Board of Education · Special Meeting · August 1, 2024

Transcript

good evening everyone the durm Public Schools Board of Education special meeting session is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead tonight the administration will be presenting information on durm School of the Arts report and cost analysis the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo Gilles and Vanessa Pina Ramirez thank you for taking time to join us tonight first item on our agenda is a moment of silence

thank you colleagues our agenda is up for review move approval of the agenda as presented second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Carda-Auten to approve our agenda is there any discussion all those in favor say I I I I'll oppose say no our agenda is approved unanimously thank you the next item on our agenda is consent items move approval of the consent agenda a second thank you it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Mr tab to approve the consent agenda

items is there any discussion all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed say no the consent agenda has passed unanimously the next item on our agenda is Operation Services presentation from about Dome School of Arts report cost analysis in accordance with North Carolina statute 115 c-72 and 115 c-50 521 SE great good evening or good afternoon board members superintendent Moore um our team is here uh to present a school closure study and cost analysis associated with the Durham School of the Arts uh these two items are to ensure that Durham Public Schools is in compliance with State statutes related to school construction and closing of existing schools um I do want to clarify

that in this case quote closing a school what we mean is that we're building a new school that Durham School of the Arts students will attend once it's completed there are two State statutes as was just mentioned that we're going to be covering tonight the first is 115 c-72 this statute requires that if a district is looking to consolidate or close a school a study must be conducted that considers a variety of factors such as geographic conditions enrollment levels impact on students costs and any other factors that are deemed uh gerine following the completion of the study and the presentation of the study which is what we will be doing this evening the statute calls for the Board of Education to hold a public hearing as you know that's also scheduled uh for this evening following the public hearing the board May then take action on whether to close a school tonight we'll be presenting the study as I just mentioned and the board will be public hearing to receive comments from the public um the uh um the agenda for

August 8th uh would be when we would be bringing um an agenda item related to to the board taking action that evening uh regarding durm School of the Arts the second state statute that we're dealing with uh and And discussing this evening is 115c 521 this statute requires a cost feasibility analysis to be created and shared with DPI the Department of Public Instruction that compares the cost of building a new school versus renovating existing facilities the Department of Public Instruction requires an apples to app approach and so our cost analysis compares the cost of building a new Durham School of the Arts with that of renovating the existing campus to support the same programming the same capacity and the same types of instructional spaces there's no action that you need to take with respect to the cost analysis rather we wanted you to know what we what we submitted to the Department of Public Instruction in a moment Matthew Palmer

is going to uh uh go through our school closure study um a lot of the information that we're going to be presenting uh this evening is based on prior work and prior studies that have been publicly presented multiple times on multiple occasions that ultimately as you know led to a comprehensive Bond education Campaign which resulted in the community's passage of the 2022 bond which included uh building a new Durham School of the Arts that I'm going to turn it over to Mr Palmer to share uh our presentation thank you Dr lefree superintendent Moore chair Rogers Vice chair Carda-Auten and members of the Duram Public Schools Board of Education it's a pleasure to be here with you this evening um we will go through U the artifacts that have been produced in commensurate with sending state of North Carolina legislation again I want to reiterate the remarks from Dr the freeze

that we are are building a new durm School of the Arts we are not closing the existing one however procedurally we're going to walk through that just so that we can be in accordance with the requests from Administration next slide please so a project timeline will recap where we've been since 2021 we will review uh a Durham schoolly art report analyzing the existing facility looking at feasibility on campus we will then go through a fiscal analysis that compares a renovation of that existing comp campus and apples to apples with the program at the new uh site there at Duke Homestead Road and review with the board next steps next slide please so in October 2021 uh Nema construction management uh who was contracted with the Durham Public Schools Board of Education reviewed the feasibility of what it would take to

renovate DM School the Arts on site in January of 2022 an RFQ was issued again um looking at what it would take to construct a new facility uh the selection of a design firm in March of 2022 commensurate with that project development meetings meeting extensively with Durham schoolly Arts Administration leadership teachers and community members throughout Durham regarding Durham school the Arts in its current site as well as what is envisioned for the future of DSA with approval of the board in December 2023 that then has led us down the road of the GMP packages uh that continue on through August of 2024 next slide please so with regards to the existing Durham School Of Thee Arts site we setting the board that the site itself is over a 100 years old this is eight total buildings that we have at 400 North Duke Street this is on business

