Board of Education · Regular Meeting · March 23, 2023

In Our Moment of Silence I really want us to consider how we can use our time and our talents and our treasure our spheres of influence to make sure our children can become elders that their full potential is realized their Brilliance continues to shine and they continue to be able to thrive in our community before I go to Our Moment of Silence I do just want to open the floor if our members have any other question statements that they would like to make.

Foreign thank you for taking this moment to acknowledge what's going on in our school communities to affirm the work that our district is doing to support our administrators our students and community these incidents are too frequent is not normal and we cannot continue to do business as normal I appreciate the comments that you just made here understood we have to come together as a community to work collaboratively as a layered approach I appreciate all the work all the hard work and challenging conversations as Educators counselors we never would think we would have to say and it seems like week over week over week it can't be business as usual we have to give time for our students to grieve and mourn the loss we have to give them voice as we heard them at the state of urgency performed at Hillside they have a lot to say and we need to keep listening to them getting answers from them and holding ourselves accountable where they show that we're.

Not showing up the way they need us to best approach from our school and our city and county coming together as well our community is reaching out I had an email to say what would it look like to have a day a morning to have a pause a day of mourning having a pause and we're going to continue working with the city and county to do this across the district it cannot just be on the backs of the school system it has to be all of us together we have to reclaim our community and protect our babies.

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Any other comments from board members so what this moment we'll go into our moment of silence I just want to again talk think of for us to think about those impacted includes all of us the potential that wasn't able to be fully realized and how we can contribute ourselves to what we need to do to make sure our community can thrive.

Thank you that we're going to transition now in the celebrations I think we can hold the somberness of the moment and also celebrate some of the things that we have happening in our district at the same time and continue to figure out how we lean into what's going well to make sure we can support those who are struggling in different times of need so we're going to transition now to celebrations I also want to welcome our newest Board member Miss Jessica Carter often to the diocese she was sworn in earlier today at five o'clock and I do just want to open if you have an opportunity to say any words.

First have to learn how to use my mic. I'd like to begin by again acknowledging the incredible incredible grief that the Durham Community is experiencing right now and in particular the grief of the families who lost their loved ones earlier this week as a mother I can imagine no greater loss than the loss of one of my children and my heart is heavy thinking of the mothers the fathers the grandfathers the sisters the brothers who are eating dinner right now without their family members who are tucking kids into bed tonight but not the ones that were here earlier this week.

It also like to briefly express my gratitude for the opportunity to be up here in front of you tonight each applicant for this position was well qualified and dedicated to serving the children of Durham Public Schools and we all committed a significant amount of time and energy in our hearts to the application process I'm honored to have been selected to serve on the board alongside this incredible group of women each of whom brings so much passion and expertise to this work I know that we are all United in our desire to ensure that all children of Durham receive an excellent education and I believe that the diversity of our experiences and our perspectives will strengthen the work that we do together I look forward to working with Dr umu bengam his amazing staff and this board in service to all of the Durham community thank you and that oh transition to celebrations Mr Sutter.

Thank you madam chair it's Carter Alton you are about to experience my favorite part of the month this is the time when we celebrate our students our community members our teachers our employees we celebrate what is right in Durham what is right in Durham Public Schools we celebrate the gift of Education the gift of opportunity the gift of commitment and service and we will begin well let me go ahead and give you sort of the order of worship we will begin with our students of the month followed by our DPS teacher and DPS employee of the month we have three spark recognitions tonight two outstanding employees and one Community leader and then we will recognize our national board certified teachers for for this year it's it's a list of excellence and I am so proud that even in the midst of our of our solemnity and somberness and sorrow we also have the opportunity to express joy and gratitude and thanks for the people who make Durham public schools great we will begin with our.

Student of the month from Durham School of the Arts presenting Chloe Daniel apologies for the extra s and the prices I would like to ask Dr Jackie Tobias to please say a few words it is my pleasure even in this moment as principles we all feel the pain of a loss at any school I want to say that we're all family and all the especially the big schools we do feel that pain it is my pleasure to introduce you to Chloe Daniel as you can see she's in her soccer outfit and I'm going to speak fast because she has a game right now and she ran from the game came here and her getaway car is waiting to take her back but I'm gonna give her a minute because I have to go back with her to watch said game but the joy of being at DSA is that you get challenged by students they're activists they're fun I mean they keep me on my toes and I love it I'm just.

Going to say that up front it's been a pleasure to work with Chloe this year she's our Student Government president which means she gets to meet with me and she gets to present things that the students need and want one of the joys this year is that DSA needed pep rallies back after a pandemic we needed joy and Chloe and team sat with me and they're like can we have pep rally they went through it she spoke eloquently about this so you know for her it's daunting to have to come and sit and speak to the principal but not for her I mean it was a seamless activity choose an athlete clearly A Gifted pianist by the way a scholar an activist an advocate for the environment a well-rounded student and it is my pleasure to present her with you to you I just have a side note her mom's Jamaican like I am I just found out so I was very excited to learn that so Chloe.

You do have a moment if you want to speak I just want to thank everyone at my school I've had so much support and especially from my family I mean my getaway driver was very willing to wait for me to Sprint to her but yeah I'm really thankful that I've been able to be with DPS for seven years now and I really think that it was the best choice for me thank you. So we have a couple of tokens to present to you tonight and you will receive another one after spring break I have a certificate for you it's it's it's a certificate it has your name spelled correctly on it acknowledging you as student of the month this will be the thing that you hold up for the photographer at the end I also have a certificate and a token of appreciation from the Frederick Raven from the Not a name - context shows this is foundation name Foundation for you as well and finally I'm sorry.

It is 250 250 dollar gift from The Not a name - context shows this is foundation name Foundation we have a spark pin we're going to be giving a lot of these away tonight this pin is a mark of the of leadership for Durham Public Schools students employees and Community supporters and finally coming to you after spring break from triangle e-cycling a laptop computer that runs really fast congratulations and thank you.

Our next student of the month hails from Early College High School I present to you Cameron Bradley.

Good evening board tonight I am thrilled to introduce you to one of Josephine Dobb Clements High School's best students miss Cameron Bradley Cameron and her classmates had quite an unconventional High School Journey starting with her freshman year as the same as all of her classmates being sent home for covid her sophomore year being completely virtual and then her Junior and Senior year basically living as a North Carolina Central student many students in her class suffered academically and emotionally but as a result Cameron's dedication self-discipline and motivated nature proved that not only she survived but she thrived under these challenging conditions as an early college student Cameron has earned over 50 college credits while simultaneously completing her high school graduation requirements earned a GPA of 4.47 as a member of the early college National Honor Society recipient of the 2022 Early College best all-around student award 2022 North Carolina Central honors award and founded and led the early college readiness Club outside of school Cameron volunteered her time and skills coaching tennis to.

Younger students has participated in Rich summer experiences such as the summer Quest Durham Tech biotechnology program an intern at the glaxo Smith Klein biotech summer immersion experience Cameron applied and was accepted at North Carolina a t University the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University she is the proud recipient of the nccu chancellor scholarship award the glaxo Smith Klein nccu scholarship award and the Very prestigious full ride scholarship to nccu Cheatham White that's right she recently was accepted into the Duke University summer training in academic research star program with all of these wonderful options Cameron has decided to attend North Carolina Central University this fall with a major in clinical research.

Although these academic accolades would make any parent or educator proud I am most impressed by the memories shared by her early college teachers as a helpful and kind classmate and advocate for her peers we The Faculty of Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College would could not be more proud of this amazing young woman and we look forward to hearing about all of the things that she's doing to improve our community our state and our world thank you miss Cameron Bradley and congratulations.

I wanted to say thank you to my parents and thank you for all my teachers and my principal who helped me get to this place. Cameron I must as an alumnus of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill I must express my sorrow but also my congratulations our students of the month are distinguished for leadership and academic success and perseverance and we are proud to present you with your certificate with your gift from The Not a name - context shows this is foundation name Foundation with your spark fruit pin which I hope you will wear with pride and with your laptop which we'll be waiting for you when we all get back from traditional calendars for you congratulations and thank you that you'll go around the front the podium.

Thank you.

I am now presenting on behalf of Michelle Hayes from our Human Resources office our DPS teacher of the month and DPS employee of the month our teacher of the month program is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis program the taosai chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated DCL Consulting LLC and the Vell cares Foundation our employee of the month is sponsored by the office of human resources and both recognitions are brought to you monthly and we congratulate these high performers our March teacher of the month is Alec Virgil social studies teacher at Neil Middle School.

Well good thank you Alec Virgil has been teaching at Neil middle school for the last two years and the nominee has been fortunate to work alongside him during those years he's been a mentor to countless teachers sharing his curriculum plans helping build lessons and develop practice and inviting others into his professional world he is one of those teachers you come across once in a great while popular with students families and colleagues students love Mr Virgil because he is kind loving fun and cares about them he gets to know every student in his class as a whole person Mr Virgil can see exactly what each student brings to the community and his whole teaching approach involves finding and using students unique strengths to help them overcome their struggles and develop a positive self-concept in addition Mr Virgil has strong academic expectations and shows his students every day that he believes that they can succeed congratulations on being named Durham Public Schools March teacher of the month and I'll turn it over to the coach.

For further presentation. Good evening on behalf of DCL Consulting and North Carolina Central University we would like to both congratulate Mr Virgil and we wish him continued success we have a check for one hundred dollars to present to you today earlier this week or actually yesterday the Bell cares Foundation had an opportunity to surprise Mr Virgil so again kudos to you continued success. Foreign. Mr Covington here Mr Covington please so I would also like to recognize Mr Virgil's principal Mr Covington in his I've previously noted it without the notification of the principles identifying the excellent work by the teachers and again we would not be aware of their Excellence so thank you.

Mr Virgil I am holding in my hands a spark pin that I neglected to hand you congratulations thank you thank you absolutely please give us more than one word good evening everybody good evening I want to First give honor to God for my being here Jesus Christ was the head of my life I am from Wilson North Carolina born and raised the 252 home of the best fried chicken the barbecue and I would like to give thanks to the superintendent Dr bubanga for all of the work that you are doing in your vision as a leader and to your borders where the Board of Education I would also like to give honor to the assistant superintendents of Durham Public Schools and especially to my wonderful and powerful and passionate colleagues of Neil Magnet Middle School because when you see me you see Neil middle school and they know me as Mr Virgil from the classroom to your reality and so I also wanted to give a thanks to all my family.

That's watching all over the world and and and and everybody that's been supporting me along the way and Dr King once said life's most persistent and Urgent question is what are you doing for others and it's important to know that with the passion that one person has you can influence others in a very positive way so set the expectations high as we continue to teach our students and also to teach with our colleagues and hold each other to that high expectation and then show gratitude as well for everyone that's following you as a leader and everyone that's standing right next to you to continue to build this foundation so again thank you DPS and also Neil Magnet Middle School we are Eagle pride and we won't be denied thank you.

Oh listen to that out there.

