good evening everyone the Durham Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo yiles and Vanessa P Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us I'd first like to acknowledge that our colleague Mr tab is joining us virtually Mr tab did you want to say hello um hello to um board members um Dr Lewis and all the people that who are there tonight um I'm glad to be able to be here to still be able to join with you thank you um we will now have a moment of
silence thank you the first well the next item on our agenda is celebrations Miss Cooper good evening chair Rogers members of the board superintendent Lewis DPS colleagues families and Durham Community I welcome all of you to this special portion of our meeting as we pause to celebrate the hard work achievements and positive strides being made across our district it is an honor to take this time to recognize the dedication talents and efforts of our Scholars Educators and staff as well as our Community Partners often the challenges we face in publication in public education are the focus but today is about the moments of success and Excellence that make our district Shine from academic achievements to exceptional leadership and commitment every individual we recognize today has made a unique
contribution to the culture of Excellence we strive for in Durham Public Schools they are accomplish ments remind us of the power of Education to inspire Empower and uplift we begin with our student of the month presentations followed by our teacher of the month and employee of the month honors and we will conclude with a special spark pin presentation please welcome principal Dr Rita Griffin Jordan of city of medicine Academy to introduce our first student of the month good evening board members superintendent Lewis District leadership family and friends I bring you greetings from the city of medicine Academy where we proudly recognize Miss chitza contres Guzman as durm public school's September student of the month for over three
years I've watched Christa move from a curious new cobra into a confident proud and resilient young lady exemplifying High academic and personal qualities has caed Christa to stand out among others please allow me to share just a few things her teachers have said I have taught biology students for many years here in DPS and kitza belongs on my Mount Rushmore she has excelled in honors and college level coursework though grades have never been an end goal for Christa she earns and learns for her own edification in addition to her academic achievements she is perhaps the kindest and most respectful student I've ever taught she is a fierce friend to those around her and a lightning rod of positivity after making the decision to come to CMA she has taken advantage of every opportunity offered Su succeeding
in her course workor being involved in school organizations and most recently making a commitment to the United States military by enlisting in the National Guard Christa will use her skills as a certified nursing assistant to serve and care for people in need across the state and Country this will be done while pursuing her college degree Christa is amazing she is the type of person who will always see the pathway never the obstacles we are extremely proud of her all that she has accomplished and all that she will accomplish in her future I am honored and delighted to present to you durm Public Schools September student of the month and cma's very own Christa contres gozman
congratulations kit it is so wonderful to hear about the bright future ahead of you we know that you will represent your yourself well your family well and durm public schools well we have a few things that we'd like to present to you this evening so please step forward first we have your official student of the month certificate next we have a sparkon because you embody everything that Duram Public Schools is we hope that you wear this proudly wherever you go our friends at triangle e cycling want to make sure that you are powered for Success so they are presenting you with a laptop tonight and now we have a special presentation from Katie Spencer Wright from the durm public schools Foundation Katie thanks uh DPS Foundation we know that well-funded public schools can make all the difference in a student's life giving them a strong community and a
bright future that's why DPS Foundation brings together organizations and people who are ready to do whatever it takes to support our students and Champion our schools we are honored to support the DPS student of the month program and new this year we are also um celebrating an alumni of the month we're so proud of our students of the month honored to award them each a $500 gift card along with some other goodies from dpsf we hope this gift card brings Joy allows you to pursue your interests and speeds you on towards your bright future I'm proud to have here with me today our first Alum of the month Celia furo come join me Celia attended Middle College High School at Durham Tech where she was able to take unique classes and earn college credits she said she especially remembers her science teacher Mr Baker
org alumni thank you so much e
please join me in welcoming principal Crystal Taylor Simon of Middle College High School at dermtech for our next student of the month presentation good evening Board of Education um good evening board chair Rogers and superintendent Dr Lewis um I am the proud principal of Middle College High School which is strategically located on the campus of Durham Tech and all of my families know why we say that um but I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to recognize one of our exceptional students Mikey Mason so Mr Williams our College liaison wrote this beautiful statement so I would love to take his statement I'm gonna step aside be you know be a servant leader and let him write his statement for for Mikey um and so this statement best describes Mikey and their aspirations Mr Evans writes Mikey can
best be defined as a Trailblazer as you may know this is our School's first year offering grade 13 which is an optional additional year of high school for students who wish to continue taking Duram Tech courses for free to complete a college diploma or credential only six of our last year's seniors have taken advantage of this opportunity and Michael Mikey is one of them there is typically a level of fear or reservation when anything new and different is introduced however Mikey let that desire to succeed overcome any misconceptions or stigmas around remaining in high school for another year at the conclusion of grade 13 Mikey will graduate with a high school diploma a durm tech diploma in Automotive Systems Technology as well as an additional Derm Tech certification in automotive Machining Middle College High School is
proud to have Mikey as part of our inaugural class of grade 13 students and we are honored to present them as the DPS student of the month and our super [Music] senior congratulations Mikey please step forward we have items for you I know you've already know what they are but we want to make sure that we present them to you in the appropriate fashion so first and foremost your DPS student of the month certificate followed by the DPS spark pin which we hope that you wear proudly around durm and Beyond and of course triangle e cycling wants to make sure that you are ready for whatever your next step is so if you also receive a laptop this evening and I'd like to bring our friends from the DPS Foundation back forward to present your $500 gift card
this evening congratulations Mikey mid College
go shake hands please welcome Michelle Hayes executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition to present our teacher and employee of the month good evening good evening I'm back all right good evening chair Rogers member of the board superintendent Dr Lewis and cabinet members it's that time again where we celebrate our teacher and employee of the month every month a teacher and an employee who is a non-teacher is nominated for teacher and
employee of the month these individuals exemplify greatness tenacity perseverance and Leadership and they are nominated based off of the theme of this particular month I encourage you to nominate your teacher or employ employee each month they feel so honored when they are recognized for their hard work and dedication to their profession this evening we're going to recognize our September teacher and employee of the month our teacher of the month is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis team the TOs side chapter of Omega SciFi Fraternity Incorporated and DCL Consulting LLC and our employee of the month is sponsored by the office of Human Resources in our cute gift bags They will receive a DPS spark pen a DPS lunchbox DPS journal and a DPS pen for our September teacher and employee of the month the theme is igniting that spark this is the individual who is excited about working
for Dar Public Schools this individual always encouraged people encourages people around them offers a helping hand welcomes new teachers or staff members and exudes positive energy we're going to recognize our teacher first then our employee our September teacher of the month is tanitra Edwards on up tanra T tanitra Edwards third grade math teacher from Glenn Elementary School Miss Edwards has worked at Glenn for almost 15 years she has been through five principles a C Central School takeover numerous staff turnovers and more her commitment to students and the community is unmatched when we talk about Miss Edward's skill as an educator we need to start by talking about her incredible ability to teach math to her third grade students last year more than 80% of her students demonstrated
proficiency on their math EOG placing her in the top of the DPS teachers more more than that she helped students develop confidence and a love of math through games competitions and excitement her class even won a Statewide reflex math competition more than more than her skill as an educator Miss Edwards as is excuse me more than her skill as an educator is Miss Edwards as a person she brings a smile to every room she's in supports her families and colleagues and is always willing to lend a hand with many of our students moving schools as a part of growing together her previous families continue to reach out to share positive stories ask questions and gather ideas family knows she cares about their children Beyond just the year she's in their class uh in there as a teacher like many incredible
teachers so much of what Miss Edward does is without Fanfare and acknowledgement after taking her kids to the bus each afternoon she slips back into a third grade car pool room to help our students with their homework before they go home we wouldn't have known this unless another staff member shared a photo of Miss Edwards laying on the floor to help a student develop their multiplication skills on talking point our platform to communicate with families Miss Edward sends weekly detailed videos and explanations to families on how to complete math homework share new vocabulary students have share new vocabulary words students have learned and more all these things help families understand how to support their children's math skill development at home very often we see messages come in Mrs Edwards math with a math question at 7:30 at night and almost immediately we see Miss Edwards with a kind clear response to the family while none of this is expected of Any teacher we know
this shows Miss Edwards care for her families and her students and her desire for everyone to feel successful to say it is an honor and privilege to work with Miss Edwards every day is an understatement she is frequently a sounding board of ideas a calm voice of reason and challenging situation and brings a smile to my face with her humor passion for education so congratulations to tanra Edwards for being named during Public School September teacher of the month and um Mr coach Lawson from North Colina Central has a presentation as well good evening board members a couple of days ago the North Carolina Central University men's tennis team surprised Miss Edwards uh with some flowers and balloons and a cake uh to recognize her exceptional work that she has um provided at Glenn school I would also like to um acknowledge and
recognize principal hunt because if not for his observation and recognition of Miss Edwards exceptional talents then we wouldn't be aware of uh all of the good work that she's doing so on behalf of North Carolina Central University and on behalf of DCL consultant LLC we'd like to present uh Miss Edwards with a check where hopefully she'll be able to have a nice dinner or something nice vers e
all right a September employee of the month is our very own Eva Howard executive director of security and safety want to make sure she was up here director Howard has gone above and beyond the scope of her job responsibilities to ensure the safety and well-being of all DPS students and staff her team is operating with four people for the entire district and she has willingly taken on the heavy responsibilities of both her own position her supervisory role and the role of Emergency Management coordinator she is on call 247 and is concerned and responsive to anonymous tips phone calls each and every school and administrator in the district and all DPS leadership and cabinet members at all hours of the day and night she serves this district with dedication integrity and transparency I have rarely seen anyone
work as hard and as TIR tirelessly as director Howard for such an extended period of time in a position that is on call 247 I am proud to be a part of this small yet incredible team and I feel that my director absolutely deserves recognition for the exemplary job she has done supporting this District her team and all DPS staff and students during these challenging times congratulations to Eva Howard for being named during Public School September employee of the month e
congratulations to Miss Edwards and director Howard our final recognition is the DPS spark pin presented this evening to a valued Community partner swim for Charlie is a local nonprofit that teaches second graders life-saving water safety skills durm Public Schools is privileged to take part in this worthy initiative which has equipped hundreds of DPS students with this important skill set swim for Charlie was created by Dr John Klein in memory of a dear friend and fellow swimmer Dr Charles Vander horse who passed away during a swimming event I don't want to steal Dr Klein's Thunder as you will hear more about this outstanding organization during tonight's board meeting but we look forward to the impact they will continue to have on our Scholars we extend our heartfelt appreciation to Dr John Klein who serves as board chair and president of swinford Charlie for their partnership and Leadership Dr Klein please come forward I know he has
members of his team with him today please step forward to be acknowledged by our board okay thank you pict yes yes take a picture
every this concludes our celebrations this evening thank you the next item on our agenda is the superintendent update good evening board chair members of the board members of the DPS Community thank you all so much for being here and those that are tuning in thank you so much for tuning in um I'm so excited about uh where we are right now as it relates to beginning
this year this is actually um lucky number seven my seventh week here in Durham public schools and I'm so happy that Eva Howard got the recognition and all of our um honores tonight particular as it relates to what we've been dealing with as a school system quite frankly what a lot of school systems have been dealing with around the country as it relates to school safety and as you heard Eva takes calls 24/7 not only do does she take calls and responds and and shares the information to the appropriate people but she also potentially in the time of Crisis where a student is sending in a tip she's responding to whoever uh is sending in a tip as well and definitely keeping us informed and and um dispatching the appropriate people uh to meet the needs of whoever is sending those tips and I will just say this although we've seen an increase in threats here in Durham Public Schools uh and that it typically happens anytime there is a mass shooting uh around the country typically around one or two weeks after that you sent to
you tend to see duplicates or what some may call copycats of of what happens and sometimes it's just they're they're cutting past and then they just insert their um school's name in there uh however we do take each and every one of those threats serious some of some of them are generated um here in in Durham and once we are alerted of it uh we investigate and involve our law enforcement Partners as as well and so whether it's uh whether students are viewing it as a prank uh whether students are viewing it as an opportunity to maybe get out of school uh it it it can have some serious consequences obviously we have to follow our student uh discipline policies but most importantly um students can receive charges and there's conversations about parents receiving charges as well but the concern for me is the impact of the students future the student if engaging in these activities may not be able to pursue their dream uh in the field of work or or in college and so we've um
been partnering with um Chief Burkhead uh Chief Andrews I'm sorry sheriff Burkhead um police chief Andrews and our other law enforcement Partners we've been on calls with uh North Carolina uh the state department as well as the FBI in North Carolina and what they shared with us was that um they have these um anytime there's a threat to life they they call those Guardians and so last year during um a certain period of time maybe the first 35 days of school there were 236 Guardian calls seven of them involved schools this year there were 286 Guardian call same time frame and 58 of them involve schools and so if you think about the resources that it takes from a law enforcement standpoint the amount of money and time and resources and the and the fact that it's taking away our Law Enforcement Officers if it is indeed a prank from what they need to be doing in the community so I would encourage our parents I encourage our students um students first of all think before you
post there's no such thing as something going away um someone will it's going to be out there and someone can take screenshots of it and they will find you parents continue to talk to your your students as well about the seriousness of this because ultimately we want to make sure that they are making appropriate decisions so that their future uh will not be ruined so um I wanted to share uh with our families um some just follow up on some information we share with our families and you go to the next slide or maybe do am I controlling it okay I wanted to follow up and share with our our families uh in in the community some of the district's Transportation challenges our families have experienced issues as it relates to Reliable bus services and adjustment to routes um we are not where we need to be but we are making progress toward better efficiency as of September 12th all students that were waiting on bus assignments have been routed and we are now managing new requests and updates in
