Board of Education · Special Meeting · February 15, 2024

uh good evening everyone let should try one more time there is a full house in here good evening everyone the dur Public Schools Board of Education special meeting with our employees including Dae is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to meet with our Educators uh including ncae and Dae representatives to discuss a structure for the board to hear from our employees we do have two interpreters for tonight Martha Romo eiges and Vanessa P Ramirez thank you all for taking the time to join us we do have a quorum of the board present so we will be able to go ahead and get started there is an agenda in our uh packets for this evening um board out ask if we want to approve the agenda move approval of the agenda second it's been moved by Miss Rogers seconded by Miss buers there any other discussion uh all those in favor please

say I I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously I'm now going to turn the agenda over to our facilitator for the evening uh Mr Steve Shu he is a beloved member of our community here in Durham a former School Board member as well as mayor and we're excited for you to facilitate our conversation this evening thank you so much patina I'm really glad to be here tonight um I'm it's really an honor I will say that when the vote just came up on approving of the agenda I did vote um it I guess I'm I'm just used to it um as I said I'm really honored to be here uh the chair and the vice chair ask me to facilitate this meeting and I will do my my best I'm just want to say a few words I'm I'm not here to make policy that's the board's role and I'm not here as an advocate

uh as our Dae friend friends and others are I'm here to try to land the pl to help us work together tonight in a way that is constructive mutually respectful moves forward tonight's agenda concerning meet and confer and allows employees voices to be heard uh I do want to remind everyone that this is a public meeting although in some ways an unusual public meeting of the board and we are operating under the state's open meetings laws it's I just want to say I've spent today talking to a number of people especially I just just wanted to say uh a couple of great young leaders patina and Simone uh when you get old uh and you've been doing this for a while it's really wonderful to think that you're passing Durham on to this amazing group of people represented here around this table and in this room and I

just am so grateful for you all for tonight is another night to make Durham a great place for all of our children and all of us also want to welcome our interim superintendent to Durham um you've stepped stepped into a tough job and by all accounts you're up to it um we're so glad you're here and I want you to know that you have the support of everyone in this community and you can call on any of us anytime you need us before I talk about the meeting I want to talk about this little piece of plastic uh it is not the coolest headphones in the room uh it's a fan that I use because I'm taking some kind of heavy medicines and about once an hour I get hot flashes some of you all may be familiar with them if it happens I use this fan it's $30 on Amazon uh uh

but if you see me put it on uh the only thing I will tell you it means is you need to talk a little louder because while it's on it it does kind of make it a little more a little harder for me um every Durham resident especially school children School Employees and parents has a stake in the work that we're doing here tonight and I include myself in that number I care deeply about Durham Public Schools my kids went to Durham Public Schools K through 12 I had two at EK po one went on to AA the other went on to Brogden and Riverside I served on the task force that merged Durham city and county schools into one system I was a student teacher and then I taught for one year at Jordan until I figured out that teaching was really too hard for me and the newspaper business would be easier I coached soccer for many years at brogen and Riverside and can I just take a minute to say roll Pirates role uh and I served for four years on the school

to our teachers and classified workers here today I offer my complete respect and appreciation you have incredibly difficult jobs and you do them day in day out with such intense commitment to the education of our children to our Schoolboard members I offer that same respect and appreciation I have been in your shoes and I know how hard it is and especially during the times like we've been through recently and I I just want to tell you how great than I am so let's get to the agenda tonight uh I want to go over it quickly uh we we've done that we've we've done the placard for the folks sitting here at the table in a minute we're going to do introductions around the table opening remarks by me I know that should have said awesome after it but that's okay um the Dae then will the folks here at the table will make a presentation of community agreements and shared values that you all are proposing and we will

then have a discussion of that and we want to talk about the values that we all share then the Dae will make a presentation on meet and confer which is really the the the heartbeat of the meeting tonight and then there will be discussion on that uh then we will ask our transportation mechanics Fleet Maintenance and supervisors and lot managers any of them who might be here tonight to come to the microphone and we want to also really make sure that we hear the concerns that you have and so that will that will follow that and then we will offer public comment to anyone else who would like to make public comment after that at that time finally we will talk about how to move forward best with meet and confer appointment of a working group timeline consideration of other employees input to the board and then we will have closing remarks by the board members it says three members three minutes each but who knows maybe by the time that we get there they'll only want to speak for one

minute find out and then adjournment that's our that's our agenda uh my hope is to end this meeting by 8:30 that means that all of us need to respect the time of others when we speak and I'll try to manage the time so that we meet that deadline uh I won't be unhappy if we leave earlier and I doubt that you will either um as we talk to each other with each other tonight I have a few things I'd like all of us to keep in in mind first of all let's try to listen to each other deeply listen to understand and listen with an open mind let's try to put aside our preconceptions about each other especially our negative preconceptions and so just for a second try to let that little door open in your mind I'm doing it in mine so that we can all think together about how we're going to be open to each other let's all try to assume positive intent on the part of everyone in the room let's try to assume

the best of each other and expect that others will assume the best of us let's try to practice genuine mutual respect and let's be kind to each other we meet in fraught times for the district and for the board for our new interim superintendent for our employees and for our families who desperately want to get their kids back to school on the regular it's in these times especially that we need to show each other kindness and Grace I will try to offer that and I hope that you will too and finally let's share the microphone I'll try to help us do that by moving the meeting along as best I can and by gently nudging folks who may be holding the mic a bit too long so those are the things that I have to say U and now let's go ahead and uh begin with our agenda thank you the first thing we're going to do is just introductions of people at the table and uh simply names would be great

and uh and everyone's yeah thank you what we're we're gonna we're gonna use first names tonight around the table okay yeah I'm Steve Shu and if you want to say your pronouns he him Natalie V she her Jessica cararta Aon she her ment Rogers she her Riley Finnegan he him Micah Hunter tweet Meer she her Jovonia Lewis toher she her Millie Rosen she her Carlos pz he him Asia Pope she her Simone kadu she her Christy Patterson she her ktha vinon she her turquoise lejun Parker she her Quinton Hayden he him Anna Benfield she

her Rachel sulin she her Nicholas King he him Kathy Moore she her Javan Lewis she her Emily Chavez she her and batina Umstead she her thank you all so much and now we're going to have our uh Dae friends present their Community agreements and shared values and we will after that we will discuss them so I'm not sure who's leading off that would be me so we recognize that you all have a set of norms that guide your practice and create expectations for audience in a public meeting um oh but as partners in this meeting we wanted to offer the unions Community agreements as we have folks in this space specifically as union members so our community Agreements are voted on by our elected body and we ask for regular

feedback about them to ensure our spaces are functional Equitable and take care of our folks they are the first being in this together none of us will get what we need by acting alone our organization is committed to building Collective power to win the schools and communities we all deserve and part of building collectively is caring for one another in a agreement and in disagreement and we can use these Community agreements as guideposts for principal discussion the next is move up move back usually move up move back in our spaces is about a commitment to an equity of voice and asking folks to be mindful of how often they are sharing and calling in representation of other voices we make concerted efforts to not only invite in but uplift views and voices that are not often represented in the room because our Union is sharper when we hear a broad representation of us in this situation this meeting doesn't create more space for union members to engage in live debate however the folks at this table are folks who have demonstrated a commitment to

representing and being accountable to their co-workers across DPS the third Point respect and support facilitation we are committed to starting on time and ending on time out of respect for everyone's attention and labor we are also committed to adhering to the structures created by board policy for a work session we do however want our folks to be as involved as possible in this process we have member leaders who are supporting our parking lots collecting feedback questions concerns that workers have about the policy or the deliberation our leadership bodies are committed to following up with any notes placed in the parking lot to either answer the question resolve the issue or identify a person Avenue to find resolution we are also committed to coming together prepared to engage in principled struggle work together and

take action together and we take our work seriously part of taking our work seriously is respecting the agenda and struct structures of the space to address the full agenda on our plates today the next one apologies are reserve for harm the stories that we learn about ourselves and others through the traumatic experience of sexism and racism can show up in different ways in a group Spa in group spaces including apologizing or attempting to give qualifiers for our responses questions or existence this is a space to learn in a different way of being rejecting those narratives and living fully into ourselves it also means when harm has been done we should recognize that harm that that was done apologize for it and identify next steps to move forward in

repair repair does not mean it's okay or no big deal it means thank you for your apology to move forward I would like it I would like if we could and then name what you need it may just B move forward as colleagues or friends and that's fine so we don't want to just assume that just because Christy and I said these things in the room that you all are agreeing to them so if we could get a thumbs up from folks if they can agree to those Community agreements and if you have questions uh Brian is standing back there to to answer those questions right I'm noticing the majority of the room is sharing a set of expectations for how they want this meeting to go and we collectively will be responsible for each other so we wanted to start with a conversation about what we understand to

be our values and then also the shared values between the union the durm association of Educators you all as a board and the broader community so the first is our students learning conditions are our working conditions our Union work is centered around improving the outcomes for students and we know as public school workers we have a major impact on the life outcomes of the Next Generation because because of institutional sexism and racism our society treats the work of raising the Next Generation as unskilled labor that doesn't deserve to be well compensated we know that everyone in this room disagrees with that and suffers from that disrespect and we want to collaborate with all of you to make Durham a place where the work of raising the next generation is even more clearly respected and valued we firmly believe that our students deserve the absolute best and that includes resourced Educators that can attend to our students needs and in order to stay in this skilled complex and respectable

profession live and Durham and be present for our students we and all of our co-workers need working conditions that work for us this is new to me um we understand that the board the district and our community also deeply value collaboration transparency and accountability this policy and opportunity for meet and confer lives into those values creating a collabor collaborative process for workers not close enough okay thank you um okay through the employee representative to lead with District administration and the board to create the schools we we all deserve in its design it creates structures for accountability not just on the side of the district but also on our side as the employee representative to our broader Community to problem solve the issues facing our schools and

students and does this work in a very public and transparent fashion that allows every employee and Community member and caregiver invested in public schools to access information about the well-being of our school system what we have a chance to do here today together is to bring our district more in line with these shared values than it has ever been that's how we can restore trust and go even further and make this a district where talented staff stay for their careers and help solve problems and where students get a better education as a result thank you very much and uh I think that what we should do now and I I you're you're let me just ask uh Rachel and Simone these values have been um created uh in the same process that you described earlier for the community Norms is that correct our students

learning conditions are our working conditions is one that has existed within the union for maybe decades um at this point it is not start and Durham it is has a long history within the labor movement in other States um particularly in the education labor movement um and then the three of collaboration transparency and accountability are ones that are seated within um the planks that built the policy that our members voted on and reflect things that we've heard the board members share as being important um and seem important to the district broadly right thank you so much I'm going to now ask the board members um a couple of can we leave the I look fantastic there I know but um it's not my best side is the problem um so thank you umk thank you just hey to the tech folks thank you all so much for being here we appreciate you um

the these values I think we should do two things we what we're looking for is mutually held values values that all of the people around this table hold these are values that the folks and Dae have put forward as important values to so I think maybe what we should do I'm proposing this is that we first talk about these values and talk about whether or not you all feel like you're aligned with them and then if there any other values that that board members want to put forward as something that you think is important uh and then we can do that and discuss that so if if if everybody's okay with that let's just start with our student learning conditions or our working conditions any board members have a comment uh a thumb thumb up uh you know any any thoughts to offer about this I see some thums okay anybody offer anybody have any comments to offer I'm taking that as I think I won't take that is everybody on the board

comfortable with that as a as a as a as an important shared value okay great thank you so much then uh collaboration I'm I'm going to assume but I'm I'm assuming that that's a shared value but let me just ask everybody want to give that a thumb up okay great uh transparency same anybody have any problems with that is a important value great and accountability let's hear a little bit more from I'd like to hear a little bit more from the uh I think accountability is a little trickier than collaboration and transparency so maybe um uh either any of you all want to say a little bit more about the accountability uh value and the way that you see that uh is is how you know is mutuality uh you know any thoughts that anyone wants to offer from the da folks sure um I know for for us um when we are sitting at this table when folks

who are sitting at this table who are elected in the union um and just for Rank and file members generally the way that we approach our work um is to be not only account to our co-workers but accountable for the students that we serve every single day for the caregivers that send them to our schools every single day the community members that support our schools every single day um and we take that very seriously um and we we don't ever want to approach a conversation speaking as uh Dee members um from an individualistic lens we want to be grounded in the the experiences of our students and our co-workers thank you when I think about accountability in this discussion I also think about this mutually accountability that we have at this table that um the description that you gave of accountability within your union I think we need to think about more broadly here tonight that we all share Mutual accountability for this work and um I know we're going to and

we're going to do a great job everybody comfortable with accountability as a value okay all right so thank you all for those uh those are great and much appreciated and I appreciate the board's response does anyone on the board want to offer another uh value that you think might might be um a value that we might all mutually hold anybody okay I'm going with those thank you so much um I appreciate that present presentation and I think those are very important values and ones that will serve us well tonight um and now we're going to talk into the the Dae presentation on meet and confer and um you all uh I do it let's make it happen let's make it happen uh good evening

everybody that's right I'll take a page out of bettina's book and say one more time good evening uh so my name is Carlos Perez as I said earlier uh I'm a social studies teacher over at Jordan High School where I've been teaching history sociology and Latin American studies for the last seven years um and I'm going to be speaking briefly to sort of who Dae is what we do how we do it and why Dae is a natural uh fit for meet and confer um and just to start us off as far as what the Derm Association of Educators is in the simplest terms we're a labor union for all public school workers in Durham public schools and that seems straightforward but if you go to school districts in other parts of the country you might find one two maybe three different unions operating in the same district in the same school building representing different subsets of workers um but in Dae whether you clean the floors drive a bus uh feed our kids

teach Math Science History whatever um Dae represents all workers in Durham Public Schools so it's worth underlining from the outset because it's distinct from the way that uh Educators unions operate in other parts of the country um Dae is also a local affiliate of the North Carolina Association of Educators at the state level and we are also affiliated with the National Education Association at the national level which is the largest Union in the country uh and in terms of who our membership is um as I as I mentioned we represent all workers that includes uh both classified and certified workers throughout the district um and our growing membership and it's been growing rapidly this year it proportionately represents uh both job classifications and very much so the diversity that we see across Durham Public Schools we can get the next

slide so in terms of uh how we do our work on a day-to-day um the union is governed democratically uh by an elected board of directors so I'm the at large director on the board of directors um but as far as the campaigns that are carried out whether it's at the building level or at the district level um we have a broad organizing structure that both uh covers schools uh and then covers the entire District District so we have a district organizing committee for district level campaigns we have an organizing committee uh at the building level and whether it's at the district level or at a building level these campaigns are aimed at touching every single worker in the building um so just to give everyone a taste uh I work at the largest school in Durham Public Schools Jordan has over 180 plus uh employees uh and in resp

response to the classified pay debacle we were able to talk to over 75% of the staff within a number of days um and it got up to a 100 very quickly uh and across the district within a matter of two weeks we were able to speak to more than 3,000 workers across the district um and I think that alone amongst other things speaks to why it makes most sense uh to have Dae here at the table for this meet and confer process we are the only organization that is capable of efficiently and effectively reaching all workers across the districts tapping into their needs desires uh the issues that they're facing on a day-to-day basis because those are the same issues that we are facing on a day-to-day basis um and Dae is not only leading here in Durham as far as the movement to defend and transform Public Schools we are very much leading the state um I know a number of you were around during May 16th uh often times other Educators around the state are looking to Durham

for what those next steps are um and I think us sitting here at this table talking about meet and confer is a reflection of that um and as was said already uh I just flipped it a little bit uh but our working conditions are students learning conditions so to the extent that we're we take that seriously uh we got to sit down at the table and hash this out thank you so for the rest of the Pres presentation um we wanted to walk through the policy purpose and goals and then we took pieces of the policy and group them together by the common values lens and so we'll we'll talk about the different pieces of the policy based off of collaboration and then accountability and transparency um and then we'll we'll kick it to questions and answers

