Board of Education · Regular Meeting · February 21, 2025

good evening everyone good evening good evening thank you good evening the D Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and Lead thank you for taking this time to join us the next item on our agenda is a moment of silence thank

you uh now it's time for the superintendent update Dr Lewis thank you so much board chair Rogers uh good afternoon good evening board members members of the public uh we will get the screen going here and get started a few updates want to share with you and some celebratory news as well you can go ahead and go to the next slide so as you are aware the reason that we're in this virtual setting now we've had um significant amount of winter weather to navigate and so it has returned again this month and our district has transitioned to remote learning this week to keep keep our students and staff safe uh there is so many considerations that come into play as it relates to making these decisions we don't make these decisions in isolation obviously depend on our transportation staff our facilities and operation staff but also our city and

county officials as well as it relates to Road uh conditions and so I'm certainly grateful to all of our Educators who made sure that our students could continue to learn while safe at home as well as our essential personnel who played a critical role in in in terms of ensuring that our facilities are uh taken care of during the storm I'd like to extend a special thanks to our ground team ground team supervisor Jal Lawson and the entire grounds team who responded during the weather event you can see by the images on the screen there these are the results of their efforts um clear sidewalks clear parking lots um and because of their hard work we are looking forward to welcoming all of our students and staff back safe L on Monday next slide it is Black History Month and we honor the impact and accomplishments of black people in Durham North Carolina our nation and the world uh I was a guest reader at Creekside Elementary

School I look forward to reading at Easley on Monday and I know that there are some board members and other District St staff and community members who are reading and taking part in several celebrations happening this month across the district and so thank you to all of you who are volunteering your time to uh pour into the lives of our children as we celebrate the many contributions of U black folks here in Durham as well as the entire world next slide February is Career and Technical Education Month highlighting CTE programs that build firm foundations for students as they explore careers to prepare them for their future thank you to Daren Harris our district CTA leadership and CTE Educators who pour into our students daily speaking of CTE month and keeping the theme with CTE you goe and go to the next slide as we continue to celebrate CTE month we were just notified that Tyler D'Angelo who's an agriculture teacher at Jordan High School has been named and this is a long one now uh has

been named the North Carolina Center for advancement of teachings 2025 Burrow's welcome fund North Carolina Career and Technical education teacher of the year try to say that uh this award recognizes outstanding CTE Educators who demonstrate excellence in their profession uh through Mr D'Angelo's efforts students have not only met but exceeded State benchmarks they've also earned industry recognized credentials and gain invaluable work-based learning experience experiences uh Mr D'Angelo received a $5,000 cash prize instructional Supply funds for Jordan high and will be a delegate at the National Conference so a huge congratulations to U Mr Mr D'Angelo for all that he has done and continues to do at Jordan and a super congratulations on being named the North Carolina CTE teacher of the year next slide February is also love the bus month and we cannot as I've said

before stress the uh importance enough of the critical role of our transportation team members from our drivers safety assistants monitors um mechanics routers and everyone who supports our transportation operations play and um the role that you play in educating our Scholars of of course you know we cannot educate them if they can't get to school and get to school safely our drivers were celebrated last week with breakfast and treats uh during lunch around the district and I would encourage us to continue uh to celebrate and lift our bus drivers and transportation team up uh for their outstanding work that they do in keeping our students safe uh to and from school next slide it was National School counseling week February 3rd through the 7th and during that week we celebrate uh and continue to celebrate the tremendous impact our school counselors have in helping our students Thrive and succeed our councils go above and beyond to support our students socially and emotionally and academically and I know

that they make a difference uh in their schools and we so certainly appreciate their effort so a kudos to all of our school counselors here in DPS next slide last Friday I had the amazing opportunity to help celebrate the DPS ESL registration Center as they celebrated 25 years of exemplary service you know this office has been a vital resource and has empowered uh culturally and linguistically diverse students and families fostering inclusion and um um equal opportunities and just providing that welcome uh and warm um environment so a huge thank you to Sashi and her team for their dedication and support and supporting all of our Scholars uh and families that come to us uh from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds next slide a bit of congratulations huge congratulations to principal Tiffany boss in Burton IB Elementary for being named a top Magnet School of Excellence by magnet schools

of America only 24 schools in the nation that's right 24 schools in the nation are Ed this prestigious honor and five additional schools earned topped honors as well and so we were fortunate that uh Burton was named one of those top 25 schools but we Al also had some additional schools who earned top honors next slide and those schools are for the Schools of Excellence category Durham School of the Arts Durham School of Technology I'm sorry technology and George Watts monory next slide also schools of Distinction city of Medicine academ and Lakewood monu middle so huge congratulations to those schools as they have achieved uh their honors next slide more congratulations to Carrington Middle School uh they have been named a North Carolina School to watch by the North Carolina schools to watch program congratulations to principal Deborah fisan Chek and Carrington's hard work uh

hardworking staff and students um as they continue to reach this status so this was a program that recognizes schools who have established successful practices and are on a trajectory to continued success this is the sixth time that Carrington has received this honor so huge congratulations again to the entire staff and all the scholars at Carrington Middle School uh RN Harris congratulations to RN Harris Elementary School they have been selected by the North Carolina campus engagement as the 2025 Community partner award recipient this is an award that they were given in recognition of their sustained impactful and reciprocal partnership with North Carolina Central University they were also recognized at a conference uh at uh in garford County this month so again congratulations to entire staff at Arn Harris as well as the students for the 2025 Community partner award next slide I will tell you that the spotlight was on our Scholars um

this past week as they sparkled on stage at the evening to shine uh I was simply in awe I will tell you of our students Talent um that evening would not have been possible without the support uh of the DPS Foundation who are amazing Partners to us we certainly appreciate their commitment to our district I'd also like to thank our director of Arts education Les Turner and the dozens of DPS Educators and staff who poured into the students and and got them prepared for this outstanding event this is uh a prime example of how the art shaped the lives of our students uh huge thank you to our board members that uh showed up in District staff that showed up to just take part in this I was telling someone this is this this was just a critical reminder um for us that this is why we do what we do and so I'm super excited and I can't wait already uh for next year's showcase next slide uh I have enjoyed engaging with students uh family staff and community

Comm members to gain a better understanding a deeper understanding of our District's strengths and areas for growth uh so at our March board meeting I was share my postentry plan for moving our district forward and ensuring that we remain laser focused on every single student and every aspect of our Scholars development so I'm super excited to share with you uh the things we have learned and the things that we will move forward with uh here in the future next slide we are all aware of the recent lockdowns at one of our high schools and I want to let our students Families Our board and Community know that safety is a top priority I'll tell you that when I learned excuse me of the lockdown last week uh I immediately went over to river side and a huge thank you and shout out to our law enforcement Partners who had the campus secure wouldn't even let me in and that's totally fine uh while waiting there were some students who had been dropped off you know not knowing that there was a lockdown so I had an

opportunity to talk to those students I was really pleased to hear from our students um who who feel safe because they have trusted adults that surround and support them daily and when I asked them I said you know what what are some things we could do to to keep you safe and they shared some some of their suggestions with me and I then asked them you know if if there's something that um that you're you're you're grappling with or if there's a safety issue do you feel like you have someone in the building that you can talk to without hesitation they name those adults that they felt comfortable are going to to to talk to and so situations such as this are certainly unsettling for our student staff and their families and that is why we rely heavily on the protocols that are in place to ensure everyone remains safe and that any threat to safety is neutralized as quickly as possible please know that uh we share the information as soon as we get it uh as much as we can as quickly as possible uh while these situations are being actively investigated and I want to again thank our Safety and

Security team and our law enforcement partners and the entire Riverside staff uh for their quick response and addressing this matter and their ongoing collaboration and keeping our school Community safe and I will just add again to all of our families that may be watching and and listening continue to have those conversations with your children uh just asking them about their day if there's anything bothering them that they feel comfortable talking to you and if there is anything that's alarming please do not let uh please do not hesitate to let us know at the at at at the school level next slide stakeholders should have received uh probably within the past hour or so of the second installment of our dollars and decisions you should have received that today and so as we walk through this year's budget process with our stakeholders we found it necessary to um to just do more in terms of educating our students families and staff about the funding sources uh the non-negotiables and all the factors that must be considered when creating our budget you just last week we asked our community you know what what our budget

priorities that uh we should be considering for the upcoming school year and so we've received great feedback uh thus far over 10 I'm sorry over 1,400 participants that's 1,400 participants uh thank you for leaving your thoughts with us uh that that that survey platform is still open I will tell you it's going to take all of us and I'm appreciative of our community's willingness to share with the board and the district leaders um what you feel should be our budget priorities moving forward excuse me so please stay tuned to our series we will continue these um as we continue to uh provide more information in the spirit of being transparent and accountable to our community and finally I will tell you on the next slide our commitment to our Scholars to our families and our staff will never waver and as we think about the uh and hear things uh from uh the federal landscape as as things continue to

evolve please know that we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a high quality education for every single scholar in doing Public Schools changes at the national level have the potential to impact public education in our district and please know that we are closely monitoring these shifts we've reached out to our um um attorney Partners to assist us with some of the things that are coming down and so while we navigate these changes again our Focus remains s on equipping every single student with the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed and so we will continue to prioritize excellence and innovation in our schools you know we are in black history month we just came off of Dr King's birthday in January and I just want to remind us of um a quote that he said it said that the Ark of the moral universe is long but it bends toward Justice and I know at times it may feel with some of the things that are coming from the federal government that this Arc is just bending back and forth yet he also reminded us that the bending of that Ark requires hands and that that's our hands hands

that are willing to work uh voices that are willing to speak in hearts that are courageous enough to love and act even in the face of some diversity that's coming down from uh the federal government please know we will continue to do the work because we know that enduring Equity is not optional it is essential and that Justice is not negotiable it is non-negotiable and here's the truth and I shared this at a crowd that um last month doing King celebration uh is that an executive order or most recently a dear colleague letter none of that can erase transform mindsets um nor can it unlearn cultural competence and so obviously we will continue to follow all federal laws uh but at the same time we will continue to do what's best for our students in a way that doesn't jeopardize this district and so again we are closely monitoring uh any communication that comes um from the federal government uh partnering with our attorneys to be responsive uh in a timely manner so that's all I have

this evening I'll turn back over to you board chair Rogers thank you Dr Lewis the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval I would move approval of the agenda as presented second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss umad to approve the agenda as presented is there any discussion okay colleagues we're going to do a roll call vote um and we're going to go in alphabetical order by last name and that is the way we will do every vote this evening so miss buer hi Miss carteron hi Miss Harold I Mr T I miss

Umstead I and I have a i it passes the agenda passes 60 um thank you all and the next item of our agenda is are the monthly meeting minutes from January 28th 2025 I move approval of the um board meeting minutes from January 28 2025 second thank you it's been moved by Miss Herold go seconded by Miss berer to approve the minutes from January 28 2025 Miss B is there any discussion okay Miss berer I CLA Aden i m go I Mr Tabb iead hi and I vote I it passes

