Board of Education · Work Session · April 6, 2023

Space for this moment of silence please.

Thank you the next item on the agenda is the agenda review and approval I would like to amend the agenda and take off item number four board work session minutes March 9th and pulled it until next week and also I would like to add an agenda item to discuss a proposal called a day of remembrance to support youth wellness and those who we have lost to violence under Board of Education item 7B I'd also like to propose moving the consent item I'm in board doc sorry I'm going to pull the consent item.

For discussion. Under the chief Chief of Staff here any other adjustments to the agenda.

But move approval of the agenda as amended second has been moving to properly second all in favor say aye aye any opposed same sign that's passing unanimously the agenda amended agenda has been approved next is time for our next thing on the agenda is general public comment a quick review of the rules first please state your name is speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in a specified time three minutes when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates your time is up complaints about named staff students and parents should not be voiced in Open Session how are we very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students and to the operations of the school finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage with speakers.

And I've just been signaled that we do not have any public comment so we will move to the next agenda item the Board of Education 7a lgtbqia plus Task Force update I believe I'm turning that over to Mr sudereth. I'll speak on this first and then pass it to Mr Sutter so thank you to to Mr sarath and his team for working so hard on getting folks together and sending out the invites for our task force and to all the board members for making suggestions about who should serve the sort of shape of the task force what we have here is a document that kind of outlines what the purpose the membership would look like what the format would be all of that and and so we can maybe highlight just the the the overall purpose and then have some discussion on that which is really to support to further develop the policy that we approved in December and then amended in January and and then the task force would also.

Provide some resources or input on how we can best move forward in bringing our policy to life and they would serve as a record a body advising or giving recommendations to the board so let me pass it to Mr Sutter from there thank you madam Valley's chair and good afternoon board it's a pleasure to see you today if we could I do believe the screen is up thank you so if we could go to the next slide please it's been a pleasure to work with Miss Chavez and other members of the board to develop one of the things that we discovered quickly as we were recruiting members off the task force is that member prospective members of the task force were really seeking more detail and understanding of the precise function as you recall you passed a historic and important for this District policy in December and revised it in January for lgbtqia plus students and staff and gender supports and then the question all right so what.

Does what is the function of the task force going forward and working particularly with Miss Chavez we have a draft purpose document for you which is in the agenda and I can give you some overview information on this on this deck I've emphasized on our strategic plan priorities although there's a relationship between the work of this task force and every priority is particularly close to Priority two providing a safe School environment for supporting the whole child prior 83 attracting and retaining outstanding Educators and staff and priority for strengthening School family and Community engagement this task force aligns with our strategic plan and if we could go to our next slide the task force also aligns with our District's core beliefs which are part of not only the current strategic plan but the proposed strategic plan for next for the next five years Equity shared responsibility high expectations and a child-centered approach having a strong advisory lgbtqia plus task force is important in sustaining the core beliefs of Durham Public Schools next slide please.

So broadly speaking the purpose of the task force as as impaneled by the Board of Education is to focus on strengthening and furthering developing that policy that you adopted and revised in January and from the policy introduction let's be very very clear about what Durham Public Schools and and our board stand for it is the policy of the board to maintain a safe and supportive School environment for lgbtqia plus individuals meaning lesbian gay bisexual transgender intersex asexual and other individuals with non-heterosexual non-binary and gender non-conforming identities all are welcome here and the task force reinforces that we propose that the task force will generally meet as a full body once per month tentatively scheduled for the third Tuesday of each month in order to avoid weeks when there's a work session or monthly meeting of the school board and we propose an independent facilitator to lead the meetings next slide please the board has established the task force to provide advice on strengthening existing lgbtqia and gender supports policy and to suggest improvements in.

District and school processes and procedures specific roles and functions will be developed with the task force members themselves this is a this is a me this is a task force that provides input upon itself but it serves as an advisory body to both the board and the administration the board has statutory responsibilities to govern Durham Public Schools the superintendent and his administration have statutory responsibilities to operate and manage Durham Public Schools the board is in paneling a task force to provide critical input and feedback and the wisdom of lived experience to help both the board and the administration in their work and then on the next slide these members are appointed by the school board and administration by either the school board directly or by the administration under guidance set by the school board membership is by invitation to meet the stated purpose of the task force so again going back to that earlier statement of the task force and the policy introduction it is clear what the board's policy is and the.

Membership of the lgbtqia plus task force is in the furtherance of that policy finally a recruitment update obviously board Vice chair Emily Chavez will serve as liaison to the task force and a recruitment update based on the based on the information that I had as of this morning based on people who have been nominated and who have requested information about participation we have to date for teachers and certified four teachers or certified staff four School administrators principals four District administrators and staff two classified staff members at least one employee from Durham Public Schools new lgbtqia plus affinity group two members of the business community at least two members of Durham Durham County political action committee Representatives three representatives from Community Support organizations including the rainbow Collective for change which was instrumental in encouraging the creation of the policy in the task force at least four students from Durham Public Schools at least four parents and Guardians and that is the group that we've had the most of most challenged is sending out email invitations.

Or something that was still not super well defined and we have been doing more work on the phones as well as with with the more clarity that I anticipate coming from tonight we will have that filled out we have a representative from an affirming Faith Community we have a representative from the DPS Foundation we expect two Representatives one adult and one youth from the city of Durham's office on youth we have three representatives from the Durham Association of Educators and two community members at large and that's for starters and it would be my suggestion that at that first meeting of the task force the task force members look around the table and ask each other who are who are we missing who else should be here with us but that is the start hopefully a few more as we go board member Lewis suggested that we have information on the Board website as we did for the equity task force comprising the policy the the purpose the schedule things like that we absolutely will do.

That but this is this is before you as a draft and I wanted to be be sure that the board was fully fully engaged and on board with that had no real reservations before I just put it out there Vice chair Chavez I turn it back to you thank you I also just wanted to thank the community members who have so you know emphasize the need for for this work and the last thing I wanted to mention was just that we will have a forum going out to our task force members to gather information about their identities and pronouns and all of that to make sure that they can share about you know the identities that they hold make sure we have that diversity represented and one thing we've also discussed is inviting them to the trainings that we have upcoming and so I just wanted to put that out there that hopefully will be able to invite them if they're able to to attend those trainings the first one being on April 21st okay.

That's all I have to say yeah this is on the Praxis for prices for discussion so just open the floor to discussion Miss valladers thank you so much and board member Lewis I am definitely in agreement that the website should have resources we are striving to be a school Community a district that values every single one of our constituents whether they are students whether they are our dedicated staff our families we continue to understand a little bit more about how to be more intentional about this work and how to be intentional about this work also for me means recognizing you know those who have helped us along the way to get to this point I I am definitely going to shout out Jack turnwald just being an educator and emailing us sending us emails you know just letting us know about ways that we could be more inclusive and so I think all the folks who have been looking at this need and letting us know that there's definitely a need for a policy.

