Board of Education · Regular Meeting · May 18, 2023

Back to meeting

Board of Education

May 18, 2023 · Full Transcript

Good evening everyone we got a full house let's try it one more time good evening everyone all right there we go the Durham Public Schools Board of Education monthly.

Moment of silence.

Thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations I'll pass it over to Mr Sutter good evening board members superintendent of benga all the ships at Sea it is fantastic to have everyone here for an evening in which we're going to be celebrating a large number of our students and staff we're going to begin with a couple of large presentations so I just wanted to traffic manage a little bit and and after I read some names for Science Olympiad we're going to have North Carolina Junior chefs participants in the northern culinary program in as well as the governor's student school students so for those first large groups of celebrations I'm going to ask the board to stay right where you are we're going to have the students line up for a group picture and front with you standing behind at the Deus and then after that for individual celebrations you can come to the receiving line as it were so that's how things are going to go our first recognition is going to.

Be a reading presentation because a large number of the participants were not able to join us tonight and that is the North Carolina Science Olympiad the Durham Regional Science Olympiad tournament is one of 30 Science Olympiad tournaments that took place at North Carolina this year with 18 000 students participating in 75 counties North Carolina Science Olympiad is the largest Science Olympiad program in the country these tournaments are rigorous academic inter Scholastic competitions that consist of a series of different Hands-On interactive challenging and inquiry-based events that are well balanced between the various disciplines of biology earth science environmental science chemistry physics engineering and Technology students competed against 14 middle and 18 high school teams from across the triangle area and I want to give credit and appreciation to the Durham Regional Science Olympiad winners and Division B Middle School first place in the right it do it event earning them a place to compete at the state competition were Rogers first students Aubrey Kimball and Penelope sarla and Coach Andrew Shaq and.

First place in the solar system event earning them a place to compete at the state competition the school for Creative Studies student Lucas Gomez and Coach Trisha Shelley who I believe is here so congratulations and then for division C High School fourth place overall Durham School of the Arts earning them a spot to compete in the state competition coach coach Spencer Ware and students Piper Barnes abrielle Dean Lily fager Claudia Fouche Leila goosa Gwendolyn house Seth Hurley mawish kitter Elizabeth cramling Tao Lee Charlie Pearson Stephanie Perez Caitlin Ryan given sangal and Alex Singleton and let's please Governor a round of applause for the students and their supporting educators.

We now go to the Northern High culinary program Junior North Carolina Junior chefs participants every every school board meeting for many years now our board and our cabinet and when we've been able to offer it our Be Our Guest event has been treated to outstanding meals brought To Us by our culinary programs at Northern and more and recently also Jordan high schools the northern culinary program has distinguished itself in the state with their participation in the North Carolina Junior chefs program we wanted to bring them out and we provided them dinner for a change and we wanted to bring them out and thank them for everything that they've done for us and the way that they represent Northern High School and Durham Public Schools in our County and state the new Northern High School is going to have a fantastic culinary facility we are so excited about that and we can't wait to see what you and your students come up with Chef Brodsky I'm going to ask Chef Peter Brodsky to.

Come forward and to say a couple of words and introduce the students and the supporters and then they will gather at the Red Carpet for a group photo chef. Thank you everybody thank you board very strange to be in this part of the meeting normally kind of back of the house back there but we really do have some great students here with us we have three participants of our NC Junior Chef team Miss Caroline Barber Mr Alex DeBerry Miss Kendall Keaton who did really an amazing job this year showcasing Northern and their talents and really making some amazing food going up against some really tough teams that somehow won with the sweet potato waffle we're still trying to figure that out we also have with us our culinary students of the year who have been here for just about every Be Our Guest dinner and have fed you all but almost more than I have Mr Aiden Langford Mr Brody Terry Mr Solomon Garcia so if you guys all want to come up to the.

Red carpet take a quick bow y'all are amazing.

And thank you all so much.

Well you thought that was a lot of students we are now reaching the standing room only portion of the evening where we present to you the 2023 Governor's School students from Durham Public Schools we actually rehearsed this one and so I'm going to turn it over to Laura Parrott she's going to introduce folks and they're going to line up and you will have the opportunity to give them our respects. Good evening chair umpstead members of the board and Dr mavinga the office of advanced academics is excited to share the 2023 North Carolina governor school student selection results based on the enrollment of current 10th and 11th graders in DPS our district was able to submit 41 student applications out of the 65 nominations received of those 41 student applications the North Carolina governor School Board selected 23 outstanding DPS students to attend this year's session.

The North Carolina Governor's School is a multi-week summer residential program for gifted and talented high school students integrating academic disciplines the Arts and other unique courses during the weeks of June 18th through July 15th our students will be on site at either Governor's School East located at Meredith college or Governor's School West at Winston-Salem State University at this time I would like to introduce our governor school students to assist me with presenting each of them a spark pen tonight Chief of Staff Miss Tanya Giovanni oh we have it okay perfect sorry it's nice to have good health all right so start us off Jahara Anderson Early College High School social science Katie Bradford Jordan High School Math Maya Burton Jordan High School Natural Science Evan Byers Durham School of the Arts choral music Noah Cho Riverside High School social science here at Denny Durham School of the Arts English Lillian boulay Jordan High School Math Ivy Furman Jordan High School English Urban Moore Durham School of the Arts instrumental music.

Taxi Maya Martinez Hillside High School choral music Maya Martinez Wayman DSA English Meghan Michaels Jordan High School English Tabitha marant Hillside High School Visual Art Joseph Morgado BSA Natural Science Evan Paces Wells Riverside High School Natural Science Belle Sousa Jordan High School social science Ava Taylor Jordan High School social science Gianna Wells Hillside High School Dance Gwen Whitney DSA visual art Kabir Zoda stool DSA math and that is 19 oh that's 20 excuse me of our students we have three who could not be here tonight we also appreciate two of our principals who were able to be here Dr Gloria Woods weeks from Riverside High School and Susan Taylor from Jordan High School to help show their support again students congratulations on behalf of Durham Public Schools.

And in the middle yellow shirt is the one that you all should be looking at if all due respect to everybody.

Okay thank you so much.

All right board members and Mr superintendent we are through the group we're asking recognition so if you want to come down for the red carpet for our individual handshakes and such there's now space to do that. We are excited to present to you our students of the month for the month of May this is this is the last group of this is the last group of students of the month that I will have the honor of introducing I am excited to bring to you students of the month for southern School of energy and sustainability and Riverside High School and if I could have their respective delegations come on in.

Outstanding.

We are going to begin with Southern School of energy and sustainability and for that I turn things over to Mr Jerome leathers. So good evening good evening board members superintendent password thank you tonight for allowing us to celebrate another one of our awesome students at Southern School of energy and sustainability I am Jerome Leathers I'm the principal of the Southern School of energy and sustainability and it's my pleasure today to introduce to you Miss Elizabeth Ashford and she prefers to go by Lizzy but I want to put the official tag out there and so the reason why we selected Elizabeth or Lizzy for our student of the month this year is because over the four years she has done nothing but been an excellent role model for our students to watch and model themselves out there she's taking leadership in the school she's on several clubs she's on the yearbook staff she's in National Honor Society Student Government Association and Leadership shows all over the place and sometimes she comes.

And gets gets Mr Leathers in line you know put him in put him in check sometimes but it's it's just a pleasure to have students like Lizzy around the school to model for our other students to see so it's not just that Elizabeth has a 4.25 GPA. And her plans are to attend James Madison University in the fall with scholarship money and so that's what makes us happy at Southern School of energy and sustainability is the Life After High School and our students really do prepare themselves for that and so tonight we also have Elizabeth's mother and father Mr and Mrs Ashford here with us tonight as well so for everyone Elizabeth Lizzie Ashford.

Hey I wanted to give you the opportunity to say a few words if you wanted then I would like you Jerome if you could give me a little bit of room so that I present her with some stuff okay all right we have we have a certificate for you that you we will ask you to hold and smile at for a picture with super but we have some more things for you The Raven found Family Foundation has presented you with a 250 dollar scholarship gift so congratulations on them and our friends at triangle cycling have also provided you with a computer or less and we hope that you'll use very well at James Madison you've got a new computer so.

And then finally I have for you a fart pin the spark pin is a symbol of leadership and advancement and support of Durham Public Schools and it Rec it marks a leader from Durham public school and we hope that you will wear it with pride and if if you're wearing it on something with a lapel on it at JMU and somebody asked you what that intriguing symbol means tell them anyway congratulations on being our student of the month. So I'm going to ask somebody to hold your things and for somebody and for you.

Foreign.

So unfortunately due to a conflict our next student of the month could not be physically with us here and we're a little disappointed about that his conflict would have involved him if he had been able to make it here today he would have been here in his ROTC uniform I am going to present Dr Gloria Woods weeks off Riverside High School to introduce the parent of our student of the month from Riverside for May. Greetings everyone I bring you greetings from Riverside High School and I do want to talk a little bit about our star student before I introduce his mother it is a privilege and an honor to introduce to you our May DPS student of the month a good student is one who can work in a positive group motivate others and yield productive output being positive being helpful cooperative and friendly are all traits of a good student such students become great collaborators and leaders when they grow up our student of the month exemplifies all.

Those traits he is a junior who carries a 3.5 GPA he is a member of the our Junior ROTC for three years he is an accomplished swimmer on Riverside swimming team and he coaches and swims on the Durham swimmer Team league he has also given his free time to help the EC program in their planting and beautification efforts of our school he has the respect of both peers and faculty he was selected to lead the courts of cadets as group commander and that is no small feat major belly his ROTC instructor defines him as cool Under Fire with calm with a calm demeanor necessary to work with others Sergeant Valero States He leads by example upon graduation he plans to attend UNC Charlotte or Purdue University to study mechanical engineering with the concentration in Motorsports please join me in congratulating our DPS student of the month Mr Sergio Rosa.

Sergio could not be with us this evening due to another pending obligation this is our last spring course show he is the stage man manager so he had to be there you know for Call of Duty accepting this award on his behalf is his mother Miss Mary Baird I bring you some point.

