Board of Education · Regular Meeting · January 25, 2024

good afternoon everyone I'll try one more time good afternoon everyone good afternoon Durham public schools has ordered a special close session for today at 5: PM excuse me we let me back up dur public schools has um hosted a special meeting for today at 5 o'cl that's why y'all are we are starting now um I've opened the meeting and called it to order I'd like to make a motion to go on to close session pursuant to General statute 143 D 3181 A1 A3 and A6 for personnel and attorney client privilege purposes second it's been moved by Miss Chávez seconded by Miss berer is there any other discussion I do just want to add for the folks who are in the room I want to explain what's happening we have a closed session so the board is going to leave this room and going to meet with our attorney we will be back here at starting at 6:30 that's our hope to be back here at 6:30 so you will see us leave but we'll come

back to start our meeting at 6:30 all right all in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign and passes unanimously

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all [Music] right good evening everyone our January 25th 2024 meeting is now called to order I would like to thank you all for being here tonight and I want to apologize for tardiness the board did have a meeting before this I want to begin this meeting by again apologizing for the issues with the salary schedule as our Board of Education said in our recent statement we're sorry for the harm that it caused and we're focused on resolving the situation and understanding how it happened so it does not happen again we know we broke the trust of you all our valued

employees we also know that to rebuild trust we have to show we're going to do and not just talk about it so we will be making adjustments to our meeting hopefully as voted on by the board today to show that that work begins in Earnest tonight I want to acknowledge the purpose of our meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to EMB Embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate to serve and to lead we do have wonderful interpreters who are here tonight Mara ridz as well as Vanessa paa ridz thank you all for taking time to join us the first item on our agenda is a moment of

silence thank you that will end Our Moment of Silence the next item in our agenda is the superintendent update good evening Madame chair members of the board and Durham Community I want to First acknowledge that our new year has begun with a tremendous challenge that I assure our employees that will be resolved as your superintendent our want to assure you

our DPS employees that we are committed to a resolution that will demonstrate our commitment to you I'm also delighted to share good news first board members please allow me to acknowledge the work you do January is a national school board appreciation month and I appreciate your commitment to a quality education for our students your advoc your advocacy is vital to the success of our student stud and public education in North Carolina and Beyond we thank you for your governance on January 17th we celebrated the forging of a major partnership with Durham Technical Community College and Duke Health with a transform transformative Grant from Bloomberg philanthropies to establish any uh I do want to acknowledge that we do have an agenda today and I appreciate

all of you being here I want you to be here but we do so we do want to make sure we're able to move through our agenda today so I will ask I will ask that if we can minimize the comment for us to be able to move through our agenda we do have information that I think you all will be um wanting to hear and so in order for us to be able to move the agenda I am going to ask that you reduce your comments I'm GNA I'm going to ask that you reduce your comments so that we can move through the agenda to be clear if we're not able to move we don't want to have to make decisions that remove people from this room I don't want to do that I want us to be able to have the

meeting together okay so I'm Excuse me we do we can move people from the room if we're not able to do the business of the board so I'm asking you to work with me as we can make sure we move through our agenda and get to the items that you would like to see I'm asking for that commitment from you I I it is a public meeting and we're excited that you're here but I am gonna ask that you reduce the comment so we can move through our agenda Dr mbingo all right thank you again Madame chair so I'm going to proceed where our left on January 17th we celebrated the forging of a major partnership with Durham Technical Community College and Duke Health with a transformative Grant with Bloomberg to establish an early college focus on health SES this is a game changer for our student placing them on a path for

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m. on February 20th for a celebration of the art in Durham public school by attending our annual evening to Shan student Performance Event at the Durham Performing Art Center deac this year we will display the talent over 250 DPF students evening tan is also the annual scholarship fundraiser of Duran Public School Foundation Madame chair this conclude my remotes thank you Dr mainga for your update the next item on our agenda is the agenda review and approval before asking for motions to approve or amend the agenda I will remind the board that there is a request to add a budget item for Action to the agenda in order to do that there must be first be a vote to wave board policy

2330 the policy otherwise requires that budget items for Action appear on the published agenda are there any requests to wave the agenda policy or M or amend tonight's agenda I move to wave board policy 2330 a second it's been moved by Miss Rogers it's been seconded by Miss Lewis is there any other discussion all those in FA favor say I I I any opposed please use the same sign and that passes unanimously Madam chair I move to add excuse me one more second yeah uh the motion to wave board policy 2330 is approved is there a motion to amend the agenda including any budget items sorry madam chair I moveed to add agenda items for a budget amendment and classified staff compensation discussion to the board of education section A of the agenda second 8 a yeah so it has been

moved by Miss Beyer it was seconded by Miss Chavez is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the motion to amend the agenda has been approved and the budget amendment will be added as item 3C and the classified staff uh compensation will also be added as item 3D we do eight a and eight I'm sorry yeah three is something else entirely y it's after consent items so let me add that as eight a after the before the resolutions all right so the agenda has added those items as 8 a and 8 B will read them before the um resolutions all

right the next item on our agenda is the Board of Education monthly meetings from December 14 2023 move approval of the minutes from December 14 2023 second been moved by Miss Rogers seconded by Miss Beyer is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is general public comment before we get there there'll be a quick review of the rules please state your name and if you're speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second uh speakers are asked to present their comments in one minute when the yellow light comes on you will have 30 seconds left winding up your remarks

when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates that your time is up complaints about names staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regards to the public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system the board m members will listen carefully and consider your comments but we do not engage in discussion with our speakers our board policy all lots for 30 minutes for public comment but we want to ensure that everyone is heard this evening so we will um make sure that we have time to uh hear from the speakers that are signed up I do want to remind us that it's important for us to make sure that we keep our uh comments down so we can move through the public comment and the board can hear from everyone who's here I'm going to call I'm GNA call three names at a time so if you can come up and be ready to go as soon as someone has finished so we're gonna go with Katie mcdonell Barbara Tapper and Sherry broad wght I apologize

if I mispronounce your names my name is Katie mcgonnell and I'm repres representing myself and the people that I love throughout this District on September 14th I stood before you and quoted John Maxwell from his work the 21 laws of leadership trust is the foundation of leadership without trust a leaders influence becomes Hollow and ineffective I begged you everyone in this room to Simply do right everything you've done since then has been so very wrong when you look at yourself tonight in the mirrors and the days that follow I want you to remember the names of my colleagues and my friends who are now victims of your Hollow and

ineffective leadership their names are Michelle Solomon Brown Daisy Robertson Patrick Kirk Michelle Harvey thank you I'm going to leave this list for you you can leave it on the table right there and the board will make sure that we receive it the next person will be barbert Tapper followed by Sherry broght and then Christy clim again please correct me if I mispronounced your name my name is Sherry Broad rght and I seed my minute for Barbara Tapper my name is Barbara taer I'm a Staff physical therapist at Durham Public Schools my years of service went from 31 to 11 despite me serving in the same position at Durham public schools for 24 years one of your core beliefs is equity what is the benefit of lowering step change for DPS classified staff by removing years of verified experien

there was no written policy for this change uh oh underpayment and lack of recognition of experienced staff with lure Miss Miss broad night can I have your time start over because of the microphone issue sure we know we have people that are streaming online thank you correct okay your core beliefs Equity shared responsibility

high expectations there is no equity your core belief of equity has been ruined our trust has been ruined you will have to work tooth and nail to get it back a growth mindset does it not seem contradictory to removing previously verified years of service from classified employees to intentionally move people down a pay scale as a way to stop the bleeding in the budget which as I have heard in many of my meetings with the Board of Education and Human Resources staff stop the bleeding we are the recipients of your mistake your change of policy without notification are you aware it's against the law to dock our pay without 30 days notice since I'm not allowed to use names your superintendent of human resources on video record telling us that our raise would be between 24 and 28% that video is

circulating it is my understanding that our current Administration is now being investigated by outside agencies and an Ever to figure out what went wrong DPS invested thousands Maybe hundreds of thousands of do taxpayers money in my Durham Community which sits back here for a hill study Hil study and now are having to pay more monies for an investigation into a corrupt unequal disrespectful business practices that you all have implemented why are lawyer fees and Hil study money going to the classified staff lastly as a physical therapist in your District we Bill Medicaid for services rendered for EC children DPS recruits all that money yet we don't see a dime of it we are Revenue producing department for your District yet our salaries are