Definitely a need and also rainbow Collective you know that organized and came and all the community that pretty much rallied in this moment to get to this point and so the work continues use and the work continues also for other marginalized communities I continue to sit here and appeal to intersectionality appeal to all the different pieces so we have a unique unique policies for each group at the end of the day we are a district that needs to serve so many constituents with intersectional identities and so we continue to listen if there's any Community if there's anything that is missing in our policy book you know this is what we are here to do we're here to enact policies we're here to change culture if there's anything that is missing in our policy manual anything that needs revision I mean we're willing to have those conversations I just want to put that out there to the community that this is work that we do and I definitely think our board member Chavez who has a.

Long-standing history in DPS as an educator as somebody who had you know the safe the safe classroom the safe Club at Hillside and so this this work is so meaningful and it does come from a long ways and I also want to shout out Matt Hixson I feel like another champion for fan families for students just an amazing leader and so there are so many people who have for many years been a part of DPS I do have one question though in terms of the task force is there a requirement that everybody who's on that task force either has to be Affiliated DPS I guess no because we have community members do they have to live within Durham County is that something that we just in terms of what were the requirements because there was definitely a lot of folks who wanted to be a part of it and I just like for things to just be out in the open about what our rubric what our requirements were about who.

Could participate in the task force and who can be involved and so do we have any any information we can share with our community I'll start and then I'll turn it over to Ms Chávez and the rest of the board members to chair Armstead this has been an invitation Pro an invitation process we have taken suggestions from board members we were given some initial guidelines of if you have administrators or if you have administrators or teachers or people like that here are some suggestions who do you suggest and we collaborated on that there was no specific rubric as far as residency but I'm not aware of anybody on that list who is not either a Durham County resident or is employed with Durham Public Schools it is it is a Durham it this is a Durham project for a Durham school board.

We had a conversation about that so it is I think most people are affiliated with Durham Durham Public Schools in some different type of way whether they live in the county or not I think the other thing we thought a lot about too and and soliciting nominations from folks is some of the community groups that are really connected with the work and we know that can help us move us forward how do we give people representation in that way too so that was another thing we did making sure that let's chip listed off certain groups had representation there's another way that we thought okay who are all the folks that need to be in the room how do we make sure that we have the right folks in the room.

Thank you all I just really want to thank you for the work reaching deeply into the DPS and Durham Community to bring these voices together it feels like it's taken a while to get here but I'm so glad that we're here glad that there are students you said four at least at least one of our schools one of our schools had four students recommended and we wanted we do want to spread the wealth a bit Yeah Yeah I I see that as a group that I hope that we Center those students in the middle and and adults are kind of around the edges like how can we support you that's how I Envision this at least as I think about this work I'm glad you're talking about an out a facilitator for the group because it is a very large group as you've described it already and with the potential to grow who do we think of and I'm not trying to name Dr Bullock but who do we think of as like the staff.

That owns it so this group comes up with things not just in my mind policy that needs to be tweaked or revised but to me the major work of this group when I've envisioned it is HR things that need to change things that are going on in schools that are that are harmful like who who do we think staffs it and actually helps make stuff happen or interacts back with Administration on issues how are y'all envisioning some of that thank you Miss Beyer for the question pretty much like in any policy work once that is completed I will know where The Notches are under 1080 Giovanni or under Dr Hardy when it comes to equity work and all that kind of stuff so once the work is completed where the knights is going to be academics work that you need to be implemented or HR so one of my staff members will be able to to move the work forward when it comes to implementation.

And here a year we've come up with the up with this list of things but but I mean I I just think of our HR practices I think of PowerSchool and whether pronouns are in there like there's all kinds of logistical things that I think will bubble up pretty quickly so you're just committing to be responsive to all of that as it as it goes forward yes okay great great I'm I'm happy to hear it and then I keep watching these horrible bills rolling out in Raleigh and across the nation and making sure that our students know that we're going to fight and our staff knows that we're going to fight to keep folks safe in Durham and I think this is just one really important small part of that I also thought as we go if we need legal expertise we could always feel free to tap into thurington Smith and and know what best protections we can put in place as we're working to keep students safe.

But I look forward to just hearing more about the work and empowering these voices I think it's powerful thank you all so much. Miss Carter Alta I I also applaud this work this is incredible and really important I just have a few questions I was wondering if the I agree that student representation is incredibly important hopefully we can get more students in the group I'm wondering you said four teachers and four classified staff members it does that and then there's three reps from Dae so is that part of the foreign foreign.

Undetermined at this time number of additional DPS employees who are participants in the affinity group great that's excellent yeah I'd really like to see us centering our students but also centering our staff that will be affected by all of this and also this is seeming like a very large group right like 40 or not quite the the original the original eyeballing you know there were as many as 56 potential slots there that I don't think were going to be quite there but we there were a lot of suggestions for a lot of people who wanted to participate and we're trying to accommodate while we're also recognizing that some of those invitations went unanswered either because of you know wanting more specificity or the amount of time available or just let's let's just say the concern about the State climate right hopefully once there's more clear Clarity then we'll be able to get some more parents and caregivers on this in this group as well my my thoughts around the large group.

Though was the importance then of having a really strong facilitator or multiple facilitators what do you envision as being the plan for finding the appropriate person or persons to be able to kind of help this group navigate these very challenging discussions and move towards action but also be inclusive the desire for a facilitator was noted by board members I confess that I do not have a a 100 plan for how that would how we would do that we need to have some internal conversations about that to identify the best subject and the best subject the funding source Etc it has to be somebody who is very very skilled with the subject matter but is also a true facilitator because this is this is the voice of our students and the student staff and Community rising up I also was curious to know if there's a broad timeline for the anticipated work of the task force like any or is that part of the plan to put that type of thing together is that something that.

Once the task force is formed there'll be a timeline that can report back to us and share we have not had active conversations about how long an a Sunset date things like that I think it's important for the task force to work with the board work with the administration on a little bit of self-determination and understanding of and a little bit of goal setting this could be a very Broad and and was for a couple of months and very Broad and Loosely defined task force and Mission other than we need to support our lgbtqia plus staff and students we are defining it we have defined it with a draft a purpose statement we can bring everybody together with that purpose statement and we can identify working with the facilitator for some balance oh thank you yeah just add to the notion I mean the in a task force there's typically we have a task and so there is a beginning and an end I could see the group continue to inform once we have we.