60 thank you all thank you Miss Smith for those minutes the next item on our agenda is general public comment uh public comments were submitted online and I will turn it over to the office of public affairs and Miss Cooper to um read those comments up to the 30 minute Mark um and each comment will get how many comments do we have tonight um good evening and thank you chair Rogers we have 10 comments this evening awesome then they get their full three minutes thank you thank you so much um I do apologize in advance for any mispronunciation of names um but I will go through and mention the name of the person who submitted the comment and read the comment in full our first comment is from Chad he I am commenting as a parent of students at Rogers her Middle School in Hope Valley Elementary I've attended your last three meetings asking you each time to not Implement express bus service or

to at least provide important details about the 2526 plan at your last meeting you agreed that more information and discussion is needed but neither you nor DPS staff have provided any answers and transportation isn't on tonight's agenda I am once again asking you for the information that fam should have had weeks ago where will Express stops be what times will they operate what are the expectations of parents at pickup and drop off what is DPS doing to minimize the impact of express service on equity and access how are families with two working parents supposed to get their kids home if you can't answer these questions by now you shouldn't be using this model the lottery entry period is long Clos leaving Parents Without capacity to make changes in our plans for next year yearound school for 2526 will start in less than 5 months please don't forget us thank you our next comment is from Kate Ashcraft Magnet School lottery results are coming March 3rd parents need a full understanding of how remote bus stops will work for those schools before they commit not a concept of a plan not a

trust us we will work something out a full plan with all details times locations and procedures otherwise how can we be how can we agree to it our next comment is from Joselyn Dawson I'm speaking in favor of Master's pay increases for DPS social workers as a parent and PTA officer I want to highlight some of the remarkable work I've observed our social worker Megan steel wagon do at Hope Valley Elementary Megan goes above and beyond performing critical work to keep kids at school coordinating with PTA and Note in the Pocket to meet clothing needs for children we recently filled 25 children's clothing requests and distributed about 200 coats going door too to reach Pasto Arabic and dar speaking families to provide information about family responsibility zones many of these families did not previously know about the F frzs because of their language barrier connecting families with mental health resources and resources to combat homelessness supporting families during a time of concern surrounding immigration enforcement leading our attendance team to make sure most our most vulnerable

students are being supported in attending school coordination of holiday presents for 57 children in need at our school and doing the same at Rogers her many of these children receive clothing shoes toys when they would otherwise not have DPS social workers provide services that show our families that the community cares about them and Master's pay increase would show that we care in return our next comment is from Andrea Winkler as a parent of two Elementary age students it has been disheartening to experience the level of complacency it seems the district has about having kids attend school the bar for cancellation is incredibly low and seems to be based on administrators anxiety rather than the actual level of the threat associated with various environmental conditions at this point it seems like our local school community and student culture do not value education our next comment is from romea MacDonald dear Board of Education my name is Rebecca McDonald and I'm a parent of a kindergartener at Creekside I again wish to express thanks for the

thoughtful work mitigating the bus driver shortage while I know further work is needed to make family responsibility zon safe across the district that this solution has Equitable impact upon upon all schools I am here to advocate for further equitable distribution of resources DPS has recently added two executive level and one assistant superintendent level position at central office while one there are inadequate allocations for Staffing at the school level and two District leaders recently denied each School 15% of its operational budget to cover for the shortfall this is not Equitable this is central office also reducing its operational budget by 15% transparency around this is needed because it seems to me that central office is increasing it spending while asking schools to reduce Theirs to fix the budget crisis further in March of 2024 the metric for Title One funding changed in a way that deeply negatively impacted some schools we support the move to provide free breakfast and lunch for all students however DPS chose to

only recognize direct certification of federal assistance programs to determine the percentage of students at each School identified as economically disadvantaged local data such as homelessness and migrant status is no longer used for Creekside excluding local data from the title one calculations changes the number of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch from 49% to 33% and excludes 100 of our neediest families I strongly ask that you CH uh that the change for Title One funding be reversed at the very least for schools that have large populations of homeless and migrant status students that are not accounted for in federal data relatedly industry standards dictate that such positions are necessary to smooth operations of programming of schools however these positions are not allocated at the elementary level in DPS and many schools use Title One funds to pay for them using federal funds in this manner is supplanting programming rather than supporting it I realize it is too late to address this for the current school

year but how does DPS plan to ensure all schools have basic level Staffing positions going into the 25 26 school year thank you for your time and listening to my concerns our next comment is from Fern hickey I'm a DPS fifth grader I'm a parent to a DPS fifth grader at EK Po and wish to provide comment on a few different but intersecting issues that are impacting DPS students Equitable access to education either via preventing students from getting to or from school or affecting their ability to access the resources and supports they need to be able to engage fully in the classroom Transportation implementation of family responsibility zones is negatively impacting students and families across the district as families once served by buses or forced to figure out new ways to get their students to school this is especially impactful for single parent families for families of younger children who don't feel comfortable sending their five six or seven year old to and from school on their own but whose work schedules don't allow them to drive or work or walk them as well as for undocumented parents who

don't feel safe leaving the house on a regular schedule for fear of of detention or deportation under current immigration enforcement climate since Trump was sworn in the parent at my child's school one at my child's school is in danger of losing his job because arriving too late uh too many times in a row since F frzs was implemented as he didn't feel comfortable allowing his second grader to walk to school on his own but driving him there meant arriving late at work if the f frz are meant are to be maintained there needs to be an easy and expedited way for families who need it to request exceptions so that students are not missing school and parents are not losing jobs on account of lack of school transportation two after care my son has been on the weight list for after care since the beginning of this year and likely will not make it in before the year is up I've been able to make this work because he's old enough to self-release and walk himself home and because I have been uh working remotely however I am being transferred next week to a job that will require me to be in the office 5 days a week 8 to

five so very soon I will be scrambling to figure out after Care Solutions for my son who does not feel comfortable being home alone due to a string of attempted break-ins on our block and having been witnessed to attempt a gun violence earlier this year the lack of sufficient after care spaces for every family who needs them disproportionately impact single parent households lowincome families families of young children or children of any age are comfortable being at home on their own the families where both parent and families where both parents work especially in light of the sudden lack of busing for families in the F frz the district needs to work on solutions to provide adequate after care capacity for every family that needs it so that whose children used to ride the bus home have an option for sending them to after care instead until parents are able to get off work to collect them this would also benefit undocumented families who are un who are concerned about leaving their house at consistent times of the day for fear ice surveillance and potential uh detainment or deportation communication how schools

will respond if I shows up on campus and conversations with my school's data manager I've learned that there are a number of students who haven't shown up at school at all since Trump's in auration and other students whose attendance has been much more sporadic since inauguration that it was than it was before the data manager is hearing from parents who are scared to bring their kids to school for fear of their kids or themselves being detained or deported one of the most common questions is getting um from these parents is what will the school do if I shows up on campus will I be contacted I appreciate the district's communication to parents reiterating their policy of equal access to education and commitment to the privacy and safety of all students in the way of Trump's executive order removing sensitive location uh in safe Zone status from schools however this statement was not at all explicit regarding the schools being instructed to do what to do in an event that I shows up and this is a result of students making it to school because students do not know what the risk level is uh the district needs to send out a followup that communicates clearly and

explicitly to families what their policy response is if I shows up on campus Wake County has adopted and communicated a policy is much more explicit in regard in this model uh that durm could look into and this is a model that durm could look into for this matter um there is just one more section um in this concludes this comment Masters pay for school social workers we do not know what is in the what the next four years will hold but we know that some parents are already losing jobs due to massive Federal layoffs some families feel unsafe bringing their kids to school due to increased immigration enforcement and some kids do not feel safe in their schols or outside of them due to eraser of Dei programs and protections and the attack on the trans and lgbtqia plus individuals in this climate of heightened attacks on individuals as well as the social safety nets that help protect us and support us the need for skilled experience and resourc school social workers is going to be higher than ever the district must provide the MA's pay that these uh

critical School staff deserve so that they can continue to serve the students and families that they are going to need their that are going to need their services and support now more than ever our next comment is from Sean Stokes this year our students have missed significant instructional time due to dysfunctional Transportation HVAC issues inclement weather and even the fear of in um and even the fear of inclement weather DPS has chosen to classify three days of Miss school as asynchronous learning a euphemism for just another day our children are deprived instruction I know unequivocally that remote learning doesn't work we see it in the persistent learning loss from the covid year so instead of adding makeup days to the end of the academic calendar why does DPS continue to cheat our students out of the education they deserve why is this issue not even on the agenda for tonight's meeting DPS needs to do better we should abandon the entire notion of so-called asynchronous learning because it will Almost Never result in significant learning rather DPS needs to put the

interest of our students over those of faculty and staff and make up days at the end of the year just like we did decades before Zoom was an option our next comment is from Camilo s fuos the school board should be proud of yourselves for not having this meeting in person don't let any of the naysayers get you uh get to you who are saying that you don't want to face the people even though in the past year classified workers wages have been slashed and instructors have been lied to about their raises we know you still stand in solidarity with us because look at the federal and state problems clearly the problems of DPS are the fault of others just because 113 other leas and NC can make budgets only demonstrates how bold historic and unprecedented the great seven leaders in DPS truly are thank you for your unwavering support of our majority strong union and the durm People's Alliance we will continue to stand for you despite these locco parents who think you are bad at your job and call for you to resign demonstrate your loyalty to us by

passing meet and confer which is the most pressing issue facing the district um our next comment is from James Kaine there are a number of pressing issues impacting students and Schoolboard Personnel across DPS today's top five the school board has not clearly fully communicated how individual schools will respond to ice action principes and teachers have not been trained and a briefing paper is not training parents and Guardians have concerns about communication of ice activity anywhere in the school system and how will parents be notified students Andor parents are scared to travel to school due to ice actions they want to be in school but are absent or tardy what is DPS doing to address this two family responsibility zones need immediate personalized attention to ensure every individual can get to school safely not only for the benefit of the student education but also for the impacts Transportation has on the rest of the family too many families have normal work schedules and can't find after school care and they have to

choose between getting their kids to and from school or keeping their jobs three many of our school facilities badly need renovation there are unsafe or unhealthy conditions that need immediate attention the dis this discussion about budget shortfall is terrifying and we need to ensure that these schools get the attention they deserve instead of overpaying for new schools to be built four support of Dae we need to restore Master's pay for school social workers we need to increase school health personnel allotment both of these need to happen as soon as possible why should these folks continue to accept being underpaid and underst staffed how long before they quit for more Humane working conditions they have tremendously difficult jobs and they should be paid and resourced appropriately five Dr Lewis needs to agree to a proper meeting conferred with Dae our final comment is from Lindsay Knight since 2 since January 2025 students have missed six days of school due to snow and poor road conditions North Carolina School Districts are allowed up to five remote learning days per Academic Year as of

tomorrow DPS will have used three this year students and staff have already lost significant instructional time due to ongoing Transportation crisis uh the closure of schools caused by failing HVAC systems and inclement weather discussion about makeup days is not currently on the meeting agenda why not DPS families deserve answers the district must provide a plan and account for the many hours of lost instructional time that thousands of students experienced so far this year this concludes our comments for this evening thank you so much Miss Cooper and thank you everybody for your public comment colleagues the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda second been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Carda-Auten Aon to approve the consent agenda items um is there any discussion

okay hearing none um Miss berer hi Miss Carda-Auten uton hi Miss Harold go hi Mr Tabb I miss Umstead I and I vote I it passes uh the consent agenda passes unanimously 6 um the next item on our agenda is the DPS Crown week resolution uh Dr I did you want to introduce this item yes I can do that good evening everyone good evening I just have a few remarks and then we'll go straight into the resolution so thank you all for having me um again good evening Dr Lewis board and cabinet members and to our viewing Community it is truly a pleasure to join you virtually to share more about DPS is Crown act week activities and also present an opportunity uh for the reading of the resolution so

just a little bit about the crown act which stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair is legislation that prohibits race-based hair discrimination which is the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles such as braids locks twists or band two knots and so objectives for DPS Crown act week are to highlight the importance of the crown Act and what NE necessitated its creation to eliminate black people's experiences with natural hair in various educational and professional settings to affirm the beauty power and resilience of hair across the diaspora and to acknowledge and address the implications of the crown act on students and staff experiences and so furthermore the resolution highlights DPSS core belief in a child- centered approach for an education that is caring culturally responsive and embrac the whole child and calls on all students Educators and