reduced by $2,000 a month and that ends your time thank you thank you next we have Chris excuse me next we have Christy Clen is that Christy Crim followed by Heidi netland and Anna ber again I apologize for I'm mispronouncing your names I'm Heidi Joe hin I'm a physical therapist with 33 years of experience and steps in here and I am now step one and I receed suceed the rest of my time to Christy CL my colleague I'm Christy clim a physical therapist that serves students in eight different schools I've never experienced a work environment like what's been going on the last two weeks no matter what school you walk into you see and feel the same things mistrust worry despair Detachment anger classified employees are exhausted

from living in a two- week period of fight or flight we are all living our own trauma response right now because of y'all's decision your decision to reduce our wages is negatively impacting our financial physical and mental emotional health all in ways you absolutely do not understand you want us to show up for the students to give our best effort to help them grow but this decision to intentionally remove our service to negate the experience that we have that is shaped us to be our best makes that impossible we were told the study was going to do three picture things get us close to Market rates because we've been underpaid the middle steps that have been compressed get that fixed and give those most experienced people what they deserve because they have been underpaid when we looked at our data it's done the opposite it's compressed our salaries more we have less experienced staff that have now surpassed others with that have been

licensed longer on the pay scale 11 of our most 16 experienced have lost so many years that they're only getting the mandatory 4% raise from the state and they're not getting a penny extra from y'all those same individuals are having their pay Frozen Frozen for two to 18 years and I bet a lot of our DPS employees have no idea that the pay freeze is even an option because it hasn't been clearly communicated if you're going to make a policy change do it going forward don't hurt the people that had verified years coming in and on top of that people have been told stay quiet by their supervisors and to not speak out that is intimidation that is Despicable to take place in this District thank you well Anna Anna Berg followed by Quenton heeden followed by lesie

Riley um I'm Anna BG and I'm a physical therapist but I'm going to seed my time to so so you do need to seed the time to the person who has signed up after you our schools are failing we are challenged by dealing with inconsistencies of staff and communication the question I must ask DPS is who is it affecting more is it affecting our teachers and our workers and our classified staff is it affecting the principles and the aps or is it affecting the kids I care about my students every day I see my students go to a class and that teacher is not there there's always a substitute we have so many vacant classes in our school system now it is ridiculous and that is a bad bad thing to get because you have that substitute in there saying do whatever you want I

don't care because there's an inconsistency in sub and planning so where will we fix this when will we fix this I don't know if it's going to get fixed because the IAS the OTS the pts the secretaries all the classified staff we are the foundation of [Music] education and so far at the end of the day how you treated your staff is now how it's being treated to our DPS students superintendent you said it yourself that the payroll rolls at approximately $1 million isn't your Workforce in DPS that includes all of these wonderful people here are we worth a million dollars to you but then again I have another question Dr mainga aren't the children worth a million dollars and

more if this continues our system will crumble and fail but also it will be a violation of Vape which is a free and appropriate public education Leslie we got Leslie Riley followed by Naomi shimer and Molly if you all can come on up to I'm sorry if you can come on up to the podium if I just called your name follow Molly will follow Marissa Aaron Doncaster and Greg I think it's s i I see my time to Noom shemmer my name is no and I'm seaing Molly my name is Molly Bagby I'm a DPS occupational therapist and I'm the parent of two children in DPS at Pearson town and Rogers her I see the rest of my

time to Aaron Doncaster so just also let me clarify on our policy you can see it twice I apologize that is our deep that is our Duren Public Schools policy so how many did you know do you know how many people y'all were okay so we're gonna let you go and then we're if someone else has comments you can if you signed up you can go okay so I still okay all right my name is Erin Doncaster and I'm an occupational therapist for Durham public schools and a Durham Community member and I am speaking on behalf of some of my fellow OTS as an impacted staff member I am highly concerned with the following the lack of transparency from DPS leadership regarding how this operational error and subsequent Poli policy change occurred the lack of assumed responsibility and accountability from DPS leadership regarding the mishandling of funds lack of DPS providing a lawfully required 30-day notice before reducing salaries

DPS not paying classified staff fairly for time already worked in January 2024 DPS no longer providing consideration of previous working experience despite hiring staff and paying them under those guidelines experiencing a significant reduction in salary literally overnight and contradictory and blatant disregard of the salary study and the recommendations it generated as a citizen and voter within the Durham County I'm highly concerned that the negative impacts of the recent man mishandling of operational and financial policy at DPS are having and will continue to have negative Downstream impacts on our school and communities this reduction in Pay impacts employees who already make the least amount of money as well as many employees that work with students with disabilities a population already marginalized within Public Schools DPS endorses a fair and Equitable educational environment in workplace yet the ways in which these changes were presented prohibit equity

in any sense of the word in the Strategic plan you have the priority of increase academic achievement we know High turnover in schools reduces academic achievement in the quality of Education provided priority two provide a safe School environment that supports the whole whole child we as occupational therapists evaluate our students and their environment to assess assess safety function and participation we as OTS know better than anyone who makes a school functional and it is these people right here it is cafeteria workers bus drivers custodians and groundskeeper priority three attract and retain outstanding Educators and staff a workplace that could strip employees of their pay without notice is a hostile work environment and a hostile work environment does not retain or attract quality staff I will end with this the situation represents a failure to our staff and ref reflects poorly on the overall ethical reputation of Durham and Durham Public Schools as an employee I am

m. on a holiday weekend

I received an email from the compensation study signed by Dr mubanga that without warning or explanation reduced My Steps From 29 to 11 erasing 18 years of my experience that DPS previously sought out and valued experience that my um students have benefited from and families that I have been privileged to serve the results of this is a significant reduction in Pay but bigger than that it is a massive be breach of trust in the highest levels of administration at DPS DPS will be losing our sorry I gotta end you at your time I want to make sure everyone can speak thank you all right y'all NE next up we have Victoria feli Mike Ellis Mike Ellis I'm sorry can y'all keep it down so I can call the names Victoria feli Mike Ellis and I think it's Jenny P followed

by Posta thank you come on up to I'm let me read it one more time it's uh Victoria Victoria foreli velli velli Mike Ellis Jenny p and Costa come on up here you make it started my name is Victoria fatelli and I am here to speak about the impacts of these actions on families namely the families of students like mine the families of students with disabilities we are the canaries in the coal mine when you do harm we feel it first our children have a civil right only in our Public Schools when you and Dr mabanga made choices that led to fewer maintenance staff you made disabled students less safe these folks right here the holes in the fences the falling railings the broken playground surfaces those are nuisances to many students they are life-threatening to students like my daughter did you know

that a wheelchair van costs between $60,000 and $100,000 did you know that a wheelchair lift must be maintained at least every 3 to six months by qualified Me by qualified mechanics when Dr maanga chose to dock the pay of our bus mechanics and hold school anyway you said that my daughter's classmates Miss I have to end your time right there so we can make sure we respect everyone's time thank you thank you so I need when you chose to not respect mine Victoria we cannot have the Victoria you may leave your comments on the table but you cannot uh stand and take other people's time thank you uh Mike Ellis yes you may go uh Miss hear me V Victoria can you hear the Mike EXC excuse me Victoria y'all Victor Victoria Victoria respectfully VI Victoria no no no hold on hold on no no

excuse EXC excuse me excuse me deputies deputies deputies we're good Victoria you're good deputies y'all are fine Victoria if you would like to leave your comments on the T excuse me excuse me I I did not mean to disrespect you VI Tor I really did not I want to say if I want to say if you would like to leave your comments on the table you may so that the board may see those comments deputies they're good I'll let y'all know when I need somebody okay Mr Ellis I'm M Mike I apologize I don't want to misgender Mike we'll go next followed by Jenny follow excuse y'all audience we need we need cooperation to move through our meeting okay so Jenny Costa will be next followed by Kristen Southward name's Mike Ellis um I'm

getting over throat cancer so I'm squeaky but uh I just want to say uh one of one of four plumbers in the district and uh I come here with years of steps I went from a grade 44 down to a seven okay uh I got my 4% from the state of North Carolina but DPS didn't give me one penny so what's the deal do you want your plumbing to work right in the building do you want to walk in sore every day hi my name is Jenny and I'm an occupational therapist this is my first year in North Carolina and my first year at DPS when searching for a job I chose DPS because I believe they valued experience with this new policy my eight

years as an occupational therapy practitioner will no longer be counted I was originally hired at a step eight in August and I am now a step zero a new graduate who has just passed their lure board exams fresh out of school will make the same as I do they do not have the same experience with addressing behaviors writing goals attending IEPs writing progress those present level evaluations daily notes providing skill intervention building rapport with families and students as well as other staff members but they will make the same as I do by discounting years of experience you are discouraging seasoned therapists to be a part of your team therapists who bring invaluable experience and knowledge from out of state and from other settings seasoned therapists who are able to provide mentorship to new grads and new hires and help mold them into becoming valued and knowledgeable members of DPS by discounting years of service DPS will only be left to hire Junior and new to the field employees with little to no experience and no availability to mentorship this will this in turn will only hurt those who need our experience expertise and service most our next Jenny thank you next we'll have