15501 which constitutes two unidirectional roads that bracket the DSA site 400 North Duke Street on the east and west side the academic program is a Performing Arts Magnet School grades 6 through 12 currently the capacity of the school is 1480 students if we account for teacher planning periods however as it is administered today in order to maximize the number of students that it can afford with 100% utilization and what that means is that during teacher planning periods staff are doing planning in genitor closets every room is used every minute of the day right that brings us to 1655 however the 2324 enrollment of DSA is all the way at 1850 so you can appreciate why the current campus has severe constraints with regards to its enrollment capacity or what we would call utilization again for student assignment to DSA it is 100% pure Lottery that

means we do not have an entrance performance requirement there is no waiting of the lottery currently and there is no spatial prioritization no matter where in Durham Durham School of the Arts is students are equally eligible to apply so from the perspective of a geographic prioritization there is none that applies to Durham School of the Arts and its current location at 400 North Duke Street next slide please so here we walk the board and in our packet again this is summarizing what we have called a closure report so as to again uh conform to the requests to produce the report we've gone through the facility conditions in its current state DSA was the highest FCI or facility conditions index in all of Durham public schools at 74 what that means is is that as we approach one it is warrantable and important that the board and the community consider replacement as the cost of Renovations continue to escalate again if you look

at the 2019 facility conditions assessment produced by the coming report you will see DSA is the highest FCI in Durham public schools in addition being over enrolled in its current Constitution again 18850 students on a campus that can support up to 1480 that impacts not only the seats that impacts the core capacity that has to to do with things like the amount of carss that you can store on the site the number of lunch periods you have to afford students so that you can service all of the students that are on the site when we talk about capacity it's not just seats is is the campus designed to support the students that are on the campus itself with regards to Safety and Security and accessibility there are 68 external doors on the DSA campus across eight buildings we realize and it has B been documented both by the board Administration and the public that that has led to Safety and Security issues

for the staff and students on the DSA site being located in the heart of the central business district again on business 15501 68 doors that need monitoring and safety mechanisms and 69 stairwells ramps and access points that currently will need to be upfit for ADA compliance as we look at this again for geographic conditions let me re iterate dur Public Schools is 100% Lottery assignment that means there is no spatial prioritization for any neighborhood resident any student across the district is equally weighted in the application to the school so we would say that is an aspatial or non Geographic student assignment in any way part of the closure study does illustrate that there is not a spatial lens to DSA no matter its location having said that of the 1850 students the majority of of those students arrive by car every day of those car riders again 1,000 car riders we can

hold 13 on the campus the Nema study that we've included in the board packet for a reminder for the board illustrates what that means for the surrounding neighborhoods and Central business district including the congregations near the school as we see that we see traffic spilling over nc47 the Durham Highway as well as along the AR in and around the Central Business Corp 13 cars are stored on site as pickup and drop off occurs in the morning and afternoon during AM and PM Peak rush hour traffic with regards to Transit ridership and Transit accessibility DSA is our lowest participating Transit ridership School of our large schools again those schools that are a thousand students are larger so though it is near the Durham station actual Transit r to DSA is actually quite low and lastly I would point out for the board and the administration and the public that the majority of students that attend DSA are

