Board of Education · Regular Meeting · November 21, 2024

good evening everyone good evening the DM Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our delayed start uh Dr Lewis and I were Consulting with Safety and Security due to a power outage here at Fuller we wanted to make sure that we are able to um honor uh the public support of our meetings with public comment in a way that is safe and secure for all and that has delayed us going live and we apologize for that but hopefully we will have a fix from duke enery on this power adage in the coming day or so hours hopefully um at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this

evening our interpreters for tonight are Martha Roma illes and Vanessa Pina Ramirez at the time interpretation services are down due to the power outage and we apologize thank you for taking the time to join us at this time we will have a moment of silence thank you due to our power outages we are going to skip celebrations in the superintendent update and move into agenda review and approval I i' like to make a motion um due to our circumstances this evening to

amend the agenda and I'd like to remove the DPS Foundation report um sorry I'd like to remove consent agenda item uh D you already said sorry making the sausage so we'd like to I'd like to remove consent agenda item D superintendent evaluation tool also remove item three Board of Education DPS Foundation report also remove uh for academic Services a through C five operation

Services I think that's it second it's been moved by Miss Carter uton seconded by Miss buer to remove the superintendent evaluation tool from the consent agenda uh the DPS Foundation report strategic plan Priority One updates School Improvement plans uh for fiscal year 24 through 26 the DPS Advanced academic updates and operation Services item on the local Master's pay budget impact from our agenda as well as a change order report is there any further discussion Miss Umstead I just want to add I know we are removing these items tonight from theenda based on the circumstances for those at home we are in lit but our um room is dark so the rolling power outage is

affecting our building in different areas but when can the public expect a update on these items so we're moving them for tonight I just want to be clear about they're not removing from our work we just want to delay the presentation until we have power in the full building various updates will come at different times most of the genda items with the exception of the DPS Foundation report will come uh at a special call board meeting that we're hoping to schedule for December 2nd uh and will be posted with adequate notice so that the public can give their feedback and um we're staying within the law is that acceptable yes it's acceptable I just really want to make sure that people understood we weren't just from moving items and not going to return to those so thank you Miss Carda-Auten um thank you um

Miss Umstead that I think that's helpful to clarify and also just to let the public know that part of our concern is um not having uh interpretation translation services this evening um so we want to just focus on um focus on a few items as possible um and also limitations here within the building and un certainties about what will happen with the power outages thank you any further discussion all those in favor of approving the agenda as amended say I I all oppose use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the board regularly monthly meeting minutes from October 24th 2024 move approval of the

minutes second it's been moved by Miss sper seconded by Miss Harrell Goff gof to approve the minutes from October 24th 2024 is there any further discussion awesome all those in favor say I I I any opposition please use the same sign the minutes have been approved unanimously thank you we will Dr Lewis chair I just did U check Dr Gan just checked the there was another out outlet that translation services was able to use so translation services are and wunning at this time thank you for that update uh we will now move to General Public comment a quick review of the rules

first please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you will have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beat which indicates your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker to speak tonight is Anna long followed by I'm so sorry I'm gonna mess up your names tonight um Owen

Ambrose good evening board members my name is Anna long and I'm a junior from durm School of the Arts and tonight I'm representing Sunrise club and the growing number of students interested in taking action to stop climate change I have cared about climate change for a while I've always wanted to take action and I do so by biking to school composting with my family and shopping sustainably and locally I know that I'm helping but there's only so much that I can do alone because I wanted to do more and I wanted to make real change I joined DSA sunrise and we've done a lot we canvas for comma spread awareness about global warming through grade level presentations and organized a walk out that brought awareness to climate change we only have six years left to stop the climate crisis and I believe that DPS needs to make changes in order to meet their climate change goals I know that I like other students want promises to be

m. m. at Duke Memorial Church thank you thank you Owen Ambrose followed by Lucia Harrington hello my name is Owen Ambrose and I am seeding my time to Lucia Harrington um hello my name is Lucia Harrington and I'm here to speak on behalf of the DSA Sunrise Hub um we've been communicating with yall and we're so grateful for your cooperation so far on the issue of climate policy at DPS um you've shared a

resolution with us that you signed in 2021 stating your commitment to renewable energy while this is a step in the right direction it's not quite enough um the sunrise movement demands at 100% clean energy um is you know dedicated no lat no later than 2035 um that all new construction that is reliant on fossil fuels is seized and um that there is comprehensive climate action plans created currently you have committed to 100% renewable energy by 2050 and are not on track to achieve that goal one example is that the new DSA campus that is being built right now um will still be relyant on fossil Fields as far as I'm aware further the existing resolution does not include other measures that we believe are necessary buses that run on clean energy Pathways to Green jobs in-depth climate curriculum and climate disaster plans these would Empower all DPS students to be climate leaders in today's society but most of these are within your power

and some of the latter require much less funding than renewable energy we also understand that money is a limiting factor and that in the next four years it will likely be much more difficult for school districts to obtain funds to transfer to clean energy and educate about climate we understand that some of the things we're suggesting seem a little far-fetched um and it's unfortunate that they must be so difficult to enact we also understand that other significant problems that you're probably hear about today like teacher pay um are a priority but we urge you to take our place seriously this is a chance for you guys to use your power in a way to make positive changes and be an example for other school district and save money as clean energy is um saves money in the long run um and yeah so Sunrise has we have been um talking to students in giving information in classes we've been Gathering student input um on what they

think is important and we've heard some really good ideas and we're hoping to work with you guys to develop resolutions um to work towards these climate action goals and we're so you know grateful for your attention and cooperation we look forward to working with you guys in the near future as we develop our resolutions thank you thank you Ann Fields followed by Elizabeth Fields and Anna Garcia can I start okay um at the last meeting it was conveyed that immediately a rotation and advanced notice um for the

buses would begin um that has not happened bus 235 has run twice in the last two weeks this bus in particular serves a vulnerable population that was also said to be prioritized during the last meeting my child's bus um has begun to run more frequently and serves a less vulnerable population so while that's great for me it's not great for the families that really have no other options um uh so I want to also think about pay for drivers um city bus drivers are make more money than a bus driver at DPS and are currently um they are currently hiring um uh after myself and my sister speak you'll get the privilege to hear from a fabulous group of school social workers that are here because they are

not paid fairly I used to be a part of this team and the reason I left DPS was because I was told two weeks after my 5-year-old that one right there um was born that I was in fact not getting the Master's pay that I was promised when I was hired um you say that we shouldn't throw money at the problem that it won't fix it it would have for me the difference between $1 for someone making minimum wage is the ability to pay your rent and buy food for your your children I don't understand why this is not being treated as an emergency because it is there are children that are not going to school at all period that is an emergency it should not take two weeks to it is almost December that's halfway through the

school year that groups of children have not been able to go to school I just don't even know how we are possibly here in this situation in the middle of the school year and the fact that simply rotating which bus is not going and telling parents hey your bus is not going to run on Mondays come up with another plan doesn't seem that complicated to me and I don't why understand why at a minimum that can't be implement subed literally tomorrow uh thank you very much hi my name is Elizabeth Fields Jones I'm an EK po parent and I'm a ESL teacher at Glenn Elementary School I know the challenges with Transportation are complex and require short-term

longterm Solutions and they're not going to be solved tomorrow um today I'm not asking you to solve the transportation crisis I'm asking you to provide consistent transportation for bus 235 starting immediately um and that these families are not included in the rotational coverage plan they've done enough for our school this bus serves a large number of students who are new to the United States and are working hard to learn English on top of math science social studies and reading more than anyone they need and want to be at school every day since the last meeting when you heard from dedicated teachers at Brogden who shared their concerns about students who also R ride bus 235 it goes to Glenn and then Brogden after the bus has run in the in the morning either two or three days I've lost track I have students who at this point seem to have given up on trying to keep track of whether the bus is coming and they've just stopped coming to school I'll close by sharing a few comments from families whose children used to R ride bus 235

when it still ran it's a rather complicated situation that has been seen this year and the truth is the most affected are the children because they miss out on learning for a day when they miss class and don't recover also parents are affected also because they cancel at the last minute and if we are at work then we have to leave work so it affects us on both sides for me and my daughter it is difficult to be like this she doesn't attend class much because of the situation and it affects her a lot in her learning I hope the leaders pay much attention to this and find a sure and effective way to solve this problem so please just send our kids a bus thank you thank you Anna Garcia followed by Sonia Lopez and Tiffany Squire my name is Anna Garcia I'm a DPS employee I'm representative a student

named Mary is she's a friend of mine she's a 12-year-old goes to brogen middle school lives in Duke bner Apartments a 900 945 units apartment complex middle and high school students face many many challenges some of them do not get enough sleep exposed to all sources of noises they um for example the train um passes along three hours whistling two miles radius um they are there are continu newest Sirens disrupting the neighborhood um Mary lives in the 4245 building the farest back edge of the neighborhood she walks 5 to 10 minutes to the bus stop towards the community interest takes risk in inclement weathers uh to bring run to being run over to a car kidnapped or being chased by a dog the bus stop site is hazardous there is no shelter to take cover in case of an emergency from tornado floods

flood warnings freezing weather she spent three and a half hours waiting for the bus since still counts against her attendance she is being counted absent it's been two to three months that 40 kiddos in our neighborhood are out of school back in August September there were reckless drivers not respecting the bus stop in the mornings or afternoon now the traffic is better please change the bus stop to a safer location within the community at school the food is the is serve there are few food options we would like a whole meal of fresh food not all families are privileged with a car they are kiddos that must take public transportation taking other risk to get to school or on the way home walk on the lion lion Street dangerous a lion lion street is dangerous there is many shooting in the area the bus shortage has changed me on my Mom's work schedule

she works 9 hour shift it impacted our house income that she brings less money home she looked for our other options for for before and after school programs there are no morning programs there is an early drop off station but there is no school staff supervising please try to invest in the bus drivers we already have pay them um what you owe them and try to pay them more what they deserve ve spotlighting bus drivers Eastway coach Watson Brogden principal Mr White and Mr Boyce for their dedication and going over and beyond their jobs their own job duties thank you thank you good evening my name is son Lopez I'm the social worker at Lakewood and Forest VI Elementary tonight I'm here to share my thoughts and set the stage for the voices of my fellow social workers

who will also be speaking over the last several weeks you've been engaging with the Dae Masters pay delegation and I want to thank you for listening to us and hearing our concerns this delegation was formed by Union and non-union members alike it took countless efforts of effort and collaboration across work sites to bring you the accurate information that DPS itself seem unable to provide over 45 Advocates Union and non-union members some Direct impacted and some not engaged in hundreds of real conversations across work sites to ensure no one was left out of this advocacy this work is only possible because we are a majority Union and have the structures in place to quickly engage all of our co-workers all of this work has been for the 45 sorry 35 stuff staff left out and for all the students and families that need them to stay in this District please understand the social workers are not just fighting for ourselves we are fighting for every instructional support support staff excluded from the reinstatement of Master's pay that's the beauty of Dae we

fight for everyone this situation has been frustrating last spring when Master's pay was promised we sat on the sidelines What policies were made then in September new language and The Bu budget implementation revealed a critical error only after the harm was done could we react we didn't expect you all to be experts on our jobs but we do expect you to recognize that we are the experts on our working conditions and our students learning conditions had we been involved in crafting this policy this mistake would have been avoided how many more mistakes must happen before you recognize the value of collaboration imagine the possibilities if we work together crafting policies through a meet and confer process the presentation tonight speaks of expanding Master's pay that is inaccurate we are not asking for the expansion of Master's pay we are asking you to keep your word correct the mistake and fully reinstate Master's pay for all those who are excluded thank

you hello everyone I am uh Tiffany Squire I am a social worker at CC spaling Elementary and at Creek ey and I'm seing my time today to Megan still wagon hi everyone my name is Megan stillwagon and I am the school social worker at Hope Valley Elementary and Rogers her middle school I received my masters in social work from North Carolina Central University in 2022 and I'm also a licensed clinical social worker associate this past may I was in the middle of maternity leave when I came to a Board of Education meeting to advocate for the restoration of Master's pay for all those impacted by the 2013 decision my plan was to leave DPS after maternity leave because it was important to me to have a job that valued my work when I heard the news that the Board of Education would be reinstating m M pay I told my husband that I wanted to retire with DPS in August School social workers were asked to verify our master's degrees

through a Google form further leading us to believe we would receive Master's pay however in September new language was introduced saying it was only for classroom teachers then on October 22nd I received an email from a DPS executive congratulating me stating that I had been submitted for Master's pay after reaching out to my social work colleagues I learned I was the only one who received this email and it was later confirmed that it was sent by a mistake on October 29th social workers received another email saying quote our advocacy had been rewarded and we would get Master's pay hours later we were told in emergency meeting that it was another mistake since May DPS has told me three times that I would receive Master's pay only to retract at each time twice in the same week this has left my colleagues and me feeling deeply devalued and demoralized priority three of the DPS strategic plan is to recruit support and

retain an exemplary staff choosing not to compensate DPS instructional support for our master's degrees directly opposes this priority DPS will not retain exemplary staff if the staff do not feel valued or supported we will leave and ultimately the students will be the ones who are affected this week social workers were informed that the district must reduce the number of underinsured and uninsured students receiving collocated Mental Health Services due to lack of funding last year 109 students were funded and this year only 43 will be served this will disproportionately affect our immigrant population social workers will largely bear the brunt of this cut just yesterday I was in a meeting where a teacher wanted a student referred for collocated therapy but the student couldn't access Services due to lack of insurance and as a result of the meeting it was concluded that I would be the one providing bi-weekly counseling instead using my clinical license which can only be obtained through a master's degree

it's crucial that we hire and retain highly qualified social workers now more than ever when DPS justifies their decision to exclude us from deserved pay what I really hear is it's not worth it to provide students with the mental health support that they need if DPS truly valued this support they would ensure Fair pay for the mental health providers pay that we not only deserve but were promised months ago my experience underscores the importance of having a meet and confer policy with our Public School Union the Dae decisions impacting our working conditions and students learning conditions should include our voices at the table let me be clear we are not asking for the expansion of Master's pay we are asking you to keep your word correct the mistake and fully reinstate Master's pay thank you thank you Megan steel wagon that was you right okay just making sure askar Hernandez zna toim and Amanda

s hello everyone I am Oscar Hernandez I'm a father of two uh the best students I'm a social worker Elementary School I've had the pleasure to work for Duran County uh for a while now I've done um over a decade of service in Social Services and made the decision to S jobs because I want to be able to have a bigger impact in the community now I'm enjoying the second year as a school social worker I want to point out that as a um social work for Social Service I enjoy yearly increases in my salary and also as part of uh compensation studies we were able to increase the sales basis so that it would be Equitable to other um agents in the country now I'm enjoying um working with uh families and students and doing a job where we focus on developing the student and the person I decided to voice my concern to the community and this board because I've noticed how the uh impact

