Board of Education · Regular Meeting · February 26, 2026

Good evening everyone. We got a full house. I know we can do better than that. Good evening everyone.

>> Good evening. >> There we go. The Durham Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session. At this time, we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us this evening.

The purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents, staff, and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, to educate, and to empower every student, to innovate, to serve, and to lead. The interpreters for tonight are Consuelo Nerdon and Karen Reyes. Thank you all for taking the time to join us. We also have a student who is joining us this evening from our superintendent student advisory council, Alise Tran. Yes, Alise Tran from Durm Early Colleges of Health Sciences. 0 unweighted GPA and and an associates and

arts degree from Durham Technical Community College. Alise is a student council president from 2024 to present. Um, and has doubled the student council membership in your first year as president. Tripled student count council membership by the second year.

We got an organizer in our miss. A national honor society chapter member for two years. Awarded the gamecher award recognizing academic achievement, leadership, character, and excellence. also awarded the Junior Marshall Award recognizing a commitment to academic excellence and volunteering to support Middle Colleg's high school graduation.

Lisa has also been awarded the Carolina Covenant Scholarship from UNC Chapel Hill, Goar Hills, totaling $16,000 for her first year if she chooses to go there. We hope so. I hope so. I should.

I'm biased. Um, but thank you so much for joining us this evening. All right, the next item on our agenda is our moment of silence. Take that down.

Thank you. The next item on our agenda is celebrations. I'm going to turn it over to Masha Cooper. Good evening, Bettina Umstead, members of the board, Superintendent Lewis, colleagues, and members of the Durm community.

Welcome to our February celebrations. February is a month that invites us to reflect on the impact and how our daily work shapes the lives of our students and strengthens our community. Tonight, we take a moment to lift up the students and educators who embody service, excellence, and dedication in action. These celebrations highlight the power of commitment.

Commitment to learning, to leadership and to one another, and remind us that the strength of Durham public schools is found in the people who show up every day to make a difference. This evening, we will begin with our students of the month, followed by students who are making a meaningful impact through community service. We will then recognize our national board certified educators whose impact to professional

excellence elevates learning across Durham public schools. Please welcome Principal Joshua Brown from the Durham Early College of Health Sciences to present our first student of the month. >> Good evening. My name is Joshua Brown.

I'm the principal, the proud principal of Durham Early College of Health Sciences. I know that everyone had the opportunity to meet one of my students already, Elise. Um, however, I am here to recognize another one of our students, Miss Jessica Rivas. Jessica is a senior at Durham Early College of Health Sciences.

She is also a member of the National Honor Society. She also has a high 4, I'll leave out the last part, GPA. And then she is also slated to go to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she will be majoring in social work. And hopefully in a couple of years we can bring her back here to DPS so that she can also work for us here. So if you would recognize just

Jess just congratulations Jessica. We are so proud of you and your accomplishments. We know that you have very bright future ahead of you and so we want to celebrate you with a few things tonight if that's okay. First of all, you get a student of the month certificate.

Next, we want to present you with a spark pin for embodying our district's core beliefs, and we hope that you wear this proudly in and around DPS and beyond. Next, our friends from Triangle E Cycling want to make sure that you are powered for success wherever your future takes you. So, they want to present you with a laptop this evening. We're not done.

We're not done. And we also have a $250 gift card generously provided by our community partners at Families and Community Rising. This organization is dedicated to ensuring that students and families have the

healthy starts they need to thrive. Because when our young people are supported from the very beginning, their potential is limitless. Joining me this evening to present this gift card is Family and Community Rising CEO, Mr. Terry David.

for our next student of the month presentation. Please welcome City of Medicine Academy Principal Dr. Reene and Griffin Jordan. Good evening board members, Superintendent Lewis, district leadership, family, and friends.

I bring you greetings from the City of Medicine Academy where we proudly recognize Miss Michaela Wyn as the Durm Public Schools February Student of the Month. I'm thrilled to present to you a future health care professional who consistently demonstrates integrity, responsibility, ambition, proving to be an effective student leader in the classroom, in school organizations, and the community. In her role as president of the City of Medicine Academy Future Health Professionals Organization or HOSA, she leads over 120 members,

successfully organizes numerous events such as our weekly school beautifification and trash collection, holiday canned food and clothing drives, Duke football game volunteering, and she's led the coordination of CMA's first boots on the ground roof. video dance. The faculty adviser for HOSA and her nursing fundamentals teacher, Miss Ta, states that it has been truly a pleasure working with Michaela as she has been a model student and outstanding president of HOSA. Her dedication to a healthc care career is evident.

She stands out as one of the most driven and consistently improving students I've met. Michaela's academic performance is outstanding. 39 and an associate degree from Durm Technical Community College. In addition,

In addition, she recently earned her certified nursing assistant credentials and is set to complete the certified pharmacy technician requirements by May 2026. These certifications showcase her initiative and readiness for college and career. In the fall, she will be attending UNCC Greensboro as a nursing major to become a pediatric or labor and delivery registered nurse. Michaela has a quiet but powerful voice and will definitely make a huge impact in the medical field.

We are so proud of you, Michaela. At this time, I'm honored to introduce to you Miss Michaela Wyn. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to be to be chosen as the district student of the month. My name is Michaela Win and I'm a senior at City of Medicine Academy. I would first like to thank my friends,

families, teachers, and principal Dr. Griffin who have helped me get this far and watched me grow. Being a student at CMA has given me many opportunities to not only grow as a student, but as a person as well. CMA has given me opportunities such as recently getting my CNA certification through their fundamentals of nursing course, graduating with my associates in science at Derm Techch this spring, and getting certified as a pharmacy technician this May.

CMA has also been a place that helped me make new friends and gain new connections with people who have the same goals as me to work in the healthcare field and change lives. CMA is not just a place you learn, but a place that you grow and find yourself. Thank you so much again and have a good evening everyone. And come right back, Michaela, because we have a few things for you as well.

First and foremost, your student of the month certificate to celebrate this moment. You also receive a spark pen, and we hope that you wear this proudly. And our friends from Triangle ECycling want you too to be ready for success in your future. So, you get a laptop as well. And Mr. David, if you would come back, we do have a $250 gift certificate

for you as well to use how you see fit to further your future. Thank you so much.

We have another really great group of students to recognize. And to do this recognition, I would like to invite Kim Shaw, executive director of the Triangle Nonprofit and Volunteer Leadership Center. Miss Shaw. >> Good.

I would say afternoon. I guess it's evening. So, good evening. Yes, Kim Shaw, executive director for the Triangle Nonprofit and Volunteer Leadership Center.

Many of you in the room may think of us and remember us as the Volunteer Center of Greater Durham, but we changed our name a few years ago because of all of the work that we're doing in the community in different areas. So, a little bit about the center. We were founded in 1971 and our mission was to strengthen nonprofits and to build volunteer leadership so that our communities can thrive. For more than five decades, we've served as a connector, a trainer and capacity builder across the triangle and we serve over 1,400 nonprofits and we have the largest volunteer database

in the triangle. Our work spans nonprofit training, volunteer engagement. We run the Americanore seniors program for Durham County and we have a lot of work in the civic leadership area. One of our most dynamic areas is our youth leadership and civic engagement.

Each year, our youth contribute more than 30,000 hours 30,000 hours of service back to this community. Research shows that students that are civically engaged perform better in schools. They develop needed employer skills. They add value to our community and help our nonprofits thrive.

Some of our youth programs are our impact camp, which we run through the summer. It's four weeks of engaging students directly with nonprofits in this area. They learn a little bit about what the need is that that nonprofit is addressing. And then the rest of the day they spend doing a service project with that nonprofit. Four weeks of impact camp. We have a

civic engagement leadership institute where we try to encourage young people to listen to each other, how to be a civil society, why it's important to listen to other viewpoints and they create a community-based project to address a need that they've learned about. We also have a model UN and we would like to try to start model UN clubs at all of our schools, but we take those same sort of listening skills and working with each other skills on a global level. And we have UNCC and Duke come and help us lead our model UN courses. We have a student action board.

This year we have two different groups that was so popular. We have one in Durham. We have one in Wake and Kerry. And these are students that meet every month.

They try to do a service project every every month. They plan that themselves and they govern themselves because one of the things we truly believe in is to develop student leadership. We also have a digital navigator program where we have students that are trained to teach older adults

how to work with technology. We believe in intergenerational connections and we believe that our communities need to be more digitally connected. We also have an oral history program. Same sort of thing.

Our students are working with older adults to try to offset social isolation and to make them feel engaged and important in the community. And tonight, one of the recognitions that we have is our mayor's award. We have two award programs. We have our mayor's award program for service that students do during the summer and our commissioner's award for service that they do during the school year.

We also partner with the department of social services. We've been doing it for 51 years. We have share your Christmas now. Share your holiday.

We serve about 3,000 low-income families in Durham. We have a Thanksgiving dinners program. Same sort of thing, working with DSS who makes referrals to us to serve those families. And we have a backpacks for kids program where we provide over,400 backpacks to

low-income students. But tonight, we are just so excited for the first time to be partnering with DPS for the recognition of these students. They're all from student U and they have all earned the recognition of the mayor's award for their service this past summer. So, I'd like to before we call their names, let's give them all a big round of applause.

I will recognize the students um and the order in which they have been presented and I think it is out ab absolutely outstanding that our scholars are doing this amount of work in the community and they are to be commended. So as I call your names please come forward to be acknowledged by our board. Miriam Aguila Rosendez, Riverside High School. RJ Austin III, Durm Performance Learning Center. Ever Azul Basilio Casto, JD Clement

Early College. Destiny Blandon, Durm School of the Arts. Julian Cruz Raphaela, Jordan High School. Rosa Gonzalez, JD Clement, Early College.

Arelli Lopez, JD Clement Early College. Abigail Castillo, Durm School of the Arts. Angel Sanchez, Areola, JD Clement, Early College. Victor Vasquez, JD Clement, Early College. Fernando Vasquez, Durm School of the Arts. Epanolua Bayumbo, JD Clement Early College.

Natalyia Casares, Jordan High School, Northern High School. My apologies. Ammani went Durham School of the Arts. And if our students could come forward to take a photo

And for our final celebration, we have a group of rockstar educators. For this recognition, please welcome Terry Phillips, director of employee relations, compliance, and training to present our National Board Certified Educators. Good evening, Bettina Umstead, board members, Dr. Lewis, and administration.

Tonight, we recognize an extraordinary professional milestone. Achieving national board certification is one of the highest distinctions an educator can earn. It is voluntary rigorous process that requires educators to deeply analyze their practice, demonstrate impact on student learning, and reflect with honesty and precision on their craft. This achievement represents hundreds of hours of study, evidence collection, video analysis, and written reflection, all while continuing to serve students each day. When educators

earn national board status, it is not just a personal accomplishment. It strengthens instructional practice across our district, elevates the profession, and most importantly, benefits the students of Durham public schools. It is my honor to introduce these dedicated teachers and counselors who have met this national standard of excellence. I present to you Amanda Bass, Kelly Burke, Tasha Hikovich, Claire Hudzinski, Fiona King, Robert Ashlin, Maggie Raak, Amber Santanz, Jamie Smith,

Sarah Snider, Alicia St. Woo! Yay! Emily Young, those not able to be with us tonight, but who we want to recognize, Danielle Cunningham, Sarah Johnson, Mr.

Nuin, uh, Sonia Tolheimr, Ben Vlan Vleet, Sarah Watson, Morgan Withouse Meyers. In addition to celebrating new national board certified educators, we are especially proud to recognize those who have maintained their certification. Maintenance of certification is not automatic. It requires educators to demonstrate continued impact on student learning, sustained professional growth, and ongoing reflection on their practice. In other words, they must prove that excellence was not a one-time

achievement. It is a continued commitment. These teachers and counselors have chosen to hold themselves to the highest national standard year after year. Their dedication reflects both deep expertise and a belief that our students deserve educators who never stop learning.

It is my honor to recognize those who have successfully maintained their national board certification. Dina Buyers, Amy Davis, Bronca Amazy, Love It, Tyresa Jeffrey, and Megan Lewis, who has an audience outside the room. We also have members who were not able to be with us tonight. They are Tracy Bell, Meredith H. Hearnden, Graham Brosman, Kathy Connor, Abby Exum, Lauren Hobble,

Brendan Murray, Rachel Passer, Brook Sauer, and Ashley Vanopen. I would now like to ask Tamika Ward Satderfield to come forward to introduce you to the nationally certified school social worker. Good evening school board of education. Good evening Dr.

Lewis and all of our cabinet members. It is my esteemed pleasure tonight to introduce you to Miss Miss Coffee Hill. Becoming a nationally certified school social worker is an advanced certification that is both postms and requires four years of experience in the field as a school social worker or school social work educator before you can even apply. Coffee Hill has demonstrated that she adheres to the national school social work practice model which this certification is grounded in. This model

is designed to promote consistency to guide professional practice and the evaluation of services. The model further empowers school social workers with a coherent framework to guide advocacy efforts and service delivery decisions. We also believe that our own Coffee Hill is the first the first in North Carolina to achieve this certification. Coffee Hill serves now as the Durham PLC social worker as well as our DPS lead social worker. And we would like to take this time to recognize and celebrate her accomplishments as our nationally certified school social worker.

This concludes our celebrations this evening. Thank you, Miss Cooper, and to all of those who we celebrated this evening. What a wonderful, wonderful time. The next item on our agenda is our superintendent update.

I'm going to pass it to you, Dr. Lewis. >> Thank you so much, Chair Rogers. Good evening, board members, members of the community.

We do have a lot to celebrate, continue to celebrate uh this evening. So, I'm certainly pleased to provide additional updates on our work as we continue to ignite limits limit the limitless potential in all of our scholars. Next slide. National School Counseling Week.

Uh that's the last slide. You can go to the next slide. Next slide. Here we go. Uh, National School Counseling Week uh was February 2nd through 6th and we celebrated the heart, care, and commitment of our school counselors across Durham public schools. Our counselors are heroes, providing a listening ear to students, supporting them through challenges and

offering guidance on navigating life beyond the classroom. We see you. We want to say thank you for the role that you play in our student success. Next slide.

February also marks Career and Technical Education Month, a time to recognize the powerful role CTE plays in preparing our students for college, careers, and life. Earlier this month, the board of education issued a proclamation affirming the commitment to expanding highquality hands-on learning opportunities across our district. Through innovative pathways, industry partnerships, and realworld experiences, our CTE programs equip students with the skills, credentials, and confidence they need to thrive in a rapidly uh evolving world. We also learned this month through announcement by Superintendent Mo Green that North Carolina is ranked number two in terms of students that have completed industry recognized credentials to the tune of 385,000 across the state. And so we are number two. North Carolina is number two in the

country when it comes to our CTE program. Next slide. February is Love the Bus Month and we are proud to recognize the dedicated transportation professionals who safely deliver our students to and from school each day. Our bus drivers and transportation staff have often um are often the first smile students see in the morning and the last goodbye in the afternoon, setting the tone for a positive school day.

We are grateful for their commitment, care, and the critical role that they play in supporting student success across our district. Next slide. Next slide. There we go.

Governor Josh Stein has proclaimed this week, February 23rd through the 27th as public schools week across North Carolina. Public schools are the heart of every North Carolina community, serving each and every student in and serving each and every student. And in Durham, we are honored to celebrate our schools, the achievements of our scholars, the dedication of our staff, and the outstanding support from our community.

We are public schools proud, and we are DPS. Next slide. Congratulations to the Dorm School of Arts on earning the platinum award and to Riverside High School on receiving the bronze award on the College Board's annual AP school honor roll. The AP or advanced placement school honor role released early this year or I'm sorry released each year by the college board recognizes schools that are building a strong collegegoing culture and increasing access to college level coursework.

Schools earn distinction at four levels bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. based on their commitment to helping students earn college credit and prepare for success after high school. Well done to our scholars in these schools um and as well as the educators that are at both Durham School of the Arts and Riverside. Next slide. On Tuesday night, our students took center stage at an evening to shine at the DACK, delivering a celebration of

talent, creativity, and dedication that showcased the depth of excellence across our arts programs. If you weren't there, let me just first say you missed it. Um, you definitely missed a treat as our scholars didn't miss a beat. We are deeply grateful to our students, educators, families, and partners who made that night unforgettable and who continue to ensure that the arts remain vibrant and essential part of Durham public schools experience.

Next slide. I'd like to invite our families, staff, and community members to participate in the upcoming budget hearing on next Thursday, March 5th, from 5:30 to 7:30. The meeting will be held here in our boardroom. This is another opportunity to share your input and help shape the district's priorities and investments for the coming year.

We hosted our first ever budget town hall on Monday night where our CFO Jeremy Teter led an indepth discussion about the district's budget. If you missed it, don't worry. We recorded it and so there's a recording and a copy of the presentation

net on the finance page. Next slide. We look forward to hosting our sustainability summit on May 7th at Southern School of Energy and Sustainability. This I'm sorry, March.

What did I say? May. >> Oh, it's Well, my script says May, but it's March. March 7th.

Thank you. At the Southern School of Energy and Sustainability, bringing together students, staff, and community partners to highlight the innovative work happening across our community to provide environmental stewardship. This summit will showcase student labs projects, sustainable practices in our schools, activities for all ages. There will be a food truck, and most importantly, collaborative efforts to support a healthier future for our community.

This event reflects our shared commitment to preparing students not only for academic success, but also to lead responsibly in a world that depends on thoughtful, sustainable solutions. m. Next slide. Also on that same day,

March 7th, we are excited to host an upcoming job fair. Uh this event will be at Northern High School. This is an opportunity for talented, passionate professionals to explore careers that make a lasting impact. We are seeking individuals who are committed to serving students and strengthening our school communities.

Consider this your invitation to join a district dedicated to opportunities for every student. Next slide. Durham Public Schools is now enrolling kindergarten students for the 2627 school year. If your child will be starting kindergarten, now is the time to get started.

net to complete your child's registration and stay tuned for details about our countdown to kindergarten event this spring. Next slide, which was the first side, but I'll go ahead and go back to it. February is Black History Month. uh a time to honor the legacy, resilience, and extraordinary contributions of black leaders, educators, uh innovators, and change makers who have shaped our nation and our local community. Across our

schools, students and staff are engaging in meaningful learning experiences that celebrate black history not as a single chapter uh but as an intricral part of the American story. this event and every month we celebrate the rich cultural heritage and strengths of our schools and inspire us all to lead with purpose and possibility. Speaking of Black History Month, which was the last slide, the we are DPS slide. You know, when I was 10 years old, I watched my grandmother clean homes of of white families and I would also see my grandfather uh as he would go out into the community um you know, speaking to younger white individuals.

And through observing my grandmother, she would say yes ma'am and no ma'am. My grandfather would say yes sir and no sir to white individuals that were younger than them. And so as a child I did not have the language at that time to describe what I was witnessing. But I understood dignity. I understood humility and I understood the discipline of respect and even when respect was not

equally returned. And so that experience shaped me. It taught me that respect is not weakness. It is strength.

It is self-possession. It is character. And it is what we must model for our scholars. At our meeting confer session, last meeting confer session, um I was publicly addressed by my first name by the DAE president at the close of the meeting.

Now, let me be crystal clear. This is certainly not about ego. It is not about titles for the sake of titles. It is about professionalism, respect, cultural awareness, and what our students learn when they watch how adults treat one another.

You know, there is enough dysfunction going on at the federal level, at the state level. And if we begin to exercise it right here at the local level, we work against the very reason we show up every single day, and that is for our scholars, the scholars of Durham public schools. While I appreciate that the statement uh issued by the DAE president acknowledged

the racial connotation of what occurred, if we can recognize that at in a written statement, we surely can demonstrate that same awareness and respect around the meeting confer. Our children deserve nothing less. In this district, we teach students to address adults and one another with respect. We correct them when they fail to do so.

We teach them that leadership carries responsibility. We cannot demand those standards from children while excusing behavior from adults that fall short of those same expectations. When the superintendent is addressed in a manner inconsistent with professional norms in a formal public setting, it sends a message. It suggests that standards of respect are optional, that protocol is negotiable, that titles earned through years of study, hard work, and sacrifice are insignificant. As a black man serving as superintendent, I cannot ignore the historical context in which informality toward black professionals, particularly

those in positions of authority has been used to diminish status and erode credibility. What you ignore, you allow. What some may dismiss as a small slight carries weight in a country where black men with doctorates have often been denied the dignity routinely afforded to others. Stripping enslaved Africans of their names when they were brought to the United States was a strategy, a strategy of domination intended to erase identity and assert control.

Even during the Jim Crow era, it was common practice for white individuals to use the first names and refuse black men the courtesy of titles of Mr. or doctor, reducing them to a subservient status. This is bigger than a microaggression. It reflects how bias can surface in ways that normalize inequity.

Intent does not erase impact. This moment is not about division. I want to be clear about that as well. It's not

about division. It is about accountability and growth. And I'm speaking today as an accountability partner for the sake of our children. I cannot censor anyone's speech, but I can insist that we hold ourselves to the standards that we expect in all of our classrooms.

I will continue to practice respect and humility and I will not be a part or tolerate anything less. We cannot prepare students to thrive in a diverse democracy if we fail to model respect across differences. You know, there are times to restore and there are times to reset. We cannot claim equity while tolerating behavior that undermines dignity.

We cannot ask our students to rise above bias if adults refuse to examine their own. This moment, while difficult, is also a teaching moment. If our students are watching, which they are, let them see adults that reflect, grow, and recommmit to treating one another with dignity. Let them see that respect is not optional. Let them see that leadership requires accountability. Let them see

that you have one time to teach people how to treat you. Let them see that we can confront harm and still move forward together. So, here's my call to action. Let us recommmit publicly and collectively to professional norms in all district spaces.

Let us recommmit to ongoing equity or implicit bias training or self-study, not as a compliance exercise, but as a leadership development. To disrupt oppressive systems, we must first be willing to disrupt ourselves. Let us hold ourselves to the same expectations we hold our students. And let us ensure that every person in this district, regardless of race, regardless of title or position, receive the dignity that they have earned.

Our students deserve adults who model respect. They deserve leaders who confront uncomfortable truths. They deserve a district culture where equity is not a slogan, but a practice. And let us use this moment to teach what some adults may not have fully learned. That respect is not situational. Respect is

not selective. Respect is the foundation of community. Our students deserve to see it. I will continue to lead with professionalism, integrity, and respect for every member of this community.

I expect the same in return. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Lewis.

Um, thank you for your words and appreciate your leadership in this district and what it means for us to model what you shared out for us today. Continue to reflect, examine, and come to the table better. Um, I really appreciate that charge that call to action. All right. The next item on our agenda is our agenda review and approval. Madame Chair, I would like to request that we move item 2F, the rearing of policies to a new item 5B under policy

committee updates so that the board can um discuss this item. Second move that we amend the agenda and um take item 2F to make it a new 5B. Is there any other discussion? Right.

All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Use any opposed use the same sign.

It passes unanimously. I'll take a motion to approve the amended agenda. Move to approve the agenda as amended. >> Second.

>> Been moved by Miss Byer, seconded by Miss Harold Goff. Is there any other discussion? >> I'm sorry, which way did what did I say? >> It was Miss Harold Goff and then I was the second.

>> I apologize. It was moved by Miss Harold Goff and seconded by Miss Byer. Is there any other discussion? >> All those in favor say I.

>> I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed, please use the same sign.

>> It passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is our board of education um monthly meeting minutes from January 29th, 2026. >> Move approval of the monthly uh meeting minutes from January 29th, 2026. >> Second.

It's been moved by Miss Chavez, seconded by Miss Rogers. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I.

Any opposed? Please use the same sign. Passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is general public comment.

I'm going to do a quick review of the rules before we get started. I think we have 38 speakers, so we got a a good a good amount of comment to listen to tonight. So, we got a quick review of the rules. First, please state your name. And if you're speaking for an organization, please state your name and the name of the organization. Second, speakers are going to be asked to

present your comments within one minute. When the yellow light comes on, you will have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep and that indicates your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session.

However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of students, or to the operations of the school system. Finally, board members will listen carefully and consider the comments, but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers. I'm going to call multiple speakers at a time so you all can come on in and line up at the podium and please correct me when you get to the podium if I mispronounce your name. So we have Ever Casto, Michael Kuran, Elizabeth Cluck Cluckman, Kayla Kuran, Megan Lewis.

I'm call those one more time. Ever Castizo, Michael Kuran, Elizabeth Kluckman, Kayla Kuran, and Megan Lewis. If y'all can line up right here.

Awesome. You can go ahead and get started. Hi, my name is Ever Basilio and I go to J Clement Early College. I'm here because honestly a lot of us are stressed.

I appreciate what the board has done for our safety so far, but as of right now, if immigration officers show up at our school, I have no idea what is supposed to happen. The lack of a clear plan is scary, and it's hard to focus on class when you don't feel 100% safe. We need you to pass the PSS version of policy 5120. It's pretty simple.

Lockdown. If there's enforcement threat on campus, the school needs to go on lockdown. Period. Support.

If a student is being questioned, they should be allowed to have a trusted adult there. Not just a parent, but someone they actually feel safe with. School is supposed to be a safe zone for every single one of us. Please do the right thing.

Listen to the PSS team and pass a strong policy 5120. We're counting on you to have our backs. Thank you.

>> Hi. Uh my name is Michael Curran. I seed my time to Kayla Curran. Hi, my name is Elizabeth Kuckman.