coming from the northern region and the Eastern regions of Durham County so many of those students are having long rides to get to that Central business district with regards to feasibility Nema has reviewed this again in 2021 we've included that in the board packet for the board to be reminded a 7-year phased in OCC occupied construction project will require us to significantly lower the enrollment at the school as we reconstitute those buildings in any version of a renovation on campus in addition the academic program calls for cohorts of 100 students in each team two teams at the middle school level and then that leads into our high school population with the DSA Administration as well as the DPS Administration it's been identified that to have a 612 performing arts school optimally would be 2,000 students particularly as this is a districtwide 100% excuse me 100% Lottery

school so we Nam that in regards to the feasibility and concerns that we have with regards to can DSA being renovated even if we were to have all of these issues addressed there are major constraints on the current site particularly for a 2000 seat school next slide please this is an illustration of what those doors look like as we need to secure Monitor and ensure that our students and staff are stay are safe within the central business district of Durham again roughly two blocks east of the Duke East Campus in addition 69 stairs and ramps that will be needed to navigate for anyone that may have Mobility impairments next slide please this is the modeling that Nema has done done in 2021 with regards to traffic congestion and in particular the Overflow of queuing commensurate with morning and afternoon drop off and pickup that traffic queuing is spilling

along Main Street and business 15501 in both directions I have personally watched as parents have stopped in the middle of 15501 to me business 15501 to unload their child because they did not want to wait through the queue this is a major Transportation safety issue next slide please with that I'll ask Miss Kimberly Williams with Kate services and DPS to walk through the fiscal analysis comparing new construction with renovation on site Miss Williams good evening everyone as Mr Palmer said I'm Kimberly Williams I am the ex ex cutive director for the bond program with cake services for Durham Public Schools her ncdpi we were asked to do an Apples to Apples cost comparison and so

what we did was we took the cost and the design for the new DSA and placed that on the existing Campus of DSA and so the new DSA is estimated at the at the 60% design to cost 2113 m492 591 now luckily we've been coming in our our GMP packages have been coming in lower so we're excited about that but again we took that exact same building and placed that on the existing DSA site so we're not changing anything but there are certain things that have to happen in order for us to fit the newly designed building on the existing campus so you'll see in the second column the improvements or changes that would have to be made to the existing site and it's approximately about $56

million in addition to that $213 million which brings us to 269 m439 861 again this was an Apples to Apples comparison per NC DPI these cost comparisons were were created through the assistance of our CM at risk as well as the historic cost from uh projects that have been recently completed by DPS as well as our project management team with that I will turn it back over over to Dr LEF thank you thank you Mr Palmer thank you Miss Williams um just a little bit more information on this particular slide um again this is the Apples to Apples comparison that DPI asked us to do when you look at the numbers on the right side that is if we were able to actually

construct it today like if the design for this had all is all ready to go um which we know a design process is at least 18 months plus the permitting process and so forth and so this is uh comparing a professional cost estimate which is part of the current construction program through our construction manager with those additional um additional costs if we were to in essence drop the school on the uh DSA existing site um doesn't factor in cost inflation the fact that in all likelihood if we went a different direction uh the um you're looking at significant inflation over the next 2 to three years before anything could actually proceed plus you have sunk costs in the existing um in the existing New School uh you have a comprehensive design you have contracts with the construction manager um and all of that is obviously underway and moving forward um on the next slide it discusses our

next steps um again tonight was uh or this evening was the presentation uh and followed by a public hearing uh and then we would be bringing an agenda item to you on the work session on August 8th with that that concludes our presentation board members have questions our team's here to to uh to provide answers and I'll turn it back over to the chair thank you so much Dr leafree Mr Palmer and Miss Williams we appreciate this presentation colleagues um any questions any comments Miss Chávez thank you for this presentation um I have one question my apologies for I'm getting it to you ahead of time um

can you just speak to the comparison with um around um physical disability access um with the new site compared to what we saw with the current site want to cover there so are you asking in terms of ADA I guess 8 but any um additional um things that would be put into place um that would address what we're seeing here um with the the many ramps and stairs um and just maybe all of our buildings are ADA Compliant but facilitating even more so the um access that our our students might need or visitors so the new building is being designed to absolutely address Ada there

will be ramps there will be elevators there will be push buttons so that um the doors will be easily opened those things are being designed they are also being incorporated into our legs document there have been meetings uh even before the design started where the designer went through existing DSA and discussed with the staff and um the principal and even small groups of the students in terms of what improvements should be made so as we have gone along throughout this project they have been addressed and even prior to the school being built each department even the smallest thing it um CE we will go CI um I'm sorry Mr Palmer's group we will go back through and have each of those departments look and tell us what additional improvements need to be made did we miss anything so

