Good evening everyone good evening the Durham Public Schools Board of Education a monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's 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 to serve and to lead the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo iguiles and Marty Bermudez thank you all for taking the time to join us the first moment on our agenda is the.
Moment of silence so we'll start that at this time.
Thank you the next item on our agenda is celebration. Evening board members Dr mabenga DPS colleagues and families it brings me great joy to share with you this evening the reason why Durham Public Schools is an outstanding destination for Learning and working simply put it's because of our exceptional students and staff our celebrations this evening include the amazing accomplishments of our Scholars and the teachers and staff who support them daily we will begin with two student of the month presentations followed by our deserving teacher of the month and employee of the month recognitions we will also honor a DPS staff member with the coveted DPS spark pin next we will honor our DPS AIG licensure recipients and conclude with two state level recognitions of rdps staff at this time please welcome Dr Renita Griffin Jordan principal of city of medicine Academy to introduce our first student of the month recipient.
Thank you good evening board members superintendent mabinga district leadership family and friends I bring you greetings from the city of medicine Academy where we proudly recognize Joyce matondo as the Durham Public Schools September student of the month her teacher and National Honors Society advisor Ms Clark shares that Joyce is an Exemplar scholar who holds herself and others to high standards not only is she a member of the NHS chapter at city of medicine but she's also the president she is leading in membership and far as far as HOSA future health professionals and our SGA Joyce ranks among the top in her class carrying out the mission and vision of our early college by successfully dueling enrolling in Durham Technical Community College recently she co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting homeless and impoverished members in her community that is the loving compassionate and kind-hearted young lady that you will encounter she's also gaining skills to conduct larger scale research project her teacher Miss Tucson shares that due to Joyce's curiosity relevant extracurricular experiences and a.
Genuine interest in applied science she is sure to excel as a scientific researcher speaking of research Joyce was chosen to participate in the North Carolina ACS project seed program where she conducted research over the summer at NC State University she formally presented her research at the North Carolina biotechnology Center in RTP her research focused was on the antibiotic resistance which occurs when certain bacteria become immune to antibiotics making them less effective Joyce looked at the polykatides and the biosynthesis from other enzymes that will make antibiotic drugs more effective efficient and less costly she ended the summer by attending the National American Chemical Society conference in California Joyce is a Beacon of Hope and positivity to others and has a proven excellence at city of medicine we are proud to extend this honor to her I am so proud of all that she has accomplished all that she will accomplish in her future and I'm honored and delighted to present to you the Durham Public School student of the month for September cma's very.
Own Joyce matonda. Hello everyone my name is Joyce and she has mentioned my time at city is medicine has been very there have been many trials and tribulations but even though these has occurred it has been a great and memorable experience that I'm going to cherish for years to come it has helped me in many ways because in the future I would like to become a physician and I know that because of Dr Jordan and my many memories that I have made at city of medicine that it's going to be something that I remember for a long time thank you.
Joyce we are truly honored to celebrate you this evening and from hearing from everything that your principal said we know you are destined for greatness to celebrate your accomplishment this evening we have a few items for you so please come forward. We have a certificate to acknowledge your student of the month recognition we have a DPS spark pin which is presented to those in our district who truly exemplify our core values and we hope that you will wear this proudly our friends at triangle e-cycling want to make sure that you are ready for whatever comes your way so they are presenting you with a laptop this evening and we also have a special presentation from Matt Sears chief of Partnerships from the Durham Public Schools Foundation.
Good evening the Durham Public Schools Foundation is dedicated to supporting and championing our DPS students families and staff we are proud ongoing sponsors of the DPS teacher of the year program DPS Building Services Employee Appreciation celebration DPS convocation and beginning this school year the DPS student of the month program the DPS Foundation believes that every child deserves a well-funded community-centered public schools rich in materials human resources and programming that supports the development of the whole child we fight for those schools day in and day out in partnership with DPS and we raise funds to do that work and to distribute to those efforts dpsf sees our students of the month as examples of our Durham community and what happens when a combination of resources reach students families and School staff we want to support your continued growth choice and hope you will use this 500 gift card to further your educational passions whether they are academic in the arts college or moving into the workforce we're very proud of you and Durham Public Schools congratulations.
Joyce if you would proceed forward Dr Griffin Jordan as well I've Joyce has family members that are here we'd like to ask you to come forward to take a photo with Dr babenga and then be congratulated by our Board of Education.
Thank you.
Next please welcome Lamont Dixon interim principal of Durham School of Technology for our next student of the month presentation.
Foreign. Board members Dr mabenga and everyone who is a part of the DPS family I would have to admit to Crystal Roberts that this put me in a tough situation and that involves deciding which student to recognize for this award I literally could have chosen from 95 percent of our seniors in the building either way I would have been fine would have gone wrong with the student that we decided upon it really speaks to the wonderful students that we have at Durham School of Technology makes me proud to be the leader of that building each and every day and this brings me to Mr Nike Air Archie a young man we're honoring this evening Mikhail who by the way has a twin brother who I can't tell the difference in physically or character-wise they're both awesome young men Mikhail currently has a 3.0 grade point average he has a he has a 96 average in network engineering so he can do a tune on your computer all right he's a tremendous young man.
Beloved by all staff and a friend to everyone he is a warm soft-spoken and kind-hearted young man Mikhail is also a spirited young man and he is the fastest student at Durham School of Technology okay to further sum up this young man I'd like to share our dst5 which are our guiding principles we ask that students treat one another with the utmost respect we ask students to be resilient and commit to their academics 100 percent we asked students to turn away from distractions and embrace opportunities we ask students to be present and to be on time and lastly we asked students to be at the right place at the right time doing the right thing as it relates to students who embody these guiding principles I give you Mr Mikhail Archie.
Good evening everybody as you all heard my name is Mikhail Archie I'm a proud senior at Durham School of Technology and I'm deeply honored to receive the students I want to express my gratitude to the facility my family and my fellow students for their support this recognition motivates me to continue working hard and making a positive impact in our school and Community thank you for this incredible honor. Congratulations Mikhail we are so excited for you and it was an honor to hear about you and your journey at the school of Durham School of Technology and how you exemplify those core values each and every day we are proud to have you as a representative of Durham Public Schools you probably got a little highlight to the things that you are going to receive this evening but don't worry we have them just for you as well your official student of the month certificate your DPS spark pin which we hope that you will wear proudly around Durham School of Technology and throughout the Durham community.
From triangle e-cycling a laptop to make sure that you are powered for your future and now Mr Matt Sears again.
Good evening congratulations we want to support your continued growth Mikhail and hope that you will use this 500 gift card to further your educational passions whether they are academic in the arts college or moving into the workforce we're very proud of you and Durham Public Schools congratulations. At this time please proceed board for a photo with Dr Pascal mabenga we know you have some family members here as well who would like to accompany you in that photo.
At this time I'd like to turn the presentation over to Michelle Hayes for our teacher and employee of the month presentations.
Good evening we're back to do the teacher and employee of the month so good evening chairman I'm sad members of the board Dr mabinga and cabinet members I am pleased to restart our teacher and employee of the month for the 2023-2024 school year this year each month is theme based for September our theme is igniting that spark this is the individual who is excited about working for Durham Public Schools at their schools or Department this individual always encourages people around them offers a helping hand welcomes news welcomes new teachers or staff members and exudes positive energy our teacher of the month is sponsored by North Carolina Central University's tennis team the tall side chapter of Omega Psi 5 Fraternity Incorporated DCL Consulting LLC and the veil cares foundation and our of the month is sponsored by the office of Human Resources both will receive a DPS spark pin representing what DPS stands for we are going to recognize our teacher of the month first then our Employee of the Month our.
September teacher of the month is Benjamin Gasper outdoor teacher and Merrick Moore Elementary School. Benjamin has been very instrumental in helping new teachers on his team to acclimate to the school Community he has spent time in the summer with teachers who are new to Merrick Moore by inviting him by inviting to inviting to join him during the summer program at the Hub farm this gave him an opportunity to build relationships and to provide one-to-one support to the teacher in addition he is very instrumental in our building our Outdoor Learning Program he provides students the chance to be exposed to outdoor experiences such as fishing canoeing rock climbing and camping he teaches students gardening fire safety and how to survive in the outdoor elements he is one of the students favorite teachers he is amazing on Tuesday he was surprised by coach Lawson and they did a surprise on Tuesday with balloons and gifts and Mr Gasper would like to say a few words to the Board of Education but congratulations to Mr Gasper for being.
