Board of Education · Regular Meeting · January 28, 2025

good evening everyone evening the dur Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead the interpreters tonight for tonight are Martha Romo yiles and Vanessa Pina Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us have a room full tonight everybody uh and we appreciate you all being here the first item on our agenda is a moment of silence this past

week our community has spent time honoring The Life and Legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Dr Lan Alice a member of our community an educator and a leader of change I'd like us all to take this moment to remember them honor their legacies as we reflect on the words of Dr King Dr King shared a message at a Cleveland High School on April 26 1967 that resonate resonates at a time such as this and so there are things that all of us can do and I urge you to do it with Zeal and with Vigor and let me say to you my friends that in spite of the difficult days ahead the so-called white backlash which is nothing but a new name for an old phenomenon I'm still convinced that we're going to achieve Freedom right here in America and I believe this because however much America has strayed away from the Declaration of Independence and

the Constitution the goal of America is freedom abused and scorned as we may be our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America he goes on to remind the students of the of the words of Langston Hughes where he has a mother talking to a son that mother says well son I tell you Life For Me ain't been no Crystal stare it's had tacks in it and Boards torn up places with no carpet on the floor bare but all the time eyes have been climbing and reaching Landings and turning corners and sometimes going in the dark where they there ain't been no light so boy don't you stop now don't you sit down on the steps cuz you find it's kind of hard for I still going I still climbing and Life For Me ain't been no crystal stair well life for none of us has been a crystal stair but we must keep moving we must keep going and so if you can't fly run if you can't run

walk and if you can't walk crawl but by all means keep moving so let's think of Dr King and Dr Allison and their legacies In This Moment of Silence thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations Miss Cooper thank you and good evening chair Rogers board members superintendent Lewis DPS colleagues and Durham Community welcome to celebrations education is a journey that thrives on effort dedication and teamwork the celebration segment of this evening's meeting provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the

bright moments and positive impact being made across our district to tonight we celebrate the individuals who go above and beyond to make DPS not just a school district but a community due to a conflict this evening we will acknowledge our student of the month during our February meeting we are thrilled to announce our alumni of the month in partnership with the dur Public Schools Foundation followed by our teacher and employee of the month at this time please welcome Katie Spencer Wright director of communications from the DPS foundation for our alumni of the month presentation hi thank you very much um DPS Foundation is partnering with DPS to honor alumni whose lives were shaped by their time in Durham public schools and the Educators and staff that nurtured them I'm so proud to announce that Audrey Hawkins is

our DPS Alum of the month for January Audrey is the gr is a graduate of Southern High School where she participated in the city of medicine Academy played alto saxophone in the symphonic soul of the South marching band and was crowned homecoming queen in 2007 today Audrey serves as a senior operations specialist at Merc and leads the league of employees of African descent an employee business resource Group focused on increasing the pipeline of African descent leaders and driving Innovation through cultural insights Audrey reflects on her time in Durham Public Schools as instrumental in sparking her connection to the Durham Community as a student she embraced leadership and service opportunities including joining Theta Pi Delta sorority where she participated in an impactful in impactful community service projects uh one of Audrey's Fondest Memories is her time in the southern marching band especially when they collaborated with Hillside highs band to

org alumni to share your

DPS story or or nominate another outstanding Alum thank you so much thank you thank you okay um congratulations Audrey thank you for being an example for durm public schools in and around this community please stand and take a photo with superintendent Lewis and be acknowledged by our board members please welcome Michelle Hayes executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition for our next um acknowledgements Miss hay

good evening I'm chairman Rogers members of the board superintendent Lewis and cabinet members as always I always look forward to doing the celebrations every single month today is the day we celebrate our teacher of the month and employee of the month every month a teacher and an employee the non-teacher is nominated for teacher and employee of the month these individuals exemplify greatness tenacity perseverance and Leadership and and they are nominated based off of the theme of the month this is a great way to celebrate our employees they feel honored when they are recognized for their hard work this evening we're going to recognize our December employee of the month and our January teacher and employee of the month our teacher of the month is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis program the TS side chapter of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated and DCL Consulting LLC and our employee of the month is sponsored by the off office of human resources for our December Employee of the Month the theme was inclusivity this is the individual who

ensures everyone feels welcomed valued and respected no matter who they are or where they're from Imagine your school or department where everyone is invited and treated fairly regardless of their background race gender or beliefs our December employee of the month is norly Gina Community liaison from Lakewood Monas middle school if she can come on up principal Jones stated that norly Gina Community liaison simply our school is not as successful without the work of you her work with our Spanish speaking families has helped to break down communication barriers and increase student achievement the first thing one notices about Miss Gina is the general generosity of her spirit always interacting with students and families with kindness and compassion Miss Cina

is also incredibly competent and professional organized Forward Thinking and understands that our ultimate goal is to see students succeed at not only belonging but also in learning her work is setting up family nights working with families to navigate Power School following up with families when performance drops performance drops and celebrating students success is instrumental to the work we do with our e families and our school during the last three and a half years you have established her you have established yourself as one of the most beloved and impactful staff members due to your kindness and professionalism congratulations for being December employee of the month get a PL it's a plaque and a bag of goodies

along with a spark pan for our January teacher and employee of the month the theme is perseverance this is the individual with continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties failure or opposition this could be a physical or AC mic challenge our January teacher of the month is Megan Lewis fifth grade teacher at Lions Farm Elementary School if you can come

up Megan Lewis fifth grade teacher is Simply the Best her contributions to both our school and her classroom make her invaluable asset to our school's Community principal Hopkins said she is the chair of the most efficient School Improvement team team he's ever worked with her on her organization Forward Thinking mindset and inclusive approach have been critical over the past two years since our school opened you have led our school and Community to embody the essence of teamwork fostering an environment focused on continuous Improvement in your classroom you breathe life into your instruction she is meticulous about crafting individual academic exam AC ademic success plans for each student ensuring that every learner receives the personalized support they need to thrive your influence extends beyond the classroom as I have invited um her to join our instructional leadership team

so principal Hopkins is invited you to come on the leadership team her deep thinking about instruction coupled with her ability to refine and enhance delivery processes makes her an invaluable thought partner for our entire staff Miss Rogers and embodies the values restrive for as Educators collaboration Innovation and an unrelenting commitment to Student Success you are a natural leader trusted colleague and a champion for your students simply put Miss Rogers is the best congratulations for Miss Rogers for being named bur D public schools January teacher of the month and Coach Lawson um from North Carolina Central surprised as well so he wants to make some comments good evening everyone long time no see so yesterday um North Carolina Central University's uh our team captain and coaching staff had an opportunity to

come over to uh Lions Farm school and present um Miss Rogers with a surprise some more flowers and and balloons and would like to thank um principal Hopkins for recog izing uh Miss Rogers exceptional talent and on behalf of DCL consultant LLC we'd also like to give you a small token again just in recognition of Your Excellence congratulations you also receive a bag of goodies and a spark pan thank you so much he

and our January employee of the month is Rhonda sinkfield our beginning teacher Mentor if she can come up our new teachers really need our full release mentors so we truly appreciate you so Rhonda consistently goes beyond in her role as a mentor to beginning teachers in our district you demonstrate an unwavering dedication always striving to help others succeed even when faced with challenges or setbacks despite difficulties failures or any opposition you never give up your resilience and commitment to growth of our new Educators make you an invaluable asset to to the DPS Mentor team your guidance support and expertise have helped many teachers overcome obstacles and develop into confident capable Educators we are incredibly lucky to have someone like you on the team and your tireless efforts deserve to be recognized so

congratulations to Ronda sinkfield for being named during public schools January employ of the month just a black a plaque and a bag of goodies this why you take your picture yeah thank you this concludes our celebrations this evening thank you next item on our agenda is the

superintendent's update Dr Lewis just sport oh thank you that wasn't even on uh good evening board chair Rogers board members DPS Community uh I will tell you those celebrations are really good to see and and hear um there's been a lot going on uh just this past week and so I want to start my comments off um addressing our parents uh families and our our staff just in a matter of of weeks well no not not an s on week one week actually six working days um a lot has come down from um the federal government and we are constantly looking at how it impacts us as a school system and we know that the most recent changes to our federal um immigration law has caused angst and fear and I want everyone in this community to know that our aim is to bring assurances and

accurate information as we have conferred and continue to confer with our in-house Council and learn how these changes in this law will affect our district our students and our families and our staff we will also uh continue to review our protocols and safety measures with our leadership and staff as we take our time and perform due diligence and as always Duran Public Schools will continue to provide every student regardless of background regardless of immigration status with a quality education in an inclusive welcoming and supportive environment this is the right of each and every DPS scholar in our schools we also maintain and follow school safety protocols District policies as well as state and federal laws that protect the rights safety and dignity of each scholar y today we met with our principles and shared Guidance with them uh we sent out

some information to our families that also included uh some resources as well uh as we continue to learn more we will continue to pass along uh information uh but please know that we are um talking about this every day in ensuring that we have the appropriate Pro protocols in place at the school level and throughout this District to continue to protect all of our students and staff um we would also like to thank our Media Partners uh for sharing with their readers and their viewers our financial details that we offered last week about our current and upcoming budget uh my thanks to our CFO Jeremy Teeter for his Pro proactivity and uh not only him but his budget team as well we have been able to pinpoint critical moves that are needed in order to attain solvency and to develop a budget that will serve all of our students exceedingly well as boy chair Rogers mentioned earlier I too want to Echo those sentiments and also take a moment to

honor Hillside High School's graduate Dr Leonia Allison um such a mighty pillar of our community who served passionately as a social justice Warrior many of you know she transitioned on January the 7th um she was known as an Unapologetic advocate for African-American Scholars um and as the chairwoman of the Durham Committee of Affairs uh black people for 14 years entitled but what I hear is that she still pretty much ran the committee even after she was um chairman uh she showed up every month to give voice to the youth she believed um to whom we owed our best thinking and support and as a community we will miss her presence but certainly her Legacy lives on um among us and so I had an opportunity to to attend her funeral and some other tributes and although we didn't meet I was telling Mr tab I only wish I was able to have a conversation with her and I told some other folks that and they said you sure you wanted to have a conversation with her um but she was a

mighty Force I I understand and we will continue to keep her Legacy alive um next slide um this year has brought with it winter weather I was informed right before our most recent snow day that we hadn't had a snow day in over a thousand days um we seem like we made up for it right um so while it is exciting to see snow it is important to prioritize the safety of all of our students families and our staff uh the decision to delay whether we're delaying the start of the school or releasing early or uh close school it's not taken lightly these decisions are not made in isolation as there are many factors that in involve the influence uh and support of those decisions certainly like to thank all of our staff for working tirelessly last week to collaborate with our local emergency management Partners uh many of our staff were out on the roads uh seeing if the roads were safe for our buses keep in mind we have a lot of rural roads in this community uh and

