Board of Education · Special Meeting · April 18, 2024

Called meeting is now in session today we're here to talk about the superintendent search we have Jovonia Lewis Rosen from Alma Advisory Group joining us virtually Jovonia Lewis I'm going to pass it over to you okay good afternoon everyone it's great to see you all I'm going to well actually I can only see the board chair right now but I trust you're all there I'm going to go ahead and share my screen Jovonia Lewis just for your own for your own reference that you can't see us all we have all board members except for Miss Beyer she is out of town so was unable to join us this afternoon okay thank you for that and hello everybody so we have just an hour for this conversation there are a few things we wanted to do I took the feedback on our shared agreements shared goal and purpose so I want to share those with you and see if we can finalize the shared purpose and goals GNA provide.

A little bit of an overview of the search the heart of our conversation is to vote to approve the job profile and to discuss our plans and next steps for Community engagement so those are our top objectives today so last time that we met we discussed our shared agreements our shared ways of working for this process that you all are tiing on together and so I wanted to remind us of those again staying engaged experience discomfort speaking your truth and expecting and accepting nonclosure all discussed last week the items that have asterisks on this slide are things that multiple members brought up so wanted to lift up the additional thoughts from the board to keep our students and Educators at the center of everything we do to approach one another with curiosity to seek to understand where other people are coming from relax and be a learner confidentiality when appropriate much of this work is done in public but there are certain aspects that are confidential we want to protect those things assume positive intent.

Build upon and lift up work already learned about through the strategic planning process and to keep in mind those that are not in your seats that power sharing is broader than the board table and to always keep the community present so those were the shared agreements that we discussed any comments reactions before we move on. All right thank you it looks like you yout captured everything that we added excellent thank you very much all right so last time we met we discussed our shared purpose and wanted to give you all the opportunity to see what came out of our discussion we discussed your shared goal is to welcome recruit select Empower and support the next rightfit superintendent for Durham Public Schools so wanted to pause and see if there was anything if you feel like we've captured that goal statement or is there anything you would like to add or change to that goal statement.

I I can't quite see the face yeah go ahead no I realize you can't see us it looks good to me I don't think there's anything else to. Add any other any comments on the goals some there's some thumbs up okay fantastic so then let's talk about our shared purpose and here we had a lot more discussion so we've got a long statement and that's okay we just want to make sure we're all in agreement that our shared purpose is to authentically engage and lead a search process that is transparent Guided by our community including those not typically present in the room designed to acknowledge and mitigate implicit bias every step of the way and ultimately yield a diverse candidate pool I want to ask if you all are in agreement with that shared purpose or if there's anything anyone would want to add or.

Change I think we're in agreement on the shared purpose okay great thank you thank you very much all right so just a quick review once again as to where we are in the process sitting in mid April today is our goal to approve the job profile and to post it tomorrow recruitment efforts have already begun there is significant interest in this opportunity we have a lot of leaders that are already aware of the opening and are are coming and looking to speak with us so we've had multiple conversations with potential candidates this week and candidates are aware that the the posting will go live tomorrow and are expecting we're expecting to start to see pretty quickly the applications for the role May 6 through the 8th through the 8th we will be on site for a site visit so we'll be talking a lot more about that may is really the time when the candidate pool comes together that's the heart of our Recruitment and initial screening June is.

Expected to be the prime month for interviews on the board's behalf with the expectation of having a finalist round in June and potential selecting your candidate either in June or at the beginning of July and we'll be working together every step of the way so that you can see that that process so right now as as I shared the sort of more detailed process this week was beginning Outreach and recruitment our hope is that on Monday we'll be able to launch the community survey so wanted to highlight that for you all as well so we have confirmed as you all know that we'll be working with the chair and vice chair as our points of contact in between our meetings we've confirmed our dates for the site visit and began initial Outreach to Community Partners really want to call out the public affairs team and Sheena in particular she has been a fantastic thought partner for us she was able to review the community survey and is pulling together a landing site on your web.

Page and and really you know just ensuring that the board's wishes of having a transparent process accessible to the community that we're able to to reach that so thank thank you to her for that the the job profile has been has been drafted and we do have a list of where we are expecting to post the position there's no added cost to the district because of the way our contract is set up but if any board members are interested to see where we're posting the position we're happy to share that with you all we've drafted the community survey as well so next we're hoping that there will be a page a landing page on the Duram Public Schools website as soon as tomorrow that will provide regular updates to the Community about the search process Alma has already begun recruiting candidates for the role and we are heavy into our planning for our site visit May 6 through the 8th I wanted to share there for board member Javan who was able to.

See about having Alma be able to join the a commit the committee's meeting on May 2nd that meeting we are seeking Alma an alma team member who can attend so I'll be following up with you directly as soon as we have who that person is but we're working to to make sure somebody can be there okay so the job profile what I'm going to do here is I'm going to move to the job profile itself wanted to thank each of the board members who were able to provide their feedback on the document we know that it's long it's running five pages right now but we wanted to reflect each of your perspectives and wanted to make sure that the job profile could serve as the basis for your screening activities for your candidates so we'd rather have more information so that your candidates really know what it is that you're looking for and so I know each of you have had the chance to read through the job profile what we wanted.

To do was to give each board member the opportunity to provide comments reactions any remaining feedback on the profile itself and then we'll take we'll turn it back to the chair to see if the board is ready to vote to approve the job profile so with that we'll turn it over I cannot see the members in the group so if the chair or vice chair could help identify who's speaking or or call on people that would help me a lot thank you so much we can do that if folks have comments or questions around the job profile do we want to give it about five minutes for everyone to I know it was out but to read it through one more time or we ready for.

Discussion I'm ready to discuss you know we'll start with if you all can introduce your not introduce yourselves but just state your name before you get started so Jovonia Lewis can know who she's speaking.

With it's okay okay Jovonia Lewis do you have a process for talking through the job profile or are you open to us just kind of going around and saying where we have questions or thoughts yeah I would just love to go around the table see where you have questions thoughts reactions positive anything at all anything that what's most important is that if there's anything that you think needs to be changed before you could vote to approve this that we would want to know that for certain but also just looking for General reactions to the job profile itself hey Jovonia Lewis it's ment I'm happy to start us off this is really long and some of the things some of the points I know we like to emphasize and some of them sort of overlap a little bit what is the length or does Elma have a recommendation about how long the job profile should be so our profiles tend to be longer and we're we we're tend to we're okay with.

The length of it you know we our typical profile start to finish is four pages and this one is five pages so we're okay with this length as it is right now we can always we did some work to consolidate since that first draft was created but happy to continue you know but yeah so we're we're fine with the length as it is ourselves from a recruitment standpoint it's just better richer information for the candidates what we want to make sure is there's nothing in here that you would disagree with or that you would have a concern reflecting to candidates about the role because you don't think it aligns with what you would be looking for that would be more important to us than the length thank.

You I had a similar feedback that I felt like it was too long some of it was more objective and too broad then I saw some duplication so I did some I know I turned it in later than you had anticipated but I did some strikethroughs in my and my modifications I suggested some combinations and was thinking you know maybe no more than three or four bullets at the most with some of these places the last two Steward the success sustainability and Equity of the district's finances and work in partnership with the board I didn't strike anything through those but just some of the other ones more of the the what feel like it could be a little more concise so that's my critical feedback the positive feedback it captures a lot of what we have shared that's our expressed values in during Public Schools and service I would say that some of the language was not what I'm familiar with regarding our policies or some language so I did have some.

Concerns on some of the points that were made and I can bring that up when we go into more detail but that's my overall opinion thank you is is now the time also Jovonia Lewis to go into more detail or you want to start with overarching and then no that would be great actually I would love to hear the detail on what were the things that where where you saw language you weren't familiar.

With you come back to me I need to look at the final version then I will see if that's been edited okay thanks I'll be short and sweet I think I appreciate you taking in our both initial feedback but also somehow bringing together everyone's feedback that we've shared just over the last day or two I I really like a lot of the particular language that you used in this to describe what we are hoping that our next superintendent will will do and who they will be and how they will do it I am ready to approve it I don't have a problem with the length it's a big job people are interested and we'll expect expect a lot and and it'll be a exciting work so I think it's worthy of five pages I don't have an issue with that thanks thank you Vice chair.

Hi Jovonia Lewis it's Jessica Carda-Auten hi there hello I I think it looks great I appreciate you incorporating the feedback that I send and that we discussed in our last meeting I don't see I similarly don't see an issue with the length given that it feels comprehensive to me and even if some pieces of it do repeat maybe that's just emphasis and I don't know that it's worth like unless there's something major that I haven't seen I think it's I'm ready to approve it same here I did have a question I do think as I read through I was like I feel like I can hear the voices of the different board members as I was like doing a great job of capturing our thoughts and interests I had questions about the length but you've already answered those I wondered as I read though I think there's a this surfaced a little bit in our meeting on Wednesday where the superintendent like what they are doing in their day-to-day versus what they're overseeing and.

Supervising and I wondered as you went through this if there were times where there were some pieces that felt like this is where a superintendent would supervise a person to do that or oversee this implementation versus like doing the thing right does that make sense yeah so our perspective I I think it's a great question and our perspective is that even if the superintendent is supervising somebody who's doing the work they're still accountable for it from the board's point of view so it's okay to say this is something that you need to do I know one of your questions board chair was around attract support and retain outstanding leaders and staff as as as a as has a question and this was something that when I spoke with each board member individually I think every single one mentioned the need to attract support retain the leadership team for sure and then a desire to ensure that as a district you're attracting supporting retaining effective staff in in every.

Role and so what I did here in my edit was to say ensure that the district system systemically recruits develops and supports which sort of is indicating to your comment that they're not the only one they're not the only person affecting that right but they're creating the system to make sure that it's happening and I would say all of this is in that vein right all all of the work of the superintendent the majority of it is done through others and they're and they're the same thing and they're personally accountable to make sure it gets done well so we didn't think it was necessary to name specific departments we have had districts where for example in the state of Ohio the the CFO or treasurer of the board reports sorry the the CFO of the district actually reports to the board does not report to the superintendent so there we have to say partner with the treasurer right because it's a it's a peer relationship actually but we don't have those kinds of.

Dynamics here so we'd rather focus on what the person is responsible for rather than trying to be specific about which department they would manage in order to do that the other piece about this is that a lot of this is systemic so even attracting supporting retaining for example your human resources department owns some of that but not all of that principles own part of it and are carrying out a lot of that there are other departments who engage around different aspects of supporting retaining even attracting or hiring staff so we'd rather keep it more open-ended than to try to name a one specific owner at this point does that answer your question and are there aspects where you think having it delineated more would be better I don't know but I was it's as I read through it struck me that's part of what just struck me of what the work is of the superintendent versus the cabinet but you're right that all of that is.

What all of that is a is a part of the superintendent's work and comes in board holds a superintendent accountable for so that I understand that approach the other question I had is as you were reading through and from y'all's experience was there anything that was missing that maybe we are we just didn't cover as and capture as a vital part of a superintendent's work no we we think this is very comprehensive H what I would say is you know we really wanted to honor the voices of each of you as board members in how you described so passionately some of the things that you wanted to make sure were in place so I you know I think if if I compare this profile to other profiles this one has a lot stronger language on racial Equity support for lgbtqia communities support for immigrants and language Justice there's a lot in here that's very explicit in a way that hasn't been as explicit in other profiles and so I think that's going to be striking.

To your candidates and will help draw out candidates who really embrace the things that you all are looking for other than that I think when you just look at the headlines the focus on instruction first the focus on staff second culture third engagement of family and community and then the finance and operations piece is a pretty comprehensive look when you go beneath the headlines there's a lot more in there about how you want to see that person do that work and so making sure you're comfortable with those indicators is very important but there's there's nothing to us that feels missing there could be things on your side that you might feel is missing but there's nothing to us that feels missing thank you those are all my.

Questions thank you I think we got I think we got a couple more comments hold on one second Jovonia Lewis okay thanks give us a minute as we're still perusing through and reading and rereading because you know how important of a docum this is. Yes and everyone has a copy in front of them board chair yes it's been uploaded in our board docs so the board has on the public also have access to it okay great so if it's okay I will stop sharing the screen so that I can see the room a little better.

Jovonia Lewis don't worry about this silence you're just watching us work in real time here that's okay it it was a very fast turnaround and while everyone's looking just want to thank you all for taking the time between Monday day and all the way till today you know making sure to give that feedback to us and we did did our best to incorporate but always happy to continue to make adjustments and also just want to remind us all that we made a decision to post the the job in the interest of time but we will revisit the profile after Community engagement work is complete so you can consider this a dynamic document it's not really going to be set in.

Stone so I will say thank you for accepting the edit some of the things I do see this change that I sent to you earlier this afternoon I think the gist of some of my feedback was it felt a bit subjective I said that earlier and some of the roles and responsibilities I believe you're just addressing this with chair Umstead is that it it's the responsibility of others so there's one where I felt like it should be the empowering or making sure implementing that there's evaluations there's systems to be done I had the same comments around attract support and retain outstanding leaders that some of it felt like it should be empowering HR to do this work and then there's another point it said push back thoughtfully when needed to avoid distractions from core priorities in the interest of Student Success I just felt like push back oh I'm not sure what push back means wanting a different definition for what the push back was and also to you know not make other.

People not make everybody happy I just felt I don't know how we would when I was looking at this I don't know how we tease those things out and maybe more interview type questions than throughout this evaluation and then there's one part this say diversity Equity inclusion Fosters and promotes a culture of inclusion across the district and commits to improving diverse Dei practices in the district's planning I wanted to add a sense of belonging I did make that note in there rings and intersectional lens to the work I'm not sure if that's strong racial Equity lens is where I am.