Ada will absolutely be addressed instead of things that you may see in existing DSA such as door knobs that some individuals with disabilities cannot grip and turn you'll see levers that will be easier for someone with a disability to pull down um and pull forward or push so those types of things will absolutely be addressed in the new building just on that note just to confirm the new school will be fully compliant with Ada accessibility requirements um and it's going to be it's being built to all current code expectations with respect to the same thank you have a question thank you thank you um in doing your Apples to Apples comparison what was the driving force that went from 213 to 269 since it was an applet to Apple comparison what what was the what drove

it to that hi so if you look at uh the column to the far left there were things that we had to address and one of those things was um a parking deck because we'd have to accommodate parking and so looking at a parking deck we'd have to buy additional land and construct a parking deck we're dealing with the new school has a baseball field the existing school does not we'd have to take the tennis courts out to incorporate a baseball field um just a couple of other things we'd have to address as Mr palman talked about the traffic um NCD would require us to do a traffic management plan and make improvements so if you're looking at that column that's that's the list and the detail of the other things that list that lead to that $56 million increase so there's additional Water and Sewer uh dumpster enclosures Ada ramps

and railings Landscaping sight lighting fees permit testing in essence that right column with all of those figures in it those are all things that would need to happen to the existing site if we were to build the school as designed on that site that's as Mr as Dr lefree said that's as of today two years from now these prices could be something completely different okay thank you thank you thank you colleagues any other questions thank you all for this presentation um we'll now turn to the next portion of our agenda which is the public Hearing in accordance with North Carolina statute 115 c-72 um I'm going to take a second and

read the rules for public comment submitted public comments will be read aloud during the public comment period and board members will listen carefully and consider the comments quick review of the rules first please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name in 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 name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we're very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education the safety of our students or the operation of our school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with speakers we have six speakers tonight um and I'm going to mispronounce

names please direct me when you come to the podium uh suan [Music] bajin followed by Jane wheeler good evening everybody I am Su buz guy uh DPS parent with a stepchild heading into DSA next year uh like many of you I deeply invested in ensuring the best possible learning environment for our children I am grateful for the opportunity to say share my perspective on the upcoming move of our school to a new location the decision to relocate our school from its current downtown location to a new side is a decision that I wholeheartedly support this move is not just about finding a new space it is also about investing in the future of our future of our children and providing them with the resources that they need to thrive firstly the current downtown building while historic poses several challenges that cannot be ignored it is

over 100 years old and renovating it would come at an exorbitant cost that could be better allocated towards enhancing our children's educational experiences for now and for the future moving to a new building allows us to create state-of-the-art facilities that will support modern teaching methods and Technology providing our children with the tools that they need to succeed in today's Digital World accessibility is another important consideration while some might argue that the downtown location is more accessible we must recognize that our school operates on a lottery system this means that only a few students primarily from affluent families who actually have uh residence near downtown can actually walk to school due to the expensive real estate in downtown for many families including my own commuting to the current location has been a logistical challenge exacerbated by the congested car lines during drop off and pickup Times by moving to a new location we have the opportunity to to alleviate