community members to observe the week to advance efforts to in discrimination and to create a more inclusive Beauty experience and learning experience for girls and women of color and then of course all of our students to further commemorate this act um I now invite you to read the DPS Crown act resolution in its entirety and I thank you for your continued uh continued support and commitment in fostering affirming and welcoming spaces for all of our students and staff to be their brilliant and authentic selves and of course in protecting and keeping their crowns so I'll yeld it to you thank you so much Dr I colleagues I'm going to ask that we follow the same order we have followed to vote uh so we'll start with Miss berer and I don't want to call on you in between paragraphs so please pick up where you are alphabetically thank you Miss Roger before we start I just lost um I can't see my document anymore can

you all just keep going okay we can do that thank you okay this is one of our favorite things for Black History Month the crown act week resolution Durham Public Schools is expressing support for the designation of the week of February 24th to February 28 2025 as DPS Crown act week whereas the Coalition of the crown act wants all Beauty to be welcome in all places and institutions they assert that narrow beauty standards make it difficult for women to freely celebrate their own beauty while all women experience pressure to conform to certain standards of appearance black women are disproportionately impacted by the eurocentric standards that so often Define what is beautiful and whereas research has so shown that society's bias has resulted in unfair judgment and discrimination against black women based on hair texture and

protective hair styles including braids locks and twists that are culturally represent cultural representations of their race and whereas in the US the law in many states does not currently afford protection for race-based hair discrimination even if the hairstyle is inherent to racial identity it means black children can be denied entry to school or educational opportunities because of their natural hair this is not okay and whereas the crown act which stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair is a law that prohibits discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyle the Coalition of the crown acts mission was and is today to advance efforts to end the hair discrimination and to create a more Equitable and inclusive Beauty experience for black women and girls and whereas in 2021 the Durham city council

elected officials passed a non-discrimination ordinance of the city of Durham and assert that the general purpose of this chapter is to provide individuals within the city of Durham freedom from discrimination in connection with housing employment and public accommodations because of race color religion national origin sex disability familial status military status sexual orientation gender identity and protected hairstyle to promote Harmony in human relations and to prevent commercial Advantage from unethical practices and whereas one of Durham public school's core beliefs is in a child- centered approach in which our students deserve an education that is caring is culturally responsive and Embraces the whole child dur public schools insists on addressing the social emotional and academic needs of each student where as Durham public schools

has a dress code policy 4316 that reads the primary goal of Durham Public Schools is to provide a safe learning environment where all students are able to achieve at their Highest Potential ideally students should be able to dress and style their hair for school in a manner that expresses their indiv uality without fear of unnecessary discipline or body shaming whereas the crown Coalition offers a platform that up uplifts support to in hair discrimination and they continue to Galvanize support for legislation to end hair discrimination federally and in all 50 states the crown petition has over 485,000 signatures so far far to and dur Public Schools Board of Education supports signing this petition and therefore be it resolved that the

dur Public Schools Board of Education supports the designation of February 24th through February 28th 2025 as DPS Crown act week across all D public schools and calls on students Educators and community members to acknowledge and celebrate the week to advance efforts to end hair discrimin ation and to create more Equitable inclusive and expressive Beauty experience for black and brown people where students and staff are affirmed and can express themselves in a safe positive and authentic way now therefore be it further resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education encourages administrators to support Educators across grade levels and content areas from their buildings to acknowledge Crown act week and use resources that are inclusive of all of our diverse Learners in order to support the whole child healthy identity development and affirmation and show support and acceptance for students showing up

without fear of discrimination or shame this the 21st day of February 2025 thank you all so much is uh I would entertain a motion to pass the crown act resolution I move that we pass the crown act re resolution a second it's been moved by Miss Harold gof seconded by Miss Umstead to pass the crown act resolution is there any further discussion Miss Umstead I just uh want to say thank you Dr I for bringing this resolution to us and I want to acknowledge our former colleague Javan Lewis um who brought this resolution to us to start with and I'm really grateful that it is um continued to live on especially in a time like this it's nice to celebrate um hair our natural hair in the crown act so thank you Dr I and thank you to miss

Lewis said you beat me to it that was exactly what I was going to say thank you for uh reaching out Miss Lewis and thank you Dr I for uh your work on updating this resolution for us anybody else add a comment to my you know just gratitude for bringing this forward uh yes it's appropriate to wear your natural hair in in work settings but the bigger piece for me is that young people are watching and I remember hearing a story in a previous District where a young lady was planning to uh attend this event and she spent the night straightening her hair only to go in the next day to see a tall African-American woman with her natural hair and it further um you know um led her to believe that hey I with my natural hair in in in in a professional setting and so yes we're concerned about employees but also our Scholars were able to see adults uh that look just like them wearing their natural hair so uh kudos to to you Dr I for bringing this and the board for um passing this

resolution and if I can take a moment I'd also like to thank um our DPS Crown act planning committee so this is definitely definitely not a work that's done Alone um shout out to my committee we've been working at this since last year and so it's really good to see it all come to fruition like this and similar to what's been shared you know beyond just hair you know when we make space for our students to show up authentically we truly get a chance to see just how brilliant they are and so thank you all for your continued support and be on the lookout for some really exciting activities next week thank you all thank you I'll know call Miss buer hi Miss Carda-Auten aen hi miss her go I Mr Tad I I'm I and I vote I and passes 60 thank you all thank you Dr I for joining us

virtually thank you be well you too uh thank you colleagues the next item on our agenda is the Board of Education legislative agenda draft um Miss Umstead was leading that work so I would like to turn it over to her to begin that conversation please thank you good evening everyone um the Board of Education uh puts together a legislative agenda every year that we present to our representatives in the general assembly from Durham and so this year this is our draft interation of this um legislative agenda I have already thought of things I want add since I put this together so this will be a time for colleagues to give feedback and we'll work um on this draft some more and bring it back for a final vote I want to thank um board member of Goff as well as Miss Chávez who worked with this um worked together with me on this so I will put myself on

mute and just take copious notes over here to the side as you all share um any feedback on the legislative agenda um I would ask that you use your uh Zoom features to uh be acknowledged to speak um but I think I saw your hand Miss carteron thank you looking for my zoom hand so um I was wondering if um be before we get into feedback on the content if we could have a reminder about the um how this is used like the purpose of the legislative agenda and how it gets used um at the state level and that process too for sharing it with state folks so we have more context for what we're working on th said did you want to respond to that or would you like me to uh sure I mean we will present this to our durm delegation again our rep Our House of

Representative members as well as senate members here in North Carolina and they will use that as they do their advocacy work um during the short during the legislative session here I would I hear your request missad for us to um not approve an agenda tonight uh but I do know that the deadline for legislative uh action is uh February 24th for bills and so um we should if we want them to introduce something on our behalf our legislators to introduce something on our behalf we could push this to them before then should we approve it tonight if we don't if we don't have consensus and aren't ready um then it could wait and know that they would just hold this information for uh the next

session but that's up to the board Miss bu so I just want to Express gratitude to the three of you that um worked on this I think it is um so so challenging to convey everything that needs that our students need in one document and keep it um succinct um and I think yall have done a great job of of keeping those categories where this can be a starting place for conversations with with our general assembly and and we can open those discussions with listening to what they think they might be able to accomplish on behalf of of all of our um students and staff um I wondered how you all thought you you talked about bus driver pay but did you think about

classified pay more in general or starting wages just raising the the starting wages overall did y'all have some thoughts on how you wanted to share that as we've kind of dipped below where where the county starting wages are and how you thought about that discussion um that might be helpful to me to as I kind of tend to continue wrestling with that is one of our our biggest issues that and if you all had any thoughts on um teacher affordable housing and that local affordable housing bill um um I can add I'm I'm looking at you Joy but you don't know that I am it's we virtual if you want to jump in there but we did have increased salaries for classified and certified staff we kept it broad so we weren't specific so if there's some like a number or metric You' like us to include we can definitely do that um and your other question was about what is your other question teacher teacher affordable housing local bill that we've run

several times trying to move that at the that is not here but we can add that if that's the consensus of the board has I just want to honor like representative miam black and all her leadership in that and trying to get it to move and and acknowledge that it has moved in so many other communities um I'm so grateful for yall leading this work and focusing this work Miss car go I'm sorry I'm having a trouble getting to my tools on the computer um so I have a just clarifying um again with the timeline [Music] um this is due to the to the legislative agenda to the to for the meeting on the

25th I wanted to make sure I had the correct date and what I would appre you know I would like to give time for the feedback even like you know to clean up those things like if we don't get all of the feedback from board members this evening to you know to make those Corrections is it all right to still collect those and to have those and still be on time to present it or is it very important that we do all of that now and and approve it right now in order for it to be submitted that's why I need a little more clarity is my question clear should I try to rephrase that again uh that's a question for the board um I know I've had members of our legislation reaching out to myself and the superintendent select uh soliciting information so that they can use for their advocacy um and it would be helpful to

get them our request prior to the 24th deadline that they have um so that they can do their work most other organizations have done so um most other bodies but I am comfortable if the board wants to um hold off you know we can do what the board wants to do Mr oh s sorry I also wanted to lift up um I really um thank you batina for like she took all of these notes and did make them very succinct um and kept it broad enough to address a lot of a lot of the concerns that we wanted to raise um and I love the idea of adding teacher affordable housing to what is already here because I don't see that there I was wondering if any other board members see any major missing links um you know major topics that we know are are important that aren't included

In This Very succinct um document um that we can then perhaps um agree to um go ahead and approve just making giving time for the you know the um approve with um being able to add those amendments like after the amendments does that make sense so whatever we have that we see that's missing today have the time to go ahead and make those Corrections make those additions and then but move to approve to then for it to be ready to submit with what's added from suggested to suggestions today all right I'm G step back thank you Mr tab sure U thank you very much um I like uh what board member uh Goff is saying I'm having some trouble finding these moving these tools around so y'all work

with me now I'm senior in all this but they'll be there and then all of a sudden they disappear and then I'm trying to find it again um but I would say let's um let's submit what we have I think it's important for us to submit and meet that deadline that they have and uh if we wanted to add anything else now um let's make those recommendations to add now but I definitely would want us to submit um to meet the uh to meet the deadline thank you I can appreciate that Miss I can look I don't know if Miss card has something to say before I get started did you have your hand up Miss card I didn't but I was thinking about it maybe Miss I'm said read my mind um thank you um and uh this I think this looks great I don't feel like it needs much um work at all I like the idea of adding teacher

housing um so I'd be in favor of doing that I saw that Miss chavea set some like proposed edits today by email and I there was one that stood out to me that I was curious to know if others were interested in and then that's like changing the sorry have another screen over here changing the allotment the recommendation for social social workers to match the recommended allotment so I didn't know if others were had seen that or were favor of it basically matching that instead of one school social worker for every school framing it like we did the counselors which is to um State what the guidelines recommend I can do that Miss caon and I had have not read Miss Chávez's feedback yet but the I did do a little research into it and what the um National Organization for social workers I don't remember the exact name right now now said was there's a ratio but then they also say based on the

needs of students is how that ratio could shift or change so I can think about how I write that language in a way to say like here's an average ratio but yet if students have more needs you might want more a lower ratio of students to a social worker so I can think about how I write that language to get more explicit in there that sounds great yeah I think it looks like the it's the same ratio that recomended for counselors so 250 to one so I didn't know if there's a reason originally why You' put the ratio in there for the counselors but not the social workers or if it was just um yeah in my it was in my research that's what the it said there's here's a ratio and then if you have students that have more needs we actually recommend having more social workers and not adhering to this ratio so that was the reason why I put in there but I can add one to 250 and think about how we add a little maybe more additional language

um to make sure that it captures that if we have more need we might want more social workers yeah I think that'd be that I'm in favor of that I don't know how others feel about that so I would agree with that and that request I appreciate Miss Chávez sending that for us to think about I see Miss heral go shaking her head yes to that and I appreciate the Nuance with some said that you want to bring to that um I'm very appreciative of the work each of you you all put in um on this legislative agenda draft uh it does a really good job at getting at the key things that I think are most important to the board right now um and I I'm I'm just really grateful for your work Miss berer yeah I again so much gratitude I was also looking at the Joint um legislative priorities put out by the State Board of education along with superintendent green that came out just uh yesterday I

think and one of the things that stood out to me is something that we've been successful at that we might want to include just to be in alignment is maintaining um maintaining funding for students to be able to have free meals breakfast and lunch um that Community eligibility provision um I think of that as one of our major SU successes from this past year that that we want to be sure to highlight to our um legislative delegation I it's it's silly that we're at a place where we have to consider adding things like maintain the Department of Education the Federal Department of Education I don't think that we need to be that reactionary to to um bad ideas that are floating around in Washington but I I wonder about just the the point about School meals and I was even wondering and y'all have wisdom that I don't have but maybe we should invite superintendent green to our

meeting with our delegation see if he might be free to join us um and and highlight some of their priorities um and and the overlap there yeah thank you Miss umid um thank you Miss bar I like that idea maybe over some free breakfast at a school or something I don't know um I think the other two things that I thought about after putting this together that I would if you all are interested in adding is just I think there's a lot of concern around public school funding in the next three four five 10 years in North Carolina and so I think writing a little bit about exposing opposing any expansions to opportunity scholarships the vouer program as well as opposing any legislation that would withhold funds from public schools um for whatever reasons so those were the two additions that I thought about I see some head nods thumbs UPS all right um I'll go work on

