Good evening everybody. >> Uh the Durham Public Schools Board of Education work session is now in session. At this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us here and online this evening. The purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents, our staff, and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, educate, and empower every student to innovate, serve, and lead.
The interpreters for tonight are Karen Reyes and Iet Perez. Thank you for taking the time to join us. This meeting is being interpreted live into Spanish with a delay of a few seconds. So we kindly ask and I will try to remember this too that you please pace yourself, pause between ideas and speak clearly so that everybody can follow along. The next the next item on the agenda is a moment of silence. And I ask that this evening
as we enter this moment of silence um we take a moment to acknowledge and take some time to reflect on a profound loss that has been experienced here in the Durham public schools community. While attending a routine asylum appointment with their parents in Charlotte earlier this week, two of our elementary school students were detained and deported. Where there was laughter and joy, we now have two empty seats in our classrooms and a school community ruptured by immigration enforcement. This is not normal.
It's not okay. Here in Durham public schools, we will continue to do all that we can to support families impacted by this loss and by the constant threat posed by immigration enforcement agencies. With that moment of silence,
next item on the agenda this evening is agenda review and approval. Move approval of the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Harrell Goff to approve the agenda as presented.
Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I.
>> All those opposed, please use the same sign. All right. The agenda as presented passes unanimously. The next item on the agenda is the board of education meeting minutes from March 12th, 2026.
Move approval of the board of education minutes from March 12th, 2026. >> Second. Moved by Miss Harold Goff and seconded by Miss Beyer to approve the meeting minutes from March 12th, 2026. Is there any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. The meeting minutes from March 12th, 2026 pass uh unanimously as presented.
The next item on the agenda agenda is general public comment. So before we begin, I'll um do a quick review of the rules. Um first, please state your name. If speaking for an organization, please state your name and the name of the organization.
Second, speakers are asked to present their comments in 3 minutes. When the yellow light comes on, you have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep, which indicates that your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session.
However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, the safety of students, and the operation of the school system. Finally, board members will listen carefully and consider the comments, but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers. the first speaker and I'm going to name um maybe three at a time so you can be prepared to come up and I apologize in
advance if I mispronounce any names. Um the first speaker is Coutura Mason followed by Anna Messenger followed by um Natashia. >> Good evening. >> Good evening.
>> My name is Caita Mason. I am the manager over at Hamlin Road and Transportation. I'm not coming to ask for anything or any complaints. I'm coming with a open, grateful heart and to just say thank you to each and every one of you for all the hard work that you do, but especially thank you for what I call that I've been praying for my dream team um in transportation.
There has been a 360 degree turnaround in transportation. They are working hard to continue on this path. Um heading up is um Mr. Kenneth Barnes.
He's the head of that operation. Thank you, Mr. Barnes,
and all that you do, all your hard work. Um that goes unnoticed to a lot, but we see exactly what you do. Also, um Mr. Anthony White as well who's continually grinding also who is not here, Mr.
Joe Harris. Um, I have sat in the room with him and Mrs. Tammy Phillips to see them work their magic and made ways out of now for routing. So, my hat goes off to them and also Mr.
Tony Leak. These are individuals that work really hard and never ever get thank you. It's always complaints. Um, and I also want to thank our staff um, who never get recognized for the hard work that they do. The assistant area managers and the managers that are at the job in the morning, 4:30, 5:00, never ends until 7
and very rarely get a lunch break. So to all the assistant managers and the managers, thank you for all the hard work that you do. We appreciate you. I appreciate the board.
I appreciate you, Dr. Lewis. Again, thank you for the hard work that you're doing and continue to do. I know it's hard.
I know you get thousands of complaints. But always remember, if you're doing your best and your very best, that's all you can ask for. He knows and he sees what you're doing. Amen.
Y'all have a good evening. Thank you. Next on the list, Anna Messenger. >> Hi, I'm Anna Messenger.
I'm a retired educator and I will yield my time to Natasha. >> I'm short. Uh, good evening board
members. Good evening, Superintendent Lewis. Um, my name is Natasia Rodriguez Aut and I serve as the PTA president at Murray Massenberg Elementary School. And as you know, we are Durham's newest elementary school.