addition in talking to uh Matthew Palmer and and Joe Harris they are also beginning to consolidate uh some routes in an effort to improve efficiency our transportation to Department continues to address the challenges related to bus driver shortages and increased demand while working to ensure that students arrive to school safely and on time most recently our operations leadership team conferenced this week with edog executive leadership team and the remaining um on the remaining technology migration issues and if you're aware or recall edog is the software program that um we use to what parents can download to find out where the buses are what time the route arrive what time the buses arrive to them and what time the um kids arrive to school and so as a result of that call with the edog leadership team they will be here boots on the ground as they should be uh our transportation services will be working with them over the next couple of weeks to test and evaluate our GPS and tablet uh functionality
basically doing some problem uh scoping and then we are inviting them to come to our board meeting to provide an update to our board and our community on the action steps that they've taken uh to ensure that we are resolving these Transportation um issues so that will be at our October 10th um board meeting I want to ensure this community I want to ensure parents uh I want to ensure students that we are committed to solving these problems uh we have to ensure that our students get to school safely and on time as you know that's can and will impact academics and so I want to first of all acknowledge the um burden that this has caused for some families in terms of getting their students to school uh there's been some cost implications for for families but also want to thank our families for continuing to express their concerns and letting us know uh of any issues and I want to thank our families for their partnership as we work towards a permanent solution we also again invite any interested parties to apply to be a DPS bus driver uh and be a driving force
literally um for change for our Scholars next slide please as our student community grows so does meal participation in DPS our community eligibility provision or you may have known it as C that participation means that all DPS students eat breakfast and lunch for free and we know the importance of a good nutritious meal at the beginning of the day and during the day and its impact on uh academics and just students overall uh Health this is a benefit to our students and a benefit to our families and we are proud to fuel our Scholars daily for free to date as a result of C we've saw an increase in part in participation so you may ask how many more meals are we serving each day I'm so glad you ask we are serving 3,000 more meals each and every day because of our C program that is
huge and not to mention uh We've launched new featuring locally sourced ingredients and healthier options uh and I'm also told that the Burrito Bar uh is a hit and I will tell you when I visit schools and go into the cafeteria uh the pizza that they have now doesn't look like the pizza I had when I was in school and I was walking with the principal and I couldn't pay attention to the principal because I was looking at the pizza and so we're super excited that more of our Scholars are taking advantage of uh breakfast and and lunch next slide please look at that happy face right um also excited to announce the semi-finalist for principal of the Year all of whom have demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to their schools congratulations to my principal my kids's principal rather Terence Covington of Neil middle yay Terence has a fan club in here Kendall dorsy of WT WG Pearson Elementary you can clout they deserve it Jennifer Hower of
Easley Elementary Dr Teresa mcgaan of Lake View middle and my good fraternity brother Anthony White of Brockton Brockton Middle School we certainly look forward to sharing our finalist and our 2425 principal of the year in coming weeks next slide please now I also want to provide a quick snapshot of our achievements noted uh in the most recent release of our 2324 accountability results from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction we will share more data uh next month during our board workshop on October 10th but here are some highlights over 80% of all Durham Public Schools met or exceeded growth during 2324 school year say that again over 80% of all Durham Public Schools met or exceeded growth ining the 23 24 school year five of five of the schools in the district have been ranked among the top schools
in overall growth in the state that is huge it's right here in Duran Public Schools uh JD Clement Early College was ranked seventh among the states get this 2593 schools for academic growth Merrick Moore Elementary city of medicine Academy and shwood githens middle and Carrington Middle were ranked in the top 100 of schools and 17 of our DPS schools ranked among the top 20% in academic growth out of the entire number of schools in the state so that is a huge accomplishment um much too not much to celebrate however we still have much work to do and so we will continue um with that work next slide please during Public Schools is also proud to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month across our district as our Scholars are hosting events and our schools are hosting events and programs celebrating the rich contributions of Hispanic and latinx Community September
15th through October 15th so we want to continue to celebrate and honor the many contributions that all of our Hispanic and latinx um individuals have brought to dur and public schools next slide September marks uh National attendance Awareness Month highlighting the importance of consistent School attendance we know that increased student engagement yields positive results in attendance every single day counts uh as we will continue to stress attendance as it yields results for our students so we're not just going to going to talk about attendance during the month of September we're going to talk about attendance for the remainder of the year you know there's a reason that the that the district produces school calendars yes we want you to know when school start and when school's end but we also want to let you know when there's a break that you can schedule those do those doctor's appointments because even if even if it's an excuse um absent students still miss a tremendous amount of of um academics so please schedule those doctor's appointments and other appointments um around those days that we're off next slide in addition to this important work
uh I've continued to ACC myself to Duran public schools and our community of strong Advocates and supporters I've already visited 35 schools engaging with students um around their work talking to our Educators and spending time with principles to learn about the district and understand the meaning behind hash we are DPS I've also had the pleasure to connect with several of our community members and elected officials just early as uh this these past couple of days um uh board member board Vice chair Jessica Carter uton is and I just got off a plane visiting uh Minneapolis with some other uh Durham city and Durham County Partners um just learning from Minneapolis and so that was a huge opportunity for uh us to just continue to um talk about the work um also and that's also as as mentioned early where um board member Mr tab is uh he's still there checking out you know he's an artist so he's there U checking out some of the art there in Minneapolis to to learn from them as well also Dr King uh is there as well so I'm encouraged and
net this concludes my remarks thank you so much thank you Dr Lewis uh colleagues the next item on our
agenda is approval of the minutes from I'm sorry agenda review and approval move approval of the agenda as presented colleagues I'd like to pull an item from consent sorry about that um I'd like to pull item Toc repair and renovation Lottery fund requests and and add it uh 5B under operation Services second is that okay I oh oh I accept that as friendly amendment of course yeah thanks second it's been moved by Miss buer secondary by Miss Chavez to um amend the agenda and approve
it uh to move item 2C to become item 5B um all we have to do a Voice vote because Mr tab is virtual um is there any discussion Mr tab your virtual we're going to start with you when we do roll call are you ready yes please state your name and you're this is this is board member Wendell Tab and I vote I thank you Miss Chavez hi Miss Carter uton hi Miss Beyer hi Miss haral go hi Miss hi and I vot I uh the agenda is amended passes unanimously thank you now we can get to the minutes um go ahead move approval of the minutes from August 22nd
2024 second it's been moved by Miss buer second by Miss Chávez uh to approve the agenda from August 22nd 2024 is there any discussion Mr tab this is board member Wendell Tab and I vote I miss Chavez I miss Carter uton hi miss berer I miss Harold gof I miss umet I and I vote I the minutes pass unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda is general public comment um I'll do a quick review of the rules and then we'll get right to it a quick review of the rules please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organiz ation second speakers are asked to present their comments in this in two minutes when the yellow light
comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which will indicate your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced an open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with speakers our first Speaker tonight is Tamara Stanley followed by Wilma Oliver and JB hen
Miss Stanley yes I'm ready start thank you I thought I had one minute but this is awesome so good good evening H my name is Tamara quick Stanley I'm the regional manager vice president um of the triangle region for Self-Help Credit Union and as a hillside alumni and a parent of three Durham public students uh two at Pearson Town one at Jordan I stand with over 400 community members to request the naming of a Durham Public School building after former mayor and county commissioner William V Bell mayor Bell was instrumental in creating Duram public schools by merging city and county systems to ensure equity for all students his legacy of serving service includes 12 years as County Commissioner and 16 years as mayor he inspired many including myself a little black girl from McDougal terce by believing in me
and supporting my growth honorable Mayor Bill Bell while he is still alive and living with us today will highlight his contributions to our community so please please join us in recognizing his selfless service by naming a Durham Public School building after him and remember without former mayor Bill Bell there will be no durm Public Schools thank you thank you in addition to this we also have um the petition with over 400 signatures that you all will receive as well as letters from former mayor Steve sh um durm committee on the Affairs of black people as well as the West Community Foundation okay thank you thank you good evening my name is wima Oliver I'm just here to speak on behalf of our Educators and Durham Public School staff
uh on this last meeting when I attended we know that Duram uh School of the Arts was passed uh even though the construction cost is very high and um it wasn't really a lot of concern about the budgeting for that school um and we already know that the final as buil calls can be more but I want to make sure that there is a comprehensive plan to pay teachers and staff fairly for working in stressful and deplorable conditions such as no air conditioning and leaking roofs um America has lost too many of our Educators and staff to gun violence throughout America so we have yet to receive a clear transparent and Equitable plan of action for Durham Public Schools staff pay structure I hope you bring the teachers to the table and those who are uh working in the schools to help with this
plan uh to show that we do appreciate them so more than just giving them their little gift card but show them in the paycheck as well thank you good evening board members uh my name is JB hen and I'm the school social worker at carington middle school and I have a master's of Social Work degree as I stated last week many of us School social workers fought alongside our fellow teachers and classified staff to get this new budget passed for this school year we were under the impression that we were going to be compensated for our masters of social work degrees however over the past two weeks weeks it truly does feel that DPS leadership and the Board of Education um just doesn't value or appreciate School social workers that's just the general vibe that I'm getting from my colleagues right now y'all my school social work license
2 million in the budget designated for Master's pay not enough to include us if so then we have been misled and we want you to figure out a solution not for next school year please I'm begging y'all not for next school year for this school year please find a way to make it work um so School social workers and others
with relevant master's degrees can be fairly compensated and please finally with my last few seconds please pass the meet and confer policy y'all the workers so that workers the heartbeat of DPS can actually be at the table with y'all making these decisions thank you Tabitha Jones Evans Sabrina verine ner just want to get a good look at everybody [Music] hello I'm a product of Durham public schools from the 70s and the 80s ove Elementary Neil Junior High and Southern Durham High School I moved away for 17 years I just moved
back I worked in elections technology in the private sector I am now a career technology educ educator with Durham Public Schools I'm experiencing my own issues but I'm not here to discuss that I'm here because I want to give back I want to give back I want those students I want to share my knowledge and work experience of the tabias that are coming through the other tabias the toms the Mar's but let me tell you what changed the tide for me a month ago my students came in the classroom room and they said Miss Evans Miss Evans we we don't have we don't even have teachers in this class we don't have teachers in that CL I mean I was like what are you talking about they said nobody cares about us we don't have teachers nobody cares that's right you don't know about that nobody cares
anything about about us and I had to stop for a minute and I said oh my God this crisis that's going on in Durham is starting to be a reflection on this students the students are actually thinking that their value and worth is nothing because they don't value their Educators they don't value their certified workers they value no nothing or nobody and I'm like this can't be so Miss Evans nobody wants to be a teacher they don't get paid any money thank you good evening my name is Sabrina Vine I've been in education for 29 years can you pull the mic closer to you please thank you I've been in education for 29 years
and I love education I knew I would always be an educator when I taught my first Kindergarten class how to read a complete sentence I just saw one of these kindergarteners at a teacher viiew Year banquet and he was getting a beginning teacher of the year award um so this career has come full circle for me I'm currently an interventionist at city of medicine where I offer instructional support to other teachers and I love it I love sharing all that I've learned all that I have as an instructor with other teachers who are leading our profession but I'm here to ask you to recognize our Union because just like we seek to amplify our students voices our teachers voices deserve to be Amplified as well currently we have an erosion of trust between our teachers and those who are making decisions that greatly impact Our Lives if we had a meet and confer policy we could reestablish this trust our hope
is that you would value our contribution to the teaching and learning profession for Duram Public Schools a allow us this seat at the table just build a bigger table for us allow us to lead in our profession our vision is that you would include us in making the decisions that greatly impact our lives and the lives of our students and so we ask that you would just simply build a bigger table make some room for us um allow our voices to be heard as well um allow us the ability and the opportunity to make decisions that greatly impact us thank you thank you ner Dora Alberto Daniel km and Kelly
mford hello sorry I'm back again harassing you guys but you know so my name is no um and I'm a DPS parent of two incredible kids who have attended DPS their whole lives um our kiddos have really good experience with DPS Educators DPS staff because of the folks that show up really energized and committed to these kids every single day and the DPS staff who have actually been the most supportive um and the most helpful for them in their educational career are the ones that were already deeply connected to community and already engaged and organizing with the Union our youngest actually just transferred to a new school um and this is a kid who loves School loves learning is very beloved by his his teachers some of who I just saw outside um but now he comes home saying please do not send me back um I don't know if I'm actually a good student um and it's been really
hard um his performance and his identity as a good student who gets good grades is really starting to suffer he he's not having as positive of an experience at this new school even though the staff are really incredible and hardworking but the energy is different this is a school that's on the edge of the city um really kind of disconnected and I think that makes a big difference and my assessment is that the staff feel unseen and have resigned themselves to being unheard and I wish they felt more empowered and more connected and part of a bigger Community um like his teachers previously at Lakewood in his commment sense that when people feel supported and empowered at work they can actually show up that way supporting and empowering our kids when we walk into businesses that pay low wages and do not care about their staff it is very obvious it's obvious when employees feel empowered um and it's obvious when they don't and I think that there's an opportunity right now in front of you that would ensure that DPS Staff feel
valued and feel empowered and feel listen to is that my time thanks thank you I'm going to ask that you come on in line up at the podium Dora Alberto Daniel km Kelly Mumford Alberto hang on just one second yes mhm
you also get four minutes well two for you two for her [Laughter] Alberto MPS [Music] kind
Dan d
good afternoon everybody um I have two minutes to make you all go to sleep but well my name is uh Dora I am the parent of students from DPS I have two those children that have been in DPS and I want to say that I have had a good experience actually an excellent experience with DPS and who doesn't have like stories to tell with teachers and students well I have one of my children when he was in kindergarten uh kindergarten he had a teacher he was a great teacher when my student was going to pass to first grade um the teacher was moved to fifth grade that was the grade that he was supposed to be teaching but he told my son I'll be waiting for you in fifth grade and every time that my child will move to the next grade he will be thinking I'm a grade closer to get with Mr Daniels and I feel that this is a great experience because my child that was his motivation to go to school because he was going to be getting a great closer to go to Mr Daniels um after that um another story we had a family loss and there was this