I just want to say that Sergio came from a private school background for the entirety of his education and he was extremely insistent that he wanted to be at the engineering program at Riverside and my grandfather and my brother who are both in were both in the military inspired him to be in ROTC and I think during covid a lot of kids got lost like really really lost and so he he missed his eighth grade graduation at Duke school and we were all reshuffling we all know that and when he got in with major Bailey we were talking about it before and his Sergeant I cannot say enough about how much ROTC gave him a course and a track to run on it encouraged his leadership and it it impacted him it grew something in him in a way that he decided not just to participate but to lead and I know I've talked to a lot of parents I have a lot of friends that have kids that are Sergio's aged and.

They just we all struggled immensely during that time I cannot say enough about what Riverside has provided for him about what major Bailey and his Sergeant provided for him and giving him something to Aspire to during covet he was doing PE out on the floor he was doing push-ups in his room and so I just if if and then he started helping recruit but if there were any ever like any doubts about what ROTC provided and what it does provide for our kids and especially the program at Riverside High I just I can't speak enough to what has given my son and he is yeah and he had an obligation and I I actually tried to talk him out of it I was like no you need to be here and he said Mom I gave my word I gave my word that I would be there for the choral concert and it just popped up about a week ago and then this popped up and he said Mom I gave my word I told.

Miss Bullock I have to be there I can't you know I can't back out of my commitment right now so that's just what I have to say about the character that has been provided through Riverside and through the ROTC program for for my son so.

So I have to ask that that you bring lots of stuff home to Sergio including his scholarship and his certificate and his laptop computer and his spark pin as a symbol of leadership and service for Durham public schools and I also want to thank you for your words of support for Riverside and for public education and for ROTC it is important for our students to be here when they can be but what better way to demonstrate your love and support for your son than by sharing your words tonight so thank you very much.

Together I think it would be appropriate for you to show his or get a certificate in a photo with the superintendent thank you so much.

If you're not.

We next want to call in Michelle Hayes from our department of human resources due to scheduling issues we were not able to recognize our DPS teacher and employee of the month for April so tonight we are bringing them as well as our May employ and teacher of the month before you tonight I am waiting for the door to open and for people to come through it I am vamping for time right now and the door is apparently locked okay there we go.

This face is going to bring is going to bring our teachers and employees of the month as well as our instructional assistant of the year.

Good evening chairman I'm sad members of the board and Dr mabinga and cabinet members I am pleased to bring you recognitions tonight our teacher of the month sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis team the tasa chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated DCL Consulting LLC and the veils Care Foundation coach Lawson who is normally here to present an additional award could not be here tonight but he does send his congratulations and remarks on behalf of all the individuals mentioned and he will definitely give them an additional surprise at a later time but they were surprised both teachers were surprised at their schools all right since we did not have our teacher and employee of the month recognition April we are going to recognize our teacher and employee of the month for April and May we're going to recognize our teachers first then our employees following our teacher and employee of the month it gives me great honor to also celebrate our DPS instructional teacher of the year and.

Everyone will receive a spark pin for their commitment to DPS April teacher of the month is Danielle gray third grade math teacher from Glenn Elementary School. Foreign Miss Daniel gray was named the DPS instructional assistant of the Year while it may be difficult to believe Mrs Gray's accomplishments have only grown today Miss gray is a third grade math teacher at Glenn Elementary School as in part of an incredibly strong math team her students progress and growth continued to shine last year the third grade team worked diligently to improve students math proficiency rate from 20.2 percent on the first Benchmark to almost 54 percent on the math proficiency rate on the EOG excuse me additionally Miss gray worked at take to camp and help nine additional students pass the EOG in June amazingly enough this year Miss gray has continued to grow her students with over 56 percent of her students passing the first Benchmark a proficiency rate that is 12 percent above the district average Ms Gray's intentional and careful instruction can.

Be seen in other data sets as well her students use reflex math daily to grow their fat fluency in August 100 of her students had a starting fluency below 50 percent today 80 percent of her students have a current fluency rate of above 50 percent while we will continue to share data points that exemplify Miss grayskill as a teacher the last point we wanted to share was her already data 65 percent of her students have already hit their typical growth goal for the Year miss Gray's importance is our school's misgrades importance in our school extend beyond her classroom walls she is an active member of the girls on the run and has served as a running buddy for other athletes on weekends she has been known to attend students extracurricular activities and sporting events to show her support in closing we wanted to share one of Miss Gray's message she wrote to a student's family through talking points hello I just wanted to share some good news James make an.

Amazing progress in math we recently took our second round of i-Ready assessments and well I just let you see the greatness for yourself I am so proud of the growth she is making thank you for your partnership as we navigate this third grade Journey Miss gray attached two pictures of the students Boi assessment and Moi assessments that showed her growing 59 points two grade levels and exceeding her annual stretch goal by four points just like Miss Grace all the greatness in Jay it is impossible not to see Miss great Miss Grace greatness as an exceptional educator congratulations and Mr reveal which is wrong okay thank you.

Our May teacher of the month is David Brown our third grade math teacher from Merrick Moore Elementary School Mr Brown has a presence about himself that helps build students self-efficacy encourage them encourages them to be their best and takes School seriously he is so patient with students Mr Brown's teaching has greatly improved and he has great relationships with staff and students congratulations Mr Brown. As well.

So congratulations to miss Daniel gray and Mr David Brown for being named Durham Public Schools April and May teachers of the month our April employee of the month is Irving Johnson restorative practice coordinator from Pearson Town Elementary School.

Mr Johnson is a great leader he is an advocate for students and he is often found in our classroom and is always supporting he supports our staff Behavior interventions and provides preventive approach to support student conduct he is always looking for the best in our staff and provides supports wherever needed thank you so very much.

Our main employee of. Our May employee of the month is Wanda McLean. Wanda McLean Regional supervisor for school nutrition Ms McLean has created and implemented a manager in training program to develop Talent from within the department she has successfully assisted over 20 employees to train as managers to fill vacancies and be prepared to assist coverage for absences Ms McLean also provides Safe Serve classes for managers supervisors and assistants in order for the team members to complete the National Restaurant Association Serve Safe exam for food safety this school Year Ms McLean has successfully assisted 24 members with the exam and achieved a 100 percent pass rate.

Once again congratulations to Mr Johnson and Miss McLean for being named during Public Schools April and May employees of the month. BPS 2023 instructional assistant of the year goes to Miss Elizabeth McCoy from Spring Valley Elementary School better known as The Real McCoy Miss McCoy is an instructional assistant in first grade that supports two classes she is a hard worker and pitches in whenever she is needed she can be seen working with small groups of students in the classrooms monitoring the cafe during lunch and interacting with students doing research recess time she assists her teacher teacher in carrying out lesson plans and supporting students she is a motivator and encourager and attends to students needs congratulations to The Real McCoy for being named DPA instructional teacher of the year.

Hahaha.

Thank you very much.

We next have two presentations from Tamika Ward Satterfield we have we were able to celebrate a number of our of the years at the Teacher of the Year banquet last week it was a great it was a great event we haven't yet been able to bring every single one of our of the years to you at the board meeting we wanted to be sure to have a few more recognitions before the end of the school year and so for Tamika Ward Satterfield to come up to present our school social worker of the year and our school counselor of the year.

Thank you and good evening coffee Hill is our Durham Public Schools social worker of the year as lead social worker Miss Hill supports and coaches School social workers while maintaining professional accountability planning professional development developing and supporting a comprehensive recovery plan for students who have disengaged from school and advocating for the needs of all DPS school social workers as the school social worker at the Durham performance Learning Center Miss Hill uses relationship building as a tool to support students families and staffs Ms Hill oversees the Phoenix success which is designed to address the attendance academic progress and behavior of all students Miss Hill serves as dplc's on dplc school Improvement team and along with the mental health counselor provides monthly school-wide social emotional learning activities for students Miss Hill is also a member of the DPS strategic planning steering committee our school social worker of the Year miss coffee Hill.

To make a bail is our Durham Public Schools professional school counselor of the Year this year under Miss Bell's leadership Glenn was accepted into the steps program at UNC Chapel Hill for the first time making it possible for all of their fifth grade students to participate in a college tour and experience on that campus Ms Bell also provides the daily announcements and uses that time to highlight character education and contribute to a positive School climate Ms Bell facilitates the we are Queens program and leads the career day committee which introduces all of Glenn's students kindergarten through fifth grade to different careers and community members she has also implemented a new model for providing social emotional learning instruction to fourth and fifth grade students where she collaborates with classroom teachers to push into class this year Miss Bell identified a rising need and provided education during classroom instruction around tobacco use and vaping for fourth and fifth grade students lastly this year Miss Bell became a national voice certified school counselor.

Our school counselor of the Year Tamika Bell.

Sometimes we have to move fast to notify our our of the years that they're going to be recognized at a board meeting because the announcement comes very quickly before it we are pleased to present to you our media coordinator of the Year our recipient of the Leonard award and to do that I am bringing to you Heidi Perez. Good evening Madam chair and board members and Dr mubenga it is my honor to present our media coordinator of the year Carol Watson Ms Watson serves as the students of Lakewood Montessori Middle School she works to support a collaboration focused environment and plans with teachers through their plcs and in department meetings through reflective practices she consistently gives students space and time to process information with their peers and teachers and this is an information literacy skill that'll serve kids their whole life she also partners with the gay queer student Alliance at Lakewood to Advocate about the importance of lgbtqia books in libraries to acknowledge and affirm their identities Ms Watson also helps her school and.

Students connect outside of her campus to the greater Durham community Through Book Fairs at locally owned letters Bookshop Durham book club that connects students from DPS schools across the district book drives for book Harvest and collaborating with other DPS Middle School Battle of the books teams to support them all students can find a place a program a time or a book that suits them in the media center that Kara cares for with compassion and expertise congratulations.

Our last recognition of the night we've had two other recognitions that due to a scheduling conflict or a communication issue we're going to have to bring them back to you our last Community our recognition of the night is a spark recognition and this person does not know that they are receiving the spark recognition tonight and I'm having an issue I'm having an issue with my cell phone right now joint Miss Malone could you come in here for a moment please I'm having I'm have I need some technical support Ms Malone.