And we over the last two years, our staff, students, and parents have worked tirelessly to build a community in this new school from the ground up. And we have a community that every day is actively choosing to be in DPS. However, I'm here tonight because a recent policy shift in the district is undermining that hard work. And this past fall, the district enacted a policy that stops the sponsorship of teachers that are here on J1 visas to continue on if the school so chooses.
And because of this change, one of our most beloved educators in our school, Mr. Herrera, you could wave, Mr. Herrera. Um, thank you.
He's now halfway through the school year, finding himself without a clear path forward in our district. And I want to be very direct about the stakes here. First, we're already in a teacher retention crisis. Uh we have many schools that start the year without enough staff members and we can't afford
to lose teachers who are actually wanting to stay and be here and form a community with us. Second, we're losing students to charter schools on a regular basis. And what keeps families at Murray Massenberg at DPS is the stability of the classroom are amazing educators that we trust and love. And when we lo lose a teacher like this who we've really formed relationships with, we lose the trust of the parents.
And I've already been hearing this from our PTA members and beyond. Finally, there's an issue of fairness here where Mr. Herrera was already 6 months into the visa process and has our school name on his application on his waiver. And um when this policy was changed, there was no intermediate period or transition period for this time.
And also on the heels of this moment of silence we shared earlier, we're now here telling teachers that they don't have a place here and to stay here within our district, which does not seem right when they are part of our community. So in closing, I want to say that Mr. Herrera is exactly the kind of educator we need here in DPS. Um and and we really need him here if we
want to stay competitive and keep our families within our public schools. And Murray Massenberg is a um a school that we feed into from neighborhoods that are choosing places like DA and charter schools on a regular basis. We need to keep our teachers there to keep those students coming into our school and transferring in. And Mr.
Herrera is an integral part of the community and a reason why parents um including our um our students who are Spanish speakers why they feel comfortable coming to school every day. And so we aren't asking you to overhaul the whole district policy. We are asking for um for a policy exemption to keep Mr. Herrera in our community as he was already in this process and really is part of what we've created as a school.
Um we really can't talk about student success and push teachers out of buildings at the same time. We love our teachers. Um and as an example of that, we have teachers here, we have parents here, and we really just we students here as well. Um who all really want to show that we we need this exception um because we mean so much to us in our community.
Um so um in closing I'll say that um we we've dedic we have a dedicated professional who is already really a part of our our growing family at Murray Massenberg two years in and we want to keep him. Um and uh so throughout this evening you're going to hear comments from our parents um and teachers and our students are here to tell you that we really do want him and hope you'll make an exemption. Thank you so much. Um, the next person on the list is Naomi Chan and then that's followed by Payton Harwell and Katherine Doorin.
Good evening. My name is Naomi Chan. I am a teacher at Murray Massenberg and I will be yielding my time to Miss Katherine Doring. I'm sorry. The next person on the list is Payton Harwell.
>> I'm yielding my time to Payton Harwell. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Um, my name is Payton Harwell.
I'm also a teacher at Murray Massenberg. Um, I just wanted to quickly say that Mr. Herrera is like un unlike any other art teacher I've ever experienced. And I will now yield my time to Miss Katherine Doring.
>> Good evening. My name is Katherine Hester Doring. I'm here tonight on behalf of many families um that you've met here from Murray Massenberg Elementary and we have come together as a community um to ask you to please reconsider this decision not to renew Mr. Herrera's visa. I'm here as a parent, but also as a lifelong artist whose own life was so profoundly shaped by art educators in North Carolina public schools. Lifelong North Carolina public school girl here
and proud to have my children in them. I want to tell you that Mr. Herrera is an extraordinary art teacher. I wish I had him.
I want to go to class every day. But even more than that, he is a cornerstone of our school community. You are. When I walk my child into school, we are often warmly greeted by Mr.
Herrera. He has even taught my four-year-old, a future Murray Massenberg Panther, some of his very first Spanish words. He helps make our school a place where every child feels that they belong. Parents describe him as exceptional, a vital member of our community, and the kind of educator who goes the extra mile.
But more importantly, they describe what he does. He fills our hallways with vibrant, skillful, and culturally rich student artwork. He takes students to the Nasher Museum. I
got to go on that field trip. Lucky me. and he encourages them to display their artwork proudly. He builds confidence in children who struggle to express themselves.