8% cap for um elll it's just a wondering

5 million that um we would receive from the state if those caps are removed could indeed go towards um our staff salaries as well as the uh $6 million that we could receive from um the state as relates to elll so I just was wondering if we just want to be intentional in saying just remove the Caps or just are we okay with just leaving it broad as like just increased funding for ESL and uh EC or maybe increase the Caps I don't know colleagues I would support removing the Caps I mean they remove the C for the opportunity scholarship funding

so so the language is there unless I'm missing it this cap should be increased to match the percentage of students in the school district is that how both of those are framed Miss Umstead am I reading that right yes but I can put remove just remove the cap if that works for everybody although I think I would want to we can remove the cap and then would want to know how we W to how we want to ask for what the funding would be yeah what we want them to calculate it at it may be both and right remove it and increase it yeah and and then I can write that in my last comment I know we are advocating for additional allotments for counselors social workers as well as some infrastructure needs but as we think about school safety are there opportunities for advocacy around um

increased funding for additional Personnel or just maybe incentivizing uh Community Partnerships to address um safety so just thinking about it from um a school safety standpoint and really just clearly spelling it out uh in here some kind of way I don't know if it's like I say one can infer that you know increase increasing counselors and social workers definitely can indeed help with school safety and obviously our infrastructure in improvements um but maybe additional funding to um continue to address our efforts as we think about uh improving overall safety for our Scholars and staff thank you Dr Lewis yes I think that there's support for that Miss upstead thank you colleagues when um as our time winds down for our conversation on this draft legislative agenda is there a

consensus um about submitting this at the recommendation of Miss haral go to submit a draft uh so they have something to work with to our delegation awesome thanks all awesome work um Miss Chávez Miss Umstead Miss haral goof much appreciation yes thank thank you all and then obviously once these are finalized and approved I would encourage our community members as well as our partners you know within the school system Foundation Dae to all rally Behind These legislative prog ities as we uh continue to advocate for um our school system thank you uh the next item on our agenda is

the policy committee development discussion uh we'll turn it over to attorney Malone sorry sorry about that I had to switch to my phone my computer it's not working for some reason um yes I was asked to take a look at your current policy and to think a little bit about how you might go about developing um a policy committee so what I did as you may know you're current policy 2230 um does not recognize any what people would call standing committees for like Finance operations student outcomes are you aware that your

camera's off do you intend for your camera to be off I did not no I'm trying to turn on the volume on my phone I must have hit that by accident sorry um um so yeah so your current policy 2230 does not um have a does not set up or establish any standing committees so what I did is I reviewed U multiple policies from across the state to see how other boards have established um policy committees standing policy committees and I guess I want to start with like how they Define purpose of the committee because I think that's would be as your board considers us um you know establishing kind of the purpose of the committee if you were to go in this direction would be an important First Step um what some policies say is that the purpose of the policy committee is to review policy

proposals and make recommendations to the board regarding proposals to revise or adopt new policies um other policies divine define kind of the purpose of the committee is the policy committee shall review all requests for policy amendments direct staff to prepare draft policies for review and establish a cycle for policy manual review so there are various ways in which if your board were interested in trying to establish a policy committee you could Define its purpose and um in how it is to operate um on like conditions of how these policy committees or or standing committees are set up um a lot of times boards are saying they kind of Define like the function of the committee so the function of a standing committee shall be fact-f finding deliberative investigative and advisory but not legislative or administrative so again you would be

free if you were interested in establishing such a policy to include that kind of language or whatever language may find uh useful in how you would want to describe um the functions of the committee um the other thing that I noticed in a lot of these policies is that they the boards want to make it clear that these standing committees may only make recommendations to the board and that they otherwise have no authority to act on behalf of the board unless specifically authorized by law board policy or the board again kind of making it you know restraining some of the um some of the authority of the committee and making it clear that the committee is kind of reporting to the board and is making recommendations to the board um the many of these policies would say that the um the committee chair is the person that would be

responsible for reporting back to the board on whatever the activities of the committee are I mean you don't have to establish yours that way if you were to do this but that's s something that I saw in several of the policies that I thought I just wanted to highlight and you know the other thing that comes up in these policies is how are people assigned to the Committees um some of the policies state that the members of the committee will be named by the board chair on an annual basis but I did see one policy anyway that said that the Board of Education would approve the assignment of members to a committee so again that's something that as you think about such a committee you would want to think about how individual members would be assigned to the committee most of the policies that I looked at um stated that the board chair would be a non voting ex official member of the committee also they most of them stated that the superintendent or design um could be named as a non voting

ex officio member of the committee again that would be up to you to structure yours if you were to go down this road and however you would choose um but that's something that I saw repeated in a couple of different policies um one thing that I also noticed is um that all of the ones that I believe had language in it that made it clear that all board members who are not appointed to the committee are clearly permitted to attend and participate in discussions in the committee meetings so even though they're not on the committee they can attend the meetings and they can participate in the discussions in the committee meetings but they are not allowed to vote since they're not they would not be a member of the committee the other thing that I noticed is that um one policy or many policy said that

you know only me um um that the well I'm sorry so the correlation to that is that also only members of the committee would be considered in determining a COR however I saw one policy with some language in it that I actually thought would be worth at least highlighting is that one policy had a provision in it that if a quorum of the committee is not reached by the existing committee members for meeting all board members present could count for the purposes of determining a COR of the committee and those board members in that situation would have the V the right to vote at that committee meeting so again I'm not saying that you would need to do that but I thought that language was interesting and certainly something that as you think about what the structure of a policy committee might look like is something you may want to consider um a lot of policies wanted to point out that the policy that the

committee itself had the authority to request staff support I guess just to make sure that there's no confusion about the ability of the committee to reach out the staff to get whatever support is needed um there were you know ways the the some of the policies address how items could be added to an agenda um that's something that you would probably want to think about how to address and like with your current policy um all of these policies noted that any of these commit are in fact deemed public bodies under North Carolina's open meetings law and that they're subject to all the requirements of the law pertaining to notice Clos sessions minutes and the like um so those are just some of the highlights of some of the things that I've seen in in in many of the policies uh where people have established a policy committee or some other standing committee that I thought you would want to at least Ponder as you think about

whether this is something that you're interested in colleagues um having heard from attorney Malone about a policy committee and hearing all the different opportunities um well well hearing from each of you about your desire to move policy and change policy and to move it forward quickly um I wonder if we are interested in entertaining um a policy committee it sounds like right now given all the different examples that Mr Malone has uh read to us in these last few minutes that it might benefit us to create an ad hoc committee ad hoc policy committee that will work on the process

of the policy committee and establishing the procedures and routines and aligning our current policy with the development of a policy committee and I know there were some questions about that were sent in advance about um who would be on the committee and I'd like to entertain from each of you um if you would be interested in serving on the committee because our premier work is to inform and um address policy as a board and I think it would benefit us to maybe even consider doing a committee of the whole for the ad hoc committee but design designate this time for work on policy with the start of um a policy procedural policy committee procedural

Miss Carda-Auten Auten um thanks so much I was wondering well I had a question for um attorney Malone but could you repeat your the last thing that you said chair Rogers about the committee of the whole so that we I make sure I understand what you're proposing so it would be a committee of the whole the whole board would be the committee and we would meet to focus on policy and and as it's the ad hoc it would be um focused on developing the procedurals and modifying the processes of policy changes so that they go through a pol a standing policy committee so the committee um sorry the committee of the whole would be the ad hoc committee is what you're proposing and that ad hoc committee would be in place to develop the um modify current

policies and develop the procedures and plans for the new policy committee yes and and the board may decide that they want the committee of a whole uh for the policy committee or they may decide they want five members or four members or three members I don't think we would pick a even number because that would be weird but yeah that makes that thanks for tery and then I just quickly my question for attorney Malone was um thanks so much for looking into what other districts are doing that was super helpful to hear those examples of all those different like pieces of things that we should be considering or could be considering I was wondering if maybe you could like put those in a table for us where we could see like um each of the different categories and some examples of how each district did it so that we the visual Learners of us could reflect on those a little

bit I can do yes absolutely I can do um whatever you would like yeah are you so are you thinking um like how different districts have done it or just giving you a table of options to consider you know like the Wake policy says this and the charlot policy says this or are you thinking more like a laundry list of options that are out there from the various policies um I may be curious to hear what other board members have to say about identifying different districts what's more important to me is just that it's organized so it's like with regards to who is how things come to an agenda that's one row for example maybe and then it here's different examples of language with regards to how the members are selected here's different examples does that make sense and then yeah I can I can certainly do that if if if if directed by the board I'm I'd be happy to do

that Dr Lewis has his hand up but I think Miss Harold gol wanted to speak at one point um I I'm I'm actually I was going to lift up something but I see that board member Chavez has um has has joined us and I also need to log out and try to log back in so I can see if I can get my camera to work so um I'm going to I'll be right back okay Dr Lewis yeah thank you so much board I just wanted to share my experience with u working with boards and and policy committees and it was similar to what uh attorney Malone shared where they consisted of two to three board members in previous District it was just by you know board members that wanted to sign up you know to serve on this committee um and and and they would tell you that those those individuals were like what they were call policy Geeks or you know just really L the policy work and and so um they met monthly and this the superintendent identified a um like a

lead that would coordinate the meetings um and include pertinent um District staff so for example if we're talking about a policy associated with um something relates to facilities then Dr web would be on there if we're talking about a policy relating to anything academics and Dr Keem would attend those meetings as well it also allowed an opportunity for the board to put all of their policies on this rotational cycle so that they're reviewing all policies but there also were opportunities um for um to troubleshoot some things that were going on so for example when we were going through the Gaggle uh thing in a previous District we had some students to attend those policy committee meetings uh when they were beginning to talk about cell phones they included some students on the on the policy committee so the goal again was to um have some space where the work can continue and we can continue continuously monitor our existing policies to ensure that they are still aligned with our mission vision and goals and and and strategic plan but the

goal again was to make sure that all of those existing policies were also on a uh ongoing cycle to to be reviewed um you know at at at a certain amount of time so happy to ask you know answer any questions as relat to how um I've been um you know had experience with working with boards and policy committees thank you um Miss buer had her hand up yeah so chair Rogers I I appreciate you bringing this to the agenda for us to um consider I love the idea of a committee at the of the whole so that we put all of our voices into how this will be and how this will best function for us um I want to be clear with uh folks that are watching that this is not um intended to stall or slow down any great initiatives and policy that's already in the works um that is not my understanding that was is not the desire as I understand it of this board but when I've talked to you chair Rogers