Would you please. Joy Malone is our executive director for information technology she has a tremendous responsibility for all of the people of Durham Public Schools our staff and our students the information technology team has taken on increasing responsibilities since covid since one to one It has been a Monumental task and she has borne that with excellence but in Durham Public Schools you don't just get a spark pin for doing your job you go over and Beyond you demonstrate leadership above and beyond and some of your colleagues who are not in the information technology sphere wanted you to know how much they appreciate you taking the extra step going the extra mile Beyond just providing Information Technology services for assisting Durham Public Schools and making it everything it can be you you take on a lot it's never easy and any person who has ever had to call a help desk for any reason from any company knows how challenging information technology is but we are not just about Information Technology we're about educating.

Children and your colleagues in other departments wanted to let you know that you are a leader and we present you with this spark pen.

Madam chair members of the board Dr babinga that finally completes our celebrations for May.

So many amazing celebrations so many great things happening in Durham Public Schools my favorite part is watching the look of awe and surprise on our folks faces when they hear about all the things they have done and all the gifts that we like to bestow on them so thank you all for a great celebrations the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's update I'll pass it over to Dr mobinga thank you madam chair Madam chair members of the board good evening we have had many wonderful celebrations tonight and have a long agenda tonight so I will keep my remarks brief first congratulations again in order for our 2023 PPS teach of the Year Jahira Davis it was a special evening and I was happy to see so many of you there with us we are very close to the end of another great year and we look forward to celebrating our student accomplishment especially at our graduation ceremonies I look forward to seeing you all there we kick off graduation season yesterday.

With our project search students I wish them well and I wish I could have been there I was in rally with other colleagues superintendent trying to have conversation with all our state legislatures but anyway so tied up and we finally waited till almost four and they did not show up so maybe next time next month at our June board meeting we plan to bring you the classified salary study recommendation for our for your consideration we have been taking extra time and care to ensure a fair pay proposal for the hard-working and valuable classified employees who work behind the scenes toward our student and staff success along those lines I want to thank our country manager Kimberly soul for fully supporting our budget requests including our efforts the classified salary study it means so much to have the support of our County as we work to ensure success for all our students.

Durham Public Schools is a strong schools system so we are planning a strong start to the new Academic Year we were recruiting heavily and hiring strategically to ensure that the right people are extended the privilege of teaching our students that our buses have caring competent drivers behind the wheel and that's our student I served robust meal prepared by our passionate professionals thank you for your support as we have searched for the best candidates I'm grateful for the work that has been done to fill our positions while we are busy hiring we are also planning for next year we look forward to our annual District Leadership Retreat in late June the board we trade with cabinet in July and an employee convocation in August to kick off the new school year at last but not least I wish all the best congratulations to Dr Julius Monk was returning to Guilford County as Deputy superintendent of business and operations Iran Public Schools thank you and we will miss you quickly Madam chair this concludes my remarks.

Thank you Dr mabinga the next item on our agenda is the agenda review and approval Madam chair I would ask that we add a resolution urging the North Carolina General Assembly to reject harmful School voucher plan perhaps is item 9e the final item before closed session all right. I'll take a motion if we approve of that amended agenda.

Public comment before we get started I'm gonna give a quick review of the rules first please state your name and if speaking for organization please state your name in the name of the organization second our speakers are asked to present their comments within we'll do three minutes three minutes when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will be and that indicates that your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of our students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider your comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker will be Kristen's southwork and the next speaker will be Jenna crother.

S sorry I have to have a computer to read my notes so good evening board members and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today my name is Kristen Southworth and I'm the parent of two students DPS students a rising well soon to be rising sixth grader and a soon to be rising second grader and I'm here tonight to represent the Durham special needs advisory Council for those who are new to the board we are parent-led group working in collaboration with Educators and community members to support and improve the educational experience and outcomes of DP DPS students with disabilities our focus is on advocacy of a system-wide issues that impact the DPS EC community last fall our group participated in a conversation regarding the Strategic plan with RTI and shared many of the challenges our EC Community faces our hopes for our students and how DPS can best support them it was disappointing not to see that directly represented in this new strategic Plan before you this evening.

We know DPS and the board are aware of the current credit crisis around EC teacher retention and the daily challenges of teacher shortages while trying to meet the needs of our complex and high need students we are here this evening to strongly encourage you to prioritize exceptional children in this upcoming strategic plan to express and reiterate the importance of qualified and well-trained EC teachers in every school is to ensure our most vulnerable students receive the support that they need receiving EC Services should not be a privilege it is a legal right and commitment the DPS must fulfill and failing to provide these Services significantly impacts the lives of those students their families and the entire community we understand the burden and lack of support based the support based placed upon this board and DPS by the state of North Carolina however the likelihood of meaningful support coming from the state is not encouraging these new proposed changes by NC General Assembly will leave our EC students to pay the most significant price and could.

Take back Decades of progress for EC students who have this who have fought so hard to have the same rights as their able peers as it becomes more acceptable for Charter and private schools to receive to receive Public Funding to deny services or even entry into the school the Strategic plan will help serve a roadmap for the next five years and EC students deserve to be top priority we must get creative to find our funding grants and partnership to support these students and we must move on from waiting for the general assembly to provide a life oh okay to provide that lifeline is that my time sorry that is you have one sentence that you want to wrap it up before we sure thank you these these are our Durham children and we as a community cannot fail them they deserve to be prioritized as part of this plan and I will send the rest of it via email thank you I was going to make that suggestion please send it to us via email.

Jenna Crawford followed by Elizabeth Sims and then next will be Margaret and I apologize I'm mispronouncing your name Christopher.

Awesome thank you good evening my name is Jenna Crowther and I am the parent of a kindergartner at EK Poe this is the second time I have been here to speak about the Aftercare crisis the first of which was last November asking you to please plan ahead for this year to ensure that the challenges that we experienced last year weren't repeated and we were a family that was on the wait list for I don't know three three months or so at Poe and it was a very trying time we got a space in Aftercare this year or for next year I guess because I rearranged our family's schedule that morning and we had local grandparents who could drop my youngest off at daycare so that I could be at the computer at 7 59 frantically refreshing and I recognize the immense privilege in being able to do that so I thought about getting up here and asking you all to implement a registration Lottery to at least make it.

You know an equal chance right for folks to get in but really that wouldn't be sufficient what I need and what I think parents across you know the DPS Community need is readily available Aftercare please don't make us scramble and stress and pray to get in simply uphold the promise I know that when the elementary school start time was changed in 2021 that it was brought up that Aftercare would be a challenge that we needed to address and it was often met with yes we will address that challenge you know I've emailed you guys with some frequency I've provided these public comments I don't really know how else to say it but we need your help the current system it's disrespectful and it's not sustainable please help us and I'm here tonight in support of the Aftercare petition better Aftercare for all thank you.

Thank you next we have Mark Grant car savant oh sorry excuse me Elizabeth Sims I apologize and then Margaret Christopher Courvoisier thank you.

Hi my name is Elizabeth Sims and I am a health and PE teacher at the school for Creative Studies I am going on this should be my 20th year which I have spent at this school that I have believed in and put my heart and soul into I was at first afraid to go there because I didn't know if I was going to be able to make the adjustment for a the year-round schedule that we have and the rigorousness of going between middle and high school because I teach mostly middle school but I also teach High School once I was there and I it took me to my second year I fell in love with everything about the school especially the year-round component because a is provided me and the students with more support than I thought it would be the teachers are like myself when I came from where I was I was no longer tired and I could put my energy into my students and third because I have them from sixth grade.

Through ninth grade but I see them every single day in their sophomore through senior year they have a certain respect for me and I have a respect for them and I get to see them Blossom from little kids to grown men and women and that has made a big difference in when I tell people about our school and how I thrive with my students and how my students Thrive with me I would hope with this growing together because I see where you're going I do understand I really do but that High School component is so important because I know I see myself every single day as that kid who was lost in the high school my small class of graduating kids when I came out of high school was 1275 students and that was a small class I was completely lost and I felt unseen and I believe my students do not feel lost and do not feel unseen because I am so on them that even if I don't see them.

Every day and I have to say something to me they look at me and go Miss Sims you haven't changed and I said should I and I say no that's what we like okay so I would urge you to as we're building the growing together to keep and see that as you're building it you are building the need for a high school that is year round a place where I would have loved to spend my time as my students do and enjoy me as much as I enjoy them thank you very much thank you next up Margaret Courvoisier followed by Walter Courvoisier.

Hello my name is Margaret cavasi if you couldn't tell already I'm very sorry for my last name it's very complicated do not apologize for your last name I just needed help don't apologize I am actually a part of family and the school for Creative Studies I'll be it was very hesitant when I first got there I was actually quite mean but I did it wasn't actually terrible I really did enjoy being there and I'm currently still there I'm a freshman there in the high school department the most to me at when I go to school when I walk into the door what I like to see is how close we are we sure we're not related by blood but we have this connection between staff and staff staff and students and students and students we have formed a family inside our school obviously with our small setting it'd be easier for us to communicate to talk to have these types of bonds that help students in a positive way.

I feel when I go to school when I go to my classes I feel welcomed I don't feel like I'm just a number there I feel like I'm a person I go in the teacher says Hi I say hi back and we learn and we interact with each other and we understand each other which for me is really well personal because I before that I actually went to Rogers her and I just felt lost it was huge lots of people small spaces I just didn't fit in and I fit in here I feel safe welcomed assured that I can be someone without being judged lots of other students feel this way for what I know one of my friends was offered a program from one of our teachers there she said this will help you and you'll really enjoy it and the student did and she actually got into college this year for that science program that our teacher recommended her another one is one of our music production teachers Mr Evans he.

Constantly is getting his kids up and going with Studio other Studio Productions people who can help them soar and what they love and that's what I feel is about our school we help each other we build relationships sure we don't know each other at first but just take us like two months and we'll be like the closest friends our staff is really important too because they work together and they bring us an example for us kids so that's what I really like about SCS and it makes us a wonderful family thank you thank you.