social worker and this social worker work me with my son he actually um the social worker gave my son a notebook and um then social worker told him to work uh write their their feelings uh write what they were feeling what they wanted to say and this was also a nice experience that I had with DPS so I want to say that I believe in the system I believe in DPS but also I believe in the teachers so I feel that now is the time to listen to the teachers uh we see the tables we have all these teachers and it's time to listen to them and what they have to say and what they are doing for the system thank you Daniel km Kelly Mumford Andrew Peach uh good evening members of the dur Public School Board my name is Daniel Kemp and I'm a science teacher at Riverside High School tonight I want to take a moment to highlight the importance of recognizing our majority Union and in doing so address the dire
working conditions that many DPS workers face every day for too long Educators support staff and other vital workers within durm public public schools have been operating in environments that are unsustainable we're talking about overcrowded classrooms broken air conditioning In the Heat of the summer and inadequate supplies that Force teachers to dip into their own Pockets just to provide their bare minimum for students these conditions are not just inconveniences they directly impact the quality of Education our students receive beyond the physical working conditions there's also a deep issue with respect and lack of voice in decision-making topown mandates often fail to consider the realities we face on the ground for example curriculum changes are rolled out without proper consultation leaving teachers scrambling to adapt without the resources or training necessary to meet new expectations we're given directives to manage discipline but with little guidance or support leading to chaos in classrooms that disrupts learning for everyone our support staff bus drivers cafeteria workers custodians are also overworked and underappreciated many of
them earn poverty level wages while being expected to keep our schools running smoothly we've all seen the impact of this underfunding and neglect delays in bus routes dirty classrooms and long lines in the cafeteria the burden is on them to perform essential duties underg that no one should have to toate these work conditions are symptomatic of a broader issue of respect for workers who make DPS run we ask for a voice in decision-making when we advocate for transparency we are not just seeking better conditions for ourselves we are fighting to ensure that our students are learning an environment that are safe clean and supportive we can't provide the education they deserve when we are warned down by system by systemic issues this isn't just a question of policy it it's about bringing workplace democracy into dur Public Schools over 3,600 workers and 1,300 community members endorse a policy that will honor union rights and give workers a real voice in shaping our schools there this is why we need a real seat at the table please adopt me thank
you Kelly Mumford Andrew Peach Jamal nisbit good evening board and superintendent Dr Lewis my name is Kelly Mumford I am an ECI in the cat program at the new Mary massenberg elementary school as well as a proud D AE member this is my second year here at DPS I'm coming from New Jersey with 20 years of experience I expected a lot of change when I moved here to North Carolina because it my was my first time you know moving south but some of these changes surprised me some in a good way some in not so good way one of the first things I noticed when I got here was all the black people especially black women in leadership positions until I got to dorham school I had never had a black principal before in my 20 years in education this was really surprising and exciting to me I felt proud and impressed I still feel proud and excuse me and impressed when the spark emails come out and I see all
of women people of color get in these positions when I first saw this it made me really hopeful that this would be a school district that shares my beliefs and equality and a place that all people would be treated fairly where all students can be successful and crucially where all workers voices will be heard sadly that was not the experience of DPS leadership last year throughout the pay debacle and the disrespect I felt as a classified staff member was very upsetting first I had 20 years of experience erased in an email then even though they gave me my years back I still had my pay cut by hundreds of dollars a month then when our Union X for a seed at the table so we could work together on these issues and and start rebuilding trust I was shocked and disappointed by how resistant DPS leadership was and still months later there is hesitation when all we've been asking for is to be treated as equals and get the same rights as workers everywhere else to hear this hesitation coming from black leadership just doesn't make sense to me with all the progress and Progressive values here in
DPS with How Far We've Come In terms of diverse leadership T tonight we need to take the next step forward on workers rights let's not continue with this gym prolog instructionist speech therapists therapists therapists psychologists office staff cafeteria staff and custodial staff
not join to listen to us
thank you Jal Christy clim Heidi Joe headin all right uh that was great um good evening board um Dr Lewis uh everybody in the vicinity uh my name is Jamal Nisbet and uh I'm an elementary school educator uh at Hope right now I've been uh teaching for 15 years uh nine years in New Jersey six years in North Carolina um and so to start off um as you all know collective bargaining is banned in this state right it's outlawed there no doubt in my mind that you guys are all aware of that um but oftentimes I wonder if uh you guys really like deeply reflect on and no disrespect um on why like why is it banned in this state you know why is it banned
um you know Across the Nation you know there are laws in place they're federal laws so it's federal laws that give citizens the right to form to join or to assist a labor organization for collective bargaining purposes and to work together with co-workers to improve terms and conditions of employment so this is the right across the nation um but in North Carolina we don't get that right like there there's a problem with that so I I mean I'm baffled by it so tonight you know um meet and confer is not collective bargaining but it's the closest thing that we have to it and you know I'm calling on you guys to uh to be Trailblazers um to be a light the state looks at North Carol at uh Durham for leadership um historically this County Greensboro other Counties have been Trail lasers and pushing back unfair
laws um and so I'm just calling for you guys tonight to just be brave um join with all of the co-workers you've seen the work that's been going on um and to give us those rights thank you see Clen Heidi Joe hin Katie mcgo hello I'm Christy Clen physical therapist I'm here on behalf of classified employees es um certified employees those folks in Dae and those folks who are not Dae members um I've sent you an email youall already know my feelings on the decision you made last week with the EC supplement and the Master's pay actually I should have said hello I'm Dr Christy clim um I have a MERS in teaching if I was still a teacher I would get Master's pay went back and got my doctorate which is entry level that's not recognized and I'm paid on a bachelor's level you aren't even discuss ing classified positions that require higher degrees
for what we do um on a daily weekly basis I talk to Transportation Miss Peggy Miss Melanie folks in finance Miss chenice data managers Rosemary folks in the warehouse Kendrick Mario entree security it nurses Spanish interpreters Vanessa was just here tonight Mr Pablo I saw today custodians Miss Anna Mr Mario Mr B CNS workers Miss Nikki Miss Linda IAS shishi Miss Cobb Miss Williams I could go on and on from element from prek to Elementary to Middle to high school every day every week I talk to these folks I ask them not only about a students and how we can work together to help the students but I ask them how they feel what can I do to help you what can I take back to Dae are some of those folks I just named Dae members yes or is every one of them no but that doesn't
dictate what information I take back to the leaders within Dae for us to discuss and hear opinions how many of these folks do y'all talk to on a daily or a weekly basis cabinet members how many of these folks do y'all talk to on a weekly basis who talked to EC to say who should be even discussed for a supplement nobody consider me me and confer do the right thing thank you good evening I'm Dr Heidi Joe hetland a physical therapist I do have um a doctorate degree I had a been uh because of my age I'm have a bachelor as my entry level degree went back from my doctorate I also have an advanced degree that is um related to PT but definitely not necessary and does enhance what that I do I want to thank everybody that has consistently been here since last January saying the same thing over and over again and speaking up for people who can't be here because they have families to be with or perhaps they're at their second or their third
jobs that they need to have to make a living sadly during this time since January DPS employees have less transparency about the budget and finances which um honestly didn't seem possible um transparency is the quality of being easily seen through to be open and honest and I think classified certified employees all would agree that does not define DPS the opposite of transparent is opaque not allowing light to shine through synonyms are muddy murky cloudy dark that presents a more accurate picture of the budget our salaries and even things such as Employer headcounts that come from HR I watched last week's meeting at home and from the body language and facial expressions that were being shown clearly on the screen it's apparent that there is a lot of mistrust animosity and confusion among the key players who hold employees salaries or livelihoods in their hands we hire top-notch Consultants and we can do that from now until the end of time but if DPS doesn't provide them with accurate reliable And Timely information the work of the Consultants doesn't matter nor does the
money we have spent on them doesn't matter how much money DPS has or how much money we don't have how many certified and classified employees we have who has doctorate master's degrees and who's getting paid for them and who is not without transparency that can only be achieved through meet and confer none of that matters if you're not willing to sit at the table with the people in the voices who are in the schools who are talking to custodians working with the children working with children with special needs it doesn't matter if you are not willing to sit with us and it's past time for you all to agree to meet and convert so that day does not come thank you thank you go ahead I've been here so often I don't need an introduction um after nearly two years of advocating for my school I finally had a board member reach out to me and we met last Saturday we sat down with my colleagues and we got to express our
it's not my experience because I chose traditional because I knew we would not follow through we sat down with my affected colleagues and she got to see the Surplus shelves desks and tables she took pictures of the room with all of the boxes she got to see our reality she's the only person in this room that voted no and I'm so proud of her because she had the foresight that I did her draw nearly hit the floor when she realized that after 30 years of Excellence with DPS in the monor program um that they've yet to create the curriculum that aligns with all of the stuff that you buy in the map she was shocked when she left she said help us on the way and I trust her do you know why I trust her it's because she showed up she
listened and I believe her if we had had a meet and confer in 2023 the first time I stood here we would not be in this situation this is not a little river problem this is a this is a DPS problem you trust this side of the room and it's been a long time since their boots have been in the ground on the ground in the mud in the muck and it is time that you give the B power to us talk to us listen to us meet and confer Dr Lewis as a parent please I'm your ultimate stakeholder thank you thank you Ariana Johnson withi Christy
Patterson and Micah tweet meire Ariana whisk ECI I see some new faces before me this evening which means some of your colleagues have already felt the sting of being out of touch with one's constituencies last time I spoke to you I reminded you of who our enemies were but tonight I am here to remind you of who your allies are one of the most memorable and angering moments for me last spring was reading the email you sent out before the first school closures and days of protest which read we appeal to everybody in Durham Public Schools to remember our mission and our commitment to providing our students
4 million public school students in the United States lest you think we have uh forgotten our classified siblings that you meant um to
set against us we stand United that we will not rest until the injustices upon them have been rectified their pay is restored and trust is established by recognizing the meet and confer policy that was G agreed upon when I say Union you say Union Union good afternoon good evening some of you may know me as the loud one the resiliant one the passionate one the one that comes in with all the fancy quotes and rhetoric well I don't have any of that today I'm truly exhausted um how was your day because my day let's see I had a student who suffered from anxiety attack and because she was hungry I had another student who acted out because the behavior at um his behavior exemplified something's going at home just to hear that he was getting abused
and I had to get on the phone with CPS with my social worker um who's amazing so let me reintroduce myself I'm Christy Patterson I'm a EC special programs teacher at carington middle school I am a river side women's flag football coach I am a we are Queens coordinator I am a CDL license holder to drive the bus what's the common denominator our students I've met with a lot of you and a lot of you have said multiple times that the student is at the base of all of our decisions but your actions contradict that where my actions don't I live eat breathe my students and tonight you will be presented with two meet and confer policies one which has our student at the center you know Dr Lewis I respect you and one of the conversations we had you said I'm not worried about having a job
because I can get in the classroom tomorrow I respect that and I hope you stand beside it because if this policy is not passed you're going to have to freshen up your license and for those who don't have teachers license you might want to go get them because you're going to be in these classrooms teaching them because you won't have have Educators in them anymore hello my name is Micah Hunter tweet Meyer Durham Association of Educators I'm here as a proud Union member and proud Union president on the precipice of a historic night for Durham's Public School workers tonight we are closer to achieving formal Union recognition and a meet and confer policy the goals of the meet and confer policy are to facilitate a more collaborative relationship between you
Administration Employees the policy's aim is to improve learning and life outcomes for our students make DPS a highly competitive employer that attracts and retains staff achieve High staff and school morale and Advance the mission of the schools our students and communities deserve all through the transparent development and Improvement of policy and policy implementation as you prepare to discuss the proposed policy we encourage you to reflect on the history that we could all be making together if you vote to adopt our meet and confer policy we would become the first North Carolina School District to honor union rights despite the Jim Crow law that has disenfranchised our Public School workers for 65 years together durm can lead North Carolina as we often do and often say we do and lead the change towards undoing
what the NAACP has called our last Jim Crow law BPS workers are ready for a formal seat at the table we are ready to engage in work that improves conditions for our students and our co-workers and we are ready for the hope that things will get better thank you the next item on our agenda is a consent agenda colleagues Madam chair I move approval of the consent agenda items item a overnight field trips item Item B change order number 15 increase to GMP contract for Murray massenberg Elementary School item C change order number not
the other one c repair and renovation Lottery funds request see we move to the discussion which one did you move the that's why I skipped that one okay the repair and renovation wait mine are mine might be labeled differently than yours let's see okay what tell me the topic please Madam chair of the one repair and renovation Lottery F let me try it again Adam item a overnight field trips Item B change order number 15 increase to GMP contract for Mary massenberg Elementary School item C next change order number five GMP f for New Durham School of the Arts item e College and Career ready Labs purchase and item F CTE contract for services with West Staff Workforce Solutions LLC hopefully that was
accurate is there a second okay it's been moved by Miss buyer second dat by Miss Carda-Auten to approve the consent agenda items a b the D and F uh we have to do a roll call vote is there any discussion Mr tab this is board member Wendell Tab and I vote I miss Chavez hi Miss Carter Aton hi Miss Beyer hi Miss Harrell Goff hi Miss Umstead hi and I vote I a motion passes unanimously thank you so much the next item on our agenda is the next two items come from the chief of staff uh presentation a is swim for Charlie partnership this time I'd like to invite Dr kleene back to the podium the board heard a little bit from
Dr about Dr kleene from Miss Shea Cooper when he received his spark pin but I wanted to give a little more background before he starts and before he starts his presentation Dr kleene is a retired family physician um serving in that role for over 33 years he now coaches a master swim group with Carolina Aquatics and he has taught swimming to people of all ages he was a head coach of an aged group summer league team and he has served the community as a member of multiple Health boards and advisory councils and I am honored to finally be able to have him present to this board the great work that is he is doing he came to I believe I don't know when we met but um Dr Klein basically I met with him uh regarding his idea about swim for Charlie and Durham public schools and when and he's going to get into some details but when he explained to me the statistics on black and brown children's drowning deaths I was sold so and I'm
very proud that we and Durham have invested the time and energy and resources to make sure that our children are able to swim and be water safe but with that Dr Klein please thank you so much uh good evening board members and superintendent Lewis thank you for inviting me to to share swim for Charlie the Dr Charles Vander horse water safety initiative which is changing the lives of many DPS students swim for Charlie is a Community Partnership addressing the public health issue of lack of water safety skills in North Carolina students um next slide please um here's the background drowning is one of the leading causes of death 79% of children in households with incomes less than 50,000 have little to no swimming ability 64% of black 45% of Latino 40% of white children have little to no swimming ability this is a problem that cuts across the entire Community