We're not done yet our March employee of the month is Tash Keith EC Pre-K instructional assistant at y.e Smith Elementary School come on down. Going above and beyond does not begin to describe Miss Keith while serving at ye Smith Elementary School as an instructional assistant for the Pre-K Department she stepped into the permanent substitute position of pre-K EC teacher for the highly structured classroom not only did Ms Keith form a strong bond with y.e Smith students she also formed a bond with their parents Miss Keith worked with kashana glass to gain a better understanding of the curriculum and the responsibilities of the Pre-K EC teacher which includes being a case manager Data Tracking and facilitating IEP meetings for our students Ms Keith is organized nurturing and structured which makes her so effective in this position she never complains about the additional responsibilities and she is always solution oriented white Smith's Pre-K EC students could not have a better Lead Teacher in this position for these reasons Ms Keith was nominated for March Employee of the.

Month congratulations to you. We would love for you to say a few words but first because I got it out of order before I have a spark pin denoting your leadership qualities and your support support of our students and this plaque of recognition congratulations. I would just like to say being at y.e Smith was wonderful it's been a wonderful experience I want to thank y.e Smith employees who are just like a family over there we take care of each other and the principal Dr Robinson for giving me this opportunity to show and prove that I can become the best EC teacher possible thank you.

That's just awesome we don't always get standing O's outside on the way out we have some more spark nominations that have come from our community and our colleagues recognizing people who distinguish themselves in leadership and service on behalf of Durham Public Schools we will begin with two of our great colleagues from the human resources department and for that I turn it over to Dr Alvera lesane.

Good evening Dr mubinga chair Umstead members of the board this gives me great pleasure to be able to recognize two nominees from HR tonight the first is Sarai Jimenez and I'm going to say this is not just a recognition it's a testimony Mr Jimenez began her career with DPS on the front desk as a receptionist in the Fuller Building in Just September of 2020 so not so long ago very quickly she was able to see a great interest in becoming an HR technician with her permission I want to share her testimony Sarai applied for the vacancy but didn't get the job through her disappointment she went on she asked for feedback and she applied the recommendations from that feedback that she received and ultimately landed the job after other opportunities came available Sarai is very soft-spoken and often the HR leadership has to go and tug opinions and thoughts and all of those things out of her but when you listen to what she has to say her leadership comes through and you.

Recognize that there is just the wealth of of opportunities that we need that information in order to improve as a department we quickly noticed that she is a quiet storm of leadership and when we encourage her to step up and speak the results are great so as we continue to work on processes in HR with Staffing Sarai actually volunteered to lead our staffing team in some training on how she tracks information for her 18 schools as well as the student services area she presented a model based on all she had learned by watching listening taking the feedback and processing it over the past couple of years she is being nominated for all the work that she does with our new teachers and the staff and how she works tirelessly to onboard new employees as a bilingual person in HR she is also always willing to stop her work and we appreciate that to help whenever she can to serve our customers that are coming in the building so with all of that I just want.

To say we recognize your quiet storm of leadership and honor you with this spark pen.

Thank you.

Foreign.

I would also add that Soraya is nominated by Kimberly Hager as well as myself for this recognition now our next person is not so quiet and we appreciate that tonight I I am very pleased to honor Miss estefania who we call Steph in HR Steph also began as a front desk receptionist and so you need to watch the front desk receptionist position because it seems to be the training ground in HR she just began in January 2020. Steph did a fabulous job and was quickly promoted to be an HR technician just two months later when I returned to Durham Public Schools in 2021 I quickly recognized that I would consistently receive feedback about Steph regarding her performance her service and just having that nurturing spirit that you expect to see in HR one day Miss Giovanni came to me regarding nominating Steph as a result of her her customer service and those of us that know Miss Giovanni she's not easy to please so you know if she took the time to come.

Downstairs to recognize that it was something that was was definitely worth noting she had helped assisted with a worker's comp situation but she didn't just assist with the situation she went back the next day to see if there was anything else she could do and to figure out how the res did the resolution actually worked she surpassed expectations for customer service staff shows compassion and concern coupled with accurate knowledge of how to address the needs that we Face daily in HR the difference was made let me see this is a consistent practice for Steph and she is nurturing to our customers especially those for whom English is not their first language Steph really takes care of blind spots that we often have she will be the one that will come and knock the door I need you to think about this because I can see how the customer had this experience and we need to do this better we would be remiss however not to mention Steph's attention to detail due.

To her Keen Eye for processes she was promoted to lead HR technician with the reorganization of the HR department she has been a major contributor to improving the front desk Staffing volunteer and recruitment processes with her leadership skills I cannot wait to see how she will continue to make DPS even better congratulations we recognize you with the Sparkman thank you.

Thank you.

Our fine our final hello our final spark award presentation of the evening comes to two powerful and amazing advocates in our community and that would be Sheba and Vince Brown people Vince and sheba Lo Brown have worked in education for more than 30 years they have continued their passion and desire to enable students to succeed in taking and passing standardized tests this includes the s-a-t-a-c-t LSAT and more she Sheba and Vince stood up an organization more than a decade ago to focus on their goal of opening doors for students through higher scores on required entrance exams they teach lifelong skills that have been proven over the last two years to change lives not only are they working with students but they're also helping teachers to successfully pass the Praxis and other required certification tests they are closing academic gaps from two sides recently two 2021 graduates who participate in their program were featured seniors in the spark Insider magazine which the office of public affairs has won some awards for and.

Includes in the Durham and Durham Magazine on a regular basis Vince and sheba we appreciate you as partners as Community leaders as service providers for Durham public schools and people who help unlock the future for Durham Public Schools Youth and with that I present you both with the spark pin of leadership for Durham Public Schools thank you and we'd be happy for you to say a few words. Well first of all we'd like to thank superintendent Dr mabinga Durham Public Schools all the principals that gave us an opportunity to work with the amazing students that we have here in Durham Public Schools we're just so excited we're just getting started we have both of us have huge huge passions for helping young people and being a product of Durham Public Schools from Pearson Town Elementary and Lowe's Grove middle and Jordan High School is just so exciting to be a part of the community and giving back so thank you all so very much and may God bless us all.

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All right last and absolutely not least look at this line of teachers behind me. Durham Public Schools is a leader in North Carolina which is a leader in the nation when it comes to teachers earning certification from the national board for professional Teaching Standards. This month a number of our teachers have either earned or renewed their certification and I am going to hand the metaphorical baton over to Dr Kelvin Bullock who is going to predict present them. Good evening I am thrilled tonight to celebrate our teachers and counselors that recently achieved or maintained national board certification let's go ahead and give them a round of applause.

National board certification is a rigorous peer-reviewed and performance-based process students taught and served by board certified teachers and counselors gained one to two months of additional and deeper learning and support the certification is Guided by the four core propositions which describe what teachers should know and be able to do to have a positive impact on student learning those five propositions are teachers are committed to students in their learning know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning think systematically about their practice and learn from experience and are members of learning communities I'm excited to celebrate our new national board certified teachers and counselors your hard work commitment and perseverance have paid off achieving national board certification means you demonstrated clear consistent and convincing evidence that you met the high national board standards specific to your certificate area your students our students are the beneficiaries of your accomplishment at this time I would like to bring forward our 2022 newly certified national board certified.

Teachers and counselors so when I call your name if you could come forward Wanda Sears from Lakeview who's certified in counseling.

Darby Shankle from Forest View Elementary congratulations.

Jennifer Umbarger from Rogers Herr Middle School.

Millicent Rogers from Durham School of the Arts.

And Tamika Bell from Glenn Elementary certified in counseling.

We also want to congratulate those who reaffirm their commitment to their practice and their students through maintenance of certification maintaining certification means that you provided evidence of growing professionally and maintaining a strong and positive impact on student learning it means that you are making a statement that your professional learning and growth never ends that you are constantly evolving within the best practices of your subject and developmental area we celebrate your accomplishment as you continue to lead as teachers and counselors in Durham Public Schools our 2022 maintenance of certification teachers who are here with us this evening are Sandra Jameson from ye Smith Elementary.

Nisha Watson from Eastway Elementary yeah thank you. And Christy Wolfe from Jordan High School.

I'd like to add that our teachers who maintain their certification either have already received their plaques and if they have not they will receive them very soon thank you.

And as Dr Bullock recedes into the distance with the plaques of those who couldn't be with us tonight Madam chair this concludes our celebrations for the evening thank you very much thank you so much we are going to go ahead with our next item that we're going to swear in Jessica again miss Carter Alton so if you could head over to the just we're going to swear you in so if you can head over to the podium. We have our notary here that will swear you in.

Yeah yes thanks okay. Left and right left you ready okay it's my first time ready I state your name hi Jessica Carter auton do solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain the Constitution solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws Constitution and laws of North Carolina of North Carolina not inconsistent there with not inconsistent there with and I will Faithfully discharge and I will Faithfully discharge the duties of my office the duties of my office as a member of the Board of Education as a member of the Board of Education but the Durham Public Schools for the Durham Public School that in the discharge of sad duties that in the discharge of said duties I will fairly and diligently consider I will fairly and diligently consider all issues coming before the Board of Education all issues coming before the Board of Education so that every student is provided with an equal opportunity so.

That every student is provided with an equal opportunity to learn to learn and so that each school provides and so that each school provides an environment in which every student is encouraged an environment in which every student is encouraged and can reasonably be expected and can reasonably be expected to realize his or her maximum maximum educational potential realize his or her maximum educational potential without regard to their age I'm sorry without regard to their without regard to their or my place of residence or my place of residence with Durham County within Durham County so help me God so help me God congratulations.

Thank you so much we're excited to have you on board the next item on our agenda is celebrations I'm going to pass it to Dr mobinga I'm sorry superintendent's update I was right in passing it to doctor read it wrong my paper the superintendent's update thank you madam chair I'm Stead members of the board I want to open my remarks with the acknowledgments that once again the Durham Public Schools has been touched by gunfilence went to of our students lost their lives and another was injured in shooting on Tuesday night experience additional laws of Life due to gun violence this week as your superintendent I never grown up to the loss because I desperately wanted to stop but I am reminded that's our latest School District that is a part of the Greater Community as a microcosm of community we not only teach and learn but we provide safe refuge and mental health supports we worked very hard to serve our students but we don't accomplish these things alone communities work together.

Saving lives required that's all work together so are invited I invite and appeal to our community to do so gun violence is a Statewide in National epidemic we have heard conversations people struggling to understand what has been happening well Human Nature has not changed in the last 20 years our students are the same people our neighbors are the same people we have to ask ourselves the hard question what has changed in our community we have to face it and then we have to answer it with what a community is going to do about it thank you for giving me some time to reflect on this laws and to urge our community forward it's been really tough I really wanted to stay off my script a little bit here anytime you get a call from a principal like today you wonder what else can we do I always say this it takes a village and I appreciate all the calls thanks that we receive from different stakeholders fifth-based community members elected officials.

It's going to take all of us to be around the tables every person will be able to bring their owns tool to be able to address this tragedy losing Young Folks I cannot even imagine I cannot imagine the pain the suffering that's these families are going through personally never experience something like that losing a loved one like a child our thoughts and our prayers are with these families as we're finding ways to be able to address this I don't want to call it phenomenon that has been really in our community for a long time members of the board on United nodes I also want to bring our teacher Art Gallery showcase to your attention our teachers are multi-talented and we invite you to visit and take a look at the creative works the gallery is being hosted by the Durham Arts Council it first exhibit in collaboration with the school system the exhibit is free and open to the public and features more than 50 pieces of work by 17 of our own teachers.