I'm ktha vinon I'm the AIG specialist at Morhead monory um I am going to talk to the purpose of this meeting the purpose of this meeting is to develop a policy that will establish a meet and confer process we hope that we hope to M we hope to mutually develop a policy that the board of educ a will formally adopt through Mee and conferred DPS workers and administrators will collaboratively develop and improve policies and policy implementation thanks kifa I'm Jovonia Lewis this policy will benefit everyone in Durham in the Durham community Through collaboration with workers administrators and the Board of Education like we said earlier like we've said many times our working conditions are our students learning conditions so as we improve durm public schools and work sites for workers that will improve student performance and outcomes this policy will support with

retaining Durham Public School staff and attracting highly qualified workers to join Durham Public Schools Maia I'm going to talk to you about the importance of transparency within the policy next transpar as excuse me one second tell tell us where you work and what you do oh I work at Lions F Elementary and I'm a IIA thank you and soorry one second AJ if you can just get the mic closer folks who are streaming can't hear us when we don't use the microphone so that's the only Point want to make sure people can watch we're going to talk to you about the importance of transparency within the policy next transparency is a really important component because it allows for better practices and allows for relevant information to be shared with everyone who needs to access it for instance the last couple of weeks we've had been asking for and still not have received a state fund budget versus actuals nor have we received the

frequency counts for who is at what pay grade without these excuse me it has been impossible for us to really engage with the district and impossible to really engage with our co-workers and a discussion on the paid resolutions if we had access to these pieces of information we'll be better a able to brainstorm with our co-workers about possibilities and next steps and better set up to communicate with the Board of Ed regarding these issues so it is clear that a meet and confer and specifically this transparency piece would be really improved for this current moment in the future transparency will be a crucial well well will be crucial for many reasons first And Timely an equal access to information for administration and employees will allow the meet and confer team to make a well-informed recommended recommendation to the board based on consultations with our co-workers thanks Asia I'm going to keep

talking about transparency we'll be better able to craft our campaigns and have them be based in the same understanding of the financial landscape that the district has the adoption of a board of education advisory Council establishes an open meeting on budget person and student learning topics inviting public support and feedback furthermore some issues will be solved just by the ability to obtain information employee trust in the district would increase by making it easier for employees to get our questions answered in a timely way finally the utilization of an employee representative organization helps to ensure that the decisions the Board of Education makes the policy implications from those decisions and the background information the Board of Education uses are fully transparent this promotes accountability trust and

collaboration chrisy EC special programs teacher at kingon Middle School in addition to transparency another core value to meet and confer process is collaboration I'm going to talk about three areas where we think there are great opport opportunities for Labor Management collaboration the first is the issue of what topics are welcome to be discussed in meet and confer sessions essentially we propose that all School related matters are welcome topics for discussion because of how important it is for employees to have a voice on the great variety of things that impact students learning conditions you'll see on the slide that this covers issues like compensation but also things like professional development workload and districtwide initiatives we also welcome the Board of Education to introduce other topics into the discussion of course we would also

collaborate on prioritization this is maybe an overwhelming list of possible topics but to be clear we are committed to working together with the Board of Education to determine which topics would be would be of the highest priority for each Mee and confer session so we want to work together with the District administration to problem solve the issues facing our public schools that partnership would include developing the agendas together referenced in h subsection a composed of topics previously named on that other slide and creating a path to recommend resolutions to the board of education to consider for policy adoption so Jessica I heard you name in the February 2nd meeting that decisions that we make together we are then responsible for together and we share that sentiment so you all would receive policy recommendations that have been deeply

informed by the voices and experiences of employees on the front lines of our school system and assessed for validity and factual Reliance by numerous experts before being submitted for your consideration so the last opportunity for collaboration that we want to highlight is the creation and maintenance of a meet and confer team this is also an opportunity to practice accountability which two of our co-workers will address in a moment the composition of the meet and confer team reaffirms our commitment to the shared values of collaboration and transparency it calls for equal membership from the employee representative organization and from the district referenced in B subsection a equal representation recognizes that DPS employees are on the front lines bring expertise from our school sites or work sites and have the responsibility in the DPS Community for executing the goals and missions of our Public Schools equal representation also recognizes the critical value and unique bird's eye view perspective of central

leadership something that we deeply value in our organization the team is tasked with sharing leadership between employees and the administration for the purpose of problem solving and developing quality proposals that that improves student learning conditions districtwide Dae is a democratic member funded organization that elects its leadership with one Member One vote we work hard to make sure that as many worker voices as possible can be heard both to not leave people out and to not make the mistake of putting extra weight or importance on a particular perspective just because one person happens to be the loudest synthesizing the diverse needs of a large Workforce into proposals that take into account both individual perspectives and the needs of the whole community may seem impossible at times but we believe it is the job of a democratic worker organization and we embrace it this means that the 13 members of the employee representative organization will be taking on the very serious responsibility of ensuring through de's

growing organizing structures trustworthy two-way communication with as many DPS employees as possible B subsection B and C C speak to the necessity of bringing in subject matter experts to support the problem solving we would take on in this process in two ways this policy invites non- voting members appointed by the represent representative organization and District administration to participate in the developing of recommendations in the meetings themselves this could be health professionals to help craft recommendations related to student or employee health Services curriculum experts to speak on a particular literacy C curriculum whomever it also invites the team to create subw workk groups to inform the discussions of the meet and confer team one example could be a subw workk team that is examining EC Staffing

ratios this team could be comprised of EC staff members like myself EC caregivers EC students and other subject matter experts s hey I'm Riley finnean um social studies teacher at Hillside the last six years member organizer for Dae this semester and I've got the accountability section uh Steve mentioned this earlier we agree that this needs to be a mutual accountability kind of relationship um so not just we're not just talking about holding the district accountable holding the people at the top accountable CU something went wrong we're talking about creating really for the first time or or more than ever before a relationship of mutual accountability where all of us the workers and management uh share responsibility for providing excellent education to the Durham community and all the children um and then we can

share that responsibility by problem solving when something goes wrong uh making decisions together and sharing in that accountability to all the stakeholders um so we think there's a few key components key requirements for that kind of accountability the first one we need to cify a set of meetings between the employer and an employee representative organization um we can't just meet when things go horribly wrong like this uh we don't have meetings like this normally um we also can just rely on personal relationships between individual workers individual decision ERS all the individuals change all the time we want something permanent um that won't be subject to you know those relationships um and the whims of them um we don't want to also depend on the generosity of decision makers uh when we need to really urgently solve a problem

and collaborate uh we think we need to mutually commit to a calendar together and stick with it um so the slide and the policy you can see there uh explains that we think monthly meetings between the meet and confer team would be a great starting Place uh that's May through November kind of the non-budget season and then additional meetings uh during Peak budget season because that's when a lot of these conversations seem to be happening uh it also stresses there that we want the co-chairs of this meet and confer committee Dae president and the superintendent to co-create the agenda so there's no confusion about who owns the meeting who's putting topics on it those two are co-creating it next slide all right this is an important one I'm going to dig into a little bit um the employee representative organization you've heard a few of us mention that um

and we defined it in the policy uh the policy doesn't actually mention Dae anywhere what it does is Define uh thresholds for an employee representative organization and what we think would make an organization a legitimate representative of DPS workers and we think Dae meets those thresholds uh and I'm going to explain a little bit why those are important thresholds so um when something goes wrong right now uh like it has this year there's a huge Scramble for uh town like scheduling Town Halls there's the scramble to find worker input to get a representative sample of workers uh to share how they're feeling it's you know a mess basically trying to have 5,300 conversations with individual workers uh a small group of leaders doing that isn't possible uh even if you're meeting with 50 workers at a time that would be

over 100 meetings uh whenever a big decision had to be made uh and those wouldn't be problem solving spaces right uh that's not a real model for Equitable worker voice collaboration and mutual accountability which is what we need um that model only empowers the decision makers really because it keeps that boss employee power imbalance in place um and it might Empower just a select handful of workers maybe a random group of workers who could make it to the meeting or maybe a chosen group of workers by the employ employer uh who were then just accountable to the employer and not their fellow employees um so that system doesn't really work um they can't claim in that situation to speak for all DPS workers and what we want is an organization that can uh and can talk to all those folks and get meaningful input so instead of that inequitable ineffective system I just described uh

what we're here proposing is a model that we know actually works people are using it all over the country people have been using it for decades um we think the only way the district and its employees can really collaborate is an accountable um representative employee organization an actual entity the district can partner with and sit across the table from so our definition for that in the policy um different policies for Union recognition set different thresholds ours as you can see in the policy are this year 25% membership um that's so there's no barriers right now for us starting this process in the middle of this crisis so that we can co-lead our way out of it um and then at least 50% membership of DPS workers going forward subsequent years and that's probably the most common threshold you see around in the private sector and in other states um what that

the reason that threshold is important is because it guarantees that the employee representative organization will always remain accountable to a majority of the workforce and not just claim to so Carlos mentioned it earlier Dae has this ability already is the only organization in Durham that can already claim to represent thousands of DPS staff when we talked to 3200 workers in two weeks that wasn't by email or text those were face-to-face conversations between co-workers who trust each other those are equal you know equals talking to each other um there's no substitute for that and it takes a lot of work to pull something like that off uh we already have the membership base the organizing structure the Democratic processes in place that give us this power to actually listen to thousands of DPS workers regularly and make decisions together so um the policy what it would

really do is allow us as workers to use our Union's Democratic structures to elect that group of trusted leaders to the meet and convert team that uh Simone just described uh and then after they collaborate with the district's Mee and confer team and reach any resolutions together uh on how to make the district a better place to work and learn we would then be able to go back to our buildings every single work site in the district and get worker input again right get a final vote to make sure that only resolutions that are accepted by a majority of the workers would be enacted or would be passed on to you rather so uh this is the only way we can guarantee that every worker can have real input and guarantee that everything the meet and confer process is producing is in the best interest of DPS workers um none of that's possible without a proper employee representative organization like Dae so the final thing to say here

about about thresholds uh if somehow despite all of our processes we failed to represent the best interest of our co-workers in any given moment a couple things could happen our members could elect a new meet and convert team they would do a better job uh or we could lose members and drop below this threshold and not be eligible for this process again until we could get that trust back um so it's built in you know responsibility and mutual account ability um so next slide last piece of this is really just about how you the school board would relate to the meet and confer team so to be crystal clear the board would retain all of its rights and responsibilities under state law um the board through this policy uh would still hold the authority to implement policy and convene and set agendas and stuff like that um you would essentially stay you know top of the

district that said the policy does specify a few ways you would interact with the meet and confer team uh section B subsection B the board chair and vice chair are named as non- voting members of The District's Mee and confer team uh we think that'll facilitate the communication collaboration and transparency between admin employees and the board and facilitate any of the meet and conver resolutions actually making its way to the board and then all the resolutions of meet and confer teams uh the meet and confer process uh produced would be submitted to the board of ed for your consideration uh following state law and all those policies so there you have y'all holding the meet and convert teams accountable uh so accountability all over the place thanks Riley hi hi I'm Anna I'm an occupational

therapist and tonight I get the opportunity to collaborate with Quenton who's an EC instructional Aid and I love that we got to work together on this piece because occupational therapist and ECI work together in our buildings every single day um so we really landed from that place of like how cool is it that we get to collaborate on this part together um so tonight we're here Quinton and I to talk about how our current payroll crisis could have been averted or handled very differently if we had a meet and confer policy in place let's be clear right meet and confer is not an economic policy it doesn't mandate any Financial commitments it doesn't create any new funding sources and it doesn't cost anything to put in place so some some people might be confused as to why we're proposing this

policy as a Way Forward after a financial crisis the district's decision to withdraw long overdue raises for many OTS IAS and other classified staff has created a financial crisis but it's also been a crisis of trust of communication accountability transpar y these words that we're hearing on repeat tonight so we're here to pose this important question if DPS had a strong meet and confer policy how could the implementation of more competitive wages for classified staff have played out really differently first of all transparency with information would have gone a really long way if we had the right to to access data that was relevant to how our pay would be determined teams of our

co-workers would have been analyzing budgets versus actuals current and proposed salary schedules frequency counts for the different salary grades and the cost and viability of the various proposed raises last spring before the budget was passed I definitely have some grief that this wasn't the process that we had that we didn't get that opportunity to see that data and to be collaborators at that table inside of dae's organizing structure as my other Dae leaders have talked about we have as Leaders we're tasked with communicating information clearly to our co-workers face-to-face conversations two-way communication so a broad cross-section of DPS would have had a clear understanding of the cost of proposed raises prior to the rollout even the broader Community

including the general public could have understood the cost the true cost of implementing the Hill study's salary recommendations under meeting confer policy there also would have been multiple meetings including the superintendent and CFO the Board of Education chair and co-chair HR representatives and members of the employee representative organization all parties could have gotten on the same page about the hill study's various recommendations and their budgetary implications it's this collaboration that would have allowed us to stand in mutual accountability for these decisions about our pay if we had arrived at November and December without shared Clarity on the financial impacts of the raises implemented in