Named during Public Schools September teacher of the month. Good evening John thank you I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for creating a place where outdoor education has found a home to thrive in Durham I have been given the opportunity over the 15 years I've actually worked here to create two outdoor education programs and I don't know where else I would be able to do that and I think it's just the creativity The Innovation and Trust in your teachers that you all have fostered here that has just made the space a place where I wanted to be I left I came back and I'm happy that I did because I've had eight wonderful years of Merit more and it's not just me that's an outdoor education teacher every teacher at our school Embraces the outdoors as a powerful educational tool and I just want to invite anybody board especially but anybody to come to our school and see what is going on because phenomenal.
Things are going on using the outdoors is a powerful learning space just make sure you check in at the front office and coach Lawson is here to present an additional certificate. Hey everyone would like to again thank that Mr Gasper for his the excellent work that he's doing at Merrick Moore with the students there would like to thank Dr Alford also for nominating Mr Gasper and on behalf of BCR Consulting we'd like to present Mr Gasper with the check just as a sign of appreciation for what you do than artwork so thank you so very much again thank you very much.
Thank you very much for all you do Mr Casper a September employee of the month is Miss Gloria Howard custodian from maintenance services she looks phenomenal. Miss Gloria Howard has served DPS for many years and she was nominated for her service and the way she goes above and beyond for our Durham Public Schools Community she has dedicated and takes pride in ensuring DPS is an environment of cleanliness she is an asset to DPS and is so deserving of this award of recognition without a doubt Eva Howard enthusiastically nominated Miss Howard for the award of employee of the month it is difficult to put into words how amazing she has been to Durham Public Schools specifically to the school safety team she is a dedicated and positive team member and all-around great person she ignites the spark in DPS congratulations to Miss Gloria Howard for being named during Public Schools September employee of the month.
Thank you Miss Hayes and congratulations again to our honorees the DPS spark pin is presented to students staff and Community Partners who embody dps's core beliefs tonight we recognize Martha Hernandez aparicio one of our staff members in the office of Assessments Martha was nominated because her work has improved the efficiency of the entire office she has been instrumental in facilitating processes that are used to take days they usually take days to complete she has taken it upon herself to do research and review the technology to do specific code and write scripts to enhance productivity and I need to note that Martha is self-taught this is something that she acquired on her own because she knew that it would not only benefit her team members but also the district she strives daily for ways to help the office of incessments to provide timely feedback to the district and to school leaders her drive initiative and willingness to support her colleagues makes Martha a worthy recipient this evening congratulations Martha.
Please welcome Laura Parrott director of advanced academics to the podium for our next recognition. Good evening chairman umpsted members of the board and Dr mavinga tonight I have the pleasure of introducing you to the graduates of the AIG licensure program through our Duke University partnership we've just completed our 17th Year and have begun the 18th at the recent Regional graduation ceremony I shared with the graduates from the surrounding Districts The A to Z of being an impactful AIG educator quickly a Advocate that all children have the right to an appropriate education B build relationships C cultivate potential in all students amid a d diverse population e engage e Enlighten and E Empower children because these students are our F future G grow growth mindsets and have H high expectations for all I Inspire your learning and teach others to not J judge someone by their gender color or background okay keep your purpose in front of all that you do l lead others down a path of lifelong learning which is M mind's own and.
Meaningful in nurture those students with hidden potential as advanced education is a necessity not an O option remember that you have the P power to shape children cue question or reflect and S seek the streets of all students to be more inclusive instead of exclusive provide tea time to nurture creativity and critical thinking you unlock considerations that often mask giftedness the value the W whole child X examine your beliefs about Advanced students and remember that why you must not lose sight of excellence in an age of proficiency and in conclusion I told the graduates zealously go forth and make a positive difference in the lives of all children and that is what our graduates have already been doing and we know will continue to do so joining me at the podium is our coordinator of advanced academics yamil Anderson Roth who will present each of our graduates with their Duke certificate Pascal Adams who is now the math coach at CC Spalding Aaron Alexander AIG specialist at Holt Jennifer bedoya AIG specialist at Forest View.
Our teacher who could not be with us tonight is Erika Hawkins AIG teacher at Pearson Town who also won the regional teacher leadership and gifted education award next we have Aaron Hughes AIG teacher at Little River who won the regional teacher advocacy award in gifted education Marie Roberts AIG specialist at CC Spalding Greg Robinson AIG specialist at Glenn and Anna Schlesinger AIG teacher at Parkwood again congratulations to these incredible educators.
Thank you thank you Miss Parrott but don't go too far. Our last recognition of the evening is to highlight the exceptionalities of our Educators who serve at the district level we know that DPS is filled with exceptional leaders and tonight we would like to highlight two of our team members who are leading by representing our district on the state level Laura Parrott director of advanced academics Who was appointed to the North Carolina governor School Board of Governors. And Dr Julie pack senior executive director for Career and Technical education who was named president of the North Carolina Association of Career and Technical education.
Thank you for your leadership and we are so excited to see what you will do please be congratulated by our board.
This concludes our celebrations this evening foreign start our Mead beings with celebrations and to hear about all the amazing things happening with our students with our Educators it's also with the Community Partners and folks who are showing up every day for Durham Public Schools a little echo in here but I think I'm going to keep going I'm gonna pass the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's update I'm gonna pass it to you Dr madinga good evening Madam chair members of the board and DPS community our school year continues to progress we are also making progress on the implementation of our new student assignment plan next week our families will begin to receive information from the schools about Student Assignment changes next school year our principles will be sharing details in the weekly communication and we will have Flyers sent home with our elementary student next week our new site bpsnc.net slash possibilities also goes live next week with important transition details for families our families will also.
Receive a letter in the mail in the coming weeks with the new school assignment and all are invited to attend meetings within each of the regions to learn more and meet the new principles we look forward to supporting our families and schools through this transition we also saw several of you board members during Mary massenburg elementary schools electronic Being Sunny that took place on Thursday September 21st we were excited to place the last Beam on our newest Elementary School scheduled to open this fall we ask that you celebrate our diversity with us DPS is proud to acknowledge Hispanic Heritage Month which began September 15th and will run through October 15th Durham public school probably serves somos DPS speaking of Pride we appreciate our Durham Public Schools principals and will observe National principal month in October we thank each of our 56 School leaders for the hard work and the commitment to Student Success while we are celebrating our principles I would like to also say congratulations to two finalists and semi-finalists for.
The DPS principal of the Year designation our finalists are missionar Middleton Brown and Matthew hunts our semi-finalists included Dr Vanessa Alfred Dr Jackie Tobias and Dr Sheldon Lanier congrats to all of them we continue to provide us also emotional health and will conduct our annual Panorama survey starting October 18 through November 1st the survey measures progress through it goes one and two outline in our own building our future strategic plan we will use the results and the serve it to best support our students learning needs we also invite you to stop by our district 8th grade career Expo to be held on October 24th at the Durham County Stadium hosted by our Career Technical education department the event is called Excel honors accelerate it's being held to encourage Rising 9th graders to begin thinking about their dream careers these conclude my remarks.
Thank you Dr mavinga the next item on our agenda excuse me is the agenda review and approval.
The approval of the agenda a second it's been moved by Miss valladara seconded by Miss Lewis is there any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the Board of Education monthly meeting minutes from August 24th 2023. Move approval of the minutes as presented second removed and moved by Miss Byers seconded by Miss Umstead is there any other discussion I had One Direction she read Mackenzie Scott on page two.
Okay so there's one correction we'll need to in amend the motion right I definitely accept that friendly amendment I would move the minute says amended second so let's remove Our Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Umstead is there any other discussion all those in favor please say aye aye those those who opposed we said it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is general.
Public Comment I have the rules that I'll read first before we get started first if you are coming to the podium please state your name and if you're speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second our speakers are going to be asked to present their comments within three minutes when the yellow light comes on on the podium you will have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will it the timer will beep and it indicates that your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to the public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and will consider your comments but we do not engage in the discussion with our speakers our first public comment speaker tonight is Jessica Boynton and please correct me when you reach the podium.
If I pronounce your name wrong Jessica will be followed by Lois Jackson. Good evening everybody members of the DPS Board of Education superintendent mobinga thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Jessica boyder you pronounced it right I'm speaking on behalf of occupational therapist and physical therapist practitioners in DPS we continue to be excluded from receiving the local supplement and our salaries while our counterparts in many North Carolina counties have been receiving it for some time we do acknowledge and appreciate the recent salary study that will result in an increase in salary for all classified employees when the state budget passes but we still strongly believe that the inclusion of the local supplement in our salaries which is the missing link to retaining and recruiting the highest quality OT and PT practitioners the fact that OT and PT practitioners have been excluded from the supplemental pay is becoming harder to ignore as the cost of living in Durham is steadily increasing our OT and PT teams are actively losing.