these traffic concerns and create a safer more efficient environment for our children with this relocation I can imagine a school where parents can drop off their children without the stress of having to navigate these cramped streets with limited parking I can imagine classrooms equipped with modern immunities and bigger outdoor spaces where our children can learn and play in a safe and supportive environment moreover the relocation will also will also allow DSA to increase its class size either immediately or in the future allowing more students to attend this esteemed school I'm sure this will alleviate the concerns of many parents who want their students to get into DSA but are discouraged by the current odds of getting in through Lottery this relocation will increase hopefully the odds of our children getting into DSA as a parent whose stepchild will be attending the school next year I am thrilled about the move to a new location I know it won't happen immediately but still I'm thrilled in conclusion I urge you all to join me in

embracing this new exciting chapter for our school let us come together to support our administrators and our Educators uh as they work tirelessly to provide our children with the best possible educational experience thank you very much thank you Jane wheeler followed by Julia borley Brown hello uh my name is Jane wheeler I am a retired teacher in the Durham Public Schools uh I am also a member of the Durham for DSA group uh with all due respect to the presenters if I had received these reports on DSA School closure study and cost analysis study from my students they would have earned at best a d d for deficient deficient in looking at all of the important issues at stake here D for

fluff and no stuff the color coding on the visuals suggests a particular outcome while the words on the visuals and in the reports are ambiguous and misleading regarding the visibility condition index the 74 is less than three4 of the way to one I'm darn near three4 of the way to 100 are you going to get rid of me these are many more years of use there are many more years of useful life left in this building as there is in me as suggested by your facility master plan which includes reuse of this building as admin space or learning environment it will need to be renovated for either of these reuses renovation of the old building then must be included in budgetary costs for the school system and as this old building is so useful as a learning environment then its Renovations should serve the School of the Arts regarding welfare of students nowhere does it address the advant manages to the students and families of

DSA to remain in the heart of the art culture downtown DSA parents students and teachers want to keep many of them want to keep and renovate the old DSA and all of the issues mentioned can be fixed and alleviated and remedied and rectified where is a survey reflecting their wishes and needs likewise where is a study of the impact on the North dorham neighborhoods and the ditch lined roads that are not built for the for the extra traffic regarding school bus transportation ride times cannot possibly be shorter for students by moving DSA out of its central location where is this study North Durham is a shorter ride only for those living in North Durham this did not serve the welfare or needs of students living in downtown or in the sprawling areas of Southern Durham where is the community option that Durham for DSA prepared for you that should be your basis for comparison the community option will transform DSA and save over over $50 million allowing at least two

elementary schools from the 2022 bond issue to be renovated I'm sorry yes renovated that would otherwise be deferred student numbers are decreasing so building a new school is throwing away our hard-earned money environmental impact is less to renovate than to build new please be good stewards of our money and our environment and renovate for a DSA stay please reconsider now thank you H by Julia borley Brown we'll have Bolan Willis good afternoon my name is Julia borelly Brown and I'm speaking on behalf of Durham for DSA a nonprofit corporation uh recently organized and I have two points to make one is that I challenge whether this is indeed a public hearing because there has been insufficient public notice uh I learned today that the U PTSA at DSA was not

informed about this and I believe the school system has many ways to reach people in the community there are many Avenues and uh I I do not think there has been sufficient notice of this meeting today uh I I would ask you if I am wrong about that to communicate with me to tell me what St steps you did take to notify the public and the second thing uh as Jane has Al alluded to is that Durham for DSA believes that outdated information financial information is being used to make the comparison and one final point that I would make is that if you are going to use the current DSA site for any purpose there will be involvement of the state and the state's historic commission and a public hearing will need to be held on that so there's only one aspect of public involvement that you have tried to address this evening thank

you thank you um Bolan Willis followed by Brian Callaway good afternoon everybody I'm Bolen Willis I am the director and founder of Durham school for ballet and the Performing Arts hi Mr tab um so I have concerns as a business owner uh not the majority of my students at the school but many of the students at my studio come from Durham School of the Arts um it's in fact why I located my business where I located my business also because at the time it was cheap and bullets were coming through the ceiling so um that's not that's no longer true um however it made a difference to where I set up my business business um and there are other businesses lots of other businesses now in what is uh referred to in our neck of the woods as the warehouse District that