Next we have Walter crevassiere followed by Roberto Sanchez there we go. Hello my name is Walter Wilson father of Margaret I also have another daughter that attends to school with sixth grade just got in there she's doing great because the teachers and the staff there in addition my wife Catherine teaches there which helps out a lot we as parents sign up signed our kids to attend the School of Creative Studies for a variety of reasons for some people was because it was year round something that helps prevent summer slide decreased class review time and also keeps youth out of trouble by having more structure to those long summer days perhaps it was the country setting getting them in the way and the violence in the inner city areas and gangs perhaps it was the size of having an EC student myself indefinitely it's easy to prevent anxiety and increase focus with less kids in the building when the current sixth grade is enrolled the Border policies stated they could.

Stay through all grades in SCS which was still 12th grade when we first signed up it was your policy those kids will be allowed to stay since our decision to send them to SEC SCS was based on this knowledge I turned on other seats Elsewhere for lottery classes because of this because it'll be with each other from six all the way to 12 which then create bonds to kids and friendship instead I'd set my daughter away from the school that she was supposed to go and had to start all over and make new friends as you saw she's got a lot of friends not only did I ask her to make all new friends this year but with my house being redistricted with this plan as well the high school closing my daughter will be starting zero friendships once again in ninth grade which was my sixth grader a big deal for an EC student with anxiety it has been explained that the current seventh grade will be the last ninth.

Grade class meaning we have two more years or rather five more high school years but I'm asking to let the current sixth grade and oncoming sixth grades at least say the ninth grade since that was promised to them during the Magic season your decision has changed these things they have to the magic lottery results posted and families make choices based on the knowledge of the SCS policy from six to twelve that gave up seats and waitlist positions elsewhere this is truly unfair I understand anything redistricting due to the growth of the dorm and also the board has adopted a policy to evaluate redistrict needs every five years why not give SES a five-year grace period are you aware that there's three principles and a new all new assistant principles transition in a school within a year it's a lot of administration changed and the school is still doing great as we've gotten Rewards but putting the current timetable in place new teachers will be hard to find parents will be unassured the academic.

Integrity and being pulled their kids out that's unfair that would be fair let's talk about the students who chose to go Creative Studies they have a special group high percentage of EC then out of the schools children anxiety kids who have been lost in large schools as my disorder just said kids need a new place to be year-round that's it thank you thank you have a good night next up Roberto Sanchez and sorry Roberto I'm just having a hard time reading the handwritten here Resendez Resendez followed by Danielle Duncan.

Hello my name is Roberto Sanchez versus I am a oh yeah sorry I apologies so my name is Roberto Sanchez I am a freshman and student ambassador at the school for Creative Studies and I did want to just issue of turning our Middle School and High School year-round school into Justin middle school because the season of April as soon Ambassador we gave tours once twice a week twice a week it was to all these amazing sixth grade students with such great potential and to show them that we are year-round school that they can stay here comfortably build bonds with teachers and just for that promise to be taken away with just a simple decision and a vote really crushed me for all like I said all these things which is a great potential Bright Futures and same goes for the current sixth grade class that is in that is in our school at the moment as Mr crosier stated all these students were promised year-round school be able.

To graduate all of this such an amazing school that we have already built with the students and staff just to be gone in just a moment's notice sorry yeah and one thing I also want to add is my concern for the teachers as people have stated we are like a family here in SCS and as we see that we're fleshing out the student the high school students I feel as if once all the freshmen are gone all the freshmen teachers are going to be gone they're going to be showing them for a job because it's not just students that are being impacted as a teacher as well people who have moved on from school college have functioning jobs have functioning lives responsibilities of their own not just with the students at the school but with their family and their own personal lives so I just wanted to make sure that everyone at SCS can constantly live and move on with the school year with the rest of their educational.

With the rest of their sorry I'm a bit nervous with the rest of their you know path and success so I just wanted to make sure that everyone can get what they were offered and move on that is all I have to say thank you thank you. Thank you Roberto next we have Danielle dahlkin but followed by Trisha Shelley.

Good evening board and thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight my name is Danielle and I'm a high school history teacher at the school for Creative Studies I'm here tonight to speak against the growing together proposal after five and a half years in a PhD program at UNC Chapel Hill I quit you'd see I matriculated to Carolina to become an educator and every moment I spent teaching my undergraduate classes was the most intellectually defining time of my doctorate experience I quickly learned however that pedagogy isn't valued at R1 institutions and faced with more student debt and an unpromising job market in higher level education I turned my career aspirations towards settings where classroom instruction and student collaboration were not only prioritized but celebrated when I arrived at the school for Creative Studies high school I felt a sense of relief and inspiration here was an educational space committed to nuanced intellect instructional approaches for a dynamic High School population I was struck by the intimate class settings the personal relationships high.

Schoolers developed with faculty and the creative approaches both student and instructor brought to this unique High School experience which my colleagues have carefully detailed in a letter that's been addressed to you at the school for Creative Studies High School pedagogy is Central compared to UNC Chapel Hill our our high school lacks the resources of an esteemed Public University but the sheer Ingenuity of the High School faculty at SCS exceeds the instructional capabilities of my peers at the Collegiate level every day I walk by classrooms where High School teachers are doing more with less because teaching High School for the student population is their passion it's now my passion too the inspiration and passion I found at the school for Creative Studies High School does not easily transcend this setting first and foremost I am a secondary and post-secondary level instructor I developed my craft in college classrooms and my skill set best serves High School age students who are grappling with complex intellectual problem solving I do not share the same.

Enthusiasm for middle school education and I will not be seeking employment as a middle school teacher should the school take that course secondly I'm an educator with diagnosed learning disabilities it is my privilege to work with a broadly neurodivergent student population who learns like me my life experiences make it possible for me to parcel materials into themes that to make them more accessible for students struggling with ADHD or dyslexia and none of these adjustments come at the expense of rigor as stated I was trained in a college classroom I teach the high school the same way every student in my classroom Rises to the challenges and meets me where I am before I go I'd like to recognize that the intentions of growing together are altruistic but intentions and impact aren't the same please take seriously the concerns raised by the people who must Implement Your Design we are the front lines of education and to us destroying one school to expand another doesn't sound like growing together at all thank you.

Next we have Trisha Shelley followed by Ron Baron with following following Ron will be girja Mahan Mahajan. Hello board thank you for hearing our comments I'm a seventh grade science teacher at the school for Creative Studies I've been there since it started since day one some OG I'm a Founder super passionate but in the same classroom but seen so many faces come and go and one of my biggest Joys is to see students you know that I saw since sixth grade as Miss Sims said turn into whole adults is it's just pure magic and just to see him every day in the hall I remember every single name first and last and so I'm just urging you to keep it the way it is and perhaps make a different Middle School the northern equivalent of Rogers Herr someone somewhere like Lucas or Carrington maybe could do that same role they're even closer more centrally located and as as others have said it's a unique environment there's really nothing else like it.

There are some students that would get really lost in that huge High School setting and the way it works out it seems it seems like our numbers are small and it can be interpreted as a lack of interest but it's really the kids who do have it are they really need it and it we serve it's like a niche that we've just perfectly found ourselves filling that can't just be duplicated somewhere else or eliminated altogether the the what else yeah the yeah I think that's all I had to say but I just I just urge you to keep SCS the way it is thank you thank you next up rambaron followed by excuse me and Catherine Goldstein dear members of the board my name is John Barron I'm a father of a non-binary and gender non-conforming DPS kindergartner at y Smith Durham Public Schools should not be spying in our students this doesn't really seem like it should be a controversial statement and yet here we are discussing whether we should.

Continue to pay for Gaggle software that does just that dangers of Gaggle and not feel it already we have had it already 1K or at least one case where a student was outed as queer to very highly unsupportive family such an action can and regularly does in danger of a health well-being and even lives of lgbtq young people some might say that any use of the internet carries with it zero expectation of privacy well that is true to an extent the use in this case is mandatory and the software has no process of consent whatsoever we cannot and should not be imposing it in our students as a parent of some means in education I can and will choose to purchase my my student at home laptop on which on which to do their work so the DPS cannot spy on them outside school bounds but such an option is not available to most DPS families we're worried that we will therefore end up spying largely on those lease able to.

Avoid it moreover such steps can prevent my student from being spied on in school while Gaggle claims to remove student data upon termination of contract it also uses data to train its AI software by the very nature of such software removal of the data itself does not hold back the training thus our students data is and will always be used to spy on on them and on others we should never have piloted this Insidious software we should have stopped its use the first time this board discussed this we should do so now and with immediate effect thank you thank you.

Good evening my name is kirish Mahajan and I have two children at Ike Poe I'll make the same points today that I made last year at the Aftercare Town Hall Forum in July we have a two-part problem internal disorganized program operations and a lack of coordinated local government and Community Action to address this issue as a collective crisis so here we are again individual households of more than thirteen thousand DPS elementary students navigating this critical need by themselves or through their social networks who will be taking care of my DPS Elementary student between the hours of 215 and 5 PM is a question that every single working family grapples with at some point in the school enrollment process the petition and other comments address the specific communication and organizational challenges of Community Education but I ask you board members Dr mubanga other central office administrators to move this issue from an individual household problem to a collective problem-solving effort form a task force with elected officials staff and Community representatives from the.

City County School System business and non-profit sectors to make a transformational Improvement of the local Aftercare infrastructure for DPS Elementary School students in their working parents and caregivers thank you thank you next we have Catherine Goldstein followed by Charles wood and last but not least Theron Perkins. Girls would I just want to yield my time to Catherine we're just going to split the order thanks hi my name is Catherine Goldstein I am the mother to a second grader and twins entering DPS in 2024. I'm here today because I believe having a full-time job and sending your kids to Durham Public Schools should not be in conflict but unfortunately for hundreds of parents in the last two years there has been a very deep and stressful conflict of having a job and sending your kids to public school that's a direct result of a failure of the district to build a robust Aftercare program that can meet the needs of this community I'm also here on behalf of over 174 parents grandparents and community.

Members who have signed a petition to you our Board of Education which I emailed to you all this afternoon demanding change to our Aftercare program we are dealing with a second year of infuriating Tech problems poor communication and wait lists that started in the case of my son's school at 802 am on the day it opened at 8 am it is clear that this dysfunction is now the status quo and won't change without a serious intervention as I saw listed today there are still 330 kids on the after school wait list for myself and those who signed the petition we don't want apologies and we we don't want excuses and we don't want to hear that people are working on it this is this reality is unacceptable to us and it should be unacceptable to you all too Aftercare is facing systemic problems that will not fix themselves doing the same things over and over and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity we need accountability and Leadership from you our board.

