Board of Education · Regular Meeting · February 22, 2024

all right we are back thank you everyone quick break we had are about to kick off our questions um for our comproller thanks so much y'all are able to uh Mr Crutchfield thank you so much I really appreciate that so many of the questions from myself helps to paint a more clear picture of me I think most importantly it's provided some insight into this question um of whether implementation of the Hill study as it was ruled out in October was merely out or whether implementation was more critically flawed and so am I understanding correctly um that in your opinion Mr cutfield even if we could afford to maintain the salaries at October rates this is not something you'd recommend in part because instead of bringing all classified staff to Market rates it brought many far above Market rates that is correct in my opinion thank you um I'm also um very eager um and excited about your uh recommendations for how we can take the important work of Hill the market

research data the data from all those interviews with staff and really build on that um and fix the fundamental problems with implementation to get to a point where we have something that's Equitable that addresses issues with compression compensates on a onetoone basis for professional experiences all those things excited that you're also able to do this soon right I hope so yes I have plenty of experience in working with salary study implementations not to rush you we're all just very eager to clean the mess so thank you so much um and I I'm really also just grateful for the reminder that it's important for us to now put adjust our put things into policy and adjust our practices to make sure that we prevent errors like this from happening in the future and also provide this much needed transparency right now thank you so much that's all from me thank you Miss cson I'm gonna go to Miss

Lewis thank you Mr cutfield similarly to miss car Alta thank you foration and the experience you bring but to lay this out and let us know I'm exactly what we're dealing with um I do have a specific question on slide 14 um I know you said you can um Supply recommendations on an implementation plan that would work for us will that include years of experience that's been important yes it will not take away any years of experience and then with the 11% um as an increase for the two reasons that you listed looking to get a permanent plan to begin July 2024 will that 11% negatively affect affect us being able to move forward with a permanent plan if you left the 11% increase the flat 11% increase in effect next school year you would be able to a uh afford it

within next year's budget if next year's budget is equal to this year's budget but it would not Implement any any of the salary study recommendations the 11% will not imp any of the salary recommendations until we did a new salary implementation correct thank you and the second on slide 14 you have a the second the third bullet says I just would like further clarification what this means since a salary study did not recommend reclassification increases for all groups of classified employees a 15% increase for such employees might require significant pay decreases when a permanent plan is implemented can you say a little bit more about that my you know my my clarification on that when I was making the presentation is that what that means is that some of your pay classifications last year were equal to Market rates

so a market rate implementation would not justify increases in those few classifications it's a very few classifications but if you went ahead and did an 11% increase and then implemented a market-based approach you'd either have to grandfather those employees at the 11% increase or reduce them back to the market-based rate so I mean you have choices it's not it's not yeah I don't want to reduce any want back so thank you for that example as well um and also I thoroughly appreciate the um what should happen next additional recommendations and what should happen next year and the way that you laid that out um particularly about the policy and regulations recommendation I know that the last time a uh classified study was uh salary study was done for us was in 2018 or 19 um and then I'm assuming there wasn't any policies in place that you could see so I am curious know what is a timeline

in order of policy implementations based on what should happen next year I would want the policy and regulations to be tailored to whichever salary schedules you adopt so until I would know what salary schedules you want to adopt I I couldn't provide you specific details but I do have a draft format that is ready to just plug in those details so once I knew what what salary schedules you decided to implement I could lost the mic I could give you that answer all right thank you so much and i' also appreciate the statement of sentiment that um this is a good study um with some things that need to be tweaked and you're having experience to do that at this something we still choose so thank you for laying this

out all right thank you um we are so glad to have more information about our finances and also um the policy recommendations are really helpful I have several questions as I um try to make sure I understand everything um first just to follow up on Miss Lewis's question about the 15% increase for some employees that might have significant pay decreases after a Perman permanent plan is implemented next year could do you have an idea of what positions this would be Andor how many more or less employees this might be I I do not but okay the information that uh Miss Beyer Jo had put together showed me some interesting data your your classified employees group as a whole are typically very experienced so the more experienced the

employees the higher the pay increases under the current implementation the lower the the ex the lower the pay increases or those would be the ones in those classications that were recommended for a higher market rate the lower experienced employees would be the ones that would not be increased under a market-based approach okay just wanted to clarify I was asking Emily that slide 11 oh what where it shows the previous up at zero 8% increase eight 19% increase 15 23 so if if you if you had an if you had a range that was not recommended for any market-based increase that Step Zero would be a 0% increase so if you did an 11% or a 15% across the board and you stuck stuck

with a market-based approach those folks would either have to have those increases grandfathered or they would be have to have a lower pay okay um all right another question with slide 11 since we just went there um I wanted to see with that example what exactly the I guess I'm trying to understand what is the problem with this um I see where the the you know percentages are high as you go up in years of experience what I don't like what would one wouldn't one always see

5% steps over the career of every single employee so if you had a 30y year employe employee you would be right reconstituting the amount of money you gave them in Step increases almost you'd almost be doubling the amount of money you give them for each step increase for 30

5% between each step and that's what happened with the current implementation yes that leads me to have another question which is that when we look at market rate Market rates when we say that the study put salaries to market rate then which level of salary are we starting is

85% steps but a lot of them haven't been granting those steps every year so a lot of districts would have people still below the midpoint of that range even though they might have 30 years of experience okay the uh if you compare to Industry industry typically does not have very broad ranges they typically bring people in at what they think their their market value

5% step increases every single year so is that fair to think of the slope of the line is steeper rather than correct is that that's that's very fair yes I have a question when Miss Chavez has finished I have like seven more you can jump in and then I'll come come back so Mr cutfield one of the other things that I believe that we were trying to do is actually address minimum wage and starting wages right and did you so you know that that Durham went to $15 an hour before the state did and then this was supposed to get our folks

to 17 17 and a half it was supposed to also have a differential for ecas right can can you speak to how well or maybe Miss Beyer can that um that the 11% would would do that as well and how how well the hill study did that you you are would be or you were very close to the $117 an hour minimum before the study and the study would get I think everybody at or above $17 an hour but um uh I don't know I I forget what I was what I was trying to uh the point I was trying to make but I to answer your question I think the study will get you if it if you weren't already to that $117 hour an hour minimum yeah because

one of the things that I remember asking the Consultants when they were here was whether that 17 17 and a half was actually high enough for Durham because the city and the county have moved on past us they're above 19 right right and so that is one of my goals for us going to uh forward with this study it is not just addressing the wage compression and the the issues near the top in the middle of the scale but actually lifting um from the start well and I did have at least one issue with one of the recommended pay ranges as being too low and if you do uh if you do ask me to come up with a an implementation plan and I will look at at least one pay range again the other thing I remembered what I was going to say I I totally agree with the exceptional children instructional assistance being a higher classification I've been recommending that in every study that I do and we we

did it in my previous School District 20 years ago thank you can I just ask a follow up to that one um so you saying that the ECI wasn't a isn't a higher classification that would also come through your recommendation it is not it it was not prior to the study but the study does increase it and I would be supportive of that thank you just need to clarify yeah okay I another question I have is um I don't know what slide it is on but it said um the study ranges have been implemented first and then increased by the 4% State legislated increase should have been implemented first just the stud ranges should have been implemented first and then increased with the 4% can you explain that to me again the the market-based pay ranges were developed in fiscal year

2022 23 the study was published in 2022 23 so that the data that they used was 2022 23 data every year a cost of living increase needs to be applied to whatever your pay ranges are yeah so you know the if the study had been implemented first then the legislated increase of 4% would be tacked on top of that okay it was not implemented that way okay thank you that's that makes sense um and [Music] then what you you mentioned that there are some there are some job categories this may be a deeper dive to but which job categories I'm trying to understand which ones were already at market rate

um and which ones yeah which ones were at market rate and which ones now are out of um the range Allowed by the state I I I will need to study every single pay range okay and and compare it to the state pay ranges to get you a firm answer on that one but I will do that okay thank you let see um questions I think that might be I think that's it for now thank you so much I appreciate it I have a quick question or maybe I don't I have a couple questions you we've keep talking about market-based approach and I just wanted to know you you know if we use the market-based approach are there other approaches that

districts would take to thinking about salary studies or salary ranges most every study or really every study should present a market-based approach but not every District can afford to implement the full market-based uh results so a number of times when I do salary studies and and the district tells me that uh funding is an issue I will propose a multi-year implementation plan and not just a single-ear implementation plan so uh it it's very dependent on budget I do have one more followup about that okay from what from your assessment of the study were the market when we talk about Market based are we talking about market-based within other school districts or comparable entities or in

some cases are we talking about Market rates that are in uh in Private Industry or in a kind of in a different uh Arena both okay so then like different ones for different jobs as far as possibly but but as was mentioned the entry level jobs job categories you need to Peg that based on on things other than just other school districts right okay Miss Rogers okay I'm gonna try to move us forward a little bit I think um the pry says this is for action and so I guess my question is the action is the permanent implementation plan what's the action so the action is to just accept the

report so the in in or I should say receiving the report and receiving the report we would have to still decide what we want to take from the recommendations here but the action would be just to receive the report okay so I guess I make the motion to receive the report second by Miss Roger seconded by Miss Chavez and Miss berer I do have a couple more questions though before we get there so do want to make sure I'm sorry Mr Crutchfield that we got a chance to talk um on I think it's slide number six and I think this gets back to miss Chavez's question around that apples and oranges comparison it says no method of using prior no method of using prior experience to place employees on the new schedule was going to yield an appropriate result not year for year as the study was implemented and not on state longevity years when you say not it was not going to yield an appropriate result can you share a little bit more

5% then it would have been a perfectly appropriate way to implement so I'm thinking about implementing or creating new schedules we need to we need to have both in mind the market-based as well as the years of experience is what I'm hearing and then the other

um the question I'm thinking about is the step to step we had heard some in some public comments that people don't move step to step every year but it sounds like the best practice would though be for people to move step to step each year is that looking I don't that's a same question or your question I had to every single year of History here so it would act it would not surprise me if some years step increases the the step number went up but pay [Music] didn't but at the same time I'm you know I'm not aware of any District that has been able to give actual step increases over last year's pay every single year when the state was freezing pay increases that that part about the state freezing pay increases I think is a really important piece right um and

because you know 75 to 80% of your classified employees are paid out of state funds right so if the state does not give an appropriate experience increment making up for it out of local funds would be extremely expensive and that's what I was referring to earlier right okay I think that's an important note for us remember uh our colleague Miss buyer always likes to talk about how we need to go to the state and advocate for more money and it's true the state is who reimburse us for some of these dollars um so there is a motion on the floor there's a second I'm sorry there's more questions yes Miss Lewis as well Mr Crutchfield did you have a chance it feels like we have an unusually large number of employees in a hold harmless category have you had a chance to um investigate that at all as far as best practices and how we move forward I have investigated how many such employees are held harmless but if

you continue with stepped schedules and Implement uh uh a slightly revised version of the salary study I would Advocate that every employee be placed on a step on the new schedules rather than in a held harmless status and that would be so that they would have assurance that they would move every year correct right and and that was how our most recent recent uh salary study was designed um I I appreciate that and I appreciate you you walking us through some of the complexities of this the 15% raise just to be clear and I know others have asked this but your concern with that largely is that if we mve people up there are many people that we would have to move back down if you didn't grandfather in that minimum level of increase yes thank you and then my last question was around um the policy so I had the

policies that you have recommended that we do a salary schedule reclassification Revis implementation and the effective date and then my other question goes around policy with yearly increases would that be a part would that be a part of the policies with the salary schedule that a step would happen each year or is that another policy because as I understand it sometimes people got off steps based on the individual departments um making recommendations and putting people on steps um not by a standard practice in my policy template the way I word it is the board of education's goal is to implement an experience increment every year subject to budget availability um we have additional questions Miss Carter Aon yes thank you U Mr Crutchfield just

