Board of Education · Regular Meeting · March 27, 2025

good evening everyone the dur Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo UGES and Vanessa Pine Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us the first item on our agenda is a moment of silence there are few people coming in the room thank you for joining us once you're settled we'll take our moment of silence

thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations here we have a packed evening Miss Cooper good evening Chair Umstead board members DPS colleagues and durm Community welcome to the Celebration segment of our meeting there is much to be proud of and celebrate in our district and that is evidenced by our very Full Slate of honores this evening tonight we begin with our students of the month followed by our alumni of the month next we will recognize our teachers and employees of the month we will then highlight our educ s who have earned or who are renewing their national board certifications and we will close with two special recognitions from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction please welcome Dr Gloria Woods weeks principal of Riverside High School for our first student of the month

presentation good evening members of the board superintendent Dr Louis and the DPS Community it is my distinct honor to stand before you this evening to recognize and celebrate an exceptional student who exemplifies the very best of Riverside High School she was selected as the DPS student of the month because she consistently demonstrates excellence in multiple areas not only is she a swimming champion earning top finishes at state level competitions but she also excels academically she has earned distinguished scores on Project Lead the Way exams in introduction to engineering design principles of engineering and digital electronics additionally she has achieved fives on her AP exams in biology calculus world history psychology US History microeconomics and

physics which demonstrates a strong understanding of the subject matter Beyond her athletic and academic success she has celebrated she is celebrated with kindness leadership and unwavering dedication to her peers and Community she actively participates in numerous extracurricular activities including the young Democrats the M un Club Battle of the books and Science Olympiad through her involvement she has taken on multiple leadership roles and contributed significantly through community service projects her ability to balance her responsibilities with Grace and determination is truly inspiring we are incredibly proud of her as part of the Riverside family her resilience and compassion embody the spirit of our school and the BR DPS Community I have no doubt that she will continue to achieve remarkable success

she plans to attend Princeton University in the fall where she would continue her competitive diving career her long-term goal is to attend medical school and pursue a career as a neurosurgeon please join me once again in celebrating our DPS student of the month Miss Vivian Brennan congratulations at this time please welcome Mr Brandon Hodges principal of Southern School of energy and sustainability to present our second student of the month Mr hajes good evening

everyone thank you for the opportunity as well to present our student of the um who is a wonderful individual a great asset to our school but also a great colleague to all of her friends n nun's greatness derived from her strength passion and her joyful nature so as our student of the month affectionately called Nana and who endearingly brings joy and inspiration to all of those that she encounters as a senior she she is a role model her teachers and administrators say she works hard to be the best student she can be and makes southern School of energy and sustainability proud she said my goal is to dwell on and continue to love my future career and learn and better myself as a student leader passion is what motivates me to achieve my goals she's proud of the personal growth that she's attained and how she's remained true to herself she attributes her strong work ethic to her mother who is a very strong woman if not the strongest that she knows she raised

me to be strong-minded and courageous in life teachers and administrators say she is a personal student who brings joy to those around her working as a media assistant in the media center she represents Southern on the superintendent advisory team she's also a member of the National Honor Society and the student government Association after graduating from Southern she plans to attend college in major in biology to become a microbiologist while on her way to microbiology she thinks her biggest accomplishment thus far is being named student of the month and then High School graduation she's well-rounded and has interests outside of academics as well so you'll learn from her that outside of school work she is an ambassador for the school she is involved in track and field and she thoroughly enjoys it among her creative passions are photography painting dancing sewing and graphic design one of our counselors at school Mr Bradley believes in her thorough suc success as well he stated I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to

you for being named the March student of the month this is such a well-deserved recognition of all of your hard work and dedication you consistently impressed me with your academic excellence and your commitment to success with your GPA and college credits under your belt you are truly setting an example for your peers keep up the great work I'm incredibly proud of you and I can't wait to see all the amazing things you'll continue to achieve once again again congratulations on your achievement and from all of us at Southern we are proud of you and all the things that you will continue to do to bring back to your community congratulations to both viven and nayia you have made your school communities proud and you most certainly make the entire DPS Community proud we have a few items to honor you this

evening you both will receive a student of the month certificate a spark pin for exemplifying DPSS core beliefs our friends at triangle e cycling want to make sure that you are powered for success in a very bright future so you both receive a laptop this evening and at this time we have a very speci special presentation from the DPS Foundation please welcome Katie Spencer Wright director of communications for a special presentation and following she will present our alumni of the month honors Katie congratulations hi um at Durham Public Schools Foundation we know that a well-funded public school can make all the difference in a student's life giving them a strong community and a bright future that's why DPS Foundation brings together organiz ations and people who are willing to do whatever it takes to support our students and Champion our schools we are honored to

support you all and all the DPS students of the month um and please to share that we'll be awarding each of you with a $500 gift card and some additional goodies here in the bag from DPS Foundation we hope that this gift card brings Joy allows you to pursue your interests and speeds you on to your very bright future

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all right still me um DPS Foundation is partnering with DPS to honor alumni whose lives were shaped by their time at Durham public schools and the Educators and staff that nurtured them tonight we will be presenting the alumni of the month for February and March um after the inclement weather in February I am proud to announce that OLG neuv was our uh Durham Public Schools Foundation alumni of the month for February that's right get in the sh OLG is a proud graduate of Riverside High School where his passion for technology and problem solving first took off for the past 13 years OLG has been a dedicated educator at triangle e cycling where he teaches high school students how to build and repair computers equipping them with both technical skills and Real World Experience he credits his time at Durham public schools with shaping his love for teaching and tinkering thanks to the

support of several incredible Educators among them Rick sheld doall can we say that right great um had a profound impact on olg's Journey advocating for him to take a computer engineering course and ultimately connecting him with his future employer triangle e cycling founder Larry Hurst congratulations OLG our February DPS alumni of the month we are so proud to honor him with a DPS spark pin along with a gift card and basket of goodies from dpsf including our you've seen before I'll show you again um DPS made t-shirts thank you thank you very much fact I was also keep it

going okay now for our March um alumni Danielle p uh Danielle Purefoy is a croud graduate of Northern High School and her journey through Durham Public Schools also included Holt Elementary Hill Elementary and Carrington Middle School today Danielle is an assistant professor of geography and and environment at UNCC Chapel Hill and serves as faculty Project Lead for the UNCC environmental justice action research Clinic her work Bridges geography law Environmental Studies and black studies focusing on black placemaking and environmental justice Danielle credits her time at DPS was shaping her commitment to public education Community investment and equity she reflects on the impact of dedicated teachers who instilled in her a love for Learning and critical thinking particularly Anne Gregory who fostered Collaborative Learning in second grade and Nancy duffner her high school English teacher and newspaper adviser who helped shape her as a writer

org alumni to share your DPS story or nominate another outstanding Alum thank you so much please join me in welcoming Michelle Hayes executive director of talent acquisition employee recognition to present our teacher and employees of the month Michelle good evening chairman Rogers members of the board superintendent Lewis and cabinet members tonight we have the privilege of celebrating our outstanding Educators and staff through our teacher and employee of the month recognition each month individuals who exemplify Excellence dedication and leadership are nominated based on the

theme of the month this initiative not only acknowledges their hard work but also reinforces the culture appreciation within dur Public Schools our teachers and staff give their very best every day often going Beyond and going above and beyond to serve our students families and Community this recognition means the world to them and it is what our way of saying we see you we appreciate you and we celebrate you this evening we are honored to recognize our February and March teacher and employee of the month we are grateful to our generous sponsors North Carolina Central univers North Carolina Central University's ten program the tosa chapter of Omega Sai Fraternity Incorporated and DCL Consulting LLC for supporting um for supporting our teacher of the month award and to the office of human resources for sponsoring our Employee of the Month recognition we also will give them a token of appreciation and a DPS spark

pin congratulations to all of our honores your passion and dedication make a difference every day and we are so fortunate to have you as a part of the DPS family coach Lawson could not be here but I did want you to know that he did go and surprise both teachers of the month in February and in March our February and March teacher and employee of the month the theme was growth mindset for our February I'm sorry for our February teacher and employee of the month growth mindset this is the individual who believes that his or her capabilities and talents can be improved over time this individual continues to find ways to to improve his or her craft understand that success and failures are learning growth opportunities and seek guidance Direction on how to elevate the next level of growth our February teacher of the month is Laura O'Neal Dunn first grade teacher from Glenn Elementary School unfortunately she could not make it this evening but we want to publicly recognize her Miss

O'Neal joined the Glenn team in August of 2022 bringing her expertise and unwavering dedication to education having worked with her previously I was thrilled when she accepted our first grade teaching position a national board certified educator and certified heel Center tutor she provides targeted structured instruction that support Student Success when February's theme of growth mindset was announced Miss O'Neal dun was the first teacher who came to M last year before taking maternity leave she embraced a unique intervention role going above and beyond to support both students and colleagues she modeled instruction LED classroom management and provided mentorship to two first year teachers ensuring they felt confident and capable in their classrooms additionally she stepped into the support to support another first grade class when their teacher underwent chemotherapy ensuring Contin excuse me ensuring um continuity

of learning with her positivity and expertise in education we often hear no or we can't do that but with Miss O'Neal Don the answer is always yes I can and she always has a smile her commitment to students families and colleagues is truly unparalleled making her an exceptional educator and a perfect representation of this month's scene congratulations Miss O'Neal dun for being named Durham Public Schools February teacher of the moth our February employee of the month is our very own Dr Jud Manning principal at Lo's Grove Middle School it is with great enthusiasm to recognize principal Leticia Jud Manny for February employee of the month as she truly embodies the essence of growth

mindset and Leadership you are a Visionary leader leader who consistently seeks ways to enhance both your professional growth and the success of your school Community you you approach challenges with resilience viewing them as opportunities for learning and Innovation through your commitment to continuous Improvement you Foster a culture where students and staff are encouraged to strive for excellence Embrace feedback and persevere through obstacles you lead by example demonstrating on unwavering dedication to professional development collaboration and reflective practice whether mentoring staff implementing new strategy for school Improvement or creating an environment that nurtures both student and teacher success principal judge Manning you're always striving for the next level of growth your ability to turn setbacks into stepping stones and Inspire others to do the same makes you truly deserving

candidate for this recognition principal judge Manny of the month of for February I am confident your leadership and commitment to growth will continue to make a lasting impact from now and in the future congratulations Dr Jud Manny for being named during public school's February employee of the month great caret

for our March teacher of the month the theme is me for our March teacher and employee of the month the theme is mediator this is the individual who is skilled at removing obstacles and communication a assisting in the identification of issues the exploration of options and facilitating mutually acceptable agreements to resolve the dispute our March teacher of the month is Jasmine Smith second grade teacher from Eno Valley Elementary School Miss Smith is a Resolute and dynamic educator who exemplifies excellence in teaching collaboration and Leadership with in our school Community you are a pivotal member of the second grade team fostering a culture of collaboration that strengthens instructional practices across your grade level you demonstrate outstanding leadership in ensuring that teaching strategies are aligned with student needs always striving to enhance

learning obstacles learning outcomes excuse me your commitment to continuous growth is evident in your ability to refine your instructional methods unpack academic standards and design lesson plans that engage students in meaningful learning experience that lead to Mastery what truly sets Miss Smith apart is your ability to mediate between the diverse learning needs within your classroom she skillfully differentiates instructions to support all Learners ensuring that every student regardless of their academic tier receives the guidance and resources necessary for Success your passion your expertise and unra unwavering dedication to student achievement makes you an exceptional candidate for a well-deserved recognition without he without without hesitation we fully endorse Miss Jasmine Smith March teacher of the month she is an invaluable asset to our school and her impact extends far beyond her classroom shaping the future of our

students and the overall learning environment congratulations Miss Smith for being named during public school's March teacher of the month e get your P all right our March employee of the

month is Miss Crystal Roberts director of strategic communication for the office of public affairs you're off duty for a minute Miss Roberts exemplifies the role of a skilled mediator through her ability to remove communication obstacles identify key issues and Foster constructive dialogue that leads to positive resolution you are calm strategic and solution oriented leader who ensures that all voices are heard while keeping communication clear and productive whether addressing internal concerns facilitating discussions between departments on navigating complex stakeholder interactions she approaches each situation with professionalism empathy and commitment to collaboration your ability to mediate challenges explore Solutions and

facilitate mutually acceptable agreements has been instrumental in maintaining a culture of transpar parency and Trust within our organization through your expertise conflicts are resolved efficiently and communication flows seamlessly allowing teams to focus on their shared goals your dedication to bridging gaps fostering understanding and Champion clear and effective communication makes you a perfect fit for this res recognition her contributions not only enhance our internal culture but also strengthen relationship with our broader Community it is with great enthusiasm that Crystal Roberts is nominated for March employe of the month and of course she has received this outstanding recognition as an outstanding mediator and a communication leader congratulations for being named during public school's March employee of the

month e [Laughter] thank you Miss Hayes at this time please welcome Terry Phillips director of classified professional development for

this evening's national board certification recognitions Miss Phillips good evening Chair Umstead members of the board Dr Lewis and cabinet members um I am thrilled and honored to be able to present to you a very small group of people um who are here tonight to be recognized for their abilities and being able to get into their national board certification and another small group who are um getting recertified in national board we have a longer list unfortunately a good number of folks couldn't be here we were if you noticed a trend there were a number of people who weren't we weren't able to do this in February so here we are tonight so first I'd like to recognize Jessica bulock from Neil Magnet Middle School next we have mirror Prader

