Good evening everyone. The the term public schools board of education budget hearing is now in session. At this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening. The interpreters for tonight are Martha Roma and Vanessa Pine Ramirez.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. We will now have a moment of silence. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval.
Move approval of the agenda as presented. Second. Second. It's been moved by Miss Beyer, seconded by Mr. Tab. Um, is there
any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I.
All oppose. Please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. A quick review of the rules.
Um, first, please state your name. If you're speaking for an organization, please state your name and the name of the organization. Second, speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes. When the yellow light comes on, you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks.
When the red light comes on, it will beep, which indicates your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of students, and to the operation of the school system. Finally, the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments, but we do not engage in a discussion with the
speakers. Um, our budget, the superintendent's recommended budget is posted online uh in board docs for tomorrow's uh work session. And we hope everyone's had a chance to reference that. Uh, but we'll move into the public comment.
We'll move into the public comment uh section now. Uh, Beth Red Meyers, you will have three minutes to speak and one minute when the light comes on. Start it. Yeah. [Music]
Did you need the interpreter? Oh, no. No. I thought you were waiting to answer them.
Okay. Am I good to go? Go right ahead. Okay.
Thank you. Uh, my name is Beth Rod Meyers. I'm a parent from Club Boulevard Elementary. I'm here to speak in support of funding for our dance program and I have messages from some of the students.
I'm going to get through as many as I can. One is from my daughter Amelia who said, "When I first started dance in first grade, I saw that our old teacher was gone. And when I came in and saw Miss Be with a gigantic smile on her face, I knew I was going to have a great time. Dance is important to me because I think it is good f physical education, but sometimes girls or boys don't like sports we do in gym.
So having dance makes me happy. I would feel very sad if we didn't have dance at club. I would feel like I didn't belong there. Every week when I walk into dance, it is my favorite thing to do at school and it makes me feel good about myself, like I belong.
Uh, this is from Tequia Hines in second grade. I love dance at school because I love the music and dance and I'm just like Michael Jackson. I like that Miss B helps me to dance on stage.
Miss B put me in the showcase and gave me a special costume and it made me really happy. This is from Lean Sullivan in fourth grade. Why dance is important to me is because it changed me. At my old school, we did not have dance and I knew something was missing.
And ever since I moved, I changed the way I feel. The way I think it is part of me. I love it. It is my happy place.
So, please don't take it away. It is everything to me and a lot of people. I love it so much. And lastly, from May Akun in fifth grade, it really upsets me to know that dance is getting threatened to be cut.
Dance is a way to express your emotions without having to share them in words. It can be hard for people to share how feeling how their feelings are, but dance can really help you express those emotions. Dance is so many people's whole world and why are you trying to take it away from them? There is so much talent in DPS and you're trying to keep that inside of them. Dance was a big part of my elementary school experience and I hope that future elementary school students will get to share the same experiences. So that's why DPS should keep our dance program.
So that's uh some messages from the students at Club Boulevard in support of the dance program. Thank you. Thank you. Alyssa Platt, Tony MSAS, Joselyn Dawson.
Hi, my name is Alyssa Platt. Um I'm a parent of two kids at Club Boulevard Elementary School um in fourth grade and second grade. Um and I'm the secretary of the PTA and I'm here to also speak in support of our dance program. Good evening, Superintendent Lewis and board members.
I'm here tonight as a parent and an advocate for the beloved dance program at Club Boulevard Elementary. A program that has enriched our children's academic, social, and emotional growth for over 20 years. This is not just an extracurricular activity. It is the cornerstone of our school's identity and a program that serves all students, fostering confidence, leadership, and cultural awareness. Just last year, our dance team, the only DPS elementary team to compete, won first place, best in style, and the
performance award at the AMP dance competition. This incredible achievement showcases not just the talent of our students, but the unique value this program brings to Durham public schools. But dance isn't just about competition. It enhances enhances academic performance, cognitive skills, and social emotional learning as backed by research from the N National Dance Education Organization.