In addition to demanding A Better Tax better Tech platform and clear communication I would like to read you the two Central demands of our petition one 100 of after school elementary wait lists cleared by the start of the 23-24 school year and two in order to eliminate sign up inequity all students who sign up within a certain time frame in the spring of 2024 are guaranteed a spot for the 24-25 school year no having to be at the computer at 8 A.M even if you're there at 805 you're out of luck an open window of enrollment like we do with a lot of our programs anyone who signs up can get a spot and this should also include students with disabilities or IEPs we demand support for all families who need care anyone who works at DPS who tells you that this is too ambitious or not possible I personally think should find another job anyone who says this is not that big a deal and that the school district has.

More important priorities I'd remind them that other countries have safety nets and the U.S has mothers not building up this Aftercare safety net disproportionately impacts single mothers and mothers in the workplace meeting these demands will require creative thinking collaboration Partnerships and potentially new Funding Solutions we believe that the board with the board's commitment and Leadership we can accomplish these goals I also believe investing in great at a great after CARE program that's available to all would be an amazing Goodwill generator and a winning political issue for you all and a great way to retain and attract families to our school system thank you thank you last but not least their own Perkins and I please apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name.

Hey how y'all doing today I'm Theo and Perkins I have two kids that go to Shepherd Middle School and I was coming up here to let you all know that Mr Archer is doing a fantastic job at Shepherd I mean like from the time you come in the morning when you pull up to the school normally you'll see him in the bus line and we'll be joking about like sometimes they got his blue suit on you know you got blue so in the seriously he put the brand of shoes on with it he have his gray suit on and the thing about it is when you come to a school in the morning and you see discipline and you see structure and not to say that they don't get to know their kids I'm about to go into that as well because they call the kids their kids understand there's a sense of Pride and ownership in a teacher when they call that my student or students say that's my teacher so when you come.

In the morning he may be in the bus line but I'm a car line parent and in the car line you see a strong woman every single morning and every morning when your kids step by the car she speaks to your kid by name just like those kids who came here earlier were saying that they know they teach us they speak to their kid by name let them know that basically you are important you're important this is going to be a good day today see the first time we talked to someone at Sherpa when we came over there the one thing that person said account said Shepherd is a good school and we had been to another school they never said that she said this is a good school all the way to the point that even when you go to the teachers the attitudes that the teacher has is uplifting we had a teacher call us on a Sunday evening to let us know where our kid was what.

They need to do anything one thing that suck with me what she said was we can do this understand that she did not put that just on the key she was a teacher saying that we can do this letting that kid know that you know what I am in the fight with you and this attitude is that everybody in here knows that attitude as a direct product of leadership that is coming from Mr Archer himself understand that even the resource officer is taking time to get to know the kids and that is the Bridging the Gap between officers and the kids in the community we have today and he's doing a fantastic job at that and I can't say enough about how these teachers and administrators need to Pat themselves on their back because they are doing such a good job at their instilling confidence and leadership in each and every one of them kids and that's what I wanted y'all to know today thank you.

All right and that concludes our general Public Comment the next item on our agenda is our consent items board there is a list of items here the board has had an opportunity to review these items with staff before they've placed on our.

Of action items before we get into all of the details we would like to thank and recognize all of our school-based leaders our Gaggle emergency contacts as well as our district team members each of them have been responsive as they receive District Gaggle alerts to ensure that they are responsive to the schools our school communities and most importantly our young people next slide please and one more. As we think about we just had a robust conversation about our upcoming strategic plan and as we think about the work that we do all of that work is connected to our strategic plan in our current strategic plan the Gaggle Safety Management aligns with three of our priorities Priority One increase academic achievement priority two provide a safe environment that supports the whole child and product four strengthen School family and Community engagement time I will turn the presentation over to Miss Eva Howard executive director for Safety and Security Miss Howard thank you Dr Hardin next slide please.

Yes and DPS Safety and Security we are consistently collaborating to proactively assess Safety and Security strategies and mitigate comprehensive safety issues to ensure our measures are fostering effective conditions for learning in and outside of the classroom safety is truly everyone's responsibility so we look to our 31 000 plus students and their families our 5300 plus teachers administrators District staff and our entire Community to have a hand in keeping our schools safe we partner closely with our school counselors student services school resource officers to use their skills and expertise in handling student situations our Safety and Security team utilizes a variety of tools and resources to Aid in the investigation and resolution of harmful situation or situations our safety systems Effectiveness is based on a layered approach for example some valuable resources that we partner with include the Sandy Hook promise Anonymous say something tip system the Motorola Anonymous Texas tip system z-scaler which is the district solution that dpsit manages to filter and block websites that are inappropriate for our students.

We're currently blocking 14.4 million websites we have approximately 2 800 wired cameras connected to our Network infrastructure these cameras are monitoring our entrances hallways and high traffic areas in and around our schools to provide video surveillance Gaggle is another tool that was added to our toolkit now I will turn it over to Miss Malone to give more details about what Gaggle is and how it's used within DPS next slide please thank you Miss Howard at our February 9th work session we provided details on what Gaggle is this is a review of gaggle's mission how the Gaggle software works and what environments Gaggle monitors within DPS next slide please here is a reminder of our current Gaggle workflow.

And next I will turn it over to miss Tamika Ward saddleford to share information about Gaggle and its use in other North Carolina districts. Good evening again next slide please nationally last year Gaga was used by 630 000 students and sent 34 000 incidents to school staff for review next slide please the previous slide highlighted gaggle's National Data and this slide focuses on their involvement in North Carolina as we see much of what we already know to be true is reinforced after the pandemic students are dealing with more pervasive mental health issues Gaga reports that across their member schools and districts in our state they have seen a 37 percent overall increase in student safety issues I will return it now to Miss Malone next slide please.

All right so this is a review of DPS funding for gaggle on November 19 2020 the DPS board approved the implementation of Gaggle and accepted a DPI Grant in the amount of 143 270 dollars that has been fully used on June 23rd 2020 to the DPS board once again approved for Gaggle and accepted two additional DPI grants totaling four hundred forty thousand dollars eight so four hundred forty thousand eight hundred thirty nine dollars year to date DPS has used two hundred twenty one thousand dollars seven hundred and eighty one dollars for these Grant funds it is important to note that if DPS decides to discontinue the use of Gaggle at the end of the 2022 2023 school year DPS will be expected to return one hundred sixteen thousand three hundred and seventy one dollars back to the state as these funds were specifically allocated for the use of gaggle next slide please this slide is also provided as a review from the February 9th board meeting that highlights the DPS implementation timeline of gaggle.

Next slide please when Implement implementing changes in any environment it is common practice to take an assessment at the end of the first 100 days May 9th was our 100th day Mark for Gaggle being fully implemented in all DPS schools here you can see that within our first 100 days the Gaggle safety team reviewed 40 823 items and spent 350.6 hours reviewing DPS items out of those items 59 were considered by Gaggle as possible student situations and 927 were considered questionable content here you can see how these items were categorized over to the right is a diagram that shows the number of possible student situations that happen during the school day as well as those after school hours next slide please on this slide you can see the number of types of Gaggle alerts received across our school levels within the first 100 days.

Next slide please as part of our 100-day assessment of Gaggle we surveyed DPS Gaggle emergency contacts this slide and the following slides will include the survey questions and the compiled responses here you can see how each Gaggle emergency contact identified their job position within DPS next slide please. This question how often did you use gaggle 52 percent of respondents indicated that they use Gaggle daily or weekly. Next slide please how often did a gaggle agent reach out to you 77 of respondents indicated that a gaggle agent reached out to them monthly or never.

Next slide please how easy was Gaggle to use 72 percent indicated that Gaggle was extremely easy or somewhat easy to use next slide please. How useful was gaggle 55 percent indicated that Gaggle was extremely useful or somewhat useful. Next slide please this question how many Gaggle alerts did you receive outside of school hours here you can see the Spectrum where 21 indicated they received no alerts at all and 28 indicated they received five or more alerts. Next slide please on average how much time did you spend addressing Gaggle alerts after school hours 36 indicated that they spent zero hours after school addressing Gaggle alerts and 51 indicated they spent one or two hours.

Next slide please this question gauges the value of Gaggle in DPS did Gaggle allow you to take action on at least one safety concern you would not have known about through other channels 75 of our DPS Gaggle emergency contacts said yes. Next slide please how many possible student situation alerts were investigated and found to be non-emergencies or crisis 39 of our respondents indicated that five or more PSS alerts were investigated and found to be non-emergencies or crises. Next slide please and this is the next to last question do you recommend DPS continue the use of Gaggle as a district software for Safety Management 66 percent of our DPS Gaggle emergency contacts selected yes and finally we wanted to add our DPS emergency contacts how would they rate gaggle 82 percent of respondents gave Gaggle three four or five stars this concludes our prepared slides for the Gaggle update the next slide and I will turn it back over to Dr Hardy thank you thank you Miss Malone Miss Howard and Miss Tamika Ward Satterfield.

Chair Umstead this is before the board this evening for information and discussion and we look to you in terms of next steps and any Readiness for an action item at our next meeting thank you so much thank you Dr Hardy and your team for the presentation and in the late hour we appreciate that board members we have questions or comments.

Miss Lewis I know you're joining us virtually do you have any questions or comments no thank you for the presentation. It's Carter Alton thank you thank you so much for the presentation and thank you so much for the redone survey I feel like this is the way that the questions were asked is also a lot more useful in some ways in the new in the in the new version and you clearly have more respondents also I'm still a little curious to know like who those 159 are out of the 218 and who we might be missing but I'm not sure that we have that information but I guess my overarching question or comments are comments and questions are I guess to know in the end whether I would recommend continued use of Gaggle and DPS I need to know two things where did Gaggle prevent harm and where has Gaggle created harm and you've provided us with some data but I still am struggling without additional context here to really be able to answer those.