October and the Board of Education had suddenly become aware of the possible problems you could have called for an immediate coving of the meet and confer team in order to navigate these difficult Waters and we would be there to support you as a team and as a community I work at Riverside High School as an instructional assistant I have to collaborate every single day and sometimes not with the same teacher and sometimes not with the same students I get on a regular basis and I have to keep my transparency with them I let my students know I am not a perfect person I do make mistakes and when I make mistakes I love for my students to catch me I employ them to say Mr hon or Mr Q you made a mistake and I would be like thank you but before we can move on you see that there's a mistake here let's work together and find out how to get through this so we can go into the next

question that's what this meet and confer process basically will look like it's a partnership it's a team it's a family it's a community we're working side by side we're helping each other to get through these crazy navigated Waters and we can get through it safely together there wouldn't be no problems with this group that group we would all be in it as one now not we're not here to rehash the pass but we are here to look forward to the future greater transparency accountability collaboration and trust and we leave that a formal policy that put workers voice at that table through an employee representative organization is the way that we can build that future not just today but forever as a unity and together

questions and answers thank you I wasn't sure that was you all were finished thank you let me just say first of all that was a great presentation it truly was y'all did a wonderful job and it so many you you were eloquent um you were impassioned you were clear and I just want to thank you all for that uh much much appreciated and so let me just talk just for a second about how we're gon to move um first of all I hope we'll have a lot of discussion from the board comments questions that you all might have clarifying questions or comments about anything that you've heard um but we're not going to try to solve all these tonight uh by mutual agreement ment of uh the folks on the board and uh folks from Dae we're going to move this process along and when you get where when we get to number 10 on our agenda we're going to figure out how to do that and that's going to be a thing that we have to do and we'll have to

figure out together tonight but we we're not going to try to solve all these things here but anything that has been said is certainly fair game for discussion and questions and so I'm now going to ask any board members that might like to comment or ask questions anyone like to get anybody want to go first Emily sure thank you go ahead Emily thank you for this presentation I um have a very clear more clear idea of what it is um based on how you described it and I just have a few questions about um I guess my my greatest um like concern is about inclusion and um and so I have I have a qu my first question is about just membership and how um what uh

requirements this you know has come up before but like what requirements there are to be a member what makes one a member um and what if somebody doesn't want to become doesn't want to be a member anymore like what's that process like if you could speak to that sure uh folks who join the union are um whole dues paying members pay dues regularly uh when we are working um and so there are different does categories for folks depending on your job classification um and what it means to be a member um Can can mean a lot of different things and I'll invite uh any folks to be able to share in a second about what it means means for them to be a member um but uh a lot of it is what we talked about already um of being accountable to our co-workers and our students um and striving to build power to win the schools and communities that we all deserve um we know that while we're having this conversation here in Durham and that has Us in conversations

with with decision makers about policies and practices that impact our our students and our co-workers um that also means that we are engaging in bu power to impact things at the state and National level as well um we know that the state um could do a lot better by our Public Schools um and so we are are working with our co-workers working with our our our caregivers of our schools and community members um to try to build relationships that can change the way our schools are are run and how they're funded um and I'll let other folks if they want to Trin in and talk about what it means to be a unit member for them but no pressure I mean I can also speak to the last part of the question which was around well what if someone wants to leave the union um it's a voluntary organization we're not coercing anyone to be uh a member of the Union um if someone wants to drop their membership they fill out a form just like when they

joined and they can step out um in our building for example a Jordan um we had someone whose partner lost their job and they were concerned about paying dues and they filled out a form and then as soon as their partner got their job they came right back to me and said I'm rejoining immediately um so I've seen that happen as well and if folks decide to no longer be a dues paying member of the organization they are still um part of the school community that our our union members are are accountable to um and so as part of our organizing committee folks are committed to being accountable to a set number of their co-workers so even if someone is no longer a member we're still having regular conversations with them about students learning conditions about their working conditions to know what feels important to them as for me being part of this Union or being part of this committee and this group I've actually felt listened to I

felt heard which is something IAS normally don't get a lot of in our workplace so to be heard and to have our our issues addressed and to have a community get around us and say well how about I come to your school and I'll show you how to do this or I show you a plan or I write this plan out for you you can implement this in your day-to-day and see how that works for you just to have that support system there that means a lot to me that's why I join that's why I love being part of this group I I'll go and add something to you Micah Hunter tweet Meer I work at Riverside where I've been a pirate for the past 17 years um I just also want to note that Dae and ncae are member funded um entirely um which I think is important to note here um for me what it means to be a union member and a union leader is just to be part of uh a

problem solving group right we're not just sitting around complaining um we're we actively working together to solve problems and even if we can't solve problems in that moment really dreaming big to think about how we can solve those problems and I think um this moment right here is a moment that some of us have been dreaming for for 17 years to to dream big and to to be here with you all thank you you for that I want to say um thank you for those for those comments I also asked that and it wasn't like a trick question but I was a former I am a former da member myself um it was many years ago but um and it has grown a lot since then um I um there are a lot of things I you know I I agree with the values I'm I'm impressed with the data Gathering and interested to hear more

about that as well um and so um I guess yeah the biggest thing then there are other things to you know to discuss such as you know Le legalities and all of that but I'm still wondering um like we had some people walk out because they don't feel part of Dae what um what would I don't know let's see what would this group do about that I guess the inclusion part where if you find yourselves needing to like um uh that there are areas where perhaps there are no members like in a specific um position or something like that or a location of the district um how does that representation then still um take place what I'm really interested in is um I mean I I think the idea of hearing from many people all at the same time is very interesting as you

said seven people cannot talk to over 5,000 people um in a short span of time or even a long span of time that would be very difficult and um and so what about if people feel you know not included um what are your thoughts about that just about inclusivity and and representation yeah yeah so we a couple of folks and I had mentioned uh a structure that we have have called the organizing committee um and somebody is participating in the organizing committee because they are accountable to a set of their co-workers whether they are members or not members and so when someone shows up at an organizing committee meeting and they are voting a particular way or getting in line to like speak for or against a proposal or an amendment they are doing so because they are accountable to those seven 8 nine 10 11 12 people regardless of their membership status regardless of their job title um usually is by work site um

but we have some folks um that go across work sites um we have folks who like like OTS and PTs um who they are accountable to folks across those work sites um because they move so often um and so when we when we are coming with uh a a set of conversations it is not limited to our membership base it is across the district sorry just a a followup though if folks do not feel that you are representing their needs what is the UN or dae's kind of approach to connecting with those people those other workers who feel that you aren't representing them and the and how they want to be represented I think we approach um as as colleagues and co-workers I think we try a multitude of of conversations to to

deeply listen to and hear what are the needs that they're expressing um I think it is also true that we don't we don't act as individuals when we are in that shared space either and so we will listen to and encourage dissension and and different views and opinions but when we move on something we move as a majority of folks um and so there are times in which I have made a proposal myself that people disagree with and the room told me no um and so if people disagree um we would still want to continue to have conversations with them and still invite them into the spaces that we have to be able to hear from co-workers um but then the room collectively decides the direction of the organization and can I just ask one more followup on that and I'll save my other questions for the end for the people who are not in the room what is the engagement process process for them so they could come to the room does that

make sense I think so um yeah I I'm wondering if somebody who wants to talk about their process on the OC of how y'all had conversations with folks that are either members and non-members um for me I just approached them with what's going on I ask them what issues do you want to talk about what are you feeling how are you feeling do you have the support that you need in the work space that is the most pivotable questions to ask a person are you being supported do you have the assistance that you need do you have this person that you can talk to and when it came to me being part of this committee that was the one thing I did I asked people every single day what issue would you like to talk about I know you don't get heard a lot

because you're a custodian I know you don't get hurt or notot because you get you are working in the cafeteria I know you don't get hurt a lot because you're working in the front office but I would like to ask you for me what would you like to talk about what would you like to work on what would you like to address what would you like to change what if I took what you dealt with to my team and we talked about it and I'll come back to you and let you know what they said that transparency that talking that collaboration that teamwork that that trust is there because sometimes all they need to hear is a voice they just need to hear that person in their Corner they need to have that person that they can talk to and for me when I started doing this that was my approach to every day at my school what is your problem what are you dealing with talk to me if you don't feel like talking you ain't got to talk to me today I would never force myself

on to a person but if I knew that they were bother if something was bothering them and I could see it I'm not one to let you go throughout your day feeling bad or feeling like you weren't supported as an instructional assistant that's what my job entails I assist whether it's in the classroom or person to person I wanted to add to what Quinton said what I do is I speak to people just talk to them um in any normal conversation no matter where I'm at I can be in the line about to vote and it can be someone who works for DPS and I will talk to them like Hey how do you like your school how's everything going for you just talking to them and to know who they are and what they care about and what's important to them and then I share my union story with them so just really engaging with people and even if

they aren't a member and they may give me some information that they may be dealing with I bring it back to the union and let them know hey this is what's happening for some folks in this area in the district and then we move from there um I don't think I introduced myself earlier Jovonia Lewis T Hammer reading teacher at Lakewood Elementary School and I wrote some notes on my phone um first of all like ktha and Quinton said we are so committed to doing everything we can to build Bridges with folks whether or not they are part of our Union and when we move cards when we move conversations across our schools most of us are talking to the vast majority of our schools at Lakewood when we were moving some conversations around what escalated actions to take we talk to 100% of our non-admin staff about that in a week and that is the sort of hour and structure that we have and that is everyone not just Dae

members um so we're doing everything we can and we will keep doing everything we can and respectfully I think it is up to y'all to figure out how you want to relate to workers who don't relate to you via the employee representative organization we're going to do our best to keep engaging everyone the best we can members and non-members and we're curious what y'all are going to do to figure that part out as well thank you Jovonia Lewis you know I've been um here a long time and uh we've had meet and confer whether you want to call it that or not your former president Michelle Burton had a longstanding relationship with Dr MinGa they met regularly on your half they could pick up the phone when things came up and those conversations came I think that is a piece of history that is rooted in Durham and rooted in our um

support for workers so I appreciate y'all bringing this National model to us and I look forward to to us together with folks that are here at the table and folks that left the table figuring out how this could work in Durham that is more inclusive than the model that's been presented here um only when we represent all voices and all perspectives do we have strength in durum um to the folks at the table and otherwise that were impacted by the pay crisis we are so so sorry we are working forward together do I think that this would have prevented it no because this is our human organization with people in that make

mistakes and so while I wish that meet and confer would have been magically Curative I I have trouble believing that um what I do know is that very few of you all we're in our meetings our work is conducted in public meetings and we need you all to continue to show up and make comment in those spaces as well um so inclusivity is going to be a major key for me if if we're to consider meet and confer going forward and I'm I'm so sad that the folks that were on the agenda to speak left um and we'll we'll seek out other ways to hear their perspective and others that aren't here but a Durham table welcomes others to the table welcomes student voices to the table how do you think that this relates

to the superintendent's teacher advisory Council be honest please happy to be honest I'm not uh so I I think it doesn't replace the superintendent teacher advisory Council I think it creates um it creates a different kind of structure where an employee representative organization has the opportunity to work directly with District administration on a regular and ongoing basis about a broad set of topics um to problem solve all of the issues impacting our schools um and invites in a a broad number of job classes ifications um of folks past the past stack um to work on that problem solving appreciate it so I think that um one of the things you've requested and this is kind of an over askk of superintendent time what you've asked

for is more than any time I've ever had with a superintendent so that kind of um ask seemed a little bit um much to me maybe my colleagues think it's it's reasonable I think it's actually more time than um and I want superintendant to be out in schools and I want cabinet members to be out in schools so um I know that time is finite um I wanted to talk a little bit about trust and about ways that you all might be able to join us in deescalate through as we continue to lead through this crisis and see what thoughts you all had in that I know it's important to us to continue to repair harm but also to keep kids in school and so I wanted to hear how you all are thinking about work stoppages and school stoppages going forward uh as a labor union um there are

a number of actions that our members consider um in the midst of a campaign that consider context um that consider where we are as an or organization um and then we as an organization democratically vote for what actions our our folks choose to take um and that includes uh Walkins as a number of our folks here uh engaged in and it regularly engages uh in checking in with our co-workers right we consider um asking folks about what actions they want to take as an action itself um and so there's there's a broad variety of things that we try to do to push a particular message that we think our students and co-workers need any other thoughts from others at the table I think you ought to press that question a little bit more I think that's a really important question and I

think I'd like to hear a little bit more about it from Folks at the table why don't you ask it again so we had a press conference um chair Umstead on go the days run together Wednesday yesterday and and what it appears from the instructional time and the calculations of those under state law is that we are at the point that if we have further sicknesses J missed that those will have to be made up and in my physically responsible mind that is where we get to actually having less resources to share amongst workers because we're going to have to have makeup time makeup days there there is no there's no magical Bank time left so I just want to hear kind of how you all are thinking as you all help us um continue to Center students in in as

we Center workers I think I understand that uh workers will often protest when they feel like they don't have a voice at the table to make decisions um when when they are desperate to create good learning and working conditions uh for their students and their co-workers um and I think this this policy that's being presented um and the collaboration on this policy being presented can help create that that path and that voice for folks um and and uh reinforce for workers that are willing to come to the table and not the ones that um choose to not participate in the

conversation I can just add um that our members vote on escalation or deescalation and we right now can't speak for all of our members and directly respond to your question so what's maybe somebody else can ask in a different way I think it's just um I looked at the Ina website saw sick outs and walkouts as a last resort but it feels like sometimes UR we've gone quickly to that so I hear you in order to answer that I will address it as best as I can as a worker and as an instructional assistant and a person who's only worked for dur public schools for 10 years and was basically devastated by what

happened for years old harmless wasn't harmless it did harm to some people's finances some people weren't able to pay rent some people even until this day you don't you may not know them but some of them live out of their car and still commit to D Public Schools yes walkouts sick outs days of protest that is absolutely the last resort that we go through but what we've been doing for years is being quiet we were being quiet because we wanted to see could it get done could it get fixed with us not being rambunctious not being so loud not being so rowdy about it let's pump our brakes let's not let our emotions get too much into it so we

silence and then sometimes we hold our other employees back we're like no no no don't go up there talking all crazy don't be don't get all in your fillers so we've been silent we've been patient and over the years it's been kind of like a cancer you try to contain it you try to put the medicine to it but with the unneeded stress with the overworking with the underpayments with the constant things in the back of your mind how do I take care of my kids how do I take care of my house how do I take care of my health all that stress and I know this personally because my mom she just recently passed away from this with the stress coming back to you it builds and builds and when that cancer takes over the body will shut

down wouldn't it be a a a bad thing for us to be so silent to the point where literally everybody just stopped nobody addressed the issue nobody talked about what was going on so yes a sick out walk-ins days of protest that has been literally the last resort that we could go through and some of us literally until this day you can ask any other employee here in D Public Schools they debate on do I do this do I commit to a walk out do I do I stay home do I or do I go to work because I've never not gone to work before so yes protests and walkouts and sick ends and all the things that hindered people from coming to work that has been the final