Riverside High School those completing national board certification this year and unable to join us tonight are Leah Amos Caitlyn buris Anna Hardy Joshua hangan Rachel horn Hannah Jeter Carla Joiner Hannah Lyman Sarah maek Britney parue Kristen puit carolly Spence sorio and Kenneth Templeton we have two friends here tonight who have succeeded in getting their recertification for national boards that's Lauren Chast from Northern

High School and Dana Walker from Easley Magnet Elementary School others completing this distinction M uh Melissa Chey Latoya clay Danielle Farber Heather foget Elizabeth gagos Moore Danielle Hill Suzanne Mesa cathen Melissa Neil Charlene North Addison Pace Walters Christy panel evangela Richardson Susan Townsen Kristen Wagner and Rebecca white thank you so much thank you so much and congratulations to these outstanding Educators our final celebration is presented by SAS shock col train senior

director for advanced learning and gifted education and academic policy with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to recognize the office of advanced academics as one of North Carolina's promising districts with her tonight is Stephanie Cyrus State consultant for gifted education and Beth cross assistant director for gifted education following saha's recognition Stephanie Cyrus will recognize Laura parrot director of advanced academics with an award from the North Carolina Association for the gifted and talented please welcome um our representatives from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction thank you so much for having us and it's homecoming for me um I was a student teacher and started my teaching career here 30 years ago so it's good to be home and just got in from a match at Jordan because our kids my kid my son was playing tennis and they're still battling it out we we we we gota we got

to pull that out but I am here today um to first of all welcome super Lewis to Durham public schools on behalf of the department and we're so excited to have you here as a parent and from DPI and to all the board thank you so much um we are super excited today to present Durham public schools with the recognition of being an AIG promising district for the entire state of North Carolina this award was only given to 13 districts across the entire State this award represents recognition of how this district with the leadership of Mr Laura parot and so many others on your team and all of you have had a steadfast commitment to our call to action of expanding Excellence through equity and excellence and different excellence initiatives you have over time ensured

that you have responded to the AIG program standards that are in board in the State Board policy but you've also gone to the next level and you've mastered how it can synergize how you can synergize these efforts to ensure that you continue to be Innovative but also have a deep commitment to high quality instruction for our students support for our families as well as qualified instructors in all of your public schools what Durham public schools has done over the last 10 to 15 years you have brought together mindsets policies and practices you have to have all three of those work together to make sustained change and you all have done that I remember the things back 30 years ago where um Mr Teasley and others were

trying to get us to move forward and then Beth came along so many others have come along in gifted education Advanced academics here and then it has synergized it has synergized and it takes Decades of commitment for that we recognize lots of others we recognized 30 others who did a practice here or there but you have been given this promising District award because you are one of the 13 that have synergized all of the work to expand excellence and truly respond to our call to action for equity and Excellence from North Carolina Department of Public Instruction we are so proud and honored of your systematic fashion you have done this and all of the support that you continue to give the community and schools to keep moving forward to expand Excellence specifically I want to point out a few things that you all have done that is truly exceptional you all have

continued to stay steadfast in looking at your patterns and trends for your subgroups from talent development and having a program that nurtures children that may not have had all of the opportunities as others we have some students who walk in kindergarten who can read that Harry Potter and y'all have figured out what to do with those kids then you have others that may not have had a book shower like I did with my husband and I teaching at Forest few Elementary with every book possible for BS & Noble they may not had that we have opportunity gaps and time gaps and what you all have done over time would you see in your AP numbers and if you haven't seen those I know we had to postpone Laura's presentation about that a couple months ago when the electricity was out but do look at your AP numbers what y'all have done I was here too in Audi but what y'all have done with your Black and Hispanic numbers not

only providing access but also now success shows that from kindergarten on in our public schools here in Durham children are thriving and when they leave they are ready to have options when they graduate uate as my principal Miss Taylor always said graduate with options from Jordan High School she'll say that graduate with options and that's what these CH what you all are doing I'm not saying we don't have a lot more work to do there's always more work to do but what you all have done and continue to do we brought you twice to the State Board of Education now to be recognized Excel and Ed and best NC recognized Durham and Lauren and your students were highlight in a video that's gone National for your auto enrollment work in mathematics it is truly incredible what you all have been doing with your intentional focus and strategic

attention to developing Talent k12 and it has aligned your core Mission with our core mission of equity and Excellence a few things that I want to mention because we need to continue this as the next plan revision comes forward is really ensuring you have a highly skilled school-based AIG Specialists working K12 so incredibly important you have ensured and you have worked really diligently to to develop the talent even prior to identification so then we have ongoing cultivation and recognizing students potential some children we know when they enter some children may be sixth grade some children are may be 10th grade your clear alignment of various departments that have really ensured comprehensive programming with identification as well as high leverage

professional development topics I can name a ton um serving under served Advanced Learners fostering talents of twice exceptional Learners and our multilingual Advanced Learners and so many others just the collaboration with the counselors and the high school staff with your Equitable student recruitment guide that really helps Focus students on access and Pathways to Advanced courses all that work you are an example not just in this region but across the entire State and I commend that the Department of Public Instruction commends that superintendent green commends that we could not be more proud of Durham public schools and commitment to expand Excellence for your students and for your families all across this great district and now we're going to also share with you another great um uh recognition that I think is the cherry

on top of this incredible work that Stephanie Cyrus would be Shar good evening board members thank you for having us uh it's an absolute pleasure to be here before you this evening um I love witnessing saying the AIG promising District recognitions um as a state consultant primarily tasked with supporting the north central region I've been reading about Durham public schools for the last almost 10 years and I just love the uh what you have done and how you have systematically just kept growing and growing um and it's super exciting for me to see that um and I've witnessed through Laura firsthand just that tradition of long-standing Excellence um but tonight we have a bonus recognition um to share with you from our state affiliate organization the North Carolina Association for the gifted and talented uh each year ncagt recognizes an outstanding administrator of the gifted um and with this award this year the collective body of the ncagt membership voted based on artifacts submitted on Miss parrot's behalf uh to name Laura parrot the

outstanding administrator of the gifted now I wanted to I wanted to just share some of the comments that were in her nomination package um from the DPS Advanced academics team quote Laura is a force of nature a Visionary an advocate and a champion for gifted Learners across North Carolina from her early days as an AIG teacher to her transformative leadership as director of advanced academics here in DPS her dedication has been unwavering she works tirelessly to ensure that every Advanced learner regardless of background has access to rigorous Equitable and enriching opportunities her impact is undeniable through Innovative programs and strategic advocacy phenomenal PD and fearless leadership she has expanded access to Advanced coursework she has empowered parents and inspired Educators her personal commitment to equity and Excellence has opened doors for

countless students and her leadership has set a standard for excellence across our state but beyond her accomplishments Laura brings something truly special Boundless Energy humor and a gift of Storytelling that makes even the toughest challenges seem conquerable she is the rare leader who not only gets things done but makes everyone around her feel seen heard and valued I think we can all agree that these words from those that she leads are truly remarkable it's not easy in this day and age and time to bring people together to convince them to work tirelessly towards one mission and do so with such Grace and inspiring so many to come alongside her all along the way so personally knowing Laura for the last at least 16 years um as AIG coordinators together in the eastern part of the state before yall stole her away to Durham we were volunteer AIG Regional leaders together and even ncagt board members together

and I just have to say I am in awe of what she's accomplished and the impact that she's had not only here in DPS um but across the region as a volunteer lead and across the state as well she now serves as an AIG Mentor she serves on our governor School Board um and she's done incredible work through the AP partnership for for supporting um AP programming so Laura your passion persistence and vision make you so deserving of this honor and it gives me great pride to recognize you as the ncagt outstanding administrator and to sincerely thank you on behalf of North Carolina's gifted education community for your leadership your heart and yes your legendary stories uh so help me recognize the ncagt 2025 outstanding administrator of the year for

appearance we'll do whatever you tell us to do for e

thank you to ncdpi congratulations to miss parrot this concludes our celebrations for the evening thank you so much Miss Cooper the next item on our agenda is the superintendent update Dr Lewis thank you so much board chair Rogers good evening board members attendees durm Community cabinet members those that may be U watching online I'm excited to share some additional uh great news uh with you all this evening that highlights some of our schools some of our Scholars um with public education uh at the Forefront uh as we recognize uh the many exciting things that are going around our school system uh that was just great to watch and to great to hear the many wonderful things that are going on in our our school system if you can go to the next slide next one I Al I want to begin my remarks by acknowledging March as women's History Month I don't know if you notice all the women that received the awards this evening we certainly appreciate the contributions made by the women

throughout this world nation and particularly across Durham we honor mothers sisters aunts friends not to mention our own majority women board of education hang in there with me tab whose selflessness courage wit intellect and wisdom have helped to shape this country and Inspire us to Greatness so thank you to all the women that uh support our mission here in Duran Public Schools next slide also ask that you join me in celebrating the tremendous impact made by our school social workers this year theme was unite to ignite celebrating our impact with a nationwide observance on March 2nd through 8th we celebrated our social workers and if we could just give all of our social workers a big big round of applause for the work that they do supporting our Scholars uh across DPS and so thank you to all of our Duran Public Schools social

workers next slide March is also arts in our schools month and we thought that we'd um bring it to you a little differently uh if you follow us on our social media channels You' probably seen some of these uh images we featured Arts Educators and playlist of their favorite music uh invite you to enjoy the gift of Music understand that may be a Spotify that they're working on to include all of our Arts uh Educators playlist so uh listen and enjoy um favorite uh songs from our art Educators as we celebrate arts in our schools month next slide congratulations to our Northern High Schools Knights of culinary team we just um uh witnessed some of their amazing talent uh as they prepared a meal before the board meeting instructed by their instructors and chefs John rut Bridget Harper Reid and John beretti they have captured first place in the 2025 North Carolina Junior chef competition just give them a big round of

applause but wait there's more they now travel to the southeast Junior shelf competition in Kentucky in May uh and I already hear when we were speaking with them earlier that they're excited that they're going to claim that that prize again because they did it last year um the four student team members are Daniel Gomez Evan shadex Wesley shadex and Somaya Wilson DPS school nutrition director Jim Keaton served as their Central administrator advisor so again congratulations to this amazing and talented culinary team next slide dur Public Schools is proud of our Southern School of energy and sustainability Spartans basketball team for their Incredible Journey to the North Carolina 3A men's basketball state championship this was the first time that this team have been in this Championship since 1959 while the final score didn't go our way these young athletes have shown tremendous dedication perseverance and sportsmanship throughout the season they made it to the state championship went into overtime and came up short by two

points our Spartans exemplify the core values we cherish at DPS their hard work and team spirit have inspired our entire Community demonstrating what it means to be a true scholar athlete to our Spartans hold your heads up you've made Durham proud your resilience and growth both on and off the court embody our mission to empower every student to innovate serve and Lead this experience is just one step in your journey towards reaching your full potential uh we celebrate your achieve ments and the positive impact that you've had on our school Community uh Durham really showed up for this game and so remember at DPS we believe in you and we will continue to support your Limitless potential in all your future endeavors so a big big round of applause for our Spartans basketball team next slide more women celebrations this month congratulations to Crystal laws a Sandy Ridge elementary school counselor who was recognized as the 2025 26 North Carolina school counselor Association