Costa follow one second Costa follow and please correct me if I'm saying it wrong Costa following Costa will have Kristen Southworth Gloria Howard Simone kadu America Barrera good evening um my name is uh Costa Constantino I am a music teacher of 45 years I have I have taught Elementary School um music all over the world with the Department of Defense schools and came to DPS last year Hope Valley Elementary School um I want to say I'm not going to be as I I I want to say that I absolutely love my school I love the kids I love the administrators I love everything there is about coming and teaching at Hope Valley Elementary School and teaching for DPS I'm sorry for all this I know that with God's help

and with our help we're going to come to a a resolution of this I came tonight to say one thing um I have been I I being paid of course Plus 1 because they don't want to pay us for 45 years buta I'm sorry I have to cut you I want to make sure that we hear from everybody thank you so much I appreciate I'm sorry thank you thank you it's okay Kristen South Southworth will be next oh they didn't take any I I'm good thank you Kristen Southworth will be next followed by Gloria Howard Kristen you may start um so my name is is Kristen Southworth and I'm here tonight representing the People's Alliance education action team as many of you know the past two years PA has prioritized and advocated for the raise of classified the pay raise for classified staff we were thrilled when the County Commissioners approved an

additional $10 million to go to our schools this is the very raise that has now been jeopardized by the mistakes of this Administration while we understand that there is still much to learn we do expect the following that you take financial care of DPS staff by honoring all previous commitments that you are transparent communication for any findings to these external external investigations and that you will hold accountable those who have placed our DPS community in this unfortunate situation it is your responsibility to ensure public funds are used for private education thank you thank you Kristen Gloria Howard followed by Simone kadu and America Bara I work for service Masters and Premiere the superintendent said last

week that they were looking for service for working for the state my experience in service goes all the way to 2001 one to now I worked at Hope Valley 10 years or more East Way 3 to four gipton Middle School eight years Chapel Hill School eight years UNC also Hamond Road do you think that's a lot of service they took me from a nine to a five and it's it's it's unbelievable and when I speak I speak for all the people that has cleaned these buildings we all started with one or the other and everybody we went over from thank you but no weapons form against us thank

you people are tired I'm tired they're tired the babies are tired y'all are tired what I've heard you say is that you want answers almost as much as we do and the righteous outrage is understandable under the circumstances and we validate the frustrations of classified staff all staff and our community in this moment we also affirm that our desire to lead with vision and unity and we unite the board we invite the board and central office to join us in setting this debacle straight we know that this board shares our goal of high functioning public schools for our children and we look forward to working collaboratively to write this wrong and to make progress in every area of DPS through formal worker voice thank you I'm gonna ask for to double the time because we have interpretation consecu 100% we have interpreters that are available to interpret for America I

think we're we're we're prepared to to do it awesome so we will double the time for interpretation [Music] absolutely good afternoon my name is Amica barera and I'm a student at Riverside High School in 11th grade so I've been here about three years and

I always wanted to be a teacher because um that's what I always wanted to do but when I re when when I arrived I realized that teachers are not paid well they're not valued and they're not compensated for what they do so I've kind of changed my opinion on that teachers aren't given licenses and the few that are aren't really um in specialized professions and um aren't given the opportunities that they deserve so it's very very situ uh very very sad the situation that teachers are so devalued um all of the teachers are so good they're helping us and they're forming us into be being good citizens they help us create our future um where I come from teachers are valued for that

reason it was a big surprise when I found out they were not valued here America do you have more to finish here yeah is it possible for you to finish and then you to interpret do you have it written okay thank you [Music] thank you without good teachers the new generations will be in Decline and this is going to affect not only the economy of the country um but our whole population and so how can we expect to have good teachers if they're not

compensated and don't experience um receiving good benefits thank you all thank you America I gotta cut you there thank you all right all right next up next up next excuse me thank you'all I want to get get our next round of speakers Gea mahash tomse Kristen Wagner and Loris arain I'll read them one more time gear Mahajan Tom dewise devise I apologize Tom I can't read the I can't read the handwriting Kristen ragner and Lura stin my name is GE Mahajan and I have two students currently enrolled at DPS I debated how I should start my comments tonight dumpster fire B explosion the

fish rots from the head or the emperor has no clothes just couldn't decide but this is what I do know I do not trust the superintendent's ability to lead and the school board's ability to provide oversight and accountability on behalf of students staff and the public end this chaos pay every single classified worker the salaries you promis them for the full year terminate Central sta office staff who have monumentally failed to execute critical budget and payroll functions competently find the funds from the school system or request a bailout from the county immediately set up a transparent nonpartisan joint investigation by the UNC School of government and the nccu department of public administration to ensure this never happens again thank you comp confidence don't be suris thank

you I have to ask you to leave the microphone now I will have to ask you to leave the microphone thank you Tom Tom you are next followed by Kristen Wagner luris Artin and Chelsea rhener Roder my name is Tom delviso and I yield my time my name is Kristen Wagner and I yield my time hi my name is Laurence artine and I do not want to be here tonight where I want to be is home with my two children who are DPS students a first grader with an p and a fourth grader with a 504 I'm a professor of Education policy at UNCC and tonight I have the privilege to be speaking on behalf of extremely committed classified staff and teachers at EK Po and I hope what I say resonates with all of you in the room tonight I

want to be really clear on one thing we are pointing to a lot of problems in the system you cannot blame Educators and staff central office has created a culture of climate that is toxic like I've never seen any trust that existed before this has been eroded the last four years have been a portrait of failed leadership in the district bungling of the return to school lack of affordable after care for Working Families continued confusion for schools and families around school reassignment position cuts without any explanation of the school budgeting process leaving schools and parents confused the disaster that we're here to learn more about tonight regarding pay how did we get here first there's no transparency in decision- making teachers and staff don't know the conditions of their own employment there is no clarity about who makes decisions with people in the district

pointing fingers at the state pointing fingers at school leaders pointing Fe fingers at teachers and staff pointing fingers at parents everyone but them even the DPS website is difficult to navigate including a jobs posting Link at the bottom of the homepage which just goes back to the top of the homepage really confusing why we have vacancies in this District DPA DP s also makes policy decisions in complete isolation you lack true partnership with families and employees you make agreements and deals in back rooms you award contracts to friends rather than actual expertise experts at the end of the day there's a lot of confusion without any real accountability for central office for a district that uses the term Equity a lot all of your actions are most impacting your lowest paid workers and your most

vulnerable students that has got to end tonight central office is broken we're here imploring you to give your teachers and staff a seat at the table we are here urging you to clean house finance human resources and the superintendent Durham deserves the best leaders leaders who respect our Educators and students end of your time you so much Lauren that's the end of that is the end of your time thank you Chelsea Chelsea one second before Chelsea you get started we have Samira well Welly Crystal Moore and Naya Watson hi my name is Chelsea rodenhiser I am a nurse with PPS and I'm speaking on behalf of DPS nurses including the one on our team that um went from 44

