All right. Good evening, everyone. >> Good evening. >> All right, one more time. Good evening, everyone. Good evening., at this time, the Durham Public Schools Board of Education November monthly meeting is now in session. We wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening. There's an audience full here in person as well as those who might be streaming online. The purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents, staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, educate and empower every student to innovate, to serve, and to lead. The interpreters for tonight are Consuelo Nordon and Karen Reyes. we also want to acknowledge that we have our high school student. We have Lorden Lordes, excuse me, Mason who's in the superintendent Manson. Okay, let me get it again. We also have a student joining us this evening from the Superintendent Student Advisory Council. Her name is Lordes Manson, an 11th grader at Jordan High School. Lordes is the Student Government Association secretary and is.
Very interested in political science. We're excited to have you this evening and thank you for joining us.
So, the next item on our agenda is a.
Moment of silence. As we get ready to go into this moment of silence, so many of you know this has been a really scary week, a frightening week for so many in our community in Durham., myself, the mayor, as well as the chair of the county commissioner put out a statement earlier this week., and I want to read a little bit of that before we go into our moment of silence., we've been deeply troubled by the recent news accounts of increased presence of immigration officers here in our community and want to assert our courageous stance on behalf of our immigrant communities that are essential fabric of our city and of our state. We denounce any efforts that promote exclusion, incite fear, undermine human rights, and compromises safety. Durham does not operate in fear. We lead with compassion, justice, and determination.
This week we saw that on full display as families as people went to welcome students at schools who people who have delivered groceries who people have been eyes and ears to any unlawful arrest of folks. We have seen our community show up and show out or immigrants who are part of Durham. Our neighborhoods, our schools and places of employment are stronger because of the diversity of our cultures, languages, and experiences. We are grieved when the contributions of our immigrant communities are overlooked and they are mistreated as fellow human beings. Our strength lies in our people and we affirm our collective promise that Durham will remain a welcoming community. We stand together in our commitment to protect, uplift, and care for every resident who calls Durham home and reject any policies that threaten the trust and unity we have built in our community. To our families, we stand with you. To our educators who are also worried about family members, we stand with you. To our community, Durham Public Schools is here for you and we.
Look forward to welcoming our students when families feel comfortable doing so. With that, I would love to take this moment of silence and keep our families in mind.
Thank you. Right. The next item on our agenda is celebrations. I'm going to pass it over to Miss Cooper. >> Good evening, Chair Umstead, members of the board, Superintendent Lewis, DPS colleagues, and members of the Durham community. It is my honor to present this evening's celebrations. As the world around us feels unsettled, and as our community has experienced significant challenges this week, our students continue to excel. Their resilience, leadership, and determination shine through in every classroom, stage, field, and learning space. These moments of pride and progress reflect not only their extraordinary strength, but also the dedication of our staff, the trust of our families, and the partnerships that sustain our community. Each month, and especially this month, celebrations remind us that excellence persists amid adversity. We begin our celebrations with our student of the month followed by our career development spot career development month spotlight. We will then honor our teacher and employee of the month and close with spark pin presentations. Please welcome principal Kesha Futrell from the Durham Performance Learning Center to present.
Our November student of the month. Good evening to our school board, to the members of the superintendent's cabinet, to our esteemed guest both online and in the audience. It is wonderful to be here with you this evening to share with you a wonderful young lady. When I met Jesia, she was very discouraged about school., but I assured her mom that we would take care of her and that she would be just fine. and I'm happy to say that she is going to be graduating this year from Durham Performance Learning Center.
Miss Parker, our school receptionist, says, "Jessia is kind-hearted, always has a smile to give when I greet her, and she's very open-minded. Her smile makes me want to smile." Miss Shaka, her CTE teacher says, "Jamsia not only excels academically, she also contributes to a positive classroom environment through her kindness, her willingness to support her classmates, and her consistently cheerful, positive attitude. And Miss Jennings, our support specialist, says Jesia is a great student. Her resilience to challenges and her motivation to keep reaching higher academically and setting an example for her peers and her efforts proves that she is a true rock star. And her principal says that she is a truly lovely young lady that has been my pleasure and my honor to meet and has been my joy to pour into her. So tonight I present to you Miss Jesia McCoy, PLC student of the month.
Congratulations. I know you're excited and we are excited to celebrate you. And in doing so, we have a few things for you. I hope you don't mind. First, you get a student of the month certificate. Next, you receive a spark pin for embodying our district's core beliefs, and we hope that you will wear it proudly in Durham Public Schools and beyond. Our friends at Triangle ECycling want to make sure that you're powered for success wherever your life takes you after Durham public school said they would like to present you with a laptop this evening.
And we also have a very special presentation I'd love for Miss Cheryl Wall flag to come forward. She's with an organization called Families and Community Rising and they are dedicated to ensuring that students and families have healthy starts they need to thrive. And because of young people like you and young people that they support from the very beginning, your potential is limitless. And so tonight, they would like to present you with a $250 gift card. Congratulations. We know you are destined to do great things.
>>.
>> We also have a second student of the month, Kayn Kingley from Ignite Online Academy. She is unfortunately unable to be here this evening due to a school commitment. So, we look forward to celebrating her at a future meeting. Congratulations again, Jesia. At this time, I'd like to invite to the podium Dr. Jia Jones, career development coordinator in the office of career and technical development for our career development month spotlight. Thank you, Miss Cooper. Good evening, board chair UMstead, Superintendent Lewis, board members, DPS colleagues, community members, and guests. My name is Jia Jones, and I am the workforce development coordinator in the career and technical education department. On behalf of Darien Harris, our CTE director, I stand before you today as we celebrate Career Development Month. With significant growth in industry recognized credentials earned during the 2024 2025 school year and hundreds of students engaging in career exploration through high school opportunities such as internships, job shadowing day and districtwide career fairs as well as middle school programs like Accelerate.
Students at Work and STEM goes red. The career and technical education department is proud to lead the work of preparing students to be truly future ready. Every credential earned and opportunity created represents a student gaining skills, confidence, and a pathway toward opportunity. But we know we cannot do this work alone. One of the most impactful ways we accomplish our future ready mission is through the dedicated support of our business partners. partners who believe in our students just as much as we do. Today, I am honored to recognize and celebrate one of those partners, Novo Nordis.
The programs that move our students forward. On October 15th at Southern School of Energy and Sustainability, we launched the first ever career and college promise biowork course in Durham public schools. That's this milestone was made possible because of Novo Nordis financial and programmatic support. They stepped up, invested in our students, and helped Southern expand its op its efforts to expose students to high demand careers in life sciences. And their support did not stop there. On October 21st, our CTE department hosted the third annual Accelerate event at the Durham County Stadium. And for the first time, Accelerate had a title sponsor, and that title sponsor was Novo Nordis.
Their contribution helped us deliver an unforgettable career connected experience for our students. Nova Nordis continues to dedicate their time, resources, and hands-on support to ensure that Durham Public School students are prepared for any pathway they choose, whether that path leads to college, careers, or both. So today, please join me in celebrating Novo Nordis for their incredible partnership and unwavering commitment to our students. And finally, let's take a moment to celebrate our CTE department and the families and educators who show up every day to make sure our students have the opportunity they deserve.
Today, joining me, I have Miss Picolia Johnson Scott, who is the strategic workforce workforce partnership specialist. We have Mr. Kenny Fe and Miss Lauren Johnson. And then from the CTE department, I have Miss Janet Smith, who is our middle school career development coordinator. I would like to invite Miss Pico Scott to give her remarks. Good evening. And on behalf of Novo Notice, thank you to Durham Public Schools and the school board for this recognition. These initiatives help prepare students for meaningful careers in life sciences and advanced manufacturing. And we're proud to play a role in building that future together with you. Thank you for your collaboration and commitment to education.
Thank you. >> Thank you so much. You know, on behalf of Durham Public Schools and the CTE department, we'd like to present you with a certificate and then we'll have a photo moment. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Dr. Jones, and thank you so much to Nova Nordis for your commitment to the students of Durham Public Schools. Please welcome Michelle Hayes, executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition to present our teacher and employee of the month. Good evening, Chair UMstead, Superintendent Lewis, member of the board, and cabinet members. Tonight, we come together to celebrate our teacher and employee of the month, two individuals who consistently go above and beyond in service to our students, school, and community. Each month, we pause to recognize a teacher and a non-eing employee who embodies greatness, tenacity, perseverance, and leadership. Honores are selected based on the month's theme and this recognition allows us to highlight the incredible people who make Durham public school such a great such a special place. Our employees take great pride in their work and being acknowledged for their dedication is deeply meaningful.
When they get their present well after the presentation they will get a bag of goodies some swag gear and a spark pin. This evening we are proud to honor our November teacher and employee of the month. Our teacher of the month recognition is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis program, the Tosai chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated and DCL Consulting LLC. Our employee of the month recognition is gener generously sponsored by the office of human resources. The theme for November is leading by example being that role model. This month we celebrate individuals who inspire others not through words alone but through consistent action. These are the people who set the standard those those whom students families colleagues and our community are proud to follow. They reflect the very best of DPS and remind us daily what true leadership looks like. We are going to recognize our teacher first then our employee. Our November teacher of the month is Miss Courtney McMillan, second grade teacher from Pearson Town Elementary School.
Come on up,. Miss Mill. Miss McMillan exemplifies what it means to lead through action, integrity, and dedication. Your influence extends far beyond your classroom. She is currently working with the district to develop curriculum pacing documents, ensuring that high quality instruction reaches students across Durham. This level of collaboration and expertise reflects your commitment to supporting not just your own students but education educators and learners across the district. In her classroom, Miss McMillan masterfully integrates social studies into T into ELA instruction, creating rich, meaningful learning experiences that build critical thinking, and deepened comprehension.
She models excellence daily through thoughtful planning, strong instructional practice, and an unwavering focus on student growth. As a role model, Miss McMillan builds strong, trusting relationships with students and families. She fosters belonging, encourages curiosity, and empowers every scholar to believe in their potential. Her leadership, professionalism, compassion, inspire those around her, students, colleagues, and their entire Pearson Town community. Thank you, Miss McMillan, for leading by example and for being the kind of educator who inspires others to follow in your footsteps. We are grateful for your impact and proud to honor you. And I will also like to give remark have remarks from coach Lawson because I know he did a surprise for you all surprise for you this week.
>> Good evening. Oh, good evening Superintendent Lewis, Madam Chair, board. yesterday the members of Tallside chapter had an opportunity to come out and surprise Miss McMillan with some flowers and this evening on behalf of DCL Consulting LLC would like to present you with a small token for your excellent work. Would also like to recognize Principal Cunningham for identifying your exceptional talent. So congratulations.
Congratulations, Courtney, for being named Durham Public Schools November Teacher of the Month. Our.
November employee of the month is Miss Courtourtney Vaughn, instructional assistant from Forest View Elementary School. Miss Vaughn was unavailable to attend this evening, but Mr. Boyce, principal of Forest View Elementary School, will accept her award on her behalf. Courtney von kindergarten instructional assistant truly embodies the spirit of leading by example being that role model. Her positive energy re radiates throughout the building uplifting every student and colleague she encourage encounters. Since returning from leave, her presence has been a reminder of the light, warmth, and joy she brings to our school community every day. Courtney leads with kindness and consistency, building meaningful relationships, modeling patience, and demonstrating what it means to show up with purpose. Her enthusiasm, professionalism, and genuine care inspires others to rise to their very best. She is a role model not only for our students, but for all of us who are fortunate enough to work alongside her. Congratulations to Courtney Vaughn for being named Durham Public Schools November Employee of the Month.
Voice will receive her award on her on her behalf. >> Did you.
Thank you, Miss Hayes, and congratulations to these outstanding employees. The Spark Pin is one of the highest recognitions we give in Durham Public Schools. It represents the spirit of our mission and honors those who go above and beyond to make that mission a reality. Spark Pin recipients embody our core values and those values are realized through their actions. Tonight, we are proud to recognize the Riverside High School Affordable Housing Club for their extraordinary leadership and civic impact. These students saw a problem affecting families across Durham. Unsafe and unstable housing conditions, and they refused to look away. Instead, they organized, researched, listened to their community, and took action. Their advocacy led them to city council member Chelsea Cook with whom they collaborated to craft an ordinance now adopted by the city of Durham. Because of their work, renters in our community are better protected. It is now unlawful for landlords to collect rent on properties with imminently dangerous conditions. An important safeguard that grew directly from the voices, courage, and persistence of young people who cared.
Enough to create change. These students exemplify forward thinking, collaboration, a deep commitment to the well-being of others, and they remind us that leadership is not defined by age, but by heart, conviction, and a willingness to serve. Riverside's affordable housing club has made Durham stronger, and we are honored to celebrate these DPS scholars for their vision, their advocacy, and the meaningful difference they have made for families across our city. Congratulations and thank you to Milo Greyber, Nico Jordan, both who are here this evening representing the club and accepting Spark pins on their behalf.
This concludes our celebrations this evening. >> Thank you, Miss Cooper. a lot of amazing celebrations this evening holding the tension of what's happening as well as celebrating some of the great work happening within our district. The next item on our agenda is the superintendence update. I'm going to pass it to you Dr. Lewis. >> Thank you so much Chair Armstead. Good evening members of the board. >> Thank you members who are present and watching us online. You can go to the next slide.
As was mentioned earlier, this week has definitely been a challenging and a very heavy week for many of our community members. As federal law enforcement activity has caused fear, it's caused disruption and uncertainty across Durham. Our schools have felt the impact directly. Attendance has been noticeably lower. and many students arrive to school carrying worry about their families, worrying about their friends and what might happen next. students who did come to school have needed extra care and reassurances from those around them. I think it was Dr. Martin Luther King who stated what impacts one directly impacts all of us indirectly. And when I met with my superintendent student advisory council yesterday evening, I will tell you it's it's impacting all students in a in a major way. yes, our attendance has been lower. typically our attendance is around maybe a little over 90%. These past couple of days, it's been around 70%. let me be clear, I don't care about those numbers this week. I really don't. What I do.
Care about is our community and our students, families that are fearful of leaving the house, fearful of sending their kids to school or walking their kids to school, because of increased federal presence in our community. Despite these challenges, our schools have remained resilient and our community has surrounded them with strength and compassion. want to acknowledge the steady leadership of our principles who have worked tirelessly to respond to shifting needs in their buildings and to recognize our teachers and sta and support staff who have created safe welcoming spaces for students who were anxious and unsettled.
Our district has remained in close contact with school leaders throughout the week, listening to what they are seeing and ensuring that supports are in place for students and families who need them. Also want to thank our district leaders and central services staff who have been deployed to schools to assist with arrival, dismissal, or just wherever needed. And also to our community organizers, thank you so much for your resources and your continued support. Most importantly to our families who may be directly impacted or hurting right now. Please know that we see you, we stand with you, and we are committed to supporting you through this moment. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that our students and families feel safe, seen, and supported. many of our family members are you know, wanting to send their children to school, but out of fear or not. And but they're also concerned about what that may mean for them in terms of attendance. I don't want you all to worry about that. Let us.
Worry about that. We will work with you to support you in that endeavor. This community is strongest when we face challenges together and we will continue to walk alongside you in the days to come. Next slide, please. This month, we honor the rich culture, history, and contributions of our indigenous peoples. at Durham Public Schools, we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where every student's heritage is recognized and celebrated. The hub farm welcomed the little turtle family and friends of the Tuscarurora tribe for two special field trips this month where DPS elementary students learned about Native American history, language, and culture. Students explored indigenous language through interactive activities, experienced traditional storytelling, and enjoyed powerful days of dancing and music, all while gaining a deeper understanding of the rich traditions of the Tuscarora people. Thank you to the Little Turtle family and the hub farm for providing this outstanding opportunity for our scholars. And again, we honor the the traditions. We honor the commitment, the contributions of our native families.
