000 close to 1,900 Chromebooks at Riverside in the past two days yesterday and today right y so yeah that number has gone up on the assigned Chromebooks has gone up which again leaves us with a gap of maybe 2,000 Chromebooks that we're still again the team is actively working with the schools to discover them either.

Report them missing and lost damage but yeah we're trying to find them so that's that number there we have 866 opt outs and again that number could change but as of time we made this slid which was again a week and a half ago there were 166 students who had opted out but yeah just want to give you a real quick overview of what's out there and again we are vigorously working with schools to make sure that that inventory is up to date and from the we give the schools four weeks to get us you know up to date and yeah from what we've seen they've done tremendous work to give us some real numbers out there next slide please again wanted to give you some some overview on the Chromebook losses that we're facing we've tried to summarize it over the years 2021 22 we've seen 1488 Chromebooks 2223 1802 Chromebooks 23 24 1,122 and 2024 25 start to say but we're on track to get into the thousands there but just.

Want to give you a little overview of what it looks like that we're losing we can see that in high schools that's where the biggest number is some 134 the 134 number that's ignite that's where we we saw those losses out there next slide please now associating cost with the losses that we've gain and I think this is a picture I wanted to paint out there that we are losing money every year every year we're losing money the finan financial impact of missing and stolen Chromebooks from the numbers that I've shown you is $2.3 million so far again if we don't mitigate or slow down this loss we're going to be losing money every year so I just want to point out the numbers out there and this cost is if you go to the next slide please yeah that cost that you seeing I was derived from this right now a Chromebook cost us $467 trying to break it down and how it split out so yeah the cost that we.

Came out to the $2.3 million comes out of this figure right here next slide again wanted to point out the repairs so the other ones were the losses the missing and lost but J also wanted to point out the repairs because that's another challenge that we're facing out there 2223 we we repaired 4,956 devices 23 24 we repaired 7,530 devices next slide please this year and and just to make sure we don't confuse the two slides the years that I've summarized on previous slide those were devices most times when a device goes in one device might have six repairs the screen could be broken the keyboard the battery damage the mouse pad so this year we we started by tracking how many repairs are we having every month and at the end of the year we'll summarize those into how many devices were those but in July we sent out Chromebooks that face, 495 repairs in August we had 2,000 Chromebook repairs in September we had 600 repairs and last month.

November we had 647 Chromebook repairs like I said at the end of there we summarize and say how many devices experienced all these repairs one device could have six repairs one device could have one repair so that's what that's what these numbers show that these are repairs that we're facing every month next slide please right so next part of this like I said we're trying to devise means on how we sustain this program it's it's it's it's becoming a challenge we we we're losing money Chromebooks are getting broken getting lost so we're trying to see how can we get ahead of this we've been talking to Educators we've we've talked to principles we've talked to Tech Champion we sent out surveys to teachers and we're getting this feedback in and that's the feedback that we wanted to share and we'll talk about the device losses sustainability plan and device management and Tech Champions at the end next slide please Educators feedback from what we're hearing some Educators advocating for school-based Chromebooks we've gotten.

Lots of that feedback whereby devices remain on site which will help you know reduce loss and damage risks that will also ensure that the Chromebooks are really available in classrooms it reduce the downtime as students don't need to transport devices I forgot my device I can't find my charger but also as it promotes Equitable access technology across classes since they're readly available in the classes we had more feedback about technology fees as a means of accountability but also that that would fund into device maintenance repairs and Replacements we also heard about student retain devices whereby student is responsible for that one device across the air if it gets broken goes for repair comes back the same student that way you know it encourages responsibility and simplifies transitions throughout so yeah those are some of the main feedbacks that we got next slide please device loss and prevention preventative measures we defin I think we we we haven't stepped up efforts to you know have some preventive measures training for students staff and parents.

On device care we're working with office of public affairs to work on a video an educative video on how you should carry your Chromebook how you should take a Chromebook we've seen that with other districts and I think we all have one that we share with families that way they can work on that so hopefully after the break we should have that video out Tony should help us get that out there device agreement forms where students and families do sign and acknowledge and know what they're taking you know here I was assign a Chromebook you know I'm responsible for ABCD I'm supposed to take care of it and turn it at the end of the that's we're working with we're working with students record department to make sure that PR books are retrieved from students who are transferring to other districts we've worked with them and they've implemented some processes in place to work on that multiple device notifications again we we continue to hear that stud have multiple devices so we're really working.