so your street may be clear but um some of our Rural Road roads and um areas around our schools may not be uh so certainly appreciate everyone for their understanding uh in this um this this last week U but the ultimate goal was to ensure that our schools and our facilities were safe and ready to welcome uh our staff and students next Slide the educational Development Committee of the Duram alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority collected 281 coats and 190 hat scarf and glove sets to help support DPS students and staying warm during their commute to school the Colts will be delivered uh to DPS student services which will coordinate with our school counselors social workers and principles um from the 21 family responsibility Zone schools to arrange appointments for distribution of those coats um for students that may need them so again thank you so much to the um alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorora team next slide congratulations to Burton IB Elementary

for being named named a top Magnet School of Excellence by magnet schools of America get this only 24 schools in the nation are awarded this prestigious award and we were one of those [Music] schools in addition five DPS magnet schools earn top honors and our Schools of Excellence are Durham School of the Arts Durham School of Technology and George Watts monu and our schools of Distinction city of medicine Academy Lakewood Monas middle and so these Awards celebrate Innovative curricular uh academic Excellence diversity and strong Community Partnerships congratulations again to those Schools staff and Scholars alike next slide crayons the calculators has joined the DPS Foundation family as one of its signature programs uh this partnership solidifies a commitment to supporting teachers and students by providing essential school supplies uh our teachers will continue to enjoy One-Stop shopping for classroom supp supplies at

the Bacon Street Warehouse um every year teachers spend on average about $263 out of their own pockets for school supplies and so with that amount being much higher for those lower grade or an early childhood Educators crayer calculators addresses this by annually Distributing more than $100,000 worth of school supplies so congratulations to the Durham Public Schools um fin foundation and crayons to calculators and thank you all so much for the support that you provide in supporting our Educators and Scholars next slide our Scholars are shining examples of Excellence inside and outside of the classroom so congratulations are in order to Jordan high freshman Addie McDow who is the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for a women's tennis individual state champion congratulations Addie at is the first DPS women's tennis player to win an IND idual state championship so a way to go Abby uh the

last Addie I'm sorry the last time that DPS claimed individual State honors in tennis well before Addie was born 1993 so congratulations Addie again next slide congratulations also to Sarah walls a dedicated Humanities teacher at Lakewood monu middle school for her selection as the North Carolina Department of Natural and cultural resources or dncr learning happens here teacher ambassador Sarah is among uh inaugural cohort of 18 outstanding K12 Educators from across the state that will collaborate with dncr to promote experimental and place-based learning this program connects classrooms with North Carolina's Rich cultural historical and natural Treasures reflecting on this exciting opportunity sh Sarah shared North Carolina has incredible historic sites museums and parks that have been long benefited my teaching I'm thrilled to deepen my knowledge of our state through this program as a teacher Ambassador Sarah

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com all the proceeds support the Durham U promise scholarship fund again a special thanks to DPS foundation for their support of this event next slide families received an email from me last Tuesday evening regarding our District's financial status uh which is a priority in my postentry plan we'll share more this evening about the status and our upcoming budget process uh please know that we are keenly focused on our finances and leading with transparency throughout this process you'll hear more soon as we launch our dollars incision series and the comprehensive postentry plan will be released in the coming weeks uh we will hear more about our district finances again tonight but I want this community

to know that we take this very serious and we are moving in the right direction and certainly we are committed uh to responding to the feedback we heard and with that we are committed to accountability and transparency next slide last and certainly not least um January is Schoolboard appreciation month you can clap right there DPS is certainly grateful for the dedication leadership commitment to ensuring our students receive the best possible education I want to take a moment to recognize and honor the incredible leadership of our Duran Public Schools Board of Education you know serving on a school board is often a thankless job um but it is one that is seriously most critical to the success in terms of shaping our our Scholars future but not only our Scholars shaping the our schools and the community's

future as well um each of you bring uh unique perspective uh deep dedication and unwavering commitment uh to ensuring that every student in our district has the opportunity to succeed your leadership and your vision guide our work and your decisions reflect steadfast a steadfast focus on Equity Innovation and Excellence for all and so on behalf of all of our Scholars staff and amilies thank you all so much for your service uh your sacrifice your time uh sitting at the computer responding to emails or sending us questions and more questions and more questions uh and holding us accountable but most importantly thank you for your belief and support and of of public education to transform lives and so together we are building a bright future uh for durm and let us continue to work as a team United in our mission and that's all I have this concludes my remarks thank you you again thank you Dr

Lewis colleagues the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval I have shared with some uh the DPS Foundation has asked uh to reschedule their presentation uh so I would ask colleagues if we could honor that yes Madam chair I would um move that we adopt the agenda as amended remove item 2A the DPS Foundation presentation than thank you it's been moved by Miss buer second dat by Mr tab to uh approve the agenda as amended um is there any discussion okay colleagues uh I'm sorry everybody uh we have a colleague join us virtually miss Emily Chavez so we'll do a roll call vote tonight because of our rescheduled meeting and Miss Umstead had

a previous engagement and could not be here so there are six of us tonight um so miss Chavez how do you vote on the agenda this is Emily Chavez and I vote I Mr tab I miss Carter Aon hi Miss berer hi Miss heral goof hi and I vote I the amended agenda passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the board regular monthly meeting minutes from December 19th 2024 which board members have had an opportunity to review prior to now I move approval of the monthly meeting minutes from December 19 2024 second it's been moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Miss berer to approve the agenda I'm sorry the meeting minutes from December 19th 2024 is there any further discussion Miss Travis this is Emily Chavez and I vote I

Mr tab I miss Carda-Auten hi Miss Beyer hi Miss heral goof I and i v i the minutes from December 19th have been passed uh unanimously the next item on our agenda is general public comment we have quite a few folks uh signed up to speak tonight um so I'll do a quick review of the rules first please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments and in 1 minute when the yellow light comes on you will have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which

indicates your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider your comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first Speaker tonight is javana ay oana aoran I apologize I'm gonna uh mess up names tonight but thank you for being here hello everyone my name is jaana I am 17 years old and I am a proud student of DPS I'm here tonight not as a student

net right thank you thank

you Yia Gonzalez cares

for for thank you um good afternoon everybody my name is uh Jia Cardona I am here representing the PS parents I want to say that lately we having having this new Administration and what I'm asking is for you to help us for us to have um assure that our children are going to be in safety um we want your support helping us to not give our children away for people that is not registered in the school we do not have PE we do not want people that is uh that we haven't signed in the school to be take our taking our students so I'm

asking for us to have some sort of form in which we can authorize people that can take our children from school um I think um education is important because as we know the children are our future and I am exhorting you right now to assure the safety of our students of our parents and of everybody in the community because we want to keep our children safe thank you thank you Ivan alante Chad hefle Lindsay maram hi good evening my name is Ian from respa Rapid the dur um actually um Al almost nine years ago on February 11 2016 DPS passed a resolution to ask I to stop detaining students I would example it was Wen aosta right I was leading the the whole movement and Duran along with other community members so

um I've been receiving message from the community members and parents you don't see them here because they're afraid to come and show up publicly right so parents are asking to make DPS to make a a public statement on how you will protect the privacy and safety of students to prevent students from being detained in a school campus by Ice agents uh also they're asking on what type of resources during Public Schools will provide to students in case of an aniz rate and the last one uh they're asking um if theps board will uh they're requesting a meeting with you guys um justed to have to show the concerns and how we can work together as a community thank you thank you pad hle Lindsay maharan Heidi Perez hi my name is Chad Hayley and I'm here

as parent of students at Hope Valley and roders her uh last time at the last meeting I criticized your recent changes to Transportation policy I then heard at least four of you express misgivings and regret about implementing family responsibility zones but you all talked at each other with statements with no conversation and no debate when you heard that related attendance stats would be hard to gather you gave up on asking for them you let the zones go into effect without providing the time or resources for schools and families to adapt meanwhile you're moving to express bus service from Magnet Middle Schools their Lottery closes on Friday with no info about schedules or stop locations that family need to make decisions now hearing a majority say you're uncomfortable with some of these changes and proceeding without discussion is beyond frustrating but you can still provide more resources for family responsibility zones and you don't have to implement express service it remains a permanent solution to a temporary driver shortage it decreases equity and access to magnet schools throwing away the gains from growing together you shouldn't pursue Express stops just because other districts do them too thank you

hi good evening my name is Lindsay margam and I'm the parent of a Hope Valley Elementary student with within the family responsibility Zone we understand that hiring bus drivers has not been trivial and that this was an untenable situation for the school board implementation of responsibility zones Works only if appropriate infrastructure is in place at Hope Valley students of color and lower socioeconomic status are dis proportionately shouldering the burden of this decision there are four lanes of traffic on University and three lanes of traffic on Dixon at the time when kids are walking to school there are cars waiting to turn into the school parking lot for carpool cars entering and leaving primary colors daycare and morning commuters that are frequently driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid the the uh traffic a crossing guard isn't a nice to have it's a requirement parents have also had the rug pulled out from under them midy year and are grappling with how to get their kids into school much later than they're used to which impacts them getting to work on time we're asking that you hire a crossing guard permanently for that intersection install extra signage and

expand uh Care thank you thank you Heidi Perez Kim Gia Rachel neing good evening members of the board Dr Lewis parents community members and staff I'm Heidi Perez a DPS as parent employee and a durm resident I'd like to begin by inviting you to think back to your memories of your school library when you were a kid I bet some of you can remember the name of your school librarian Miss prer was my school librarian she had long leather wrapped black braids just like my mother she was a librarian she was not a technology Champion she was a reading champion she was not a reading interventionist she was a reader interventionist who was your reader Champion I bet you can remember their name when we fully fund DPS libraries

and protect the role of our DPS media coordinators as teacher Librarians we give our students the opportunity to have the same Library joy we all know the same reading support we benefited from thank you thank you good evening members of the school board superintendent Dr Lewis and uh DPS community members my name is Kim Gino this is Jenny Umbarger and we are co- Library uh media coordinators at Durham School of the Arts we are here this evening to share how media coordinators who receive full budgets as approved by the school board and who are able to maintain a flexible schedule can focus their time and energy to bring ing literacy and book Joy while positively impacting the academic success of all students in DPS at durm School of the Arts we are fully supportive financially with DPS allocated funds and with the time necessary to do our jobs so in

addition to managing a collection of almost 17,000 items and aligning our collection to the curriculum supporting diversity through our programming and books we are also able to run literacy programs such as collaborating with latinx kid Book Festival and um handing out over 900 books through programs uh through uh our Dia deis mtos um festival and our Yola boa float events in the winter this year we've also um sorry um in addition we also are able to collaborate with uh teachers and core content elective uh teachers with their curriculum it's only possible because of our full access to funds and time to do our jobs thank you thank you feel free to email us the thank you Rachel ning Paula janzi Godfrey Kathleen Grace Jenna wine JB Howen hi I'm Rachel ning and I'm seating