To this day when we are engaging in furthering our restorative practices that was originated by Native Americans. So, your work continues to live on in Durham Public Schools. Next slide. November is also homeless awareness month and we stand with the students and families who are experiencing housing instability. Our district provides needed support and resources to ensure every child may continue to learn despite current circumstances. Thank you to all in our DPS community who support our scholars in need., I'm not only grateful for their efforts this month with supply drives and for students and families, especially considering the recent SNAP benefits being withheld, but certainly grateful every day for what you all do to ensure student success.
Next slide. As you heard during our celebrations, November is National Career Development Month, and this recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to preparing every student for a successful future across our career and technical education pathways, work-based learning opportunities, internships, as well as college readiness programs. Students are building real world skills and discovering new possibilities. Our goal remains clear and that is to equip every learner with the experiences, support and exposure that they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. Often tell our business partners and and and others that the future workforce of of Durham sits in our classrooms. it is really incumbent upon us to make sure that we are creating these opportunities to ensure that our students are ready to to step in that that next role in terms of staying here in Durham, but we have to make sure we're providing them with the u skills and the experiences in that area. We will continue to encourage them to aim high, explore their interest, and chart meaningful pathways toward their future. Next slide.
Last week was National School Psychology Week and I want to express our deep appreciation for our exceptional school psychologists. Their expertise, care, and commitment are vital to supporting our students well-being and academic growth. We are grateful for their compassion and all that they do to bring all that they they bring to our schools each and every day. Next slide. Yesterday marked a milestone in the construction of the new Durham School of the Arts. The final beam of steel was placed, signifying the completion of the structural phase of construction. Thank you to our community for supporting bond measures that allow us to build new facilities. And thank you to our DPS staff and construction partners for their dedication to this project. certainly thank our board members that were in attendance there and other elected officials. We certainly look forward to the day when DSA students and staff will fill these halls and bring this building to life.
Next slide. Congratulations to the Jordan High School Jazz Combo and the Southwest Elementary School Chorus for representing DPS at this year's North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference. This was held on November 8th through 11th in in Winston Salem. This annual statewide gathering celebrates excellence in music education, bringing together student performers, educators, and music professionals from across North Carolina. Special thank you to Jordan band director Cameron Garris and Southwest chorus teacher Marcus Barnes for their leadership and kudos to our outstanding students for their talent and dedication highlighting DPS arts program at the state level. Next slide.
Congratulations to Jennifer David, an educator at JD Clement Early College for receiving the University of Chicago's Outstanding Educator Award. This is an annual recognition given by the University of Chicago in honor to honor educators who have made a positive impact in their students lives. This award is particularly aimed at high school teachers who have played a significant role in shaping educational experiences for University of Chicago students. This means that Miss David was nominated by one of her students for this honor. This is certainly powerful and so thank you so much Miss David for leading with excellent and inspiring our scholars.
Next slide. Congratulations to Tamika Ward Satderfield, our director of student wellness and advocacy, who was named the 2025 North Carolina School Counselor Association director of the year. Under her leadership, the student wellness and advocacy department continues to champion student success, equity, and whole child support, empowering counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals to make a lasting difference every single day. Her work and the work of her team ensures that ensuring every student feels seen, supported, and ready to thrive. Thank you, Miss Ward Satderfield. And congratulations again.
Next slide. Congratulations to Dr. Tanya Giovani, our deputy superintendent of administration, legal and compliance services, who was named who has been named by the council of great city schools as one of 11 senior level senior level education administrators to participate in the fourth cohort of the micro castle urban education leadership institute for superintendent. This program is designed to help current and aspiring superintendents develop the skills that they need to successfully lead a large urban school system. So congratulations Dr. Giovani. Next slide.
As many of you know in our community, you are aware that our showcase of schools is scheduled for this Saturday. While this annual event highlights, much of our district has to offer, we certainly understand the challenges that our schools, students, and families have experienced over the past over the past few days. we are doing our due diligence by talking to staff about the status of Saturday's event. We will continue to talk to staff and communicate next steps as soon as they are determined.
Next slide. I shared this previous meetings. I think it bears repeating. The state of North Carolina still awaits passage of a full budget. We don't know if we will get one. however, during this time, I'm certainly grateful for our community that advocates for our scholars, families, and educators, raising awareness of how these challenges can impact our mission. We remain steadfast in our shared commitment to ensuring that every child in DPS continues to learn, grow, and thrive. And this is regardless of the circumstances around us. so our mission remains despite the fact that we do not still have a budget at this time. Next slide.
Lastly, as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share my heartfelt gratitude to our scholars, to our families, to our amazing staff, and our community partners. your dedication, your support, your belief in our mission here in Durham Public Schools definitely makes a lasting difference in the lives of our students. Certainly hope that this season brings you rest, connection, and moments of joy. we're asking our staff to totally disconnect, spend time with family, friends, and loved ones, and those that matter the most. And so, from our Durham Public Schools families to yours, we wish you a safe and meaningful Thanksgiving break.
That's all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Lewis. The next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval., I know I think there's some revisions we want to make to the agenda. Madame Chair, sorry. I'd like to make a motion to modify the agenda. First to add a resolution to affirm the district's commitment to student safety and privacy regardless of immigration status. I'd like to add that right after the.
Consent agenda under board. We would need a new section under Board of Education. I'd also like to move item 3A board policy committee policy 3620 back to consent where it was when it came two weeks ago. And administration 3 C and D. Can we flip those and do the finance update and then the classified salary scales would be my motion for the board? >> Second. There have been several amendments to the agenda made by Vice Chair Rogers. I'm just going to recap those. So, after a new number three or Board of Education items, we're adding a resolution to affirm the district's commitment to student safety and privacy regardless of immigration status. We have moving item 3A to our consent agenda. This item is something that has been reviewed by the board in advance of tonight's meeting. So, that' be the new 2E.
And then I also have flipping items 3 C and 3D. So they now would read 3 C would be the finance update and 3 D would be the classified salary skills. Yes. Okay. And then we need to add an additional policy to consent. to add to that add policy 4207 for consent. Yeah, it would be A B C D E. Yeah, it would be 2F. It would become 2F 2 F >> to resend policy 4207. Okay. Right. So, we have an amended agenda.
Not going to recap that whole part, but we have the additional F here. Is there any other It's been moved by Miss Vice Chair Roger, seconded by Natalie Beyer. Is there any other discussion from board members? All right, we are going to do a voice vote. We have Miss Chavez who's joining us virtually. So, we'll start with you, Miss Chavez. >> This is Emily Chávez. Sorry to not be with you all. I'm under the weather tonight. And I vote I. >> I'll start. Vice Chair Rogers.
>> I miss her Gooff. >> I. >> Natalie Beyer. >> I. >> Mr. Tab, >> I. >> And I vote I as well., Miss Carter is not with us this evening. She is absent. So, that passes 6. The next item on our agenda is Jim, excuse me, the monthly me meeting minutes from October 21st, 2025.
>> Move approval of the minutes. >> Second. >> Been moved by Natalie Beyer, seconded by Vice Chair Rogers. Is there any other discussion? We'll do a voice vote., Miss Chavez. This is Emily Chávez and I vote I. >> Miss Rogers >> I. >> Mr. Aloff >> I. >> Natalie Beyer >> I. >> Mr. Tab >> I. >> And I vote I as well. It passes 6. The next item on our agenda is the general public comment. I will do a quick review of the rules before we get started. First, please state your name and if speaking for organiza organization, state your name and the name of the organization.
Second, speakers are going to be asked to present their comments within we'll do one minute tonight because we have a good number of speakers set up. U when the yellow light comes on, you'll have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep and that indicates that your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of students, or to the operation of the school system.
Finally, board members will listen carefully and consider the comment, but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers. And if please, if I mispronounce your name, come on up to the podium and correct it for me. So, we'll start with Lucia Harrington, followed by Sasha Wolf, Wolfrram, followed by Phoebe Durlam. You all are welcome to come on up to the podium if you want. >> Hello, my name is Lucia Harrington and I'm here representing Sunrise Durham School of the Arts. I am speaking today to share the details of the resolution Sunrise DSA is proposing. In this resolution, you'll be signing that the board will advocate to the relevant state representatives for statewide climate super fund legislation that will fund green initiatives for schools such as running school buildings on clean energy. In this resolution, you will also be signing that the district declares that climate change is an emergency.
The district supports green initiatives. The district will complete an environmental assessment. The district will write up a plan for its students if a climate disaster hits Durham. The district will organize a committee of students, teachers, and climate experts to propose updated curriculum and add climate change mitigation to the strategic plan. We believe the costs associated with this resolution are minimal and reasonable. We ask that if you have any more issues, you reply. Please.
Hello, my name is Sasha Wolfrram and I'm the state team lead of the Durham School of the Arts Sunrise Hub. We are currently working on bringing our campaign to the state, but we cannot do this effectively without the support of local leaders. We are asking you to sign on and support our cause. Legislation that forces big polluting corporations to give back a portion of their profits to go towards repairing the damage that they have caused. We need a make polluters pay resolution. We want these companies on the forefront of CO2 emissions, environmental exploitation, and consumerism to pay for green initiatives and make up for the damage they are causing to the environment.
This type of government action is unprecedented unprecedented in many ways, but so is the change we want to make. Altogether, the five big oil companies reported combined profits of 196.3 billion last year. This is the money we want. Instead of lining the pockets of billionaires, this money could rebuild our communities, feed the hungry, create new jobs, and switch to clean energy. We need a make pluters pay resolution. Thank you. Is it Phoebe Durland Derlham? Next we'll have Ivy Graves followed by Avery O'Brien and Katie McGonno.
>> Good evening. My name is Phoebe and I'm a member of Sunrise at DSA. You may have seen us for the past few weeks, but do not think that we've been working hard behind the scenes. Since the school year started, we have mobilized students at DSA to support our cause and to push for the passing of our new resolutions. Over 20 of our members attended the No Kings protest, marching and leading chants alongside a sea of thousands. This month on November 7th, we acted with over 100 other schools across the country. We had students make banners to show solidarity for climate action along with organizing club meetings, art builds, and even meeting with some of you. We hope to set a pre precedent not only for schools in North Carolina, but for schools all over the country.
We over the summer, four members from our hub were flown out to Chicago and spent five days receiving training with other students organizers from all over the US on how to run our make polluters pay campaign. This past weekend, one of our leaders helped organize a statewide sunrise training. 10 of our members participated practicing movement building skills and building connections with over Thank you. Hi, my name is Ivy Graves and I am a member of the Sunrise DSA. The cost of climate impacts on health could reach $21 trillion in low and middle countries by 2050. The cost of damages caused by climate change is six times higher than the cost of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. Every $1 invested in climate adaptation and resilience can generate more than $10 in benefits over 10 years. These statistics were not grabbed by random Google searches, but were published by the United Nations Development Program. At the UNFCCC, the annual conference of parties, the NDC's countries submit every 5 years to report.
How they are increasing the ambition of their climate goals. The US is not part of any of this. The only country to ever back out of the Paris Agreement. We are one of nine countries that aren't a part of the Paris Agreement. The US ranks 65th out of 67 countries in the global in the global climate change performance index. We are failing. Our country is failing as we continue to face an action at the federal level. Thank you for your time. Avery, come on up.
And there might be one under this KSC. No. Okay. >> Good evening. My name is Avery O'Brien. I'm here representing Sunrise DSA. I think it's important to address the fact that right now the issue of climate justice is not the top issue on people's minds. Right now, students at my school are afraid and trying to organize in any way they can. We are terrified of what world we're about to graduate into. These are times when, like Ivy was saying, the federal government is not acting for the people of America. The people in power, our representatives are acting only for themselves, protecting their wallets, their reputations, and their status. Corporations like big oil pour their money into election cycles.
And now our leaders are acting as puppets protecting only the wealthiest few. This is injust. I have a future. My classmates have a future and we want a good one. When the federal government isn't acting for us, that means it is your responsibility as leaders of local systems to act. Please help us make polluters pay. The profit of big oil should not be going into corrupting our government. It should be here in the communities that deserve and need it. Your voices have power. Use them.
Protect us and make polluters pay. Thank you. Right. Thank you all. Students, I know some of you had more remarks. You all have our email addresses, B O DPSNC. Feel free to email those to us. Thank you. Katie McDonald is next, followed by Jen Valentine, Megan Mccurly, and Les Garrett. Hi guys., tonight I'm just here as a mom. I'm only armed with my cell phone. I got a text message from my daughter yesterday that said we're in lockdown. I don't think anything will happen, but if I if something does, I love you. Dr.
Lewis, I'm here for you tonight. I know that North Carolina has passed a law. My kids aren't going to abide by it. Can you imagine if the worst had happened yesterday and my daughter didn't have the opportunity to tell me that she loved me? or me as a teacher not being able to share the same thing with them. We live in a world that is not protecting our children. I need you to do that. I need all of you to do that. I need everyone in this room to do that.
They are my heart. They are the blood in my body and my breath. Please protect them, Dr. Lewis.
Jen Valentine. And you all can come on up to the podium. Jen Valentine, Megan McCurley, Les Garrett. Hi, my name is Jen Valentine. I'm the mother of Amelia, a fourth grader at Club Boulevard Elementary., in the last couple years, we've watched the strong sense of community, cultural appreciation, and SEAL focus at club decline. We've also seen effects of dep prioritizing programs like responsive classroom., my daughter started coming home from school saying she does not want to go to school, trying to fake being sick. She didn't want to go to school. And it had a direct connection to these programs being depprioritized. And I know this has had a big impact on a lot of other children at at club. I also wanted to address the lack of communication from administration lately at club.
Just a week before we started school, we had no teacher assignment asking the principal who for a teacher bio. There was a positive Thank you. >> Thank you. I saved my time to less Garrett >> Les Garnet Club Boulevard. I'm a parent at club and I want to quickly talk about the classroom to prison pipeline. I am in a unique position because I have a physical education degree and have taught in the classroom and I've also worked in North Carolina's prison system for eight years. I've read many publication that says the school to prison pipeline starts in the classroom.
That is incorrect. It starts much higher than we see the issues in the classrooms. It starts with underfunding which leads to reduced resources and budget cuts. Then this leads to teachers and other staff being overworked, undervalued and underpaid. And did I mention that under funding causes high turnover and leaves a school with less experienced teachers. What scares me the most is punitive punishments, zero tolerance policies, and over policing of students at club. Punishments often work opposite than intended and often don't change student behavior. Punitive punishments often lead to resentment, aggression, and frustration. Punitive punishments are reactive and not proactive, not addressing the root issues. I see these ways of disciplining kids more and more at club. And I admit punitive punishment scares me. But what scares me the most is a policing of our kids by the police.
I've heard about the police being called to school at least four times already this year. That is too many times. I've learned in my life that you never bring a knife to a gunfight. And as a very concerned parent, you should never bring a gun to a crayon fight either. Thank you.
Thank you. Next we have Zachary. Kill. Carill. Thank you. Carill. Got it. All right. Hannah Danahghue followed by Ann Phillips. >> I see my time to Carill. >> Good evening. My name is Carill Tolpo. I'm here as a parent and as an immigrant. I realize that my white privilege is what allows me to be here today. More parents would be here on a different week, but that is not the week that we're having. I have a first grader and a fifth grader at Club Boulevard Elementary. Over the past year and a half, I have observed an underresourced school struggling to meet the social, emotional, and behavioral support needs of its students. I have observed some excellent teachers become stressed out, worn out, and demoralized. I have observed a school resorting to discipline practices that are not evidence-based and not aligned with the district's core values, nor with my values as a parent. What I have observed is not dissimilar to the experience of other parents at club. Our attempts to get our concerns addressed individually.