it's it's really like how can we focus the work the policy work within this um board those ideas that come from board members or Community but also those that come from staff or in response to changes in state and federal law that we need to deal with and I see when I was snooping at wakes policies that they just set aside two hours a month and and they have standing time that they hopefully they some meetings they don't use all of that time but it's there if they need it and uh I would be in favor of um us moving forward with a a committee of the whole trying to to work through this um and get it moving as quickly as we can um so that we're more organized and we're more methodical about this tedious policy work and we keep it moving um forward and we have a place to to wrestle with it it takes a long time when you try to wrestle with it in a public meeting in person um in Wordsmith it really kind of almost needs its own unique space and I hate adding

extra meetings but sometimes that's that could save us time in in the the length of our ongoing meetings so thanks thank you um Miss buer um Mr tab you're awfully quiet Miss Chavez um after Mr tab comes off mute if you want to share thank you um thanks for for bringing this up I do think at a at a time in our district right now with so many things going on I am a little hesitant about bringing something else to the to the table um with all the other priorities that we have I think that H having the board as a whole to to look at policies I think that's just a better route for me um that we can continue to just move move forward with what we're doing in terms of having the board just look at what what's there and continue to get

together and uh as Miss buers just said you know carving out some time to just do it but uh listening to attorney Malone and all the different variables that he just brought up about different people doing it this way or that way I don't want us to get caught into a into a situation where we're now spending a lot of our board time trying to figure figure this out when we have so many other pressing issues that we really truly need to focus on uh as a board and that's my position thank you so much Miss Chavez um good evening everybody um happy to join at this point um sorry I could not join uh at the beginning um uh thank you to rod for the research you answered a lot of my questions about how um different um different districts the different kind of options that they might use for the development of a um

policy committee my um and I want to say I like the idea of cycling of doing um as you mentioned Dr Lewis like a cycle of um policy review I think that would be helpful and it's my understanding that we did that in the past in DPS um My overall um I guess uh desire is if we do move in this direction um as I mentioned in uh comments I sent um to everyone earlier I think that um I would like us uh to I would like a policy committee to have to facilitate Innovation and efficiency in policy policy creation and revision um and I think that we um the board members haven't necessarily brought a lot of policies in the past

but I think um there may be a shifting interest in in doing that so I think that we um I would be most interested in uh policy committee with um Dynamics and sort of parameters um whereby Innovation and efficiency are facilitated um and I I definitely think um the research that you did Mr Malone is really helpful and um I would like to you know for us to be able board members to also to be able to um talk to other board member colleagues in other districts and um find out what makes them work well and I would be interested Dr Lewis to hear more about what your what made your uh policy committee um that you were a part of in the past work well and um just be productive and um and all of that so that would be my that' be you know my main thing about um any creation of a

policy committee that we were looking at Miss golf thank you um uh thank you Emily for lifting that up um I share those those um I share your sentiment on that and I also would like to add that what I'm hearing or what I'm feeling is that I want to make sure that with a policy committee that we leave space for um and and that can come in the development but that we leave space for new things to be able to come to the to the committee um I guess what we don't what I what I would like not to happen is for the committee to um only to to not you know allow room for

the flexibility of the creation of new policy so I think I'm just echoing the same thing that she may have that she may have said um and that that where the ideas like I guess little concerned about you know who decides what the policy committee works on that's something that we might have to work out um want to leave enough space for board members staff you know to be able to propose policy that can then be discussed and if if necessary created so um spaciousness in this committee that's what I want to make sure that we keep in our in our thoughts thank you both for uplifting that absolutely um and some said you're quiet you have you don't have any thoughts you want to share right

now I mean I I feel like we need to move forward with the committee of the whole to get all the ideas into some structure so we can move this forward that's what I'm I'm hearing a lot of ideas of how we move forward and sounds like we need to schedule a meeting soon to get it started uh to that end uh we should I do agree that we should be working on policy in innovative ways and providing the vision for policy and making uh proposals to modify policy and develop policies um with Administration and so I would entertain a if anyone has one for an ADH hat Committee of the Hope or whatever you desire yeah so the policy says that the

chair can appoint ad hoc committees may be appointed by the chair with the approval of the board so I guess one option chair Rogers is if you want to um I guess specifically ask for the approval of the board to set up the committee of the whole as an ad hoc committee that may be one way to try to get a motion okay Miss Carda-Auten you have your hand um I just had a clarifying question and that is if we and it was in thinking about Mr tab's comments if we vote to set up a committee of the whole an ad hoc Committee of the whole um to work on this then if board member doesn't want to be part of that they can choose to not be part of it but that doesn't mean the is that how it would work like whoever wants to come to meet and talk about it would come so uh a committee of the whole could function when they have Quorum just like Rod described in the policy um committees committees have to

establish quum so if there were three people in the committee they would have quum with two if there were five they would have quum with three and so forth so so would be that we would have Quorum um with four I would also ask that Dr Lewis appoint a staff member um to lead us through this work um and lead us through the policy work um and organize the meetings um for us should we decide to move forward Miss Carda-Auten sorry would um there one more question and would attorney Malone also or an attorney Baron Smith attorney also be there to navigate this process help us navigate this process that's a great request and if the board is okay with that I would uh I would feel better about

that yeah I'll be happy to do that um and obviously Dr Giovani does a lot of policy work for you so I mean we can certainly collaborate together and um but yeah we will do whatever um the board directs absolutely all right Miss Chavez um I would ask that we have um some um maybe maybe um Mr Malone with the already the policies and examples that you've collected um just have some different models in front of us like their documents whether in policy or um sort of their procedures around this committee I think that would be helpful yeah most of I'm sorry most of these policies are relatively short so I could um I could I could certainly pull

multiple examples for you um and maybe just cut and paste the entire portion of the relevant policy for your review um because there's they are in the grand scheme of things relatively short that sound that sounds fine to me just something to look at would be helpful thank you absolutely Coles any other discussion conversation or a motion to approve an ad hoc Committee of the whole to develop the polic to do the policy move that we authorize the chair to work with to to empower an ad hoc Committee of the whole in collaboration with Arington Smith um to work on on an ad hoc committee to develop a policy committee I don't know is that enough of a motion that made enough

sense a second it's been moved by Miss p berer and seconded by Miss Umstead to authorize the chair to work with attorney Malone to uh create an ad hoc committee to develop policy develop a policy committee um is there further discussion Miss Chávez I see your hand raised thank you sure um I'm just confused because I thought we just said it would be a policy of the whole why would it be an ad hoc policy of the whole it's an ad hoc committee to develop the policy the procedures for the policy committee okay so it's in other words a small group of no it's still Quorum a quorum of us okay got it Mr Tabb yeah um um there is some

uneasiness for me um in just listening to the motion um pauses me for that we're not totally clear on exactly what we are asking for and what we and what our intentions are so I will not be supporting this at this time I would love to have more conversation about what um what this would entail okay thank you thank you um misss said all right in just one clarifying question this group needs to also develop a policy which would have some of these parameters in there and then they could get started on other work is that I see some head KN so yes okay thank you Miss carteron um it's we have a policy development policy

that I think this group will need to one of the main one of the first things or early things this group will need to do is think about how to revise and update that which was last updated in 2016 and is very broad um and so I don't know if there's a new policy or if it'll be updating that one or if there was something different that you had in mind um right yes uh attorney Malone yeah it's my thought is that you may very well I haven't looked at them again but I looked at them briefly you may need to revise 2420 adoption of policies you may need to adopt I mean revise 2410 policy development and you may need to revise uh the ad hoc policy I mean the committee policy so there are 2230 um there are several policies that as part of creation of this may get

touched a little bit um by the committee of a whole thank you uh Miss Her Go the Miss bu Miss Harold gfer you having a hard time coming off mute can you hear me now oh yeah I can hear you now all right um so um I have to speak my elephant in the room there are currently two um some work being done on the development of two policies that um I am very interested in and in doing this development I I love the idea of developing a uh policy

committee um I feel that that is a natural thing that that should be taking place um wondering if the if if this is being done because of the work that the developing work that's being done on the T the current two policies that we're looking that that I've been you know working on or looking at um I don't necessarily I want to be sure or to be clear that we don't have to stop or backtrack I think I heard um Miss buer lift that we don't have to stop any current work that we're doing we're just trying to improve the work as we're moving forward because um the work that that I feel that I am you know that's important to me on this board is active and we can continue to be active as we're working on cleaning

up our systems for policy development that's I hope I'm expressing that clearly I'm I'm hoping that this motion is not saying that we halt any of that process or any of that progress um while we figure it out but that we're able to do both things both and just want to put that forward if the motion is is is is is clear for that then I'm in favor thank you for sharing I want to um answer some of those questions and um I can assume what I think the policies are that you're addressing but we're also waiting for the naming policy to come back the salary Administration policy to come back that we've been working on since last spring uh Dr King has been working on some student discipline policies to bring to the board ncsba is always uplifting uh policies that need

modification and need board attention and I know that we have Mee and confer that we've handed off to Dr Lewis and Dae to work on um and other policies that we have already discussed in first read or second read um that need more attention from us um that I would like to see go through this policy but no we're not trying to through a policy committee the plan is not to slow down work but get us to a place where we have an hour or two devoted every month to do the policy work and really help um align our vision as a board and inform Administration on how we want them to move um so hopefully we're not spending as much time in our board meetings word smithing and uh trying to develop policy but we're spending our time advising Administration on how we want them to

modify the draft policies that get in front of us and I don't know whose hand was up first Miss berer and then miss Chavez because you're showing up that way on my screen I appreciate it um youve said a lot of what I was going to say Miss Rogers and even more um but the thing that I wanted to lift up and and that is important to me as we work on this is to create a place that we notice that is public and open to the public that is in accordance with um Sunshine laws where our community is welcome to join these public spaces as well give us you know listen to the discussion and give us their feedback so um making this you know I think I'm probably one of the last people that would want to add a committee or add time but I think it actually will help us be more efficient in in driving Innovative policy work

that will add to the Innovative policies that already exist in this in this District um and and the Innovative work that is going on so I look forward to building on that Foundation of of um great strong policy that is there but also having a place to do this work efficiently and in collaboration with our community um that chooses to join us in an open meeting space so thank you M Chavez do you want to speak okay yeah um I wanted to ask again um Mr Malone I think you mentioned the purpose of one of these um of a policy committee generally or but I wanted to ask what is our understood purpose of this committee well that's the great part about it is that you will establish what you want it to be so the committee of

the whole if you go forward will I mean you will you will lay this down it will be derms version of this I mean you will have other examples I guess to look at but you'll get to decide exactly what you want the purpose to be exactly what goes through the committee and what doesn't go through the committee you'll decide as a group exactly how this um committee can help you um with your work um so that's the great thing about it is it will be what you want it to be okay and thank you um and would so um I guess board colleagues would you say it's not clear yet what our purposes in creating that or [Music] um chair Roger you what was or do you have a sense of the purpose since you brought this to

us purpose would be to do the policy work that we're all so very committed to an open session where we have an opportunity to demonstrate that we're doing the work of the board the policy work of the board within the scope of open meetings laws that we are developing policy in a way that is inclusive of all board members and that we can move more policies quicker to the board for approval because our vision is set and cast outside of formal board meetings okay thank you all right and lastly I just um I did email this question but I did want to ask um what was the process of getting this on the agenda since it wasn't