as we're looking forward to um when you'll be able to present us with a revised recommendation uh it's of great interest to me and I think um others on the board to make sure that we are able to see um where each of the positions and salaries lines up with neighboring District districts right we don't want I think we heard loud and clear in public comment tonight that people are keeping an eye on that and um I don't want to lose any of our very experienced staff to other districts so will you be able to show us um for each as you make your recommendations how things line up with Wake County chapal carbo orange Alamance Guilford for example so that we can then make as an informed decision as possible and avoid losing staff if possible I I think the the salary study that you have received did a very good job of that in

general but I think there are a few categories that I would want to consider uh slight adjustments to but I think in general the salary study did a very good job of trying to make you if not competitive possibly even more than competitive with neighboring districts thank you I app appreciate that and I'm wondering just like um if you're if you are able to do you think when you present the information to us show us the comps for the neighboring districts it's not as easy to do so as it is for teachers because the data is not maintained at the state level but uh I will see what we can put together thank you any other questions I do also want to address I think as we talk about next steps and creating new schedules one of the things that I know

um that the hill study did and a lot of our really veteran folks really appreciated was relieved a lot of the compression that's currently on the schedule and I want us to see how we do that as well as we think about whatever moves forward to try to make sure that folks who stay in Duram public schools and continue to serve in Duram Public Schools see the incre increases um that they deserve uh as we go through this study so I think it's about making sure we lift our folks who are um some of our lowest paid folks but as well as making sure as you stay and so many of our folks have been here for a long time that they can see the increases that they deserve on that end too okay um so there's been a motion it's been seconded any other discussion Miss Valladares I'm sorry I didn't see your hand um I have a question yes um Mr Crutchfield do did you receive any of the commentaries provided by the hill group throughout the um did you receive there there are a couple of items that the hill group has shared uh since this whole debacle and

5 and and how and they continue to also talk about the ranges that they're Within ncdpi range do you have any anything that you want to say in terms of because the initial implication for example in some of the examples are that some of these uh percentage salary percentages were a little high um but they're saying

they're all within the range of ncdpi how do you know how often they change NC dpi's recommendations for the ranges of these things or any context with NC dpi's opinion versus what you recommend to this District the the ncdpi ranges are applicable to every school district who pays employees out of state funds and if you pay somebody outside of that range you on the upper end you would have to reimburse the state out of local funds for that difference the current ncdpi salary ranges were revised substantially two years ago and implementation was postponed until July 1 2024 but that is the those are the ranges that will be implemented July 1 2024 and that would be what I would be trying to make sure that all of your

5% is that what you're saying or the that recommendation by ncdpi is already in place that recommendation by ncdpi is already in place they have not had steps in their ranges for 25 years okay they just give a minimum and a maximum you have to pay at least the minimum and you can't pay above the maximum they don't have any recommendation on what you do in between do do most districts use steps it's I'd say yes majority use steps not all do though in Winston Salem for scye we eliminated steps 20 plus years

ago what do you use if you do not use steps you use percentages okay so you get you grant percentages above the minimum for previous experience and then you give percentages above current pay for implementing pay increases and is pay is are the percentage increases still based on is it not based on years of experience well the placement on those schedules is based on years of experience based on that percentage above the minimum and where the person was when you implemented those schedules okay so they're like they're similar to steps in a way but there's percentages they basically use the same firm numbers they use the same logic okay they just don't necessarily tie total years of experience to a a

particular step the reason I typically like those is because so many districts have found it impossible to Grant annual experience increments okay so that they experience does not ever match uh their their pay step because it's hard to because of the it's hard to afford that that's correct okay and and you just mentioned that if someone is up on is on the upper end of the scale that um for the DPI suggests that then the district might have to pay if you pay anybody above the maximum that is okay that is one of their uh schedules now there are some employees some classified employees that they don't have a schedule for and there are some groups of employees that they have groups of schedules that you can

choose between so most of the you know for example clerical the state ranges are five different pay grades and you can choose to use any one of those five different pay grades so I doubt that any of your clerical positions would ever exceed the range maximum okay that's why the example I gave of data managers doesn't exceed the range okay okay I see okay thank you sorry Miss Beyer the questions just keep coming um Mr Crutchfield one of the things that I appreciate you bringing in is is what the state you know ranges are but also what the state um provides on behalf of these folks so as we um go ahead and and build these schedules that's important what's also been important to me as we evaluate this and build this going forward is that it that none of our employees live in a vacuum they are all

connected and the tapestry of of certified and classified staff together and and what classroom Educators who are our largest employee group earn um in comparison and in contrast to to these certified positions I think that's important as we weave together uh salary study for Durham public schools that feels Equitable fair just for everyone um so I think they how they how they interrelate is super important going forward M if it helps any my my wife was a kindergarten assistant for 10 years so I I I learned firsthand every night at the dinner table what goes on and why why the classified employees are so important Miss [Music] valaris I have another question um were

you able to collaborate with our um our staff um our Administration for example we have misser oio and we also have um Dr Ben uh sorry Dr King um there's there's uh answers to questions from the board and there there's a lot of narrative in there I'm wondering if you collaborated on anything further than this presentation and the memos that you sent to our chair and Darren and Smith and then that they shared with us um so my I guess my question is precisely on uh a comment that I saw about how this might impact um growing together how it might impact some of the um other initiatives that we have and bring it back to the context of the state the state has imposed this is not just from this year for many years actual caps on spending and my understanding is two categories which comprise two of the

75% and it is now closer to 133% and so when it comes to these State cops on the most vulnerable children and we're faced with not giving adequate resources I can understand why some of the folks who have talked to us are like in in in this current CL like climate of caps on our budget we have to leverage every single lever to make sure our kids get their due because the demographics and DPS are very very clear we don't have those percentages of um es like ESL

students or um students that are served by the EC Department it's not commensurate with that cap and so because of that it is so important to pay our instructional assistance because they actually you know do provide services to our youth and so we want to be able to leverage all that so my question to you is with these cops that we have and the recommendations that you brought us based on our budget I I wonder if you think it's a recommendation for us to revisit discretionary funds that we got through McKenzie Scott I know this is putting you on the spot what is your what is your uh opinion about this but we got $18 million and we at that time that we were not in a crisis designated it in different ways and I'll will tell you there's there's one number that says there is $1 million and that $1 million figure is for Teacher housing now we have heard some Partners in the community their name's self-help you know this is a community conversation so I'm not

sharing anything from post session these are actual conversations that people have had about their ability to provide subsidized housing and they have locations for their properties and so we don't really have a plan for that $1 million for uh teacher housing and so there's other things like that UND discretionary funds do you think that as we're having these conversations about what we can actually fund tonight do you think that everything including undis I mean unrestricted funds by a philanthropist McKenzie Scott can be on the table do you do you do you recommend that at all I'm aware that your Administration is looking at all of those issues and don't please don't get me started talking about the equity of State funding you will be here all night well there's one thing that that I when I started I asked my question and and and I do want to get an answer did you collaborate on a document that said

um that it was you know our board questions and um it's a document that is is is a response to our concerns would you coll did you collaborate with the administration in that um yes you did okay so there's there's one there's one thing that um I have had to sit with because um during public schools for all these years has not been able to have representation in the ways that we need um there are a lot of children who don't see themselves in buildings we have zero um I'm not going to say zero you know what we had I'm but it's it's it's I'm lifting one finger right of principles that that um that represent a constituency that is over 34% and we have a group of inter interpreters that have to get up earlier than five because they have to deal with our buses we don't have we don't have representation that can tend all these calls when moms are calling about the bus not showing up and all that and so in this current state of limitations that we have in terms of representation including in leadership we only have two

District leaders that actually identify with this immigrant community that is very large in this District um my question about that memo or that not that memo let me that information that I that you you know that you did collaborate with them is that it mentions funds that have been uh how growing together would impact and I actually want for you to tell us um how do you think it's it's going to impact growing together and also DLI which was mentioned and singled out and I wanted to understand a little bit about why because I think what I what I understand is that we may not know how to fund certain things about growing together but I want to I want to hear that we're going to do the right thing for programs that are going to benefit all children and prepare them to be worldclass employees anywhere they Go multilingual Multicultural and diverse as they are in DPS and so we cannot you know put anything on a sacrifice table um because of this mistake it it we cannot do that and so what I want to hear from you is

DLI was singled out in that report um as something that doesn't really have any funds attributed to it and growing together has all the designations already that I would like to revisit and I just want to hear from you whether that can be on the table as well I'm sorry I misunderstood your initial question okay our superintendent is g to answer that I have not reviewed that those documents I think I can answer that um I think I think what you're referring to is really uh information about the fact that there are other initiatives in the district that need funding um they're growing together is present in McKenzie Scott in a number of different ways um but whether it's DLI or growing together there are additional positions that are needed for schools in order to implement the programs that have been approved as a part of growing together but right now there aren't funds designated for those additional positions and there's

training there's resources there's a number of things and some some places there are funds but in some places there are not funds so having flexible funds that are available to begin the work of completing what the board has approved for those initiatives is important moving forward and that that's actually part of a setting budget priorities for 2425 conversation that'll be coming up in a few minutes I appreciate that and and I look forward to you know making sure that that is written in so that we're not saying it's in the air we may do it we may not because those positions are about a program that's going to really give Durham the upper hand Durham children the upper hand and I don't know uh Mr crutch Village if you speak more than one language but I we you know I've had eight years of Spanish eight years of Spanish I give you credit for that and you know we've been telling our teachers dual lingo is free and we've been trying to continue to build capacity for multi multiple languages so thank you so much for that I I will address one other thing quickly if I if I may you I said don't get me started on the equity of State funding but I but I will say that the LEP funding source is

the worst e in terms of equity of State funding absolutely and you were exactly correct the EC Lobby has managed to get the cap raised a couple of times in the past few years and the Le funding needs a similar Lobby I remember what I was going to say Mr Crutchfield quickly so we do not want to hear when your recommendations come to us I'm sorry I am fighting for something I am here for this seat belongs to the people who never had a voice and if you don't like it you have to bear with it because I have been duly elected to do this job and you're going to let me do my job and if you don't like it do your booze but I'm going to say what I'm going to say thank you and this is why politics messes with our kids because your politics tells you I'm your enemy and I'm not I'm on your same side I'm fighting for you but you know what the politics of who you like and who you don't like has to stop here this man people have told me he's a republican you know this man man just you know I we can be different different uh different uh uh political affiliations and we will work together because he actually wants

to help us what I wanted to say is if you bring recommendations will you please never suggest that we cut in the areas where we're bleeding the most and our kids in Durham will thank you that you never bring a recommendation where we're going to weaken our most vulnerable assets you know the assets that go to our most vulnerable students that's just your commitment please never make a recommendation like that thank you I want to I want to pause us there and I want to let's set this table really clearly it's important for us to be talking about the policy agendas that we have for our meeting today right so the things that are on our agenda around the budget and budget priorities really important that we do that and that we do not get into the personal lives of the folks that are in our doing this work right it's actually is we want to make sure we stay on the agenda whatever Mr Crutchfield presents to us it's our job as a board to make a decision right right what we want to cut and what we don't want to cut so he can he makes the recommendations on the numbers that's his job thank you for looking at the numbers and it could be an area that we

cut but it's our board's decision around what we cut and what we don't we do need to keep the conversation on the policy right it's it's got to be about our policy about our budget priorities on the agenda items that we're doing today not on the personal lives of of folks right they come here to do a really good job for us we appreciate the work that they do we can't talk about them all right so it's important that we keep that really clear sorry there is a motion on the floor there's a second and on the floor I'm gonna go to miss uh there's no more discussion I'm gonna go to miss Carter Alton this is to accept to receive the report from Mr Crutchfield Jess Carter a and I vote I miss Rogers I miss vadz thank you Mr Crutchfield I vote I miss berer I miss Lewis I miss Chavez I and I vote I as well it's accepted unanimously thank you Mr