Currently, second through fifth grade students are directing and managing their own musical theater productions, developing teamwork, creativity, and leadership skills that will serve them far beyond elementary school. These opportunities simply do not exist without this program. We understand that funding is shifting with the expansion of the dual language immersion program. However, while DLI serves a limited portion of students, the dance program has been available to everyone, making it one of the most inclusive and unifying programs in our school. Its removal would disproportionately affect the majority of students, especially at a time when staffing losses have already reduced vital support services. Larger schools in Durham have been able to retain their
most beloved specialist programs because they have more students and greater access to resources. Club Boulevard should not be penalized simply because we are a smaller school. All students, regardless of school size, deserve access to enriching arts education. Cutting this program for budget reasons ignores its long-term benefits.
Once lost, it will be nearly impossible to rebuild. Tonight, I am asking you, please find a way to fund this program. Protect the arts. Protect what makes Club Boulevard special.
Thank you. The English to Spanish isn't working. We've got some Spanish speaking community members here who aren't able to follow the meeting. So, we're just picking on that, but it'll get worked out soon.
We can take a short recess while they work on that. Oh, can we do that? Yes. Okay. Give me a second. I'll see what's up.
Can we do a f What did you say? Okay, we're going to take a five minute recess.
That's
Thank you, Tony. If you can go right ahead. Thank you, Millisent. And I'm Tony MSAS.
I'm here speaking one of the first speakers on behalf of School Parents for Immigrant Defense, a new group. And I just want to start first off by thanking you all for everything you do for our public schools and for having this forum for us to speak tonight. Um, our group started a couple of months ago. We began to meet to share ideas about what we were seeing and doing at all of our individual schools to support immigrants in this time.
And there were so many great ideas pouring out of our group that our group started to grow by word of mouth. Now we're at about 12 schools in the district. And I think we're going to continue to grow. different parents coming together saying, "Well, here's what we're doing here.
Here's what we're doing there. " It's very much a parent and community-led effort. So, uh, we shared a letter with the board and with the superintendent last week, pass those down. That's the letter again. And so, we're here tonight, uh, you know, and the letter was about expressing our desires for the public school budget for the 202526 school
year. And we just, several of us have come tonight to give comment and to share more of the stories that come behind our asks. So I'll speak briefly on two of those points. One is transportation and one is language access.
Uh depending on how much time I have. So as you are certainly aware the lack of consistent busing uh last year had communitywide impacts and the new family responsibility zones have had a disproportionate impact however on immigrant families in the schools. Many many immigrant parents have expressed to us the fear that they have in the current climate of walking to and from school with their children and they have expressed again and again that bus transportation feels safer for them and in many of our schools the families that are most impacted by the imposition of the family responsibility zones are those who are feeling that fear. Okay. So, we strongly support the proposed budget that you all have for greater driver wages and we also hope that you will implement more policies to make it sure that everyone who needs a bus gets a bus or a way to and from school. Uh I
also think and we also think it's very important to fully fund language services in our schools. Uh one example would be the phone blasts getting those in people's primary languages. I think there might be an issue with people signing up and having the proper phone numbers in P school. It's a very complicated system for families to navigate.
It's a complicated system for everyone to navigate, but particularly for families. So, they're not receiving those blasts in their primary languages. And so, that's one of the things that families have told us that at their schools, they're not getting that. And that includes the weekly messages from their principles.
Uh we also want to make sure there's enough funding to ensure that there are enough interpreters available to cover our needs in our schools. What we have currently um is is not enough to cover. We have interpreters covering m multiple schools. We also uh recommend that those interpreters receive ongoing training to hone their craft. Very important for any professionals. Um and we just want to make sure that language access is available as well as buses to include equal access to education resources, events, and an equal opportunity for immigrant students and families to fully be a part of our school communities.
Thank you very much. I'm Jocelyn Dawson and I'm also here with the school parents for immigrant defense. Um, thank you very much for having us here tonight and um, for listening to our needs. So, I was wanting to encourage the board to plan for evolving staffing needs to support the growing number of Latinx families in our district.