Have the tasks that are outlaid and hopefully the facilitator can help be really clear about what are the takeaways that help bring that out from the group but I think there should be a it shouldn't last forever if the task force is work is completing their goal and then what does that body look like moving forward the student code of conduct task force that existed I think many years ago now at this point had the task of rewriting the code of conduct and then became somewhat of an advisory in many in many ways after that and so this could be a similar way maybe it's reconvened later as we move forward but just in the nature of what the task force is assigned to do there should be an ending date but when that will be will be need to be determined that's great yeah I think that will be helpful both for people considering whether or not they want to participate if you're a parent or caregiver that's.

Busy and wants to know something of a defined timeline but right but also for our community who is going to want to know like when are we going to see some action here well thank you so much so thank you for this presentation I think that as you say that it was very Broad and Loosely defined you reiterated that several times as I look at this draft and hear the presentation I just give deepest gratitude to those who have pulled this together you know I always in awe of making something out of nothing and that's what this is not you know just it's been created right and I just appreciate all the detail that is here it still feels a bit broad on some parts but I think it's really coming together so thank you for this work I want to say that I Echo chair upstairs sentiments that we should have a date a start date and an end date in particular and even if we decide as a.

Board that it'll be a year of service you know as I've started on other Task Force if you need more time to ask for more time and typically they get the more time one thing I was not aware of and I was going to ask about the independent facilitator again just me having been part of different task force typically that group that comes together May select who their chair is to help organize and get the logistics together and Lead things while we have so many people on this on this task force but when I heard the independent facility that was going to be my question I heard you say something about cost or a payment so I did not realize we were looking at paying for independent facilitators I just want to hear a little bit more about that and what is a line item because that would also dictate how long this task force can exist and I do want to defer to the board on board members on that because.

That was a request that came from board members happy to talk about it I think when we thought about who was going to be in the group it was really important that everyone be able to be participants in the group and oftentimes when you have a person who needs to be a participant and a leader and facilitator it can be hard to play both roles and I also think being skilled at being able to bring a large group of people to consensus was another important skill that I was like this is going to be important for the task force to be able to complete some of their work so proposed having an independent facilitator to really be able to bring help the group form and Norm some identity help the group bring consensus help the group move forward to different tasks I'm not sure what the budget line item is coming out of so we need to have more conversations about that but I think it'll be money worse what money.

Well spent in that role Miss Rogers I agree I would like to give the task force if the board is amenable to this I would like to give the task force opportunity to help determine how long that timeline should be and when they should we should start seeing some action more nuanced policy different practices at our School sites and how long they feel like they'll need the facilitator we I'm open to agreeing to a Max time or a max amount of money being spent but I think that they will should have some autonomy and determining how long the task force will function in this role in this way and how long they will need a facilitator in that way which is will be important for us as we're thinking about who to consider as a facilitator this might be a one-year commitment could go up to 18 months or something like that so I do think staff will need some research on some options around facilitators and what costs would look like for that.

As well because also imagine facilitators don't want to oh an open-ended contract right either on knowing when that time is going to end so maybe a year and then up to 18 months is what I'm just hearing potentially from. Any other questions comments feedback I miss. Just this so just to sum up I think our next steps here are getting some ideas about facilitators talking about when an initial meeting would be and inviting the task force members to attend the trainings if they would like to and continuing to there are some people we've been continuing to reach out to so I just want to kind of sum that up to to make it clear where we're going next with this absolutely and the two most proximate to Do's for me are when we come back from the long weekend on to post if the if the board feels comfortable with the purpose documentation Etc post that to the Board website and also send that information to the people who have said.

Yes and the people who have been nominated along with a proposed a proposed starting date. Add one more thing I do think it's important for the community to hear and that task force to know that we have to also know this is a really important step to get a great facilitator and so there might be some time before this task force starts so I think you know we got into emails the folks were like what are y'all doing what's going on we're working on it but we might see that it takes a little longer to have that first meeting but I think having the task force invited to the trainings that are coming up will also be a really good step for them to feel like we're making this progress moving forward miss my fire thank you so much you know I I I commend all this work I do think that and Dr rebender you can correct me but everything that we do we always say we have a saying that it's a living.

Document or a living process we can tweak we can modify along the ways you know whatever is needed if if training we're talking about the training we were able to modify that training to say you know we want it to be broadcasted up until the point that maybe there's some sections that won't be able to be broadcasted so that training will be accessible for the task force I just want to go back to that being that we don't have a rubric when we have folks who have invested time and effort over years to get us to this point and they're not a part of that task force to me that's as a as somebody who's sitting here I honor those who came right those who have paid a price for it this is a community effort and this task force you know we have folks who have applied and have not gotten in because of I know we have limited spots what is are we amenable to modification of the member list the Task.

Force member list especially for folks who have asked Jack turnwald for example has and there's nothing precluding Jack turnwald from being a part of the task force they have done a lot of work in DPS over so many years and so I'm just wondering is is it amenable is that membership gonna be written in stone or is it amenable this fire does let me redirect your question to chair Umstead because it sounds like a specific person you're talking about and I want her to be able to inform what you're and if there's any other other person who's paved the way for this along with rainbow Collective and everybody else you know I just I just want to make sure I just want to make sure that I was asking her so I just want to also clarify that we didn't have an application process for this task force we asked board members for nominations and so we got names from all of us on the board except for Miss.

Carter Alton she hadn't joined us yet to put together the task force and know we also the administration also put forth categories so that's where the names and the different categories came from in the task force so I just want to be clear about that we had an opportunity to weigh in I think we also gave some of our groups an opportunity to say rainbow Collective for change you have this many spots on the task force you can nominate the folks in your group and your organization to be a part of it so that's just kind of how that came to if there is someone who's really interested I think they should reach out to us and we can consider what that looks like but I don't I also don't want to guarantee for folks that either have a spot either just because of how we've kind of put up that membership if that makes sense that makes sense and that person you know this Community member and educator definitely has reached out multiple.

Times about you know being involved and so I thank you so much for explaining a little bit more about the process because you know I think it's meaningful work and there's some contextual historical you know just just making things right you know for for some of our dedicated Educators as well so thank you you're welcome and just just to emphasize that the only the only place where the Administration has had any sort of input in selection has been in those categories where the board you know staff staff categories we would like to find we would like to identify some teachers we would like to identify such and such and even then the board identified it would also like representation from say Durham Association of Educators and they put forward individuals the dis the administrative discretion discretion has only been an administrative categories this is a board task force and we we serve at the pleasure of the board did you have another comment no question no I was just trying to bring consensus.