Talent for counties that provide supplemental pay this highlights a troubling pattern that to afford to live in Durham potential OTS and PTs are making the choice to work elsewhere Orange County Chapel Hill carborough schools provided both of those districts provide a gradually increasing supplement I believe it's from five and a half to eight and a half percent to classified staff based on user years of experience we strongly urge the board to consider a plan like this to best meet the needs of the staff otnpt teams and to remain competitive with neighboring school districts our speech therapy and school psychologist colleagues have the same level of education and work with the same population of students that we do yet they make several thousand more dollars than we do each year at least two and a half years of graduate school was a requirement to become an OT or a PT certified occupational therapy assistants have a bad often have a bachelor's degree and then they go back to school to get a two-year associate's.
Degree in occupational therapy many of us have student loan debt that is now accruing interest again and payments are no longer in forbearance many of us have small children in daycare which feels like a second mortgage or rent payment each month for those OTS and PTs who have been loyally working in Durham for decades and are close to retirement their retirement income is based on their salary in the last five years of employment so let's do right by then we work in the schools because it's rewarding and necessary work we know that therapist salaries are higher in hospitals retirement homes in almost any setting but we stay in the schools because it's important work we are asking the school board of Durham Public Schools to acknowledge and validate this work that we do each day by providing the local supplement and making our pay equal to our counterparts in school districts like wake Chapel Hill and many parts of the state some of us myself included have worked.
In counties that paid us more and we took a pay cut to come to Durham and it's past time to correct this thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak on this important issue we urge you to consider what has been shared and move forward with a plan twitch to address this thank you so much. Thank you next we have Lois Jackson and again please correct me if I mispronounce your name Lois will be speaking on behalf of a group so you will have six minutes according to our policy good evening my name is Marie Elsey I'm the executive director of inspiring Minds we're an after-school program for underserved black and brown students at Hillside High School and I'm going to yield my time to one of my students Lois Jackson hello my name is Lois Jackson as she stated and yes you pronounced it correctly hope you all are having a great evening I just have a series of questions that I need to ask because they are pressing issues within our.
Education system my first question is why are you hiding important data concerning students that look like me my second question starts off with the statement leading into a question I'm really disappointed as to why the suspension data has been removed could you explain to me why that is my third question is what could be put in place to have more mental health days why does it appear that you all care more about the community's perception of you rather than students mental health and education wire black and brown students getting suspended more than white students and my final question is what is the hesitation around improving the resolution for black and brown students thank you for your time thank you.
And next we have Melissa Crum Melissa will be followed by hi my name is I'm sorry Melissa will be followed by Katie Magano and then Darcel pillier again please correct me if I'm Mr pronounce your names hi my name is. Roy we're here to discuss some great concerns that we have with our school's playground it is basically a condensed structure you actually just came and removed the slide because it had a giant crack in it and a child put his hand up they could smash their hands thank you for doing that it was a danger there's boards up there's rust her children don't have anywhere to play and the whole school all the parents are very concerned about this they're coming to us asking when is when are we going to get our new playground principal Miller said we've been approved for our playground and I emailed you I've emailed Fred Davis I have not gotten any response about the timelines of this playground I see that there's contracts up with Bliss products.
And services for playground Replacements upgrades for five elementary schools on the agenda today is that us can you give us any information that we every day we go to pick up our kids parents are asking us what about this playground we are at Title One school we are at 110 capacity and you have now deemed us a lottery school so you know I expect that we should get something and we should be able to have this for our children so a response you have my email if you you can respond and let us know what's going on there so we can tell all of our parents about the playground situation I'd be greatly appreciated second Hope Valley is a is nested in a beautiful neighborhood with lots and lots of children and we know you're short on bus drivers so we all live in the neighborhood we decided to walk our kids so the issue is a lot of us are crossing Hope Valley Road there's no crosswalk the city won't put in a.
Crosswalk we've asked for a decade for a crosswalk there there's a crosswalk a mile down the road for the Hope Valley Country Club and blue people high school children Crossing to school can't get a crosswalk so can you provide us crossing guards or can you just provide us like stop signs that you can like attach to the actual stop sign so we can go out and be the crossing guards no children should get hit walking to school and we just gratefully ask for your help thank you thank you.
Mcginal Katie mcgonnell all right thank you Katie I just want to say to start that the celebrations that's the kind of pep rally I want to go to that was amazing watching you recognize the people who make us DPS was pretty awesome so thank you for acknowledging the great work of your Educators I personally worked with Ben and Aaron and I can say to everyone in the room they're two of the most amazing Educators I've ever encountered so great job Ben Aaron and the wonderful students who are recognized as well now I have to talk fast in my last Bible comment I stood here and I misspoke I said that Northern High School start date was Monday August 23rd I was fired up prom start date was Monday August 28th so my apologies provided the community with misinformation students did begin school on Tuesday September 5th not delayed due to weather their building had not yet to receive their occupancy permit I did appreciate the fact that the district contacted the northern.
Community when they were enforcing or telling us about the makeup days and not putting that responsibility on the administration at Northern High School however now our children and your Northern teachers are being penalized for your lack of honesty and transparency during the construction of this building and having no contingency plan for the educational start for our children I don't understand how you are so disconnected from the people that you serve families depend on older siblings to provide child care on teacher work days parents use these days to schedule appointments once in advance to adhere to your three days with a day two days with the B absence policy regarding final exemptions this abrupt change Northern schedule and your business as usual solution is not Equitable for your families in Durham repercussions of your favor to open on time your mouth falling on the backs of your students and the teachers at Northern High School I hope there is an extra Duty contract in the works for them it is 2023 we spent nearly seven months.
Facilitating learning online surely the people in this room can come up with an equitable solution for reimbursing our students the in-person learning they lost you to your negligence not the cost of themselves their families or their overworked and underpaid teachers I've been working in this District since August of 2016 and I have always been so proud to work for Durham Public Schools but lately it is really hard for me to say that the continued personal and professional letdowns are becoming too hard to carry I've removed myself from the Montessori trading because I do not trust that I will be provided the resources that I need to carry out your vision of the growing together initiative I will likely leave my school this district and quite possibly the profession thank you from thank you for the time and last but not least Darcel pilliard or Dillard like Dillard I apologize.
My name is darcelle Dillard and I'm the parent of two children in Durham public schools and today I'm coming to the board to address concerns that I have related to the policy on exam exemptions based on attendance I've already emailed the board about this and I did receive a response so thank you for that but I'm here tonight for an update as a parent of an 11th grader at DSA who does have health issues and has to be out of school sometimes to take care of her mental health her emotional health her medical health and well-being I would like to better understand the board's position and what the school is doing to make sure that there is they are sending the message and communicating to students that their health and well-being is important because right now what the message is being received by students is that school comes first and my health is last and I'm sure that that is not what this District wants to sin and convey to.
Students but when you say if you miss a day because you have a doctor's appointment or you're sick and you can't be Exempted when you've worked hard all year that that does that's detrimental and it does harm our students so I would like the board to at some point provide updates on where we are with that and to reconsider this policy and also I would like to better understand why there's a carve out in the first place for these exam exemptions it seems like the policy should be the same for other excuse absences why is this any different so that's one issue that I would like to leave with the board tonight and then the second concern that I have is regarding Transportation I know that the board and the school district has been working on this but would love to hear what Solutions or where we are with you know bus transportation especially in the morning when students have four classes and they're showing up 20 30 minutes late.
That means that they're likely going to fall behind and we need a solution for this so our students can be as successful as possible in their academic Journey so thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing updates soon. Thank you and like I stated at the beginning of the of the public comment it's our policy that we don't respond but please know that we are listening and listening carefully to consider your thoughts when we do our work on the board so the next item on our agenda is our consent items there are a through e listed here on our agenda consent items have been reviewed by board members in advance and so they are brought to the agenda tonight for approval oh excuse me for a vote four members of approval of the consent items second it's been moved by Ms validara seconded by Miss Beyer any other discussion some said could we read about the playgrounds that are here that are in the consent items and just read the.
Names of the schools for the public record Fayetteville Street Elementary Hope Valley Elementary Eno Valley Elementary Merrick Moore Elementary and Burton elementary thank you.
Thank you we have a motion in a second and any other discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is the resolution to support the achievement and success of Black and Hispanic students in Durham Public Schools this resolution was brought to us by a board member excuse me not miss buyer Miss Umstead I apologize Inspire sitting closest to me she was in the last side this was brought to us by Miss Umstead in our last work session a team of us got together with superintendent staff as well as board members to work and edit the resolution to work on how do we align it with some of our strategic plan goals and also understand how kind of the data and different things that are available within the district and marry those together into the resolution Miss Umstead would you mind if we read it first and then we had discussion is that okay with you.