years of experience to zero um I want to start by talking about Professionals in general we are on the classified scale that means nurses as well we acknowledge that we bring with us professional clinical experience that allows us to be good at our jobs and to do them well we are working along aside alongside colleagues that have the same number of years of experience as us but because they got it at UNCC hospital and I got it at Duke they have credit for theirs and I don't have credit for mine this comes as such a surprise to me given that we just discussed a partnership that the school board has made with Duke so we are shuttling our students into the Duke system but we won't reward them with jobs coming back to DPS pay adjustments that we are making like this are exacerbating problems that we already have with Recruitment and Retention we already have openings we need to recogniz that's the end of your

time Samir Samir do we have Samir my name is Samir Willam I'm a DPS parent a graduate of DPS and a member of the public school strong Statewide Coalition one of the goals of PSS is to defend public education I'm here today to honor that goal in all the work work that goes into the success of our Public Schools worked done by many of the people that have spoken before me tonight if our Public Schools were responsibly funded we wouldn't be here tonight discussing how to pay the well-deserved salaries of DPS employees the situation exemplifies the need to be careful with the promises that we the Durham community and taxpayers make with our local dollars the Durham chapter of PSS pledges to continue our work with DPS parents and um employees to find outcomes that adhere to The List of Demands made by D including providing pay that values all staff contributions to schools and honor staff experience and prior experience failure to properly address these issues will leave

classrooms without critical staff and cause harm to our children by denying them their right to learn we want our schools to be funded so that every child in North Carolina can succeed tonight TPS you have an opportunity to take responsibility for your decisions and make things right crystal Moore Crystal Moore followed by Naya Watson Theodore theour theour absolutely crystal Moore Follow by Naya Watson Theodore de sour I apologize if I mispronounced that and chronia spur spurry all right so we're gonna start with Crystal Moore Miss Watson Theodore christonia I'm a first year EC teacher after seven years as an IIA and I'm here because the superintendent recently had his contractor roll during that decision the board also decided to cover his

retirement health and dental contributions where is the board getting the funds to cover these expenses if I could cover mine then someone making $250,000 more than me as an IIA should be able to too for years there has been a disparity between the upper level employees and those at the bottom we know this because the hill study that the board had conducted told us so so much so that the board voted to give those same employees a raise now the board is looking for funds why is it when you need a cut pay you do it from the people who work two and three jobs who work unpaid overtime for you just to barely pay their bills Miss time with their own kids or pay for their own classroom resources people whose expertise you no longer value isn't it your own strategic plan to value that expertise you shouldn't have to find funds because you were given it by Durham taxpayer thank you Crystal um hello I just couple days ago

I saw on TV that Governor Cooper said it's the year for public schools right when the year going to begin I went from 17 18 to now what two two yeah I have worked in a I have I'm from Delaware so none of my prior experience does not count I have worked in the same position at the same school but different places why shouldn't I account you get what I'm saying and my thing is we are at the bottom food nutrition we at the bottom my paycheck is probably crumbs of all of your paycheck it's probably laundry detergent and all that food or whatever but it's not right thank

you you're right my name is Theodor dour I'm a student at M Side High School I I've been in dur Public Schools my entire life it's a system oh yeah it's a system that has only brought me joy and that's in no part due to the staff the teachers the counselors the entirety of Duram Public Schools it's the what I'm hearing right now it's and what I'm seeing in my school I can't imagine this going on for any longer in any school around the entire country so the fact that I'm seeing it now it's something that needs to happen or something needs to change at this moment hey it needs to go up I'm it's I'm my peers my like my teachers I'm they are going on strike there's it's affecting the entire system there's something that has happened that is deeply wrong and it I don't I can't say enough it just needs to change soon

thank you so much for your time thank you thank you de chis christonia before you get before you get am I pronouncing it correctly all right before you get started I want to call the next uh group of names Katherine Goldstein Amy Wilson Kendall Doyle and Victoria F Victoria you already signed up all right no we can only have our public comment speaker sign up once so I'm going to call those names one more time if you can make your way over to the stadum excuse me to the podium we have Katherine Goldstein Amy Wilson kendle Doyle uh and then Rowan Hughes if you can make your way over christonia hi everybody my name is christonia spru and I am here on behalf of parents who probably feel the same way I do um first of all I want to say

thank you for adding the top the topic to your agenda because I did notice that it wasn't here but I think out of respect for everybody this standing outside right now would it be nice if it would become a priority and the agenda ahead of the other stuff like right after these public comments just wanted to say that um so um the last time I attended a meeting DPS related it was discussing the stronger together initiative and I wonder how you gonna fill that goal of stronger together without in this in this climate with the workers feeling the way that they do it seems like it's an impossible task but I hope that you come up with a plan to fix that um with the division in the world it's great to see people United and fighting for fair treatment this is what civil civil rights movements are made of earlier this month we celebrated Dr King's birthday there were events all over the D that reminded us the importance of not having a vision dream but fighting for it so keep fighting for your dreams thank you chronia Katherine Goldstein followed by

Amy Wilson good evening Amy Wilson seting my time so you all have to do it in the order that you spoke I mean the order that you signed up so Katherine goon has to go first and then okay um I'm Katherine Goldstein I'm the parent of a third grader and I want to say that as parents we stand with you we stand with the classified staff we're gonna keep fighting for you um I I also want to say that um there are no public records in meetings of you all agreeing uh to uh remove this outside experience it does appear there's an accounting error but the problem isn't with our classified staff's pay it is Financial mismanagement in the central office if DPS has made a huge blunder and doesn't have the funds for the much deserved raises then you have to fire the people responsible and get and get the county to bail the school system out this is an

emergency our district already has too many worker openings and declining enrollment numbers stripping away these hard-earned races from our difficult to replace staff is a huge existential blow to our school district and our children will be suffering the most thank you Catherine Amy Wilson a Amy I'm Amy Wilson I'm seing my time to Kindle I'm Kendall Doyle and I'm going to be reading the rest of Victoria's statement because she didn't have a chance to as Victoria noted she has a daughter special needs um activists like Judy human and Jennifer keelen choffin work tirelessly to ensure a free appropriate public education for students like my daughter your actions this month have

put that in jeopardy she requires a onetoone IIA to attend school she needs an experienced OT PT and PT to access her schoolwork she needs a janitorial staff to maintain a safe school for her to navigate my child is thriving she is a Triumph of the hard work of people in this room she is she is excelling not because of our upper Administration but in spite of you Dr mubanga has quietly reduced the budget for special education year after year this most this most recent act recent action um were de facto way of continuing to defund these programs this is not only disadvantages students like my daughter but it puts our family in the position to sue you to access those resources further draining resources for

from our public school if you do not care about the Dignity of our disabled students or the Dignity of living wages for your staff maybe you should care about that thank you Rowan before you get started I'm G call next the next group all right next we have Christina Baldridge Rebecca Ferguson Celia moral and can we have um for Celia if we can have one of our interpreters come out followed by Jackie Wagstaff all right if y'all can come on over Roman Rowan you can get started um hello everyone this this okay my name is Rowan um I'm I'm the student body president at Jordan High School and thank you I'm also a member of the student superintendent advisory committee um

and I have sat at a table with Miss Umstead and we have talked about how to improve DPS and and through my experiences I have seen that people in DPS want to make this a better place I've seen the teachers I I have seen Miss Pitman who who is a fantastic assistant superintendent and I just I know that that if we can get through this and and we can and we can work through the pay I I I just can't wait to see where DPS can go so thank you all for showing your passion and thank you for listening so Christina B come on up Christina followed by Rebecca and then Celia um my name is Christina Baldridge and I'm a parent of two children at Forest Elementary School and the PTA can y'all hear me now okay um Christina Baldridge I'm a parent of two kids at Forest View Elementary School which had zero EC teachers in its uh building last year we're kind of crawling back from that right now um I'm also the PTA president there um I'm here to to y'all have heard the painful

stories I don't need to reiterate that um I just want to point out that I think there's some real concern that we don't have any leadership in this room willing to do the hard work this is a painful moment for this district for these kids for everyone in this room um it's also a huge opportunity like to build trust we need to show that we are willing to do hard things make hard decisions start being transparent and truthful acknowledging exactly what has happened and how we ensure it doesn't happen again that can't happen behind closed doors that is not how you rebuild trust that's how you continue to erode it that's how you send money to Charter Schools that's how you send money to private schools I don't think any of us want that thank you my name is Rebecca Ferguson and I'm a parent I'm here because today without a lot of the therapists in this room my son cannot access his education I'm the parent of a son who's disabled and like Victoria who spoke um my son has a civil right to an

education and without the people in this room he can't access that the therapist in this room show up every day for my son and for kids like him when parents like me are fighting Administration for IEP for our kids to even just be in a classro with his peers when we're fighting for funding for equipment when we're stitching things together to make it work these therapists are in a classroom helping my son access his education helping kids like him SA write and be in a space where they can learn now these therapists that serve children like my son are being told that they're not valuable that their experience doesn't matter and if we lose them they're also teachers to us as parents they're like gold to us so come to their classrooms see what they do thank you rebeccca Sor Celia