I'm a third grade teacher at Lions Farm Elementary and I seed my time to Kayla Curran. >> Anyone watching in the future, you have to seed the time to the person immediately after you and then that person can seed it to the next person. >> Hi, my name is Kayla Kern and I'm the music educator at Lions Farm Elementary, a districtapp appointed lead teacher for our music educators here in DPS. Currently working on my national board certification and a taxpayer in Durham.

I'm here to advocate for our children. This is about them. I'm here to question why the arts program at our school is being completely dismantled. Due to the overwhelming number of students trying to attend our school next year, the district is choosing to convert our physical spaces, the music and art room to classroom spaces.

This already happened to our STEM program at the beginning of the year. Despite being a school founded on the core value of exploration, this is happening while neighboring elementary schools sit with empty classrooms. This is not equitable. Dr. Dr. Lewis, you stated in an email directly to me that it is not equitable

for DPS to sponsor H-1B visas to international teachers because it is not equitable for all schools. What this is describing is equality rather than equity. What is not equitable is when one school lacks designated art spaces while other schools have thriving programs. Both Louise Melo and I opened up this school four years ago and have built immensely successful arts programs.

These programs have been so successful that the district appointed both of us as lead teachers in the district, helping to support the other 31 elementary schools in DPS. There are choices available to you and you have the power to make these changes. Here are a few solutions. Number one, inform families which schools appropriate for their student to attend by clearly defining the lines.

It is your responsibility as the district to continuously assess and adjust the lines to accommodate the schools and their capacities. This is your job. When the district does not use population growth to inform these decisions, schools become overrun, underfunded, and the district, as a result, consistently loses excellent, capable, and qualified educators to other districts. Number two, plan accordingly to provide additional buildings when the school population continues to grow. I'd like

to personally invite you, Dr. Lewis, to come into our classrooms to see some of the things we do in our spaces every day to clearly highlight what you will be removing from the students at Lions Farm. This is not equity. Just two nights ago, we had our amazing students highlighted at the district-wide evening shine event at the DACK.

At this event, Dr. Lewis, you correctly stated that we are amazing and exceptional educators, but this plan will completely undermine our work. Despite my exhaustion from this event, I am still here to speak on behalf of our students because if you continue to make these inequitable decisions about our programs, the quality and sustainability of these programs and events will suffer. I am not teaching our children how to play hotrass puns in the recorder for nostalgic reasons.

Learning how to read music directly correlates to children's literacy skills, which is at an apparent low across the country. Arts programs teeth ma teach math, language, reading, history, and science skills each and every day. Every year for the month of March, DP DPS celebrates arts in our district and nationally recognized celebration of the power of arts education a young person's life. Do not deprive Lion's farm children of this standard. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your adjustments.

And Megan, before you go, I'm gonna call the next group. All right. Um, Alicia, Alicia Sto, Maggie Dill, Morel Carabado, >> Kaciabado, Kaciao, Samantha Dever, Lisa Geraldi. Go ahead.

>> My name is Megan Lewis. I'd like to seed my time to Alicia Sto. >> My name is Alicia Staft. I'd like to seed my time to Maggie Dill.

Good evening. My name is Maggie Dill and I am the kindergarten through 2 grade EC developmental needs teacher at Lions Farm. Like my colleagues, I am here to address the proposed solutions to overcrowding at our school, namely the removal of art and music classroom spaces and the relocation of our EC prek program. I came to DPS from in 2022 from Chapel Hill Carbo City Schools after I had experienced my own self-contained program being moved to another school

across town to make space for general education classrooms. I experienced firsthand how this decision, which had been made without talking to stakeholders, negatively affected my students and their families. Unlike students who have their choice of magnet programs and charter schools, students assigned to special programs just have to go where they are told, which is whatever school closest to their home has their program. School choice does not exist for these families.

But at Lions Farm, we have built an EC program that parents do seek out and do want to be a part of, which is something I am very proud of. Two of the biggest reasons our program are so strong are two of the things we are facing to lose. At Lions Farm, we have the unique opportunity to serve students in DN from the day they turn three to the day they finish fifth grade. We develop strong relationships with families and get to see these learners achieve so much progress. Removing our D and PreK class would mean that the most vulnerable population of students who don't get to choose where they go to school will have to

experience unnecessary transitions and have to learn an entirely new staff and a new school environment at a critical time of their development. When you combine this with the loss of classroom spaces for our STEM, art, and music classes, we face a situation in which we cannot provide the same standard of inclusion that our Lions Farm families are accustomed to. Our specialist team go above and beyond to include all students in each special, even creating an adapted specialist program for our students with the highest needs, which has opened up a new world of learning and exploration for all for all of our students, including a child with autism who has discovered a passion and talent for music. Thanks to Miss Curran, we do not see how this would be possible without physical classrooms.

Moving specials to carts would cause immense challenges with accessibility and equity for this population. I ask you to consider what these proposals could mean for our most vulnerable population. And I sincerely urge you to consider any and every alternative before making a decision. But most importantly, I ask

you to please engage with all stakeholders, including families and teachers before making a decision that greatly impacts us all. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Morel Kabato and I seed my time to Samantha Delver. >> Good evening.

My name is Samantha Delver and I seed my time to Lisa Gerardi. And Lisa, before you get started, I'm gonna call the next group. Okay. Uh, the next group of speakers is Will Lain, Shannon Cedarth, Caroline Brick House, Kathleen Neans, and Dan Ginshaft.

Good evening. My name is Lisa Gerardi and I am speaking as both a Lions Farm teacher and parent. At Lions Farm, we orient around five core values: exploration, joy, rigor, justice, and growth. We definitely have the growth part covered in more ways than one. Lions Farm is overcrowded. Our

enrollment has grown more than 40% in four years despite a period of district-wide enrollment decline. Families choose Lion's Farm because of our strong programming. We have district recognized specials teachers, a dual language immersion program, inclusive preK, and dedicated staff members. We recently learned that the district's plan to address overcrowding next year is to move two more of our specials onto carts, bringing us to five out of six specials on carts without dedicated spaces and to relocate the EC developmental needs prek program.

We are concerned this plan affects every student and staff member in our building and it doesn't solve our underlying problem. Our enrollment continues to grow. Without structural planning, this will become a yearly crisis. Relocating the EC Developmental Needs PreK program places the burden of our overcrowding on some of our most vulnerable learners. Many of these children remain in the program for multiple years and then transition directly into our ECDN K2 classrooms or

general education. For them, consistency, structure, and established relationships are not luxuries. They are foundational supports. Disrupting that continuity only for many of those students to be returning to Lion's Farm eventually feels misaligned with our commitment to justice.

Moving five specials onto carts will reshape the daily experience of every child. Children will spend nearly the entire day in the same classroom, especially on rainy days. They would lose the exploration that comes with robotics and 3D printing, the rigor of engineering pro projects, the joy of painting, sculpting, and playing instruments. No other elementary school in the district operates with this many specials on carts.

That raises real equity concerns. A new charter school is opening this fall, three miles down the road from Lion's Farm, with a focus on steam, the very programs we are diminishing. If Lion's Farm can no longer offer the programming that made families choose our school, we shouldn't be surprised when they leave for different options.

We do not want to be here to pit program against program. We want to minimize the harm and protect the programs that make our schools special. What feels destabilizing right now is that decisions appear to be moving forward without structured collaboration from those of us who will live the live these impacts daily. We are asking for meaningful collaboration with staff and family before finalizing decisions that will shape not just next year but the long-term health of our school and our district.

Thank you. My name is Will Alon and I seed my time to Shannon Sutter. >> My name is Shannon Sutter. I seed my time to Caroline Brick House.

Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Lewis. My name is Caroline Brick House and I am the K5 STEM teacher at Lions Farm. I'm also a Lions Farm parent and former DPS teacher of the year. I'm here tonight because like all of you, I want our students to have the best possible environment for learning. This year to accommodate our growing

kindergarten enrollment, I moved out of my STEM lab. While I've been grateful for a temporary space upstairs, I've also spent part of my day teaching kindergarten and first grade from a cart to stay in compliance with North Carolina Fire Code. The district's current proposal next year would place STEM, music, and art on carts. I understand the immense pressure the district is under regarding space, but I am concerned about the unintended impact this will have on our students daily experience.

Teaching STEM from a cart significantly changes what I can offer. Hands-on engineering, 3D printing, robotics, long-term projects, the very things that get students excited about school become incredibly difficult to facilitate. When I don't have a stable home base for materials, we lose valuable instructional time to transition and setup, and we lose the lab atmosphere that fosters true scientific inquiry. Our art and music colleagues face similar hurdles. When we move these subjects to carts, we shift

from an immersive, specialized environment to a mobile delivery model. I've seen the difference this year. Students in a dedicated room feel that they are entering a space of discovery. Whereas CART teaching can sometimes feel like a temporary workaround.

Our students deserve a consistent highquality experience in the arts and sciences regardless of the building's capacity challenges. Beyond the logistics, I am concerned that reducing the rigor of our STEM program will eventually reflect in our North Carolina school report card and science EOG growth as we alter the foundation of inquirybased learning. I know there are no easy answers to overcrowding, but I am asking for a strategic partnership for our school community. I encourage the board to collaborate with us to explore alternatives such as modular classrooms or reasonzoning to accommodate for our special programs before we move to a cart model. Let's work together to ensure that our solution to overcrowding doesn't come at the expense of the

hands-on learning our students love. Thank you for your time and dedication to our schools. >> My name is Kathleen Neans and I seed my time to Dan Gench. >> My name is Dan Gench and I seed my time to Jason Fe.

>> All right, I'm gonna call the next group of speakers. Jason Fe, Sean, oh man, Kakashibio Kashibado. Thank you. Juliet uh Gomez or go Katie Kate Schultz and Christy Clim.

I'm gonna try that one more time. So we got Jason Fe, Sean Cash Cashabado, Juliet Gome Gomez Gomes, Katie Schultz, Christy Clem. All right. Good evening chair and members of the board, Dr.

Lewis. My name is Jason Fe. I'm a parent at Lions Farm

Elementary and I serve on our PTA advocacy committee. I'm here tonight not to argue for a specific outcome, but to again ask for partnership. I want to be very clear about why I'm standing here. Parents are eager to be included in conversations and decisions that directly affect our families and our teachers.

I have followed the district's guidance to engage respectfully through the appropriate channels and early before problems become crises. As far back as November, I reached out about the impending overcrowding challenges at our school and the downstream risks we could all see coming. The response I received thanked me for my concern and uh assured me that district leaders and staff were addressing the issue. I took that response seriously.

It led me to believe two things. First, that parents were not expected to be part of that conversation. And second, that the district was already actively

coordinating with school leadershipship and teachers. What I later learned is that neither of those things was true. After speaking directly with teachers and with school administration, my understanding was that staff had been seeking a promised meeting with the district that had not yet occurred. And that was deeply concerning.

So, I followed up. I attended a board working session. I offered public comment again asking for collaboration between the district and parents to work through these challenges together before decisions were made. The following day, a board member offered to speak with me, and I delightfully responded promptly with three specific times I was available the next week and shared my scheduling link to make it easy, but no meeting was scheduled, and I received no response.

I then communicated with another board member who asked whether I had received the information I needed. I explained that I was still trying to connect and had not received that response. And I want to pause because this matters. Um it's not about an unanswered email. It's about a pattern where parents and educators are being told implicitly that decisions are being

handled elsewhere without meaningful engagement from the people affected most. And this past weekend, I helped facilitate the Durham Council of PTA's meeting where Dr. Lewis opened with remarks about the importance of partnership about adults and children's lives working together to create a school system that truly serves students. I agree with that message wholeheartedly, but partnership has to be practiced and if that's a core belief of this district, then parents must have a seat at the table.

Um, this is p uh they say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now. And this is precisely the moment for proactive planning, open dialogue, and coordination with families and educators who built these programs and are deeply invested in their success. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Sean Ketchado and I seed my time to Juliet Gomes.

Hello, I am Juliet Gomes, a fifth grader at Lions Farm Elementary. I am here to talk about our specials at Lion's at Lion's Farm, music, art, and lab. Two nights ago, I performed at Dpack for an e for an evening to shine. I also participated in the sound of the pride, a choir that I deeply enjoy.

I have a little brother named Benjamin, and I want him to have the same opportunities as me. My friend loves playing the instruments. This wouldn't be possible if specials are on carts. We wouldn't we wouldn't get to do robots, make pottery, or participate in all county choir if specials are on carts.

These two papers these two papers show some of the people who will be deeply upset. Our specials means very very much to us. Some of the best memories are from an evening to shine choir, our annual science night, and our winter arts extravaganza. These wouldn't be possible anymore. Lots of Lions Farm families love these events, so losing them would

be a bit a big impact on our school. Our families, staff, and students love specials, and we do and we don't want to put them on carts. I can't imagine my favorite specials being put onto carts. I want my brother and friends at Lion's Farm to have this great opportunities that I had.

Thank you for your time. We have Kate Do we have Kate Schultz? Kate Schultz. We'll go next to Christy Clim. Before you go, uh, let me call the next group of speakers. Erica Boon, Crystal Merritt, Joy Malone, Flynn Kabashio, and Kristen Kristen Stur Stfur Stfuriac.

Thank you. Hello, Christy Clim, physical therapist. Um, here is a friendly reminder about the budget and the need for OTPT pay to change so we can actually have therapist and not all the vacancies that we've had the last couple years. Encouraging OT assistants to be included in that.

I think right now we have six. I didn't double check that fact, but they do all the same IEP services that OT's and PTs do. 100% feel they should be included. um classified in general really asking for there to be an action added to the budget proposal that matches with what we've heard for two years.

Classified are our priority yet to see that happen. Um you know I can say working out is my priority but if I never make a move on it nothing's going to change on my end. Um nothing is changing so far for to show that classified across the board are a priority. There's no guarantee we're going to go up that small step increase. That recently changed. There's no guarantee that there's going to be

more than what the state gives. Next, we have Erikica Boone, Crystal Merritt, Joy Malone, Flynn Kabashio. Y'all can y'all can come on up. Yeah.

Right behind each other. My name is Erica Boon and I concede to Crystal Mary. >> My name is Crystal Merritt and I concede to Joy Malone. >> Good evening.

My name is Joy Malone. I stand before you as a former DPS employee and DPS parent. Now, I am a deeply invested community member because this district is shaping the future leaders of our city and beyond. I am here this evening to address two critical issues.

First, the disrespect displayed before during the last meet and confer session. Dr. Lewis, thank you for addressing that today in

your superintendent update. I won't repeat a lot of your same comments, but what I will say is that before meet and confer resumes, the community deserves the same public visibility of accountability that we witnessed in the disrespect from the DAE president. A typed statement on social media is not sufficient. If we are modeling leadership for students, then accountability must be visible, direct and sincere.

Meet and confer should exist to improve conditions for students, not to create division, distractions, or a public spectacle. Now, the $4 million technology request. Technology in schools is not a luxury. It is infrastructure. This request is not about shiny new gadgets. It's about maintaining the basic operational capacity of a modern

school system. Without sustained investment, systems fail, instruction suffers, security risks increase, and ultimately students pay the price. You cannot demand innovation, state testing readiness, and outcomes when you're underfunding the very foundation that's required to deliver them. DPS has been at a crossroads for a long time.

The community is watching. Families are making enrollment decisions. Staff is deciding whether to stay. and students are deciding whether they feel supported and prepared for the world that they are entering. I urge this board to stand firmly behind Superintendent Dr. Lewis and invest in what truly moves this district forward, safe schools, functional classrooms, and reliable infrastructure for teaching and

learning. Durm's children deserve stability. They deserve adults who can disagree without being disrespectful. And they deserve a school system that focuses on progress, not political or personal agenda.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Malone. It's good to see you back here. All right, Flynn, come on up.

Kristen, I believe, is at the podium as well, followed by Brandon Daniel, Christy Patterson, Maggie Ratic, and Fern Hickey. All right, see my name is Flynn. Oh, it's okay. >> All right, this is Flynn Catabato.

He's a kindergartener at Lion's Farm Elementary. He's very sad about his specials being lost, and he's seeding his time to Kristen Safuryak. Lynn, thank you for coming today.

>> Good evening. My name is Kristen Severak and I'm the mother of two students at Lions Farm Elementary School. My son is a proud graduate of the general education prek program at Lions Farm and my daughter is currently enrolled in the exceptional children's prek classroom there as well. I'm here tonight because I recently learned that due to overcrowding, the district is considering relocating the pre-K classrooms to a different school.

I understand that enrollment growth creates difficult logistical challenges and I know space planning is complex, but I am asking you to consider what a move like this would mean for some of our youngest students. My daughter is three. She has developmental delays. She's just beginning to find her voice, to trust her teachers, and to feel safe in a school environment.

For children in EC programs, consistency is just is not just helpful, it is essential. Predictable routines, familiar spaces, trusted adults, and stable peer groups are the foundation that allows them to make progress. Lion's Farm is our base school. This is the community that she will grow up in. Each morning when I walk her to her classroom, she is greeted by name by every teacher and staff member we see. Though she doesn't

have many words yet, her love for Lion's Farm is unmistakable. While the number of children enrolled in the prek program at Lions Farm may be relatively small, the positive impact that these programs have on these children and families is tremendous, the literature strongly supports the benefits of continuity and highquality early childhood programs, particularly for children with exceptional needs. As you're faced with incredibly challenging decisions in the coming weeks and months, I urge you to please consider the voices of the families at Lions Farm in that process. Our community and commitment to supporting all students is truly what makes Lion Lions Farm so special.

Thank you for your time and for listening not just to a parent but to the voice of a child who cannot stand here and speak for herself. Thank you. >> Good evening Dr. Lewis and board.

My name is Brandon Daniel. I'm a fifth grade teacher at Burton Elementary School. I've worked there the last 15 years. I love where I work. A lot of my

co-workers do, too. Um, we are National Merit School of Excellence. We recently earned a B. And we are also a lighthouse school of excellence.

We are a lighthouse for our students. We are a lighthouse for our community. Our staff shines and guides our students no matter the conditions. Every year as a teacher, I'm asked what resources my students need.

I've been doing this for 15 years and I can tell you the best resources res resources we have are our human resources. So that's why I'm here today. Some of my co-workers are international teachers. We are in an international backyard at school.

So that makes a lot of sense. Our curriculum is brought to life by our teachers and we are set to lose some of those teachers um due to a decision not to renew visas and sponsor these teachers. Now, my friend, my colleague, my co-orker, my fifth grade teacher who I care about dearly, she might lose.

>> Thank Thank you, Mr. Daniel. Thank you. Good evening.

Uh, my name is Chrissy Patterson and I am an EC special programs teacher currently getting her national boards and I currently serve as the vice president of the Durham Association of Educators. We urge you to prioritize the joint proposals that have emerged from the meet and confer committee. Both policies have extensive discussion and dialogue at the meet and confer table and are important steps forward for collaboration between the districts and workers. In the final weeks of budget development, swiftly adopting the budget transparency policy will show the Durham community and stakeholders the board's commitment to openness and transparency.

The uh the revised grievy policy is a shining example of the collaboration that is possible. An existing DPS policy was strengthened through discussion at four meet before sessions. When employees are unsure whether it safe to raise

concerns, they often choose not to raise them at all. That doesn't mean problems don't exist. It means they go unressed and escalate affecting trust. >> I'm going call the next group of speakers.

So we have Fern Hickey, Daniela Flores, Mercedes Mccurly, and Yahi Ranhel. Uh my name is Maggie. I'm a newly certified National Board science teacher at Northern High School. I've been teaching there for eight years and I'm here speaking on behalf of DAE.

We understand that there are many policies in the policy committee queue, important policies for our students, our community, and our school system. Two of the policies on the rearing list, the budget transparency policy and the grievance policy have been co-developed for the first time in DPS history through the meet and confer process. These two draft policies exist today because administration and workers united to solve pressing issues in attempt to strengthen the district we all want to see thrive. The meet and confer committee collaborated, discussed, and debated numerous drafts

and edits before jointly putting them forth for the board's review. We cannot have these policies take time away from the work that the policy committee is doing to revise, update, and develop policies that have not gone through meet and confer. The policy committee uh policy states that the policy committee chair in consultation with the superintendent may recommend that the board policy that the board review a policy prior to policy committee review when circumstances are exigent and emergent and require expedited processing. Those two policies require those.

>> Good evening. My name is Fern and I'm a DPS parent and a member of Durham Public School Strong. And I'm here tonight with a group of parents, students, and teachers, um, one of whom already spoke today earlier to show our support for revising policy 5120 on relationships with law enforcement. We want a policy that protects the physical and emotional safety and undisrupted learning of all our students and makes it clear that ICE is not welcome at DPS schools. The draft being brought to the full board tonight

is much stronger than the version of policy 5120 currently in effect thanks to the careful work of the community administration and the policy committee. But there are still a few changes we'd like to see made to remove unnecessary loopholes and additional measures we'd like to see added to better protect students, staff, and the learning environment. We ask that the board remove except in exigent circumstances from section F1 and remove the first two sentences from section F13 because there are no exigent reasons why ICE should need to come into schools. Emergencies and imminent risk of >> Thank you.

Come on up. My name is Daniela. Good evening. I want to thank the policy committee and administration for incorporating elements of the ACLU and North Carolina Justice C Center's private zones policy into policy 5120. There are a few additional pieces we would like to see carried over from that model policy in

order to make it clear that ICE is not permitted to enter our schools without a signed judicial warrant. Section F3 provides guidance on what the principal should ask for and do if an immigration agent shows up at school. We support that is already stated in this section, but would like to see added that the principal should ask for a signed judicial warrant in additional to asking for the agents name and other details and that if no warrant is presented, the principal should explain that they cannot permit access to the school site in the absence of a judicial warrant. I do have a more comment here, but I'm not going to have enough time, so I will turn it in as well for you.

Thank you. >> Thank you. you can give those to our board executive assistant and she'll make sure we get those comments. >> Hello, my name is Merced Mur and I see my time to Jer.

>> Yeah. Before you get started, I'm going to read two more names for you. A couple names. All right. Um the next uh folks on our agenda is Jordan Harless Jen Painter and Dr. Jennifer Girish.

You all can come on up. >> Hello, my name is Yah. I am a DPS student. >> All right, you're here.

We want to make sure we hear you. So, move that microphone over just a little bit. Yeah, there we go. Thank you.

>> Hello, my name is Yahir. I am a DPS student. Thank you for all the work you all have done so far to protect all the students in Durham public schools. However, more needs to be done.

I am speaking to you today because I want to raise some important points. As a student in Durham public schools, I currently do not know what to do or what will happen if any immigration officers or other enforcement officers come to my school. I want to make sure we have a clear, strong policy in place that everyone un understands and follows. All students deserve to feel safe coming to and being at school. That is why I support passing the version of 5120 that

our PSS policy team supports. We need to go on lockdown when immigration officers or other threats are present. You all need to do everything in your power to keep all students and staff safe. I also want to be able to ask for a trusted adult that might not be my parent or guardian to be present for any questioning that could take place.

All of this is very frightening and having someone I trust with me is very important, especially in this case. Please do the right thing and pass the strong version of policy 5120. Thank you. >> Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jordan Harless and I'm an educator at Jordan High School. As a teacher, two of the main philosophies I have are that children deserve to have a safe place to learn and that I will be honest to them with them when it comes to their safety.

Because of this, my students feel really safe asking me questions all the time because they know that I will tell them as much of the truth as I can. Since Trump was inaugurated in January 2025, my students have had a lot more questions about their safety. Unfortunately, right now, the truthful answer to mo most of them is that I don't know. " With that, I am asking that the board listens carefully and considers all aspects of f of policy 5120 to protect our students to the best of our ability.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jen Painter. I'm an ESL teacher at Jordan High, a DAE member, and I'm here tonight with Durham Public Schools strong. I am speaking in support of policy 5120 and specifically in support of language in 5120 that would clearly state that all staff will receive training related to requests for information and access to school sites

by immigration enforcement officials. Because of the way immigration enforcement operates, we cannot predict when, where, or which staff member will need to follow the policy. We need to train for this situation the way we train for all safety situations, which includes opportunities to practice and get feedback so that we can confidently and quickly follow policies to protect our students, families, and staff. Finally, because it is so crucial for safety, the policy must include the guidance of experts in the development and evaluation of the training or similar metrics to ensure effectiveness.

Thank you. have mercy. Only a minute. Okay.

Hello. My name is Jennifer Garish. I'm here representing um the discipline and uh suspension committee for germ advocates for exceptional children. Previously, the seclusion and restraint policy was next on the policy

committee's list of priorities. We are grateful that that decision got moved to the regular menu uh agenda for um uh discussion. Uh we with the Durham Advocates for Exceptional Children have voiced our concerns around this policy. We want to make sure this remains a very high priority for the board especially in light of the recent very public incident that happened with a restraint of a child with disability who is very very young.

Broadly we have three primary concerns. The current policy permits too many uh seclusions and restraints. The policy gives too much discretion and power to adults in deciding whether to seclude or restraint a child. And the policy is unclear and confusing.

We detail much more in the email that we sent to you all earlier today. You have that. Thank you. And that concludes our public comment this evening. The next item on our agenda is our consent items. We have

removed um item F from our agenda. So it is only items A through E on our consent. >> Madam Chair, I'd move approval of the consent agenda. Items A through E.

>> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Byer and seconded by Miss Harold Goff. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I.

>> I. >> I. Any opposed? Uh use the same sign.

It passes 6 as Miss Chavez stepped out. The next item on our agenda are presentations from administration. We have first our audit presentation. I'm going to pass it over to Mr.