On you know enforcing that and sending out notifications to families next slide please suity plan device longevity again implementing preventive care to make sure that we extend the life of these devices I think last year we talked about Google allowing updates for nine years so if we took care of that Chromebook it would last nine years okay and we would keep on getting those updates so we're trying to push the life of this Chromebooks we get a warranty of four years we want to push it to five to six this would help us plan our refresh rates not in one hard say I need 20,000 devices but have sped them out out there we talked about technology fees which would which would offset some of the repairs if you look at the repairs numbers versus the technology fees that other districts use that could help offset budget considerations making sure that we allocate funds for device refresh every year we receive approximately 300,000 400,000 from the state for technology you know we.

Could add to that we could allocate that but yeah those are some of the considerations that we having in out there next slide please device management that's another plan that we want to have in place that should help us retrieve devices take care of them working with tech Champions to manage collections every summer that we've seen that that's where most times if we give out 100 devices for school we get back 60 where are the 40 so we're really trying to work with te just to make sure that those collections happen effectively again it ties into the distribution collection outlining processes that include reminders collection schedules beginning of year protocols and again Communications with families to ensure that devices are turned in responsibly next slide which brings me Tech Champions we heavily rely on Tech Champions at the schools to manage these devices before when you had a small footprint the IT department could jump in and take care of things but right now we do need the tech Champions it has been proven.

In the last one month when we've worked with tech Champions to reconcile the inventory we need them in the past years I think I think this question came up in the one year ago and we come by the turnover rate yes we've kept on losing Tech Champions out of that role they're like no this is not worth it and we're trying to turn that around we are you know working with them to give them more training and work with them on ways and streamlining processes that can help them make their job efficient and so just wanted to highlight that that those are the turnover rate numbers right there and I also wanted to highlight the conversation this is a conversation that we developed over 10 years ago when we had just half the number of devices half the responsibilities for them that was the current cpen $75 for under 350 if your school's enrollment is under 350 that's what they were receiving it was between 350 and $649 $100 is what you're receiving and.

Where we have the most high schools 650 to 2200 they're receiving a Sten of $125 again I want to stress out that this was back then when we had a fraction of the devices but next slide please moving forward of course the devices doubled the responsibility dou if you having password resets if you had 20 password resets there 40 password resets it's yeah those responsibilities have have really doubled out there which leads me to the next slide our recommendations wanted to recommend purchase of additional Chromebooks to replace those that end of life the missing devices with the current funds in the PRC 15 700,000 which we think can get us roughly 1500 Chromebooks and that should be able to breach the Gap that we have right now that ties back to numbers I showed you earlier on once the reconciliation is done once we've sorted out Riverside we should be in the range of, 1500 2,000 Chromebooks and we really think we can bring it down if we keep pushing and.

Finding these Chrome books the second recommendation was the raising stepen for takech Champion technology takech Champion responsibilities and again I received questions on how we came down to these numbers 14 years ago there was no formula they found $50,000 I say see how you can make it happen and it was meant to be happen but on the rationale that everything has doubled we thought that it's just not to do that we could turn it into an hourly rate that's different mathematics but at this time this is what we're proposing to make sure that we rain the tech Champions and have them help us maintain our Fleet then next slide all right any I'll entertain any questions on this time thank you so much for your presentation and for your patience with us tonight colleagues we've heard Mr maum's recommendation is there a motion then we can move to.

Discussion well I do have a question I don't know that I have a motion I do see in the pr that where there's two it's it's written as maybe I should think say this differently I see there's two items and maybe we just need to be clear about what we're approving one is funding the purchase of new books but the other of the stien increase is something that we'll be looking for for 25 26 and so I just want to distinguish that's those are two different items the stien the typen increase would cost the IT department $50,000 it wasn't planned in this year's budget and I think that's why I think down the on the fiscal implications we had indicated that it would be included in the technology budget proposal for the next school year 25 26 thank you for lifting that.