All right so why don't we read we'll start with you miss Rogers and come down to you Miss Carter Alton as our practice is for Resolutions each board member getting a paragraph or a whereas resolution to support the achievement and success of Black and Hispanic students in Durham Public Schools whereas Durham Public Schools and school district that serves a majority Black and Hispanic student population and we strive to renovate in racial and ethnic disparities in academic outcomes in accordance with our strategic plan and whereas Durham Public Schools is a school district that serves a majority Black and Hispanic student population and whereas the Durham Public Schools Board of Education passed a resolution in support of black boys and young men in April of 2016 and whereas the Durham Public Schools Board of Education established an office of equity Affairs in 2017 to further support equity in education with the mission of ensuring the students experience educational equity in grades pre-k through 12 regardless of race or ethnicity and whereas the Durham Public Schools Board.
Of Education passed the resolution to protect English language learner students in October 2021 and whereas despite these and other efforts Black and Hispanic students educational outcomes remain persistently low that then that of their non-black Hispanic counterparts and whereas in the 2021-2022 school year 58 of DPS students were not proficient in Reading according to the North Carolina and a grade assessment including 66 percent of black students and 70 percent of Hispanic students and whereas in 2021 2022 59 of DPS students were not proficient in math according to the North Carolina end of grade assessment including 70 percent of black students and 61 percent of Hispanic students and.
Whereas in 2021 sorry 2022-2023 school year Black and Hispanic students demonstrated a significant Improvement in math and reading scores with every subgroup of students demonstrating gains exemplifying what we already knew that our students are successfully learning and whereas Durham Public Schools is a growth mindset school district for individual students and school communities and in 2022-23 88.2 percent of our schools met or exceeded growth outperforming our peer districts and whereas the Durham Public Schools board of education has made continuous efforts to advance educational Equity by establishing the office of equity Affairs annually approving the crown act black lives matter at school week and National mentoring month resolutions and whereas the Durham Public Schools board of education is United and work there with our families and Community to eliminate systemic inequities for Black and Hispanic students and wants to accelerate this most urgent work and now therefore be a result that the Durham Public School Board of Education directs the superintendent at his desk or his designee to develop and Lead as superintendent's Black and Hispanic.
Family advisory council with the purpose of providing guidance and input on matters related to increasing educational opportunities and outcomes for Black and Hispanic students in the school district and be it further resolved that the superintendent's Black and Hispanic family advisory Council will be selected by the Board of Education by Fall 2024 and consists of members of the DPS Community including students guardians or parents of students who identify as black Hispanic or latinx intentionally including intersectionality with other marginalized identities such as limited English proficiency or LEP students immigrant students undocumented students and students of mixed status families exceptional children lgbtqia plus students low income and working-class families and be it further resolved that the superintendent's Black and Hispanic family advisory Council will work with the superintendent in the Board of Education to develop and annually review and refine Durham Public Schools Black and Hispanic student achievement plan the goal of which will be to improve student academic opportunities and outcomes in alignment with the district strategic plan and be it further resolved that the.
Superintendent or his Destiny will by December 2023 present the 2023-2024 Durham Public Schools Black and Hispanic student achievement plan which will lay the groundwork for the final plan and will include 2022-2023 data demonstrating progress at the school and District level towards the following goals identified in the 2023-2028 Strategic plan including a priority One goals 1A through 1f priority two goals 2B through 2D and see where not otherwise specified all data will be disaggregated by race ethnicity LEP status and socioeconomic status smart interim goals that the district is using to monitor progress towards achieving strategic plan goals 1A through 1f and goals 2B through 2D three strategies currently underway at the school and the district level to work towards strategic plan goals 1A through 1f and goals 2B through 2D with a focus on black and Or Hispanic students for resources allocated at the school and District level for each of the aforementioned strategies five methods the district is using to evaluate effectiveness of the aforementioned strategies be it further resolved that the success.
Of the Black and Hispanic student achievement plan will continually will be continually monitored and evaluated by the superintendent the board and the Black and Hispanic family advisory Council based on the formation key metrics at least annually sign this 28th day of September 2023. Thank you all for reading the resolution I'll open the floor first to miss Rogers if there's anything you want to add as we're setting the stage for the discussion and then we'll open up for discussion thanks everybody first I want to express my appreciation for the care and concern that and efforts that supported this resolution for my colleagues from Administration most especially my colleagues in the administration from August 10th until now we started talking about this in June of 2023 and it's been ongoing and Urgent for us and I appreciate that.
When our teachers pack meals for our students and they say after school to tutor a student who is struggling it's been hours developing highly differentiated lesson plans to meet the needs of all Learners that doesn't always show up in our test scores when our students show up and give everything they have but they're still struggling to catch up especially after learning loss from the pandemic it doesn't always show up in the test scores and while this resolution seems to be about test scores I want us to understand that there is a both and here that our District's white students are consistently scoring well on standardized tests when our Black and Hispanic students aren't scoring quite as high test scores are not the whole of any one student they're just a small portion of it and while this resolution speaks to those test scores our hope is that the plan will speak to the dumb way and be authentic to the work that we're doing in increasing equity and ensuring that we're addressing the whole child.
I want to hold on hold on that our Administration has done an excellent job of moving so many of our Durham schools into passing letter grade scores while acknowledging that those letter grades are based on a flawed system and in and of themselves are flawed for so many reasons I want to hold truth that we are doing excellent work in building Equity into our school district while also acknowledging that there's still so much more to be done we heard tonight about the suspension data we did remove the risk ratios around that but we already have a policy 4303 that calls for us to ensure fair and consistent disciplinary procedures we're still disproportionately suspending our Black and Hispanic students I look forward to seeing the superintendent's recommendations on professional development that will address this issue in reducing these disparities and allow Black and Hispanic students to get disconnected from schools we invest millions of dollars into proactive solutions to ensure Student Success yet so many of our children are still struggling let's pay attention to.
That investment let's look at what we're doing and make sure that it's right this plan is not an indictment on our Administration it is accountability for our families we spend a lot of time here celebrating and it's great and for good reason there's so much to celebrate in DPS there's also still work to be done especially when it comes to our Black and Hispanic children many of whom despite our efforts and Investments are continuing to struggle including some of our own that are closest to me I believe in the vision of this board the abilities of our Administration the efforts of our teachers I believe the desires of our families and the hard work of our students I'm excited for us to do this work together and demonstrate that incredible things are happening in DPS with this Black and Hispanic student achievement plan that is presented in December I really do thanks yeah thanks Miss Umstead any other discussion from board members.
Remove approval of the resolution I I think you I think you got some discussion you can move if you want and then we could say no go ahead go ahead Miss Travis okay just making sure you were pointing at me one I wanted to say I want to say thank you so much for bringing this forward Miss Umstead and it was a collaborative effort and I'm very proud that we're doing this and that we are a district to is is just addressing racial Equity in so many different ways I wanted to just mention and Ms Rogers could share more if you would like to but you know the fact that this is a model that's also been used in other areas of the country I think that's significant and and I think we want to continue to do Innovative things here you know look at models that have been produced in other areas as well as create them ourselves so that was one thing I wanted to say do you want to.
Speak to that at all yes there are many districts especially in California doing this there's the LA Unified School District that is doing a black student achievement plan and they have divested funds from law enforcement into investing in black boy education for their District to improve the disproportionate outcomes and test scores for black students and they're already seeing some turn around I'm glad they're modeling this work our effort is very Durham we want to be attentive to how we're spending our funding as opposed to divesting in anything else right now and we are including Hispanic students and Latin students because it's weird inclusive district and they're a significant portion of our community foreign thank you I think that's awesome that this is also to from what I think you have told me this is the first plan of this kind that is inclusive of both Black and Hispanic populations the other thing I just wanted to say is that you know we have so many opportunities in in Durham public schools for students.
We have so many different programs we're growing them through growing together but there are still programs where we see a majority of white students and I think of those programs when I think about the purpose of this of this program we want to see our all the programs in Durham Public Schools mirror the populations that we have and so that is not a Durham Public Schools issue that is a systemic long-term historical issue so we are you know working to counteract so many long-standing forces in you know our educational system in our country and you know that's the work that's the work we're that we are charged with doing as Educators and people who are supporting education so I am I'm very excited about this and can't wait to see how it will continue to help us build racial Equity within our schools thank you Miss Chavez Miss Carter awesome thanks as was brought to us in our recent annual data many of our students including our Black and Hispanic students are doing.