of having co-workers being underpaid and feel like they not value as much as other professionals who are equally trained or perhaps less experienced and themselves are being paid the same amount or a little bit more just based on experience that they're coming from or the year that they receive their degree in the uh other factor that I would like to point out is that once a staff member feels like they're not being valued by their employer and do not feel welcome in their positions they may feel like their job is not being valued and therefore that contributes to the morale being lowered that contributes to issues with retention that contributes to the whole atmosphere at the schools or any job site being lowered and unfortunately people decide to leave because they want to have a bigger uh

income they want to have the comfort of feeling like you work matters as a school social worker I've had the pleasure with witness and the great connection that our Educators all the U staff that works within the schools develop with the students and their families it really warms my heart when I see that a student is really motivated just by the connection that they have with with a teacher or a counselor or someone in the staff where they feel like they can go out and visit students uh students excuse me students can visit prior grade teachers and say hello in the morning that comes with being a able to retain our teachers our Educators our staff and that can only be achieved by having equal pay for the people that receive that have the credentials and the training to receive it we all we're not asking for the expansion of uh may I

finish thank you please feel free to send your comments to us via email if you want know hi I'm Sonia tallhamer and I seed my time to Amanda sale hello my name is Amanda s and I'm a school social worker in my fourth year at Duram Public Schools I currently work at Murray massenberg and Morhead monor Elementary prior to becoming a school social worker I worked as a licensed clinical therapist in Community Mental Health in 2021 I decided to leave clinical practice to work in the schools schools would allow me to work with families experiencing homelessness my first interest while still addressing social emotional well-being on a broader scale after I got hired I learned it would be a pay cut since I would not be paid for my Master's Degree but this was a job I felt called to and talks were already happening about reinstating Master's pay in my three years as a social three plus years as a school social worker I've built relationships

with my colleagues students and their families some days I feel effective and fulfilled and other days are remarkably heavy when we learned that approved reinstating Master's pay for all those impacted by the 2013 decision this year we were elated social workers along with instructional coaches are paid on the teacher scale we are included in the teacher supplement and Statewide teacher bonuses despite the budget only saying teacher however we soon learned along with instructional coaches we were left out of Master's pay this was disappointing and to be quite honest felt disrespectful our role can feel very isolated and forgotten not fully a part of anyone's school and not having a counterpart to collaborate with on a daily basis and this just reaffirmed that feeling that to the district social workers are forgotten since the talks of reinstating Master's pay became more frequent over the last year I had a baby returning to work this school year was very difficult and I questioned if it was worth it I could switch a weake county where School social workers get Master's pay and only have one school I could work in private practice and earn more with a flexible schedule but I committed to this job in

these students and it is what I want to do currently I cover two schools and over 800 students the National Association of Social Workers recommendation for a school social worker is a case load of 250 this year I've been called multiple times to one of my schools on an off day to conduct a suicide safety assessment because no other trained staff were available the only staff trained and allowed to lead a safety assessment are the school counselor school social worker school psychologist or school nurse all of these positions either require and are compensated for a master's degree or are paid on a higher scale to account for their education and expertise except for the school social worker a few weeks ago we received an email informing us that our advocacy had paid off and we were getting Master's pay again a moment of excitement maybe now I'd feel comfortable paying for extra time at my baby's daycare so I didn't have to rush home when the last bus left maybe now we were being seen and respected for our role as mental health professionals within hours we learned this was a mistake we got an oops and a sorry and we were left forgotten again we are not here for the money School

social workers know we could make more elsewhere we are here because we choose to be and because we believe in the public schools all we are asking is to be seen and respected by more than just words like our peers for the expertise and education we bring to this role we are not asking for the expansion of Master's pay we are asking you to keep your word correct the mistake and fully reinstate Master's pay thank you thank you mie Gideon Cole followed by Kiana Terry Sydney sh good evening my comments are short my name is Natalie gidney Cole I'm a licensed clinical social worker and I have worked for Durham public schools for almost 23 years I'm a month short I stand before you today to advocate for my colleagues Master Level social workers in Durham Public Schools who deserve to receive the master pay that was promised to them it is essential to

recognize that other professionals within the school such as as teachers and administrators as well as psychologists within the school system who um already receive hold masters degrees receive this pay our social workers like them have invested significant time and resources to attain the advanced degrees and they provide invaluable services to our students and communities social workers play a critical role in addressing the mental health needs of our students facilitating crisis in intervention in implementing programs that promote well-being and academic success they are trained to handle complex emotional and behavioral issues conduct assessments and provide therapy although we do not formally provide therapy we have the skills to do so and those schools skills are used for our students all these things that I just named require a master's degree and that

expertise denying Master's pay to social workers sends a message that their qualifications our qualifications and contributions are less valued than those of our peers it's time to ensure that all professionals who Elevate our educational environment are recognized and compensated fairly thank you for consideration again we are not asking for an expansion of Master pay we are asking you to keep your word correct the mistake and fully reinstate Master pay thank you thank you good evening U my name is Kiana Terry I am a social worker by Education and Training I'm also a DPS parent three i u provide collocated services um from mental health services within dur Public Schools uh two to three days out the week at this time and I just here to advocate for the other social workers

who are act as the liaison the supports and are in the schools on a daily basis it's without their help and support and their knowledge of the students that we serve the very necessary Mental Health Services that we provide would be impossible they are the um the experts in their schools and um the work that we've that we provide is crucial and social work is often an overlooked profession but we are able to do so many uh varied uh occupations and in so many varied settings and for social workers who desire to work in the public school system it is a hard thing um but at the same time because we're often overlooked and we're often undercompensated the same social workers who are asking for their Master's pay to um to go along with the other Master's prepared individuals with them during Public Schools if they were to come and

m. this morning stayed past dismissal until 5:15 preparing for a holiday food distribution tomorrow and drove straight here to give comment I want to thank those of you who've made time to speak with me and my colleagues in smaller settings I've shared in a previous meeting how it felt to be excluded from Master's pay even though we are paid on the certified bachelor's teachers scale

and hold Advanced certification in school social work through DPI and highly relevant master's degrees something I didn't share was how last year when I accepted the position with DPS for two months I was paid for my Advanced degree at the S level DPI shared my Advanced certification with the district and HR and payroll processed my Advanced degree it took two months for payroll to recognize the mistake one I didn't know about in October last year received an email telling me I had been overpaid owed money to DPS and my salary would be reduced due to the 2013 ruling after two weeks with zero communication I had to reach back out to ask about what the salary reduction would amount to and how much I would need to pay back I was told I would owe the overpayment by the middle of November and to stay tuned I was still not provided with an amount I was not contacted again until January 8th

at this time a payroll technician emailed to ask if she could remove the full overpayment amount from my single January 26th paycheck after the holidays they wanted to take the whole amount from my single check it still makes me so mad to think about um somewhat panicked I asked if it would be possible to create a payment plan and the technician responded saying that it would be easier to remove it in one lump amount and asked if she could remove it from my February paycheck I responded that I understood it would be easier but asked if it would be possible to split the overpayment finally she conceded taking half from my January check and half from February this was all before everything came to light about the gross mismanagement of classified staff pay last January at the time I'd felt alone it was so powerful to then be part of the our Union advocacy and celebrate the commitment to reinstate Master's pay last spring until this fall we were told we'd be ex Ed it's why I came to speak

last time then a few weeks ago an HR representative who was on the very Emil chain informing me of my overpayment and salary reduction due to the 2013 ruling last October had to apologize to the Master's level social workers after telling us that we were going to receive Master's pay because she did not understand the ruling herself and believed that we were going to be able to be paid through DPI funds the way that our finance and HR department do not understand our pay skills is unacceptable the 20 to 35 certified instructional support staff affected social anyways thank you thank you D je life ktina broswell JB Howen good evening my name is Deja fle and I am the mcken Vino social worker for dur Public Schools um I work with one of our most vulnerable populations students and their families who are experiencing homelessness who are in transition from their home I graduated

with my bachelor's degree from North Carolina Central in 2020 I graduate with my master's degree from North Carolina Central in 2021 during doing the advanced standing program in doing so I thought I would be fully compensated for my Master's Degree until I learned of the 2013 statute saying that if you did not have your degree or were taking a master's class before 2013 you would not be compensated for such which is crazy because I was in Middle School in 2013 so but anyway um at the end of last year when I first heard that we were going to receive Master's pay I was thrilled then when HR sent an email in August I allowed myself to actually believe we were finally going to be compensated and recognized for our work only to be told that we would not be receiving Master's pay after after submitting all of the information even though we are considered teachers and our contracts state that that as well then just a couple of weeks ago we were also told that we would receive the Master's pay

again but mere hours later we were informed that it was a mistake once again and it felt as my colleagues have said very disrespectful and almost a slap in the face that we are not valued as social workers we just don't hold a degree we carry a deep responsibility we are on the front lines of mental health child welfare healthare and many other vital areas providing essential services to individuals and families fa facing their most difficult times we help people by navigating crisises overcoming trauma and building better Futures by earning our master's degree we gain specialized Knowledge and Skills to guide people through complex situations and challenging circumstances a master's degree is an investment in our profession and in ourselves yet despite this Advanced Training many social workers remain underpaid for the expertise that we bring to our roles it's time that we bridge the gap between the work we do and the compensation we receive we are not asking for an expansion of Master's pay we are simply asking for you to keep your word correct

the mistake and fully reinstate Master's pay thank you good evening good evening my name is ktina brazwell and I am the elementary school social work during Public Schools I'm actually at two schools um I am a licensed clinical social worker and I have been a licensed CL clinical social worker since 2006 I came to Duran public schools in 2010 um I've been a social worker for many years I've had over 20 years of experience and my first role in during Public Schools I was a school Social Work liaison I was supervising a t of TW a team of 12 individuals who worked in uh did Behavior Support throughout the district when I decided to come into the school as a school social worker initially I was not paid at my Master's

Degree although I had been working in their Public Schools since 2010 the change when I came to school social work was 20 2015 when I submitted all of my paperwork again and HR went through all my years they qualified me as a master social worker and then I was able to receive compensation and I'm here to support my colleagues I cannot imagine going to school working hard getting all those skills to be a school a Master Level School social worker and then to be compensated at a bachelor level I'm here to support them and I'm here to ConEd the rest of my time to JB Howen good evening board members I'm a little under the weather that's why I'm wearing a face mask um good evening board members and Dr Lewis so uh my name is JB

Howen I the school social worker at Carrington Middle School uh I first of all want to just say thank you to each and every one of you that have had conversations with me over these past few weeks uh those conversations have meant a lot uh thank you for hearing us out and just having those conversations with us um tonight there's going to be a presentation about the budget impact of local Masters pay um I've already looked at the prepared slides that were posted on the board of education website and I had some concerns that I did want to bring to your attention about those slides um I have them printed here on slide number two it shows base salaries for classroom teachers and non-teaching certified roles I think this slide is pretty misleading because it makes it seem that off offering Master's pay to school social workers and other instructional support staff would come with a higher price tag I want you to please remember that certified classroom

teachers and certified instructional support staff have the same salary schedule okay on Slide Five I find it very problematic that the language of expanding Master's pay was used we don't believe that we are asking we don't believe that what we're asking for is an expansion we believe that what we are asking for is simply to fulfill a promise that was made to us in the spring semester the wording on Slide Five also states that school social workers and other support staff are currently not eligible for Master's pay I find this statement concerning also because this was never decided upon by you the Board of Education this seems to have been a decision that was made arbitrarily by the HR department away from the eyes of the public and it feels divisive and it feels unfair to my colleagues and

I I am truly afraid that if Master's pay is not approved for school social workers and other support staff soon you will have staff members leaving DPS for other nearby school districts I already have some colleagues who have told me that if this is not passed before winter break they will be leaving for job openings in Wake County Public Schools which do offer which does offer Master's level pay please remember the invaluable the invaluable work of us School social workers this the work that we do on a daily basis um as many of my colleagues have already stated we provide in-depth case management to students with complex mental health concerns and to families who are struggling with housing insecurity unemployment and a host of systemic barriers we manage our schools mckenny vento and collocated mental health programs to ensure that kids have access to mental health housing and basic need

resources we work with numerous Community Partners and agencies to ensure our kids have access to the best resources that Durham County has to offer we do all this but in our opinion this DEC decision to exclude us from Master's Pace sends a clear message that we are not as valued as our classroom based teachers if DPS truly stands for Equity please ensure that our staff members who work with some of our most vulnerable students and families are compensated fairly finally I want to reemphasize the same statement that many of my colleagues have stated today we are not asking for an expansion of Master's pay we are simply asking that you keep your word correct this mistake and fully reinstate Master's level pay once again I thank you very much all of y'all for your time and thank you for hearing us

out okay okay next up is sha Jones followed by Jenna Crowther then David kleene okay good evening to the board Dr Lewis I'm Shawn Jones I am a proud parent of two Jordan Falcons alen dashel and I also have a DSA Knight who uh made her basketball team today n Nea so hey for you uh in my day job I am the senior Southern Regional Manager for Highland electric fleets so we partner with uh dorm Public Schools last year uh to uh really uh Electrify your transportation and so we have a contract ahead of uh dorm right now to really think about the future so I have some notes I definitely wanted to get in record with you all

excuse me f the cold so as we are dealing with our current driver shortage we have to also think about what's happening on the federal level as we're starting to do this transition um Highland has been working with 60 different districts across the us and we're seeing that the funding that will be available for the grants that you all have may be going away and so we really want to make sure that you start thinking about what is the plan to move forward after we figure out about the current Transportation issues what are we going to do in the future um as I mentioned DPS has this award with high where you were a partner uh we had uh 11 districts that we partner with to secure 97 buses from the EPA as part of $350 million that our organization has been able to secure and with that we also partner with uh Charlotte mecklinburg School District um Kip Halifax Kip Durham um and all of those schools have

actually decided to U engage in in projects with us and so we want you all to start really thinking about well how do we make sure that our district my district is actually to be able to participate in those same uh type of opportunities um there's also um an agreement um a grant you all have with Carolina Thomas want to make sure that we start thinking about how do we make sure that our students are going to have the safe reliable transportation that they need and really to help with their uh clean air saw the sunrise movement students here we are also part of that movement just to really make sure that we're thinking about the future uh the best course of action that we're recommending to all of our districts now and I made it a point to really come today because I know there's going to be a transportation update today you should really consider what you want to do with the grants that you have they may not be fully funded coming future we all know kind of how