Um, we're really grateful for the important work of the DPS multi multilingual resource center, but those of us who are lucky to be at the DPS schools where there's a bilingual community liaison know what a difference having someone based at the school can make. And we would love to see more individuals in these positions and more bilingual staff in general. Community liaison like Mr. Feliz of Holt Elementary and Mrs.
Arma Han of Hope Valley Elementary are beloved members of the school community. on our Spanish WhatsApp channel. Mrs. Han answers queries about snow days, bus changes,
and other school communications. A recent event she organized had over 200 attendees. And during the issues with the family responsibility zones, she personally called the families of 120 students while on vacation. She is seen as a critical and beloved resource by the entire school community.
The bilingual liaison positions at Halt and Hope Valley rely on title one funds. So these are at the discretion of the principal. Um Eastway Elementary's bilingual community liaison position was cut this year even as its Latinx population has increased and school staff and families are feeling the loss. So as our Latinx population grows, we would love to see consistent funding from DPS for the bilingual community liaison role.
Um and we see this role as just very critical to the success of our students and to making our families feel included. Thank you. Ern Hickey, Marty Triggs, Beth
Clifford. Um, good evening. My name is Fern Hickeyi and I'm a parent of a fifth grader at EK Poe Elementary School and a member of the school parents for immigrant defense group. I'm here today to speak in support of maintaining funding for colloccated mental health services, improving ratios for school counselors and expanding the heart program into Durham public schools.
As a parent of a student who faces significant emotional and mental health barriers to learning, I know firsthand that robust mental health services are a critical part of supporting our students well-being and success in school and out. Under the current federal administration, the need for these services and for district policy and culture that prioritizes and promotes them is more critical than ever. Current federal policies are creating fear, stress, and economic insecurity for many families. This stress at home inevitably carries over to school, impacting students ability to focus and to learn.
Our students are also affected by recent anti-dei and anti-immigrant rhetoric. A number of DPS teachers I have spoken to have seen a notable increase in anti-immigrant bullying since Trump's reelection. The district has already lost students due to such bullying. tragically underlining the critical importance of adequate funding, services, and staff to support individual students that are struggling and as well as to build school cultures that are welcoming, loving, and inclusive spaces for all. As you finalize the budget request for the 2025 2026 school year, please ensure that our students and schools have access to the resources and support they need by improving school counselor ratios, funding expansion of heart into DPS, maintaining adequate funding for colloccated mental health services, and ensuring that these services are widely promoted and accessible to all,
including those that are uninsured and underinsured. Thank you so much. And because I have a couple extra seconds, I also want to strongly urge you to adopt DAE's version of the meet and confer policy because I think it will make our strong our schools stronger um for teachers and staff and their organizing body to have a seat at the table. Thank you.
Marty Triggs, followed by Beth Clifford. Come on in. Don't be shy, y'all. And uh Nandy Smith.
Hi everyone. I'm Marty Triggs. I'm a DPS parent and a member of School Parents for Immigrant Defense. I'm here today to advocate for the restoration of M's Pay for our school social workers and to call for a student to social worker ratio that aligns with national recommendations. As you know, priority three of the district's goals is to attract and retain outstanding educators
and staff. But how can we do that when we are not compensated for the very skills and qualifications that make them so? As a fellow MSW, I can personally attest to the expertise and commitment school social workers with a masters brings. They undergo advanced training to address complex issues such as mental health, trauma, crisis intervention, and child development.
School social workers play a vital role as a bridge between the school home and the community and they help remove barriers to learning. Um their work extends beyond just the school day. At Hope Valley Elementary in Rogers her, our school social worker manages 1,212 students. The national recommendation is 250 students. She goes above and beyond, too, by conducting home visits to ensure communication is reaching families with language barriers. Our DPS social workers are on the front lines, carrying the weight of navigating the challenges brought on by
shifting federal policies. Investing in them now will not only support our students in the present, but will also ensure a stronger future for our entire community. Your future self will be thankful for your vision and investment. Thank you so much for your time.
Hi everyone. My name is Beth Clifford. I'm a sixth grade teacher at Gibbons Middle School. And um I just want to note before I say anything that I think the most meaningful way for employees to give feedback is through meet and confer.