Amazingly academically and otherwise but the reality also once you dig into our data a little bit deeper is that many of our Black and Hispanic students are really struggling academically this is not because they're not capable of achievement and this is absolutely not because our Educators and administrators are not skilled and it's not because they're not working hard both the students and the Educators and the administrators everybody is working working diligently this is the fact is that we live in a society with staggering inequities where some have power and privilege and wealth and opportunity and they have more than others and while I'm not under any illusion that we're going to fix all of that and our school system has the power to fix all of that we can do more to mitigate the harms of classism and racism and that's exactly what I believe at this resolution the resulting family advisory Council and the resulting plan will do place a laser focus on the students and the families that need it.
Most closely monitor what we are doing to serve these children what we're investing in these efforts and whether what we're doing is working and when our strategies are working and the disparity in student achievement and in discipline is narrowing this tells us these are good Investments when they're not working we redirect our efforts so I'm really excited about this I'm so excited about the support of the board and the support of the community and I think this is something that's going to be really good and highlight all of the amazing work we're already doing and build on that for greater Excellence here in Durham Public Schools.
Yes I have a lot of gratitude as well I wanted to uplift that you know this is work that is ongoing and work that definitely requires even more support from our community today I I saw some of our staff Dr lasane actually got to see her today at nccu and just showing up because there was a black SEL program and board member javania Lewis was President we had a former board member who was also a president Minnie was there as well and everybody was just talking about how important it is that we continue to support our students that we continue to love on them this resolution is definitely a resolution that brings up you know the need for us to really provide for our students as as we talk about in the Strategic plan like as a whole person an approach that brings a village of community that has the accountability that has growth mindset and definitely the Coalition building that is that we have been working on for.
A while but this is you know an opportunity another opportunity to continue to expand that work and so one of the the key points that I got from today was that this moment right now 2023 if you go back 30 Years From This Moment from 2023 going back 30 years to rewind the clock back or the time back we're actually faring worst in terms of inequalities than 30 years ago and that was something that was said very clearly today based on the data the gaps are widening and causal you know Savage inequalities you know we've heard about this like the gobs keep widening and so I just want to also just thank our Administration I know that there's leadership here that sees it that works night and day to help us and so I'm really grateful for this board I'm grateful for my colleague Millicent bringing this and and you know checking with all of us making sure this was a collaborative effort and I'm very grateful for our Administration working around the clock.
You are all incredible every single day even today I bugged you know one of you you know and it's like it's it's just work that we're going to do together in our Community Partners as well providing opportunities for our kids to have extracurricular activities to know that there are other adults if there's you know non-profits that want to partner that want to serve our kids some of them were shouted out today there's more that can definitely support our students and so I just wanted to just name that as well and thank you all.
This Bar I Echo what my colleagues have said this is the history of what this board has been about I appreciate the touch points of history in here and also the just the urgency of of continuing to focus and refocus this work to be honest and transparent with our community about the data that is reflective of disproportionalities some that are largely out of our control but we're going to continue daily to address them there was a whole chunk that got edited out because the data to me is the least important thing that we do what I want to make sure is that the work that goes forward reflects that there are arts and athletic opportunities and extracurricular activities that are equitable regardless of which high school or middle school you attend in Durham that if we have places where AP classes and honors classes are not offered and they should be we highlight that bring it forth and fix it like we're not hiding anything but we can say that your.
Address does not at all Define your future and so I want us to to look at those qualitative things as we look at the data we should be offering foreign language and as we're doing that more with growing together we're we're going to have to be accountable to our community and to those new growing together regions as we we do it like Durham and and it does a buck the national Trend because the national Trend and the state leadership has gone in the wrong direction for children but in Durham this is this is what is right and guaranteed to these children that that we bring equity and we bring exactly what children and families need and I look forward to the voices of the community joining in this work with us because I know that is a powerful powerful voice that we need at the table so I look forward to it and I appreciate administration's willingness to to lead this work it is it is the heart of the work thank you.
Thank you Miss Umstead for bringing this with to us and I appreciated the opportunity to work with you on it I think we were able to do some really good revisions and have a lot of good conversations I think what I'm hearing a lot from my colleagues and what I believe in equity work is yes and yes we know our students are amazing and talented and we got to make sure we're getting the academic scores up yes we recognize how scores are impacted impacted by the history of systemic racism in our country and all the different inequities and we know our students can still achieve it's always a yes and conversation that we need to have so I really appreciate this resolution and even in thinking about this thought like wow there could be many subgroups that come from the family Council right a focus maybe on boys focus on our lgbtqia student to focus on girls lots of different ways that we could have smaller groups who really focus.
On some of the topics that we need to continue to dive in and move forward and I think the other piece you know we name in here all the ways that DPS has been doing Equity work and we also know that this is a moving Target we're continuing growing and evolving and so this Council feels like a new Evolution of the equity work that Durham Public Schools has been doing I did want to note just for the community we have Priority One strategic plan goals here the priority One goals are academic goals priority two goals are suspend around suspension and so those are two areas that they may not look the same but just want to make sure people know that that is still included in the resolution those goals are there and then I just made a couple of grammatical changes in here as we went through so we can move the resolution with some of the changes I think there's just a couple extra periods in different places that would be great.
Move approval of the resolution to support the achievement and success of Black and Hispanic students and our public schools with those religions second it's been moved by Miss Umstead seconded by Miss Carter Alton is there any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously. Excited to get that work started the next item on our agenda is going to be with our chief of staff Dr Tanya Giovanni she has policy 3410 testing and assessment programs Dr Giovanni thank you if you could pull up the PowerPoint please good evening chair Olmsted Dr mabanga and board members and members of our Durham Public Schools community my way of History while they're pulling up the PowerPoint we are bringing for information and discussion for the board's review a portion of policy 3410 it is regarding the exam exemption portion we were it was requested that Administration take a look at this and bring it to the board for the board to.
Discuss it just for history we did at the principals meeting on September 6th all of the secondary high school and secondary principals were there and we advised that this was going to be coming to the board for their review and discussion and that we were going to be sharing what some other districts were doing and then we would be coming back to them in the interim we also convened the team to look at at what other districts were doing and start some preliminary conversations around what may be some options potentially after we heard back from the board this evening the members of that next slide please the members of the team were Dr Jackie Tobias the DSA principal Dr Debra Pittman and Mr Pablo Friedman and myself and we met for a little over an hour and pulled together these various policies next slide please the language on your screen indicates what the current policy is for Durham Public Schools all high school students have to take end of course exams but these are the.
Exams that are not end of course or not NC State finals which I don't think they even have anymore but these are teacher made exams that Durham Public Schools has created this policy that indicates that for a semester course students with an a average don't have to take the exam as long as they don't have more than three absences and those are lawful or unlawful absences according to the policy with a certain amount of exemptions which are listed at the bottom of the screen the other portion is students with a B average and a semester course having no more than two absences are Exempted from taking exams or a full year course it's an a average with no more than six absences or B average with no more than four absences and if you go down to the final paragraph on the slide you will see that the exemptions well the carve-outs for the absences being lawful or unlawful include School sponsored field trips School approved activities religious holidays and school.
System approved medical hardship waivers accepting those all other absences at lawful or unlawful excuse or unexcused count towards that absence limit next slide please. So the first on the slide we're going to talk about is the Wake County policy based on our research Wake County does not allow exam exemptions except for high school seniors and for those seniors they've listed here what they are allowed to do but it is again only for high school seniors and if you indicate if you look on the yellow box it tells you no more than three absences of any form that would be excused or unexcused during the semester with an a no more than two with a b and no more than one with the c and again that's only for seniors in the Wake County policy next slide please Cumberland does not allow any exemption and again this is based on our research we did not call we went on the internet and did a search so based on that Cumberland does not.
Allow any exemption everyone takes the final exams regardless of their grade or their absences Charlotte Mecklenburg also there are no exemptions from high school examinations based on prior academic performance or attendance and I've included the dates just to kind of give you some perspective on when these policies were adopted are determined by these other lpsus Union in March 2019 adopted the policy that a student having an average of 90 or above the week prior to the administration of the exam with no more than two unexcused absences is allowed to be Exempted from the exam students with an average of 80 at the prior a week prior to the exam having no more than one unexcused absence are allowed to be Exempted next slide please Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools their policy similar to Wake County they also have well not similar to Wake County but they also have an A B and C amount that they allow no more than five for A's no more than three for b's no and zero for C's.
And that is for the semester block courses next slide please Winston-Salem goes on and they have a variety of other restrictions on these exemptions. Next slide please and lastly this is we were unable to find a board policy for Guilford but Southeast High School in Guilford we were able to find their exam exemption policies which they only allow based on what we were able to find students can be Exempted from one exam only for the semester if they meet the following criteria having an a b or c with no ISS incidents at all and no more than three excuse or unexcused absences for the semester and then they have a list of the exams that cannot be Exempted various classes AP classes and students taking English two math one Etc so they have a long list at Southeast High School next slide please and they also this continues the Southeast High School exams that cannot be Exempted for vocational classes next slide please so we wanted to bring this at the board.