disproportionately affecting um those of low income and those folks of color um 10 people drown every day in the United States 10 times that many near drownings occur um so we have a defined public health problem the beauty of this let's look at the final bullet point swimming lessons reduce the likelihood of childhood drownings by 88% so we have a known public health problem and a very effective treatment plant all we have to do is implement it okay um uh fortunately oh um so to address this problem swim for Charlie was founded with a mission to equip children with life-saving water safety skills by providing a high quality water safety program to second grade North Carolina students what do we mean by high quality we mean that our instructors are trained and we have a very low student
instructor ratio that over the past two years has been about 3: one imagine if you had a classroom a teacher teaching three students how effective would that be okay um next slide please um so what our program is is the students receive eight free costs zero 40 minute lessons at the pool along with a 10-minute water safety video and discussion that's done at the school so the the teachers at the schools um um show uh one and a half to four minute American Red Cross whales Tales video and then they have a discussion of the the pool rule of the day that's a water safety topic um uh this program is based on American Red Cross curriculum it follows dpi's North Carolina healthful living standards and is therefore part of the Children's Health and PE curriculum instead of having gym in the gym for those eight days they have gym at the pool and if you've seen these
children in action at the pool you can know that the amount of EXC size that they get in our program compared to what they get in the gym no not taking anything away from the gym but way more way more okay um uh this is our program has followed a proven model that uh has been in place since 2012 between Guilford County Schools and the greensbor Aquatic Center they've graduated maybe I think they're up to about 12,000 students they have 60 elementary schools they have about 40 of them on board um next plot slide please um Dr Charles vandor who this is named for was an infectious disease physician a leader humanitarian who used his knowledge and compassion to solve difficult medical academic and societal problems he was a champion for those most vulnerable and he had a deep love of children he was a lifelong pool and Open Water competitive swimmer he died
unexpectedly uh in 2019 and his friends founded swim for Charlie in his honor that's why we're called Swim for Charlie next slide please um we are as I said earlier a Community Partnership and who is that partnership well we started in 2020 in Orange County schools with the Orange County Sports plex three Title One schools we lost two years to the pandemic during that time we were fortunate to make a um partnership with you DPS uh along with Hollow Rock Racket and Swim Club and North Carolina Central University um that was in 2022 2023 um the next year we grew uh to add more schools uh with uh Durham Parks and Recreations Edison Johnson um Duke Brody Aquatic Center Hope Valley Country Club and this year we've also added the Duke
Faculty Club so we've grown from 194 students the first year 788 the second year 1165 last year and we hope to put 1800 kids through the water this year um uh and so what does this partnership mean this partnership means that all three Partners have skin in the game and certainly DPS has ponied up their skin in the game uh the schools provide transportation background checks on all instructors a male and a female chaperon and lots of logistical support at the schools with the principles the teachers and staff um what are the pools provide um a clean safe venue at no cost we don't have to Prov pay any um rental fees for the pool they provide lifeguards and and sometimes instructors and so some people say well hey you have the pools they have the children you have the you schools have the children the pools have the have the
pool space well why why couldn't you just do it together what do you need a middleman for well because of course if you could have done it it would have been done okay and um and so what do we provide we provide a staff dedicated to making sure that the logistics of the program work for all the participants all the partners we provide swimsuits and towels to those students who don't um have them every child gets a mesh bag to carry their suit and towel a certificate of completion goes to all students attending more than half the lessons a skills evaluation form uh going through all the different skills that the child learned uh along with uh some uh uh narrative information on how what their child did well what they could do a little bit better and I understand one of the board members children has gone through the program and I hope you've got that skills evaluation for um and on the back of that it lists some water safety tips so how these children can stay safe at any
aquatic venue it's information to the parents um and then we um uh give a plaque to each new school in the program and in fact I presented a plaque just this morning to principal Hall of Club Boulevard Elementary School um I don't know if you've seen any of these plaques but they're quite lovely um okay uh we also uh recruit and train instructors we have over 150 instructors and we need that many um to keep our our student instructor ratio low uh and we also then we want to make this zero cost to the pools so we reimburse the pools for their uh lifeguard and instructor time that comes out of our money um can we do the next slide please um so what's the history of uh swim for Charlie for DPS it started in the fall of 2020 when nccu associate Vice Chancellor Johnny Sutherland uh
connected me with uh DPS Board of Ed member mini fort Brown I'm sure you know that name okay to assist with expanding swim for Charlie to Durham Public Schools many set up a meeting between me and superintendent Pascal mbenga who agreed to support the program then DPS Chief of Staff thank you T uh reviewed and signed off on the memorandum of understanding between uh swim for Charlie DPS and the different pools uh chief of schools uh Stacy Stewart followed by assistant superintendents of elementary schools Kimberly Ferell and Julie Spencer have continued to ensure the smooth execution of the program um uh okay next slide please um so we don't just have this program we have it because we want to make sure that we're making making a difference and so we look at two sets of metrics we look at participation metrics
and we look at achievement metrics we want to make sure we're reaching a population that really needs this 70% 77% of students start at level zero they're fearful of the water or level one they're not fearful but they have no water safety skills those two groups of children 80 almost 80% of your students if we put them in the water day one they would be a statistic um they are not water safe about a quarter of the students have some basic water safety skills uh 1555 DPS students have participated in the program which is an 87% participation so we offer this program to 100% of second graders in um in the schools that we are part of um and 87% of the parents sign the permission slip and the children show up and we have a 91% part uh completion rate what that means me is the children once they come they continue to come because they find
it's valuable uh next slide please um and so we don't want to know that we're only uh that we're uh getting reaching the right population we want to make sure we're making a difference 5 53% of those early Learners um get to level two or higher they can um get from a front to a back float independently pull themselves out of the water and they have the skills and the knowledge to save themselves from water over their head head uh we'd like that number to be higher but let's look at the denominator in that denominator we take all comers so we have kids who will never be independently water Sav severe developmental delays children with missing limbs um uh uh autism um uh we have we take 100% of your students okay um uh 78% of those early Learners even though they maybe not not all of them get to be water safe they're much more comfortable in the water and with maybe a few more lessons from their parents to
get them to schools they'll get to the spot where that water safe 92% of students starting at level two or higher they have some basic skills they improve we make them more resilient in the water so I have I've heard from some parents well my child has some water safety skills why should they do it because 92% of them get better they're much more resilient okay next slide please um oh just before um and so in addition to those those important metrics um uh to contributing to their water safety there are other benefits that have been seen improve stamina okay decrease School absenteeism during the weeks of swim for Charlie and afterwards I've been told that by principles APS teachers and parents um improved confidence and well-being improved academic performance um and here we are are the last slide uh it takes a community to make children water safe thank you very much for giving me that
lovely spark pin I love that but it's not me okay who is involved in this and let me just tell you if any Link in this isn't isn't part of it it doesn't happen school board members if the board says no it doesn't happen if the superintendent says no it doesn't happen the principls the teachers the bus drivers other school staff whole administrators aquatic directors lifeguards instructors all of these people our staff our our board members um our hundreds of donors and granting agencies that allow us to provide the things that we doing so it can be zero cost the volunteer instructors youve saw several of them back there our our program manager Valerie and uh um instructor Donna um uh make this happen um parents and Guardians they don't sign the permission slip they child doesn't get in there the the students so it takes 7800 children I mean people to make 2200 children water save okay so
it's not me it's those folks uh can we just go through this next few slides pretty quickly so these are the skills we show your children how to blow bubbles hold breath in the water it's for some people oh yeah it's a big little big if you take a really F uh scared child that's a big deal getting their face wet okay next slide um this is a be look at that slide in the middle going down uh hopefully your children look like that in the pool they're raising their hand demonstrate a beautiful front float come up you can see she's not wearing goggles No Cap we want to make this a water safety program if she fell in the lake or her attention Pond she doesn't have her goggles on she doesn't have a cap we want her to to not panic we want her to know what she should do and there you have some cute kids floating on their front independently on the back we can see back float and these instructors are showing different techniques on how to make these children's comfortable in the water on their back next slide
please uh look at the smiles on these children's faces and so we drill into their heads you get into the water and you're in water over your head and you're getting tired what are you supposed to do and they'll yell at you get into a back flow that's what they're doing that will make them water safe next slide please get them from a front to a back float they fall into the water and if they can't back float that's it there's statistic that's a huge skill there's instructor Jade uh nccu grab doing it elementary backstroke uh so they can get easy very little effort next slide uh and that's ball game so you got more um uh you've got a a a PDF is being sent to you that has some of the comments that are not on the slides and also a few more slides that you can enjoy I'm sorry I took so much time thank you so much you have stepped up to
the plate Durham Community has stepped up to the plate and it just warms my heart thank you so much Dr Klean thank you um Board of swim for Charlie for being here colleagues any other uh thoughts gratitudes to extend Miss buer so I just um want to extend such gratitude to you all and to all of your volunteers and I'm encourage any Community member that is interested in an amazing volunteer opportunity that is uh so much more fun than water aerobics um and if if folks um stop by sometime when y'all are teaching this is one of the most joyful learning experiences I have ever seen and so I'm so proud of of the work that is going on with swim for Charlie so proud to see your numbers increasing to 1800 students and um thank you for sharing your hearts with our
students thank you Miss harof yeah I you mentioned I mentioned my son went through swim for Charlie so I can test ify that not only did he he did he was he looked forward to going school every day that he had swim for Charlie but he also after just that those few sessions that summer he started swimming and we had been working with him he started swimming right after that so it was pretty amazing Miss Carda-Auten I'll just Echo the things so really excited that y'all are here this evening that presentation was beautiful and and heart for I mean I my daughter also went to the program last year and loved it um and um and also I work at school I worked at the school of medicine with um Charlie and so it's so wonderful to see this program um continuing in his name and he would just he would be so happy to see what y'all are doing so thank you for all of your work and the work of everybody
else can I ask you to come to the mic the back of the literature that we send home we tell the parents that they can go to Campus Hills or Edison Johnson and can take their kids there for free certain days after school and Saturday Sunday afternoons and that's just such a great thing that's awesome thank you for sharing thank you Miss umad I just want to Echo the appreciation and I think especially when we think about students of color and this lifesaving skill um our community has been impacted by students who needed the life saving skills in order to um have a different outcome so I just want to say thank y'all I appreciate that thank you the next item on our agenda is the review of policy
2130 Miss Giovani Dr Ry good evening Dr Lewis chair Rogers members of the board this policy is before you for the board's discussion and review and consideration of some some potentially outdated Provisions in the policy and as we work through the various policy updates um we will be bringing forward different policies for the board to consider as this is a policy 2000 which are the board policies um it is generally the practice that board members would lead those discussions versus going to recommendations from Administration on what it is that the board should do so with that um I would like to turn it over to chair Rogers to lead the discussion thank you Dr Giovani colleagues policy 2130 um allows uh board members to seek
reimbursement each board member as I guess it's 2130b three board member communication expenses each board member will be eligible for a mobile device technology supplement to offset the board members official use of a personal mobile device or technology resources the amount of the mobile device supplement will be established by the board as part of annual budget preparation and authorized required by law um this policy was last revised in 2016 when we were uh operating with nights free nights and free weekends and um had PL uh minutes on our cell phone policies don't remember that missad I do but I think in 2016 we had moved past that oh okay
okay um so uh we have colleagues that are seeking reimbursement for technology use but also colleagues that um have been notified that the district could offer us an opportunity for a district issued device which would be in line with our counterparts at the city and at the County uh but we need to understand how much that would cost so uh I'm going to ask Miss Malone to come to the podium or to the table wherever she chooses to be um to speak to the cost of the devices and um what's available for board members um good evening chair Rogers good evening board good evening um superintendent Lewis um the current District standard for uh cell phones for nonr transportation staff um we have available um Apple iPhones 12s um the
62 a month and that includes taxes um we do have these phones available tonight um if the board does choose to make that decision thank you Miss Malone I did have a question um can't remember it now colleagues anybody have any questions for Miss Malone okay so it would not be within our policy right now to issue cell phones but I
know that some board members have requested cell phones um so the question that I have to the board is would we be open to having Miss Malone issue cell phones to board members at the expense that she's just named and do we want them to have mobile hotspots I would like to um I would like to be able to um have the option to have a have the board be able to um be issued a cell phone for um for safety concerns for um um better to be able to be able to you know communicate and and be able to have a place for a community to reach out
better um as opposed to having to use my personal phone um so I would like to have that option as far as the price goes what I'm understanding is that it we could either choose to have a a device issued or we could choose to have reimbursement so I wanted to clarify that if we're using a personal phone for that use so that's up to the board uh uh we would have to wave our current policy in order to have the devices issued so what I would recommend having heard from several board members is um that we wave the current policy and request allow board members to request a phone from Miss Malone or reimbursement for the same cost of the D that DPS is paying for cell pH all right Madam chair can I make a
suggestion yes oh given that the devices would belong to the SE school system and would be returned when the board member no longer needs it or is no longer on the board um I'm not sure that it falls under compensation it's more akin to like the laptops or other because you're borrowing it essentially we don't have a laptop policy okay um so we could certainly add something like that to the policy of just discussing in general that board members would have access to technological devices um the the technology supplement as a reimbursement I think is also I think it is permitted by your current policy but it setting an amount you know that that it would perhaps be C at what the board pays for um its own phones would make sense so if you capita that where do you start it so to me so board member compensation
as you know has to be approved by the Commissioners but I don't think that a reimbursement is compensation it's like reimbursing you for your actual expenses so I would say it is the if you're getting reimbursed for your cell phone use I suppose you could start it at the amount of your bill up to $42 or whatever the the current rate is does that make sense so each individual board member would get a different reimbursement based on their bill and whatever plan that they I say I am assuming that most people sell bills are more than $42 and so most people would get $42 but I think that's open to I I don't know a lot about the logistics of how different board members may have different um I guess what I'm saying is to for it to be an actual reimbursement um The Only Exception here would be like