It's located in the Arlington and Simmons gallery in the Durham Arts Council building 120 Morris Street in downtown Durham the exhibit will continue through May 5th I want to celebrate that Rogers Road Middle School was again named a school to watch and recognize during the 50th anniversary of the North Carolina Association for middle level education annual conference this week Rogers her as being listed as a school to watch since 2008. Congratulations to Dr Keisha lettuce Rogers a staff a student on the board work on the hard work and dedication to Excellence I am excited to share that we are making progress with our growing together academic and student assignment Initiative for middle and high schools surveys have been shared with our parents and Community engagement and school meetings are being scheduled for April where we will share with families and our initial thinking about academic Pathways and the School boundaries to ensure a more diverse accessible and Equitable middle and high school experience that will retain and attract more students in our growing community.

I also want to acknowledge and celebrate our Junior chefs from Northern High School under the direction of Chef Petersburg this team of students is one of the eight high school teams from across the state have been showing off The Culinary creativity in the 2023 North Carolina Junior chef competition the team was selected as a finalist based on the recipes they submitted and found funded March 30th if they advance to the next level of competition where they will prepare and serve the unique dish for a judge's panel of professional chefs art students have always been showing off the talent for us in preparing meals like tonight before board meetings and I'm excited for the news coverage that they have received to Governor more attention for Northern on a wide range it's a sad note the kitchen spaces at a new Northern High School will be amazing finally next week is spring break for our traditional schools our year one school are already in intercession as always I'm one of students our staff to practice self-care.

During the break and come back refreshed this has been a challenging week and these opportunities were all time and well deserved Madam chair let's conclude my remarks thank you Dr mobinga the next item on our agenda is our agenda review and approval. Over the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Rogers seconded by misfire any other discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the Board of Education monthly meeting minutes from February 23rd 2023.

Move approval of the minutes from February 23rd 2023. It's been moved and properly second but move by Miss buyer secondly seconded by Miss Valla any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is general Public Comment before we get started I will do a quick review of the rules please first please state your name and if you are speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments Within we'll do two minutes we got a good number of speakers tonight when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to wind up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep and that 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 our students and to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in the discussion with our speakers right two I did say two minutes so for our folks coming in we'll have two minutes but also please know that any comments that you've written up you can share with us at b o e at dpsnc.net all right we'll go first with Deborah King followed by Vanessa Barnett Laurel.

Hi can you come on up to the podium right here. Right in the Star as soon as I start talking you got it Miss King all right okay so my name is Deborah King and I work at the Durham School of Arts as exceptional children's instructional assistant I work with teams and young adults with severe and profound autism. My day consists of getting the students on and off the buses we sometimes do not get breaks due to the unpredictability of some of our students we work beyond our scheduled hours we only earn comp time no overtime which can be hard to use in a department when we don't get enough subs and taking time taking time would leave co-workers short-handed the students that I work with are high school students who are able to stay until they are 22 years old that means we are working with adults who may have the cognitive ability of a toddler complete with the inability to to control their temper there has been incidents like black eye.

From a remote control being thrown skin ripped off hand with teeth clumps of hair being pulled out of head kicked scratched bitten slapped in face and punched this is often every day reality in many of our special resources which is formerly known as self-contained oh my time is over with it is sometimes anyway all of this is to say that we're looking to get better pay in reference to the cost of living thank you very much thank you Miss King. All right we'll have Vanessa Barnett Laura followed by Jenny Carda-Auten and then Sonny Geraldo good evening everyone apologies I came from the Hub Farm today so my name is Vanessa Barnett Laurel I am a fourth grade teacher at ignite Online Academy in Durham Public Schools former DPS student teacher DPS parent I'm here tonight to urge you to vote in favor of increased salary for classified staff as well as hopefully differential pay for EC instructional assistance and EC instructors last year I taught kindergarten no IA.

This year in fourth grade but last year I talked to kindergarten in first grade and Joy Harrell Goff was absolutely phenomenal she was indispensable instructionally relationally with the students logistically like she made everything possible she helped with literacy small group instructions she helped with proctoring assessments she chaperoned field trips she does all of it again this year all over again with a smile she subbed short-term she subbed long-term she did everything she had all of the hats she's a rock star she's a professional she's a working mom just like so many of our other IAS and classified staff and DPS and she's trying to raise her kids in a very expensive Durham increasingly expensive every year she's essential she's beloved we adore her at ignite she deserves more than what she's getting from the district right now please take care of our people please vote to pay Miss Sarah and all of our classified staff more something closer to a living wage even if we can't quite get there this year thank you.

Good evening I'm Jenny Jones Carda-Auten and tonight I'm speaking as a mother of three DPS students as well as the People's Alliance education action team co-lead first and foremost I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the grief our community is feeling right now there are two young men that are dead and literally the last time I came to speak to this board we were mourning the loss of a different TPS student and I wish that I had eloquent words but I don't and we can't make this situation any better but I have always believed that public education has the potential to prevent this sort of tragedy in fact study after study proves that it does so I'm here tonight because I believe in this institution and I believe in the importance of this institution In This Moment our children's needs are great since this time three years ago our entire world has changed and for our children so much more so they need the very best from the adults in our school buildings.

Which means those adults need the very best from us our team is asking for the full funding of the comprehensive salary study presented to this board in January as well as funding for differential pay for our EC staff in order to appropriately value the additional workload and the physical and emotional demands of teaching our students with the highest support needs like you just heard about we are asking this board to take care of our staff because we believe that when we do that our staff will take care of our students and that's what we need to happen thank you.

Thank you next we'll have Sunny Geraldo followed by Robert Johnson and Rachel Owens hi I'm Sunny oraldo I'm a i Southwest and the DPS president of ice what started out is just more money for our eyes has gotten a lot bigger and includes all classified staff now we would just want to say thank you for doing a salary study looking at it but we classified staff are in need of money we have people who are working two or three jobs I had an IA send me a message and I sent it to her principal she has to figure out every day am I going to have lunch or is my child going to have lunch her child has lunch her kids in her classroom ask her why are you not eating her excuses I forgot my lunch so her students go and bring lunch from the cafeteria to her every day because she has to choose either she's gonna eat or her child this we work just as hard as teachers not to.

Take anything away but we I tell our eyes and our building we should be on roller skates because we are pulled in so many different positions our cafeteria workers if you talk to them they are also working multiple jobs this increase will help so many people to quit one two of their part-time jobs to have time for their families we know that you support this we just need to fight harder we need to remember what our why is we had a workshop at the beginning of the year for eyes I said what is your why why are you here it's not because we're making money it's because we love our kids and we love what our what we do but we need to be able to focus more on them without having to worry let's leave our jobs thinking.

Good evening my name is Robert Johnson I am an instructional assistant at Durham School of the Arts and I'm here to express concerns about a situation that we're having and we feel unsupported by the district we have a student who has violent behaviors and they have increased more and more to the point where the student has not had a consecutive week of school since the beginning of this year he has they have they actually assaulted at least eight staff and student members and they are still in our classroom we don't have the support to help them we don't have the resources and we have been complaining and asking for more resources than we have been left with nothing we are afraid of our safety as a staff because no one can control the student is a very big student and so we just don't have the support we don't have the resources and we will really like help dealing with this student before someone people have already been hurt and emotionally scarred but before like.

Irreparable damage happens to a person's body and as all the other IAS have said we don't get paid enough to put our bodies on the line to be hurt and possibly be like disabled because we're not getting support and so please I'll be emailing all of you more information things I can't get to publicly but please any help would be extremely useful thank you thank you Mr Johnson Mr Johnson Mr Johnson we'll also have a staff member follow up with you today at this meeting thank you Rachel Owens followed by James Barnes and Ron Baron good evening to you all hi I'm Rachel Owens and first and foremost I want to say I'm fully and 100 completely in support of the pay raise for classified staff that's not what I'm here to speak about though my name is Rachel Owens I am a science teacher at an environmental Club advisor at Northern High School and I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of all current and future DPS students I'm here tonight as a reminder.

I've spoken in front of this board twice before on this same topic and I'm here again tonight as we approach Earth month our children are in need of a future in which the adults in their life Model Behavior that shows them they holistically care about their quality of life during this time of climate change the effects of which are closing in around them and the causes of which were not their fault we as their leaders in the school district must ensure every possible Avenue on the road to renewable energies mainly solar I am here to remind you that Durham public schools has an opportunity to lead the state in what is called canopy or parking lot solar since a lot of our schools cannot sustain rooftop solar but for the school's ruse that can handle it I am here to remind you that we should be that should be a priority because North Carolina is a leader in that area as well I am also here to remind you that my.

Students and I are here to help in any way that we are able we want to work with you and any DPS staff member that will have us on their team I'm here to tell you our students are leaders they have amazing ideas they have their wheels are always turning always and it's my absolute privilege on a daily basis to be their teacher please please please join me in valuing their future and help us to solarize our schools thank you thank you.

Hi my name is James Barnes and I'm a senior at Northern High School and I'm also here today to talk to you about solar panels Northern High School is currently considering installing parking lot solar panels at our new building and I'm extremely excited about the idea that one day our school could be powered by the sun in order to protect our children's Futures we need to switch to Renewables as soon as possible parking lot solar panels won't just provide clean energy they will shield cars from the Sun and keep cars cool even as our planet warms I mean who likes stepping out into their car when it's hot and muggy in your car is even more hot and muggy solar panels will keep them cool I used to go to a charter school with parking lot solar and Not only was it cost effective it was a fantastic learning tool to teach kids about renewable energy and climate change I want to let the school board know that kids do care about.

Renewable energy I mean it's our future at stake after all I hope we can work together as a community to make sure this plan is followed through and expanded upon in all Durham Public Schools thank you thank you next we'll have Ron Barone Volker sorry Ron volcker I apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name folk all right and then Elizabeth Jones good evening first I wanted to welcome board member card Alton I really look forward to your wonderful work on the board a few months ago my non-binary DPS kindergartner and I came to speak to the board about passing a necessary and overdue lgbtq and gender non-conforming policy Carmel was absolutely Overjoyed when I told him a few weeks later that had passed but Focus since then has slowed to a call the promised Task Force Team stole Universal training for teachers and staff hasn't been discussed Carmela's teachers need training and support as they learn how to best support Carmel we need to focus on the task force please get this moving and while we're.

At it our classified staff need more money let's get that done.

Hey good evening my name is Walker Bloom I'm a 2-43 West Club Boulevard in Durham we have yeah we have three children and TSA Riverside and Brockton I would normally come to speak about things like solar energy actually the teacher pay raises but you know I think you know I'm not here for that I'd like to ask the board's support and appreciate their words in the beginning for our students I think we need to see you and I think they need to see you in person they need to hear your words that you spoke to this boardroom but our students will not hear in the light of the shootings that are going on so I deeply actually regret not coming here after Hillside because I felt things were silent I see you later drama Bingo on the website but it doesn't say we agree for our students it says we're doing something isn't getting to the children so three teenagers were shot I know next to Brockton Middle School you know next to.

Brockton Middle School tours and died a month ago at the hillside this strategy will happen again if we don't do anything if we follow a process that does not imply more than business as usual and that's in many respects for what we do process is good but it's not everything but what I'm asking for is that PPS at least do something that recognizes for the students and with the children in front of the children what happened and that this isn't what we are what we want to be but we call for a kind of a day of mourning a minute of silence or so across DPS because this will happen at another school we can do it at Riverside by the way we forgot Brogden Brogden was affected right Brogden was the school that had the prime side next to it and where these children went before they went to Riverside Riverside this is a DPS matter I think because these are the school districts kids they went to school together.