originally on the agenda when you all discuss the agenda on last Friday yep happy to answer that I had a conversation with the name alone after several emails came to me in regards to how policy was being shopped with um board members and um I did speak to miss heral go last Thursday night asked her to create uh committee for said policy explain the directions on how to get it on the agenda so that we could discuss it an open session uh that didn't happen and so I consulted with Superintendent at the agenda had not been posted to add this to the um agenda uh after Consulting with Rod about it um to make sure that we were moving into uh clear territory and

following the law to move policy and so in lie of that particular policy getting a special ad hoc committee I requested that we put a policy update committee on the agenda so that we can move all the many policies that we've been discussing and are waiting to hear into an open space to get board feedback Miss Hera goof is it just a followup to that isn't it um so you added this to the agenda but it's my was my understanding that we had to do that by Thursday with two board members approval but the chair can do it beyond that is that correct the policy says that uh agenda items can be added as long as the agenda is not posted yet if you read the last line of I'll

have to pull the policy Miss Herold go Miss Carda-Auten aen I'm sorry can you hear me now I just wanted to clarify that um in our conversation that the reason why I did not ask to place um the item on the agenda was because what was discussed was asking placing asking uh putting on the agenda to ask permission for the board to work on um to work on policy like asking permission for specifically for the board to work on a policy um and that is not what this is so

um I don't want it to sound like there was something that I just didn't do I didn't do it because um I didn't think that the you know to I was asking I wanted to ask for permission to work on a specific policy what's being lifted up now is a is setting up a policy committee so those are in my head two completely separate things um so I didn't this was not something that I was asking for I was asking for something was going to ask for something completely different and did decide not to um put put asking permission to work on a specific policy on this board agenda would you like me to reply to that is that what you're waiting for no no reply I just wanted to clarify that that is

not yes I was not going to make the request for a policy committee what I was what I was thinking about what I was going to make a request for was asking the board permission to work on a specific policy specifically Community engagement but I did not make that request um and I I I did not do that um after having conversations um with you and you know and reflecting and then this came up on the agenda so I was never intending to put this on the agenda just just clarify yeah that was not that was not what was communicated um Miss carteron did you still want to share thoughts Miss shavez I see your hand next um I just had a a clarifying question before we what I assume might be a to the vote um after we talk um so I'm hearing

that um a big part of the purpose of this is to make sure that we're in compliance with open meeting open meeting laws Sunshine laws and to make sure that the work that we do on policy is um inclusive and in the public eye and then I and then I think I hear you named a bunch of policies that are kind of like in progress right now and there's tons in the works so I'm hearing that all policies and development and future policies and development will go to the policy committee or is that a decision that the committee of the whole I will make together so they'll decide which policies just want to make sure we're all clear on what we're voting on and we're feeling good about it so yes that is a decision that the committee will make it that time the committee of a whole that's not a decision that we have to make here right in fact we're at a time on this topic and should be moving on and trying to get through this Miss Travis

I just wanted to go back to the um recited the the reason you were able to add this to the agenda I'm looking at the policy board meeting agenda policy 2330 I'm not seeing I'm seeing any new policy or budgetary items presented as an addendum to the published agenda are not subject to action at the same meeting I'm not seeing quite what you're responding or what you're um what you were pointing out generally all agenda items are collected by the Thursday ahead of time and then the chair and vice chair review them with the superintendent on Friday before the meeting yep and as I've review I review the request um I the request that I made specifically was to Joy was to do the

specific policy uh committee um and that was on Thursday evening Miss Smith sends out a request her request is for Friday afternoon and So I responded based on that who were the two members of the board then I'm happy to forward you the emails to that talk about the issue with the policy because there's an issue with the policy of the way the policy was being shopped but we have to stay in compliance with the law and the agenda was a adopted this evening with this on it so if you didn't want it on the agenda did not want to discuss it did not want to have this conversation we could have taken it off the agenda at the time that tonight's agenda was approved that's not my that's not what I'm asking about and that's not I do understand that I'm happy to share

that information with you I'm asking because this has come up as a topic how board members get items on the agenda and um and so I think we need to be clear about our protocol and when I heard that you it seemed that you added something after items had been collected and discussed with the chair Vice chair and superintendent I wasn't clear how that happened or what um by what process or procedure or policy um had allowed that basically so yeah specifically yeah specifically a request to um to me as a chair about what policy was being followed in the development of other policy IES and I sent that request to our attorney received some information from the attorney and added

the item to our agenda a policy a development of a policy committee to get us in a place where we're compliant with the law and so I did that in that way with the attorney based on requests about work that is seemingly being done not in front of the public where our work is expected to be done so I I hear the what happened and everything I'm just not clear in our so a board member can add something on Friday afternoon in alone or in discussion with Mr Malone or what is because I'm our policy says any two board members may add items to the agenda by notifying the board chair prior to posting right upon conversation with our

attorney and I'm happy to acknowledge that uh perhaps something should have been done and in the future if the attorney shares that we are skirting the law a little too closely not to deal with the issue at hand if that is the request of the board um but it felt like a sense of urgency for me when I learned that so I added the item to the agenda and as soon as uh we decided that we had a conversation with superintendent I had a conversation with the vice chair heard no conversation from any board members any concern about this item between Monday and today at 3:00 and so I will always put the um I will always prioritize the

um the work of the board being done in a way that is within the realm of open meeting laws and in front of the public and so in this instance I added this item to the agenda in order to protect our efforts and to move forward policies all of the policies that everybody is is interested in moving right now so you're you're saying that because you thought there was a legal issue with um the way in which some of us were discussing a policy that we're working on that created enough urgency for you to be able to put on the on the agenda on Friday afternoon but I'm still not understanding how that that aligns with the policy um I'm not saying that it aligns with the policy I do know that in Most states and in North Carolina the chair is seemingly allowed to add items to the agenda and have thoroughly discussed this also with our attorney at

the time of the conversation and again I say it is fine if the board doesn't want to do that and wants to continue to move policy in the way uh that the board has been working on policy but I know there are community members that are frustrated with policy not moving as quickly and there are members of our board that really want to have more impact on policy and I want to give our board that space and that time to do that as well as be within the realm of possibility and and legality okay I'm I'm just trying to I'm not contesting the actual item I'm just at I'm talking about how it was added to the agenda so so I want to be clear so the chair is able to um go beyond the not follow the two board members may add items to the agenda as long as it's before posting is that correct Mr I'll be happy I'll be

happy to speak to her for a second yeah I think that it is inherent in the position of the chair that the chair can add an item to the agenda before it's posted that is what we see across the state and I think that that is is inherent in that role as the chair that the chair can add an item to the agenda the policy protects the board from discussing an item that a majority of the board do not want to discuss by the ability for majority of the board to amend the agenda to remove any item that's been added that you don't want to discuss or to add an item that let's say the chair has blocked if that were to happen um adding to the agenda so between the policy ability for things to be added and when the agenda is approved the ability for board members to add items at the table that they feel that they need to discuss or to remove an

item um that the majority don't want to discuss I mean that's generally how this process works so I'm I'm not aware of a situation where the chair is not able to add an item that you know the chair believes is important for board discussion at a meeting okay thank you that answers my question because just one other point just to make it clear so I mean otherwise you you would not read your policy not that this would ever happen let's I just I want to make this clear but you wouldn't read your policy to say that the chair wants to discuss an item and that the superintendent could prevent the chair from bringing that item forward right but but could read this first sentence to almost get to that result and that can't be the result that's just not the way that the board has set up instructed to work so yes it's set up that the chair has that Authority and then any two board

members have the authority and the ability to get an item on the agenda is the way that the policy is kind of structured okay thank you uhuh thanks everybody um so I'm going to call the vote Miss buer hi uh Miss Carda-Auten uton hi Miss Harold g hi Mr tab no Miss Umstead Miss Bina Umstead I vote I miss Chavez I and I vote I it passes 6 to one to develop a ad hoc committee on policy create a policy committee Dr Lewis uh who can you tell as a staff

member you plan to assign to that do you know right now we're um had some conversations briefly preliminarily with Dr giovan um could you have her send out a doodle poll to the board to set up the first meeting please yes we'll do thank you colleagues the next item on our agenda is the budget information um I have the Ry open um Mr terer thank you uh chair Rogers and other board members um so just want to uh provide the board uh an update just on where we are working through our process and thinking about next year

we've had a lot of conversation about this year but just want to continue to lift up the work uh that we're doing for next year and so I'm just going to touch on a few things uh that the board members in agenda review were hoping to see and so we can go ahead and work to the next slide uh wanted to start with just some budgetary challenges um that we um have been working through as we prepare um the superintendent's recommended budget for the 2526 year first and foremost um we're starting out with an unbalanced base budget in the current year uh we've talked about that quite a bit at the the past few board meetings and uh working hard to get our current budget at a place um uh that is uh manageable and fair to work with um and and gives us a good Baseline rolling forward um the Second Challenge uh that we've been dealing with our inflationary pressures I think this is something that um we're we're seeing in in various sectors and

certainly not just education that we are figuring out how to continue doing the same things we have been um with with things that have gotten increasingly expensive uh at a pace quicker than we're really used to uh enrollment um is as the board knows right is a huge component of our funding and so we're uh obviously having to monitor very carefully uh what enrollment might look like for next year um and there is a a team of folks that are working uh on an enrollment forecast for next year so that we may have some sense of how many students will be enrolled in Duram Public Schools next year and where they will be enrolled um charter schools remain a challenge um we're we're hoping to hold um flat there one charter school closing one charter school opening next year um we continue also to monitor um whether or not the opportunity scholarships uh will have an adverse impact on Duran Public Schools um we really don't have any data at this point um to substantiate whether or not they've had

an impact uh but we will um certainly keep that in the Forefront um as we do our work um a new Challenge on the horizon is federal funding uncertainty um we've spent some time uh processing and unpacking um the implications uh to Durham Public Schools if we were to see some widescale uh loss of federal funding I will share that when we um had the initial um concerns come forward a few weeks ago um and we didn't know what the executive actions were going to mean for Durham we did some math um in the finance department to ascertain what what would our reality be um what would we have to come up with in short order to keep moving forward business as usual right and that's anywhere from five to six million a month um that we we spend in federal dollars including uh Child Nutrition so um it's a big part of our reality and so we're we're monitoring very carefully as a senior leadership team um what what are our threats um to to various forms of

federal funding and how we might need to react um we talked about this a little bit um at the beginning of the uh budget calendar process that we're entering a new banal state budget where our legislators and Governor uh will negotiate a new two-year state budget um we have a new governor uh that is in that mix and we don't yet know what he's going to recommend or or what he's going to advocate for um as he puts forward a recommended budget um and we also have a new North Carolina State Treasurer um that has put forward um some proposals for the State Health plan um that make us a little nervous um and and just in terms of there's a concern that increasing premiums is going to be the solution uh to making the State Health Plan whole uh and we're looking at what could be a complicated sliding scale model for health insurance premiums for our employees um that we're trying to unpack and and get uh more clarity on before those uh premium changes go into

6% of

1 million in resources that we don't realize uh in the formula I will share also uh I appreciate the board also lifting up that conversation about not only the app uh but the rate of funding so the the dollar value uh that's a value ad per student uh could certainly be Revisited uh to something that's more meaningful uh I think particularly for our elll population um that that dollar value per child um is a little bit less uh than we see for EC but happy to um provide any additional information that the board might need to further flesh out uh whatever is written um for that um review

uh next slide so continuation costs and this is an area where I want to lean heavily on estimated um we are really operating with somewhat of a crystal ball in in what could happen uh with this and I will share that after we prepared this presentation um we received information U from the office of state budget management about what the revenue forecast uh might look for might look like for the state of North Carolina moving forward um for the 25 26 year they are projecting only a half a percent increase in revenue for the state of North Carolina which has a dollar value of $181 million um that's a lot of money but it's also not a lot of money in the context of our full State's budget and all of the priorities that they're trying to fund so I think that's just an important thing for us to be mindful of uh as decisions are made moving forward even more concerning is for the 26 27 year they're projecting a