if there is a board member who doesn't have a cell phone they wouldn't get the reimbursement do that make sense okay but beyond that as long as it's a reasonable amount that is tied to you know an actual expense that you have I think you have some flexibility thank you colleagues any thoughts on next steps emotion Mr Miss Chávez do you you have something yeah I just wanted to say I'm in favor of of um waving this policy at this time but I also think we should update the policy if this is going to be um a a standard thing that is done year toe which I think is makes a lot of sense to have a board or a district issued phone for those who choose to have that so miss Chavez are you offering a
motion um yes my first motion is that I move that we wave this policy in order to allow for board members to um receive a district issued cell phone it's been it's been moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Miss heral G to wave policy 2130 to allow board members to be issued a district cell phone there is discussion Miss Umstead yeah just a couple clarifying points when we wave policy is that the whole policy and there other are there other implications for that it would be my my understanding is the motion is just to wave any portion of that policy that might otherwise not allow this okay and then is there a time frame that we are looking at this should we revisit it from year to year as well and and sorry and should we amend that motion just to be clear around
communication expenses because there's other things around filing for reimbursements and conferences in this policy and I just want to be clear about what we're waving and what we're not waving yes I think that's fine so um the motion um can be to um wave it's B3 that's started the discussion B3 um B3 of policy 2130 in order to allow for board members to receive a cell phone if they choose and I also um I think that putting a time frame on it would be F like a year and then that gives us time to modify the policy could it could it be along with our annual budget absolutely okay all right so can I ask one more
clarifying question we're waving the policy in order for people to actually get a device so with the annual budget that's already in the policy correct around like looking at the supplement for phones that is already in the budget but do we need do we need a different checkpoint for the issuing of a device because those were like two separate issues right so my understanding of the motion was just about the issuing of District owned devices and so then if there's a separate action about the supplement that that would be a second motion did I understand that correctly right okay but also if we do it when we're considering the budget as part of our budget that would be a line item in the board budget and should be expected for the next year if we make that request and then we if we decide we
don't have the money for it then the devices get turned back in or people don't get that reimbursement which would also require us to change a policy for the expense and the reimbursement yeah I guess I'm I see them almost a little as two and so it's a little confusing to me which one we're doing but I think if if if other folks are clear that's okay but just the giving of device is a a loan right out to the we're loaning you this te technology to bring it back but develop the supplement is a part of developing the budget which one might not impact the other is what I'm also hearing that's right so the current policy already provides for the provision of a mobile device supplement I think if the issue is that you know it says it'll be part of the board's budget and it wasn't this year you could just
ask the finance officer to prepare an amended budget that includes that for the rest of this year and I could be loaned a phone without it impacting the budget also maybe what I'm hearing so is the board not paying the expense that Miss Malone just suggested yes so Madam chair um depending on how many board members tonight select to get phones um going forward um we will be reaching out because monthly we have to pay Verizon and so we will let you know based on the number of phones time that $42 how much and you would provide us the budget code where we take those funds from each month so it would still impact the District budget I mean the board budget if that's not something that's currently in the board budget you could amend the board's budget to include it I would think am I making sense I see wait so we're connect the supplement and the phone can be the same device can be the same I think I heard you talking about this kind of we're
giving a device as a loan type of action that I was thinking they're not the same action Hardware doesn't have a cost it sounds like but it's the service Mr tab do you have any comment no I I was just saying that um well thinking that I thought when we discussed this we were just saying that we would just um they would just issue the cell phones to those PE persons who wanted it we would just be um waving the policy that we already have just for uh distribution of cell phone and it would come out of the um the current budget but if we need to wave the budget I mean or get an amendment to the budget then that's just we probably need to add that to the um to the motion okay so a couple things the first thing is we do have a line item for technology and so it can go to that line
that's not the issue um we just have to approve that it's going to that line okay so there no other thoughts from me then just um I think that others have cell phones and I think with the um board business and it's a lot of board business that we need to um to continue to do board business on on District equipment thank you you're welcome so Mr Chavez offered a motion it was seconded by Miss heral go is there any further discussion okay so the motion is to wave 2130 B3 to issue mobile devices and review it as part of our budget um if this is going to be forthcoming or
annually all those no we have to do a Voice vote Mr tab board member Wendell tab votes I miss Chavez I miss Carter uton hi Miss berer hi Miss Harold goof hi Miss um said hi and I vote I the motion passes unanimously board members can seek a cellular device from Miss Malone if their convenience should they so desire is there any other discussion on this topic colag Miss Chavis a related point is just that I would like us to discuss at some point our full budget um as a board so we can look at that and approve it we can do that M Madam chair um I would like to ask is that tonight before you go into um close session we have your phones they are labeled with your phone numbers I can personally give those to you and if you need any support we will have our
Tech here that can provide you support with getting logged in and everything to those devices thank you thank you colleagues is there anyone that would prefer to be reimbursed if so we need in motion for that well we have to determine how much they going to be reimbursed because we haven't established it yes it does say the amount of the supplement will be established by the board okay so how about you said 42 a month I'm thinking that may go up in the future so to cover us um up to $50 a month does that would that work I'm trying to keep it moving here that yep is there a motion yeah I was just looking for yeah people's eyebrows and then I was going to say I move that we adopt a technology supplement
if folks choose to apply no yeah uh to seek reimbursement of up to $50 a month for board member thank you it's been mov by mpire second byste to uh allow board members to seek reimbursement up to $50 per month um for technology use is there any further discussion okay Mr tab I Bo tab FS I were you asking for the vote or you asking for asking for the vote okay yeah our board member when they tap vote I miss Chavez hi Miss Carter Aon Miss Beyer hi Miss Harold goof hi Miss said hi and I'm ment and I wrote Hi passes unanimously thanks
all uh the next item on our agenda is a board of education item we've asked Miss uh Lori MCN to make the presentation with an update from the ad hoc committee on Mee and confer bit good evening Dr Lewis board cabinet staff members and community members I'm here to provide a brief report of the progress of the ad hoc committee tonight this committee was formed in early um 2023 at the request of the board to um guide and create a policy 2024 right not 23 20 2024 last school year long I know
it feels like a long time sorry yes it was uh February and March I'll just leave it at that um to create a policy that would guide the Inception of an employees relation slash meet and confer policy that would increase communication and collaboration between DPS Administration the board classified staff and certified staff the committee consists of two board members including um Miss Lewis former board member also four employees who are current Dae members for employees who are non Dae members um DPS Administration which is the superintendent chief of staff and Deputy superintendent myself as the facilitator and consultation from legal
representation from both ncae and DPS um a little bit about the history there have been a total of six meetings five between March and June with a brief Hiatus for uh the board's summer time as well as to give Dr Lewis a little bit of time to get his legs Underneath Him and kind of understand the context of what was happening and we started back up just a few weeks ago in September for our sixth meeting uh the content of these meetings has really focused on understanding the perspective of all of the parties involved their needs and then to create the structures for that employee Relations Committee um both Dae and DPS
Administration brought forth policies to just about every meeting and with each Meeting those policies were then revised um in in large part coming closer and closer to consensus they were undergoing revisions at many of those meetings and so we went through those and gave feedback at each meeting as well um there were definitely points of agreement and there were points of convergence at every meeting uh Divergence excuse me so the ad hoc committee also discussed policy 72 10 which is the staff involvement in decision making um then the board chair did refer this to DPS Administration for review I want to highlight some of those points of agreement and some of where
opinions diverged so I think all ad hoc committee members agreed that every employee deserves a voice and every group of employee deserves of voice and some feedback to leadership and the board um there was also agreement about the number of meetings so it was agreed that quarterly meetings plus a fifth meeting during budget season and the option to have additional meetings as needed and agreed upon by the committee um the key points where there was um lack of agreement with the ad hoc committee was really about the basic purpose of the board so whether it was an employee Relations Committee or a formal meet and
conferred which have some significant differences especially around composition and who gets to attend and have a voice during those specific meetings uh the other point was really around the scope of the work of the committee and whether that should be Focus solely on compensation issues or whether it should be expanded into other topics that are important and impactful to all employees um I am now going to hand over to Dr Lewis for any comments then to um Rod Malone or his design and then we'll hand it back to the board for other comments thank you so much M um mnol I appreciate your facilitation uh in what has been a a long process um obviously I only attended one meeting and I do recognize
um the work that has been done prior to me arriving um I think it I've shared before that um had experiences in two different states with um collective bargaining agreements both in Kansas and Missouri in terms of employee voice and hearing from from staff um when we think about the work that the ad hoc committee um has done to ensure that there is a um meeting confer policy uh and also just suppose that against the policy 7210 um a goal is to develop a policy that is legal first of all in ensuring that um we are following I think it's 95-98 uh and ensuring that the terms that we use doesn't violate that that speaks to um any governing body cannot enter into an
agreement um with a labor union so that's I want to make that clear that we don't um violate that and I also say this a a a policy even a collective bargain agreement is not worth the paper it's written on if it's not put into practice if if actions are not behind it in terms of getting employee voice and then what do you do do with that you know getting an employee um feedback you know there's a huge difference between input and feedback right and so making sure that there are spaces um for both to happen and also recognizing and acknowledging existing uh spaces that uh exists for the purposes of hearing employee voice uh teacher working condition survey and I will tell you that um based on my experience staff will not uh continue to complete surveys if they don't believe that uh their voice is being heard with in that platform and and nothing is is uh is being changed there in addition the um superintendent staff advisory councils
teachers and classified staff space is there and I do recognize and again I'm still learning this is day 33 now um um and with that I've visited 35 schools in in 33 days and I if you have been to your school you know I T talk I talk to you and and going through this process of listening and and learning and so we think about the um superintendent advisory councils I've heard that that has just been a formality or a checkbox and nothing happens after after that and I will tell you that during my first meeting feedback I Reed from teachers is one of the things we need to change is the um amount of time that they're on the um advisory Council which has been one year you know we only have four or five meetings what can we get done in a in a year and so I changed that now two years and so that's an opportunity for um us to really do some great work together and in that platform we talked about ways that we can really focus on um you know one or two things that we want to accomplish this entire year yes
we want to hear all the concerns that are going on within the buildings but but but an what do we want to work on as a Council that we can say because we met because I was on this Council two years we were able to accomplish this for our staff we were able to accomplish this for our our students so all that to say I just want to honor the spaces that's um currently in place and let this board and staff know that I um utilize those spaces not just as a check boox but to genuinely listen and genuinely hear and then take action on those things that that that we can uh as I mentioned two previous districts I got a letter of recommendation from one of the Union presidents and I shared with her my goal is to work you out of a job because when you bring concerns to me if we if our team can make it happen we're going to make it happen so again just acknowledging the um action that needs to happen after voices are are heard and so I I think we're at a pivotal point in terms of where we've been where this
district has been prior of me arriving over the past nine months uh with an a huge opportunity before us to really sit down and think about what can we do together um that will benefit ultimately all of our Scholars and so um I'm looking forward to the discussion uh but also looking forward to um as we are moving through this process you always hear me say our kids can't wait and likewise our staff can't wait and so as we're moving through this process and what can we continue to focus on that we're hearing um already and the things that I'm learning um as I'm getting out into the community thank you so much absolutely um and so obviously I am filling in for Rod tonight and you know certainly a a Mee and conferred process a Mee and confir policy is something that we can develop um and as Dr Lewis mentioned there are guardrails around what the board can do and what that can
say I think it might help me to know what questions you have for me or what you'd like me to address in specific whether it's policy language [Music] or do you have any feedback on the drafts here sure absolutely um so as Dr Lewis referenced there is a statute in North Carolina it's 95-98 that prohibits any agreement between any government agency in any La labor union and so that's it's fairly sweeping it's been the law since the 1970s and so um that is one of the largest guard rails of course that there is not there's not negotiation there's not reaching agreement or any sort of binding agreement um I also do want to highlight another more recent statute which is 115c 3359 and I'm not sure this one's been discussed before um the equal access act
that it is the intent of the general assembly that all education employee associat s have equal access to employees at schools and so this was the Statute that said you know if you open your mailboxes your newsletters and so forth to one employee organization you have to open it to all which makes sense but it also um states that a school system may not give any education employee Association preferential treatment through par procedures policies or any other means and may not endorse one education employee associate a over another so I do think that that the policy language that references like certain organizations being sort of official and being deemed as members of this and others not could be problematic because it causes the board to pref to give preferential treatment to one organization and not others um so
I do think that's a part that we would need to look at in in drafting a policy um the only other things in looking at the drafts um there in I think the first draft was a provision that the that again that there would be one employee representative organization and then it would select Representatives on this um committee or advisory Council and that the board would then appoint those representatives and I think there would need to be some discussion about the fact that the board has discretion there so we can't de would not want to delegate to a non to an out to a third party group the um total authority to select who's on a board advisory counsel I think um and I will say that is mentioned in the memo from the ncae attorney I mean her Memo said that the compos authority to choose
the composition of a council must rest with the board so I don't think that's controversial I think we just need to make that clearer um in the draft that that the board would not be delegating its ultimate decision-making Authority as far as appointing although it would certainly take nominations from the from the uh various constituent groups um so overall I think you know certainly the board can have a meet and confer process you know the governor has one state agencies have one this is definitely something we can do um we just have to be careful that we say within those two statutes and structure it in such a way that I mean when you look even I looked at the National Education Association which has a list of um labor terms and their definitions for educators and meet and confer is defined as in an area where collective bargaining doesn't happen a process of coming together to
discuss issues and solicit input and I think that's that is the definition of that process and so looking at a process that is about conferring soliciting input um having the opportunity to give input and have it be heard by the board um is is what a good meet and confir policy would represent but we would need to avoid you know that we're like negotiating and voting on policies that would then be binding thank you I'm not sure I've seen that memo that you're referencing can you make sure that sent to the board the which one from the NCA legal council yes it was from back in February so I just happened to still have it thank you I can appreciate that colleagues any comments Miss bu so I was back to to trying to understand 115 C- 3