Through the normal channels of communication with the school's leadership have been met with polite brushoffs or more often complete silence. That is why we now demand change as a coordinated collective through a petition that over 240 parents have signed. Our demands, which Dr. Lewis has called mostly reasonable, are one, a robust district-wide grievance policy for staff and parents that allows for collective grievance. Two, a comprehensive review of the educator's handbook data with aggregated data of incidents and disciplinary responses made public to staff and families and discussed in an open meeting. Three, protected 30 minutes for morning meeting and character strong to support social and emotional growth of our students. And four, a meeting with principal hall, superintendent Lewis, and school board representatives to discuss our demands and develop a collaborative improvement plan. We have seen some progress. We have a promise of new flexibility for morning meeting and we have been told that some integrity has been restored to educators handbook data. We appreciate these gestures. Thank you.
>> Hi, I'm Hannah. I'm a parent of a third grader at Club. Club is a community school and historically the environment was positive and truly focused on the whole child. Teachers and staff were satisfied with their work despite the challenges that they faced, and they're truly our heroes. Club experienced sudden and unexpected administrative changes over the years, and they really started to impact the environment at club this past year. Dozens of parents reiterated the same concerns: poor absent communication, overly punitive behavior management, shortening recess and silent lunch, and failed responses to real behavior challenges. There was an alarming result to the teacher working condition survey at the end of last year, and we lost so many coming into this year. Our parents realized this year we needed to come together collaboratively and as a school community to discuss our shared concerns. We organized urgently to create a petition and presented it to the administration at our school. We're proud of the work we've done, especially this week as a club community to protect.
Our families. I'm asking the board and I'm asking Dr. Lewis, will you meet with us to address these concerns or will you continue to ignore the outcry of 240 parents? Thank you. Good evening. My name is Anne Phillips and I'm also a parent at Club Boulevard Elementary School speaking on behalf of the over 240 club parents who signed an urgent petition. This petition was initially emailed to each one of you on November 7th, where we respectfully asked for an in-person meeting by no later than today, November 20th. We appreciate the response provided by Dr.
Louis agreeing that most of our demands were very reasonable and achievable in addition to sharing that a comprehensive plan has already been developed to address safety issues. None of the details of this plan were included nor are request for a meeting addressed. We are here to once again respectfully ask for an in-person meeting. The over 240 concerned parents represented here deserve the opportunity to meet with you regarding our petition and to be shown your comprehensive plan. Dr. Lewis. Members of the board, we care deeply about our school, our children, and the staff who show up for them every day. We believe that school and district leaders equally value these priorities, and our motivation for being here tonight continues to come from an authentic desire to work together towards an acceptable solution that restores safety, trust, and stability at Club Boulevard Elementary.
Next we have Andrew Galer, Joanne Pomeran, and Peter Crawford.
Good evening. I am Andrew and I'm here representing Sunrise at DSA. I just ear I want to thank you for listening to the words of my peers earlier and for continuing to hear us in these hard times. With the government not acting in our interest, our futures are at risk and I am scared that I will not be able to live in a future where I am able to see live with my peers., I hope that you will continue to support us in passing our Green New Deal for schools resolution and our make polluters pay resolution so that we can create a safer and more sustainable environment in our schools. Thank you very much.
Hello, my name is Joanna and I have two children at Creekide Elementary. I'm here tonight to discuss two issues, transparency and budgeting and positions at the central office level. The unfortunate truth is that North Carolina does not fund public schools at industry standard levels. Luckily for us here in Durham, DPS has a larger tax b tax base than much of the state and those funds can go towards supporting our schools. The question is how are these local funds being used? What are the decisions, metrics, and data used to determine where those funds are spent?
There is no public data available into this decision-making. Another item to address is positions at the central office level. As we all know, DPS can increase or decrease decrease school-based allocations depending upon the number of students enrolled at each site on the 20th day of school. Are these adjustments also made at the central office? In other words, or central office follow state allocations for personnel as well. The salary of central office employees can be quite high and that amount of money could materially impact one or two schools in the district. It is imperative that as we look to shift funds and find where dollars will make the most impact that we also look at the top and make such adjustments there as well.
>> Hey, good evening folks. My name is Pete Crawford. I'm a parent of three Durham public school scholars. I want to share for everybody's benefit some indications that any school system would have that we need fundamental change. Earlier this week when you guys had your meeting with the county, you reported a celebratory metric that we are on the right track on year-on-year improvement. We're still behind where we were six or seven years ago. We celebrated single-digit improvement in relative metrics like growth, but we're still below 50% in composite proficiency in core subjects like reading and math.
The delta in proficiency between demographic groups in some cases is as high as 40 percentage points. So, if you're a white girl versus an African-American boy, you have a very different experience in Durham public schools outcomes. Outcomes, not inputs, outcomes, right? And when the reaction to the reporting of data like this is to not question what we're doing, but to question the state level grade assignments to the schools, that's not serious. What is needed is fundamental change because we can't even do the basics of reading and writing. We're not going to be on track to anything close to 70% proficiency if we're on this path. Thank you.
Thank you. With that, it concludes our Public Comment. The next item on our agenda is our consent items. We have AB, excuse me, ABC D, new E, and new F. Move approval of the consent agenda items A through F. Second been moved by Natalie Beyer, seconded by Vice Chair Rogers. Is there any discussion? We'll do a voice vote. We'll start with Miss Chavez. >> This is Emily Chávez and I vote I. >> Miss Vice Chair Rogers >> I. >> Miss Harold Gooff >> I.
>> Natalie Beyer >> I. >> Mr. Tab >> I. >> And I vote I as well. The consent agenda passes unanimously. 60. The next item on our agenda is a resolution to affirm the district's commitment to student safety and privacy regardless of immigration status. I want to thank school board member Chavez, Miss Chavez for bringing this to the board this evening. I would ask that we do a reading of the resolution first and then open this up for discussion. We know this was added towards at the meeting tonight. It also has been posted online for those who are watching who might want to take a look at it. Miss Byer.
>> I know we typically read them first. I had questions about specific wording. Would you rather address those before reading it because I think there's some places it could be made stronger. and I wanted some clarification from Attorney Malone. But >> yeah, I think I would like for us to read it and then have the discussion afterwards. Yeah, >> that's fine. >> Just so we can go ahead and get that. >> Yep. >> All right. I'll start with Miss Chavez. All right.
>> Follow in the order that we vote. >> Resolution to affirm the district's commitment to student safety and privacy regardless of immigration status. Whereas the US Supreme Court decision implyer versus DO affirms the right of all children regardless of immigration status to a free public education. And >> whereas under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Furpa, immigration enforcement officials may compel the production of confidential student records and personal personally identifiable information contained in those records only by subpoena by subpoena or court order. end.
>> Whereas the presence of immigration enforcement agents in or near schools disrupts the learning environment and causes fear and distress for students and families. And whereas the Durham Public Schools Board of Education is committed to maintaining schools as safe and welcoming environments for all students and ensuring that no student is denied access to education due to immigration status. Now therefore be it resolved that the fullest extent permitted by law on restricted access. Any request by immigration officials to enter school system property will immediately be forwarded to the superintendent and legal council for review. As a general matter, immigration officials have a legal right to enter school system property only upon presentation of a judicial warrant.
Two, student privacy protections. District personnel shall not inquire about a student's or parents immigration status or require documentation of s such status. The district shall not collect or disclose information regarding a student's immigration status unless required by law. Any requests for student records by immigration authorities must follow Furpa guidelines and be reviewed by legal counsel. Three, staff training. The superintendent shall ensure training for all school personnel on the district's protocols for responding to requests from immigration authorities, including referral protocols and protecting student rights.
Four, family and community support. The district shall provide families with information on their rights and available resources. All communications regarding this resolution shall be translated to the primary languages spoken by district families. >> Number five, anti-bullying commitment. The board directs the superintendent to review district policies and practices regarding bullying and report back to the board suggested areas for strengthening these policies and to communicate to staff, students, and parents the importance of maintaining a bullyingfree environment for all students. Be it further resolved that this resolution shall be posted in all school buildings and shared with students, families, and staff through the district's usual communication channels, and that the resolution will be translated into the most common languages spoken by students at home.
All right, thank you all. Miss B, you want to kick us off with questions? Clarifying question. I know you have some questions. I I want to start with gratitude for board member Chavez for leading this work. I know this has been an incredibly difficult week for families and it's not over yet, but it has been amazing to see the community rally in response to our neighbors. So a couple questions, Mr. Malone. on the second whereas so it it kind of leads in a way that says that if you're not reading it closely that that you could compel the the records. Could we underline the word only in that in that third third line there to make it clear that it's actually a very limited thing? Does that does that make it stronger to your in others reading?, >>, yes, you certainly could underline.
Yes, you certainly could underline only there. >> Okay, that would that would be helpful to me. And then down in the first, bullet number one, the restricted access, I wanted I was hoping it could say a signed judicial warrant or a duly signed. Is that would that strengthen that language there? >> How about duly issued? >> I don't know. I'm I'm >> Yeah, issued or signed? I probably would use issued >> duly issued >> issued >> signed by a judge like we are trying to put the definition as clearly as possible that it's not a piece of paper like these agencies sometimes manufacture.
>> Well, sure. Signed. We'll go with dy signed. >> Dy signed. >> Can you do both? >> Duly signed by a >> I would I would say by a judicial official maybe >> because it could arguably be a magistrate. So maybe judicial official. >> Okay. Can you >> I mean if you're trying to make it stronger and that's your point, Miss To make it stronger and you both had compelling about issued or signed. Well, why don't we just use both?
>> Issued and >> and signed. Yeah. Duly issued and signed >> by because the point is to make it stronger. issued and signed by a judicial official I think would be good. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That that would be great. And then even at the on the end of two, this is a question and question for all colleagues and you Mr. Malone reviewed by the board's legal council. Can we put that in there to make clear that it's not just anybody but it is actually going to the board's legal counsel?
>> Yes. Thank you for >> well I'm saying yeah >> is that strengthen that >> and then on the final page on the flip I'm wondering about posting this in schools and I I'm wondering about the notion of perhaps considering changing the shall to a may just because I could see some chances where it might not feel like it's making students safer, but it might be making them less safe or it might need to be I just I I wondered for folks to consider that that changing of that word.
It to give flexibility that might actually provide more safety. >> Yes, Mr. Tab, >> thank you., I too when I talked to Miss Chavez about the wording of posted and but I didn't think about what you just said which was changing it to May and because I was going to ask to take it out altogether but I think that works better for me if if we went to May and my reasoning behind was taking it out because we have had opportunities to post other resolutions could have had other opportunities to post other resolutions and we did not do that especially on gun violence and the Crown Act and and etc etc and doing it right now is important but I would would have preferred if the administration had an opportunity to talk about logistics and where something is going to be posted how it's going to be posted so that it's not just arbitrarily placed in school and the principles are making the decisions themselves. However, the may suggest that the principles can make the.
Decision to do it., so that was my hesitation on that, but I could accept the the may but initially I was going to take it out all together. >> Thank you, Mr. Tab. I'm going to go to Miss Chavez and then I'll circle back around to you all. Miss Chavez. >> Well, I first wanted to say thank you to the Education Justice Alliance who provided most of the language in this resolution. and then I wanted to say thank you also to our attorneys and Dr.
Lewis for reviewing this during this hectic week so that we could u move this tonight. I think it's clear that it's the time we're all feeling the urgency to be responsive to the very dire situation that's happening around us. So let me I think all the edits that Natalie Beyer made on the the three first things those all make sense., and then I I am I don't think the language needs to be weakened to say may rather than shall.
I think that the I'm not sure why it would make students less safe. So, I do want to ask about that to have it posted at a school. And I having had some conversation about this and I understand there's some concern about posting at schools and we haven't done this for prior resolutions but I don't think that's necessarily reason to not post this one. I think that the visibility right now is important of this affirmation of not only what we believe but what we are doing in action. [snorts] And I do think that administration could direct principles and schools to to post it where they think it's appropriate at the school level. I don't think we need to get into those weeds, but I do think there is a value in having something materially posted, not just digital, but actually physically posted and and something that people people may just walk by it, but there will be people who see it and see it repeatedly., so I'm I'm not sure why.
We need to roll it back., but yeah, I do want to ask specifically why, Natalie Beyer, if you could comment on why you think it would make students less safe. >> I I appreciate that. I I guess I'm thinking of the unprecedented times that we're in and often I think it feels like federal agents are looking for signage as ways to target specific places and there might be a time that it would be actually better to pull it down in in we just don't we don't know.
You know, we we I think we all thought we had more time before we had to deal with this in Durham., and we've been seeing tactics escalate. We've seen more drones. We've seen these are not standard law enforcement procedures that that are being employed in communities. So, I could see there being times that it is affirming to families and it and to me it's more an internal facing document than a external., and so I I I just could see having needing the flexibility of the word may. It I don't think it softens it. I don't think that's a fair characterization of that that minor language edit. But I think gives flexibilities to schools. And I would say the other part that that a little bit bothers me is I don't think our signatures need to be up there. I think the board in the future will change and it may need to stay there longer. I mean, so I I don't want it to be a vanity exercise for the board either.
And that's just my personal that part of it. so I don't know that those are my thoughts on it. Others it's others have thoughts I'm sure. >> I'm going to go to Vice Chair Rogers and I'll go to youall. >> I appreciate the language of May. Like Mr. Tab. my thought was maybe we should take it out and not have it hung in schools. It is to me more for the board to be able to follow up on and a commitment from us to you know hold the superintendent accountable to some of the standards that are named which we put on record all the time in our board meetings by vote and by resolution. and we're not posting every vote or resolution. And I'm going to say the quiet part out loud that Miss Byer didn't say that there are is a constituent base that supports the work of this federal administration that live in this community that have students at our schools. And what we don't want is for them to see.
This, vandalize it, call attention to anything else, or other people at the school level that would be could be available to protests and other bullying techniques that they could use on the school grounds because they are provoked by something that they see there that we have done., and so that concerns me and it's a part of the community that we live in that we can't ignore. Love Durham. Love how progressive it is. Love that all voices are allowed to be heard. But, I do know that there are people in our community that don't won't agree with this. and we are putting our already overworked frontline workers in a difficult space. If we're putting our commitment to this these values on full display instead of in full display in words and in language instead of just requiring staff to act on it.
That's my concern. Miss Harbaugh, >> thank you. really appreciate hearing all of the different viewpoints from all of our board members and where I stand on whether or not to post this at schools like to to require or to shall or must post this at school buildings. for me is more about what we've been hearing or how I see community reaching out about what they need. Oftent times I feel like our community is telling us what they need and it's hard for us to to respond to it in a particular way. But posting this, I really don't see the danger. For me, it's more about saying that it's going to be posted in the building so that if someone wants to go look for it for clarity, they they can go and they can ask the principal to see it and it is posted there for for them. I'm it it states, you know, things that are legal. it makes things very very clear and we've been hearing from community that, you know, they're not.
Understanding exactly what's very clear or where, you know, where we stand on certain things. So by allowing you know by by putting it and posting it the principal can say very clearly wherever he chooses to have it here it is you can reference it and by us doing that from the dascese saying that we resolve that it be posted they know that they can go to their building and find it. I understand that there are this is a polarity and that there are there's that that whole di you know that back and forth about what we're afraid of what could come forth and then on the other side of that polarity for me there is those voices that we don't often acknowledge that are telling us what it is that they need.