For the board to provide Administration with some guidance on what the board was interested in doing with the exam exemption so I'm happy to have that conversation and Dr Pittman is available as well thank you thank you thank you all for that presentation we know we've heard lots of public comments from community members around and students and parents around our exam exemption policies I wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to discuss it I think I can be heard now I'll repeat what I said earlier thank you all for bringing this policy review we have had a number of public comments from community members and parents students around the exam exemption policy so I wanted to take him time to review what we have and compare that with others I'll open it up to the board for questions or comments this item is for discussion so we could send Dr Giovanni and her policy review team with some guidance if we wanted to make some changes or shifts or we have opportunity.
To ask questions and decide if we want to keep what we have today but it's not for vote it's just for discussion. It's called Alton I just have a question to start I was wondering if we could hear more about the process for obtaining the medical hardship waiver both in the perspective of the student and their family and administration or teachers at the school what does that burden look like on both sides what I would say is that was an Administration an administrative process so that isn't under like the Board review process but based on our conversation with the secondary and high school principals on September 6th that will be done away with we would it is the recommendation of those principles and administration that due to equity concerns because that medical waiver which we've tracked what the state does in order to be Exempted from ELC classes and So based on that is how we ended up doing the medical hardship waiver but it was shared with us by those principles.
That that was causing a lot of hardship financial and Equity wise for their families that if a child just has a stomach bug or a headache for a couple of days that that medical hardship was requiring families to go to the doctor and get a note and so it would be our recommendation based on the feedback from the principles and our conversations that it'd be a note from a parent for any medical concerns and that those would be considered excused but based on the way the policy is phrased at this point it's excused and unexcused absences so we would need to know if the board would want to change the policy to include all medical absences based on a parental excuse versus a doctor or physician signed excuse but the principles are fairly clear and con there was a consensus from the principles that the medical hardship waiver was onerous both for them to administer and for families to obtain thank you that's very helpful so if I'm understanding we'd either remove that.
From the list of those that are accepted from this policy which includes field trips School approved activities like those those are those don't count against the absences right so we'd remove it from that list or we would change it to where it would be like a note from a parent instead of official and then it would be included in those carve outs so the carve outs don't count towards the lawful or unlawful excused or unexcused so if you were to do that you would have to right now it's a medical hardship waiver which medical meaning you have to have a physician sign form yeah thank you that's very helpful.
So we heard a lot from families after covid because and can you all remind me of what we did for covid absences specifically and especially when folks are supposed to stay out five days still right when families came before it was that we were automatically excusing all coveted absences anybody remember this it's been a millennium ago but yeah we had guidance from the state during the early pandemic kind of yeah so that was where I think a lot of our our students were coming from especially those types of days but you're saying that if we had a parental note to excuse that that would be enough if we modify policy to cover that the other thing that I thought some other districts had that was helpful was bereavement leave or grief kind of thing one County had that and I was surprised that we didn't have that did you all note that in somebody's and somebody had scholarship interviews with documentation I saw that in in one of the policies I thought those were.
Good but I guess you're showing us also that our policy is actually actually one of the most generous that you've been able to find correct it does actually allow it for freshmen there are many of them like I think Cumberland and Charlotte don't allow any exemption wake counties only seniors and I we've heard a lot from students and families that really feel that exams are cumbersome and and I understand that and I also want our students to be ready for Durham Tech and for their college experience where the majority of their grade will be from taking a final exam and so I want them to be ready for that and I do think that the the I don't know how old this policy is I think it predates me so it's a it's been a while since we've looked at it I'm glad we're looking at it I think the the true intent of it is actually to encourage attendance especially in high school where sometimes even freshmen get senioritis.
Right I mean I think that's the part of it that is supposed to be kind of a carrot for folks I don't have a lot of problem with how our policy is is written as it is I'd be interested to hear from colleagues but the the bereavement leave and then making sure that when kids are sick they stay home and then we encourage them to actually keep their sickness at home would be just minor modifications that I think would improve it thank you Miss Umstead thanks everybody for bringing this I agree mostly with my I really liked where we county has this click here for the list of courses that do not have an NC final exam in the click here for the list of courses that do have a CTE or post assessment I think especially in the last few years the women's Educators making up some of those tests in the end of course tests for students that inadvertently missed their EOC or yeah EOC and we need to do things to mitigate.
That if we are going to bring some clarity around this policy I think one of the ramifications of a student missing at EOC making that crystal clear yeah but I think by far what everybody has said is the medical exemption some bereavement those kinds of things and being clear about what is excused or not excused. Dr Giovanni you're looking at me funny no no I was looking at the policy so I just want some clarity where there's an EOC that is governed by the state this exemption is for non-eoc so yeah I think I'm so providing Clarity on our website and our schools websites about a list of courses that have a EOC so that we don't have Educators making having students come in to make up eocs that they've missed because they okay thought they were exempt from that course when we can't exempt them from that understood just want to say just clarify that we can when we talk with the principals I mean Dr Stewart can certainly make sure.
That that is done that principals understand that there is that need for clarity for students and families around which courses have eocs and which are qualified for this exam exemption yes and I assume that's what that click here thing does on the Wake County website I didn't click it I'm not sure it's not clickable in the okay PowerPoint so I know you didn't put that there for us. Yeah oh yes no it is I did click that on the yellow box at the top it is a list of courses it's not clickable on this this is a screenshot put on web on Wake County's website so we can make sure with principles that we have it clickable on our website thank you I'm just Dr Stewart I'm sure we'll make sure that happens.
Two in the courses they are studious and I don't know they're all looking at our website for the list of courses so how do we make sure there's a practice that teachers are you know sharing hey this is the EOC course you got to be here and inevitably somebody will miss it because we're imperfect people I think this should be included in all this syllabus so syllabi Miss Lewis Miss Chocolate oh sorry did you know something yes ma'am I'm sorry no I do thank you for doing this research and sharing it with us and see where our policy rests with those in nearby counties I do remember when this conversation came up time evades me so I don't know when but I do remember when it came up and I took some notes around it and was curious particularly that there is a cross policy around attendance Mr Beyer had mentioned and that's policy for 4400 and that policy talks about attendance and excessive absences and the opportunity to provide incentives to.
Keep students in school so it's really this is an incentive and I just really want our public to know our 1 million viewers is not meant to be punitive by any means by these standards I appreciate the thoughtfulness and what we can etch out and I agree with the bereavement and I thank you also for sharing with us at the principles I've already talked about what medical hardship looks like and that a note from a parent can help that because we don't want kids coming to school when they're ill we do want them to take care of themselves and if we can etch that out as well I think that will be super helpful.
The last thing I just want to say is when when the conversations and students came to speak on this before it just struck me really along the lines of valuing education and the relationship the sense of belonging that students should want to have in being in their school we know that our teachers are inevitably not teaching to the test but there is a relationship that's formed through through the year and there's something that that student could give to another student by their presence and being there being supportive teaching each other growing each other so I just I just want to really clarify that it's not meant to be punitive it is to encourage holistic learning and that cohort that is in that classroom together this is what our families just to be mindful of that and it's good to know that we are very gracious in this I also know historically in 91 the exemptions were taken out and you didn't have to have an exemption you just missing you know it.
Didn't matter how many absence you had but in 92 the board put that policy back in place because a lot of students were missing and it's more than just taking the test and our teachers are not teaching to the test but it's the holistic experience I appreciate keeping our policy as it is with a few more etch outs considering where we are today thank you Miss Travis I still agree with those sentiments that Ms Lewis was speaking on about wanting our students to be in school that's what we want even if they're you know succeeding and we want them also to you know to do well but we we definitely want our students to be part of the classroom Community every day that they can I have a few thoughts about modifying our policy and thank you for doing this research it's really helpful to see the comparative just with the other districts and everything so one thing I guess if to Ms Roger's point about putting the the click here piece on the website.
And also Dr milbanka you know you started having having it clarified and teachers syllabi if there is a test if the what type of final exam the student is to take I just like this language from Wake where they said however it is important to note that no student can be accepted Exempted from State tests including end of course exams and CTE post assessments and and or any other state field tests just emphasizing that I I know that sometimes teachers do say things many times but it may still be missed and so communicating this multiple ways would probably be helpful I agree about the bereavement policy the one there's a policy in here I forget which place it was that said a death in the immediate family I don't know if we need to specify that or not I think we'd have a deeper conversation on family and all of that but just a bereavement policy would be would be desirable and then also in our policy let me look back.