Threeminut public comment on the budget is not enough. Um, but I also wanted to say that the only reason I heard about this happening tonight was from promotion from outside organizations. So, as an employee, I was not notified by DPS that this was happening today. Um, I want to uplift the ask that HART is going to be proposing to DPS tonight. And I think it's particularly timely today given
that a taser was deployed in the sky at Southern High School today. Um, I'm only a third-year teacher. I'm a new teacher. So, this mental health crisis is all I know in public schools.
And I think like our solution as a district cannot be investing in Chromebook videos that are based out of a for-profit company in New York. It should be investing in our local solutions that we know are proven and are working. And so I really urge you as a new teacher who wants to stay to please um push the county to invest in our local solutions and expand things that we know work. Um because we all love heart and it's an opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is.
Um I also wanted to note um the generous teacher supplement that is proposed. I am appreciative of a raise and I will never deny a raise, but um everyone deserves a raise and that's exactly my point is every single person deserves a raise. Um right now classified staff
haven't even received a clear answer from you all and if they're going to get a step increase for next year and they also don't know if we're going to get inclement weather days paid for next year like they weren't last year. And so I really urge this board to seriously consider the message that you're sending to all of your classified staff with this proposal to increase my pay as a teacher, but not address the significant wage loss from last year and from the inclement weather days this year. Um yeah, and I also think it's a short-sighted solution um to a much more complex teacher crisis to just increase our pay to make it competitive with Wake. Um, teachers are not just leaving because, you know, we're not making as much as Wake.
It's also because all other positions are not competitive with the market. And so, we're losing critical support staff. That makes our job super super hard. And um the only way like to to move us forward from this tipping point is to compensate everyone
in a competitive way, not just teachers. I think it's again a short-sighted solution. Um, and I'm I'm honestly disappointed that we continue to turn a blind eye to our problem of uncompetitive rates for classified staff because it seemed like it was an honest intention of the board a couple years ago. Um, and then lastly, it looks like the state must be might be funding teachers.
And so, can we at least have a plan to fun, Nandy Smith, and Leticia Fasen. Thank you. I'm here today to ask you all to work with the city and county on interlocal agreement to allow more care for our young people in DPS through heart and also to support DAE's meet and confer policy. Um this will help making our schools more accessible to all students including but not limited to investing more in mental health services, language services in schools and better pay um
for our bus drivers. The the heart team has been an unarmed crisis response program that's been successful in the city. They've responded to over 25,000 emergency calls that have been diverted from other emergency services with overwhelmingly positive feedback. and they're made up of mental health clinician professionals, peer support specialists, and EMTs that work throughout the day um to make sure that our our neighbors um all throughout Durham can be able to be met with care and compassion um instead of having situations when they're in escalated moments worsen um and for them to be in fear and maybe experience more violence. And as a a person who's who's grown up in in in Durham public schools, um I've experienced classmates being pepper-sprayed in mass and going through metal detectors and and folks being roughed up by SRO's. And a lot of why I want hard is for students to be able to have another option for young people who
are already dealing with the many mental health crises that were worsened when the pandemic started, but also now and all the things happening in our in our world politically. um that's just making it feel like a future in Durham isn't isn't something that is in their reach. Um and so I'm here advocating for that and also advocating um for hard as well as funding for um yeah the many many many folks in our schools who make them operate including bus drivers and some of the other classified staff that folks brought up earlier. Um and I want to invite you to take a moment to close your eyes and imagine What would it look like for the city, county, and Durham public schools to work together to ensure our youth have their basic needs met?
What do you What do you see? What do you smell? What do you taste? What do you hear? What do you think about when you think about our commitment to future generations of Durham and them being well instead of being thrown away because of mental health crises and
other other compounded issues? I want you to imagine that and dream and work with community members, including teachers, including parents and young folks to to make some of that vision a reality by helping work with the city and county um to get heart into schools and to meet the Durham Association of Educators um with their meet and confer platform. Thank you. Hi, my name is Leticia Fen.