4% decrease in state revenue which has a value of an 823 million decline in their revenues um so just want to lift that up as new information that we have learned um even since putting um this presentation together um it will be interesting to see how our state leaders react to that um we don't know if there will be any change in in how they collect Revenue specifically meaning the state income tax will they move forward with continuing to decline the income tax rate in North Carolina um and and will they find a way to to Shore that up so for the purpose of this presentation and this may change before we release the superintendent's recommended budget book but we've developed uh at this point in time an assumption of a 4% increase uh in compensation which was the higher um the higher rate of the two years in the last Bal budget so that's sort of our starting point um we in the current year we did see a decline in the

retirement rate uh we don't anticipate that we'll see the state reduce what we contribute to the retirement system two years in a row so we're tentatively forecasting uh that our contribution may rise to 26% of employees salaries um just with the the communication that we've seen from the new state treasurer um we're a little bit nervous about what we might be expected to contribute to um the State Health Plan and so we're looking at aggressive about $800 increase per employee that we're forecasting um with the previous state treasurer we were seeing anywhere from 5 to 600 per year um and again so with with the rhetoric that we're hearing now we're we're just wanting to be prepared in case that's a higher number than we've been accustomed to in those increases um the next category of things that we're looking at are utilities um so over the next couple of years um we know that the um utility companies are planning to have have sort of steady increases um in in those rates and so

we're wanting to make sure that we capture that they do it based on a calendar year we Budget on a fiscal year so we've had to develop a blended rate um for the next couple of years and so building in about $220,000 increase um for utility costs um largely driven by electricity um Commercial Insurance uh property insurance and auto insurance these are two industries where uh there's active negotiation uh with the North Carolina Department of Insurance to to raise uh the rates at which they are allowed to charge uh folks to North Carolina and so tentatively we're plugging in that we would need an additional $83,000 um for our current uh portfolio of property um and $33,000 uh additional for auto insurance just with those um those two things combined $116,000 uh all of those variables together were looking at 6, 2912 um we have to keep in mind that

we're required to share any new money with Charter Schools and so we have grossed that amount up to reflect that we would uh we would need to request 7,962 041 to satisfy continuation and actually land where we're needing to land um to to take care of our own needs um we're going to continue to monitor um specifically the salary and benefit metric as we continue to get more and more information from our sources um and get some insight on on what might actually be proposed we could see this number come down a little bit um which I feel like it may uh given the revenue forecast that we received from the state in the past week um so just wanted to with this information let the board see what we're doing behind the scenes to prepare um the continuation component of the superintendent's uh recommended budget uh next slide please some things in our current road map um that we're thinking about um so the the

2425 under budgeted number um so just lifting up that number of where we were um prior to putting in place some temporary measures right so we're doing some things um that are long-term Solutions and then we've had some things that we've talked about in the last couple of meetings that were short-term U so um for that first line item just trying to lift up um what our starting point might be without some of our short-term measures that we've talked about um we are still very much uh under review um for a central office realignment um so we we have had some conversations um as recently as this week as a senior leadership team about vacancies that we have in our departments and ways that we might reorganize some things in order to save the district dollars uh I am encouraged by the work that I've seen um I was impressed uh by what my colleagues brought to the table this week uh for things that they have thought about in order to contribute towards our cost savings uh so I put a question mark here

7 million uh of savings in our budget and and and not be in a position where we're budgeting for so many uh vacant positions um so again lifting up that estimated continuation number the sum of all those

2 million um or a little bit higher than that and so certainly continuing to do some work on that uh but just wanted you to see the live math um as as we're doing the work behind the scenes and and just to lift up transparency uh around our processes um in the budget Department as we're working through that uh next slide uh so so these are some items that are relatively new initiatives to the district um and and is certainly not an exhaustive list of things uh but these are things that have been talked about quite a bit recently um and we just want the board to be aware that they're under review um we are um still working to assess uh the impact of these items um whether um it made it easier for us to recruit and retain these populations do we need to lift up additional investment in these items in the superintend his recommended budget uh so just wanted everyone to be aware um that these things are on our radar um and uh we're certainly committed to making sure they

were effective or not um and whether or not we needed to seek more investment so um no particular agenda there but just wanted folks to know that we're evaluating these new programs uh and that includes these EC supplements the El elll supplements uh bus driver attendance bonuses and the local Masters pay effort we know that these are things that we get a lot of public comments about uh and people are watching um with great anxiety um Capital outlay we don't want to forget about that and just let you know that we are thinking about our Capital outlay efforts um in the current year we reed6 million in arpa dollars from the county plus $2 million of their funding uh to get a sum of $8 million um the superintendent's recommended budget last year was pursuing that 8 million the county craft drafted it this way in the current year um and so we're um actively working with operations to come up with an appropriate Capital outlay ask uh for

the year ahead we would hope to at least maintain that $8 million investment um and and hopefully the county can find a way to piece that together um as there arpa funds uh Sunset earlier this week um our cabinet level requests were due uh to the budget department for expansion it and so we will be reviewing those um as a senior leadership team um very soon um so that we can understand what new things uh folks would like to do to move our efforts forward in the district um and we'll work to prioritize those um as we as we pull together the superintendent's recommended budget next slide and trying to leave room for questions so um happy to start answering questions at this time and allow Dr Lewis to offer any remarks that he may have thank you so much um Jeremy again I just want to um reiterate the the fact that we are analyzing and will be

talking to staff as it relates to some of these for example attendance incentive I think you've heard me share publicly uh is this enough you know we talk about attendance and then just reviewing um the format in which uh bus drivers for example are able to obtain that $150 it has to be perfect attendance so really looking at um the structure in which that attendance bonus is assigned but also the amount uh so we definitely want to get some feedback from our bus drivers and other staff as it relates to that uh you've heard me also share earlier that we're looking at every single Avenue every single dollar that we're spending to ensure that we were we are able to invest in our staff things that we've heard during the listening learning tour and that's beginning that's beginning to come up in um some of the um the actual survey that we have out getting input from community members around you know what should be our priorities and so as Jeremy mentioned we're close to a million dollars just in in in central office and this is mainly administrator positions I want to be clear about that U mainly administrative positions that we are

looking to see how we could either collapse or eliminate some of those positions as it relates to how we can ensure that um we are being fiscally responsible with our dollars as we approach this budget uh budget season questions thank you all thank you Dr Lewis thank you Mr terer colleagues any questions comments and I won't be offended if you don't have any questions tonight miss Hemstead then miss Chavez Mr teer you know we always have questions now this is one of the most important topics that we need to talk about um and I think I appreciate hearing you all discuss and you naming that number of5 to6 million dollars per month of federal dollars that we are that we utilize to do the work that we need to do um for our mission right

educating and embracing and empowering every student um I just want that to settle in5 to6 million doll a month that we are looking at um to support our students uh so if you need something to do I would encourage folks to call call up um Tom tiis or call up Ted bud and leave them some messages about how the impacts of the cuts at the federal level could impact our Public School System none of that was my question but since I got it out there it's important um in the time that we're in right now um just a question you also mentioned this like we are in an unbalanced budget we're starting this process unbalanced and so I wanted to know how you all are thinking about getting us into alignment this year and um that's my first question I have another one yep so I think um a lot of a lot of the conversations that we're having about this year and next year sort of overlap and so some of the things um some of the positions for example that we're thinking about not filling next year have been vacant this year uh and so I

6 million figure um from the last board meeting in the current year uh we're feeling confident that in the current year we'll work through our situation um and so we'll um next meeting probably have an update for you of showing you that we we've had our Target to get this year in line thank you I appreciate that and then I wanted to know I might ask this every meeting is there any movement on thinking about you know some of the things that are in your continuation budget it's what I call like the cost of

living increase right of doing our work as a school system which means that some of that would continue in the next year and if there are other things that we might think about in the next year so you know our we thinking about kind of any of that multi-year here's our set of priorities this year and then next year it might look like X Y and Z you know I know we don't have a crystal ball we don't know exactly what might happen but I think for us thinking a little bit about two or three years in advance would be helpful yeah absolutely yeah we're happy to do that and I think once we're um and re and really we have to do it and so once we're U once we've settled up um how we feel with this recommended budget we're able to internally and Fin we're able to quickly pivot our thinking to next cycle and and and start to have those things in line so uh so that we can keep that running dialogue and and folks can know what's coming down the pipeline thank

you can I go ahead all right um thank you thank you for all the numbers um the very specific numbers on these different items um so my questions are my first one is just um I wanted to make sure with the caps on funding for EC and ESL that's on teachers for those students is it on any other resources for our EC and ESL students I think predominantly right so the the EC and elll dollars um that are affected by those caps right we're using that money to pay for teachers first and foremost um it does pay for some instructional assistance um and then and then the EC director also has the flexibility to to work to work those budgets to also pay for um speech therapists occupational therapists any kind of related service um that we may need to deliver for those students okay thank you that's hopeful um and then um

I appreciate knowing the your sort of like rough potential estimate for the um um central office uh review um and you know what that might turn up for us but um what is the timeline on that and any potential recommendations regarding Cuts or of either positions or um maybe that all wouldn't come to us but like uh initiatives or things like that yeah so I think we're so that's still fluid um you know so we've got um we've got another meeting uh that we've scheduled soon to do part two of what we did this week um to to challenge each other a little further um so I think I would say certainly in the next month or so um we should have um a little more concrete information for you okay thank you um and then I think this is um maybe more question for Miss haer but I I did want to know um about the

retention rates of our EC teachers and our ESO teachers um and I want to I think it's important for us to to think about um even though there might not be we can't always um determine a direct correlation but it would be good to look at patterns to see if there were any um any patterns for retention that we could um kind of pull out after offering those supplements to those teachers so um I would I think it'd be helpful to have a few years of data um going back and I think part of what would be useful is just to see when we're um doing these new initiatives um with you know the EC um elll supplements Masters pay are they effective in retention um there may be other outcomes as well but that's one

thing I'd like us to monitor thank you I did see that question come in today so we're on it okay thank you um can I ask a question Miss Chávez I'm sorry um in regards to that data um do you want it to inform all board members about budget priorities like what is the timeline that you're expecting to see this data I I think this is one of those things that goes to the 15 minutes over and so you know more than 15 minutes of administrative time and so I would like to for the board to get a full understanding of your request because everybody hasn't isn't privy to seeing your questions um and how how quickly are you interested in seeing that data and what do you want to use it what what do you want us to use it for okay sure again I know I didn't send

my questions to everybody but I have mentioned this twice at board meetings um so I'm happy to you know hear what um all of my colleagues think but again I'm asking about retention data um to assess whether that is an outcome uh retention is an outcome of implementing these supplements and um if our investment in them is um supporting our staff and and thus our students by creating more stability in their teachers and their you know and their um uh other support staff creating more stability for students um and creating just more um I mean we want we want staff who um are with us who you know retain knowledge over time

and um and keep that within our in our district so that's my interest in asking and as far as timeline um I would just ask and I know I mentioned this also last week at our review meeting Miss Hager so I know um you already heard me say this then too but um what I would ask what what is realistic of um of you all that is something we we've already talked about as well just among um our staff um I would ask for us to have a little more time you know maybe six months to you know the end of the school year let's see where we are then um with our retention data but I would ask for more time because we are trying as a staff trying to determine what the effectiveness has been okay okay I would take your lead on that then

um I just think it's something for us to Monitor and I don't want us to take our pul of off of it absolutely my last question is just about um and Dr leis you talked about this any what is the timeline and any potential like modification of the bus driver attendance bonus or like any other kind of bonus um for bus drivers that might be a question for Dr web but I'm not sure but I know that's something you are looking at I'm I'm asking about timeline because um we are in the budget season now and I'm trying to see you know when we might have more more information about what we want to put in our budget yeah that will be coming up soon we've had some preliminary conversations with the group of um transportation staff um as well and so just really following up with them to determine you know what would be obviously depending on what we can either ask the county for