Crutchfield all right so the the next item on our agenda is a continued review of options for the classified salary schedule I'm gonna uh pass it over to enim superintendent Moore to get us started thank you chair I'm said I'm G to get us started this evening um with the presentation if we can go ahead and pull it up on um the compensation study implementation options and what staff is bringing to the board for review this evening I'm going to go ahead and get started if you want to go ahead and move to slide three I'm generally in the practice of um establishing desired outcomes for what we hope to accomplish through the discussion and any action that is taken and where we are today is we want to um ask the board to finalize the 23 24 classified compensation schedules for the remainder of the year we want to make sure that we are identifying a clear source of funding and reviewing any potential impact based on what that decision might be we want to provide certainty and stability to our staff our classified staff for the remainder of 23 24 for

what their salary will be we also want to make sure that we are providing Clarity and um expounding on the how steps and experience will continue to be a part of the rest of the schedule for 23 24 and then we want to make sure that we sort of bookend this by continuing to prioritize increased compensation goals for 2024 and 25 um I actually raised and sna my fingers a little while ago because this is an ambitious work it is the right work um and if it takes more than one year to accomplish it we've got to keep moving in that direction and make sure that we arrive at at really what is not a goal because it's a continually Jour it's a continual Journey because that that bar is going to move and we need to keep moving with it so um those are our desired outcomes for this evening I'm going to turn it over to Dr L for the actual options superintendent Moore chair Umstead members of the board we present

um to you tonight two compensation options both involve eliminating the heel compensation schedules and considering two different um percent increases for staff from the 2022 23 salary schedules we can move forward I'm going to advance to option one option one would restore the 2022 23 classification um salary schedules across the board with an 11% increase maintaining verified public and private experience at a rate of one to one the 11% increase is comprised of the 4% from the state and 7% from local funding the this option would eliminate salary grade changes and some employees would receive less compensation than what they were quoted in their January

2024 letter funding for this option is available for the 2023 24 um fiscal year we could advance to op option two option two would also restore the 2022 23 classified salary schedules with an across the board 15% increase also maintaining verified public and private experience at a rate of one to one this option would eliminate salary grade changes also and some employees would receive less compensation than what they were quoted in their January 2024 letter it should be noted that funding for this option would require an additional $2 million over our current 2023 24 fiscal budget allotted for personnel next slide

please Administration was asked to assess impact this slide is designed to summarize and be transparent on the impact act on the approximate 1,8 um 875 employees paid on salary grades 54 through 78 please note that we say approximate because the database used to review this impact is a snapshot in time and we have employees entering and leaving DPS daily you can clearly see that with options one and two there are 74% and 61 um perc of employees respectively who would see less compensation than the October letters they received that were um outside of budgeted amounts to cover employees salaries from the January 2024 letters

35% would see a decrease with um the 11% option and 30% with the 15% option conversely you will also note the impact of the 11 and 15% options on the percentage of employees who would actually experience an increase next slide this slide indicates a slight adjustment to the prior slide to zero in on a group of employees making less than our Benchmark which was a firste teacher salary plus supplement that amount is $3,450 this represents approximately $158 employees from the total set on salary grades 54 through 78 among this group with options one and

two there are 68% and 52 % of employees respectively who would see less compensation than the October letters from the January letters 31% would see a decrease with the 11% option and 28% with the 15% option with both options there are significantly less employees who would experience a um decrease at this time I will turn it over to superintendent Moore to review with you some next steps thank you Dr if I if I could just make a as a clarify clarifying question about the previous Slide the percentages there are not about making less but the percentage that are below the Benchmark that we chose as a cut off

of 43450 right okay it it's it is a bucket of employees who make less right so it shows you the difference in the impact for what would be our um lowest paid employees from our entire classified salary group thank you so I'm gonna I'm gonna go over the next steps on the next slide but I I'm probably going to insert some comments as I move along and I have notes but they're not scripted so we know that whatever the board implements this evening we've got to have substantial draft FAQs for classified Personnel based on any changes that are made this evening because folks are going to have questions uh HR has been in the practice ever since this has been going on of meeting with impacted employees one-on-one to review individual concerns ensure that there's understanding that needs to continue and we want to continue to work with our comp troller and and I think

this point is really important because the the these are two sort of things that are step lock one is making a decision about what the schedules will look like for the remainder of this year and the second is that we need to do the work to what I've been calling and I think every board members heard me say this a reset on what happened with the hill implementation and the study that was done Hill did exactly what we asked him to do they provided the information they told us what the market rates were they gave us a schedule all all of those were the things that that that we asked of them and then the district took that information and created some schedules made presentations to the board around implementation and what we have found after those decisions were made was that there the financial modeling on what that was going to cost the district was either inadequate or you might and or there was an assumption that the funds could be found to implement it as I guess the

5 differential between steps is not a problem if we we have the funding for it exceeding market rate is not a problem so long as we have the funding for it so I think it's it's important to to say again that this is an ambitious Visionary work that is happening it is long overdue it is needed nobody else is tackling this like this and we didn't do it well okay so so we now need to regroup

and reset and and that really is what we're trying to do this evening is to put a pen in where we are for the remainder of the year as a superintendent I am going to bring a recommendation that is within budget that is what a superintendent will do but I think it's really important to not lose sight of the fact of what the work is that's before us to not lose the momentum and not lose the vision of what this was intended to do because it is what's right for our kids for our schools for this community and so so that that's what I'm looking forward to as we go to the next step after this evening I think that um and you know I I would be remiss if I didn't tack on to the fact that while this current situation that we are in is one of our doing with regards to how this was implemented and not well I would be remiss if I did not say that these conversations would be very different if our school systems our public employees were adequately compensated as the

Constitution requires our legislators to do that doesn't take away anything from the mess that we're in right now that is a Durham mess but but it but it is they do kind of go hand inand and so um I just wanted to say that um and again the last thing that I would say is you know this is not a destination um this is a journey Market rates will change what it stays to be Market competitive will change and we need to continually update and move and flow with in that direction um you know th this is fabulous work and to know how much the community supports it and wants to do it and I hope that that that commitment will bear out as this board and this current superintendent for the next few months anyway will prioritize what that funding looks like moving forward and those who support us in that those are my comments

but this uh we do now have discussion thank you all for that presentation and so just just to be clear what staff is recommending at this point and I think that's been made clear already I was is that the board take action to approve the 11% above the 2223 provide certainty and stability to our staff about where their salaries will be between now the end of June and then with the understanding that we are tasked with bringing back new salary schedules that reflect what the board's will is around the market study compensation compensation create a path forward for however long this will take in order to do and what that kind of money and commitment looks like with good numbers and um and I do think it's important that uh and I have we haven't figured out exactly how to do this so I'm upward for suggestions just don't yell them out um for how we engage those that are most impacted in what those options look like moving forward prior to board

adoption thank you for those recommendations um board members we have questions or discussion Miss Rogers I have two like clarifying questions um the first one is about I think it's slide eight where we see the assessing potential impact um Dr L can you can you share with us a little bit or anybody um why salaries would go down from January and what that means there so as far as why salaries would go down um from the January letter is because we are basing it from their 2022 2023 letter and so you have some individuals who would have even from the January 2024 letter if their

increase okay from their 2022 23 compensation was greater than 11% okay then they would be receiving less at just 11% doeses that make sense so if your if you received a January letter that was 20% higher than your 2022 23 compensation than doing a flat across the board 11% means you would be making less okay you would be making less than what had been quoted to you but you're still making more money from 2022 23 okay that was my followup question um so when we look at these percentages on this slide if there was a column for 2022

2023 and we select option one 100% would have an increase an option two 100% would have an increase okay and this is just 1875 employees correct well based on a snapshot based on the snapshot okay thank you any other questions uh we'll go to miss Carter Aon in the swing backr um thank you I um I just want to acknowledge the frustration that I heard in public comments and that we've seen in emails about the same two options coming up before us um and I'll just start by saying that

I was also very frustrated initially um I would like things to also move faster I want us to be able to fix this mess faster I want new Solutions now or yesterday or last week for various reasons that has not been possible and I think this is where we are here now today and um I'm looking at this now as a two-tiered approach as our interim superintendent stated this is one step you know I don't like that we're making we're having to make a stop Gap measure now but I want this to be a step to then do something far greater and better and for this to be a process for us I'll stop there for now and then may have some additional questions or comments later

M all right um thank you for bringing this to us this is continues to be very difficult um do have I do have some questions and I think um Carrie you reported this information to us about the true cost of sorry Mr cutfield um of what the true cost of paying the around hund 1300 um workers who are affected by this let me back up that it costs more than we previously thought um you stated that it costs around a million dollars rather than 700,000 to pay people based on the October letters each month is that correct and could you elaborate he said one more time Mr

Crutchfield in the mic I'm sorry it would be approximately $1 million do more per month than was available in the budget okay and so my trying to understand this I guess what was why did we think it was less and maybe Mr gel there a question for you why did we think it was less and it's actually more no I can answer that oh okay okay great the the board had indicated previously they did not want to decrease the hourly paid workers so the $700,000 calculation was based on knowing that those would not change so the 700,000 was just the salaried employees impact the the hourly paid employees impact was going to remain either

5 million in fund balance in well we just we just officially approved it um but when we approved it in January to cover salaries from July through through January we were only covering salaries and uh or I mean was there a discrepancy there because we were um that would that was based on the $700,000 a month was there additional fund were there additional funds needed basically that weren't approved there will be additional funds needed 300,000 per month 300 thou approximately 300,000 per

month plus the month of February okay I think it's also important to note that those Figures were how much in addition to the other salaries like we were comparing option one option two option three so those figures that were given were the difference between the two options also it was not necessarily addressing how much over budget or how much it was in comparison to the budget itself it was it was more of the Apples to Apples comparison of if I'm looking at these two options what is the difference between the options like the two option in January so okay that's what we were and there will be again make sure I'm clear there will be $300,000 per month more or say it again where where's where that's coming from since that wasn't budgeted for either is my understanding the 300,000 for hourly workers well and and I do think it's

important to understand we have been all of us them and me have been a Valu valuating the entire budget to try to come up with additional resources to cover this and so we have even since I mentioned the $1 million dollars we have identified some additional resources so we will need to recalculate everything a new and come to the board with an additional budget amendment to budget the amount of fund balance that we think will be necessary and again then based on whatever action you take tonight also and that is in addition to what we've already allocated correct the the budget amendment in January was based on a $700,000 number we will need to re-evaluate that it probably won't be a full million but it will be it might be above 700,000 but we're you know we're still looking for

additional resources to to cover this so thank you m trz um so then this is my question in that with this line of questions um what then is is the true cost of covering classified salaries at the rate that they are currently at from March through June March April May June $4 million roughly probably not because you have 10-month employees and you have 12month employees the 10 month employees do not get paid in June and they're the majority of your employees so the million dollars would be applicable for March April May or somewhere in that neighborhood and then June would be a lower figure thank you all right other questions um this is