They were killed next to their school the school was locked down the children they know the victims and I think DPS will own this whether we like it or not and I think we need to do something before the next time comes hopefully we can hear you speak to our children not to us not for this boardroom for our children thank you. Good evening my name is Elizabeth Jones and I'm speaking as a former teacher and a DPS parent and affirming the need for two key priorities in funding for DPS schools first the wage increase for classified staff and also differential pay for exceptional children's teachers even before our current state of inflation and increased cost of living are classified staff struggled to make ends meet due to low wages in a county supposedly committed to ensuring a living wage it's unacceptable that our classified staff who provide such a valuable service to our school communities have to endure such low pay as a former teacher and a current DPS.

Parent I've seen firsthand how essential classified staff are to our schools and how tirelessly they work to educate our children classified staff that I worked with were often some of the most long-standing and beloved members of our school Community while often working behind the scenes without appreciation were truly the backbone of our schools with current Staffing shortages instructional assistance at my son's school are continuously having to cover classes and go above and beyond their job description on a daily basis well I know the district may not have the funds to pay these individuals what they deserve they at least need to earn a living wage second while the Staffing shortages are hitting the district across the board the shortage of exceptional children's teachers is at a crisis Point are disabled youth are not able to access Services they are legally entitled to we need to act now to fund differential pay for EC teachers and support staff devalue the extra workload and the extra demands of teaching students with the highest needs.

In short DPS can't afford not to invest in our people thank you thank you next up we have Michelle Burton followed by Sarah Dawson and Millicent Rogers. Good evening my name is Michelle Burton and I am an elementary school librarian media coordinator at Spring Valley Elementary School and I'm the current president of the Durham Association of Educators and I'm so excited because two of my Spring Valley babies are here Fiona and Isabelle but I'm here to talk about the classified pay study Dae is in full support of this being in the DPS budget for the 2023-2024 school year you have heard many of the stories from our IAS and other classified staff that they're just not getting paid enough money we know this and unfortunately we know that the state the legislators that in Raleigh are not doing what they're supposed to do to fund our public schools and pay our people what they need to be paid so we have to pick up the difference here in.

Durham so one of the things I want to say is you know we keep losing people we've lost two really excellent IAS at my school Spring Valley to go go out and work in Research Triangle Park one is going to make ten thousand dollars more and so what I want to say is that we have to be bold in what we do and getting our people paid a living wage to live here in Durham County I also want to encourage you all to ask for for more money to find out how can we get parental leave so our folks can have parental leave that they don't have to borrow sick leave from their co-workers and also you know our neighbors to the east now has Master pay so you know thank you so much for being such a supportive school board thank you Dr mabin for being supportive and let's be bold and ask for more money thank you.

Hi my name is Sarah Dawson I'm the mother of an eighth grader at Brogden Middle School I'm also a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma treatment like you I'm devastated for the families who lost their children on Tuesday night I'd like to describe what happened on Wednesday at Brogden because I feel strongly that though everyone at Brogden was doing their best we can still improve how we respond to emergencies to better insulate our kids from further trauma on brogden's campus on Wednesday morning a police substation was assembled we were directed to drop off in front of the school because in back of the school there was an active crime scene a policeman yelled at me to stop and let my kid out of the car and then told her to run into the building another parent I know asked an officer to allow her to watch her son enter the building and his response was to scream you have to clear the area meanwhile helicopters started to circle the school in nearby Woods this is how.

My daughter and all the rest of Brogdon student body started their day unsure of whether there was still an active threat to the area or not they literally went from the relative safety of their cars to a School on lockdown status the second lockdown within four days when I picked her up she talked about the flashing police lights on all day outside the windows she said that staff told kids not to discuss what was happening and not to look at their phones kids were expected to go to class with no information other than being told eventually that the school was out of lockdown and some even had to take CDA exams like nothing was out of the ordinary was happening the kids were told eventually there was no active threat at the same time they were learning from their phones about what had happened my daughter watched a video showing an aerial view of Brogden from one of those helicopters while she was in the very building telling someone they're safe while all.

The external sensory information says otherwise is confusing and ultimately trust breaking I think we can do better to insulate our children thank you. Next to have Millicent Rogers followed by window tab followed by Helen Rudy again I apologize if I mispronounced your name Shelly Rudy hi everyone my name is Millicent Rose and I teach seventh grade math at DSA I'm proud active member of Dae I'm here to speak about a couple of things oh you added a timer this is great thank you I'm very much in favor of the budget request I think the salary study was a great idea and I appreciate you all taking it really seriously I also plan on advocating to the County Commission to try to get y'all the full 10.8 million for classified raises just earlier today I was at a meeting with the classified staff member that works not only her full-time job here in DPS she leaves to 2 45 to be at her second full-time job at Lowe's by three and.

Doesn't get home until 10. and she works that five days a week as well today was her day off so we need it and I know you all know we need it the other thing is parental leave I know that Chapel Hill just passed that last year it's going to be really attractive to a lot of people that teach here in Durham I strongly Advocate doing a study over the next year to try to figure out how many people each year we would need to fund parental leave for and then do it Chapel Hill was I think was about 65 staff proportionally here I'm a math teacher but I'm on the spot I think that's something between two and three hundred last but not least the other thing I wanted to mention was the lgbtq task force I'm the sponsor of the GSA at my school they were very excited to hear about it we have at least one kid that was able and willing to serve but there hasn't really been any.

Communication around it that I'm aware of since the fall and I know that there's a lot of things going on but I think there's a lot of students and staff who are eager to have something to do to to help them feel like they're they're making positive change and actually make it I think one thing that students and staff could both contribute to would be some sort of shared PD paid of course but a PD that would be developed by and for classroom teachers and immediately actionable I think people are hungry for that kind of thing thanks so much and yeah thanks.

Good evening to Dr mabinga chairwoman but I'm standing to the members of the board and to the administration Wendell Tab and I stand before you tonight to give commendations accommodations to your staff for working with us for a state of urgency on behalf of Miss Tiffany Agustin who's the new drama director and those students in state of urgency who cannot be here tonight because they are attending a performance at the Carolina Theater but I stand here in their absence as well here again to say thank you thank you specifically to Dr mabinga for having this Vision to make sure that we get in front of these students and hear from them to sheriff Burkhead for having the audacity to to think so big to fund all of those students to come to the Productions and also to Dr Maddox Perry to Dr Judge to miss Tamika Ward Satterfield and to miss Christian Roberts and the entire public affairs office and to student support really really truly setting up that talk.

Back with us and to you the school board members for participating and supporting that initiative it has made a difference because students when they see something when they hear something they are now saying something and it takes those students the power of those students that's going to make this difference and what I do encourage this District is not to wait for anybody else whether city council or discounted Commissioners whether it's General Assembly to be the force behind what we decide to do to take care of our own children we have to take that step and make sure that we are taking care of our students and be the leader and not let anybody else dictate to us how to take care of our babies and so thank you all so very much for supporting state of urgency the student sends their best regards to you and say thank you thank you.

Next we'll have Shelley Rudy followed by Jessica Schaefer and Larry Williams good evening I'm Shelley Rudy and I am also a parent of an eighth grader at Brogden Middle School and I come here tonight with deep grief and heartache as we all have over the loss of two students in our district so I wanted to start by saying I commend Brogden staff who endured two lockdowns within four days and I also wanted to say that it's unfair what we're asking of our teachers right now it's unfair the burden that we're putting on them postcovid to keep our students safe and teach them in a time of such deep Mental Health crisis I do think Brogden needed and needs to have trauma counselors just like Riverside because of what was said earlier oh geez yellow light and so there are three main things one trauma counselors need to be at Brogden the staff need it and the students need it two as parents have said earlier we as a community need to step forward and.

Show a sign of collective grieving there needs to be a public space that the school board someone needs to initiate to have a shared place of grieving not to progress like this is another normal day but to see us as adults horrified grieving over this loss and the third is as what was said earlier I feel like often we get caught up in the bureaucracies of making a perfect when we're trying to figure out how to help with violence in our communities we wait too long to figure out what is the perfect solution now is the time to it doesn't have to be perfect but to get our neighborhoods our communities our faith-based organizations the school system and parents are ready to go and get together as a village as you spoke to Mr mubinga I really beg you to push that forward now is the time okay thank you thank you.

I'm Jessica Schaefer followed by Larry Williams and then miss turquoise Parker sorry guys I should have been up here ready to go I it's hard to follow all of the Brogden it's a really emotional and I agree with everything of her tonight I came tonight to speak to the pay raises for the classified and differential and I realized that a lot of it is being held up at state level and there's different things that are in play but I think as a mother with three children with IEPs we have been served both at the elementary level and the Early Education level and seeing how important these IAS are and how important these EC EC teachers are these Educators if kova taught us EC parents anything it was that not anyone can do this job it is a highly skilled job with with a lot of training and education that goes into it and these people are miracle workers and they deserve to be compensated as such so that is a priority and I and I.

Hope you vote in favor to make up the difference and help them out and if it's a matter of organizing and going to the state I know a lot of moms I can get together okay we can rally and get to the you know legislative level level but let's get it done and get these people what they need thank you.

Larry Williams followed by turquoise Parker I didn't my name is Larry Williams I work at Journal I mean Southeast Transportation I've been working there since 2004 off and on part-time and full time but since 2013 I've been working full-time I'm here on behalf of just want the board to know that you know we are great for the race we have received in the past however it'll cost to live in expenses and everything we're almost back where we started from and we appreciate support we have received about getting other workers however that it's not you know seniority not playing a part of what the years that we have put into Service most of you all may or may not know what we do with every day but we're on that bus we have to deal with you know we don't have no close environment we have to deal with everything from the traffic to the students in just a split second we can have an accident and hurt anyone we.

Don't want that to happen but we try to concentrate so we just appreciate the point we have and even though if something happened we had to call it in because no one is there other than maybe a monitoring the bus and a lot of us don't have monitors and we need monitors but other than that we do want you to consider us with the paid increase due to the fact that the cost of living is has increased to end right now we are back to almost where we started from going to use the service pay file use use of service and we'll support us with the behavioral Department with the deal with his children every day day in by day and we often hear the word we all appreciate what you do and I really appreciate that if you all do appreciate that show that by financially increasing our pay thank you.

Bye so first my name is turquoise Lejeune Parker I am the media coordinator at the Lakewood Elementary School first I'd like to thank my husband for taking care of Madame while I'm here hey Madam and Donald second congratulations to a Parker's professor's parents for the newly appointed position third I'm always proud to talk about the supportive Board of Education we have in Durham because if you are anyone who looks around around the country that's not the case for a lot of people I know that you all support this budget request I know that but there are people in our buildings who do not feel that way and that's because they don't see you and I again I know that you all see them and you will use that use your voice because you know that this is what we need my two asks are that you ask for more because they are classified staff really need it my second ask is that you please come into our buildings not as an observation walkthrough because there.