Now bring an intersectional lens to the work again that just felt really broad to me what does that mean to have an intersectional lens to the work is that is it limiting to say that what what makes it an intersectional lens I guess is what what one one of my questions was there and then the last thing I'll mention is the displays it's under systems perspective displays a will skill to interrupt inequitable process systems and practices my comments there were you know this is more of a directive that would come from the board in that I don't know how this will be Quantified or allowed when serving at the pleasure of the board select I was hoping that that could be rewarded display the will and skill to interrupt inequitable.

Processes okay so let me kind of go back to your first so you started by saying some of it felt subjective can you share maybe some of the things you were describing what what are the things that feel subjective to you right. Now the one point was bringing out subjective generally does not take things personally m M I feel like that could have been stried out and just is willing to respond to criticism with integrity and Clarity and the next one is willing to take measures risk to find innovative solutions so generally does not take things personally felt.

Subjective yes so this was this was a a question so this was something both of those bullets were things that were brought up by multiple board members and the intentionality behind it so first of all these are this is in the competency section of the job profile so if the responsibilities are what they're responsible for the the skill sets are how they can do those things well what what's needed for them to carry out those responsibilities successfully and these can be skills knowledge ability experience and they can be sort of disposition dispositional descriptions as well so what the intention behind that this came up from a few different board members but people have shared that if you're saying that I'm sorry the from what you said I understand what you're saying and what I was gonna say is maybe it's not generally does not take things personally but maybe it is that they're objective and willing to respond to criticism ISM that you're not that they're not taking a person we can't see.

That but we can see that they take an objective position even when they're faced with criticism that they can be objective is that an edit that maybe the board would be interested in seeing. Or yeah here I'll share the screen so you can see what's happening I think we're looking at find it reflective or under reflective leader it says generally does not take things personally is willing to respond to criticism with integrity and Clarity and Javan Miss Lis can you read your rewarding so just rewarding would be that they are able to be objective and willing to respond to integ criticism and integrity and Clarity generally doesn't take things personally I get what you're saying the content of the character of the person but just to me that's harder to that felt more subjective than being able to objectify and and have an example of what that looks like I think and I I'm gonna make a comment but Jovonia Lewis you please jump into think one could probably argue that.

A lot some of these a lot of these might be subjective and I think that it's our kind of responsibility once we do the once we get the candidates and evaluate them to see if it where they are aligns with what we want want and desire for the district as a board but I'm also open to this this rewrite of his ability to take criticism I'm I'm fine with that but Jovonia Lewis is that want to add anything there or other yeah I mean I think there's a little bit of Freedom here to but making sure that it is describing what you're looking for and so what I was saying earlier was that many board members were talking about the fact one of the things that comes with this job is sort of what people described it's need to have a kind of a tough skin being okay with being able to respond to things and not coming from a place of seeking to make people happy but really.

You know really working to to be as clear as possible and not taking things personally when if you are crit criticized so it's more of an Orient ation to the work that's being described it's totally fine if you want to strike that sentence out I think the the statement with the adjustment Miss loose made is is perfectly fine I I I said is willing to respond to criticism objectively with integrity and Clarity so we can say that and then just delete the sentence if it makes you know if people would prefer to take it out Miss Carda-Auten did you have a comment before we go to you missar I think I saw her hand first I don't feel strongly one way or another on this particular language but I'd be curious to hear from other board members the what I was going to raise was to in my mind like whether or not this feels subjective is less concerning to me at this point than when we're at the point where we're trying to.

Decide between candidates and assume we'll have Jovonia Lewis correct me if I'm wrong some kind of a matrix that we develop where we're trying to like have different ways that we rank or score candidates and in my mind that's where it makes it where I'll be probably pushing for more objective measures where we can kind of try to quantify how people measure up against others but could you that's right a little yes so at each stage of this process we're continuing to reach alignment as a board on what we're looking for and how we would identify this in a screening process and so we'll have the opportunity to design interview questions or scenarios or exercises that would tease out some of these things that we're describing here that might seem that are this is a leadership style sort of a thing but it's there there are ways in which these kinds of characteristics play out on the job and we'll be able to test some of those things out in our interview process.

So right now the question is whether we think that's inaccurate if is that accurately what we're looking for we don't have to worry too much right now about how we'll screen for it because we'll be designing that in a later stage in the process and again I I'm fine and especially if one or two board members would prefer to take that sentence out I'm fine taking it out I don't think it takes any it doesn't like it doesn't change the the fundamentally change the key message in the way that takes it all away from what you all have been sharing in terms of what you're looking for and I think there are ways that we can keep this kind of thing in mind when we get to to this to designing our screening questions Jovonia Lewis this is Alexandra thank you so much for sending us this draft and working to incorporate everything that we have said in conversations and even the feedback with the drafts and my my take on on this particular.

Thing is that as it's written it's fine but there are some about the word object objectivity and what I'm thinking is recognizing this human behavior so striving towards objectivity I think is something strong because the Dynamics that people enrolls play is about taking is about taking side sometimes like there are board members who are the last board member somebody wants to call because of maybe that you know subjectivity and it's it's important for any leader who wants to be here to kind of check I'm not saying that they can avoid it fully but subjectivity is just part of human nature and there are like the kind of safe people that people want to talk to or engage and and I'm not saying this about Dr mua but you know this is this is just something that any leader who wants to come needs to know like strive towards objectivity and may could even include not take things personally willing to respond to criticism with integrity and.

Clarity. Oops thank you yes so I I I have that strives toward objectivity is willing to respond to criticism with integrity and Clarity how does that sound to. Everyone sorry I'm fine with whatever the board ones I liked the those two phrases I think that you don't characteristically see them in job descriptions and that and they are a part of emotional intelligence and I likeed kind of what is not what's kind of implicit in that but I'm also you know it's not a hill I want to die on and I think as long as we get to the same thing that the same message then that's fine so I felt similarly when I was working on this feel like it adds color to the description in a way that someone can think of about am I how do I operate right does this align with how I operate I think it's an interesting message to candidates but I but I agree that it's fine to have it there or not to.

Have it there but that's why I kept it in was because I felt like it sort of honored what a lot of people were saying and and seems like an important part it seems like a helpful thing for a candidate to think about you know do I fit this profile do I does this feel like is this how do I think of myself and the way that I work and I think it's a message to candidates right about what this job is going to require so those were things I liked about that those two particular phrases but similarly I I don't think it creates Dam D AG or I don't think you lose a lot if if you know even several of you would feel better to strike it so yeah so if I could go back to Miss Lewis do do you prefer the sentence the way that it's written now with does not take things personally deleted and then strives toward objectivity is willing to respond to criticism appreciate your openness to the.

Change and I don't want us have to go through and words Smith everything but yeah that was just a point that I saw of subjectivity not a hill I would die on either but I do like the language that Miss viod has brought to that point yeah okay great would anyone have a concern with deleting that. Phrase y want to audibly say you do not no that's no it's okay it's fine me okay so I'm going to go ahead and delete delete that phrase and then we'll move on from there are we okay keeping does not seek to make everyone happy all the time have a thought on that because I think it's we know that everyone will not be happy all the time by the nature of navigating so many people in different decision-making processes but I wonder if like the goal that we're trying to get at is to seek resolution or like to seek the ability to to listen to and navigate when there's Discord and gather and then communicate really clearly.

About what needs to happen next and I didn't know if that was I'm not sure if that feels good to other folks but I I think there's ability of like yes everyone won be happy may not be but I do want people to feel heard feel valued and have understand standing around what we're doing to move forward seek resolution sometimes within that and everyone might not get everything that they want but we are clear about what we're doing to move.

Forward I kind I I mean when I read this I'm like I don't see this in typical job descriptions which at first glance makes me kind of feel like it shouldn't be there but as I read it more I I like it because we know exactly what that means anybody who reads that knows what that means and knows what it means to get stuck in that trap of trying to make everybody happy and not being able to like make clear decisions or be decisive and communicate clearly about it so I don't to me it's descriptive and unusual but descriptive and clear.

So I think this s this particular phrase works because of the sentence that F because of the what follows it's sort of instead of trying to make people happy you work to communicate clearly you you try to you explain to people what information you're considering and then making sure people understand how you're moving forward even if People's need what even if PE if you're moving in a Direction that's different than what somebody wants they understand how you got to where you are and how you're moving forward so that's kind of the spirit of that so I'm wondering board chair if we should to your point about seeking resolution that could be something you know I I'm wondering if that's something you think would be met in this sort of the sentence that follows or the part of this sentence that follows yeah I think when I read the sentence that follows it fills all district to people and seek resolution feels like it's people superintendent district all collaboratively together so.

And that could just be the reading of how I read it but communicating clearly about what the district is learning key information the district is decis deciding on how the district is moving forward like that feels like I'm telling you versus us talking together to figure out what we do need to move forward and I think the piece what I'm kind of looking to in my mind that's implicit in the does not make everyone happy so people are upset with some concerns and so how do you seek resolution in a way that brings people into the process versus leaves people out because you're just telling them what you're going to do yeah do you feel like captured in the I was looking for something about feedback the bullet number two remains open to feedback or is there something we could add to that one I I think adding Works to seek resolution might work for me I think you just added that there because feedback to me is different than conflict.

Conflict is a form of feedback but I'm I'm thinking about this is where conflict comes to play and there's different interests that are converging how do you work through that I appreciate that addition and you're right it is very one it is a one-sided nature of that sentence so I like adding this piece which is about trying to find a solution and then letting people know kind of where you landed at the end of the day yeah like that thank you for entertaining me on that Miss Lewis had asked about intersectional lens and so this was something what at least one of your colleagues talked about but for me intersectional lens I'd like to try to explain and then if any other board member has a a different explanation would love to hear it the intersectional lens is this idea of how different things connect and relate to each other this idea that discrimination can be affected by all of these other many things all at once and they can be overlapping as well so.

That's kind of how I that's how I interpreted that notion of an intersectional lens understanding how different things connect to each other but this was one that a few board members sort of contributed added to so I'm wondering if any other board members would want to say anything about what what you think you're looking for when you're when you're PRI when you're seeking somebody with an intersectional lens because we could always work to clarify that when I read it further and demonstrates familiarity with it then I'm fine with it no I understand I just I was saying that was one that I initially thought was Brad and as I went read the rest and demonstrates familiarity that doesn't or I thought it was limiting I think is what I said before okay okay I'm good with that thank you for that explanation okay I did have one more though where it oh go ahead oh s belonging yeah with Dei yes I added that in yeah again it didn't need to be here.

Nor there that was just yep there it is and then my last point I think is the the minimal qualifications yes experiencing successful language Justice work newcomers strongly preferred yes I wanted to what if someone is a great candidate but doesn't have the experience but they have awareness so I was wondering about what it would if it could say experience or awareness of if they're just not in a we're doing a nationwide Surge and it could be someone who's not had that experience but they have an awareness of it and know how they would approach it approach the work that's a great question for for the rest of the board what do you all think are you are you fine with experience in or awareness of I would just the fact that it says strongly preferred indicates that it's not a required qu qualification but it clearly communicates that this is a preference of ours to have somebody and I think ER with experience so that's my preference would be to keep.

It that way it doesn't limit us from interviewing or accept or hiring somebody who doesn't have that direct experience but I would say I strongly prefer having somebody with ex direct experience because that's more meaningful than just awareness of I'm wondering maybe the ti title shouldn't be minimal qualifications but desire qualifications. Yes and that's to so some of these are minimum like meeting the eligibility criteria to serve as a superintendent in North Carolina is definitely a requirement but most of this is more desired than minimum can we split it then I know often job descriptions will have minimum requirements and then desired qualifications separate well well I was gonna say did Jonathan shared with us last time that it was this is minimum because at least a bachelor's degree or Regional from a regionally accredited college or university and five years of leadership or managerial experience yeah that's minimum for the state like for the state of North Carolina but I don't know if Duram Public Schools will cost you know what I.

Mean like I don't that's that would be my if we split them it's like we would need to think about what would be in their Public Schools minimum I I want away and I like saying after think you about I mean there's something to desire too but I like saying minimum because you can't come in with just a few of these you need to have these ex and then the language Justice work is strongly preferred that's the only one that was strongly preferred if I had any suggestion about that it would be to move it at the end because it was the only one that was like a we would like this but it's not a requirement I I do like keeping it to experience I do think it sends the message that if you haven't had experience we would expect you to have some awareness and thought about how you would do this kind of work but I think a lot of times people are aware of different kinds of strategies or working with.

Different populations but I I think the strongly preferred puts that emphasis on this is a major priority for our district this is over a third of our district who is well who is who is Latin so is you know not all immigrants or from immigrant families but many of them so in any case and there are immigrants from other areas all that to say I think I like keeping it sorry lots of contingencies done it's okay I do think one of the other things we just would need to consider if we keep it at minimum is that you also might screen out applicants from smaller districts and so so when I look at experience maintaining managing sustainable finances for an organization as large and complex as during Public Schools smaller districts anything under 30,000 you might end up if we say it's a men you might end up having people not into that category and I've Rec learned that most school districts are small a lot of school districts are smaller.

And that maybe and then and Jovonia Lewis you can say whether that comes out in the screening process or not so we shouldn't worry about it now but I just think we it it's a decision point for you if you are if that would be a criteria for you so if you feel like they've got to have led finances or managed finances for an organization of similar size if they've done it in a smaller District we just probably couldn't if you feel like no we would consider someone who's worked in a smaller District so long as they've done the finance work then that's where that phrase should change and basically the choice would just be to take out as large and complex I agree with you to your point that you know people should be looking at this and seeing do I feel like I meet these requirements or not so one of the things not here are years of experience it's not here right now but that's an example of the kind of.