He creates a space where students feel seen and brings our school to life through art, through culture and connection. One parent shared that their child now turns to art in moments of stress because of Mr. Herrera. Another said their granddaughter's confidence is through the roof.
That's what education is supposed to do. Ignite limitless potential. Right? His impact even extends beyond the classroom.
He is present at everything. The talent show, the fall festival, the readathon celebration that was epic this morning. He designs the banners and the artwork for these events and it brings energy and pride and unity to our school.
Mr. Herrera is also a critical support to our Spanish-sp speakaking families when so many in our community were afraid during the ICE raids earlier this year. Mr. Herrera organized the creation of a banner hung at the entrance to school.
It was visible to our daily carline with a collage of student handprints and the phrase in solidarity, a visible message of love and solidarity to all who felt vulnerable. Tonight, our students and families have created a sign for him in that same spirit. And we want to make it clear to all of you and we want to make it clear to you most of all, Mr. Herrera that we stand with you in solid. So board members at a time when Durham public schools faces a shortage of certified teachers we are choosing to lose one we already know is extraordinary.
That just doesn't make sense. I know many of you and many of us are all asking ourselves, why are teachers and students leaving DPS? And this is one of the reasons why. When policies prevent schools from keeping educators who are deeply rooted in our communities, who are loved, who are effective, we create instability where there could be strength.
It is also just important to acknowledge that this change happened partway through Mr. Herrera's visa process. I know Natia touched on that. And this is just more than a policy shift.
It's just an unjust and frankly short-sighted disruption to a teacher and a community that are deeply invested in each other. Our families want to make this very clear. We just can't afford to lose him. Educators like Mr. Herrera are exactly what our schools need. And so we are
asking you to help us keep a teacher who is already making Durham public schools and Murray Massenberg elementary school stronger. Who sets the standard and raises the bar daily. Who shows us both who we are and who we aspire to be as a school and even as a district. People are not made to serve policies.
Policies are made to serve people. And what we have at Mary Massenberg with Mr. Herrera is real. So we implore you to take the necessary action, whatever that looks like.
That's your job, right? So that Mr. Herrera can continue his everyday magic transforming our children's lives and making our Panther nation at Murray Massenberg Elementary School the pride of Durham public schools. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Uh, the next speaker is Taylor Cook, followed by Jonathan, I'm sorry, Zeel and Emily Barnacle. Taylor Cook. That's a tough one to follow.
Taylor Cook. I'm a parent of two girls at Murray Massberg. Mr. Herrera has had such a positive impact not only in our children's lives and in their artistic development, but also on the school community as a whole.
Both of our girls love him and love their art class the most of all their specials. Mr. Herrera even selected one of our daughter's artworks to showcase at the DPS Superintendent Art Show last fall with Dr. Lewis. She
was so honored. Mr. Herrera did an amazing job with all of the participants to help make it a very special event. More than that, Mr.
Herrera is ju is just an integral part of the school community. He's always at the afterchool events. He helps with not only art events, but dance and music events at school, helping the children better understand his heritage and giving them perspectives they wouldn't otherwise receive. Mr.
Herrera has been at early morning PTA meetings helping translate the conversation for non-English speakers. He often also serves as translator for school events and for announcements. As kids are arriving in the morning, he's in the hallways greeting them with a smile, helping them if they need direction or have any tough time, answering questions, and simply providing a warm start to their day. DPS can keep great families by keeping great teachers.
Mr. Herrera is so much more than an art teacher. He's part of our community and he helps us thrive. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jonathan Zel. >> Yes. Uh my name is Jonathan Zeil. Um I'm a parent of a second grader at Murray Massenberg.
Um she drew this. This is uh my daughter Penelopey with Mr. Herrera. Um Mr.
is her art teacher and he inspires her and he inspires me and he's the kind of teacher that we just can't afford to lose at DPS. Cannot. Um and I yield the rest of my time to uh >> Thank you. Emily Barnacle.
>> Good evening. My name is Emily Barnacle. I'm a parent of two children at Mary Massenberg and I will yield my time to Lily Whitten. >> Thank you.