To what I heard and I'm so excited that that these folks even if we don't have a facilitator in place will be explicitly invited to attend the trainings that we have set up and and like those those invitations will go out and I hope that the majority of them can join that important work I think the trainers that you all have is National level quality and will be just such a safe learning space for for everyone and then I I heard cherum said kind of say a year and I'd like to at least give it through the at least 20 end of 2024 like it feels like since we know we're getting kind of ramped up late but giving it that 18 months like it's 23 and 24 and see where where they are that that was what came to my heart so I was just speaking it into to being there but thank you all so much for bringing this amazing group together I look forward to regular reports from them.

Yeah just wanna Echo what Miss by just said about the timeline I think we got some good eggs on plot here when it comes to our strategic plan usually we'll go about six months but we got to keep in mind with strategic plan you have stuff behind the scene really doing a lot of work it's not just the meetings per se so for this particular project if we have a facilitator there and the folks are made in public for a couple hours basically going to be a lot of work that's need to be done they facilitator alone will not be able to compile all this work that's why it's going to take a little bit longer than a six months the way we do a strategic plan I just wanted to put it out there so when it comes to cost let's say for our strategic plan roughly cost about 84 85 000 I just wanted to give you if you're gonna bring somebody by that caliber for for a year and a half.

So I think for a strategic play for six months it cost us a summary 184 thousand dollars I just wanted to give you those figures as you're thinking about facilitator in the future strategic plan facilitators also did a lot of community events and other different events I think this is going to be a different type of a facilitator that we're going to look for and so you know I'm we can spend some money but I think we'll also be looking for something a bit maybe a little different hopefully still ex great expertise.

I was gonna say that as well but also it's possible that the facilitator won't be needed for the entire time like length of the task force it might be most important for them to be on board for the first six months or so to really help them navigate those difficult conversations and then after that maybe there's subgroups and subcommittees of this task force that are doing work so that's one way we could maybe use them when it's really important but save some money on the back end thank you any other comments thank you Mr Sutter thank you Miss Chavez thank you Miss Travis the next item on the agenda is 7B a day of remembrance proposal so I will open this up as we have been grappling with what to do and how to support our youth over these last few months Mom warning has turned into moving and what can we move and as I've heard concerns from parents and students I want to acknowledge their cries or time to reflect be still.

Remember and collaborate I have met with both Hillside and Durham School of Technology principles to hear concerns and needs with Durham School Technology parents and also I met with the students for the mental health services and heard their needs I definitely supported the visual that we had on my Samana La Familia put together and attended Dr Bulls virtual town hall meeting so these have been to some of the community approaches I've taken to here and and and gather suggestions to pose this to our school board to the city and the county the City Council and accounting commissioners I would like to know if we can organize these three organizations can hold a day of remembrance on May 15 2023 so on a Monday the day after Mother's Day a day of remembrance is a continued show of unity and support for youth safety and Wellness remembrance of Youth lost to violence taken a moment of silence throughout the city at a specific time a collaborative resolution passed by the three local governing bodies.

And statements made at the CCB plaza near the bull I would like to open the floor for feedback questions and concerns and if this is a favorable effort I would love for one to two board members designated to work out the details and bring back those details to the board in our may work session ahead of the May 15th date itself let's open the floor thank you Miss valladeras this has been a really hard time with the loss of life and I really want to thank the speakers the public comments that were done that were so timely and that spoke I can't name everybody but wilker and Shelley and I'm gonna just forget names but I just I just want to think I want to thank our public commenters because every single time that we experience this level of trauma I mean this is traumatic for a district it's personally inflicted pain for me and my family and especially the relationships I've talked to just folks who are also connected to.

The families and it has just been hard and so I think the leadership of the school district or not just carrying on as if nothing happened I'll tell you the horror of something I've experienced you know when it comes to corporate settings somebody passes away and you're only given 30 minutes to grieve and then you have to move on and just keep going that is not something that values human life it is not something that acknowledges that loss is spelled in every fiber of your being and that we cannot just sit here and pretend like it didn't happen and not that we are trying to pretend that it didn't happen but this this effort that you mentioned board member javonia Lewis is so important I thank you also for holding space you know for these conversations tending to community I have seen you you know at Hillside and I think my colleagues here you know who made time and all of you who couldn't make time and also let me know.

Right that you know that that that the vigil and the timing of the vigil just couldn't coincide but I knew that your thoughts and your your presence you know as a body that we were all there and our Chair Umstead who also had a Time conflict but came and stayed and you know it was just beautiful to also see remember Lewis give the words that you also were ready to give it means a lot the families have told me it means a lot the support means a lot I also thank the EPS Foundation Megan Gonzalez Smith who attended the vigil but has also been in communication with medium via from Durham cares and myself and we've been talking about the community crisis fund how important it is for families to know that they are supported in grief they don't have to feel like they're alone in this financially there's other levels of support that families need in terms of logistics of funerals and Logistics of it's it's more complex and I think evangelmonte.

For naming how complicated loss is when you're a very vulnerable family when you have to walk through navigate so many things in terms of immigration in terms of like logistical things systems that are that are that are not so easy and not while you are grieving but I did see Educators show up to the funeral and Malcolm Goff thank you for doing the artwork for the families and you know just bringing bringing the families a token of we see you you know and especially these students knowing that some educators are also grieving their students that passed away and so this day of remembrance is not just for one two three four five six seven I'm going with something with this eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen 2023 has been a year of loss of life for children under 18 years old and and we just can't keep going at a pace where it's just business as usual so I'm very much grateful for the work and I commit to working with you.

And as we have I have already stated in in this in this work and I think that you know one or two board members but if I think we're all a part of this you know what I mean so even if if there's some leads like we're all in this together to support our families and I want it to also be inclusive of language and culture so I think all of you who could come to the vigil there's other things that we're planning but I think ultimately the families just know that this District understands the complexity of the things we need to do to make sure that we're never at this predicament again and the changes we need to do as a district and this is a gesture and it is not the end-all be-all the work continues the work to support our families and support primarily our students that are vulnerable so I just wanted to Echo a lot of things.

Definitely my co-organizer with with the vigil is very committed when you were mentioning the three organizations can you just clarify you mentioned the organizations that we're going to be involved in this so yeah I've spoken with some city council members and Board of County Commissioners for them also to bring this proposal to their board to determine if they would like to have a collaborative effort for this joint venture thank you so much yes yes okay so the municipal bodies like the the I think councilwoman Javier Caballero also for the space that we had at the CCP Plaza so yes thank you so much for that clarification.