So, it's not an easy decision, but I I I am not fearful of the language shall. I don't see how this can be any more dangerous than the danger that our families are already in in various other situations. And so, I think this can be a moment to listen to what they're asking for, which is clarity on all levels. and that posting this is more important than being fearful of what others might may or may not see in our community. So all of the other edits I'm perfectly fine with. I have been hearing that they want to see this and so I would like to see that shall be posted in the school buildings remain.
However, I am not going to I don't want to see it taken out completely and if it is not the will of the board to if it's going to help it pass by t changing it to may I'm not going to you know take that but I don't I don't think that it needs to be changed. >> Thank you all for your feedback. I appreciate some of the edits that already been suggested around making this language stronger. I think I do.
I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm gonna go let Lordes go ahead. I think that it's very important that students are educated on ICE and on immigration and what's going on, but I think that there's a lot of words being thrown around and ideas being thrown around students. And though students are very smart and work to understand what's going on, it's important that if this is going to be posted, additional resources and education is provided to make sure that students understand what's being talked about and what is the meaning of all of this. Because though they feel that they understand the big idea within Durham public schools, you have elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and students with all different backgrounds on political information and information on what's going on. And I think that if this is going to be posted around schools, it's important to provide an excess of information and like opportunities to teach kids exactly what it is and break down the language used.
So yes, but more is needed to ensure that the students know what it is and know how they can benefit or what benefits will be provided from it. >> I love when we have our students here. Amazing. because I was going to say something similar, but it sounded so much better coming from you, Lordis. I I like May because it gives schools opportunities to to show their support and support our resolution in the ways that feel appropriate for their school.
Is it artwork? Is it different flyers? Is it video? Is there any other ways to think about how do you get this message across in ways that may feel age appropriate that feel appropriate? And I shouldn't say appropriate, but that fit with the school culture. We know each of our schools have a culture., and I think that I would like to see us support schools having some creativity around this., while I think resolutions are amazing, I know that everyone doesn't want to read them. And so, we want to make sure that this is communicated, how do we give opportunity for folks to get communicate and post and show support in a way that feels supportive of their school community? So that's my like on that.
Miss Chavez, did you have anything else you want to share? I just want to make sure I give you an opportunity before we open this up for a vote on some of the amendments that we put forward. >> Yeah, I wanted to say thank you, Lordis, for your perspective. That is so helpful. And I wanted to go ahead and say let's let's move it move the language to May and make a motion to approve this resolution to affirm the district's commitment to student safety and privacy regardless of immigration status with the four edits mentioned.
>> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Chavez and seconded by Miss Harold Goff. Is there any other discussion from board members? All right, we'll do a voice vote. Miss Chavez, >> this is Emily Chávez, and I vote I. >>, Vice Chair Rogers, >> I. >> Miss Herald Goff, >> I. >>, Natalie Beyer, >> I. >> Mr. Tab, >> I >> I vote I as well. It passes unanimously. Again, thank you, Miss Chavez, for bringing this forward to us and all the work you did to make sure we could get to this point today.
Right. The next item on our agenda, we have a group of items from the administration. We'll start with 4318 policy use of cell phones or excuse me, personal wireless communication devices. Thank you, Chair Mstead. good evening, Dr. Lewis, members of the board, community members that are listening, if you could pull up I think they're pulling it up already, the PowerPoint on 4318. Thank you. Administration in collaboration with the policy committee and board members who gathered with the policy committee to discuss policy draft policy 4318 are here presenting this on second reading. It was initially presented on first reading at the work session in November.
Administration is requesting that the board adopt the policy this evening as the statute does mandate implementation in January and would welcome additional conversation from the board members regarding how receptive they may be to that and perhaps some additional adjustments that can be made here tonight. Adopting the policy prior to January is required to be in compliance with the state law and it is also ideal to align the current somewhat divergent practices within DPS's schools across varying grade levels. Next slide please.
There are three key topics that remain under discussion after robust and vigorous conversation at the policy committee meetings. Those include smart glasses, smart watches, as well as what the board wishes to decide regarding middle school student access to devices. Next slide, please. The state statute does provide that let me scroll. It prohibits students from using displaying wireless communication devices. There is a list of what is included in these. In Durham, the Durham policy, we are attempting to provide a more thorough listing of what those are in order to provide clarity to our principles, teachers, as well as our students and families regarding what is or is not considered a wireless device and to be treated like a cell phone.
Next slide, please. With regard to smart glasses, some of the considerations that have arisen as we have solicited feedback from the community and principles and as well as the conversation from the policy committee include smart glasses are a relatively new technology. principles raised significant concerns regarding privacy naming for example the use of smart glasses in locker rooms and bathrooms. One of the other considerations that the policy committee and the board members that joined that policy committee meeting lifted up is whether students with smart glasses who use them as prescription glasses in order to see as well as those who use them as for accommodations.
Wireless and data communication communications capabilities can be turned off. But the principles had lifted up that given how new this technology is that they were unclear on how to enforce it or if they were if the glasses were in fact possibly being used and or recorded. Next slide please. The policy committee did settle on the language that you see. That is the proposed language regarding smart glasses. And currently that proposed language is that they are prohibited at all levels and at all schools from the first bell through the dismissal bell except where they are included in the an IEP, a 504 individual health plan or where the student has been approved by administration for other allowable purposes.
Next slide, please. Smart watches also bring up some similar concerns regarding newer technology. As stated previously, House Bill 959 does does not list out all of the potential items and new technologies that may be included and are included and considered to be wireless. we can't that would be impossible in a statute because every day they're coming up with something new. But with that being said, what we are talking and looking at and the policy committee raised for this board to consider is if they are required to be put away, smartwatches, if they're to be treated as cell phones and required to be put away, where will they be stored? And if they are allowed to remain in sight, how can it be enforced that whether or not they are connected to a wireless and or data communication item? Next slide, please.
The proposal from the policy committee with regard to smart smartwatches is that they are to be treated the same as cell phones. Smartwatches are only allowed when cell phones would be allowed under the policy and at that particular school level. Next slide, please. The third key topic that we are seeking feedback from the board this evening on is middle school access to devices. A survey was submitted to middle school principles and there was a nearly 50% split on what they were doing in their schools currently with 50% of middle school principles having a belltobell prohibition against the devices and other principles allowing their use during lunchtime. The policy committee was split on this as well.
Next slide please. The final decision and proposed language that you have before you in the draft policy right now is that at middle school it would be a bell-to-bell prohibition indicating that devices in middle school will be treated similarly to how devices are treated at elementary school. Next slide please. And with that, I am happy to facilitate questions that you may have for administration and of course defer to the policy committee members and those who join the policy committee meeting for any additional questions.
>> Thank you, Dr. Giovani. We had a robust discussion in the policy committee meeting and so being able to have the PowerPoint is really helpful. Board members, I also want you to note that in the proposed policy that's in the packet, what those proposals were in the slides are what's in that packet. So if we feel good about that, we can move forward with this policy. we want to make revisions or changes, we'd want to talk through those revisions or changes.
At this point, I'm going to try to organize our conversation a little bit by point so that we can make sure that we have give the appropriate feedback to staff., smart glasses, I think, is the first thing listed in the PowerPoint presentation, which we're currently saying we would like them to be put away and not put away from first bell to dismissal unless again a student has that explicitly authorized in their 504 and IEP plan., is there any comments or questions around the smart glasses? We'll start with that.
Natalie Beyer. Oh, okay. We'll make sure we hear from Lordis. You can go first if you want or you can go later. Okay. We'll come back to you later., Miss Chavez, also want to check in with you. Any comments around smart glasses or we all feel good about them being away all day? >> I support this language. Thank you. U Mr. T. >> Thank you. Because it's there the that means teachers have to understand the IE their IEPs and people that are on those committees need to read the IEPs. And I'm not, you know, calling anybody out. I'm just as as a former teacher, I just No, I know that that it exists that people really have to understand this because you don't want to be in a situation where a child really truly needs their smart glasses and based on their IEP, but the teachers or staff is asking for it and then you don't want to get in this situation with the parents. So, I just want to be clear.
That we also here again have to reiterate some things to staffing because we're putting language out there that says this is allowed and because it's allowed, we don't want to run into other situations. So, thank you. >> All right. I seek consensus from the board around them away only if the smart glasses will be away and only allowed for IEP 504 or individualized health plans. So the next item was smart watches. The currently the policy says they have to be put away.
That's the recommendation. Is there consensus from the board that we would like to keep that? See some head nods. Miss Chavez, are you good with that? >> I'm good with that. >> Mr. Tab, you have a question? >> Yes. Just want to clarity for smart watches. Does that align with IEPs and as well 504 as well? Just want to need to check that just to make sure that it's in there for the watches as well. So if they're treat they are to be treated as cell phones. So when cell smartwatches based on the language and the policy is that when cell phones are to be put away smart watches are to be put away and if cell phones are to be allowed then smartwatches would be allowed. But there is an exception in all of these for cell phones everything where there is the use of that wireless device is included in the IEP or individual health plan and that is in the policy.
>> Okay. Just want to be be sure because technology is going to continuously change. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Any other comments? All right. And so the last dis I'm sorry Lordes. Did you have some? >> Okay. And then the last consideration that we needed to make is around middle school., and there was a question I think in the original policy that administration brought to us that have been through some levels of feedback with community members as well as I believe is it your superintendent?
Which council? All of them. Okay. All the parent the parent ambassador, superintendent, student advisory as well as the teacher advisory had allowed middle school students to have access to their phones during lunch period. Is that correct? Looking just to make sure that was the original version. All right. I think that is true. The original version and the policy committee changed it to be from the first dismissal I mean the first bell to dismissal bell. Just to be clear, that's the recommendation from the policy committee. after robust discussion around that and so that is what's in the policy listed today. Is there any discussion around access to the cell phones from middle schools whether it be from first bell to dismissal or allowing students to have access during lunch?
Lord, you want to jump in here first and then I'll go to you Mr. Tab. So within middle school, though I understand the reasoning that like cell phones could be considered a distraction, I think it's important that we recognize and remember that these are kids that are becoming pre-teen becoming teenagers. So, not allowing any communication through cell phones seems a bit harsh. especially because of how digitalized communication has become today and the likelihood that majority of those middle school students are trying to contact family members or trying to like plan out their day through the use of their phone. and I I understand that there are policies in place where like parents are supposed to contact the school to communicate with their kids, but that unfortunately does take a long time and can be a barrier for some students. So, I guess where I'm coming from is I remember being a middle schooler who had access to her phone and without it, I don't think my communication would have been as clear.
With my parents. And in addition, I don't think as a parent brought up during general comments with gun violence and talks of like disruptions in the classroom, middle school students having little to no access to their phones or any students having access to their phones. I guess my question is, does that policy stay in place in times of emergency such as a school shooting? And are we allowing students to communicate directly with their parents when tragedy such as a lockdown strikes?
>> Excellent questions, Lordes. can we respond regarding emergencies? It does. The policy currently says no permission is required to call 911 emergency services when appropriate. Is there any other >> Well, that's a good point, but it doesn't say contact family, right? I mean, and so I don't know if we want to >> I don't know if that's a good point. >> Administration has any guidance or >> No, >> no. The language just no permission is required to call 911 in emergency situations. I I do want to point out and I think we've communicated in some of our sessions the sometime unintended consequences when students are contacting parents during an emergency situation and now you may have more traffic on a school ground when emergency vehicles are trying to get on a school ground and so that was some of the conversations we had with parents is as well in that regard.
I'll start with Mer. >> Thank you for your your comments, Lordis., I also, I remember I gave my child a phone when she was in middle school. It wasn't a smartphone. It was just, you know, for emergencies. And I did that because at the time I was a single parent and I wanted to make sure that you know if I needed to connect with her before after school she would have some way of connecting with me you know outside of that outside of that time. I also want to lift up that you know this is a very interesting time to be having this conversation >> >> with everything that in light of what's going on right now., and so, I we were talking I was talking to, Miss Chavez earlier. We were talking about, the possibility of adding, I'm trying to remember how we phrased it, just a little bit of language about to ease our way into this process around emergency situations. my thought was that I don't want because.
All the research and things they're talking about the ways that the cell phones and you know how we're contacting them can disrupt safety in a building if there is a a true emergency. but I was wondering if there was a way to put in a phrase that would help us like if there was an emergency and kids had to leave the building. First and foremost, I don't want, you know, I don't want my child to be worrying about trying to get a phone if there is something where they they need to be, you know, safe in this in the building and they need to safety first.
But then once things are settled, allowing them, you know, if if it's an emergency situation, it's no longer instructional time. That's that's disrupted. So then at that point they're allowed to use their phones once it's safe to do so once it's safe to get them. And if they have to leave the building like if we have to evacuate the building then I feel at that point if they're leaving the building again they should be able to turn on their phones upon that kind of emergency.
The polarity is my favorite word today is that we want our kids to have that safety, you know, and we want to reassure our parents, you know, that if there were an emergency situation, they'd be able to contact, you know, they'd be able to have that happen. The polarity is that on the flip side of that, all of the research tells us that if they have their devices on them, you know, these it's an addiction the, you know, and if we have if we allow them to have it on them all the time during during the school day.
We're going to have the issues with dealing with, okay, now I got it out and I have to put it back. I have to out put it back. and and there's this, you know, if you turn it on in the middle of the day, if you have it on you and you turn it on, whatever you're doing on that, then once you go back into the classroom, there is this thing where you have to recalibrate yourself to put it away. And so then there's there could be that struggle between getting back into instructional time and having all those times during the day where you're you I can have it out now, but I can't have it out then. So I'm trying to figure out how we can avoid that with bellto.
So, I think that, you know, we're not asking our K our students to give their phones. What we're asking is for them to be off. And the expectation is that they're not turned on from the time they arrive to school until they, you know, get ready to leave for that period of time. So that not only is it not a distraction, but it's also not a thing that we have to struggle with getting them out and putting them back different parts of the day., so I think the exceptions can be worked out within reason and in the policy if we could reassure our families about, emergency situations with something that says that, that if there is an emergency, students will be permitted to access their phones as soon as it is safe to do so. So that we can, you know, make sure that we keep everybody in the building safe.
I'm not sure how to word that or where to put that. >> Just this just just this week it was locked down at one of our schools and through the cell phone use there was some misinformation that was out about you know potential ICE being at one of our schools when that certainly was not the case. And so we think about the need for immediate information and yes, I'm a parent of two secondary kids in this district as well and wanting to know if our kids are are okay. I think it creates an opportunity for further misinformation to go out. But also as I stated earlier you know if a student doesn't have all the information and sending a parent something and now you know how information travels quickly and now we have parents all coming to the school one vehicles and so now emergency vehicles can't get through to if it is indeed emergency and then also sometimes parents will you know get out of the.
Cars and go to the building and now as the administrators and staff are trying to keep the students safe having to manage families on campuses is is Well, so it can prevent as you know as we know in these emergency situations every second matters. So it can prevent an opportunity where it can be an interference with emergency personnel responding to schools. And then of course you know the need for accurate information being sent out. >> I'm going to go to Mr. Tab.
>> Thank you., thank you for all the the comments. We are talking about, middle school, right? But I want to jump over to high school just a little bit so that I can bring it into context what I want to do about middle school. My initial thoughts were that you have to for high school, you have to give kids an opportunity to still be students at some point within the school day. And doing the lunchtime would give a lot of students, especially in the arts, especially in athletics, an opportunity to do their self tapes to to work with other peers, to do their auditions, prep preparing, go to teachers classrooms, athletic students, you know, could find an opportunity to go check emails from college colleges and universities. that give them a a a lot to do during that time that is still within the school day and they're free to do that. I don't I wouldn't want to take that element away from them.