everything is going and I really want you all to start thinking about that as I mentioned our other partners uh Kip Durham right up the street here as well as Kip Halifax they signed with us this summer they will actually have infrastructure deployed in q1 of 2025 and they will have buses that are operational by the summer of 2025 so really want to make sure you think about that as well thank you in a Crowther David Klein Kelly Riley good evening Jenna Crower I'm here to discuss the transportation crisis that continues to impact my school Community Lakewood Elementary and provide a few requests for you all as you receive the transportation update later this evening Lakewood has one bus that has been cancelled or significantly delayed 17

times this month there have only been 12 school days so far this month meaning this route has been cancelled once or twice a day every school day this month while not an ideal solution I would encourage you to approve a rotational busing schedule this evening such a schedule would allow our school Community to more proactively organize to fill the gaps caused by the crisis and reduce the hours of drive time our principal and assistant principal are spending each day and I didn't have this written into my comments but those people are truly doing miraculous work and I know it's happening across our schools second if walk zones remain a possible option I urge you all to please make a final decision on these tonight walk zones will create a new impacted population and in speaking with our school administration team will likely require more sustained engagement to

m. end quote thank you thank you B Clan Kelly Riley Rebecca McDonald hello again everybody um my name is David Klein my parent at po last week I offered my time and my wife can I ask you to adjust the mic a little

closer please perfect thank you okay good you'll give me 10 extra seconds if I need okay thank you um last week I offered my time and my wife's time to help families in need get kids to and from school when buses are cancelled we've since started organizing that effort at the Grassroots and will continue to do so but we and our buring network of parents cannot solve this problem completely or permanently there are still issues you've heard much more about it tonight and I now read excerpts from an email from my my wife who went to a Spanish speaking DPS event to get the word out about our efforts to help this is 100% inequity issue I went to a Spanish language DPS event on Friday evening and many were concerned one woman I spoke to said she spends $90 a week on Ubers at a Spanish-speaking DPS event another said her daughter and she

are suffering from the Unknowing in fact asked if I could drive her to school every day until the bus issues settled down just so she knows she has a ride this is truly a DPS board ofed issue and needs to be treated as the crisis it is I shared with some folks that during covid Governor Cuomo was on TV every night explaining what was happening what we still didn't know and what we could expect tomorrow that's the standard I would like to hold DPS Board of Ed to on this issue far too much opacity and hand waving and looking into what kids can't get to school end quote in closing I would like to offer help I'm a Problem Solver by profession it's what I get paid to do I've recruited a small group of professional

problem solvers and we're ready to help you pro bono solve the bus issue permanently and completely the service DPS provides is invaluable and the emergency nature of the bus issue is clear let us help we're available tomorrow to get started thank you thank you Kelly Riley Rebecca McDonald and Eric green hi my name can you hear me my name is Kelly Riley I have two students at DS um and I was a North Carolina public school teacher for 13 years um so I'm here tonight to talk about the bus crisis um and again kind of reiterate some points that have already been made tonight one it does need to be treated as a crisis just like covid people need to be reallocated in their current positions

to focus on the bus crisis um if kids can't get to school can't do any of the other things that you want them to achieve um for my students is actually getting home that's the biggest problem um like someone else just mentioned here my day job is working on continuous Improvement so I have a few ideas um one you talk to stakeholders who have a similar problem and get good ideas we know this is a national crisis other districts and schools have made improvements in the area um just like the listening tour that you've done done um Dr Lewis I suggest you do the same thing um in Reverse so please start calling other districts about their bus crises and what they've been doing to get ideas um if you've been doing some of that already you need to communicate it to us um because the newsletters and things that we get are just basically being you know we're basically being told it's a problem we already know it's a problem number two thank you for your patience and understanding the problem

is we don't need to be thanked for that CU we don't have patience anymore and we don't have understanding anymore um so what I would like to hear in your Communications is what you're doing about it um and I don't even care if you've tried things and you've failed tell us that we've tried this it didn't work and now we're on to you know solution Y and Z because X didn't work um but it feels like nothing is being done um why it feels like nothing is being done is because when I call um and tell about the problems at Creek Creekside um and suggest you know can you rotate the buses because one bus in particular is not run for several days for three weeks in a row While others don't seem to be affected as much I was told well we do Implement that well you're not at Creekside I have the data to tell you so obviously your own bus transportation is not aware of what's happening at each School each day so another thing you need to do is keep

data you need data a data plan at every single School what's happening with every bus to and from every day other people have already told you tonight some buses are affected more than others do something about that some of them have worse patient populations um that are being affected more so what are you going to do for that particular bus continuous Improvement means you try one thing off for one bus or one school if it works you have try it at another school but to just say it's too big of a problem we can't do anything isn't helpful thank you Rebecca McDonald Eric green hi everyone I'm Rebecca McDonald I have a son at Creekside Elementary and I'm here to express my concern and hopefully offer some ideas for Solutions um for the bus driver shortage crisis um as mentioned I've

also tried to call and get data um from the transportation department and couldn't um so we've been getting the data ourselves from SMS alerts Creekside buses have been canceled 53 times and delayed 24 times this school year on average for the six buses that serve Creekside the um disruption is about 25% of the time but that goes up to 43% of the time for minority and lower income students so it's disproportionate and there's only been three days this year where all six buses ran without issue that's a 6% success rate um and I say this just because I everyone's aware that there's a problem but I think it helps to see the numbers to see is this a crisis is this you know a small problem I I feel like it's a crisis um and what's also hard is the Creekside staff have to stay up to 3 hours after the end of the school day to watch kids whose parents can't come at a moment's notice that happen

65% of the school days so far um I I'm worried we're going to lose more members of our incredible staff if we don't find a solution I wanted to thank each and every one of you because I know you have been thinking about this problem and I do hear of steps towards long-term Solutions um coming up with a regular schedule which routes will operate on which day would be incredibly helpful to spread it out and ensure that no one not one school or one route is um struggling and I would also appreciate prioritizing exceptional children and those who are um from displaced housing the mckin vento students in addition I would ask you to consider a few other potential Solutions um in the continued Spirit of equity um I think it's important that the district prioritize lower income students and lower performing schools and for elementary schools such as Creekside um there needs to be a coverage plan so that

non-school-based staff is there in sharing the responsibility for late supervision for students who are waiting for transportation um and then the last thing is consider including principles in your problem solving meetings because they your your eyes and ears on the ground and um I think they bring some good things to the table and I just wanted to conclude and say as a parent I deeply I deeply appreciate the efforts um that you all are putting towards solving this but I know that we can do better for our kids um this is an extremely urgent issue impacting our school's ability to provide Equitable access to education thank you for your time and your consideration thank you you green hi I'm Eric I'm a parent of uh two kids at Creekside like to thank you all for your efforts to try to resolve this um bus issue it's been a lot for parents and School staff and we surveyed our

community and heard from many who were struggling some are coping by paying for extra transportation and child care others have shifted their work schedule some to the overnight shift uh just because the uncertainty of the afternoons uh just today I got a call at work that uh Annie was asked to get off the bus because there weren't enough seats she's in first grade so I had to leave work and that's okay I have flexib job I was able to do that um but to go over and get her U because there weren't enough uh seats today you know this is exhausting for parents but also School staff what concerns me the most is seems like Crisis is becoming more of a norm than I think anybody would like we just lost two second grade teachers due to District issues and you know those effects are felt throughout the school Annie's class just welcomed a few more members from that class because from another class in first grade because their teacher is now a

second grade teacher right so staff retention from all the speakers tonight seems like such a priority issue and it's creating so much uh uncertainty you it really seems like the bus driver shortage which is the first thing I became aware of is really a symptom of something bigger that's a challenge here and um my request is that you really work creatively with the school staff because they're overburdened and you know Creekside in particular is in a hole academically and I just don't see how we're going to get out of that hole if our administrators are spending every day focusing on a a bus crisis a teacher shortage they need to be focused on how we're going to bring up our academics and better support our students they're really good folks and I just want to go back and clarify for Annie I'm I'm glad they pulled her off the bus and not another kid who is going to have a harder time getting home I think they

make the right calls but they need more support on a daily basis from from the administration so thank you for your time thank you thank you to everyone who came and offered public comment tonight and sat with us in the dark uh we appreciate your commitment to uh sharing your thoughts with us Miss Carter Aden I'd like to make a motion um that we reconsider the removal of Master's pay from the agenda this evening second it's been moved by Miss Carda-Auten second dat by Miss Chavez to reconsider removal of the Master's pay presentation this evening is there any discussion Miss

Umstead and and by reconsider Miss Carter a are you asking to put it back on the agenda I think that should be considered given that we I mean it's getting hot in here get very warm but um given that we now have interpretation services that we did not have before we um when we first revised the agenda which was one of the main reasons we revised it and um given the public comments we heard this evening it feels important to me so I wanted to see if there's an appetite for that Miss Beyer I I appreciate that we made um in this strange emergency of half power and no air conditioning and no knowledge of WEA Power is coming back um space for public comment I do think that we have um identified a time to to give this more thorough um discussion and and more attention and um I think the slides and

the information is out for the public but I don't see that there's decision or or um votes to take tonight so um I would still be in favor of of leaving the agenda as it is and um yeah I think that's what I would say tonight and I I'm so appreciative of of the folks that have come to speak this evening and um their willingness to to organize and be here with us colleagues any further discussion all those in favor of reconsidering the amendment please say I I and I vot I all those opposed please use the same sign at this time no okay uh the motion to reconsider Master's pay

passes um 61 and so we'll add it after the transportation section you still need I'm sorry you still need a motion to add to put it back on now though okay I'm sorry I move that we put the Master's pay agenda back on the agenda where it was second it's been moved by Miss SP to put the Master's pay back on the agenda where it was originally seconded by Miss Chavez all those in favor please say I I I all oppos please use the same sign passes unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda is the

consent agenda items move approval of the consent agenda items a b c e and f second it's been moved by Miss SP seconded by Miss Carter uton to approve the consent agenda items as amended is there any further discussion all those in favor say [Music] I I'll oppose say no it passes unanimously thank you uh Dr LS Transportation update I'm sorry Dr web Transportation I said I was gon to Remember by Wednesday I didn't Dr web welcome thank you very much and thank you madam chair Madam chair board members uh Dr Lewis uh we had a a we're going to present an amended presentation

to you tonight I apologize we were had had a presentation that spoke of all of our initiatives that will take us through January but due to our present conditions uh we are going to ask Mr Matthew Palmer to come forward and and speak to you specifically about the shared responsibility buses uh bus riding uh and he will tell you but I'll give you a heads up that the timeline of this is um after this evening's disc discussion decision uh we are prepared to move forward communication to parents and uh Matthew will tell you when everything will get started so Mr Palmer if you you could join us please we'd love to have you I apologize I would be remiss several several of our transportation team members are here as well to provide

support and further information if needed so Mr palman thank you Dr web good evening chair Rogers superintendent Lewis members of the board and the Durham community um we have a sort of an abbreviated presentation this evening and I would ask if we could pull up the slides for the board packet with me this evening as well as Miss Tammy Phillips operations manager here in transportation um Tammy has been working with our team directly with me on the rotational coverage plan and we'll get into some of those details tonight um let me open by saying in what's that be okay Madame chair we did we lose we lost the uh air conditioning with the power outages so those windows may be open to keep it from being stuffy in

here these are request to open more ma'am um the presentation that we have prepared this evening is a is a total of 21 slides um we are going to focus primarily on the immediate action steps that are within our control within transportation and that has to do with our day-to-day service plan and coverage there are additional opportunities for the board and the administration to support transportation we will I believe be coming back to go deeper into those options and choices ahead for us as a community so with that let me name that this is not any easy time for transportation this is not an easy time for DPS we are all on the team together next slide please we are going to focus on a particular solution that is for immediate action um we want to make sure that we are comprehensive um in our communication and awareness with the public with parents administrators

schools and our staff and bus drivers we'll review at a high level kind of where we're at with our recommendations and then answer any immediate questions you may have next slide please next slide okay so as I referenced tonight uh we've been asked to particularly focus on phase one for implementation starting December 2nd 2024 when we met last two weeks ago we discussed rotational coverage and the opportunities to ensure that the shortages that we have from a staffing and service level are a shared Community opportunity to provide transportation service to All Families we'll go into that tonight we will be back to to talk in more depth about phases two and three that has to do with managing our ridership and routing as well as our overall Workforce Development intentionality next slide please next slide one more

please thank you um so with that for phase one the rotational coverage plan um we can go to the next slide so presently we have 17 buses that on a daily basis we do not have a dedicated driver for that is a consistent level of coverage that is a gap that is an issue we hear you hear we talk about what those buses are what those bus numbers are the challenge point is that when we look at the constructs of equity and shared accountability opportunity we are intentional about saying with the limited resources that we have we have a chance to distribute that shortage across and make sure that the resources that we have are shared amongst all DPS families Scholars and students um when we talk about a shared solution for all what we are saying here is that we have enough bus drivers that on any given day if we hold back a set number of bus

routes so on Monday There's 25 bus routes that won't be carried a different set on Tuesday a different set on Wednesday there Thursday and Friday holding back those bus routes allows us to number one ensure that every designated EC bus runs and operates number two that as we have the shortage of drivers that we do that we have staffed positions in the seats of buses and what we heard tonight and I think what we hear often every day Miss Phillips talks to no less than 20 parents a day is the predictability and advanced notification of am I going to have bus service on on this particular day that's Paramount for families to be able to plan their lives we hear that we receive that and we want that same thing for everyone where we are trying to get I never want to take my eye off the ball and the prize is to get every kid to school on time on a consistent basis that is the long-term goal for all of us for the other things that we want to do what we need right now is a few weeks to

be able to do the actual routing the route updates the ridership updates the optimization and quite frankly to take the recent ridership updates that we've received from our bus drivers we talked about that two weeks ago we now have that information and Miss fullwood is matriculating that in working with our data managers and power school on how many riders we actually have but it's going to take us the bulk of December to fix the routes if you will what we need then and what we're proposing to work with our school leaders on parents on and the community on to saying of the resources that we have we're going to ask each each requested family in DPS that has asked for bus service for one day a week for three total weeks so for three days please find an alternative means to arrive at school for that one day so we have worked with public affairs on this we have worked with school leaders on this we have worked with our bus drivers we brought all of our bus drivers together to review what this would mean not just from a service side but a Workforce demand labor side