Are enough of those as an observation and conversation to see these are real people who are doing real jobs it's no accident that the strike that's happening in Los Angeles is around the very thing that we're at this meeting talking about and one of the fourth grade teachers I worked with a while ago she was a a former school she was a former hospital-based pediatrician and she said something that really stuck with me for years that what is true in the Pediatric ER is true in the classroom it doesn't matter how good you are how smart you are what an expert you are you cannot simply resuscitate two kids at the same time and if we are really serious about advancing all of our students then we will make sure that we compensate and push for compensation for our employees because it is our duty to fight for our freedom it is our duty to win we must love and support each other because we have absolutely nothing to lose but our chains thank you.

Right and that concludes our public comment thank you to all of our speakers who've come the next item on our agenda is our consent items we have a monthly change order report from February 2023.

Move approval of the consent agenda the monthly change order report second it's been moved by Ms buyer seconded by Miss Rogers is there any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's proposed budget pass it over to operation services.

Good evening Madam chair Dr mabanga board members our newest board member welcome to the Welcome to our our our game so tonight we bring to you the superintendent's proposed budget for 23-24 time flies when we're having fun and this has a lot of change in it for the fact that Esther monies are being utilized and and going down has a lot of increases for as you heard tonight for the classified salary study as well as certified positions based on a 4.25 percent increase it's going to be challenging as we move forward understand that we've provided the school district schools a lot of positions over the years and with the SR funds drying up in 24. it's going to impact our our schools immensely as well as our District Operations as a whole so if you go to the next slide please one of the slides we haven't shown you in regards to this budget as we've discussed it over the months is our enrollment Trends and projections for.

The upcoming school year as you can see we're continuing to decline in enrollment and with that means loss of State funds as well our projection next year will be thirty thousand seven seventy two for Durham Public Schools down from the second month membership this year of 31 187. I would love to budget more but we've been having a decline on an annual basis since our peak in 2019 of the 32 9 20. I mean 5 20. So with that said I have to project this budget a little bit lower in hopes and wishes that we're going to see a turnaround as we did back in the 2019 time frame at where we were at 32 520.

We need to be in those areas it's hard for us to continue to fund our positions that we have when the state revenues are going to be declining because of enrollment decline when we show you a number of 31 187 the state's funding I'll say 31084. So they're looking at average daily membership in the first two months we're giving you a picture of what our membership is because all kids count not just looking at numbers and coming up with a different number so our schools we are well funded in Durham but this is becoming to be an issue for us as we move forward one of my concerns moving forward is because since night 20 1920 time frame the 1920s who year we have we lost 75 teaching positions from the state state alone and that's just teaching positions all our all our funding is based on our average daily membership so all of our position in dollar allotments are being reduced on an annual basis putting more pressure on.

Our local budget we're fortunate we have a good source of revenue from the county we're asking for a big ask again this year of the 10 point eight million dollars and it's going to be all needed to fund the classified salary study and any potential increase in certified salaries so our Target is to continue to watch what's going on try to bring more schools in growing together bringing more programs across the district we're hoping that that will turn around and allow more students to be able to instead of just going to magnet school or trying to go to a magnet school be allowed to go to a school and have those programs in their schools that is an enticing thing which we hope will be advantageous to us in the next few years next slide please.

We've talked about a few of these things because dollars ADM means dollars to Durham Public Schools and from that standpoint we will need to use our local funds to support positions and the fixed costs in this budget and at each School that does not hit its hit its enrollment thresholds we're going to be in a bigger situation down the road these projections were looked at by a team from the planning office from student enrollment across the board and many other areas across Durham Public Schools we tried to come up with something that would be reasonable and the thirty thousand seven seventy two because of our trajectory is where we landed we have to use our local funds to absorb any adverse allotment adjustments by the state the state never passes their budget in a timely manner we have to pass and you have to pass over to the Board of County Commissioners no later May 15th your proposal to them the general assembly will not pass a budget before June 30th and sometimes we.

Don't even know what they're thinking as far as salary increases and adjustments to our budgets until after June 30th so we're always absorbing something the biggest thing that we've had to absorb is House Bill 90 which is about class size requirements in K3 we got to make sure that we hit those marks and have the teachers in those classrooms for those classes to be certified as meeting the state requirement and as you can see in kindergarten first and second grade classes can exceed 21 in first grade kindergarten 19 or 20 students in two two through three these are hard targets me because kids don't come in nice neat packages the state funds US based on 1 to 18 kids don't come in nice neat packages of 1 to 18. so it's hard for us to not have the support from our local budget to provide and ensure that we have the class sizes covered so we can certify that we meet all the state regulations in regards to that.

One of the other things that concerns me is the state's mechanism for at-risk funding back in 2021 and this still affects us we took a hit of 860 thousand dollars in one year and it's continuing today in our at-risk funding that's because it's funded based on ADM as a part of it poverty as a part of it though Durham Public Schools has a high poverty level it's about the county the FI the 5 through 20 population and Durham has not as high of a poverty across the across the county these are significant things that are going to hold us accountable with our local dollars and making sure we're utilizing them appropriately next slide P please so as we talk about this budget request the biggest largest line item we're going to have is our classified salary study 4.1 million dollars that we're going to need to implement that all the other things that are going to be part of this budget request or just salary increases 4.25 for certified four percent for classified employees.

And the escalating retirement and health insurance might have over projected on those based on the governor's budget but I'm not the general assembly hasn't done their part in regards to the budget usually we see a sizable increase in the first year of a biennium the governor is only looking for it to go up 0.12 from 24.5 percent for retirement the 24.62 percent per retirement I don't see that as a real number in my mind I could be wrong I would like to be wrong because as it is right now we have to match benefits on salaries which is over 33 right now so if we go any higher a third of our a salary is what we're paying and just benefits alone in the last year of covert this is going to be the last year of covert as we come forward in that we're going to give a fifteen hundred dollar bonus for anybody that's employed and we thank you for your support on that at the last meeting.

Fifteen hundred dollars for support to ensure that we can retain our staff very very very important as you've heard tonight staff are leaving you hear it across the county across the city across the state people are just leaving their jobs unfortunately we're hoping with the classified salary study fifteen hundred dollar staff bonus many counties are not going to be doing that next year or school districts going to do that next year but we are going to be able to do that on behalf of our people with those dollars drying up in September of 24 anything we have at that point has to be encumbered by the end of September those are your contracts you may have in place for the purpose of well our biggest one is going to be with maintenance and operations getting the parts in getting the the repairs done that'll be probably the biggest part of what we'll have at the end of 2024 that we have to liquidate by January of 25. there could be some other contracts.

For staff development things of that nature that we enter into that have to be completed and paid out by the end of January as well most positions that we established in Esser will not continue in this proposal we have zeroed them out at this point in time when we meet with the principals in April to develop their plans we will determine what will go back into the budget for next year for the needs of those schools that are in high need next slide please so your local funding request as we talked at a number of board meetings 10.8 million dollars in total nine million dollars for Durham public schools for the operations and when that when we talk operations we're talking about the salary increases and the classified salary study as we know approximately 20 percent has to go to Charter Schools so we added the extra 1.8 million dollars to the ass to come up with a total of 10.8 million dollars we met with the county this week.

The county manager was very encouraging in her desire to ensure that living wage is maintained in Durham we also mentioned to her that their staff is already making 17 an hour and ours is we have many that are not they're 16 but they're not 17. So this salary study brings us up to Marketplace value in the area that's always going to change but it gets us closer to where we need to be and maybe retain many more staff based on the county budget approval again we don't know what the state's going to do so the four percent that we have in here could be five percent for classified could be six percent for classified that helps us in the state portion of the budget but we're going to be running short a little short in the on our side we told the county manager and her staff that we would be recalculating once we get the final budget from the state and we would come back to them if need.

Be if it's going to be a significant increase above what we need for the purpose of ensuring everybody's salaries a whole so we did do those things this week and as always expected their staff is very concerned about the ongoing costs we all are but that's where we that's the business we're in when 80 plus percent of your budget is in salary and benefits alone so next slide please so this is what your request to the county looks like currently if you look you're 23 223 approved we have 137 million in operations for the purpose of our overall budget 33 million for Charter Schools giving us 170 million dollars in total the ask would bring it up to 181 million dollars in total 146 would be for Durham Public Schools 35.1 at this time targeted for Charter Schools giving us a total of the 181.

We're not asking for anything for witted yet we've been able to operate within the resources available for witted for pre in our Pre-K programs but I've always mentioned to the county that will come asking for money when we're in need of additional Pre-K money and the more classes we open the more pressure it puts on those programs and we will be going back to them in the next few years I'm pretty sure about that from that standpoint our overall budget would look to the tune of 189 million dollars next year again with 35 million dollars in local going directly to Charter Schools next slide please what we have for you here is a budget summary showing our revenues by funding source the majority of our money comes from the state but as you can see in local we're at 21.8 percent 259 million almost 260 million comes from the state 150 160 million will come from local Federal is 116 million in total from that standpoint we're still working within our realm of.

Our coveted funds we'll have about 80 80 million dollars left to spend next year our Capital funding is 145 million dollars as you can see and I mentioned we took out the covet relief positions if you look at the far column our total positions are going to be 5030 based on this budget currently. Remember we had 100 about 187 that were in the covid program previously again some of those will come back but I we have the funds we're just not going to show them as positions because we don't want to make any promises yet next slide please if you look at where we are with our overall budget by purpose when we talk by purpose we're talking about our school-based instructional Services almost 400 million dollars goes directly to that 54.4 percent of the budget 3861 positions we are putting a lot of positions into the schools and they're much needed our Capital Investments we'll look at 144 million we've already entered into some contracts with our 193 million that.

We've received from the county both the capital outlay from that standpoint we have reduced those out of the budget at this point in time with the expectation of the expenses coming through as we go forward again at June 30th we will re-calibrate all these funds and they will when we get your budget resolution in the fall we will end up adjusting these numbers accordingly based on what we carry over Operational Support 75 million 663 positions over 300 of those positions are are custodians part-time full-time positions then you have the rest of it administrative and instructional support that goes to support the schools 25 million 157 positions ancillary Services those are your Child Nutrition in your community ed positions you have 311 of those 39 in technology giving us a whole total of five thousand and thirty positions in this budget next slide please as you look at it we show you this one by budget by budget summary by object and this is getting more into how are you spending your money.

100 series is for salaries 200 series of benefits 300 300 series is purchase Services 400 Services series is supplies and materials and your Capital Investments transfers there's been some questions regarding that transfer line I'll speak to it on the front end this is money that's in our transportation budget that at the end of every year we have to take that those funds which we have to reserve and we have to spread it out based on the actual expenses within the Local transportation budget this is because of our white bus fleet or which are activity buses we use the funding for for our regular Transportation but then we have to distribute These funds accordingly across the board based on the percent of salaries being paid oil oil required tires required and all the other expenses that go along with the bus Fleet that we use the yellow buses for in this regard salaries is always going to be as I said the highest part of your budget 300 million dollars 41 percent.

Benefits 135 million 18.4 percent of our budget when you when you pull those two out there's not really a whole lot left to go around and you've heard that time and time again in regards to that but fortunately we have to remember that anything above and beyond we're picking up locally we're utilizing our federal funds we're maximizing those maximizing our state allotments and then utilizing the local remaining local funds to to operate our day-to-day business next slide please if you go to this slide on this slide this is about talking about what your budget's made out of in regards to personnel as you can see we have two almost two thousand two thousand four hundred teachers in the budget the state will give us probably one one thousand eight hundred of those to start in our position allotments and from that standpoint we turn around and add additional positions by utilizing our dollar allotments for personnel we have our exceptional children funds that have additional teachers in there we have.