Thing that a board might add is to say s to 10 years of leadership experience something like that some districts will say you've got to have a master's degree and and then some boards will take that out because if someone doesn't have a master's degree they don't want that to stop them from applying so it's it's the right way you're framing that question and I think I asked that to lead back to should we call it desired or minimum or some other word around qualifications I think you want to my thinking cast a larger net and then you can screen as you get in but I don't want and I think this happens particularly for candidates of color to look at this list and say I don't have all of that so therefore I can't apply I I think the go-getters even if they only have eight of the 10 will apply because they say apply for the job you want not the you know job that you.

Have or you know so I I told I told lisus again having some go-getter candidates who maybe you know they're like well wasn't quite as big as DPS but I wonder on that on that Finance one if we could change it to sustainable finances for a large complex organization so that maybe it's not as as large as DPS but something significant yeah and then it's up to the individual they you know how they think about large you could also take out large and say for a complex organization that works too yeah yeah I think taking out the comparison to Durham Public Schools is a point you know well taken board chair so I'd be okay just removing the comparison to the district especially if if you all might be open to someone who's worked in a smaller.

Organization and I think that most people kind of know what minimum qualifications means so I think minimum is just probably more familiar to applicants and I think if you switch it to desired it it does start it does feel a lot more optional than I think we intend this section to be so I'm might I would recommend sticking with minimum rather than desired to the point many of you made and I do agree thinking about if anything else is a preferred versus a must have that it's okay to to add that in here Jovonia Lewis was this is Jessica Carda-Auten sorry I was wondering if if applicant if folks apply and and they don't quite like we keep it at minimum and they don't quite have one of these qualifications does anything stop us from like considering them during this process is there any that's a great question so you're asking at the end of the day if you end up with a finalist who hasn't had one of these.

Bullets because you said it was minimum does that mean you're you're setting yourselves up to not be able to consider that individual exactly because sometimes that is the case right in some hiring yeah I'm just kind of looking down this list with that question here well I think we said we would screen all the applicants not like Alma wouldn't be removing anybody we look at them are you saying that we them yeah like some legal implication of like us considering an applicant that did not meet what we called minimum qualifications just making sure because if not I say we leave it we get the applications that come we call we make this strengthen it by calling it minimum qualifications and leaving it as is again if there's not the risk that that later we're going to for some reason have to exclude them yeah I think if there if there's any concern about that then sticking with desired is perfectly fine and just taking out the term minimum it tells your candidates it's.

Not a it's not an ex it's not an inclusive list and it's not an exclusive list there may be other criteria that you will consider I I like that too because the deeply understands a unique Durham Community like you know I can read all the things on the internet but without living and being here in Durham I might not really understand that and so I again I'm thinking about this from an applicant standpoint if I'm in another place and I think this would be really desirable I want people to read it and feel like I'm I'm still can apply for this and I think mostly about women and women of color who will look and say I don't have it and I won't do I won't apply and so how do we keep it as open as possible for those people to say okay there's some things that that I would look for but I think as we go through the process it'll be clear to us too what are things that are non-negotiable.

Right I just think it'll be as we get applicants in our hands it might get more clear for us yeah yeah I I did want to to board member melison comment Our intention is that we would pre-screen candidates for you but that board members would be able to view all applicants so you will have access to all of that information but our hope is to narrow the pool for you and present candidates for you to consider so just wanted to make sure that was clear yes but okay great but yes you will have the opportunity to see all applicants yeah okay well does does anybody have an objection to changing this to desired qualifications.

I don't see any objections I'm looking back and forth so is there a mo U sorry is there any other conversations around the profile not we can take a motion to vote on it move oh sorry can I ask a sorry ask clarifying question Jovonia Lewis can you share a little bit about the how to apply currently says resume and cover letter can you speak a little bit to like the choice for Amad theist resume and cover letter and some I know some other organizations ask other questions around verifying your application or you know if you've been committed of a crime some of those things people ask on the application so I just want to yeah so our application is just super simple we just we want to make it as easy as possible for people to apply and then we do that screening in our first screen so we're looking for the things that you are describing and so essentially our application just ask for personal information I can I can show you one.

Let's see if I can do this in case it's helpful just for you all to see so I'm going to share my screen. Again so our applications are up on our website we have a superintendent search and Lawrence so this one has a pretty lengthy job profile similar to yours and so when candidates click that link they see first the app the description and then they have the application so they can import their resume and autofill but the application is literally just their name their email they choose the headline of how they want to describe themselves their phone number and address they can decide whether or not to upload a photo and then they provide their resume and their cover letter and they can do that as an attachment or they can just included in the application itself now for this particular District we had two added questions are you eligible for superintendent license so we can certainly add that for North Carolina they wanted to ask if people were bilingual or biliterate in Spanish.

But we typically don't have those added questions so that's something that this particular client had we seek all of that additional information out when we're screening the candidates so we'll get the information you mentioned board chair but we we try to keep the application as simple as possible and will the board have access to those like the answers to those questions as well yes when you do the screening process yes the board absolutely yes and then one more just tiny followup question will you share the when we get there will you share what some of those questions are so we kind of know what we're going to get into the screening so we designing so we designing that together okay we should be designing the the interview questions together and we'll have the opportunity certainly we'll share the things that are standard for Alma but also they're going to be specific things you're going to want to make sure that we're asking and we'll be sure to.

Do that it's also in our scope to do a a p at least a portion of a back background check on the individual so we'll be able to do that and we can talk through all those pieces as. Well Madam chair I'd like to move approval of the job profile as edited today second the move by Miss Carter Alton second it by Miss valaris is there any other discussion all those in favor say I any oppos please use the same sign this unanimously all right congratulations we have a job profile fantastic so the profile will be posted tomorrow and we are working with your public affairs team to to make sure that that's made available that it's communicated out to your community we have two other just very quick things that we wanted to share so we have provided to each board member a listing of community organizations that we would like to reach out to as part of this search process Our intention is to be able to reach out to individuals either to.

Ask them to participate in a meeting with us to encourage their constituents to attend our visit when we're when we're there in early May or even to organize a meeting that we can attend and and participate in so we talked through a lot of this last week so I I'm in the interest of time don't think I need to go through all those slides again about Community engagement but did want to ask for each board member if possible by tomorrow to please go through that listing and get us any thoughts you have on any additional people you want to make sure that we reach out to so that we can begin that Outreach as as soon as possible so I didn't know if anyone had a chance to review it it came out came out to everyone I believe on Monday might have been sent on Friday but wondering if anyone had either any questions or concerns any questions Borton Miss and your request from us Jovonia Lewis is for us individuals go in and.

Add any organizations or other folks that are not currently on that list is that correct yes so so each of you has your own individual document so that you can provide that feedback directly to us and then like we did with the job profile we will be able to bring it all together and then so that we can then move forward from there but we we have all of your feedback yeah Miss. Bodar Jovonia Lewis thank you so much for for the list and and shout out to also our Communications Department Mach Cooper for working through these lists and Prov providing the information of how we have engaged as well I I looked at this list and I was very I think satisfied the only question I had for you is because we currently have 30 33 Community groups organizations a mix of Grassroots a mix of Institutions nonprofits political action committees I mean you name it ptas there's there's quite a variety here if you wanted to add there's I think.

Is it 33 I thought I maybe around 33 what is I could add I could I was thinking I could add even more folks like I don't want to leave anybody out and I think my my suggestion is that if there's any any organization that if we can make this list public and if there's any organization that feels compelled you know that they feel like I don't want anybody to feel left out we do have to navigate the quantity we we can't meet with hundreds yeah but I I do I'm just making a request if if this list would be made accessible rep public I don't know if there's any anything with our district or anything maybe swaying a different way but I feel like if folks can have an opportunity by tomorrow if they really feel compelled but this is quite extensive I mean there's 33 of our partners and it's not all inclusive but it does touch on people who have relationships with other people and that's part of like the the beauty.

Of networks that a lot of these folks are connected to other folks as well but my question is like what is like a number and can this list be be made public just in case there's anybody else who wants to reach out and say please include me by the deadline of tomorrow I can appreciate that can we just ask them to email Bo and one of us can add to their list so if they emailed Boe dpsnc.net then we can add them to the list that work for you okay so there any other all the people that might be watching Community if you are Community organization that wants to be make sure you're connected in the search please email Bo dpsnc.net we can add them I think I like that and but I want to build on it to like for fol that might not be watching this right now to broaden that access like could we put something on the landing page like click this button and you can indicate that.

You want to be a community organization that that is part of this or message is going out via DPS social media are we asking Administration to do that tonight because the deadline is tomorrow Administration does have is working on a landing page for the superintendent search I don't think it would be completed by tomorrow that that we'll be able able to add that type of Link the deadline for us to provide feedback is tomorrow I don't think there's like a hard and fast deadline for all like Community groups to have decided they want to be part of this by tomorrow right but what don't that's correct so we just want to make sure all the board members have had the opportunity to review this because you all know your constituents and to miss bayad question or comment more is better like don't don't hold back give us all the names and we and we we'll at least reach out and make sure that they know and hopefully engage them in this.

Process and yes I think it's a great idea for us to have an open invitation to the community that if they want to be involved if they want to engage with us to reach out to that email address that you said and and to let us know we want to meet with as many people as possible and so that and that's okay you know for us melison it's okay if people in the coming weeks are communicating with us so I like the idea of having an open invitation while making sure the board has made clear who they want to make sure we're talking to or who who might be missing from the list that we have right now yeah I want to pass it over to Sheena Cooper our senior executive director of public affairs who's here I know they they've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get also ready for this community engagement so I'll pass it over to you Miss Cooper thank you chair.

Umstead and good afternoon board members and Jovonia Lewis we have been working actively to establish the web presence for the superintendent search we do anticipate that that landing page will be available by end of business tomorrow we do know that information is forthcoming and this is an evolving process so it will be updated regularly with the latest information we can add a place on that landing page for Community organizations who would like to be a part of this process to email the board to be added to that list so as you have additional information that needs to be added please know that we will do that consistently question I just so they can email the board Boe dpsnc.net do you want to copy Jovonia Lewis or not I think we should just email the board we'll keep it as simple as possible for the public and then we can share them with Jovonia Lewis okay so just Boe dpsnc.net let me say it in Spanish yeah go ahead.

Oard thank you thank you Miss V all right excellent and then to the question as to whether we would share the list of community organizations I'd be curious China your thoughts on that I think certainly the name of the organization if we think it would be helpful to say these organizations have already been will have been contacted once we contact them I think that's probably going to be could be a really helpful thing to to share but wanted to see what Sheena thought of that if it certainly helps facilitate the process of our community knowing who is already been invited I'm happy to post we have had confirmation that Community meetings will be held with these organizations so we can certainly make sure that that information is available we will be doing initial Outreach tomorrow to let them know to expect more information from the alma group regarding when their meetings can be scheduled and hosted so we'll we'll stay tuned again we're working fast and furiously to make sure that we.

Can accommodate as many individuals as possible and everybody has the most upto-date information so please check that site once it goes live and we make sure that we put as much information for our community on it as possible thank you Miss Cooper excellent thank you we did revise the questions for the community conversations so wanted to share that it was shared for this for the meeting so based on the board's com comments we're we're focusing more on you you know what asking people what they love most about their child's school or their personal experience in Durham Public Schools we're asking what do they want to be true about their school in the next few years we are asking them to picture their ideal environment for their child what would that look like and then we'll have conversations about the skills and experiences they feel will be most important important I want to add in here that it's not here on this list but we do often end our meetings by.

Saying what would you what would you like to see from Alma that or from the board that would demonstrate to you that what you shared with us made a difference in this process and it's kind of a way to put a little more accountability on us but also gives us good insight into what people are expecting in res in return for them spending their time with us so just wanted wanted to share that with you all as well we have time to continue to refine these questions but happy to take any additional feedback if there's anything anyone would like to add or change about these.

Questions I do have a quick question do you all do any kind of orienting at the beginning to talk about the role of the superintendent in schools we do it depends on the audience but especially for students parents you know sometimes even staff the district to be able to explain what the Java the superintendent is and to explain a little bit about the process and and how people can engage in this process what they can expect that's helpful thank you any other questions for members I don't see any other questions Jovonia Lewis do you want to go to the other think there's another portion of the community survey yes the other piece is the community survey and this was also shared in advance of today's meeting but you may not have had time to review it all so we have a number of questions here for the survey want to make sure the board is comfortable with how we're describing the work and how we're describing and what what questions we're.

Asking the community we ask a lot of demographics questions so we try to break that up so that people would answer all of our questions but hopefully also give us more information about who they are because when we come and report back to you and to the community we want to be able to share where there might be different perspectives based on certain roles or demographics we also want to know that we're reaching a comprehensive demographic of the community so we have extended deadlines if we feel like certain pockets of the community we haven't gotten enough responses from so that we can double down our Outreach so just wanted to share that ahead of time so our first question is how are you connected to Durham Public Schools and we ask for different roles here whether they're parents caregivers students graduates teachers they can select all that apply here building or central office administrator classified staff member Durham resident or Durham Community partner organization people wear lots of different hats so we.

Want to know all of the different ways they identify with the Community and then what we've done here is we ask what are to try to tell us how important different aspects of the job are and so here we have these different items a through I and these are aligned with the job profile right now so they're not the exact same wording but they're like the big a lot of the big ideas that are in the profile so I want to give you all a chance to look at this to see if there are things that you would add to this list because we we did shrink it down significantly so the options our first close student opportunity and achievement gaps support student mental health and well-being rebuild trust with the community attract retain and support leaders Educators and staff see value and listen to our families and Community cultivate a culture that values growth Innovation and joy across schools strengthen Communications strengthen District finances combat declining enrollment the question for you all.