as well um this is going to take all of us to do what it does allow us to do is ensure that we are able to provide families coverage if we have 5 days in a week we can give you a bus ride four consistent days the day that we cannot we will let you know that in advance and that is ready for publishing and public consumption so we've been working with public affairs on that this is in total across three tiers and again we carry 165 routes so do the multiplying out you'll remember we're in the 800s as far as the total number of routes we're trying to simplify what is very complex and make it accessible digestible for families to know what does this mean for me and my child what it would mean is and I'm going to use a scenario here if I ride bus 100 we're going to ask you for the next three Mondays starting after the Thanksgiving break but those three Mondays if you can find another alternative means we are not going to run buses on that Monday but Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday we have you and we can ensure proactive

communication and predictability Miss Phillips is here with me as well part of what I want to say here while I just have this moment is that the third Point here the communication and the trust building between stakeholders is Paramount we want our kids to get to school in the worst possible ways what that has also meant is that we're trying everything that we can and sometimes trying so hard that there's no one to answer the phones and there's no one to fix the bus routes this gives us that time to ensure that people are in their positions to do the Deep work we need to do to get it right when we come back after the holiday in the new year so with that I'm sure you have some questions we're here to answer those the remainder of the slides we are going to be coming back on very shortly to go into phase two and three as far as what we get on the other side of this this is a very temporary tactical patch that gives us the time for longer term Solutions with that I'll ask to go to the next slides and you can cycle through to the

end here we have a disc question slide and we'll remain for any clarifying questions y you can keep going through the other slides thank you bye you're fine thank you very much for that presentation colleagues um initial questions yes Madam chair I do apologize U we wanted to point point out uh we also uh have considered the absence recording uh for students who Miss because of buses and we have had extensive conversation with cabinet and with our uh building level administrators and we've we've initiated a new level of coding so that if a child misses school is late to school if there's any attendance issue we have a special area of coding and we're going to move backwards in time and and try to

work with our data managers so that our children don't suffer as a result of missing bus not having a bus or those types of things so that's part of this as well and uh that information is is is going to be disseminated as well to it's already been disseminated to our principles my apologies thank you Miss Chavez I'm going to keep this short thank you that it actually addressed one of my questions the remaining my question most of them I'm going to save for when we do a deeper dive on December 2nd um I just want to ask in the rotational coverage will is there any way to ensure that the the buses that we heard about today that haven't where kids are not going to school for two weeks can they run every day the answer is no then that's okay but I just um is I'm just thinking about

kind of over over comp or like compensating for that loss of time and if I may Mr Palmer yes ma'am we discussed that and it it uh we decided to to to approach it from us every bus to to try to to give us as broad of coverage as we could because if that bus and and yes they we'd love to be able to say here's five days for but the the planning level of that is just incredible um the this consistent uh this is a short-term fix anyway so we're going from zero potentially zero days of coverage to four so in an effort to try to be as Equitable as possible to everyone uh we did not pursue that that option at this point all right we're gonna move right down the line that's okay Mr tab carteron we go to miss sper miss her go Miss

said oh thank you thank you madam chair um questions about the um rotation I know that concern is for those um students who've been getting buses now they may fall into that their buses are not coming is that what I'm hearing with the rotation so to be clarify if we were to work walk out a student that has been riding bus 100 and that bus has a dedic at consistent driver M we're going to ask that driver as well as those students for one day a week for those three weeks that we're not going to carry that route as scheduled normal and that driver will effectively serve as a substitute driver for the buses that don't have dedicated drivers that is how we're balancing that out so yes to your question if we have a route that has been consistently carried this is going to be a different level of service for those three weeks for families and have we um expressed that to families where if that's going to happen those families that can take their children to school

would that be a better option if they know what the date is and when that's going to happen that that is the intent yeah I just wanted to be on record thank you Miss Carda-Auten um I was wondering thank you Mr Palmer um what kind of uh support can we can be provided to schools for the next few weeks as we heard tonight in public comment and we've been receiving email messages about I'm sure you've heard about this not having buses placing a burden on our school staff so is there anything that yall have been discussing or that's been discussed in cabinet around how to support the school staff for those you know if it's going to be because now we're as we just noted there's now going to be um students that had five day a week bus

coverage and now they're not going to be having it for one day and then there's still going to be the students that haven't had it and they're still going to not have it for the one day so they're still going to be hanging out at school waiting for a ride for hours well our administrators hang with them so what can we do to support them and what's been discussed along those lines and if I may thank you um car Al we did discuss this um in cabinet and we also when we met with all of our principles yesterday in a mass Zoom call there was discussion of some potential ideas um no action taken at this time but the the there was some internal brainstorming of how this school would handle it how this school would handle it hey I think I can do this this kind of thing uh it it does it is a shared responsibility is a shared burden and again hopefully temporary uh where going through December 20th so um the principles had had some discussion on that yesterday

and again we offered some some some guidance as well okay thank you yes ma'am um other questions are um just following up on some other things that we like some of thinking about this as a crisis and an urgent need I'm excited to hear about the more longer term um Solutions coming in a couple of weeks but wanted to follow up on if if we could hear anything about hiring training updates that like just a maybe a sentence or two if sure yeah we um actually just yesterday I mean Monday our next round of classroom training uh for drivers in the cube we've got as you can see in the board packet um we've got quite a few folks in durm that want to join us in bus driving we continue to work with DMV on those bottlenecks particularly the last steps when it comes to Road testing and the actual issuance of the license

itself so as I'll just point to the board packet itself in our Workforce Development planning much of those Investments that we've done within Transportation or bearing fruit as far as supporting our drivers that want to come with us it is those DMV bottlenecks and that is no excuse that is just merely a reality of how quickly can we bring in more of our as we take on the behind the wheel training that frees up DMV to do more of the testing and so when you see on that slide there is a slide there that shows you know we've got six folks that are that are just about ready to join our Fleet all of these deposits are going to help us um what I would also add to that is you can see in that slide as well and you you asked for a few sentences I realize that and it's a big topic and we care a lot um the the Journey To Go from interested in driving to driving behind the wheel for DPS is a journey that is 35 steps long we have found some Innovative

shortcuts we are taking a leadership in the state to accelerate that but it is still a process that there are steps we cannot skip yeah um thank you and we had also talked about those that are already on our staff who are already CDL holders and I'm wondering how conversations are going with them or what how conversations are going amongst all about the possibility of having some of them Drive temporarily while we're in crisis mode yes ma'am great question um so that is one of our topics for future discussion the team has been focused on really the uh rotational coverage the um the next two options that we the other two options that we'll be sharing with you turning the lights on we've been working on that um and so that is a topic for future discussion um one thing that I did want to point out too the board asked previously to put out a message to

see if parents could accommodate by if you can if you can accommodate and help with taking your child off the bus temporarily transport your child please do so and let us know the last number I got that after that message did go out and uh I believe there are my last uh last number that I saw and it could be up or down this we had 11 families say we can help we'll take her so that's working on that same number on the both ends but as far as the the staff members um we've not pursued that yet nice go follow up on that yep that's 11 was reported I made a request personally how do parents know if that was actively done I'm like if they lost their bus stop right were actively removed because you're stating 11 I'm still getting the notifications

from edog can we ask a question absolutely so it is imperative the flow with data itself comes from Power School into our Tim's bus routing database if you will did you make the requests at the school level or with the email said to contact the data manager okay and I emailed who I think might be the data manager but I have no idea if they're still the data manager for the school yes ma'am and um as as our staff is is processing that that would be updated in edulog but uh to that answer I I need to get more information on that to fully answer your question I'll do that I'm not sure that we need it so much as it needs to go absolutely fair enough about who to contact does that make sense yes man thank you I also I

wonder I saw the 11 in the material responses that you sent us via email and my thought was I mean maybe that's just maybe there's just 11 parents who are able to opt out but I wonder if it's more about the communication about it and the uh Logistics than it is about there being only a few so just something to um consider about how that message is going out and how TR challenging it is to um to opt out um but just to follow up on your thanks for the um response about the CDL holders that are currently on staff that does feel like a um something we could be doing with more urgency since the to address the Urgent situation now in addition to planning for long term but thank you thank you Miss buer want to thank the um public speakers that came to share with us tonight I think it is um fair to say that this district and our leadership team and this board share um an understanding

that this is a crisis for our community and um we are focused on on any ways and creative ways that we can solve this together with our community so um I um appreciate the complex of the work that you all are doing for this rotational coverage I know that it is an incredibly um difficult puzzle to piece together and it is an extra ask for our drivers to to learn routes that they are not familiar with and students that they don't have built relationships with and I want to appreciate the ways that they are stepping up for us again and again um and we've had um folks call on us to ask our central office office staff and and folks that aren't assigned at the school level specifically to call for those folks that have CDLs and put them on routes quickly I personally would be in favor of some acceleration of making sure that everyone that doesn't have

direct student responsibilities but does possess a CDL could join us in that I think it shows the kind of leadership that we want to reflect um to the community um and when we're saying in here that we prioritize EC designated routes and um mckin vento students is that that we are planning for 100% coverage correct I just want to affirm and confirm that um and I appreciate that this option is here um through December 20th and I want to be realistic that it may go into the new year in my um in my bra way of processing and thinking I I think it may be a bridge but it may need to be a longer bridge and if we can be honest with families that that may be um something that we need to continue I think families will appreciate at least having that information as as soon as we can get that to them um can you speak Mr Palmer

to um some of the emails folks um track the bus movements on their phones and on their apps and think that things don't make sense and they they they interpret you know mismanagement and and bad routing um can you speak to some of the things that they might see that are actually safety um decisions that we've made about where we put stops and things like that that that might not always um look logical when you're tracking a bus on an app is that you know some of the guidelines for safety that you all do use in planning routes I I can speak at a high level um and I I understand at times if and you know many of us are parents many of us are looking at the same resources that it may look a logical um for example and I'll walk at a hypothetical with you is a one of the routing techniques that we have is called a it's a it's actually called the

stick and lollipop right you go out and you get your furthest away students first oftentimes in a neighborhood that might be five or 10 miles away from the school itself and in doing so you're passing other students but you're getting them on the return leg back to the school itself to minimize the amount of time that students are on the bus there are many instances with that and um I would add that our routes are not perfect we worked feverishly um as a community to assign students to buses we've we've talked about the history of that I won't go into it right now I will just simply say this month of December and I'm will go shorter than that this time window that we're in right now now miss wood is also here with us tonight and we are laser locked on the two inputs ridership updates and those are improving as families are calling in making additional efforts to say I may not need that bus if we can manage our ridership on one level and at the same time be as

efficient as possible with our routing right and I'm saying that out of forgive me but the not just the existing routes as they are designed we cannot that is in our work work it is Perpetual work until the last day of school we're continuing to optimize and improve our rap designs but we also start on those WAP designs the year prior to we started in 23 24 getting ready for the 2425 school year this time last year we were doing bus stop reviews and bus stop consolidation to emphasize pedestrian safety for our kids we've been trying to be very intentional about putting bus stops where kids can get to them um now as I as I will say and I I must continue to say and and own it for the entire group our rats are not perfect our stops are not perfect and we have work to do and the many of the folks that are doing the work that need to do the work if they're out driving buses because of our shortage that is creating a Perpetual problem and if I may add Miss Beyer many

of the routes uh and the the methods for routing are done through the Tims process which is set up by the state the link between Buck Dr web can I ask you to just your mic just a little closer thank you I'm not I'm not accustomed to people wanting to hear me speak so thank you madam chair um so Miss B many of in addition to what Mr Palmer shared um the routing is Guided by Tims of this the the system that we use from the state and the the guidance for where the stops are is given to us the length between stops so um it's not door too certainly is it's utilizing those but but I can tell you this is day four and I've already been a part of two different conversations about changing routes to meet the needs of our students so to M Mr Palmer's point it is a work in progress and it never stops thank you I I will say that you know as we consider this and other um difficult decisions for this

board we do share your your need to to get us back to 100% coverage and with extra substitutes and um prevent this problem going forward um but I I appreciate making hard decisions um and communicating this information to our families so that we can um reduce the the impact that has been disperate across the community thank you miss her gof thank you um all of the questions have come down and so I've had an opportunity like to to try to tweak but um Miss buer has touched on this about the potential of coverage being extended into um this the the 3- we the um rotational coverage extending into January after break [Music] um what is the likelihood that that could happen what what would cause us to

um like what what is next steps after the three weeks I know that'll be a later conversation but um and so that's the first part and the second part is Will Communications roll out about rotational coverage like after this meeting so that families can begin to and communities can begin to have time to organize around the day that they're not going to have coverage I think a lot of families are anxious to begin that organization that organizing for coverage thank you let me start with the second part of your question Miss Miss Cooper I think you can help us with a timeline on the notification good evening everyone um yes we are prepared to begin sharing communication with families tomorrow we have developed a comprehensive communication plan that um not only starts at the district level but is filtered down to the school level with messaging that our principls can share we even have little postcards that

we're going to print and make sure our bus drivers can pass them out to kids next week as they um get on and off their buses to make sure their parents get that information we will be communicating with our families throughout the Thanksgiving break to ensure that when they come back on December 2nd they are aware of the rotational schedule and the day in which it will impact their family and they will be responsible for getting their students to and from school the showcases we do have our Showcase of schools this Saturday plug plug um we certainly welcome all of our families to attend and we can ensure that we have additional information on hand for families at that event as well thank you ma'am and the answer to your question is uh I think possibly the best the best answer we can give you is we we sincerely hope that this is a short-term fix but to your point um Mr Palmer mentioned that during that

time the transportation part department specifically the routers are not sitting idle they're moving trying to accommodate that the post December 20 world and and between all of the efforts and then uh clearing up the number of actual Riders the actual needs make sure we have maximum use of our our bus space not overcrowded but make sure we're not undercrowl will be enough if that changes that process will drive that decision and we'll bring that back to Cabinet to discuss and then we'll bring it back to the board right thank you yes ma'am misset happy to go I didn't know if there's any other comments on off be

good all right um thank y'all for the presentation and kind of this immediate next steps I think that's really helpful three December dates having cards for the buses and multiple means of communication I think that's really good so we can get that out there um early so families that can plan ahead I think one of the things um and I'm also glad to hear about the different coding for attendance um at some point I'm curious to know how much instructional time was missed um and by who uh from this that's a different convers ation I think for a different day I think one thing I just want to add for future presentations um these are like immediate fixes but there are other I feel like immediate fixes that I just want to make sure we're moving and having traction on and so thinking about you know you mentioned this Mr Palmer many of the folks who are responsible for the routing and answering the phones are driving the buses and we need temp workers or temp folks for the next two