Teter. Yes, Bettina Umstead, board members, and Dr. Lewis, uh Paul Carson, our audit partner, uh with Anderson Smith and Mike, uh will come forward to the podium um and present the 2425 um audit for Durham Public Schools. and then staff will uh follow up Mr. Carson's presentation sort of with our our um response and and um comments.

>> Well, good evening board members and Dr. Lewis. Hope you're doing well. I believe each of you have already received an electronic copy of the June 30th, 2025 audited uh financial statements that we issued.

Um each of you should have also received a short 14page financial statement summary report and that's what I'll be going over with you this evening. It summarizes the areas of the financial statements that we feel are uh the most important to you and overseeing the finances and budgets of the school district. If anyone has any questions as I'm going over it, uh please feel free to stop me at at any point. Our audit basically covers two main areas. We perform an audit of the actual finances of the school system which include the amounts you receive that you see in the report and an audit of the school systems compliance with state and federal laws and regulations which primarily relates to the state and federal grant funding received by the board. Within the detailed financial statements, there are four letters we issued pertaining to these audit areas.

These four letters are summarized on page one of the handout you received. And on pages one through three of the detailed report and uh is our financial statement audit opinion letter which is an unmodified opinion. This means we feel the numbers and disclosures presented in the report are reliable and the financial statements are free of any material misstatements. the internal control and compliance letter.

That's pages 64 and 65 of the detailed report. We do not issue a an opinion on internal controls, but we do report on any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that are detected. During our audit, we noted two material weaknesses, which we'll discuss a little later. And then there's our report on major uh federal and state programs.

That's on pages 66 through 71 of the detailed report. Those are unmodified opinions on both letters. Uh there were, excuse me,

there are a lot of various compliance steps that we're required to test. Uh we were required to perform more extensive testing um on compliance items again for the 2425 audit due to the issues noted in the prior year's audit and as well as as how late it was. Uh during our audit, we did note a material weakness which we'll discuss a little later as well um in both of our reports on the major federal and state programs. Uh next we'll look at some of the financial information which starts on page two of the handout.

And on this page we have the local current expense fund. This schedule shows a three-year summary of local current expense fund assets, liabilities, and fund balance, as well as a three-year summary of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance. All these amounts come from the district's audited financial statements uh for the current year and the prior two years. 8 million. Ending

4 million. And of that 14 uh million253426 were amounts owed by other uh by other funds to the local current expense fund. 2 million at June 30th. 7 million.

And then assets minus liabilities uh gives the district's ending fund balance which was 11,4666. That was an increase of $3 million over the prior year. And if you look at the bottom of the in that first column for paid 2025, you'll see that number at the bottom. Um it is good to see that fund balance was trending in the right direction again this year.

Um you know we certainly and would encourage the district to continue operating. um without uh you know utilizing fund balance as much as possible for the foreseeable future. This would allow the

district to replenish its fund balance and cash reserves. And as we've stated uh for several years and we we stated all of our districts, you know, fund balance and cash reserves are vital uh for cash flow purposes and emergencies or in or to address any other unforeseen um issues that that occur. 9 million. Are there any questions on that before we move on?

Okay. And then we'll flip over to page six and we'll look at the lo local local special expense fund. And again, this is showing a three-year uh comparison of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance. This fund has both

restricted and unrestricted revenues that flow through it. Some of the unrestricted revenues include sales tax refund, indirect cost, and interest income. 7 million of fund balance. We flip over the next page.

On page seven, we'll look at capital outlay. 5 million and other financing sources of 319,000 for the year. 5 million. And if we'll flip over to page eight, we'll look at the school food service fund. Now, the performance of the child nutrition program is a little bit

convoluted this year. 3 million in food during the 2425 fiscal year. These purchases are shown as transfers from other funds on the schedule, which is the second to last number in the 2025 column. 6 million prior to transfers being recorded.

9 million, excluding transfers from other funds. 8 million during the year. This was primarily due to the fact that in the first half of 2425 fiscal year, the district loaned the child nutrition

department $5 million in cash. Uh this was in addition to the 3 million in cash that was loaned during the 2324 fiscal year. But there is a chart on page nine that shows a visual three-year comparison of cash balances, revenues, expenditures, um as well as net income and loss. Are there any questions before I move on?

>> So thank you, Mr. Carson. um what's your comfort level with child nutrition moving forward? I maybe I should ask Mr.

Teter that. But um as >> question for him, >> I'll just say um much more comfortable, right? We we started doing um so I came on board in November of 2024, so almost halfway through um the fiscal year that we're looking at. Um but immediately um started working very closely with the program. Um, and I think really sort of um, our child nutrition director assumed sort of more direct management of the

program um, around February or near the end of January of 2025 um, and started returning Durham Public Schools to practices that allowed it um, to move in the right direction and start to shift back to the way it used to be before the program started experiencing losses. Um I think for some additional context on that um we have not um needed to float any cash um to the child nutrition program so far this year. We do not plan to do so. Um and based on the way the year has trended um we are feeling very confident um that we'll be able to take back uh some of that uh cash that had been advanced to the program previously.

So um very quick turnaround um working in collaboration with Jim Keaton and his team. >> Thank you. >> Are there any qu questions about child nutrition before we move on? >> If you look on page 10 um we kind of outlined the findings and question cost. As I mentioned earlier, we noted uh four

findings during our audit. Um I you know it will highlight that all of those are repeat findings from the previous audit. You may remember when when I was here back in August, we indicated that due to the late the the lateness of the audit and getting everything um you know kind of caught up that it was likely that some of these were were going to repeat. Um there were no new findings noted during the audit.

So I do want to point that out. Um I will go over a summary of each of the findings. If there are any questions as I go through them again, please feel free to interrupt me. but finding 25 uh-01 related to bank accounts and other various general ledger accounts that were not uh properly reconciled in a timely manner during the year.

Finding 25-02 related to numerous instances being noted in which expenditures were made without a purchase order being completed until after the expenditure was incurred. This is a violation of the school budget and fiscal control act. Um

it is worth noting that the majority of these instances were for purchases made during the first half of the 2425 fiscal year. And then findings 25-03 and 25-04 relate to the state bank account reconciliations not being prepared in a timely manner uh during the year. This directly relates to the issues noted in finding 25-01. Since this issue affected the state and federal programs that we audited as major for the 2425 fiscal year, we had to report this issue as a finding um in each of those opinion letters for both the major state um as well as the major federal programs. It is our understanding from discussions with uh management that these issues have been completely resolved, but of course we will follow up on these findings as part of our June 30th, 2026 audit in uh in order to confirm that that is the case. Are there any questions before I move on?

And then page 11, we have the management letter. Uh this is a separate one-page letter uh to management regarding two matters in which there were opportunities for the board to strengthen internal controls and operating efficiencies. Um I again I'll go over a summary of each of these and if you have any questions please uh feel free to stop me at any point. Uh but the first item related to outstanding salary exceptions.

As of June 30th, 2025, the board overpaid employees with state and federal funds totaling 183,891. We recorded a liability in the local current expense fund for those overpayments. And then the uh second item related to our testing of internal controls and transactions at the uh for the individual schools. We noted various areas where improvements could be made. Um, we provided the CFO uh with a detailed listing of our comments and recommendations for each school. We also recommend uh that routine trainings be

conducted with all bookkeepers and principles to ensure that they understand the importance of following proper procedures uh for accounting for for school funds. Are there any questions on that? And then pages 12 through 14 is our we call our required communications letter. Um it's just a separate uh letter that details specific audit items that we're required to communicate to the board about.

This letter just has boilerplate language. It discusses that there were no difficulties or disagreements encountered in dealing with management during the audit. The letter this letter does mention the findings and management letter items that we have already discussed. But overall, the audit went very smoothly this year.

Management was able to provide the supporting documentation for all transactions and account balances that were selected for for testing and were very transparent with everything that we asked for. Um, we really do appreciate Mr. Teter and his staff for helping to get the audit

completed on time this year. Uh the 2324 audit for DPS was I do believe the last school district audit to be completed in the state for 2324. That was definitely not the case for 2425. Uh when audits are as late as they were in 2324, which was almost 6 months to the day prior, um it is usually expected that the audits will run late for a couple years and that's that's very normal.

Um so it is a testament to their hard work and dedication that you know as I mentioned 6 months after issuing the 2324 audit report we were able to complete and issue the 2425 uh audit report. So again we do appreciate their their help. Are there any questions for me before we wrap up? >> Yes ma'am.

>> Millicent Rogers. >> I'm not sure if this is a question for you or for Mr. Teter, but thank you. um for work for working with our um

administration to get this done. It's particularly about the individual schools. Um when we when you are sharing that you've shared with Mr. Teter about the individual schools, has there been any growth, any modification or improvement over the last couple of years around individual school findings?

like is it a higher percentage this year than it was last year? >> So I think um it was a broader sample this year, right? So I think we did um so for 25 we did every school um and then the year prior to that it was not every school and it was a sample. So it's a little it's not quite an applesto apples comparison but I think we've seen um so we used um the prior two years findings to start informing the training targeting the training um and I think we've got um I I won't say the name of the school but right we've got a really great example of one school that had 24

findings I believe a couple of years ago they had four this time right and so I think we're seeing some really sort of bright spots um sort of emerge and we do have a number of schools that had none. Um and so and sometimes those findings are out of the school treasurer's control. Um right, sometimes we've got situations where a teacher doesn't turn in money or or things of that nature. And so we, you know, we try not to kind of hang that with the school treasurer, but but definitely seeing improvement. Um we it had been some time since they had had a training or or or a meeting of sorts and so they um and so those are now happening regularly and we've um actually developed an instrument um for us to use with our schools. Um so if we see that there's a struggle in a particular area, we have a sort of a plan document that's consistent um across any school with an issue um where we press in talk about the issue uh make the principal aware of what kind of training we're going to offer uh the

bookkeeper or the principal if necessary um and then we follow up just to make sure that they're they're making progress after that training. So I'm definitely headed in the right direction. Um and it's uh it's it takes time but um but definitely seeing bright spots of progress there. >> Thank you.

>> Thank you. Any additional questions? >> I do have one. Um >> from your experience about how many findings do you typically see in school districts each year?

>> Again, it can r you know it can certainly uh you know range. I mean it's not abnormal to have no you know to have you know one or two findings. Um you know again obviously as I mentioned as late as the audit was last year and the the significant amount of findings there were you know scaling it back I think went from I believe it was seven pri in the prior year to four this year. So and and those were really the ones that were unavoidable. So, um, you know, it's it's not uncommon to see one or two findings,

several management letter comments, especially, but, um, as I highlighted districts that end up not having, uh, you know, any management letter comments or especially no findings, I always say that doesn't happen by chance, right? It's a lot of dedication. So, just like what happened this year with no new findings, that did not and then that's why I highlighted that that that didn't happen by happen stance. happened with, you know, a lot of hard work and dedication by the finance department to, you know, kind of follow up on those items, be proactive and and to try to, you know, catch things before, you know, before it gets to where we have to call it a finding.

So, >> thank you. Are there any additional questions for our auditor? >> I think there's a second part of this presentation that is Mr. Teter responding to those findings.

I'd like to have uh that coupled together. Um, we don't expect perfection, but when we find things, we want to think about how do we create systems to prevent that from happening in the future. So, I'm going to pass it over to Mr. T. >> I just say we we do really appreciate uh y'all work working with you guys this

year and we look forward to working with y'all again for the 2526 audit. Thank you. >> I think if it could cue the presentation that uh Okay. Um, so on the we just want to start with sort of the celebrations, right?

And I think Mr. Carson touched on that. So on the next slide just lifting up you know the finance team uh pulled through two audits um in in basically one year and so you you've had audit reports six month apart six months apart um and it's the first on-time uh audit for Durham public schools since 2021 um and so that's that's a huge celebration and that's something that I shared in my interview coming to Durham is that I've never had a late audit and and so very very pleased to um get that on track. Um so like Mr.

Carson noted. Um so last year um you know there were seven findings and and that did reduce to four. Um and so for um for three of those um that are related to our general ledger and our bank account reconciliations. Um when we uh when I came on board the

district was about a year and a half behind on that. Um, and so between November of 2024 and January of 2025, we were able to pull it current and and then keep it current, um, through the close of the 24 25 year. Um, but the the auditors knew that there was a period of time where that just was not happening. And so, um, so we we look forward to that.

Um, I confident that those will fall off, um, on in the next cycle when we do, um, this this next round of audit. Um and then the other item related to the purchasing uh process, right? So I'm very relieved, right, that our work paid off in that there was demonstrated improvement from the first half of 2425 to the second half. And and so the measures we put in place were starting to work. Um and that's a space that we're continuing to focus on with uh with schools and with departments to make sure that they are following those processes and getting things to us timely. And so, um, I'm

sort of forecasting 0ero to one, um, next year. Um, and so looking looking forward to that continued progress, um, where that's concerned. Um, and so Mr. Carson also touched on the management letter um, right?

So there were um six management letter comments in the 24 audit um and that's reduced to two um that's reduced to two this go round and and I'll touch on kind of our thoughts on each one uh on on some slides coming up here. Um but also wanted to share in the same sort of the same timeline um where we completed two audits um and and made that progress um we've we've converted the district to a new accounting system um and and and that will continue to assist us um in in getting the audit complete on time and getting the reports that we need. Um and then we've also developed an updated finance procedure manual for the district. And so that's been the first update to the manual since 2017. Um and we rolled that out recently. um at a leadership meeting um and I sort of deliberately held on that update because

I knew we were moving uh to a new accounting system and I wanted to make sure that uh while we're doing that work that it would just go ahead and reflect the system that we're moving to and capture that um in in the procedure manual um for our staff uh throughout the district. Um on the next uh if we can advance two slides um and we just lift up that first finding that Mr. Carson talked about and we um we know that we are current in that regard. We could not avoid that for 2425 due to timing.

Um but things are things are in good order with the balance sheet. Staff is catching issues as they happen because they are looking at the balance sheet and they know something they're at the point now where they know something did not occur correctly with the process because something doesn't look right on our balance sheet. Uh which is a huge uh huge change for us. And so like I said, I expect that to not be an issue rolling forward. Um on the next slide um in that um in that same spirit sort of the purchasing like I shared earlier um we are um we we saw improvement in the

second half of the year. We continue to see improvement this school year uh where those processes are concerned um and and really sort of driving home those best practices. We've done a couple of purchasing trainings um with with school treasures and with administrators as well as rolling out that manual uh and developing that improvement plan document. Um it's linked in the presentation for anyone who wants to look at that just for awareness of the instrument that we're using uh to provide support uh where we recognize that it's a need. Um on the next slide um is the final the 253 and 254 right are those bank reconciliations that are married uh to the trial balance. And so the uh the cash account has to be correct and the bank reconciliations affect our ability to know our cash balance is correct and and when that is correct right we're able to maintain uh the trial balance but um fortunately we were able to bring um bank reconciliations current a couple of months after I came on board in the middle of the year that was audited and they remain uh on track and and just uh

extreme gratitude um for my staff and and all of the expectations um that were put on them to to research things and resolve things very quickly. They they really did step up to the plate uh in in in a meaningful way and I was just glad to be able to guide their work uh and and help them get there um in a timely fashion. Um we can move uh two more slides and we'll just touch on the management letter items. Um and so um so as the board's aware, right, the Department of Public Construction um monitors very carefully how we pay our certified staff members.

Um, and so when we uh came on came on board, um, there were 2,186 issues in that arena that needed attention. Uh, and we worked very diligently to bring that under control and and it and it could have been a liability to the board in um, a couple million dollars or so. And so um, lots of hard work to bring that down. um in in the course of that uh fiscal year. Last year, it was the first year that

the Department of Public Construction moved to a new system to monitor that. Um a number of districts fussed about that. Um and uh had to be patient with the department as they worked through some challenges. Um but nonetheless, um after the fiscal year concluded, that 183,000 or so, we were able to resolve um and and have that cleared up.

And so that's um that has been taken care of. Um and then this summer we really spent some time um diving deep with the payroll team um and doing some very specific training on how to mitigate um things that can cause those types of errors um so that we can reduce those. And then we meet on a monthly basis to review what has occurred uh and what we're going to do to to fix that. and and we continue to provide uh ongoing ongoing training inhouse and we've done some training outside of the district for payroll and they've had the opportunity to collaborate with payroll departments and other districts um a few months ago. So um we're all over that.

Um and then on the next slide I think uh Miss uh Rogers questions about um the the schools, right? we sort of touched on what we're doing there and ongoing trainings um and and providing those structures there for our school treasurers and um organizing. We reorganize the team that supports them um so that that's a little more streamlined. And so we have uh one member of the team u that supports only our our high schools and our specialty schools and and laser focuses on those issues.

Uh we have another person on the team that supports our middle schools and a and just a small number of elementary schools and another another member of the team that only works through elementary school issues um so that they can more naturally have sort of job alike so to speak and and can provide that custom support uh to the different things that go on at those levels of the schools. Um on the next slide, I'm just rehashing the chart um that we used last year. Uh and so um no yellow this time and and greens across.

So just uh we see low risk uh of those items repeating and um just thrilled to have been in control of this fiscal year from the beginning. um and and to help um and then using those months at the end of the previous year to help start getting the staff geared up to get in front of this year um and be proactive about what some of the challenges have been. Uh and then next slide we just call for questions if the board has any additional questions. >> Thank you Mr.

Teter. A huge thank you to you and the rest of your team down in finance. So, please extend our thanks to them um for all of your hard work reconciling, retraining, getting us all on board to make sure can have an audit and then thinking about the systems that are needed to correct those findings. So, thank you for that.

Board members, are there any questions, Miss Byer? >> Yeah, I just want to also extend gratitude to um Mr. Mr. Teter, your team

and your leadership and then the incredible number of systems that you have revamped and um brought from way out of date and way out of compliance to where we have now. And I think we can't understate the progress that your team has led in in a very short amount of time. Um, I know that the board and the superintendent wouldn't be getting any sleep if we didn't know that it was in such good hands as you've moved through this. And it's so great to have manager Hager here feeling like we have it together.

I do think this budget year may be one of our most stressful as a board as we are sitting here waiting on the state that continues to not do anything. there will be temptations to um touch fund balance for recurring cost and I just wondered if you or Mr. Carson wanted to speak to that practice and why that Yeah, it is good to see that growth in fund balance. Um it's good to be

reminded that we um dove nine nearly $9 million into it in a year. And if you could speak to that just a bit, I think that would be helpful. I think sort of three um sort of broad comments. And so one, you know, very very grateful that we were able to add back to that and and sort of recoup uh some of what had been uh consumed in the year prior.

Um and then two, um we're in an interesting spot where we have it, but we technically cannot budget it um because we do have those receivables that are due to us from school nutrition as an example. Um and so that um might be, you know, an unintentional um safeguard there, um to to mechanically keep us from being able to do that. Um and then u and then three, yes, I I would echo um really should never be used for recurring. Um, and then our my philosophy has always been for non-recurring items, uh, emergencies that occur, um, Chromebook surprise

purchases that might occur, um, and just as an example, um, and things of that nature. And also, um, we really rely on some degree of fund balance to remain available for us. Um, just because, uh, the the nuances of where we land in the budget process, right, we school systems go first. Um and then the counties come next and then the state comes along whenever they feel like it lately.

Um and then the federal cycle comes even farther after that. Uh and it helps us um to move forward cautiously um if we do have some resources that we can call on in the event that we do not anticipate um with our crystal ball what was going to happen in Raleigh or what's going to happen in Washington. So, I think it's always my biggest reason for always wanting it there. And it helps me to sleep at night um to know that that's there to call on if we get a surprise um in from from the entities that develop a budget after us.

Uh, Miss Rogers, vice chair. >> Chair said I'd just like to offer a motion to accept the 2024 audited financial statements. >> Second. It has been moved by Vice Sher Rogers, seconded by Miss Harold Goff.

Is there any other discussion? Sorry, I do have a question. Uh, I really like kind of what you've laid out. I think one of the challenges sometimes in Durham public schools is as people move the systems that they develop move with them.

And so can you speak maybe a little bit to how the things that y'all are building in finance can outlive as people retire and decide to move on that those manuals and systems and trainings will be regularly scheduled and continue on. >> In your response, can you share um Ruben's graduation most recent graduation? >> Yes. Um so I I will start with the team, right? Um and so we've been very um very deliberate in sort of building um the next generation of finance officers,

right? And so um so Ruben Barfield, who's our senior executive director and and um who presented to you a couple of weeks ago, um very proud of him and he've um he's most recently earned the highest certification that he can from our professional association. And so he's now a certified school business director um from the North Carolina Association of School Business Officials. And so we will be recognizing him at a future meeting.

Um and so um he's enjoying a much earned vacation in Disney World this week after he covered for me. Uh and so we um and so he's earned that certification and I've had the just sort of the privilege to work with him and and transfer knowledge of what goes on um in in K12 finance. And then we've um you know recently um hired you know our new internal auditor has come on board um you know heavily credentialed um and transferring of knowledge occurring there as well for Miss Kernney um who who came to us from the IRS um and um and then also uh we

have brought some talent back to Durham that had left Durham and so um Evelyn Gyos um who was here for a number of years uh and and left us to work in Guilford County and then to work for DPI I on their finance team has come back to us uh to lead our accounting team. Um and so um additional um brought some knowledge of Durham with her and and and then continuing to invest in her as well and and uh and all of our team. And so we're um always thinking about sort of the next group um and so folks who know what needs to go on um and what we need to continue and and those documents, right? And so we're we've built that procedure manual um that um describes exactly what you need to do. Um and in addition to that, we have been working um Evelyn um who I mentioned earlier gets a lot of credit uh for developing a lot of written standard operating procedures that are for the finance team internally um that that sort of reach beyond um the document that's uh a consumption item for end users. So, um

definitely um making that long-term investment, too. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Um I would love to make sure we keep those things regularly going.

Treasurers get it every time they come, you know, every year or when new folks come in so that we consistently have that work happening in our district. All right. Any other discussion? Apologize, board members.

All right. So, um it's been moved by Miss uh Vice Chair Rogers, seconded by Miss Harold G. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I.

>> I. I. Any opposed? Please use the same sign.

It passes unanimously. Thank you all. Uh yes, Dr. Lewis. >> Yeah, just want to uh thank you Paul for for your work and definitely kudos to our entire finance team that was already mentioned uh to complete two audits in in one year or two and to switch um systems to bring us to the 21st century all in in one year is truly um commendable. and and and what you don't see and this this goes for every uh cabinet member on this table here is the

the number of hours after hours that is spent here in this building at home um making sure that the district still still functions properly. So kudos to to um Mr. Teter and the entire cabinet team. And the next item on our agenda is the 2026 2027 budget presentation.

I'm going to pass it over to you Dr. Lewis for you to narrate us through this. >> Yes. Yes.

I am super excited to have our um my partner in crime, manager Hager, at the request of the board has so graciously agreed to come and share an update um with uh our board and our community from a county government perspective. Um we're happy to have uh manager Hager. I'm super excited she was here to see the audit that we are improving. I was >> Keith was >> want to show you all the great >> all the great things.

So when we get ready to ask for some money, you'll see we're on the right track. >> Manager Hagar, thank you for being here. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent Lewis.

Um, Chair, I am so grateful to all the board members for inviting me and sharing where we are in our budget deliberations. We typically have an update um in our joint BOE BOCC meeting. It's a little later and so um it's great that we are conversating tonight and I will not deliber uh delay long sort of with introductions but we'll walk right on into it. uh the the topics.

Well, we we'll just talk about the guiding principles we have um the context on how we're going to develop the budget. We'll highlight sort of expenditure and revenue trends that we're seeing and also um share um the next steps. Uh we have about two and a half months before I have to present to the board uh the budget. I will say this is probably one of the toughest budget years I've ever

experienced. Um when I was in higher ed, there were years where we had um doubledigit cuts we had to look at, etc. And local government, especially in durm in this region, we've been very fortunate to have a strong economy. So even when there were cycles, there were declines, the local government was still very stable.

The policy shifts at the federal and state level have caused tremendous burdens and challenges as well as opportunity across all sectors. Um the fiscal climate with the uncertainty makes it another layer of um challenge as we walk through things. Our guiding principles that we have um next slide. I went through the discussion topics and we can go to the next one. The guiding principles that we have outline how we do our review. And if you go to the next

slide, I'll walk through them a little bit more carefully. We will not go through all of them, but we have policies and budget guidelines that we we adhere to as all organizations do. And we go through a a a very rigorous process each year to look at what we're investing in investing in those results that we desire as well as an evaluation of are those dollars and programs aligning with the strategic plan and the resources that we have to sustain those operations. maintaining adequate fund balance for all funds um is a priority so that we can maintain our AAA bond rating.

Um we had an issue um with our reserves. Um we've always had a very strong um fund balance for the county. We may budget fund balance to balance the budget, but

the intent is not to use it. Okay? because you're going to hope through your budgeting process that you have been um targeted enough that you slightly collect more in your revenues. And on the expenditure side, you may be a little bit lower than expected.

Over the past 20 plus years, we've only actually used fund balance once until most recently. And so we had to make some adjustments to make sure that we corrected that pattern. And so um so when I heard the conversation, it was familiar and we had to increase positions, shift in operating expenses and do a lot of other things to change that trajectory. We're very aggressive with it. Um so we we do um share some of the similar challenges and opportunities as these shifts in

revenue streams occur. Um the other principles are many that you also have and if you go to the next slide I'll just highlight a couple. um we we try to make sure that we secure debt support um provided through a capital financing policy that dedicates significant revenue sources toward annual payment. So we have a debt service plan that is um established and it has dedicated revenues from our property taxes as well as sales taxes.