Is are these the right things to ask the community what they care about they would be at asked to rank on a scale of one to five how important they feel each of these items are V hi Jovonia Lewis Alexandra VES I think this list is good I also just you know feel like there's one important thing that I think the community can weigh on and part of that is Durham being a political place right and so nanop politics I would I would word it not as nanop politics I would word it more like Coalition like do you want your leader to build coalitions I mean we have seen a lot of that work happen over the years years coalitions that have gone broad I mean Partnerships we have had many opportunities to kind of work with different stakeholders institutions philanthropies Etc and so a coalition leader but there's an implicit political savviness I don't know what the word would be applicable but politics is behind everything and so.

Somebody who's able to work with County leaders State leaders you know at what point how do we word that and so build Partnerships coalition across across spars I mean across Community well something that kind of talks about the layering of that like oh yeah across government nonprofit philanthropies academic institutions I don't know like that's that's pretty much the job I mean we have Partnerships with nccu with with UNC with I mean implicitly through the food nutrition program anti-state Cooperative Extension you so it's like yeah what was it after philanthropy Alexandra academic institutions academic institutions this could get long this is maybe connected maybe also different from inspired ours this point but I think like a champion of the district spokesperson was other word that came to mind but I don't like that spokesperson quite as much but I think we do want someone who I mean the superintendent is the spokesperson of the district so we want someone who's going to be seen that way in the community and a champion for the work.

That we need y tell me if you think it's already covered somewhere else but I like Champion I think that's clear I think that will be very clear to the community I feel like spokesperson they might interpret different ways so I added Champion there up front. I think people will interpret it different ways like what a champion is but that's true yes every single. Thing okay how about yeah oh sorry for number two yeah and maybe this is caption F cultivate a culture that values growth innovation enjoy across the school district but wanted to really have something in there that Stu that does focus on student Innovation growth and achievement.

Academic that is that like all of our kids too yeah that would only focus on a certain group of Jovonia Lewis how long should this list be I think we're at the limits here you know we're let see we're 3 6 9 10 11 12 something about equipping students for their future endeavors maybe increase increase or grow student achievement and preparedness for post future endeavors future endeavors life after student achievement. Miss would you be okay if we removed close student opportunity and achievement gaps in place of this one or would we have both I'll say both both okay we can keep both okay these are the yeah Jovonia Lewis it's Alexandra again so on on that piece I know it was already getting long the one that we talked about the building Partnerships and Coalition across government nonprofit philanthropy and academic institutions I just had a small little side conversation with my colleague here and we were just thinking about advocacy groups those are a little more like they can be.

Grassroots they can be a little more formalized or structured any kind of way but I think the advocacy groups would be great to also include and that would cover a broad spread of of folks who are you you know change makers are trying to create change yeah excellent I was gonna say maybe we could take off J yes I think you can with the with the with the additions I think that's okay additions. Of okay yeah I was going to say what if you combine Jay with well well finny is in communication I think they're different but I just that you don't lose it it feels to G like I was actually thinking those were a little bit dup duplicative because G is about listening to so Communication in that direction and I assume that J was about Communications from the district so could we just or maybe because they mean different things but specify strength Communications from District to the.

Community I think this you could also it's implicit in here I think it's okay to drop it and people will have the opportunity to leave comments as well so we we can look to see if it ends up being a theme in the comments but I think you have a number of things that cover it and I'd rather have a shorter list here if we. Can is that okay yes yes that's okay okay all right so how important do you think the following skills will be for our superintendent to be successful in the role so the skills that we have here three four five six seven eight strong racial Equity lens clear communicator and collaborator excellent organization and project management supporter and developer of leaders understands District finances works well with the board Innovative Problem Solver reflective leader and continuous.

Learner and these were the big themes from your profile board comments questions I have some I was gonna add instructional leaders not there yeah feels like the number one thing we need the superintendent to be doing and then the it racial Equity lens is very clear to me but we're talking about a broad spectrum and so I didn't know if there was maybe a shifting in language to be clear for everyone who might be engaging with our survey there's is there other language we want to use but instuctional leader number one I think I saw your but y'all just jump in that the instructional leader stood out to me as well I was going to say there's nothing here about like unding of the educational landscape or curriculum or anything like that so thank you for adding that one but could you clarify the what you were your feedback on the racial Equity lens one yeah I think for all the people that talk about racial Equity it's super.

Clear to us I don't know that everyone in Durham is having conversations around racial equity and so they just want to like is there another term that we might want to use that might capture everyone who's taken our survey is what I'm thinking understanding oh yeah okay this is Alexandra just there is one thing that that could go with that too because racial equity and then there's also the conversation about cultural humility not I'm not even using cultural competence because at this point that has been kind of like talked about it's it's not it's more about the humility like so yeah that could be a separate one or thank you racial Equity lens and cultural humility practice I like including racial Equity ones myself I like both of those I love racial I do love it I just want to make sure it's accessible to everyone who's reading it right and I am reminded that we're not you know there's groups of people who talk about racial Equity really explicitly because that's in.

Their job and then their job descriptions and what they do but there are members of our community who are great but may not use the same language right and so how do we do something that captures that would that would and but if everyone is okay with keeping it we we don't have to Shi it how about anti-racist everybody gets that on some. Level those and those are different things but yeah those are different things yeah I I feel like adding cultural humility gives a little more description so having them together might help but I think the impact if someone wasn't familiar with what it meant they might just not say it was important so we'd have to see kind of what what the responses are I can't think of any way to better describe it without it being too lengthy but I'm open yeah yeah I'm looking at board members I think they're okay with it so we can keep moving sorry push us a little because we have a a.

Captive audience waiting for our budget hearing today okay great great well let me I'm sorry and I know we're over time the the the last two questions are just Durham Public Schools will be successful if we accomplish these three things within the next five years these are open texts and then is there anything else you wanted to share open text then we do ask for demographic information and Alma tends to use broader language and we try to be as inclusive as possible in in our descriptors here we did work with the public affairs team as well so hopefully this this is aligned but would want the board to make sure that they reviewed what the things that we're asking we ask about race and ethnicity we ask about gender we ask if people identify as lgbtqia we actually had more descriptors there before but we we'd actually defined different things here but it looks like we simplified this we ask if people identify as or care for a person with a disability or special.

Education diverse learning needs and then we would like to try to capture what parts of the neighborhood individuals reside in so that we can look at the geography we also ask about income and then we ask what schools they might be affiliated with so it's a lot of questions that's why we put them near the end but that's that's the remaining part of this so not sure if anyone has any questions or comments on the demographics questions I do have one question and it might so first I'm G ask it to Jovonia Lewis Jovonia Lewis my question is are students seeing this survey so we have already we we know that we are not able to ask questions like these to students so the student version will have limited demographics given state law thank you yeah I had a couple comments I okay just very quickly under under the race and ethnicity for C I just wanted to say can we say East Asian or Southeast Asian just because I.

Don't want to have people see oh Asian-American I am Asian-American but it says not South Asian like excluding excluding that group from Asian americ and let's see for number sorry you said or Southeast Asian just East Asian or Southeast Asian okay just rather than Asian-American and then saying not South Asian not South Asian does that make sense it said not South Asian before that's because South Asian is on a different line yeah I was just saying taking out Asian-American because Asian am itself includes salth Asian got it thank you and then number nine can we add the term neurod Divergence yes thank you for income I was just going to suggest that there be one more bracket like 50 to 100 not a hill to die on but maybe just a little bit more Nuance to that and then last thing was that Murray the school name is Murray massenberg U is it has Murray hen massenberg at the beginning yeah I think our team holds this list and I think we're.

Probably working with public affairs on this but which was the one that you caught Miss Travis you Murray Masson it should be Mar bass massenberg but I don't know that we need it because no one would well I guess there's some there are a couple staff members that are affiliated with Murray bber I take it back the school opens in the fall of 20 of this year is that spell right m u r r a y yes and then it's hyphen Mass okay got it thank you and M I don't think there's a oh there is just kidding all right can we go up Jovonia Lewis just to the numbers the the household income I want to make think did you do 5 to 100 okay yes and then I I'm sorry this is wrong.

150 Miss VES sorry and then miss card ofon hi Jovonia Lewis Alexandra VES I was wondering if we would want to also track preferred language spoken at home this is for me it's important to kind of understand language as well because we want to make sure that we hear from diverse community members yes is it a yes no like is there a language other than English spoken at home or do we want a list of languages I have one question you could do a list of languages yeah that way you don't have to do two I was wondering I really like the language of number nine and I was wondering if it would make sense to apply it to to number eight meaning like nine indicates says do you identify as a as or or care for a person with disability so could 8 be do you identify as lgbtqia Plus or care for an individual who because we I I'm curious to know those who either identify as or.

Have children or our caregiver for those who does that make sense to others or no I also was I was wondering I saw so in 12 we have the list of all the schools but I was wondering if someone at the beginning of the survey indicates like in question one that they are they Mark H they're a Durham community partner organization will they then in could they then not see question 12 but instead skip to and maybe an open-ended response where they can indicate which Durham Community partner organization they're affiliated with does that make sense I think it would be hard for us to have a list of all the community organizations it yeah it would have to be an open text and I'm not sure so for us to have an open text that's something we'd want to analyze and try to understand so we certainly can do that if you if you want people to list any Community organizations they're affiliated with I think she's I think you were.

Asking if someone at the top of this number in question number one says I am a Durham community partner organization that they would then we would then ask which organization is that correct exactly because they will not be able to we don't want them to answer 12 really unless they are also a affiliated with a a DPS school schol got it so are you also saying in the list of schools we can say not applicable or other there's other yeah other and prefer not to answer it down there yes if that's how you you could have a skip pattern where they didn't see 12 or just have a other please specify and that could be where folks write in I suppose yeah I don't feel strongly just wanted to make sure that this everybody has an option to identify if you if we're letting folks who are not affiliated with DPS schools complete this and if they have an option to and just making a note here for the.

Team sorry just thinking out loud so everybody will Mark to number one they can choose all so yeah is it the case that everybody will actually be able to mark a school that they are affiliated with or central office and they might also be indicating that they are Duram resident and a member of a community partner organization or might there people be people completing this who are just part of a community partner organization but not affiliated with a school or DPS yes so in that case I think we want them to have a way to either indicate where they're what they're affiliated with or at least not see this list of schools of schools yeah I think this is going to be a drop this should be a drop- down list and so okay we'll we'll take that back and figure out the best way to do that a question on that list of schools and this actually is for administration because it says what schools or locations and then it only has.

Administration central office and I wondered if we needed to break out bacon Street Hamlin Road like those different locations St development or would you say they're all captured an Administration central office the the question is whether you'd be concerned if one of those was not represented in the survey respondant or if people wouldn't know that they that they belong to the administration central office but if people would know that that belongs to them even if they're in different buildings then I would probably keep it as is I might argue that some of them would not identify themselves as central office I think cm is the Fuller building often and then I think other yeah I we can certainly provide a list of the various departments within Central Services to incorporate into this list oh you're asking about departments d d public schools has multiple location for staff members and so like our Transportation Hub has its own like bus depot where mechanics and other folks work or Bacon street has different.

Departments Child Nutrition other it other people in different places and so those central office I think some people might not identify as that even though they're in those locations they serve multiple schools I don't know if that's help clarify yes we would prefer not to have departments because it might feel so specific that people will feel like it's not as Anonymous but if you wanted the list of different building locations that that's fine I I think was that China chiming in there that that you can provide it yes we can provide that and we could provide Clarity Central Services means Transportation trial nutrition and so they're all lumped under that one category if that makes sense yeah that would work I just I didn't know people would see it and see themselves in that description that's what I say all right any other questions I'm gonna get yeah baring no other questions we would like to you would like approval of these documents in the survey is that correct Jovonia Lewis that's correct all right.

Move approval documents second been moved by missar second it by Miss Rogers that we approve the community engagement surveys all in favor say I I any oppose please use the same sign right it's going to pass 51 because excuse me pass 5 with one board member who had to step out all right Jovonia Lewis any next steps that is everything we will get the job posted tomorrow we'll be working with Sheena thank you nice to see you in the room and it's been a pleasure working with her and her team the community survey should be going out early next week it will be translated and available in English and in Spanish hopefully we'll get all of your any additional stakeholders tomorrow and we are heavy in planning for our site visit May 6th through the 8th so expect some information from there we also want to thank Nicole Miss Smith in the room who has been working with us to find meeting times for the remainder of the search process.

So we should have updates for you all about that as soon as those dates are confirmed that's everything thank you Jovonia Lewis so much for that we appreciate your all of your support and the support Alo is providing for this work so far we're going to close this portion of our meeting board we will need to go into the next part of.

Our meeting which is a closed session I want to apologize to the public we are behind schedule so we were going to do this as quickly as possible and then come back out so we can get started with our budget hearing all right board I'll take a motion to go into close session for the reason stay on the agenda so moved second it's been moved by Miss Roger seconded by Miss Carter Alton any other discussion.

It's okay let me adjourn this meeting is.

There a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all right believe I actually need to vote on this all that is being adjourned so we're going to open the next portion of this meeting called it to order close session on this agenda move approval of the agenda second all in favor say I I I any opposed okay and then we have close session on this agenda I'll take a motion to go on close session move approve move to go and close session second the move that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda any other discussion all in favor say I I I any oppose passes unanimously again to the public we apologize we will come back as soon as possible thank you.