5 million Bloomberg U Phil philanth

philanthropic Grant the Durham Early College High School will Empower students to earn credentials in Health Sciences and research careers at Duke immediately after graduation so this is um the I often say the future Workforce is in our classroom and this is the pathway they have a pathway uh when they enroll in the high school and they we have a job at Duke so congratulations to those Scholars and their families next slide a gracious thank you to our partner in education the Doran Public Schools Foundation uh who have launched a campaign to help defray the costs of new uh bus drivers to secure their commercial driver's license the foundation's goal is to raise enough funds to support up to 50 new bus drivers their efforts already have garnered over $122,000 so a huge thank you to the DPS foundation for its valuable support we can clap for DPS yeah thanks for being here with us tonight

m. m. we invite all interested persons to consider doing public schools and join us on April 12th next slide many of you have heard that President Trump signed an executive order to uh dismantle the United States Department of Education um while education funding is primar provided at state and local levels these Federal changes could have real implications for

public schools and students or we do not have specific details on what this exe executive order will impact and how Congress will respond uh it you you sometimes hear the the phrase it will take an act of Congress well this literally will take an act of Congress to um abolish the Department of Education uh we do know that Federal funding and the services provided um by North car to more North Carolina schools that come from the federal government uh specifically of durm public schools we receive about $43 million or 6% of our budget um the funding uh uh from the federal government to D during Public Schools most of this Federal funding flows through North Carolina uh Department of Instruction in the form of Grants uh that support instructional programs the federal government I'm sorry the federal education funding that we receive helps to provide Educational Services for students including our most vulnerable students those with disabilities and those that come from low-income families including the supports of various programs as well as our Career and Technical education

programs and so the loss of federal fundings funding would not only be detrimental for public school students especially our students with disabilities and um low-income um students and also it'll be detrimental to our local economies as well and so many of these programs are housed in the um I'm sorry were housed in the department of health education and Welfare prior to the establishment of the Department of Education in uh 1979 so in addition to seeking to close the um Department um of Education the executive order also seeks to return authority over education to the states and local governments um our state department have been in contact with us uh letting us know still too early to um determine how all this will unfold um while the funds that have been provided through various formulas such as Title One funding and funding for exceptional children those funds remain in in place however we have already seen the

termination of some competitive grants for certain activities such as uh teacher Recruitment and Retention that was a 600 million doll Grant um Nationwide that was um pulled because of uh diverse teacher Recruitment and so that did impact us here in Durham with with our grant our Dream grant that was in partnership with the University of North Carolina to the in the tune of about $48 million um but I do understand that they are um working to take action on that um so it also too ear to determine how those how that funding will affect us um as well but there is some conversations potentially about block grants um so indeed the elimination of of the staff uh from the federal government also uh is cause of concern in terms of administrative capacity and efficiency to distribute these funds that that they oversee so more to come on that while we cannot control what goes on in federal government what we can control is our response and our priority is still our 31,000 students 5,000 staff across DPS

and so we will continue to keep our community um updated once we learn more next slide uh our commitment in in light of all that's that's taking place uh commitment to our Scholars our families and our staff will never waver uh as the federal government I'm sorry the federal landscape continues to evolv we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a highquality education for every student in Duran Public Schools a changes at the national level have the potential to impact public education and our district um again we're monitoring those shifts and we will navigate these changes um but please know our Focus remain on equipping every student with the skills knowledge that they need to succeed um and those governing principles um during Public Schools Board of Education states that an excellent school system provides an environment that is culturally responsive free from bias and discrimination there also board policy that mandates that all district functions and practices that focus on uh the desperate outcomes that result along the lines of race ethnicity national

origin gender identity gender expression social economic status physical mental ability sexual orientation religion age Etc and please know that this board takes seriously all complaints um of unlawful discrimination harassment and bull bulling next slide as we continue our conversations uh as relates to meeting confer please know that work of voice in this uh in District decision making is non-negotiable uh we we will continue to work on a policy that ensures that every employee has a seat at the table and this is just not only a good idea it's essential uh also remain committed to open transparent and collaborative dialogue had a couple of conversations today with the president of Dae and we are uh looking forward to continued conversation we believe that together we can develop a policy that supports the outcomes and yields the best results for all stakeholders thank you that's next slide that's all I have um we do know that

many of our Scholars um some of them are already on spring break but many will begin spring break uh spring break and intercession next week and so we want to wish all of our staff and our students a restful and safe spring break thank you Dr Lewis colleagues the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval Madam chair I would ask that we add a closed session at the end of general public comment to consult with the attorney pursuant to General statute 43-38 11 A3 Al leagues is there second second it's been moved by Miss Beyer seconded by Miss Umstead to go on a close session immediately following public comment uh pursuant to the items in the [Music] agenda you named a

policy um is there any discussion I guess I'll ask um if I I don't know if we can say anything about the purpose of that or why before rather than after yeah I think that it would be great to have some um feedback from the attorney that in Clos session rather than in open because it's a confidential matter any discussion okay we this vote is for to add a Clos session immediately following uh public comment all those in favor say well sorry Miss Carter uton is joining us

virtually so we'll have to do a roll call vote Miss carteron can I call on you to vote first this Jessica Carda-Auten and I vote I Mr T hi Emily Chávez no Miss Beyer hi Miss haral goof hi Miss Umstead I and I wrote I it passes 61 um any other adjustments to the agenda or is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended Madam chair I would approve make a motion that we approve the agenda as amended second is been moved by Miss berer seconded by Miss unstead to approve the agenda as amended all those Sorry Miss Cara is there any further discussion Miss Carter Auten J CA Auten I I Wendell Tabb

hi Emily Chávez hi Miss Beyer hi Miss heral go hi Miss mad hi and I vot hi so uh the agenda has been approved thanks colleagues next item on our agenda uh is the monthly meeting minutes for February 21st 2025 move approval of the minutes from February 21st 2025 second it's been moved by missp second by Emily Chávez to um approve the meeting minutes from February 21st 2025 is there any further discussion Miss Carter Aon this jusica car I vot I Wendell Tabb hi Emily Chávez I Miss Beyer hi Miss Harrell Goff goof I miss um hi and I vote I that

minutes for February 21st 2025 are approved unanimously um the next item on our agenda is general public comment um we appreciate everybody for here we have 31 people signed up tonight so we appreciate your patience with us a quick review of the rules we're going to ask people to First please State their name if speaking for an organization please state your name the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in one minute when the yellow light comes on you will have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session

however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker is Michelle Ragland followed by Lee rodeo and Kirk West each speaker has one minute when the light comes on you'll have 30 seconds remaining good evening my name is Michelle Ragin I'm the PTA president at Northern High School and I'm a proud parent of a 10th grade student as we bring our matters to your attention tonight I encourage us to continue to be mindful of the mission to empower every student and with that said I yield my time

Ed MC Pride uh yield my time to Lee Rodeo okay I'm sorry thank you your name's crossed out on the list I don't know how that happened good evening um Madam chair Mr superintendent members apologize for the auctioneer's impression but trying to keep with the time uh frame here um we're here as members of the Northern High School community in an effort to communicate directly to the board regarding issues on which DPS central office has repeatedly failed to act since becoming aware of them at least as early as January of 2024 these will focus on athletic uh specific issues but do know that these issues U pertain to all Departments of the school uh this is not an exhaustive list we couldn't fit it in the time allotted but uh these are some of the issues we're facing the quote regulation soccer field at the new campus was built too small to be able by rule to host ncsaa regulation soccer games and there's no field large enough for regulation lacrosse the electronic sign at the road is unusable and has been that way has born the same message since construction all the athletic

fields need to be top dressed and the a athletes competing on them are doing so at risk their own safety until this occurs there's only one locker room facility provided for outdoor sports which itself is physically too small and located in a way that's only accessible to sports utilizing the football field there's insufficient storage to house expensive field maintenance equipment risking further costs to replace those due to weather damage and Rain continues to leak into the ticket Bo and concession stand garage doors already having caused hundreds of dollars of damage along with insufficient ventilation further y lending itself to mold growth um I'll wrap it up really quick here but the baseball and softball fields have foul territory fences that is not regulation height causing further risk of safety concern to the athletes utilizing them and neither School neither sport has a batting cage anywhere on the campus meaning that for 50% of the game of baseball or softball our athletes can't practice effectively notably the contractor utilized by DPS has stated that the baseball and softball fields are safe for student use which is demonstrably untrue and that's

necessitated a $7,000 investment by the school and numerous volunteer hours by parents to come and manually spread needed infield mix to ensure their children are not injured by the unsafe playing conditions and the fa the failure of the architect to release the rest of the school for non-academic use has caused Northern to miss out on at least $10,000 in this Academic Year alone from potential rental Revenue to outside organizations numerous students and parents have begun to explore enrolling in neighboring counties or competing charter schools and yet our overtures to central office still fall on deaf ears we're formerly requesting that this board schedule a town hall meeting to be held on northern's campus so these issues can be effectively communicated to you since DPS central office has demonstrated a repeated unwillingness to act on our numerous safety liability and Equity issues and signaled loud and clear to our students that they do not care thank you Kirk West Charlie Dickson Rowan

ganss right my name is Kirk West thank you for your time I'm a DPS graduate U my dad was 199 1964 Northern graduate I have three kids one who graduated from Norther High School a son who's a sophomore at Norther high school and a daughter who's in fifth grade in Mangum um I'm considering pulling her out of the DPS system um currently I'm president of the booster club happen for the last four years um uh for me my family uh we've had six years of frustration at Northern High School I'm hoping the new school would change things but it did not it got things worse um on a positive note we have a new principal Mr Alexander who's doing a great job and a new a ad coach green who both doing amazing jobs to turn things around but they need more help and they need support um and they need it from the top and that's you guys um in the six years I've mainly seen fingers crossed fing or fingers pointed um and uh there's no lack of of accountability um and I've seen tens of thousands of dollars lost due to the lack of facilities and also due to uh that not

the school not being released thank you Rowan Gans Bryson nman Charles Dickerson Char okay Charles Dickerson you're listed first go ahead sorry hey my name is Charlie Dickerson I'm the vice president of the northern booster club my wife Cheryl and I are both graduated Northern High School in 1997 so we're DPS products we've got three kids senior at Northern sophomore at Northern third grader at Mangum and much is what Kirk said you know just for time's sake you know we chose to put our kids in D public schools because of our memories of coming through grade school and the great experiences we had and what we learned and where we where we've gone with it soon as our daughter got to Northern though it became very evident that the nor kids at Northern are left behind the message was loud and clear you're getting a new school sit down shut up be quiet we did that we got the new school and it was like it was a gift to us like we should be grateful for it but the the amount of disruption that it has caused is unimaginable to anybody in

this room unless you have a kid there for four years like I have had or Kirk has had for six it's unimaginable the amount of logistical nightmares you got school at one campus practices at another campus you can't have home events we're playing home football games at Jordan High School you know there's no track to run on it's not going to be ran on this year either so I ask you guys to come do a town hall meeting at Northern Walk The Halls with us and the students go my well fans um I I'm a student at Club Elementary and um I want to keep um

a dance at the end of this at the end of the dance program the dance program at the end of the year and I like it because it helps some people and and it's fun thank you thank you Bryson nman nji po I apologize if I'm pronouncing people's names wrong nji hello my name is Bryson midman I'm a student at of James Z Shepard Madden Middle School where I participate in sports including football and track my peers and I held a focus group where we talked about the budget and I'm here to

net

evening and you can also leave it with our clerk go ahead good evening I'm n j PE I'm an eighth grader at NE Middle School where I participate in many activities including SGA I'm currently running track and and the Yearbook committee after hosting the focus group on the budget I here on behalf of me and my peers to share concerns that we have first concern that we have is the cleanliness of our school environment we hope to improve this by more custodians our custodians do their do their best but only a small number of them is tough to keep everything clean hiring more hiring more would keep the school clean for everyone second the Improvement of teacher pay teachers are exhausted from working second jobs to meet the rising demand of associated with bear with me guys associated with the cost of living they better pay better pay