Missad chair Rogers yes may I make a motion at this time can. I Dr LS item too can you just generally we wouldn't approve that right now before we've moved forward with their budget request do you want. That okay that's just. Informational and that's for this year okay go ahead Miss Chavis sorry I'd like to make make a motion to approve the purchasing of 1500 Chone books to come from the funding to come from PRC.

015 second move by Miss Javis seconded by Miss buer to approve the purchase of 50 approximately 1500 Chromebooks through PRC 015 is there any further discussion Miss Carter Aton I just wanted to quickly thank you Mr MBE for answering all the questions that we sent ahead of time about different aspects of this but most importantly in my mind is about a long-term plan for sustainability the that feels really important to me and as you've named tonight I think it's really important for your team as well and in that your respon you had indicated that maybe in the next six months or so you should have that ready for the boards maybe by the end of this school year we should get an update on what that plan looks like for the next 5 to 10 years whether we how how this will be something sustainable for our district and I'm wondering too is it at that time that we'll return to this idea of tech fees and from books.

That stay at school or would you like for the board to discuss those things tonight and provide guidance like that something that would change mid year or are you thinking for the implementation at the start of the next school year definitely the implementation will be at the start of the next school year I think tonight would love the bo recommend for us to explore those and bring it back during the plan that we present to you I think that would be that would be the best direction for the IT department if it's a nonstarter definitely we would say it's a nonstarter but if you want us to explore UC get us feedback then we can and implo it in the sustainability plan thank you that's super helpful I am definitely interested in exploring both of those two things I don't know if other board members are though if I can if I can just add board members there are there are a number of schools that have expressed interest in shifting in.

What I would categorize as you know probably reasonable ways the way that they Implement oneto one including this notion of Chromebooks that remain in schools in cases Mr Mimi and I have kind of stood against the wall against that until such time as we came to this board to to make sure that this to get the board sense of its comfort with us making that kind of shift to the district's one toone posture and so so we would certainly love to hear from the board if that is something the board is comfortable with Mr mimby and I being in a position to Grant schools permission to do going forward I thought that you were asking for permission to explore it further for implementation then then come back to the board with more information for implementation in the next school year so we are we're we're really what I want to know is is is the board at all interested in that as a structure right is that something that you would want us.

To consider or because we we certainly are not going to we've directed everybody to distribute the the Chromebooks that they have right now but we' really love to hear where the board feels if the board has any comfort with that as as a as a as an approach thank you name one other thing in case folks didn't see in your response that felt important to me your response to my question about the how do you navigate the Chromebooks staying at school with homework for secondary schools and you mentioned like a middle ground where when kids have devices at home they can use them but there's a request process in that can be put into place where they could kind of check out a Chromebook to take home if they needed it at home.

Miss bu yeah Dr King I appreciate you bringing that into the space as as we were here moving to one to one very rapidly during the pandemic I think several of us through the years have asked for actually us to tap the breaks and see what the best instructional practice is and what is child appropriate for Child Development especially with use of tech and screen time in our prek through second third grade I mean so I welcome you all pulling together educational leaders to tackle that and I think our parents would would welcome being part of that conversation as well pediatricians I mean you you all know yeah I think we just did what we had to do and bought a bunch of Chromebooks and Mr maima you were here with that I mean it was chaos but it was what we had to do to to keep students learning but I would welcome that.

I would be interested in exploring and understanding more of the process of day user for Chromebooks for day users just day users especially in the secondary. I need to understand and hear more more about how we ensure that that that we're not widening the opportunity Gap and that the people who have access to resources are able to access the information to study students get home don't have their Chromebook things of that nature I'd like to understand a little bit more about how and where some of the Chrome books are getting damaged I understand a lot of the secondary schools are not using lockers which means that they're going to gym and dance and locker rooms all the places where equipment would be and being treated like another piece of equipment and so if there's some work that needs to be done there to make sure that there's space for students to securely store Chromebooks that could be helpful too yeah those are my questions as I have more I'll send them over but.

Y'all know I have questions but I'm I'm still in support of finding out it's to your point we do have that data in terms of where they're being damaged by school and so we'll continue to work with principles on that as well miss Travis yes I'd like to also voice my support for looking into different models of oneon-one and I think we need to do that in order to consider best best practices for learning as well as the Financial sustainability of our the technology that we're offering I'm also in favor of looking into the fees exploring that I'd like us to consider a sliding scale on the fees so that those who have less are not necessarily paying that fee and those who have more can pay more toward our technology all technology needs.