At-risk student funds that we fund positions with from that standpoint we have disadvantaged students funding that we add additional positions with so we're utilizing those State dollars to fund most of those teaching positions we only have about 400 in our current budget that are coming out locally so that's a big difference compared to where we are with the total teachers but those are additional positions that are needed to ensure that we have equitable distribution to our schools instructional support these are your positions such as guidance counselors social social workers and those types psychologists that are there to support the Student Activities as well as the teachers in the school you got 1184 of those.

Operational Support you got 810 as I said about 300 a little over 300 was for custodial services that we added bringing them on board from the contract years ago and the rest of those are for the purpose of groundskeeping operational Services as well as additional positions in the central office I think things of that nature you have your Technical and administrative support as well those are part of your central office in in that regard as well you have school leadership which are your principals and assistant principals 163 of those central office administration it shows 104 but there are others that are dispersed in your operational service as well any Technical and administrative supports and then your before and after school care as well from that standpoint Durham Public Schools puts a lot of positions out to ensure that we can make the best in gains as possible for our students as we know we've been having difficulties filling those positions as everyone is which allows us to generate a fund balance.

But at the same time we've been unfortunately having to hire more and more non-certified teachers I have to put that out there for the purpose of ensuring that we have people in student people in front of students they may not have their license we're trying to get them licensed some of them have a pathway some of them will not have a pathway but we do hire them to ensure that we can put a person in front of that class every single day so that they don't have a substitute in that classroom substitute costs are going up just the same last year it was 3 million this Pro year it's probably going about be about 3.5 million dollars it's an increasing cost that everybody's having to deal with we do have other supports in place for teachers that are working during their planning periods they're able to be paid for that so I mean there's some important things that we're doing within our budget to ensure that we have people qualified people.

Consistent people in front of the in front of our students so with that said we have 7.3 734 million dollar budget that we're going to operate with starting and from that standpoint 35 million dollars that we're not showing you is going to Charter School at this point in time hopefully we'll bring those kids back with our growing together plan and we'll be able to have more students coming to Durham Public Schools to make hopefully it easier for all within the district next slide please with that said just wanted to give you an update on the budget calendar tonight we're presenting the superintendent's budget we'll be providing the schools there planning allotments setting up meetings to the beginning of April we need to have a public Hearing in April we usually do it in your first work session half hour before we'll work with you on that to get that schedule to ensure that the public can come and and voice their thoughts in regards to the budget from that standpoint in April you have.

We need to look at your budget see what the state's doing because if there's anything that's going on we could make an adjustment to the budget before we send it over to the County Commissioners in May May 15th is the due date for all districts to supply their budgets their board's budgets to the county as you know you have a Moe mou whatever you want to call it with the county that says it will provide it to them in the month of March so tonight this is on your plate for discussion and for us to move it forward to the county as our ask at this point in time with the know all that we can make changes if necessary but at this point it will I think it will be hard-pressed to be able to get additional money in this past at this point in time based on our discussions with the county.

May and June we're going to meet with the county latter part of May and they'll pass their budget in June by June 12th I do want to say that there is a budget hearing for Durham for Durham County budget which is going to be May 22nd that's an important date those that want to go to the county and express their public opinion and go to their the county commissioner's office and boardroom and and speak to the Board of County Commissioners that evening that is what entails the 2324 superintendent budget to this day I'll open up for questions.

Thank you Mr lesour could you have a comments no for that budget presentation the prices does say for action but this is just for information is that correct the action we want from you is to say that this is what we're at this time going with to the county okay and then we will vote again in April correct all right board members any questions or concerns thoughts you would like to share about our budget Miss Rogers thanks so much for putting this together so much appreciation because I know it can be easy and it's a lot of public scrutiny over the numbers we thank you for holding it down for us miss Delicia my question are really around I'm really pleased I've asked my questions we've talked about this but around some of the comments we heard tonight can we discuss what it looks like to have a easy supplement and how much that might cost and I think I would like to know if there are any other positions in the district that we.

Already provide supplements for and about how much that costs like not the county supplement you know not the that but the yeah differential pay and what that would look like and if there are other similar counties like our similar in size and demographic that offers such a differential how much that would cost I think I think that's what we'll hear again from the public and we know we already know we're looking at the parental leave on the other side of this so thank you we could certainly look into those costs and what other people are doing around us because there are some counties that are providing supplements for their classified staff on top of the salary but understand that they're mostly paying the state salary which starts at 15 an hour and they might add a supplement to that for the purpose of increasing that where we're putting it into our salary scales but yes we can certainly look at that and that's what the salary study did as well for the classified personnel.

To ask is the follow-up question on that because the the class when we have the classified study presentation one of their recommendation was to think about differential pay and our budget ass really is a large chunk so once we get that money could we you know with this current ass still do some differential pay inside of that chunk I guess is what I'm asking is that our is some of that already included because part of that was in the classified salary study I want to mention the differential pay difference we're really for your IAS and your ecias in that regard those have a different level of funding for the purpose of what we heard tonight those classroom IAS and the IAS working with the exceptional children as well but also not the EC teachers like that's that's was not touched with that study it's all I think it's so important for us to be clear and especially as the community is coming with asking for I would just like to confirm that the.

Recommendations are forthcoming and there is much discussion as part of the classified compensation study about EC differential for classified IAS and all of that so I think we will see that in the pending recommendations there will be an opportunity for more discussion about that but to your point board member buyer this is not BC teachers that is not part of the work that is being done here that is specifically related to those instructional assistants thank you for that it's really helpful to be really clear and so in here when we talk about additional funding needed to implement our salary study we could though provide some differential pay for ecias yeah exactly yes okay that is included okay thank you that's helpful other questions sorry one one when when you say it's still forthcoming we've seen the study we shared it with the county and the commissioners and it has scales in it I mean year one through Thirty there's one for EC IAS and there's one for regular classroom IAS the this model.

And this budget is built on those at least that's what I've been telling people so I need to that is correct okay that is correct okay thank you what I was speaking of is just the devil in the details so we're getting really really specific with the information from the recommendations from the classified salary study thank you I'm gonna go Miss valladares and then miss Rogers I'll come back to you we're definitely suffering with the lack of support I mean support Personnel right with instructional assistance I want to thank Sunny Geraldo who has you know been advocating you know been meeting with with with on behalf of all the instructional assistants so I just want to name that this is definitely something we have to bring into the context that this is a conversation that we've had for for a while so I'm really excited about anything that we can do and we are doing something of that four percent four point one percent is is definitely welcome and and I really love what.

You said Mr lesueur when you give us the numbers you give us the truth you give us like the scenario you also let us know like you know where we need to be careful in terms of you know we want to make sure that we are fiscally responsible we want to make sure that we keep our fund balance I just had a question about our fund balance as it stands eight million was kind of like the general yes eight million dollars is that something that we will adjust based on inflation based on or could we say at 8 million I just want to know on balance wise yeah so we're getting close to the end of the audit we've had some they've had some staffing issues like much like us they've had turnovers so on and so forth they've had to deal with audits that have been two years in arrears in some school districts that they're working with and they sent me the a picture of the financials at this point.

In time and it looks like we're gonna go up to a little over 9.5 million dollars in fund balance so we're increasing our fund balance a little this upcoming for this year and it should increase a little bit more in in the in this current year that we're in now by the end and I also appreciate the context that you always bring to us about State cops I I mean at the end of the day like we hear the advocacy about instructional assistance there's intersection the different groups that they touch our most vulnerable students our students that receive services from the EC Department exceptional children's department but also ESL students and those cops of you know 10.6 percent that haven't budged there's always just that question of what can we do with any discretionary funds that we get with any local monies that we get you know because we have those cops at the state level with Federal with the state funding and so while our state legislature and while our representatives and our Durham.

Delegation and everybody's up there trying to raise awareness of these cops locally you know I'm there's always just that question what can we do to be a district that is being Innovative in in the ways that we that we support our most vulnerable students the other thing I will add is that we have heard engagement I think Miss Denise and other folks who were just even you know prior to this meeting just talking about like summer options and freedom schools right and and a lot of us on the board remember that my children went through Freedom schools those kind of things about summer programming again addressing and keeping the focus on our students who who could benefit from these things so I'm just wondering about how are we trying to keep those in in mind as well in this regard I mean we do have money left in the SR funding that we're utilizing for our summer programming we also have summer reading dollars that we get from the state.

We got like 1.7 1.7 million dollars I think this year from the state to support our summer read programs and those bridges that we want to make from from from fifth grade to sixth grade in ninth grade to I mean eighth grade to ninth grade I mean those are critical points of contention as we move forward but yes we have money in the budget of that again put the money drying up from Esser it's going to become more of a local cost than a state cost as we move forward in our summer reading program so we're going to have to reallocate or adjust our Monies to be able to get back into that rhythm of utilizing our local dollars for our summer reading our summer programs.

Miss Rogers do you have additional questions Miss buyer so Mr I want to thank you and your team for all the exceptional leadership and finance those Awards and clean audits don't come without the work of your entire team and I'm delighted to hear such strong support and partnership and collaboration from the county we know that this is the state's responsibility and we know that the county has stepped up and I look forward to them continuing to step up it was good to see many here tonight Minnie's been here fighting for these children for a long time that's the reason we name the staff development center after her I still struggle to know whether what we're asking for is enough because essentially all of our staff are behind the labor market right the the pandemic shifted everything profoundly in this country and so yes we've done the salary study it took over a year our people patiently waited I I wanted this ask in last year's budget right I wanted this ask in.

Last year's because I know how much the costs have gone up for our lowest paid employees I know our grounds people say that they can't afford to live in this town and they're doing this fight work I know Dr Monk has told us that we can't afford like certified HVAC folks and plumbers and electricians that we're essentially kind of cobbling together Solutions and operations we're cobbling together classrooms I need the county and the state to understand that that we have more vacancies than every District in North Carolina have more vacancies than they ever have that they are approving charter schools at an alarmingly Gary rate when you look at their performance and so when we look at that orange line on that graph the first one that you put up the numbers of charter school students have doubled in this town in the last 10 years and when you look at the performance and what is going on in those schools they are both alarming in their in their racial isolation.

Their lack of equity policies and transportation and and food for students and they're they're concerning in a lot of ways as far as how their academic performance is going so when people are making individual choices in this town and when we're talking about growing together I really need people to understand what it is we're asking them to join in in this community democratic school system so you know what I see is districts around us going Masters pay and then they'll take our our ideas about attendance bonuses for bus drivers because every district is is desperate for humans to work with children and so I think we have to cost out some of the really important things and let our folks know where we're going to work on whether we can do Master's pay whether if it's not this year than next year like we're gonna work on parental leave like we've talked about as Chapel Hill has put that in place and it's the it's the right policy for families and young children.

I I just I love love love that the county and the city are pushing above 18 a year for their folks this year they are I need them to understand that the salary study that we brought has most of our people getting at least a 16.75. like there's one chart in there right our base rate is 16.75. so my dream for all elected bodies in Durham for the city for the county for the schools is to say here's our Durham living wage and we're all going to be at least at whatever so if they want to go to 18 let's cost out what it takes to get our folks to 18. like is is this enough is what I asked when when Hank heard and Ricky Lopes presented the the salary study is it enough it's it's definitely a moving in the right direction like it definitely is but is it enough so I you know yeah what would it take back of the envelope Mr Le store.