Sales taxes are um economic in in nature. So based on the economy, the dollars come in. So if sales taxes aren't where they should be, the property tax burden is increased. So as we look at and plan our budget, we look at those trends and Keith give uh more details on that. the um review process and we'll can we

go back one slide please? My apologies. Thank you. Um this this slide talks about a framework that we talked with the board back in October.

We've we've been working on this budget probably since August. I feel like we passed the last budget and we just started again because of the outlook. We saw the patterns that happened. um in September when they um froze SNAP dollars.

Uh it was a tremendous burden for I know many of us in this room trying to figure out what would happen. Durham County, we have um six almost $6 million worth of direct payments that go through SNAP each month. And as a county manager wondering how are these families going to close these gaps? what's the impact to our schools etc. So in that um October time frame, we

shared with the board we were going to do some very deep dives and um no um stone would go unturned and it's still we're still looking um all county funded entities receiving recurring dollars. Uh we committed back in October they were go undergo a base budget evaluation. Uh we would continue that process. uh through the 2627 budget year because it's we have a billion dollar budget 27 departments.

So that's that's a lot. Uh we committed to evaluating allocations for alignment with general statute requirements, local mandates as well as board priorities. Um increased operational assessments were committed uh as well as an evaluation of span of control. Um we also uh committed to benchmarking our cost against peer jurisdictions

which sometimes can be tricky because jurisdictions may budget for activities differently. So a lot of this work is happening and we're also u figuring out the best approach in it but those deep dives are happening both internally as well as having external reviews. We also committed at that time to develop strategic strategies on how we would plan for potential shifts in federal, state, or local revenues. For some of those shifts, it may mean that we can't afford to continue those efforts because there have been so many um dollars that have declined or are projected to shift in other areas. And so the other and then the last area

was to refine our key performance indicators. Right now in this country, everybody wants to know what's my return on the investment. And so we committed to revisiting what story we're telling because a lot of times we're doing the work, but we may not tell the story like we should. But it was in that process too in this review and as we're going through it, it is to make sure as we look at the story we're telling that it aligns either with priorities from the board but in looking at what's mandated, what's required.

The next slide shows a chart. I will not go into it that captures u many of the mandated or legally or optional services. And this an example uh we're legally required to support building

code enforcement for example the courts deed registration public schools public health. But then with all of that, there are nuances and what does that mean with that mandated requirement? And then there are optional services that are are listed statutoily that we're authorized to do. But then there's another column that's not there, community priorities, and that's where Durham is unique, and that's why we're able to do a lot of things that make us, to me, the best county in the country.

Uh this next slide will show um the view of from a legislative perspective of public school funding and and all the statutes that are there. I will not go into that but I also want you to see the example of what we're doing with departments. Uh we have um 27 departments. each department will align

what you're doing and what C category it's under. And then as we just make sure we're clear if we get in scenarios that we have to do reductions or evaluations beyond um the realignment process, we know what we're required by law with at a glance um so that we can protect the county, our general fund revenues. If you go to the next slide, um it's comp comprised primarily of property taxes and sales taxes. They comprise about 78% of our revenue.

Property taxes about 59% and sales taxes about 18%. 6. And if you were to look at the trends, that number has been um declining over the years. Our overall budget is a billion dollars with our

general fund budget uh about $700 million. If you go to the next slide, you'll see um a quick overview of our expenditures. I know we come to you often to talk about budgets and how it relates with public schools and you know this but um there are other areas of focus that require a lot of resources as well. Um, this chart will show that education and personnel and benefits are the two largest areas within our budget. For personnel, it's for all the departments that provide services for the county. um some of the largest departments such as Department of Social Services, they have about um 600 employees and they serve about 130,000 clients.

Those individuals get direct or indirect dollars that flow through DSS. For public health, they serve about 40,000 of our residents. And then um I won't go into all the stats with some of the others. So the complexities when you have entities such as public health um social services who are impacted by these federal changes, it can cause tremendous pressure in how do we navigate in these unknowns.

Education funding, as you know, is a very high priority of Durham County government. For the last three plus decades, we have always been in the top five funded counties. It is something that our community supports as well as our board because we are partners in this community's efforts to make sure we have success with our students.

Um, in addition to uh the the budget for Durham public schools within education, we're required to support the operating um well the the facility cost with um Durham Technical Community College. So for their um building support um and then we also support preK operations. There are also dollars that are allocated for debt service that we support and one most recent example was with our bond referendum and um and in other areas. I will now transition to Keith who will share the fiscal outlook.

Again, this is very high level um but we will go from there. Thank you, Manager Hager. Um, just so you understand how close we are, she

hired me as a senior budget analyst in 2000 in January of 2000. So, we have worked together for quite a while and she still looks wonderful after all these years compared to me. Anyway, um, thank you board members and Superintendent Lewis for letting us talk with you. Uh, can we go to the next slide, please?

um ask next slide after this one. Thank you. Uh want to talk about how this year is particularly sobering. There's been issues out there bubbling up.

If I were to sum it up for you without going to another slide, this is like everybody else in life. But for the county, our expenditure growth, the cost of doing business is outpacing our revenue growth. And I work in terms of delta, the the think of it as a raise. That's the number you use every year to help pay for higher insurance costs or to take your kid to get violin lessons or something like that. You kind of depend on a raise to help you handle inflation, expand services. That's

happening for us. But we're having the same problem everyone else is having. We're also very caution cautionary about 25 26 27 fiscal year, the upcoming fiscal year because we're in a year now that's been a little bit crazy. Uh, everybody remembers Elon Musk and coming in with Doge and all of that stuff.

Well, that had detrimental effect effects for Durham County that we're still feeling and reeling from. And these are some headlines that are taken from local newspapers from earlier in 2025. And those are real losses to the counties. These are $100,000 a year plus jobs.

These are people with brain power, PhDs and M's degrees working out in research places for the university, Duke University, other universities, health systems. They were hit hard. Can we go to the next slide? That sort of chaos does not make us comfortable and we have at least three more years of the current administration who doesn't seem happy with the type of services

provided in Durham County. Those services provided pay salaries. Those salaries pay property taxes and sales taxes. Remember, there's two things you remember that manager Hager already spoke of.

The two major revenue sources bring in almost 80% of our revenue are property tax and sales tax. And they pay for our two biggest expenditures are education and our own personnel cost. So, we have to we need people out there working. We need them having jobs.

When they lose jobs, they struggle to pay property tax and they sure aren't buying extra goods where we get sales tax growth. And I'll show you what that means in a few seconds. Just a few more headlines to give you an idea of what's happening out there. And I don't see that improving necessarily over the next year or so.

And remember, we are working on a budget now that starts July 1st, five months from now, and goes another 12 months. So, we're almost 18 out months out trying to assess what's happening. When things are crazy now it or a little chaotic then we will say we tend to get a little bit more conservative in the county because I

cannot afford to make huge mistakes. Next slide please. Just giving you an update an idea of the key industry that drives Durham's growth. There's life sciences, information technology, advanced manufacturing, a tech and healthcare and education.

The ones highlighted in yellow are some some of the areas that are more public facing that deal with getting public dollars, federal research dollars, federal pass through dollars, state money. We are highly oriented in Durham County towards those type of dollars feeding our brain driven d um jobs that we have and that money is in play and is not as certain as it once was. Next slide, please. Eight of the top 16 employers employers in Durham County and the eight are the ones highlighted in orange are public entities or public facing entities.

Look at that. There's Duke University. They were affected. There's Durham public schools. You all understand how you're getting affected by federal and state

funding. And I can go down the list, but you see them. So, we are particularly sensitive to choices made at other levels and the choices that are being made at other levels aren't necessarily positive for Durham County now and I don't see them being positive for Durham County in the near future. Next slide, please.

In response to that, in the last two years, Durham County alone has raised property taxes significantly. In fact, the property tax raises that Durham County has incurred or approved in 2425 and 2526, each of those were higher than property tax rate increases percentage-wise than any of the last 30 years. So, what does that mean? That means the county is filling in its need, its difference between revenue growth and expenditure growth with property tax rate increases. If I were to include the city of Durham, over the last three years, it's been a 20 cent property tax rate increase across both of us. It's nearly a 19%

increase in everyone's property tax bill in just the last three years. That doesn't include the effect of the revaluation process which happened which may have made for many people's house property tax rate go up even more even with the revenue tax uh revenue neutral tax rate. I won't get into the nuance of that, but I'm just saying we have all the city and the county have increased property taxes to fill in that gap. The big question for everyone here and for our commissioners and for manager Hager is, is that feasible moving forward year after year after year?

We're getting close to being in that position to make reasonable decisions about funding for schools or the many services we provide. Are we capable or wanting to uh put property tax rate increases every year on citizens? Next slide, please. So, we'll move in now with that very lovely update of the current situation to 26 27 estimates. This is the third

time I've given this presentation and I feel a little bit like the grim reaper. I go into a room and people just leave sad and quiet. Sorry. Uh can we go to the next slide, please?

So, I just want to show you this is the trended delta. When I say delta, it's the cost. It's the increase in funding for Durham public schools, DTC, and preK each of those years. Those blue columns, it's not the total amount, but it's the increased amount.

That's the raise you get and what you spend the raise on. Well, part of our raise every year has gone to DPS, DTC, and preK. What I want you to notice is the amount of the delta for the first five years starting with 201617 going. So it was 4 million 6 million 7 million 7 million. Look at how that number shifted. The additional funding for the five years, the most recent five years, it moved up to 19 million, 12,4 was $22 million of new county funding for DPS and and other areas in 2042

plus some ARPA funding given to you all. And at 16 million this year, and I think you all are about to ask for a significant amount increase next year. All that being said, this is where expenditure growth is outpacing revenue growth without a tax rate increase. Used to be that we were more closely aligned.

Natural growth in sales tax, natural growth in property tax without a tax rate increase was enough to pay for salaries was enough to help support public school funding. That isn't the case anymore because of things like this. Everybody's got needs. I understand that.

Just showing the math. Next slide, please. These are slides I'm sure that you have seen. This is Durham school uh student trending.

These are ADM numbers. These are final ADM numbers. Uh the yaxis on the left side is tracking Durham public schools which is the red line. And the y-axis on the right side is tracking charter schools, private schools, and homeschool.

The concern here is if we look at and I'm going to pick an arbitrary. picked the highest peak for Durham public schools was roughly 20145 33,000 plus students and by the end of 2024 25 you were down to I can't see the numbers a little far away but I think it's in the 30 oh I can see it's 30,500 significant drop co happened those students have yet to come back while charter school growth has continued to grow as has private school next slide This is the second month ADM numbers for charter schools and Durham public schools. And you see that same trending the high of 33,61415 and you see it go down to 31,000 at the for 2425 or 25 excuse me 2425. But look at 2526.

And I know you've already you know these numbers. You heard it. I saw

it in the paper. We see it too. That's another 1,000 plus drop in students. So in 11 years, 3,899, we'll call it 3,00 3 3,900 student loss.

While you had a charter school growth of 3,185 from 20145 to now. Everybody got that? That's a net loss in students of 704 in 11 years. But the population hasn't hasn't decreased in Durham County.

It's grown. What are some of those reasons? I can't go into specifics. I'm not sophisticated in that.

But I do know that we're aging as a country. We're aging as a state. And even Durham County is aging. It is predicted to age farther into the future.

All we know that's a trend that's concerning for everyone involved. Go to the next slide, please. Why it's concerning is in the same time period we have increased current expense funding by $100 million for Durham public

schools. While Durham public schools has lost 3,900 students, charter schools have gained 300. But that's a net loss of 700 students and a net gain in current expense annual funding of hund00 million. I only say that not to judge, but to say those numbers can't work that way forever for a whole host of reasons without property tax rate increases that have real cost to citizens in the county.

That's the conundrum. That's the area. That's the world we are all living in and trying to figure out. And that's pretty much my presentation.

Yes, >> clar No, no, no. I just want to ask one clarifying question for this graph right here. Is this Durham public schools funding plus the pass through funding for charter schools or >> what is the total amount of expense funding going? So yes, it would include pass through.

>> That's all. >> Yes, ma'am. >> To to follow up on that because I think your graphs are always great and then Mr. Teter's interpretation is always

super helpful. And what gets lost within the community is those local dollars that come through you all do get dispersed out on behalf of those students. And so that student difference is more the 700 than the 3,000. >> It's a 700 net decrease from 20145 to 20 to now based off of second month ADMs.

If you include both, it's a net loss of 700 students. But the per pupil amount is going and being shared on behalf of their charter schools as well, which is why Durham is such a generous place and we keep getting and we have empty office real estate that fills up with charter schools. Here we are. But Mr.

Ter, did you did I say that right or is it >> No, I think I think you articulated it well and uh I think right the when I when I saw that number pop up, right, I heard Dr. Pitman say private schools too. Right. Right. So that um that that's been a factor as well and explains sort of that that overall delta across the public school sphere u with

the traditional public and charters. >> Yeah, >> I I think that's the end. I'll ask to see the next slide just to make sure I'm at the end. Oh, I do have a few more.

I remember I want to show you some of the issues that we're dealing with and I've already said them. Some of our revenue issues issues are economic growth. You heard manager Hager talk about sales tax growth. That is the most economically variable revenue that we have.

Property tax is pretty steady growth, 3% a year without a property tax rate increase. But sales tax is highly dependent on the economy. And when you have high-paying jobs getting lost out in the RTP and lowpaying jobs getting lost or slowing, you have less money being spent around Durham and in the state for us to collect sales tax. that growth.

We're still getting some growth in sales tax. Not as much as I'd like. It's very little, but it's definitely slowing. Local property market is doing pretty well.

It's consistent. It's not as hot as it once was. We're not building quite as many apartments as we once were, but

it's still pretty good, but we are losing some other revenue sources like occupy tax. Our intergovernmental revenue is highly uncertain for some of the reasons I've already noted. if you were to talk and we just had a discussion uh from our DSS department and our public health department that are highly dependent on federal revenue and they had a laundry list of possible revenue losses they're going to experience from the federal government. So we have growing revenue variability.

When we have growing revenue variability and we have to have long-term fiscal stability, we have to become more conservative. We have to be careful about what money we raise and where we put that money. Next slide, please. This is sales tax.

And I just want to show you. I think if you do the forward button one more, it should pop up a little orange circle. Whoever's running this magical There you go. Look at that.

This is sales tax. Look at I want you to see the blue columns. That's the delta amount of new sales tax we had over several years, particularly I can't see it under things. Uh 22 23 23 24 and 24

25. Look at those blue. That's $13 million in new revenue without anybody doing anything that we had the ability to spend on on new things or to support schools or whomever. Look at the three years closest to 20627.

It's 1 million. It actually went down. We're estimating $700,000 of growth in a number that just four years ago went up $13 million. That is a pay raise of $13 million four years ago and $770,000.

They're not even in the same ballpark. That's a problem. Next slide, please. General fund property tax revenues.

What I want you to see, the blue part of those columns are natural growth in property tax revenue without a tax rate increase. Pretty simple. It was significant amount of money. And then every the years that we had a property tax rate increase, that's the extra green part on those columns. What I'd like for you to see if you split that uh graph in half and you see the first five years you see property tax rate

65 65 cents. Remember talk that's one of the highest tax rate increases in the last 30 years for the general fund. 5 cents last year or the year we're in right now 2526. But it was also another cent we added to pay for debt service for uh schools of 22 geo bond DTC and other places like that.

The amount of natural growth we're experiencing this year is $12 million plus $770,000 in sales. 7 million. We're actually losing some other revenues, too. That's not a whole lot of a raise at a level of a billion dollar budget or a $700 million general fund budget.

1213 million in new money is not going very far. We have to pay for benefits increases just like you do. We have to ponder salary increases. We have inflationary increases. A whole

host of issues. Plus, we have you all knocking at the door that we have to find dollars for. Next slide, please. What does one cent bring into the county?

If we were to raise the property tax one cent, it would bring in another 8 almost8 billion. That's what that means. So I just a number you can keep. 8, you're roughly 2 and a half cents roughly of I think is what we would have to find if we don't find that money in some other way.

The only other way we're going to find that money is to have to cut some expenditures we have somewhere else and help you pay these expenditure or we have to raise the property tax rate. Next slide, please. To sum it all up, we have about 13 and a half million dollars in new unarguable expenditures. This is not including you all just yet. These are unarguable expenditures. things like um

we have ARPA we have some ARPA pass through dollars that are falling away that we're hoping to have to backfill some expenditures in that way. We have some some things that we did last year that we have to fully pay for this year. 7 million in new Delta revenue to pay for that. So, I'm already in the whole $5 million.

And that's before I've considered any expenditure increase request from Durham Public Schools. That's before any expansion request from county departments. We've grown 70,000 people in the last I don't know how many years. And I don't know the last time we had a whole new EMS crew put on like a a whole new ambulance that takes about 8 to 10 people to run it 24 hours a day and two or three ambulances run.

I don't know when we we have needs like that that we haven't fulfilled. So we have needs, you all have needs, but we haven't even included that. And I'm already in the whole $5 million. We don't have a salary

increase yet for county employees in that hole. So, you all are one of many people in line to find money that we are struggling to find. Yes, ma'am. >> Mr.

Chavez, >> just a quick question. Um, thank you. Um, the eight, it's not where's the eight coming from? >> That's you saw the the property tax revenue, natural growth without a tax rate increase was $12 million.

Then we had $770,000 in new sales tax. But we are also losing some money in some other places. We're losing some intergovernmental revenue that I didn't account show you on this slide because it's getting into a lot of detail. We have one-time money.

I know you uh Jeremy told you about using one-time money and not wanting to use it for ongoing expenses. Well, guess what we did last year? We did the same thing. Wasn't an oops.

It was planned, but we knew we had to do it because we wanted to limit the tax rate increase to only two and a half to three cents. So, we borrowed three mill. We took money $3

million from one fund that we had and put it in the general fund. But just like Jeremy said, we can't do that every year. So, it's a loss of revenue in this in the upcoming fiscal year. That's how we went from 13 million back down to eight.

Does that answer your question? Next slide, please. This slide I want to show you and I think if you click through this magical person behind the screen, you'll see a couple of red arrows uh go through the slide. There you go.

Keep There you go. You see that arrow? What's that arrow doing? It's growing.

The difference between this is the delta growth in revenue uh in expenditures. The green line and that is the blue line is the delta growth in key revenues without a tax rate increase. I the the best analogy I can give and I thought about this long and hard so I'm gonna see if it works with you all. I played football when I was a kid back way back then if you want to get a little bit stronger you might tie a rope around your waist and drag a tire behind you. 12 years old you got one

tire. 13 years old you got two tires. You're getting stronger and able to carry two tires. But at some point the growth in the number of tires behind you now you're 22 and you got 12 15.

you can't keep up. The cost of pulling those tires is more than your growth and your strength. It's and that's an analogy that works for me. Simply put, simply put, our expenditure growth, the green line, is outpacing our revenue growth, the blue line.

And that can be seen very clearly. And how do we make up that difference? We've made it up the last two years with significant property tax rate increases. The question is, do we have the ability to put that kind of pressure on citizens year after year after year?

And we're not doing this alone. The city is over there having to deal with its own issues as well. Next slide. Budget takeaways. Slowing revenue growth and quickening expenditure growth. Indic economic indicators point to potential

further challenges. We need to consider long-term stability. I know everybody's living one year to the next, but Manager Hager's job and part of my job and part of our finance job and board of county commissioners and yours as well is to be long-term fiscally stable through good times and bad times. We have to begin prioritizing early what we can afford to do, what we can afford to pay for, and which things we're going to pay for.

We have difficult decisions that aren't coming. They're here now. I've said this to our board. The manager said this, send it to you.

We have to begin strategic discussions immediately. We are monitoring quarterly reports for early warning signs. Uh we need to limit 25 26 midyear fund balance amendments. What that means is we get throughout the year desires to spend money and we reach into our savings account and pay for those.

We have to keep our sav our fund balance just like yours you just talked about in your acter. We have to keep ours healthy. So we have to limit the

tendency and the desire to go dip into it to pay for this special need or that special need and we have to pri we ultimately we have to prioritize long-term fiscal sustainability. Next slide please. Next five years some headwinds in front of us. What are those headwinds?

We have an ERP system that we have to replace and that's not going to be fun. It's not going to be cheap and we can't have it go wrong or it will hold us back for it. What's an ERP system? That's our our our finance system, our budget system, purchasing system, our HR system.

It's complicated to implement and we have it coming here in the next couple years. We have to backfill probably some ARPA dollars that have flown through our system. Flowed through our system. We have some CIP related property tax.

What's the CIP? The capital improvement plan. We raised taxes a year ago, a couple of years ago related to the 22 geo bond, but we're not done raising the property tax rate just to pay off 22 geo bonds. And I know

people are clamoring to talk about a 2026 geo bond referendum. I've been in some discussions with a board member buyer and at a couple things where the schools have talked about significant needs, capital needs that has pressures on the property tax rate. We have to with all that being said, we still have to maintain our fiscal foundation with the fund balance of AAA. State and federal changes.

They are not our they are not in our corner at the moment, but we have to deal with whatever they're planning to throw down on us sooner rather than later. We have stagnating revenue growth that we have to avoid mission creep. What I mean by that, we have some mandated services clause. Uh, pardon me, manager Hager.

Manager Hager um showed a slide of what's mandated services versus non-mandated services. We are we have a tendency, all of us do, to creep into other areas that of of things that we want to support as a county that aren't necessarily mandated. When things get tight, you kind of have

to pull back and say, I need to feed my children first. I need to do the the essential things, the mandated things. That's some some areas that we're going to have to look at. There are macroeconomic things happening in the state.

the national level, also at the local level. Inflation is just one of many. And then we have to deal with population growth and how that affects departmental services, public health services, DSS, um our our EMS services, fire marshall, inspections, things of that nature. And are we providing the people and the services needed to deal with a growing population?

Next slide, please. is a budget calendar. I'm done. I'm almost done here. So, we have the budget annual retreat was today, earlier today where I had a longer version of this same story. Um, we'll have take the next month or so where departments will talk with the manager and propose their budget request and there'll be a lot of nodding ahead and then we'll consider

behind closed doors yes or no, maybe more nos than yeses. Uh the manager will present her budget to the board of county commissioners on May the 11th and then we will have four or five work sessions as you see those dates with ultimately the board of county commissioners approving the budget on June 8th. Next slide please. And that's it.

Are there any questions? Thank you manager Hager for letting me speak up here. >> Uh thank y'all for that presentation. Um, we do have our budget presentation right afterward.

Maybe we can do some brief questions and then get into ours as well. Miss Byer, >> all that is super super helpful and I'm so appreciative of you all taking such a long day to be here with us. Can you are as as we look towards personnel costs being the biggest driver. Can you also restate again? I think I heard you say you were looking at 0% increases for your staff. Right now, we we have not

addressed staff um increases. Anything that we're doing, we're trying to look at our our base budget. Um $5 million is is a big gap to start out with and we've not added one expansion item. Um but but the the quote that Keith talked about uh the pressures that our property taxpayers have gone through with tax increases and we we got we've been getting a lot of love letters about them um because of the reappraisal as well as um the increases.

Our residents support the strategies and commitment of this community. we're sensitive that the fiscal headwinds that we're dealing with are um it's a lot of unknowns. So um there have been years in the past with salaries we would wait and

see and do some adjustments um towards the mid part of that year once we saw patterns. We did that in CO. Um, but right now we're we're looking at for any increase whether it's in utilities or replacement vehicles. What do we do with our current budget to try to address that needs? We've been freezing positions for the last um probably 15 months to try to make sure we calibrated the way we needed to to not have any use of our um fund balances because as we plan for additional debt um there's desires I know for a referendum at some point or whether it's lob funding type projects we have to make sure that we maintain maintain a certain level of um stability. So, for an example, when there was the

potential delay with the feds releasing dollars probably back in October um with one um area, it could have been title um nine, I can't remember, but some of us Keith and John Kefir because he used to work at DPI, we were all wondering and praying that those dolls would be released because we knew DPS did not have the reserves to float that. So that was something we were quietly behind the scenes wondering, well, what will we have to do if the feds don't send the money and they have this large amount that they need to close the gap? So in this environment, we must stay disciplined. And so that's how we're sort of thinking about this budget. >> I would add to that that we are concerned I would add to that that we

are concerned about saving filled positions. What I mean by that it's one thing to want a salary increase and that may be on the table once we see the entire picture but more importantly than that is we don't want to let go of filled positions. we're doing to furlow human beings if we don't can't do it not at the expense of a 1% or a 2% or 3% salary increase but we are yet to figure all of that out. We have to see all the numbers >> because we do we have quite a we have um positions that are um that were SNAP funded um that supported the dying program which is an area that supported Durham public schools.

serve 14 positions. Uh we that funding stable funding 28 years. It went away in September. So we've been closing that gap.

How have I closed that gap? I've frozen positions. I've slowed down spending in other areas because that's important. It's important for the schools.

So in this season, all communities, all local governments are grappling with the same issue. How do I do what's mandated? How do I do what's required? How do I make those investments or those areas that are most important?

There's nothing more important than our children. I have a child in Durham public schools, so I'm very concerned. And so just know that as we evaluate what we can afford and also understand what our taxpayers can afford, it's a tremendous burden. But it's also it's an opportunity for us to revisit what's going well and what we may need to redefine. But it's also a situation that we may have to make some decisions after we have better information of some of the

patterns that are happening. We're always and have been and always will be your partners. Durham County, as I said earlier, top funded district for decades in the top five. That's a partner that we will always be uh at least we hope to be as long as the resources are there.

And just know as we get through this season, we'll get through it together. >> M Chavez, >> thank you. One quick question. Sure.