Miss Rogers thank you for organizing this and really trying to make sure that we are intentional about how we move forward and acknowledging that families Educators Durham is still grieving lots of people I am generally in support of this and what I would like having spoken to some members of the board accounting commission and some members of the city council is that we go back and really put together.

Not just this event but action items and policy that we can move forward that would help be more preventative make sure that we are seeking out the tools that will be that will inform our actions for that day and going forward I'd like to see us making clear conscious efforts of doing things like creating spaces for safe clubs students against violence everywhere at every school and making sure that we have partnership from the city and the county and the Sheriff's Office and executing that work and not just putting on a performative action Daddy and I'm happy to help support this work but I think that before we truly agree to something we need a full proposal and we're clear that each body is taking the same proposal to their bodies or approval just to answer that question that exactly exactly what the resolution I envisioned the resolution being is it concrete these are the action steps and things that we are resolving to do as a community there are layered approaches.

There are multiple events that are happening there's ways that the school Community can't be supported by the city and county I just want to emphasize that these this is happening in Durham County and it's happening to our youth kids that go to our school so we have to have a collaborative effort we have to have collaborative measures those discussions are happening right so I think it shows up in the resolution and we have drafts of previous resolutions that address safety and wellness and gun violence and it's a matter of using that as our springboard bringing our minds together with what direct action looks like and we've already been taking it we already have some things in place that the the leadership team has talked about such as summer camps and summer jobs for youth because we know the summer's coming and we had to keep our youth busy and not just putting it out there that these jobs are available but knocking on doors and bringing kids to the jobs those type of.

Things have to be done as well and that's going to take again layers and layers of work happening for that to take place so I concur with you and the solution where I see that showing up is the resolution that we can sign jointly thanks that's helpful yeah I think I do have a I don't know if we really want to we're talking about this I'm not sure exactly what action steps you want us to take at this juncture but I've heard from city council members and from border County Commission and unreadiness because they haven't had an opportunity to really get this process going with their colleagues and I think that's going to be an important part as we move forward I'd hate for us to agree to do something when we have the ability as a body to do something and try to bring them along I want us to all be in the same place when we're understood and we would not move on our.

Own with this it is meant to be a collaborative effort they've already I've already gotten commitments for when they can come up on their board agenda as well again it's been a busy week and also having conversations for any of those places of unreadiness to say what could this look like and have those dates already as well for them to talk about it but if it's not going to move it's not going to move Miss Colorado thank you so much for moving this important work forward I really appreciate your leadership and I'll Echo a little bit of what Millicent was saying and you and I have discussed just that I think our families this is incredibly important for us to demonstrate that DPS is remembering and honoring and grieving these lives and also promoting wellness and also I think that our families want to see a commitment to action right so I just want to make sure that if we move forward with this that there is.

Even on this day and we can iron out the details later but I think an honoring of lives and a conversation about what we are already doing in DPS to keep children safe and what we commit to doing moving forward and and maybe each of these governing bodies can do that because everybody in this city is already working towards Solutions and I think sometimes it's a communication issue let's talk let's put it out there and show people how we're trying to keep people keep these youth safe and also what are our plans to work together in the future to strengthen those efforts so again remembrance plus action yeah and otherwise I do think this is going to be really important so thank you yeah Miss Beyer thank you there's a lot of grief in this community there's a lot of feelings of hopelessness and despair and there's also the important recognition that this is public health work like it is violence prevention work it is violence Interruption work it is gun.

Control legislation needed at the state and the federal level and so what is critical to me is that we approach it as such with the folks at the table that need to be at the table and if we're going to do this that it not just be performative of us standing in a microphone or you know down at the bull again and it and it's it's bringing those impacted but those also with actionable public health policy recommendations to bear my biggest my concern that I expressed to you before and I'll continue to to express is that it must be age appropriate and so I don't really see the moment of silence in elementary schools being that I don't I don't really even see it in Middle Schools I don't it is our job to and and our blessing and our privilege to keep children safe and we do it every day and yes this is there's been violence and and we can number these lives but they're the violence is not in our.

Schools it is not in our school communities and and our we've tasked adults with keeping our children safe and the shooting and the mass shooting in in Nashville last week terrified our adults again at the thought of keeping folks safe so whatever we do we need to to have to be supporting the public health experts that are in this space and the violence Interrupters that are in this space and making sure that it is age-appropriate and as as we go forward and I mean there's there's nothing to debate but support for our children in a in a thoughtful way but thank you for your your heart for this and and your leadership yes I'm so glad the passive aggressive comment came publicly Natalie because being at the bull out of vigil using we didn't even use a microphone because those who were there know that the microphone wasn't even working but there were families there not one family families who showed up some publicly they even took time to do.

The kinds of visuals that said and had pictures of their loved one and they were also there was a family well there were two other families but there was one family that said they just wanted to be there incognito and just kind of feel the warmth of the candles that were burning and I think all the the books from this body who showed up who can attest that it is not performative to mourn the friends of my children to consult with the families if this is what they wanted because there are a lot of assumptions being made about what is performative what is an empty gesture and I can tell you that the families were with it and that there were some very important connections that were made that day some very important conversations that happened that day and that allowed the families to know that we see them and so let's be very careful with this expectation because anytime we've had to do work whether it was the lgbtq policy we're always saying.

But if we don't have the full thing that we can't start I'm going to say let's start and let's really be very careful with the ways we speak about things our families want about the things that our families need in this moment they needed to be embraced by warmth Pastor Edgar from blaseemia brought in there were educators Marty Ramirez's family also Marty Ramirez was there as well like we have our interpreters who are working behind doing interpretation who took time they stay here too late you know what I mean and so we have folks from the MRC like you know who showed up from the multi-go resource center we have Advocates like Sandro Mendoza from political Latina Ivan Almonte from Durham.

We had the list goes on and on and maybe it wasn't in the hundreds but believe me that the families said thank you for doing that and board member Louis you have been in contact with community members as I have I we've been copied on emails where they said the community the public comment the community is asking us to do something a moment of silence a day of remembrance so I will not have this board or anybody on this board speak about empty gestures if you weren't there and you couldn't be there that's fine but this is an opportunity for us to move forward and we're not going to put limitations in caps on if we don't have the full thing laid out then I don't want to move on it I agree that gun violence is a Public Health crisis and I think that that work happened this week on Wednesday Latin 19 doctor aviviana Bianchi and so many 58 professional health professional leaders from Duke even Jasmine Rico from the state.