Resort Quenton before we go on I just want to say I heard what you said about your mom and um I know how that feels and so I'm sorry for your recent loss and I know that everyone here shares that and we appreciate you sharing it with us thank you uh you and then we'll go to Millicent Rogers is that okay Millicent Rogers yeah it's all right thank you I just wanted to respond um directly to the point around students um student engagement um and I wanted to first kind of call her attention to a slogan that comes out of the Educators movement in Mexico um that's which basically means that teachers in struggle are still teach teaching um so I teach social studies um history sociology Latin American studies

and I can tell you that in my seven years at Jordan High School I've never had more students ask me about Durham Public Schools okay that has everything to do with the struggle that we're involved in right now when I walk into class they ask me about it when I'm in the hallway they ask me about it you want engagement that's what we're getting we're getting it across the district I've never seen more stories on DPS I've never seen uh more families talking to me about it um and I'm sure everyone in this room can attest to that so the engagement is there we're asking for formal engagement here thank you all um for coming into this space and having this conversation with us I think um all the board members and uh the administration were excited to see and hear from you um one of the things and some of the

questions that I have and I think this goes back to both Dae and I'm going to make some requests I think of our Administration in this question is as we consider the meet and confer policy and the change that it could bring forth can you all help me understand and what work has been done in the past particularly since we're talking about many many years and I can only attest to what's happened since July of 2022 that would be like my cut off point um of all the options and ways for um all stakeholders to engage how has Dae shown up at the table and so the things that come to top of mind for me would be emails exchanged with board members on behalf of Dae um particularly and the superintendent maybe

um the number of times and topics that Dae has come to public comment like other folks can come to public comment to budget work sessions um where they've given comment on things of that nature um how often do Dae members show up to their sit team meetings and their stack meetings um I'd like to see a demonstration that all of these things have been exhausted and used by Dae members um so we know exactly what we expect the outcomes from meet and confer policy to be that would be different from the outcomes of other public ways public of public engagement I think about the growing together sessions how many of those Educators

attended thee members particularly um I'd like to know about all those ways that the board already avails themselves and administration already avails ourselves in the ways Dae has engaged in those processes before we talk about um what a new policy would look like because everybody is now asking for this same seat at the table and I think in Durham we work for um ways to be very conclusive inclusive and um you know PTA is now want a spot at the table and they have seats at the table and we're developing the family advisory Council for Black and Hispanic families and we have the parent ambassadors there are lots of ways that people can engage sit team stack and I'd like to hear how Dae is involved in all those levels of Engagement with DPS and

I guess can we get some support from Administration with the emails and things of that nature and some support from Dae to get all the ways that y'all have come to the table since July of 2022 to figure out how we could work together uh I think we could speak to when we particularly have run a campaign that is using those Avenues as a particular tactic but I think what is true is that there are folks that wear their Union hats every single day outside of a campaign that we are particularly running um and so the ways in which Dae members are participating in their sit teams in stack as a representative from their school um coming to make public comment um are vast not only this year but for for years and years um I think the difference uh from those Avenues to this

um is is about a particular formal process that allows for co- problem solving around a par around a set of issues um that doesn't exist in the other places um and including sometimes the formal places like stack and sit uh because there isn't there isn't an equity of of who is who is helping to create the agendas what's happening in those meetings the the recommendations that come out of them uh there is always a power differential when we're coming to those tables yeah I would um build off of that right as as Educators when you've got uh lesson plan that none of the students want any part of it's It's not like blame the students that there's something wrong with them um and just like that right as as workers these

Avenues don't feel like they work um in other places that do meet and confer they could also send emails and stuff like that but uh they would rather sit down with real transparency and real collaboration so I would just say you know when we talk about deescalation and satisfying workers we've got almost 4,000 workers support this clear demand for a seat at the table uh and so we've asked it clearly we've communicated it publicly for weeks and weeks that's a way to deescalate um you'd be lucky to find four workers that think stack is a meaningful place to collect collaborate and solve problems um it's just it's just the truth um so yeah we we've communicated our demands really clearly um and these other avenues we know they exist but we're saying that they're insufficient to prevent problems like the one that's erupted um and

respectfully you know there's questions would this have stopped it or not we couldn't guarantee anything but we have about 4,000 people that think it would have and it would help us get out of this going forward so my name's oh I'd like to add to that if that's okay yeah please my name is Millie Rosen and I teach seventh grade math at DSA um and I currently serve as a secretary for Dae let me know if I'm not loud enough one other one other point I'd like to make you're always loud enough Millie thank you I really try um one other point I'd like to make is that all those other groups that are named should also be part of collaboration with the district we are not saying that we want to exclude them from this type of process however everyone who's not a DPS employee can run for office in this district and sit in the seats y'all are sitting in that's why you ran we want all we want is the same kind of formalized representation where we are the only ones who do not have access to that um I've told and I've told people

for years anyone who's known me for more than a couple years have known that I've been around de for a while and I've told anybody that will listen if there is another group that shows up that starts doing this work and getting to more people better I will drop my membership in a second and join but I have stuck with Dae for this long because all I see is us growing and being able to represent people and yes having really intense arguments about the direction the organization should take um and then coming out of it and continuing to be strong and work together on this we are a labor union and I know we have a pro-union school board and we are really excited to work with you guys on this m did you have any other questions or comments thanks for sharing thank you Jessica thanks y'all for being here um I'm excited that we've made it to this point and um that we're talking about what this could look like and I guess my questions are mostly around like trying to understand um like I get the vision

and I align with the vision but I would like to better understand like what this really will look like so that's what my questions are about um so 13 employee members is what you've proposed and I think you said that they would be elected members right um so what does it look like in practice like if you could give us some examples to help us better understand um what it looks like in practice for these 13 individuals to ensure that they hear from a truly representative group of Staff like that's an enormous enormous feels daunting to me kind of task so like can you help me understand what that will look like when that's in place if it is in place barley has spent a lot of time uh thinking about that in writing so if you want to speak to that yeah so the reason that doesn't show up in the policy is that's a matter for da bylaws right we want our members to craft the composition of those 13 ourselves and have the ability

to make adjustments and stuff as we see fit later on um but we have been drafting that and we have been bringing it to leaders what should that look like similarly we have a board an elected board right now that is um split up by job classification there's a High School director Middle School there's uh what else uh student services classified uh Elementary uh basically right um some pretty Common Sense stuff about making sure there's representation from every Department Department in every corner of the district uh and then it's a matter of the organizing committee structure that's been mentioned several times about making sure every single building is taking resolutions back through or taking any kind of vote back through it um and making sure we're hitting thresholds that that we're satisfied with in terms of how many people have engaged um but yeah the all the specifics about that um are things that we're going to develop more internally and and ratify

democratically the way do everything else um and so you know picture 13 workers from a bunch of different departments a bunch of different classifications that have been elected by their co-workers to to represent them and then a whole apparatus to make sure that uh their co-workers are feeling represented right it's in our interest always to represent a super majority of DPS workers right that's our vision we want to encourage 100% of DPS workers to join so it's always in our best interest to before we do anything hear from that many people see if we can build unity and see if we can you know share goals that will help grow the organization and everything we do is about doing that thank you that's really helpful although I still feel like it feels a little bit fuzzy to me what this will look like does anybody else want to add to that or no do you just want like some examples of the types of roles that

we've talked about let me see it help me see what this looks like the 13 you're talking about there's 56 schools there's 13 like and all different kinds of Staff doing all different kinds of things even if they're all members of Dae like just help me like picture visual also the additional work sites we know we have that many schools but there are also other buildings that we have folks who are working in without the district yes than what was about the OC you want to talk about the OC so um I will I'll paint one picture and then I'll let Carlos Paint another picture um and hopefully they match up um so in our in one of our last uh organizing committee meetings um we had folks who showed up from um a variety of schools I believe there were 26 and that's actually schools and work sites because there are sites that are not schools um that came um in teams sometimes of one but as large as I don't know how many people came from Jordan 7

um who were answering a question about uh what Micah referred to of escalation tactics um and there was a a proposal that's get that gets brought to the table and then those sets of folks that are in the room that day have an opportunity to go back with their their work site and talk together about like what they understand their co-workers to their position to be on that decision we have live debate um that sometimes is very short sometimes is very long um often very heated um and there is then ultimately a decision usually that is closed by debate by turquo Jun Parker um and then a question is called where there every single person has an opportunity to vote on what is being proposed um and if it passes it passes and if it doesn't we go back into struggle to figure out what we want to to see happen next yeah I think the other thing I would add to that is kind of in the

background what people are not seeing or the variety of tactics that we use to reach people on a day-to-day basis so I might teach at Jordan high school but I've gotten up at 5: in the morning to go to bus Lots I've been to CC Spalding I've been to Pearson town I've been into every I can't even name how many buildings at this point um we'll be at your parking lot before you even get there with hot coffee and donuts uh we'll be at your door when you get there in the morning so we use a a variety of tools um depending on the building we have organizing structures as Simone said that cut across the district and then we have ones at the building level um and those folks uh are responsible for say 10 12 13 people in their buildings so that when we need to move on a decision we can tap I can say hey Riley you know we're trying to get people's temperature check these 13 people who were you know talking about here there's an issue on the table we're going to take it back to our co-workers and we'll get together as as a organizing committee and say okay this is the issue on the table and we're

going to hit those range of tactics whether that means some of us get up a little earlier in the morning and then go teach or some of us teach all day and then we get off work and we run to another school right after that um so that's the kind of work that's been being done on a day-to-day basis and that's how we've reached thousands of workers across the district um again I'm Anna and I'm an occupational therapist I serve three schools I'm at EK po element Elementary fville Street Elementary and Shepard Middle School I also serve students in the community um and it's one of the been really exciting parts of the last month as exhausted as it's been um sometimes I get to school late with my daughter she's a first grader and so we go and we get milk and breakfast and I walk her to class but I often come back and I have a moment before I need to start doing therapy and I've gotten a chance to talk to the cafeteria

workers and a really exciting thing happened today where I didn't just say oh let me go through this survey with one and then with all the cafeteria workers but I made sure that she felt equipped so that she could talk to her colleagues so it's been a really exciting opportunity to support my colleagues into stepping into their leadership maybe folks who didn't see themselves as leaders in their Department um but she's been coming out to the meeting she was at the the meeting that Simone was describing where we were having all this debate she's gotten more engaged with Dae and she's able to bring that back and talk with other folks in the cafeteria um sometimes I was at Watts Elementary School doing an evaluation I wanted to make sure those front desk folks engage I'm talking to them when I walk in the building we had a classified staff math meeting where we were really asking this question are there those of us that don't feel as represented within the building structure what other structures do we need to build and as

OTS we've decided yeah we need to have representation for our job classification so making sure that it's not just up to going back to leaders in buildings but that we're creating structures that bridge across buildings and across work sites so I'm also sitting down with it folks and saying wow how many folks are on your it team and how do you communicate oh you have a group chat like who are leaders within your department so we're really thinking creatively and I think this is such an exciting time to make sure that we're not limited by the ways that we've talked to folks in the past but we're building structures that every day are making us more responsive better listeners more clear more communicative more available to do this two-way communication that we take really seriously and do it better every time and the first time we ran something we wanted to talk to people took a couple months and then we ran something else and took a couple weeks to talk to a super majority of our colleagues and that shows that we are getting stronger and better at talking to our people and

that's the work that I'm committed to that's why I'm here um and I'm really excited that this is something and and I think I speak for all of us that we we want everyone all DPS workers to feel seen and heard through this process and we're committed to building the strongest structure we can to make that possible thank you so much I appreciate all of those responses to help us just like again get a real feel for what this could look both the value of this but also what this could look like in practice I have some more questions but I'm going to let my colleagues I have a question that kind of builds off of that can is your question on just process I'm kind of wondering this like if the 13 people who would come are they kind of purely rep representative of what they have heard from everyone or are they sort of giving their own opinion analysis as

well I think of our board we are accountable to many communities we also are all very opinionated on our own experiences analyses things that we kind of bring our approaches or Frameworks that we're um that we're using to analyze issues so that's kind of I don't that's my question like are people kind of um only bringing like what they have heard from like this process that you described of like collecting information from everyone everybody you know people across the district um is it and like has it all been voted on before or is it also representatives who are tasked with really kind of bringing their own framework or analysis to the conversation yeah it would be I think it's a similar um process I I will use is an example in this moment um so Christie serves on our board as the Middle School director but she is also an EC teacher and so when chrisy comes

to board meetings to offer her thoughts I think she she does so with with multiple hats and her own kind of synthesis of um her understanding of what she's heard from her EC colleagues but also Middle School colleagues um and so there's I think multiple opportunities for our folks to show up grounded in um our folks and I think that is both in their own understanding of what their colleagues have said um their their interpretation of like their representation so maybe it's EC maybe it's Middle School um but also in hearing in our regular engagements what people are saying about what's being proposed and one other thing so I touched on it briefly but you know everything Simone just said and then we also Envision this mechanism where in the room the meet and confer teams would reach basically a tentative resolution and we would go back and use all these structures to get an actual like ratification from our members before

anything was done so I'd say more democratic right than most bodies than the Schoolboard rights because we would reach you know something that the folks in the room could agree on take it back to the buildings if the buildings didn't like it uh we'd have to come back and say the buildings didn't like it um right so we're not imagining empower in 13 people to decide everything for all these you know 5,000 workers um we built in and and pictured this thing right which I just want to stress you know we didn't make up we didn't just like get creative this is just how it works in other places to do this model and we know it works and then thank you for that thank you for describing that and then um I know you talked about how rapidly you could talk to um that many people if we um are moving forward I'm just interested to hear more about the timeline for that because it sounds like there's a meeting then people develop the resolution go back talk to everybody get consensus on it come back vote and

then come back okay Javon right thank you um thank you for this presentation thank you for um this proposal finding ways to be collaborative and transparent it is a value um that we have and as I'm here hearing that you're wanting a formal engagement and there are other committees that were brought up around you being engaged and being able to be engaged and understanding those ways that you've been able to or not what I did hear is that they're still not necessarily sharing power in those places there's a power Dynamic at the school level and I just want to recognize and and put a pin that maybe that's one to take some of the school building Dynamics as well um that could be replicated and what you're trying to do here um and I I don't want to miss that opportunity so at some point you know something's not happening there's a lot of systems that we have in place for shared voice but what I'm hearing you saying this something that's not happening otherwise I do want to mention