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We're back in Open Session Madam chair I'd like to offer motion to add the following to the original motion to go into Clos session to protect the attorney client privilege to discuss n o by and through his parent or Guardian AO versus dur Public Schools Board of Education 24 EDC 01108. Second been moved by Miss Rogers seconded by Miss vadz is there any other discussion all b m is in favor say I I any opposed please pass use the same sign it passes unanimously that I'll take a motion to adjourn this meeting no mov second that we adjourn so we have adjourned our second meeting of the day which was the closed session we're now going to move open up our next and last meeting for today which is the budget hearing so good evening everyone who's joining us the dur Public Schools Board of Education budget hearing is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us I want to deeply apologize.

For the tardiness of the start of this meeting the board had two previous meetings that ran over so thank you all for hanging in with us and again apologize for our tardiness the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo eiges and Vanessa P Ramirez thank you all for taking the time to join us the first item on our agenda is a moment of.

Silence the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval.

I move approval of the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Lewis seconded by Miss vadz is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously the next item on our agenda we're going to have interm superintendent catd Moore to give us an update on our budget good afternoon board members we are here today to do the public hearing on the superintendent's proposed budget and as my update today I just want to go back over the super the I guess what I I keep calling the money slide from the superintendent's proposed budget presentation last week so if we could go ahead and move on to the next slide and thought it would be better.

To do this prior to the public comment than than wait after just for for those who are listening so on this slide you see the totality of the increase in the local budget that it we I have and put in the superintendent proposed budget for the board to consider as their proposed budget to the County Commissioners for 2425 the top section in light green are the items that we do not really have a choice about these are things that have come about based on legislative action namely there is a five there is a certified salary increase that has already been approved by the legisl that is the second year of the banial budget we anticipate that to be about 5% on average it is a range based on years of experience with a higher waiting at the lower end of the scale than the higher end of the scale we have calculated the cost of implementing that salary increase at around $2.2 million there is also a classified salary increase that is.

Already baked into the second year of the banial budget which is 3% for 2425 for classified employees and that cost is right at $2 million there are a couple of other items that are the FICA item for example is associated with those increases the retirement cost for several years now the state has been increasing the amount that state agencies contribute to the retirement of each individual employee that's a $1.4 million cost and the cost of health insurance pay paid for employees is going up as well that's a cost of 626,000 I think it's important to note that this blue this this light green box that's 6 point almost $6 million is for implementing legislated raises and health insurance changes and retirement increases for locally paid employees the state takes care of these costs for State paid employees but each Public School unit has to take care of those increased costs for locally paid employees es the second item in this in I guess that's a light gray is an.

Increase to is a increase to the teacher salary supplement this is the local portion that Durham provides for teachers who are employed in DPS it is above and beyond the state salary schedule most districts in North Carolina well all of them now are providing a local salary supplement and it VAR is it's it's up to each local unit to to determine what they are able to afford this is designed to supplement the salary it is not the primary salary but given the lack of attention to teacher salaries by the state in the last few years now there's been a lot of pressure and a lot more movement in the local salary supplements across the state of North Carolina this particular increase is an increase of $800 in the supplement that is per year and it it comes at a cost of 3.15 million it would bring the beginning teacher salary supplement to the highest in the state pending movement from other districts the next item in the light blue is bringing Master's pay from.

Local funds for approximately 200 teachers that have relevant master's degrees again this is something that the state paid for many years and then they removed it and a couple of districts neighboring districts have reinstated it with local dollars and U Durham I have added this to the request this year because Durham should be in line with those districts as well it you can H that hope that the legislature will reinstate it and then this cost would not be necessary you can hold your breath there the next item is the continued implementation of the classified salary increases the work that began last year for which the Commissioners appropriated a little over $4 million and the determination made by the beginning of this school year and by the beginning of 2024 that it was going to cost a lot more than what had been modeled so some work was done where the pay schedules were in place for a few months and then the board decision a month or so ago to roll.

It back to 2022 23 salaries plus 11% for everyone and I clearly what you know the decisions that had to be made were not in keeping with the promises that had been made to employees about implementing market rate schedules this request of almost $9 million is the cost of implementing market rate schedules that that is not the same as the previous the previous salary study that was done but it is in line with about it still it would be about the same cost there there are some differences in it but it would be implementing market rate schedules for classified staff and completing the work that started in the past year that total is right at $20 million there are a few additional items that are in this request because there the request for the additional $119 million and local dollars from the Commissioners is there that requires that we provide a percentage to Charter Schools of that local budget our Charter School enrollment is around 20% of the DPS student body So 20% of.

That Rings the additional pass through the charter schools would be about an additional $4 million for next year we are also asking for the total cost of opening three prek classrooms at Murray massenberg that amount is $716,000 we have committed to three prek classrooms at this brand new school that is the total cost that number could change depending on the number of slots that Durham prek allots to Durham Public Schools we have requested 45 if we were to receive all 45 slots the amount of that $716,000 ask would come down to somewhere just north of 70,000 I believe the next item is Capital funding building upkeep maintenance in our in our school buildings this is a request for $1.5 million this is installment one of what really needs to be several installments over the next few years maintenance and operations benefited quite a bit over the last few years with the availab availability of Esser funds to and the term that they've used is touch every building to do something everywhere those funds Sunset by.

The end of September and we've modeled an additional minimum of 4 million really that needs to be added to the capital budget to continue to do the type of work that our schools need there are a lot of older facilities in Durham so 1.5 million is a start towards trying to achieve the amount that is actually necessary and I I would anticipate that this would need to reoccur for the next couple of years and that comes to a total of $26 million just over $26 million that is the ask that is in the superintendent's proposed budget couple couple of things that I I just want to mention is sort of I wrap up on the slide.

It is a it is I I keep calling it a bulk but I think it's important to note that it does not represent everything that is needed there are few other items that we talked about that were budget priorities during the work sessions in the last few months most of those items we are repurposing or looking for funds in other places or collaborating with folks in the community on some things to try to address those needs I think it is important to not just look at your look at the additional dollars that you may need but to scrub an existing budget to see where you have capacity and space and maybe even need to reprioritize so we are doing that work as well I think even outside of that reprioritization for the things that we've already talked about that are not on this list and then the things that are on this list there is additional work that needs to be done I've mentioned one already with the capital funding and building upkeep that needs.

To be staged across several years I think there is additional work that needs to be done or can be done in in compensation for staff as well I do think that this request of $26 million is is not only a bold ask but one that demonstrates the commitment that I have come to learn in a very short period of time that this community has and that this community expects for how we take care of respect and value our employees make sure that our students have the best possible staff in their buildings every day that we keep our teachers and while I do believe that this budget demonstrates that that value and that respect I also acknowledge that there is more work to be done so and with that I will close my comments and we can move on to the next part of our agenda thank you Miss Moore for that presentation I think we're GNA have it memorized by the time we get to the budget this is the budget hearing so.

The goal today is to hear from the public their thoughts about what has been presented in the superintendent budget I'll give a little highlight of what comes next and I'll do this again at the end of the meeting but superintendent has proposed her budget the board is having our budget hearing and then the board has an opportunity to adopt that budget we can amend or make changes if we would like but then the board will vote and adopt the budget and officially go over to our partners over at the County commission for our asks for the year but before we get started with this public comment I'm going to do a quick review of the rules first please state your name and if if you're speaking for an organization state your name and the name of the organization speakers are be allowed to present your comments within we'll do three minutes when the yellow light comes on you'll have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red.

Light comes on it will beep and that indicates that your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to the public education in regard to public education safety of our students or to the operation of the school system finally board members are going to listen very carefully to your comments and we'll consider them but we do not engage in a discussion with our speakers so the first I have there's two people signed up on the line so I'm going to ask we do ask individuals to sign up for meeting so Iris parue and please oh okay we had two students that want to do this together okay Iris Purdue and Kennedy.

Howard oh all right come on up make an exception for this student all right before y'all get started I'm GNA call a couple more names just so people can be ready to go after you get started I'll let you know when it's time okay Emily KH again correct me if I mispronounce your names when you come on up to the podium follow Emily KH followed by Jennifer my Erol Williams and Oscar Graham Emily KH Jennifer M Earl Williams and Oscar Graham all right students y'all ready yeah take us away we are Iris Kennedy and we are CeCe spotting third graders we are here to ask you all to pay for Mental Health Counselors Miss Williams is our mental health counselor at our school tomorrow is Miss Williams's last day because there is no more funding for her job it has made a big difference at our school to have Miss Williams having our weekly chats with Miss Williams has helped a lot at home and school and we.

Think working with her is a lot of fun she always ready to help you you feel better actually if some something bad happens we are part of a big sister group and it has made a lot less conflict between siblings it feels helpful and more comfortable to have someone to talk to who you know you can trust it also helps with our friends and classmates we have more fun with them now Miss Williams is essential to our school she leads the mentor mentee program we would except if it if you would pay for mental health counselors in a new budget thank you thank you ladyes.

My name is Emily Chávez and I'm the two I'm the parent of two daughters who attend CC Spalding Elementary School two years ago our school had over 70% of our teachers and staff leave at the end of the school year as a family we were at a loss as to what to do and wondering if there would be enough adults in the building to manage all our kids luckily our committed new principal and vice principal pulled up a miracle and hired a dedicated staff to start the hard work of raising our test scores to get out of a failing school status now through the administration's budgeting debacle the loss of Esser positions and funding Cuts we are facing another wave of Staff exits just this week as you heard our beloved counselor Miss Williams announced that she's leaving this Friday because her position has been eliminated Miss Williams provides vital mental health support for our students and families who are facing so many issues including the trauma of losing family members to gun violence and.

Durham without her many families at our school will lose access to any Mental Health Services these cuts hurt our children they hurt our chances to provide an environment for growth and learning they continue the chaotic leadership of this board and administration that our schools constantly must cope with I know we are facing funding headwinds at the state and County but leaders do not acques to hard circumstances they lead their communities towards solutions to overcome these barriers I am asking you to be the elect the leaders that we elected you to be advocate for our children with the county to put forward a bold budget Bolder than what is on the screen that includes all the programs that we need include in that budget the $18.3 million to address staff shortages and keep the vital positions that serve our children and seek feedback from schools and our system to understand how the administrations of proposals actually impact them there's a lot going down on the ground that y'all don't hear.

About this is the moment for True leadership put forward a budget that addresses our children's needs and fight for the resources to implement it thank. You Jennifer me follow by Earl Williams and Oscar Graham my name is Jennifer misy a bad handwriting apparently it's okay I'm going to seed my time to Earl oh thank you my name is R Williams I'm a special ed teacher and I'm here to advocate for the self selfcontained special a classes I didn't expect to have this much time because last time on the board you cut off the mic said like two minutes what I really wanted to talk to about is the fact that the EC separate setting classes are in a crisis at this point I don't know if any of you guys even know what we do and know how difficult the jobs are just to let you know we are responsible for the most challenging behaviors in the school we are we are responsible for the kids from.

The minute they get off the bus to the minute they leave the school and a lot of times that's not till like half hour 45 minutes after school is out because of the buses are late we have no planning period we have no lunches we work straight through and we need help now okay there are I have watched over the last 20 years I've watched teacher after teacher work one or two years less than a year and quit I've mentored many teachers that just left I mean it's I told Dr manga prior to you that we were we were headed for a crisis that you we're going to get more and more self-contained classes and we're not going to have any teachers to fill a position even Wake County years ago decided to make a special salary schedule for self-contained teachers $200 a month is not a whole lot of money but at least it's recognizing that we need people okay okay at this point in time I if you go online I don't know.

If any of you have been online lately to look at how many EC positions are open right now I think there's like 14 to 50 positions open for EC teachers and don't get me started about instructional assistance we really need our instructional assistance and really need to pay them top dollar we need to pay them more than regular instructional assistance because we're talking about you know toileting issues behavior issues it's just a it's it's a crisis it's just excuse me I just get I'm not one for public speaking I didn't write a speech I just at this year I'm me I've been put in I put 20 years in here and it's I you know I just I don't see where the the problems the is ever going to get fixed if we don't change what we're doing you're not going to find teachers and this is one thing I wonder is there's 14 jobs I know 12 positions that were not filled this year so I don't know where the money went for those.

Teacher salaries I've had friends and colleagues just leave the job because they were tired of one guy left because he could make more money working as a baggage handler at RDU another teacher left a friend of my personal friend of mine great teacher she left because she got tired of doing the paperwork for two other classes and not being compensated for it you know it's I just hate to say it's a mess and I just need you to understand that EC separate setting classes need to be considered in the budget and there needs to be something done because you will not have enough teaching teachers to teach these kids and it's going to be cheaper to hire teachers and pay us more than to handle all the lawsuits that this district has probably gone through I don't I'm not partic I'm not familiar with the particulars but I know this district has done a lot of litigation trying to protect you know special ed services so you know please do something about it.

Put it in the budget you know we're 1% of the population paying these paying a special rate for special ed teachers is not going to kill the budget thank you thank you Oscar Graham Oscar will be followed by Maggie ret Sky deal Deshawn Anderson and Kristen Southworth so we got I'm read it one more time Maggie red redact and I again please correct me if I mispronounced your names Sky deal shashan Anderson Kristen Southworth all right there you go Mr Mr Graham good evening since brevity has it has its own reward my name is Oscar Graham I've been an educator for some years now I'm working in the EC Department Department probably one of the largest departments in our school systems I've had the opportunity to sit where you guys sit for eight years as an elected board m member however the funds are constantly dwelling every year every year you cannot get and keep good teachers this year we've gone through pay cuts for IAS classified employees and how are we going to put.