my time for Paula okay um my name is Paula januzi Godfrey I'm the media coordinator at Glenn Elementary School this is my 41st year as an educator with over 20 of those as a teacher instructional coach full release mentor and most recently media coordinator for DPS I love my job I love that I can be part of laying the foundation for children in elementary school to develop a love of reading and learning I love that I can mentor young teachers and hopefully help them find joy in their work which includes understanding the importance of reading to and with children I am fortunate enough to be in a school where I am respected as a full-time teacher librarian and my budget is fully protected by my principal I spend the majority of my contracted hours teaching however I am able to touch the lives of every child in our school every child in our school reaps the benefits of having a full-time highly qualified librarian and an incredible library in our school I'm here this evening to remind you

about the joy that school libraries provide for students staff and the entire Community during this difficult time in our history in our country if you could use some joy in your life any of you I encourage you to come and hang out with me in the library at Glenn you don't have to talk to me at all you can just sit and take it all in if you came this week you would join first graders choosing stuffed animals from the Glenn animal rescue project or you could sit with a fourth or fifth grade class as they work with a visiting local architect um to create structures with Legos which in turn become AI Renditions of their Creations you could join me with third grade um learning about black history landmarks and people in Durham come back with us in April to take a walking scavenger hunt tour of Durham to find those landmarks um come in with fifth grade and you're going to learn about blackowned dessert businesses in Durham and I could go on and on but I don't have to H time so um um media coordinators in DPS represent the best of DPS The Joy um will continue because

that's what Librarians do we teach we support we Advocate and we bring joy to our school Community I do have oldfashioned hard copies for you and I'll um email thank you you can leave them with our clerk Miss Smith thank you Kathleen Grace JB Howen Sonia Lopez good evening Madam chair Dr Lewis members of the school board and Community I have proudly taught in Durham public schools for many years teaching alongside Mr tab teaching Miss buyer's children and teaching Madame rogers's chair the media center is the heart of the school it's a safe space for all students media lead teachers lead teachers myself and coordinated and collaborated with Durham County Library to create the slam program years ago

which greatly expanded student and staff access to many valuable print and digital resources including books databases and digital materials this week at my school on ignite we will have dur County Library steam steam lab come to my school for hands on on coding circuitry cardboard construction we have many other opportunities in short it happens because the budget is supported keep the heart of the school speeding strong and I'll send you the thank you thank you we look forward to reading it Jenna wine JB Howen Sonia Lopez okay hi everyone I'm J wine I'm a mediating coordinator at Riverside High School and did you know over 30,000 young adult books are published a year and within those books our students have been eager to get their hands on these

one piece is a huge hit on Netflix and our kids are super obsessed with getting the newest volume manga is our biggest circulating um Series in just like section in the library we keep it well stocked Sunrise of the reaping is the newest Hunger Games novel who would have thought that Hunger Games was still strong that was from when I was in Middle School and so we just want to keep these books as well stocked as a diverse um collection that you cannot have without a fully functioning librarian and at the library and at the Riverside High School we have 1900 students and last year 11,000 student visits to the library every year checking out over 6,000 books attending over 455 events and classes our library is the true Hub of the school like they've all said and so please fund us please keep funding us that would be great thank you very much thank you JB Howen Sonia Lopez Jean kof 68 days it has been 68 days since Dr

Lewis said we will deliver when talking about Masters pay for school social workers and other support staff it has been 68 days since Dr Lewis said he only needed four more days to find a solution by continuing to deny School social workers masterpay and other support staff you are telling us and the public that you do not care about the school Social Work profession you are sending a clear message that you do not value our work nor do you care about the marginalized students and families that we work with and serve every single day my colleagues and I are angry but we still believe that you have the right the ability to write this wrong social workers are going to keep fighting for Master's pay until this is passed for this school year with retro pay that our employees deserve until you ensure that social workers are paided fairly I will continue to tell the public that the Board of Education and DPS leadership does not care about school social workers stop the disrespect of Social

Work profession and pay social workers the same as classroom-based teachers thank you Sonia Lopez John CI Angelo Ebron my name is Sonia Lopez this is my fifth year as a DPS school social worker last spring after a union-led campaign with thousands of supporters this board publicly committed to reinstating Master's pay for those impacted by the state's 2013 decision nearly a year later those you left out are still here asking for what was promised them Dr Lewis in November when the board was ready to correct this mistake you stopped the vote asking for four more days you promised to deliver Master's pay that didn't happen do you have any idea how demoralizing it was to hear you insist you didn't know where to find less than 200,000 only to see you post the next week a new assistant a superintendent position with a starting salary of 155,000 the money was there and you knew it miss buer you said giving us Master's pay would take from others seemingly

shaming us for asking what was promised to us at one of the following board meetings I watch catering carts roll into this building who did that take from DPS continues to pledge to spend more than the cost of fully reinstating Masters pay on other priorities hi my name is sh I'm GNA finish um my wife's uh um so in addition to the new leadership position last week it was revealed that over $500,000 is needed for art position supplements that weren't in the spring budget where Master's pay was promised let me be clear I'm not here to divide workers they deserve supplements just as all DPS workers do but the lack of transparency and the choice to break promises promises that affected our families and career decisions to fund other priorities sends a clear message you are choosing to devalue us to divide us and to not honor worker voices this is not Equity or fiscal responsibility this

isn't just mismanagement it is harm harm to our work workers our students and the communities you claim to Champion on a personal note my wife loves her students she loves her co-workers she loves this community but she has never felt so disrespected after 5 years she feels it is very clear that she no longer has a future in this District Dr Lewis respectfully it is time to pass a real meet and confer policy Angela Ebron sh Sharita Gillespie Christy Clen um I'm Angela ibran and I seed my time to Sharita gesi good evening members of the board my name is Sharita Gillespie and I'm a school social worker at Northern High School thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today I'm here to discuss

an issue that is of great concern not only to me but to many of my colleagues the master paid for school social workers and instructional support staff I came to DPS in 2022 with the Masters when I was fighting for my Master's pay I was working three jobs to provide for my family during the summer months I struggled because I simply couldn't afford to save through the school year the financial burden was a direct result of not receiving the Master's pay now that I'm fortunate enough to receive the compensation I've been able to reduce my workload to two jobs but I'm here today to fight with my colleagues who are still waiting for the same recognition and support it feels like a slap in the face to see the creation of another executive position where the salary for that one role is equivalent to what could be provided for Master's pay for 30 of my deserving colleagues these dedicated professionals have worked incredibly hard to earn their degrees and licenses yet they are still not being compensated for their commitment to our students and their professional growth many of my colleagues like me work multiple jobs to make ends meet the addition of Master's pay would provide real relief and make a difference in

their lives and the lives of their families our work is not just important it's essential we support the emotional social and mental well-being of thousands of families across this District but where is the support for us it saddens me that the district I am proud to work for seems more willing to invest in the creation of new executive position than in retaining and valuing nearly 30 of their dedicated employees if you truly care about the well-being of our students and families we must first take care of the people who are in the front lines those who support them every single day I ask you to consider this message we are sending to those who dedicate their lives to our um our children in the district we need to show that we value our staff that we honor their hard work and that we are willing to invest in their future thank you for your time and your consideration thank you Chrissy clim Sydney schnick I am Christy Clen physical therapist classified employee member of Dae um I'm going to see what I have left

8 million spent I know in the presentation it said it was all spent correctly I was told by board member and folks in finance and individual conversations that that money was used to um pay for the 11% raise we got last year because that 11% was too much was that the mandated 3% raise so many classified folks I talked to got nothing more than the 3% and the newest salary schedules that we look at um are compressed more than they ever were before any of this stuff started last year and um Dr Lewis you have said you want every employee to get a raise every year they're here like I mentioned last board meeting I'm frozen for 12 more years until I hit step 30 um is there any way Legacy pay will go away now that I'm being paid more since I was paid more last year than the new scales it says the new scale number plus Legacy not do you want to take it away is there any way it could go away

hey y'all I'm Sydney schik School social worker at Parkwood Elementary I'm here tonight again because to stay home would be to let yall win um colleagues of ours have second jobs and children that keep them from being here tonight so I'm here for them you can keep telling us that you don't have the money to fund our master's pay as news emerged about how wide the Gap is in the DPS budget we understand the feeling of scarcity what we don't understand is how y'all can tell us our pay is not possible this year while simultaneous ly listing an opening for an assistant superintendent position salaried at roughly the amount it would cost to pay us excluded Master's level social workers we do not understand how we are the positions that are simply not fundable we're not asking to take away from anyone every DPS employee deserves Fair pay for their work what we cannot and will not accept is that people in power you continue to disrespect and take advantage of the social work profession and most importantly the students and families we serve yall remember that before we made lunch universally free 46 6% of our student body met eligibility for free

and reduce lunch that about 4% of our students last year were unhoused and that number is rising you may take us for granted but you'll miss us when we're gone and I'm curious who you think will fill our place thank you Charles the pel Alexandre radaris Rebecca McDonald Amanda Baker Victoria Peterson my name is Charles I'm going to suceed my time toand please good evening board members um I'm here today as a concerned member of this community my community DPS is my Al moer nccu um but I just wanted to talk about the uncertain times we're living in families are really scared we know this um we also know um I'm going to shout out one of our teachers who said arle said man is a political animal man is a

political animal and so I'm looking to you you the bad is in your hand man is a political animal so we have to use politics we have to use I I know how each of you works I know we you know the strong this the strength that you all have you I've heard you all speak we have to use the loopholes we have to use whatever we need to use to protect our kids right there it says the mission Durham Public Schools Embraces educates and empowers every student to innovate serve and lead and we will not be able to do that if we are not very intentional about how we are protecting our kids I was an undocumented student everybody knows this I've shared this PO publicly I was deprived of field trips I was deprived of a lot of things my family was scared by the grace of God I'm no longer an undocumented student I stand here as somebody who was the first Latina on the board for a reason because you have to see the families you you you have to look at me as a child I got to participate in an IB program as an

undocumented student I need due process we worked 2018 some of you remember we're flooding the entire third floor we want a due process which means simply a warrant a warrant before anybody gets to our kids before anybody starts asking about Juan pedito isabelita no they are our kids a warrant due process that policy some of you work on many of us were on the other side advocating for that it needs to be in the language in a statement thank you all so much I think I'm next for the next one thank you uh Rebecca McDonald Amanda Baker Victoria Peterson hi my name is Rebecca McDonald and I'm seating my time to Amanda Baker hi I'm Amanda Baker I'm a parent of two Creekside elementary students a DPS graduate myself and um I've cut this down a little bit due to time so it's

not as eloquent as it first was but I first want to ask the board to address the C metric which we use for Title One funding I urge you to consider expanding how we Define eligibility for Title One funding by using a combination of federal and local data rather than relying solely on the federal data alone the current metric excludes a significant portion of students especially our undocumented children who may not be counted in the federal data but still come from families who are struggling financially by using local data in addition to Federal metrics we could ensure that more students receive the support and resources they need and that no child is overlooked because of gaps in federal reporting second I want to acknowledge that DPS does have some flexibility in how we allocate local resources as you know we are fortunate to live in a community that recognizes the value of investing in our children however I believe that we need to be more intentional with how we use local funds particularly when it comes to Staffing our schools with the essential roles that make a direct difference and students lives we know in many cases DPS does not meet industry standards for the number of counselors social workers and

other non-classroom professionals and interventionists that we need to support our children as the district continues to grow the needs for these positions becomes more urgent it is not enough just to focus on the classroom teachers who might I add are doing the very best they can trying to wear multiple hats we must recognize the importance of a comprehensive comprehensive approach to education that includes emotional and social support for our children my hope is even with the current budget shortfalls that cuts not be made from the schools I want to make it clear this is not just a nice to have or an extra it's an essential part of providing our children with a high quality of Education in closing I would like to thank you for your continued work and commitment to Duram Public Schools I want to emphasize that craigside will continue this conversation at each meeting in the coming months we appreciate your support thank you Miss Victoria