Master's page just like so we know what would it take for us just to actually invest more in national board certification like like the folks that we saw tonight because that's a 12 percent bump that the state picks up right maybe that's our best investment I yeah I the the Dr ravinga said that the the house is maybe coming out with their budget and they're talking nine percent but they're talking three percent really I mean they're going to spread it over so have I I don't know what my questions are but I guess it's like how do we how do we Vision together actually continuing to accelerate this and if is this actually all that the county can do knowing that they that they were able to actively save 52 million dollars into their fund balance last year if it is then we'll keep moving along methodically with them but knowing at the same time that they're about to raise their base pay for their folks above ours so that gives me pause.

I've talked a lot and not centered questions so Master's pay is that a question your Master's pay Dr lesane gathered all the people in the current salaries for those people it'd be 372 additional people to get Masters pay at a cost of close to two million dollars that's an ongoing call it's recurring right as you know wake County's taking it out of their fund balance but their fund balance is probably closer to 56 million dollars and so they have the ability to be able to do that as well as their lap salaries to come to that as well so I know y'all are thinking about the same kind of things I know I'm not saying anything that y'all aren't thinking of I know we talked about this before that we would do classified this year then we go back on teachers next year it just feels it feels like some and steps forward but the market has moved and the labor market and and the cost of living in this community is.

Is so high for our folks and I can't bear hearing people say that they're choosing between eating lunch or their children eating lunch I mean it just so how do we continue to accelerate these conversations if there is more that the county can do I think we welcome that the other piece that I worry about is that the 6 million that we have for recurring capital won't be enough for very long either we're using a lot of federal money to do capital projects and we're going to have to continue to revisit that in the future one thing I dream of is and I always have is more people at the Hub Farm like it's one person it's two people whatever that's a thing that that I always think is something that we're doing well one thing that I always dream is more people for Community Schools coordinators I think it's something we're doing well the thing that keeps me up at night the most is is the the language Justice.

Stuff that Ms validar is brings up and the EC staff and vacancies that I feel like we might need to seriously look at differential pay for those Educators sooner than we have already brought to bear so as y'all are continuing to craft this in the coming weeks I just appreciate your feedback on are there other strategic things if the county could come up with a million if they only could come over a million and a half more than this what would we do and what we dream or continuing to move us forward and not let us fall behind but I appreciate it thanks thank you Ms bar Miss Chavez.

Thank you Mr lasur for this budget and Dr nobenga and everyone who's been working on this so I think it's it's just very you know it's very comprehensive I appreciate the I'll try to just hit all my points here appreciate the inclusion of the salary study recommendations very much support that for all the reasons that people have shared anecdotally and and for retention purposes of our very hard working staff I guess I want to think of this budget as a ideally a people-centered budget and even though we don't necessarily get people centered monies from you know coming down from the or the the money that we would need to be fully people centered from the state and and so I I also just wanted to say I again reiterate that I support the looking at parental leave for next year and I hope we'll be I think that'll be I think it's the right thing to do I think it'll be good for retention and so that'll be a process but I.

Do want us to to work on that and let's see what else appreciate knowing the numbers about Masters pay I also want to say I'm interested to hear what it would take to have the EC differential pay and my question what I'm wondering too with that is I mean recognizing that EC teachers work so hard they are filling gaps right now that are left you know wide open and it's not only a Durham problem we've talked about that but they're doing they're doing so much to support students with special needs and I'm also wondering if we do offer direct differential pay for EC staff what does what outcomes might that bring us in more what what do other districts who do that see it you know you know better numbers of Staff I mean less vacancies more retention just kind of wondering what what we get for that investment and I also wanted to ask you Mr lasur to just speak to the EC hiring bonuses that we are.

That we put into place this year and that we're continuing continuing to do just so we can kind of highlight that because that is an investment that we are making in in our EC staff and have been actively trying to recruit you know EC teachers so I wanted to ask you to speak to that and then maybe I have one more question I want to let Dr lesane speak to that she's in charge of the hiring bonuses retention bonuses so I'm sure you'll have a more thorough understanding and give you the better answer than I would I'll just give you a straight answer and she'll give you the real answer with the Esser funds we did have a number of different bonuses that we offered the first year so four EC teachers we continue to have the EC bonus it is three it's a three thousand dollar bonus for new EC teachers foreign thank you I just wanted folks to be aware that we are you know making that.

Now can I ask a follow-up on that and I think I asked this at a previous meeting do we have any details about how long folks are staying after they get that retention bonus I am actually still working on that reporting it takes some digging so I'm working I have some folks that are working on that to get that information for you thank you I can answer not the amount of time but in the first year that we gave out over 700 700 bonuses 10 of those left within the first year those 70 people left within the first year.

Thank you I actually don't have another question I think I hit all my points so thank you yeah Madam chair let me just quickly comment on the EC differential pay when it comes to teachers and I would like to hear more from our board if that's something that's you would like for us to study and be able to bring it back I've heard in the past where are they were also advocating for teachers that work with ESL and all that kind of stuff so I just want us to be really mindful we've been working really hard to increase supplement of everybody across the board that's something that I was saving for the first time we need to ask our teacher organization if that's the rush that they would like for us to have I don't want to hear other groups coming back to us they say why this group one or the other so my Approach has been really consistent in the past every year we're increasing teacher supplements I remember the time.

I came in we pretty much deficient probably about 2 000 compared to work now we close the gaps the difference is about two hundred dollars so we've been really doing really well in that area so I just wanted us to be mindful if that's the right I will ask let's ask D.A is that the red approach and then my team will be able to go and look at those numbers and bring you the figure so I just wanted to mention that Miss Lewis thank you Mrs LaTour for this presentation and again just always being very direct with us about where things are and where we really need to be just a couple of questions for me one instructional support is at 1164.

And that's where our mental health support services reside where are we with Esser funding to bring in the mental health resources that we'll be losing because of that and for Dr Hardy we had a presentation a few years ago about getting to that 125 counselor ratio and having a plan is that included in this number. It's not included with the extra funds we were able to bring it down I think we put in like 36 additional counselor mental health positions into the schools but it's not getting us to where we need to be I think it brought us down to one to 276 and we wanted to get down below one to two fifty if I remember correctly so we were getting close but that's what the answer funds so that's going to go back up closer to one to three hundred I am supportive of this budget I wanted to say I didn't say that early on and and and even as you had asked about the EC differential hey I would like to.

Explore that and what that looks like and I would like to lean in as such a time as this to see what the numbers would look like for additional mental health support or in. I'd like to say 26. But that's the part of the budget again if we're asking for more I really want us to Center our mental health support and I know that we have a lot of needs and a lot of requests yeah the worst they could say is no if that's the case if we decide to look at that difference just looking at 10 you're probably looking close to 850 000 for those 10.

85 000 with salary and benefits sounds reasonable to me so coupled with that with whatever percentage we're gonna give to each other school that's is a million dollars yeah I appreciate that and then my other question thank you for talking about the Summer Bridge literacy programs that the district is doing by Adair as you brought up the freedom schools we've been asking about that for several years and I just want to note that just clarifying that's for Bridges that's happening but it'll be at the individual schools that they choose to bring on freedom schools and Dr Stewart confirmed that there's funding for that option if that's what the schools choose so that's just one of the programs I definitely and truly appreciate having in the school nice to learn that Miss Chavez actually taught Freedom School curriculum in her history as well and I just know it's powerful for Literacy for our kids to see themselves in the curriculum that they're reading I think that's all ahead and thank you for the presentation.

It's Carter Alton have Echo so much of what's already been said one thank you so much for putting this together and for laying it out for us as nicely as you did as someone who's learning and getting up to speed it's really helpful to see all the data in different ways and to hear from you I commend the decision to begin implementation of the salary study for DPS classified staff I agree I would love to be able to do more and I hope that we can continue to think about creative ways to support all of our staff but especially classified staff right now I'm interested in this EC differential pay but I'm hearing what Dr mubenga is saying and I do think it's wise to think about that and talk to the teachers and Educators about how that would be perceived we don't want to be seen as being unfair yet also recognize the extra effort and work that these educators are putting into their jobs same for ESL my goodness.

Also very interested in hearing more about paid parental leave and working towards that and absolutely more mental health support especially given where we are right now grieve in our communities I think that needs to continue to be a priority and wherever we can provide additional mental health support in the form of counselor social workers psychologists for our schools that should be one place that we prioritize putting resources I also wanted to add I know that before Aftercare is a little bit different an Enterprise units so DPS is just providing some additional funding but I'm wondering if we've thought you know with a long wait list last year and challenges with Staffing this is such an important resource for our families I wonder how this the money allocated and the planning around trying to prevent some of the issues that we saw last year like what's what the thoughts are in that so there are a couple things that are part of that program right they have their revenues that they.

Bring in close to two to two and a half to three million dollars annually they have some funding that's coming from the state on top of that to help support the programs we're looking to provide some IAS that have been part of that through our as a program funding those are the types of things that are there for them to have that support the big problem is like everything else it's about Staffing right in the it in the end if we have the wait list then we can't get the teacher the counselors or individuals that are part of the program that that's our biggest part program part that we have issues with along the way but we do have different resources going into that as well so there are those State dollars are going to dry up that are coming from that standpoint because they're they're basically part of their as a program at the state level.

That was fired ours you know I I always think about the question of from community members about that fiscal responsibility which you know we show the reports we know where the money's going the concern is more about around how can we be very intentional and I know that all this shows intention to degree but I I just want to just highlight some of the conversations around the current state so North Carolina English language Learners in the intersection because a lot of English language Learners are actually part of the EC department so these students they don't have special needs there's there's they have needs right and we have to like understand this is not any special Factor this is what we owe these children to give them a sound and basic education and so that sound basic education is not across the board it just doesn't look that way for a lot of students we recently saw in the news an 18 year old well last year was a ninth grader June.

Of 2022 was a ninth grader right it would be this year actually like June of 2022 we're still in this in that cycle 18 years old ninth grader who has been arrested I looked at the stats for North Carolina and it says English language Learners in North Carolina measured far below any other subgroup in annual measurable objectives perform poor in school than their black and white peers and can be excluded from participating in standard base tests because of those accommodations so we have language needs we have so I just want us to keep that in mind in terms of like what a sound and basic education looks like and how we use our money and definitely supporting differential pay is one way to do that with especially with exceptional children's Department the services that our students Reserve that is not a special treatment this is what they they need they need the support and also not losing sight of the subgroups that have 16 proficient like that is that is the number we need.

To be looking at so in these conversations like definitely let's talk to the union teachers already telling us they have been emailing us for for years right letting us know that there's definitely an equity concern when we look at the current stats in terms of school to prison pipeline children caught up in many different dangerous risk related things I mean we see the most vulnerable students falling into that and it ties into mental health it ties into all these things so I'm just I'm just just wanting to kind of tie the money back to the intention of making sure that every child it's a constitutional right that they have a sound of basic education and not to lose sight like lose sight of the most vulnerable students that we have and the data is already telling us where that money needs to go and who we need to elevate who are the the content area Specialists the wonderful staff that we have that are definitely taking a lot of responsibility to kind of get us.