May better pay will affect them so it can focus more on us and not on bills and last but not least um Sports funding our F our Fields our Fields sports gear and uniforms are very old and worn we appreciate our Stans teacher and coaches we just want to give them the support they need to help us succeed thank you for your time thank you the Leon gray Javan leis Kelvin Bullock Alyssa Platt greetings Deon graay CEO of black and belonging I'm here to amplify the voices of our young people um they held focus groups at their school they elevated the top priorities and themes that emerg from these conversations uh but one thing that I want to propose is setting aside a small pool of funds to be entrusted to influential youth within middle schools across DPS uh young leaders like Bryson and ni are deeply connected to their peers and they understand uh what they

truly want and need by positioning them to guide the use of these funds even limited resources can have a meaningful impact where students fill the money uh this collaborative approach not only amplifies youth voices but Fosters a sense of ownership and belonging together we can make an investment in Youth impactful and affirming thank you for all that you do good evening I am Javan Lewis we are in this together so often this is said in DPS but it's not always lived up to it is shocking when public education is being attacked as you shared in your superintendent updates but terribly disappointing when we had to sit through it seeing it being attacked on the inside it is very disappointed to see this board continually being divided by Antics and tactics that do not bring inclusion authentic shared leadership and respect we can have differences but we can be respectful at the same time you should not stand forward Dr Lewis thank you for your courage and taking in

this position with DPS and all that comes with it your offer here was because of your work with exceptional children and your work with te teachers union this weight is ha heavy to carry and you are doing it well thank you for your leadership your administrative team and classified and non-classified staffs who truly in this together when is the last time this board talked about our students academic success and suspension we have to Center that again in our DPS schools please the community is asking for it thank you good evening my name is Kelvin Bullock sometimes I talk to people outside of Durham and a common refrain I here is that Durham could lead the whole state in a better direction if Durham could get on the same page but sometimes Durham gets misguided and we expend time and energy on things that do not compel people beyond the walls of small

privileged political circles we lose sight of the primary reason we're here the amazing students and families 80% of which are black or brown that we serve as a school system the conversation we're having should be how we respond to the dismantling of public education we are in a state that criminally underfunds Public Schools so what are we talking about here I plead with people to stop bickering over power and influence and organize for the betterment of our schools and our students keep the focus on the young people we serve and we won't go wrong thank you L PL Norma Portilla Beth red Meyers Alex Adrien hi my name is Alyssa Platt I'm a mother to a second and fourth grader at

Club Boulevard Elementary and a rising kindergartener for the 2025 2026 school year and I've been a part of the club Community for the past 5 years I'm also a board member of club's PTA I'm here because DP s has proposed eliminating our school's dance program after this year and I'm here to beg the board to reconsider and to try to convey just how important the dance program is to club's culture and sense of community club's dance program has been in place for more than 20 years and is among its most popular um offerings at the school dance has a multitude of benefits from enhancing Stu enhancing students ability to comprehend and memorize details to improving physical health and building awareness of different cultures dance performances are Central to our most popular and highly attended community and cultural events and are part of what makes Club Sparkle as a schol while I was excited to learn that club would have a DLI program through growing together in reality is a resource that only a small percentage of the school can access while oh okay thank you feel free to email it to

us my so you'll get one minute and The Interpreter get I do have can I do both and yep you got it

good evening my name is Norma Portillo I'm the PTA president of and parent at CL Boulevard Elementary I'm here tonight to express my deep concern regarding the potential loss of our dance program this year has brought significant changes to our school including the loss of crucial support of a staff like our ESL teacher din of students and reduce our social worker to two days a week instead of five our children need stability and reach enriching experiences now more than ever the dance programs provides not only physical activity but also Foster confidence creativity and sense of community it's a vital outlet for our students especially during these challenging times please consider the impact in our children's wellbeing and find a way to preserve this valuable program please please don't take our Dance Program away thank you

uh good evening my name is Beth red Meers I'm a parent at Club Boulevard Elementary for over 20 years our school has prided itself on Arts inclusive education with dance being a Cornerstone this program does more than teach technique it builds well-rounded students we've seen firsthand how it boosts confidence social skills and cultural awareness this year we've lost key POS phans an ESL teacher dean of students and more impacting our school's resources yet the dance program remains a beacon of joy and Community I urge the board to recognize its immense value and find Creative Solutions to maintain it just as other schools have done our students deliver deserve a rich holistic education and dance is essential and especially since I just learned that it's Arts month I really think you should fund our program thank you good evening I'm Alex Adrien I use he and they pronouns I'm with rainbow Collective for change today people of all identities in our country are experiencing discrimination oppression

and unlawful detainment at the hands of our federal government on the agenda this evening is a resolution for you to recognize the March 31st 2025 transgender day of visibility with discriminatory executive orders restrictive state laws and newly introduced State bills designed to harm transgender and gender non-conforming people in our schools today those who are in a position to speak out and support all students regardless of identity cannot be silent or hidden your voice matters I thank you for taking the time to recognize this day Abby [Music] Bender Carmen Ramos Allison Swang chip Weber Christy

clim hello my name is Abby bender and my pronouns are she or I am a parent of two TB DPS students at both elementary and middle school and a board member with the organization rainbow Collective for change I'm here today to thank you for the agenda item to officially recognize trans day of visibility in addition to this I'd like to encourage anyone in this room that has hesitations about this resolution secondary to fears about drawing attention to DPS and their commitment to trans kids to rethink this hesitation trans kids are already being targeted and harmed silence around this issue only serves to create more space for discrimination and violence against this vulnerable group there are many of us in this community including rainbow Collective for change that are willing to partner with you to make sure that DPS staff and educators are prepared and well resourced to support trans nonbinary and other quer kiddos thank you good evening board Dr Lewis my name is Carmen Ramos the school counselor at Jordan High School representing all school counselors in DPS school

counselors are highly trained mental health professionals who advocate for all students providing critical social emotional support Crisis Intervention small group counseling and post-sec year planning the expectation within DPS for us to manage Section 504 plans is in direct conflict with our role and ethical guidelines DPS has invested in ASA training emphasizing that school council sers dedicate 80% of their time to direct student services yet five4 management significantly impact exists each plan requires 5 to8 hours of work and a school like Jordan with over 2200 students is translates to 700 hours annually equivalent to 88 work days currently DPS leaves 54 management to DEC decisions to principles resulting in these duties inappropriately falling to counselors this undermines their ability to fulfill our primary role and students suffer to better align with Asa and dpsl goals I urge the district to reassign 504 responsibility to success coaches interventionist or hybrid position as effectively done at Jordan this year with principal support this shift will Ure School con to focus on providing essential support to all students which will in turn positively impact our district and school Improvement goals thank you so

much I'm Allison swam and I seed my time to Christy clim sorry to chip I'm chip Weber and I U seed my time to Christy Clen hello Christy Clen physical therapist classified employee a member of Dae um I'm here because public comment is not collaborative public comment is not true valued worker input public comment is definitely not meet and confer neither is listening sessions neither are emails that are sent neither a hallway short brief conversations that are had if you happen to cross paths neither are online surveys what we're doing right now to get true worker input is not working if public comment was it I think I've made a comment at almost every

single board meeting this year y'all would have a better understanding of what the 40 plus meetings that have taken place across the district the Dae members and non-members you would have a better understanding of what the priorities were that were identified those would be reflected in the budget proposal for tonight there's nothing about classified pay in tonight's budget proposal other than bus drivers our pay went back to near Lake 2017 numbers classified employees are worse off now than we were this time last year when we told it will get better hang in here with us it will get better we don't know if we're going to move up a step with pay that's not decided it's continues to be unclear if there's men Max ranges within the classified salaries I can talk to folks in HR and they can't tell me that and this is about students in my small world of EC otpt 25% of OTS have left since the pay to bacle started last

year that direct directly impacts students when we can't get those positions filled students with federally mandated related services are unable to get the services they need because we don't have the OTS to do it that is about students we've asked for transparency you talk about transparency you talk about wanting our input and being collaborative this is a one-way mirror this is a zoom call where the other person's on mute the whole time you think classified folks are going to stay for the promise of what what can we continue to show up and say why am I crazy enough to continue to work in a district that is disrespectful

and can't offer basic information you don't answer my emails two two meetings board members have said please answer emails somebody will it's not going to happen what we're doing is not mean confer what we're doing does not Jenny Jones cauldron Vanessa safy Valerie Lewis yungi nonan Martha Ramirez Javon Gilchrist good evening board and superintendent two things can be true at once one as a former DPS teacher who left because of poor working conditions

I support the role of unions and Dae specifically in informing the work of this district and two as a parent whose children's education is at risk should this board pass a policy in violation of state law and someone who is extremely familiar with the political landscape in our state and our country at this moment I understand the limitations before the board at this moment so I stand here in full support of giving the Union the very best mean confer policy within the unfortunate limits of our state's discriminatory laws but that's not why we're here today our district doesn't exist to serve workers but rather our workers exist to serve students so with all due respect to Dae and the important work that they are doing I urge the superintendent in this board to talk about students good evening board and

superintendent Lewis uh my name is Vanessa safy I have a fifth grader in DPS and we come from a a very public school oriented family um if you've ever seen me online you've probably seen me say something like friendly reminder Charter Schools should not exist and that is why I'm here tonight is to remind people that I think we all have a little bit more homework to do someone else who spoke up before me pointed out that a lot of these Financial conversations that are trying to happen in this room actually happen in another room out in Raleigh and it's hard to push forward when you feel like you're you're in somebody's sights and everybody has the same goals we all want our children to be able to go to school and and the kids want a clean school they want a school where they can play sports and hang out and have third spaces and we feel like that's super important for them and we have to be able to hold for them without them knowing like the danger that exists from a deliberately cruel legislature and I think that's

part of What's missing I'm Valerie Lewis and I'm giving my time to Young Mian hi good evening I'm young Mian member leader of the local Grassroots organizing group durm forall several weeks ago our membership voted to put our organizing power toward urging you to approve dae's demand for a meet and confer policy without further delay I would like to speak to the way that the lack of DPS workers voices have far-reaching effects on the whole community my day job is to provide employment support services at a homeless shelter here in Durham last fall I helped one of my clients enrolled in a comprehensive career Readiness training program when I checked with them after what I thought was going to be their first day in the program they told me they had not been able to attend because their child's School Bus never arrived and they were not able to arrange child care in such short notice because the career program requires perfect attendance they were not able to participate and had to wait several

months to join the next cohort this significantly delayed their progress toward employment and impeded their ability to move themselves and their child out of the homeless shelter into their own home I know this child's bus driver would have wanted nothing more than to pick them up and bring that child to school that day we all know the school transportation crisis was not caused by DPS workers but by the absence of their input and expert voices in conversations about how to attract and keep these critical members of the DPS system when DPS workers are hurting and not listen to it hurts some of the most vulnerable members of our community like my client and their child it is time and past time to approve meet and confer and listen to your workers thank you I'm Marty Ramirez I seed my time to jabon Gil good evening my name is Javon gilr and I'm with the organization durm for all durm for all stands firmly with Dae in establishing a meat and confer policy we need worker input on at the negotiation Table after a 14th Monon