So with middle schools that's a little different for me. However, because DSA is middle and high school, they're going to be doing some of the same things that I just talked about in terms of self tapes, preparing for those auditions and things of that nature, which makes me believe that if we do it for one school, then I have to do it for all., so that's why I wanted to bring it back to the middle school where I would say then we still have to teach the whole child and allow them opportunities to still be students and give them a little bit of that free time which is for them to take care of their own personal needs and things that I think is very important for for their mental health as well., especially because technology is a part of who they are. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Tab. Any other comments? Before I come back to Miss Hargo, I want to make sure I get everyone., Natalie Beyer, Miss Ber or Vice Chair Rogers, whoever wants to go first. >> So, the only thing that I wanted to say is I hope that we can look at consistency for middle schools and high schools. whatever policy we pass, I think it's going to be important for that to be consistent. Some of the in my observation as a young high school parent, some of the difficulty in transitioning from elementary to middle school and being in middle school is that there is sometimes lack of consistency around curriculum from school to school. when students get to a bigger middle school from their smaller elementary schools, lack of consistency with the school rules. And so when we're implementing this policy, I want to make sure that our middle schoolers when they move into high school are set up for success and have a similar policy.
Granted, this board can change policy any time and that means that the policy will change for those students. But if we can start out with a consistent policy for middle and high school, I think that we're setting students in a district up for success. So, I want to be clear that it's just an honor to serve on the policy committee. I was on the losing side of this discussion and this vote and I'm okay with that. But what it was when we were talking about it was a compromise. And so what I want to be clear about is that we are doing this major shift in policy for the first time for DPS to have a cell phone policy.
We're doing it midyear when these expectations have not been preset in the summer with the two-month ramp up that we would normally want to really inform families, students, staff about how to do this. And we have inconsistencies in how our schools are operating right now and I want us to be as gentle as we can in this transition to the students and the staff that that are already mid school year and so what I think the option that Dr. Lewis brought from consultation with principles with stack and with student advisory council was kind of a compromise. and that was and what we did as a policy committee was already tighten up and say kids there's no reason for you to have your phone during class change time. We took that away. I think we even talked about taking away for high school students as well. Yeah.
Okay. I was just making sure that we cleaned up all the pieces that we're cleaning up. But to me there's a lot there's a lot of nent research on the addiction of social media. Social media. Yes. We didn't >> you did not. So instructional time for high school does not include time between class periods. Did y'all >> I think we did and we when we get to it we might want to clean that up as well. And I'd be love to hear from other colleagues as we go forward. Yeah. I thought you did also.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, so what I want is this to be successful for folks that are currently mid school year. And so the compromise that I came up with and I still would love to advocate for pretty strongly is that at middle and high schools for some of the reasons that Mr. Tab shared that kids do only have access to their phones at lunchtime. And it's hard for me to say that lunch is instructional time. I mean, that's the state definition, instructional time., and I hope that mostly they'll keep them away and they'll build great relationships with peers and they will do creative things, but I think that's a smoother transition midy year for our students and for our staff as we make this big change. And then I think we'll have different data points going forward if if there need to be changes in the future. So that's my thinking on those things.
Thank you, Natalie Beyer. And I'm gonna go to Miss Chavez next. >> All right. So, let me comment first on the the piece around students, being able to use their phones in the case of an emergency. I did have a, conversation with our former board colleague, Alexandra Viades., that was helpful. around this and she brought some concerns of families. I think especially this week I mean there's no week that people are feeling this the you know these kind of external threats more and so I I also wanted to offer language about and I'm not sure where to put it but that students may have phones accessible for use in the case of an emergency., and that sounds consistent with what our student representative Lordis brought as well.
I continue to support the belltobell ban of cell phones and devices for middle school. and I the reason is that there is so much evidence of better academic outcomes and and also less disciplinary negative outcomes for students who are have this have this banned device cell phone banned in place and some of us were able to attend the session last week at the N North Carolina School Board Association conference. that was very impactful for me and they provided a number of resources., and, I think that those, seeing the, the benefits of having a bell-to-bell band, especially for our students who are a little younger and still learning, how to manage, those devices where not all of them even have them, I think would be beneficial.
I'm okay with doing the lunchtime for high school students for some of the reasons that Mr. tab named [snorts] but I think you know I'd like to see us stick with the bell to bell for for middle school and that is also what even though the middle school principles were kind of divided between the bell-to-bell and lunchon only the majority did say they would like a bell policy as well. Thank you, Miss Chavez. I wanted to add, so it seems like we're kind of split when it comes to bell, whether bell to bell or during lunch for high school., I mean middle school. I apologize. I got three notes over here for things we need to talk about next, which includes high school.
I think I do support middle schoolers having access during lunch. I think that one of the things that Miss Carter talked about the last time we had this discussion was getting feedback in the middle of the spring semester and bringing that feedback back to think about our policy. And I'd be interested to do that to figure out if that's where we want to stay for middle school. The consistency that was just brought up around some of our schools that are all across grades levels resonates with me as well., and I also think some of our schools that are already in the practice of not having cell phones during lunch can keep that practice going, right? That practice could still be something they continue to do., I know there's a lot of interest in games and students engaging with each other during lunch times and how can we continue to promote that as a school system so that students are engaging with each other during that time., I think that's really valuable for our.
Students., I do want to So, for middle school, it sounds like we're leaning into having them available during lunch before I move to our next item. Right. The next item I want to talk about is emergencies that were brought up. All right. Could we could we does it when it says first and dismissal bells can it say just first bell and dismissal bell because that fir I don't think it makes as much sense. Does that dramatically help it a little bit? Yeah.
>> Before the policy committee it said morning bell and afternoon bell and then I think when the policy committee it was first in dismissal bills but I >> it said tardy bell. >> Thank you. >> Said tardy bell. >> Okay. And I asked that it not say tardy bell because if there's a warm-up or something happening in the classroom ahead of the if they're in the classroom and supposed to be engaging in academic learning the expectation is that they're learning and not attentive to their cell phone at that time. So if the first bell is rung and they're in classroom they are not supposed to have their phone on.
>> So you're still okay just so all of these will say >> I think she's trying to make it singular. I'm just put the word bell in there twice. Yeah. To put the bell with the first >> first bell and dismissal bell and delete the S on the second bell and everywhere that occurs, that's what it looks like. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Got it. >> Thank you. >> The other thing I heard come up was emergencies., and there's some language that Dr. Lewis is proposing for that to add to this policy committee. I'm going to read it and try to read it slow for you all., no. I just I I I'm the only one that has it. That's why I was going to read it slow. There's some language to propose to add., no permission is required to call 911 emergency services when appropriate.
This is new. Students may access their phones during an emergency with authorization from administration or when immediate communication is necessary for student safety to address some of the concerns that were brought up around emergency situation. Miss Herald Goff, how do you that feels >> I got it. I was saying that that feels a little better to me especially in this moment. Lordis, how does that feel to you? >>, to clarify, it says like when students feel the need like safety wise, how do we differentiate or decide like when like is that just when a student feels unsafe and wants to communicate with the parent or is that like how will we let students know like it's like this is an appropriate time for you to communicate with your parent?
Example of that is it's if there's a lockdown and a student is say in the restroom or in the hallway and they see an intruder, they can use a cell phone for their safety at at that point. That that was the thinking behind that and the thinking behind the students may access their their their phones during emergency. Obviously, that would have to come from administration after all communication to families that that we've had an opportunity to communicate to families what's going on.
And we have the situation under control. There may be instances where we may be an extended lockdown and so administrators may communicate to students at this time. You may communicate with your families and let them know that you're okay. That was the thinking behind that. Miss buyer. >> So when you're you've got the word administration in there rather than teacher and you're doing that on purpose because you want kind of an allcle called out. Okay. I also want to let Lordis know that there is this provision in here that also lets students use phones. It's C in the middle schools and the high schools. School staff in their discretion may authorize brief use of a personal device if there is a reasonable and legitimate need to communicate with someone outside the school during the instructional day. Students must ask permission in advance and must honor the specific directions from staff regarding duration or specific time of day for any such authorized use. So that also is a little discretionary use as well.,.
And I don't know if that's helpful to students, but we're trying to think of everything. >> Are we, board members, is this consensus okay with that new proposed language, Miss Chavez? >> Yes. Thank you so much, Dr. Lewis, for that language. And just to be clear, I'm not married to that second part, but I was really wanting to as a parent and as as what we were hearing from our parents and students in emergencies, you know, so if you if the board wanted to just stop at during emergencies with our authorizations from administration period and not add the when immediate communication is necessary for student safety, I'm fine with that, too.
It's board policy. It's not my policy. >> It's all right. It looks like board members are okay with leaving it as is. All right. Okay. So, we got emergencies taken care of. The next part of the edits, Miss Byer brought it up. We asked in the policy committee for high school. Right now, it says that high school students cannot have their wireless devices during instructional time, but that does not include lunch or class changes. We asked in the policy committee to include class changes. So, students could only have their phones during lunch. you felt like class change wasn't, you know, just take your time to move to class. Didn't need your phone during that time. I see agreement from my colleagues, Miss Chavez. Is there agreement with you there?
>> Yes, that's fine with me. >> Okay. And then there's one more point that was brought up after the committee meeting that we need to make sure we discuss now is and I'm going to get this word wrong. Sarah, >> I'm actually right. Mr. Malone and I just discussed it. Okay. So, if you would like, I'm happy to. Yes, please sir. So, for those of you who have access to the draft policy, it's at the top of page two. The current language that we are proposing to delete and replace is this policy prohibits the use of surreptitious surveillance devices on school property or during a school sponsored activities without the express written permission of school or building administration. So, we wanting to delete that and replace it with this sentence.
Students are prohibited from using personal devices to make secret audio or video recordings. Period. >> Board members. >> I understand that language. Thank you. >> That's important. Very important, Natalie Beyer. And then Vice Chair Rogers. Okay. Vice Chair Rogers. >> I'm slow. Can you repeat the revised language? >> Yes. The >> the new language would read, "Students are prohibited from using personal devices to make secret audio or video recordings." >> So, parents and teachers and administrators can, but students can't.
But there is a policy that addresses staff and videos in I believe it's 7100 7300 I'm not sure but it does discuss when staff are allowed but it does basically prohibit it without permission of the principal for staff to record. >> And the reason we're changing this is because the other language wasn't clear. >> What other language? >> The language that you're replacing it. >> Yes. It was not clear and it made no sense of when would administration say you can take a surreptitious recording.
So it just it was it was nonsensical in >> Yes. >> Okay. So we've made several edits to the policy as it stands. Is there any other edits that board members would like to see? >> Oh, Miss Herog, >> I'm sorry. I I hate to bring this up now, but and I understand that we might want to revisit this later and go ahead and pass the policy as is. I do have some concern about number 2B. Well, it's I think it's the same on middle school, high school. It's the same on all of them. I'm looking at 2B under middle school.
Page two. Number two B. Let me number two B. Page three. Sorry. Is it B or C? Personally invisible use may visible instructional purpose. It's around school staff and their discretion may authorize brief use of personal device if there is a reasonable and legitimate need. Wait a minute. No, not that one. It's it's around Oh, it's B. Yeah, it's 2B, not C. The personal device, if it's displayed, used, or made visible for instructional purposes with the prior authorization of the classroom teacher, consistent with schoolwide rules regarding instructional use., this doesn't have to be changed. Now, my concern is that I would love to have some kind of language in there that talks about the purpose of, you know, what what would be regarded as an instructional purpose., because if we're if the whole goal is for the kids to have their phones put away, I wouldn't want an instructor, a teacher in the room to be like, "Oh, grab your phones. I'm going to use this for instructional purpose." Now, it kind of.
Defeats the purpose of trying to, you know, deal with some of the harms of having to always have the phone out and then you have the battle of put it away now, take it out now. So, I was thinking that we might want to do something around, the personal device is displayed, used or made visible for instructional purposes as evidenced through a lesson prepared, lesson plan prepared by a classroom teacher that is consistent. then you know so just there's some sort of lesson where it's required and they have that evidence because they have a lesson plan so then the students are prepared we're going to be using lessons for instruct you know the phone for instructional time at this time and that prevents you know it you know helps build the habit of I'm going to be doing this without my phone but if you know if they're able to just say you know in a wheel oh grab your phones do this right now I don't want it.
To be as spontaneous I feel like that's kind of counter some of the positive effects that we could have from a policy like this. So, I'm a little concerned that that language is not specific enough. >> Thank you, Miss Arab. Any other comments from board members or folks that support changing that language? >> Miss vice chair, >> we're not looking at changing that language today. Correct. Chairstead, >> it is up to the will of the board. So, I would like to hear if there's any interest in changing that language today or >> I'd like to have a little bit more conversation about that and not change that language today. I think that there are times when a class can become distracted or need to be redirected and need could use something like Minty or a game of cahoot that is about the lesson but allows them to kind of switch gears and may show up and that may show up unexpectedly for educators and I'd like to not tie their hands to.
For them to have to say, "Okay, here's my evidence that we needed to do this today., but I I need some more time to sit with it, think about it, talk through that with you and others.", so I would I just need some more time to make that kind of change. >> We don't have to make the change today to pass the policy on on my behalf. I brought it up so that we are saying that I think I heard us say that we were going to you know revisit the effectiveness of our policies in the spring and this would come back in the spring. So I'm just lifting that up so that when it does come back to policy committee that I think that it would be important to discuss what we're considering for instructional purposes. I I'm saying that just having, you know, from my classroom days, having seen some of everything, being called instructional, you know, for instructional purpose. And I think that if we're going to be.
Intentional and if we really want the benefits, you know, for the higher outcome, you know, greater outcomes that I would like to for us to figure out how do we evidence that when they're pulling this out that it's necessary instead of all of, you know, our other technologies that we have accessible. It might be the same technology that's on the phone might be accessible through the devices that we provide in the classroom. So, I'm just wanting to lift that up for further discussion when it comes back.
>> Thank you, Miss Herog. Mr. Tab, did you have comments? >> Sure. I a lot of what Miss Herog said is is is what we have to deal with in the classroom. And what I would love to see happen is that the creativity of the policy allows for the creativity of the teachers. So the creativity of the policy allows for the creativity of the teachers and that's I'll leave it as that. >> Miss Chavez, did you have any additional comments?
Yes, I just wanted to say I do I think it'd be great to look at this more and think about it moving forward with the policy and and also offer that I learned that in one district this is kind of related. they do tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays. And so I think having more guidelines around our our use of technology with for instruction will be will be valuable as we as we think about how how we intentionally want our our staff to use it and our kids exposed to it. And I think that will come with more digital literacy learning for our students as as well. But in any case, I'm in favor of thinking more deeply about this.
>> Pass it to Lordis. >> I just want to bring up the idea to allow you guys to think there are lots of students in schools that will benefit from more phone restrictions., I'm a student who is on been tracked at a higher pathway than some others and takes advanced classes and I'm very much so at school because I love learning and I push myself to learn. There are students who haven't found that joy in learning and who don't enjoy school as much and who find themselves in classes that they don't enjoy., and unfortunately a phone policy like this could lead to students simply skipping class., not showing up. for example, was brought up the second they enter the room, their phone should be off if there is a warm-up activity.
When I think of that, I think of students not coming to class early because they know that once they get there, they cannot be on their phone. So I just urge you to think that though the idea is that students are coming to school because they want to learn, they're also legally required to come to school. And a lot of them do rely on their phone throughout the day to get them through the day. And them being told that they cannot use their phone will not be taken very well and will most likely if not properly enforced or explained to students lead to a decrease in showing up to class, engaging in class, respecting others in class. just a decrease in like emotional and academic performance because they feel that they've lost a something that's become so relevant to them and a part of them.