another I well this let me just tell you what I'm interested in knowing um I don't know that we have this data right now I know that superintendent Moore you've been working vigorously since you got here and um there's been a lot for you to dig through Mr Crutchfield and also Mel you have stepped up and um taken us on as well so um but what I'm wondering is on um the slide with group one those 1,027 people who would go down I'm with the 11 % I'm particularly concerned about that the going down and how much and I don't think I would be interested in any information you have about that it um but I'm wondering we know how many and that's helpful to know trying to get an idea I know we we're just interested to know what that

significant difference is going to be we've just heard so many stories of people making various commitments with their funds as as we all do and uh for those who make under 43,500 or 43 43,500 essentially that's it's not much to live off of especially if you have kids so I am just wondering how that's going to impact um people is there any more data that we have about that and I know you've been crunching numbers and trying to give us as much as you could we do have some additional um data I understand that those numbers are there but what it does not tell you is the span is it a decrease of five dollars or a decrease of $500 and so I think miss oju you have some yeah as Miss oio gets ready to

start with what the information that she has I I also feel compelled to say that um our systems our processes our communication and and how people interact and work across different divisions and departments and our systems and our processes I mean our checks and balances our flow of paperwork um our the systems that we actually use that are you know our Erp system which is halfway implemented we have a new program that's halfway implemented and the part that's not implemented is the payroll and HR part um we have work to do there that's not adequate either and so it's it's it's you know trying to understand where the money is and and how to best apply it but there are barriers in this the systems processes communication and how we cross across work across departments

now that need to be improved to actually be highly functioning as far as the lowest um PID group the data that I have evaluates the entire group of 1875 um so if you're looking at unaffected individuals we're looking at 486 unaffected individuals they either unaffected or or minimally or get more um people who are affected less than $100 a month there's 276 um between 100 so G sorry can you just say them again and a little slower for us thank you yes um those individuals that are less than $100 a month it is 276 Miss Beyer you are talking about the

whole 1875 the whole 1875 and then between 101 and 250 there are 227 individuals between 251 and 500 there are 290 individuals in this data set and then individuals that are between 51 and $1,000 there's 476 can we clarify if it's the January or October I don't remember hearing that that would be from the October from October I just thought that was important in those numbers yeah and then those individuals that have a reduction in excess of $1,000 is

120 thank you and there is no way there is no way to know at all how many of those people would be on the lower end of that scale in particular in that exact data set no I mean I do know that there are 158 that fall in the group but that's the more and less actually I tell you 1027 get less in the lowest end using but I can't give you the dollar amounts in that calculation okay and that's using the beginning year teacher salary as the index yes that's using and it's the beginning year based on the FY 23 because it's assuming we haven't made any increases so that's a baseline of 43450 okay can you repeat that first number that you you gave this this

number of employees would be impacted sorry in the100 less than $100 category no sorry after you gave the list of the different groups you said I think Miss Chavez asked around under that four 4,300 threshold number is that so the first year teacher salary that we used to calculate these were was 43450 because that was the the fiscal year ending last year the FY 23 fiscal year and that I'm sorry but I just want to clarify to make sure that's the teacher salary plus supplement yeah and I want to make one additional comment editorial many of the data requests that have come in and about how we slice and

dice the data and get really granular about who and how people are impacted they they are reasonable requests that should be able to be fulfilled by how we press a button and get a report out that tells us and I'm just telling you right now that can't that doesn't happen um and that goes back to the systems the processes the infrastructure how people communicate across departments how data is input into the system perhaps for the sake of expedience but then it does not allow you to pull out the granularity of what you need moving on later that needs work as well fact that the software and payroll was written in 1980 literally I know that because I was there when it so all of that is

um Mr G that is um something that we are all struggling with mightily and I know you have been too as you have looked at different scenarios um I want you to have a chance because we we talked Miss Rogers and I with you yesterday trying to press on this 11% and where it came from we were saying 12 we were looking for more money we were trying to scrape and find what was left um the 11 seems like a random number but it actually is essentially the maximum amount of FL of raises that we can give that keep us within budget the rest of the year with the budget that we have reconcile the way that it currently is that was the threshold of where we started to see things change negatively so yes so so we calculated what we had available 11% is

where we landed with having the budget in good standing and then each percentage you said takes us up about a million dollars for this group of employees it comes from school operations and other student efforts and then we have already supplemented the budgeted amount for these employees over $5 million this year just to be clear um this is an impossible um decision for this board and one that we are struggling with mightily um I appreciate superintendent Moore coming and actually being clear with us and um saying we when it wasn't her problem but she has come right in and um owned it with us I know I along with my colleagues had have re-watched every meeting have reread every minutes have

read minutes and dug into spreadsheets and um apologize again and again and again to each and every one of you that that your lives are caught in this this is not what we wanted for you um I appreciate the plan that is brought here so that we can work with experts and reset with an 11% and give you all certainty about checks coming forward Miss Rogers I just have a question it goes back to the earli your questions around um the hourly staff versus the salary

staff and that uh difference between the 700 and the 300,000 um Miss Moore I hate to put you under some pressure um I've gone back and looked at other meetings like Miss buer has shared I'd love to see some documentation about when we made that decision as a board and why particularly around when we go to do the next salary schedule um see if we can find some information about that thank you okay thank you other comments questions board members do I have a couple I just want to um we you all have talked about recommendations that are within budget

and I want to just kind of be clear about when we say within budget what does that mean it feels like a very simple question but I think it's an important one to kind of name like how we've yeah what that means we are we have basically identified how much of your total local budget is available to implement the increase and you have already spent eight months for 12m month employees and seven months for 10mth employees based on the previous implementation all seven and eight of those months were paid in addition to the monthly amount that would have been available in the budget MH there are three more months of 10-month employees and four more months of 12month employees salaries that can be paid and the

11% makes those payments match up with the monthly amount available in the budget you will still be over the seven and eight months worth that's been paid and you will and and basically we are looking at kinds of one-time funding to cover that but that one-time funding will not be available next year yeah once it's once it's expended it's the one-time funding is gone so anything as of July one will will need to be within annually budgeted funds right I appreciate that I think that's one of the things that makes this so tricky when we're talking about salaries they are reoccurring funds right and so why one time gifts can be used for shortterm purposes they don't allow us to sustain that for the longer term right um and if we are to continue going over our budget that puts the district in a budget deficit in order for us to

cover that deficit what will we be looking at I I'm I'm not 100% through with my evaluation of this year's budget I feel reasonably comfortable that using all of your one-time funding you could continue but I would not recommend using all of your one-time funding one-time funding fund balance is for emergency purposes and emergencies can arise in many many different ways okay that's helpful to hear I think um um I looked at the calendar it's been six weeks I think since we've been in this turmoil um and I while I you know I don't love every single option today what I do appreciate about the

options that it allows us to stay in budget and I think what's vital for us to consider is what happens next that is a sustainable budget that we can continue to increase our employees salaries for the future and many of you have asked about the county meeting that has was postponed and I'm happy to address that during normally the typical meeting of the joint meeting of the Border County Commissioners and the Board of Education the Board of Education discusses their budget priorities and so we start to give the county an idea of what we're looking at for our budget ask the board has not been able to talk about our budget priorities yet and so we uh in conversation with superintendent MOA we asked to postpone that meeting because we know how important it is to be able to be partners with our County and go in and talk about what our budget priorities will be that's actually um as we've worked to increase our relationship and worked to support our relationship with the county we've asked to go in to share early what we think

our budget request might be so that was the nature of moving that meeting back and with the options that we have currently and the idea of bringing a new salary schedule them in March it gives us an opportunity if we need increased funding um to put that in our budget ask that is a reoccurring ask that we can have every year and so we can think about what does it mean to increase folks salaries for the 24 25 year and then we know if we include that in a budget ask that's a reoccurring fund that we could keep over and over um so I I think we are in a it feels like an impossible situation and it's been a challenging last couple weeks there's not a solution I I I wish I had the paycheck a book a pay uh U the account to write the money for it but we don't have that right at this moment and so I think that's what puts us in this really challenging position the other thing I know that we

are also thinking about as a board is a lot of our one-time funding is coming to an end soon um as many school districts across the country are navigating the end of Sr funding and eser dollars and we know that we have many positions that are currently in those roles and we want to make sure that we're able to continue to support our students support our schools and support staff members so I think there's a really there's a larger budget question that we need to be have uh in priorities that we'll talk about later today it's a multi-year conversation that I think that we really need to have around our budget um our board members probably are tired of me asking around how are we planning for the end of the the Esser funding and how do we plann for our budget in multiple years because of the needed ask of growing together of DLI of all the things that we know that are coming within the years how we want to retain really great Educators in all of our different positions we want to keep advocating for raises and so we have to think about that in a not just one term but multiple years so we can have

sustainable um raises and sustainable budget for our district so I think that's all we do have one just kind of technical question question on this presentation um if we can pull back up the slides I'm a person that needs to hear things sometimes multiple times so I apologize if you addressed this already but in the slide where you have assessing potential impact for group one can you explain the number there's January 2024 letter and then there's more and there's a number can you explain what that number represents like the 1,35 can you just like put it in a sence for me of what that number represents so the 135 based on the January 2024 letter means 69% of the individuals in group one would receive more than what was in that letter with the base of 11% from

2022 23 and just to extend that group one is the footnote at the bottom the 1, 158 employees that are currently making less than 43450 thank you that's clarifying for me is there any other comments or questions from board members I'm sorry Emily M Chavez I wanted to ask about fund balance and um use of it for emergencies what can you can you give some examples of emergencies that fund balance would be used for but from your experience what you've seen sure if you lost a baller if you had uh some kind of catastrophe that wasn't covered by insurance if for some reason the and

this is one that's happened at least three times in my career if the state ended up with a shortfall of revenues in any given year compared to their budget they actually come back and take away State allotment money and if you didn't have fund balance and mo a lot of times they take it back in May so if you didn't have fund balance you would not you would go into a deficit that year so those are three examples that I'm familiar with thank you m this is what I'll say this is very hard this has been hard um I I I I want to want to vote for the 11% because I'd like to move past this and um and I know that there's been a lot of

effort put into thinking through our looking at budget now I know the options are the same um I know there's also been new analysis that's been helpful for me to understand and I think a lot of us I you know I'm just gonna say I I have I have a hard time well these are my concerns I've said my concerns about people losing funds um for things that they've already committed to spending them on I'm also concerned about funds that you know with the like McKenzie Scott money that we did not budget for um I'm a question about why we didn't budget for them but I also um am uh I am concerned for the uh solid implementation of that um of growing together and all that we have um that we

have planned for that and I also when I when I think about most valuable resources for our students I I just think about the people who are with them every day and it's not a value that I want to say I'm not none of us are opposed on that value up here we have we discuss this like every day um and and that's just what I think I think like my vision is that we have our kids are surrounded all the time especially in middle school but um all the time it with people who see them and love them and and just and see them and um and obviously teach them and teach them to um to see the world in new ways and all those things I just have a hard time letting go of the idea that we might not be able to to fund people

um through the end of the year at what we've committed I feel um and I know that we have um some of the fun some of the funds that are available might not um that are unrestricted might not be there um but but yeah that's I guess that's I just um I'm having a hard time getting with the 11% and and not knowing who in the especially in group one is going to lose when you say who are you speaking of positions in particular um like how many positions um like numbers like how many are there a lot of people at who are living at a rate where it's already it's

not affordable to live in durm making you know under $45,000 pretty much and so are those people losing you know over $100 are those or most you know only two and I know that um especially for those who are losing more than that so so I'm conflicted as as usual any other comments or question questions from MERS may I say something yes Miss Carter I'm Sorry Miss oh go ahead I thank you for this um conversation from our board colleagues and um the conversation about the Hill study and where we stand and how we can move forward to remove the hill study removes tension um around our budget and