9 um so can you read aloud again some of the sure text in that legislation that that gives you pause yes so this this was titled by the general assembly the equal access act it was adopted with the 2012 2013 school year which is confusing because there is a federal equal access act that applies to schools but this is a separate thing um defines education employee Association to include teacher associations teacher organizations and classified employee associations um and states that all education employee associations should have equal access to employees at schools um and that schools may not favor or endorse an education employee associations so then there's a list of five things that you can't do um one has to do with mailbox access um one has to do with recruiting events and not allowing one unless you allow all um
like coming to PD um or other school system events to recruit but the ones that gave me pause is number three uh may not give an education employee Association preferential treatment through procedures policies or any other means um and then it has a reference about payroll deduction that I don't is not an issue here and then number four may not endorse one education employee Association over another um and then a I don't think this applies here or is relevant but a school shall not discourage or prohibit an employee from joining an organization or show preferences toward any association my second question would be having reviewed the policy drafts that are posted and brought here to to the website are either of them ready for action this evening I would say no okay neither okay and and then some of
the language that in the in um that I've seen in emails from from Dae refer to language that the one of the demands is beginning to negotiate with us and um do you have feedback on on how we clarify that expectation as we move you know forward with some policy to to increase employee voice but um that negotiation kind of language that keeps coming up so that I think would be part of the what the North Carolina prohibits because if you're negotiating it's to reach an agreement um and that we are not permitted to do um but again of course soliciting input and then the board chooses to accept and follow the recommendations of an employee group is absolutely within your
purview I have a follow-up question to that and then I'll let other folks go I think my question is when we're looking at where my computer for sleeping um when we are looking at the first meet and confer policy that shows up in our prees articles one through three um the school district shall recogniz is one a the school district shall recognize employee representative organizations that demonstrate at least 25% membership in the 23 24 school year and then at least Le 50% membership in subsequent years among non-administrative and non-managerial durm public school active employees administrative and manager
employees are defined as individuals is that section asking us to endorse an organization so well I don't know if it's asking you to endorse but it is asking you to prefer one over another in the sense that it says it it would create a system where the board um has a process for receiving input from organizations that have a certain membership and does not open that process to others and I think that would be a problem under the statute thank you that's helpful ales Miss heroff so my understanding is that um we are exploring several different ways to engage to to do a better job of engaging our community as Dr Lewis was
mentioning there are all of these existing spaces for people to come and to you know and and um we're hearing from Community those spaces are not working and that and even if they are being heard then we have to begin to process what's happening so this meeting confer policy um the ask is that it be designed to be one of the arms of those spaces um understanding that we have to be within the law and that that space be for the ER and so um I am I've come prepared today to make make a motion to develop a meet and confer policy to establish regular meetings with the ER that demonstrates um the drro that demonstrates um
majority uh the 50% membership among non-administrative and non-managerial Durham Public School active employees um as of the end of last year um what I'm hearing is is that in that statute that could present a problem because it sounds preferential so I would still like to I would like to amend to change that and to still ask if to make a motion to devel develop a meet and confer policy to establish regular meetings with the ER it doesn't name the er um but what it does is it does clarify that this particular policy that we would be developing would be still for that purpose um to discuss issues and to solicit input from one of our um um a stakeholder in our community
that has done so much organizing historically to represent um voices and our staff in during Public Schools so understanding that we still need to do the work everything that has happened up that has happened in the ad hoc committee to this point is valid and relevant and heard all of those voices also need to be heard as part of the whole hand that has to do this work in all of these various spaces that we can improve um but for this particular policy we want to focus on the ER and and recognize and um benefit from the historical um all of the work that is gone into uh organizing over the years so is is that uh that motion clear do I need to restate it all right so I'm making a
motion to develop a meet and confer policy to establish regular meetings with the ER so what that does that that separates the the ER from other entities um in this particular policy motion fails without a second anybody else have any commentary or any other comments they want to offer to the policy so I have a motion trying to bring us to consensus wait can you make a motion while a motion is on the floor motion's not on the floor anymore it is one second I move that the board refer the meet and confer policy to the superintendent based on the feedback from the ad hoc committee and from the greater Durham community and work in
consultation with the board's attorney move that the board refer the meet and confer policy to the superintendent based on feedback from the ad hoc committee and the greater Durham community in consultation with the board's attorney and is the the desire that we would bring back a draft that incorporates that feedback as much as legally possible um yes and assuming that it's a legal policy that us move forward in Durham and um thread what are nearly impossible laws um yeah again the motion I would second there been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Umstead for the board to refer the policy to the superintendent include the feedback from the ad hoc committee to develop a policy with the attorney
that falls within the law and feedback from the D greater feedback from the greater d Community is there any discussion Miss Carter uton I guess I'm confused is there a precedent on this board before my time for passing a policy making responsibilities from the board to the superintendent and I'm wondering why it's um why it's believed that that's not something that the board can do with our attorney so if you could speak to that a little bit more and kind of explain your um those of you who are in support of this speak to your thoughts around why this is something that the board cannot do so I think that meet and confer is actually work that the superintendent will lead
with our employees and he will develop a policy that um to bring forward to the board it I think most of our policies actually come from staff or recommendations from staff and ncsba um so yeah we don't draft much of the policies that we pass and I'm I'm appreciative of of the feedback that we've received and the time that um both Dae and the teamsters and um individual employees have brought to this process I think um both of these need to come hand inand with 7210 which is already going to be worked on by staff and um I think that's the way to move it forward most expedi I don't expeditiously I don't think this board will um words Smith it sitting on the dis I think that's the way to get it actually done so that's why Miss said yeah and I would add I'm
happy to add a board member to that mix um the motion that if if um so mean by Miss buer I I think that what I've heard is tension between what's been presented to us the legally legal portions of that and the work that needs to happen to Move It from drafts and feedback to like uh something that the board can wrestle with and so I see that that motion with a direction of how do we move towards something uh the practice in our board has been that uh staff works with whether it's ncsba and our legal attorneys to bring policy to the board as drafts the board gives feedback and Direction and then the staff goes and works on it some more and then brings it back to us that is has been the practice of our board I think I am clear and I think most of us are that our dra our job as policy makers is to pass policy but we need to make sure we do that in consultation with our staff who understand what it looks like in practice we do a consultation with our attorney also to make sure we stay within legal bounds um so if it you know
if it also could work to add a board members to that designate board members that also work with the superintendent illegal I'm happy to do that so we can have board voice as a part of the perspective or part of the next steps Miss Carter Aden did you have a response Mr tab wanted to speak also are you responding to miss umid okay go ahead um I appreciate that historical perspective we do have board policy titled board policies where it says the Board of Education believes that the development of policies and the evaluation of policy Administration is the most important function of a school board the board reserves to itself the functions of developing and revising policies for the school system so while that might have been practiced it's not in policy that was established in 2016 I can't recall y'all were on the board at that point right yes so I
joined the board in October of 2016 I think what I have seen happen often when we review policies board and staff are together having conversation around policy and changes that we want to make and I think it is I just think it's vital that the people who are practicing the policy and are implementing the policy and that are impacted by the policy are in the room when we're making the policy and I understand that we as a board have a decision to make that happen uh I have a a duty to make that happen as board members and I believe in how do we consult have excuse me be in consultation with other people in order to make the work happen and so I think in order to get from drafts and feedback to the policy we're going to need to have conversations that can happen outside of this room to move it to that place and then our board comes and says we like it or we don't we need to start all over again right actually let's go back out send two members to do the work like that's our role as a board to do that
work and I think it can happen again in consultation with staff and folks were impacted that's my belief on it Mr tab the Miss Harold G the Miss Chavez thank you very much um I appreciate the dialogue from all of my colleagues on on the board what I did want to say um was that we at a point where either we really support me and confer or we do not support me and confer or we are all going to work together to try to support meet and confer um by finding a finding a way um to stay within the law but yet uh bring the communities together to making sure that the that Dae and the work that they have done of course will be realized I am concerned with the motion from the standpoint of the ad hoc committee where I think that that committee itself still
needs to to work out what I heard from the beginning was that there were some places of of agreement and then there were places that they did not agree and I'm not sure if the ad hoc committee will continue to be able to work that out uh I would hope so but um I'm just a little uneasy about that I would as I shared with the president of the Dae that I I support and confer but I also would like for uh Dr Lewis to be a part of the the conversation that together as we talk about bringing people together being transparent being trustworthy um all those things open communication that we've talked about this is an uh definite an opportunity for that to happen so I'm little cons I'm not totally buying the um the motion
I apologize for that but uh I think there are some problems that we know that's within the adoc committee that uh if I wouldn't want that to be in the motion so so Mr tab if I appreciate that that I did not intend for anything to go back to the ad hoc committee I while I am appreciative of that work I know that um we've reached a spot where um there are differences that won't be resolved there that will need to be resolved by the board so you know my motion was not to have that be a living place but but I do want to acknowledge the voices and the feedback and the draft policies and the documentation and the minutes and all the work that that group has done so far as as vital reference points for the superintendent and staff as they work forward so I hope I I'm so I'm glad you pointed that out if it wasn't clear I I was not trying to send it back to and keep it keep an ad hoc committee going
forever and I want to take this opportunity to actually Express so much gratitude to miss mcnalty for facilitating what have been some of the most challenging conversations Brave conversations bold conversations and I appreciate you know folks coming when things were uncomfortable and having those conversations together Miss Chávez Miss heral go um Madam president I thank Miss uh bias for for jumping in there ER and clearing that up but I wasn't quite finished yet Madam okay Mr tab go ahead thank you I would definitely recommend I mean I would offer a a an amended motion that that we can support meet and confer um through through the actions of the Dae president and and the superintendent Dr Lewis and giving him a an opport Unity to work and to work with
her and work out those particular details and keeping us within the law but I um and I think that I think that may bring us all back together to making sure that we can get a meeting confer uh if possible thank you the motion to amend the motion does not have a second and therefore it fails can we repeat the original motion one more time okay the original motion and then Mr tab after Miss buer reads back the original motion will you uh restate your amendment I move the board refer the meet and confer policy to the superintendent based on the feedback from the ad hoc committee I'm the greater Durham community in consultation with the board's
attorney Mr tab the amendment the amendment was that I proposed uh make a motion that the superintendent work with um the president of Dae um in consultation with the um board's of attorney and working out the details to bring it back um to the board second are you asking if I would accept that friendly Amendment Mr tab yeah the only thing I was really taking out was the ad hoc stuff L I think you added in the with the president of the association of Educators is that how I heard it is it yes but I thought that's what you would yeah I want to I want to appreciate your background too Mr tab it's fabulous um I
I welcome that I am trying to figure out and get a nod from the attorney that that's not gonna cause us great concern I don't think so just to consult um certainly if other groups had feedback I know that they would send it to Dr Lewis also perfect thank you Miss shz yes we're still following the list that I gave out earlier um so I wanted to say going back I wanted to clarify about Joy's motion um before letting it die so um I don't know we can go back to that after this or or what but or make a new motion um but I think I I just wanted to
further draw out what you were saying about about that motion um so that's one thing um with with this current motion um I think that um well there are a few things one I do think it's the board's role to develop policy and I think board members should be involved in that um two um the uh I think referring the meet and confer policy only to the superintendent and um and attorneys would that's again leaving out the voices of the people which is the me incomer policy is trying to achieve um and then I think think I also thank you um Miss MCN for your work facilitating um we gave you uh a very um difficult job I think because in
observing the ad hoc committee um I really appreciate everyone who showed them and gave their all their thoughts their just um their energy and I think that we were working with different of assumptions in the room and so it was difficult to come to a one policy because of that uh of that um issue right there and the board set that up so um so we could have gone back and and done that differently but I appreciate you know the work that was done because it a lot of um a lot of U meaningful dialogue came out of that um I think also um so let's see um with this policy um the the first time the board received a version of the meet and confer policy from Dae was in February
the board has seen numerous uh has seen it over time we've had it um and Mr Malone has reviewed it multiple times and um has been also present at the ad hoc committee so the piece about preferential treatment I'm not sure why it's coming up now I also don't I don't think I realize that that's you know um a matter of it is it seems to depend with the statute on how one reads preferential treatment and I think that um and so I'm not I'm not um sold on this on a meet and confer policy with a with an ER that meets a certain threshold being um preferential treatment and I think um that I mean I'll raise and I know the
statute refers to education associations but that the governor himself has a meet and confer policy with um a an employee Association whose membership includes at least 20% of the employees with the threshold um so I think that um I I do want to go back we can finish out this motion I want to go back to the one that the joy was working on making and um and just ask uh to for clarity about that um so we can get that back on the table and um I'll save my other thoughts thanks M go I'll say it again we're in the middle of a motion so this is discussion on the motion so um refer the policy to the
superintendent include feedback from iHot committee and the president of Dae with the attorney all right so with feedback from the community my concern about about whatever is moving forward my understanding is that we are not going to be voting on any policy today that's clear not voting on a policy today what we're trying to do is to move it forward with the clarity that it will be with the SRO and not with the the ER excuse me ER and not with the community at large not with the what was the term you used um feedback from the greater I think the feedback from the Greater Community was what I said because we have um just posted this information recently and um Durham folks always like to share and and they should I I I'm every it said one of the things that everybody agree everybody's voice deserves to be heard but for clarity for this particular policy development my