Next person on the list is Lily Whitten, followed by Chad Hayel and Molly Weekes. >> Good evening. My name is Lily Whitten. I'm a parent of two children at Marie
Massenberg Elementary. In five years of being a parent in DPS, tonight is the first schoolboard meeting I've ever attended. I'm here on behalf of the students, teachers, and families of Marie Massenberg, asking you to reconsider the decision to not renew and to not let Marie Massenberg renew the visa of our beloved art teacher, Mr. Herrera.
I first met Mr. Herrera the summer before Marie Massenberg opened. The building wasn't completed. The teachers hadn't set foot in the classrooms, but here they were, gathered on a hot July day in a YMCA playground, ready to meet their new students who were already sticky, covered in popsicles.
His enthusiasm that day was infectious and gave me such confidence about the brand new environment that our children were stepping into. From that day forward, Mr. Herrera has continued to show up for his students in every possible way. He is a driving force in our school, championing students and building their confidence through everchanging art
gallery displays and club gatherings. He gives endlessly of himself and his time, his energy, supporting every school production, including theater performances, Hispanic heritage nights, talent shows, and more. Mr. Herrera teaches and influences our students not just through his warm style of instruction and his very patient explanations of art technique, but by demonstrating how to treat other people and how to give back to those around you.
His positive impact on our children and on our school community is unmatched. At the beginning of this school year, my seven-year-old declared out of nowhere that she wanted to join the art club. This was a new endeavor for her and she was nervous. She shared her goal with Mr.
Herrera, who encouraged and supported her while she conquered her nerves over several weeks, patiently discussing with her which art pieces she wanted to submit for the application portfolio. She successfully joined art club. I
think everyone does and looks forward to their time together every week as her skills and her confidence grows. My daughter calls herself an artist now, even keeping a sketchbook and pencil in her bed at night. Her dad and I are so grateful for a teacher who makes the time not just to know every student by name, but who helps them see something new in themselves and go after it. Mr.
Herrera made a commitment to Durham public schools and to his students at Murray Massenberg. He has remained steadfast in that commitment and demonstrates his resolve every day by connecting with students, encouraging and inspiring them to try something new. He's an asset to our students and our school community. Changing the terms of his employment midway through the renewal process is wrong and it's unfair. At a time when we as a district should be looking for ways to retain teachers, this new policy feels poorly thought out and harmful to students and schools
alike. Murray Massenberg leadership planned ahead for this renewal process, knowing Mr. Herrera's value and set aside funding specifically for this purpose. Yet, the board has stated that we are unable to follow that plan.
To what end? While DPS is losing students and educators to charters and other districts, it's unfathomable to me that the board would turn down a solution to retain a highly qualified, engaged, and beloved teacher. We know that teachers leave schools for many reasons and we should not be adding to that list. We should be creating solutions and pathways for them to stay.
We are asking you to reconsider this decision and support whatever actions needed would allow Mr. Herrera to continue sharing his talents at our school and encouraging our children to grow into themselves. Mr. Herrera is the epitome of the kind of teacher we want to keep in DPS. He is
dedicated, compassionate, inclusive, and kind. Our school, our community, and the entire district are better with him. Thank you for considering. >> Thank you so much.
Uh the next speaker on the list is Chad Hi, my name is Chad Hafley. I'm here as a parent of students at Hope Valley Elementary and Rogers Middle School. Um, not here to talk about Mr. Herrera, but he sounds wonderful and I hope you all take the previous comments seriously.
Um, so last year I came and spoke to the board about the previous proposal for express busing. I thought it was a bad idea then and I think it's a bad idea now. Last time you made the right call by not implementing express busing and I hope you'll do the same thing again. And I do want to thank you for exempting elementary schools from this new proposal. That's a step in the right direction. And I think the proposal does
make some sense for schools like DSA that enroll students from throughout the entire county. Uh but express busing for attendance zonebased secondary schools in the magnet program still has the same problems from last year. I would ask what's your metric of success here? If your goal is to increase on-time buses, I think express will work.
But the mission of public busing isn't just to have on-time vehicles. It's to get kids to school. You'd be cutting down the list of who can take the bus in the first place, putting a burden on families and calling that success. Families without that extreme flexibility during the workday will effectively be shut out of the secondary magnet school program.