This back in the budget I give my my hats off to you guys from raising the budget by roughly $16 million and and that's good but we want to see what it's going to be we will we get this money or will any of it go to IAS or those people that took pay cuts how will they be reimbursed again thank you for allowing me time to come and say something to you guys I challenge each of you to visit these schools don't go to the good classes all classes are good go to the EC department and just spend a half a day I challenge you to do that and and we have kids in this department that come to school that are not potty trains that are 15 16 years old I challenge you to come to our school thank you thank you y'all come on up Maggie hi I'm Maggie Ric six year science teacher at Northern Dae member I was going to yield my time to my union.

Cooworker Sky deal but now we've got 3 minutes so I'll just say I urge y'all to add an ecn ESL supplement to the budget and to increase the certified supplement from 800 a year to 1300 a year to keep all of our staff in our schools next year and I will yield the rest of my time to guide you hello everybody I'm Sky deal pronouns they them I am an ESL teacher at Northern High School it's my seventh year working there and I'm also the department chair I've seen a lot of people come and go within my own Department I became department chair kind of by default because everybody else left and that was when I was just still a beginning teacher but still at the end of that time so it's challenging to retain qualified staff and I'm here to advocate for the $200 supplement for EC and El educator and for those that don't know ESL stands for English as a second language I would also like to thank the.

Superintendent for her proposal in particular restoring the pay for classified workers and and advocating and and putting in money for that I I really do appreciate it I know a lot of workers classified workers at my school that that's going to be a difference for whether or not they stay this year or not so I really appreciate that and for as far as what El teachers do similar to EC teachers we are required to have extra qualifications be case managers do paperwork administer testing schedule meetings check in on students assist teachers and other staff members with modifying assignments we teach all students that come in and need language support so we have students that speak a variety of languages not just Spanish in fact right now we have ones that speak over we've got over 10 different languages just in our newcomer class we've actually had an increase in in our newcomer population that has gone up our classes are full we have over 233 El students at Northern and just to.

List some of the languages again just in our newcomer class not even talking about ones that have been here for many many years we've got Vietnamese Urdu kwanda Arabic otomi farsy PTO Swahili housea and French and of course Spanish as well so we have an amazingly diverse population and I definitely encourage you to come visit any of my classes or my Department's classes there's only three of us but we have 233 El students at Northern that means our case loads are 77 each over that and I can tell you that that is not sustainable for for all of those extra requirements and we do not have extra time or extra pay for those extra requirements and to be clear I love working with El students I love their energy their enthusiasm their dedication their knowledge of the world and their unique personalities it is a joyous experience to be able to teach and be in the room with them and and see their growth we are teaching them a life skill.

Languages of life skill and to be able to see them go from coming in with limited or little to know English to acquire a language be able to function in society and use that language and go work or attend community college or university that is a wonderful thing to be a part of and graduation is always a very incredibly emotional experience for me I love to see their growth and their progress so they deserve all of this support in addition to all the things I've mentioned keep in mind we collaborate with EC there are students that are both EC and E there are students that come that cannot read or write in their first language so we are talking about a barrier of of of of learning that in addition to learning a new language students who haven't been in school for five plus years or sometimes ever we give tours in various languages or using Google Translate to the best of our ability we explain cultural differences because.

I can tell you it's a shock cultural shock I promise we advocate for students and we teach them how to use technology because many of our students have never seen a computer before let alone used one and I can assure you that all the different logins for our computers are very confusing so trying to get them used to that and this day-to-day schedule is a lot so all of that is to say that I know I love being in Durham I love the diversity here and I love the values here and I know that the board has said that they love those things too and they're proud of the programs and inclusion that we offer in this community but I hope that even though as others have said this this is a very strong ask and I understand that it's a lot of money but this extra monthly compensation would be a really critical need in my opinion because the what's going on now with EC Andel it's inequitable and it's it's.

Unsustainable and I want to be able to stay and I don't want to see more of my co-workers leave and I want to be able to continue to support the community they deserve that I think a monthly EC and E educator supplement would help attack attract and retain qualified staff that our EC and El students absolutely deserve so thank you for your time and for listening and feel free to come. Visit little shorty hello everyone I am shasa Anderson I'm an EC self-contained special programs teacher at Southern High School so you know what I'm going to talk about you've heard three compelling arguments discussions St viewpoints on what we experience as exceptional need children's instructors English English as a second language instructors we need your help we need you to I heard someone say we need to be a budget priority I took that note we need to be a budget priority I'm not going to exhaust this I'm not going to beat a dead horse with a stick you've.

Heard it a number of times I just want to highlight in the special programs which is used to be called separate settings self-contained we're with our babies and I call them my babies I'm with them all day they get off the bus with me I put them on the bus at the 9 o'clock Mr gram and then they go on the bus at 4 o'clock all day we get no planning period I eat my lunch with my babies we do we provide Personal Care toileting sometimes Medical Care I've had students I've had to tube feed and that's when you have to literally put a tube in a baby's belly so they can eat I've had students that I've had to catheterize it's serious what we do please please I implore you come spend the day with us see what it is we do see the love that we have for each and every one of these students and this is not cliche this this is for real I love my.

Babies but I need you to see that we all need you to see that we need you to see us and hear us please thank you all right next we have Kristen Southworth but I'm gonna go ahead and read the next group of names Denine Cherry Anna Benfield Delaney okano Allison Swain and Mick Amato I'm G read them one more time Denine Cherry Anna Benfield Delaney okono Allison Swain and Mick. Amato all right come good evening board members my name is Kristen Southworth and I'm here tonight as the parent of two DPS EC students one attending brogon middle school and the other at easily Elementary just over a year ago I was here advocating for this board to include EC by name in our current strategic plan today I'm here to follow up on that commitment as you review the budget for this upcoming year I hope that you will remember the commitment made in the Strategic plan to invest in creating better outcomes for our EC students families and Educators in.

Particular it is important that we ensure that there are qualified and well-trained EC Educators in every school so that our most vulnerable students receive the support they need receiving EC services should not be a privilege it is a legal right and commitment that DPS must fulfill and failing to provide these Services significantly impacts the lives of these students families and the entire School Community as of today there were 93 open EC positions that's up from 62 just less than two months ago well I would love to be here advocating for Universal screening for students struggling to read more accessible classrooms and play spaces is PD to support neurod Divergent Learners these all seem irrelevant when we don't even have Educators and staff to provide the minimum Services outlined in a student's IEP I ask you to please not accept a budget that does not directly prioritize providing quality EC teachers in every school Fair pay and retention strategies for certified EC teachers and support staff training for school administrators.

Who serve as Lea representatives in iip meetings increasing Mental Health Services and social work to assist students families in all DPS employees when EC students are appropriately served it results in more effective operations in general classrooms lower suspension rates less time and money spent on legal grievances due to unmet needs and improved mental health of students teachers and administrators thus I hope that you will consider the profound impact that your decisions will have on the children and their Futures as well as the overall success and well-being of each school thank you for your attention to this matter and I hope you will also visit all the classrooms of these people who serve in our schools every day thank.

You hello man is Den Cherry I'm give my minutes to. Anna thank you my name is Anna Benfield and i a DPS occupational therapist a member leader with the Durham Association of Educators and a parent of two DPS students this year one of my schools got a brand new special education EC prek classroom our new teacher arrived bright-eyed for her first public school job I saw her creativity and her energy as she brought out the paints and she had the students doing Hands-On projects over the course of the Fall her own only instructional Aid there should be two became inconsistent and then left DPS more students were assigned to her classroom three and four yearolds with developmental disabilities many of them still in pull-ups but still she had no Aid after weeks of being on her own help finally came with a great new IIA but the class is still short staffed and my colleague is no one longer brigh eyed she doesn't bring out the paints anymore this school year has worn her.

Down my other Elementary School is a lotted one full-time and one part-time resource teacher but when the part-timer quit in the fall tired of the overwork and the disrespect the full-timer picked up the balance she made sure that every student got their services and she ran herself ragged for months until they filled the position she currently Works two additional jobs and has persistent fatigue stories like this are distressingly common and I wonder Darkly how many of my colleagues will not return next year I've seen firsthand the rich experiences our school communities can provide our students as when I recently visited my four-year-old's prek classroom at the waited School the room was bright and colorful filled with art and letters and perfect four-year-old learning stations and sufficient staff to keep the students engaged and safe every child deserves a classroom like this but as staff remain underpaid and increasingly overworked I fear it will become the exception rather than the norm in DPS it's painful and frightening to see dedicated Educators worn down and our children.

Underserved as an OT I've watched countless EC teachers and IAS leave DPS it's time to show our EC Educators the value and respect that they deserve an EC supplement would help us recruit and retain staff to these vital and challenging positions our EC students deserve teachers who are brigh eyed well rested who bring out the. Paints thank you Delan ell Allison Swain Mick amatu Jennifer painter and then Christy. Clen my name is Delany oconnell and I seed my time to Mick Delaney Allison has signed up behind you I was gonna say so you can seed your time to Allison we were both going to seed our time to Mick all right here's Mick that works hi everyone my name is mamato I am a member of the Durham Association of Educators and I'm an EC teacher at Durham School of the Arts I'm here to encourage you all to include an EC an ESL Department supplement in your budget for next school year I'm making a public comment today to talk about the work.

That I love and I'm also here to talk about the work that we as EC teachers are expected to do every day though I'm sharing my perspective as an EC teacher I want to emphasize that every person in our EC departments working with our students plays an equally integral role in the work that we're trying to achieve together prior to working in Durham Public Schools I was a specialized education teacher in New York City and when I started here in Durham I was unprepared for the amount of hats that we as EC teachers were expected to wear the expectations for us require far more than an eight hour workday as many of my colleagues have shared already today I'm just going to scratch a surface and name a few we are case managers so we schedule team meetings we prepare legally binding paperwork communicate with our students teams writing quarterly progress reports preparing the educational documents that outline services and accommodations and assessing if the supports that were providing are meeting our students needs.

We are teachers many of us providing multiple kinds of Service delivery I myself am a co- teer to two different grade levels a resource room teacher for ninth and 10th graders and I also provide onetoone services for students with social emotional and self- advocacy goals these services are provided sometimes during my prep IEP writing periods and often times my lunch we are members of a team picking up students on our case loads when EC teachers inevitably and understandably leave in the middle of the school year due to burnout and options elsewhere we are resources for our students their families and our school community and finally and perhaps most importantly we are Fierce and loving advocates for our students in hopes that they experience the transformative qualities that supportive inclusive and affirming learning spaces can provide and that a standardized high stakes testing culture doesn't often allow for I know that all of us here believe that highquality education should be accessible to all Learners in order to achieve this DPS needs to be able to.

Retain qualified passionate EC teachers who can afford to live in Durham and who feel that their work time and expertise is respected and valued I urge you all to pass the budget request plus a little more for EC and ESL we're ready to stand with Y all caregivers and the community to push the county to fully fund the request thank you for your time thank you next we've got Jennifer painter Christy Clen America Barrera and Simone kadu good evening I'm Jen painer I was also someone who had planned to seed my time but as an ESL teacher I will just speak to you a little bit which as a language teacher to be here without significant notes and preparation is kind of my nightmare but I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my program which is at Jordan High School and why I think the education of our multilingual and bilingual Learners deserves support in the form of a supplement to their teachers and other Educators that work with them.

I've been at Jordan since since 2006 our program at last count which was in March had 373 students enrolled in our ESL program which was roughly 18% of our student population so this is a significant number of our students a a typical student at my school might be a student who is learning English and receiving services from this program I feel hardened by this bold ask and proposal after the year that 2324 has been it feels good to feel be not perfectly aligned but significantly aligned with the board and the community and I really value that feeling and appreciate that the other thing that I'm thinking about is what I know is that my school has a significant newcomer population we have many many students who are moving to the United States and starting high school here for the first time as high school students they might be 17 years old 18 years old even 19 years old and this is true of most of the large high schools in.

DPS those students don't have another option the public option is their option we know that this is also true for the students who are receiving EC services and because they are so essential our students deserve Educators who want to be here and who are financially able to be here and do this work every day thank. You good evening I'm Christy Clen physical therapist I don't think I've ever shared that I'm a former teacher athletic trainer but I also taught ESL so I don't know the ESL population to work directly with them in DPS but I understand what those teachers are saying so I'm here speaking on behalf of PT's various related service providers and EC staff we appreciate and thank you for the current budget ask but we do still have questions about the Salif the classified salaries we need to know what exactly is being proposed and how it compares to last year what it was in October and the 11% now if steps are removed how do we even know what to.

Expect next I hope it's not an nexted like what these last few months have been and will anyone have their pay Frozen if 11% is higher than the new proposed salaries what happens going forward are they now held harmless and don't know what to expect for even longer we also think the budget ask could be even larger one of the DPS core beliefs is shared responsibility and high expectations and this states on the website that our community utilizes its Collective resources to support every child and that the Durham Community shares responsibility with DPS for the success of children please don't lower the the budget ask or pick a number that you think is safe or maybe a better guaranteed yes to the County Commissioners ask what the students deserve and what the staff deserve so we can give the students the best opportunity to reach those high expectations that we hold I'm asking you to add a monthly EC supplement year after year I'm in EC classrooms that are short staffed those.

Vacancies are there a lot of classrooms have those year after year from preschool to high school they should have have three staff members in there full-time sometimes we have one maybe two and often times subs don't take those positions or when Subs do come in they don't have the medical training for those students they haven't been trained in how to provide lifts behavior management so they may be there as a person trying to help but they're running to get lunches or picking someone up from the office they're not able to sub is not able to truly help with the classroom management and what those staff need EC's difficult when all positions are filled with experienced teachers but those challenges grow exponentially when there's vacancies and turnover students are less engaged there's negative behaviors classroom management is more difficult stress level goes up of the Educators other staff are pulled for emergency coverage staff get burned out and leave new staff come in they don't feel supported they leave very quickly as well unfilled positions.