Um I know we t talked about sales tax in the past. Can you remind me um what the deal is with sales tax and like and Amazon and these kind of things >> online? Yeah. >> Yeah.

Do we get >> Yes. So that's a great question. That's a great segue for me to always say buy in Durham for one. Okay. But secondly, if you do buy online, those dollars do come back to the place in which you did

the purchase. There was a a a change in the law back in 2018. And so those revenues do come back to the county. So you can buy online as well, but buy in Durham.

>> Thank you, Manager Hager, Mr. Lane for coming. Um, we look forward to seeing y'all soon in our meeting. >> Um, one day I'm y'all going to come with great news for us about how continue to expand our quest.

No, I'm just joking. But I really do appreciate your partnership and thinking about us as you're watching the news, right? I think we know we you all share. We got three more years of some turmoil.

Hopefully, we have some different options after the midterm elections, but thinking about us as we're navigating this tricky season together. So, we appreciate that for you all. Um, feel like we very much understand you as you talk about your things getting more expensive because we too are seeing that, right? Absolutely.

We don't do anything different. Our continuation budget still expands. So, we very much understand that. Uh, Miss Harold Golf, I apologize.

I didn't see you. >> Okay. Um, thank you so much. Um I'm I'm

glad that you know this is public and people can go back and listen to this >> and and internalize this. I'm wondering I know that the county um the city of Durham, they have their own engagement with community. Um I really um appreciate Dr. Lewis and the cabinet for doing the dollars and decisions and having the budget, you know, forums and things like this for community to become more and more engaged about what this looks like, you know, in a bigger picture.

And I'm wondering if part of that partnership could maybe wed some of that so that we can get more of our community engaged in understanding this on a um >> understanding it better. Sure. Um, so that when things are happening because I I tell you what, when >> when you're hurting in your pocketbook and when you're not making it, you know, all of these things make sense, but it's like meeting people where they are not

going to understand it. >> Well, and we we we understand we we understand >> um we didn't go into all the slides. we went um with our board today, but when you look at housing cost and how those prices are higher, inflation in general, I mean, we can go through a laundry list of areas. And so families who don't have a livable wage, that's pressure.

That is pressure. And we we understand. So I I I appreciate your comments. Um, yeah, just I'm curious if if that is something I'm not as familiar with how the county engages or, you know, has these conversations in community. I know that there are, but I'm wondering um if that's one way that we can work >> figure out these ways of how we how we make this more, you know, this information more accessible to our

greater community so they can be our allies in problem solving. I I agree. And um because part of this budget challenge is um lies within our partners in Raleigh and we need their help to move forward with with the budget. And so um so I I do feel as though uh the more that folks understand they can share the burden.

That's why I like to have these conversations. So we can definitely coordinate so that there are some shared discussions, community conversations. Um we've done that in the past um jointly. I know many years ago there was some joint city, county, and dur school strategies discussions. And when you get in this sort of scenario, um you sometimes go back to those basics because it's a finite amount of money that we're sort of having to navigate between all of these three entities. So,

um, but I'll coordinate with Dr. Lewis so we can have some followup. >> Thank you, Dr. Lewis.

>> Yes. Thank Thank you so much, Manager Hager and Keith. I was just waiting on the slide, Keith. Well, the good news >> come come comes in, but I think you bring up a good point and I would encourage people and encourage you to encourage people to watch the town hall um presentation to really understand how we're set up.

watch rewatch tonight from the uh manager Hagers and Keith presentation and then what will follow with Jeremy. Um we're charging our strategic plan to decrease turnover and increase field rates. >> Policy 7600 also charges us to ensure that we're paying our staff livable wage. And so if people watch those um these the these meetings and understand the complexities and the challenges of of meeting those, we definitely want to do that.

But as you laid out, you know, these are some these are some tough times for everyone. And so we're going to continue to do all we can to to to reach that goal in partnership. U but

the fact of the matter is, you know, we're just experiencing some some challenging times from a budgetary standpoint. So thank you so much for connecting that. >> Sorry, we have one more question. Although again, we'll keep you soon at our joint meeting.

>> So appreciate y'all's time tonight. Um the discussion about the living wage reminded me that that has been brought to this board recently and to this administration. And I I was just curious to know how um uh whether you all you set the living wage for the county each summer. Is that correct or how does that work?

And then >> our when we when we do a um budget adjustment such as a cost of living adjustment that uh process increases that um that number. So our I believe our number is close to $1922 or something. And so um that's how that is is is done. we've not looked at that

number or um as is and only because it's an affordability issue. Um and so um and I'm I'm but that's that's the context around that. And so and again anything that we do we we will try to look we we're going to have to look from within. Yeah.

All right. Thank you so much. Thank y'all for being here. Thank you.

All right, we're going to move it to our budget presentation with Mr. Teter, superintendent's updated budget. Mr. Dr.

Lewis, did you have any comments before we done with Mr. Teter? >> Okay. All right.

Good uh good evening again, Chair Mstead, board members, and Dr. Lewis. Um I will um being cognizant of time and and knowing that we've seen these materials, I will move quickly. Um, and so after we're done admiring our students uh on the cover, if the IT team uh could advance to uh page nine of the

document, that will help um sort of move us along uh with the agenda this evening. And so up up one more, please. There you Thank you so much. Uh and so the the first the first grid um is vexing.

Um and and it really hearkens to comments that I made during the audit presentation of we go first uh in the budget process. We do not have the ability to generate revenue and we are dependent upon decisions that are made by other entities um how we shape and how we shape our budget, right? And so, um, normally at this point in time, we would be operating, um, from a blueprint of year two of a two-year state budget, and there is not a year one or a year two or or any of that. And so, they need to listen to Chair UMstead and do multi-year budgeting um, and get it together. Um and so um I think right now just sort of the the latest information

that we have right is that um the everything seems to be hinging perhaps on on the primary in a few days and who is to and who is not to potentially return to the general assembly and and what kind of progress can be make forward um from there. Um and so um for now um just to be responsible in budgeting we have to sort of assume some situations and assume them sort of more on the more expensive side of things in the absence of better information. And so um this is fluid um and we may we may see things change um as early as April uh depending upon what happens in March. Uh and so we're watching very carefully what may or may not happen uh when the general assembly convenes in in April. There's um there is a chance they may make conversation even about this year uh that we're in now. Um and then certainly we expect them to have conversation about next

year. And um that could range anywhere from a $1,000 thank you um for returning bonus to this 5% that we contemplate um and and things in between. And so this is tricky work. And so I feel safe kind of nestled here at this at this 5% assumption.

And if it comes in less, we'll we'll adjust and and and react in some other ways. And then if it comes in more than that, then then we got some additional types of conversations to be had. But um the continuation budget um forecast as it stands, we assume a 5% um in increase. um we assume u some pretty stringent uh increases in utilities and and insurance.

Again, um it's a space that we don't control. Um and so I don't know how the utilities commission uh will respond um to what Duke Energy has been petitioning for for rate increases and in North Carolina, but we have to be prepared. Uh, and I hope that they don't

approve, for my own personal checkbook, I hope they don't approve the the rate increases that that Duke Energy is pursuing, but we're prepared nonetheless uh as we contemplate this. Um and then also ever uh the charter schools um are are looming and if any increase that we receive um for continuation costs, we have to true that up and make sure that as we give them their share, we have enough leftover to take care of the actual need here in Durham public schools. Um and um related to that um we're u operating from a space of assuming that that will be 26% um next school year. Um, in that spirit, I think this is an also an appropriate time um to sort of make an an update for the board.

And so, as you know, um, we operated with the assumption of 21% for the year that we're in now. Uh, that materialized to 23. Um, we had to take some actions in this fiscal year that are not too different from what you heard from the county manager a few

moments ago regarding uh, freezing hiring. Um, and we've, um, trimmed some operating budgets. um we uh put some extra pressures on the purchasing process. Um and so just um I think Mr.

Barfield touched on this loosely uh at the meeting a couple of weeks ago that we are at a situation where the measures we took allowed us to overcome um the current year obstacle where that is concerned. Um and so we're pulling our foot off the brakes a little bit as we wrap up the year. And so we've um we've recently um pulled together our staffing aotments for the year ahead. Um and um we're um sort of lifting um that freeze um as as we get ourselves situated for the new school year where hiring is concerned.

Uh and our purchasing deadline remains as is for the for the end of March just as we're leaving for spring break. Um that remains in place. So just wanted to lift that up and and and provide an update on that issue. and

thank you for partnering with us and supporting us as we did what we had to do to work through that situation. Um, and so we're trying to avoid that next year by planning this 26%. Um, we've um, moving on to the things where we've really had some passionate conversation over the past few weeks with expansion items. Um, and so looking at the the classified uh, pay item is probably where I'll make the most remarks.

5 million. Um, in our continuation component of the of the request, we're we're lifting up um the potential for a 5% increase that statemandated. Um this number um on the on the classified pay increase item reflects the additional money that we would need um in the event that the state did not mandate that and we

decided we wanted to try to do this 5% on our own uh without some type of state investment. And so I just do that to not um duplicate our request of sorts and and ask for too much money from the county, particularly knowing what's going on uh from that last presentation. Um we've received a lot of feedback. Uh we've received feedback through the meet and confer process uh feedback uh from the finance uh town hall this earlier this week as well as through various rounds of public comment in the room and and um none of them have been celebratory about 5%.

They have all been calls for us to shoot for higher than that and and we had a comment specifically encouraging us to shoot for the moon. Um and so Dr. Lewis and I um having conversations about what we proposed um to push that forward. And so by the um the work session in March um we will have also

had the March 5th public hearing um for feedback and and we'll sort of make a judgment call about how this item looks uh in the recommended budget and in that draft that we bring to the work session. So just know we're thinking about it. we've heard the feedback um and and and balancing realities in in tandem with that feedback. Um as we sort of land on a final recommendation from Dr.

Lewis, uh we are really here um in and as we talk about these items, right? So we're really sort of at this point in time lingering in the priority three section, right? So this u recommended budget u at this point in time is priority threeheavy um as it connects to our strategic plan and thinking about recruiting retaining uh exemplary staff in Durham public schools and so we talk about exemplary teachers um we also um as you've seen with the work that we've done in the finance space in the past couple of years we need exemplary classified employees as well and we

could not have made the recovery that we have in finance without having had exemplary classif ified finance employees. And so we and I think that permeates all of our um departments and all of our functions throughout the district. So um this hugs very tightly um to to goal three in our strategic plan. Um the same can be said for the next two items that we look at here um in in the recommendations of the transportation safety assistance supplement.

Uh I will just share that this is something um that is here because of meet and conferred. they they were able to move the needle on on on this item as a result of that process and and and their feedback. And so this was not something that was necessarily on our radar. Um and it's something that's been lifted up. It's not quite to the degree um that has been suggested, but um we're u proposing that $100 um for the safety assistance that uh work on the buses and support our students and our drivers. Um and so just lift

that out as a positive from the meet and confer process of of a space where some progress was made on an issue that was important um to DAE and and their membership. Um occupation um and occupational and physical therapies uh salary schedule. This is another um item three for us in our our desire to compete um for and to retain exemplary OT's and PTs. I' I've um had an opportunity to meet a number of them now um through various opportunities for engagement um and I find all of all of them to be exemplary people that we want to hang on to um and would love to get some of our exemplary OT's and PTS back um who who left us for other opportunities. um this schedule um I know we received an email um as a staff and and it went to the board as well is does this uh include the assistance or not um and so this number does not um and so that is some feedback that Dr. Lewis and I are going to sit with um

before um the version we bring forward at the next work session. Um just for additional context uh around the model um that we developed for OT's and PTS um it very much mirrors um the compensation model that's in Charlotte Meckllinburgg and and so that is when you look at districts who pay classified employees well uh Charlotte Meckllinburgg is certainly one of the top three and and I put us in that group um in in terms of uh the top three uh competitors for classified employee pay and so um definitely look to them as to have that best model possible. Um we can uh advance to page 10 near the bottom. Um this um couldn't tie any more directly to priority 3. Um in in terms of the this is pertinent to the folks that help make priority 3 happen. Uh and so in that and that's our human resources team um and and the desire to see some iteration of a reorganization um with that team um in in in our

efforts to move the system forward. Um and so won't say much more than that and we sort of address um the details of that proposal um farther into the document. Um and we can advance uh to page 12 um of the materials. Um we again um on page 12 of the document call out um again just like the continuation costs we'll have to share uh with charters on expansion uh and uh rolling forward from there um we talk about our capital outlay um and appreciate um vice chair Rogers and her thoughts um in in a recent meeting uh sort of about the technology plan and folding that into the capital outlay component of the request uh to be strategic and um sort of shield the need to share any of that funding with charter schools. I think that was ex excellent suggestion and I appreciate that uh coming forward. Um and so sort of looking at that um we're

looking at um the student devices and and the bright links uh that need a refresh. Um and so those items, right, sort of hug our priority one, right? And so um being able to foster academic excellence and having the tools that we need to to foster that excellence and also thinking about this hugs goal five too right in terms of having modern technology um in our facilities. Um, so, um, I think it's also important to, um, in this space think about our appropriation that we received from the county, uh, for capital outlay.

That, um, is a major goal five, uh, item in the strategic goal in in our desire to make upgrades and improvements, uh, to our facilities. Um and there's um on the on the next page um you know we've got some history there of the capital outlay appropriations in the far right column. Um you know there's um there's been some good progress um in Durham public schools in that regard. Um in in the

most recent budget cycle county pulled that back a little bit as they sort of navigated um how they could support us. And so, um, that had the potential to be $6 million in the year that we're in now. In order to help us meet some of our other needs, they shifted a million dollars from capital outlay to the current expense fund uh to contemplate those other items. Um but um as we roll forward with the request um just sort of balancing uh all of our capital resources that we discussed at the town hall, the the the remaining ARPA dollars uh that came to us by way of the county.

Um Mr. Barnes and his team are working feverishly uh to replace boilers and and other systems that were eligible uses of those dollars. Um making sure that we're using our lottery dollars in the best way possible. um and and and coming up with some sort of appropriate capital outlay request. There's a lot of capital going on. Um and um and it's a potential that

as we draft this request, we may hold the line on the normal appropriation knowing the other investments that are going on um and and as we also assess what we do or we or what we don't do with a 2026 uh bond ask. 7 million for capital outlay. Um something we need to sit with um and is that is that going to be more than the county can tolerate? um is, you know, do we um do we bring that down and in what ways do we bring that down or do we ask for more um lifting up uh some of those uh compensation items around which we've gotten feedback and so it's not a um not an easy one to develop. Uh, and so, uh, so I'm done rambling. Uh, and so I will, um, I worked hard to answer as many

questions as I could, uh, that we received in writing, and I may reference my responses to those, um, as we have questions this evening. So, happy to answer questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Teter and Dr.

Lewis, for that presentation. Um, board members, colleagues, questions. Oh my gosh, I can't stand a pregnant silence. >> This is good some call.

>> This has been a lot. I'm sorry. Yes, this has been a whole thing. Um, and I just feel like I need to say that it feels like a collective um collective financial stress um on so many different levels like you know on the individual level just understanding what individuals are going

through right now in these times. then, you know, leveling up families and then our communities and then we come and then we're thinking about our schools and then oh my gosh, the city and then the county and then oh my gosh, the state and then the federal. It just layers and layers and layers of of um financial stuff, stress. Um I I'm very curious.

Well, not I won't say. I won't use curious because I don't want to ask a question. I don't really want to talk about it, but I I really am looking at where we begin to find the problem solving, you know, because it it seems so dire.

Um, and my go-to is always to really just think about how we gain more understanding. I feel like um, something there there's a silver lining and I don't want people to get so caught up in the dire that we don't think that we can't find solutions. Um, so I just wanted to say that out loud. Um, I really appreciate the transparency, um, and the conversations and I'm wondering how we make it even clearer, more understandable, how we do even more engagement, um, and how we do that collectively so that we, you know, build this big, I don't even know what the image is, um, team of, you know, community of problem solving.

And I think that's what gives me the the energy and keeps me from going into like a really dark, oh my god, wo was me place of like, how in the world do we do we do this? Um, I really think we have to do it as a community. We have to we have to do it communally and how do we I

think that's part of the problem solving of figuring out how we survive it because it feels like we we're going into survival mode. Um, and a lot of people are familiar with that. So, I would just urge the community to become more involved and um I would encourage all of us on all of our different municipal levels to figure out how we go deeper into engagement so that we can bring all the people who are going to be affected along um as we deal with this. That's all.

I'll stop. I didn't even know I was going to say anything. So, thank you, Miss Har. Uh, other board members, Miss Byer, >> I appreciate the um detail. I appreciate the vision and the way you all are trying to um continue moving the district forward and prioritize um some really urgent needs amid amongst too many urgent needs. I asked some questions about wages and are you

confident that if I ask these, Mr. that these numbers are good estimates for us to put out in the either as we so I asked what would it cost to move our starting wages for all classified staff to $1850 an hour and address compression. >> Okay, I've got my document up and I did I did my homework this afternoon and say yes ma'am. 88% 88% raise um with with the pay.

Um and so then that would um and then in order for that minimum wage to ripple up right through through the rest of the schedule um that would be 8,668,000. >> And then I asked can I go ahead as who is that classified all classifi like all classified? Okay. >> And then I then you modeled 19 an hour as we try to get closer to that county wage. um inter we're dreaming here.

79% um for a cost of 11,869,000. 07% 13,277,000. >> I appreciate it. And I heard from some commissioners that as they had their uh budget retreat today, they've they've started talking about what it would be like to actually put into their policy, put into some mutual agreement that the living wage between Durham Public Schools and the county going forward could be aligned, could be correlated.

So, I hope that there's a way, even if it's a multi-year plan, that we could move towards that um in our partnership with the county. And I we all sit sober with the fact that this rests on property taxes for our community and the tension that that would bring. Um

well the questions about HR um reorganization I think it'll be really important for us to be able to justify um and that will be you know I saw folks ask you about the organizational chart. I'd be curious just as y'all look at comparable city and county or other big employers, how many staff they have and and I've always thought we were probably underst staffed. So, so bringing that kind of comparable um information I think will be helpful as as we justify. And then the the worksheet that you shared with us is due tomorrow.

Is that right? Is that still a due date? Can we talk about like what our assignment is and that And I think that before we >> Yeah. And we may be able to extend that due date a little because I think Dr.

Lewis did we give principles March 4th? Is that my memory? So we can extend that to March 4. Um, and so we did um tried to bring you inside of my brain a

little bit um with the work with that tool um and and let you kind of see menus of options of of how you may, you know, fund this, fund that, fund an expansion item at a reduced um degree. Um what are potential reductions um that the district could make um in order to help offset the cost? I mean, just like the the tool that we used in May or June of last year, it gives you a running tally. I just didn't give you a limit this time.

Um, and and so, uh, I think it'll be good for you to interact with. And, uh, but very similar in terms of we're color coding like decisions and so you only have to say yes per u color in the in the categories. >> That's super helpful. is does it actually reflect what's in this already and what like does it reflect the superintendent's request the yeses and

nos that are lined up in here now or will it be moving >> I don't think I defaulted it in that way um and I think because we've we have um demoed it to a couple of different um stakeholder groups um just so they could see how it operates right and so we've asked we asked our principal uh advisory group to work with this our students superintendent uh student advisory group I know for sure um had an opportunity to to play with that uh and so if you're um working with that Google sheet version I encourage you to go to file make a copy um and then uh name it whatever you'd like to uh when you do that um so that you're not working on top of each other but um so no so no assumptions with anything that you see in the in the columns at this point um but there is Um there is the ability if someone so desires to select everything the superintendent has recommended those options are in there for the picking. Um but we didn't

structure it to default that way. >> Thanks so much. Um I'll try to be quick. It's a real Bummer of budget discussion evening.

Um I appreciate that y'all are thinking about the um OTPT assistance. I was really curious to see what that could look like costed out. That seems like um something that we could uh maybe should be considering given what it sounds like the work um that they're doing and how important they are to our um students and our uh educational system. um for classified staff. Um I appreciate that y'all are also considering all different options and working towards getting us more closely aligned to um what the city and the county are doing for the um for their salaries. And I I would love to see uh as others have noted like a even

if we're not able to do that this year, which it sounds like that would be a stretch, um a multi-year plan to get us there and something that the board can review and reflect on to one know that have some confidence that we're moving in that direction. Provide um our staff with that confidence as well to know that we're actually working on that and we know what we'll be doing next year and the following year. of course with uncertainties in place. Um so planning with uncertainties and that's a theme and then uh appreciate or I guess I'd also I I think that all the spending we're doing right now is closely aligned as well as possible to the strategic plan since those are our top priorities in the district.

Um and that we're really avoiding spending wherever possible. hope we can keep doing that because we just really have to as manager Hager was describing as happening at the county. Um along those lines, I still have a tough time with supporting uh

spending millions more dollars for Chromebooks and remaining onetoone for all of our students in our district without seeing clear evidence that that clearly is going to be supporting the learning needs of our students. So I think that's all my comments for now >> and I think just one sort of thing for me is so for the document that we're going to bring forward um at the March work session it's um this year we're going to have um in appendix um in the back that sort of reflects kind of our multi-year forecasting and things that we're thinking ahead right for the next year or two. Um, so that that will be a new supplement that we put um in in the book this year and we've we've been thinking about that ever since sort of the last cycle and in the feedback that we got from the board. So just wanted to let you know that will be there.

>> That makes me so excited. I can't wait to see it. Mr. Ter, um, any other

comments, Colle? >> Thank you. Um, I think I'll be brief. I sent very late questions.

I I so my technology questions um just want to put them out there. 7 million. Um so I'm going to leave that there. Um and then um the new salary schedules, just to confirm, those are coming next at at the work session with that booklet.

>> So we can um so we can certainly um have an appendix, right? So like we're doing the multi-year appendix uh in the back, we can also have an appendix that would show um how those salary schedules would look um modeling whatever Dr. Lewis's

recommendation is >> Okay. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. Jeremy has created a um I guess a spreadsheet where he can plug in an hourly rate and it just kind of populates the entire >> Oh, cool.

>> Yeah, he can. >> That's that's a Ruben Barfield spreadsheet. Yeah, like I'm I'm pretty good, but I Yeah, I have to tap in a friend once in a while. >> Also, make sure that on that I'm sorry, M.

to jump in that it says like pending budget approval. I think it's we want to put the schedule out there people can see it but at the same time we need to know how much money we get before we can confirm whatever that schedule is. So I just think being clear around this is all pending budget approval helps um clarity for that purpose. And then um lastly, I was I was just interested in how many safety assistants we currently have, how many vacancies we have, and then being able to and if you don't know off the top of your head, that's fine. I sent that question late, but I would love to know um just as we

think about doing any supplement for a group. I do want to be able to kind of compare like baseline how many vacancies we had and and did the supplement have some improvement on uh on recruitment and retention. So, um that was my other interest there. But thank you for everything.

And oh, last thing, the town hall was great. Thank you. That was great. It was a good idea.

um very informative and I think people really um it got them thinking and and asking great questions. So that was really good. >> Just a couple of thoughts to ponder on. I appreciate you all bringing this and I'm really excited about this multi-year appendix.

Um that warms my heart. I don't have to give that speech this year. Um and some of my questions have already been asked. One of the things I um agree with um board member buyer around the HR reorganization. So I'm interested to see

more of that additional information. Um but I also am interested to see some analysis from you all. I know we're leaning heavily into priority three. Um but how do we see these items improving our student outcomes for our students?

Right? So increasing the student achievement, thinking about decreasing suspensions, keeping students engaged in classrooms. Like that's kind of where I'm thinking about. And then the other piece that I would love to see more analysis on how you all think this impacts us increasing student um enrollment.

One of the ways that we can help bolster our budget is by increasing the number of students who are attending our schools. And we need a really strategic thoughtful plan probably some funding and investment in a way that will um I don't like talking about it in this way but will help return will be a return on our investment. helps us save positions, helps us get more additional dollars. And so really want us to be intentional and strategic around how are we thinking about that?

What funding needs to go support that? What's the plan for that? Uh because the the we're

missing some windows right now as people are making decisions, right? Soonly they'll be getting letters and how do we make sure we're planning for that even in the fall and the summer and what that looks like to increase um enrollment. >> I think an interesting um number to think about. Um, right.

We normally don't think about marketing in the same way that the private sector does. And I think we may have to start thinking that way. 03%, right? Expenditures were marketing in nature.

Um, right. And so that just and that's just even in the broadest sense of we ran an advertisement for some reason. Um, and it may not have necessarily been marketing us. Um, and so I think there's some opportunity to think about how we strategically place dollars in in marketing line items.

U for sure. >> Absolutely. And that that makes me think about going back to I think u Mr. Barfield presented this at our January

session with all the different items that kind of came from cabinet and included some um funding for uh office of public affairs and around marketing, but it also had a lot other items in there. And so I'm curious, I don't know if we can answer this question now if this comes later in a follow-up around how we got to our final items. So we had lots of other items around um technology, academic services, you know, human resources. There was a lot in here.

So curious to kind of understand the the filtering process to get to where we landed to um again around these lenses of thinking a little bit more about priority one um priority two. >> Yeah, I would say right. So very much um so very deliberate about this kind of being phase one and then these were things that felt um these are things that just felt kind of heavy in the moment of really knocking at our door um as things we need to address. And then we've had just really incredible conversations um you know over the past few weeks um and and thinking about what

might we do um with with this ne the next version that comes forward right and so some of these things are rising up um that we're not that we're not here now right and so I think there's some opportunity there um for sure and so yeah we um so to answer your question right just some of these are these were the things that were sort of taking up the most air space and seemed sort of the most pressing. And now we're fine-tuning that. And this is a little bit different than last year in terms of we came forward with just that one version um and and it wasn't really a living um document um so much as we're trying to make it this time. And so um definitely a change in strategy this year and um looking forward to those things coming forward.