We may want to specify just by when the the eligibility for that exam exemption is determined one of the other policies said A week before exams something like that so that their grade that week before is what determines sometimes you know students grades can fluctuate a little bit so I know they'd be wanting to know as soon as they can that can be determined and then one policy had a piece about tardies which I also thought was good four tardies converting to an absence tardisism can be an issue as well and so I we also want our students to be on time of course if it's as long as it's as long as it's not right the buses or anything else but I would be in favor of putting something like that in there and then with those all those excused pieces I actually want to say I'm not sure if we need to have do we still need to keep three and six unexcused absences is that I mean this.
Seems like you can you can miss you know be excused for several different reasons from school but do we still need to keep the the unexcused absence piece as well if we widen you know what's acceptable as far as an excused absence I know it's going in the opposite direction where we started but in some ways it's not I mean we want to be thoughtful about what is excused so that's a question for my colleagues can you repeat your question one more time yes my question is do we need to have essentially an exemption policy around three unexcused absences or unlawful absences for a block course a semester-long course or six absences for a or a year-long course or can we just say if you have an A and all these and you and any excused absences but zero unexcused absences then you can be exempt well I was just thinking the so our absence is our lawful unlawful right so it doesn't matter if it's excused or unexcused.
But to have the number there says it cannot be any more than that number three excuse or unexcused with the a or is that with a b and then C right except those roots that's okay except those results right so the three and a six is based on the grade is that my understanding whether it's excused or unexcused if we take away the number we're saying that they can have as many or have not any at all well I think with the accept there if we put out all of the the debridement the those resulting from being sick all of that in the accept here then they can have any there's no number that we specify that they can have that would yeah I was just asking I think we still need a limit no more than three no more than six with what's already in place yeah she's saying do we need any on top of everything else right you're saying do you need any gimme days free days.
Mental health days or whatever's left in addition to if if we're widening what can be excused and we're saying that you still can be yes except yes and as an example so say I have two College interviews that's two days I was sick with coven and I was out four days or five days if I was out five days and two you know and then two College interviews I was out seven days but those are all excused then do we still need that Grace basically of you can have three absences first semester along course and if you have an A not an excuse unexcused essentially yes I think I have to understand your question I would because lawful and unlawful excuse or unexcused is the language issues around absences period for all the classes I think we should probably keep this the same because otherwise it might get confusing of like because absence like I want the language to be consistent across the board right so your absences in school if you have.
10 that are unexcused or unlawful like leads to something else if we take language out here then it might be like okay well what's excusing and excuse Etc so I think how do we keep the language consistent for families so it doesn't get confusing it what we are saying is we're broadening What's lawful but I think that's okay for this policy I think again we take out the language and say any absences it might get confusing because it's for certain classes not for all classes and that might get confusing I think I was looking at policy 4400 since Ms Lewis referenced it and we're it has more categories than we've talked about so it already is bugging me Mr Giovanni that we're not I think we have to be consistent in that it says personal illness or injury that makes a student physically unable to attend school isolation and ordered by the local Health officer death in the immediate family not you know includes but not limited to to and it gives.
Examples medical or dental appointment attendance in court or administration of tribunal minimum of two days for observance of religious events participation in a valid Educational Opportunity such as travel or a legislative page pregnancy is in there and a minimum of two days each Academic Year for visitation for child custody kind of stuff so I think it's important for us to be consistent as y'all take whatever it is we're saying and go back and figure it out yeah I'll just say one more thing to that too it also says incentive cannot be based on grade.
The sense of given to support attendance cannot be based on grade so in the policy when we have A's and B's that is based on grade.
I guess it's a question we we talked about it as an incentive but do is it truly an incentive I don't know it seems like you could yeah have an argument about you to learn do you have something Miss Umstead. I'm reminded of something that I posted in response to some parents on social media and I want us to be mindful of that as we think about this we are encouraging all students and families to make the best use of the time that they have available to them teacher work days and other opportunities to do college visits we are not encouraging you to miss the same class multiple times a semester as we look at this policy right we want to encourage folks to be in school so with all that I see what you where y'all are going with this lawful versus the muffle and the exceptions my interpretation Miss Beyer in 4400 is that those exceptions are made without regard to grade this exam exemption is different because.
It's about whether or not we're taking the test not whether or not we're approving the time away from class yeah I I hear all that there I also went down to the bottom and there's there's a thletic implications for High School Athletic Association in there too so I just want y'all to figure it out and bring it back I mean you know we you kind of hear the spirit of how we're thinking about it yeah. I have two questions that come up for me one is might not be popular but are we sure we want to keep this open to all students and not just something reserved for seniors as other districts have done thinking about keeping kids in school incentivizing something maybe also how long like say some I think it'd be useful to know thinking of this as like absence of potential absences how many potential days like if a student is exempt from all their exams they could be exempt from how many days are we talking about.
Here or half days or so we know how many days they might be out of school that's not something I expect you to know right now but like for me that'd be useful to know because then I know how many days we're thinking they'd be at home start hanging out instead of being in school they can be except for four days well you may have one day you say it's going to be first period for exams you'll miss this second period exam so they can be exam for four days so four full days from school around the last week of school if they blogging the whole time for exam okay thank you.
Depending on the way they they schedule they can have exam one day then the remaining of the time is remediation to other things then second period will be tested the next day so some points where they have hard time to schedule two exams especially if it's EOC classes foreign.
Are just thinking like they're being penalized you know because those five days I mean if it's Monday through Friday right not counting the weekends so we heard a lot about that during during the pandemic and unfortunately we still have covid happening and so but I I don't see that there's any president or that districts that are actually taking that into account and so I guess I'm fine with the policy that we have I also think that I really like the discretion that the discretionary component that some some administrators have in knowing like you know the kinds of things that are that are excused but I think that that number still just bothers me like you know somebody can be out for five days and that they will not be able to take advantage of this that's just what I'm sitting with that's the only thing that comes up for me but I also do think that in terms of like the criteria and how expansive the criteria is and what's listed on here.
I do think that maybe adding other like in other category to just allude to discretion the discretionary power that some of our Administration has when they consider McKinney vento students who you know are in the process of getting transportation and they're still waiting for that and they're coming late because like transportation is still being worked on you know like it's not spelled out in 4400 but there's definitely that discretion that principals do have and I think that you know maybe it some of that discretionary language can also be applied to this so that's it's not all inclusive that there's room for administrative Administration to have discretion but I still sit with somebody who gets covered and is out for five days will not be able to take advantage of this yeah I think if we I just want to kind of summarize I think where we are where we are currently the policy states that it's law for unlawful absences except for so if you have as many of these.
Absences as as needed I want to say right we're not saying like just take a lot of absences because we do have work days and other times but as needed it's important for students to be in school School sponsors field trips School approved activities scholarships do they count as interviews at the school of work activity so that's there's some clarity needed based on meeting with the principals there is some clarity no one really knew what school approved activities were like when we were all kind of talking about it it was you know what exactly is that because there are students that you know have the Scotland there were some principles that indicated they did not consider the scholarship trips to be school approved activities in some principles say that they had always thought those were and then there was a conversation around students that travel for various athletic things like they on a tennis team or volleyball team and they may have to leave for out of state on a Friday.
And whether or not that's School approved or an educational trip or is that that would right now count towards even if it's the parents have a note it would count towards emphasis because it's without that Clarity some principles are going to count it I should say and some principles may not they may consider it school approved so I think that with the feedback that I've gotten that we've gotten from the board I would like to take that back to the secondary and high school principals Dr morvenga with your approval and kind of get some additional feedback and then we can bring it back to the board with that feedback from those principles yes let me finish summarizing okay before you take off there okay okay so it so it's for school sponsor field trips School approved activities religious holidays we would take out we would edit not take it let me say it this way edit school system approved medical hardship waivers to say for rental notes due to illness or illness.
Absence due to with a parental note I don't know you worked in Words with it a little bit but that would be instead of medical waivers which would include if someone has coveted and has to be out for five six seven days whatever it's probably an exception right so yeah so that would include that also include mental health days is also what I'm hearing or other things students have lots of appointments so if you fall into those categories those absences will not count towards your exemption absences outside of those categories for the exemption but I'm also hearing that we need we can add bereavement to that list and but I'm hearing that we need consistency around how this is enforced and so I wonder we can make those small tweaks to the policy but also how do we kind of give guidance to principals especially when you're going to have some say yes to some some say no to some so how do we give some consistency around scholarship interviews or field.