Department you know of Health and Human Services and and part of the governors I mean I don't even know all the titles but there were 58 folks from all over who know about this and showed up to hear a grieving mother a grieving mother who wants to say wants people to say this to do anything to to give voice to do a day of remembrance to do a vigil to you know walk and do the canvassing that you mentioned board member Lewis to make sure that we are aware that our kids are dying our young people are dying and that we need to do something and so I think you know the the Latin 19 group for hosting these conversations I think everyone who decided and has decided to continue to move this work forward but let's be very careful about what we say is performative on a microphone at CCB Plaza which is just you know just a very low shot at something that was very meaningful and sacred thank you I.

Apologize I was not able to be at the vigil it sounded like a remarkable event where you supported the families and were behind them supporting their grief what what I was crying tempting to express and probably expressed badly is that scheduling a date in the future on the 15th of May sounds like something we can do but it needs to be the start of actual continuing ongoing policy action and not just another time in front of cameras and and again I I applaud your support for the families who are grieving and apologize for any offense thank you for clarifying jeremston yeah I think it's important to recognize that people grieve differently and what that looks like is going to look different for everyone and so I just think that's important for all of us to hold and so I appreciate you Ms Lewis for bringing this resolution and considering what this means for our community I have a couple of like thoughts questions but also just kind of proposal but of I.

Think what we need to do next to move this forward I do want to make sure that we honor we've had unfortunately many students pass away and so how do we make sure that this honors the full breath unfortunately again of the students who've been injured in or passed away and impacted by gun violence and we've had students unfortunately pass away for other just health reasons and things like that so how do we make sure we we don't miss folks that we are fully honoring everyone I think the other thing is that we because we all agree differently we also all have different triggers and so how do we make sure that in a moment of silence at schools that we have the resources there to support Educators to support students to explain what we are doing in a way that is age-appropriate for your kindergartner all the way up through your 12th grader and I think if there needs to be flexibility for that within our schools.

Like I'm not sure my school is ready for this we need to honor that too because I think that's also really important I think I trusted our principals and our staffs know their places really well and so they're like or we might need to do it a little differently because for my community this is actually I needed to be opt-in versus everyone do or something like that like I think we need to think about and consider that flexibility just again because we all grieve differently we all have different triggers and so how do we make sure that we honor that in this process also agree with like action we know that's going to be important and we also know there's well this is community work our schools we are grateful that our schools have been places where acts have not happened they've impacted our families but they haven't been happening at our schools so involving these different bodies also really allows us to think about the whole Community that's your neighborhood and.

And schools or excuse your neighborhoods your schools your stores like all those different places so a couple of things I think if we are going to do a resolution we need to have it done by April 20th which is our next board meeting and it needs to be sent so we can approve it and then be sent to the other bodies to work on and then by May 4th which is our work session that there's a kind of agenda that we have a agenda item that has all the details kind of worked out so that it could be ready for that may was it 15th day so it's a quick timeline that we need to follow and I also so I wanted to just be mindful of what that needs to look like I'm happy that for member Rogers Miss Rogers and other folks who want to participate I think we still need to keep it under four if I'm looking correctly at Ron but board members to participate in.

This committee but we'll make sure that we follow the rules and make sure that we have people the person will work together I also want to just mention and the foundation is also planning an event for Memorial Day it's not up on their website yet but around their whole schools initiative it's a whole On Wellness day I'm going to be working with other entities in the community as well to plan for students and families so something to put on your calendars they will I'm sure post their information soon but that's just another opportunity for our students to participate in Wellness I think the other I'll just use this opportunity too to share what I'm also hearing a lot from some students and families is DPS has a lot of things but it's not always getting to the student and so how do we make sure I pray that we don't have more of these incidents but I think we may how do we make sure when those resources are showing up at.

Schools the students know that they're there they have access to them and the school is making the space necessary for students to grieve in the way that they need to and I think that's a really important measure that we need to improve on from my conversations with people in the community and from communities that have been impacted so those are all my comments I just want to make sure we lay out this timeline to make sure we can move this forward and really do this in a way that honors students and families and how folks want to grieve and also respects like what we need to do as an entity Miss Travis can I just say one thing about the committee thing again so it's not how many people are on the committee anytime there's a board-appointed committee the open meetings laws apply you'd have to post it Etc it could be two or four the same rules apply.

Thank you for proposing this and working on this Miss Lewis I want to say a few points one that I think sending a message of acknowledgment and validation about harm that students and others have experienced is is important I think people you know want to want and need to be seen in the in the harm that they've experienced and unfortunately this has been a very just very painful last few months for Durham and for for our our community of Youth and Families I I think that just some things about the event I like the timeline that was proposed by Chair Umstead I think this is an opportunity to share what we are doing and what we would like to do also so I like the the phrasing that is cardan brought about action and I think there can be both that space War reflection and grief and looking forward to how we take care of each other and protect each other going forward I was interested to know so there were two events planned or.

Proposed one was the moment of silence one was the event later in the day that would be optional for people to attend anyone in the community with the moment of silence my questions around it and I've shared some of this but just I was wondering what principles felt like was appropriate I I do think having some choice about that for different School communities makes sense I I'm particularly just wondering how want to make sure that teachers feel supported if issues come up particularly with our younger students where they might not have known about the issues of gun violence in our community so just want to make sure we support our Educators and and if there is any feedback from principals I'd be interested to hear you know how they what their what their senses of their School communities and what the kids are needing and so that's that's a question maybe maybe the Administration has comments on that I'm not sure but in any case that's what I'm wondering.

And then the last thing was you listed some partner organizations that might be able to take part in this in the public event later in the day and I just wonder if some of them might be able to provide resources or or kind of educative materials around mental health support gun safety or what whatever you all whatever kind of Direction you all decide to go in but it might be nice to to provide some resources that people we do have in our community that people can look toward as they are thinking about how to support themselves and one another but again thank you and thank you for the other board members Ms validatis and Ms Rogers who will are willing to work on this and and kind of finalize the details of a proposal as well thank you so much for all the comments and feedback and questions I would like to defer to our student support services staff for support on developmentally appropriate language when it is clear that we are supporting these efforts.

One of the things that I heard students say that after a loss that was experienced in the community it seemed like most of the adults didn't want to talk about it and they went on as business as usual grief is hard and it is hard to talk about for some so I think it's really important that we have the educational resources available for our Educators just the same I would definitely lean on our counselors our mental health professionals and work closely with Miss Dr Maddox Perry for what that support could look like I had linked a document for how to talk to children in age-appropriate and I appreciate the feedback you know modify it for what's best for your building your school environment things of that nature as well I just want to be clear there are some students who don't know about the violence that's happening and there are some who do and we need to be able to support both and and it is unfortunate that we're in.