what was approved um also implementing the years of experience back um knowing that this was done built on an inaccurate financial model that our budget cannot support and I heard various public comments and questions and I've had some conversation with Miss Moore about this I am going to direct this question to you what prevents and I guess nothing prevents us but what are the considerations that would cause um app pause for asking for additional funding request from 2324 what are some and I know this is your next presentation but can you speak to some of those considerations of a request to the board of County Commissioners I I think in general terms

you know one-time funding is a stop gap for a salary schedule that we're not planning to implement is is problematic and I think what what I what I think we should seek as a district is permanent funding to implement the schedule that we determine is is what you know informed by the the hill study a reset with understanding what our where our budget actually is and and where we want to move forward potentially over more than one year depending on on what we see because if the the total cost of this ends up being $20 million um we've only got a little over $4 million that came from the Commissioners last year for this and so there's a there's a there's some big asks in front of us as we move forward to get to the market rate and and what I'm saying is we need to do the work to get to the market rate and and divied up in the pieces that we are comfortable with in terms of the requests that we make but it needs to be with permanent funding rather than implementing continuing to implement something that we we already know is not

going to work and then ultimately of course it is the board that that makes that call though and hold on let me see if I can find my question I'm GNA have Jessica go ahead I know she had a question I think was in a presentation let me pull that up again and then I'll come back to my other question I had for you Miss Moore uh thank you um I just I want to also state that I that part of the the biggest hangup that I have at this point is similar to what my colleague Chávez is talking about which is that we though we've tried to um we've not been able to get more information about who the folks are and more importantly the impact like

how large the decrease is right and I think that matters we're left with you know two not great options and don't have all of the information on who's being most impacted and um yeah my primary interest is making sure that we don't leave people unable to pay rent or pay basic bills by actions that we take tonight um so that's my concern I'm hoping that we can find a way around that Miss Carda-Auten is that the end of your your comments or did you have a question well I'm wondering if at this point like if um if Mr Crutchfield or Miss Beyer Jo could advise us on like is there some way for us to perhaps provide some type of a

one-time bonus um to those who are in that group one that would help give them a bridge like if we were to move forward with one of these plans and we know that there's going to be nearly 500 people whose salaries are going down even from January [Music] um so just thinking about like is that a possibility for a way to move forward Miss card out and if I could just maybe take that um I think if the board would like to direct us to see if that is an option if there are funds that are available that the district could use to do something to offset this if it's not in salaries I'm happy for us to go take a look and see if if there's something somewhere and and hope that we can thank you um is there consensus on the

board you like me to try do this this require a motion or we no but I think I think it is important to to sort of have consensus from the board it's not a motion it's not a vote just sort of direction that is um board directed by a majority board I think especially in those categories in that group one where I understand y thank you thank you and that was going to be the the question I was trying to come back to because I think you said um we need to consider our options prior to aboard adoption to work with the lowest page so I've written that down just wasn't sure where it was um so you know have having done research um analyzing the impact of our budget talking with classified staff at length and their supervisors um lamenting over the underfunding um from our public schools from the state level um holding these troops at the same

time as we decide how to move forward and there's good better and best Solutions and I want a solution that decreases harm and has a greater positive impact with assessing our long-term Solutions um um so directing the staff to look at those options for our lowest paid um would give me a bit more um reprieve to being able to move forward so thank you for that option M Rogers I'll make a motion that we accept option one for the remainder of this is school year 23 24 second been moved by Miss Roger seconded by Miss insire um or is there any other discussion I I do want to note as we get ready to vote we don't know where this will land but I think I've heard clearly from the board we do desire to figure out how to

raise continue to work to raise employees salaries and so the next conversation after this is about budget priorities and consider what does that look like in a permanent way right a stainable reoccurring way um that's a really important thing I think I want to note to everyone that's here and that's listening to us um we care deeply and value all of you in every single thing you do you're here tonight and we know you're gonna be up early tomorrow morning some of you at three and four o'clock to make sure our babies get to and um from school tomorrow and so we just I do want to say thank you and be really clear about that um desire for more permanent funding um Miss Carter Austin sorry um I want to say I I appreciate superintendent Mo that you have brought us something responsibly within budget and with the

um freedom I have as a board member to say I I can't in I I just feel that we should pay people what we told them we would pay them um I I know that our I know that our staff is um working so hard and we want to be we do want to do something going forward that is permanent that is moving toward um something that's I would like to see radically more Equitable um and and I yeah I I I've said it again and again I feel like our our integrity is um is important and I I I wish we had not um promised money that we did not have budgeted because that wasn't responsible to do

um and I also I believe we should pay people what we said we would pay them V if I could jump in a minute I would like to try to answer part of Miss Carter aon's question we were able to look thanks um Miss Beyer Jo just to breakdown and it's exactly what we had kind of talked about earlier if you'll remember what Mr Crutchfield showed about experience you don't see a particular Trend across a category of employment what you see is based on years of experience so when you talk about that impact from the lowest maybe up to $100 versus someone who may be over a thousand it is based on that scaled increase um from the steps and so I I just want to say you don't see like this happened to custodians you see it all across custodians based on years of

experience and I think that was noted in the presentation right that veteran a lot of our folks were on the veteran end had some of the larger increases which is what some of what the hill study did right and we thought that that was um we want to continue to consider how do we address compression so we can honor folks who've been here and been doing really good work for a long time um Miss oh sorry got I just want to just address soon what Miss Chavez just said um as you made that statement and wanting to honor what was said in October and I has asked you this question before are you looking for a solution towards that if it's not in our budget what is our solution for that to happen did you have a I thought you had some other thought around it this was a question that I posed to the administration I think I don't know two three weeks ago and so this was in our set of questions um that was answered um this week the board posed many questions um we got

them to Dr King on time last Tuesday and um and and um the administration did did answer those and so um I have many documents here um my my question or ask was please propose two to three ways that we could keep people at the same salaries they were told they would receive in October from March to June and um the the response was um that it requires one-time fund identifying onetime funding um the possibilities are um requesting funds from the county but I don't think that is of preference because we want to um we we want to ask the county for um for sufficient funds for what we you know want to propose for our budget next year um identifying funds District funds

um and this notes that the the board um has asked about McKenzie Scott which changes or eliminates previously identified needs and that over 75% of District funds is currently in Personnel so I don't feel that I'm the expert on this but um but I I had been looking toward you know maybe McKenzie Scott funds and some of fund balance but I you know I'm not the expert on on on our finances so I think I don't know if if um you'll want to speak to that at all like my my purpose in asking it was to find out what would be what would we sacrifice what would we need to do what would we have to sacrifice what would you know what would that involve I think I think what we're

talking about there is um you know the notion of continuing funds versus one-time funds where wherever they come from which I've talked about just a few minutes ago but but when you look at things like McKenzie Scott or trying to identify sources of funds from within the district it's it's it's about initiatives that we've already committed to but it's also about the things that are out there um well initiatives that we have committed to that we have not fully identified the cost or funds of and you know DLI is one of those all those schools need additional positions that is also Visionary work that the district is doing and um we talked about a little bit about the Esser transition the number of people that are on Esser and and and how we're going to move forward off of that transition um I think that when you look at the whole budget of all of the things that are coming before us

um the ask that we would want to make uh of the Commissioners who support us becomes unreasonable if you try to do all of those things at the same time and and you and to cover a whole any ho with onetime funding does take away from other places where one-time funding is what it's used for whether it's resources um or training those things that that um that are one-time funds just for instance Mr GI Jo do you have just like the the 113 folks on Esra funding that kind of salary level to maintain those folks have you run any models on what that alone would be next year Mr you can for the 113 that you were saying we over alloted the 113 well I did I was not thinking about the overall lotted but that's another category but the Esra funded folks the

the ones that are cropped up with Federal funding that's expiring and maybe I'm early before we get to budget conversations but well you know as difficult and important as the decision you're making right now the next agenda item is actually going to be more difficult because you're you're you've got the Esser funding cliff and you got the other unmet needs that you're going to have to try to find resources for permanent resources for and so you're faced with a double whammy that's part of what I was kind of alluding to when when we first started getting Financial concerns brought to us that this is this is one of of many um really difficult things that this board is facing there is a motion on the floor um it's

3 if the implementation of a salary study results in a reduction in salary or GR grade the employee must receive at least 30 days written notice prior to the effective date of the change this notice period

5 you can take the month of March and

in that 30-day period that we give people come up with a solution that will not allow us to number one waste $83,000 that we spent on a salary study about and actually leverage the information we got from there and implemented the right way the way it should have been implemented from the beginning is that time limit true that in the month of March you can you can clarify for us please the board has provided additional information tonight which is valuable information for anybody to use to implement going forward what it tells me is that I would want to present more than one option to the board yes forward thank you and so I might need a little extra time but I I'm sitting here the wheels are turning as as I'm here tonight I love that we're about Solutions we're we're trying to make this is a train wreck the wheels the wheels are turning the wheels on the

bus go round and round and so yes so so so so how much time like you you're so the month of March how much time do you think you would need to give us a solution to this problem which number one will include years of experience folks have said do not cut our years um and we'll include uh recommendations from the salary study that should be commensurate and should be should fit it shouldn't be a square pick and a round hole based on the what you in my presentation I had said I could have it by early March uh based on what I'm hearing now I'd like the full month of March the full month of March that's very considerate I think we have we have two board meetings in March 6 and the 21st I believe the Cadence is off maybe do the spring break okay um so I don't see it before the 21st um I mean that that could be my goal yeah but so maybe the 21st we can we'll shoot for the 21st and I do think that the salary schedules that you're bringing would be for the 24 20 would start July 20 2024

is that correct that would be my recommendation yes well there's a motion on the floor that's been uh properly moved and seconded I guess but I I'm not voting for that but I I guess it needs to be called for vote last time our uh attorneys didn't let me do a vote on a motion that was properly moved and seconded but this time we we do have to do that vote Yes we do have to be a vote did you have an amendment Mr v um my amendment is that um I I was going to amend for there to be a time and a date for this implementation of this salary study I'm not supporting um that it would be after um it would be implemented um not in the month of febru feary not in the month of March because we got to give 30 days um that it would actually be implemented after March 30th but you're bringing something to us March 26 you know I want to be safe it will not be implemented till July 1st of