Where we need to be Miss buyer thank you I wondered when we asked for nurses at the county and they gave us some funding but then were unable to find any to hire whether there might be some Revenue that could be redirected that they have set aside for that purpose and so I hope that in ongoing conversations we could look to see if if they're willing to help us Flex in these times with these needs for mental health supports for language Justice for lgbtq like centralized urgency central office staff is one of my dreams to still accelerate that work within our organization I just wonder if if in conversations y'all are having with the manager whether there might be some reallocation of those funds it is still my understanding that while they allocated those funds for us they they and they were dedicated at the health department they were not able to recruit do I still believe we need more nurses yes but if we're not going to be able to.

Find people or at the rate that they've set we need to either kind of adjust those wages up with them and see if what we can do or see if perhaps that's a source of funding that we could use in other ways to support students that's just one thing that occurred to me while we're here I just want to acknowledge that that's a conversation we need to have with Connie folks anytime they give us positions and we're not able to feed those positions that's the lab salary that can is using to put on the savings so it's not coming to us that's a conversation that we like to have but those were not those were not passed through to us those positions specifically in those dollars resided at the health department right that's correct yes that's correct that's part of their yeah recovery funds that they received and in doing that they did that intentionally so we wouldn't have to share the charters as well right so I don't know they didn't actively look for.

Our people because they were trying to fill their own slots to begin with right but yeah we will certainly have those conversations with the county can I just tag a question to that in that conversation with the county the concern around insurance and ensure real because that you know access to mental health supports is privatized when we do co-located mental health but when we have the nurses and counselors like when you have the nurses from the county some of them who have like you know the the ability to provide and triage mental health you know related needs I just wanted to make sure the community kind of hears a little bit more and that conversation in terms of access right like students who don't have insurance they don't have to worry about that the county has them right the services will be almost the same as though they were in our buildings and we're not making any discrimination or any determinations of who qualifies for these services and so I just want to.

Keep that in that conversation to make sure that that continues to be the thing because our families constantly tell us these these supports that you're all lining up they're not for everybody because of the status because of you know insurability and so I just I just wanted to make sure that that kind of stays in the in background thank you Point well taken a couple of questions before we transition to a vote there's so much to talk about here and Paul you always do a good job of talking about what we're taking care of Mr lesour and what also the state needs to do and I know Miss bar you think you brought this up in previous meetings about going down to Raleigh and I wonder if that's something that we might want to organize or we spend some time at the general assembly talking to our legislators about our needs that are so great right now that and are shared with other folks in our area and across the state.

To get to that sound basic education the courts are arguing about but also while that argument is happening in the courts our children in school every day and they're being impacted by some of those lack of funding opportunities that we that our children deserve so I don't know if you'd be interested in that or bored if y'all be interested in figuring out we can organize that we know our Durham delegation comes to us but it'd be nice it might be nice to show up with them the other question I had is around are Sr funding in those positions that might be going away in 23-24 I would like to know what positions those are and how are we what supports are we offering to help with that I know that when we looked at those lists before a lot of it was instructional coaches and and literacy coaches and interventionists the Mental Health Counselors and so I just want to know you know how as we're pulling out some.

Support are there other ways that we're filling in that Gap and that could be a follow-up item I don't know if you also have comments on that now mrsor because I want to know how we are especially now but like in a time where we have more needs versus being able to offload them I'll just say trying to fill our vacancies yeah I mean as summer comes closer and closer retirements and people leaving open up positions that these people will be able to move into not that it's giving us any more but it's at least maintaining our staffing level at a better ratio right and I think about some of the workload that some of them were carrying where does that go as they move into these different positions that might be a Dr Hardy question I'm gonna chime in on that yeah or Dr Stewart I see her kind of good afternoon when we engage principals in the allotment meetings beginning in April we will consider each schools Case by case and have conversations.

Around those items so thank you we are very much aware that there will be some schools in need of those persons but we have to consider it Case by case thank you and that'd be hopeful we can just get a report out of kind of how that flows the other question I have do have is around a vacancy and fill rates when it came to we added a lot of positions for mental health and interventionists and were we able to fill those roles because I want to advocate for more but if we weren't able to fill those roles we might need to advocate for some different are they what other ways are we able to meet that need if we're not able to fill those roles and I know that's a a role again across the state across the county that we know different people are trying to fill so I want us to think about that as well and then one just logistical thing you said in April or our work session is.

Normally when we do our budget hearing then we go ahead and set that date on the calendar so we can notice it and make sure that people have an opportunity to attend so we are looking at is it April six our work session starts at 5 30 so we do a hearing starting at five. All right so let's do the hearing starting at five and that way we can have that go ahead and schedule it it's noticed so people in the community can show up I think oh this is and then I actually have one more comment I know we're thinking about bringing up the bottom of our scale with our classified salary study and this is a note for when we bring back those proposed schedules when we saw we've done that before what happens is it compressed our scale and a lot of our members who had seniority are getting really close to Phillips who are coming in new and so I just want us to consider.

What that looks like as we put our scales up and make sure that we keep that differential and so the folks who have seniority like Mr Williams who came in earlier are also getting feeling that difference because I know that it's cost some tension and and some frustration among folks so how do we make sure we do both I think the comments around differential pay for EC and what that looks like and is that the right move or a really good conversations and it makes me keep thinking though like pay is one part of our puzzle when it comes to retention what are the other pieces that we can shift and move you know is it free lunch for our staff members is it an opportunity for child care for all our staff members like what are the other shifts that we might need to be making in our retention puzzle what other tools will we have in our toolbox to be thinking about how do we retain.

Staff so I'm just putting that out there some of the other thoughts I was thinking about I thought you posted as a question I think I might know the answer but I want to I do want to see if if the staff has I'm just confident that Dr lesane does you asked about the behavior interventionist did we get those positions fill the mental health did we get those filled with the SR funding or were there still some that were open I assume that we did based on what Dr Maddox Perry shared but mainly not we were able to fill some positions but Dr Hardy I don't think we filled 100 of the positions I don't think we filled 100 of those positions either one of the things that we do carefully have to work closely with HR on our the licensure area when we talk about our Mental Health Specialists just as when we have the conversations about the nurses is making sure that those staff have the credentials for that.

Those particular positions And for those positions do we hire the associate level or do they have to be fully licensed I want to say we hired some of those positions at the associates level because of I need to do some research on that but I'm almost positive we hired some at the associates level because of some of what we were experiencing with the credentialing and then my last question with the interns and Partnerships around the Partnerships we have with mccu and Duke University did we have interns or students working towards licensure also supporting our school communities specifically in the mental health yes Arena I would have to do some research on that when I cannot recall just off the top of my head any specific interns off the top of my head but I would have to go to some of my staff to see if we had interns in those areas I know we had at least one from ECU there you go and and I think we had.

One but they didn't stay from UNC and will love to see that partnership grow too yeah I was thinking and maybe on an individual school basis that they're bringing in that support and things that nhi would love to see that partnership strengthen those who are interns and converting them to full-time employees with us but I know you're working on all those angles so thank you and we do have some EC contracts that are let out that are for interns with nccu and in other schools to fill some of those holes that we're working with while giving them the opportunity to get some on-the-job training yeah and go ahead I think it might be helpful I'm going to ask for some really detailed data too to understand what these different I think it's important to different differentiate the different roles a school counselor versus your licensed mental health work versus a social work like they have different expertise and things that they are allowed to support students with so I.

Think if we can when we send that data differentiate out what roles they're in because I think that'll help us again kind of wrap our head around what we have and what we need which one yeah which one's filled which ones are not and what we have and what we need because again you're a school counselor is going to be able to provide something different than your license clinical mental health counselor Miss buyer yeah I was also thinking as we move forward with taking this to the public and across the street to talk with the county I think it helps to unpack some of the salary tables and to start letting our people know what their proposed new salary would be sorry bus drivers will start at this and at 10 years experience they'll be at this like just highlights from some of those job categories I think would be really important and I think it's important for us to paint the picture for our County about the vacancies and just be honest.

About you know I know there they have vacancies with their social workers I know the police department has has vacancies but our vacancy and our retention our turnover is unprecedented and I think we just need to be transparent about it but also clear Graphics one you know slides and things like that that we can show that I think is is really compelling about the urgency of the need for for raising those Folks up and I want us to be able to communicate to our bus drivers stay in Durham because this is what we're fighting for you to get in the next school year stay in Durham for for this ecias like I think it's really important that that people know how their pay will change if we can get this accomplished thank you all for your comments on the budget doctor yeah just want to make Jenna comment to you about the budget process thank you all for helping us really to stick with what we decided we're.

Going to take to the county when we met with County Manager very receptive it was really good conversation I'm saying that to say this with this what I told Kenny manager with for her staff that's we're not bringing out once we bring our needs so 10.8 that's what we really need I know last year as we're increasing our salary for certified employees we showed one million dollars so the reason we're able to make it work because we have all this money with SL funds and all that kind of stuff and all these lab salaries but if we and that's still reoccurring that we gotta be able to maintain that one million dollars and I said we have to have that 10.8 if we're gonna have short nine for us to be able to go pick up whatever that difference that is going to be reoccurring let's keep on adding up by the time we're gonna start running at Sr funds we have to start meeting all these technology needs and all that kind of.

Stuff our budget is going to be really tight so as you're going to do your advocacy we really need a 10.8 exactly 10.8 I know some managers in the past are the places they are skeptical to fund the School District 100 but we do not bring something in excess we bought exactly what we needed and I think if we can get a good fifth for mechanic manager I think it would be a good step in the right direction so. And I would just like to say reach out to me if you have any questions there's a lot of information in the in the in the budget as you're going through it if you have any questions please reach out to me and we will get you your answers we want you to know that we're here for you we want you to understand what we have and because it's not it's not all I'll give you papers this thick if you want to know more but I.

Think this is a great tool for you to be able to hit the highlights and see where we're headed 100 agree I think that budget booklet is such an easy didn't say easy it's a digestible way to look at our budget and to be able to process what's going on in each department so board this is for an action we're going to vote on it tonight to solidify this ask we'll have our public hearing again in April and then we'll have another opportunity to vote so that the budget can go to our County and by may I also want to say that this has been presented to our County and our joint Board of Education and county commissioner meeting in January we heard Dr mobingas had a conversation with the manager so this has also there as they are starting to have their budget conversations they're looking at a 10.8 million dollar increase ads from DPS so that is something that's on their table a move that we accept the presented.

Superintendent's proposed budget for the 23-24 school year second it's been moved by Miss Lewis second it by Miss buyer any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign and it passes unanimously and it will bring back to the staff that worked hard on this many thanks to you all thank you we appreciate I appreciate all their support in getting this budget done we appreciate you and your team we know y'all work hard I'm really grateful to have you all working for us all right the next time on our agenda is.

A closed session that we go into closed session for the reasons stated on the agenda it's been moved by Miss Byers seconded by Miss valladara is there any other discussion all those in favor say ah any opposed use the same sign it passes unanimously we're now in closed session.

We are now an open session Dr mavenga Madam chair I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed in the closed session we have approval of the Personnel report dated March 23 2023. Second it's been moved by Ms Byer seconded by Miss Rogers any other discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign and it passes unanimously with that we are adjourned.