Questions and I don't know if you could provide us like with a little bit more data but I guess one example of my confusion is. How many Gaggle PSS alerts were investigated and found to be non-emergencies so it looks like we have 66 people in the revised survey who said three or more but we have 59 total psses over that same period. I don't understand that correct maybe I'm not so the question was how many Gaggle PSS alerts were investigated and to be found to be non-emergencies or crises so say for example that was a possible student situation in which once the administrator or school-based level administrators talked to those students they found out hey it could have been where a student was writing a diary or writing lyrics to her song and so once they had that conversation with them it was a matter of no this is not an emergency this is not a crisis this student is not in a self-harm type situation and is it could have multiple emergency.

Contacts responded about the same people definitely yes okay that might be maybe where some of the numbers might be a little off that's why it's a little bit fuzzy to me again but but that's that makes it a little bit more clear because that means that maybe on slide 14 where you present the data on the total number of incidents by category and type so 59 PSS are those that were determined to in fact be PSS like emergency situations those were not flagged as PSS and then ended up not being emergencies so say for example you can see where it says PSS and then it says suicide 21.

Right so say for example one of those suicides Gaggle flagged it as a possible student situation but after administrators talk to those students it could have been where hey they were in a diary situation and they did not like were going to commit suicide that's helpful I still feel like I'm I'm left and I'll let others speak next but I still think I'm left not really being very clear on where it has helped us and where it has clearly prevented harm to our students and where maybe it's hurt students because we don't have additional context on like Educators or staff who are saying that they don't like it or they wouldn't recommend it why like have they seen indication of harm have we heard from families for example that there's been indication of harm because we don't see family data here either yep and again you know we have we have heard from some families some families have said you know it kind of goes both ways they have been able to learn about different.

There's you know their student situation and it allowed them to get them the support that they need whereas you do have some families to say that it's a privacy issue and so again you know from this standpoint you know we're just providing the facts that our administrators as our Gaggle contacts have provided and that's what we just shared today you're welcome Miss Rogers. Okay so I have a couple questions my first questions in regards to family correspondence did we intentionally seek out information from families or are we just hearing from them voluntarily no so these are just families that willingly solicited feedback we did not do like a survey of families okay so that means that we're hearing from like the loudest speakers the people in The Most Extreme oh I love it oh I hate it I'm not sure I'll take that for what it is my question is in these hundred days how did we get students involved in the process and understanding how Gaggle is functioning.

Are we teaching them about how the software is monitoring specifically you don't go into an airport unprepared about what you can't take through so are we having those kinds of conversations with students at an age-appropriate level about what they can and cannot do on DPS devices and so as part of our technology responsible use policy and communicating with students you know every year when they get a device students are made aware I know when I'm out at schools and working with whether it's our Tech Champions or our technicians we are making sure that our not only our students but also our staff understand when you use these type devices what types of information can be reported back and so we're educating them that hey when you are on DPS equipment or even when you're on other equipment that may belong to others even out in the workplace you should be mindful of what you're doing on those and make sure that they're not kind of being in compliant there I appreciate that.

But children can't agree to anything I mean they can sign everything all day every day they're not fully developed we also tell them you have to come in and learn how to read but that doesn't mean that they're going to do that so are we actually having lessons is this built into the work that we're doing around educating the whole child about what they can and cannot do just yeah I think that's excellent feedback and I do think that there's some opportunity for there to be Improvement in that area regarding our acceptable use policy thank you inspire I appreciate the work that you all did I know this is what we kind of asked you to do to look at it in 100 days I don't think I think some of the concerns that our community raised the last time we looked at this and some of the concerns we we have about student privacy continue to weigh heavy on me with the use of a product like this and so.

You know for for brevity I think I would be comfortable returning the money to the state and discontinuing the use of this product at this time that's kind of where I am on it it I I really hope that we can put our energy and focus with safety into what I think is first and foremost building relationships with students that are trusting relationships and so that's where I think resources and energy should go as as we navigate these really complicated issues and I I believe that Wake County discontinued using this after trying it for a while and yeah thank you I appreciate Miss Byers comments there I think that's really helpful as we're doing this work if we just look around that's the position of our board that's going to save our stuff a lot of time.

Thank you I want to thank you so much for all the added levels I mean communities still they talk about how are we keeping the school safe right and I like to be able to put the layers like in terms of like you mentioned the cameras you mentioned like all you know we're having so many discussions as to what does it take to keep our kids safe and definitely relationship is at the heart and our strategic plan you know talks about that when it comes to Gaggle you know even from the last time I was talking about like the life cycle of a device you know like that life cycle from procurement integration kind of like seeing how it integrates and then also ending a life cycle at what point we're ready to end it and what I will say is that the company itself I I look into their website for algorithm bias and I'm looking at some guidebooks and they they didn't really do their work in.

Terms of algorithm bias like you know what are the areas of bias and that's on Gaggle not on us because I know that we're trying to keep our kids safe that's all we know we know that you know there have been instances where we kind of get you know the the evidence that yeah it helped in this particular case we don't have the full robust examples of harm I really like that question Jessica about like you know what are the what are the unintended harms what are the benefits we can't really gauge all that fully right now but I do know that that's one layer of safety that we wanted to explore but my concern is with the company and it has nothing to do with your you know like your attempt to bring something to us that you know other districts are using my thing is that when I look at the ethics of that website I can already tell you that even not even manufacturers I mean I'm.

Talking about like anywhere you look when you talk about algorithm bias in a company that sells a product they'll have robust like I'm talking about like robust information about how they're addressing algorithm bias there's a whole field for it they're examples they name one example along race and black students and black to non-black one one example and they could have gone in so many different ways of like how because we know the bias is again intersectionality you know so many different ways that they could have expanded upon how they're staying accountable to that so as a company I'm I have my reservations with Gaggle because of because of the company's lack of transparency about how they're addressing algorithm bias and I'm I will say that at this point you know maybe this company at this point has so many districts they they should share more there should be more transparency in how they're addressing algorithm bias that's where I I land but I also look at you as folks who number.

One are working to keep our kids safe that's your number one priority using technology to do that and I want to support you know your efforts in terms of like when there is technology like already another company Force metrics is in the area trying to like to talk about we have technology and this is how we're different than you know shot Spotter and all these other things and we're always going to be getting suggestions from different companies so I just want to thank you all so much for bringing this to us giving us the updates you know doing what we ask for in terms of like letting us see the the surveys and this is very important data but for me the most important thing for me is algorithm bias and I just the company itself just didn't meet the criteria for me in that way and I'm very disappointed in in their lack of providing that and so that's that's just what I wanted to share that I appreciate so much.

This work that that you're all doing to keep our kids safe and I think that we need to continue to share the community right like the the different ways of different like swiss cheese model like we have this layer we have this layer we have text to tip we have gosh we I'm drawing a blank now I guess it's because it's so late say something of course say something and obviously like observation but the other thing that I will say is personally I've heard from some kids that they're not logging into their so a lot of the children were using phones right and since we started putting out the goggle there was a scare and I can tell you particularly with kids that I've talked to they've stopped using their phones for educational opportunities and the reason why is because they're like they're gonna access my pictures and as much as I'm like well you know that's that's one of those those those those things that we talked about like what does it really access.

And and what does it really have access to and we can we can tell them that we have set the parameters at a certain level but they're still like nah I'm not even checking my phone and I have seen grades drop I I'm telling you I have seen I I've been talking to kids about Gaggle for a while and they're just like nah we're not even gonna log in with our phone like only on the device and that portability like being able to access your canvas you're being able to do what you need to do and and kids kids are kids right some some of them are doing some things that we need to stay on top of so it's It's Tricky It's Tricky I'm I'm just letting you all know that I have a lot of love for the intention behind this product but I think the product itself I'm holding them accountable to do their work a little better about how they're addressing algorithm bias thank you Miss Ryan.

I sent any other question or comments from board members I appreciate y'all getting this data and I think Mark question still Center and somewhat around the company and the technology and I understand that the state provided funding for this but it I don't know that means that we have to use it so I think that's important for us to to be honest about it sounds like I hear some questions slash unreadiness I do want to give the administration some guidance this is here for discussion is there something that we want to hear in June so we can take action or do we all feel kind of that we don't need anything in June because we feel the sense of unreadiness and don't want to continue with the project so I'm just kind of looking I want to give staff some some guidance on where to go next because they have some work to do before we get to our gym meeting so I heard from is validars of his buyer their positions or Miss Chavez.

Good yeah I want to thank you too for the all the data you presented this is very useful in addition to the anecdotal data that we I think we've heard I I feel at this time that for me there's not enough evidence to keep to maintain it some of this some of the information there are different there are there is a spectrum of responses here but I feel that there I would want to see like overall more convincing like I really want to keep it higher ratings from staff members I'm concerned about I'm I remain concerned about the staff hours spent on it and I do think about with the after hours spent what if those hours were spent on relationship building Endeavors that I think that I I think would probably be more effective at getting at some of the the different issues that are listed here concerns around suicidal feelings and I have too many tabs open but all the you know all the different things that the Gaggle is.

You know attempting to track self-harm other possibly problematic so you know manners of expression that kind of thing so I think that's where I land also I may not be here in June if you vote on it then so so I I think that I yeah that's where that's where I come down right now and but the data was really helpful so I appreciate it and I appreciate you you know I I think I believe that we need to do our due diligence in multiple ways to keep our to try and keep our students safe and I also believe in going after things and reevaluating and do we want to keep this or not but with yeah with my overall evaluation that's where that's where I land so so thank you very much Miss Lewis oh I didn't have any questions from the presentation but as far as comments as we're weighing in and where we stand it's important for me that we have layers of approaches to keep our.

Students safe and with just the increase of mental health suicidal ideations and things of that nature that this is at one of those possible areas of stopping or preventing and keeping Kids Safe I would not oppose us using it through the end of the contract that we have for the grant I definitely agree that we need to make sure there's just no bias happening and the things of that nature but for me that's that safety of students who might be just talking about self-harm give that layer of protection I don't think to me that weighs more that weighs more for me to have that layer of protection in place and unless we had something else that would support our students with additional counselor social workers you know those bodies in the place to do that I'm not really I'm not ready to swap one for the other because we have nothing for the other we just be giving the money back without having another layer in place in this moment where at.