5% and ends at 19% this is especially egregious considering that DPS is nearly triple the enrollment size as Hill experienced teachers are vital their seasoned professionals their relationship with the community are invaluable their mentors to their fellow colleagues but how can DPS expect to retain hardworking teachers with such a wide Gap in Pay DPS students which are overwhelmingly black and Latino cannot be adequately served the school staff needs are ignored dsp's staff cannot wait any longer vote for the good of DPS We Trust staff with our most vulnerable people our children it's long overdue that we trust their decisions to ensure

a better Durham thank you stormy day Adrien Williams Lawrence Artin James Chavis charita buris and Dean Fitzgerald hello durm Public Schools Board of Education thank you for your time as a product of the durm public school system I thank you for recognizing T dove in the wake of trans children being affected in our government and our community and the safety and threats that have been made on them but I'd also like to recognize that as you go through the many things that you have to deal with today that we don't forget about the realities of trans children as you celebrate accolades and aptitude of kids who are safe and well taken care of do not forget about those who have to face struggles every day within the school system and in this world that does not recognize them or see them as valuable members of our community thank you so

much for your time time thank you good evening my name is Adrien Williams and my pronouns are Heim I serve as the Director of operations with Rambo Collective for change on behalf of RCC we thank you for the acknowledgement of the T resolution and adding it to tonight's agenda we are appreciative of you speaking out in support of trans and gender diverse youth RCC is committed to partnering with you all to ensure that staff are equipped with tools language and resources needed to affirm and support our trans and non-binary and gender diverse kiddos again we are here to support you as you support our students thank you to the RCC Community for showing up in solidarity this evening your presence is powerful and it's a reminder that our of our Collective Strength and to our kids we will always keep fighting for you we love you your life matters and you are never alone

hi my name is Lawrence Artin I'm a DPS parent superintendent Lewis CFO Teter we know you inherited um what could kindly be called Financial mismanagement that's happened in this district for so many years now we want you to be successful because it means our kids can succeed I don't like coming here and pointing fingers without offering constructive ideas so I want to give you three first consider a zerob based budgeting we can't recycle what hasn't worked before so we need to throw the budget out rebuild a budget that puts students at the heart of every dollar decision student-based budgeting ensures that students with the most need get the most resources since these dollars follow students that means the schools that serve them will get the most money and that's Equity finally clear and simple explanations of position allocations and pay I could have said this a year ago but we're still in the same place with confusion about that um finally superintendent Lewis I want to thank you for continuing to send our students like

the ones at Neil and Shepard and Club who night because there the dark outside I'm James sh I know man you know I'm here on a different reason as you know this ASA is hidden around us everywhere and some of you all are not paying any attention I mean everyone in this room I will go around and ask a question about how they understand about the disas that's coming here or may come here and done so today I'm asking all you board members to get this out in your school to let the students know and the parents know that is on

Saturday April 5th 2025 at 10 to 12 at holding school I just ask for parness go forward we have had and we will continue to go because this fit every last one of them my last thing to ask every last one you in here will you be one of the five foolish or will you be one of the Five Wives if a this as happen here and there who I the pass good evening well I stay down City Hall more I come up here this my first time up here I am Charlie you know I am Charlie de buris I am the co- facilitate of District 5 pack five which is Partners against Crime Mr chav just start uh spoke about our disaster relief program

listen listen don't continue to put your head in the ground let's stop talking about things just about be about it we are better and stronger together we're doing too much talking and Durham and not enough Unity God bless y'all and I'm a preacher by the way so next time I'll give you a sermon in five minutes fitzgeral awesome good evening my name is Dean Fitzgerald I'm a parent of a DPS student my thoughts are my own thank you for inviting the community this evening I'm here to encourage you to sign the transgender day of visibility resolution validating the lives and identities of so many kids in Durham transgender day of visibility is a small ask a modest Spotlight on some who are in danger of

being left behind ignored and more importantly in Danger full stop a spotlight is not just for the wicked to seek out the oppressed and say there they are are it is for the openhearted to say we see you thank you thank you the next item on our agenda is closed session move that we go into closed session for the reasons stated on the agenda second it's been move by Miss sper seconded by Miss Herold go and we going to close session for the reasons stated on the agenda is there any further discussion Miss Carter Aon Jessica Carda-Auten i v i Wendell Tabb hi Emily Chávez hi Miss Beyer hi Miss heroff

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thank you for your patience we are now back in Open Session the next item on our agenda is the transgender day of visibility and DPS oh I'm sorry thank you is the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda items A and B second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Emily Chávez uh to approve the consent agenda items is there any discussion okay colleagues Miss Carter aen has uh signed off for the evening so we are not going to do a roll call vote we appreciate her time um all those in favor say I I hi all oppose use the same sign consent agenda passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the transgender day of visibility

resolution Miss CH you introduced this um item to the board would you like to give us some background yes I would um so I just want to say thank you to everyone who spoke tonight and to um rainbow Collective for change who brought this to us and um recognize khik Alexander who's on be here on behalf of RCC um as well as others um so we're really um you know happy and excited to recognize this day uh celebrating recognizing um transgender people and really um wanting to express solidarity and support for all of our trans and non-binary and gender queer and gender fluid students and staff and Families um so um with that we can read this resolution recognizing March 31st 2025 as transgender day of visibility in Durham Public Schools we'll be on spring

break but we'll keep on recognizing um Beyond um Beyond March 31st as well all right so we can just start the reading we can just start down here with momad and go down the row thank you Emily Chávez resolution recognizing March 31st 2025 as transgender transgender day of visibility in durm public schools whereas the durm public schools district serves families of great diversity and it is our shared responsibility to ensure that every individual in our school communities is valued and respected inclusive of gender identity and gender expression and whereas the Durham Public Schools board of education has for many years approved policies regarding non-discrimination and lgbtqia plus and gender support to ensure that all students families and staff are treated with fairness respect and dignity and

whereas the Durham Public Schools district is fully committed to creating a climate of safety belonging and inclusion for every student to learn and Thrive and whereas transgender day of visibility was founded in 2009 by transgender activist Rachel Crandle Crocker to honor the achievements and contributions of transgender and gender non-conforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans Justice and whereas transgender day of visibility is a time to celebrate the lives and achievements of the transgender community and whereas the transgender Community has a long history of advocating to ensure transgender and gender non-conforming people will not be erased and must be afforded all the rights and opportunities made available to all and my apologies I was waiting for Miss

Carda-Auten over there uh whereas the transgender Community has uh made profound strides in challenging social and political Norms but has suffered disproportionate oppression through discrimination in employment and in the workplace discrimination in educational institution and violence and whereas forms of transgender oppression are exacerbated for transgender individuals of color individuals with limited resources immigrants individuals living with disabilities Justice involved individuals and transgender youth whereas a record number of anti-transgender State bills have been introduced in recent years including more than 1,500 anti-transgender bills during the years 2023 2024 and so far in 2025 targeting areas including education including bans on curricula relating to gender identity

health care for transgender Youth and transgender youth participation in sports and whereas before the creation of the United States indigenous two spirit transgender individuals existed across the North America across North America in many North American communities native I'm sorry Native American with specific terms in their own languages for these individuals and the social and spiritual roles they fulfilled in their communities and while many Traditions were lost or actively suppressed by the efforts of missionaries government agents boarding schools and settlers these Traditions have experienced a Revival in recent decades and whereas transgender individuals continue to tell their stories and push for full equality under the law whereas the Durham Public Schools district is committed to standing up against the discrimination and violence that has

made it difficult for the transgender community and specifically transgender and gender non-conforming students parents caret caregivers and Educators to be visible and Li and live their authentic lives therefore be it resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education hereby stands with the transgender community and acknowledges March 31st 2025 as transgender deck transgender visibility deck sign the 27th uh day of March 2025 colleagues I'd entertain a motion I'll move that we approve the resolution recognizing March 31st 2025 as trans gender day of visibility in Duram Public Schools second it's been moved by Emily Chávez second day by Miss Umstead to approve the resolution recognizing March 31st 2025 as transgender day of visibility in durm public schools is there any further

discussion I'm gonna say one I would like to say one more thing again to our trans students we see you and we love you agreed with Emily Chávez and thank you to the rainbow Collective um and sta H Street for having tough conversations with us very much appreciated um all those in favor hi hi and I it passes unanimously thank you all the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's recommended 2526 budget Dr Lewis yes thank you so much Madam chair we are pleased to present to you tonight

uh the superintendent's recommended budget for the 2526 school year again I want to take a moment to thank those individuals that um participate in our online form or we ask the community what should be our priorities as we are navigating the 2526 um budget in addition those individuals that uh shared shared with us doing the listening and learning sessions we were also asking about um prioritizing some budget items during those sessions as well and so what you'll see in these recommendations is a combination of uh some of the feedback we heard during the listening learning sessions as well as some of the feedback we heard uh during the um online Forum in addition to things we know we need to um address to continue to move the district forward and so with that I am happy to turn it over to the CFO extraordinaire Jeremy terer all right thank you um Chair Umstead board members and Dr Lewis um so I just wanted to open this up um

and start with where we are in our process right so we've seen a couple of emails come in from the community and from parents um seeking clarity about where we are and so at this point we're lifting up things that we view as priorities at this point in time um looking forward to the feedback um that we receive uh from the board and that we will continue to receive from the community about what the priorities should be and our ask uh to the County commissioners before this process concludes we will reflect um we will reflect those items um in in a much larger packet than what you see tonight uh with with line items and so just wanted to make sure you're aware of of how this will continue to flesh out um so we have um just sort of to to kick this off right there are some compulsory items um in in the state budget law that we have to include um in the book and I'm not sure if it will queue it up or not um but we've got it to them as a PDF um at the beginning um at the beginning of the

document we have the letter of transmittal that's required um from Dr Lewis um that just sort of addresses the county manager um and and the commissioner and the Commissioners um we've also um just sort of you know lifted up um who our board of education is in Durham at this time um the core beliefs of the district are are lifted up in this document um the the latest iteration of the org chart um is in the Forefront um and we um provide sort of some statistics on the students that we serve and how those students have been performing so we're required um by state law to to lift up how the district is performing performing in general uh with student outcome and achievement um so we are very glad to report um that in this school year we're operating with 31,1 188 students that is more than the state thought we would have U and I think that's more than the district thought it would have with its um internal process and so it we're on the students we serve page at this point as you get that uh

oriented um so I'm very pleased to see some some progress in enrollment that means money that means more students are choosing during Public Schools um so very happy to be in that space um as we do this work um the next couple of pages are just uh to lift up a couple of those metrics things that we're proud about with student achievement um so some of these are borrowed uh from Dr Lewis's post entry plan uh but just filling that in here as well um to satisfy our requirement to share how the district's performing as a part of our budget document um moving forward this um on the next page is is a statistic um that I've always monitored very carefully as a finance officer and that is how we're doing with our teacher supplements and how we compare um with those that we're competing with um and a really fun fact is that I have been um in other districts not far from Durham and have often looked up to Durham as someone that we were trying to reach um and I remember just shortly before covid um we

were number 10 and Durham was number five since that time has passed Durham has climbed its way up to number three on that list in the latest data that we have so um the board has clearly you know made progress in investment and in working to be um the best supplement possible for teachers um and so we're Mindful and we have seen um that you can lose ground very quickly if you're not constantly focused on that and so some districts that used to be in the top 10 have fought to stay in the top 20 and even top 30 in recent years um I think we're particularly pressed in that we are neighbored by number one and number two and so that just really keeps the temperature on Durham in our efforts uh to compete um sort of at that bottom of that page we sort of lift up what would be the cost of Durham public schools in the current climate to close the gap with numbers one and numbers two respectively um just so that we kind of know what that Target is as we're thinking about our desire to be have the best- paid teachers in North Carolina um from there on on the next

page we just um I knew we had a a question about this in one of the community emails in terms of where does your income come from um and so here we are um this is where it comes from and um Durham has been a unique um experience for me in in the proportionate share of local um in the proportionate share of local dollars right so very much um have have um it's been my experience that state has been a extraordinary share of the school systems budget but the the local investment um in Durham has been fantastic um and so it's 29% from local funds and the Count's also responsible for that 23% Capital outlay so it's a really tremendous investment and in the latest um rankings from uh that that have that have come out on local effort and and local funding um during Public Schools um ranks number two uh in terms of local per people funding in North Carolina and then here again we're bordered by number one and so Orange County was number one this year so we're definitely in a

competitive area area so I just wanted to take that opportunity to continue to thank the county uh for their investment um in in our Public Schools um on the next page we sort of lift up uh the areas or those general areas where we're making investment um so instructional Services is our largest area of investment over 364 million of that budget um capital outlay A little over 161 million um and and that's really sort of anchored um by by the tremendous Bond Investments um um that are in place to support our continued construction repair and renovation of our schools um and I would say that that's um it's a model program I've not quite seen these degree of bond investments in other districts so um systemwide Support Services um this does not necessarily mean explicitly central office right so this um these include support services that we are pushing down to the schools um and and it can it can also include things like the finance staff HR staff

and other areas like that um our nonprogram services um The Lion Share of that are Is our commitment to Charter Schools and the pass through uh that we must share with them it's a little over $43 million um other items in this category include indirect costs um that we hit our federal programs with um among other transfers and then the final category that we see the ancillary Services uh that's our Child Nutrition program and our community education program that that fall under that category so onto the interesting stuff um on the the next page we start to unpack um sort of what what are our financial needs um and and in this top section we really sort of addressed the must do for during public schools in order for us to continue as we are um and we did um get a board member question which I really appreciated about the specifics of well how many positions um did we address in in this continuation cost um and so when we calculated that um we