>> It's a really excellent point Lordes, I think there's a a lot of education that is necessary as we're talking about smartphones and really like social media, right? Like the smartphone in and of itself is one thing, but when it comes to the addictive nature of Instagram and Tik Tok and reals are now on everything, Facebook as well, I think that's a different conversation that we really need to have. And you put up some really important points. We need strong instruction in all of our classes so students can find that love of learning and be wanting to be engaged in class versus their phone. I want to highlight a couple of things I've also learned and had a chance to hear two other districts present on their policies. that was Enslow and Chadam and they both talked about the need for adults to shift their behaviors as well.
As much as we're talking about students, adults, we are also addicted to our phones, there's been a many of rooms that I've been in and a presentation or something going on and people are on their phones. And so they talked about moving away from some of the text message change that they were doing or moving to Google chat or other more on the computer ways to engage with each other as adults so they could be modeling for students what that looks like. because if we're sitting here scrolling while students are well one we shouldn't be scrolling while students are with us but that's a different story but we need to be able to model that for our students and have age appropriate conversations too around why we're putting this into place. So I think those are some of the things I'm not sure if we're there yet but we need to make sure we're thinking about as a district and moving forward with this as well as making sure parents have the.
Information that they need around how to get in contact with their students through the school. Any other comments? We made a lot of changes to this policy today. Do you want to recap them, Dr. Giovani, or do you feel like you you got them? I am going to ask that you bring it back to us. We can vote on it tonight, but bring it back just so we can see the version with all the edits on it. What I would propose to the board is that the board approve the policy with the edits and the amendments made by the board this evening with the directive that I and Mr. alone work together to ensure that all of those changes were captured which we do very well I think like we get together and we go through all of them and then it's already adopted and then we were with your permission share it with Miss Smith to post it and then Miss Cooper because she's in limbo right like.
She's waiting on us she can't do anything until she gets a policy from y'all and so that would then allow Miss Cooper and her team to begin the communication outreach etc you know because we're going through Thanksgiving so She would she's really fast, right? So, she at least get some preliminary stuff out before the holiday so people can start if they have to get smart glasses or figure that out. And then we would share with the board at the December 11th just another just kind of for information only. This was the final policy that was posted on November 21st.
Is that acceptable to the board and Dr. Lewis? >> I see some head nods from board members. Natalie Beyer. >> Yeah, I I think that's the best that we can do tonight. And also commit that when y'all bring it, it's clean. We're not going to go change things around for the I mean like we're we're telling you permission to go ahead and and this is the consensus and the best we can do and Miss Cooper can work because we don't want to come back and shift it again on y'all. Right.
>> Yes. And Mr. Malone is and I just were kind of having our sidebars and we both have good notes and we're going to check each other and I'm happy to share it with the chair and vice chair if needed. But I think Mr. Malone and I got it and we can go back and watch this video again if needed. So with the board, that's really what we do need to get to be fair to families and and Miss Cooper and her team.
>> Yes, that'd be great., and if you can bring I was going to suggest bringing back just a clean copy on the 11th so we're on the same page. >> Yes. >> So that we can make sure we see that as well. >> Colleagues, any other questions, comments, concerns? Miss Chavez, >> I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay, we do need a motion to approve this as amended today for second reading. Madam chair, I'd move approval of the language right student use of of cell phones and other personal wireless communication devices policy policy 4318 as amended by the board this evening for second read.
>> Second. >> It's been moved by Vice Chair Roger, seconded by Natalie Beyer. Is there any other discussion? We'll do a voice vote., Miss Chav, >> this is Emily Chávez. I vote I. >>, Vice Chair Rogers >> I. >> Miss Heragoff >> I. >> Natalie Beyer >> I. >> Mr. Tab >> I. >> And I vote I as well. Passes 6o., thank you board members for all your hard work on this. for all the community members and family that have provided feedback whether it was online or in person. We really appreciate that and look forward to hearing more about how this goes in the spring. All right, the next item on our agenda is the finance update. I'll pass it over to you, Mr.
Teter. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. we do have a presentation to to accompany this and I'll give that an opportunity to cue. I say good evening chairstead board members and Dr. Lewis, Ruben Barfield, senior executive director of financial services and myself, prepared this presentation for the board. and so just it's a critical time for us to to provide an update for the board in light of their 112 of the 115 school systems in North Carolina that have seen declining enrollment compared to this period of time last year. and the the school planning team and the school enrollment team gave the board an update at the most recent meeting about the realities of that change in enrollment and on the next slide we just borrowed a a slide from their presentation as a reminder of those trends and wanted to lift that back up., at the time of that presentation, we had not fully received, all of the information, related to the charter school enrollment, as well as, just.
Sort of a reality of what our second month of enrollment was looking yet looking like quite yet, in Durham. Or we received it rather close to the actual board meeting proper and would not have been able to embed that in the enrollment presentation. so as such we we now have that information and we've been able to evaluate all of the implications to the district due to those changes. And so if we can advance a couple of slides we get into the details of that. and so we're really looking at this from the perspective as a as a financial risk to the district with this shift in enrollment. And so, as we work through budget season and we work through, staffing aotment season, we, utilize what we refer to as version three of the enrollment projection., the school planning team prepares six different projections along the way and those get higher and tighter as we get closer to the start of school.
But we operate from version three during budget season to to make judgment calls. and at that time we were operating with an an enrollment projection of 31,96 for Durham Public Schools. we also have a responsibility in the finance department to evaluate what our responsibilities to charter schools might be. so we we serve as as the pass through or the middleman to ensure that our local dollars intended for public school children follow those students who choose to enroll in charter schools and our residents of Durham County. and so this is something that we do on a monthly basis., and in that process, we we add together the number of students that are enrolled with us in tandem with the 50 plus charter schools that currently serve students who live in Durham to to create that fraction in order for us to assert that pass through.
Historically that has been around 20%, so the charter school enrollment has been around 20% for us., in an abundance of caution, the finance department estimated a 21% enrollment. So, we did escalate that in order to try to safeguard against potential growth., at the time that we developed the budget book, we knew that there was a new charter school opening, within our county boundaries and then there was also a charter school that was on the table for closure. And so very serious conversations were happening regarding the status of another charter school that was not performing. so we still felt necessary to escalate this to a p an additional percent. based on the information we received for the first reporting period from our charter schools. that number landed at 23% for us here in Durham. so you can see that our our enrollment materialized is 29717.
And the charter school enrollment grew to 8,945. So there's you know a little over 600 in growth for the charter schools which is not quite the full doesn't quite reflect the full decline that we've seen in our own enrollment. So we know you know just based on comments that we've heard from our colleagues in school planning that there are other variables to evaluate a as we assess what's occurring with the enrollment. So that ties into the math and so we have a the responsibility to share our county appropriation as well as our fines and forefeiter dollars with the charter schools. And so for this school year the budget department has projected that revenue to be about $220.5 million that we share on a per pupil basis. And so for the the public that's watching and trying to understand why is that a projected number? so of those two variables, the county appropriation is a fixed number that's the same every month and very predictable. and then our fines and forefeiter figure can fluctuate based.
Upon the activity that occurs in our court system. And so we make our best estimate of what we'll collect through fines and forefeiters. So in the process that we go through for this we we have some agreed upon protocols with our charter schools in the state of North Carolina that we will pay them in nine installments. And so that first installment reflects their July through October share of the revenue so that everyone can have sufficient time to understand what that month one enrollment is going to be for all parties. and then from there it occurs on a monthly basis month for month until we conclude the fiscal year in June. when we receive those reports from them, we do receive rosters of the actual students along with their home addresses. and we do carry that through an additional screening process to validate that the home addresses are in fact addresses that are in the boundaries of Durham County. and and then we share feedback with the charter school if that's not a.
Student who actually lives in Durham County so that those are correct. We also evaluate the degree of time the student was enrolled in the charter school to make a judgment call if they count as a half or a whole based on that enrollment. And so that's an area of scrutiny that we've tightened up in the past year or so with this administration to try to protect the district as much as possible. we as we reviewed this material ahead of time we had a request to add a chart to share just what who are the where are the charter schools, how many students are there, and how much money are we projecting to share with those charter schools. I'm going to ask the tech crew to see if they're able to click that link and pull up the Google sheet to see if that will work for us. So.
And we can come back to this piece if we need to before the presentation's over. so if we want to move to the next slide, we can go ahead and talk about that material which is just a recap of the information right that we reviewed. And so those this is just a different representation of the information. So the July through October, you know, clumped together in yellow representing the first installment that we make to those schools and then the alternating months thereafter. you can see in the total columns at the bottom just based on the enrollment projections that we had, our obligation would have been 46.3 million and some change. based on how enrollment is trending, we're looking at a little over $51 million. that would in fact be our obligation. So this represents an additional 4.7 million or so in additional dollars that we must pass on to charter schools in Durham and something that we have to account for in our process as we evaluate our expenditures. So just.
Want to share that in that way for you. On the next slide we get into other other issues that we're working through as the district so we can advance one more slide., so very much appreciate a a pre-existing process in Durham prior to my arrival that was in place that's done to evaluate enrollment and and the impact of of staffing allocated to schools. And so the Dr. King's team in tandem with finance and HR conduct an evaluation of what was allotted to schools based on enrollment projections as well as analyzing where they need to land.
And so when we go through that we find some schools that need to gain and then we find some that need to lose. And so the the net effect right of that process is we found that there were 33 classrooms per se that needed to be collapsed in Durham and there are some complications that come with that where master schedules are concerned and and other items of that nature., and so we know that moving into the 26 27 school year, the Department of Public Instruction, will use, our current enrollment numbers to inform, how they're going to allocate resources to us to start the school year., in years past, they would be making an immediate adjustment that would likely touch our books in November, December, but they do now look at prior year and give time for districts to plan for these kinds of adjustments.
Once 2627 is underway and if we demonstrate an increase in enrollment compared to where we are, they do true that up. and I think we experienced that in Durham in 24 >> [snorts] >> 2425 where we received an adjustment in December of of 24 to reflect we outpaced DPI's projection by 100 in that particular year. So that process does seem to be going well since the change at DPI. So, we have opportunity to set this on a better track for 2627, to get students back, in the district and set ourselves to true that up, compared to how they're going to start us next year. other challenges that we work through you know so we we still do have situations in Durham where schools are independent of the enrollment issue if our enrollment had held consistent with projections we have some situations where our schools were still overstaffed and we are working through that as a team to bring that to bring that under control and rectify that with the aotment.
Process for 2627 that is not far way. So we can obviously have more conversations about that., on the next slide, we sort of, ceue up the conversation about other risks that we have to keep in mind., in in in what I see is a quite a historic financial climate., and it's, if we can progress to the next slide, we'll work through those. And so, first and foremost, continued enrollment volatility is something that we have to look at. and and the events of this week are it's a compelling example of of of enrollment volatility. So, we've seen many urban districts weigh Charlotte Meg and and us have abrupt declines in in school attendance during during this period of time for reasons I don't think I need to state. And so hopefully that is something that we move past quickly and and that it doesn't have implications for for how our enrollment is calculated for the third principled monthly report. so that's something we monitor in there. There are other things that can occur that that.
Might cause peaks and valleys with our enrollment. And so that's certainly something that we want to be mindful of. We continue to hear conversations about Medicaid. I know the the governor continues to struggle to get the the general assembly to come together and address challenges with Medicaid. and so it's an important reminder that we benefit from over $4 million in revenue by billing for Medicaid for services that we provide and we invest those dollars directly into support for our EC students in the district. other federal surprises. so at the at the time that we ar when we originally prepared this presentation, we were still in the middle of a shutdown at the federal government level. and most prominently we were facing the reality that we would have to float our reimbursements from the department of agriculture for our school nutrition program. we are fortunate that that shutdown concluded and reimbursements are now flowing. but what we also know is that that agreement to end the shutdown only carries us through.
January and so we could be right back in that situation very soon and we have to be mindful of those implications yet again. And so if I unless I'm mistaken it's been it was the the last one was the longest shutdown we've had in history. So hard to predict what those things are going to look like. It's also important to lift up just state re state revenue decline. And so we we'll discuss this a little more in a minute. just the the inability to pull together a state budget has also delayed our state legislaturator's conversation around income personal income tax rates and corporate income tax rates and and how that is going to trend for the next few years and what adjustments they need to make at the state level in order to mitigate a troubling horizon for state revenue. And then obviously we can we're all continuing to wrestle with the the implications of inflation not only in our work here but in our personal lives. And so we're remiss if.
We don't continue to lift that up as a concern. On the next slide we lift up a chart that we borrowed. so the at our fall conference for finance officers a few weeks ago the department of public construction shared this data from the office of state budget management that reflects how state revenues will trend if the legislature does not take action in North Carolina regarding our income tax rates. And so our legislature is currently absent and and not working on these things. And so we hope that in the short session they will come together this spring and and we can get some certainty around what direction the state might be headed. So we really do not have anything from our state government at this point other than we are operating on last year's state budgeted figures. So re remains something that we have to monitor carefully and hope that we don't have any kind of negative consequences from that. on the next slide, we kind of hit a little more local in nature.
And so just want to lift up sort of the the unassigned fund balance history for Durham Public Schools. And I stress the word unassigned. And so when you look at the the school systems financial statements, you'll see just the the notion of a fund balance and and it's broken out with different degrees of restrictions., and so as the board will recall from its 2024 audit presentation, there is a local fund balance in Durham, but a a healthy share of that has been restricted into in anticipation, of funds that were due to the board's, current expense fund., and so it's created, a unique quagmire. It's the first time I've seen this in my career where there was a negative unassigned fine balance in anticipation of a very large receivable.
The good news is that that did materialize and in the course of the 2025 audit presentation that will be soon. We anticipate this to swing around and we're estimating that the the local unassigned fund balance will reflect 7 to8 million for the 2025 audit. So, we've been very busy and and been through two audits in one year, to bring things current for the board. And so, happy to see that kind of quick turnaround., but nonetheless, I think it's important for us to, to lift up that we're, in these earlier slides, we we've discussed, multi-million dollar challenges. and so that $7 to $8 million can go away very quickly if we lean on fund balance as a sole solution to deal with these issues for the district. The next slide really conveys a continuation of that conversation but also lifts up a sort of a more immediate term project that that we should consider., at this point in time, the the board does not have a fund balance policy., and so.
We're in in tandem with Therington Smith and the school boards association. We did pull some sample fund balance policies that exist in other districts. and so we may be having a conversation here in the near future by way of our policy committee to lift up a draft fund balance policy for Durham public schools to to help memorialize maybe some best practices for us and to give guiding principles for this administration, this board, and as well as the future iterations of of us.
And so really just sort of looking for just sort of a a preview to that. Really sort of looking for a vision of of of perhaps holding 8% of our of our revenues or the value of that's equal to 8% of our revenues. And there are lots of different ways we can look at that. And the the sample policies that I've reviewed have very wide ranges. and so some some say it will not exceed 6% and some say that it should be as high as 25%. So, we we've got some work to do and and certainly we'll collaborate with our colleagues, at the county government level to make sure it's something that we can all agree agree upon, as we formulate our own policy. But, again, not the pressing issue today, but just want to lift that up as a future project, related to this work.
On the next slide, we really discuss some next steps that we feel are pertinent in order for the district to maintain its financial health. and and to continue to satisfy sort of our most important obligations. So obviously, right, that's continuing to compensate our staff that work directly with our students and to continue to support all of the needs that our students have., and so as a reminder, we are seeking, a way to to fill in an an unanticipated $4.7 million, obligation to our local charter schools.