The growing together redistricting a few years ago was all about increasing equitable access to all of these programs. Uh so why do we even do that if you're going to throw away many of those gains with express busing? I would also point out that this is once again being considered after lotteryies have closed for the year. And even with the one-year lead time for many schools, I don't think that's enough of a heads up. Picking a school and community to be part of is a multi-year commitment, and families deserve to have a full picture
of the logistics involved for the duration of that commitment that they're entering into. I would also ask that you take time to talk to families impacted by this change. I looked at tonight's slides. They have survey results from DSA parents, but no other schools.
My daughters had an impact with middle school and tonight's agenda was the first time I even heard that it was being considered. So, I want to point out the metrics issue one more time. Express busing could solve the wrong problem. It's all about efficiency of buses as vehicles and not the effectiveness of getting kids to and from school for their education.
If you keep asking families to fill these logistical gaps, uh I don't think we can be surprised when they choose to leave DPS uh when it happens over and over again. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Molly Weekes.
>> Hi, my name is Molly Weekes and I'm a Murray Massenberg parent and I seed my time to Mr. Mike Trusy. >> All right, next speaker is Mike Trusy followed by Rob Fields and then Peter Crawford.
>> Thank you and good evening. My name is Mike Trusy and I serve as the music specialist at Mary Massenberg Elementary. Tonight I stand in full support of a continuation visa on behalf of Mr. Elvin Herrera.
I have worked with Mr. Herrera since he started the global teacher program at DPS. Three years at Eastway Elementary and now nearly two years at Mary Massenberg. Mr.
Herrera has served as the art specialist, school improvement team member, Hispanic Heritage Month facilitator, club facilitator, digital projects designer, translator, and interpreter. The list could go on for his leadership responsibilities at Mary Massenberg. As you can see, Mr. Mr.
Herrera serves in many roles and he does it with pride, honor, professionalism and integrity. As a music specialist, we have presented several music productions together. Mr. Herrera always comes in with new and innovative artistic ideas to make each production better. His attention to details is unmatched.
He goes above and beyond. He's the last team member to leave the school because of his dedication. " One of the highlights that stands out is Mr. Herrera leading our school in the community arts mural project.
It was great to see Mr. Herrera bring our school community together for the special project and then transfer that knowledge on community murals into a district-led PD for other art teachers in DPS. The art projects not only foster collaboration but strengthen identity, belonging, and family engagement. Mr.
Herrera has filled a critical need in our school that cannot be easily replaced. The loss of a teacher of his caliber would have a real and lasting negative impact not just on scheduling but also staffing but more importantly on the students education. Mr. Herrera changes lives daily.
I am honored to call him a great colleague and a great friend. Please consider honoring the continuation visa on behalf of Mr. Herrera so that he can continue to build the future of Durm. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. Rob Fields. >> Hello. >> I'm Rob Fields, a DPS grandparent.
Yesterday, DPS posted a video showing the board chair and two other board members purporting to reconvene a March 30 special board meeting. I found no notice of any March 30 meeting, nor of any meeting to be reconvened on April 8th. Remembers do not constitute a quorum. Without a quorum, this board cannot conduct any official business. The video also shows those three members immediately moving into closed session without stating any statutory basis
as required by North Carolina law. After about two hours, those same three members reappear and purport to recess the meeting to April 15, again without a quorum. Separately, it has been publicly reported that a deputy superintendent was terminated around March the 6th. I can find no record of any public vote approving that action, which is required to occur in open session.
All of these are legal requirements that determine whether your actions are valid. The board needs to fully explain what happened on March 30 and April 8 and clearly determine the status of the deputy superintendent through official public action. Durham deserves a board of education that operates lawfully with full transparency and in public. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next speaker is Peter
Crawford. >> Hey folks, good evening. My name is Pete Crawford. I'm a parent of three DPS students, two of whom are at Murray M.
Massenberg Elementary School. If we fast forward 6 months to October, we will know by then what enrollment looks like for the 2627 school year. And my fear is that it is going to be lower still than where it was this year. And those of you who are still on the board at that point are going to throw up your hands and say, why?
What's going on? How is it that we keep losing students? And we can point to things like this policies where we lose beloved members of our teaching community. Um, and that leaves parents wondering, well, what do I do?
It's highly disruptive. Even at Murray Massenberg, which we love, and I feel very grateful to be a part of. My fourth grader is on her second teacher of the year already. At midyear, she lost her beloved AIG teacher.