Mr. Oh, go ahead. Um, yes, thank you all the things my colleagues have said and and um I think my question would be well actually my

question is about timeline because I heard um as we're talking that the budget's coming back at the work session. I think I mentioned this at the last work session around our policy asking us to only um move things for approval to the board meetings at work sessions. So are we being asked to approve the budget is coming to the board meeting in March. >> Right.

So I think our goal with the work session is to bring the new version right so to bring version two that incorporates uh our contemplation and feedback that we've received along the way um and then hear reaction to that um and then um would be great if we could have action at the second meeting in March right the more proper meeting but definitely work sessions for information and opportunity for the board to react uh to the next version. Okay, thank you. I just want to make sure I understood

the timeline correctly. Appreciate that. >> Uh, Mr. Teter, is it also fair to say if board members have any additional comments around the budget, we should really tell you tonight, get those to you ASAP so that when we have that revised version at the March work session, it's as close to what may might be the final version.

>> Yes, that that's very fair. I'm excited to see your tools for those that interact with the spreadsheet. Um, I've gotten my first principal response today. Uh, and so I I I really and genuinely enjoy seeing how everyone thinks about it because we do have our own perspective.

Um, and and trying to find kind of some common ground with those. Um, and then yes, feel free, I think, um, as you have thoughts. I've enjoyed all the questions that I got today uh, and yesterday um, were were great. Um, and um, please continue to send things to Dr. Lewis and myself for us to think about and um appreciate the way you've helped to shape uh this request. >> Miss Byer,

>> I appreciate it. I also asked you some questions about um teacher supplement because what's always been critical to me is that we not fall behind our local competitors. And um are there any thoughts that you had from looking at that briefly about how we're doing on that? I think um as someone so right so districts go about it in different ways and so some some districts have a flat stipened amount um and you sort of control the adjustment of of those dollar amounts in that schedule.

Um, other districts have a percentage, a supplement that's a percentage of base pay. And so when the state takes action, those supplements automatically start triggering um changes um and they have to contemplate those as as a continuation cost. And so I I've been in that percentage environment in the past and it makes for some very expensive continuation um requests. And so, um,

our our neighbors, Chapel Hill, Carbor, one of the two districts, um, that you asked about, um, does have a a a percentage model. And then I believe Wakes system models ours was sort of that flat, um, amount that we can control and and move as we're ready independent of what might happen at the state level. But, um, the, uh, state prepares and with data, right? So we all contribute data each year uh to compile um the statistical profile uh that the state maintains.

Um and one of the um documents they look at or one of the exhibits they look at is related to teacher supplements um that how many people received it in the district um what was the average uh and so Durham remains in the top 10 um as of the latest report. um and I haven't spent a lot of time to dissect the movement with it, right? And so we were um on on average, right? So we were

um sort of in that uh top three mix. Um another interesting thing that happened last year was that a district was allowed to submit their data late. Uh, and so when we prepared the budget book last year, we had that chart that reflected how we compared and we were number three a a late. So it was Brunswick County.

I'll call them out and and and and Sherry can fight me at the next conference. Um, but they um there's their data came in late and they moved up to three uh when their data came in from Brunswick County, right? And so, um, if anybody were to ever go back and look at last year's budget book and compare that to the report that's online, they'll see a difference because, um, that district was allowed to turn in information late. And so, um, in in in this current environment, we're sitting at number 10. Uh, and and that can be and the board made additional investment in supplement, right? And so you remember my guess my conversation last year about you can invest and still

lose ground um because of things you can't control what other districts are doing and we're um you know turnover plays a role in that, right? And so as if we if we if we've seen um a change in the average years of service with our teachers that that can affect our average um also um we think about um we're competing with some districts now that are getting state dollars to support their local supplements. Uh and so we see some people in the top 10 list that we never saw before. Um so Yatkin County um out in the west is now on the top 10 list. Uh and and they they've been making local investment and they've been pairing that with state supplemental dollars um that we do not get in Durham because of our perceived ability to generate our own uh I feel like we're a little targeted there. But anyway, all that to say, you know, so Chapel Hill Carro is averaging 11,612

uh and they are number one um this year. Um Wake is averaging 11,493 and they are number two um in this year. Uh and we're averaging 8,904 uh in the latest report that we prepared. Um and so hanging and we're not through.

We're number 10 um in that data set. Yeah. So um and we can um and you know and I can work with my team um before the work session to spend some time dissecting the variables um and u attach sort of a rational explanation to that of of why we moved in that way. Um but it wasn't from lack of investment from the board. So that concerned me to see and especially as we compete and that uh folks are so desperate that they can commute to other places nearby. Um and I as you all are wrestling in cabinet maybe the trend data on on the

supplement would be helpful just to kind of say what we've done over the last 5 to 10 years. And the same thing for classified and I know our classified are hurting especially because the state hasn't moved anybody this year. Um but that that trend of how how they have moved and I know the 11% felt like a huge insult but um it was a it was a raise. Um yeah but thank you all so much for all this work.

All right. Thank you Mr. Teter and team. We're going to move to our next presentation.

All right. Academic services. We have after school tuition and fee increase proposal for 2026 2027 school year. Welcome you all to the podium.

Okay. Uh, do we need a break? >> No, we're fine. Okay.

>> Good evening, Dr. Lewis, chair and board of education members. Next slide. This evening, we will provide a recap on the proposed option 50% tuition increase, share proposed sliding tuition fee scales, and provide a recommendation for the 202627 school year.

Next slide. As previously shared in our January 29th presentation, a tuition increase is requested to support rising in rising increasing operational costs. Without a tuition adjustment, the remaining fund balance will be depleted, placing the program at financial risk. Next slide.

The projected revenue for the 2526 school year is 3,935,288. Total expenditures equals 6,196,700 resulting in 2,261,412 thou $412 in expenditures over revenues. 80. Next slide.

The program continuation in our fund balance at the conclusion of the 202526 school year. 80 as a self-supporting enterprise department. Best financial practice recommends maintaining a reserve equal to approximately three months of

5 million to ensure operational stability and long-term sustainability. Next slide. Option one proposes a 50% tuition increase. 50, which would generate an additional $313,5705 to the fund balance.

Next slide. Projected budget with 50% increase. Prior to the January 29th, 2026 Board of Education presentation, the Office of Finance reviewed both the current budget and a projected budget for accuracy. 50

71 for program operating costs and 187 $7,645 for families and DPS employee discount. 15 in excess revenue. 15. This will restore the enterprise fund

balance to the recommended fiscal standards of up to three months of operating reser reserves and assure funding to sustain program operations. The projected 202627 budget reflects a difference of 74,741 in salaries and benefits compared to this school year. This current school year, this difference reflects a more accurate projection of staffing needs for the 2627 school year. The Office of Finance provided a suggested pay rate of $1922 per hour for the 2026 27 budget projection, reflecting a potential increase from both the state and the district. And the projected pay rate will be adjusted to align with the rate approved by the board of education. 39 per hour, representing a 5% increase

from the current school year, the projected fund balance would increase because overall salary expenditures will be lower resulting in a stronger ending fund balance. And the difference between the current year and the projected salary projected salary budgets is also influenced by lap salary savings from vacant positions during this current school year. Next slide. What we know about the sliding fee sliding fee scale tuition research states that sliding sliding tuition scales for after school programs provide access increase affordability and support diverse enrollment.

Some of the advantages include expanding access by adjusting tuition based on household income, promoting equity. families pay by a comparable percentage of income for the same service. Um,

increasing affordability for lower income families and replacing blanketed discounts with the structured incomebased model. Next slide. Some of the things to consider with the sliding fee scale is that a sliding fee scale model works best with multiple funding streams for the public private incon to offset reduced tuition revenue. The revenue uncertainty also is difficult to predict income tier distribution without having any supplemental funding.

um the need for potential need for tier caps to maintain financial sustainability and then the increase in staff and operational costs for income documentation and verification. Next slide. Impact on the lottery and enrollment. A sliding fee tuition scale will impede the lottery system notification because

the lottery is designed to place families without collecting or prioritizing income data upfront. When fees depend on income, several conflicts arise. Income data is required earlier. So sliding fees, the sliding fees require verify house come income before placement.

But the lottery typically notifies families first and then we will collect details later. Um delayed notifications. Staff must pause notifications while income documentation is submitted, reviewed, and assigned to a fee tier which will slow down the process. And then the inability to seat by income tier.

The lottery um cannot currently ensure that the seats are filled according to income bands or tiers which will affect revenue projections and equity targets. And then additional staff will be needed to support the verification process. Um

there will be multiple conditional offers, reoffers, and then follow-ups are needed if families decline after seeing their assigned rates. um equity and perception concerns as well. Adjusting or reassigning placements after lottery notifications based on income can create the perception that families are being selected by income rather than by lottery, even if that's not our intent. Next slide.

Currently, the lottery is scheduled to open March 9th and close on April the 10th, which is one month. Families are scheduled to be notified of their results on May 1st. So, families will have a twoeek window to register, pay, and accept their seat by May 15th. Registration opens for any remaining afterchool seats on June 5th. And so any adjustments to the timeline would not

allow families sufficient time to secure to secure alternate child care arrangements if they do not receive a seat in the lottery. Next slide. Inform engagement survey results. An inform engagement survey um which consisted of two liyker scale questions and five yes no or un unsure questions was sent to 1,767 current elementary afterchool families.

The intent of the parent survey was to inform families of the proposed 50% tuition increase and to gauge their interest in a sliding fee scale option. The survey ran for eight days February 8th through 10th with 42% participation. We had um 742 responses. And so in the following slides re we'll reveal the survey results. And so I'll share the questions and then you can see the

responding results. So for the next slide which was the first question and you can see the results. Next slide. Now the next five.

The next slide, please. Next slide. And the next slide. Next slide.

The next slide. Okay, here you have the summary um of the survey responses which indicate a significant concern about the affordability of the proposed incomebased line and tuition scale for afterchool care in session and summer camp. Um, and then you can see that most of the families that responded do not believe that the sliding sale uh would be more affordable than the current um flat rate and that many indicated it would negative um affect their ability to pay. Next slide.

Okay. Um, for the Durm County income limits summary, Durm County is a part of the Durm Chapel Hill, North Carolina HUD area. The median family income as of 2025 is 126,200.

And so for a family of four, the median family income in Durham that are considered extremely low, the income is 34,700. um very low the income is 57,800 and low income the income is 92,500. Next slide. This slide illustrates the household size from 1 to 8 and the income at 200% federal poverty level for each household.

Before Dr. Dana shares the slide of tuition scale options. I wanted to highlight that community education receives funding from the department of social services based on our current star rating of the license program. So, the proposed sliding fee scale or the 50% tuition rate increase will not impact families who apply for DSS child

care vouchers because the DPS after school current and proposed rates are below the child care market rate for school age care. And so, Dr. Danner is going to come up to do the next slides. Next slide please.

The elementary after school's sliding tuition scale option one incomeban tiered rate structure. This sliding tuition model is designed to create equitable assets while maintaining program sustainability. Families are grouped into income bands and each band is assigned a set monthly tuition rate. This ensures tuition is predictable, structured, and aligned to household income levels.

Each income band corresponds to a specific monthly rate. All students within that band pay the same rate. Tuition is collected over non-monthly payments for the school

year. With projected enrollment distributed across income tiers, total projected revenue is 5,288,895. The tiered model protects assets for moderate income families, allows higher income bands to offset reduced tuition and lower tiers, and provides predictable revenue forecasting when enrollment targets are met. Next slide, please.

The elementary after school slid and tuition scale option two eligibility tiers percentage of federal poverty level FPL. This model determines tuition eligibility using the federal poverty level guidelines. Families are placed into one of seven tiers based on household income relevant to federal poverty levels and household size. This approach aligns with commonly used

federal and state assistance benchmarks. Each tier corresponds to a defined income range ensuring consistent and objective placement. Some of the key advantages of this model uses a nationally recognized standard increasingly transparency and defensibility. Provides a structured framework for scaling tuition support.

Next slide please. Elementary after school sliding tuition scale option two federal poverty level thresholds by household size. This chart illustrates the actual income thresholds that correspond to each FPL tier by household size. It demonstrates how eligibility adjusts based on family size, reinforcing equity in this sliding scale model.

As illustrated in the chart, income limits increase as household sizes increase. Each column reflects a percentage ban of the federal poverty level. Families are placed in

two tiers based on a gross household income and number of household members. Examples: A family of two, 100% FPL equals 21,640. A family of four 350 FPL $115,500. Next slide, please.

Elementary after school sliding tuition scale option two, sampling sliding fee scale for a household size of two. This chart provides an example of how our sliding scale fee is structured for a household of two. This scale adjusts monthly rates based on household income as a percentage of the FPL. It ensures that our services remain accessible and equable to families at different income levels. Next slide, please. This slide shows a household size of four and it shows the adjusted monthly rates based on household income as a

percentage of the FPL model. Next slide, please. Elementary after school sliding tuition scale option two sample sliding fee scale for household size of six. This chart also so shows the how the scale adjust monthly rates based on household income as a percentage of the FPL.

Next slide please. The elementary school sliding tuition scale option two monthly rates by percentages of federal poverty level. This model prioritizes assets, promotes fairness for families, and aligns after school tuition with a family's ability to pay the tier after school tuition rate based on their income using the FPL guidelines. Families are placed into seven tiers based on a household income and household size. FPL adjust by family size, ensuring equitable placement. Tuition increases gradually as income

increases. Enrollment consistency 277 to 278 students in each tier is critical for projected revenue stability. Next slide please. Summer interession camp sliding tuition scale option one tier rate structured based on income bands 200% federal poverty level.

This chart outlines our summer and inter session projected revenue by income ban using a weekly tuition model. It shows enrollment assumptions, weekly rates, program duration 11 weeks, and a total projected revenue. The goal is to demonstrate how a tier rate structure impacts overall program sustainability. Next slide, please. Sliding tuition scale option two weekly rates by percentages of federal poverty level. This chart shows a revised sliding scale tuition model based on

federal poverty level. It assumes 100 students per income band program length 11 weeks. This slide illustrates how revenue changes across income tiers while maintaining assets for lower income families. And our next slide, please.

Next slide, please. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. And our recommendation, the administration recommends option one, a 50% flat rate increase for the 2627 school year. 5 million. We also continue to evaluate program sustainability by reviewing staffing levels, program offerings, and enrollment trends and by

seeking supplemental funding opportunities. Additionally, we recommend that tuition rates be reviewed annually by financial services as a part of the district's budget development process. Any necessary adjustments should be implemented during the district's annual budget cycle. And our next steps would be to communicate with families regarding approved rates, financial assistance, DSS options, upcoming registration dates and deadlines, and of course, we will launch the afterchool lottery process should all of this be approved tonight.

Thank you. >> Thank you all. Board members, questions session. Uh, Mr. Tab, >> thank you so very much for this. Um, glad I was in uh the board agenda review

to hear all this and then to kind of get an idea of where you are now. Um, in terms of the parent survey, that was the one thing that in our agenda review that had not been completed, I believe, and it was going to be some feedback. Were there additional feedback from the parent survey that you included in this presentation? >> Yes, we shared with you a few moments ago the findings of the survey results.

>> Okay. But my question was about what was the difference between what you shared before and >> we didn't have any results >> at the time of the board review. >> Right. >> It was right.

It had the survey had launched >> but we had no preliminary data. So, because it wasn't, did that change anything from your decision that you already had? Because the decision that you're showing me now is the same that we had in the agenda review. >> Yes. Based on the survey results and

what we share with you tonight, we are still recommending the 50% option. Option one, the flat rate increase. >> Okay. Just want to make sure the parent survey didn't change or sway anything differently.

>> No, it didn't. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Millicent Rogers. >> All right.

I have a couple questions. Um, my first question is about the recommendation for the program increases to be reviewed by financial services. And so we, you know, we're at this crucial point where we're asking the community for 50% increase, which is significant of an increase, but this hasn't come before the board.

What standards would be used to determine if an increase would whether or not an increase would come before the board, right? Because as I sit in this seat and think about my service to Durham, I would have rather validated the desire not to do a increase an a smaller incremental increase in 2022, 2023, 24 should that have been the pleasure of the board, right? and understanding that you were coming off of grant funding, but it's a program we have to sustain. How were you going to balance that without a pay increase? Like, shouldn't the board be the ones reaffirming that? So to answer your question about how we in terms of going before having the

office of financial services. So one of the things to look at to see if a raise a pay increase or tuition increase is needed. I think that was the first part what you were asking is looking at the expenditures. So one of the key things is um salaries.

So as the expenses have been going up um is looking at to see if the salaries are going to be pay increases because that's one of the driving things and so for the for each year if there's an increase or pay increase and then we will have to have those calculations. So that's why one of our recommendations is to have that part of the discussion and to work with the um financial services department. So, of course, when we had the grant funding in place, that was able to sustain and um help us meet budget at during those years. And as we mentioned in the previous um board meeting, we had we were able to we tried, you know, several

occasions to to do that to make sure that we were able to it wouldn't take so long before we try to come to the board. There was other factors in place at that time. If I can add, I just believe this is one of those instances as Keith had shared, as Keith had shared earlier, how expenditures outpaced the revenue. This is one of those examples where expenditures outpace tuition.

We were not moving tuition. Prior to 201718, we had a circadian rhythm. every two years we would come before the board with finance and make a recommendation and due to several attempts uh I guess three years ago but we were in the midst of COVID we were going through a lot of different other things in the district and at that time the the administration did not recommend we come to the board

>> right that's helpful I I guess my question is how do we put in guard rails to make that it doesn't take this long and to ensure that the increase doesn't need to go to 50%. Right? Cuz that is that's an extreme ask of the community. >> So it if I understand the recommendation, what we're suggesting is that there would be a review every year.

>> Yeah. But it says by financial services. It doesn't say that the board would reaffirm that there doesn't need to be a pay increase. >> So, as I understand it, the the review would happen by financial services and that review would inform a recommendation coming to the board.

And if that wasn't clear, you know, we would certainly apologize. We aren't suggesting that financial services would make the determination um in and of itself. We we're suggesting that it would go through a similar process that we've been through now to determine that

there is a need for an increase so that we don't find ourselves in the space we are now. And given that review, we would then come to the board um and make that request. But that that that process of of conducting that review through financial services would happen annually. And theoretically in a given year, you know, the determination might be that the the funds um available, maybe for instance, grant funds being available to support the program suggest that in this given year, it's not necessary to provide um an update and then and then or an increase.

And on that year, we would certainly report that to the board. But in on a different year, you know, possibly not having grant funds available or cost uh going up significantly, uh it would it would look like we would need an increase. And so we would then, you know, bring that to the board and make that request of the board, not not um do the process and

make the decision ourselves. >> Okay, that's helpful. Um, I think my last question before my colleagues go in, because they're gonna go in, is no matter what option the board chooses, um, my question is, is there a midyear kind of update that the board could get that would um, help us to understand the trajectory that afterare is going in? Do you have enough students enrolled?

Um, does there need to be a mid-year increase or does the board need to fund funding somewhere else? >> I certainly would not recommend a midyear increase. However, I do think that there that we can bring some information to the board as it relates to enrollment and and you know at mid year, but also thinking about

projections over the next two or three years based on our current enrollment. And the fact of the matter is we're in this position because we had a pandemic and we had some other budget challenges um and that fund balance got so low. And so to ensure that we're able to fiscally operate an after school program responsibly is has gotten us to the point of the 50% increase. So to prevent that, I can't, you know, prevent a pandemic from coming.

Uh but what we can do is make sure that we're looking at this on an annual basis from through financial services, but also bringing to the board uh any type of enrollment. So, for example, if there's enrollment in decline, you know, what will be our response to that as well? And so, it's not where we're um, you know, having a knee-jerk reaction, but we're being more proactive in and looking at enrollment numbers and in the budget. >> Thank you,

Miss Carter. >> Um, thank you so much for all of the work that you've put in um to this since the last time that we met. I really appreciate that. um and the comprehensive presentation today.

Um I think um colleagues I'm thinking about two things. One is I'm hearing the recommendation remains to stay with 50%. So my biggest concern is I think it is for many of the board members is to make sure that's available to everybody who wants it. Right?

So, I'm thinking about the discount process and I know that there's a financial assistance program available. So, if we were to go with 50% increase, it means the rates increase for everybody from 205 a month to 307 a month. Right now, there's financial assistance available for those that are um meet a threshold. And currently, the information is available on the website for how to access that. They have to

fill out the form. They then have to do an income verification process where they provide you with information, right? Um I guess I'm interested in making sure that one that information um maybe we push it out a little bit more than we do currently. So um the information's out there, maybe messaging so that there's financial assistance available so people know that it's there.

and two, a response received um today, I think it was from Dr. King, indicated that the assistance uh would be limited and offered on a first come first- serve basis. I wonder if in the past that assistance has been capped and if we would need to cap it this year because that's something that I think I would feel less comfortable with. If I agree to a 50% increase, then I think I would want to at least guarantee that people who met that threshold would

still be eligible for that 15% discount and we weren't capping it. Um the reason um we put a cap is because in our original presentation it did impact the um because that's a expenditure as well. And so if we went back and looked at the um on the proposed budget, I have to see what slide that was on. Um what that is on slide seven on slide seven where you see if we can well on slide seven we have the amount that we had included in on that 50% budget.

So that's some a cost that we had added in. And so with that associated cost, we had a a certain number of families that we had projected based on um trend data and the number of families that we've had in the past. So we could we could look at it. We just know that

that would also um impact the budget because it's a it's an expenditure that will be added and dispenseed. So, we would just have to look at that, >> right? That Thank you. That makes sense.

And I think to um consider it as a um projection makes sense, but I would I don't feel comfortable um capping it personally. I understand the implications of that, I think. But um the um I guess I also will say about the 50% increase. Currently, afterare um is quite a deal in Durham because we haven't increased the rates in a while.

It's around two. It's a little bit less than $3 an hour. I'm pretty sure, unless my math is wrong. >> While the increase is significant, I think it still remains somewhat affordable. I do want to make sure though we have that financial assistance program in place so that it's accessible. >> The second thing that I is coming to mind right now is I really appreciate

you looking at the sliding scale option. Um, I think more time is needed as you had originally indicated to fully consider that. I don't I think that if we are creative and we have more time that could be a good option for Durham. So, I would be in favor of asking that you all come back maybe in October or so with plenty of time for that to come before the board for discussion for us to revisit that as a possibility if there's interest in my for my colleagues.

I just think with some creativity and with some additional work um and a really robust data collection method and gathering that that could look really good. But for now, I personally am fine with this 50% increase as long as we've got mechanisms in place for financial assistance. I just want to ask Miss Carter Autton asked about um continuing to explore the sliding scale option. Is that something my colleagues would be interested in having a presentation come back to the board?

One thumbs up. Y'all give me a thumbs up or a verbal sign that you'd be interested in that. If we need to keep thinking about it, we can um we can do that and come back to this question at the end. Okay.

So, we'll come back to that question at the end. Um Miss Byer. Oh, first I just apologize to colleagues down here. We're smelling some smoke and that's why he's making weird faces like something weird is that we got some weird smell here we're trying to identify.

But in this room, apparently nothing's on fire right now. So that's good. Um, right next minute. Um, I wondered um I'm still struggling with the spreadsheet. I wish it was an active spreadsheet that I could play with a little bit. I'm wondering if we've hit if the 50% is actually too hard of a hit for the community if we might consider something like I was looking for the 35%

or 40 that we had before so that we could make it a bit more gentle and hopefully break even but not quite um hit our community so hard. And I can't model it because this is not an active spreadsheet, but the reason I think it might be doable is because you mostly base this on wages and you've based it on 1922 an hour, which we've already said that we don't necessarily think we're going to get to. And you know, if we get to the 1849, that gives us 73 cents an hour per person. It's mostly labor that makes up this budget.

So is there a point there that you all have modeled that might be still we might have some flex is one question. Could we do a 40% across the board? Something like that is what I would propose. And then also is there a model that we've looked at um about folks that might want to contribute in a sliding scale kind of way could could contribute towards a scholarship for another child or could pick up um either through the DPS

foundation or start a fund that way. some way that we could subsidize more care. Um because we know we've had folks write to us and say they'd be willing to pay more for another child. Um I wondered if you'd seen models like that that we could explore and that's why I was looking questionable about the future sliding scale.

I think that's possible for any future boards to explore. I also think that the like a scholarship fund that parents could tap into would be also another way to consider that. Yeah, >> I want you to answer that question, but also I want to reiterate that the driver is not necessarily wage increases is making sure we're staying out of the the red, right? We did look at some other options in terms of hourly, but making sure that we are have a sound uh fund balance that we can operate, >> right? And also while we have the the 1922 as the high high sealant or pay rate, we also have other staff. Group leaders serve as one category of after

school. You still have your program specialists. You still have your central off staff. We have a lot of we have over 250 people working after school programs.

And so that if any other adjustments come, we also have to consider those those rates as well. So you have some folks that are higher than that is what you're saying. >> Oh yes. >> Okay.