Peterson I would like to say good evening to chair to chairwoman Rogers and to Dr Lewis and to all of the board members I'm here because I have really um I have two concerns I heard on the news the other day and I do not want to say anything wrong here because I know this is going on in the public Airways that about $34 million is missing from the school budget that you have a shortfall I'm asking that the school quickly hire and do an audit on your finances and on your monies cheer chairwoman Rogers that's very disturbing if that is true that monies you can't find that is not good the other reason why I'm here some of

you may know I'm a new mom my husband and I we have a new addition to our family I'm very concerned about your preschool your toddler school program program I would like to get more information about that program it should not take months for a three-year-old to be assigned to come into your school system and I've been working and working trying to get our son because he has some issues into your toddler's program but please please see what has happened to these monies thank you okay and thank you thank you so much someone from Administration will collect your contact information to um to connect about the pre situation okay yes man and thank you good evening everyone good evening

to the superintendent Dr Lewis and to our schoolb officials I am Dr Monique Hosley former city council member but I'm here tonight as your new elected uh chair for the education and youth committee for the durm committee Affairs of black people and I wanted to let you know and my vice chair is um Frederick Davis who is a former colleague and my student here is one of our first interns my you I teach in the Masters program at Central so this is Miss Anderson but I wanted to say tonight that I'm excited to be in this position and I really want us to work in collaboration with the committee and I emphasize in collaboration I want us to move forward the agenda of making sure that all children all youth in Durham are getting a positive successful education I'm a passionate social worker I'm a passionate educator and again I want to say in collaboration you've got somebody that's willing to work in collaboration with all of you thank you so much thank you thank you that concludes general public

comment colleagues the next item on our agenda is academic Services strategic plan priority 3 update good afternoon board members I should say good evening uh we are excited tonight to present finally uh to the board after all the delays strategic uh plan priority number three um tonight our new um uh director of uh Human Resources uh actually chief of Human Resources uh assistant super attendant I went through all of them I want to make sure to get them get it right uh we'll be leading their presentation it's my pleasure to uh invite her to the podium uh Miss Kim

Hagar good evening board members Dr Lewis like Dr King said finally finally we're here all right I am joined this evening by my colleague Michelle Hayes and we are presenting the Strategic plan priority 3 update so tonight um we will provide an update on the Strategic plan priority three to recruit support and retain exemplary staff next slide we can go on to the next slide our fiveyear strategic plan represents a blueprint for planning managing and leading Our Journey to Excellence the goals and the plan are shaped by our core beliefs exemplify our priorities and commit to positive outcomes for each and every student each goal encompasses strategies that drive the daily efforts of our district this

strategic plan serves as a blueprint for Duram Public Schools this strategic plan will Direct resources provide Clarity and align for Community to the task of empowering our students to take charge of their future next slide next we will discuss each of our goals and provide a snapshot of what's in place what's in progress and our next steps with my colleague Michelle Hayes who will present goals 3A and 3B good evening again I would just like to I'm going to highlight two areas from each part of the in place in progress and next steps from Priority um go 3A for the recruit support retain exemplary staff and I would like to acknowledge my

team and thank those um members who are not here this evening Robin Brooks Dr Kimberly frell darnice Massie Dr anetta Kel Joe Harris and Laura Laura sodia okay by 2028 DPS will reduce the turnover rate of all DPS employees by 5% with the focus on teachers instructional assistants and drivers and bus drivers while we don't have the turnover rate for the 2425 year the turnover rate from the 23 23 school year was at 21% looking at our slide I would like to highlight a few areas under each section next Slide the in place next slide next slide okay yes last year we awarded two students with our Bull City teaching scholarship Hillside High School student and a Durham technology Durham School of Technology student so we're going to highlight two areas from

7 GPA will attend Durham Technical Community College to North Carolina Central for four years or nccu for a total four years and they must teach in DPS for four years once they graduate another area that we will highlight that's in place is our teacher assistant to teacher program at North Carolina Central University better known as TP currently I'm an elementary school teacher social studies teacher and PE teacher have completed the programs on our teacher DPS we have three teachers graduating December of 2024 one is at Eastway one is at githens as a EC teacher and we had another teacher who's waiting to start teaching in the fall under the EC adapted um curriculum we have three graduated in May of 2025 all of Elementary we have three graduating in December of 2025 and the remaining will graduate at a later date the sixth

cohort will start January of 2025 we've accepted the two students one is the EC one will go into the EC graduate program and the other one will follow the elementary route so we'll have a total of 16 in the program once the three once the three have graduated um in December we would like to thank our County Commissioners and our board of education for being able to increase our compensation by 16 million from the 23 to 24 25 school year from various raises increases bonuses and raises so for in progress we're going to highlight two areas licensure ensuring every teacher are certified averaging millions of dollars annually with a maximum of $7 million we have reduced our Auto exceptions to $41,000 currently and are working to reduce that amount as well a great news teachers are were moved to subay who did not have credentials went from 358 teachers to under 20 teachers once they

satisfy their licensing credentials their teacher pay was reinstated um more students are passing the practice meaning more teachers are passing the practice once they finish college creating a dual increase in accountability so when I spoke to the representative from North Carolina Central she has more students passing the practices which of course creates that um lure pathway HR engagement and wraparound meetings cni takes the lead and HR collaborates with all departments to address the needs of our schools okay and next steps for the two highlighted areas working in partnership with transportation and office of public affairs we're implementing more strategies to recruit and retain drivers in regarding the recruitment reconnecting with NC Works popup events we're working on park the bus mobile application center um we have a free subscription of course with indeed Opa will use Facebook as targeting certain audiences um we've had radio triangle

traffic n network and L regular information sessions from Transportation connecting with college students so we're Rec making that reconnection with no Central University and Durham Technical Community College and connecting with graduating high school seniors so at the end of the school year working with a high school senior who's interested in U becoming a bus driver T we have a targeted career fair on February 12th at the mini fort Brown staff development center from 5: until 6:30 and we have shared that information via streaming ads on Facebook DPS website El Central NC Works DPS Housing Authority durm Technical Community College North Carolina Central University and we will also do email blast on appli track for those who have um applied for those particular position HR will continue to collaborate with transportation and opa to strive to have Innovative strategies to recruit and retain with retention with um retain excuse me working conditions and respect

incentive professional development restorative practices um employee voices and listening sessions facilities upgrades employee recognition driver appreciation and disciplinary process disciplinary process support all right so the next priority priority three um goal 3B recruit support and retain exemplary staff and once again I would like to acknowledge team members who are not here m Matthew Palmer Victor hernado Paul maumi Chávez I never can pronounce her name correctly Chávez bang Bush gang thank you um Corey Bamberg Clifton Williams and Terry Phillips okay by 2028 DPS will increase the field rate of DPS positions by at least 5% with the focus on hard to staff instructional and classified position 2324 we will add

94% so if we look at the in place um the highlighted areas manager and training program of school nutrition 2223 seven School nutrition assistants completed the training classes and service rotations and six were promoted to managers 23 24 seven School nutritions assistants were promoted to cafeteria managers for the 2425 school year after completing the manager and training program and with Transportation recruitment referral attendance bonus um we do have the attendance bonus for perfect attendance in progress DPS Transportation providing behind the- wheel training for commercial drivers license mou with the nor C Department Of Vehicles we have two Transportation Specialists for recruitment training and compliance RTC and RTC working with

North Carolina DMV trainers to develop curriculum and on-site training which can increase excuse me the number of candidates who will be credential in a given month and then we have our educator preparation program Fair which is our options for alternative pathway which is what we known as Eep educated Preparatory program I would like to thank the board of education for approving the partnership with ccti which is one of our partners for EP Central Carolina teaching initiatives and the last part of the next steps the comprehensive plan why employees choose to leave or stay uh we're reviewing our existing partnership with Handover research to maximize opportunities to get employee feedback through more consistent mechanisms such as exit and state interview so we're working with Handover research to create um a more consistent with the exit and state interviews and we will continue with the manager and training program through school nutrition and they're working on a new cohort for the 2526 school year um

thank you for your time and I would like to turn it back over to miss Hager next slide please this year has been a year like no other but we are pleased to celebrate some gains with recruiting supporting and retaining our exemplary staff by 2028 the percentage of DPS Educators and staff who identifies Hispanic or black will in will increase by at least 5% so gold team members here Dr Kimberly frell gandra Robinson Victor Heraldo Joz roboo Dr Jose Cardoza Princessa Santiago and paavo Freeman and we will be making some um adjustments with that with me coming into this new role and looking at who our primary goal leads are going to be so with that while this year has been a year like no other no other we did meet our overall goal in 2023 24 we did see

3% our work is moving Us in the right direction so stay tuned we're on our way next what strategies are we using to ensure that we're on track so that our students have folks that look like us in the classroom next slide some of the strategies for the goal that are currently in place include our latinx professional Learning Network which has been in place over the past several years in progress is a part partnership Miss Harrell Goff has just talked about with North Carolina Central and

Branch Ed to increase the number of teachers of color through Innovative strategies we also have our Affinity groups to provide support for our teachers and staff of color and for next steps several areas that we're looking to explore include sustainable grow our own programs such as a CTE pathway for our DPS students and reinstating our recruitment popups at locations across the city one additional item to add is that we have in progress is our continuous collaboration with partnership with nccu's Marathon teaching initiative next Slide by 2028 at least 90% of DPS Educators and staff will agree that their school or department is a good place to work and learn based on ncdpi teacher working conditions survey and annual employment Employee