the formal ways that the district has been engaging with Dae and others who are not necessarily part of te but it's open to everyone and that has been with the mentioned before the budget advisory committee safety and wellness task force student code of conduct strategic plan that's what I'm envisioning as being inclusive engagement and when I think about those work groups or subgroups that you're talking about when I when I'm hearing this presentation that there' be certain topics that are covered from the from this standpoint when those committees are developed those are the topics that are in those work groups and that happen um for whatever reason they're being developed at that time so I want to make sure that we um are improving the systems that we already have um while still understanding what the meet and confer is I have some concerns around just representation what are the percentages of your teachers are members what percentage is classified staff as

members who would be on the meet and confer team and would there be representation of every Department um and in particular like you have members um are different schools have different are different sizes um you have some some schools have more Dae participation than others so like what are your top five schools where you have U participation and membership and the reason I would ask those questions is as you talk about the accountability the 25% 50% um on slide 14 um you've listened you trusted you're you're you're trusting there's an equable access to um being implemented and the majority votes across the those districts the majority votes the majority gets the decision that's being made and I'm just wondering about Equity amongst those School communities where there's more daa membership in some schools and other schools and we know that all work conditions aren't different at our different schools even just knowing the buildings and the ages that our buildings have that is um just

impossible for um some blanket decisions to be made especially if there's an imbalance in representation so I'd be curious to know about that as we're going forward with a meet and confer and then the other topic I wanted to touch on is um when you were referring to um having a last resort for sick outs I am curious about transparency um around those conversations um that led to the vote there um the first one was January 31st there was leadership conversation from Dae and Leadership on the board so when January 31st was told was the first sick out and we were told that um the board had adequate time to respond I I mentioned this before I don't know who the Wii is because I didn't know the demand that was happening and I would just want to make sure that we're moving with good faith effort that um when you're running your campaigns that there are true negotiations happening that's inclusive

um of the board to to know what's going on and also to bring solutions to the table one thing I pride myself want and talking to so many classified people in in um in the different departments is is these are some of the options what are some of the solutions and then we we have a conversation back and forth so I just again with that good faith effort and intent um as we're moving forward and then I'll close with I really like the 13 um elected by your Association and I get the picture that you're moving towards um I would like you all to consider um for representations and what it might mean maybe you can explore is if you were able to wave membership so you did have full representation um so um that might be a solution to support more people and then you're not looking at the imbalances with where the most representation is at the different schools thank you uh gavan has raised a lot of a very important issues um and uh I don't know

how exactly you all want to respond to them but I think all of them deserve a response and thoughtful one so Simone do you want to start yeah I'm GNA rely on Millie um because I did not write it down and I have ADHD and will not remember everything and so could you might or if you have them written down and you could run them back uh what percentage of teachers are members it is uh Educators in the district Broadley um and we have grown tremendously this year of adding over a thousand members um we have generally not spoken about our direct numbers in a public meeting um about our our membership base uh we set a threshold for this particular policy at 25% this year and then 50% threshold for people to be the employee representation organization moving forward um but we our proportions for um classified and certified uh are the same

proportions as the breakdown for the District of 6040 I just want to ask if follow up on that because I think it's actually really important when we're considering a policy that has thresholds around membership that we do get a breakdown of the number of people who are in the organization how many are classified and how many are certified what role categories and schools are also represented um and I and demographics as you could give us because I think there's a um Dae we know represents a lot of employees but it would be important for us to know who those folks are what is represented within that organization and the breakdown that we would see and I I think the public also would as the policy ask for right 25% and 50% I think it'd be important for us to have that information to know yeah and I think um if the policy passes I think we're we're happy to bring the like demonstration of that threshold being met for

sure yeah and I'll just say that um the demographics and the disaggregated demographics do matter that's very important to um this board and all the work that we do um and I don't want you to disclose your numbers I'm not sure the reason to not disclose the numbers um but if that's again that what is the percentage of that disaggregated data as well as what are the top your top five schools that have the most representation we have I believe it's 16 schools that are majority schools in the district um and so the majority of those workforces are Dee members we have about 75% of our membership base that has reported their race um and that is split out to of that 75% of folks that have reported their racial identity um 60% of those folks are people of color and 40% are white and I was talking about when I said the disaggregate I talk about the teachers and classified staff what is

that percentage 6040 so 60 certified and 40% classif the data point I'd asked you for before that I think got lost somewhere was how many of the impacted workers or Dae members we don't have a frequency count of all of the the folks how many at this table two two of 14 thank you okay just ask jaavan why don't you go ahead and and continue to ask your questions but I think there's also representation of folks who are members of the organization that are here today that are also impacted I don't know if you all want to raise your hands thank you thank you so I was looking like maybe a third of schools 16 schools a third of I'm sorry say again I was just trying to figure out what the percentage of with schools of 16 schools

out of 54 I can't remember how many schools we have those schools yeah whose staff are all are a majority membership the 16 we got members at every single work site uh we've had over 40 of the work sites moved uh reached a majority of their staff around these demands specifically this one to do meet and confer um every single school that participated in any days of protest over 75% of those staffs certified classified were willing to take action for for this demand um and our demands around classified pay and that was um again those numbers will be important as we're looking at this accountability when you're talking about the majority is what would make a decision move or not when the majority of the schools might not be represented um or the majority members are not in a particular school when there's a a particular issues I don't know where I can't find

the list oh here we go if there's just one of the topics that might be of a discussion but there is less representation of a school or a school may have a different need for that topic so to me that full inclusion makes a difference and I would just really be curious if y'all are considering other ways to get that full inclusion if that if waivers are a possibility yeah I think Carlos spoke a little bit to about how we try to ensure that we reach the entire District um from every corner of the county uh so if there is not a strong organizing committee yet at a work site uh we have folks that go before school after school to talk to their co-workers at those other work sites um we have folks that have gotten on the phone and called through their co-workers that they know at those worksites to try to check in to see whether what their opinion is on a particular issue and try to build leadership amongst those schools uh so that they are at our tables themselves so you're saying if they don't have a

vote if they don't have a membership they can still vote with their representative they're not a member you're saying that your members are going out talking to people whether they're members or not yeah so when when somebody you know for example like chrisy I'll use chrisy as an example again like she might represent uh in the leadership of Carrington um but sorry for anybody who is here from Lucas but I'm just using as an example uh but if they don't have Folks at Lucas or there is one or two we do have Folks at Luc but there is one person at Lucas and they don't have a strong team christe might help out at Lucas to try to make sure the folks at Lucas have an opportunity to weigh in about a decision that's being made and then try to be accountable to that decision when we come to the table together okay I definitely hear your practice and this just that would be my my unreadiness and concern um is that inequitable um decision- making across the different schools and then I didn't

really have any other questions it was more of um I would want to have good faith in negotiations with Solutions coming to the table and not be surprised um particularly if it's something that you're saying is the Last Resort thank you Alexandre did you yes could I briefly respond to the question round go ahead um so I just wanted to respond briefly around I think there's a a distinction to be made around formal membership and reach so for example um I have friends who work in school districts up north that have 100% union membership because you get a job you're a member of the Union regardless of whether you want to be in it or not um and in many of those places they barely reach half the workforce right so I would love to hear if there's another organization in this District that can

speak to every worker across the board regardless of membership status one to one and get that feedback and temperature check I can't think of anything more inclusive um whether you're a formal member or not I can tell you we talk to you we listen to you as I said earlier so I just think there needs to be a distinction made like as I said between formal membership and real meaningful engagement Democratic participation across the board I've seen in this organization um at low points and high points and we happen to be at a high one but what I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt is that we go wall to wall when it comes to listening and talking to everybody in this District if you work in DPS you're going to hear from us you've probably seen these faces that are sitting at this table before school after school at lunch you name it if there's another body in this District that is more inclusive than that I would

love to meet them and shake their hand and I just just in response to that you know much respect for inclusive inclusion and getting these voices um to the table um and I hear you there's a difference between membership and inclusion there's also importance for relationship building because I know there are some people who are not at this table because of concerns with relationship building those are things that still have to be worked out because those are the people that I'm also hearing from that's all that's that's my point when not just inclusion but what are we doing to relationship building with those and even with us there are conversations that we're having we're having good faith and sometimes when people come to the table a little bit later they didn't hear all the things that got us to where we were but there's so much hurt and disappointment but without the relationship then it's it's going to to The Last Resort right away while there's been some good faith negotiating working through here along the way before that so I'm wanting to know like what are you considering to help get to that good

faith relationship building as well um because because that those conversations are good and I and I hear you even how say this is what's important this is how I'm connecting with people this is how I know what what's important to them yes and there's still a segment that's does not have that trust and relationship that still has a voice to be considered and I just want to put that to the table that's that's my not that you're not being inclusive not that you're not um Christy going to other schools with less representation to hear those voices bringing people along the way thank you can I just say one more thing about inclusion can I ask you to make it short feel like I feel like this we we've had I really think that this was a really important Point yeah that gavan is Raising but I also feel like you all have really responded to it so one quick one just very quick yeah we take the inclusion incredibly seriously as well I just want to stress that we're not trying to compare this meet and confer policy to some imaginary perfect like

perfectly inclusive you know absolute democracy we're comparing it to what we have right now uh one-on-one phone calls between the president and the superintendent is that more or less inclusive than the meet and confer policy uh y'all having some conversations is that more or less inclusive than us having 3,000 convers so the choice is what's the status quo excuse me one second the the finger clicks I appreciate them I've appreciated them a lot and I really like them when they're for me but a lot of times they're not for everybody and so when they're not for everybody then that people they're not for can feel disrespectful so what I'm going to ask you to do to hold it to something occasional can we do that thanks a lot okay Riley can you wrap it up yeah um I think I'm done just what's more inclusive is the question what we

have now the status quo or what this policy outlines and we would say you know 1,000% is what this policy outlines and we would work on making it better and better inclusion but uh this would be like a Leap Forward from the kind of inclusion we have right now in decision making thank you Alexandra Valladares thank you all so much I'm actually going to just share that um I look across the room and I see a lot of people that I have seen in schools um I see your faces some of you have talked about this issue and um some of you have recently joined da some of you have been Dae members for a long time um I've known of Da for a long time there's history um and as I share what I think about meet and confer I do want to commend Simone um the meetings that

we've had the way you carry those meetings has been respectful um you brought on a good team I I chrisy you know quinon you all have made the best possible effort to engage us as people even though Quenton you got pretty much like told not to talk to me and kind of pushed away I I I think that that is um I can understand why there's such fear for people to talk to me but I also want you to know you have sovereignty agency and anytime you want to talk to me you can talk to me and that goes for everybody and this did happen at this here in this building it did happen um so I'm just saying that because I have known da for a long time I've actually uh helped with efforts Community Schools the pilot at Club Boulevard it wasn't just Community engagement I actually worked on a survey um Jessica Carda-Auten and I met at Whole Foods we met at school we met with Terry Phillips we met with a lot of people to carry out the community

schools and turquoise you were at Eastway at that time and you were trying to do all the work at Eastway to bring that so there's historical there's history and when I think about the wonderful things that are happening right now it is about people finding a voice and finding a space to talk about what they need and that is commen but I do hold grief for things that sometimes organizations can't help um and what I say is that we exist in a society that um is about winning and winning sometimes comes at a cost and it comes at figuring out who is going to help you win and who's not going to help you win and those are tactics that are not just exemplified in DPS by Dae they just happen and we have to be very careful about those tactics of silencing voices that may not be in agreement and working on across difference and so that's why I wanted to commend you know you all who decided to work across difference and engage somebody that is supposed to be person person NR uh for some reason um when it should be the opposite way because we're actually

espousing similar values we've actually espouse that and actually I'm going to also give it to Riley Hillside High School thank you kids talk about your engagement with them so I want to commend you to so the other thing that I noticed is that um going back my concern has been that throughout this whole night um I actually think about how the community see some of you and some of you are Stellar like turquoise you're literally on nccu's magazine and you are pretty much everywhere and I haven't heard one word from you tonight and I actually wanted to ask you that and I respect I respect you letting me know that you know it's it's it's time for other voices but I really want to hear from you because you know the history of Dae and Alexandra Valladares including how you all did everything possible to keep me from this seat and told me that my indigenous organizing was in according to your book da members actually told me that if you don't go to a certain school that has you know the

background with marks and I'm like I hear about marks I've read marks cool but I'm an indigenous woman and when you tell me that I can't organize and yet I out organize you and got to the seat even with all your efforts it kind of says that we have to be a little more open to the ways that community organize and the ways the communities um have sovereignty and agency to speak and I will always be supportive of organizing and I'm supportive of Union but they have to be respectful of difference and so um I just wanted to hear a little bit from turquoise turquoise my heart is a little troubled even tonight you know um I actually a little child wrote did this little drawing for me before I came to this board meeting and she doesn't know anything about what this meeting is going to be about but she knew I had a meeting and I had to wait for her to finish this and she was going to put a hat on it but she didn't but I I told her it was very important um I was very uh grateful for this and what I'm saying is that this is what this work is about the children um I wanted to hear from you because you have such long history and you have always been respectful some

of your colleagues have not um and I just wanted to hear a little bit more about the evolution of how the has worked across difference because what I've heard from people is tactics that sometimes silence people that are different like for example in organizational ice of rating people on a scale of 1 to five um quotes saying isolating the backwards um people who are problematic somehow are deem problematic in the organization again this is not just Dae but this is coming from Dae ex-members who said rating people on a scale of one to five is problematic um isolating people that are deemed problematic Yours Truly included um is is is is something that I hope da evolves from that right and what I saw when Mr Quint was talking to me and one of your members decided to just take him away and say don't talk to her ever ever you know you know it's it kind of let me know there's something going on that hasn't really changed I want to hear from you you you have been here for a long time I want to hear your voice how has da evolved in these um I would say behaviors that are about

control I say I'll just say turquoise I've been I've been listening I've been waiting for you too so um I me as well as Alexandra Valladares I'm anxious to hear your thoughts thank you so I wanted to I want to start from a quote that I love so much by Fanny ler uh nobody is free until everybody is free and that is something that I think captures the moment that we're in right now as a school district and I want to go back way further because I love history at to the merger of the American Teachers Association and the national educ ation Association and then bringing it to North Carolina from the North Carolina Teachers Association to the North Carolina Educators Association both of those merged through some serious uproar disrespect and most of that just plainly speaking and you can go YouTube Google read a book in

specific all the people by Tony Al Gilmore that talks about very plainly that the merger of the black teachers union and the white teachers union was because the white teachers union was bankrupt and the the black teachers union had all the money and they had all the they had all the money and so really that's all it was about was money it was very transactional it wasn't about relationship it wasn't about what's best for people it wasn't about inclusion it wasn't about bringing black and brown folks who are the people who are losing the most who are iced out the most and if we look at this situation right now we're talking about classified staff members who the majority of our classified staff members let's keep it 100 are black and brown people and they carry the bulk of this school district on their back every single day every single day and you look at the folks in