And so that, you know, so throughout the year, that is something that we'll need to need to make whole. and so we have convened a working group of senior leadership to first evaluate our service contracts and to determine are are they necessary? Can we reduce them? And I [snorts] I know that I already have seen evidence of that work and and my colleagues have been pushing down with their direct reports to to go through that exercise and u we've got some additional conversation coming up u very soon around that with the board. and so if that exercise goes well we anticipate bringing some contracts to the board in a batch for review with with recommendations to either cancel or to reduce those service contracts that we've reviewed in order to to free that free up some funds that way. as we have in the past really looking at implementing a hiring freeze for the district to exclude EC positions bus positions and and other positions that are required by statute. and so.
We were likely heading in that direction anyway as we moved into our work to prepare for aotment season. And so just looking to do this a little bit earlier than normal so that we can stabilize and and put some measures in place to set us up for success as we work through this and the upcoming work that we'll do for staffing season. We will evaluate the need for vacancies that we have frozen., and I think it's important to lift up that as we go through this work, the working group will be evaluating and making judgment calls about what positions we feel or we don't feel. And and there are there are some some things that are that are quite critical that we can't operate without. And so we'll be looking at all of this with with great diligence.
The next item is is certainly attainable and and it's done in the spirit of we are spending money for this year's children. and if we are really going to do that wrapping up our incumbrances by February 27th is most certainly a feasible target., and so if you're ordering something at the end of February, you hope it's here by the end of March. And the next thing you know, we're rolling into testing season. And and and we recognize that we are going to need to work work with some things such as graduation expenses and and other very natural things that occur at the end of the school year. And we we will make kind of appropriate judgment to support those critical things that happen. that this is a strategy that will help us to to contain our spending. we always have the conversation around travel. So we will continue our efforts to minimize travel outside of the district as appropriate so that we can prioritize other spending that's that's directly.
Relevant to our students. and then as an absolute last resort we have the conversation of reduction and force. You know that's certainly something we don't want to do. we don't enjoy doing it. And that is why we're evaluating these other options first so that we can so that we can callull this number as much as possible before we have to move in that direction. And so it it is our goal to report back to the board at the December meeting how much all of these other activities u can support us u in containing cost prior to conversation about that final bullet point. and so then in turn we've had conversations about sort of the the overallotment issue and so working with working with our operating budgets to bring those in line with prior year spending in order to pull resources on the table to take care of that issue and and move past that quickly along with some of the other items that we've discussed as strategies. so I think we have had.
Some success in collapsing some classrooms through the reconciliation process. but you know there there are just some cases where we will not be able to do that and so just want to touch on that. some other things you know as I've continued to talk to you know this is not on the slide but another important item that I want to lift up had an opportunity to talk with some colleagues across the state as well as colleagues through our consortium with great city schools about things that they're thinking about with enrollment. you know, so we do we do [snorts] have some other tools in our toolbox that we may evaluate and and consider engaging as we look to bring students back. And so I think that for our long-term strategy, that's the single best thing we can do is to pull students back into Durham Public Schools. if they if they come back now and over the course of the year it has an immediate implication for what we have to share with share with.
Charter schools or not share with them. So that that does adjust monthly based on the enrollment and it will help set us up for success for next year with our state funding as we continue to do that work. I have I did have a really sort of unique vendor that was recommended to me by colleagues through Great City Schools that has had success in districts bringing their students back. And so look forward to sort of exploring that a little bit further with with my colleagues as some tools and and some support that can help us. so I just wanted to put that out there for us, you know, just so the community knows that we are we're thinking about how we can tackle this and address those issues. with all that said, I next slide just calls for questions and understandably so. I know there may be many and so we're we're prepared to answer any questions the board might have this evening.
>> Thank you, Mr. Teter, for that presentation. It was really comprehensive. I'm sure that we'll have many questions as well or comments looking to my left. I have nothing. Okay, Miss Chavez, any comment? We'll come back to her. I'll pass it over to Natalie Beyer. >> Mr. Teter, I want to thank you and Mr. Barfield for working on this really detailed plan. This is not the place that any of us wanted to be again. This is not the place where Dr. Lewis and you all wanted to be yet again.
And I, you know, my comments recently about vouchers got me a little push back, but I'm going to be clear again. To the one or two people listening at home that may have not heard the history of Durham and how we merge separate but unequali school systems in Durham because we believe in the rich diversity of schools and pe and children coming together to learn and we believe in equity. We believe it that we do better together. And so the I want to be clear that the charter school system in North Carolina is one of the most loosely managed. It is essentially public money but privately managed. There is no elected oversight for charter schools.
There is a racial isolation in charter schools in our own community. There mo many of them do not provide transportation. many of them do not provide free meals to students. I would of this list that you've given us, I would suggest that only one even has significant outreach into the Spanish speaking community in Durham. And so to me, I want to call out each and every person that is in a in a charter school to hear what Mr. Teter said. Come on back.
We won't get our state money back, but we welcome your child at any time. We're ready. And we have exceptional people, certified teachers. Charter schools will only required by state statute to have 50% of their teachers even be certified. The charter school expansion is essentially run at the state level. It is the fox guarding the hen house. A lot of the operators are from out of state. We've got folks from Michigan. We've got operators and people skimming money off from all over the country., and so if your child is in a charter school, consider coming back.
Consider going to that board that that is in charge of your charter school and say, "Would you pilot being a local school under the local Board of Education?" Because we could pilot that in Durham. We could do that. Our legislators and our delegation is ready to run a bill for us to make that happen. Would you run transportation? Would you feed children? And hey, why do you not reflect the rich diversity of the Durham community? So, choices that individuals make impact the collective and impact the community. And I just want to be clear that that's the truth.
And I I know we planned for one of the schools to close. Two of the schools that are up and have consistently terrible grades are two virtual charter schools in North Carolina, both with D-grades. And I don't believe in school letter grades, but they're still a metric that is out there., they have D-grades. They keep getting renewed. If folks are interested, I think we can figure out ways to welcome students back into Ignite Online Academy within Durham Public Schools where you have certified teachers and local opportunities to engage with learning.
That's my piece on that because we can do better, Durham. We can do better together., I think the thing that stood out to folks on in some of the questions on this was continue collapsing classrooms when feasible. And so if we can make space for y'all to talk about what those difficult things might look like and how how those are going to be evaluated kind of on a case-by case basis kind of from the academic folks probably more than or Mr. Teter who doesn't want to talk about that anymore.
Is that you have thoughts on how that could happen and and what what that might look like in in the coming weeks and months? >> Well, we we're working, you know, as quickly as we can to, you know, reach a level of clarity about exactly where we need to make that happen. Generally, when we look at the numbers, you know, while it's not Mr. Teters work specifically you know this is a numbers driven issue. So for instance there are schools around the district where for instance at a grade level where we are allotting positions at one to 24 right? there are 12 kids in a classroom, right? Because there was a projection, right, of a certain number of students being there and and those projections just haven't held. and so while we would love to be able to have classes that small, you know, it it's just financially unsustainable for us., and you know, I think it's it's it's reasonable in scenarios like that where we can make those adjustments and remain within our.
Our guidelines. It's it's in our best interest. The other pieces of that are to make sure, of course, you know, we are being, you know, strategic about where we make those shifts. For instance, the superintendent has directed and we are, you know, very clear that we are going to make every effort to maintain those positions that were perhaps overalled in our in our low performing schools because we feel like those schools might need a little bit of additional assistance., but we'll be going from school to school and having conversations with our principles about how to make these shifts, how to make them in ways that are the least distracting for students and and and kind of how to create a a a guide a glide path for that process so that it's not abrupt. it should be noted that we've shared with principles along the way what what the numbers were trending towards and so in most cases principles have had a good bit of time to begin you know thinking about how.
They would make those shifts and sort of thinking about how they will make that happen. so hopefully we'll be in a position to to finalize those things, you know, in in short in in a short period. Thank you. I also appreciated yesterday in our meeting with the commissioners that they would were open and interested in calling charter schools in to report to them as a local governance body. And I wondered if we might share this chart and data with with them just in an email to make sure that they're they're aware and maybe even include some further details if we have any. I don't think I think it's hard to find student demographic information about these charters. I've tried in the past. I I think it's hard to find. I don't think they share it very but but school letter grades would certainly be a column that we might consider adding to that to that worksheet as we share that with the commissioners. But thank you all for making these tough decisions.
Any other comments from colleagues? I do too want to thank you Mr. Teter for the presentation another sobering I think presentation around the state of where we are. I appreciate some of the things that were laid out as far as steps that we need to take and almost feels like déja vu because we were having this conversation last year and so I'm wondering how are we also setting up our school years to not do this at this point in the year because it it makes a change right people plan their budgets they think about what they're going to do and now they're getting a conversation in November around making changes so how do we set ourselves up to be maybe even more stringent not around a lotments. I know that's a different conversation, but around some of the other pieces around vacancies, around travel, around other expenditures, I think how can we be very strident and and when it comes to our expenses, we've have gotten a lot of critiques.
Around how much was it spent on this or this event or these events? And so, how are we thinking really critically around what's the criteria? what's the rubric that we're going through to say this is a a expense that we're going to see a a reward or a response from some dividends from, right? and so how do we make sure that the expenses are working to increase student achievement or they're also investing in our educators which I think feels really important for us to do. And so would love to see us kind of come back thinking about for the next school year as we're talking about our budget, what things might we just need to put in place to be in place.
Because unfortunately this federal landscape isn't changing for a little bit. We don't think right. and the projections that you put up unless you also get a new general assembly also might not change. And so we've got to do some really which I believe we can. I'll say that I believe 2026 can be that year but there's some work that we need to do on our end to be prepared for that. You all also talked a little bit about at some point we had talked about an organizational audit around some of those positions at our at our central office. I don't know that was conversation. I don't know if we're still doing that or is that kind of being done with this senior leadership team who's looking at vacancies and positions. I don't know who's the right person to answer that question.
And we are looking at ways to to bring that to bear in terms of looking at because you know a lot of these assessment cost money too. So we're looking at those contracts to see if it's the right time to do that and then also with some other work that's being done how we can also get that same data. So yes we are looking actively looking at that as well. And then what's a timeline on a plan around thinking about increasing enrollment?
I know we we need to get one. I don't know if there's a timeline yet or something we could bring back to the board around even maybe if there efforts that we start for this upcoming year. Showcase of schools is one part of that. And then is there a multi-year plan around what that might look like? >> Is there currently a multi-year plan? No. But as we are continuing to dig into the enrollment data in terms of decline, we are looking heavily into that and then we can formulate a plan to to bring back to the to the board. I will just say since I have my mic button on is just to kind of echo board member buyer sentiments around families that are in charter schools are more than welcome to come back to Durham public schools. We've heard and seen some heard from our families that either have began in charter schools and came to Durham Public Schools and are expressing should have been here a long time.
And then also those families that were once Durham Public Schools families left and went to charter schools and have come back to us. And so leveraging their experiences in terms of sharing that with families I think will be critical as well. and and I know the public has seen and and heard us share in terms of academic outcomes and performance and dispelling this myth that charter equals better. the the the receipts doesn't show that in terms of our academic performance. 89% of our schools met or exceeded growth and compare that to charter schools at 71%.
And so tonight you you see where the money is going and so $51 million is going to charter schools. Now, when you juxtapose that into the academic performance of those charter schools, about 31% of that 51 million is going to schools that had negative had a negative growth index. So, $16 million going to schools that had negative growth index. And so, as we continue to educate our our public around the best option being Durham Public Schools, I I think we'll definitely, you know, won't be in this situation year after year. But again, we have to have make sure we have a a solid plan in terms of making sure that we are doing right by the students and families that we have in the seats, but also making sure that we are getting our students back to Durham Public Schools.
>> Look forward to a plan coming soon. And then last, I know we're doing a lot of work around collapsing classrooms and things, but I think as much as we can protect our students and classrooms, the better. the board did get an email from a parent who was concerned that her daughter had to change classrooms right before exams are coming or benchmarks are coming. So are there ways that we can just think about intentionally how we do that in a way that hopefully can reduce transitions for students or as much as possible. So thank you all for that presentation. Mr. Teter, do you need a break or are you okay to keep moving? All right, we're going to go to the next presentation. Classified salary study.
>> Okay. Thank you again, Madam Chair. So, we have another presentation here that we can queue up. and so this is just a a continuation on the work that we're doing to evaluate classified compensation and and and to be clear it's not married to the previous presentation and and is a an an effort in planning for 2627 budget development and and various initiatives that that we've been having conversations about in the district. And so we did for the purposes of this presentation prepare three different scenarios. and again just want to lift up the work of of our our budget our budget staff in particular Mr. Barfield and and working with me to go through a lot of a a lot of a lot of work to pull together a method to to cost this in-house and structure this in-house and not lean on outside resources to pull this together. And so the first first scenario that we looked at involved the starting pave 1922.
And so as a reminder, the the current u bottom wage for Durham is 1751. And so looking at that minimum wage that aligns with Durham County government looking at u 5% in between pay grades. And we do see this vary in in different districts, the degree to which they put between grades. and what we found in our in our existing schedules is you know we have instances where that's five or six percent and then in other places where it's zero right so in the very early grades in our current schedule there's not really a differentiation between grades and so looking to try to have on the grades that were not administrative in nature a consistent 5% and this was an an area that was of particular importance in in our first meet and confer meeting with DAE And so something that we looked at with Fidelity in in adjusting for their feedback. and then a 13% progression when you migrate to administration which is relatively consistent with our neighbors and in how they approach differentiation.
There. this model does or scenario does reflect our current system of steps that's half percent., and I really want to while we're on the conversation of steps, I want to kind of draw sort of the the intent or or the function of those and I think they're very important., so I'm thinking back to our first meet and confer meeting., and one of the kind of points of feedback that we received is transparency around placement on on salary schedules. And so I really do very much view steps as a system on the front end of making sure we have some measured approach to placing folks on the salary schedule. So Durham right has got historically had a practice of evaluating relevant experience whether it's from another school system, another state agency and in some cases the private sector and having just sort of that objective measuring tool on the front end for placement. in current current practice is not necessarily meaning that it's an automatic increase in pay but that.
The board would would take an action to put in place a specific across the board percentage increase and so so at this point in time I kind of maintain that viewpoint that the system of steps are used as a way to facilitate an objective placement on a on a salary scale as folks come on board and then from there progression progressions materialized by a percentage raise increase to be decided by the board based upon availability of funds. and so in this particular model looking at a $23.5 million cost above and beyond our current investment if we were to make this degree of change at one time.
And I think it's important to note that a lot of that cost right is driven by the minimum wage is is rising by 9.8% 8% in that model and then it's scaffolding forward across the other grades to to mitigate compression and and to make sure that that permeates throughout the salary schedule. and then two right a variable in this is also the mitigation of the compression in the early grades and and putting that 5% notion at the beginning rather than there being zero across those first four grades in the existing salary schedule. so all these variables combined were definitely the drivers behind that behind that cost. And so as we continue to move forward with this kind of work, right, just putting some thought in how do you phase in these sorts of things in over a period of time so that you're not looking at this magnitude of change at one time and and making it work. the second scenario is to some on the next slide is some to some degree.
Similar to this again looking at that notion of the 1922 in lie of the 1751 minimum wage. also looking at the 5% grades the grade differentiation and 13% for administration and instead incorporating the the concept of 1% steps versus half percent. and so for for all the same reasons as scenario one the the increase in cost in this case 34.5 million is driven by that 9.8% lift to the minimum wage the ripple effect through the salary schedules to avoid compression as well as building in some space between those early grades that doesn't currently exist in our salary schedule. So again similar approach. This is something where all worthy efforts and and just best implemented in phases over time to eventually reach the goal for the district., scenario three, is is certainly a lot to unpack, and and reflects, sort of our effort to and our commitment to cost out, the all of the parameters, that came up through the course of meet and confer and the feedback that we received.