6% of Staff completing the employee engagement survey and we're on track to meet our goals again this year our next steps next slide next steps include additional collaboration with HR and the office of professional learning based on information received from employees to

create training sessions based on the feedback from the employees and with that are there any questions thank you Miss Harrell Goff Miss Hayes welcome to the boardroom it gets easier no worries it's hot it is hot colleagues questions comments Mr tab thank you thank you for the report uh go back to go 3A and we talk about um by 2028 by F reducing the turnover rate uh with our crisis with the bus drivers did that has that changed our ideal of 2028 because we're in a crisis or we

stay with because this is a strategic plan we kind of stay right there with that that's an do you want me to answer you can answer that's an excellent question Mr T um I would I would like Miss Harrell Goff and Dr Le to have an opportunity to discuss that and should he have recommendations to modify the Strategic plan he will bring that to to us great answer I was going to say that we just talked about it earlier this week and just thinking about some modification so okay that's it thank you thank you Miss Herold gof this is just a um a general statement I think we've spoken um I just want to say um I want to edify the district for our strategic plan and for whatever amendments or things that will come in

the future I think that our strategic plan is a very unique one um compared to a lot of things that a lot of other other districts are doing um and I'm proud of the work that goes on all the the nooks and crannies and all these things that are happening um my one um critique that I have today is an overall one not just for this it's just that a lot of this data the way that it's presented is hard to understand to tell the story and so I want to challenge us to figure out how we can um articulate the data and the growth and the movement um for the public in a way that is more whether with charts or um to make it come to life more so that we really see work that's being done underneath um I would just like to challenge us to all think about how that could look I don't feel that um a lot of

what's really happening and a lot of all of the good things that we're doing um translates um translates I'll just leave it there it's hard to really grasp what all is really taking place and I think that a lot of our community members um would really appreciate um being able to um digest it in a in a different way so maybe the way that we report out looks more like just really showing the the movement of the metrics or I don't know I'm going to leave that there I don't know I just wanted to offer that um as the one thing like when when we have time to really get down into the the meat of it I know there's a lot of good work and and we know that it's moving um it's just really hard to articulate it there's a lot that go yes yes and

it's and it's and the picture it's excellent and I know you know as one of my concerns is is that you know how we how we share that story um and make that make it you know how we tell that story through through our data I'll just leave I'll leave that there I don't want to continue to to be laborate Dr Lewis thank you so much board member herar for for lifting that um I will tell you had those conversations at a a recent cabinet meeting and when we began to look at strategic priority 2 draft presentation well when you see it you'll see numbers and because you me um Miss Harrell Goff mentioned some numbers in terms of percentages and go that we've met you'll see that in the first couple of slides in strategic priority 2 update so we'll you're right we definitely want to share our story in terms of the gains that we've made um and also the challenges as it relates to us um particularly not meeting a goal so we can address those challenges had on um but yeah we will

share those numbers in in in in a more um cohesive way that really honors the work of what's behind the numbers right and so it's good for the numbers to to move but we want to make sure that we're sharing that and I see my five minutes it's working and also sharing um the work behind those numbers and so we've already made those adjustments to the next strategic um Plan update thank you Miss berer um Miss ha just wanted to um thank you for your leadership and um please extend gratitude to your entire team I know that this board would agree that this is one of the most critical areas of um our strategic plan because retention of staff deeply impacts and improves outcomes for students and experienced staff um impact the district as a whole I just continue to encourage you

all and and you Dr Lewis as you're thinking about how to continue to help us rebuild trust with um errors that you all didn't make and that you're here to clean up that maybe as we have these dollars and decisions kind of workshops that we maybe Target one at staff because clearly we need to show folks that we are investing in them and um you know there's there's some comments of pain that keep coming to our Podium we feel them we feel them for our employees um and we also live in in difficult times where um we're dependent on what the state does fund for folks and um I just want us to kind of think of ways that we can invite I know you're all are already doing it invite the The Voice of critical uh employees in to to help us uh shape this work um we talked about that in a meeting today that we had um I know you're thinking creatively

about all of these things but this trust was um broken pretty profoundly um and I'm glad that our people that are critical of us are sticking with us while we work through this um and we we've got to we've got to rebuild that while we're physically sound going forward and in ways that we craft a budget that we can maintain um so I I don't know what that is and and I would say that a big part of it still is that we have a chunk of employees on two different ways of paying them and so helping us figure that out in a way that is clearly communicated to folks I think will be critical um but thank you all for for leading this work thank you Miss buer thank you thank you oh I'm sorry um the next item on our agenda is Operation Services transportation

services update Recruitment and Retention I appreciate y'all keeping the previous conversation brief and in our time limits let's see where we land here in this 30 minute bucket yes ma'am we will do our best I believe the light's going to come on at the fem minute warning good evening Madam chair board members Dr Lewis pleased to be standing here with uh sister superintendent Human Resources Kim Hager we will be presenting this information together uh we will first yield to our superintendent who has got the first few slides to talk about as we talk about retaining recruiting and sustaining our drivers thank you so much Dr web good evening again board members and members of of the public I want to begin this presentation uh as we look at retention and retaining and I was talking to some

folks in the community that um just yesterday as a matter of fact at a Rotary meeting that pushed me a little further in terms of I always say retention is the new recruitment um and he shared with me during his time in the HR department yes r but also what are we doing to sustain our employees as well so that they can once we retain them that they end up staying with us through hopefully through um retirement so I wanted to begin this talking next slide to talk about it from a national standpoint uh I know you've heard in previous um presentations that you know Durham is not the only one that's that's dealing with this but as we begin to look at some of the data from the national standpoint and some of the additional research it helps us kind of craft our uh responses to retention and recruitment next slide so the ongoing National School um school bus driver shortage definitely remains a high priority in a survey that was given a couple of years ago 88% of the survey respondents reported that the driver shortage has constrained their school transportation operations and this was a

survey that was given to Transportation directors across the country and that 88% is up 10 percentage points from the previous year they gave that survey at 78% and so as you can see it's it's definitely a national issue in terms of um just not only the shortage but the strain that it's putting on um school systems across the country next slide and so as we think about this without enough bus drivers School District SCH school districts across the country have been forced um to try many different remedies or tactics uh including staggering school schedules uh expanding walk boundaries having other School Employees Drive buses um and other measures districts have also been forced to reduce Services um in an attempt to counteract The Strain on their transportation and I I highlighted this quote that states that the bus driver shortage is a problem across the country that will force districts to increase walking distance due group stops so that

they can cut times um to do doable routes loaded buses to capacity and more and so that's something as you notice we haven't necessarily looked at loading buses to capacity because some of our buses are already full uh and so we want to make sure we approach this from the standpoint of of student safety as well and so that's the problem so we don't want to spend our time admiring the problem but also um have an opportunity to look at some of the research from these National surveys from these National studies um with school districts grappling with bus driver shortage so the National Association Next Slide the National Association of Pupil Transportation looked at bus driver shortages um that are a widespread National problem and a recent study that was done in partnership with them the University of Alburn um looked at drivers motivations to retention and so they looked at strategies that reveal that most drivers are more likely to stay in their positions for the long term uh when they feel like that they are true part of the Education team and

I've shared in this space before um even before digging deep into this research when having conversations with our transportation staff they said some of these same things and so some of the research-based strategies from the naal standpoint to um overcome Workforce challenges are listed there on the screen including um holding stay interviews which is what they just talked about in um strategic priority three um tighten efficiency in routes retaining drivers through appreciation again we've had our um DPS Foundation step up in her major way just yesterday when I shared I'm in every space I'm in I'm sharing this information and and and asking our community to assist us and just just honoring um our bus drivers and so uh the Rotary club that I was able to speak to yesterday after the meeting um came up to me and said hey we want to do this uh for you uh talk to our councel PTA I had a meeting with them yesterday they are looking to do some things to assist us with just just that appreciation piece uh competitive compensation uh and benefits is an area

that uh has been shown to retain bus drivers improving working conditions which we've talked at this table about um training and development opportunities during my conversation with elent Ro um they U do um beginning Spanish um entry level courses of of teaching Spanish and during my conversation with some of the bus drivers as I was riding the bus I asked the bus driver said how much is language a barrier uh to the work that you do and what she shared with me oh it it's it's just a huge barrier and can be a huge barrier when there's a safety issue and I have to direct students you know and so partnering with El Central I do believe that's an opportunity for us to uh provide our bus driver with um um maybe some Spanish entry level Spanish classes and then maybe seeing how we can compensate them um for that as well training and development opportunities and then recognition and um U rewards to service and so I wanted to at a high level just paint that picture from a national standpoint what some of the National Data is saying but not only

that what is some of the research um is showing us as we begin to look at ways that we can recruit and retain bus drivers next slide thank you Dr Lewis uh board members want to State clearly and for the record that Miss Harrell Goff and I are committed fully committed and we're locked arms and with our departments to uh to pursue recruitment retention retention recruitment support of our our bus driver family I start with good excuse me I start with good news uh the transportation next slide please this slide is incorrect inside this slide says the transportation has added nine current employees from our schools update we've added 13 drivers who have stepped up and said we can help we'll join we have new employees as well so we have several drivers from SE we got gain drivers from Route updates and from the

new resp family responsibility zones and from our own transportation team our mechanics our office staff have all stepped up and said we want to help recruitment training and onboarding efforts are continuing and will be an ongoing process simply put next slide please DPS needs bus drivers everybody knows it DPS needs bus drivers that's our major what we're having to say tonight recruitment strategies recruitment strategies recruitment strategies we are laser focused on the recruitment of bus drivers using strategies both tried and true and Innovative so thinking about things that we can do that are out of the box um we have to ensure competitive pay rates while working in collaboration with Mr Teeter to make sure we can Implement initiatives around um ensuring those competitive pay rates a career fair Miss Harrell Goff has already um mentioned

earlier in the earlier presentation has been reschedule for February the 12th and our teams are already working together in preparation for that popup events outdoor yard signs tried and true things that we know that works but also thinking about things outside of the box and then the last piece that I wanted the last bullet Focus monitoring of the effectiveness of these recruitment efforts right can't you know we went to an event today how many folks were there was it worth our time was it worth our resources those kinds of things so having those ongoing convers ations and making sure we're providing that feedback next slide again designated Transportation staff will continue Mr Barnes is here with us tonight recruitment training onboarding and assistance with licensing new employees so Transportation team again in collaboration with HR have both

designated and dedicated staff with all aspects of our recruitment efforts next slide but it doesn't stop with us it also in it's going to take a community it's going to take a community engagement and while this is just beginning there are several Community initiatives a fo a more comprehensive list of possibilities will be provided soon and while not specific to recruiting these initiatives are an example of things that can Aid in the overall safety and efficiency of getting students to school we had a meeting with the uh town of Durham the county of Durham about C well city of Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee uh bike Durham there's an event planned in May of walking rolling getting to school and then even ad hoc groups and this is in its infancy but we've had an ad hoc group uh by a community organizer who wants to call groups together to help