Least with another year we could get something else in place knowing that the contract was going to end in 2024 and just the last thing when it comes to monitoring kids and the devices I think it's a good practice for our parents to be aware what their kids are doing on their devices and the different going to that oversight needs to be there and I think that this gives that oversight as well and this data really does help just seeing where our those who are monitoring it or being engaged as far as emergency contact stand so this is just really helpful information for me as well so thank you thank you Miss Lewis is there any other folks who are in support of keeping gaggle all right so if it seems like there's unreadiness to continue working with the project I think at Miss Lewis I want to Echo your comments so around this layer of making sure that we have something to catch support for students I would like.

To see us maybe spend some money some investments in making sure we amplify our other tip lines as well as the I'm not going to remember the number now but the the national hotline around self-harms so. So how do we amplify some of those other places and I think we talked about mental mental first aid mental health in our meeting on Tuesday and how do we student ambassadors and how do we kind of invest and continue to build that up so that students know here are the places that I can go when I'm experiencing this because I think right now this Gaggle isn't like student driven it is truly is like us kind of imposing ourselves on that so I want us students to know though where they go who to contact and different places to where they can find the support that they need all right thank you all awesome thank you just for clarification I I think I we are terminating at the end of this.

Year yeah that's what it sounds like but we'll work is that correct do we do we have a current contract so I mean you do have a contract so I mean I guess before you terminate so it sounds like the direction of the board is very clear you would like the administration to come back well would like Administration determinate the contract I guess the question is are you authorizing the administration to terminate the contract now or to I guess review negotiate any sort of termination I do not I just want to make sure since this was.

On as an information and discussion item and I have the contract pulled up now but I just you know would like to review it and advise you on the termination so but I think it's very clear you would like an action an item on June's agenda to terminate the contract and perhaps with the timelines for that at the end of this year versus if there's any sooner option that sounds good if we can have just a quick report around if there are any other implications around I know we do need to return funding but there are other implications around that I think that also June gives us a a couple months to be thinking about what might we want to amplify and put in place for the beginning of the school year by a couple I mean just really one or and some change and if we do have to give I know we did we did discuss this with Mr Malone I think there is either 30 or.

45 days notice that we have to give so if we do have to do such do we have the board's permission in consultation with our legal counsel to do that before the June meeting because it the contract would end June 30th and that was one of the reasons I think the board wanted us to bring this to you in May so that we would have the appropriate timeline to to follow in agreement with the contract that we have signed. So the board is authorizing the administration to potentially contract that would be good that we authorize the administration to terminate the contract with Gaggle according to the terms of the contract is that it's been moved by Ms buyer seconded by Mr yadaras we'll do any other discussion Ms Rogers how will this impact our year-round schools that was one of the reasons I was asking that clarification because if not the 30 days could trickle over into July which would impact the use of your round if we.

Are able to terminate by June 30th then it does not have impact on the year-round schools that would begin in July which is what I understood from the board is that you want it at the end of this Academic Year for it to no longer continue yeah I'd like to just say and I'm not looking at the contract right now but it should be about funds availability and if you as a board are you know I'm just throwing this out there are terminating the contract as of June 30th there are no funds for next year the contract would be canceled during this year for this year's use with a 45-day notice that the next year would have to be entered into unless we did a two or three year contract and and if we did not it ceases at June 30th if it is not extended so that's that's my thought pattern on that.

Look I want to make so I understand the motion to be the administration the board authorizes the administration to terminate the contract with the effective date of June 30th 2023 as allowed in accordance with the contract yeah all right so it's been moved and properly second moved by Miss Byers seconded by Miss valladaris we'll do a Voice vote Miss Lewis no Miss Rogers aye Miss valladaris I apologize Miss Beyer hi Miss Carter Alton hi Miss Chavez aye and I vote I so it passes six to one thank you thank you next item on our agenda is before and after school.

Good morning it's really after school good morning well good night thank you all for this opportunity to provide an update to you on the current status of our after school program we have Mr Dr Reverend Dietrich Danner here to share the update with you Dr Danner thank you Dr Stewart good evening Dr mabinga and board members tonight I will provide an update on the DPS Community Education after school program next slide please that slide please DPS Elementary before and after school programs are licensed by the nocline Division of Child Development and Early Education division all DPS before and after school elementary programs have a four or five star rating and must adhere to licensure regulations including students and staff ratios and staff qualifications per campus license 27 Elementary before and after school programs are licensed Federal Street students are transported to w.g Pearson Burton and CeCe Spalding students are transported to RN Harris ye Smith students are transported to Eastway for program participation eight middle schools offer Encore after-school programs.

The school for Creative Studies offers a before school program due to the late bail schedule Encore programs include Brogden Gibbons Lowe's Grove Lucas Little River combined Rogers Herr Carrington Neo and Shepard knit slide please after school registration open for DPS families on April 24 2023 1458 Elementary after-school seats were available when the registration opened in the 22-23 school year 1090 seats were available a difference of 368 seats for the 23-24 school year the current wait list is 330 students compared to 766 in 2022.

375 middle school after school seats were also available when registration opened in the 22-23 school year 240 seats were available a difference of 135 seats for the 23-24 school year there has been no increase in program fees since 2017. the monthly cost for after-school care is 205 dollars per child next slide please recruiting and hiring has been prioritized for the following schools EK poll Lions Farm Morehead and Watts these schools have a wait list above 30 students increasing the staff capacity and hiring 11 staff members which includes two current vacancies will significantly reduce these schools wait list by 144 students next slide please.

Currently there are 110 employees working in elementary after-school programs a total of 133 employees are needed to operate the program at 41 capacity therefore we must hire 23 qualified people by July 2023 after reducing the wait list by 144 students at EK poll Lion's Farm Moorhead and Watts 186 at this date will remain on the wait list to reduce the wait list of 186 students 13 additional people must be hired a total of 36 people must be hired by July 2023 netslide please Middle School after school Staffing update currently there are 21 employees working in Middle Schools after school programs a total of a hundred a total of 33 employees are needed to operate their Pro the program at 78 capacity therefore we must hire 12 qualified people by July 2023 there are no wait listed students at the middle school level that slide please after school staff recruiting and hiring are underway recruiting efforts include participating in local job fairs as well as bi-weekly recruiting recruitment efforts at nccu and Durham Tech.

Additionally we have we will continue the after-school instructional assistant full-time position offer Recruitment and Retention bonuses and the community ed incentive referral program as well as provide current DPS employees who desire to work in their program extra duty pay net slide please our next steps include hiring and placing staff to reduce wait listed programs once approval is received from the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education regarding an increase in program capacity for EK poll wait listed families will be contacted additionally we will strongly consider suggested stakeholder feedback generated from the April 23 registration process for the 24-25 school year next slide thank you are there any questions thank you Dr dinner for this presentation and we know that there's been a lot of interest in our after school program and so we wanted to make sure we could provide this update for the community appreciate the work that is you've done from last year to this year to get to us to where we are and we recognize there's.

Still work to do board members questions comments.

I'm happy to go first if other people don't I wanted to again say I appreciate the work that we've done so far I have I'll make some comments and then maybe a few questions it feels like we have more demand for after school than we actually have the capacity to hold is that correct yes meaning that our program will can accommodate 3940 students that would be 100 100 capacity which means that we will need 323 employees right now we still don't have the high interest in staff working in our programs so even if we increase the program to 1 788 which which will eliminate the wait list we will need close to 135 employees I appreciate that I know that many of the employees that work for you I'm sure they span a lot of different types of jobs but is it also true that some of them are like college students or people who are here for a season a majority of our employees are college students okay they are group leaders right awesome.

Which is a great job for our college students and so when you say July 2023 are you is that a year-round calendar or is that a was the how does July become the we need to hire by this point so we're trying to make sure that as we've heard from the public we're trying to make sure that we open our doors with with the wait list reduced considerably we know that the ongoing wait list there's always will be an ongoing wait list so to ensure that we at least accommodate those High interest programs that we are able to accommodate those families I appreciate that I hope we can prioritize if we it didn't sound like year-round schools had some of those vacancies but if we prioritize those because they start earlier right now our year-round schools are under 30. okay and so we're continuing to hire got you okay so make sure we prioritize those schools Who start in July and then our our traditional calendar schools that start later a couple of pieces of.

Feedback that I know we've heard from Community I want to make sure that we can try to implement as we go into the fall is that I know for the magnet programs people have a position on the waitlist and I'm not sure if that is true in after school too but what we heard last year some families realized the day before school started that they were still on a wait list and there was nothing available so how do we kind of get that communication out to families earlier or if I know where I am on the wait list the likelihood that I may or may not get in so that families can start planning ahead of time I think that might be something really important well right now with our new software Procare it does indicate immediately when a family is on the wait list so once you submit your application it will give you a status accept it or waitlisted that is and then the staff has a number and that family is located.

On the numbering list now that number is not made Public public to the family but the wait list is compiled in by sequence order and I wonder if we could make that number public just so families can help them make decisions if I know I'm 55 I need to think about something else if I'm number three I might have an option to make sure I'm getting in and I think when we do our magnet programs I hear families talk about it like that right like I'm 90 on the wait list I know I'm not getting into said school I'm closer up I know I might have a possibility so I think that'll just be helpful so the families can plan the other thing I think I want to make sure is and I don't know the answer to this but the sign up at eight I think y'all do have space for scholarship students is that correct and students whose families may qualify for reduced lunch or is it.

Truly if I don't get on a date I'm not I can't get in that's not the case that because you signed up to I described I'll describe the registration process this way and I know someone liking it to a concert but I will describe it as a concert and while it's not a concert there are only at the time 1458 seats available so when the portal open 1927 I believe people were online and those slots moved that quickly that's how I would describe it so it's not a process that says it's a window of time it just it just it didn't work that way and so we realized that when we talked with the Procare solution provider that they handle nine thousand ten thousand registrations at a time and when you hit that button if everyone knows it's going to happen it's like you lose your seat and so it happened it has happened to me on many occasions I can give you an example I wanted to.