concern is that it is for Simplicity for clarity transparency um that this particular what we're we're moving forward is with these next discussions to to to get to that place the legal place the language that we need so we can be in compliance and everything is with the ER and not we don't use the language you know so that it um um we we're moving from the ad hoc committee to this next step of moving forward meet and confer with the erro okay that is I want to make sure that that is what we are doing so I have some comments but I would like to offer that there's a motion on the floor and we can take up that motion and then revisit if it specifically speaks to the ER or not to separate those two things is what
I'm offering all right so this because we have to give them direction as to what we expect them to discuss and what we want a policy to look back look like when it comes back to us right so that discussion should be with the ER with that ER what I'm saying is are we we haven't voted to ask Administration to do anything right now to ask Administration to work with anybody we haven't taken that vote okay yet once that vote is taken if it passes we can get very grenert and specific about what we wanted to see by a motion and making sure because the only way we can communicate as a board is to move that uh four or more of us want to take this action together Miss Travis I have an amendment to the
amendment okay am I gonna get to give Feb back oh yeah go ahead I mean I don't have to no do you you can offer your you can offer your Amendment okay um I would like to um move that we uh refer the meet and confer policy to um are you Mak are you making an amendment I would like to the motion no I'm trying to amend the motion because the the motion on the floor right now is is to have the superintendent and the president of Dae meet with the attorney with the attorney to discuss the mome for a policy to bring a br back to the board that falls within the law um so I would like to amend the motion the motion to include for the meeting to include um the board chair and chair and
vice chair and um to come back with a policy by the October uh 24 meeting hold on let me see if that's the right date 24th I I am happy to accept the addition of the board chair and vice chair and I I do not want to put a timeline on the superintendent's work and and so I I happily and I want to hear uh also the feedback from Miss Rogers as well thank you I don't know where to start I want to thank thee for uh asking us to think about
what a meet and confer policy would look like um for working with us through uh many meetings many conversations about how employee input could be um implemented better in Durham I get excited about um when we have opportun unity and durm to in uh Implement things that are Innovative that are different um and that reflect our values and this is an opportunity that we have here I sat in many meetings many ad hoc committee meetings and asked the same questions um and I understand the concern that every that so many members
of our Comm Community have expressed in regards to the makeup of the ad hoc committee um there are things that I learned through that process that I wouldn't have learned otherwise and I hope my colleagues have learned some of that as well [Music] um it has never been the intention of this board and it iteration to pit certain employees against others and um that's what it felt like often but also we have a policy for employees to give input and feedback and we delegate that work to the superintendent because the superintendent is that management team Dr Lewis has been here since a August 12th and members of Dae have met with him more often than than board
members have they shared that with all the employees that work for DPS and the outcomes of those meetings I don't know I don't see any evidence of that um we Dr Lewis and I had meetings with the AE around the salary and the salary schedules to make sure that we all had an understanding we have full intentions as a board and a governance team uh ensuring that employee voice is recognized and is uh implemented and uh that feedback is offered I think I've heard from so many members of the bo all the members of the board tonight that they strongly support having a meet and confer policy um I do have some concerns that our attorney raised tonight um and would love to sit in a conversation to continue to work through
that so that we can get to a place where we can authorize meet and confer there are other um districts that are doing this well both in Union states and non-union States um I would love to have more conversations about what it looks like and exactly what um employees want to hear and want to see specifically I've asked an hot committee what is it that you we will see realized from an a policy being passed that isn't already happening in practice I want to I I need to hear more about that I need to hear more about um what the specific scope of the conversation will be I have shared um my interests in the spefic specific scope of the conversation being around
budget as it pertains to salary um pay and uh hours worked and uh how all that is reflected within the purview of what the superintendent can authorize given State Statute I want us to continue to work through this and get to a place where we have a policy that can be approved a a meet and confer policy that can be approved that includes those things and doesn't exclude people um without moving it from ad hoc I don't know how we get there without having people actually work on it to put a policy together um to work on it I don't know how we do that also miss Carter and you were speaking to the evaluation of policy and I think implementing uh meet
and confer policy is an evaluation of 7210 that is what we're doing when we Implement such a policy when we get to a point where we can when we have a policy in front of us to do that um I wish I was more informed about uh the the preferential treatment [Music] um I am frustrated we're just hearing about it for the first time but this is also the first time we're having such a discussion here and so I recognize that um and so I know all of us want to pass a policy Miss said did you have you wanted to I didn't mean to cut your com but I did have a few things I think I was responded and and added information to the motion earlier I I do want to also share appreciation for the work of the ad hoc committee um there's many and and
for you miss mcnolty for leading and facilitating you all did have six different meetings and I know oftentimes we're here past the um time that the meeting was decided to end and I think it was because everyone cares about figuring out how do we move this work forward uh there was countless hours reviewing policy providing feedback and from what we've seen I think there's still a little bit more work to do and what I feel like I'm supporting today is how do we get from where we are today to a finished product right and there's a little bit more work that we need to do to get to that finished product um and we need to imp so we can be as a board uh have a vote and have a policy draft that we're ready to look at um many of y'all who know me know I believe deeply in collaboration like I do believe and I just missed this in the first motion yeah we need Dae in the room to look at what we're working on to make sure it meets the needs and I think collaboration takes listening deeply it takes seeking to understand it takes agreeing to disagree sometimes is giving
something to get something in return and requires compromise and I think our relationship needs to have all of those different factors um we know that Educators who are in the buildings can tell us best how our policies are being implemented right what the impact is on you what the impact is on our students and our families because so many of you wear multiple hats right you are a parent you are educator as well as a community member here in Durham and so figuring out how we get that information is vital but we got a couple of steps before we get to the end and I really appreciate all the work that's um came to where we are today I think that's the right combination of folks that can get us to the next step and get something that we can all agree on um and I also did not know about this equal access act so I'm looking forward to learn more about that want to make sure we're within the law but also want to make sure that we're collaborating because we hear you loud and clear our work is better when educators are at the table that's clear right I know that I believe in that that's why I want you around the table we're talking about
policy and making developments that's why that's important to me um and I think that collaboration takes a lot of different uh efforts so thank you'all Miss Carter uton F and haral go um I think we are all clear that we want our Educators at the table and I'm glad that we are at a point where we all feel United there but I do want to clarify that that's not just what our staff are asking of us and what they've been asking of us a full 2third of all of our staff have asked for and continue to ask for at every single one of our meetings since February a meet and confer process with the ER that represents more than 50% of our employees that's very different from let's just hear from folks and two-thirds of our employees are saying this and if there's one thing
I know we need to trust what our employees are saying we give a lot of lip service to in order to solve a really difficult problem you have to talk with those that are closest to the problem but when are we going to actually act on that again they're telling us this why do we think that we have we continue to have the knowledge and we know better than our staff it just feels puzzling to me that we'd still sit and very frustrating that we'd still sit up here as a board and not listen to them I'm I am also I looked very closely at all of Rod's markups of our policies um and to me what stood out was that we need to really avoid words like agreement and negot iation and bargaining and that felt clear and even words like shall so that all feels fine to me um but this newish piece that I'm glad to have heard about and I I do appreciate you sharing that with us um
is something that I want to explore further and it feels like if there's a threshold that's set then that threshold is applied across all associations and that doesn't if it's the same threshold it's not like we're giving one threshold to another um so I do want to look at that further um there's so much to say um I just I mean we're clear that North Carolina is one of a handful of states that doesn't allow collective bargaining we know that it does not prohibit conversations or consultations it doesn't prohibit feedback from people and I just want to note that this board always complies with state law even when we disagree with it super recently we had s sp49 come to us we stated publicly that we didn't like what
was in that legislation and what did we do we didn't just sit back and say like oh well darn we got together as a board we talked about ways that we could create more robust systems of support for our students and our staff amidst harmful things that were coming from our state that is what this board does that's the heart of what we do and we talk about all the time why can we not do that here where again we do not cross the line we don't break the law as a board but I challenge us to step right up to it and to do what we can to listen to our staff nobody here is advocating for breaking a law no one here but I just think we need to listen yes we are we've all suggested that we get yourself myself Dr Lewis Miss tweet Meyer and our attorneys in a room to work on this policy so that we can move it forward we've all suggested that we're not shying away from the law we've
all suggested let's move this to the next step I think that we're not clear on who should be in that room that's what we've been discussing and I'm not sure that particular room yes okay so you don't want myself yourself the attorney superintendent and Miss tweet Meer in the room um that's not what you want thank you for clarifying I wonder if it makes sense if it's just m tweet Meer um and we have our attorney why does she not have why is she not there with um their attorney she can bring their attorney their attorney has been invited to meet and confer and didn't show up to the ad hoc and didn't show up okay so I appreciate the the conversation and um really have offered this and uh motion and accepted amendments in a in a way to bring us and
move us forward expeditiously so I am um I am so appreciative of the discussion that's gone on I'm so appreciative of the voices and um snaps in the room I think this is our most efficient and effective way to move forward with consensus um from the majority of this board or hopefully a unanimous vote I would say at our last ad hoc committee meeting the chair went around and said we're going to bring these forward at September whatever 26th and everybody gave a thumbs up up and I watched the room and Dr Lewis did not give a thumbs up because he just got here and we all know and our teachers know that we have operational issues that we are working to
fix urgently and when folks say we want to talk about bed bugs and Chromebooks no wants bed bugs and Chromebooks we we are fighting we are in this together this board has always been in this together and so Dr Lewis is in the midst of his 100 day entry plan he is an experienced leader working in good faith with labor and he has continued to meet regularly with leadership from the Durham Association of educators I believe he's the right superintendent to consider these complex issues and bring us together as we collaborate on ways to include the voices of employees and continue to lead through our District's ongoing stress while we work to re rebuild trust I'm asking
us to move forward tonight because we are truly in this together I call the question colleagues the motion on the floor is to refer the policy to the superintendent based on the feedback from the ad hoc committee with the chair and vice chair and the ch um president of Dae and attorneys to review and come up with a meet and confer policy to bring back to the board second it's already been seconded oh so discussion no we've already done discussion we're going to the vote she called the question oh okay you
can I get some clarity first I think from from my seat it's not a matter of if but when we will pass a meeting confer policy um I just want to be clear on the direction when we say the superintendent the board chair the board Vice chair I love working with you all and then just one Dae president feels kind of like government's heavy and so I have I'm happy to defer to the vice chair I have full faith in um our team and working with um Micah and her team that we can bring something back for the board to discuss um and hopefully pass in a nice way I'm saying give me a charge out the way and let us do it so are you so you're advocating Dr Lewis to not have any board members in that convers is that where you're and in the initial so let
us do the work let us do the heavy lift of bringing putting something in writing obviously Consulting with attorney and then bring it back for the full board to discuss and hopefully bless and and move on or send us back to the drawing board but do let us do the heavy LIF are you comfortable are do you think that that is something that we could revisit in the next board meeting next month and or or what what what does that timeline look like for you and I don't want to put a timeline out now I want to meet with um our team with with Micah to see because we have to we have some had some great discussion some great feedback from those two um so I think we're at a good starting point uh to begin those conversations um and I always say although yes I am in my first 100 days but um you know our kids can't wait our staff can't wait and so I think we can bring something back um in the near future and so again while I'm doing the listening and learning to that can inform some of the work that's going in on the um meeting confer as
well my question would be then you're just to clarify you're advocating for um meeting with Dae leadership who they choose to bring and our and our team as well okay but I I want to make sure we have a good robust um that's why I was kind of confused on the feedback from the entire Duram Community is it is it's just listening as you're on your listening and learning right and if Teamsters reach out to you you got to respond to them and and you know there there are just there are groups in Durham you'll hear F that's all I just want you to be able to kind of listen as you're listening yeah absolutely please though when we do bring something back it's going to be fully vetted and a lot of input will have gone into it so I just need those guard rails and we can make it happen Mr tab yes the motion um this is board member wendale tab I v I miss Travis hi Miss Carter
uton hi Miss Beyer hi Miss heral go hi Miss um hi and I vote I it passes unanimously colleagues uh Miss Chávez wanted to revisit Miss Harold Goofs um motion Miss Chávez did you want to speak to that yes I think um the thank you Miss MCN you don't have to stay standing there I wanted to clarify the motion and I think it is still a good idea to have a motion um or if possible to establish that the meet and confer policy will be developed um to establish regular meetings with with the ER that demonstrates the threshold that we were looking at so I wondered
if you modified your motion but um I wanted yeah go I stand by that the original motion to clarify that the meeting confer policy will establish regular meetings with the ero to demonstrate um to demonstrate 50% membership among non-administrative and non-managerial Durham Public School active employees um as of the end of last school year second sorry it's been moved by Miss heral goof seconded by Miss travez to establish meeting confer with the ER to demon that demonstrates 50% membership with non-administrative positions among non-administrative and non-managerial during Public School
active employees am what she said I make a motion to develop a meeting confer policy to establish regular meetings with the e that demonstrates 50% membership among non-administrative and non-managerial Durham Public School active employees as of the end of last school year Miss buer so my question is and and with 100% like need for clarity why do you all think this is necessary when the last motion actually included Durham Association of Educators and no one I think it's necessary to to it's another step to put out there that that is the meet andc Comer policy that we are trying to have developed and I think that that's been a big point of
conversation since February that's why the ad hoc committee included Dae and nonae members intentionally um who had um who were um with with different um a different basis of assumptions and so this is another step to a stat to just clarify the intent of the Mee come for a policy that will be developed um through these meetings so I want to speak to some of the conversation that you all probably heard at the ad hoc committee that um gives me a bit of pause as we consider this motion um one time when D Dae walked out of an ad hoc meeting the teamsters were present and um their language got added to be representative of a you know nearly 150 of our employees um please don't laugh about other unions 100% respect um and as we've come