support the school system in getting our children to school it's going to take all of us and that initiative has begun one more next slide please working conditions must improve while there are many things that we are working on the working conditions simply have to improve our goal is by 2028 that 90% of our employees will say DPS is a good place to work and that includes our bus drivers we're having ongoing conversations we were in a meeting with the bus driver earlier today for feedback um simply stated again driver conditions need to improve and we are focused on those next slide please some of the initiatives that we're looking at driver recognition both formal and informal break spaces Dr Webb's going to talk about that in just a moment establishing School level support and a

transportation advisory Council we want to hear from our drivers we heard from folks loud and clear not just folks around this table making decisions of folks that are in the trenches and on the ground and in the buses helping our students each and every day get to and from school next slide we've discussed the possibility of break spaces the brake space is a designated location for our drivers to use between routes these spaces should be made functional and areas to relax connect and maybe even grab a snack it might require some space modifications and we we're going to make this a high priority not just the transportation department but all of operations and our school folks working together to provide those Brak spaces so we this is going to require a little bit more study and upfitting of some facilities Supply Logistics and communication to drivers but we have a plan we already are

establishing a a break a break space at Holton PLC the principal volunteered that space after meeting with uh at our principal meeting where we talked about communicating and supporting our drivers and Mr Barnes has come up with the idea of finding a location at the old Northern High School as well and that's just the beginning we want to make sure that there's a quality of life and a quality of work for our drivers our driver family during the day and at all times next slide please it's also going to take School level support and here are some examples of what schools can do to support our drivers a disciplinary process review and support for student Behavior flexibility for the possibility of dual dual Ro employment Andor certified staff as supplemental drivers staff volunteering to ride along as bus monitors School level Recruitment and referrals and that's already happening access to facilities such as restrooms

computers cafeteria and inclusion in school community events next slide some other next slide please some other considerations we reached out to external vendors that can assist us with driver Recruitment and on boarding and we're in discussion with those organizations now uh it says we held but the snow had a different mind for us we will hold a class ified employee job fair this has been mentioned a couple of times and this is just a start we hope to do more again it says we we identified nine that numbers now up to 13 employees with a CDL and passenger PS endorsement who are willing to drive and that's over the last couple of weeks we've had several employees contact Transportation about the process of getting licensed and driving and we're following up on those with Fidelity also we're developing metrics and standards that will allow us to determine the effective of each initiative Miss Harrell Goff mentioned that a

moment ago we want to make sure we're doing the right work the ultimate metric however will be effective and consistent transportation services for the scholars of Dr Public Schools next slide please this is a living working document the need for retention Recruitment and support is ongoing and it's going to require a paradigm shift and so really just thinking about how we're thinking about this issue how we're all grappling with this issue new ideas and opportunities will be incorporated into our plan as they emerge so we are looking forward to this collaboration also involving our CFO and his department but really thinking about how it takes all of us to really grapple with this issue of Transportation bus drivers and getting our babies to and from work so with that said questions thank you both so much colleagues Miss

Harold gof thank you so much um I wrote down a bunch of questions but I'm only going to ask two um the F the first question is regarding the brake spaces and additional School level support for bus drivers are Holton and Northern being immediately implemented for bus drivers is that an immediate thing that's happening currently while we're working working on longer term Solutions and there's a the second part to that well go ahead Holton farther along than Northern uh Mr Barnes and I and Mr Barnes and his Department have been working about about the business of getting the buses rolling since um rotational coverage ended but we'll be moving forward he and I will be scoping out Northern very soon so that one not as quickly as as the the first space but we that that will happen this year in one capacity or another yes ma'am all right like before the end of the school year yes ma'am that's the plan okay and then my the the second half of

that question is um have all principles and transportation workers been notified that bus drivers can use staff bathrooms at all DPS facilities as long as they show their ID at the front door so yes ma'am in our principal's meeting uh I mentioned that in our last principal meeting we spoke at length about it Dr Lewis as well uh spoke to the to the principles and has made it clear and then I think Dr King has spoken with them as well please allow our our staff members to come to your building and the principles seemed a little upset that they there was a feeling that they couldn't do that I all of our principles want to cooperate all of our principles want to make that that opportunity available and we'll we we communicate that out and Mr Barnes is working with our employees and trying to get as much information out and availability out as possible and so our our bus driver know that as well that is a they've all been notified that that is something that they can do yes ma'am to my knowledge

but we can certainly reiterate that as well okay and then my last question is why okay why does DPS have to establish a transportation advisory Council um I believe our community and stakeholders are are already doing that work and we've been you know we've been plugging into that um it's seems to me that establishing the meet and confer feels like a more efficient and systemic way to plug into that kind of organizing so I'm wondering are you talking about establishing something separate to a Mee and confer well above and beyond either of those there already exists a transportation Advisory Board within operations further we're looking to work with our employees and our stakeholders above and beyond any other organization we want to concentrate our efforts and this is something that we're working on to work for our employee with our employees no disrespect to any other organization we want to to work with our trans our existing Transportation ADV

valory board and expand that okay that was my clarity they were saying to establish a and so as if it something hasn't already been established it has and we just need to expand that thank you thank you all for your comments Miss harell go thank you thanks for answering her questions much appreciated I'm going to ask my colleagues to stay on the topic of transportation and recruitment uh we're not discussing meet and conver tonight Mr tab thank you very much um thank you for for the work I really appreciate that um quickly in terms of well first thank you all for answering I sent yall a lot of questions so thank you very much for answering my questions um I do want to highlight just one one of my questions was about um referral pay and about um bonus can you explain a little more how the bonus is working and I know in says

something about a stien to bus drivers so I want to make sure that so I'm clear with how you're doing that right so in the past we've had the attendance bonus and that's the bonus I think was mentioned in the first presentation um when Miss Harrell Goff talked about um priority 3 and what we're doing to um retain our bus drivers but again we're working with Mr terer to make sure what are we doing moving forward as far as attendance referral sign on and those kinds of things because it's going to take money right um so are are bus drivers also getting the opportunity if they do extra routes are they being paid for that or is that all part of their just hours in the day it currently just part of their their normal hours if they work four hours they get paid for four hours we've looked at possibilities again that requires resources to to uh supplement

those extra extra duties or it's really part of their primary duties but we appreciate what they're doing and at this point if they work four hours they get paid four hours or that they're being compensated for their hourly work so I just want to be clear because when it says bonus or extra Duty it makes it seem like they're doing something above and beyond what their normal time is because we did that for teachers and that's why I know this because for teachers for for doing planning periods and things like that that went above and beyond so I just want to make sure that we're probably trying to put some of that stuff in with bus drivers would be nice and that is part of the the conversation moving forward yes sir okay thank you thank you thank you colleagues we have about four minutes left on this topic if we're going to stay within our time limits on our agenda I did have a follow-up question on Mr tab's Question um what about our employees that are staffed

elsewhere that are helping uh to drive buses can you tell me about their compensation their treatment if their benefits um and appreciation for those bus drivers um I'd like to bring up our recruiter and chief for that okay Mr Barnes Mr Barnes as you come up can you think about the folks that were doing it before you asked and the folks that are doing it now that you have asked them first of all the agreement was for me to stay behind the scenes but uh yeah it will be um so if you are a salary employee you being compensated at $25 an hour if you're an hourly employee You' being compensated at time and a half of your regular pay so each person pay could be different depends on what the job is in the in DPS thank you any other appreciation or

uh um thank yous or anything else that bus drivers are getting that those folks may or may not be have access to see we are going to do some appreciation lunches for them um we haven't gotten around to all the bus drivers yet so this Friday um Mr Le and I are cooking for the transportation employees at hamon Road um wait y'all are actually doing the cooking uh Mr leak is going to do most of the cooking all right I I need to take this test so I can be a bus driver I I am going to supply the food for um for this week's lunch thank you both for doing that's nice colleagues anything else Miss Miss carteron um I think this well I'm not sure who this is going to be for but um I was curious to know more about the differentiated positions and what that

would look like we overlap that's great differ I'm I'm not on um slide 14 there's retention working conditions initiatives and it's part of that list and it says differentiate positions part-time or supplemental and just wanted to understand what that um could look like for in DPS so that's just trying to appeal to folks that may just want part-time work um moms with children in school Etc so we're thinking about everybody that we can talk to about coming to be a bus driver doesn't have to be a full-time it could be part-time you might just do morning you might just do afternoon but how we can think about shifts and that sort of thing as we recruit folks because we have parents we have people in our you know DPS community that we

could invite to become bus drivers and we want to be creative about what that looks like absolutely that sounds excellent thank you and I just also wanted to say two other notes of gratitude um um really excited to hear that you're developing these metrics and standards to determine the effectiveness of this I look forward to seeing how things evolve over time as you see what works really well and what's not and then thank you so much for including a link at the end of the slides to questions that had been submitted and responses it's so useful to have all that information in one place for us and maybe the public too thank you thank you and thank you Miss Hager um all of the my brain seeped out of my head when you asked me that question so I do apologize I drew a blank thank you would also we're again when we talk to our transportation team and hear some of the barriers as it relates to either recruiting bus drivers or retaining bus drivers we're looking at everything there's an average cost of probably around $420 just for a bus driver to uh become a bus driver in duror public school so

we'll be having some conversations and maybe some ask as relates to how we can uh support our new recru with with that in addition every what two three years I'm looking back their transportation team they have to get every three years get their license and that's a cost there as soon as we think about retaining our current bus drivers we can take that worrior away from them so we're exploring all things um transportation to recruit and retain our bus drivers and then my last comment is um the um national school bus driver appreciation week is February 10th through the 14th again yes I want want this community to go all out for our bus drivers and even after that week into March and may still let show ways we um appreciate our bus drivers Mr Chavez thank you all so much um for um working on this and your just um enthusiasm and um creativity um around um thinking about