6% across two years

25% or so that we have to contribute um as a part of the wages um health insurance is another uh big factor uh in that equation um in the current cycle we contribute $895 per employee um for the State Health Plan we've um anticipated that to go up about $600 per year per employee so 8,695 um is what we're planning on uh in

this continuation calculation so you can see you know just sort of right off a little over $4 and a half million dollars we have to consider to continue doing what we're doing uh with our locally funded staff um utilities um have been a real pain for finance officers for the past two or three years um and so we know the utility companies have continued to have uh efforts to to raise rates um you know buildings age they get inefficient uh and so I always uh budget for a utility increase um and so we're planning on a $220,000 increase for our utilities um our our insurance coverages they are they've not yet been quoted um those are always late Statewide um oftentimes we're not binding those coverages uh until the start of the new year and that's just the way that market works and it's nothing to do with our staff here um but for property audit and liability looking for increases um in those premiums um the insurance commissioner in North Carolina had agreed on increases for

property we know for sure um with the carriers um the carriers wanted much more aggressive than what he agreed to but planning on increases there um and then we did have a small um software increase cost that we wanted to lift up uh as a part of that continuation cost uh for us to do business um charter schools any any new Revenue we get we must share that with them from our local funds and so we're we're looking at student enrollment um in Durham County anywhere between 20 to 21% um that that goes to Charters and so we kind of prepare on the upper end of that scale at 211% so all of the calculating we do for what we need to continue we gross that up to make sure we net what we actually need uh after we pass on our contribution to the Charter Schools okay um the next section that I always refer to is expansion uh is where we start to lift up some expanded efforts some new efforts things uh that may be of interest to the district

2 million um to to work away on that list so the um just for some additional info behind that uh the average uh teacher supplement in Chapel Hill carbu is $688 higher per year this math reflects us moving up $700 per year to try to notch ahead of that second spot and make progress um just given how the market works I've seen districts make investment and then still hold their same spot so if you're not moving you're falling behind usually with teacher supplement these days um another area that's really critical for us where compensations concerned are our bus drivers um we were thinking about them well we've been thinking about them all year but we had especially deliberate concern and conversation about them

during inclement weather um and we were concerned about days missed uh when school was closed um and and what sort of tools can we put in our toolbox to make that less stressful for our bus drivers and help them have some stream of income um that happens no matter what um with the weather so uh looking to include um a supplement um a classified supplement that's a regular part of the monthly pay for our bus drivers of $200 a month which would be $2,000 a year for them and so that would require a little over 377,000 uh to do that for our bus drivers so that they've got something predictable regardless of what happens with the weather um credit to Dr King for borrowing that idea from another District that he's worked in it's a great idea um master pay um you have you've heard from me at this Podium quite a bit about Master's pay and trying to find a way to make that work and and make it work in our current budget um so I think at this time last

2 million in the current year we've taken that same number applied our current pressures of how much we think wages will move how much we think the benefit rates are going to move to capture what that number would look like for next year um we've also heard from our social workers quite a bit um and acknowledge their desire to be included um in the Master's pay initiative um the the best statistics we have at this time is that there would be 11 social workers um that fall in this scenario and that investment would be 79,80 next year uh to bring them into the fold with that local Masters effort uh another area um of focus um that that's pertinent to Personnel um are positions that we needed um in order to make growing together possible um

these uh these positions affect dual language our Monastery pre programs and the monor work at the lower grade levels um these positions had been funded um with the McKenzie Scott funds um and we are um likely to be in a position to not have those going into next school year so we wanted to lift this up as a need for the district to sustain these positions for growing together and make sure that happens um in the space as as the board knows Esser funds um Sunset um a few months ago and so those funds had to be encumbered um by September of 24 and liquidated in December um and there were three U resources um that had been funded by essr dollars that were pertinent to social emotional health of our students and and in our response to trauma uh I am not the content expert on those things um but I wanted to make sure these made their way into our budget document for conversation as it relates to those areas uh one of them is

a social emotional curriculum in the district another is is a partnership that we have in addressing trauma and another um is a software that a lot of districts use um and we saw this in particular during covid when everybody had extra money uh the use of the software to gauge the social emotional well-being of our students and have some sort of measurement on that um we have had this next category lots of conversations uh with superintendent and the board and and you've lifted this up in your legislative priorities as a board um in the need for additional investment in exceptional children funding uh so we know that um the state is not funding our full enrollment cap uh and uh we are we would receive over $5 million uh 5 A5 million more likely um if the state um were in a model that acknowledged our full enrollment cap so we're just thinking about a way of continuing to lift this up and not ask for all of this at one time but find a way to slowly fold this in and work our

5 million but the the needs are so great for us that we actually spend a little over 10 million in local dollars to support our exceptional children efforts so it's really u a critical need for us um as we take care of our students um again like the continuation items we must share with Charters and so we've gone through that same exercise of grossing that up to make sure we would get what we actually needed um the other area I'm not sure if Durham has ever lifted up non-recurring items before it's something that I've done in the past and so um we did receive a request to refresh uh some instruments for students um and some art materials for students

and so wanted to lift that up um as a onetime item U $150,000 for this refresh um you know we may have some conversation with the county about them making that investment through our capital outlay f fund instead uh so that we don't have to share any of that with Charters but uh more to come on that as as we continue to to work through the process and and collaborate with our partners uh at the county um so the next page uh we talk about um our just our history of local Appropriations and and that you can see that tremendous growth um that has occurred over the years um so with everything that we've discussed in this current level of priority setting um looking at just shy of the $16 million increase uh from the county uh and then looking for the county to stick to that investment of $8 million in capital outlay um from from County funds um and so that was an increase this year um it was a little more complicated this cycle

because it involved the use of the County's arpa dollars and it required finance and operations uh to be Savvy to piece that together to meet our needs but we're looking forward to next year of just having 8 million outright in County appropriation dollar for Capital outlay um so again we um look forward to your feedback and and hearing what we know that you hear things and we know um that you've got some perspective and and um we are um certainly open right so this is a dynamic document and and it's ultimately going to flesh out into the full line items um a couple of other things that I will touch on just maybe an anticipation of questions right is that I think it's um you know it's no secret this point we've put some measures in place uh to manage the current year um in our financial circumstances and to also try to set us up for Success next year right and so we've um we've got a a hiring freeze that's currently in place in Durham like a number of districts in North Carolina we've um my colleagues and I find us

ourselves all in this kind of similar place of needing to press pause um assess what we're working with and make sure that as we transition into the new school year we don't create unnecessary hardship for staff um so we are um in place with that um we are um very deep in the allotment process uh and working through that and I I think we maybe spent the whole day talking about allotments so uh we made a promise to our principles that we would have information to them today and we met our promise um and so we're um underway with that um and so we just want to make sure that everything shakes out the way that we needed to and that the money is available for us to to take care of things um so yeah we're it's going to be part of our long-term strategy here as well so um so with that I'll just kind of defer the balance of my time and and answer any questions that the board may have and ready to take notes on how your thinking and

feeling colleagues any questions for Mr terer Dr Le did you have something sh no before the question and comment I do want to again we talked about earlier just the need for transparency and accountability around this budget and certainly want to thank the work that our office of public affairs in partnership with our finance office have have done uh in the form of ensuring that we're educating our our public and providing information with our three series that were're that are that have been released so far in addition to part the part three series there was an interactive um tool that was out there for people to really look at and see how our um budget Works uh and so just wanted to to lift that up in terms of making sure that we are doing all we can to uh inform our public around uh our budget colleagues Wendell Tabb thank you um just wanted to uplift where in the

budget did we talk about the athletic and art supplement where does that fall what categories do that fall so right it'll be in it'll be in right it's it's in our general compensation space right so we um so I think um you know at this point you know we've not lifted that up as a a space where we're proposing change but but certainly based on you know feedback that we get that's an area where we're willing to to do some work to examine it further and and and bring forward a proposal for what that would look like okay and the second part of that is um with the recurring items is the category is musical instruments refresh but I also see under there that there is a um category for single I guess that's Middle School dance and theater with the replacement of the marot dance floors and the replacement of 10 theater light

fixtures it's saying Middle School where would the category be for high school I think so at the in the top section there right we do have some needs that were lifted up for high school right so our um so I think our cultural arts department pulled this together just in terms of the area where they saw the most pressing need for refresh um so we had some high school band items at the top some high school orchestra items um Middle School here in the middle and then a and then a little bit there for elementary near the bottom of of their list yeah that's why I'm lifting this up because yeah there's nothing there that says uh High School theater or or dance and I will say they recently so at our request um they recently sent us so I sort of challenged them of if you had more than $150,000 what more would you do and so I think they um we we're in very recent receipt of a document that would show what they would do if they had up to

450 um and so what we can do um for the next review we can kind of share what that broader list looks like and and um the other categories that that might touch if they had more than 150 I I'll appreciate that because they're gonna ask me about it thank you yes sir okay I have a question that sort of follows up on that if that's okay um so these there's a specification that this is for a single high school band for a single high school Oran Orchestra for a single middle school band I'm assuming y'all know what schools these are going to I would think they I think they do um and so we can definitely bring that forward um and I think they've um had a process of prioritizing where they would start and and work forward but we can definitely shed more light on that for you at the

next work session and even ahead of that if we need to thank you yes ma'am Miss Beyer then miss carteron we'll just go down the road Miss by Miss Carter missense I'm sorry Carol golf I'm sorry y'all so Mr terer I just want to thank you for um all the ways that you have just jumped into the deep end of all Durham Public Schools Finance payroll accounting all of it and the clarity that you were bringing to it and the transparency I do know that you know when you were you said this earlier that people want more detail they want more detail and I want to you to assure them that more detail will be forthcoming it is we proceed but I thought you might want to address the notion of zerob based budgeting that was discussed um and and just give some reaction to perhaps that the longer term plan um as

you go forward I thought you might want to absolutely speak to that yeah so we do we do have elements of zerob based budgeting in our work uh and you know particularly right so the allotment process that I alluded to earlier right we're just not de facto rolling forward with the same number of positions that we have in the district we're making sure those are aligned with appropriate ratios and that we're sticking to those ratios um where our Personnel is concerned such a huge part of our budget um we also look very critically um at departmental budget um are they using everything we've been giving them and we're asking questions of why didn't you um is there is there something you know that we need to know that we can't see uh and so we do kind of press in in that way um to make sure um that we're addressing areas where we're under utilizing resources and and trying to hit that reset um we've got kind of a a committee of senior staff that's been together to to question a number of things in in terms of U oh dear uh in terms of yeah terms of

contracts and relationships and whether or not those things need to continue so um but yes absolutely and um we're we are just as excited as Miss Cooper is about the new website because we're going to have a finance page uh right so we're um we're looking forward to giving her bushels of material that we'll be able to put on there um you know that so that folks can see even more information at their Leisure um as we continue to open up the books further and and and share what's going on so I so appreciate you budgeting for increase in utilities things that we should have been doing all along I look forward to ways that we can do multi-year in in the future and and project better I look at the Grim um projections from districts around us and I just am still struggling to know whether we are being overly optimistic as we prepare with the uncertainty of federal funding with the uncertainty of

a state that is um not will I mean you not willing to to change their status on on corporate tax rates so um I'm hoping that as you bring us these as you work through allotments that you can bring us some clarity on where we are I mean does every school have an AP yet I know we worked really hard last year to um get front office equity and and make sure that every school had the basics but we did that at the expense of some some AP positions and and things like that I and I don't want to add extra things to your list because I don't necessarily think that the county has this for us the 16 that you've added up so um that's where that's where I'm kind of personally struggling as you all continue to to lead this and as you maybe continue to help prioritize this list of of stuff beyond the continu ation budget if we do