weeks so that we can make sure this is straight and make sure whatever the excuse me next plan in January is a straight like I would want us to start implementing that soon and if it's happening then maybe that also just needs to be in the slides here's what we are here's what we did this week we hired back temp workers for this to make sure we have time for that I just think again you know some of our public speakers name this but I think it's important for the public to know all the different pieces that are going into this um I think a little bit too about um the recruitment efforts where for people who already have cd and I don't know if we've done some I know there's a longer process for you to get a CDL to become a bus driver if I already have a CDL and I'm like I can sub is that a shorter process I'm gonna assume yes but can you tell me maybe is that how long might that take for you to get on boarded and ready to drive and um because we have her in the room and she is an expert I'm actually going to

ask Miss Phillips to join me on that one um and I name it because Tammy has been one of the bedrocks of transportation and works consistently with that driver LIC here good evening everyone um and yes that process is a little shorter if you have a CDL um and you are hired in the district um you don't have to go through the background and and so forth but you do still have to go through the drug testing you still have to uh have your DOT physical if that is not up to date or a pocket card is not up to date um it could be a matter of a month maybe less depending on that endorsement that you have or don't have or that do that you do or do not have I appreciate that that's really helpful um because it it just makes me wonder who already has a CDL that might can get in the pipeline in the next two weeks who will be ready to drive in January and so I'm you know wondering about have we talked to the city or go triangle bus drivers who might want to

drive or Duke or whoever that could pick up extra routes and if that's happened please let me know but I think having more of that communication again out because those feel like some immediate steps to help relieve some where we are I see some head and not so please yeah yeah I believe the part of the problem is is that you have folks with the CDL they have them um and what I have found and when I get the calls is that they have um dropped that P endorsement or they've Dro that s endorsement and they have one or the other or they've let their dot lapse and so yes they may have that CDL but they're not actually can go on a bus today so we are working to try to get some help from that end yeah and I think as much communication about that as possible is just helpful for I think for me as a board member I'll say maybe also for my colleagues but for the public to know this many calls this many folks that kind of thing um and then I also just want to highlight sorry none of these

things are in the presentation but there's things I'm curious about is Improvement to parent communication I think the plan that was laid out around the rotational coverage was really good but we talked previously about when buses aren't coming and parents are getting that message in the middle of the day how do we make sure that message is succinct it's clear across the district there's some you know some care with that message that gets sent out because I know there's some we've seen variety this going out is there any movement on that part there has there has and I want to thank Miss Cooper in public affairs we have a Communications template that we've been working between our area staff Miss Phillips as a veteran of our area leadership team is working with our area managers on how we communicate to parents that consistency is important not just from the timeliness but the content um and I and I will name again that um it is there is so much that we are aware of that occurs when we can't carry

a bus route that at times that communication comes out late or it comes out in a fury and it is because it's a last minute notification the dead driver isn't able to come in for that shift and so sometimes what we see on the communication side is also a function of we're trying so hard to not cancel a route or not carry a route that it comes across as delayed so those standards the template that we're working with public affairs and our area staff on you know we want to be clear and concise and at times you know I'm sure you're aware that we can send contradictory messages because we're trying to be as communicative in real time with our parents as possible but that that can lead to inconsistencies in communication we're aware and we're working on it awesome thank you one last question I think um in the rotational coverage we do believe we're going to be able to cover more routes is it still a possibility that routes could be

cancelled will we have enough drivers that it's pretty sure between subs and other folks that every that and I don't want to commit to 100% because we know things could happen but do you feel better about more routes being covered or do we still feel like you know with even in the rotation you might have multiple buses not showing up one day right forward question I'll try very hard to be straightforward to the answer the intent for us number one is our EC designated buses that we are committing to saying they get carried 100% with the rotational coverage then for our traditional buses what that does do now is for the first time this year we will have actual Subs that if you know if there are two drivers that are out that day that is braided into our flexibility we're coming into the holidays we're coming into a time when folks are getting sick our bus drivers have high exposure to all children most drivers are in contact with 300 children a day so I named that out of the

vocation itself is going to be a high-risk position um we are hopeful we are excited about the fact that this will amp up our ability to hold the commitment to expectations we've communicated to parents and we have to be realistic that there may be a route that we can't carry but what we are also learning from this is the proactivity and communication when we know as soon as we know we have to make sure folks know so they can plan their lives according to so the two comments go hand in hand the communication along with the predictability thank you I appreciate that and sorry I take it back I still I have one more because what you were sharing uh brought another question for me um just thinking ahead a little bit into what we need to be able to communicate with families you know what do we anticipate in January and when do you need kind of board movement to be ready to communicate that especially considering

we have you know winter break coming up are we talking January 2nd or are we talking the semester shifting that we might see more changes I just I feel like we're almost there so how do we go ahead and anticipate what might be coming in January sure and I think we have to take tonight's developments and stride as we've learned to do in these times um the topics for board action will influence the updates and maintenance that we're looking at right now miss food would would tell you that our updates to the routes will be impacted by other features that are under consideration for phase two some of those are board actions that we cannot take in isolation so the sooner we have Clarity on those other steps and those other options that will amp up our ability to be cleare eyed about what January looks like and how I would name that I know that we're all we're all focused on solving problems here and that's what we're here for and you might not have the clear

answer to this one yet is January you all thinking January like when we return from break or are we thinking kind of semester shift at this point we don't have an answer to that we're using the ter J the January could it be semester shift could it be right after Christmas that routing rerouting process the same question that was asked what is the possibility that you know we might have to go with shared coverage all of that's going to it all Blends in together uh Phase 1 two and three are fairly well connected um there's right now there's very soon and there's after that and then there's next steps so I apologize we don't have a concrete date at this point but as soon as we absolutely can do that that is what we hope to do and effectively communicate it before we start thank you I appreciate that thank youall thanks um okay thank you everybody miss

Phillips Mr Palmer Dr web for being here and engaging Us in this discussion um one email that we received talked about um parents retired and I want to acknowledge that I get it parents are tired I'm a parent I'm a board member I'm tired you all are tired Mr Palmer all the transportation staff bus drivers director Harris who's not here but I want to acknowledge that y'all are also working tirelessly and we're grateful for that work um and we can see that coming to fruition um in these presentations and as we move forward um and I want everybody to know you know the public to know that my colleagues and I are asking questions and we're trying to get as much information as possible so that we can

make the best and most informed decisions we hear y'all we hear you we feel you um but and our staff is doing a great job and trying to get us the information we need to make that decision um I had a couple of clarifying questions um particularly Mr Palmer you said it will take a bul of December to reestablish the routes so that you can ensure coverage for four consecutive days and make sure everything is accessible and digestible my clarifying question around that is have you already you've already created the 4day calendar that's sort of what's being communicated tomorrow what are you reestablishing in

December one clarifying word and if I misspoke allone it it was we need the bulk of December to be ready for the five-day coverage plan so the route packages that we have now we built all of last year getting ready for the opening of schools then as students requested service remembering there's a a fixed capacity on a bus so as we're adding kids in the routes make less and less sense because there's more kids than the buses can carry what we need December for is the recalibration and the reset of saying what are our real Riders as of December 2024 not as of August or as of June what we had originally designed the routes for this month of December is our bring it in lock the door and let's figure this out from the r combinations not only from the and that's for the staff to say it's not an actual locking of the door but let us circle the wagons and leave the

month of December with clean routes clean that they can be so when we come back from the holiday and again other decisions the board may make will influence that route design that is one of the things that we're trying to lift up to Dr web's point that they're connected that is helpful um I don't think that I quite Ed that when parents were adding stops after the deadline you all were just sort of emergency is putting people on the bus and not rearranging the route and so now understanding that I understand what changes need to be made to make those uh routes more effective um that's helpful I'm looking forward to seeing this um schedule in my head I've envisioned is sort of like the lunch menu that could be placed online and you see what schools what buses don't have service is that what it's going to be

like without speaking for Miss Cooper or maybe I'll just hand it right over to miss Cooper oh thank you sorry I didn't realize and while she's coming up um to your point Madam chair and uh Miss Umstead your your question I was corrected uh Miss Cooper her Communications we will be communicating the whatever's happening in January before the children go home is that so wherever we are they'll know before they go home for Christmas is that did I get the right thank you Dr Webb yes we understand the importance of families having information in a timely manner so that they can make the necessary decisions I think it is important that we prioritize getting any type of update to our families prior to winter break so they have that time to make any type of adjustment or make any accommodations to their schedules for whatever January looks like what um we determine and how we determine to move forward to continue to solve this issue um but back to the schedule um yes it

does kind of look like a lunch menu of sorts um but as you know that this is a districtwide distribution of um the rotational schedule um and in our workshopping with how it could be easily digest by our families um sometimes it was not easy to put the list of schools the bus numbers because they serve multiple schools so what parents will see is a chart and it has a group A B C D and E if your child's bus number is in group a your rotational day is Monday that mean you will that means you will provide transportation to and from school for your student on December 2nd December 9th and December 16th Group B is Tuesday Group C Wednesday D Thursday and e on Friday and so that is what parents will see tomorrow when they receive communication of course it will be posted on our website um and we'll have that information in multiple places that they can access thank you

and um does that mean a a parent with students at multiple schools need to look for all their buses in different groups potentially um Mr Palmer can speak to how those um buses were organized and how they were placed in those various service rotation days but yes if a parent has a child who rides bus 29 and then they have a child who R rides bus 39 they will need to look for 29 and 39 in that chart to determine what group they're in and the rotational day that is helpful thank you yeah and then I think my last question um I am incredibly privileged to have been able to spend my time with my son in the car to and from school it has been a pure pleasure taking him off of the

bus he on the other hand is eager to get back on the bus so when parents have opted out do we have a timeline for which we are going to say parents thank you so much for opting out or are we asking them to opt out for the rest of the year like is there a time when we're inviting them back I'm an old biology teacher so I'll talk about the fluid mosaic and just say that I'm not trying to be cute I'm trying to say in true words and Annie's in the hallway she would tell you too we get a hundred kids a day that will come and go from transportation service we want to bust them all right and it is that spirit that kind of I'll just name it like we got a big wave and we tried to put them all on at the same time what we are naming here is that for families that opt out you always have the option if something changes in a life circumstance that is not a licked envelope that's sealed we're here to

support your child and your family now it will take time to get them back on the bus you'll have to work through the data manager at your school level to make sure that the right data entries are there and that they're done through our procedure but we we will be in position to add students back on should the need arise is there an ideal time like February March do we is that are you just ready I I don't know I don't believe we've Madam chair I don't believe we've set a time frame an end game on that but at any time the parent the same parent that said we opt out can call back and say we really need to do this um personally I would I would like to invite them all to sign up for a buff class too to rob a bus that would be helpful too but not everybody can do that but yes ma'am I think we will we'll work with families as we do on a day-to-day basis thank you all again and Miss for

wood I didn't mention her I really appreciate all the work that y'all are doing I know my colleague Miss Travis had another question Miss buer after Miss Chavis I just wanted to see if um motion was needed to move forward the rotational coverage or if that's already happening that's already going to happen okay great um and then are we um do we need to make a motion about walk zones if we're going to establish those that's we're we're tbling that till the next meeting got it thank you that's it Miss Beyer um I appreciate um Miss Umstead bringing up the the need for um temp staff again if you all need that I hope that you will let um Dr Lewis know what you need to cover the phones and especially because I could see more communication needs coming through this as um um this is something that's never been done in this community before and

we want to um be able to answer questions that come up um and one thing that we've seen a lot in on in emails um that I hope that we can be PR prepared to talk about when we discuss this um in a few weeks is uh folks keep saying find the money find the money pay them more and I think like all things um it's important to for us to to be honest with folks about what we get from the state and so if we can um come with a slide or two to show what the state actually gives us for bus drivers what we add in local money on top of that um and that is not to say that we wouldn't look at this budget item um for next year but I think it's important to to continue to um inform our community alongside us um what we're already um adding in local

funding and and what we might need to increase in the future as as we plan um we have all just come from a uh enlightening time at North Carolina School boards association annual meeting we did hear this as a problem from other districts across the state um and the nation um and and to our legislative agenda and you know um this is this is highlighted as well but and we'll continue to be advocating at the state level for for funds for folks but I do think it will be important for us to kind of bring that information and and continue to lift that conversation up um as we Advocate along with our community members for for better State support of uh bus drivers and bus monitors going forward Miss Carda-Auten just briefly I know I know I think I made this clear at the last meeting um but I just want to make sure I think and I think again

tonight we've expressed the sense of urgency that we're all feeling but just want to make sure that if there are recommendations just looking at the slides looking at the responses to questions I'm still left wanting to make sure that when we discuss this again there's clear recommendations that come to the board for how to move forward if there's anything this board can do we need to know about it in order to be able to do it so um like and as Miss Beyer was just saying if there's more staff needed if there's like if there's some more directive on any of the different options that have been discussed um please bring that to us in the form of a recommendation or two with all the implications that we can then make a really solid decision on it so we can support what y'all are doing the great work that you're doing in the best way possible yes ma'am thank you

um Dr Lewis wants to add some thoughts we're if the board is done with your question just one one last thing I appreciated our Retreat today and one of the things about the information uh that was shared if it takes longer than 15 minutes that we should you know kind of commit to that as a board come to consensus on that I agree with Miss Umstead request um of needing to understand um who has lost instructional time and how much and I don't know how we would collect that data at this point but really start kind of collecting that information and I want to know if there's consensus from the board for that it was my understanding there's a new code that's going into power school so they would be able to but you also need to backdate it so it might take some time uh exactly ma'am yes ma'am and

that's exactly what I was going to say that just happened this week right and it's being implemented so it's moving forward and looking backwards so it is going to take some time at that point we can pull very quickly in a report absences by this code and that type of thing through our our data managers but I'm sorry I apologize makes me wonder if sometime after the end of first semester if there's enough so that would probably be around February we would have enough I don't know what the timing would be to back dat and do all of that but that's when I would be looking for that so you get a good chunk of time is there consensus for that I see two down here yeah looks like there is um than Miss Chavez and then Dr Lewis okay

just to specify if we're asking for that data but I assume it's demographic data of who's been affected okay that's what I would like to see however y'all know all the ways we like to see data and all the subgroups and all the by school by what intersectionality yes all the things as far as you can go without exposing individual people right all right Dr Lewis yes thank you madam chair my thanks to our transportation team here and as well as our transportation team um um that's working feverously to get this done um one of the most critical roles in this school system among many um is that of a school bus driver I think we all know that they are sometimes the first adults um that many of our scholar see in the morning and sometimes that that last parting word