Thanks colleagues anybody else missad yes thank You' all for the presentation and the recommendations some of what's already been said I think I've often said you know how are we going to sustain this because we know we don't have Pandemic funds forever I do think in the presentation talk about getting feedback from principls and other Educators but I'd love to make sure we can get students in the fold with that to get their input on where they're getting damaged and even students being a part of that video of how to care for your Chromebooks this is gonna sound very Elementary I'm not an IT person but I have noticed in other places people have covers right and and protection on theirs and I have not seen that with ours and so I know that would be an investment of dollars but like is that helpful in protecting screens or that kind of thing and that might be another way for us to be thinking about how do we sustain the.

Life of of the work but I've seen that in other districts they've got you know kind of hard covers on the on the front of them because I know our kids are throwing off their book bags with that Chromebook in there and so how do we can help protect that with the technology fees too I don't know if that requires policy change so that was just another thought as I brought up I know that was something that we had considered before my last question thought comment is that it looks like we still have one Tech Champion per school and I didn't know if there was any exploration of also having more champions in larger schools especially thinking about our high schools that are 2,000 students or 1800 you know large numbers is there was there any exploration of trying to spread that workload out I know that has fiscal implications but I just wanted to offer receed that was something considered yeah and we know in some schools they do.

Yes we have one Tech Champion per school but yes at high schools definitely one Tech Champion can do it all so they have Tech teams Tech Champions have maybe the media coordinator or somebody else St teaming but we don't pay the Sten to those folks so the Sten is only paid to one person at the high school but we do give access if they need access to our inventory system to help with that so we give multiple people out there than about the students I think will do survey the students yes the video is going to be with students I don't know the schools but yeah it's it's our students in that video that we're reaching out with I think from eens and the couple of schools that we're working with on that case so definitely awesome thank you and I I know that we've done it has had high school students as a part of internships in the past and I wonder too if high school students can be a part of and.

They might already be supporting those T Champions at the high school level especially that's a skill for them be learning and thinking about future career so thank you for this presentation and we should I think it's important to spend the money but I hope that we continue to evaluate what this program looks like for us and then just to your question Dr King on staying at school and home I just don't want it to impact students ability to get homework done to fill out college applications or all the other things they might use it for but I also trust that staff and you all will balance those things together so I think that's a a staff decision for sure we certainly will do that and and to your your first point Dr Le correct me if I'm not mistaken I think you have issued an invitation to the IT department to come to the next student advisory group to get feedback from that group about this as a as an issue so we we we'll.

Plan to do that.

Colleagues is there a motion here Rogers I already made a motion oh my bad I'm tired okay the is there any more discussion okay the 1500 Chromebooks for on PRC 015 Miss Chávez this is Emily Chávez I vote I miss Carter Aton hi Miss B hi Miss heral go hi Miss emad I and I will I passes unanimously thank you thank you I move that we go in a Clos session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss mad second by Miss buyer that we go in to close session for the reasons stated on the agenda all those in favor oh Miss Chávez this Emily Chávez I v I miss Carda-Auten hi Miss B hi Miss haral goof hi misset hi I passed it unanimously we're now in close session oh I'm sorry.

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We are now back in Open Session Dr Lewis thank you so much Madam chair Administration is asking the board to take action and approve the report we have approval of the Personnel report dated December 19th 2024 second it's been moved by Miss SP seconded by Miss Herold go to approve the Personnel genda Personnel report dated 1219 2024 is there any discussion all in favor say I I it passes unanimously 5 colleagues Miss Carter Aden I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add a special education placement agreement onto the agenda second been moved by Miss Carter Aton seconded by Miss berer to add a special education placement contract on the agenda is there any discussion all those in favor say I I I it passes.

Unanimously like to make another motion to approve a special education placement agreement with the American School for the Deaf second it's been moved by Miss Carter uton second by missp to approve a special education placement agreement with the American School of the death is there any further discussion all in favor say I hi it passes unanimously and with that we're adjourned happy holidays y'all.