Trips I think the other I think I just want to keep us to keep mindful of and this can be done through the principal conversation this does this increase absences or not and I don't want that to happen and and I say that in if people are sick people are sick so not not saying come to school if you're not well but if we see more absences for other things I think that might also be hard to we might need to readjust if we start to see more and more absences in this category did I summarize okay yes I do want to book principals did lift up their concern around the absenteeism if the policy was adjusted depending on the direction that the policy was adjusted so they did that was lifted up by the high school principals that they had some concern so if I hear this the consensus of the board correctly we do want to make these changes I would ask that we still come back maybe to this.
After this quarters or not quarter this semester is over or at the end of June when the year is over to see where the absence is going to fall with principals to understand how we make these changes that was in like what impact did it have this year not in decent not in the not first semester though we need to do it at the end of the year so those year-long courses we can see so don't bring this back don't bring it to the principles and bring it back to you and and make the wording changes now okay and then and so we'll change the medical hardship waiver into the parent note also add bereavement and then provide guidance on what our school approved activities in the next couple weeks and then at in next summer have after a conversation with principals to understand with this new policy and this new guidance what happened with absences this year and then we might look back and say oh maybe seniors or Juniors or or consider.
If we saw absences increase basically again not for illness people are sick please stay home but for other things so with that can we get like some average absenteeism rates for previous years that might not necessarily include the cover years or might whatever y'all can but that's in June not you know what I mean like after we see the results of this change I'm pretty sure so you're saying we're gonna make these edits that you've summarized bring it to the principles get their feedback bring it back to the board sharing that principle feedback the board will adopt or not adopt any changes at that point and then in June of 2024 bring back to the board longitudinal data including with this change to see absences and going a little further Beyond those coveted years like further back because it's not clean comparison right absenteeism data is like we're talking about specific students taking specific classes and the absenteeism data they've written in all students so I just want.
To be clear that it won't be great that's why I think some of the principal feedback might actually be better data for us to use in performing it because it's just not we should look at all of it but it's just not as clean I have a friend question here my understanding that those edits that we're getting we're taking this to the principles and bring it back to you before you can adapt this or this is pretty much like a done deal this is what we're gonna do so that's my first question I don't know that you I would say that he says you already have principal feedback that you've brought to us we can make the changes and go forward with that I thought that you only had a little bit of principal feedback and you told them that you were going to bring our thoughts back to them for more comprehensive feedback is that right so we were initially going to but once we got in when our team was meeting and Dr.
Tobias's feedback was that we needed direction from the board before bringing anything back to the principles but we did have that at the principals meeting the conversation around but not like I didn't expressly say this in bereavement because I wasn't aware of bereavement so that's but the principals are aware that this was coming before the board and I believe that I've shared a Dr Pittman jump in but I believe I've shared every all of the feedback that I've received from them including Dr Tobias and at the principal's meeting I don't think there's anything that I've missed that they shared but they have not had a chance to react to this news yeah but one of these changes are what the principles proposed of having a parent note medical waivers one of them but I no no at this.
At this the policy review sorry I'm at one of the changes oh sorry yes I'm sorry so the other change we would make is bereavement providing guidance on what school approved activities are so those would be the three changes after considering this and hearing the discussion I'm interested in actually reserving this policy for seniors and so and talking with the principals I wonder if you could just elicit some information about how they feel about that if if it was just for seniors would that be a positive have a you know do they think that would be positive for you know nine through 11th graders and and then I'm also interested in just saying modifying this to say has an a average and no unexcused absences so I think that's part of where I'm kind of Landing with this as I think about it so and what why would you add the unexcused absences no because well this I think we haven't reconciled the the tension or the difference between policy 4400 and.
And this policy and I I am not sure why some of these things would be excused in 4400 but not qualify for an exam exemption I just would like some consistency between those two so that's why I'm wondering if there needs to be any allowance for essentially unexcused or unlawful absences I think I wanna I think your question while seniors is a good one I think we should excuse me keep it simple for now I think at making a change like seniors feels like also we want to have a longer process of having Community input parent input principal input so I think I'm I'm going to ask if that's okay with you miss Chavez that we hold that for next year once we get some information about when we make this change I I do I mean the also the unexcused absences also could mean like I was really out for my doctor's appointment and I forgot to bring my paper in so I would worry about adding anything that was unexcused because it.
And the end this is above and beyond right this is not just attendance this is like above and beyond for specific students specific classes so I understand then we want to consider both but it's a kind of or a different subset of students when it comes to attendance did someone else have something with fire yeah I want to honor the students and teachers that started the year with this policy in place and kind of see if there's some consistency adjustments we can make mid-year but but I think other things should should hold for like major things should hold for late spring for us to consider for for next year with more data I am I do have questions like Miss Chavez brought up about are we are we being too lenient and adding you know and even essentially lets our policy have two or three B days in addition to whatever when when I love that some of the policies in other districts have really positive attendance framing language to lead into.
That we want our students to be in school we need our students to be in school not just for their own grade but for you know the collaborative work they're doing with it with their peers and to set those kind of healthy learning habits I'm I had I heard you miss I'm Ted say mental health days can be excused with a parent writing a note and is that I I had a nephew that really would not have done well if his parent could just write him you know he's he's not you know I mean they had truancy officers in court that would in Texas that came to their house and that helped my teenage nephew so I don't know how we're working on Mental Health days excused by parents in a way that actually is helpful and I'd be curious to hear what our what our principles and and administrators say on on that realm I mean it's just a very it's a very generous policy to begin with so yeah and and I appreciate.
Hearing from leadership I'm going to take Miss Carter auten then I'm going to try to summarize again so we can move forward it's quite awesome just briefly it feels like we're missing a key voice in this discussion and that's of the Educators that are in the classroom I wonder I know that we don't have time to do that maybe right now before we make a decision on this but it feels like they're the ones that are there with the students and know most closely how this might affect the dynamic in the classroom and also they might have thoughts on the value of the final exam you know I think that there is some research to indicate that tests do kind of cement knowledge in your brain that you learned earlier so are we taking something away from Educators that without even talking to them in that way or others you know related to attendance and things like that so we give guidance to principals around school approved activities so that there's some consistency across the.
District I think that is very important two that maybe we keep medical hardship way worse and say that's with a parent note though like the medical hardship waiver is the parental note because I do want to make sure that we cover Ed and we know that finding a PCR test in the dining room can be complicated and all of that so maybe it is for sickness physical illness and that metacarship waiver is a parental note and then we need to come back to this policy maybe after further review talking to engaging more folks understanding how that those two changes this year impacted attendance and we may review this again in June.
That's I see some head knives from my colleagues all right Mr Malone wants to know if you're dropping bereavement I'd bereavement yes or dropping keep it thank you so much a lot of discussion so Indiana to make sure we've got a lot of people listening to keep us on track thank you again thank you all for bringing this I did have one question was there any policies that you saw that were more generous than ours. Well I think the ones that allow people with c's are certainly more generous but most of them this attracts pretty much the majority of the policies.
Yeah especially we've heard so much from our students around this so having more dialogue with Educators as well as as families to hear more of their thoughts and June will be helpful all right thank you Mr Giovanni well back to you though for insurance program update board policy requires that the risk management department bring to the board the insurance premiums every year we go through a rigorous quoting process Every Spring we start in June usually January mid-January and our broker works with us and we have to pull all of our loss runs and then they send it out and get various quotes and so ultimately based on the quotes that we get as well as the quality of the service of the insurance provider we then bind coverage on June 30th of every year and so what you have on the traces is showing what our premiums were our premiums for our policies were 1.6 million last year and are now nearly 2 million this year as a result of a 56 percent increase on.
Property and boiler insurance I am happy to report that our excess workers compensation went down 26 A little over let me saying a little over 26 percent and this is for information pursuant to board policy and I would be remiss if I didn't thank Mr Paula sewer for his assistance him and his team are critical in pulling together a lot of the financial pieces that we need and we work collaboratively in doing this as well when we're going through the audit process so thank you Mr Le Sueur I'm happy to take any questions thank you Dr Giovanni any questions from board members try to answer Miss Lewis.
This is also just for information so with no questions thank you all I'll take a motion to go into closed session move that we go into closed sessions for the reason state in the agenda second I heard a lot of seconds so let's move by Miss Vega Doris and seconded by Miss buyer I believe any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed it passes six to with one abstention we are now in closed session.
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Foreign.
All right.
We are now back in Open Session Dr mabinga Madam chair I'm here to seek for your approval for the personal report as.
Discussed at a closed session move approval of the Personnel report dated September 28 2023 second it's been moved from inspired seconded by Miss Chavez is there any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye India post please use the same sign it passes unanimously Madam chair I've moved that we go back into closed session second it's been moved by Miss buyers seconded by Miss Chavez is there any other discussion I will ask for the public that adjournment will happen after this closed session there will not be any more Open Session business all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously we'll go back into closed session.