Um, as a parent who has a child who experienced a crisis in Durham public school and not being able to get the help and support that's needed, I ask that y'all work with the county on funding heart into schools. Um, yeah, we can't um we don't know when our kids are going to have crisis. And one thing I haven't heard a lot say um heart is not just a one interaction
thing for the person that they interact with. They continue to interact with the person as they come in contact with them. So I think that one good thing is we just don't throw in and they just it's just a one time action. They continue to give them the support that they needed also with the family too.
Um, so I think putting heart into schools would be an excellent thing um for our youth. My bad. Bethany Bash, Chenise Hamilton. name is Bethany Bash and I saved my time to Chenise Hamilton.
Hi, my name is Chenise Hamilton. Um, and I'm a proud black mama of a student in Durham public schools. Um, I'm standing here today because our kids need us. Um, I'm urging our superintendent and school board members to stand with us to fight for fully funding our um from our county commissioners so we can bring heart into every school in Durham.
Um, please take a look at the budget proposal that we shared with you all and um we're still hoping to hear from some of you all to meet and we've like blown up your emails a little bit. Um but um what we are hoping to embed a full-time peer support specialist and EMT into a elementary, middle, and high school. And that's just as a starting space. Um which would be 450,000 um a 450,000 budget request for the county commissioners in the 2025 2026 budget. Um, every resource that can be provided to our kids is needed now. As someone who has had suicidal ideiations
in ninth grade, at Southern High School, um, and was handcuffed for my safety and transported to the hospital in a police car. I desperately ask for all of you, um, to do all that is possible to make sure that no other kid experiences the fear that I did. um feeling like I had done something wrong just by being a kid going through a mental health issue. Um right now we've got counselors and staff doing everything that they can, but they're overwhelmed and we know that.
And the truth is many students don't have anyone at home or in school that they can go to consistently when they're hurting or confused or just need someone to listen and it's not fair. Um, one of the main reasons I actually graduated high school was because my principal and guidance counselor kept their foot on my neck and would not let me give up on myself. And yes, I graduated a year late. Um, and so as parents, caregivers, and community members, it's our job to protect our kids in all of the ways. And not just their bodies, but their minds
and their spirits. Um, my 5-year-old is still teaching me different tools on that he's learning right now on how to balance and, you know, set his boundaries and all the things. Um, and so I think that often two times of too many times, um, instead of helping our kids, we fall back on punishment and that doesn't teach anything. It doesn't nurture and it doesn't change anything for the better.
Let me say that. Um, so we need to do all that we can to stop the schoolto prison pipeline. Our children need to learn how to handle their big emotions, how to resolve conflicts without violence, how to feel safe and seen. Um, they need the tools that can that they can carry for the rest of their lives.
I'm 37 years old and still learning how to navigate this thing called life. Funding heart means making sure that every child has someone in their corner, someone trained to protect our babies from ICE, someone present, someone who gets it. It means showing our kids with actions and not just words that their mental health
matters and their healing matters and that their lives matter. Um let's get going. We need a interloc interlocal agreement with school board, county commissioners, and city council. Um we also ask for your support of DAE's request to um meet and confer policy.
Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes everyone who has signed up today, colleagues, for public comment. Is there someone else outside? There anyone else here that wants to share? We appreciate everyone being here um and submitting their uh public comments uh
on the budget and letting us know what they their thoughts are around this. Um as many of you know uh the board extended invitation to DAE to join us in this conversation about the budget tonight. Uh we were genuinely looking forward to the opportunity to hear directly from President Tweet and Durm Association of Educators, their executive board. Unfortunately, they were not able to accept the invitation that was extended to them on 3:31 and they will not be joining us this evening.
That said, we appreciate having received DAE's spring articles in advance. We're reviewing them carefully and um hope to include some of those as part of our ongoing budget discussions. Their insights are valuable as we work to navigate a complex financial landscape while prioritizing the needs of our students, educators, and the broader Durham community. We want to reaffirm our commitment to open dialogue and collaborative problem solving. Our goal
remains to build a budget that is both fiscally responsible and responsive to the priorities of those we serve, including educators, staff, families, and taxpayers. We look forward to future conversations with DAE and all of our community partners as we continue this important work together. Thank you all for coming out tonight. That we're adjourned.