getting off the bus if you're an educator one of your first classes that you take is a classroom management class and your professor may tell you um piece of wise advice do not turn your back to the class and our bus drivers perform their jobs with their backs to The Rolling classroom and I was reminded of the power of our bus drivers last week when I rode a school bus um and I'll ride another one on this coming Tuesday from start the meticulous care of doing the bus inspection going around the bus and she was bending down I said what are you doing now she said I'm listening for leaks in the in the in the tire so the meticulous care before they even pull the bus off and then as students get on the bus the warm greetings and the mornings the high fives and the hugs before they get off the bus and I didn't get permission to share their story so I'm not going to share the story uh will

get permission and one day hopefully share the story but please know many of you may know this already but our bus drivers do more than just drive buses um they purchase coats shoes food for our Scholars that 15 minute hour ride um makes a huge impact in in their day they are helping us with our mission in the classroom um of educating our kids of uh purchasing and a coat or or some shoes so the child won't be bullied or so the child can come to school and so my plea my ask as I shared at our joint County uh meeting as well is yes we are working feverously to recruit bus drivers but also I want us to really focus on what we're doing to retain our current bus drivers and as a community how can we come together to celebrate lift up value um our school bus drivers whether it's dropping some donuts by the um um

bus barn or just being out there to say hello uh to a bus driver you know those are some things that I I I think will help you know in addition to National bus drive appreciation month which is in April I think there are some things we can do year round and I appreciate those board members that have asked you know when when can I go out there and drive ride the bus or just provide some some refreshments or just a high or a smile or just a than you uh will go a long way so I just wanted to share that and encourage and urge our community um to just wrap out arms around our school bus drivers thank you Miss Carter Aton I was just think along those lines I can't recall Dr Lewis did you say that um or has it been said that if parents wanted to Vol like bus monitors might be an important role that some people could play that might support the work of a

bus driver and is that if parents are approved to be Volunteers in the DPS system or board members can sit on a butt like that's a role that lay persons can you don't need a CDL for that could you speak to that at all or I don't remember sharing that um groups but I know that's a need and obviously U at a cost is as well in terms of bus um want to get the correct ter correct correct terminology bus a bus bus mon yep so the in North Carolina a bus monitor the title bus monitor is technically a volunteer that rides on the school bus for Behavioral Management purposes an observation right they volunteer volunteer but we have some that are on payroll our transportation Safety assistance that's it okay those are professionally paid we of course work with EC services on all of the professional development and EC Services training for our Transportation safety

assistance we've gotten into the Habit sometimes of calling those folks bus monitors but bus monitors are technically volunteers the ride bus is with us okay so yeah we can get some information and um share with the board and with the public and ways that they can um volunteer to be bus monitors or sign up to be a um a safety assistant safety assistant thank you thank you thank you all colleagues the next item on our agenda is the local Master's pay budget impact uh Mr teer thank you for joining us uh good evening uh chair Rogers board members and uh Dr Lewis um so excited to share this information I know that was of great concern uh to the board at the

the last work session and we wanted to make sure we turned this around as quickly as possible so that you have all the information um at times in the presentation uh depending upon or or during your questions I may need to call on my colleague in HR to answer specifics about the mechanics of who's qualified for the current program and things of that nature but um I'll speak heavily towards the uh financials of the program um and so on the uh next slide um I I appreciated the public comments um about sort of the the construct of that slide and staff's intent um and so really just the um you know our intent is not to to present the um certified non-teaching roles as as cost prohibitive or a barrier per se um just wanted to make sure that we're transparent um in our calculations and how we're arriving at figures um so that everyone knows how our math got us to to our conclusion so I just wanted to make sure address that um and so in these figures um we're we're looking at the

the average cost of a teacher or the average cost of non-teaching certified roles um as provided by the Department of Public Instruction right so they give us average salaries for all of these categories um and that's really sort of the best methodology for us to follow as we're estimating uh what the program might cost the district um this Mary may not have come up in conversations about Master's pay but it is a 10% difference between the bachelor schedule and the master schedule um so in our math we took those averages added 10% um and then to that 10% um that's subject to The Fringe Benefits that we're required to pay as the employer uh inica and retirement so um just wanted you to be able to follow our math and understand where all the figures come from um so for the teachers we're rounding that up to 7,033 um and for the other roles um such as the instructional coaches social workers Etc rounding that up to um 7,793 as we progress throughout the presentation U so on the uh next slide

uh we we make reference to some information that was shared to you from the human resources department at the work session that in the current in current environment um there are 358 classroom teachers that are benefiting from uh the local Master's pay initiative and so just applying that figure from the first slide we're looking at currently assuming that we have 30 158 for the full duration of this school year uh we're looking at 2,517 814 um and as the uh board may recall um through your uh budget development process last year and evaluating expansion items that were presented to the County Commissioners uh it was estimated um that that program would cost 1,259 806 um so uh you know we've we've gotten some questions about how maybe we the district Ed at those numbers in the past um you know I can think of just you know a couple of a couple of variables such as uh there may not have been Clarity um

of just how many folks may have come forward with that eligibility um as well as you know we're operating in an environment where um we are seeing some modest gains in salaries not great but modest gains in salaries and and the cost of matching benefits right so those are things that can be factors um but I think ultimately at the end of the day so Target that would have been very hard for staff to predict um and so um that um we're in a much better spot now that we've got some real actual live information of people who have applied and and that'll benefit us in our future uh budgeting work here in the district um so further driving that home um in in the current environment we're looking at um a shortfall of 1,258 um to to continue that current model um we did have um some questions from uh from the board about just in terms of how is Staff managing that how will we fund that how will we um have that to continue um and so in the in the

current fiscal year um much to I think my surprise and in a good way right the the local operating budgets for the district at this point have only been populated to the 85% threshold and so the budget staff um is still withholding 15% of our departmental budgets uh so that um that does give us some breathing room and some time to evaluate U this particular Challenge and and other challenges that we're evaluating for Durham U so just want to uh make sure the board knows that we have that tool in our toolbox as as we grapple with this um so we will um we're ready for the next slide uh and this uh on this next slide is just a replication of the of the chart uh that was shared uh from Human Resources um at the work session um just looking at um counts on the various categories of employees um that we've talked about at this point in time who are not receiving the local

Master's pay um due to the um lack of teaching responsibilities basically um and so um just wanted to get that back in front of the board um that those are the estimates um at this point in time uh for those for those folks um on the next slide um um we have a little more conversation about um the implications of of including uh those employees um in the Master's pay local Master's pay model um so using using that calculation from the first slide that we discussed um it would cost the district 272,000 uh calculations during budget season right so this is a new variable for us uh if the board were to take action at some point in the future to make that change um on the next slide we just um

provide just a succinct summary of the implications um in in a chart format um that again that the current model um if it remains as is throughout the entire year uh we would need to find 1 million 258 and some change uh to make that whole um and if if it were to expand um or if it were to include the the populations who are currently not receiving yet 272 and some change um and the two initiatives together would be a little over one and a half million um so uh I know that was quick uh but we tried to organize that as smooth and crisp as we could um and we're happy to answer uh any questions that the board may have at this time thank you for joining us and thank you for that presentation I Le anybody care to go first Mr tab thank you very much just for clarity are we deciding on Master's

P or just we're just discussing the pry says this is for discussion that doesn't mean that the board can't take action okay I'll come back Miss Beyer um clearly we've um we've had some ways that this has not been Master's pay was not rolled out with Clarity both to the board to our staff with our staff and and to those affected and um I want to to apologize to staff that um have been caught in in

a lack of clarity um but I also um I'm cognizant of the difficult position that we still find ourselves in in not knowing if the if our district is solvent if we are able to continue to pay the salaries and and if we've been able to model what what we've already um put into place for all of our employees that is causing me um concern continues to cause me concern and I wanted to open some space for what I saw in in the email from staff in several ways you all were clear that you do not recommend that at this time we expand this is that be Dr Lewis and your team um there was an email that with questions that came late today near five o' that that I saw and I saw that kind of contemplated and I just wanted to

make some space that you you are not bringing a recommendation for the expansion of this at this time with the with the financial information that we have in hand at this time this is informational for the board's consumption um uh to just Ponder and and realize where we are in terms of a financial standpoint um until we know exactly where we are from a financial standpoint and um finishing this year out um are be hesitant to bring this as a recommendation Peter do you want to add anything to that I think further to add to that um nearing the end of week three um but they have been a feverish three weeks of assessing things um so working very closely with staff to to get a handle on um a variety of issues so we're we're very carefully reconciling um what the district was awarded budget wise um from all sources um and and making sure that we feel comfortable um with where we are moving forward uh I think in tandem with that um the the

district's uh FIS school year 24 audit is not yet complete um and so we are simultaneously managing the audit project and the fiscal solvency assessment um and the audit piece is important um because I I would not feel comfortable giving the board a precise position of your fund balance until that audit's complete um we um have really have made really great progress in in catching up uh the accounting team on the recording of some things to get us closer to that Target um and so um we're we're going to keep pushing at that um and so as um as quickly as we can paint the full picture for for you and for the superintendent we will definitely do that um but but that is but that certainly is where we are in managing this Miss heral go the Miss Umstead um thank you so much I'm so excited um to have you here

um um acknowledging what five months on the board on the first um I hear everything and I agree and um cannot uh go without saying that the intent of what Master's pay was supposed to be was set back in the spring um and that intent um was a promise to community it was a promise to our stakeholders um that um went out so I feel um some kind of way about making a promise to community whether you know and and then um after making that promise then saying oh we can't do it now I feel like um it is something that we have to

swallow um I was looking at it I was like if it had been done the way that it was that it was intended to be it would have we still would have had this deficit I mean and this deficit is only it's I mean it looks a really big number I'm not I understand but um in the scheme of things creativity creatively I think we we would be able to find the solution um I don't feel that I feel that once we make a promise to community we have to deliver on that it'd be one thing if the intent had not been set back in the spring but that intent was already set and so now um to go back and then to to then say you know it was caught now now we're going to backtrack sever the trust you know of that decision and that is that is the mistake that we made but then when you

5 um yeah and I think right so my reaction to that would just be that we are you know so we are reconciling this and among other items um that are important for us to monitor I think um you know we will uh we will continue to do the work that we're doing um in the direction that I'm got the finance team moving and the budget team moving um and um hopefully I would say you I think I understand December 2nd um is the next board

meeting and so then we will certainly make a push to to further tighten up um the solvency picture for the board um and um we can we can have conversation further for sure at that time I I understand the passion uh my sister is a master social worker and was a school social worker and um and so I tot totally get it um and um but U you know balancing that kind of with our financial responsibilities but um we we'll certainly uh keep keep pushing on our work with the solom Su project and and and uh continue to bring timely information to the board so that you have everything you need to know so board this is more of a comment to us is that I staff is doing everything that they can do the question to us is are we going to honor our original intent that was set back in the spring regardless of the journey that we've been through because that's what we promised Community or are we going to um

there's the reactive there's the proactive there's but for me what's important is we've made a promise to community it may have been misconstrued but that that promise was made and I feel like once we make once we say we're you know we make a decision and we say this is what the intent is we have to honor our intent so I'm just leaving that there for the board Miss Umstead then miss Chavez um yeah uh thank y'all for this presentation um I think I have a couple comments and I have a couple questions Clarity Clarity Clarity I feel like I talk about that often and to hear um the comments in public comment today about how people were told yes and then told no and then told yes and then told no like that kind of Yoyo just just isn't okay like it's just not um and I think we have to be better about getting

really clear around you know when we're proposing something when we're asking questions as a board when staff is bringing things that we're super crystal clear and the clarity around who qualifies and who doesn't qualify is also really really clear clear on our website clear on um application materials clear on all the different pieces of the work so that people know what to expect and so I just you know my sympathies and I I apologize to the folks who were in that yo-yo because that just to me feel feels like we didn't do a good job and and I I think that's unfair um I do have just a couple of questions and some of these I think are for HR and then some of them are also for you Mr Tabb we talked about teachers of record was like kind of how this number has been budgeted and I'm wondering is there a standard practice for teachers of record across the district I know a lot of principles are ones who putting this kind of making these assignments in power school and is there a standard across the

district the scheduling at the school site determines the teacher of record and it should be based on protocol that comes through the office of research and accountability what determines teacher um of record but it is related to the assignment of students and so um you know there are things that um happen with scheduling where sometimes principles like right now we have had some changes where folks are looking to assign students to people that maybe haven't had students signed to them all year long I don't know the details of what the basis of all of that is and I don't have a good way of delving into that from an HR standpoint but if that um school is vetting that those individuals are actually you know teaching those students then they assign them as teacher of record I think that feels like maybe a place

that we want to get some clarity and some standardization on across the district um because I think it could you know pending where we are lead to some some people getting it some people not based on what principles do and I respect principles having the authority to make those calls but I could see that looking different in different schools just based on how people have worked on their schedules we um are already trying to um figure out a way to work with research and accountability around that just based on some of the things that we have seen I appreciate that um and then Mr Tabb I know you're only a couple weeks into the job uh I know you talked a little bit about that 85% budget that's been allocated was that um I remember us talking about that but it was a while ago was that also communicated to folks that you have 85% and you might not give 15 or was it communicated that the 15 was come later in the year pending something and that

might was I think before your time too right right that communication would have preceded me but I think in my interactions with staff since I have arrived I think everyone has moved forward with the awareness that they were blotted their 85% I have received questions of when am I going to get the the other 15 um and so I think um you know I've tried to be as transparent as I've could since I have arrived in making people aware of we're we're monitoring ing things and looking at things and so I think um our leadership is aware that we're on hold uh until we until we do further assessment so I think we've uh tried to message that very early um and I think that's always a risk and that that's why we do that as a practice right is because there's always that risk uh that you may you may need that for some reason um as the year fleshes out um and for the thank you for that answer that's helpful it's sounds like we can't we don't we can't Bank on that money either right like as a we can say that we're going to go ahead and use that in a different way right now as we're still

trying to figure these things out um in the presentation and the recommendations I mean not in the recommend in the calculations are these These are based off a full year of pay and so for the um the way it's listed as expanded or we want to say reinstate into the 2013 model is that would include back pay for folks as well for this whole year is that correct okay great that's good to know that we got that full cost there I think I'm um appreciate your update too about where we are as far as working on the audit and I think is as you all have more information about where we are in our financial place there's a different recommendation because we feel better about where we are I'm you know think we can have that conversation I I personally feel uncomfortable not having an audit Clos for the year not knowing how much is in our fund balance to commit dollar that we don't have from what I heard doesn't sound like we have a place where we think even what we're already in the red for might

3 restricted for fiscal year 24 expenditures right um a 3 million reserve for your self-insured workers