A place that we even have to have these conversations but how do we do that in a way that really supports everyone to be seen to know that we're taking the time and that's what this allows for chair Umstead I just want to give you an Applause coming up with dates and deadlines like I definitely appreciate that support and I love deadline say this is the day that this happens and it's also aligned with you know has taken the lead on this and it's ahead of some of the dates that I've been given from city council where they could possibly bring on their agenda so again working this through what the resolution gets us to getting to the work session so that is very helpful to have that in place as well and you know I I'm be honest you know to hear board members and not being accusatory of anything but to say that something may be performative feels like a bit of a microaggression only because.

You all I feel like know my heart and I'm about action and moving and I don't think anyone said this for me personally but I'm just telling you when I hear that term performative I'm like come on now y'all know I'm not doing nothing performative I can act on some things but this right here has been very important and dear to me and you know I don't have to show my receipts I thought about showing my receipts but I have a long-term list of things that I've been researching what a comprehensive plan looks like what work looks like moving on from here I have a calendar of events of things that I'm doing and working on with community and connecting other community members with things that are happening so Dr Juana Boone did something it was during our spring break but it was a virtual session led by students I believe it was March 29th and from that having conversation with her to do a part two of that led by the youth and I.

Was already planning Community conversations when the incident happened at Hillside and I shipped it because I was going to do these Community conversations I said no no it needs to be used I'm listening to you they have to leave this so as I shared with you all on April 25th we got community conversations happening at St Joseph's that's led by the youth from six to eight it's open to everybody and I don't have an agenda yet or that because the youth are leading the agenda they're saying who they can have at their table who they want at their table so and on top of that working with Dr Karen hoddleman and Dr Wanda Boone they're looking for a day to begin these civil hackathons which is bringing together a task force a stakeholders centering youth wellness and gun violence and education and I think their first date may be May 6 to do these quarterly so again here I am showing my receipts I said I wasn't going to do that but there.

Are things that are layered and approaches and I think there's things that we can do around policy that I'm looking into and I appreciate the support from this board to you know look at how we're going to make things better for our school community and safety for the community at large and I and I just hear the next steps being make sure we publicly notice any meetings that we may have myself Miss Rogers and Miss valladera is working directly on this and to come back to the board with a resolution draft that we can then share with the other governing bodies and then further details to be discussed and in that resolution I'll make sure that by the time we get to the May 4th and I defer to the administration on this touching base with student support services for some language around the day of Remembrance in the schools it's good we'll follow you late and we'll be ready to support you there's one more group I just wanted to mention the non-violence.

There's a there's a group that is also interested in participating is my mic not working it's on oh I can't tell it's on but it's okay I guess now it is okay so yeah I do think that you know there's definitely a benefit of having you know all the different organizations that are willing to be so we're Limited in who can be meeting but this committee you I just wanted to ask Mr Malone when you mentioned being that this is a committee then it's open it's public record so our meetings would have to be public and publicized or if it's not a committee I guess like that's that's a caveat if it's a committee or not a committee that is looking to do this work go ahead yeah I was gonna say I think at this point it's a committee it is a committee okay and so whenever we made our workout the details to make sure that it's publicly noticed the zoom link is available we'll be meeting by Zoom I.

Don't think we'll be in person and that the public knows that the public knows and it's your key minutes and we'll keep minutes we will keep two minutes this is very important work the other thing as I was mentioning we have a list of organizations non-violent Durham I believe maybe we'll get to all the all the different books yeah thank you thank you so much any other questions feedback all right thank you for this discussion we have some action and movement truly thank you all so much next item on the agenda is 8A Chief of Staff policy 9110 news and selection of Architects Engineers surveyors and construction managers at risk Miss Giovanni good evening board members Dr mabanga chair Umstead chair Lewis Vice chair Chavez this is policy Administration brings tonight policy 9110 excuse me use and selection of Architects Engineers surveyors and construction managers at risk this is actually pretty much a ministerial Amendment to the policy if you recall back in August of last year we had a robust conversation regarding raising.

The amounts that required board approval we actually ended up coming back after further conversation and reducing that ask even and it was Dr Monk noted because this is primarily in his area that we had neglected to include 9110 in raising that amount so we're here tonight to Simply ask the board to raise the amount from 90 to 200 000 so that aligns with the rest of the purchasing policies requiring board approval and this is on for first reading first reading okay thank you discussion questions.

I would move approval of these policies on first reading and as that we put them on consent or future meeting second it's been moved by Miss Byers seconded by Miss Rogers all in favor please say hi hi India Paul say aye then the passage United Anderson thank you next item in the agenda is eight b a consent item was pulled off for transfer of 2016 General obligation Bond project bonds Miss Roger you wanted to pull this agenda off do you want to pull this consent item off to discuss this I will turn it over to you thank you thanks so much board member Carter Acton brought it to our attention and had some questions around moving of this funding to make sure that we had done the sustainability work that we agreed to do with the 2016 Bond Mr Davis was able to provide us with that information we just wanted to be accountable to our residents to let them know that we are indeed doing that work and Mr Davis or Mr Dr.

Monk either of you that want to respond to that inquiry would be helpful thank you Mr Davis for coming to the mic good evening yes there was a relevant Point making sure that we continue our sustainability efforts and goals to be 80 clean and renewable by 2030. I did send an email and letter stating the reason why we're doing this Bond transfer as the monies for 2016 are time sensitive and must be spent with an appropriate time and we will leave those projects open as the documentation that you have before you chose an amendment which means that those projects will continue to be thought and planned and designed and then we'll go to a Canon County for probation of other fundings to support our sustainability efforts and so I work for sustainability is ongoing it's just that that funding source needs to be spent in a timely fashion and so we've moved that to the first of my other obligations such as ffne fixture furniture and equipment for the new Northern High School.

Thank you so much for providing that response today by email and additional information I just had a couple of follow-up questions to clarify so it sounds like the transfer of funds necessary to meet this deadline for spending the money but that the funds being transferred from the energy and sustainability projects will be returned to these projects once the district's reimbursed by you said the Department of Transportation is that right that is correct I was wondering will it be the full funding that's returned the same because this is I think over a million dollars we're talking about right so the full funding me returned or will it do we know at this point so currently the offer off-site roads for Northern High School which is the reimbursable process was roughly two million dollars so it is our understanding that the department of attorney station will refund us I am not quite sure of it is a hundred percent or not but we are in constant dialogue with the Department of Transportation to see.

What that dollar amount will be okay that's great yeah I'd like to I think it's important that we as you believe as well keep the funds that we had dedicated towards energy and sustainability for those projects along those lines you would also mention that there was work to install solar panels at Lions Farm that's awesome and then that you all were working on EB charging stations and that there was a solar feasibility study that had either been done or was planned I wasn't sure which that was the case we do have a draft that provided us a score of all of our 52 plus facilities I ranked them but who would be advantageous to receive solar panels at that time and we plan to share that along with some other work that we're doing evolving around energy and sustainability hopefully in the upcoming months and then we'll share what those results were from that that will give you a idea of how we plan to move forward with that information that's great that'll be.