through this crisis we this board has come to understand that um um that that all kinds of um employees have major impacts on the operations of schools and so I I want us to be open to understand whether there are other bargaining units other um Union memberships that we're not aware of so that so that they could come and ask whether they want to be at this table whether Durham would enlarge a table for folks that feel like their voice is is not represented so um I'm struggling with with that that's that's something that Dr King spoke into this space um about potential other bargaining units that that we need to be inclusive of and with full respect for the Durham Association of Educators and celebration
of the mighty growth that the association has seen that has been the result of tremendous work um and and is to be celebrated in in our community Across the Nation Oh there's two okay Miss Chávez Miss carteron Miss Harold goof Mr tab um I just want to share um all of my thoughts at this moment about why um I think we should have move forward with a meet andc for a policy uh with an ER that demonstrates a particular threshold um and I have had the opportunity to uh to learn a lot more um over the last six months or so and especially in um I don't know may or so I really realized I needed to learn a lot more myself about
uh about um about unions about collective bargaining and about meet and confirm in states that don't have legal unions and or collective bargaining um and so I've really appreciated the opportunity to learn um in the last couple weeks from um from a school board member and um an Union president in San Antonio who um utiliz a meet and conferm policy um similar to how I hope that we will do um here in Durham and one of the biggest reasons that um I am in favor of this policy is that is that I see it um allowing us to improve the functionality of of our district it I see it as allowing us to be proactive rather than reactive we have as a board been quite reactive um since I've been on the board to many to many things particularly last year and I want us to um to benefit from the uh Collective input um through a
democratic um the an organization with the Democratic process that represents over 50% of workers and who collects information from all workers I want to benefit from the process processes that they have um and and would bring um and the input that they would bring to uh to the board and to the administration and to help us make better decisions as seven people um we cannot with the wealth of experience um knowledge background all of that that we have we cannot possibly know all all of the different things happening in our district the needs um the experiences from school to school and um this I really see this as a way um through again working with um an ER that has a democratic process um and a way of collecting input from staff a way of um of helping us to
to um to be more connected to make better decisions um and to um to just have a more reciprocal relationship with our our staff we talking talk about rebuilding trust um building transparency this is a way to do that um I think that also when um you know when people are heard they are less likely to feel like they have to resist in other ways and um I I want want to grow to where we have mutual understanding across the district um and in a in a bigger way this is a labor rights issue um and it and I do believe that um workers have the right to organize and um I am the daughter of a of a union worker um as well and so I think about how I benefi benefited from that as a child this is not collective bargaining um this is something that as
Miss CA uton was saying gets Us close to um closer to a a process um that would uh that would uh have us um have a structure where we meet and confer and discuss different topics um and take input in a structured way but it's not collective bargaining so it's not Crossing that line um so and furthermore and I've said this before I think this is a way of sharing power and I think that social justice is lived and we should share power thank you Miss Carter Aton Miss Herold goof Mr tab um I um appreciate the mention of the teamsters but I did want to clarify that there's not bargaining units in North Carolina because there's no bargaining so it does make our job more challenging because we don't have that structure outline for us um and I W I was looking back I remember that we were Reed an email from the teamster representative
back in May and I went back to her email to make sure that I understand understood what she was communicating so she outlined this robust system of advocacy that Teamsters Teamsters have had in place and all the successes that they have been able to achieve she said that some DPS employees choose to be members of Dae and some choose to be teamsters and some choose both and that any DPS employees can join the teamsters and that quote employees should continue to be able to join any employee organization they choose to join so there's that and then we're left with and then in a follow-up email I'd asked her how many members they have and she's said 130 so we're left with um the fact that 130 people are choosing to join the teamsters and over 2,000 are choosing to join Dae and they can all join either and I just want to speak to also like thinking about um the minority
Voice or um listening to everybody and I know there's been some question about will Dae really represent everybody and all of our staff and I think that's baked into the structure of how they do things if people don't see that the priorities they bring to us and what they're accomplishing are actually happening and represent them and they're going to choose to not be members of Dae same with the teams in any association or Union right if some if it doesn't feel like someone is accomplishing what you want them to accomplish they're going to choose to go somewhere else or not pay their dues and take part in what's happening and I just think it's important especially as elected officials who are not elected by 100% of our constituents right this is like it's a democratic institution that they're running just like we are part of democracy here we're elected by the majority and then even those people that we that did not elect us we represent them and we sit up here and we represent
their interest and we still listen to them and we hear from them and we make decisions based on the good of the whole and that's what Dae is telling us and what I think it's I think I believe them when they say that they're representing the whole so people who are not choosing to be part of Dee not paying to be part of it or um they're still receiving the benefits of of what an association provides to our district um even if they're not doing that and so I think this concern about this minority and what's happening with them and are their voices really heard just like we heard in public comment tonight also like that's not we're making a bigger issue of it than it really is M her go um I just wanted to clarify that the motion did not name Dae named Yaro and um that leaves it open if
something you know if it evolves you know because we appreciate and we respect the Democratic process then we they also they have not come to us and said that they want this particular process where this ER has said we want this process we want this policy for this so I believe we address all of the other community engagement strategies that are that we are still trying to strengthen we have policies that exist for that we have other things we have all these other avenues all of that is being addressed I've heard I I feel like I don't want to put words in I feel like I'm hearing from our superintendent that this is a priority to address all of that and we can add that extra finger to the hand all of those different Pieces by having um a meeting confir policy that is specifically for ER so that's that is what we want to clarify we don't want to muddy those Waters we want to do that and is what I'm saying and it doesn't
say the the the motion says EO not Dae Mr tab thank you very much um colleagues thank you all very much for this really robust um conversation I think the the main the main goal here um that we're trying to look for is how do we support meet and confer at least that's what I'm hearing overall how do we support meet and confer we had a motion on on the on the table we we supported that F that motion to get um the Dae president in the room with the other people that was listed in the motion which has got us gotten us to a great place I'm just really concerned that as we continue to have this conversation that we're going to end up going down another rabbit hole of long discussion that's going to get us nowhere um I think that we're in a great place to to have that get that
conversation going with Dr Lewis that we can we can try to bring this to a close um and know that we support me didn't confer and I think that we're we're in a good place but the conversation I think is going to end up getting drawn out again um that may be unnecessary because I think that we are in a good place by saying that we support meet and confer and we have made progress um to get them in the room again and we can work out whatever the things that the attorneys need us to work out to stay to stay legal and I think that um meet and confer will eventually will be uh confirmed or approved and so I hope that we can move forward um now and try the best we can to bring this conversation to to a close Madame President uh at some point please thank you Mr tab the motion on the floor is to uh establish meeting confer and the
regular meetings with the ER to that demonstrates 50% membership that's the motion that's now that's the because we've already approved one motion yes sir and I'm call I'm asking you your vote on the motion um for now so um board member when tab votes no Miss Chávez hi Miss carteron hi Miss Beyer no Miss haral goof hi Miss Umi I am so sorry can you read that motion one more time to establish I'm a visual learner y'all so this um audio is harder for me Mee and confer to establish regular meetings with the ER can you slow down just a little bit sure uh the motion is is to establish meeting confer policy that establishes regular meetings with the ER that demonstrates 50%
membership all right I had more discussion I didn't know we were voting I apologize um so I'll vote Yes I'm sorry I wasn't Superior and I vote no uh the motion carries four to three congratulations everybody um I just want I wanted clarifying the difference between what we just did in the motion before so it it is done but I it was not clear to me what the difference between the two were I would have loved to have that discussion I just want to offer Dr L I'm available I know board members were not included in that but if there's any support that I
can offer I'm happy to do so excuse me I want to see this get to the Finish Line I do recognize you know October 25th means it has to be done actually in the next two weeks so I think we need to be mindful of what that looks like that's right we didn't approve but just timeline wise board members we need to be mindful right of what that means and the work that it's going to take to get it to a version that we can have so I just want to be clear with everyone our board packets are du a week in advance so that means their timeline is even shorter than where we are any other conversation colleagues we have more items on our agenda operations Dr Lewis yes um we have Mr Clifton Williams who will be joining us via Zoom I'm going to go patch him in so that he can speak okay uh can we take a short
recess I move that we recess five minutes that okay thank you second it's been moved by mpire second by miss her go to take a recess all those oh five five minutes uh Mr tab taking sorry I got I having a hard time finding this uh unmute button but I miss Travis I miss Carter uton hi Miss berer hi Miss heral go hi Miss Umstead hi and I I we're in recess
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um we're back and um uh is Mr Williams joining us now uh yes he is um Miss Smith when you patch Mr Williams in please for the operations items thank you for being here uh Mr Williams uh the first item colleagues is the monthly change order report any questions or comments about the monthly change order report okay thank you oh miss buer oh it doesn't even need a motion I was just going to and thank you um and I did pull the repair and renovation Lottery fund request um thank you Mr Williams for staying up late and hanging out with us to get some questions answered um yes ma'am can you hear me
yep can you hear us yes ma'am awesome so colleagues this item is asking for $400,000 in allocations from the repair and renovation Lottery fund um and my questions around this have been what specific buildings was this going to touch um and what is the process for the board to understand uh that these item those items have been completed uh with the allocation of that $400,000 and how did we come to the $400,000 request Mr Williams can okay I wasn't sure if that was a question for me so yes so um these are all districtwide repairs that we are asking to make for roofing uh flooring Replacements and life safety
repairs um there's not a specific schools that that is going to be receiving all of the repair but they are to support um Building Services for districtwide repays um so for example for roofing like you know we already have some known roof roof leaks that this money would help support um the same thing for Life Safety repairs as we do our life safety yearly life safety inspections we would need this repair money to make um repairs such as horn stros um exit lights um you know pool pool stations all those type of things will be part of like districtwide repairs um I essentially you know pulled that money we have a total budget available of $610,000 that I um decided to pull you know $150,000 for roofing repairs $150,000 for Life Safety repairs and $100,000 for flooring repairs or
Replacements okay so they no specific locations so I have some known like roofing repair that are needed for example Hillside DSA there are some known Roofing repairs that I will make as soon as this money is available um but it will be more than I don't it's not all going to one it's not going to all be allocated to one school okay so it's not okay and your certain repairs could start what's the date on here by December yep I believe that through the process of getting this money approved by the time I get it will be December and we will start right away and it will be used this this fiscal year okay Miss Carter Aton um thanks so much for again
sticking with us late tonight and answering our questions um is there we know that there's are so many repairs that are needed across our district and probably all of our schools um do is there anything else you could say about um how the how the ones will that will be addressed with this funding uh were prioritized even if it's a like a general process that you could share with us right now and we could dig into more later so yeah the primary process is going to be just on work orders that are submitted to our department um so I don't know if I gave my full title but my name I'm Clifton Williams executive director of Building Services and Facilities so any of the work orders that come for roofing flooring and life safety you know would be the priorities um so I would say just based on the amount of work orders that we have it would help supplement that okay thank you so when schools submit work
orders then they're put into a queue correct okay thank you Mr Williams this um this item has to also go to the County Commissioners for their approval is that correct that is correct that'll be your next step with this as you pulled a portion to to start addressing I'm sure what are um extensive uh fires to put out um yeah I appreciate you moving this forward so you can get the work done um and then yeah thank you y no problem any other questions comments colleagues um I have one last question I know that you share their extensive work orders and I don't doubt that I have been in the school buildings I believe it I understand it um can we get an update on the number of open work orders
that are out um it doesn't have to be right now you want to you you're asking for an update for the open workorders for the entire District well yeah we oversee the entire District so yeah I know it's a lot and then probably some of the age on those work orders for sure yeah we can we can pull that I can submit it to you right I appreciate that we're using the lottery funds this way Miss Travis should we get board consensus we should I mean if y'all don't want it I'm okay with sitting it out but how do you want to do consensus just thumbs up nope Mr tabs on Zoom you make an emotion could I ask I ask M um chair Rogers if we maybe as for an average I assume that the work orders are open like we're having multiple different types of work orders every day
and that's shifting every day is it possible to have maybe an average per day or average per week I think that might give us a little more complexity over one point in time yeah I'm comfortable with an average and the age of the oldest I mean the oldest work order right the oldest open work order yeah that you need something to happen in order to miss buire you look I just want to get Mr Williams some more money because I know he's working really hard to get ridiculous amount of projects moving so I mean that yeah yeah and I feel strongly I mean I'm not stopping this because of that but I think that that can inform some of our requests so does someone need to make a motion yes okay ideally if not then we
can leave it alone you make the motion since or or batina since you who's going to carry out the vote if I make the motion I can do both okay I'd like to move uh that in a follow-up item we get some updates around the average um number work orders that are open average number uh average age of the work orders as well second it's been moved by melicent Rogers and seconded by Miss heral go to get the age of the um average age of work orders average number of work orders that are available per day all
is there discussion I'm board member Wendell tab I vote I thank you Miss Chavez hi Miss Carter uton Miss Beyer hi Miss Harold goof hi Miss umid hi I'm M or I vote and it passes unanimously thank you Mr Williams no no problem than thank you have a good um night oh that's right that's right move that we approve the repair and renovation Lottery fund request I second it's been moved by mpire seconded by Miss heral goof to approve the lottery fund request Mr tab I am boy member Wendell Tab and I vote I miss Chavez I miss carteron hi Miss Beyer hi Miss har go I miss I'm said I and I vote I passes unanimously all right thank you thank you Mr
Williams colleagues uh we have closed session I move that we go to close session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Chávez second by Miss buer to go on a close session for the reasons on the agenda is there any discussion Mr tab I am boy member Wendell Tab and I vote I miss Javis I miss hi Miss ber hi Miss heral goof hi Miss Umstead hi and I diet passes unanimously for now and close session
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Dr Lewis thank you madam chair we're asking the board to take action on the Personnel report move approval of the Personnel report dated September 27th 2024 second it's been moved by Miss buer second by Miss Chávez to approve the Personnel report um all those in favor say I I the vote passes unanimously 60 Mr tab has not rejoined us oh then we'll take a Voice vote Miss Umstead hi Miss heral goof hi Miss Beyer hi Miss Carter uton hi Miss Chávez hi Mr tab we're voting on The Personnel
report thank you for joining us we're voting on The Personnel report Mr tab board member W tab votes I and I vote I the Personnel report passes you name unanimously that with that we Jed