Can decrease the overall safety for students and staff this could be we don't have enough people for emergency evacuations which which two of the four wheelchairs are you getting out of the building and which ones are you leaving behind those are things that we see happen on a regular basis a preschooler elopes from a broken fence you have one staff member that stays on the playground and you have one that runs after that CH thank you America berera Simone could do I'm G read the last group of names Stacy Ariana Johnson whisk Dr Jennifer geik sorry okay I know I'm working on it Crystal Moore Quinton heeden and Marie De.

Balor America can you hold one second we're going to grab an interpreter for you so we can translate for that yeah okay we have a someone who'll come in in just a second give me a minute are y'all okay Switching us M oh NOP there she M Simone are you okay going first is that okay we America we'll come right back to you we just want to give The Interpreter time to come up. My name is Simone kadu I'm currently serving as the president of the Durham association of Educators but by trade I am a school social worker first I want to recognize the courage of this initial budget proposal brought by District administration in a year where there has been massive turmoil and pessimistic budget projections from the county leading with this necessary boldness reflects the real crisis we are facing our kids deserve high quality and consistent adults and those dedicated adults deserve Fair wages this initial proposal and your named priorities aligned with the priorities of public school workers most.

Importantly to make strides to undo the pay cuts for classified staff right now I want to elevate a specific priority for public school workers a $200 a month supplement for EC and elll workers EC and El students are some of our most vulnerable students but those departments have some of the highest turnover across the district we are calling on you to do all that you can to bring stability into the lives of these students and include the supplement in your historic budget proposal to the county we are ready to fight for this alongside you to bring our Durham Community together to show the County Commissioners that we are prepared to pay for what our students need the most thank you.

School.

And.

And and I need to you to understand what my message and I want to know like they understand what I want to say I saw how they lost their hopes when they heard how they manage the fund that's broke me this can happen again please change this they help me a lot please make something different gra America. And I'm going to be reading because she already had her statement down hello I am here so you I'm from Northern High School I am here to instate you to accept the superintendent's proposal for next year to have more supplemental on EC and ESL because as a student I feel sorry to see how the people that has dedicated all day to create better citizens and are are giving their effort to make sure that everybody is getting out of the inconveniences every time is making less and less money and there's every time less and less people qualified if this is if this is going to continue like this we are not going to.

Have anybody left if this happens my classmates and I as a community are not going to be having the U education that is necessary to keep going forward in this future people on EC have more responsib abilities more compromises and I believe and I am so sure that they should make more money than other people and for those that have more than one language they are always making the effort to understand these two languages and make sure that we all can have better success and I also want to say that they are like our parents in school and this year they already reduced their salary to the minimum that they could be and we want to make sure that for next year they have one better thank.

You next we have Stacy Bates Ariana Johnson whk Dr Jennifer gearid I'm sorry I can't also I'm having trouble with the writing Crystal Moore Quinton heeden and Marie. Deala hi my name is Stacy Bates first thank you to the board for your hard work for the district I'm a member of the Durham association of Educators and I'm here to recommend that you approve an ESL and EC supplement in next year's budget I'm an ESL teacher at Hope Valley Elementary where I teach 80 amazing English Learners we have 240 English Learners at our school which is approximately 38% of our school population and we have three ESL teachers to serve them you've heard a lot about this job already it's hard work but I love it however if I were to drive 10 minutes farther from my morning commute I would make $8,000 more per year this is my second career I have 20 years of cross-cultural experience I've taught ESL for 13 years I speak to foreign languages and have a master's degree in teaching.

ESL which I got after 2013 so parenthetically I would also recommend the prioritization of Equitable Master's pay I'm highly qualified and I am not alone many of my colleagues in ESL and EC are equally qualified and experienced ESL and EC teachers catch students who could easily fall through the cracks I provide direct instruction and work closely with teachers to co- te and create supports that benefit the entire class several of my students are dual identified as EC my EC colleagues and I work together to best meet the needs of our shared students many of my students are nearing their exit from ESL if my students perform well on their EOG no matter how much time I have spent instructing them I don't get a penny of that bonus please respect the dedic dedication qualifications and hard work of ESL and EC teachers as you make these important budget decisions increase pay for all teachers so that we can attract the best candidates and retain them I love this.

Community and I love my students I want to stay here show me my EC and ESL colleagues and all of the teachers in the classrooms of this District that you want us to stay thank.

You I'm Ariana Johnson whisk I am a EC IDE special programs teacher at Jordan high school and I like many of these others work with this very vulnerable population I'm not here to beg or to convince you of my worth nor do I want pity or an apology we have already sat and suffered through seasons of apologies I here to remind you of what and who we are fighting Diane ravage exposed that the system is not flawed but rigged to fail there are truly evil people bent on ending public education and your decisions either work to empower them or expose them these decisions are not difficult but obvious when face the threat of sh marrow be brave when standing in the shadow of the super majority and dare to demand what our instructional assistants ASL interpreters occupational therapists physical therapists deserve draw a line in the sand and prove that you stand with public education and pass the long overdue EC supplement and that is all I have to.

Say thank you you come on up but I will certainly. Try geish just yeah sorry my handwriting is really terrible Dr Jennifer geish I'm a behavioral scientist and Health Services researcher I'm here in neither of those capacities though that doesn't form my comments tonight I am a mom of three DPS students two Elementary age students and one Middle School student all of them at one time have been in the EC program and have benefited tremendously from EC services from our incredibly dedicated staff OT speech the AIS the facilitators all of the folks that serve the EC program I first want to say that the comments tonight prove and I know it's kind of a little cliche that not all heroes wear capes I mean talk about hero Dum right here the folks that are working in the self-contained classroom the people that dedicate their lives to working with and for EC children are the lifeblood they they show us what real true Humanity can look like these are the children that most people would want.

To throw away and forget about they are forever in the hearts and minds of these wonderful service providers and Educators and I hope you hold them in your hearts and Minds when you think about that budget and pass a bold aggressive assertive budget that covers Decades of shortfall for the EC program I do also want to remind you as I say every time I've come to speak to you all that is not only just the right thing to do the moral and ethical thing to do to fund EC it's your legal obligation to fully fund last time I was in this room talking to y'all we had zero zero EC facilitators teachers Educators in my Elementary School nearly hund 700 kids my children my EC kids my children went without services for over a year and we got no comp services from that we also know that when you provide services for EC children the whole school Community thrives they enrich the diversity of our community they uplift our souls they.

Add to the rich fabric of what we as DPS hold as a a community that values inclusivity and diversity that includes includes children with disabilities I urge you to fully fund our EC department and fill all vacancies all EC vacancies with highly qualified EC Personnel I urge you which I don't know but I haven't seen in the budget to create an Autism specialist position for EC we have so many autism people in our our district and we have no one who is dedicated to serving their needs I know firsthand how helpful it could be to have someone who's dedicated as an EC specialist for our district I Ur you to be bold and courageous in your budget choices I ask that you fully fund the $8.3 million compensation for staff shortages I want you to have a special EC supplement I want you to make sure that you're taking care of our bus drivers our after school folks I also want to say one thing yep one thing that's an aligned issue we are.

Failing also in school suspensions for kids with disabilities our rates are near double for kids without disabilities that is we are failing on that metric and that is directly aligned to the inequitable treatment and access and funding that we give to EC our suspension rates for kids with disabilities thank you Dr geid thank you Crystal Moore Quinton heeden and then Marie De Baylor.

My name is Crystal Moore and I was an EC teacher until March of this year when I made the decision to leave DPS and leave education altoe as of right now my previous classroom does not have a teacher it does not have an IA there out of the three staff it's supposed to have it has one person who is a first year IIA with no background running that classroom since I've left five more teachers have left three of them in EC ncdpi just released their attrition report Durham rates is one of the highest in the state for attrition turnover of teachers most of them are going to Wake County and charter schools we already know that EC is one of the most needed departments in DPS we start the year every year with multiple vacancies that are not filled there are still vacancies from last year that have not been filled and there will probably be vacancies from this year next year that are not filled these children are not not getting their.

Mandated qualified services that is a violation of the individuals with disabilities and Education Act we as a district are failing our federal jobs our role we are not supplying this when I was a teacher I waited six months to get accommodations for my students until I finally decided to supplement the district and buy them myself with my own paycheck then my husband who is in IA and still is and has been for 10 years in this District got his pay cut so I left I made the M the mental and financial well-being decision for my family and I hated it I think that you can make better decisions when it comes to EC and ESL they are the most vulnerable community in DPS and as a community our students deserve better all of the populations no matter what language they speak no matter what their Nur typicality we need to do better Durham as a whole needs to do better as taxpayers and parents schools are the number one place.

Where everybody in a community goes through everybody touches a school we know this from the pandemic it's the whole reason we closed them we have to do better better I am willing to come before you I've become before you many times I'm willing to go before the board of the County Commissioners if it's what gets you the money you need tell me what thank.

You good evening Quinton hden Riverside High School ECI and before I returned to being an IA I was an EC case manager I was a BT math teacher so I have worn many hats in my 10 years of being being in D Public Schools but everything you've heard from my fellow Champions is 100% correct the turnover is absolutely abysmal we have to do better somehow some way EC and I've heard this terminology from my own students why is the EC Department treated like the redheaded stepchild and I can't give them an answer I've created programs to incorporate EC kids to come in and join clubs even when my school has shut down clubs I host a team in Esports I have one of three schools in Durham that have that Esports program and I bring EC kids kids with autism kids with physical disabilities kids with learning disabilities into that environment to let them know that they are welcome my question is if an instructional assistant can create programs that can.

Incorporate and bring in the entire community of one school what is stopping this board from passing and doing what is needed to maintain the teachers and the educator and EC that they need and deserve we deserve better and you deserve better I know we have come to you with the emotions we've come to you with guns blazing and fire and we know that is not just you that we have to come to we do have to go before the board of Board of County Commissioners and as my lovely wife has stated whatever you need us to do we will do it with you but that's the thing we want to do it with you we have said for years we are DPS we are the spark we are the ignite Academy we do all of these things to bring this community together but as of late I have seen even in my own School I've seen disrespect from APS to teachers I've seen teachers walk out because they can't tolerate it.

Anymore I've seen my students cry because they they don't get the services they need and they like I might as well quit school cuz I don't have a teacher in this classroom to help me so I forfeit my lunch and I tutor even if I don't know the subject I'll study it and tutor it with them that's dedication that's what D Public Schools. Is thank you. And Marie Marie De Baylor right Marie if you're here come on up to the.

Podium all right colleagues I'll open it up to my board colleagues if they have any comments or or questions as we get ready to move forward I do want to ask a quick one to this Mo when we looked at paper proposals and these are all proposals right with the money that's in our budget so if the budget is funded the pay proposals may move forward was there a differential for exceptional children teachers and I in that right I think there's I think that's in the classified salary schedule if it doesn't already exist in the Durham pay scales it is not a part of the proposal and I've already asked for the numbers.

Yeah we're don't we're I've already asked for how much that that would all be I've already run one of the numbers but I need two more so I'll I'll bring it to you guys so you'll know what the those amounts are I know was from my understanding it's not a part of the 2223 salary schedules but was a part of previous consultant schedules of having that differential I know that was something that board members yeah it's in it's in the classified it's in the 8.9 million for classified is but it's not for teachers oh I see I see got it I understand right those for instructional assistance currently included in the 8 million yes but not for teachers yeah and that's the numbers that I'm have asked to be run understand as well as elll and I already have the amount for the increasing supplement if you want to know what that is it goes from 3155 to about 51 something 5.2 so it's an additional $2 million on the supplement to move it.

To the 1300 from the current 800 being proposed does that make sense to everybody the current supplement proposed in the budget is an additional 800 per year the request that was made was 1,300 per year that amount goes from 3155 to about 5.2 is so it's an additional 2 million if if you were to contemplate that I'm still working on the other ones so thank you board members any comment or other questions before we.

Dismiss just the context that we've discussed about the State caps and also just want to bring in our legislative agenda and how we also this is one of the important points to acknowledge that the state has an arbitrary cap and that my colleagues you know also made sure that that was included in that draft board legislation legislative agenda yeah and so at the state level we have to continue to get that advocacy for that cap to be lifted which would be you know a very important thing and then also at the local level we hear we need to show some love if I could add one additional Point too since this is something our Educators may or may not be aware of but the legislature asked DPI in the a year ago to come up with a to do a study and to come up with a potential proposal for differentiated funding within exceptional children's services and what that is is acknowledging that right now the way exceptional children.

Are funded is based on a child count which it's done in December and it's done in April and you get a certain amount of dollars per student those dollars are the same regardless of the level of service that a student requires and not all students require the same level of service this area the Research Triangle Area Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill is a mecca for students that have the most complex needs that has a lot to do with the health services and Community agencies that are here for support in this area area so this is particularly important this notion of a proposal for differentiated funding acknowledges that not all EC students I guess cost the same in terms of what the services are and provides a higher level of allocation for the higher needs students and that you would sort of break out the students in your District at different there's I think there's three levels in The Proposal DPI came up with a proposal they have sent it to the general assembly for review.