Really exciting to hear and so that's part or all of how that we anticipate that the funding will be spent the yes that's going but coming back that is correct that is one part of the funding again in an effort to utilize the majority of our funding we did designate the three million dollars from the 2016. But as you as some of our projects such as the EV charging station has a long lead time on materials I want to make sure that we can actually complete some of the projects or jeopardize losing some of that funding and so we're shifting that funding to projects that are ongoing now and it will be completed by the time set by the county great thank you so much you're welcome Mr Davis I look forward to hearing like the the next wave of updates because I I know that 3 million was just a drop in the bucket for needs and and I'm so appreciative of the the work that y'all are leading in this space the electric.

Charging stations are going to be amazing and and beefing up the fleet in that area I know folks had asked about the lighting at Southern and whether we'd gotten around to that they've been asking about solar panels on the parking structures at Northern any hints of big projects upcoming that you're dreaming about or you want to save that for in the future the short answer is that we'll save it for the future given the time any electric buses that we got from the federal government because we needed 25 or we asked for 25 we're still in the running for that as well that is correct yeah and I know the folks that had a green energy Bond and dreamed of actually having significant funding I know we could dream up more projects if we had more funding and I was so appreciative of the work that you all are leading in this area thank you Miss valladeras thank you so much for the information I mean I I think I seconded everyone here we're committed.

To being a district that is green right we're we are so grateful for you know the resolution that was brought forth by solar schools NC and and so many community members who you know have just told us how important this is when it comes to energy and sustainability we started years ago I believe it was 2017 with just changing all the lighting in all the schools and that project hasn't been completed yet do we have a year 2017 I believe that around that time was when we started the energy sustainable sustainability we were also doing and this is very important during covid when it was like sensors like motion sensors so that you know folks they didn't have to touch you know the light the light switches or anything like that and so I'm I'm really wondering in terms of this important work and I'm glad that we can spend this money but we we know that this money has to go for it for these multiple projects that have been listed.

Can you tell me about a timeline for the even just changing the lighting which is low hanging fruit but it's very important as well that's great question so we are the energy sustainability lighting an ongoing projects and so we have a multitude of mechanisms of funding sources so we have Capital outlay that we get annually we have Lottery funds from the state and then we have our County funders so we prioritize based on our 10-year plan and based on what it is that pops up during that year and so what we will do is along with the reports from the study and what we've done through this year is come back to you and give you a synopsis of all the things that we're doing and where we're headed for in terms of sustainability projects thank you so much if there's no other discussion because this was pulled off consent I think we need a motion to get a massive approval the Joe Bond project second the move I missed buyers.

Taken by Miss Rogers to approve the transfer of 2016. General obligation Bond projects funds all in favor say aye aye is the same if any opposed it passes unanimously thank you sir.

The next item on the agenda is 9A School library month Proclamation this is Dr Hardy thank you good evening this evening we are here to celebrate we like to have proclamations as frequently as possible to celebrate our school librarians as part of school library month I would like to introduce Dr Linda segorian our executive director for curriculum instruction who will introduce the proclamation to be read by each of you this evening and it is before the board for Action Dr tagorian good evening Dr mubenga chair Umstead and DPS Board of Education our media centers are a vital part of nearly every aspect of instruction in our schools serving as a place for students to seek information and discover compelling stories and narratives that spark learning about the world around us we are extremely proud of the work of our school librarians who teach the skills of locating and using information through traditional resources and new technologies provide literature appreciation activities and guide and encourage content and recreational reading for each of our students in.

Durham Public Schools importantly our teaching Librarians also facilitate access to information and resources for each of the staff at our schools the school library truly serves as a hub of learning for both staff and students and we greatly appreciate the work of our school librarians chair Umstead I yield to you and the members of the Board of Education to read this year's School library bonded Proclamation it is with pleasure to read this school library month Proclamation Miss Rogers can you begin us and we'll do each paragraph Proclamation School library month April 2023.

Whereas the school library is to ensure the students and staff are effective users of ideas and information and whereas the school librarian's role is to provide the leadership and expertise necessary to ensure that the school library is an integral part of the instructional program of the school and whereas the Board of Education has entrusted the school librarian in each school to teach the skills of locating and using information through traditional resources and new technologies to provide literature appreciation activities and to guide and encourage content and recreational reading to every student and whereas lifelong learning begins and is systematically developed through the school library curriculum of the elementary and secondary schools and whereas the school library contributes to the individual growth and development of all students while fostering both excellence and equity in education and whereas the school librarians of Durham public schools have dedicated themselves to work for Quality School libraries for all students now therefore be it resolve that the Board of Education of Durham Public Schools does hereby Proclaim.

April 2023 as school library month and calls upon School administrators teachers students and residents of Durham County to recognize and support this action and to participate throughout the month of April in the celebration of school library month thank you. Is there any discussion okay Mr Rogers and Miss Beyer and move approval of the Proclamation for school library month April 2023. it's been moving properly second all in favor say aye aye any opposed say no all right passes unanimously thank you and last item on our agenda next to last item is a summary of follow-up items Dr Mark thank you good evening Board of Education Dr mabenga the first item is the lgbtqia plus Task Force update need to consider the start and end date for the task force this may be left up to the task force to decide but in the meantime want to invite the members of the task force to the board training staff will research the cost of having a facilitator and Dr mamango will make a.

Decision on who will Minister from the staff side of the work once it's been recommended from the task force a day of remembrance proposal I want to make sure that we have resources for our students and staff at all grade levels to make sure that they have appropriate support and understanding their grief this may be led by DPS student support services staff I want to make sure that we have it on our next on the May 4th agenda work session with all the details worked out so that it's ready for the May 15th date and we're interested to hear back some feedback from principals of what's going to work best in their particular schools the policy 9110 revision was approved for first reading and added to the consent for April the 20th board meeting and that's the summary that I have Dr Hardy have anything else all right thank you make sure April 20th that we get a copy of the resolution as well copy of the resolution yes absolutely okay.

With that follow up we are now going.

Into closed session I move that we go into closed session for the reason stated on the agenda second been moved and seconded to go into closed session all in paper say aye aye the opposed same that moves passes unanimously.

We are back in August session Dr mabenga I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a closed session the move approval of the Personnel report dated April 6th as amended a second they moved in probably second all in favor say aye aye opposed it passes unanimously of that session is closed okay foreign.