Massachusetts they just dealt with something very similar to this and at the board meeting I'm going serve on the National Education Association board of directors and at our meeting this past weekend one of their directors said that at the culmination of their negotiations and bargaining it was the education for professionals the classified staff members who said more than anything we really just want people to not use us for their movement for their benefit we want people to respect us for who we are they want people to see us as the people who you can't really live without it's not a moment of hijacking it's not a moment of again transactional we're talking about real people's lives we're talking about people who really have great great hearts and we can't ignore the people and that's sometimes that people part anybody who knows me just a little bit

knows that above everything is people I love people and I will I will go all away for somebody just it's not about the work of of just building a beautiful story it's about people and that's what we are forgetting In This Moment not just on the Dae side it's everybody we are thinking in so many different ways and there's a lot of moving parts to what we're trying to figure out there are a lot of people who are trying to figure this thing out but we have to at the core of this remember people over this whole thing and I think the very last thing that I will say is we have an obligation as a school district to fix this for our people because this is totally unacceptable the way we have played with people's lives in this and going from month to month being a public school worker with in the the money side is already a month-to-month thing before this movement right here it's already a month

to-on thing but in this moment this is so sad and again I want to I want to speak from the side of this is not impacting me and I do want to give space for people who this is their lived experience because one of the ways that white supremacy does show up in this world is people who are privileged and not experiencing it speaking for the people who are experiencing it and that's not something that we are going to continue to uphold we will dismantle white supremacy at every turn in this school district and that's on everybody in this room everybody that's not in this room that's on the street stream everybody across this country it is our duty to fight for our freedom it is our duty to win we must love and support one another we have nothing to lose but our chains and I'm not that's not me that's assada Shakur but I want us to really remember that that we have a duty to fight for each other and there is nothing nothing more important than that and the other thing that I do want to

say is to for us to also remember that the North Carolina General assembly on Jon Street has an obligation and a part in this as well because if they were not upholding white supremacy forcing local school districts all across this state to have to try to get blood from a turnup to bring people up to where they deserve to be we might not be where we are so it's important for us to hold account accountability across the table and to rally and remember that in this moment we can't say it enough that elections matter and I hope that everybody understands that on this day at the start of early voting am I correct that today is the first day of early voting so I want us to remember that on this start of early voting and again just want to wrap this up that we have a duty to fight for our freedom we have a duty to win we must love and support one another because we have nothing to lose but our chains thank you thank you turquoise I I do have a followup um that is powerful there's something about relationship and uh and

trying to check ourselves on trans ctional um Dynamics and you named that I mean that is something that um is very important to me um I wanted to share because it's important for for the Grassroots leaders out there um Dae has been involved in a lot of great efforts um when it was wielding aosta actually Allison I'm shouting you out you're not the only one but you're the one I see tonight anybody who remembers wielding aosta like if you were there and you were par right that was a time when Da was working with Grassroots leaders some of us who who wiing is from my country he's Honduran and he's going to be publishing his book I hope you all check out his book his story and this board including Natalie you've been here you were here at that time we worked towards a resolution and policy change that was about due process and I was out there with a whole lot of people Grassroots was like rooting yes we're winning because we have to pass a policy that will protect our students any law enforcement agency who wants to come into the schools and ask questions just

informally no that's not acceptable Burpa is federal law and if they want to be able to talk to anybody about our students and get information they have to have a warrant and so we we we there's so many efforts including going to Homeland Security Allison you were there and um and also shout her out who was there with you in the Homeland Security office so anyways I'm also drawing a blank so but but um these these are real stories of like ways that we have collaborated in the past um also the the two schools that the Innovation School District was going to take over Glenn right um Elementary that is thriving and also Lakewood Elementary and so those are winds those are ways that we have and then Community Schools like my kids had to get up at 6:00 in the morning to be able to do focus groups to be able to like make photoc copies I spent hours at that photocopy machine you know making the strips and telling people out of the box you know at Brogden right it was like thousands of people came out but it was

like a whole lot of work to get initiatives that were helpful for families those were wins but the underbelly of all this is sometimes we don't work together sometimes we attack each other sometimes we tribalize our efforts and decide who takes the credit for it and that's heard a lot of Grassroots leaders who feel like they were the win was DA's win and and it was them who brought that to Dae um with with teachers who also were committed so I also want to make sure the teachers who work with wielding also um but we have to continue to build relationship and I just again I I I I want to support organizing because I know that the voices of people the voices of people matter and I am not anti-union for some of you who are actually saying Alexandra Valladares's anti-un I'm anti- oppressive tactics and oppression and white supremacy showing up in movements and organizing and utopian movements utopian movements are detached from reality we have to be real I want to look at all my colleagues and I I I said this to Simone so this it's

not anything new we are ment Jessica Alexandra Valladares Natalie Betina Emily javanna all of us women all of us very committed to this work all of us we're not your enemy and we've approached every time you want to meet with us we're there we're not your enemy we have actually spent countless hours talking about ways that we can improve relationship and I don't think we're at that point yet um I want us to be at a point where we can work together um I just at this point I want to continue to have these conversations and don't Blacklist any of us don't do that we're all here to serve we're all here for a reason Duram voters elected us thank you thank you would anyone else like to offer any response to that to Alexandra Valladares's comments I think um hearing you speak on

DA's history um and speaking on the history of what previous school school boards have accomplished um I think still also speaks to the point of uh people come and go in positions and what we want to have is a lasting policy that brings us all to the table to have regular and ongoing conversations that are not at the whims of a personal relationship um it should not be because the president has a friend and that's why there is conversation with a board member or a superintendent it should be a worker's right to be able to have a seat when decisions are being made that impact their students learning conditions and their working conditions every single day so I I agree that like we should be moving past just friends right we should have a formal policy that brings us all to the table so that we can work together thank you I'm going to now uh turn to

Patina who has some other questions or comments and then we're going to move from that into our public comment period and after that we're going to then move into their action steps okay so uh we're going to be winding this down after betina's questions and comments I'm gonna try to keep it brief a lot of my questions have already been asked and I appreciate the history um that the this board in the manyi interations of this board has had with Dae so I joined the board in 2016 and I can talk about from 2016 different members and different folks coming in uh the respect that we have for the organization the desire and the long desire to collaborate and to listen and to acknowledge I think there's maybe one email that Millie sent me and asked me to come somewhere and I didn't respond to I remember that but I think that's been it right like most of we are not too it's not I can't respond come talk to it was a yep we can do that but I think we have been open and responding to this group um in ways that from my understanding other school

districts are not not to say there's a comparison but like I just want to be transparent about that and I think the ask around accountability and transparency to us I want to ask to you it was um damaging I think to I'll speak for myself to my relationship when I heard that the board had not met things that we weren't communicated to and so I would just ask for that transparency around the board has to have a meeting to act on a thing so if we're going to have an action let's make sure the board has a meeting so the board can act on a thing to make sure that happens I think we I know that our staff has been working diligently on the on the public records request been a busy couple weeks for DPS so i' asked for some patience and some Grace on that and then I would also ask that we ask for some data around your membership and that actually would be important for decision making so I would ask for that same transparency as we come forward and I want to say again back to this relationship like the president is meeting with the superintendent because of the deep respect that the board and DPS has for Dae and I think my sometimes

frustration is it feels as though we haven't had that longstanding relationship and the way that this conversation is playing out publicly and we do so I understand that we've been in a huge pay debacle I'm not going to debate that and I know that this is definitely impacting people's lives and I think the way we come to the table matters the history matters the relation ships matter that accountability and that transparency matters and I would just ask that we both lean into that and can hold each other accountable for that because this is about our students it's about our families it's about the whole Duram Community that's counting on all of us to show up right and all of us have to work together in order to make that true and that real so I'm just asking for that two-way street for us to think about what we need to do moving forward I think I asked all my other questions earlier but I just appreciate y'all for this conversation I'm sure there'll be more questions to come but I think we have to have we we need a reset on this relationship in some ways and remembering where we uh were to get to

where we are thank you comments sorry I'm sorry you know she inspired me with the the history talk I and I challenge us all to to reset going forward um one of my concerns for the rapid growth growth that you all have had is that the the the vision is so extrav Visionary and so the ask that you all are bringing that that was supposed to come for the spring the 6,000 a person the 8,000 the 300 additional people all of these great things that we would love to join you are not affordable within local property taxes and the limits of what we can do and so I need y'all to continue as you work to educate members and new members about the political reality uh that you all are well too

aware I don't have to go through any of that with you all but also help us join with realistic conversations about what is possible we are about to have to make a incredibly difficult decision that none of us want to make about people's pay and it came came from a place where this board on our own went and fought to get you 15 an hour and then 17 an hour that came from us leading and so help us communicate with your membership what is possible and realistic even when it's hard and when you talk about meet and confer Riley like and y'all having to vote and then take things back to your membership if your membership just gets mad because a superintendent had to make a really difficult impossible decision with the limited resources we all are facing in North Carolina that's not going to help build trust within our community either so I I think those are some of the thoughts

that I had as we go forward those were important comments from board members uh your thoughts and response yeah I think um we have had a lot of hard conversations with our co- workers the past set of weeks um and are currently having some really hard conversations with our co-workers about this particular pay issue um and we want to lean into to having really hard conversations about the realities of our working and learning conditions we want to do that with as much information as other folks who are able to make decisions um and I think that is what feels different In This Moment is not having is not having the information and relying just on on the word that something isn't necessarily affordable I think is why people feel have felt frustrated um or they've reported that they feel frustrated um and so I think

we want to lean into having really hard critical conversations uh that produce real solutions um for for us and for our kids and for our communities but we want to do it in a way that we know we're going to have a regular ability to get the information and and the ability to have collaboration outside of just the relationship please yeah sorry please I I wanted to go back to the point of um the membership uh it's grown I I remember the times when it was like 600 800 um one of the meetings we had this past this month was it um that it was like 2,000 and today I'm hearing 4,000 so it's it's growing the organization is growing um what I do have as a request from administrators is um what was shared by uh Mr cardos that it's before

school and after school that that sounds good but just respect for administrators who are saying that it's also happening during the work hours um sometimes distracting from some of the duties that teachers have Educators have instructional assistants have you know to to to do the work that they're clocking in for or showing up for um how are how are we um keeping tabs on how recruitment is taking place during work hours um is there a way a mechanism by which administrators can have that conversation with you in terms of their concerns about recruitment happening during work hours and not just before and after school as U Mr cardos says that he does which I I believe I believe you that you do that but that's not what I'm hearing from administrators and and Folks at the buildings who are saying it's it's happening even during time that folks are supposed to be teaching our kids or prioritizing the focus on our children so is your question how do administrators communicate with us about when membership conversations are happen or what what's your well my question one

in terms of the uh process right it's all about process um is there like communication that this should not happen during work hours it should be before and after school is there anything or is and the other question is if if that is if that is not the case I think think that's a great question I can respond to it we do have the legal right to do it during the workday during planning periods I think you're right and I think a lot of people would actually be really excited to have a conversation with their admin about setting times that admin feels comfortable with having those conversations so that we don't feel like we have to fly under the radar unfortunately in a lot of buildings we're hearing a lot of people being scared of even mentioning being in a union taking action with co-workers or even people who are not in Dae just doing things like taking action on those days that we went out there's a culture of fear in a lot of schools um and I think people would really like to move past that as well um and have I think having those boundaries would be really helpful we've just never been able to have that conversation with admin at this point because admin and then DPS

Administration overall has always had all of the Power 100% of the power we'd really like to share that and that would include putting limits on what we can do as well I think that would make sense I think there's also a distinction that that if you can talk about a football game you can talk about your salary or your working conditions and I think it is it is often uh a slippery line right of um trying to prevent someone from talking about their working conditions to say when they can or cannot collaborate with their colleagues about their day-to-day lives um and I think what Millie is referring to is is that power IM balance that tries to enforce uh workers from being able to take action and flip those power balances um and so we often have conversations with our co-workers about um what types of resources they're using um but we also do encourage our folks to to build their power amongst workers to be able to

change their working conditions I thank you for that um I think the word that was shared was solicit sorry the line um when does talking about your work conditions become solicitation to join a member driven organization where you pay dues and all that so there is a line right like you can talk about the working conditions and do you want to do something meet me for coffee or let's talk you know at this time during planning period for example but also what happens if you don't have planning period and you know what I mean it's it's like it's it's it's the opportunity cost of at what point does it become solicitation so that's just something just keep in mind because I have heard um that feedback from from different folks in DPS who are just questioning that when does it become solicitation uh during work hours thank you I just I don't want a response about this now but I did think that the the question that that both Natalie and batina were asking you all earlier was an important one which I hope you will think about that is to say if there is

meet and confer and there are 13 people in the room uh how will there are difficult decisions that the district needs to make make true you all will be help be able to make them better if you were at the table and with the data that you need but there's also a responsibility that goes the other way this is where the accountability comes in that we've all talked about as Mutual it can't just be that the administration makes all the hard decisions or brings all the hard decisions to the to the group and the group goes back and you know that the representatives go back and you know it would be easy to then hear from people and and not give them the tough NE the necessary tough message it's really hard to give a tough message I I know that because I've shot away from it a million times myself um so I just want to challenge you all with that that's something to think about going forward I I really think that that's one of the hardest parts of this is that you know the thing about any kind of

co-governance is that there there are people who are who who who are uh if you're the if you the the part of the co if you're part of the co-governance where you are representing a large group of people who have really incredibly important needs and also demands to give them a tough message is hard but if you are co-governance me need me to be um a uh a facilitator but I'm I'm pleased to be here um I know that's the I candy thing okay uh yeah how about some uh okay so um we're now gonna move to uh the public comment and I don't know are there Transportation mechanics Fleet Maintenance supervisors or lot

managers still here who would like to be heard we would love to hear from you is anyone here who would like to be heard from we would love to hear from you I do have a comment about these folks as well um it is not just the responsibility of our school administration and our school board to bring these folks to to work with these folks to help them figure out what they need when I hear you all say that you're reaching out to everyone I really hope that part of that everyone is these people and I trust that it is 100% thank you 100% great good pleased okay uh next other public comment is there anyone else who would like to be heard anyone else in the room that would like to be heard anyone else that would like to be heard okay don't be shy okay thank you very much all right