are going to be affected if this school moves and I also I pardon me Mr palmer but you're acting like the downtown business district is the wild west it is not 20 years ago when I started my studio it was a little sketchy now I can barely afford to live where I live so I get your the your remarks I understand it is expensive to live there but it is not the wild west and based on where I'm seeing you talk about putting DSA can I ask you to address the board yes I'm so sorry I'm so sorry um based on where I'm seeing you placing the school now I'm I'm I'm not convinced that it's going to be a better move a newer building certainly but not a better move so have concerns about that and the the big part of this is I found out about this public hearing public hearing 3 hours ago from my neighborhood list serve so if this is how you disseminate

information I have real concerns about the where you're getting your information from so I really hope you will reconsider on behalf of the businesses that are located near the school and the restaurants that are located near the school um the kids being able to walk off campus and be able to go you know the ones that are old enough to do so um I really hope you reconsider because otherwise I don't understand who this move is supposed to benefit thank you Brian Callaway followed by Mary copac good afternoon I'm Brian Callaway um not a part of uh D for DSA but um I have appreciated seeing their work as a Grassroots um organization um lately but

uh it's been said a lot recently in town that uh Durham is Dopey and uh this board seems to be doing issue after issue their part in maintaining that status uh and just from a process lens what has been happening with this decision um and just as other speakers have just mentioned including this meeting and a rather uh you know quickly called hastily called Summer meeting uh without uh really adequate um I I know you you you dotted the the legal eyes and te's there across those those but um you know the community was not participatory in this I think you are aware of that perhaps it was planned that way um one of uh one of the you know we get we get these presentations from The Usual Suspects and uh this one uh today showed that there's been one community meeting we had a former board member arrive in June to uh to speak uh give public

comment about that and um Madam chair you uh broke board policy and addressed her directly right after her her comment uh and and declared to her no no there was a community meeting where where we showed renderings like that's not that's not a community meeting when you come and force feed us and show here's what we're going to do see we we've we've got it done um if you continue you we saw this with the classified worker um pay cuts that you extended U if you continue to be out of pace with the community I mean I would argue you already are because over the last decade we've been shedding students from this District um but if you continue to be out of step and I'm I'm afraid this is one of those issues that you you have been out of Step as seen by the rise of Grassroots efforts here to say hey whoa can we pump the brakes and talk about this um you know it's it's it's going to make for a wave election in 2026 I believe um you

know we already you know not withstanding the two new board members y'all are excluded from this so look forward to your votes here coming up but um but yeah we uh we'll be early waiting to see uh see what what comes of this so thank you mayor copet good afternoon I'm Mary Jano copac I'm here because I'm a grandmother my son happens to have been very involved in this in this effort I came because I had planned to seed time to others because the last meeting held so much information from the side of the DSA um Community save

DSA uh that we were recruited to come and share time at seed time however because there was very little any no one notice um we are the ones who are showing up believe me there would have been a lot more I would like to know I know that you're not allowed to speak to me but I would like the board to consider for five seconds and then show hands if you have already decided to go ahead with moving to the north one 2 3 4 five I'd like to know with a show of hands have you seriously considered the DSA this community's

proposals knowing that $50 million would be saved by renovating this is a fact it would be saved by Ren renovating it would go to help support and renew the buildings that our current students are suffering in because they don't have the necessary facilities already are we taking care of these children now $50 million would go a long way and that is exactly we know it is exactly what would be saved if this area if this current school was renovated I'm sorry to have gotten emotional I didn't plan to I didn't even plan to speak but you can see let's say this is my first rodeo when my kids were growing up I attended a lot of school board meetings stayed up till midnight listening and I truly truly empathize

with you it's a very difficult decision but you have to know and I'll end with this I'd like to quote a philosopher sain kard there are two ways to be fooled one is to believe what is not true and the other is to refuse to believe what is true thank you please say your name in any organization you're speaking for on behalf of and uh you'll have three minutes hello um my name is Lucia and I am here on behalf of my fellow students at DSA um thank you for the opportunity to speak um I'm a rising Junior at DSA I'm a student athlete I'm a student