not get it all what are your top priorities for student impact with an equity Focus as as y'all lead forward through this I think would be super helpful because um I think I think the county is facing some some Grim times too and I know y'all have had some of those conversations so um I look forward to just kind of e like allotments and holding to allotments especially when we know that schools are are operating on 85% right um and and I guess that's your plan for them to hold at 85% as well yeah I've um I think my perspective is and we talk about this a lot um my my lens has been very interesting in that I've spent a lot of time working in very poorly funded districts and um and I think I look at some of the allotments sometime and I'm really Blown Away um by some of the resource that Durham's been able to make possible and I'm like

what's wrong like you know this this is really you know it's really nice funding um and so I know we want our folks to dream big and um and I think but that's where we are you know in this cycle is in terms of the school's operational budgets you know hanging on that 85% threshold our departments as well um and so we've we've shared in that and and I try to keep reminding folks of that every chance we get um and and the um the allotments were impressive um and we had had some really f um a lot of fun today unpacking um those formulas and the history behind that there's just a a lot of history across administrations I think and how they've approached that and so we've we've had some fun trying to establish equity and and I think the um just sort of the issue of the school you know one thing I could answer for sure at the podium just from our work this week I think we did address the front office issue um that um so the district did stick to that deliberate effort to have a minimum level of months of employment in

our in our front offices at schools so that that definitely did pan out and it occurred quite frequently um and um so yeah so thank you for all that but APS were not there yet with a full is do you know before we come back another time could we yeah we can yeah and from what I saw it looked like there was some I don't think anyone I think no one will ever turn down an additional AP um for my experience right and so I think we've um but we we've seen coverage right I think there with the exception of some very kind of unique School specialty school situations that we have we've seen some modum of AP coverage uh on the sheets that I saw today and um we certainly have some folks who want more um yeah yeah I just I'd be interested in in looking at at that and whether there's any Equity we can bring to make sure everyone has at least a full-time AP if but I mean we might not be able to do it or it might be multi-year yeah thank you asolutely thank you Mr terer I have just two very

hopefully simple questions um I just wanted to know the growing together positions that are listed are those all new positions that the district need for growing together are these they would all be brand new positions are there positions that existed they are existing and and they have um been funded from McKenzie Scott donation funds at this point in time okay and then my second question question was is all the capital outlay income County Bond money or is there some of that that's that is other funding for Capital outlay great question there are a blend of resources right so there the bond money is a huge proportion of that um we also right it includes the county appropriation that we receive um and then we do um you know we do have some situations um uh where I think Durham's got a really cool situation that I've not seen in North Carolina before where developers are paying paying fees of sorts um as as they construct and so they're they're paying fees to the district um and um so it's a collection of Lottery funds are

running through there as well um so a collection of things come together to put that in place well I'm just wondering um that the the heart of that question comes you know from listening about you know students asking for building improvements and things of that I'm wondering is all of that money allocated or do we have money that we can consider in the budget for for doing some of those things Dr Webb will shoot me down if I'm wrong but I think there is something in place for all of that money um and I think certainly we could use more but um it's I don't know if you wanted to add any more to that thank you Mr terer great question ma'am uh it's somewhat of a moving Target but we do have some specific goals for that $8 million that was allocated um based on school requests School Needs school obs reations uh what our staff have seen and eventually what our long range Capital Improvement plan looks like so that's all part of that as we we develop that

that budget um and be fiscally responsible with that money and make it last for a whole year but uh we've got uh some expanded things with that within maintenance already so there would be a larger allocation for them planned and then uh our Capital Improvement our not our Capital planning department has some projects that are not funded by uh a bond but are certainly necessary to keep things headed in the right direction so every penny is not allocated but there's a home for every penny at this point okay and thank you so much I um thank you Natalie for that language I I really resonates with me about um student impact with with the equity lens um when we're getting ready to decide you know how to prioritize money in the budget M go can I uplift a couple of things along those lines

5 million in non- reoccurring funds for Capital Improvement and repairs and Renovations for public school buildings Public Schools Athletic Fields and other public school facilities so we we got some work to do to help them get that pass um and the governor did introduce um in his um education plan uh request for a capital bond for North Carolina schools so we got stuff to do to help make happen

misset I feel stressed a little bit about the time all right uh thank you Mr terer for this presentation um and getting us started in this journey some of my questions were answered and you addressed some of them already I do have a few more um when we first talked about Master's pay which I actually think well I shouldn't say first sometime in the fall when we talked about Master's pay which I think predated your time here there was also a question of who else is paid on that teacher schedule that also might have assumed that they would have um qualified for Master's pay I know that we did get some emails about other folks who were paid on that schedule and so I just think if we are talking about it expanding for our social workers and I think a lot of the rationale was around we are paid on the teacher schedule so the you know we believe we would have gotten this it also should apply to other folks who might be on that schedule and those roles I don't I have no clue how many people that is or what

those roles might be um that folks that are on that schedule but I just think I'm lifting that up as something we should I think we should consider um I think the other com uh you mentioned this a little bit about the budget booklet the kind of large really large one would we have that in April at the work session or would it be available for the work session in April yes yes so we'll have we'll have a we'll have sort of that first crack of that that you know reflects U these priorities and if there's anything um so if we come away we come away tonight with anything else that we might add right we'll we'll modify it to reflect that and that be be helpful so we can get the full breath of everything that we're talking about um the Arts is included in here in these non-recurring requests which I think is really wonderful and I'm curious to know how the Arts became the request and

because I am sure there are other departments that have some non- reoccurring requests I'm not saying that the art shouldn't get it Wendell Tabb is giving me a look for anyone who's watching online not saying that I'm just curious to know what the decision point was on this one and how can we make sure that we address the other needs that I I know that are pressing in across Department yeah I think as we as we worked our way through the requests that came through departments right that was really popped right off the page as an opportunity to grab something uh non-recurring um and I think um just sort of strategically um I've had success putting something out there as a non-recurring item that you know the County government often sees it as okay we can check something off the list we we did this great thing um and and this one in particular you know we may have some opportunity to funnel it through their Capital funds and avoid you know Charter contributions but a lot of what we saw was recurring um from from requests you know lots of personnel things in nature so um I was excited to

see this item I um you know we got something that we can work with um that that you know and it may come back up again you know in the future is okay we want to push this out a little more but um that it was just a really good opportunity there thank you I appreciate that I think um there's an um there's this year but then like I always bring up there's this multi-year conversation around budgets and so I see that we have um certified staff teacher supplement in this year and I'm thinking if we had a Cadence in the past of doing one or the other so if we're looking at classified for next year my question is what do we need to do probably starting today or soon to be prepared for what that looks like next year because we know um it's a complicated issue a complicated thing that we know we want to get right and I I think it will require more than just I think I don't know but require more than just bumping everybody up in a current schedule so

I'm putting that out there as if we're going to think about that for upcoming year there's work that probably needs to start soonish to get now yesterday maybe to get that ready um I agree um great we're glad we're on the same a lot it um it will be a tremendous lift um to move classified to the next stage of things um and there would be a great rightfully so um just a very high level of scrutiny on on what we do next for that and so um and i' said it at a couple of meetings I don't think you know and it may be an internal versus an external but um you know it would necessitate another study um and so um for us to kind of road map what we do next with classified um and we'll be curious to what happens with the we'll have some decisions to make with this cycle too of how we react um to whatever the state does for state employees and

and how we adjust our scales accordingly so yeah absolutely can't wait to see the next step for that um and I think this similar to what Miss buy kind of lifted up around you know when we had a lot of s dollars we were also add adding a different positions in different schools we have more counselors and other social workers mental health professionals and so now that that money is rolled off I'm just curious to even know where we are in our schools when it comes to you know how many counselors or social workers mental health supports like what is there um as we've kind of trimmed and shifted things around and I think that Al this it's probably a cross-sectional conversation around just audit of what's available there's the positions but also the other things our students lifted up today sports athletic fields has often come to our board um jerseys and that kind of thing like I just I don't um in the past it seems that we've kind of if you brought something then we're ready to respond to it and how do we comprehensively start

really looking at what we have available in our district what we don't have which school has what right um that's often another thing someone's schools PTA may be able to raise money for something where other schools don't have that same resource and so some of those conversations I think I some of this is laying the groundwork for what's in the future too so we start doing some of those audits looking at what we have don't have kind of a reset um to think about the years coming thank you Michelle all right thank you um so few thoughts and questions so um I know you're going to flash out in more detail our full budget so that's coming in we get a full budget booklet with not just okay not just the expansion pieces and then um with the um okay so wanted to go back to the teacher supplement that um this some that lifted

up uh um so we're did you say we're not sure about the supplement and also Master's pay who all who all is included in that or I think sort of what I touched on earlier is right when the district rolled this out at this time last year you know not the best numbers in terms of headcount and and so we've been managing that shortfall um for that particular effort was just sort of where we where we were so so making some attempt to Shore that up this cycle um and sort of reduce the pressure right so we've made some other decisions to make that work this year and be nice to kind of get some funding from that and and walk back from things that we had to do this year okay so um I just want to be very clear about who which positions were we're funding Within These so the teacher supplement is that all certified or which

certified and then yeah and then with the Master's pay which uh positions and maybe job category numbers right so and that has in my career varied from District to District what we've included and I might tap in Kim Hager to make sure I don't misstep right so we do have other certified roles in the district that benefit from that um and so we have so you're nodding so anybody who's certified we doing that at this point in Durham because I know it has evolved um over the past few years is my impression in Durham um and then have we added nurses to that here too um and so although we're paying them on a classified scale they're getting that supplement so okay so the C so the teacher supplement is um certified plus nurses okay um wa I thought there was some notion about whether people taught 50% or more that would be for the Masters oh

got sorry yeah we've been we're dancing between the two I think so that's the supplement and then with Master's pay we have teachers listed and social workers but I think obviously one thing we want to clear up is when we use teachers who are we using who I mean who are we talking about which categories are we talking about um and not yeah just if yeah maybe we can you certified when we're talking about all certified but then um yeah I definitely want to be extra clear about who we're talking about giving what to um and then going to the um the IAS oh also wanted to mention this a social worker wrote to us and and said that um in her research which she had sent us earlier this year um there are

more than 11 social workers who are not paid um for their masters so I want to lift that up trying to look for the spreadsheet I couldn't find it I know I saw it before um but um yeah so that maybe some coordination there needs to happen so we have a totally accurate number on the for social worker Masters pay monory IAS um so um speaking with teachers at Little River recently um I uh they were giving I I think a number of us have met with them and um just getting a fuller picture of what monasa has looked like rolled out there um I could really see the KN for an i IIA in a new monor classroom where you have multiple grade levels but um would I just like to know it doesn't

have to be right now but the ratios you know IIA to um to teacher and does that differ you know monor versus non monor um and then I know they also have a um monor coordinator I was wondering if that was like something that was being explored for the other um for our other monory schools um let me see what else um and any response to that I don't want to cut off a response but I also don't know a response so I think right so we you know we had conversations about that as we work through allotments that we do need to address um the instructional aids for our monor schools uh and so it is a it is a different ratio that's a little more giving um than a normal um Elementary School yeah yeah okay and I'll just I'll just add to that um if if we're really serious about having a true monory model then that guy they call

them a guide that guide has to be in that classroom with the with the teacher that's a part of that um true monitory process and once we get to a point where we may want to be Ami or AMA you know recognize school that's one of the things that they look for to see if there is a a guide in that classroom along with the what we're calling the IAS as well and that the guide could be that um monory coordinator that monory coordinator role or that's another role yeah that's another okay yeah so essentially you have a teacher and ie in every classroom okay um and then I also wanted to ask um somewhat thing about monor but just in general I would like to know and I know uh one of our constituents raised this up are there areas where we are cutting or are you going to give us I know you've been kind of evaluating things um are you going to come back and give us some detail on on that um maybe things where uh the outcome wasn't worth the