And so this prominently reflects lifting that minimum wage to 2555 that's married to the MIT model that we've discussed in previous presentations. It's the same kind of conversation around differentiation between grades and the 2% step conversation that we've had quite frequently with DAE. I think it's significant to note right that this is a 45.9% lift to the minimum wage in that model. and then the corresponding ripple effects throughout the salary schedule. and again like the previous models that cost is affected by trying to eliminate compression that currently exists in the early grades and is most certainly further escalated by the notion of 2% steps rather than other iterations of that. and and really the sort of best way I can think about it, right, is that this model really tries to address a generation of cost of living and and inflation on on the upfront rather than dealing with it over time as we customarily sort of address those things. so again the cost of 119.7 and and we did have the opportunity.
We didn't have the opportunity to fully discuss this presentation at the second meeting and confer meeting last evening but we were able to at least lift up this slide and and assure the Durham Association of Educators that we honored our promise to review their proposal cost it and and give it the same degree of scrutiny that we did some other models. And so again, I think they just had some wonderful one-on-one conversations after the meeting last night., and they've got some some great folks on their team, that have brought skills from previous sectors.
And I think there's a joint understanding perhaps that anything that we do in this space is going to take time and and that we're not going to rip the band-aid off at one time in order to make the kind of change we would want to see with classified pay in Durham. So just wanted to lift that up in this conversation. on the next slide we sort of lift up next steps and so obviously we anticipate feedback. We know that we'll receive feedback from the board this evening. we look forward to feedback from the Association of Educators and other constituents that are following this work. and in in tandem with that, right, in in the course of the study, we've had conversation also about the appropriate placement of positions on the schedule. And so, there's, you know, a working group, that that will evaluate those and and, looking forward to, emulating some processes that exist in other districts, in order to address those., we will, intend to share some recommendations when we review Dr. Lewis's budget.
Priorities, those tenative priorities as a starting point for budget season. It's possible that the recommendation we make for the budget may simply reflect an acrosstheboard raise for our classified employees that that's a direction we may have to move. so we wanted to lift up just for knowledge and planning purposes that per 1% increase for our classified employee base that would be 1.1 million. So, if the board did a 2% raise or we received funding for a 2% raise, it would require 2.2 and so on along that progression.
So, next slide just calls for questions and happy to answer anything the board has this for us this evening. Thank you, Mr. Teter, for another thorough presentation. Colleagues, any questions or comments? Got some money they want to bring to the budget conversation. No, >> I'll start with M and then I'll go Miss Byer. >> I don't have much to say. I just wanted to acknowledge that the way that the our current situation is being presented I I need time. Of course, we've had time, but I need more time. I appreciate the way that you're laying it out because it gives us time to really reflect on it before we get into, you know, all the decisions that we'll have to make with our next upcoming budget. I just wanted to lift up that I really see a difference and how that's being laid out. I appreciate the conversations that are happening in those meeting confers around these and all of the all that's coming around, how it's going out to community. So, I really appreciate.
The transparency. although it's dire and it looks like a really big number, it's also reassuring to be able to understand it and to see it more clearly. And so I really appreciate the clarity and the work that you're doing to make sure that it is understood. So just wanted to appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, I I want to also echo the the incredible work that you've done. I don't know if it's with your team or just you, Mr. Of just modeling these incredibly complex scenarios with our existing classified employees who have legacy pay and all kinds of things built in and complexity beyond trying to to pull us out of the weeds that we've gotten into that it has taken so long to to peel away. I want to be clear to our staff that we love you. If we had scenario three, we would give it to you.
You all are worth every dollar and more. And we will continue to advocate to the state to do their job and pass a budget. But again, they didn't show up to do their job just last week when they were called back by Governor Stein. They're not talking about coming back until March. They're fighting amongst their party about naming a children's hospital after the speaker or whatever his title is. So, we need them to get back to work so that we could give raises to classified staff this year. and here we sit in reality, which is not a place that any of us relish being., I want to be clear that the the conversation with the county yesterday, county forecasts look actually grimmer than than usual because sales tax revenue is down and because they are increasingly picking up pieces that the feds and the state are not on behalf of our community., so I I like Miss Harold Goff not sure where we go from here. I wonder if the.
1922 is too big of a reach for this year. I don't think we're going to be able to get there. I didn't get the sense from the manager that she had 23 million alone, right? I mean, I did any I wish I wish that that we did. I don't think the money from Duke is coming this year that that our folks are advocating for, but I appreciate the advocacy work in that space. is I guess my specific question is on your last bullet on your last slide recommendation may reflect an across the board percentage increase 1.1 mill right for 1% increase are you talking about that for this year as we true up folks are you talking about planning for next year that that may be all that we can do how are you thinking about that can you be more clear >> absolutely so so this right would be focused for 2627 seven and and the budget cycle going forward. and thinking about so particularly right in in in light of those conversations.
With the county yesterday and in thinking of something that's succinct and and something that we can easily measure as we go through our prioritization activities rolling forward., so you know, perhaps if we if we requested three% or some something along those lines and we don't get anywhere near the total we asked for, this mechanism gives the board an easy way to adjust the dials to prioritize in the way that you did this past budget season with expansion items., and I think it's a it's a way that we it's easy to consume., there are kind of less nuances to explain. and then also it does two things, right? One, it would still lift the minimum wage and make that needed progress. at the same time, it would not feed compression because everyone would be getting that lift. so I think it's a sort of a pragmatic way to make some kind of progress and and continue to think about this other more complicated work that's going on.
Yeah, that's that's super helpful. I I really appreciate that and I appreciate scenario four or five or six or whatever y'all y'all are going to have to run to to get us where we where we're able to lift our folks as they are are due in in a grim budget cycle yet again., >> it's funny, but it's not funny, but we had to replace a laptop in the process of running these because of the demands on on the system with with the structure that we built to run that. So, it's but yeah, so I think we're we're situated to do four, five, and six now.
So,. Colleagues, any other comments? We look forward to future presentations. Thank you and your team for all the work that you've done on this. Lord, any comments about school finance?
Okay, no pressure. All right, the next item on our agenda is traditional and yearround instructional calendars. Invite up Miss Stevens to the podium. Good afternoon. Oh, good evening. I have a presentation to go along with this as well.
Perfect. Good evening, Dr. Lewis, members of the board, and everyone joining us from home. Tonight I'm presenting our recommendations for the 2026, 2027, and 2027, 2028 instructional calendars. These recommendations include both our traditional and year-round options. We will return with our specialty calendar proposals once our partner colleges and university finalizes their academic calendars and release date. Next slide, please. All of the proposed calendars fully meet North Carolina law and Durham public schools board policy. Each calendar includes the required instructional time measured in hours for maximum flexibility and incorporates all statemandated holidays, annual leave days, and the minimum number of teacher work days, including those that allow staff to use leave. All 10-month certified employees work the legislated 215 days, no more and no less.
Traditional calendars follow the required state start and end dates and each option includes bank time to safeguard instructional hours during inclement weather. Our year-round models also align with state requirements providing four quarters of instruction with their appropriate break periods in between. Next slide, please. Over time, DPS has added parameters to our instructional calendars that reflect what research, including guidance from the Institute of Educational Sciences, shows best support student learning. We prioritize long uninterrupted instruct stretches of instructional time because research consistently finds that strengthens retention and reduces the time teachers must spend retaching after breaks. To ensure instruction remains high quality, our calendars include strategically placed teacher work days at the end of each marking period. This aligns with national findings that protect planning time, improves lesson quality, strengthens data instruction, datadriven instruction, and ultimately supports student achievement. We also maintain predictable and consistent structures such as lining spring break across traditional and year-round schools, starting the school year on a Monday and providing a two-week winter break because instructional research shows that predictable calendars increase.
Attendance, reduce stress for families, and help students sustain academic momentum. All of these added parameters exist for one purpose, to create a calendar that maximizes instructional continuity and supports strong outcomes for all students. Next slide, please. As we develop these instructional calendars, we do recognize the rich diversity of religious, cultural, and family traditions within our DPS community. While state law determines which holidays must be included on the school calendar, and we must prioritize instructional time, we remain committed to supporting every student and staff member who needs time to observe these important traditions. In alignment with board policy 4400, schools will ensure absences are coded correctly, provide flexible options for makeup work, and maintain the academic supports students need to stay connected to their learning. This approach allows us to honor and respect our community's diversity while keeping our focus on instructional continuity and student success. Next slide, please.
Our calendar development process begins with a representative from each school. These representatives meet across sessions to review requirements, analyze instructional considerations, and provide feedback that shape the initial draft calendars. After the drafts are created, district departments review and ensure operational alignment and support for instructional priorities. Final draft calendars are returned to school. When the draft, we then open the drafts to the broader community for additional feedback. Once all input is considered, principles ensure all staff have the opportunity to review the options and vote and each school submits its majority vote based on its calendar type. Next slide, please.
To gather broad input on the draft calendars, we use district-wide thought exchange. This tool not only collects open-ended feedback, but also allows participants to rate each other's thoughts, giving us clear sense of which ideas resonate most widely across the community. We had a strong and diverse population with over 479 total respondents, which is almost 400 more than last year. 307 were parents and guardians. 148 were additional DPS educators, 11 community members, one student participant, and 12 who selected others. Next slide, please.
When we reviewed the feedback, one thing became clear. Our community holds a wide range of needs, preferences, and expectations. Many of which had some direct conflicts with one another. Some families asked for more breaks while others wanted fewer instructions. Some requested alignment between calendar types while others advocated for greater differentiation. We also heard various cultural, operational, and scheduling needs. Because these priorities often push in opposite directions, no singular calendar can fully meet every request. What the feedback reinforces is that our responsibility is to anchor the decision in what most directly supports teaching and learning. Next slide, please.
The recommendated the recommended calendars reflect clear majority votes from our schools. For traditional schools, the selected options received 94.1 and 91.2% support. And for our year- round calendars recommendated, the recommended options received 100% support and 87.5% support. These recommendations honor the strongest preferences from each school community. Next slide, please. I bring this before you tonight for approval, and I open it up for any questions. >> Thank you, Miss Stevens, and to the committee and team that works with you to create the calendars.
Board members questions. I see Vice Chair Rogers. >> Thank you. Keep doing that tonight. I don't know why. Thank you for this presentation. And all the feedback. Glad you got 400 more responders. Can you share a little bit with us about how this was disseminated in school communities? Did it just go to the sit teams? Did it just go to Who did it go to? >> Absolutely. So, the once we're done and it's ready for the vote, it goes to the principal and the principal is responsible with all of the guidance.
They're given electronic tools. They're given handouts. They're given a presentation to share with their staff and then they're responsible for ensuring that their whole staff gets to view it. They vote. Sometimes they do it in a staff meeting. Sometimes they go through PLC's and then we give them a copy of a form that they can make a copy of to send out to their school and then they give me their majority vote. >> So it's a paper copy. >> No, it's an electronic copy. >> Okay.
>> Yep. >> interesting. It didn't go to board members. >> It did not. >> Okay. >> Cuz we bring them back here for you guys to vote on. >> Okay. I'm I'm just saying didn't go to board members., I looked through my parent email. I didn't see it there. I get the weekly newsletter from my school. I didn't see it there. I'd be curious about which principles included in their weekly newsletter, their weekly call that we're not >> I apologize. Our principles didn't send it out to the general community. It's for school staff to vote on.
>> You said parents. No, no, no. You said parents participated in the 493 people that filled out the survey. I'm curious about how that went out. That went out through our public affairs department.
Good evening. Again, that information was shared via DPS social media channels and it was included in the weekly Spark newsletter that goes to all of our families to participate in that engagement. >> Okay. any information on the open rate of the Spark? nope the spark email that goes out. So if you send out a thousand or 500 of them opened etc. >> I do not have that information available at this moment but I can certainly provide you with those numbers >> and I would have asked the question in advance if the slides had been provided in advance cuz the slides in the calendar weren't provided in advance. So the community hasn't had an opportunity to provide us with feedback. So, is there a reason why or is there a timeline is when families and the community can provide the board feedback cuz you're asking for action tonight. Is it urgent?
>> nope. This we don't have approved calendars for next school year until they make it through this process. >> Okay. So, we can take our time. >> Yes. Okay, >> Vice Chair writers, are you asking that this be brought back to our December 11th meeting? >> Yeah, I know we got some emails from constituents about the way we handle the Jewish holidays this year. We got some other emails about Eid., we got some other concerns from staff about some placement of some of the teacher work days and I don't feel like I've had adequate time to compare what we've received to the calendars that have been presented. They weren't posted before and I don't know like we've gotten a lot of public comment about other things today, lots of emails about other things that were on our agenda today and if they had been posted earlier our community would have been able to give us a response that they're typically used to being able to provide especially on something that they've.
Already started giving feedback on. So just a little more time would be helpful for me. >> Is that a motion M artist or is there any other comments? >> Okay, then I'll make a motion. I see your free hand Natalie. assistant. >> so I'd make a motion that we bring back the calendars for the 26 27 2728 school year at the December work session. >> Second move by Vice Rogers and seconded by Miss Byer. Is there any other discussion?
>> All those in favor say I. Dad, Miss Ber, >> I'm sorry. I I apologize, Miss Ber. Miss Byer. >> So, Miss Stevens, I want to thank you so much for leading this impossible puzzle of a of work and know that the complexity that is reflected here is is incredibly detailed and there's there's not as much give and take as one. So, you you masterfully lead this. I also would just appreciate them sitting on the website a little longer and folks letting us know if there's something specific that we could tweak and accommodate something that we haven't thought of and particularly did you have feedback because we didn't used to do the whole week at Thanksgiving and it seems a pretty recent shift that we're committing to Thanksgiving as a week. Did y'all have feedback or have you pulled folks on that as a general concept?, we did get some feedback regarding that., I can pull the data.
It went both ways. So, some families that were happy to see the full week and then some that were asking why the full week. So, I can pull some data about exactly where it fell based on the feedback we've received so far. >> Yeah, that would be helpful. Well, and then one of the other comments that I'd seen was that, you know, all the all the only day off in October is an early release and there's but there's so much loaded into November and whether that month specifically we might look at.
But I appreciate you fitting the puzzle pieces together and keeping spring breaks the same for families and and all the things., and it this probably is the best we can do, but I'd love to hear from our community and just let them digest them a little bit as as before we vote on them. >> Mr. Tab, >> thank you. Thank you for the creativity with the calendar as well because when you talk about charter schools, a lot of charter schools have gone to one week for Thanksgiving and so you're trying to be competitive, you have to look at those kinds of things as as well. So, thank you for that.
>> All right. So, it's been moved by Sher Rogers and seconded by Natalie Beyer that we move this item to our December 11th board meeting. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> We're good. >> Oh, I. >> Any oppose, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. You good, Lord? All right., and then the next items we have on our agenda are for information only. So, we have grants, gifts, donations, as well as a policy committee update.
There any other business? Lordis, do you have any other comments you want to share with us before we close? >>, I just wanted to thank you guys for allowing students like me and other students on the council to kind of get to be in the room where it happens and sit and hear all the DPS employees speak and hear the general comments and be able to provide direct student feedback. It's very cool and it means a lot. It is amazing to have you here and you can come anytime. So, we've got plenty of seats in the back., and bring your friends. Feel free. We want to be as open as welcoming as possible. So, thank you.
All right, board members. We're now going to go into close session where we're going to talk about some different items that are listed on our agenda. >> Move that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Natalie Beyer and seconded by Mr. tab that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. All those in favor say I or excuse me, any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. I.
>> Any oppose, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. Thank you all for joining us this evening.