now I think we're going to move on to uh in a way kind of uh yeah where the rubber meets the road where on item 10 if you're looking at your agenda so what I'm going to ask the board members is I'm gonna ask you all first and and this is again I I I want this to be a joint conversation um so I want to hear from board members your your thoughts about moving ahead with meet and confirm the you've heard the request from these incredibly uh eloquent and Powerful Words that we've heard around this table um about meet and confer you all have asked really good questions about a lot of the details we

know we're not working that out tonight but I'm going to ask you all would you like to move move forward with a working group that would include members of the board uh you know perhaps three members of the board five members of the Dae to to have a working group that would um take on take on this question I'm sorry that's I think that's the question I want to ask the board would you like to go ahead with this working group this is uh and if I get a sense of that uh a majority of the people that would like a working group like that to move forward then uh we will do that there's also questions about how to reach out to workers who are not members of Dae in this process that we are going through now so we've talked about that about how Dae might write reach out to workers who are not part of them and I just

got big nod from everybody about one group um but there's also the issue now uh that we've heard a lot about about workers who don't feel represented in this process and so I think some thought needs to be given to how they might be included in the process as well um I'm going to boldly make a suggestion and that suggestion is that there be two groups of board members that there be one group of board members three board members that you all could choose or I don't know how do it Madam chair um that would meet with a group of Dae members to talk about meet and confirm and that that happen timely and that there be a second group of board members like could be two or three members who who think about what processes ought to be in place people that don't feel represented um be it the Transportation

uh supervisors I'm sorry Transportation mechanics or Fleet Maintenance supervisors or others uh and we know and and and gavan did a great job of listing a bunch of them uh as did as did Alexandra Valladares and I and others there are lots of different mechanisms that DPS already uses that to include uh employees of the district where they are solicited in various ways there's also lots of in the history of DPS I can certainly tell you my time on the board we set up advisory Committees of in C in certain areas and so um I'm make that's my recommendation uh to the board and um um I'm I'm certainly I know I'm not the policy maker here but I have been listening and um so those are my thoughts but happy to hear but I'm happy

to hear anything else from the board and uh you all will be the ones that are making this decision about how to move forward and after we figure out how to move forward or if to move forward then we'll talk timeline a little bit uh yeah so um I will see uh which board members have any thoughts about this probably they kick us off the board has an ad hoc policy um around committees right so we could use the ad hoc policy to create a committee to have further conversation I think um and I would feel better about having everyone in the working group together not having separate working groups for Dae and other workers I think that if the employment representative organization wants to represent all the employees they got to have all the employees in the room right and so how do we have a joint committee where we're

working through the det details or working through whatever um needs to happen and I think this committee could help move this process forward so that would be my recommendation um the policy states that the committee have to be appointed by the chair and has to be approved by the board we do have a meeting coming up February 22nd where we could have conversation around what that would look like and and have a formal agenda item on it do you conceive of the the work of the group to be around meet and confer or other things as well I think that might be what the group should wrestle with we have a meet and confer policy um and the group can start there but I think the group should wrestle with where we land binaa I I appreciate that and I'd be willing to serve if needed um what I'm interested in is having a timeline that is not rushed but is bringing voice to the table and um

taking the time that it deserves because um while this has felt an urgent demand for um for Dae our urgency and my urgency is is figuring out this pay thing starting to work towards next year's budget getting back to the work of growing together like there is much much work to be done in addition to this so um I think that that it deserves the time to get it right yeah Alexandra Valladares and then and then Jessica I do believe power belongs to the people and the people are DPS stakeholders um I commend Dae for uh building a movement of folks that are directly impacted um and so I I'm I welcome conversations with you all I do also hold the same um U truth that batina mentioned some people walked out to tonight I mean that if if if that

doesn't tell us anything you know what I mean it's like they were here and then they said no like they want to have their own maybe scheduling another meeting with them right um a general meeting and so that just really exemplifies to us a need to open the table um the package that you have all worked so diligently on it's very thorough I mean you gave us a legal memo you you brought a PowerPoint you prepared this very uh thoroughly um I guess the only question is does this package still serve or work if we open up the table how what would that look like so that's my question to you all but um I I stand with our board chair in terms of um making room for for stakeholders who may not be da members um at this at this moment thank you thanks and we'll get responses from y'all in a little bit but I want to hear

from all the the um the board members um I'm enthusiastic about moving forward with a meeting I think it will be um great to have a subgroup of folks from Dae and the board um I do have similar concerns as my colleagues and I'm not really sure how to handle them um and uh it does not feel right to exclude folks that are not Dae right now in the next meeting um and I don't know I mean I yeah interested to hear your thoughts in a few minutes about whether you want to you truly do want to explicitly exclude folks from this next meeting um so yeah I think that's something we need to Grapple with and we could grapple with it together but I do think that folks who are not part of Dae should be allowed to be part of that meeting to help us figure that

out mson I'm excited about any board members that want to move forward with such a conversation so I look forward to seeing what the outcome is of the aop committee Jaan uh thank you um this is a really good starting point my questions were very much centered around the foundation inclusion and things of that nature so I am ready to um move forward with a work group to dig into some of the other details I know you all are beginning your plans as well in creating an outline um creating more of the policies around what it looks like for you all at the same time and it takes time so I do want to make sure we are very thoughtful um in this um so yes I am I am for looking um to creating

this work group and being cognizant of the timeline um how this how this can happen um and I heard you say and I want to make sure I'm clear this work group will be inclusive of those who are Dee members and those who are not because that was really the part that got me when collectively um our transportation mechanics Fleet Maintenance supervisors and lot managers remove themselves collectively and it feels like there's still another step that has to happen um and some reconciliation with the um with the work group that forms and I'm happy to be a part of that conversation thank you very much thoughts from uh our Dae fro friends of course um one more thought

just as we're thinking about logistically how to move forward I think um it might at some point make sense to do what you had recommended Steve which is to have different groups maybe I think that in order to get to that decision we need to meet together first and I don't feel comfortable excluding first when we're all we're still figuring out the details and I look that feels really sticky to me and something like that we need to talk about all together with folks all at the table there thank you very much Jessica okay um thoughts that you all would like to offer I think having a working group to work out the details I hear a lot of questions we hear a lot of questions that we want to try to work through together questions about frequency um the time for the superintendent um and

details about the policy make a lot of sense uh I think our The Proposal that we have on the table the policy that we have drafted um that is based off of the planks that our members voted for um resoundingly and have have demonstrated U majority support for over and over again in the past couple of weeks has the employee representative organization as us that democratically decides the workers that are at the table um I think we have had iterations of conversations in this past week uh with different classifications of workers who have told you all directly that they want meet and confer with the Union um and that they want their voice heard there um and so I think there's a balance of an organization that is representing 2,000 300 th000 4,000 of the employees in this District versus 50 when you all have done your research

around the country and you've been to Nea meetings have you not found any Community where meet and confer includes other voices besides union membership so I think it depends on the the iteration of of what kind of back and forth about working conditions exists in other parts of the country um I think Carlos alluded to places where there are different unions that represent different workers and then the managers and the and the people who make decisions then have to figure out how to respond to all of those different organizations with competing interests um and here we have one Union that represents workers in in this County um I think we talked about at one point the example of Austin um and they elect who is going to be the employee representative organization um in a similar F of and in our pet as 24 and in practice we have had overwhelming

majorities of folks in this District who say they want meet and confer through their Union yeah I just would I um would love to see some data on that just right so we're talking in numbers and I don't want to please don't hear this as I don't believe what y'all are saying but I think for us in order to be the decision makers want to kind of see like what is the role how many folks what are we looking at like I think that's important for us to be able to wrestle with as well um and I I want you to hear there was a willingness from every single person on this board to want to move forward with a working group I think that feels important I think we also recognize that we all have a constituency that we also own um and that includes lots of different workers and families and other other folks who who have expressed concerns or support for the work that's moving forward so I I I don't know that we're going to maybe we can answer that question today but I think we need more information and the working an AOC committee is a public

meeting so we got to make sure that everyone is there it's open and notice and all of that um but I'm interested to hear more to see some of that information and that data right so for me what that conversation brought me back to what you just said um Simone what was this the accountability piece because one of the things that I've previously asked for from Dae is uh best practices and examples of where this is happening across the country one of the trainings that I consistently reference when I'm doing my work on the board is Schoolboard Partners I was able to connect with some folks across the country who do have meeting confer that allow other groups to be a part of the conversation and have that seat at the table as part of meeting from far and so because I asked that of you I am going to take the initiative to share those best practices that I have found with you all um as part of my next steps when we

leave here thank you Millicent Rogers Alexandra Valladares I'm I'm just tracking um some of the comments that are coming in and folks are like thinking why are we beating around the bush and not solving the problem like we're going around and for the community that's listening this was we have a board meeting coming up where we will discuss the salary options I this is not us trying to avoid the salary option discussion we have hired a controller who's working and we're going to have those updates to you but I do think there are a lot of people here who have questions and I do want to give something or at least try to give an opportunity and uh the question that came in um was about transparency and we heard that word tonight transparency um accountability what does that look like and I think you know the the problem that we have is a $20 million problem that the report said was known since February um and so we opened with Robert's Rules you all may not be able to vote but maybe you

know raise your hand if you think this is a good idea I want to make a motion that we this is this is not about meet and confirm this is because there are people who are asking for questions and they want Clarity um a motion that we share the memo that was sent from the Chief Financial Officer on November 8th which is the date that is on the investigative report what did he share with the superintendent what did he propose as a solution to this $20 million problem so I make a motion that we share what the Chief Financial Officer shared in a memo November 8th when he essentially notified the superintendent of the issue um and I will need a second Miss valadar is it or Alexander excuse me one my first names today I do want to make sure that we kind of keep this meeting on our agenda topics it is um that memo is publicly available people have can submit a public records request and we can make sure that they get that information email the board I

know people have done that already um but I just want to make sure that we like don't get too far off of our agenda topic tonight and that for the folks that want the transparency please email us we can send it out to you um because that is a part of the public record can we can I make a motion that that memo be made publicly available so we don't have like thousands of people asking for a public records request of that memo I I actually do want I move that the memo from November 8th be made publicly available and people do do not have to email us individually thousands of requests I move that that memo from November 8th be made publicly available so people understand what the Chief Financial Officer was offering as a solution or as a suggestion to the superintendent when he first notified the super superintendent of this major problem which is why we're here tonight doing meet and confer with Dae because we all want a solution to this problem and you so if you want this transparency I make a motion that we make this memo publicly available can I get a

second I don't hear a second oh you all right friends I'll second it okay there's a second to the motion I guess for me um I just want to be clear and I have been sharing information that this meeting has been to talk about the um legistics for meet and confer and as I heard everyone on the board outside of Emily coming back saying they want to begin a work group and what the structure of that work group gr would look like excuse me what the what the structure of that work group would look like I have a lot more questions and what I was saying is that you all are still developing the structure of what that would be so even when we begin to explore a policy we have work groups

that come together to craft the policy and have plans around it so I'm not sure what was what what you were what you were referring to at the time Simone um as far as you know that there are members who want the meeting confer to go forward and I felt like that's what we were doing um so I'm just stuck there in fact you're you're you are repeating what our attorney just told us um so yes he he is agreed with you 100% um the attorney says this is not uh a motion that uh is within the bounce of the uh the agenda that was issued for this meeting and what was publicly announced so this we'll have to wait for another time uh and uh I I'm not sure what you all's Protocols are otherwise but that's what the attorneys uh just came over and told us

so thank you all right um I have heard the board say I've heard as as as petia just said each member of the board I have heard say that they want to have a working group that would be made up of and and I I my my my my idea as usual was not well received um but I'm used to that um they would like to have a working group uh made up of Dae members and a or some Representatives uh from non Dae members we're going to talk about that first the makeup of that group and and then we're going to talk about the timeline so I'm going to ask the chair if she would propose a potential membership uh not not names but kind of what would how would you foresee the makeup of this group numbers wise and then we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll open this up you put me on the

spot there Steve um I think we want to make sure we can have a group that uh when working groups get too large it it could slow down the progress but I think we want to have represent pres atives from the board there probably need to be some Administration there as well as Dae so I'm I'm thinking 12 to 14 don't looking at my colleagues 12 to 14 members well let let's let's try to be a little bit more specific chair so how many board members I'm I am putting you on the spot you are putting me on the spot there's two reasons I'm putting you on the chair okay one you're the chair two you're awesome all right okay okay so can you you say how many uh school board members you would would we don't have to stick with this but yeah let help let I'm trying to move us towards a trying to land a plane as I said so let let's give give us a number I I say two have one alternative board member two board members and one alternate I'd like to have two Administration two