>> Um >> and also the sliding fee scale model works well from the research when we have other funding streams. So if this this is a self-generating budget, if we had other local dollars benefactors to come in and support, then we probably could easily move forward with a sliding fee scale to support our families. But we have to have other streams of income to support it. So, if I'm looking at slide eight with the 50% proposal, you're confident

that that is as close to break even as you can get. You can't go any lower on a tuition increase and still break even this year. >> Talking about the projected revenue with the 50% slide. >> It says community education program budget 2627 50% tuition increase.

We got that one. >> That's as close to break even as we can get. That's what y'all have >> for 50%. Now, if you're talking about the model that we presented in the last board meeting, that the 35% that broke even, it was $285.

That was the 35%. 5 million to make sure or at least some type of cushion, but that's that's draining the fund balance to $285. >> I I understand that. And I also am like,

>> yes, I >> I'm looking for for maybe it's better as a multi-year plan than a hit everybody at once. And I'm still just struggling with that on our famil family's behalfs. Um, and so, and I know you need a decision tonight. Um, so that's why I throw out for my colleagues consideration and y'all's push back at me because I that's what I'm struggling with. I just want to reiterate even with the 50% we're not there yet to get us to the recommended fund balance we >> yeah but we're making $300,000 in revenue in a projection we're right >> it's an assumption >> right >> that we we will make we have to ensure that we maintain the current enrollment of after school or higher meaning the 700 17 >> 1794 for or whatever that within that 17700 range. We have to make sure that we have those families.

Miss Chavez, >> thank you and thank you for this discussion. I want to say um one, yes, I favor the um guard rails that Miss Rogers was talking about. Maybe maybe Mr. Teter can help us figure out what is appropriate.

I'm not sure if or who um or what, but for re revenue generating um programs having some regular rhythm of them coming to the ward that makes sense. So I I do think part of us is like how do we get here? I also can I do appreciate and you've said it that you were trying to come and bring these recommendations and everything. So it's not your desire to have this um huge increase all at once and there were multiple factors. So um so that is all true but um I also um let's see I like the scholarship idea. Um, I do think the

the um I will say the survey felt a bit limiting to me because there was only one one sliding skill in there. And anecdotally, it seems to me that we have a lot of families who participate in after school who make well over the um over a 100,000 um as a household income. So if we were going to consider a sliding scale, I would say going way beyond like or going beyond though even the um 351 um% of the uh federal poverty line um because we do have families who make, you know, over 250 300. So it's a lot different from like a family that makes 120, you know, that some families make three times that. So anyway, I just think we have a lot of um d e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e economic diversity even after, you know, beyond the 351 percentage of the poverty line. Um all that to say, I like

the scholarship idea because I don't think it's obviously feasible to do the the sliding scale um right at this moment either. And so I think um I would support the I like the idea of a 40% rather than a 50 and then doing another increase next year. Um, I like the idea of really offering that scholarship to allow people to um to pay into that and then also increasing the discount um from 15% to something more significant. I was going to do a little math here, but maybe 25% or something like that. um to kind of balance out with the um increase that's with the 40% or whatever we go with with that increase.

So that after school isn't really an increase at all for families who really um need it to kind of stay the same. We did hear that presentation with all the job loss in the area and all that kind of stuff. So, um, so I would just like a an option on the lower end, um, that is kind of closer to what families are paying now, knowing that there are a lot of families who will, um, be able to pay more. So, let me see if I have any questions beyond that.

Um, oh, I think that's it for now. Any other questions or um Mr. >> I was just going to go ahead and weigh in on what I felt about the sliding scales coming back and the and the

scholarship opportunities. Um, I think that, um, I I would hope that would be like a regular cadence as we're thinking about like the cadence of things coming back, those kinds of things being considered just to be more creative, how, you know, to make resources more accessible to, you know, as many of our families as we can. Um, so I don't feel like I I I mean, if we have to make it a directive of the board to have that comeback or something like that, but I I don't think that we would need to do that. I think that that's that's now a natural part of the of the conversation and the work.

I think we can trust our administration to be able to to do that. So, I would like to see it, but I don't necessarily want to make it a directive. Um, I think our systems are moving that way. Um and I do also um love the idea of you know figuring out how the DPS foundation and everything how we can

encourage families to I mean that's a that's a pretty standard model in a lot of places where people are able to offer scholarships for other youth so for doing various things. So, um I also like the idea of compromising um this evening. I know it's a quick a quick compromise to not, you know, to go ahead and move this forward but at a lower percentage than 50%. So, you know, I I liked the idea of, you know, maybe a 40%. And then with the idea, you know, it's the same to me in my head is if we're going when we're making jumps even with um you know, trying to, you know, reach our we're not going to solve all the problem all at once with the budget. We also can't expect our families to be able to jump as quickly like can we stair step them so 40% and then if we need to do the additional 10% you know we do that in the next budget cycle or the next school

year. So, I'm wondering how we feel about the 40% as a flat rate um increase. And I didn't understand uh what we were what what we were discussing about the 15 to 25% discount. I don't I don't know how that can be calculated very quickly.

Um but I do understand what I think what you were implying is that whatever that discount is that the the the most vulnerable families wouldn't feel the increase. they would be almost paying paying what they were paying now. Right. So, um that's that's all I have.

Other comments from colleagues, Miss Chavez. Um yes, I just I had a couple comments. Um, just want to note that it should

come probably before budget season. Uh, as we're in budget season and we want we need this kind of information to be out to families. So, we should do I like the idea of having this annual review and working with financial services to do that, but probably needs to come in January or something like that. So, we make sure we can put that out to families.

Um, I also wonder if there are other cost-saving measures being put in place. Um, again, not that we want to skimp on our after school programming and all the great things happening, but we're trying to build fund balance. So, part of that is increasing fees, but that also might be finding other places where you might be able to be a little tighter one year to help increase that fund balance. So, I just wanted to hear y'all had any more thoughts on that part.

>> So, we did suggest in our response that we would look for Oh, I'm sorry. I I know. I'm sorry. So, we did in our earlier responses to the board indicate that we would explore other ways to cut program cost. And so, that is something that we need to come

back with uh to the board to share with you later on how we're cutting cost if any. >> Personally, I don't know that it needs to come back to the board. >> Personally, I don't know. I'm looking at my colleagues and to see but I just think knowing that that's happening as a part of this process is helpful for me.

Um I think we got to trust our folks as you're managing your budgets to do that. But I think um because that can look different in every school and every place as different programming is happening. Um, if we were, and this is a question that might be harder to answer, but I think I kind of lean on a could we do a 35 and then do another next year. Um, and wondering if we if we thought about this in more multi-year fashion, what might be the increases might need to be?

And I don't we might not have that answer on that. >> Mr. Peter, sounds like >> I see another opportunity for exhibit B in the budget book. Right. Of of

While while financial services is being tapped in to look at that, we can add that as a as a table for forecasting and planning of if if these variables are to change in the multi-year forecast, then and then here are the implications for tuition that the board would want to contemplate along the way. And um and then I'm offering my unofficial endorsement for 40%. Um, and then I also agree with the conversation around expanding scholarship fund or having an option as families are signing up. You know, if you want to contribute extra, here's how you do that because I think we would have families who'd want to do that and people that might not have children, but we'll be willing to help contribute to this, right?

Um, or have children that are school age at this time. Um, we've had lots of discussion. Miss Rogers, >> did Miss Chavez have a question, too?

>> I'll just real quick because I forgot to say this. Um, I think that I was going to say the sliding scale option for October, but I also hear you that it would be better with I think um a grant or other funding that was more reliable. Um, so I understand that. I'm kind of happy now with the scholarship option.

Um, but I did want to offer just something to think about. Some sliding scales operate and scholarships operate where people don't have to give income verification. They just report what it is because I think statistically people lying about that is very low. Kind of like voter ID loss, I think.

Um, but so just wanted to offer that and then I am ready to make a motion, but you can go first. Yeah, my my one question I'm going back to your response Dr. Lewis about um giving an update to the board.

If for some reason, whatever reason, the operation is operating in the red, are you going to ask the board for more money for the operation? That's not intuition. Like, how would you I think that's what we're trying to prevent. Operating in the red.

>> I know. But if we did if we do 40% and we don't get to where y'all need us to be and in October, November, the forecast is that it's going to be in the red. Are we going to riff again? Like what what would we do?

seems like a potential. So, so we're coming off we're coming off of our child nutrition challenge, right? And we're pulling, you know, I mean, it seems like another situation where we would probably have to loan the program money

and and then recoup it um with future action. >> So, it's our problem now or future board's problem then? that I feel comfortable with 40%. >> Miss Super Dr.

Dana, y'all feel comfortable with 40%. >> No. And I don't mean to say it emphatically, but I am uncomfortable with the uncertainty of these times and where we might end up because I heard scholarships we have to pay for those scholarships somewhere. We have to in we have to create that we have to increase that expenditure if we have no cap. So, let's say we have 250 families that want assistance, then we have to incur that cost.

And so, I'm concerned about how we truly meet budget and stay within fund balance that we desire to have because at the end, if for example, if we went with that 35%, we would only have $250 left. And we do know that costs continue to rise. >> Thanks. Thank you, >> Miss Ber.

So, I appreciate all the uncertainties, but I want to be clear that when I was indicating scholarships, I was looking for our community to have ways to actually sponsor students and generate revenue. I wasn't asking you to make more spots. I was, you know, I think it it is

a is a placeholder for that notion of of sliding scale that some people can pay more and might sponsor another student or a um or or so. Um but I also and and this may just be me, it may be the late hour when we last talked about this, you all brought us a 35% option that you were happy with because it was almost break even. which is why I still am relying on the notion that we probably could be okay with a 40%. I mean, so that's where I am having spent some time in your spreadsheets, but also you brought us that option um as viable when we last talked about this.

So, I hope that we haven't gone too far. And I'm also saying that it would be a it's kind of a multi-year phase thing that future boards will need to probably increase in a more gradual way for families where it's not so shocking. So, um I hope we can be okay. Um, yeah, I was going to say the so the

the not the SC correct, not the scholarship we will have to cover, but it would be the discount amount if we were talking about in if we were talking about increasing the discount from 15 because what I heard was increasing it from 15% to 25% which would be an increase cost which we hadn't planned for then decreasing the tuition. So, we're going to increase the increase the discount and decrease the tuition. So, um that's where the that is also kind of offsetting. But the um the 35% option before was just as you mentioned was just to um as an option to show that we would just break even and the 50% was an option to show that we needed to have um just a little bit in the fund balance just to show the difference in the two options when we presented that last month. So if we did the 40% without the

increase in discount and it remained the same at 15% would you be okay? >> They were clear on the recommendation as 50%. Uh I don't want to speak for you all but I think that was clear. I I think the concern is anything less than the 50% does not sufficiently build the fund balance over time to be able to have the amount of fund balance that we >> that would fall within you know that is it a three that that guidance that we have that three-month guidance.

So I I think we have to be careful when we say break even because that break even means a couple of different things here, right? I think it break even in that we would be able to pay the bill. Yes, if everything goes well. But and and and the concern here is that given that shift, it it still leaves us in a space where we may find ourselves having to do both things,

right? Having to having having increased cost, right? And not met the the the minimum amount that we need to operate and having to come back and borrow money from from the district as well because we don't have that fund balance to maintain that safety level. Um, Miss Ch, Miss Carter.

Um, I just I guess I recognize the importance of afterare because I'm someone who needs afterare and I know lots of our families need it that aren't getting it. So, I'm not interested in threatening the future health of our afterare program. I want to build what y'all are doing. I want y'all to be looking for these partnerships.

It's going to take partnerships in the community. It's going to take creativity and it's going to take more investment from us and our families. So, um I think that's why I still am fine with

your 50% increase if we don't cap the number of people who can get financial assistance. I know that feels uncomfortable and uncertain. It's a compromise in my mind. And we really try to get information out to people so that people can hear about it.

they don't have to search for it on our website. Um they see that there's financial assistance available um if they need it and we see how that goes. If with financial assistance this increase would be I think around 261 a month for families who receive that. Um, I haven't cost that out per hour or week, but even without that per hour, this is $4 an hour for child care, which is unheard of, and $72 a week, which is still pretty good for the quality of care that, and I want to see you guys continue to provide really good care and pay people well. So, I'm I'm holding this tension, but also feel like this is a space where we could invest and still provide for those who really need it through a discount program.

M Travis, >> I would like to make a motion. Um, so hearing the need for um a strong increase and also trying to provide a discount that brings people back to what they would have paid this year, knowing that the number of families who receive financial aid is pretty small from um what you all shared last time. I make a motion that we approve a 50% tuition increase for after school and all related programs with a 50% discount for families who need a discount and a systematic way for families to have avenues to contribute to a financial aid fund. It would actually be slightly more if it were to the Yeah. If it were to bring it um we were to bring down the 50% increase down to what families would have paid with the 15% discount.

>> There's a motion on the floor to approve 50% incre after school tuition along with 50% financial assistance. There a second without one the motion will die or another. I make a motion that we I make a motion that we accept administration's recommendation to increase afterare and all related services by 50%. Maintaining the scholarship opportunities that currently exist or financial assistance opportunities that currently exist. >> Second. It's been moved by Miss Rogers

that we approve the administration's recommendation along with providing maintaining the financial assistance that is currently in place. It was seconded by Miss Carter Autton and Miss Golf. It was um is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I.

>> I. I. >> I. >> Any oppose use the same sign.

I >> um 52. >> I think what I do want to reiterate, although we all talked a little bit differently about financial assistance, but wanting to explore opportunities to help families offset costs. So whether that be with Durham Public Schools Foundation or I don't know how y'all would have to think about if you could just put that on our website, but is there a way for families who can pay more to pay more to help sponsor a child? Might be a different way for us to talk about that, right?

Sponsor another student. Um, but that seems like we heard that loud and clear from everyone. I'm looking around to see head nods to explore those opportunities.

Thank you. I'm sorry. And we did not come back to do we want to bring the sliding scale fee in the fall. Um, I make a motion that we um bring back a sliding scale um for after school in October 2026.

Second move by Miss Chavez and seconded by Miss Carter Uton that we ask um staff to bring back a sliding scale option in October. Is there any other discussion? Um I'm going to go Miss Harold Golf and then I'm going go to you Miss Byer. I would just like to see those options included in the annual updates like giving options like as we're exploring how to improve it um how to um make make our programs more accessible to more families. Um I'd like to see that be a part of that annual um report back instead of having it come in October.

like could we could we amend the motion to ask for options for sliding scale in the annual reporting? >> I think the challenge with that might be that we end up in a place that we're in right now where we're that comes with the annual reporting. We're still trying to make decisions a month out when we needed to let families know earlier. Um, that's my thought because we kind of are in that place right now, right, where we asked for more information, took a longer time, and families are waiting for us to make a decision.

So maybe not October, maybe it could be November, but I think a little earlier might be helpful. I'll step down and listen. Who's that? >> I I'm I want I I want I want to see not just I kind of don't want it to be a board directive because I want to see more

create I want to see all the creative things that we need to look at and I feel like sliding skills need to be a part of it but I'm not I'm not sure how to suggest that without saying we want to see it in October. So that's that's where I was going. inspire. >> Yeah, I'm I won't be here.

I'm happy to support your motion. Um but I would say that it it would need to come with um I don't see it coming as as a directive to do it, but more to continue exploring it and explore what the additional expenses and staffing would be. And I saw from the survey like families expressed concern about providing income um information, you know, to their child's school, you know, there, you know, so I I happy to support it and but give um flexibility to what that looks like from staff and and how much it would cost, right? I mean, it it has budget implications as presented in the the two weeks that y'all have worked

on this. Thank you, >> Miss Chavez. Um, so I just want to say one that I think when you come back, um, if this motion passes, it could be a way to when or a time when you could share about, um, ways that you cut back on program expenses without I mean, I don't know that that has to go to the board either, but if that is something to share. Also, you had a citation in here about um like after 3 PM something like that that 2025.

And so I was looking at their data and if we look at that um which they report by state and nationally and by community like um race or ethnic group. So there's a need for after school. That's what the data shows basically. And people are concerned about affordability. And I realize in our I mean wi as with the um classified salary sc

study and the new scales and all that we have we have to think about what is the purpose of this right now it seems like the per sorry the purpose of this vote um and moving forward with the 50% it's to um fund the program we haven't been we don't have funding for the we don't have adequate funding coming in to sustain the program but beyond that a purpose could be ex expanding after school for families that can't afford it and that's a different purpose than what we're trying to accomplish right now or what we just did. Um and so to me that's there are like there is a lot it to explore about sliding scales and all things kind of related you know to get at the creativity aspect but it could get at that. So, we have more families that have somewhere to have their kid after school that's structured, reliable, um, engaged, supervised, like all of

those things. It even has the percentage of kids who stay home by themselves, you know, going back down to kindergarten. So, um, yeah, just something to consider. And so that I would still support this motion, but that that's where we could get at a different purpose for this, you know, thinking about expanding after school, which also I know Dr.

Lewis has been one of your kind of projects here as well. Um, Miss Heragoff, did you >> So, uh, could we amend the motion to bring back um creative solutions for expanding access to afterare instead of asking specifically just for this uh thing on sliding scale? Because I I'm curious. I I think that'll be a part of the conversation, but there's lots of things to explore about how we can build, you know, build make create a stronger afterchool

afterare programming >> or do we even need a motion? Can we just agree as we come back annually, whether it's October, January, that the team will explore options to support families with from a financial standpoint? Yes, there's been some challenge with the 21st century grants, but as we look to expand partnerships with folks like the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, the city, county, and school districts will be talking about after school options as well. So as a part of the annual report, we the guard rails are to explore options in the broader sense in terms of um making sure the program is financially stable but also looking for ways to um ventilate maybe lower cost.

I don't know for for families by partnering with additional um community partners and there may be some grants as well. I do know we've started a partnership with Boys and Girls Club that could expand >> and also increasing like middle school doesn't have that many students in after school. Is there an opportunity to increase the number of students who are attending there? We know our elementary schools are full and need more spots. Um

Miss Carter, >> um I just want to say I I like these two ideas. I look forward to watching as you all discuss this next year and um but I would add I think this this seems to be implied but expanding afterare more families want it then can access it making access more equitable so that families who who can't afford it right now have a way to be part of it um if they can't afford it and then that will likely involve these partnerships. So looking at both of those like expanding the number of kids that are served and equitable access to the afterare system and then that's a third thing ensuring that there's I think this is what you're getting at chairstead ensuring that there well maybe ensuring that the afterare can also be supplemental provide supplemental learning and you know that would be an ultimate goal like this could be a space for tutoring could be a space for sports and engagement in clubs and things like that for more students than it already is if this is really to supplement what we do in our schools

during the school day. So >> there is a motion on the floor. It's been moved and seconded. Are you withdrawing your motion, Mr.

Chavez? >> Um I will withdraw my motion. Just adding that I hope it will still include sliding scales if um among the all the other things. But I like how this conversation has gone.

Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all for the presentation. All right.

Next we have um a policy committee update and then we have retering of the policies as well as revision of 5120. Um colleagues, are you okay to keep going? Do we want to take a five minute break? Let's take a five minute recess. All right. Thank you.

All right, thank you all for that brief recess. We're going to jump back in to finish our agenda. The next item on our agenda is our related to our policy committee update. We have um one item that's for information item A, which is a summary of what happened in our most recent policy committee.

And we added an item 5B which is the rearing of our policies. Um, Miss Roger Rasher Rogers, you pulled was it Miss We have 5120, right? >> Yes. But we put the rearing of policies before 5120.

>> Oh, okay. My bad. >> I'm sorry. I think Miss Byer pulled that off the consent agenda.

Um, Miss Carter wants to clarify something. So, we'll kick it off to you first before we get into discussion. >> Um, just to clarify that this time around, um, I did not do a policy committee update for information only because I had two other items in the agenda that I thought maybe adequately communicated

our update. But that said, I was a little bit being lazy too and tired. Um, but that said, um, I'm happy to provide an update as part of the and prepared to provide an update as part of the rearing discussion that got moved from consent. So, I can open us with that if that'd be helpful to set the stage or happy to have somebody else do that either way.

>> So, I'm sorry. Are we rearing first and then doing >> Yes, we are rearing first and then we're move because that is the new um item 5B and then we will move to five the new 5C which will be policy 5120. Um Miss Carter and as as chair of the policy committee. We'd love any updates from you or I don't know if any of your colleagues from the policy committee want to kick us off on the rearing portion.

Does anybody >> Okay, >> go ahead. I have I have a specific question, but go ahead. >> Okay. I kind of just wanted to take this opportunity, although I'll note we're

significantly past my bedtime, so apologize in advance. My brain should still be working. Um, to kind of regground us and where where we've been because I thought that might help our discussion tonight. So 37 policies were originally submitted via the policy submission form and tiered back in September and then again in October.

Um this committee has updated, brought to the board and passed new versions of 14 of these including 12 tier one policies and two tier 2 policies. So that's 14 policies in five months. And we've already made a lot of progress on the third in the of the tier 2 policies. That's 5120 that's coming before the board tonight.

You guys could applaud if you want to. Okay. Um after this 22 still remain from the original list. Okay.

per policy 2231, our policy committee policy, we will prioritize policies each September and then again in January. So I apologize this is the first year we're doing this. I forgot to do that in January. So I brought it before the committee in fe February.

Now per the policy also um the policy provides the following guidance for prioritization. It says the policy committee shall consider the following factors in creating the priority list which we've attempted to do both in September and again our recent meeting. So relevance to district goals and strategic priorities legal or compliance obligations for example NCSBA updates urgency feasibility and anticipated impact and the periodic cycle of reviewing existing policy manual sections and policies. So, in light of that, for the last policy committee meeting, what I did was I asked um administration so that we could look at the whole picture. I asked

them to show us what had been submitted through the policy um submission form since we last looked at it. And I also asked um our attorney to bring forth any new recommendations from NCSBA or that he had and administration to bring us any additional recommendations that they had. I'll think twice before doing all of that again, I think, because then we ended up with four policies from administration, two of which were from meet and confer, 19 policies from NCSBA that were fall updates, six policies submitted via the online submission form, and um these are all in the agenda for the last policy committee meeting. We are working to move um or to add a button from the board of education website so that people can have more easily access all the materials from policy committee. Um so anyhow if that if you're counting that means we had 22 policies remaining from the first list 29 new requests for a total of 51

policies on our plate. That does not include spring NCSBA updates or the whole host of other policies that we know really need to be um updated and looked at eventually. Um, so all that to say, this is a big task. Um, we're trying to catch up, trying to make really good progress.

And so, um, with that, I might open it up to, um, others who might have questions about the taring that we, um, are proposing before the board tonight or other policy committee members to share, um, any rationale behind some of the taring and or I can talk more about some of our plans for how we're thinking about tackling this number of policies in the remaining months in this um, school year. Miss Byer. >> So, Miss Card, I thank you for your leadership. I thank you for all the work that you continue to put into this very um important and tedious work, uh time

consuming work. And um I think I um appreciate the policy committee taring that is attached and is in everybody's um agenda and thought of it as a draft because it has to be approved by this whole board. And so, um, one thing that is is really critical to me right now as we, um, react to where we are is for us to look at the seclusion and restraint, which was initially going to be up next, and tie that in actually with a review of 4240, which is our child abuse reports and investigation to make sure that we are being um, urgent in our analysis of those two timely um policies. And so, um, one thing I would ask the board to consider,

um, is actually bumping seclusion and restraint above grievance procedures for employees, and adding in 4240, the child abuse report and investigation, as a co correlary to that, so that we can be doing our due diligence um, with the the issues that have been brought to light recently. Um, and then I will say like despite all this thoughtful work on reeering, there's still a lot that still are down in tier three. And then the list of the submitted ones that we haven't even um considered yet. So I'd perhaps suggest that the board as a whole try to attend the policy retreat date that we've set, April 30th.

Is that correct? Is that Did you just say that? And I >> I haven't said that. Yes, that was just set today, this afternoon, I think. So, yes, we need to get communication out so we have some time before then. >> My dream would be like as many of us as

possible come to that, be able to be there, give it a day, but also that as much of this work that is tedious and not it doesn't need much work can come from administration and Dr. Pitman and the board attorney almost ready to just for us to give it the green light and keep moving this forward. Um, so that was my my biggest concern that I wanted to talk about and talk about with all of you colleagues was that notion of the urgency of of the board looking at um seclusion and restraint along with 4240 as as the next thing after budget transparency so that it doesn't fall too far down this list. Uh, Vice Rogers. >> Um, I want to thank the policy committee for all their work cuz

I didn't sign up for a reason. Um, and I show up as often as I can. Um, and and so it there are a lot of policies. You've done a lot of great work and I appreciate you creating that space.

um and really governing it and pushing the policies forward. I agree with Miss Byer on that. I think I would love to see the grievance policy, the recommended grievance policy sooner rather than later as a board. Um, but I'm also particularly concerned or triggered um reminded of when we had the ad hoc committee on meet and confer and didn't have a um we had an interim superintendent and so we were asking and trying to add this policy without somebody sitting in the

seat to really like weigh in. And I think that that comes up for me when I think about the budget presentation and the restructuring of HR and making sure we have a really good head of HR that is ready to implement um and carry out give us the best repres um best information on a grievance policy and I don't want us to rush administration and hiring ahead of HR um because we're trying to get this policy passed. And I do understand that sometimes we implement policy and whoever is in the seat has to carry out the policy. I do understand that.

But I do think we owe it to ourselves. We owe it to Derm. We owe it to the educators to make sure that we're getting all of the best information, recommendations from HR specialists, from attorneys, and being intentional about making sure the policy

is as good as it can be before we um start implementing it. And so, for that reason, I would like to keep it in the same location that it was in the fall. and we can focus on the things that Miss Byer raised. And if we are still continuing to look for a head of HR, I would like us to consider uh how we do grievance and code of student conduct together so we can talk about really implementing restorative practices in the student code of conduct as the administration has also recommended.