investment or um other other ways where we're kind of slimming down right right so to that there has been a working group pulling that together um we we've got a proposal that we're packaging up for the superintendent to react to uh and then we'll govern ourselves accordingly uh after his reaction and so it's possible we'll have something in front of you here soon um based on that final review okay okay thank you I think that's important too but I'm glad um there's a you know it's all in progress um there were some concerns lifted up around the Monas the cost of the monu and are we getting the biggest you know thing for our buck there um when maybe we could have a more um kind of streamlined training or something like that but I know there are lots of areas so I'm glad the working group is looking into um all the things um the last thing I was going to ask about is our salary schedules are we I know we're we're not doing a a full

study right now but up toate salary schedules you all were working on those is that correct so I know recently we um yes okay good evening yes we are working on making sure those are updated um we recently met probably about a week ago just making sure those are updated and ready to go okay and so they're updated now or they they will be they will be okay okay great thank you thank you thank you Mr Teter I'm Sorry Miss buer sorry uh thinking about bus driver pay I saw you had the supplement which is a $200 a month you know a $2,000 supplement did you all I think we may have talked about this before offline but did you all talk about what's in the board's legislative agenda to see what it would take to get folks to $20 an

hour is starting we so so tentatively we did um and so I think um sort sort of some the fast the fast track maybe would have been a little more compression than there was comfort and so we do still need to flesh that out farther um and so we can have that prepared for the work session as an as an option to look at J can you speak to BAS on your research and some of the numbers the estimate number of bus drivers that may be below 20 or you still work those numbers there was a very um I don't have that work paper in front of me but it was a very small number of drivers that had the low numbers of years in experience right and that's very symptomatic of our crisis that we've been going through with bus drivers um and so it it was a relatively small population um that we would need to look at and so um so I think it was tempting for me to contemplate a quick spot fix on that um but you have to address the compression right so we

didn't want to trigger so um so for the work session we can have a a fuller scale to look at yeah I'm just I'm just curious like if I had to prioritize anything from how we live through this year it would be our transportation and um making sure we can get kids to school and so the the other piece that I know y'all heard a lot was the sub pay for folks that are filling in and covering that have years of of experience and um and whether the sub pay can can increase um in some Fair Way um thank you I just colleagues any other comments questions thank you Mr Teter thank you Dr Le next item on our agenda is for information only for the overnight field trips followed by that is the operation services update Transportation

updates Dr web thank you madam chair and good evening good evening board members and Dr Lewis thank you for the opportunity to speak to you again it's always a pleasure I have with me tonight our interim uh executive director of auxiliary Services Mr Ken Barnes and he'll be backing me up tonight as he always does um so if we can move to our transportation update slideshow please all right slide please next slide there we are so the language uh defining Express stops I won't read you that you've seen that before in previous presentations uh defining and extoling the the benefits of Express stops uh but to cut to the chase the question that's been on our our our before us for several months now uh while Express stops are needed to streamline our uh

routing and our bus uh overall transportation we do not plan to expand Express stops for the 25 26 school year so if you remember the proposal was for DSA Rogers her and um SDC uh so for the afternoon uh we'll we'll our plan is not to expand those Express stops for next year but we would reserve the option for Express stops for future usage as needed next slide please so some of the challenges and implications of of Express stops while we're discussing it so our final routing and Rider numbers for 25 26 will be determined by those who request ridership and those requests go on well into the summer so we're we're looking at a number that we don't we're we're trying to plan for a number we don't have yet um and then the ridership implications of the second phase of growing together unclear during the school assignments Legacy ridership

we're working with um school placement departments and uh and looking at all of that information now and that's part of the total package that will have to be built uh Express stops will add another voting uh another variable to the routing as and as we're adding Legacy stops and school assign changing School ass assignments we felt like now would not be the time to uh avoid to move to express stops so um the DSA uh R rhms and SC stop SCS stops could yield eight drivers for next year but as I said at this point we are not planning to implement those changes for next year um when we do look at Express stops if we look at Legacy transportation during the after doing Express stops it's it's conceivable that more routes could be needed as a result of implementing those next slide

please and next slide So currently there are 19,7 students assigned to buses that relate that equates to 139 route packages so 139 routes next slide please and as we're talking about our routing our team is hard at work right now already writing what the routes should look like for next year uh we've had an ongoing conversation with North Carolina's uh North Carolina State University Institute for transportation research and education or ity uh and they have recommended it's not just about making the route more efficient it's making an accurate route and routing it fixing it on the front end and so our our team is working with them now uh to not only determine what services they can offer us in the future but they've been giving us advice on the routing that our team is doing now and uh Mr Barnes is confident that we will

be yielding uh drivers as a result of our routing efforts next slide please our next steps and our recommendations as we move forward we'd like to reopen the third bus lot in this Northern Southeastern and Southwestern utilize itry perhaps in a uh expanded scope we routing for next year and I will point out here um Mr Barnes and I met with a vendor uh just earlier this week who offered us uh the opportunity to uh even expand our our routing capacity uh through their program so we're actually looking at that and trying to determine if that would work and be helpful to to durh uh we will continue driver retention and recruitment efforts with transportation and Human Resources working very closely together advertise and utilize the generosity of as Dr uh Lewis mentioned earlier uh the foundation's uh uh commitment to fund

driver onboarding fees so let's talk about that recruitment as we move forward next slide and next slide so this is a little bit dated information as I as I sat down tonight and turned my computer on I got some updates so the number num that I'm about to share with you we they are currently even better but I will give you what we have here on the on the screen as of 37 we had nine DPS employees who had already had a current pns endorsement you've heard about those wonderful individuals before they stepped up that brings a total of 22 DPS employees who are also driving a bus uh since 317 and again this number has expanded 14 new Total total 14 total new bus drivers nine candidates in Q and that means they could be waiting on testing waiting on physical waiting on their final assessments uh but they are very close to joining the the driving Corp on uh in

March our bus class we had nine of 11 students pass uh and then we have students working on getting the either the do physical drug screen exam or permits in order to be scheduled for poster ification test that's the mq I mentioned earlier we currently have 134 full-time drivers and our goal is 155 next slide as mentioned earlier and I believe this is a a a a growing gift and growing wonderful thing the DPS Foundation has set a goal I believe it's $199,000 to assist with driver uh driver on boarding this can cover the licensing and do physical fees and the initial cost of driver on boarding is just under $400 I estimated at 47 I think the goal is 50 drivers that we could actually add to the scheme of our our to our to our team the link that you see is uh one that is maintained to actually if someone is interested in taking part and

they can log on to this and begin the process to get their on boarding bees taken care of so I have gone over a fair amount of information in a short period of time are there questions that I can perhaps answer for you or Mr Barnes can answer for you thank you so much Dr web colleagues Miss Umstead thank you all for this presentation I'm so glad to hear that we're working on optimizing routes I think that's something we heard loud and clear from our bus drivers and the recruitment that means that we're going to um have more folks in the queue which is great also grateful to hear that we're not going to have to do Express stops for next year and I'm curious how we are getting that information out to families I'm a little concerned I know we're past the date that families had to commit to um schools and I know this was a part of something they were considering so how do we make sure that people know who were thinking I might I might not I'm not sure we still getting emails I don't know how do we make sure

families have that information while I'm sure some of them are watching us tonight I know a lot of them might not be yes ma'am thank you for that and we of course didn't want want to share that news with with our our families until we had shared it with you first uh but we'll be have we'll be working with our office of public affairs and try to get that information out in every way in every venue possible thank you colleagues any other question Miss buer I just really appreciate sh continuing to um work on this most urgent priority and and bring refresh data to us gratitude to the foundation for stepping in in the ways that they have I'm wondering if one of the retention efforts y'all have might be to see if there's any summer work that we could um offer to some of our staff obviously not many buses need to be driven but there's painting there's grounds workor there's other things that might be going on over the summer that might help us with retention and that's

just an idea for y'all to think about as you talk with drivers we don't want to get them trained in in the DPS family and then lose them um absolutely yeah we absolutely will take a look at that thank you than you thank you Dr Webb thank you friends that's it oh Dr Lewis you can say something thank you I just want to thank um our community members those those that that have stepped up in a major way uh during uh Council of PTA for U writing handwritten notes and and taking them out to the bus Lots um rotary stepped up in her Major Way durhan Public Schools Foundation stepped up in her major way and those others that have just gone above and beyond to just show their appreciation for our bus drivers I also wanted to lift up um the feedback that we received from our bus drivers as early as November in terms of some things that we can do to ensure we're retaining our bus drivers and one of the things that they mentioned was opening

that other lot back up and so thank you to our transportation staff for for making that happen and and those are families those bus drivers those groups are they're families um they wanted to use a bus to go on a holiday um uh dinner just the northern lot that had closed and we allowed them to do that and so we're so so appreciative of us them giving us our feedback but most importantly us uh reacting to that feedback um thank you all um colleagues I would like to take a moment of personal privilege to um address some of the public comments that we've had tonight uh Dr Lewis I know you've been working with Dae on um a meet and confer policy can you provide

the board an update on that sure um thank you for this opportunity to provide an update um the administration has been working with Dae and meeting with Dae um in an effort to um bring a meeting confer policy that um one Center students supports our workers and administration as well we've had several meetings um with Dae and again we want to bring a policy that's um uh efficient and inclusive uh as efficient and inclusive as as possible um there's been a lot of give and take during those meetings and we've reached a a point where there are just only two items that we need to to finalize and one is dealing with that part of the statute um part nine that that addresses equal access for all education employee agencies or simply put how we'll address working with other uh employee um representative organizations or you may hear the term Eros then the second one is uh dealing with the composition of

the meeting for meeting coner committee particularly the district's representation um you know through those meetings we've seen um different iterations and proposals and compromises um there was a um um a need for or or want for the district's committee to be all Administration and so we um shifted that in in a way that we feel like we know we've compromised in that area uh we made several attempts to to come back to the table some as early as as as winter break uh certainly respect Dae stance on those two items um we sent our most recent um compromise proposal dated March 20th uh to them uh we know that they made an attempt to come back to the table this past Wednesday um also sent three potential dates that we are available um three dates in April April 8th 15th and 23rd I believe that we are available to come back to the table actually reached out to president tweet Meer today we had a couple of phone

conversations uh addressing still addressing those two items uh we received some feedback from our attorneys and we were actually I'm trying to get uh back to the table before the meeting today uh so that we can you know continue to move the work forward so I feel very strongly that we're at a um we're we're at a point where we feel comfortable bringing a draft proposal um to the board thank you Dr Lewis could you share um the March 20th dra proposal on in board dos that something that can be yes facilitated yeah we can get that uploaded in board Bo okay um I would like to express my gratitude to Dae everybody who has written to us called us emailed us um about meet and confer it is inspiring to see such passionate advocacy for a policy that seeks to empower our Educators strengthen

collaboration and ultimately enhance the educational experience of our students students while this marks an important step forward the board wishes to reaffirm our full support for superintendent Dr Lewis his leadership through these complex and evolving conversations has been both steady and invaluable thank you Dr Lewis for working tirelessly to navigate the diverse needs of our students our staff and the broader Community ensuring that all voices are heard respected and considered in pursuit of a sustainable and thoughtful solution I hope that we can get a policy in front of the board um that we can agree on soon I hope that we can get feedback from Community um about our shared values around meeting and conferring with our employees um we've got work to do um will you bring us

a clean and Polished ver in the future I mean soon when when how quickly can we expect to have a conversation about this I would like to have a conversation at our next um mean April 10th at our work session okay everybody good with that awesome with that I'll accept a motion to go and close session just I'm sorry I'm sorry just I was just trying to think through the way the board dos is set up where would you want um superintendent to post the meet and confer policy because it's I mean the agenda is kind of set I'm thinking you could put it on the superintendent update you could stick it there maybe at the spot to

place it or you recommend Rod we we welcome that I I I think that makes sense because you don't necessarily unless you want to make an make a motion to amend the agenda to add meet and confer as an informational item and then you could post it there that' be another option I mean he spoke about meet and confer in his comments he did that's why I was thinking we could put it under superintendent update superintendent update okay thank you thank you okay colleagues we still have Personnel to address and close session move that we going to close session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Umstead seconded by miss sper that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda is there any further discussion as we have in the previous few weeks we will not be streaming uh

after Clos session um all those in favor of going to close session say I I it passes unanimously we are now in close session thank you