4 that was unassigned in fiscal year 23 and I think the important calculus that we have to arrive at is in the course of the 24 fiscal year how much fund balance was ultimately necessary or not for the district in that year I think just the the volume of work that I've seen that needs to be done to make sure that the books are are lined up in an appropriate way um I I could look at it and make a guess uh but it just the data would not have any Integrity to it at this point because there's so much accounting work left to do uh to prepare for that fy2 24 audit um so I think so just I think maybe my answers just kind of maybe made it feel a little more murky but that's really where we are I appreciate that you know we need to know exactly where we are um feel like I have one more question

this is all really helpful information and I think um I feel really stuck in a between a rock and a hard place with this and I and I worry about where we are in our and financially and committing to something we don't know where the funds are going to come from so um appreciate y'all in this presentation and um um thank you for your work on it Miss Travis oh I'm also glad that you're here and um thank you for this presentation um so I think that this is a find the money kind of moment um and I want to say that I think we need to stop over promising I do think we had the lack of clarity and we also um essentially committed to people that we would pay the Master's pay on the teacher scale I look forward to your leadership so that this doesn't happen um going forward um and um but I think we have to honor what I

think was uh was proposed and offered in the spring so I move that anyone on the certified teacher and certified instructional pay scale who would have received Master's pay through the state prior to 2013 including but not limited to instructional Specialists and instructional coaches coordinators and school social workers receive Master's pay beginning with the 2024 2025 school year including back paid to the beginning of the school year second it's been moved by Miss Chavez and seconded by Mr tab to to uh uh initiate back pay or Master's pay for the eligible fol she listed

um for the 2425 school year is there further discussion Miss I think the Board needs to discuss first and then I'll have some comments Miss Beyer I appreciate it I was actually um homesick the last time that this board discussed it and with with apologies to our staff um I think there's been miscommunication and misinformation on multiple fronts but um and I believe I'm probably one of the people that has been here the longest advocating for Master's pay um and advocating that the state reinstate Master's pay I do not believe um as some of my colleagues have said both at the prior meeting that this was discussed or tonight that this was promis to everyone

in our district that had a master's degree I believe we made mistakes our staff made mistakes and I believe that if we need our superintendent and our new CFO and operations leadership to be successful we need to understand that we can give them the time that they need to have better information about this District's Financial solvency and that the motion that you've made Miss Chavez can hold for them to do the work that is imperative that we do so that we don't have to make impossible decisions these are recurring funds that the county did not give us that you all are asking for folks to find the money and I and I so appreciate your heart for

2 million won't go far enough and you're asking to just double this and find this at a time that we're also in a in a bus

driver crisis so um I would just respectfully say that this there is no reason that this cannot wait wa for staff to understand and gain Clarity um about whether we are financially solvent and able to do what you have asked so um that's my discussion and and um it is not it it is not a pleasant place to be in to continue to feel like our staff are jerked around but we went out on a limb Durham is one of only two districts in the state even contemplating added adding Masters payback um we have folks in our in our Cadre of EC and ESL or supplements that we also added that feel some of them included and some of them left out we've got a lot that we need to continue to

unwind as we care for our staff and I think this board can make more informed decisions after we've given Finance staff time to actually wrestle with with um and and more detail about our fiscal solvency so I just respectfully ask that that um we consider um taking the time and knowing that if we have the funds that that we can make that decision in the future um thank you thank you Miss buer um in the future can I ask that all of us colleagues uh address the board as a whole and not each other indiv individually and I had a question but miss carteron has a qu has something I um I said a lot about this at the last meeting so I'd rather not have to repeat all of that I'm tired I'm tired of

having to apologize to our staff and I apologize that you're walking into this I apologize that you're walking into this Dr web I apologize that you're walking into this Dr Lewis but the fact is I would rather apologize to y'all then continue to apologize to the staff that work in our [Music] schools that have been jerked around and I just it is true that we were unclear it is absolutely true but what we talked about in the spring and was doing what the state did doing what the state took away we kept repeating that over and over and over again and so that is what the motion tonight does it does what we should have done in the first place which is be more clear if we wanted to do what the state did prior to 2013 then we should have said it clearer earlier we didn't that was confusing that was misleading it resulted in many of our staff being hurt and I believe strongly

5 million is it's it's all every action has a consequence and so when we say find the m that's one Consequence the other consequence is find the staff five eggs one basket four eggs and another which consequence do we want to problem solve I would rather problem solve the fiscal consequence and honor the respon the the the intention that we set back

in the spring thank you my question is and again on the questions that we submitted prior to the meeting received late this evening um it's around the teachers of record um the question is in Pre in presentations it was shared that we are using teachers of record and Power School to determine Master's pay is there a standard practice across the district for teachers of record and wondering if different principles may use this different across the district the response is teacher of record is determined by what is entered in power school we have noted that principles are trying to support employees getting Master's pay by making them the teacher of record and so um I can appreciate that I think um my first question and it's a really

uh basic like I should have known this in the spring when we are having these conversations but I didn't and I still don't so I want to know the answer now when we talk about salaries are those included in individual School budgets or is that a district level budget part of the district level budget it's District level so when we are adding Master's pay it's not coming out of individual School budgets it's still coming out a district level budget and I and I think you know just the one caveat to that would be if that particular teacher is Title One funded um right that that could have some implications for that particular schools um you know I would need to do some additional research to see if we had anyone in that category we do try to put the the less expensive teachers in in title one as a practice um so that may not be an issue for Durham but we can certainly examine that angle but that

would be the only exception I could think of to um your question okay when it was determined and I'm not sure that the board decided but when the district decided that Master's pay would be issued only to um teachers of record in power school and we began noticing that principles were mov moving teachers into those categories so that they could get Master's pay was any guidance given to them knowing that that impacts the budget that has already been set forth this has been noticed in the last week and a half and we are trying to work on some of the logistics of processes I would also add to this I'm stay in contact with colleagues and so I

3 million and in speaking with my colleagues the same thing that has been shared in 2023 2024 this is the information that we can give you but you're chasing an unknown and even with what we're doing here so just adding on to kind of the layering that Mr Teeter referenced earlier I can say this is what it is in this snapshot in time based on the information that we have this number is not going to stay static for the rest of

3 which is now for them I mean you're

3 for this year thank you okay so in the last two weeks there's been no guidance to principles well we've got we've got to learn something I'm not the power school expert so I'm trying to figure out once it was put on the radar I'm trying to figure out what is how do we address add this in guidance provided to school so that's going to take some collaboration with principles that I have not had time

to schedule yet okay in a week and a half but we will try to get that scheduled as soon as possible okay I think and I don't expect you to have this answer because you haven't had conversations with principes yet I think my question would be um when principles are moving those employees and those staff members to the teacher of record empower school what is happening to the teachers that were the teacher of record that may or may not have had um an assign a master's degree in the field that they were teaching in I don't know until I talk to principales but I my guess would be with the number of vacancies that they have they are trying to make those assignments because they're vacancies and so I don't know how maybe they were using in the same name over and over again as teacher of record and they're spreading that Joy I mean and I'm just saying that from Principal

experience um I don't think they're trying to do something suspect I think they're trying to be Innovative in their approach and be supportive of their employees and so until I'm able to talk to them um I don't know exactly what it is but in that Innovation we need to be able to project the impact of that on the budget thank you Miss [Music] carteron Miss H said you can go right ahead um I mean my question Dr L say you hit on like this is the cost today but we actually have no clue what the cost might be by the end of the year and to me to move the motion is to open up a a almost like writing a blank check because we don't know where we're going to land at the

end of the year and that also means that we'll be asking folks to make challenging decisions to find where the rest of the money is I like because we just have to find it right you can't once you commit it to the people you've committed it to the folks um and we will honor our commitment once we do that I think I feel said this earlier uncomfortable moving in this direction without further study of this issue about principal teachers a record and how many folks might be eligible in this category because I could see this number going up as more people are um putting this on their on their license and that kind of thing and I need to know where we would find the money from like I just don't feel comfortable moving for it without knowing where the money is coming from and I so I you know I and I respect our

folks who are working tirelessly in our schools I think as soon as you could come back and tell me we have the money and we're ready to do it I'm like let's go but I think before we get to that place personally I feel uncomfortable making that commitment today I would like and I think we've moved too fast before and found ourselves in positions that we were in a TR in a Troublesome place in so I I say that to say I think we need to hear clearly from our folks but also be um wise as we're thinking about this decision I would move that we table this motion to a later date where we have more information and can make this decision with the finances in hand and have and have additional support on best practices for the budgeting of this because it is a moving Target as we heard um and I need to know how we're going to be managing for that moving Target it's been moved by Miss Umstead

seconded by Miss buer to table the motion on the floor is there any discussion on the motion to table the previous motion yes is there any discussion on the mo to table the motion Miss Carda-Auten then miss Harrell Goff goof um I hear you and I also do understand that it feels uncomfortable to move forward with unknowns absolutely I will be held responsible for that too if we do it um I just I do think there are dangers of rushing forward there were dangers of HR rushing forward to tell our staff congrats your advocacy has paid off you now get Master's pay

aren't you excited about this that's rushing to move forward in something in a way that I think is highly regrettable I think what we're trying to do is move forward with a sense of urgency for staff that deserve that urgency we cannot during this time with unknown occurrences at the federal level and at the state level and the stresses that our students are going to be placed in especially our immigrant students we cannot afford to lose social workers we cannot afford to lose instructional coaches that support our teachers and being the best teachers they can be I just this is critical and like our call my colleague um Miss Herold Goff said there's a cost to everything I don't think this is worth losing staff over and I do I just wanted to reflect on something that Dr L said I think I heard you correctly when I'm sorry two more

sentences the motion to table is not debatable I'm not debating I'm making comments I was called on before the motion was seconded and then seated my time to miss Umstead to speak first right so let's what I'm suggesting is that we take the vote on the motion to table and then go to the discussion of the original motion okay so all in favor of tabling um the motion of Miss Chavez to um reinstate Master's pay for uh the 2425 school year for the Educators she name that are not in record that are not teachers of record um all those in favor of tabling say

I tabling to give Finance staff the time to do the work to understand where we would get the money from so it's not an indefinite I just want to be clear about that I just want to know where the money's coming from all those in favor of tabling this in an effort to give Finance time to find the money to reinstate the pay say I I all those oppos say no no no no the motion fails five two to five the motion on the table is yes please Mr travez I move that anyone on the certified teacher and certified instructional pay scale who would have received Master's pay through the state prior to 2013 including but not limited to instructional Specialists

instructional coaches coordinators and school social workers receive Master's pay beginning with the 2024 2025 school year including back pay to the beginning of the school year Miss Carter Aton you want to finish your statement I was just going to say that I thought I heard Dr Lin saying two things and one was that um we can expect this to we that as an HR um as someone familiar with HR in the world of HR you you anticipate that this will support recruitment efforts in the district that is correct and also this might be this is more of an inference but when I hear about principles trying to um it feels like principles want to retain their staff by they want to support in this way yes and they want to

support retention efforts in this way [Music] um Mr Malone can you speak to the changes we need to make to the motion only that the item is on the agenda as a discussion item so I think the cleanest motion would be to in for Miss Chavez to include um moving it from a discussion item to an action item I think it can be all in one motion now miss fire so we um I want to be clear on this 85% that we have given to schools and this 15% that is held back I believe our schools are counting on that 15% I believe that they are optimistic

that that that will come their way so that they can use any additional funds that we have this year to directly impact students um we also um um we're we're delighted to have a retreat today and one of the goals that I shared with our board was that it was my hope that as we have asked Dr Lewis to do incredibly difficult work repairing harm and rebuilding trust with our employees that we get behind him and have his back I've said that to you before that I think it's important for us to have your back and so um I would again the the other concern I have is that that um

that by making this decision without the information that this Board needs that we are are um potentially boxing ourselves out of of additional funds that we might need for the transportation crisis going forward um I'm going to read from an email that came from staff in an answer to this board's questions and it says it several times I was just going to read it once given the current budget Administration does not currently recommend expansion at this time that is my unreadiness that is something that um should sit with all of us and um does not preclude

us from taking future action so I would just continue to implore my colleagues to join me in in giving staff time more than three weeks to really dig in um and and complete the audit um and have the financial information that that our community deserves thank you Miss Herold goof Mr tab I suspect he's going to call the um in times like these I don't like to act in a spirit of fear but the the the

thing that sits with me is that this was all already the decision was already it was already made the consequences have taken all kinds of other things and so we we I don't want to use the consequences that have already played out to it you know to again um don't want to use the consequences already paid out to again undo promises that we've already made it's there is no way to to clean this up I I understand way which whichever way we go there's I feel like there's going to be financial implications either with the loss of people or the you know or the the figuring out the money and either way it's going to be hard work so the question when we you know make this decision is which set of consequences do we want

to problem solve and I'll stop Mr tab thank you very much um just before I call a question just wanted to say that um we have to make sure that we are still looking at the whole picture that we we're beginning or have a morale and Trust problem here in this district and we have to own that and we have to accept that opportunities sometimes present itself for us to try to to build that trust back up to get us back on the right track uh as a former building employee it's hard for people to walk around in a building thinking that they were going to get something and then it was taken from them and they still have to walk in the building with other colleagues so any chance that we can get to fix those kinds of things I think we

should is it going to be a financial implication yes it is but it's also going to be a financial implication on the other side if we don't do something to build trust and build relationships back in this district and I hope that we would take that into consideration so I call for question Dr Le yeah thank you um Madam chair first of all let me just be clear I work for the the the will of the board um um and I'm very uncomfortable with with with this given our um financial situation um and I don't think it's a matter of are we going to pay the Master's pay or not I think it's just a matter of when we're going to pay the Master's pay I don't think anyone up here would buy a house without balancing the checkbook uh and that's what we're asking is an opportunity to um ensure that we can afford this

5 and you know hindsight is you know 2020 yes there were some missteps absolutely there there were and I think we owe it to this District to make sure that we are being fiscally responsible um in um making sure that we can pay our staff and increase bus driver salary and provide more resources to our schools I don't think you there's this this board hired me to do a job and I don't think there's a more frugal superintendent um than I am I actually keep a running list of things that come across my desk that I have to sign and I'm asking questions

why how are we why are we spending money on this to set the system up for financial um Health um I'm just real uncomfortable with um yeah I'm just real uncomfortable with t just got here he's still um analyzing um trying to finish an audit trying to balance for the last year and it it just puts I think The District in um a tough situation very tough Dr leis Dr Le I did want to to add um that when we met to in preparation for this it was also shared by um Dr lay that the numbers that are included that 3538 are not fully vetted and so again we spent a lot of time talking about how we went from from