Recruitment and Retention um I wanted to say I appreciate the National Data um the addition of that those that's really helpful when we think about our context and then zoom out a bit um and then I just have a comment I think my other kind of questions have been answered um but I I really think um one of the major keys to this is is working on those um working conditions and so I appreciate the work you're doing to look at that from all angles um I think we'll need to continue to listen keenly to our transportation employees um build off their um expertise around their own experiences and then also build off of the organizing that's already happening within our um trans Transportation staff so thank you all and I don't have any questions thank you thank you thank

you thank you m uh um awesome the next item on our agenda colleagues is current year budget [Music] challenges Mr terer are you kicking us off Dr Le okay good evening uh board chair Rogers board members Dr Lewis um Dr Lewis has the first slide uh to get us going and then I will carry us the rest of the way aome thank you so much terer January 15th marked um 100 days uh for me and Duran public schools and an opportunity to look at uh a lot of the feedback that we received doing the listening and learning sessions um just meeting with with different internal staff and external Community Partners um and I think I shared earlier I will share the full comprehensive post

entry plan uh next month but there was an opportunity for us to you know you often talk about lwh hanging fruit and fruit on the ground there was an opportunity for us to be responsive immediately as it relates to some of the things that we've heard and this this notion of transparency and accountability and what we've heard during those listening and learning sessions we asked about five questions in probably in three of the five questions somehow transparency and accountability um comments um were were given to us and there was one question where we intentionally asked what should be our priorities going forward giving our financial challenges and So based on the comment and comments and the feedback that we've heard from that um transparence in financial decisions uh was was loud and clear in in that in that particular question it was a a significant concern among participants uh many of the respondents agreed that there was a need

for us as a school system to provide greater transparency uh and accountability in our financial decisions and so I often say it's great to give surveys it's great to have focus groups and listen to people and take notes but if you're not responsive to that data the likelihood of them completing another survey or attending a focus group is very slim and so we want we we didn't want to wait until the end of February to start being transparent so to speak um when and it was timely because Jeremy was coming on board and really digging into our finances and once he got to a point where okay I'm ready to share where we are right now as an update we wanted to share that U publicly and that's the press conference that I mentioned earlier and so the respondents were sharing that ensuring that the funds are allocated and spent effectively and that the community is informed about these decisions um to um board member buyer's uh comments earlier the respondents felt that these decisions and these actions if we're

being transparent and accountable can assist in building trust in ensuring that our staff um compensation uh is is accurate and and the infrastructure needs are met the respondents call for Clear communication about how the funds are allocated and spent and for more staff and Community involvement in the decision making process and so uh what also came of that is those dollars and decision sessions as well there were also mentions of um again these are their comments there are also mentions of outdated Financial forms inconsistent policies the need for accurate and accessible financial information um North Carolina school finan is a lot different than your budget at home and so we want to make sure that we're providing um just an opportunity to further educate internal staff and uh external Community stakeholders on during Public Schools Finance finances the perception is that again with increased transparency this would build trust and ensure that the funds are used used effectively and participants also share the importance of being honest

about about our financial challenges and engaging the community in finding Solutions you've heard me say the answers are in the room and when I say that not only just this board room but but the proverbial uh room in the Durham Community but if we're not taking our our time to and providing opportunities for our internal and external stakeholders to uh provide that feedback we're missing a golden opportunity and so I'm excited about um where we are in terms of uncovering um our our financial challenges but also being able to address those headon and so Mr Tito will share with you uh he'll he'll begin with um the historic investment that was so appreciative of our Durham County Commissioners uh investing in in Durham public schools and all all all the people that advocated for that he'll give a breakdown of of where those monies went went and then also share what he's uncovered in his short 40 plus days on the job so with that I'll turn it over to Mr terer thank you very much Dr Lewis and if we could transition to the next slide please um so just this

initial slide is a summary of the individual challenges and in some cases Solutions um that we'll talk about in a little more detail this evening um and the presentation does end with the same summary slide so we'll Circle back to this and I don't I'm on a timer now so um the next slide um we address uh the county funding that Dr Lewis just referenced if we could make our way to slide for thank you um and we we sort of lift up um the the record investment that came from our Durham County Commissioners uh for the 2425 school year um so a little over $27 million and I think it's important to note right that's a blend of local resources as well as some ARA resources for which we're the subrecipient um and so I think as we're conveying this we're really trying to lift up our education effort um and reminding folks about the implications of charter schools and that we don't get to keep everything that we get and so um we have a little over $4

9 million um to make some decisions there with classified pay and I think while we're here it's sort of important important to lift up um how that was administered I think as we've um been answering questions and and working with groups of folks uh that have an interest in this

topic it's a good time to lift up just sort of how all of that transpired in terms of how did the pay situate at this point in time and so um prior to my arrival staff was tasked with making comparisons to different models um that were brought before the board so there was um the the model that Carrie Crutchfield the comp troller prepared in terms of salary schedules there is Eerie success model that was prepared um and then uh there was a 3% raise from where employees were before and so our staff had to work through comparing those three models to find what was the best for each employee uh and so our a lot of our employees uh when they look at their checks they'll see two different line items in most cases one is their base pay that is on the Eerie success model uh that was ultimately adopted and reflects the new grades from the state of North Carolina with those new numbers um and the second line that a lot of employees will see on their check is

9 million was definitely what we needed in order to make that happen and and and to honor the classified pay um so also as a part of that um those dollars the county um we we're benefiting from an extra $2 million to support Capital outlay our normal appropriation from the county is 6 million um this time we we've got a blend of $8 million it's kind of a unique year six million is coming from the County's arpa dollars with two million of their dollars to arrive at that eight but a $2 million increase to work with this year uh and then also a commitment um to help us support additional prek classrooms um through

those arpa dollars so a little over 716 per year so we'll receive um a similar amount for prek next year from those dollars uh but just wanted to make sure that we laid that out Crystal Clear of how were how were these dollars used or what are they earmarked against so um the challenges come next and I'll kind of work through them as quickly as I can um so I know that we've seen them a lot together in small groups um but so one just the biggest challenge that the district has wrestled with and we have seen this certainly in other districts um just in terms of the number of positions that were on the district's payroll um so we had 315 positions more um than were in the superintendent's recommended budget this spring um fortunately 247 or so of those were vacant uh at the time that we conducted our analysis and so we have been monitoring that as it has played out month by month um to to hem down that number um that's impacting the district

um I would just say um that right we we got to this point um as did many other districts while they had the flexibility of hundreds of millions of dollars of eser funds it was very easy to make decisions to add things to modify formulas um and we're just at the point now in Durham where we're having to walk off that proverbial eser Cliff as a lot of folks refer to that um and so we are um working um so new finance officer new assistant superintendent of HR um we we've had some rearrangement on our teams um and we're working very tightly to put procedures in place to control how positions come to be and and making sure uh that if if a position is created it is in the superintendent's recommended budget or we have made necessary modifications to make sure that it it has been accommodated for in the budget so um obviously that's the area that's gotten the most attention and and we're working very hard um to manage this particular reality uh budget Challenge number two

7 million that we had to shore up uh to put that in place um but we've got the right people that are working on that who are building those budget lines who are monitoring those Charter School payments um and we feel good about where we are in that process uh and certainly we will pay very careful attention to this line item as we develop the board's 205 5 26 budget um so the next challenge is our Child Nutrition program um this is something um that is not necessarily unique to

this year but it's been brewing um so over the last couple of years that program has been losing has been losing money or or not been posting a profit um around the time that that Trend started we observed changes and the way that meals were being prepared and the sourcing of the food for those meals and so ultimately just the production cost uh increased uh for our meals in the district our Child Nutrition program um at this point has exhausted their ability to cover those losses um so at one point in time they did have healthy reserves they're are self they're supposed to be self-sufficient and they were for quite some time uh and so I've recommended to the superintendent that we reserve $3 million of local funds in order to keep them from going into the negative this year and to keep to keep things as they are while we evaluate how can we continue to do the creative things we've been doing for students but in a way that we can handle the production cost so um I would say a second U tandem to that is just the the C expansion in the district that is not

3 million more expensive um and we are U working as a team to make sure as we build the 2526 budget um that we have accurate uh data to to substantiate how many employees might we funding uh for Masters pay with local dollars uh so I'm excited to work with Miss Harrell Goff as we put things in place um some some methods there do a fresh survey uh and also we're contemplating whether or not we want teachers to

actually add it to their license um so that's just something that we may have come up on the horizon as a solution for us to accurately uh capture our teachers who have master's degrees um or other employees should they become part of that program um Challenge number five on slide nine uh this is something that we see a lot of conversations about across districts uh they're having a hard time pinning down utility costs um and so that that's something that's Rising um when we looked at the superintendent's recommended budget from this past spring uh we did not note an increase um in in the line items for utilities or waste management and so we're advising that we reserve a a million million dollars a little over a million dollars plus 40,000 uh in order to to to meet those obligations um and then obviously we'll work very closely with the operations team and our energy folks uh to make sure that we're making an accurate Pro uh projection uh for next year as we build out those line items um slide number 10 where we talk about budget

challenge six um are the Arts supplements that did not make it into the superintendent's recommended budget um I I did get a board member uh question in advance of the meeting about the history of those how long have they been around um I think they predate merger uh and so it's been since 1991 um that art supplements have been a thing in this community um so just no no good explanation for why that's not was not a line item in the superintendent budget this past spring uh but it's got a value of over $572,000 um that we um so um and that's to support our art our folks working in the Arts and Music um for their additional responsibilities outside of the classroom um next one on slide 11 we talk about the bus driver attendance bonus that was not developed in the line items in the superintendent's recommended budget it is something that we have been doing U and so we had to make sure uh that those

resources were made available in the budget um to the tune of $145,000 um the next line item um this has also been a sort of a common struggle or challenge for districts and that's just the um the insurance market for Property Insurance Auto Workers Comp um these premiums are getting really hard to predict right now they're they're increasing um at pretty material rates and so uh we needed to pull in an additional $139,000 to meet those obligations beyond what was budgeted if this had been the only issue I would have celebrated uh because everybody wrestles with this um and it just and it's one of those things that we're just dealing with right now and so um give given the climate that we're in now we can expect that those particular line items in the budget are really going to be Amplified because the insurance Market um we know that the department of insurance has recently negotiated some new rate increases as well as there's some con some concerns uh with what's just going around going on in the country right now

1 million uh acknowledging that they underestimated what our enrollment would be in Durham public schools for this year so we had about 119 more students materialized than they had forecasted so they had to True up our dollars and make those additional funds available to us hooray uh and so worked with my team to budget