journalist a student artist um I don't have a speech prepared because I learned about this an hour ago and I begged my mom to have come with me and um so I could hear it and so I didn't wasn't planning on speaking but you know here now um I know our building is crumbling um I go to school in it every day but it's not just crumbling because it's old it's because we haven't had the proper stuff done to it and it can we can it everything at that school that you know the doors the ramps the um lack of accessibility everything in the walls the bathrooms etc etc um can be fixed and it can be fixed a lot with a lot less money than building a new school I've talked to people at my school and um Everybody

I've talked to is very much wanting to stay in our downtown Durham community and you know I know the community like Pro positive aspect you know firsthand secondhand um and so um I've also you know I've done some of my own research I've looked at documents numbers um and you know I you know heard from other people who have looked through some of your information and um some of this stuff just doesn't make sense to me and you know that could be because you know I'm only in high school but I think a lot think it doesn't make sense to a lot of people um certain numbers that don't add up certain comparisons that just don't make sense and I feel like things could just be clearer um and I would I would

really like to see exactly with good information how you know moving is a better the better option um so I think everything you want to do and change could be done at the current location I do not support the move to the new location thank you thank you all have you signed up with Mr stting outside would you

thank you okay I can't read this sorry did it on my knee Melanie my name is Melanie Middleton I don't I wasn't planning on speaking as well I just feel emotionally um drawn to say a few words and um I was born here in Durham North Carolina at Watts Hospital which is now the beautiful School of Science and Math um my five siblings and myself went to Durham High School uh my son went to Durham DSA the car building which is beautifully renovated as well and I just feel so disappointed in Durham in this decision of um abandoning this historic building and all those things but I just don't

feel like it's what Durham does I look around and I see all the beautiful tobacco warehouses um yes it takes money to do that but it's worth it um not only that it's been shown that it's it would save money um when I went to Durham High School the science building was the new building and by the time I left Durham High School it was a mess so my concern is building new buildings and 10 years from now they end up looking like some of the many buildings that we already have throughout our school system that are in in great need of pair um I taught in the Duran public schools for 25 years I wore down jackets in the summertime and tank tops in the winter time I nursed crying children because it was so bloody

cold in the classroom these are silly little things but when they add up it's huge I mean let's really talk about the needs of all of our schools and all of our children and it just doesn't feel like something Durham would do I mean I'm when I think of Durham I think of at least build up and yet here we go tearing down another Forest Acres of of land right beside Duke Homestead no less on a two-lane road with ditches on both sides that Community is up in arms um it just doesn't feel like the 21st Century it feels like bad decision making um if anything implode the science building which should have been done a long time ago and build up um I just feel like all of the the ideas and the possibilities have not been looked at and it just

breaks my heart that we would um turn our backs on this old 100y old building um it's historic so yes speak from emotion but it's a historic building it's a historic part of our downtown area um thank you colleagues the next item on our agenda is closed session uh Miss B yeah no I appreciate um the speakers that were able to join join us and I wanted to follow up and make clear that um that this is as you all said on our agenda a week from now and um I would ask if Administration can can um use social media use our our public

affairs to get that information out deeper into the community um if that would be possible I wanted to um see if we could do that uh yes I mean additional things all the things yes thank you um so that if if no one else has anything else I would move that we go into closed session for the reason stated on the agenda second been moved by Miss buer secondary by Miss Travis say to go into close session is there any discussion all in favor say I I I I all opposed say no we're now on close

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session inarm superintendent Moore good evening chair Rogers board members I'd like to request approval of the Personnel Action Report dated 8124 move approval second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Chávez uh to approve the Personnel report dated 8124 is there any discussion all those in favor say I I I all opposed say no the motion carries and the personal report has been approved we are adjourned