Celia come up and Celia would you like an interpreter yeah thewest can you pause one second sorry are you gonna pause my time make sure that you have the time but our interpreter needs to come in oh you're good okay I just wanted to make sure if

you needed to to jump in all right he's very skilled and experience to which y'all are not paying fine not it's not what it's okay sorry one second guys please help me out here because they going to steal the time please you're okay we're going to make sure you have your time it was not my intention to insult sure I'm gonna I'm gonna just pick UPC

a out of respect everybody on our staff meeting on Tuesday is my supervisor said it Sil me to see that we are treating each other um how we are teaching each other I'm sorry I'm sorry well we are teaching each other and what are we teaching to our children which I answered we are teaching our children to be incomp incompetent we are teaching our uh students to be mediocre we are teaching them to do how fast our work and we still get promoted I am not even doing this for me I am doing for my niece that is a kindergartener student at Southwest

today she invited me to her house to have spaghetti with her at her abita's house I'm sorry and I had to explain to her that I could not be at dinner today because the people at her school are not getting paid she replied full of Innocence that's not very nice a six-year-old can see how you are taking advantage of the people who interact with her approximately 35 hours per week lastly you going to know my facility right next door the MRC has no running water has no fridge but it sure has gas leaks high levels of carbon monoxide DPS owes the interpreters thousands thousands of dollars I expect retaliation but I will speak the truth even if my boy shakes for you all to know that the wonderful interpreters that run DPS are here only six of the 19 of us are sitting there we alone got 101 years of experience taken away good luck growing together and I ask you again with math with your math uh background in math and the doctorates that you have how did you not see this coming

okay I'm gonna read the I'll read the next group of names we have Jackie Wagstaff Ramona Royer Deanna duberry and Jennifer gearon gearon so I'll read them one more time if those folks can make their way to the can I have y'all's attention let's read these names one more time good afternoon one miss second Miss Jack waga I want to read these names Jackie Wagstaff followed by Ramona Royster Deanna duber and Jennifer gearid are you ready now okay I'm going to come from this from a different perspective in my 40 years of service I sat on this board in 2001 trust and believe I'm seeing these same people some of the same people that came in here with we got action we had action we might not always agree but we made it happen now with y'all I keep hearing this thing about fire the

superintendant well I'm ready to fire all of y'all every one of y'all every one of you gotta go you gotta go you have no competition going on this year but there needs to be some writing because at the end of the day you are the that sets the policies and he is the man that you hired to carry out your policy so if this money is screwed up it's because of your policies and Failure to Launch no oversight fail oversight mostly y'all are trash and you need to go bottom line all right next we have Ramona Royster Ramona Royster okay next Deanna duberry I want to make sure we give people an opportunity to make it in

Jennifer come on up Jennifer next up we have Sarah miles Sarah if you can make your way up as well as Leticia Johnson Sarah miles Leticia Johnson I'm sorry Leticia and Amanda CTO hey there Dr Jennifer geish last time I was here it's because we had zero yes zero EC teachers at my elementary school I could have sued you then I can still sue you now what you all are doing to our staff is Criminal it is immoral it's illegal it's a crime you all need to come clean on your

promises to your staff you need to support the backbone of the schools our classified staff there are people here and I you know who I'm pointing to who helped my child so so much you want to rip him of his experience my child can speak and write because of him and you want to take his experience away he is worth his weight in gold he is worth his weight in gold as are all of our thank youmin thank you transparency please thank you thank you miss miss my name is latia Johnson one second Laticia Sarah miles was in front of you I just want to make sure she had a Sarah miles come on up we'll make sure both of y'all have an opportunity to speak I just helped to go in order I apologize um good evening my name is Sarah miles I have been an educational

sign language interpreter for DPS for almost 20 years I am also a parent to a ninth grader at Jordan and a seventh grader at githens and um I just want want to say you said that you broke our trust but I don't think anybody talked about the fact that you broke our hearts and we're all just reeling it's been completely traumatic and when you go home tonight I want you to look in the mirror and I want you to ask yourself is this the person I want to be is this what I want to be remembered for thank you [Music] she took my words um my name is Laticia Johnson and I have been an educator in Dar public schools for 23 years and I am here today in support of the classifi staff um although I may not have been

financially harmed um as she was saying this is heartbreaking this is dis aring I just I I I sat there and watched the meeting the other day back that someone recorded and I I was in tears at home and this is this is terrible I used to be proud to say that I worked for Durham public schools and I can't say that anymore like my heart really hurts like this is terrible we look terrible it's bad the people feel bad I feel bad for them my assistant it's awesome it's wonderful when I was going through the things that I was going through when I was sick she was there when the subs didn't show up when they called out when people weren't there she was there and so the classified staff is the backbone of DPS and I know you've heard it over and over again but it's true it's so true I don't care how many certifications I have or degrees we have it's true they are and this we say we are DPS thank you it's just a hashtag thank you

Leticia Amanda come on up Amanda uh before we have oura Amanda sorry one second we have our next group of names Kia Parish Ha key Marcy am Amanda is up Ashley Smith and Luna Gomez so I'm gonna the next group of names I'm gonna read them can I get your attention I want to read the next group of names one the next group of names one more time so you all can make your way up to the front Kia Parish he ke Marcy Ashley Smith and Luna Gomez Amanda you may get

started [Music] for

good afternoon my name is Amanda Caso and I'm the parent of two students here at DBS it is a complicated situation that starts with the state not giving schools the funds that they are owed North Carolina schools has been operating on low budgets for years as a result employees have some of the lowest salaries in the country last year the district decided that they were going to do something to raise the salaries in October they approved the increase for all employees now they say that this is a mistake and they don't want to reduce the wages but also probably making the employees give the money back if I'm my job and my boss promises $20 an hour but then he said that he's going to give me $12 I don't know what I would do I'll definitely would not be happy the school staff yes for the Stu for the students they teach our our children five days a week it is a hard work and we need to be uh in their work they need to be in their workplace I feel that we have to respect them because this is 100% for our children for example if I take care

of a child and I get paid eight hours um $8 per hour I will sit him in front of the TV while I clean the house if I get paid $20 I take him to the park I will read to them and I will play to them and this is we are here because these our children depend of this welfare this welfare is for the staff here hello this is really short hi my name is Kia Parish Heim I am here because I am a grad student studying to get my masters in special education I have been offered four jobs and applied for zero there are so many vacancies in special education because we do not support classified staff if you would like to fill these

vacancies if you would like to keep special education teachers that work with some of the most amazing and the most difficult students we teach you need to pay your classified staff thank you key Marcy key Marcy key will be followed by Ashley Smith and Luna Gomez I am I'm neither a teacher nor do I have have a kid but I graduated DPS over 10 years ago I have te friends who work here I see former teachers from my time in school this is really disheartening this is really sad this is someone said it earlier this is not a matter of mistake this is a matter of Integrity this is a matter of being a human being having the heart and being able to take accountability if you lost the money or you messed it up that's your fault it's that simple you cannot say oh are bad now you have to pay it

back they didn't make the error they did not go to the offices they did not do the calculations it's a simple as how many of you worry about your next paycheck when you wake up in the morning how how do you expect them to do their job when in the back of their head they worry about how they're going to feed their families so this is a matter of human nature and just have a heart thanks Ashley Smith Spanish teacher at Northern High School mom of Melanie Vanessa and marce at hillindale and the wited school you know sometimes when you make a bad purchase or decision you have to do a return it's too bad we can't do a return on that convocation we had how much did that cost what do you mean you can't find the

money people are in trauma response mode and coming to work and serve these children every single day and what about you $236,000 compared to $17 an hour find the money my name is Luna Gomez and I'm a DPS student I came here to say that I'm supporting my teachers so they can be happy and do their best and then I realized this problem needs to be fixed we need our staff and this is not fair

thank you all that that will conclude our public comment the next item on our agenda is our consent items these are items that the board has reviewed prior to our meeting today board I'll open it up move approval of the consent agenda second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by I Believe Miss Rogers is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign those passed unanimously the next item on our agenda is the Board of Education items and we ask added a couple of items to get us

started all right we're going to get started on the items items that we added was uh the the first one is a budget amendment and staff we're going to ask you all to do a presentation um of this at this time I'll pass it over to Dr mbingo all right thank you Madame chair I'm gonna pass this to our senior executive director for finance Sierra and I have some hands out that I'm going to pass to you all yes she does good evening Madam chair drenga members of the board uh my name is Sierra o Jo and I am the newest member of Finance um it's an honor to be here today um um on Monday um chair Umstead asked us to identify some funds um that would