This has a huge impact of her experience as a student in DPS when you have that kind of disruption. And so, now we're faced with the prospect of losing Mr. Herrera, somebody who they absolutely adore and
who has been a real force in giving them confidence in the district. They've had the opportunity to present their art uh at the the show with you, Dr. Lewis, and elsewhere. I I'm probably one of those parents who has spent more time with Mr.
Herrera, not in Murray Massenberg, than I have outside of it. Um at art shows, at sporting events, even at birthday parties, y'all, he shows up to kids birthday parties. He is a part of this community. So if there was ever a reason to reconsider this visa policy where we have teachers who are doing a phenomenal job, um Mr.
Herrera is one of them. He's a phenomenal teacher, but I know there are others in the district because my older daughter has had them as well in other settings who are here on visa and doing a phenomenal job. And we don't consider the outcomes of those teachers and the impact of retaining great teachers uh when we have a policy that's just directed at something that doesn't even appear to be cost related. Um, and so I beg you, please consider changing the policy or at least grandfathering in some of these teachers who've become so integrated into our community. Thank
you. >> Thank you. Uh, the next speaker on the list is uh, John Hodgees Coppel and I hear that we have one more also. So um, Mr.
Hodgees Cpple first and then Okay. And then Mr. Savara. >> Thanks.
I'm John Hajes Cppel. Uh and I'm here to make some initial comments about DPS capital planning. Uh my theme both today and probably at future meetings uh is from the scientific method that we teach to our middle and and high school students. Uh that a hypothesis is not the same as a result. And in order to plan wisely, we need to make informed decisions based on transparent evidence and community engagement. I'll focus on one thing today, state guidelines related to the size of school sites and ideal enrollment levels, focusing on elementary schools since
you're being asked to consider consolidating some elementary schools. The guidelines take up just two pages, and I'll lead each of you with a full copy of those two pages if that's all right. Here's what they say. School sites K to six, 10 plus acres.
Quote, "The above guidelines assume a rural or suburban area with a one-story building. Urban sites and areas that follow the tenets of smart growth may find creative solutions on substantially smaller sites and may involve multi-story construction. School enrollment quote schools with membership sizes that fall within the following ranges can offer excellent educational programs with comprehensive curriculum while providing the most efficient use of space. elementary schools 450 to 700 students.
Another quote, "Studies regarding school climate and safety suggest that schools with smaller membership sizes may have advantages over schools with larger membership sizes. Researchers suggest that ideal school membership sizes for improved safety and violence reduction are as follows: elementary 300 to 400 students. End of quote. I believe it is through careful consideration involving transparency, sharing of evidence, and extensive community engagement that we can make the best choices for our schools.
I'm concerned that we are not yet following those tenants as we proceed into our next phase of capital facility planning. Thank you. And can I leave just these sheets for for you all? >> Thank you so much.
>> And our final speaker for the evening, Mr. Savara. >> Hello. I'm Jim Savara, uh, co-chair of the policy committee of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit.
Uh, you will recall that we sent a resolution to you in January about the unique opportunity the school board has to promote affordive affordable housing along the rail trail in downtown Durham. Uh we ask you to consider using part of the current Durham School of the Arts property for affordable housing. It is only one block away from the old uh rail rail line that's going to be redone. It is unclear that school systems in North Carolina have the legal authority to build and manage housing. This issue can be resolved by transferring the top three acres of the Durham School of the Arts site to the county government. Still about 17 acres will be left uh for
the development finance initiative from UNC Chapel Hill to consider to analyze future uh development opportunities. We ask you board members to soon consider whether you are willing to sell the top three acres to the county. U these are this is the area with no structures. Uh it's actually separated by a street from the rest of the property.
Um and it there are no other good large sites available for development of affordable housing close to the rail trail. um please let us know that you'd be willing to take that action and approach and and and ask the county to acquire the property. Then we and Durham can uh with its uh affordable housing action group uh will work on building support in the county commission. Uh let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
>> And that concludes tonight's public comment. Thank you so much everybody for coming this evening for sharing. The next item on the agenda is um sorry the consent agenda. >> I move approval of the consent agenda.