what we can afford in our budget to increase that from $150 yes sir just to reiterate they were the individuals that we met with were very interested in having that conversation and shared their perspectives with us and their their needs and their concerns and their willingness to offer ideas so uh that that conversation is going very well as far as the effect effess you know the ultimate effectiveness of any um any initiative is when it comes to retaining individuals is how many folks stay around and um so that that metric is usually evaluated closer to the end of the year so it as Miss Hager to paraphrase Miss Hager it it is a work in progress yes ma'am thank you those are all my questions it's carteron did I see your hand yes thanks um thanks Mr terer for all

this information you I have a bunch of questions but I think I've picked my top three um to ask you tonight um so first is um in thinking about um ways to financially incentivize bus driving in various conversations in a number of different options have come up and so I'm wondering like in addition to these attend dependance bonuses um a couple of examples are increasing the hourly pay rate um paying for the cbll or other aspects of training so I'm wondering is that something that the board can expect to see um like a proposal with cost estimates of for these types of options as we're continuing to work through the budget and making decisions about where to um put the money or do you need um action to ask for that is that I would say um at the um at the end of this

month um we would have um you know we're going to have the superintendent proposed budget in front of you so I think these um timelines are are running you know really close together so um so I think we should be able to have something to you in short order in in tandem with the budget um as far as a plan for for what things might cost for various efforts for for retaining bus drivers or and recruiting bus drivers so um you know I have to defer you know to to my colleagues and and Dr Lewis on when we might make those things go live is that is that something that we need to announce and then it goes live in the new school year so that people know it's coming or is it something we start now um you know so I'll have to work with my peers on that but I feel as we roll out Dr Lewis's recommended budget next month we'll have a lot of companion items like these bus driver um items we're talking about right that's helpful yeah I want

us to be thinking about all the different ways that could potentially be effective and making sure we've got our bus drivers here and happy um uh let's see and my next question is um also related to like timing of more information so related to the local Masters pay do we so we've had um lots of conversations about like estimates how many staff this would include and what it might cost um are we at some point going to be able to get um a more accurate estimate like even though no knowing that that'll be a single point in time estimate of how many staff this would include and what it would cost if we extended this to all that would have qualified under the ncdpi guidelines um prior of 2013 or is that is this like a chicken and egg thing where you're like you we need we need to do it and then we need to do the surveys and count all the people can you share a little bit about that well I'm happy to see Miss hager's camera turn on and so

I'm just gonna look at look at Miss Hager for this one I would just want to add in yes it's more like the Chicken and the Egg so just trying to figure it all out and to get to a point I think establishing what our parameters are so that they are clear concise and everyone understands from you know from our Educators to our principals to um central office staff like we all know what our parameters are and then as those folks are coming in because remember it's it's a revolving or ever evolving sort of number or or um estimate of how many folks could possibly you know be in that bucket that we're trying to figure out um so I think just to um Dr Webb's point just now it's still a work in progress and so the good thing is that Mr terer and I are working really closely with our ler team we had a meeting almost two hours today just

looking at Educators their license the renewal process what's going to happen with the hiring and of course Master's pay came up during that time so really tightening um what we're doing around Master's pay letting everybody know what our parameters are what the guidelines are for um thank you Miss Smith um what the guidelines are for being eligible for Master's pay so that we can at least you know do a little bit better at making a ballart figure what that might be and I think um and then just to sort of also add right so miss Hager mentioned the LI insure um at some point you know we we may need to achieve some consensus of do we require them to go through the process of adding it to their license um even though it doesn't mean more state pay you know it may be helpful that may be a more helpful way to help us contain that um so um you know so I'll defer you know to to miss hager's leadership and Dr giovan's leadership um of of what

that might look like in terms of us making that shift in protocol um that they're adding it to their license um rather than us leaning on surveys um thank you Mr Teter and miss haer so to um to clarify should we will we see more information about what the could cost us and who it would involve during this budget cycle to help us make decisions about it okay absolutely I think um I think I would um I would be very embarrassed if we did not bring some conversation about Master's pay uh next month just with the with the magnitude of of feedback that we've gotten and so we will um we certainly will'll have um some succinct um Graphics um that that convey what the board's investment would be um depending on what type of change we may see with Master's pay okay awesome thank you all right my last question is um when cabinet members bring um requests or that there's cabinet level requests um

are they asked to or any other point in this are they asked to connect their request to the Strategic plan goals and and to demonstrate how they expect the funding will move the district towards achieving like a specific goal yes and and I um and I feel bad I feel bad I felt bad for them when we sent the books out because it's it's we ask a lot of them and I think uh you know we've continued sort of the existing process in Durham right of you know we're we're asking them to flesh out their line items um and and to tie those back to the district strategic plan and uh We've um we've had some really good um really good dialogue um with my colleagues if they as they have worked through those uh to help them pull that together but we definitely ask them to lift that strategic not awesome all right thanks so much thank you Miss buer Mr terer I just wanted to to offer you just such gratitude for helping us write this ship and for your expertise

and helping us frame how we think about this budget going forward in a time that we know that we want to give everyone more that the state needs to give more that the feds need to give more to support these students and that we have to live within the constraints of what we have at the time that our federal funding from covid has ended and so I want to make sure I'm understanding kind of the what you've brought forward you are saying that just moving forward and almost a continuation budget with with some increases in utilities and and you know health insurance and things like that $8 million above where we were last year is is kind of how you're starting to frame that that math for us and that bottom line yes ma'am so that's an additional 8 million request that that people won't notice anything different but we'll just be maintaining status quo and keeping the

lights on um yes that's right um and then and that number may come down slightly um once we're done with this process um so right we're we're trying to we'll try to temper this with um the revenue projection at the state level um so um I think I think we're all starting to Trend a little bit farther down than we were thinking as as a finance officer Community um so so this you know it won't be remarkably less but uh but we definitely um expect it'll shift down a little bit compared to where we started with this presentation so that certainly is um just a real reality check for us because usually we get to kind of come in about level and then add things and add things and add things right and um and so having that as a starting place is is kind of grim um I appreciate you all continuing to look at those positions that we were told were cut and didn't get cut and you evaluate every single

one and and their um need to either continue or to be sunsetted as vacant positions I I heard you say that that's what your team is continuing to work on can you help a little bit more with the 15% reductions in operational budgets those were also felt by central office I just want to clarify that one of our public comments um had some confusion there right but those were also held at central office as well and I would share right just for to to carry that even further right it was also felt in the board of education's budget um and so I mean it it touched every budget um in terms of that that set aside uh and so we're um and and I think I and I think I hear more complaints from central office um uh than I do from the schools but um but definitely it was felt um ac across all facets of the organization and

um and as you Dr Lewis are talking with principles and getting their feedback about that 15% um H how are you evaluating kind of um whether they're able to operate at that level next year or whether there's there's some of that that needs to be added back are y'all having those conversations with building leaders looking to see how close they are to to their budgets this year you given this time of year because traditionally what we see happen what I've learned that that this happens here and this happens in districts across the country at a certain time of year probably in the next couple of months you'll start a lot of rapid spending just to get rid the money you know and so um and and there there may be things that they they need however we have to think critically about you know how can we be more fiscally responsible even with our with our school budgets you know we we've had conversations about zero based budgeting from the standpoint

of what do schools really need you know and so I think what has happened in the past is that we've just been so used to getting this certain amount of money and spending it you know every year or you know you're down at this time of year making this up you're down to spending maybe 50% of your budget and you know next couple of months it's going to be cut off so let me see what I can buy really quick and so that's not the best business model you know really thinking about what do we need as a school system and every year is different every year should be different because the kids are different every year um and so yeah we we need to continue those those conversations as relates to what do we really need for our buildings uh to uh ensure that our students and staff have what they need I appreciate that that'll be great feedback to have from from our principles and and from our buildings um as we go forward I think growing together is something that has taken you know years for this board to move forward and making sure that we fulfill the promises that were um in that in

that plan and that had significant Staffing as y'all plan and and bring a budget forward I'm sure you're you're looking at that um I know some Mackenzie Scott money had been moved to cover that um and I really appreciate I was listening to you and and Mr terer you you really said that you were going to bring kind of evidence-based um recommendations as you evaluate together on you know on cabinet what has been effective at at uh Staffing incentives and and what has not and and where we need to focus um our efforts in order to to maximize what we can um do in the coming budget cycle so I really appreciate and and lean into to y'all's expertise as you bring that forward um because we're going to have to make some very very difficult decisions um and we're not going to be able to do everything we want to and our hearts do and um that that's tough that's tough for this board and this tough for this

community so I appreciate y'all bringing recommendations and and bringing your expertise to the table thank you um Miss ID yeah I just want to follow up on something Miss buer said I hope that like as we're looking at schools and departments budgets at this time um that we're also like having conversations with folks right around like what might be planned for the next couple months and that kind of thing as well so that we can know the impact of of where they are I just um I know sometimes I've heard in the past people just kind of get money snatched away if it hasn't been spent and I would want to make sure that we're in dialogue to know what was the plan for that and when were you planning on that and if this is moved how might that impact the work that you're getting ready to do um we know that many of our folks use money around this season to help prepare students um thinking about learning student learning as well as like student School culture things that happen around this time of

the year so I just want to make sure we're in dialogue with our school leaders and department leaders around where their budgets are and what their plans are for fun um monies till the end of the year I can confirm we are and and I think um just exhibit a of that you know as we've lifted up at the last meeting the potential McKenzie Scott realignment we have moved very slow with that um and and and we've allowed people to kind of come forward with their concerns and and things that they had planned um so that we so that we don't create any of that heartburn and so yes ma'am absolutely thank you um one of the questions that I had you know we were supposed to have a public hearing last night and in the previous work session the board sorry y'all can hear my kid I'm sorry um and in the previous work session the board requested um a dole poll go out to board

members to schedule a second public hearing do we plan to still have both public hearings and will there be action taken to schedule those is there scheduling plan is there scheduling plan for the public hearings are we G we reschedule them yeah I would love to because keep in mind these were this was an additional hearing that you know has had not been done in the past and so I definitely would want uh depending on board members availability to to reschedule that that hearing and so once we get the doodle pole we'll we'll just definitely reach out and schedule that okay thank you just wanted to check on that I'm sorry and again that one was for an additional opportunity for community staff students to come and share with the board these are what we feel that are our priorities you know

before we begin planning the budget okay that's helpful um this is for information discussion colleagues that haven't had an opportunity to speak do you have any questions comments or concerns thank you so much thanks um Mr deer Dr Lewis uh we appreciate it uh the next item on our agenda is Clos session so I'll entertain a motion to go into Clos session um not in keeping with what we have done when we were in person we will come back to the open meeting to approve the Personnel report after we uh commence uh close session move that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss berer

seconded by Miss Carda-Auten uton that we go into closed session for the reasons stated on the agenda is there any further discussion all right Miss berer hi Miss Carda-Auten Adney hi Miss Harold g hi Mr tab hi Miss mste hi Miss Travis hi and i v i we are now in close session thank you

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hello hey how's it going good I'm trying to get on okay just checking on you yeah just died okay Lord Jesus um it's the second calendar invite that started at 8:30 8:30 e

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colleagues we're now back in Open Session um Dr Lewis thank you thank you board chair Rogers ask the board to take action and um approve the Personnel report move approval of the Personnel report dated February 21st 2025 second than you has been moved by Miss sper second by Miss Herold gof um to approve Personnel report for February 21st 2025 um M Miss buer hi discussion I'm Sorry Miss berer hi Miss carteron Miss heroff hi Mr tab I missad hi Miss Chávez hi and I vote I personal report pass say unanimously