2024 yeah yes to be clear what we're voting what the board has already asked staff to pay Folks at the same rate for February right so February checks will be at the same rate the folks were paid from July now through February this motion is around what schedules will be from March to June and then we'd have a recommendation that would come for schedules for 24 starting in July 1 2024 just for clarity so I think we're I think we're all on the same page um Miss Cara Aon will start with you I just need to say one more thing and then I will vote um just want to respond to to this idea of like paying people we promised them I I absolutely believe that our greatest asset is our staff we cannot meet the needs of our children improve their academic outcomes without our staff my concern is that if we move forward with paying some staff at higher

than Market rates we are hurting other staff so I'm trying to look at all of our staff as a whole and I think as as a board I think we're trying to do that here and make sure that we consider the needs of all all of our staff moving forward not just a handful so that's my concern with this idea of again of course I want us to keep our word but we have to balance that with this desire to support all of our staff and with that Jessica CA auton I vote I thank you Miss card Miss Rogers I miss vadz no miss berer I miss Lewis I miss Chavez no and I vote I so it passes five2 thank you um we are going to do a brief recess now and return in about 10 minutes board

members

we are now back from our brief re recess not so brief uh the next item on our agenda is the board and superintendent discussion of DPS budget priorities for 2024 2025 I'm going to get us started on this um so it is budget development time I think in the normal Cadence of the board you may have already had a meeting by the end of January to do this work but I I know that there have been other things um that need to take precedence but I thought it was something to that we needed to jump on quickly as I got here so I'm going ahead and throwing it in the fire the first meeting um because we do have a timeline and I think um based on a conversation with the county manager that I had earlier this week um the the the timeline and the sharing of information is a lot more extensive and much earlier in durum than than what I've been used to in the past but I think that's really great um and so here we go um again I'm going to start with

desired outcomes uh for what what I'm hoping that we will accomplish through this conversation I'm going to start by just reviewing the DPS strategic plan pillars um I've had a chance to look at that document and do that work and I think we always need to ground our conversations about our budget in our pillars in our strategic plan a budget is a values document and I think our work should reflect the values that we uh have put into our strategic plan um I want to review the current staff work that has already occur to identify areas of consideration and need things that we already know or in the pipeline that we need to discuss and then I'd like the board to react to that initial list and to discuss potential additional priorities or areas of consideration or dig any deeper into anything that might show up on a list this is the first step it is you know number one but this discussion will impact and influence how the superintendent's proposed budget that will come to the board by April 11th at the latest it I don't know they could come earlier but um uh the formal

presentation will come then um although clearly we will have some understanding of what's in there before that time and then the final consideration in our desired outcome is to identify a timeline for Next Step It is a um proposed timeline so there's room to do some work there as well as we get to it so starting with the Strategic plan pillars and you guys are more familiar with these even than I am um but I think they're really good ones and as I said they deserve that reiteration as we move into the public discussion of our budget priorities at that top that list is to increase academic achievement to provide a safe School environment that supports the whole child to attract and retain outstanding Educators and staff to strengthen School family and Community engagement and to ensure fiscal and operational responsibility so I would just ask that we keep those in mind as we speak to the priorities and provide feedback later on around what's missing what to add or

8 or something like that but it is around an average of 5% that and so I just I just need to say that that range exists based

on the the schedule adopted by the state and then for classified salary increases what's legislated for the second year the the Bal budget is 3% um and it was around 4% in the first year about 3% for overall 7% across two years so both of those first bullets we can go ahead and calculate right now what we think will be the impact on the local budget because the state will pick up up the cost of the raise for employees that are State paid paid out of state funds but every district has employees that are paid out of local funds and the local funds have to pick up the cost of the the raises for those individuals so there is a local cost to the state legislated raises that we do not have a choice about two other areas where districts do not have a choice um the legislation the budget from The General assembly increase the retirement rate

5 again we can get a pretty good handle on the cost of that in terms of how that's going to increase for the local employees For Whom The District needs to pick up that increase and then the same for the health insurance that increase from 7557 to 8095 for our locally funded employees is picked up by the district and I start with this because when you add all of these numbers up and you can see what the numbers were for last year I think last year the numbers for these same categories were somewhere around $5 million five or $6 million so we're looking at the same needs moving forward for the next year and then some additional budget considerations that staff has discussed and I think some of these have happened in public discussions with board members as well um there is a desire to see a a substantial increase to the teacher local salary supplement this is the

amount that Durham pays its teachers above and beyond the state minimum salary um Durham already has a teacher supplement and there is a desire to increase that supplement um I think I've even heard to try to lead the state in what the teacher salary supplement is and so there we're running calculations on different models for how much we might want to bring to the board to um increase the local teacher supplement um there has also been a conversation about the cost to uh pay the Master's pay supplement that the state took away a few years back um and to make sure that we would use local funds to pay our teachers with relevant Masters it would still be based on the rules that are in place for who is eligible for Master's pay but that the but that the local budget for Durham would take that up um there have been efforts for several years now to have the state use their

funds to reinstate Master's pay it has not moved in the general assembly to actual action um it's shown up in a few bills here and there but never never made it to the actual budget um there is a strong sentiment um across districts in North Carolina that this is another one of the state um obligations that is not being met so um both the teacher salary local supplement would impact all of the teachers in our schools if there was an increase there and the um Master's pay additional supplement would impact those teachers with relevant Masters I have put in here also discussion on continued focus on increasing classified salaries I think that is a is a given for us right now given where we are and where we landed tonight we've got to make sure we keep our eye on fulfilling the goals um of the Hill study with Market competitive rates for our classif staff and DPS I've also added addition and all of these have question marks because they

are discussions we have had they're not none of them are final yet so that's what the question mark means um additional funding for Capital needs uh if you look at how eser funds have been used in the last few years to meet some of the capital needs because we had the flexibility in the funds to do so um they will be losing a source of funding when the Esser transition happens um where we might want to consider increasing ing the funding line that is available currently for Capital needs we need to continue the support and identify the funds that are needed to uh implement the growing together plan that is that is another ambitious Visionary plan that this district has um that is uh does have a cost and an impact to implement and then I almost put this under the legislative impact slide but I couldn't decide where I wanted to put it but I think I wanted to talk about it last so here um there is always a charter school impact that um has to be

applied to anything that that we create in the local budget um as you all know um when D when the when Durham County funds DPS they are not just funding DPS schools they are also funding the number of students that are in charters in Durham County that is passed through funding that we do not keep that passes on to to the local Charter Schools based on the enrollment that they have and and they send us I think those lists every month um so Durham County funds both of those put together and and it stands to reason that if the enrollment in Durham County is increasing whether it's in Durham Public Schools or in charter schools then more funds are needed to meet the needs of those students based on M just even maintaining consistent for people funding so um and the charter school is is imp is one that you will see as sort of a non-negotiable we don't really have a choice about uh moving forward as

well I I also put additional departmental needs because our staff has worked really hard I you know I came into this and these these requests were already created on needs that different departments have across the district um based on the level of services they're providing to support our schools and our students and that includes things like curriculum materials for DLI additional support for literacy efforts in the district whether it's people or resources for ELA for Global language foral and all of these are a combination of people and stuff could be either one of those um there's additional funding that's being requested for professional development across the district that is also an area that was funded by the state at one time those funds were taken away from districts um and District now have to search the their local buckets to fill professional development needs there are some renewals for some core and supplementary resources that are out

there that our teachers have come to depend on and use daily in their classrooms where we need to look to see if we can find funds to continue those um as renewals expire I there's not been a district that I know of that doesn't have the next bullet on their list and that is additional funds to refresh student devices and to have hotspots and other technological resources for our students those things you know our computers do not last forever um we need technology in the classroom we need the hotspots provide students who don't have reliable internet access and so all of those things are things that if they are not in your operating budget that you seek funding for on a regular basis as as you're able there are some positions to support additional EC needs elll students we' talked about those both this evening as areas where the State caps the amount of resources that are available for those regardless of what the need might be in the district um there are requests to

look at how we support our beginning teachers more robustly so that we can keep them longer there are literacy needs digital media needs there's some needs around even old the old Northern High School as we are identifying ways to use that building to support needs in the district with training and other things there's a request to to have somebody that that be there to to maintain and support and and sort of take charge of that building um there are prek program needs I think that's also very closely tied to what's happening with growing together um and trying to have programs in all of our schools so that our students who are eligible for pre Services can be served in their base School rather than having to go to other parts of the district that is something that I that I've seen in many districts as well I and then there's social workers and that's really related toal above is also there might be people or it might be resources um we have found as we have returned from the pandemic that the needs of our students are are different and greater and some of these positions and people support

that um were not priorities uh in the past really need to be priorities as we move forward um and we know that most districts are woefully behind when it comes to nationally recommended ratios for counselors social workers psychologists Etc and then the the last one I alluded to a little bit in my comments earlier when we were talking about um this classified salary study implementation we need to look at some funding needs um for infrastructure and systems development Bas mostly in budget and finance um we are using systems that are not fully implemented or systems that are very old um and we need to improve our systems and our processes and and that's going to and while there's money that's needed for some of the stuff we are lck going to also need some training for a lot of people because once you start implementing more refined systems and processes if we create a budget manual that we ask all of our schools and bookkeepers to follow and Central services staff to follow you're going to need to have time and resources to train

folks on that so but I think all those kinds of things will support some of the changes that we talk about that we need to see and improvements that we need to see in how we we work through our budget and finance needs and Ure that funds are in place and that permissions are there and that that that all of the standard accounting practices that need to be in place are in fact occurring I also included a side on potential risks some unknown factors so we always have to think about what the federal state and local economic Outlook is um part of what happens a lot of times I believe in that joint meeting with the County Commissioners as they provide an update on their budget landscape and what's happening with their local Vues and how that impacts their ability to fund not just the school system ask but the other departments that the county is actually in charge of um so we need to understand what the local Outlook is in terms of what's happening with revenues um at the

state level and at the federal level you have funds that come through the state from DPI that are allotted to schools based on ADM or based on student needs depending on what that fund is and those can change um we also have Federal programs Title One title two title three um that also can change based on what we're doing with our student counsel what's happening and how the federal budgets are funded so we want to make sure that we are positioned to respond to those sometimes those changes happen late and we find ourselves having to cover a change that was unanticipated um and that is when you find that things like fund balance or restructuring are necessary or available so there are also you know we talked briefly about the Esser pandemic funds fiscal transition I'm just going to tell you I call it fiscal transition I do not like the word Cliff so um because it is a fiscal transition districts they those are

millions of dollars that districts have used in lots of innovative and different ways to cover needs as we recovered from the pandemic and that's people and stuff and we need to understand what that transition looks like for the district and and what our plans are for it because there are certainly needs that have been funded through Esser that are worthy of consideration of continuing but funding would have to be identified to do so I added potential changes to the legislative budget in year two even though they've adopted a biannual budget they can always come back in with additional changes and add to perhaps things that um that they have budgeted for uh and so I think we have to be prepared for that in case that happens and hope that they um complete that by June 30th nobody laughed okay um and then we have um continued staffing needs in in all area of DPS um and that's that I think is something

that we have to be really intentional and deliberate about and not forgetting as we move forward especially because we're looking at positions coming off of Esser funds that were identified by schools as needs there's been conversation about schools that have an overallotment of positions based on needs you know and so how do we continue to look at that work moving forward and determine what our priorities are and then continued review of the DPS current fiscal position um as we as was mentioned earlier today um we have an annual comprehensive financial report that is due to the board that that will better establish the current state of our fund balance because that's always in a rear that needs to come before the board so that we understand what our actual financial position is as we move forward with our ask for next year if there is a ask or or repurposing or whatever it might be that really was most of the comments that I wanted to sort of start this

conversation with today um and then as we move into the next section I welcome your thoughts on if there are needs risks or factors that you feel compelled to comment on to lift up and and prioritize based on on what you see in these slides or additional needs or considerations that are missing uh that you want to make sure that staff um adds and I'm and I'm gonna so Mr King would you mind taking any notes so that I can engageing conversation about where the board might go I appreciate that thank you sir thank you superintendent more for that presentation and a really kind of list of all the different needs for the district it ties so much into the conversation before um because we didn't talk about this earlier but figuring out our budget also figuring out how do we do this without making cuts that harm our schools and our students right so having these budget conversations and priorities is really important for us to

figure out how we can um not cut things that are benefiting our kids um comments questions from board members now I'm inspire I really um appreciate the way that you framed this I appreciate the aspirational um broad scope of needs that we've started to talk about um and if Leandro goes like it's supposed to 30 years ago will have the funding that these students need but um we've we're not holding our breath on that um I don't think we can leave this space without centering the needs of our classified staff as um one of our highest priorities as we rebuild trust um as that was profoundly shattered um I think of EC students and the focus on what needs might be unmet there I

think of um actually starting a budget look with a high level of transparency rather than doing a continuation budget but just not being afraid to just dig deep and see if there's any programming and anything we can do away with Community um has a lot of criticism of of some expenditures that they've seen um so I think that's going to be super important this year um I think digital literacy we've never gotten a good handle on especially whether it's appropriate for K3 pre3 and how that is best used and then I just dream of districtwide c um what it would it be like to have free lunch and breakfast like we already have breakfast free lunch added to that and how that impacts our Title One schools in a in a positive way um and so how we maintain that um growing together to me is one of the promises we have to

fulfill and it is coming quickly in July so um those are the things that come to the top of the list for me as we start this conversation M Rogers um thank you for the presentation I'm excited that we get to have a conversation about things going forward um like Miss buer has um shared I want us to make sure that we're keeping our people first right and taking care especially of our classified staff and our certified staff as move forward we always know Personnel is going to be the biggest part of our budget um I also agree with C especially as we think about growing together and students being forced to transition to different schools um that may not be C schools um and how we can help support that

transition and be more Equitable and be attentive to um how it impacts Title One um I think that if we can't get 100% this year then we need to talk about our approach as a district on how we get there how we move there and what parameters we're setting around that um I don't know I have a a few more years in this seat so I also think that I need to put in a plug for uh finding some Financial Funding for the Black and Hispanic student achievement plan I know it can't it may not happen this year but we need to keep asking over and over because we need to make sure that we're taking care of our most marginalized students and I want to make sure that um we have

enough resource with marketing and making sure that we are bringing people back to the district uh we have an opportunity now in transition as Miss moris says uh to transition into growing our enrollment numbers and um making DPS a great place for all students in durm to be and maybe putting some of these other schools out of business um and so I'd like to see us making sure that we're investing there think Miss Rogers any other Miss travez thank you Miss Beyer for this presentation and and giving us a lot of prompts um as well as just um you know some considerations as we look ahead um I would say for myself the first of all um the classified salaries and um