Ride a the new ride at Disney I woke up and I woke up at six o'clock trying to get a ride on one of those new rides and in at 801 all the tickets were gone that's just the way the software works and so we can continue to explore how that improvements in the system to ensure that we can improve the software with a vendor I think any ways that we can think about how to improve it I just think about families who couldn't get on at eight some of our families who may not have access to a computer or who need to call MRC to be able to navigate that system and so how do we make sure those folks have ability to get into the system so I don't know if that's with the vendor that's some of the work that we can do but how do we make sure they have access to so I will say that our programs with like our smaller schools with with smaller capacities those spaces move.

Quickly but there is still space in some programs and so our MRC and I must thank our MRC team they were on it day one I mean they've been with us through the process they were there to assist our latinx families and we were still registering later in the week I was checking on the staff making sure they were okay but we were servicing people we continue to service people to this day who went after school I think that's all of my comments or questions I appreciate this update and I think I really do want the public to hear that there's more of a demand than there is an actual Supply or what we can meet and it is a community challenge the public school system is doing what we can but we also need our other Community Partners to be able to help support us it makes me wonder too for some of the I think maybe we did this last year how do we get a list of here.

Are the other after school programs in the area please feel free to reach out to the YMCA or wall Town children theater or other programs so that families know what some of those options are but this is a community challenge I think that town hall last year really spoke to that and I hope we can continue to have Community input into it Miss Rogers thanks for this presentation and thanks to the community for the feedback that they've been giving it's much appreciated my questions I guess stemming from chair Umstead would be sibling priority when we talk about that in magnet schools and all the other schools especially if they're wait listed how do we get the siblings linked so that registration happens simultaneously or they can move on the waitlist to get something about some communication there my question also is around the registration process where you're going online to do all the things and you have to enter your blood type and all that stuff is there a way that we can get people.

Registered and then have them fill out the background information for enrollment because if we don't if you sign up for a daycare which is essentially what after school care is you get you can pay to be on the wait list and I still have a deposited primary colors on Dixon Road if anybody's interested I have an 11 year old you can pay to be on a wait list but the enrollment from four is not is not filled out until enrollment time so if we can change that process that might be helpful to getting some people registered and I know we're trying to build trust I really appreciate how responsive you guys have been on all these issues to everybody it doesn't help that on the slides and in the presentation that SCS is a later start is a later in time and it's not anymore with the bill time switch it's the same as all the other middle schools at 3 20.

I thought it's all good I thought NCS begins at 8 20. Yeah for this school year and goes to 320. No it has a before school it offers before school care yeah and not after school care but she says because it's at a different time as other middle schools but it's the same middle school schedule it has an after-school program SCS does no the slot says it doesn't it's.

They have both they have before school care and after school care got it thank you yes so board member Rogers I've heard your suggestions and we will definitely take your feedback and look at sibling priority as well as registration streamlining registration process thank you Miss Lewis you have any comments. No all right all right I apologize I apologize based excuse me I stand to be corrected you're right it has a before school program it had a lot last year it had an after school program this year it does not they're combined yes I'm okay we're okay we're on the same page I'm looking at the Staffing capacity list from the staff so you're correct yes and so I'm assuming they don't need it they don't need there's no interest thank you right I apologize it is about 1205. it's midnight yes I'm just gonna take just a second to say the comments today about every family who wants to have who needs this to be able to have it and how do we as a.

District right like all of us like you know somebody was mentioning Collective the the idea that this is not just something that you're responsible for but I think as a district we really need to make sure that every family who needs this has access to it and so how do we move that forward and we're not gonna do it tonight it's already past midnight but definitely just wanted to put that out there thank you so much this card often yes I agree with everything that's been said and I just want to add a couple of other things and I thank you so much for doing this this evening especially at this late hour I it sounds like our our main challenge right now is Staffing because we've resolved or we are in the process of resolving the space issue that was specific to Poe right yes okay but even if we do everything we can to try to find more Staffing we don't anticipate being able to meet the needs of everybody in the district.

No I cannot repeat every one though yeah so I do I do think it's important to do what chair said had requested which is let people know where they are on the wait list and if we can possibly provide them with resources that exist in the community as something to have in the meantime while we're trying to figure out bigger community-based Solutions I also wonder if sorry it's late wait are there oh the the community brought to us the idea of creating a lottery system and I just wanted to check in because we've talked about how it's a race to get these positions so if we know that there's not going to be enough for everybody and we know we want to be an equitable system is there a way to in the in the future next year maybe consider creating making this a lottery where people have a period of time where they can submit their application and then names are drawn out of a hat so people.

Don't have to raise and we don't have to give advantage to those who can get to their computer earlier that's something we can't explore and that's something we will do as we review the feedback is that we will explore that possibility great thank you thank you Dr Danner Miss Chavez all right thank you thank you for staying late all of this I want to make a couple comments one I I'm glad we're in a better place than we were last year I I want to I guess actually first I want to say along the lines of what Ms validatis was saying I want to underline that or underscore the the need for just more innovative solutions across the community other Partnerships that kind of thing so that's bigger than right now but I I do want I'm kind of interested to know what what assistance you all feel that is needed to to explore this idea of really making after school you know accessible to all of our.

Students who get out at 2 15. so I will follow up with that conversation because it's a bigger thing than even your depart you know your department and all of that but I want to say around two issues one communication and two Equity a few things one I I would just love to see us really be thoughtful about our communication I know that I read in the materials that you know the call went out to everybody but the whole you know community did not receive it or they did not know that it was coming or that a lot of people there was there were many families who said they didn't know you know or or they knew very late and to plan to be also you know at your at your computer at 8 A.M you know if you don't have if you have kids that go in different places and all of that is that's a lot to orchestrate I don't think it was on social media I was just.

Looking checking on that but but just you know the more we can over communicate I think the better if if perhaps I don't know if there are any principals who put it out as well in addition to Mr Shutter's message but I think that would be helpful just to really get the word out so people feel informed and like they have a fair chance at this at getting you know after school and then my other comments around communication are around language so I just want us to be thoughtful you know that a third of our students are latinx and I would say the majority of their parents speak Spanish primarily and so there's a PDF on the website that even if you translate the site the PDF doesn't translate it's still in English I was going to look at the forms the forms are listed in in English even the Spanish forum is listed and it says Spanish in English instead of espanol and so and and some of the forms are.

Not translated at all some of the PDFs and so just things like that I want us to you know really yeah just be mindful of how our families are experiencing our communication and and and make sure that it's language accessible and and then beyond that just a point around Equity I think the consideration around the lottery that Miss Carter Otten was talking about is a good one we've heard that feedback last year and this year and that could be a way of just evening the playing field so that everybody who cannot get online at 8am you know are the first ones to get these spots and also I do I do have a concern around holding the fee for waitlisted families and I don't know if there's an alternative to that since that is you know it's they don't know if they're going to get a spot and they're you know we're holding on to their money so if I would just like us to be mindful of one communication with.

Those who you know how people are receiving it and to just integrating Equity into every aspect of this process and then beyond that I hope we will have more larger Community conversations thank you very much and and I help people come I'm sure no one's watching anymore but I hope you come if you're a college student come work for after school or consider it all right that's it Miss Beyer I appreciate you adding to this to the agenda I know we asked for it at the last minute I think it's important for our community to know that we feel this is an urgent need and that we want to be doing more and that if we need Community Partners and and folks to join us then maybe we can be the ones to convene that thought Think Tank kind of work and bring people to the table I thought that town hall we had last year was a tough meeting but it was it was good it was Durham folks bringing their.

Ideas and and helping us kind of come to Solutions because that's what we're going to have to continue to Band-Aid together and I wonder as we move forward with growing together how there's ways we could use the regional model to maybe use yeah figure out transporting students to a more Central Elementary School or or you know to build a capacity that way and I I hope that you'll bring us an update at the next meeting or the next one after that that we keep bringing this public and make it transparent as we're making progress and then we keep sharing how people can apply for these positions all through and I know y'all will and I know public affairs will help you but we're going to need some of our families to actually come join us and help spread the word on on Staffing but thank you thank you thank you for this presentation Dr Danner I'm sure we'll have you back to talk more about this as the fall starts thank you.

All right the next item on our agenda is a resolution against School vouchers Miss fire do you want to give a very brief introduction to this School vouchers are unconstitutional and moving forward anyway and expanding this is a resolution written by every child in C I actually don't even think we need to read it unless anyone's that excited about reading it it is very very very late but I do want to thank the folks at every child and see for drafting it and they're moving it with school boards across the state so it is entitled resolution urging the North Carolina General Assembly to reject harmful School voucher plans and is being uploaded to our board docs website so that people the public has access to it if it's okay with the board I'm okay with us not reading this tonight but I will accept the motion if someone would like to pass it or make it excuse me move approval of the resolution urging the North Carolina General Assembly to reject harmful School voucher plan.

Second move by Miss Rogers seconded by Miss Chavez any other discussion we'll start Miss Lewis hi Miss Rogers aye Miss valladares aye Miss Beyer aye Miss Carter Alton aye Ms Chavez aye and I will I the resolution passes unanimously I'll take a motion to go into closed session. Move that we go into closed session for the region stated on the agenda second the movement second to bomb Inspire any other discussion Miss Lewis hi can you tell us who you are please sorry this is javonia Lewis I'm not asleep still awake I will die thank you Ms Lewis Miss Rogers aye this is aye Ms Byer aye Miss Carter Alton Miss Chavez aye and I vote I we are now in closed session.

Foreign. We're back in Open Session Dr mavinga my name chair I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a closed session we have approval of the Personnel report as amended second it's been moved by Miss Byers seconded by Miss Rogers any other discussion we'll do a Voice vote I'm gonna start with you miss Rogers Miss Rogers aye Ms value aye Ms Byer aye Ms Carter Alton Miss Chavez aye our vote aye Miss Lewis are you on with us.

All right it passes 6-0 and with that we are adjourned all right you want one.

Board of Education · Regular Meeting · May 18, 2023

▸Call to Order3:23

▸Moment of Silence4:02

▸Approval of Agenda53:52

▸Public Comment54:45

▸Consent Agenda1:30:28

▸Action Items4:41:15

▸Discussion Items5:15:54