4 million uh to to help make ends meet and make things work uh with this current budget shortfall um additional staff action so again um we're uh continuing to monitor lap salaries and benefits um as as each month progresses um we do continue to see vacancies and that continues to have a value for us to to recoup uh some of this difference um we are working very tightly as a senior leadership team to

evaluate um the positions that we have here and the vacancies that we have here in central office uh to determine whether or not we want to fill those can we re organize and absorb duties in some cases some of that work has already happened ahead of this presentation and so we've um just as an example the finance department collapsed two vacancies uh and we were able to render about $145,000 in savings so far just with our team other departments have done similar work and and we'll bring some future updates to you on what we've been able to save as central office leaders in our effort to absorb some of this here uh in our efforts to Shield schools um and then um I get asked about this quite a bit and so we are um very close on our audit work uh so we have completed the compliance stage of our external audit um Bank reconciliations are now current thanks to the hard work of a lot of folks on my team uh and we are very close to digging into the final step of

building the financial statements and we look forward to having a fund balance figure that we can report for the board um and and that'll help us also make some decisions here uh or at least turn off the temperature turn down the temperature a little bit um the last slide again is just that summary slide uh that we referenced at the beginning uh and so I now have 20 seconds left and so I'm happy to answer any questions uh that the board may have thank you Mr terer um for updating us um colleagues Mr tab thank you very much um I know y'all think I'm going to speak on about the art supplement um I can't control what happened when you were here so so I'll go ahead and speak on it um I'm a little concerned about that because uh back in like 2016 um we did a whole another study on the art supplement because it had been frozen for like um 13 years and so we

worked through that and so I'm kind of concerned how did it not get in this budget when we had worked so hard all those years to get it corrected in the budget so if it's a mistake let's just call it what it is but but I don't want to go back and like it wasn't wasn't ever fixed okay so I just want to be clear with that that that um little concerned about how that did not get in the budget um but I do want to ask um something about what Dr Lewis said in a previous meeting about making sure that we had all our bills paid and so have you done a a kind of another look at making sure that we don't have bills that are hanging out there that is going to then impact this this shortfall again yeah um so that's been fun uh and so we've um there have been I think almost every day for my first two or three weeks um received

kind of franic communications about service was going to be turned off children not being able to get access to textbooks things of that nature and so and I I will give tremendous credit to my team when I've asked them to make those things a priority to get those paid uh they really went above and beyond to make it right and and in some cases hand deliver checks to vendors um to to make sure that things happened I will say that has really calmed down quite a bit um over the last couple of weeks um we we do have a I would say a collection of maybe three or four invoices that were settling up that came to my attention this week um so on the whole I can't guarantee that they're all settled but um we have worked to react to everyone that's been knocking at our door for things that they they feel like we owe them money for um and also as a part of the audit work that we've done you know we've done some testing on that uh to see if there were any invoices that belonged to last year that needed to get to the right place and so um

there may be one or two more things that pop up just because no one's complained about it or we haven't heard about it so anybody we do business with who's listening if if you feel like we haven't paid a bill reach out to us and and we'll work on getting that resolved um and so and um but I think I feel like we're we're really close to that um so very fair question thank you very much I don't have anything Mr terer if I could just step in for a second I want to speak to the issue around the Arts uh supplements I want to be clear and separate out the notion of the amount being addressed and rectified and those amounts or the totality of those things being placed in the budget right so the the issue has not been with how much we paid for those um um supplements right that that has been cleared the issue was that there had been a longstanding process or a

longstanding um practice of not placing that total amount in the budget and simp paying it at a later date in the year and so the reason why it wasn't in last year's budget ask uh is because U we were done with the budget process before someone showed up and said you know Dr King we have to pay uh Arts supplements we pay them every year but again they were they were never contemplated in the budget so just want to clarify that it's not a matter it wasn't a matter of how much we paid them that that was clear it's just that it systemically had been left out of the budget and kind of paid on the on the back end if you will so I'm assuming then based on your statement that that issue wouldn't happen again no no because the the idea is that you know if it's a if it's an ongoing bill you know it should be contemplated in the budget every year I just want everybody to hear that all the artist people to hear that thank you

very much thank you um Miss buer um Mr terer I uh want to thank you so much for being part of Durham public schools and Diving right into probably our most challenging uh work in department and the way that you're collaboratively working with the rest of our team in our cabinet um I think one thing there there was some misinformation I think in some of the public comments and I saw you shaking your head I wondered if there was anything you wanted to clarify um that that might have been adding confusion to folks listening yeah and I think um you know and I would just you know I'll Echo um you know something that Dr Lewis said earlier in that North Carolina Public School Finance is very complicated um we are perhaps the last state in the country that administers school system finance and budgeting the way that we do

uh and so um I remember when I started we were in a collection of seven states or so that did it the way we do it and now we're all by ourselves um and so we're um but at any rate I would just say you know so this is a um you know this the situation that we're in is that we we have um an an incredible relationship with our external Auditors um so right so Durham public schools has um the preeminent um external audit firm for public school systems in North Carolina uh and we've been cooperating with them fully uh to move the fiscal year 24 audit along and and bring that current and resolve the issues uh that we know they're going to look at and care about um and um they um in tandem with that work right we've been very uh forthcoming with them about the budget challenges and the things that we're working through with the budget uh and they have done extensive compliance testing on on bills that we've paid on employees paychecks um and and um looking at our budget uh and so I think

um I think it's it is important you know for the public to hear that the challenges that we're working through as a new Administration don't do not stem from situations that are are fraudulent in nature they don't stem from situations that are accounting errors so to speak right but there's just a there was a a budgeting process and and Staffing processes um that um needed more attention than what they received uh and so we're working very hard to to clean that up and and develop it make this budget balanced and and and make it in a way that it's compliant uh so just want to assure the public that we know where the money is we know how the the district is using it uh and we've just got to bring it in balance and and operate within the means that we have at this time I appreciate that to me the the clarity is that there was not money that's missing it was it was under budgeted um in in several ways and that's the points that you've delineated

I also want to thank Dr Lewis and you for meeting with a lot of community groups I think those conversations were really helpful um with the Durham committee with the People's Alliance with the Durham Association of Educators there others County Commissioners right count I know you've been conversation and the DPS foundation and the Durham delegation to the North Carolina General Assembly I think those were so um helpful and the feedback that they shared was really helpful so thank you for both for your leadership with that and Mr terer you shared in one of those conversations your background which people might not otherwise know was in the classroom and I thought you might want a minute to to frame how you think about budgeting because I think it's um helpful um yeah that's been a long time ago but yeah I um my my very first job uh out of college I was an alternative school teacher uh and I worked with middle school and high school students who had been long-term suspended uh from their

tradition schools and I on a daily basis had six preps uh because I served middle school and high school um for my content areas uh and um interestingly right I um was in the classroom the last time school systems were having really big budget challenges and we making very difficult decisions and we saw a change in the philosophy in our state government uh regarding education funding and and uh I heard some Rumblings at that time that made me question if I would have a future in teaching uh or if it would be worth you know worth what I was putting in and uh some of the things that they were talking about doing at that time have come to fruition they delivered on their promises for some of the things that were taken away or or cut and um I remember [Music] um 40 42 or 43 of my colleagues were dismissed from a reduction in force um that year that I uh that first year of teaching and uh um my job was protected

because I was at an alternative school and central office leaders in it was in Lee County Schools um in central office uh leaders at that time uh made the Judgment that no one else is if these people are willing to be at the alternative school leave them alone um and and we'll make adjustments elsewhere and and it really made me think as a young person like what do I want to do with my life and so I made a career change and and went into Finance but very much uh as I think about I think about teacher Jeremy um and I had no idea where my paycheck came from I had no idea where the money for my supplies came from or why decisions were made and so I do kind of carry that past version of myself um in this work and and like I think about um you know the issue with the text uh the invoices that hadn't been paid and right we we had a situation where some of our students could not get their textbooks and I was just absolutely appalled and right and I thought about those teachers and how they were having to make pivots at the last minute to modify their instruction

and they were depending on those books being there right and and I thought about what that would have been like for me if I had been in the classroom right so I think um yeah so I I you know I totally get it and I and I respect what's going on in the classrooms and then I carry that with me in in the finance officer role for sure thank you so much board member Byer for for for lifting that and it's that experience that helps us with this decision making uh and what Jeremy didn't tell you he personally walked that check over there so the teachers could have their their textbooks and so when you have people in these roles that have had classroom experience it's very rare that you find a CFO with classroom experience it's very rare you find a CO with classroom and principal ship experience so that they bring that lens with them as they are making decisions because everything that we do we do it for down down to the classroom level and so to have these individuals and others that have have have been there um now

granted we've not been teachers and principles postco let me be clear it's a lot different and we recognize that but for him to say I understand what a teacher goes through I'm going to walk this check over here um I think is definitely value add to our school system and I appreciate you for doing that Jeremy thank you both for answering those questions Miss chav right um well thank you so much for this um for this presentation um I really thank you for just your thoroughness um it's clear that you have um you are going through things very carefully and and leading your team um to to make sure that every tea is crossed and I is dted um I wanted to now I can't see your I can't see you in your um reaction I was going to say you start out with six preps no matter uh or no wonder you can handle the Durham budget because you've been handling a lot for a

long time so um but thank you um for um all of this I feel like this is our I sometimes say this is our cleanup year that's kind of how I feel um and so um I wanna I I think you've answered my my questions up until now um I just want to say that looking at this and um thinking about where we're going I hope that you know um board member Harold gof talks about our budget telling a story and I think we also think about our budget reflecting our values so I hope that going forward we'll have a budget that really reflects our values and um I think you know obviously one of the uh things that has happened over the last year is that our employees have felt the um the impact of these uh Financial errors and um these

uh different um things that decisions that have been made or um miscommunications um and so I appreciate that you can now hold that you and your team um can hold can hold the sort of um Financial impacts and and lead us and so my hope is that our employees on on the ground in the schools won't be feeling the impacts in the same way um going forward so um that's that's just uh those are some of the things I'm thinking about um and then I just wanted to say and I know this isn't exactly um your only your lane um but it this uh brings up a question for me around um how we will look at our salary schedules going forward um so um just putting that out there I have to you know think about that I really

appreciate you know knowing exactly where the money was spent and how it was spent the money that we got from the county um but I I am just uh kind of led to to wonder if there are some shifts or um things that we'll need to discuss coming up in in the coming months around our salary schedules um but I don't have any other questions beyond that so thank you thank you for this work colleagues any other questions comments um did you want to respond to miss Chavez's comment um or is that something we should look forward to in the future like when the salary Administration policy comes it is noted

um and and um you know so not so I have I have been through salary studies in terms of the recipient of them and a contributor to the preparation of them um and so that is um happy to support Durham in that way um if that's you know the boards and the superintendent wish to to move in that direction um so I think just in my mind right that's something that we do just a little bit later get get the audit done um and um you know and then we can you know we can talk that through and strategize that as a team but happy to contribute to that and support that work however I can thank you colleages thank you okay thank you so very much Mr Peter

H the next item on our agenda is informational please review I'm sure you have already um and after that is close session and I'll entertain a motion to go into close session move that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda all second thank you Mr it's been move by Miss berer and seconded by Mr tab to move into a close session for the reasons stated on the agenda is there any discussion so I have a little bit I I want to thank thank Our IT staff and thank our interpreters for tonight uh remind the community that we will not stream after Clos session uh when we will hopefully approve the Personnel

report um and we thank them for being here this evening and thank you for tuning [Music] in um miss traveis this is Emily Chavez and I vote live Mr tab I Miss Carter aen hi Miss berer hi Miss haral goof hi and I will I we're now in close session

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