So the action next is on the general assembly on whether or not to move on this differentiated proposal I believe if I am not mistaken that the proposal will cost an additional about $250 million maybe maybe might even be a little bit more than that but it costs more money so the proposal in order for it to be funded would require additional funding from the general assembly so I put that out there because I think that that is a place where a request was made a proposal has been provided the cost has been established and the next steps now are with the general assembly but I do think that it is something that has been asked for for years that people acknowledge and take a look at the fact that a differentiated funding formula would more equitably distribute funds to where the needs are so that is that's something that to sort of keep your eye on in terms of what happens on Jon Street is it in this budget cycle on your.

Street it's been it's been provided to the legislature as a report but they they have to do something with. It additional comments Miss Chavez I just want to say thank you to everybody who spoke tonight and was has been on this journey with us and U and just Advocates takes the time to Advocate it takes a lot to to be here and and all the you know the letters that we're still receiving I wanted to just ask our board chair or superintendent Moore if you could just one more time go over the timeline what will happen on next Thursday and then and then may just to reiterate those dates when we expect to pass our budget request and send it up up over to the county I'll I'll try to remember this so April 25th the board meeting next week we have asked the board and several of you have already sent a number of questions that we will compile into a document sort of Chunk into some.

Categories try to go through that Q&A a bit with the board we you know it'll be it'll be a public document that'll be attached as part of the meeting agenda so that everyone can see the questions that have been asked and the responses I'll include just proactively for this evening the data on the costs for the additional asks that have been talked about today and then the board can engage in discussion review revision changes to the superintendent's proposed budget you are scheduled to vote on a final budget proposal that would then become the board's adopt the board's proposed budget that would be what is sent to the Commissioners you you could wait until your first meeting in May to do it but that puts a lot pressure on the county manager whose budget presentation to the Commissioners happens like within a day or two of that board meeting that is in May for this board but statutorily you could wait till the 1st May meeting to adopt a proposed.

Budget it just throws a wrench in the County's timing because the town the county man manager would propose her budget County manager would propose her budget around May 11th or 12th I think it is and then they have the Board of County Commissioners have several meetings set up to as budget discussions and then they will adopt their budget by mid June their mid June meeting so DPS will know what portion of the board's proposed budget requests to the commissioners the commissioner plan to fund by mid June at the end of June the 2 June board meeting this board will need to adopt an interim budget resolution because we have to have we have to be working from some sort of budget on July 1 it is unlikely that the legislature will complete all of their work in time for us to actually do a budget resolution for the next year the normal Cadence for that is usually in the fall early fall is when you actually get an understanding of what.

The budget is for the entire year and raises and those kinds of things end up being retroactive till July 1 we have heard that the general assembly might consider some changes with regards to compensation and I'm assuming that would be increases you know good problem bad problem as I said earlier this week we would love for the legislature to increase compensation for all school system staff just need to know that that would raise the $26 Million number and we won't know that until after the Commissioners have already made a commitment to what they're going to do and I think I think that was it I think one thing to add on to that might be that once we know what the Commissioners are going to do once we know what the legislator is going to do we have to come back and do some additional work you want to speak a little bit on what that is on the other end y sure once we know what what the.

Commissioners are going to do once we know what the legislators are going to do we then have to run all of our numbers and based on any changes that are made based on how much we get we would bring to the board as soon as it's ready what the budget the the budget resolution would be for 2425 it could fund everything exactly as we have asked and or more it could take the ask that we get and redistribute the asks that we have made into different places based on what board priorities are.

I I think I did ask whether or not we've ever asked the Commissioners for more after they've already told us what they're going to give us but and I'm not sure what the Cadence is for that or what that happens but I think I could tell you that once the the Commissioners establish their budget the only way I think to get additional funds for a district would be a an ask from like their fund balance which would be onetime funds because they've already established their budget for the year and then it would be a recurring ask that becomes part of the next year's budget request I think that's how that would have to happen if if that were even contemplated or an option but the the staff have to do the work and there will be additional discussion with the board once the numbers from the legislators and the number from the commissioner is given to sort of reconvene on priorities and see if they remain the same or if anything has.

Shifted thank you any other comments or questions from board members Le welcome to miss I just want to share my appreciation for this budget proposal and this time to hear from the community in this public hearing I want to truly appreciate deep gratitude everyone that came and spoke to share what's going on in the schools what their needs are and that they're willing to help us fight for this and we I do want you to help fight for this fully funded ask from our Board of County Commissioners I think that there's a lot of work to be done and Creative Solutions along the way I particularly want to appreciate the two little girls from CC Spalding that spoke tonight and their mentors supporters that helped prepare them to be here and The Bravery that that took so you're definitely raising them up up in the right way and for those who can not be here this evening you know please email the board at BO dpsnc.net email the entire board what.

Your situation is what additional need are in the budget what your priorities are we want to hear that along with Solutions what creative Innovative things that we may not have thought about that you can lean into this with us that helps to free up other resources one of the things that we know we're facing right now is the ending of federal funding the Esser funding is ending those positions are ending how can we recapture what that need is through our accounting Commissioners through our community agen genes our nonprofit organizations like where can the community rally around that so that we can really stretch the dollar all 26 million that we're asking if not more thank you Miss c ofon let's see I want to start by just confirming and then acknowledging well confirming that the timeline that we were talking about just is the reality and it also means that our staff are in the very difficult position of not knowing how much money they're going.

To be making next year so let me let me say one other thing that was I've actually written down I've gotten a couple of emails and I'm sure you have as well from staff in particular around the classified salaries that need an understanding of how to Advocate by knowing so how much do this mean for me next year we do have scheduled to attend next week's board meeting the com controller is coming back he is providing schedules he has done the work to model these proposed pay stubs for individuals not exactly sure how that's all going to fall out but I I just want to sort of speak into acknowledgement that we've received an emails that say I I need I don't know how to Advocate if I don't really know what my pay is going to look like and so we're I'm hoping that that is a part of what we will have ready for next week's meeting in time for for what needs to happen if either with the the board's proposed budget.

Or a change to the board's proposed budget like I really anticipate that might be the thing that would make you wait can I ask a followup question on that same topic I think four people though who are trying disinterested you wouldn't make any no one should make less than what they're making this year worst very worst case scenario you make just the state mandated so so let's see the current salaries which are the 2223 plus 11% that is the Baseline for next year no one will make less than that everyone will make at least 3% more than that because there's already 3% baked into the legislative increase so all classified staff would receive at least 3% from where they are right now the salary schedules as Mr Crutchfield has proposed them inform where you place people so and that takes into account years of experience they are placed on that salary schedule based on their years of experience if for some reason where they are placed on the schedule is.

Less than 22 23 plus 11% they're actually placed on the schedule at whatever experience it would take to keep the salary where they are and then get the 3% so everybody will have at least 3% more then future years in terms of how experience or staying with the district is handled is a sort of a separate but parallel decision that the Board needs to make about how you want to handle that the the intent of the salary schedules as Mr Crutchfield is proposing them and moving forward is to not freeze anybody anymore that's the intent appreciate that thank you it feels that's all very helpful and I just want to acknowledge to staff that like we hear yall and it's difficult to not know what you're go like what's going to happen from a board member perspective to it's also difficult for me to know like what decision I want to make or how to Advocate without seeing the information we've been talking about so I'm really looking forward to seeing that and I.

Think we should be getting that like that'll be made public the presentations like Monday evening Tuesday morning right so we have time to think about that and in particular we've been talking about looking at the salaries and how they compare to other districts because again that's feels important as we're making this decision even if it's not a final one to just know like what what are we saying yes to or what are we feels vaguely reminiscent of like October when we not sure we were saying yes to so anyhow I just want to be have all the information that we can before we say Yes relatedly I'm wondering in addition to the information that you're pulling together for us thank you U Miss Moore about the EC staff and El ESL staff and how much that would cost to do a supplement I'm wondering I know that the ask from Dae is for 200 a month and I wonder how that compares to other districts not asking because I think.

It should be less but asking if I if it's enough because I we heard loud and clear tonight the the crisis and we're you know we're aware of this but hearing these personal Stories the vulnerability that was here tonight was I I think I would just say that there there might be a district here or there that is providing differential for teachers EC teachers and IAS I'm not sure that there that I've seen one for e the closest and I and I I can't speak to where the 200 came from but what I can say is that there is a county or is the coast that provides a $200 per month supplement on top of the local salary supplement for hard to fill hard to staff positions and EC is one of those but it is not the only one so that I don't know if that's where the 200 came from but that is something that is one District in the state of North Carolina is doing thank you and that last comment.

That is not a question I expect you to be able to answer this evening Miss Moore but just thinking about I the loss of mental health staff with the Esser funding transition and wanting us to to try to think intentionally about that and keep that conversation going as and make sure that we're making the of course we're going to make the best decisions possible but the decisions that don't result in our students losing what might be the only mental health support they have in their school Community let me just say too that those those positions like the one that was spoken about if at cc spald is it if it is in fact a position that was born out of an Esser fund and request I I don't know that those exist at every school because I think Esser funds were those positions were created based on requests from schools based on needs that they had and so I think the future of something like that which is I think desperately needed in every single.

School is something that you have to look at in terms of a funding formula for the district not just for the schools that may have had it.

Thank you Miss Moore for this presentation around the budget I want to thank all the public commenters tonight there have been times when we have come and this has been an echo chamber of just folks that have already looked at the budget multiple times that is not the case now and I thank you for sharing your stories and being a part of the conversation it is my hope like Miss Lewis mentioned that no matter what we decide on that y'all will join us in advocating with the accounting Commissioners we can't do this without you and sometimes we do have to make hard choices and that doesn't mean that it's the final choice that doesn't mean it's the right choice always but we're here to do the hard stuff and make tough choices and it extraordinary for us to go and ask for $26 million right in addition to what is already allocated and I'm excited about that I'm excited about what it can do for darn Public Schools.

And that we have a community that can support that such an Ask we have to continue to work to bring the community along with us and have conversations that prioritize the children of Durham because that's what we're doing here I do want to see some of that supplement data I think it's going to be important I know the city is doing some of that work in making sure that certain folks have supplements especially around English as a second language and we got to try to keep up as much as we can because we're not going to be able to yeah I don't really have any questions but I'm grateful for everybody coming in this space and having this conversation with us yeah I just wanted to speak into the record just the concern that has come up in these conversations we are not a district that is attributing where my is my choice words here like a deficit mindset a deficit about these children being the problem like they are costlier they need more.

Things they require all this added and so we're going to compensate based on how difficult the job is I think that that is unfair to the families but I think that in that conversation is the fact that these are hard to fill positions and I go with that that these are very hard to fill positions and if we base our language not around penalizing the children because every child has a right and the moment we start looking at children a certain way that they C they take more resources they need more things they are difficult they are all these things we are we are setting kids for you know we're not setting them up for success and we have to love all our children and so we're not making we're not penalizing them for Disabilities we are figuring out as a district how to navigate the oppressive systems that we work under that don't value this work and actually put caps 10.6% has not budged in over a decade.

That's the amount that they decide goes towards ESL everything right ESL and then and then 12.75 was for the longest until it got to 12.99 almost 133% these are arbitrary cops and I just want the community to know this needs to be addressed at the state level however we as a district we're not penalizing we're not saying that we don't value or see that every child deserves whatever they need they deserve it and we're not begrudging the level of effort because every child deserves a free and appropriate public education what we are begrudging is the existing condition under which we are operating where the state is arbitrarily capping resources for these too vulnerable communities and so that's what I want to bring in the context that anything that we bring we say that it's because of the hard to fill positions and that we don't make it about you know some of the obvious experiences that have been shared that can be honored but I just want us to.

Be a little careful about how we we frame that so that no student feels that they fall in a categ atory of kids that are burdensome on a district because they're not a burden they're a gift thank you thank you Mr vadz I think just to cap off a lot of what my board members said and and as I was listening today I just thought about North Carolina growing up here going to public schools here we were truly a beacon for what public education could be on the on the local K12 level as well as a higher education level and how much that has changed and shifted and that's a systemic change and shift on funding and and int intentionality I think around cutting funding and not supporting public schools in their way they need to be and I think we continue to have to ask our Educators to do more with less and I think about how that pipeline of of vacancies also lead to burnout to lead to more turnover and.

It's just like a true Pipeline and so I think about all the systems things that have happened have led to this moment that we're in and we're trying to fill the gaps for a system that's not doing what it's supposed to do for our students and not doing what our students deserve every single one of them with each all of their individual Beauty and that they bring and their Brilliance that they bring to our system so that was going through my mind as I listen to all the different presentations and our job is still to figure it out right so one of the things I think I wanted to ask for we typically have a deferred ask slide and I would like for us to include that maybe and some of the things that we are thinking about or the board has also were listed on that priority list that but might not make it into our budget ass this year I feel frustrated about the lack of the federal or the.

Federal funds leaving and I want to know how we are going to plan for supporting schools we knew this was coming I think I asked it every time we talked about our budget you know we know these dollars are going to end how can we make sure that schools aren't just feeling a drastic cut off from that additional support so it's some point I would love for us to have that kind of conversation and I think I'm glad to hear about how we're going to be talking about the salary proposals moving forward I know I asked that question previously at a board meeting to want to make sure staff could have some sense of what was in this budget because it's kind of hard to understand all of that and to know that all of this is a proposal that has to be approved and then we have to figure out what we're going to go from there so thank you everyone that came and and brought your concerns and questions and advocacy.

Really appreciate that we need that locally but we also need that at the Statewide level our colleague Miss buer isn't here but if she was I know she would talk about Leandro I know she would talk about the rainy day fund that the general assembly has and all the different ways that the state needs to better fund public education support diversity equity and inclusion efforts across our district and I could go on and on and on and on without any other further comments I will call for a motion to adjourn this budget hearing motion to adjourn second all right we move to probably second we are adjourned thank you all for coming.