40 so I just want to keep that in mind and also um what Miss buer keeps saying come up to uh the rates that um the county is is paying its staff as well um growing together is another major thing um I'm

especially interested to hear if there are things that weren't um as as mentioned like weren't budgeted for or budgeted properly for um making sure that we have uh we're looking at what those things are um I have some of these are questions with the technology chair UPS said always raises this point this is one of her questions do we need to be one to one um so that's a question that I think um you know I hope we wrestle with as we as we think about what the expenses are going to be we are one yeah we are one to one um and then with the infrastructure and systems development one of the questions I have um is is are there substantial additional cost for implementing this the system that we already started to implement or is it is it really like the labor or

are there additional costs as well um besides labor um and then the other things I'm most interested in are um EC but we've talked a little bit about that I don't know part of it is that there is just a lack of the EC teachers that we need in the state and that is a value of ours to Ade you know not Ade only adequately but certainly at base adequately serve our students with special needs so I don't I don't know what that would look like we have offered bonuses in the past and and all of that and um it's uh it's it's a struggle to keep up with um EC needs without additional MI State funding and other things but um and then the last thing is is any way that we can better

support our students mental health um and what this presentation also makes me think about is and I mentioned this from time to time where can we build our Partnerships as well to leverage resources the plentiful resources of the community many of which are already we're already you know using and integrating into our schools but are there other ways to do that um or are there dollars that we can put toward mental health I'm very concerned about that um for our students and lots of ways I think it in some ways goes along with the black and and Hispanic achievement plan supporting our lgbtqia students um other marginalized students so thank you Miss Miss Lewis okay um jump right into because of the late hour um um thinking of our pillars I want to make sure we're working towards increasing our U academic achievement and also retaining and retention uh

qualified staff so Masters pay compensation is one of the highlights I want to make sure um stays um a priority and also um National for certifications that was up there but I'd like to add that Under the Umbrella currently we have 14% of our staff is nationally board certified and we know that once people are working towards their certific they are more likely to do things that help to close the opportunity Gap um with those um reflection time spending with the kids so in regards to the certified I think we could remove some barriers and maybe we can have a plan for a certain allotment to pay for their application that allows them to get the for certification that turns into funding the other thing um thinking about um CS that was brought up you know that would come from federal funding that wouldn't be a local funding request but I do still resonates with me that the C and the title one funding for for free lunches there was still some

tension between does it take away positions and I don't know that that's been resolved um when I hear those conversations I think we were working towards having a good balance of the two but I would like to see um if there's an opportunity for local funding so C Title One and local funding uh to support um Universal free launch and then the last thing I have we're growing together of course I want to make sure that is a priority and then financial and operational responsibilities um I think you already have that up there but the budget and finance um looking at adding additional positions and then as I've engaged with a lot of the classified staff I'm thinking about some of the positions such as our plumbers we have three plumbers across 54 schools and how many administrative buildings that we have and we're adding schools so I want to make sure that we're um looking at those work conditions in our operations Department um as that's come to the Forefront and just making sure that we the last thing I'll say is as

we're listing this long wish list and we have to you know compile it for um where there's consensus across the board is making sure that we're engaging our stakeholders as typically in the budget process the superintendent in the cabinet with talk with their um different departments but also stakeholders that um want to give input the way we're doing right now as well thank you V is and then I'll go to miss Carter Austin um I think the uh discussion earlier about the State caps on our most vulnerable students is I mean a priority we have to figure out how to leverage resources and some of those resources are local because they're not funding us at the levels that we need one department for example is served locally and we have uh employees representing or working in five different schools and

this morning um many mornings I'm hearing about parents asking for these same employees to be up at 5: in the morning to attend to the bus to the bus situation they put you know to be able to call into the bus um call center and talk to our bus data managers um is that the what is the the actual offic title um the bus managers um who the the TSA yeah and um it's a lot of work and so we need to figure out how to um when we were looking at additional department needs and it says funds for um additional positions to support EC and elll students and families because we are doing parent Ambassador uh initiatives and so adding fames to that is important which means you know it's going to touch on multiple departments here EC es um um elll which touches on ESL but then also the MRC um it's not something that the

state supports us um as they should um and so we need to make sure that we continue to keep uh track of the needs especially with growing together and everything communication um a communication position in the Communications Department department is also a very important thing to have and I know that we are trying to do the best um and um and our Communications team has been very gracious and patient um but we do need a bilingual um Communications position in the Communications Department for the district so these are things that um when it comes to language access I'd like for us to be explicit about language access needs and rights because civil Rights Act 1964 we have to provide language access so that's just something I wanted to add Miss carteron um I'll just add a couple of

things and um well I'll start by saying this is feels overwhelming because we have so many needs and so many things to attend to and limited resources so I think like my comments fall into two main buckets and one is I really appreciate Miss Moore that you started this with reflection on our strategic plan and our pillars um I'd like to see us doing even more of that I mean this is so much work was put into the development of the Strategic plan Community engagement lots of thoughtfulness and this is supposed to be our North Star right our guiding uh light in all the work that we do we have not only the priorities but then we also have the goals and we have strategies outlined in the Strategic plan that we're supposed to be working towards to achieve our goals all that's to say is as we're thinking about the budget and trying to decide on our budget priorities I really want to see both in presentation and then ideally in practice too alignment um between where we're

spending our money and um the strategies that we outlined that we were going to be working on to achieve those goals um in um towards those priorities and I think um you know the Black and Hispanic student achievement plan has this embedded into it but I think we can do that as we're talking about um the budget as well um second thing I'll say is just um when this feels overwhelming I like it helps me just to go back to this what is the main role of our school system it is to improve our student academic outcomes what our students know and they're able to do how do we do that there's lots of different ways right and public schools are asked to do so many different things right now we're asked to serve as a Safety Net in a broken system but if we return to how do we improve those student outcomes I feel like I know one thing for certain we need to have enough staff in our schools and we need to ensure that those staff are prepared to teach our children well

so I think when I'm thinking about this and this again a lot of this isn't our strategic plan but I when I think about how we spend our budget it goes back to things that bring the best staff in that keep the best staff here and that prepare our staff to do the difficult work of educating and supporting our children AR Alton you took my uh category um thanks y'all so much for sharing all your thoughts so far I think I've put a bucket of Recruitment and Retention as I think a really important budget priority I think that includes the Master's pay it includes I would like to see a differential for bilingual staff members who are using those skills every single day in our classrooms and working with families um and it and it could include a lot of other different pieces but I think you know to miss Carter alon's point we need to keep and retain really highly qualified staff in our district and we know that having high vacancies also leads to burnout for our staff

members for our Educators um the classifi salary study has already been addressed and I want to make sure we work on that um I also think as we're evaluating positions around Esser I know that there's a lot around mental health support instructional coaching um for schools and students and so considering what should stay what should go what needs to be wrapped into our current budget is something I I think a lot about um because we know a lot of that support has helped students get to where they are today and have helped us see some of the really incredible gains that we've had so what parts of that needs to stay what parts of that might need to move um and some of my things have already been said I just want to also Echo the capital needs as well as Staffing because we are continuing to expand our square footage and what does that mean to also make sure we have the resources that we need as we expand the square footage um this is a really long we put a really

great list out there and I do not envy you all as you think about which ones are most uh as we think about the next steps um those are the those are the highlights from list around budget priorities I'm just going to react to one of the things that came up with several of you and that is um the adding maybe some intentional strategy Andor if it's a funding need um the work around C so this conversation was raging before I retired as well and and so I'm I'm just G to tell you what I think about it which doesn't mean it's easy to implement but it's my understanding because I've I've had conversations with everybody that I need to have except for one on what I'm getting ready to say because this is actually something that that I've I've already talked to folks about um if we as a district are eligible for

C then the complications and the potential negative impact of how we have received funds for our federal programs like Title One based on how we identify students should not be the barrier that keeps us from implementing C districtwide and so we've got to figure out what those disconnects are and and how we mitigate that impact because the ability to be able to feed every single child and every single one of our schools every single day um is important so we've got to figure that out appreciate that because I also would love to see us figure out how to do that and I think we surfaced a lot of tension in our meeting of how do we do that and how do we maximize all the federal dollars really is what that conversation did the brown right I'm gonna come to SP I say one more thing I I

do say that quickly oh with with that I do think about is a longer term thing but how do we we're talking about Distributing money to schools how do we think about keeping Equity at the center of that and is there Equity funding formula or other things that we want to consider as we're having these conversations around budget priorities and I think about that in dollars but I also think about the time and people resources as well and so as we're you know navigating these different pieces and what might stay in what might go how do we look at the equity and what's needed in every school and provide schools what they need need um based on the needs that we see um and not try to do a kind of equal across the measure for every school is another thing that I think a lot about as well this whys just a quick clarifying question um superintendent Moore when you were saying that you've had these conversations with everybody but one who's that one state and federal programs um I I I think you know I just

wanted to acknowledge that um our I had another conversation with him already about eser but I didn't I forgot this one okay I've already been in his office we we we have been very busy in the district um in terms of those conversations and I do commend uh Dr Stacy Stewart and Dr Dan are making themselves available to meet with some Advocates and kind of explain a little bit more about um the importance of reimbursements and how if we just opt for 100% C like we we will no longer be able to leverage some of those funds that come in through reimbursements um and they were also explaining so there's a lot there's so many different mov pieces and what they explained gave me the picture we want this but we also have to be really intentional um because there is already a process that the federal government uses which is that free and reduced lunch form that I know folks don't want to fill it out but when they fill it out it justifies like our ability to fund things and so in this in this climate of we have to leverage every little dollar that we get um that

is that is just my one thing that I I want to give consideration to the discussions that have happened and um I I think you know Dr CCE Stewart Dr Danner met with Community folks um they have talked about this in board meetings and so I'd like to be able to bring those conversations in and maybe like um our Administration can kind of talk about those uh those conversations um with community members so that we can all support this but in a way that does not again um in a way that we can leverage every existing dollar that we can get y S turn more I just wanted to share um that we did discuss in a meeting the other day with Mr Johnson that he would be sitting down with Dr Stewart and you and myself kind of getting up to speed and Sh you sharing with us your directives from the board as well so I did want the board and Community to know that those conversations continue um under Dr under Miss Moore's leadership as well y thank and I do have an email from Dr Van