Administration and how many am I left eight uh so we would need I think we could have four of those Dae and four of those other employees did I do that math right that's 13 or that's 12 plus the alternate yeah okay discussion by the by the board and then uh we'll we'll also hear from Dae anybody want to start off or shall I hear from Dae first anybody on the board have any comments let me ask the board okay uh thoughts from Dae folks is there like four organizations that are accountable to a base because when we have four folks it'll be for folks that are accountable to an organization is it for individuals for folks who are representing some other group of folks that have Democratic process like what's what is that so be looking for four

individuals that represent uh folks other folks school system employees and I think this is why I think some of the information that we would need around membership would be helpful because we want to make sure that we're getting a group that's representative of the district as much as we can R did you sorry Riley did you have something well I just wanted to ask a followup when we say represent right we're talking about elections like we talked about accountability when you say represent do you just mean like y'all are choosing someone who's choosing them yeah so the board has policy around making choices for folks on the committee we've done this before with many of the Committees like strategic plan lgbtqia committee all of that so the board can go through a process to make sure those folks are chosen to be a part of the group other comments from board

members I think it's a good place to start I think with all Durham things we can kind of adapt as we go I think the chair has that Authority right we can we certainly can Emily I do I do think we should have majority Dae um or have all Dae membership and I I think I think they brought the policy to us and um I do think the question of inclusivity is really important and the group should wrestle with it um I would like to hear like like from the people who walked out why did they walk out like what is there you know what are um you know why aren't people um they may feel they may be able to share their their perspectives but why um are what are reasons that people don't feel like Dae represents them um and I also I

would favor a I I do I respect the work of uh reaching out to so many uh such a high percentage of our of our staff overall and so I think it's important to represent that in the group um so I would say I'm not I'm not gonna op I mean that's what I think I think it should be I think we're at the point where if that we're at the point now where where we're we're really getting down to bread so I think if you have an alternative recommendation um about the balance between Dae members and other members you need to make it and so what would that that's great you push us on details I think that's why you hired me yes usually I feel like I'm that person but um so we have 14 we said two board members two admin oh we at 12 all right

sorry um okay and then uh so then you getting eight it was four four Dae and four other is uh What uh Betina had I don't know how that those others would be chosen necessarily like the if um if anything I would propose to six if we're going to say eight additional people six Dae two from other groups but I also don't know how we would necessarily select those individuals and um or I would say eight people from Dae and then this this group wrestles with that question and um so yeah I I mean kind of want more information from the people aren't in the room but I think you were out you had to step out and the majority of the board kind of felt differently and so I just want to make sure to reflect that that we we are all wrestling with at least starting with more inclusivity and

um that's what I heard from the majority of folks when you stepped out I I watched I watched it too so I she's on it um I am not okay at this point as I've said with with excluding folks I I get why y'all I get I get the reasons why you want that right now I hear that this we're just talking about the next meeting and so I think we need to remember we're just talking about the next meeting I would be fine and even in favor of a plan where there is more representation from Dae because you have done the hard work of organizing and you do represent many many of our employees more repres representation from Dae than from other folks and I do agree it's difficult to decide who those other folks are but I don't feel comfortable at this point not allowing them to have a seat at this one next meeting just because me's difficult doesn't mean that we shouldn't allow it to happen Jessica try to push you in the

same way that I just was talking to Emily uh she's proposed six2 there's 44 on the table what do you have a number in mind 53 okay like King Solomon all right uh let's uh any other comments from board members at this point if not I'm G to try to get us to a decision Point uh any final comment before we get to that decision point from any da folks I have a clarifying question um you stated that this a hoc committee is chosen by the board so you would individually pick what da members would be a part of that ad hoc committee can you clarify that yeah no I would not I would ask Simone to send me recommendations of who would be the board makes it the board has to make the

final decision right the board has to approve but we ask for recommendations and so I would ask for some recommendations thank you good question thank you um anything else from da folks okay um so uh there are three things on the table here friends and I think now is the time that I will accept a motion one uh one uh recommendation is that there be four Dae four others two ad two administrators two board members and an alternate one is that they split between Dae and other members be 62 one that it be 53 um I'm happy to accept a motion at this time can I still ask a question before we do that sure how would we choose the ndae individuals so we would need to think about that as a board um in the past when we have a committee that we want to

um seat for lack better words we ask for recommendations from the board we bring those recommendations forward to the meeting um and make a decision um because we're talking about this pretty quickly I don't we could talk about if we want to have an application or something like that there are many ways that we could go about it um but that that would be my my thoughts so far could I ask a question about that um it it's part of that application like I hear y'all wanting to hear our numbers about representation and as part of the application some kind of demonstration of their representation and accountability to a base so I in the past we've had an application I don't know that we would have one now right because we want to make sure this committee can get started on February 22nd I think what I'm also hearing is like Dae has a structure for accountability and you're asking what would our structure be for other employees and accountability and I'm I um what what I think we're asking for though is for inclusive for all of our

workers to be at the table and so I think we're feels like we're missing each other maybe on that um but I think that feels like the kind of rubric that we're operating off of we want to have inclusivity of our workers is that yeah I make the motion that we uh start the ad hoc committee with membership uh for four employees four from Dae four from outside of Dae second thank you there was a second to that okay uh any discussion board members all right uh we don't have anything to push here disc I'm sorry I do that's my fault for missing that I'm sorry so I know that that's not um exciting for y'all but I know that when I found out that it would be 14 of you around this table it felt intimidating for it to be double y'all and seven of us and I I know that

seems fair unfair because of our proximity to power but we only have the ability to influence it it takes four of us or more to make a decision for this board and so it feels helpful to hear from an even number of members from outside of the Dae Community I also just had a comment that I'd like to see turquoise at the table and I'm glad you spoke tonight I'm sorry I went over to you and talked to you and said please tell me what's going on and you're like no no you're you're you're proud of all your teammates I you're a team player but your voice is important people have mentioned that a lot of the reason why they're joined Dae is because of the work that you've done you've shown out in community you've fed children you are an educator who puts children first and you go out of your way to build Coalition and get people to feed the children and take care of them and you have been teacher of the year you you've done so many things you've been featured everywhere and so a lot of people say they join Dae because they

see you and they know the work you've done so I want to see you at the table as well it's not a it's not a motion but I'm just saying tonight I got a little worried when I didn't hear your voice at all you know so um thank you thank you any further comments before we vote Jessica just one more just remember that like this is an Advisory Group right so the point like it's so that folks we can hear from y'all and then as y'all have stated like we are we still have to make the decisions right so is there harm in at least a start for our next meeting hearing from more just more voices I we understand the weight that y'all bring and the weight of the voice of Dae but I don't think it hurts to hear from more voices again if what we're doing is just hearing thank you any other commentson ready ready guys good thank

you all right there's a motion on the floor that the makeup of the of the uh working group that will move ahead with consideration of meet and confer be two board members one alternative one alternate two administrators four Dae members and four other employees I'm going to ask all in favor of that motion please raise your hand all opposed okay the motion passes six to one we'll now move to discussion of a timeline um I'm gonna ask Natalie uh because I know she has thoughts about this timeline uh to offer one I'm actually the worst person with calendars um um I I do think in talking with Dae leadership before that you all were planning to bring this in the spring and those conversations would have started

in the spring so I could see this starting March and moving into April um and seeing where we get we we know that our budget season is May 15th is the date for us so I think that March April April May um seems like the best timeline for getting stuff kicked off while we still respect all the ongoing work to do let me just ask a question about that are you saying that it be a little more explicit about what you think would happen when I mean you don't have to somebody else can do it but uh what are your thoughts I think this group gathers is appointed at patina do you think you could appoint within the next meeting or the F you know the following meeting that that needs to be

the kickoff start right it would and so then it could meet every other week after that until it's it's enjoying itself as much as ad hoc committees do that's how I'm thinking of it it goes as long as it needs to it stops whenever it is done right yeah um it's not a forever thing it's bringing best practices to together March 7th is what you're looking at Miss barer sounds right that's a work session we could appoint you're saying appoint the committee at that point yeah point on March the 7th is that what you said or second I'm sorry seven seventh so um before I get other thoughts from board members I think I'll I'll ask um the folks from Dae their thoughts and Quenton I realized I said I was going to come back to you earlier and I did apologies um da folks would like to respond about the

schedule I think what we have seen in the thousands of conversations that we've had with our co-workers over the past couple of weeks is this is not only a crisis but this particular process feels fairly urgent to them um urgent enough that they were willing to take days of protest to try to make it happen um and I am curious to know uh if that timeline will feel like the sense of urgency that um they are asking for in the moment um just to build on that right there's two problems with that timeline one we're in the worst crisis of broken trust that I've ever seen in the district ever anyone's ever seen that I've spoken to and two it puts us on a timeline that y'all are doing the budget without workers at the table precisely why this urgency came about in the first place before the pay debacle so folks wanted a seat of the table for workers when we make these giant decisions about

our lives for next year and you're you know Slow Rolling we're we're taking our time with it um I get that it takes time under normal circumstances these aren't normal circumstances so um yeah the urgency I would say from conversations I've had in the field with all these workers is is not even close to what urgency workers want to see and that's again going back to an accountable base of work like through an accountability structure to a base of workers any other comments from uh Dae members okay uh board members comments I hear that um I want us to remember that we have to follow policy and we can't meet sooner than we can meet and sooner than we can notice the meetings and we have to give our Administration time to um figure out all the technicalities of setting up such a

meeting and making sure that they have their representatives there and Carry On The Business of the district and we need your help been carrying on the District of business of the district um so I don't know how we move any faster than that I want to make a suggestion February 22nd is the next meeting and I think you could appoint you you all could recommend four people in that town and you could appoint four people in that town line um that doesn't seem impossible it seems urgent um but I'm hearing from the folks around the table and I believe there is urgency in the district that would get it started quicker and then I think the other thing that I uh think is that I hear you about the work gets done

when it's done but I also think that a having a a time that the board is aiming to vote on a policy would be would help would help the group do its work in a fashion that would be efficient um and so that's a thought I have whatever the ad hoc committee comes back with we need to as with all policies check in with our chief of staff our attorneys and make sure that what we're implementing is within the law of the North Carolina right um so that's I mean that's going to take some time I don't disagree with doing it February 22 making the recommendations um this is not I just object to the characterization as a slow role this is not a slow role this is democracy this all of our meetings are open to you all

y'all can come tell us over and over how we're doing the wrong thing I mean we we're here to hear all of that um you know February 22nd composing an ad hoc group great and then that group can we meet at the most weekly I don't think it needs to meet twice a week I don't think this is the most urgent thing in this community and and we look forward to continuing to find this way and other ways to engage with our workers both those within Dae and everyone else I just that's not a slow rle that's that you know the way you all message things the way you all use language like demand this is a demand we are Durham folks coming together in a crisis and I implore you to continue to help us lead forward it's just it's not a slow roll I have a comment the other thing is that um just Natalie what you shared six of these seats you endorsed you TR in you

endorsed Jaan you endorsed Emily you endorsed patina you endorsed Natalie you endorsed Millicent Rogers and you Endor Jessica I mean I they endorsed you right yeah I I know they I I know you were you appointed she's running now but you did not endorse my seat but technically you could claim six seats right here you have stood behind you have said these are Representatives you believe in right so six out of six uh six to one you have relationships with board members and we want to again highlight the importance of relationship transactional Endeavors we have seen some of those Dynamics playing out I I want to let you all know we are actively working every single day there's not a day that goes by that we're not actually working on this but you know I just want the community to also know as we work on this we want to have conversations that will allow us to be more accountable more transparent transparency is key I agree with the comment about we are in a moment of building trust but I also want to remind you six of these seats you endorsed you

could say that I'm the only one standing in the way I'm not but again six of these seats you endorsed and this is also a time to have this relationship and and to figure out how to have these conversations as we move forward to crafting the details of what's going to happen in these adad committee meetings thank you very much all right I'll accept a motion now about the timeline Yeah question the biggest question I'm gonna go get when I go back to my building tomorrow um some from classified co-workers who are currently working their second or third job which is why they can't be here tonight is what's going to happen with the March paychecks is this timeline going to be able to give worker input on the March paychecks I think we all know how people will feel if it doesn't but if we have worker voice and input people can feel a lot better about any changes that are made in their pay can

I I don't my understanding is this work group is to create the policy so I don't know that this will I don't see there being budget conversations in this in this small group if we have if we talk about it I don't I don't know a different way of having input or something like that but that's my understanding of what we just voted on and so I think um and then the other thing is that the board's goal is to vote on a decision for March ack and going the rest of this the U Academic Year on next Thursday so we still welcome you know input in the the existing um ways that exist or existing uh you know what I'm trying to say um opportunities that we have but um but yeah that's what I I think we're talking about so I don't and maybe that's something to

clarify what th this work group would discuss in the coming weeks but my understanding is that there would be they would be discussing the policy crafting the policy and then bringing it to the board for approval of the policy so if if we have different understandings we should discuss that too thank you all right uh can I have a motion on the timeline I move that we can we appoint members to the ad hoc committee at our February 22nd meeting second you can do it it has been moved and seconded that the group appoint that the that the that the chair appoints make all the pointment that the chair appoints the um members to the ad hoc committee

and on and the February 22nd meeting of the board is there a second I'm sorry it was a second I apologize second again yeah I think I'm sorry yes I forgot how to do this yeah I used to I used to do this all the time it was really good at once okay um all in favor of that please raise their hand okay that passes unanimously do you all want to say anything else about a timeline Javan just just to love said Riley you made a question you made a comment about the budget that's coming up we again there's practices that are already in place right and we've lost trust and you want to make sure your voices are heard so those are things too that doesn't behoove me as well so in looking at our process with the budget A lot's going to be coming out in general there's public comments for budget there's what's it called public hearing um and opportunities but before

we even get there I want to make sure we we that you hear me we want to have these conversations meet and confer Emily was clarifying we're working on a policy the work group is working on a policy and we're in the midst of the budget coming up right so tell us give me a suggestion what does that look like um before this policy is in place because we're in budget season right um I want to have that discussion too well solutions for the here and now in this in in the system that we already have in place as we have in budgets before it was the da president uh met with the superintendent we're in influx right now we are working hard to get through the March pay and the rest of this year so I just want to make sure that you all know that from me and I'm sure I'm thinking my board also wants to make sure we're getting your input about the budget thank you all right any other comments any other any other decisions yall want to make about a timeline okay

um the last item on the agenda is uh board members any additional comments I'm going to discourage this uh un unless you feel the absolute need to make a comment it won't hurt my feeling dur just make one quick comment I think um like the one this is a historic meeting it's never happened before so we need to celebrate the fact that this is a historic moment that we're sitting at a table having this conversation two I want to be really clear about like we talked a little bit about accountability transparency and narrative so I would not want to hear that people feel like the board is Slow Rolling the conversation right we moved our timeline and this not put some on the spot we moved it from March 7th to march to February 22 we are going to work really hard over the next couple days to figure out how the process for getting people on this committee and then the committee I heard from people say we can meet weekly weekly to work on this so like the board is working I need

that to be the conversation that we're having we want to meet and figure it out and we also respect of all the other things that are happening around us in our community and so I want to be clear about like that's how we're leaving this meeting we've done some really good work today and there's more work to do moving forward for us to figure out the collaboration between the board uh the administration and all the Educators that work for our Public Schools system I just want to say I think those are really important comments I think the message that you all take back is really significant I think I want to say that I really appreciate the work of the board tonight uh you all did some great thinking I know you listened incredibly intensely uh with open ears and Open Hearts and I really appreciate that to the folks from Dae thank you so much for the work you've done to get us here um it's incredible work it's absolutely incredible work and it's you're doing it at the same time when you're teaching school or you're uh being an

instructional assistant all the things that you all are doing I cannot express enough on behalf of our whole Community the gratitude that we have towards you all the work that you do um I feel a lot of confidence that the board will move this process forward in good faith uh and that it's going to be really important that you all uh that that you all are at the table in that same good faith and I know that you will be um I I do before we one of the things we haven't talked tonight and haven't talked about tonight and on purpose is kind of the legal aspect of this you will see to my right uh our the attorney both of Schoolboard and for the Dae are sitting there enjoying themselves they've probably been eating for potato chips and so forth uh but I I appreciate them they are going to be working together uh in a way that lawyers do uh

to to figure out the legalities and how this can be made legal okay um I also want to thank uh Nicole Sheena Crystal thank you all for being here and for making this meeting happen um we were uh yeah great job much appreciation for you all thank you so much um and I'll say again I was so not necessary I mean we have an absolutely fantastic board chair uh and who yeah so don't invite me again all right thank you all very much and I appreciate all of you all so much and you have to say something's adjourned yeah we are adjourned