9 million of it is unassigned we have consistently grown our fund balance over the last five years and we often use that for one-time expenses um and we feel that this is an acceptable expense for that um tonight we'd like to present for your approval oh go back to that

one and the message box could we get that one reduced so after our um investigation analysis we've determined that we would we should do 4,500 39,4 18355 to cover some of the local expenses associated with the implementation of the classified salary study after that we will have a balance in the unassigned account of 6,41 14,19 45 we will continue to evaluate our expenses and identify um efficiencies mostly from lap salary to continue our ongoing trend of growing our fund balance all right now we can go to the next slide so I've presented the budget

amendment um it revises sections one and two um allocating funds throughout our 5,000 6,000 and 7,000 series to cover um the staff overages and excuse me we're keep order yes so um our budget resolution was just passed this past December so this is our first amendment to it I'd like to present that to you all for your review and approval thank you Sierra board members is there any discussion questions Miss Lewis thank you Sierra out of the mouth of babes this is not fair and I just want you to know that I hear you as we can't respond to public

5 one time above what our budget what we approved in our budget is that what I'm hearing this is more than what we budgeted for right some decisions need to be made and transparency needs to be had this salary study this salary study if you let me finish was meant to create equity and I'd see what I would say

is we still have an open excuse me we still have an open investigation so I'm holding back what I want to say but I hear you the baby said it it's not fair we're gonna make it right see the numbers and understand what this one time looks like and what we're going to have to do to move forward and we're here to make that happen I don't any questions I just can't hold back after all that I heard thank you Miss Lewis is there any other discussion from board members Miss Byer um Sierra this this one-time fund balance is to cover through the end of January that is correct I think it's it it is it is very important to me that as we listen with care as we

listen with the intent of the salary study which was to lift our classified staff to the highest paid in the state of North Carolina as we work to repair harm I want to be transparent this board is being transparent with you this is the dollar amount that we believe tonight will get us through the end of January we will it I believe we will have discussion in the future in this meeting but I want to be clear it is our understanding our finance department's understanding that this is the scope M and I wanted to be clear Miss cheram said did you want to reiterate about the statement you made earlier because I know some language was

was confusing and harmful in previous statements um and we wanted we want to make folks whole um and there was some confusion about checks as they were paid already things like that yeah I was thinking I would make those comments in our next item but the we reason we asked the uh Ministry ation to ID on Monday I made a statement and asked the administration to identify funds we heard our Educators loud and clearly that the money that was paid from uh July through December that was due to you felt is due and so we heard you loud and clear this appropriation would create an opportunity where that money the district is now allocated and it would not need to be paid back so that is what this allocation would do the allocation the allocation I want to be clear about what this allocations of funds would do we

have more discussion about this coming up we have another motion so I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves but this is what was asked of the administration or we have another item excuse me coming up this was asked of the administration to identify funds uh I think I said from July to January of 2024 was what the statement said on Monday so I want to thank you sier for bringing uh what I asked to make sure that we could identify the funds because we heard our folks very loud and clear is that clarifying from you miss p i wna um Miss valaris I heard yes I I hear that tell the truth um the truth is that there are all kinds of truths in this room and the truths that we heard in that Podium are all true and the truth that you the heart that you saw for my colleague jaavan standing up for Sierra s you don't deserve to be the scapegoat tonight and I think that that was

protection from a sister to a sister you're here to do your job and you're here to tell us you know how we're going to try to fix this problem but it was not a problem you created so we needed let's give some love to the sister she she has been working I don't know when did you start again well is the end of June say just right at July yeah I mean this is this is still like a process right this district has been operating on funds local federal state I mean grants and all that and we we have a lot of issues that are longstanding that are not new today they're not 2024 they're not 2023 they go back excuse me if we can have it have the voice lowered want to make sure we're honoring their it's it's okay I don't mind it I don't mind it I actually have been enjoying tonight you know what this means this means that we care about education we may not agree on how we're going to approach this but we care the fact that all of you are here and there are kids watching kids who stepped them to that Podium we won and you know what I was thinking cuz tonight I was like let me prepare CU it might be like the French Revolution Off With Their Heads right and so and maybe it is you know what the French Revolution did it

brought complete change over overhaul of the education system it brought it brought down a lot of olig oligarchy and some of the powerful like the powers were really like put on the on on that stage so so that's a thing that's a thing the French Revolution did one piece to Rally and stir up things and then then is the work of how how these things are solved which takes number one resources that we all have to fight for every single day accountability at the lowest level to the highest level in government right at this level local to the state level so we need accountability and we have heard you loud and clear that you don't trust us and I don't think you should this is the reason why we are a system that runs on a foundation that has been about extraction so how do you pretend to trust any system that operates on commodifying people how do you expect to trust the system don't ask to trust the system check us every single day check us when you come here and you know what keep lighting a fire under our butts

because that's what we're here for and let me tell you something some of us have really cried at night you won't see that I'm not trying to say that to lower your your flame some of us have stayed up some of us have had conversations and we're like wow like this is this is hurtful this is painful but I I will tell you this we are all here in this room and this has been a record of attendance to a Schoolboard meeting on a Thursday night it is a record and there have been children and everything so we have already started this work and what we're saying is let's continue to give room to sieras to the sieras who are coming in to help us who are learning about this and who are telling us about what it's going to take to make sure that nobody has to pay this money back tonight and then let us have time to continue the work that is going to be ongoing checks and balances transparency accountability audits you know Reflections from all of us and Leadership about what does it take to really move forward folks folks can I have can I

have us lower our voices we want to make sure that the people that are watching and streaming and the folks who are in this room are able to hear the conversation so I understand that you are passionate and I we we feel that passion but I do want to make sure that we can hear the folks that are speaking and honor what people have to say is there any additional uh discussion from board members Miss Rogers thank you Sierra for this presentation um I know it's not ideal for us to move this money from fund balance can you speak to how much a district of our size should have in our fund balance and occasions when districts should move from fund balance to do something else with I do I think ideally we try to have between eight and 10 million dollar in fund balance so that puts us a little bit over at this at this point um we will just continue to build it back up like we have a track record of building it up over the last four to five years we've increased the fund balance um the last time that we