bores you just yesterday evening the other thing that we talked about and Mr Johnson's so sad that he couldn't be here to Advocate and fight with us but um that square footage we do get that $6 million doll a year from the Commissioners and that was a big deal four five years ago when they gave that to us that was huge but we know that those dollars are not going far in the um construction environment that we're living in and so ways to nudge that up on a recurring basis that that we can take care of things better um we have a very aging school bleet but um and then um superintendent more we we we this is not our first uh crisis that we've had um of this magnitude yes but um we we we also had a really there's probably news articles about it but it was the wraparound um services like before and after school um where we

don't have uh capacity or we need to figure out how to how to build capacity for parents that need before and after school care um and so we need to have like that conversation about our budget what we can do to expand it because the waiting list um families just shared that even within 10 minutes of the opening of before after school like those slots are gone like like we 10 minutes once the um application opens and yeah families don't log in within minutes of the of the enrollment window then they don't make it in and so and we see that that is like an increasing demand especially with the cost of living and families having to work more hours um we need to figure out how to take care of our children before and after school you insir ours he want to speak into this space because I know our um teacher friends got super tired and for good reason and and left but you know we've all seen their petition online and their vision

for us and I want to acknowledge that teacher supplements going up was on their list both for new and Veteran teachers um new positions to support students particularly IAS with early literacy um they wanted that that living wage to go up $3 an hour kind of um along with what Miss Chavez was saying about getting closer to where the county is at least or matching the county and then there was something about work days that I need to understand and talk with them more about but time that gift of time might be some way that we can be more creative as as we're planning our calendar and caring for their needs um especially with all the changes coming up thank you other discussion more any closing comments I I would just mention about the the last um comment about time for

teachers for for the last seven years of my career I had one sticky note on my computer that I wrote on that stayed there the entire time that had in big letters time for teachers um it is a really big Bugaboo um our Cal the calendar law is pretty prescriptive in terms of when we start when we end and and how many work days you can have have in the school year is dependent on what the start and the end date is and there are some years when you literally only have three or four work days that you can even put in the calendar I mean then there are other years where and and those are the years where you find the district has like seven work days at the beginning of the school year or two or three after or something along those lines um and then there are other years where you can fit more during the course of the school year so that's step one step two is how we message to our schools and our Central services staff

what the options are for the use of the days that do exist um you know I am sure that we have um whether it's training from Central Services that's happening or in the last couple of years the training that the state paid for for all teachers with science of reading that was required or things that a principal might be prioritizing through their staff with their school Improvement plan in terms of training that's happen happening in a building and the end result of all of that when you have limited time available is Staff feeling like they don't have time to do the work they need to do in their classrooms so some there is a space I think for some stakeholder engagement in perhaps some common rails or expectations around what that looks like um there's a lot of control at the school level right now of how that happens and and we want we understand why that's important because our schools needs are our principles are best going to know the needs of what their school

are but in the absence of some guidelines or structures um it makes it very difficult to answer the question to of how we provide support for teachers to use the time that is available for them or we could you know make them all 11 months and actually pay them for the work they're already doing in the summer anyway right that's okay that's all right any other closing comments All right we had dates there we might want to throw those on the screen pull the presentation back up yeah we do um I have a proposed timeline at the end that I wanted to cover so obviously we're starting today um with an initial review and some discussion of budget priorities I think we might want to continue on March 7th at our next board meeting um and you know if when at whatever point we're ready to start looking at some numbers either as a

group or as we meet with the County Commissioners um whenever that joint meeting is going to happen um and I've put it down in March I think there's a chance it might actually happen in February we're trying to figure that out right now um uh so so that we can start sharing um as well uh you know I have slated here April 11th for the superintendent's proposed budget and board discussion um you know there's a lot of work that has to happen for that superintendent's proposed budget to be ready there's a it's actually a really big long document that has a lot of charts and graphs and information on it over the for many years um the the which is background for the front 15 or 20 pages that really contain the meat of what we're asking for but then there's like 80 pages of supporting documentation behind it so um that takes a a while to put together and you know I've already told here we got to work on it so we're already working on um but April 11th for sure potentially before that if we're ready

um and I want to leave April 11th for you know board discussion as well in reaction to what that budget may be um continued discussion with the board on April 25th we are required if I'm not mistaken to schedule a public hearing specifically for the budget um and so if we can put that prior to the date that the board actually adopts the budget then the feedback that you would get on the 25th um can inform how the bo the board lands with their vote on May 9th that needs to be final Board review in terms of adopting and and moving that budget to the Commissioners but based on a conversation earlier today we may need to look at whether or not we need to move that a little bit sooner even because um it's not due statutorily to the Commissioners um until May 15 May 15th but I believe the Commissioners are uh the the manager is releasing her budget to the Commissioners somewhere between May 9th and May 15 and so in

order if we want the board's budget to be reflected in how the county manager uh sends a budget to the County Commissioners then we might need to tweak that timeline I think that's the end of that presentation thank you so much for the timeline I think we want to make sure that that public hearing gets notic and so that folks can come and share their thoughts around the budget um we know that people have lots of of thoughts around how what we should be considering um and I do think the sooner we can get those numbers the better I know our mou with the county has a little bit of an earlier date and we've had some conversations with them about the timeline but I think the sooner the better so any other comments from board members all right I'm gonna move us to our next agenda item uh I think it was last week the Board of Education had a meeting with the dur Association of Educators to consider a

meet and confer policy um we at that meeting decided to have an ad hoc committee that would work through the proposal and different options um in that we also asked for four representatives from Dae and four representatives from dur Public Schools so last week all of dur Public Schools got a a email with a form to fill out they wanted to participate we had 57 total responses we had folks across uh elementary middle high schools our specialty schools had a substitute as well as folks who represent our central office um we had both folks who are Dae and non Dae as well in that so the way the process works is we will appoint members at this time Dae did submit names for their representation Simone could do Christy Patterson Sima Do's the Dae president Christy Patterson carington Middle School Shakira Pope Lions farm

and Allison Swain Riverside High School I would propose from the board that we um appoint Stephanie Wagner who works as an executive assistant Jeff ston with security Vanessa paa Ramirez who's in our MRC and Anthony leak from Transportation you're welcome we had a clapping in the audience for the folks are wa still watching with us on Zoom if you if you're still catching on um any comments or questions from board members do we need a vote on this Mr [Music] Malone you turn to the chair can appoint the committee so we can um but I think you need two administrators we do need two administrators and two board members you're very right um so that is is the list of folks we wanted to try to make sure there's a good representation from school based staff and non-school based staff we do need two administrators look

to you Miss Beyer but while you're thinking about who your two folks might be um we also need two board members who serve on this committee I think Miss buer had and Miss Lewis had volunteered at the last meeting but I'm not sure where folks stand today sorry not to put you on the spot but I think I think you did volunteer at the last evening and also um I was wondering if Miss Morris saw the list of um with administrators who did apply through the um through the form I have not seen that there are administrators on that list as well yes there's a couple principles and assistant principles okay I think it's up to you maybe to decide when I said Administration I was thinking um your cabinet talking about you're talking about Central that's what I was thinking but that's a good it's a good point it could be expanded so could we just do board members tonight and you you could appoint the cab whatever absolutely I'm still willing if Miss Le

is any other I'm happy that they so miss leis you're in okay so Miss Lewis and Miss berer we do we did ask for having like one alternative for the board so miss Rogers with that you be interested in that I think I heard you say happy to be Al all right so what will happen next is I will give these names and contact information to our board executive assistant who will work to schedule um the first meeting we know that people are eager to get this work started and so hopefully with folks schedules we can get something scheduled pretty quickly all right are you thinking that um that the attorneys will yes be at the meeting but we would love for our attorneys to be at the meeting so we'll make sure that you're included on the on the scheduling message as well all right great thank

you any other comments by the ad hoc committee all right on the next item on our agenda is the crown act resolution Crown act week is coming up at the believe the end of the month um Miss Lewis brought this resolution to us a couple years ago now at this point and we've been excited to support it uh through Dar Public Schools Miss Lewis did you have any other comments that you want to add before we got started I just want to appreciate the um Equity Affairs department and all those that are coming together to keep the crown week going and planning um various activities in the school community so and I'm glad we also want to thank Miss smth for pulling this together for us so that we can have it red for tonight thank you you know that we even currently in students are still experiencing discrimination based on their hair right those stories are still happening across the country so it's really important that we continue this resolution we can

read uh as our stand our practice typically is I'm gonna start with you miss Carter Alton and then we'll come down the road okay CR act week resolution Durham Public Schools expressing support for the designation of the week of February 26 to March 1st 2024 as the 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 disproportionate impacted by the eurocentric standards that so often Define what is beautiful and whereas research has shown that society's bias has resulted in unfair judgment and discrimination against black women based on hair texture and protective styles including braids lots

and twists that are cultural representations of their race and whereas in the US the law in many states does not currently afford protection or 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 hair style the coalition of the crown act's mission was and is today to advance efforts to end 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 durm 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 hairstyles 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 Duram Public Schools insists on addressing the social emotional and academic needs of each student and whereas Durham public schools has a just code policy 4316 that reads the primary goal of dorham 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 man that expresses their individuality without fear of unnecessary discipline or body shaming and M carteron whereas the crown Coalition offers a platform that uplifts support to end 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 4

85,681 to end hair discrimination and to create more Equitable and inclusive Beauty experience for black women and girls where students are affirmed and can express themselves in a safe and positive 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 the 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 23rd day of February 2024 is the 2 it is the 23 23rd day of February we have turned it we have

turned it turn the day and I want to make um one change in the U whereas the crown petition has over 59,2 signatures so far out of 600,000 but the main thing is has changed 519,000 103 signature so far from what we did last year so I just want to have that updated okay um I saw one more edit in the that you read there yeah I didn't know ordinance that's supposed to be there or maybe it's in the one two F paragraph fifth whereas it says that that assert that the general purpose of this chapter I'm not sure supposed to I think it's supposed to be ordinance okay we need to change that um and I wouldn't say this for this year but I would love for next year for us to do a inclusive one we know that um young men and women uh and

folks who don't identify either way have also do the have crowns so how do we celebrate we know that many of our students are participating so for next year if we could think about that all right I move acceptance of the Chic resolution second it's been moved by Miss Lewis seconded by Miss Rogers is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any oppos oh so sorry Miss Carter aon's online I apologize Miss car Jessica Carter Aon about I miss Rogers I miss vadz I miss bu I miss Lewis hi Miss Chavez I and IO I passes unanimously all right and with that I'll take a motion to go and close station for the statutory reasons whated on the agenda seconded I don't know who said so move to my right everybody okay Miss Lewis

and seconded it was it was moved by Miss Lewis seconded by miss viodes any other discussion do another Voice vote Miss cartin uh Jessica Carter a I vot I miss Rogers I miss varez I miss Meer I miss Lewis i m Travis I and I vote I as well passes unanimously

oh there she is oh no here she is uh we're back in Open Session I'll pass it over to superintendent Moore good evening I'd like to request that the board approve the Personnel report as presented in um and amended in close session move approval of the Personnel report dated February 22nd 2024 second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Chavez any other discussion uh we'll do miss car Austin is not with this we'll do go ahead and do our traditional vote all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously or make a

motion yeah to uh to advise the to instruct authorize the uh Administration to um put out an RFQ for a search company for the superintendent search second it's been moved by Miss Chavez seconded by uh Miss Rogers any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously and with that we are adjourned