So, M. Rogers, just for my clarity sake, keeping grievance in the same place it was in the fall, which means that what is that? A 2, it was tier 26. So, it was

um 5120 and then transportation service vehicle contracts and then rules of of use of seclusion and restraint in schools. than the grievance procedure. >> Actually, um that was originally where we had placed it and then when it came back to the board in October, we ended up bumping it below um 4307 disciplinary disciplinary action for EC students with disabilities. So, it's at the bottom of tier 2 right now.

>> The grievance policy. >> Yeah. 1. 2 that was the October.

9. That'll just help with your >> Okay, that's helpful. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Uh yeah, I would be comfortable with that, too.

>> Other comments from board members? Miss Chavez. >> Um, so, so, um, let's see. I think it needs to be stated that um part of why this is coming up is we um I think we need to clarify what's happening between our policy committee policy and meet and confer policy because um that that was kind of the you know the issue that came up. Should policies that are um developed at meet and confer come directly to the board or um and they can there is that pathway through the chair but also does it make do they do we reear every times something comes from meet and confer like what you know they're not totally there could be more clarity in those policies as they talk to each other Um,

so that's one thing, but that's a whole another then we have to go look at policies and so somebody needs to reear those again too. But so I don't think we're going to do revamp those policies right now, but it was my understanding that the budget transparency and grievance policies were kind of almost there. Um, I hear the concerns about the grievance policy and not having an HR person. Um, I wonder about um leaving maybe this is what you're saying, Miss Rogers, like or Vice Chair Rogers, leaving budget transparency up toward the top or Yeah.

and then moving grievance back down. Um, I am I I I'm going to go honestly there's just like so much to do in policy committee. That's why we're having a retreat of like what six to eight hours or something like that in

April now. Um, and I'm also concerned about, you know, getting to the seclusion and restraint um, policy. I do think that's urgent. It's been urgent for a long time.

Um so um but we're also kind of balancing that with like things that we can kind of take off our plate quickly. Um one of the big things is that I think um I just want to confirm our attorneys are looking which we have um Mr. Weber with us for our policy committee is looking at the grievance policy and budget transparency policies currently. So, is that is that happening or um or are we waiting until they come up on the docket at policy committee? I think we discussed this at policy committee in the update Jason gave me. that was not something that we discussed, but I

can certainly um I do know that that we've had some conversations within our office about those policies needing to be addressed. >> So, we certainly can go ahead and start looking at those if we're not already if you'd like us to. I mean, regardless of where they are on this chart, we can certainly start looking at them. I need that to be crystal clear for me that um should our attorneys look at policies before they're tiered or after they're tiered?

So, I need that crystal clear. >> Yeah, that makes sense. We're figuring this out. So, uh I'm not sure what to say.

I I was just speaking on those. I think that making sure that they're getting if they if they can be getting legal analysis now that's great because then whenever we come at them um they'll be ready to go but also all the other policies and Mr. Weber has done a very um you know good job of analyzing our things but we can get more in that rhythm of all coming

ready to talk about them. As for whether um it seems to me that our attorneys could look at them before the taring that see it um you know during the meet and confer process but I don't know how others feel there might be you know reasons not to do that but >> can I ask a question about that? I'd love to weigh in, but I haven't seen the policy. I don't know if there's anything that I would like to add to the policy that I could get buy in from folks.

Um, or I could ask attorneys is legal. Um, and it doesn't just go for the grievance policy. It goes for any policy that's submitted through the process. And so, do we want to skip board review and send it like any level of board review and send it straight to the attorneys? Does that seem right? Like I when I was under the impression of the rearing of

the policy, I too put budget transparency in the form. But what else was put in the form between October and January to be considered? And what do those policies look like? Like how do pe how do board members know that we want to authorize the attorneys to look at them?

Because some of them could just be I want you to implement recess for every single student, which is a valid policy, right? I want you to imple make sure every single student, every single school has recess every single day. Are we sending that to the attorney just because somebody submitted it? >> Miss Car, or did you have a response, M?

Yeah. Um yeah, I think um with the I mean that's a good question. I'm thinking about the ones that go through

meet and confer where administration is like yes we are working on this. Those it seems to me could get legal analysis during that process because administration is like you know you all work with our attorneys as well. Um you're saying yes to it. So that I don't think it has to come to the board for the board to say yes now the attorneys can look at it. No one want you know um others that are submitted by community um maybe maybe that's a process where um that the the committee chair which she has been doing a good job of communicating with administration about what needs to happen prior to the meetings could then also maybe already doing this miss Cardott um you know communicate we need a legal analysis around this and because some of them we know there's a lot of pressure around it. There's a lot of um you know

community value to it and all that kind of stuff, but other ones you know maybe you know our attorneys don't need to look at it just yet until we decided it's something we really want to take up. >> Go ahead, Miss Crown. Um well I was before we discuss a policy and policy committee I ask the attorney to come prepared to discuss it with us. So he is looking at it immediately before those meetings.

So that's one thing but I agree that beforehand just all these policies maybe shouldn't be reviewed by the attorneys. That said meet confer does feel very different. Dr. Lewis and his team have spent I think four meetings talking about the grievance policy which is a tremendous amount of our top staff of many staff's time.

To me that doesn't make sense to do all in fact it doesn't make sense to have gone through four meetings without legal review. The attorneys are Dr. Lewis's attorneys as well, not just the board's attorneys, which means maybe after two reviews, he should take it to the

attorneys, get feedback so that then when it comes out of meet and confer, I would I'd feel much more confident as a board member knowing that they'd sent it to us, him feeling confident in part because attorneys had reviewed it. To me, if this policy comes out or these policies come out of meet and confer, Dr. Lewis is saying he feels confident, DAE saying they feel confident, but an attorney hasn't reviewed it. That doesn't make sense.

There's a missing piece in that puzzle. And from my perspective, Dr. Lewis has the authority to authorize review from attorneys and does that all the time with all sorts of different things. I do want to focus us on our task at hand, which is tiering the policies today.

And uh these are important process questions that I think we can answer, but maybe not tonight or this morning. um answer those tonight. But I one of the reasons when we were drafting the policy committee language and the policy or the tiering was for all board members to commit to say this is the order that we would like to see us

focusing our attention on. And so I think when we talk about um the using the attorneys for policies part of the taring process was saying this is what we want the board to focus on in this order and us collectively kind of making that decision. Now, as a policy committee is doing your work, there might be a time where you're like, you know what, we need to start this one and then pause it for a month while we do the analysis that we need, while we do some other ones, right? Like I think there's a little flexibility in that.

" So, um, just to flip that a little bit, I hear the need for clarity around, uh, when we use attorney, when Dr. Lewis uses attorney. I hear that. I'm putting a note on that, but I'm going to ask us to try to put a pin in that conversation and get to the tiering process.

It might help illuminate and clarify some of that for us. Miss Byer. >> Yeah. And I I

recognize the tension that Miss Chavez spoke of of um you know the other ways these could have been accelerated was to submit them straight through as their DAE's drafts or any community groups drafts into the format to begin with like here's our perfect policy submit it for for the policy committee to to work with right I think perhaps at that retreat we could um take an a half hour hour of that chunk of the day to look at the the tensions between the new policy committee and that policy and the meet and confer policy and any ways that they conflict with each other and and wrestle with that a bit. Um because we haven't had a board attorney sitting at meet and confer beside you. We haven't had HR staff there who would have to legitimize and work a grievance group pro process. Um and I wouldn't say we've always had a

culture where um folks are able to say no as I've been observing like it's a really hard place to say no when you're trying to get everybody to yes and trying to please folks. Um and so I I think there's there's work to be done there. Um, as far as taring, um, I heard some interest in in people being kind of okay with where budget transparency is. I'm still waiting to hear back uh from the attorney on that one and also from Mr.

Teter to say what's extra work for him and what is within his existing work on that one. Um, but then getting could we get to that seclusion and restraint and child whatever the 42 whatever >> child use. >> Yeah, that one more quickly. And then tier grievance. I in my mind the other thing about grievance is we're not going to actually implement it until student handbook for the summer. So, we do have

a little bit more time to get to it in towards the later half of the the semester. So, >> um thank you, Miss B. I do have a question and then I want to make sure we get to hear from our colleagues who haven't spoken yet. Um when we looked at these in the fall, administration had also done their own kind of tiering of here's what has deadlines, here's what we can spend a little more time on.

Did that happen with this reharing list as well that administration said like hey when or in or um Mr. Weber with NCSBA update said these need to these should have been done yesterday these need to be done today. Thank you for that question. We did ask about that when you brought these to us. There's these are ones that um should be updated but there's no firm timeline by which they need to be updated. And so for that reason, what we decided to do was for those NC the NCSBA list, the reason that they're listed under the ongoing is because we asked him to bring forth recommendations on a

rolling basis. So you know, some of these are like little tinkering with language. So just word smithing. We said when that's the case just bring it to us even on consent through policy committee so that we can look at it.

We vet it but we don't necessarily need to spend the time discussing it. Others can come to that retreat. We did say that we want to dedicate at least one hour of the retreat to the NCSBA policies because we have to keep them moving but we don't want to spend all of our time on that and at least one hour on what Miss Byer named which is the process questions and kind of reflecting on the process and any conflicts between the policies. Does that answer your question?

>> Yeah. Did and did staff have an opportunity also to look through these NCSBA ones and tier them? And if you're talking about a April 30th budget retreat, this might not matter as much, but I'm just thinking about things that might need to go in a student handbook that gets printed at a certain time um for year round school that starts in July. So, just want to make sure that if there's anything that kind of needs to happen by a certain date that we hit

those markers. >> Yeah, that's a great question. and they haven't done that yet, but they I think that is something that we will need them to do prior to the retreat so that we know which ones need to be tackled first. Um Mr.

Tab, >> thank you. Thank you to the um policy committee for the work that you are doing. My um I guess my question or concern is about the restraint and seclusion that it is not at the top of the list um based on the climate that we're in and things that we're dealing with in Durham public schools that I definitely would not want to see that uh continue to be moved down that we move it back to the top. um also to deal with 4240 with the child abuse. I also agree with um some of my colleagues about the not having uh HR person in place to deal with the the

grievy. That's really important to me uh as a former educator making sure that all the processes are in place as we tackle the um grievanc uh very important to me. So, uh, just want to put that on record that I would love make sure that we kind of move the seclusion and restraint and child abuse policies back to the top. >> Thank you.

>> Thank you, Miss Harold Golf. I >> think I'm in the same place where Mr. Tab is. I would like to see those be prioritized.

Um, and the the child abuse, the Collusion and restraint move back to the top. Yep. Um and as far as the I my only thing about not want understanding why budget the um

it's there is because it came out of me confer. So but um I do believe that those are pretty were they okay. So here's my unclear. I'm not sure if they this what we're seeing now was what came out of the last meeting because I hadn't had a chance to review it.

So it was already prior before that had it been moved now was it in place before and then we prioritized it based on meet and confer is that what happened okay so I was just trying >> u miss >> I see the numbers >> can you ask your ask your question one more time? Miss Card wants to make sure she can answer it for you. >> So, in the last um policy committee meeting um I'm I'm I'm trying to understand the columns. So, in the the revised tier is where you see the numbers where they where they were, which so was the was the >> the order that they're in right now is what we is where we landed at the end of

the last policy committee meeting. >> All right. So the grievance moved up because of meeting confer. >> Exactly.

Because they've discussed it a number of times. It's come they they've decided together they want that and budget transparency to go to us. >> And I've heard and I would like to hear Dr. Lewis's perspective on this because he's expressed to me some um readiness to move forward with those um policies and in particular maybe if you wanted to speak to the budget transparency during budget season.

Dr. Lewis, is there anything that you wanted to share or that might inform our discussion about whether to bump seclusion and restraint on top of that one or not? Yeah, I felt the budget and transparency was was a lot further along in terms of being able to be implemented than the grievance policy and giving we're in the budget development season right now. But there's a lot of things that we're doing as it relates to budget transparency now. Um I did have a meeting with some

principles yesterday and there there is a dire need to get them some additional guidance on uh the child abuse reporting as well as the um seclusion and restraint. All right. Um, can I speak to this first and then try to provide some guidance on where we go? All right.

I, um, am trying to keep track of this from what I hear. But what I would like to also see happen is moveing up seclusion and restraint, moving up child abuse, and then moving up student code of conduct because we were piloting restorative practices, new matrices this year, matrices this year that we needed to implement policy for. And if I think about the timeline of handbooks and trainings and everything happening over the summer, making sure that student code of conduct gets done right before the end of the semester, I don't I'm looking at Dr. King, but

probably earlier rather than later so that that can be in place for upcoming school year. Um to me, these are all about touching some of the student work that I think we need to make sure we're prioritizing. So, for me, I would like to see those move up um because of the of how we've been talking about some of those goals for the year. So, that is my request.

Now, if I hear people correctly, and I'm probably going to get this wrong, so please don't fight me, y'all. Uh 5120 is where we're going to be reviewing that tonight, and that still is at the top of the list. Next, I heard um uh ask for seclusion and restraint. Next, I heard child abuse.

I heard budget transparency, but I'm not exactly sure where to put that. But I've also heard student code of conduct. I heard grievance policy at the end. I've also heard grievance policy at the beginning.

So, that is what I've heard. I'm sorry I can't I wish I could put it up on the a screen so we could look at it and play with it um as we continue to figure this out. Miss I'm go to Miss

Chavez. Um, so I would like to propose this that we do as you started seclusion and restraint, child abuse reports and investigations then budget transparency because it's further along and I think we could move it move it on through. Um, and honestly by this point we're in April. Um and at some point again we're going to have that long day of working on lots of policies.

Um and then student code of conduct also important to me and we have also been kind of working you know toward changes in our discipline policies for a couple years I would say. So I think that um I'm eager to get to it. Um, but I um I I would like to see the budget transparency since it probably won't take as long kind of moved out um during budget season do student code of conduct

disciplinary action for EC grievance policy teleawworking absences due to inclement weather I'm sorry I missed one transportation No, I got that. That was Yeah, let me read it again. Seclusion and restraint, ch child abuse reports and investigations, budget transparency, student code of conduct, disciplinary action for EC, grievance policy, transportation, teleawworking, absences due to inclement weather. Let me finish.

and multi multiple NCSBA policies. I would like to make a motion that we um reear them in that order. >> Second. >> Been moved by Miss Chavez and seconded by Mr. Tab that we um reer the following policies in that

order. Miss Chavez, I am going to ask you to read it one more time. >> Yeah. >> Um and I'm also gonna send it to Nicole.

My motion is that we hear them as seclusion and restraint. Two, child abuse reports and investigations. Three, budget transparency. Four, student code of conduct.

Five, disciplinary action for EC. Six, grievance policy. Seven, transportation. Eight, teleawworking.

Nine, absences due to inclement weather. 10 multiple NCSBA policies >> and and it was seconded by uh Mr. Tab. Any other discussion?

>> All those in favor say I. >> I I >> I. All those opposed use the same sign. I opposed. So that passes 61 I believe. Um, and I didn't vote because

I think that student need a code of conduct needs to come earlier. So, that was my dissension on that because I'm I am worried that we're not going to I think it will take multiple meetings and I'm worried that we won't get it done before the start of the school year. >> I'm wondering I'll look at Dr. King here with with regard to the disciplinary action of EC students after the code of conduct.

Should it come before if there's any implications for that policy in the code of conduct? probably a couple of them because I'm also looking at the student parent grievance like some of these are interconnected so once you start tinkering with one you got to go to the other ones and Rod jump in and help me out here I'm I'm thinking without just looking at the policy right on my head much of what's going to be in that um EC um discipline piece is going to be driven by the law. Um, so I'm I'm not sure that it

would have to come before it could. I don't think it's going to be critical cuz cuz I think that's going to be one where where again we don't have a whole lot of room to um move around except to operate in a way that's a little bit more um more liberal than what the law would allow. If that makes sense at all. I'm sure that we'll want to have robust discussions about it.

So, it might take a little longer as we like to uh engage with the law and different things. Um >> um >> I'm just thinking from a timing standpoint when we do get to the code of conduct and say we're done with it and we're getting ready to print so to speak the code of conduct and then we do the disciplinary action of EC students and find out we need to go back and tweak the code of conduct. That was my thoughts there. I think maybe we can ask that staff work to figure out how you can do those together or whatever you need to do and

then the time. Can you give a deadline for when they need to be done by for the code of con so that we can be ready for the upcoming school year? You don't have to give it to me right now, but if you could pass that along to the policy committee, that way we're kind of clear around when that might need to happen. All right, Miss Herald Goff, >> along it was similar to what you were just saying along those same lines.

I was wondering if we could have that as an extra column in a chart like this. um the recommended times that these policies would need to be completed um so that to help with the taring in the future. Uh I think that's something they can take under consideration. I think some of them have really clear due dates and some of them are not clear due dates. So it makes it a little more challenging. But I'm I'm gonna I see a head and eye

that Miss Carter Autton will take that under consideration. Um I thank you all for doing working on this and staying focused on this. We know there's some more clarity that we need to provide around um I think as we are finishing this year with meet and confer process there's probably a time to sit down and talk through procedures and protocols and how things move from um different bodies to the other. So that is clear and we've heard that.

Um, and I will say thank you to our policy committee, to Miss Carter Autton for the work that y'all are doing. We know it's long, it's hard, and arduous. We're getting ready to dump into another policy that you all have spent a lot of time on. So, I just want to appreciate you for that.

Uh, Miss Byer. >> No, I was just like one reflection I have is that as much as stuff can come from administration and lawyers as ready as possible. Like take your best attempt at it. Get it as clean as you can. know that our Durham values need to be reflected as much as possible because it's gotten so we're trying to get stuff perfect as you'll see with 5120. But I'm

hoping that with 5120 this is just here for first reading tonight as we get to it and we just yeah that's why it's here. Board member Byer did mention as we were talking about the retreat, board member Ber did mention earlier when we were talking about the treat the alignment of the policy committee policy and the meeting confer policy. Should that be tiered or >> we're planning to dedicate we said at least an hour during the retreat to discussing the intersection between the two in a broader con conversation about what's worked well this year with policy committee and what has been a challenge that we need to kind of rework for the next year with the ultimate goal of me putting together some kind of like um procedural outline so that the next committee chair can follow that. So we could Yes, we'll be discussing that during the retreat. All right, thank you all for that. We have one more presentation 5120.

Um, this is on our agenda for first read out. Any ideas about how we can move through this policy? I know you put together a really amazing presentation. Oh, that is not mine to take credit.

Well, maybe it was mine at one point. I I think Dr. Pitman, you're on this crazy. Did you have a vision for this?

Um, that'd be wonderful. Thank you so much. >> I do. >> Sorry.

I really thought this was coming just to give put it here for first reading, knowing that it we hadn't had time to wrestle with the language and we the three of us were going to deal with it in the next policy committee. Clearly, I missed all the notes, but it's after midnight and we're not going to word smith it right now, are we? Had that big section that we hadn't even gotten to, but we're going to post it. Let the community give us any feedback. This is this counts for first read, but

it's going back to policy committee was my my understanding. Have I totally missed another memo? Um, we've spent since we modified the policy in December, we've spent three policy committee meetings talking about it and working it and reworking it. So, that's why we wanted to bring it for first read to the board because we'd already been spending so much time.

We wanted to move it forward. So, I'd um I hear what you're saying. It's late. Um maybe in maybe we try to focus our efforts this evening to see what more the board needs right now, what questions might come out that we need to grapple with when we take this up again at our next policy committee meeting.

And so whatever it takes the board to be able to think about that and reflect, I think would be helpful to get from Dr. Pitman. Um and maybe Mr. Barnes, I think you were on this um praises as well. So if you could share some information, I think it's worth taking the time. It's important that it's on the agenda even

if we're tired but we can try to keep it time limited. So >> and and perhaps just high level overview will help and then focus the work of the committee for the next time. So as Miss Carter Alton, good evening everyone did share um the policy committee looked at this policy on January 22nd, February 5th and Feb 19. And just so that we are fully aware, the committee embraced and considered the information and feedback from the community input as well as the superintendent's um reaching out and working with our principles through the superintendent's advisory council, the student advisory council is superintendent student advisory council cabinet. We've also reached out to our sheriff as well as legal counsel. So what would be helpful for tonight in the version that you have in the track changes version there are two sets of documents in your packet really the track changes version is where to focus your work there's been a reorganization

of the original policy that was passed in December so you've got new section headers and for the most part section headers A B C and D as well as E are reorganized from our original policy. You can see in the track changes, there are some minor word changes or recommendations that we can further unpack at another time, but for the most part, those are just reorganized and clustered in in a helpful way. To your point, there are three new sections that will require f further work of the policy committee and the board. section F, visits to schools by federal law enforcement officers.

Section H, resources for students, and section I, training. So, that's where the work needs to continue. Um, Mr. Barnes, our chief operations officer, has been also intimately involved in

those discussions with policy committee, as well as Dr. Lewis has been attending um the actual discussions. And um so that's sort of where we are with the track changes version that's in front of you and I'll pass it back to Miss Cardott. >> Yeah.

So I think like I said what would help Thank you so much Dr. Pitman. What would be helpful for the committee is that we have some feedback or some questions from the board. If you're not feeling up to making them doing that right now, it'd be really helpful for the committee to get those before we meet next because this work we really want this to be informed by the whole board at this point because we've like like we said have already been grappling with this for hours and have gotten a lot of feedback from all the different entities named by Dr.

Pitman. Um so now at this point we're ready for additional board input and again it doesn't need to be tonight. It could be later if that feel like by

email or other conversations that feels more comfortable. But please tonight share thoughts if you have them or questions. >> When is the next policy committee meeting? >> Not until March 19th.

>> So that'll be after our work session. Uh Mr. Tab, >> thank you so very much for this. Uh I did look at the sections that that you asking for the changes and more work to it.

I just wanted to clarify to make sure that that anything that we are changing um would it change anything in theou that has been already set forth and and if it would is the sheriff involved in those conversations um before it comes back to us. >> So, it's exactly the opposite. The policy committee has been referencing theou with our this for the school resource

officer and then the sheriff's department and embedding those aligning and aligning them within this policy. So, at this point, I don't think there are any um contradictions. Rather, it's a nice tightening and alignment of the policy with our current umou. >> Right.

Thank you. because I just wanted to make put that on record just to make sure that those types of things are happening. Um especially as the sheriff's office has to deal with law, you know, certain things that are by statute or law that we want to make sure that we're in line with that and also with our attorney. >> And Mr.

Barnes and I did indeed meet with um the sheriff's office representative, Captain Hinton, and and went over the policy recommendations such as they were at that time. Okay. >> So, thank you for lifting that up. Yes.

>> Thank you, >> colleagues. We also can move um this item to our March work session. I think

for community to note, we've already made some um we already have adopted a version of this policy and made some edits to this. So, we we're still continuing to look at it and review it. We move it to our March work session. We can have more discussion.

Um, we also know we there's some consultation with our attorneys that also might need to happen as we continue to review this policy as well. Miss Byer, >> one suggestion for accelerating it might be to I really appreciated um Jason's memo that he sent and if we would take his suggestions and and run them into the draft as he's written them, it would it would improve this section greatly and move this work ahead forward if others are comfortable doing that. He's pretty clear in most places in his memo about language. >> I think I I worked on doing that today for my own purposes and most of them looked good to me besides the one that I had sent him a question about where I asked if we could push a little bit further. Um so I think that would be a

nice next step and then we might not all be totally comfortable with that. We might want to go one direction or another. colleagues, are we okay with moving forward? Um, we do have a memo that provides some legal guidance that staff use that to update what we have 5120 and bring that to our March work session.

>> Mr. Malone. Yes. >> Can I just clarify that I think what you're asking is that where Mr.

Weber said like if you're going to do this change, this language would be preferred to make those changes. If he said I don't recommend this change, then you're not suggesting that that be incorporated in this draft. Is that right? Is that what I'm hearing?

>> I believe that is correct. >> That's that's how I was thinking about it. Yeah. And if there was there was some that was uh unclear, he could put a comment off to the side for us to wrestle with.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

you know >> Yeah. I'm sure we can we can we can do that. Yes, absolutely. >> And colleagues, are we okay with bringing that back into March work session?

>> All right. So, I'll take a motion maybe to move Miss uh Vice Rogers. I think my question is what particular I know there were some unfinished sections, but are there particular sections that y'all are wrestling with or having a difficult time with in policy committee that you really are seeking full board input on? >> Felt like we ran out of time.

That's why I was shaking my head. It was just >> Okay, so it's just that it's about time. >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's helpful.

I think we do need a motion to put this on the agenda, the March agenda. >> Move. >> Go ahead. >> I move that we put um policy 5120 on the March work session agenda.

I guess it would technically be second read >> with the amend with the amendments >> with the amendments. So first read with amendments from um amended re Recommended amendments from the attorneys. >> Second. >> Been moved by Vice Rogers, seconded by Miss Byer.

Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I.

>> Any oppose? Use the same sign. It passes 6. Miss Chavez had to step out.

That brings us to the end of our policy committee update. The next item on our agenda is for information only um regarding overnight and international field trips. And then that brings us to the close session. >> Move we move into close session um with for the reasons stated on the agenda.

>> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Harold Goff and seconded by Miss Byer that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

>> I. Any opposed use the same sign. It also passes 6. Uh we're now moved into close session. As a reminder to the public, we will not stream after we conclude uh close session. Thank you.