8 million and how

much of that was for a classified salary study around four million thank you thank you no it's not for the study it was for implementation of the study it was 4 million to pay the salaries that's not an open discussion it was my question to clarify for the record what our budget request was because that's something that I heard during public comment thank you for your answers so board we have um thank you Sierra for this presentation we have been able to identify funds from the fund balance um if we would like we can move to approve this budget amendment and what that would do would move this money from the fund balance um into our accounts Madam chair if the Motions in order I move to approve budget amendment one for fiscal year 2023 2024 as presented second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Rogers is there

any other discussion from our board all those than favor please say I I uh any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously can you clarify so so we have an additional agenda item um that we added around classified staff compensation I want to make a c just a couple sentences before we get to this item and we'll speak a little bit afterwards it is clear um that we have a challenge when it comes to our pay schedules the intent of the study was to raise salaries for all of our employees there is an ongoing investigation to understand the there is an ongoing investigation to understand how we got to this place and for us discover what we need to do moving forward we are moving money from the fund we have asked the staff to identify money from the fund balance because our

budget for this year did not include the uh wages that were paid from July through Jan through December so that is why we asked for this budget amendment today again there is an ongoing investigation to understand how we got to this point we continue to want to have transparency and honesty with our community and we will provide you with updates um as soon as we are possible due to that ongoing investigation board is there um any other discussion or motion uh Chair Umstead you mentioned when um um we were looking at these numbers and and the fact that we don't have to ask the county for any funds um it is a celebration This Is Us taking ownership why should we put this on the county when we we need to pay this money right but the thing is that it's also money that that none of you have to pay back because it is not fair for you to do that so miss vodis I don't want to get ahead of ourselves we have an agenda item that we want to look

at I move that because the new Step information resulting from the hill study and correct corresponding salary was not clearly communicated to the board and to the affected employees in October that the board ratifies the salary payments made solely in accordance with the salary study implementation notifications sent in October 23 that are paid through January 31st 2024 and direct Central Services not to seek repayment of any port portion of those salary payments made solely in accordance with the salary study implementation notifications sent in October this motion is not intended to address any payments that are not related to the grade step placement of an employee on the revised salary schedule second that motion has been moved by Miss Rogers seconded by Miss buyer is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I

all those opposed please use the same sign so with that motion we are asking that the board would ratify the salary payments that were paid from July and we are including January 2024 what that means is the things what you were paid from that time will be that salary schedule for that time and we have now allocated budget to cover that cost that is not something that the district will ask you to pay back in in relation to the study salary study implementation I want to be clear about that in relation to the implementation that money will not be asked back from the district all right that money also says through January 31st I know many of you saw your pace du starting yesterday and what is in what is going into your bank account

does not equal what you might have thought was going into to your bank account if this money is appropriate but because we appropriated this money tonight you will be able to receive a second paycheck that money will match the salary schedule that you were paid from July through um December of this year so that will also mean that our employees will be sorry keep there you go that also means that our salaries will be paid in J or excuse me our employees will be paid the Sal salary in January that you also receive from when um from J July through December that money will not be asked to be paid back that money will not be asked to be paid back to the district and that money will mean that your January paycheck will match what you receive in two separate paychecks

so so that is what that motion approved by this board so so so there was a quest that we also announced that in Spanish we do know we have our interpreters who are in um the room who are translating live but if I can have one of our interpreters come out for me Miss Valladares unless did you want yeah I I can do

thank you so again just to reiterate that budget amendment today allocated funds so that no employee will have to excuse me employees who were uh received payments based on the stud let me make sure I get my language correct I'm sorry y'all I understand what our budget amendment did today moving that money from B fund balance does mean that people do not have to pay money back in relation to the grade step placement on the revised salary schedule that money will not be as back from the district we allocated funds to cover that through January 2024 want me to say it okay is there additional comment Miss Chavez yes so I wanted to um comment on

sort of what's Happening here so we have an immediate solution um to what has occurred and that is what we have already passed um about the reallocation of funds from fund balance and uh the commitment to not not ask people to pay money back um we are now turning to to an intermediate solution and ultimately we need a long-term solution uh we are I I will speak on behalf of myself I am concerned about the removal of the steps that's one of the major things that people have comment commented to us about both in uh tonight and over email many people have shared their stories with us and we we realize that there is a lot of valuable experience that people bring um especially in careers that aren't teaching um you know many many folks have worked other places and we are aware of that and so um I I do think

think I'm going to say to the board that we need to meet again and discuss what will happen next as an intermediate solution um and as people are asking about February we also are thinking about February and so we need to um I want to propose that we um that we talk about meeting next week and and looking at what we can do going forward the issue is that what was promised to people was not budgeted for and now we are finding ways to make adjustments to address that um Miss Lewis yeah your years of service is important and these steps have gotten so muddled um with this study your I'm sorry can you hear me your years of study are important and these steps have gotten muddled these are the things that we want to make right and we want to do it well at the same time we have to be fiscally responsible

and in that as the um the number has been said I've been talking with some of our County Commissioners and there are options that we can choose from cannot commit them to anything but we can have the discussion and that's what we want to take our time for and proposing to meet every week until we get some solutions around a board I will say it again a new board approved salary schedule that we take leadership with this salary schedule that needs to come forward and I think you have some information to share about um resources to look into for this to happen but we can keep the conversation going we have some preliminary numbers that is one time what does the next step look like we have to be physically responsible we have to have a solution and I will propose that we meet on a weekly basis thank you Miss leis um we do have this ongoing investigation

and the board is also committed while we're doing that to make sure that we bring in like my statement said on money Monday an outside Financial Consultant to ensure that we are looking at our books someone who's able to audit and be the eyes and ears for the board and our F finances um board members there any other discussion um do we need a motion to meet or you'll just notice the meeting we don't need a motion to meet weekly because that's my proposal that we meet weekly we don't I appreciate that and and I think that's a great idea I also trust that our community will join us in those conversations it is important that um we work with the impacted staff and the entire DPS Community as we look for long-term Solutions that are sustainable and that

are lifting up um your value within this difficult work and again um we thank you for joining us today and in the future we thank you for holding us accountable and being with us in this space I would like to move I do want to make a motion I would like to move that an accorded with the hill study Central Services is directed to ensure that one no affected employees 23 24 monthly salary is less than their 2022 23 monthly salary for that position and two for employees who have remained in their position that they have received at least a 4% monthly increase from 2022 23 beginning in February 2024 what was

that there is a motion on the floor Miss Lewis can you read that motion one more time number three number two was for us sub meet week can you read the motion I move that in accordance with the hill study Central Services is directed to ensure that one no affected employees 23 24 monthly salary is less than their 2223 monthly salary for that position and two for employees who have remained in their position that they receive at least a 4% monthly salary increase from 2223 beginning in February 24 second it's been moved by Miss Lewis it's been seconded by uh Miss berer is there any other discussion um Miss uh did we did we do the second motion at all okay the but the one that says I move the to we no ma'am no yes doesn't M okay so it's been moved by Miss Lewis

it's been seconded by Miss buer is there any other discussion so that salary so that motion means that we want to ensure that all no staff is paid less than 20 their 2023 2022 2023 salary all right and they have received at least 4% thank you m Le for the motion it's been seconded by Miss Beyer is there any other discussion all those in favor please say I I any opposed please use the same sign that passes unanimously we're gonna take a recess for this meeting right now give people an opportunity to take a uh get a water go to the restroom and then we'll return can can I just say one one thing um I just I I just keep my my phone available but no classified employee will ever be asked to cover the district's budgetary errors or shortfalls with their own duly earned wages actually that sounds a little more representative whatever shortfalls like somebody told me don't use payback

because payback is uh it implies something and and I just wanted to just say I hear what people are saying it's a little more it's complex but we're going to get to it and and we're going to continue giving updates uh let's take a 10-minute recess

let's do a one minute countdown if I can have my board members and Senior staff come on back a one minute countdown

we don't oh we're going to get started with our board meeting and resume our meeting from Recess we're going to resume the meeting from Recess the next item on our agenda is the national mentoring month Proclamation board members it is our practice to read often proclamations we want to start uh Miss Rogers are you ready we'll start with you and then come on down th Public Schools Board of Education Proclamation where as created in 20 thou in 2002 by the Harvard School of Public Health and Mentor the national mentoring partnership January is National mentoring month an annual campaign to focus attention on the need for Quality

consistent and competent mentors and whereas a mentor is a caring dependable and auth authentic person that provides support guidance advice assistance and devotes time to a young person to help youth discover personal strength to persevere and achieve their potential through a structured and trusting relationship on a regular basis and whereas quality mentoring encourages and empowers youth to make Positive Choices promote self-esteem and character development support academic achievement social emotional learning leadership and professional development college readiness and career exploration and excuse me I'm sorry and whereas the goals of national mentoring month are to raise awareness of mentoring recruit individuals to Mentor equip mentors with the skills needed to support youth support youth encourage organizations to