5 and that that should have been you know fully vetted before it was brought to the board and stated that it was 190 and so I didn't know I apologize for the delay I didn't know that the board was it was on for discussion and information only and so I thought I may have had a little more time to allow HR to give us accurate numbers on how many positions we're talking about and then a four C of that so that we can be transparent with this board on what the potential expense would be for those positions that are listed like I don't know who coordinators are and Dr L same was looking like who are those positions like who all is included in that and so I just wanted to lift that up um that that does cause me some heartburn because I don't want this board to again be in the position from Administration being told something and it's not not been fully vetted and it can't

necessarily be something you take to the bank or that Mr Tabb can take to the bank thank you the question's been called oh the question there's no more discussion after M Mr Malone so technically calling the question question is a motion it requires a second and then a vote and your policy says a majority vote to end the debate and then you would end the debate so at this point all you have is a motion to call the question with no second second well it's been sitting there for a long time without a second I mean I could miss Umstead at least have her point of discussion the chair would have to recognize her that's

true [Music] um that's helpful um Mr Malone that has not been the practice of other attorneys from your Law Firm when you when we've called a question in the past Miss Umstead that's a Clarity question in the presentation the numbers are those um and I apologize if y'all told us this before are those current people in positions or are they positions does that make sense like do they include the vacancies as well those do not include any vacancies that would be in any of those positions and if you'll remember this request came right before the board meeting for which we calculated those numbers and so what we tried to do is pull together lists by titles we still have to go through make sure we didn't

leave out any title sometimes people have different you know namings and to make sure that we have really looked at all of those I'll give you a prime example in the area of the social workers the social workers have provided you information that says there's a number of 15 and I want to say there's like 13 in my slides and so there there are those types of things that you have to dig in and um like if someone um even one of the public comment they mentioned they were mini mckin vento social worker and so in how we just pulled that information together if I just pulled social workers and I miss mckenny vento social worker that person might not be on the list just to give you a concrete example and so that double triple quadruple checking still has to take place for any particular outliers whatever reason that may be so considering that our estimated

costs do not include just even vacancies of positions that might people might F fortunately I I would have to go back and see how many but in the Arenas that we're talking about there's not a a lot of vacancies out there but it is still part of the vetting process and part of the ultimate cost and in each one of those whatever the vacancy would be would be additional cost to this world okay Miss carteron um I just want to note that I I look forward to a time when we it feels like we've been vetting for a long time has it been since June or July or can't recall how long but um I look forward to a time when we have uh the data that we need to make the decisions that we need to make and we have it more readily available and that feels like that's been a struggle here with this um

for a while now and I appreciate that like that table that was on the slides tonight I think you mentioned it was the exact same table that we saw a couple of weeks ago so I'm wondering why in the last couple of weeks that's not been updated since this is a topic that was clearly something that was pressing for the board so I hear that I hear that it feels like we're pushing for something fast than might feel comfortable for folks but for me and for I think a lot of our staff we're not moving fast enough because we don't have the data that we need to be able to move and again maybe that's systems but why should our why should our staff that are in our school serving our children have to suffer for the systems that are inadequate that we are responsible for I appreciate that over the last week and a half our top priority has been with the payroll window open trying to make sure that we're still addressing pay I mean we have multiple competing factors for the number of things that we have to do and we are trying to make sure that everything is um adequate and I want to

stress that to the board but we still have for each role that is one person that can only accomplish so much in a day and the volume is massive and we're still trying to get it done and so even for the request for what was for this board yes we still have lots of things to do but we also have a payroll that we're um trying to address and make sure that numerous items are right there too any further discussion Miss Beyer I may have asked this before but have have you um Mr Tabb or Mr been able to model our current payroll yet and the implications of that as we contemplate that that is the final piece that we're working on right so we we're looking at a variety of of line items of

concern um in reconciling uh the budget uh the proposed budget compared to where we are um and that's the final piece right it's the biggest piece and that's the final piece that um we're working with the budget team on uh to be to be extra sure uh that we've got a Reconciliation of the active positions compared to what was budgeted as as well as making sure that we have Clarity on vacancies and and that we've accounted for those um in the budget appreciate it just that piece alone outstanding will will give I think our Administration and and y'all's team so much more confidence and being able to to um project forward with with the confidence that that this District deserves thank you all those in favor of calling the question or the motion the question is dead according to

miss Byer which is fine because I don't see any other discussion okay Miss Travis can I just modify my motion appropriately is this a good time to do that absolutely I'm going to read it all one more time but I move that we move this item to an action item and that anyone on the certified and certified instructional pay scale who would have received Master's pay through the state prior to 2013 including but not limited to instructional Specialists instructional coaches coordinators and school social workers receive Master's pay beginning with the 20202 sorry 2024 2025 school year including back pay to the beginning of the school year second removed by Miss Miss Chavez to provide Master's pay to certif excuse me certified teachers and instructional um Educators on the pace on the

certified pay scale to reinstate Master's pay based on the 2013 certification based on the standards from prior to 2013 on the state pay for the 2425 school year including but not limited to Specialists coaches social workers instru Shel coaches and to move this item to an action item yes it was moved by Miss Travis seconded by Miss Harrell Goff G Is there further discussion Miss buer so hearing that motion and the number of categories included is it possible Dr Lin Dr L say is it possible that the breadth of of job categories listed and

detailed in that motion would even further expand to categories that we haven't even considered and modeled here like classroom teachers that have a Masters that is not in a relevant field the y'all have 2013 that's have limited it yeah so is the is what you all have brought the the maximum extent or the the only way um and I'mma look at um Mr Malone here is I think that there could be something included in the motion that references DPI guidelines that would help take care of that piece that you're asking and just to be clear that's what my motion included that what people that would have been paid through the state prior to 2013 per Master's

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um I think that what I have seen is that we to me I guess there's a lot of things that we're weighing here so I think moving forward the with this um says that we are going to find the money to me it is a find the money moment um and it's $300,000 and I've seen us find $300,000 before I'm not saying that I think we should continue that as a practice um but I do think um that if we're we're weighing um something that is f you know frankly like far more um valuable than that and that's the certainty and Assurance given to our staff who serve most vulnerable students so that would be that's where I stand

on we'd still love to see a plan on the second um I yeah whether it passes or not I think um all those in favor I'm Sorry Miss Harrell Goff go Miss I'm said I'd like to acknowledge right now that I am absolutely Playing devil's advocate um share all of the empathy with staff I still I have to I cannot sit up here and and say that we should dishonor a decision that the intent where the intent was already made to the public um this is an accountability issue on us to do better and and and that is part of where my conversation discussion is coming from doesn't mean that I'm any less fearful doesn't mean that I'm not acknowledging that there is you know that that that is a major ask a big push

but that is the result of our own incompetencies and so in order to begin to repair the trust to begin to get buyin from our community on being problem solvers and having Solutions I feel like we need to carry the punch we have to repair this major thing that has been done um to repair um trust within the community and so um proactive reactive this is reactive but it's reacting to something that we already promised and so I'm going to continue to play that Advocate and then challenge us to dig our way out so I just wanted to it's not that I don't yes it's it's a it's a huge thing

but we made this promise to community and they're looking at us and we will deliver all of masket for 4 days and if I may add a couple of pieces right that may help with the Comfort around December 2nd is that regardless of what were to be decided tonight it's not going to affect the November paycheck it's gone out um it would be December regardless of whether you know so I think um and then I feel like I can have my team at a point by December 2nd that will have an answer on the solvency component because we'll be done with the calculations that Miss buer has asked about um we still will not have a complete fiscal year 24 audit to share where fund balance is but the solvency work will be done for the current budget year um and again regardless of what decision we make tonight it would be December pay before we would process any changes so um I don't know if that helps hurts but um worth lifting up so essentially four days um

5 million I don't I'm not the expert on this and how you would project that but I think the plan should be not just for what we see here but what we project for the rest of the year and for the board to be clear and when we start our budget because this is a reoccurring cost for the next year we're starting with this already like kind of an ass that we'll need to make from our County so that would just be my ask on the plan that

2 million and so what we're talking about tonight is the two to 300,000 possibly more and possibly less and I'm speaking and um so I'm wondering the the nervousness because I do want to understand that is around that can you remind me what the total budget here in DPS is the rough rough so I mean as far as your local budget um you're a little over $200 million um and so I mean and that's really any any implications of the decisions we make tonight right is where that's going to land right we're going to have to manage that uh from the local budget okay thank you so $200 million yeah we're talking

about less than $300,000 so that's where I'm just we already. 2 million what we're talking about tonight is the additional all we were talking about tonight is the additional 300,000 so that's why I'm just wondering why and I think that's the decision we're making tonight can we have that slide it's on that slide right right it's on the final Slide the summary of the the impact of this particular program um so right so in the current in the current climate we're looking at 1,258 that were short compared to what was budgeted uh and then looking at another potential 273,000 rounding to the nearest so a total of one and a half um but I think it's important to stress um that Durham has been through a lot in the last few months and I know you know that better than I do um and um the finance department has been through a lot um there have been a lot of a lot of

people at the table um Consulting advising um and so I I just think is so very critical you know we've done a lot of work in three weeks um and I just think it's so critical um for us to continue to unpack all of the council whether it was right or wrong um procedures whether they were good or bad systems whether they were good or bad and and get that under control and we're very close to that um I'm I'm frankly surprised that we have unpacked as much as we have in three weeks but there are some really bright folks in the finance department we're working well together to do that um and and I you know and you've got my commitment that um by the next time you come together we'll be able to unpack everything for you um that has occurred um in the middle of the storm thank you so if we do nothing tonight we are still going to be spending that one point my vision is bad 1 point two something so regardless right I'll um will be having to find

2 regardless so that's not part of our decision tonight we've already made the decision to spend that money the decision tonight is to spend the middle value which is their 272,000 or they could or they could come back and tell us we're not solvent and we have to P back sorry I'm speaking and also she was speaking and Mr tab was next now I've lost my train of thought but I think what I was going to say was so by so by the December 2nd the idea is that then we would have detailed information where we're getting the money from and I think to be clear and it's important to to to just resurface this right is the number as presented could grow as we continue to dissect the Personnel data right so I don't I don't want you to leave tonight with the impression that right we you know I

think we're looking at a minimum of that 272 right so it's I think we need to be aware that the implications are that that could be an even larger number as this continues to unfold thank you I am excited to have um more clarity about our financial situation and really appreciate your work and I still I'm feeling really I really am disappointed in what we're doing to our staff and our schools Mr Dad thank you very much Madam chair um I would like for this board to really think in terms of collaboration and unity because I can see we all looking to to help and the way it comes off sometimes it makes us seem like we're not together in what we're trying to do but I know we are we are but I want us to think in terms of

compromise how can we as a board in this moment compromise to be able to give Dr Lewis exactly what he needs to do and to also be able to to get this motion to where we need it to add into what he needs to making sure that m pay is given to those deserving people that should have it if I think if we think in that way of collaboration I think we can come up with a motion that would do both and I know we can do that um so Dr leis have already indicated what he needs we know what what you want where is the where is the middle ground for that that we can come up with a with a motion to be able to accomplish both goals and I think we can be able to do that thank you Mr tab

so y' didn't ask my advice but what can what I can offer is that this motion has been amended to death and could go to vote and pass or could it it could go to vote and fail with a compromise motion being offered immediately following um if there were a compromise could the compromise be that the that we asked Dr Lewis to bring a plan on the second to carry out the actions of the

motion that Miss Chavez has offered um so the current motion is to re State DPI standards of Masters pay for certified teachers and on and instructional coaches on the pay scale for the 24 25 school year including but not limited to Specialists instructional coaches social workers did I get it okay um is there further discussion and she read her motion as it

is and then add the language for the compromise so that we have it we've amended it twice I'm just asking her to make it actionable and to well I'm not saying that she like you you just added the compromise just now could she read it and then you add that language to it Mr Malone yeah I don't I don't see anything in your [Music] rule so we can accept an amendment is that what you I think so I don't see anything in your r rules that would prevent you from a third amendment okay all right Miss

Chavez I'm sorry I'm sorry I I do see it in your rules I apologize it does say that the motion may be amended and an amendment may be Amendment but no further amendments may be made sorry so it does say that thank you I'll withdraw my motion thank you may I make another motion thank you can I move that we direct staff to bring this with its full bud budgetary implications on December 2nd and with with the emotion that with after by the chair yeah Miss Spire I move that we direct this the

superintendent to bring the budgetary solution for expanding Masters pay to the categories previously discussed at our December 2nd meeting second it's been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Umstead to direct the superintendent to bring the budgetary implications of uh the Masters pay for the previously mentioned um job categories to the December 2nd meeting Is there further

discussion yes I'd like to miss Chavez um can we clarify the motion and just may I suggest a modification that we move the superint direct the superintendent to bring a plan on December 2nd to pay anyone on the certified teacher and certified instructional pay scale who would have received Master's pay through the state prior to 2013 yeah sure for DPA for DPA guidelines including not limited to instructional Specialists instructional coaches coordinators and school social workers on the master scale for the 2024 2025 school year including back pay to the beginning of the year Miss buer do you accept that Amendment yes thank you for that

Clarity any further discussion that need a second sorry I'll second it again we need that so we're voting on the motion on the amendment okay it's been moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Miss Umstead to amend the motion to direct the superintendent to bring on December second the um the standard prior 2013 for certified teachers and instructional coaches on Certified Scale uh to have Masters pay for the 24 25 school year uh and the budgetary implications of doing it for the whole year well including but not limited to specials coaches social

workers you you said but not limited to can you just repeat those three yes it's the it's the ones listed in the table in the presentation instructional Specialists instructional coaches coordinators and school social workers thank you sorry all those in favor of the amendment say I I I I I all those oppos say n the amendment passes unanimously now we have to vote on the actual motion okay all those in favor of directing the superintendent to bring the budgetary implications of uh Masters pay for all the job categories on the slide in today's presentation but not limited to include

all educators paid on the uh certified pay scale for the certified certified teachers and instructional coaches on the certified pay scale Masters pay prior to based on DPI standards prior to 2013 for 2425 school year including back pay including yeah all the people on the slide all those in favor say hi hi hi all opposed no whatever I'm supposed to say it passes um 61 thank you all welcome to darham Mr teer is this a good time for point of privilege

um the next item on our agenda is close session I move that we go in a Clos session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Umstead secondly by Miss bu to go to close session for the reasons stated on the agenda all those in favor say I I I all oppos say no you we now Clos session e

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on I'm trying to back we're now back in Open Session Dr Lewis thank you so much Madam chair I've asked that the board approve the HR report as amended move approval of the Personnel report dated November 21st 2024 second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Chavis approve the uh Personnel report dated November 21st 20124 um as amended is there any discussion all those in favor say I I all oppose say no with that we are returned