engage and integrate quality mentoring into their efforts with a focus on academic support life skill training and career Readiness Workforce preparation to motivate youth to Excel and whereas during the covid-19 pandemic mentoring programs have stepped up to fill gaps for Youth and families connecting them with resources and ensuring that mentoring relationships continual continue virtually to prevent social disconnection and mitigate learning loss and whereas research has demonstrated that mentoring programs have a significant positive impact on a variety of academic achievement measures including treny and absenteeism Scholastic EIC efficacy and engagement School related misconduct and peer support and whereas mentors serve a critical role in helping youth successfully complete high school and gain admission to college or training program earn a postsecondary credential or certification build new in demand skills prepare for the future of work and

succeed in an everchanging Workforce and whereas mentoring programs must incorporate work-based learning to prepare and connect youth with real life work experiences where they can apply academic Technical and soft skills and develop their employability while exploring career Pathways and whereas the Durham Public School strategic plan goal 4C is to ensure every school will have one or more high impact Community Partnerships to a support increasing positive student outcomes and whereas the Duram Public Schools Board of Education supports community-based mentoring programs as Key Community Partners to support our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate to serve and lead and whereas National mentoring month is the time of year to celebrate Elevate and encourage mentoring and recruit caring adult mentors in the city of Durham and Durham County therefore be it resolved that the dorham Public Schools board of education

do hereby proclaim the month of January 2024 as National mentoring month and call upon public officials Educators business and Community leaders and citizens to observe them M with appropriate ceremonies activities and programs to recognize the valuable contributions of staff and Volunteers in quality mentoring programs that Empower youth enabling them to discover inner strength and realize their full potential acknowledge the manifold benefits of mentoring including fostering healthy identity development promoting educational achievement reducing juvenile delinquency enhancing career Readiness improving life skills and outcomes and fortifying communities the Durham Public Schools sorry um Advocate advocate for advocate for the establishment expansion sustainability and funding of quality mentoring programs throughout Durham

aiming to provide youth with the necessary tools for leading healthy productive and meaningful lives support initiatives aimed at bridging academic achievement opportunity and mentoring gaps emphasizing critical mentoring to assist boys of color this involves pairing them with mentors who grasp and comprehend social political and economic racism and oppression and are committed to acting against these elements in society signed this 25th day of January 2024 thank you board for reading the proclamation for National mentoring month is there uh any discussion or motion move approval of the uh National mentoring month Proclamation second it's been moved by Miss uh Roger seconded by Miss vadz is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimous

the next item on our agenda is a resolution celebrating the and honoring the life of Dr Martin Luther King we know many of us honored his um MLK Day a few weeks ago uh much with days of service and other reflection on his legacy um I do would open a motion since um the MLK day has passed if we want to move to approve the resolution to move to the next item on our agenda move approval of the dur Public Schools Board of Education ReliOn resolution on Martin Luther King Day second it's been moved by Miss Roger seconded by Miss Chávez there any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is with our chief of staff purchasing and construction policy amendments Dr Giovani thank you good evening Madam chair Dr manga members of the board and the Durham Community uh the pack at the prees and the draft policies are on the

board Doc's website but I did want to give a brief review of that for those who may not be familiar with these policies and the recommendation that and to give some background for the recommendation that Administration is going to be making to the board prior to and honor about August 11th of 2022 the administration came to this board and requested that the and requested that the board board increase the amount of the purchasing threshold from 990,000 to 300,000 and what that means is that if there are contracts up to 300,000 that Administration would be able to enter into those convers contracts without approval of the board on our about August 25th when we brought those back for second reading if you will recall I then requested that the board reduce it from 300,000 because after some additional conversation with purchasing and finance and the operations team um we decided

that that jump from 90 to 300 was too significant and if you for those of you thank you and for those of you on the board do recall there was a lot of consternation from the board even approving that 300 and so in light of that and on some additional conversations with other um cabinet members it was determined that I needed to come back and requested the board reduced from 300,000 to 200,000 and the board did approve that on August 25th on second reading in addition we made two other amendments to those policies on second reading and one of those was that there would be an automatic review of these purchasing policies that had increased from 90 to at that time 200,000 and then we also indicated in there that anytime there was a superintendent or CFO any changes or anything that occurred with those two positions that we would bring it back again for the board to review on September 14 2023 we brought

back for the board on its annual review that 200,000 and the board we Administration recommended and the board requested that we reduce it to 150 from that standard from that 90 for services and materials and supplies and from 500 to 400 for the construction we are are and find ourselves in a situation and the board members have requested that Administration bring these policies back given certain circumstances that have occurred in our community to reduce those amounts of that purchasing threshold back to 990,000 and with that um as I indicated previously the policies are attached and we are requesting um that Administration is requesting that those amounts be reduced from the current amounts to 90,000 which is what they prior to August 11 2022 I'm happy to take any questions thank you Dr Giovani I think it was this was a policy that we also

intended to review every year and so it's also just timely with what is happening in our community that we review this threshold and really make sure that we're doing our um financial responsibility and fiduciary responsibility to our district board memb is there any questions or comments uh Miss barer I appr appreciate you all bringing this promptly and uh I think this is exactly the um direction we need to move um other steps clearly will be forthcoming um can we wave second reading I was looking to colleagues to make sure they are comfortable with that looking for nods because I'm ready to make a motion if anyone conversation it is in the preas Mrs by as well looking right at it yep okay so I would move that we um that we change change the policy 6420 6430 6450 9030 9110 and 9120 by reducing all thresholds to $90,000 and wave second

reading I second it's been moved by Miss Byer and seconded by missv dares is there any other discussion all those in favor please say I I any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously with that we move to the next item on our agenda which is a closed session question move that we go into Clos session for the reasons stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss By and seconded By Miss Carter atin I believe all those in favor please say I I I any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously the board is moving to close session

we're back in Open Session Dr MinGa Madame chair I'm here to seek for your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a close session move approval of the Personnel report dated January 25th 2024 second it's been moved by Miss Byer and seconded by Miss Chávez is there any other discussion all those in favor please say I I any opposed please use the same sign the next item on our agenda is a contract approval I move approval of the special education placement agreement second it's been moved by Miss Chavez and seconded by Miss buer is there any other discussion all those in favor please say I I any opposed please use the same sign and now we'll just make one point we talked about before we left the meeting scheduling another meeting and I want to know if we want to go ahead and put that on the calendar now um before we go back into close

session looking either Monday I was looking at Tuesday I think we won't have more information till I'm not sure when we'll have more information well let's let's do it when we come back from close session then I'm sorry I didn't realize that we weren't gonna be prepared to do that uh so I we'll go back into close or excuse me is there a motion on the floor uh motion to amend the agenda to add another closed session and to go into closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143 318 11 C1

A3 and A6 for personnel and attorney client purposes that it's been moved my Miss Carter Alon seconded by Miss Rogers is there any other discussion all in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign and it passes unanimously we now move back into Clos session

we're now back in Open Session a board we did want to schedule a meeting for next week if we can look at our cers looking at evenings we're looking at evenings I'm looking at y'all I'm looking at next Thursday the first what what is a great day the attorney said it's not a great day for him what's a good yes Mr milone I don't think the 31st will work for everyone can we do a daytime I cannot do the day on the 1 or

the 31st sorry but Friday the right what about the 30th during the day in the morning okay I'm not we can do eight o'clock I'm not sure how much time I can't do the I can't do okay all right okay okay we we'll keep looking I think Monday morning might be too soon after today so we're now at Friday what about Wednesday morning I cannot do Wednesday morning oh you say you can't do Wednesday or Thursday yeah

I'm sorry Friday morning so Friday morning Friday can o' did you have aend when can you do what about 8 o' okay so let's hold on Miss Rogers did you have a time okay I thought that she had a suggestion on our time so Friday we could meet with nine o'clock lunch on Friday lunch 12 can't do lunch no you're available until 2 o'clock can we do 2:30 give you a little transition time 2:30 on Friday I can do 2:30 on Friday can we do

on the later side like four can't do can you we do three three three three three o' is that work an hour you have a you have aop at yeah let's look for another time do three we don't have another time next three I just got okay we'll do 3 o' we'll do 3 o' Friday February

2nd so we will schedule a meeting for February 2nd at 3 o' and this meeting will be posted in also have an agenda we'll work with our board assistant to post those in a timely fashion yes our meet this meeting will be back in the um in Fuller building with no further business we are journ