Item 2 A, School Nutrition Services bid renewals for 202627 school year. And item 2B, custodial supplies floor finish. 2 A and 2B. Is there any discussion? >> Yes, Miss Carter, there's no contracts associated with the SNS bid renewals. Can they be added to board docs for the board to review before we approve them?
>> Thank you for that suggestion. Would that be possible? Who am I looking at? Mr.
Barnes. Oh, can You mean before you said before we approve them? >> Yeah, before we approve them. Like we should be able to know and see what we're approving before we approve it.
>> So, can I amend my my motion that we um move them to the be the new item seven um right before followup and consider them then re refresh and give time for staff to do that. That works for me. I I can't remember who second it go. >> How do you feel about that, Miss Harold Gooff? >> It's fine. >> So, we are The motion is to approve um consent agenda item 2B and to move consent agenda agenda item 2 A to um
agenda to be agenda item number seven. >> Thank you. I apologize for catching it late. Sorry.
>> Thank you. Um, so it's been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Harold Goff. Is there any more discussion about this? >> Okay.
All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> And all those opposed.
All right. The motion passes unanimously. We'll approve consent agenda item 2B and move 2A down to be agenda item number seven. as we wait for the remainder of the um pieces of that to be uploaded into board docs. Okay, the next item on the agenda is agenda item 3A. That's a strategic plan priority three update.
All right, we have Miss Michelle Hayes to begin that presentation. Welcome this evening. >> All right. So, good evening um Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Lewis, cabinet members, and um Dr.
Smootz. Um so, I would like to first um introduce our team that we're that's here tonight to present. So, it would be myself, Michelle Hayes. We have Terry Phillips, Dr.
I Dr. Idaho, Dr. Idahoore, and Anthony White. Um, Dr.
Cadoza could not be with us tonight, but I do have a summary that I would like to read on on his behalf. Okay, so if we can move to the next slide. Okay, those are our priority team members that collectively um has worked to get the information for us. Next slide. Our work in this priority area is guided by a comprehensive and interconnect
interconnected set of strategies. While each strategy is impactful on its own, collectively they strengthen our recruitment pipeline, support our employees, and sustain a high quality workforce. This evening we will provide an overview of these strategies and highlight our next steps. Next slide.
Our strategies include grow your own, recruitment, retention, career development, leadership development, compensation, new teacher support, affinity groups, staff wellness, and staff interviews. Next slide. With our grow your own, Durham public schools continues to invest in developing internal talent pipelines through our teacher assistant to teacher pipeline which is TA to TP partnership with North Carolina Central University. We launched in fall of 2021. 28 instructional in assistants, excuse me, enrolled in NCCU's teacher education program. To date, six parti participants
have completed the program and three additional participants are on track to graduate by 2027. When including those who transition to com to a complete to complete a residency pathway, 43% of participants will ultimately become or remain employees of Durham public schools. While we were unable to host a new TA to TP cohort this year due to budget constraints, we continue to share program opportunities with interested instructional assistance through our partner schools. From a financial perspective, DPS has invested approximately $169,4357 in tuition support for this initiative since its inception. In addition, our child nutrition department's manager and training program has demonstrated strong success with 19 out of 25 participants hired into management roles, a 76% success rate. Moving forward, we aim to expand similar grow your own models across
additional departments. Should funding become should funding limitations continue, we'll work closely with our university partners to identify alternative financial support options for participants. Um then we will have um grow your own transportation. Mr.
White, next slide, please. Good evening everyone. My name is Anthony White. I am the executive director of auxiliary services.
Um I will be speaking about what we are doing in our transportation department to um grow and retain our staff members. So throughout this school year, we have led job fairs in our community. Uh we've done at least one per month. Um the last job fair that we um completed was actually at um Compare Foods um here in Durham. Um as a department we have a
goal of increasing our Spanish speaking and Hispanic um population of our workforce. Um right now we are at a little less than 20 and we're looking to increase that number and that number is um with our bus drivers and safety assistants and we're looking to increase that number. So, our team has been um working um strategically um at that goal. Next, um we've also been partnering with community colleges um in Granville County.
Um also at um Peabot Community College to lead job to whole hold job fairs as well. Um I also would like to speak to the initiative that we have started in the partnership in partnership with Durm Techch Community College. We had 19 of our transportation employees who have participated in the inaugural Spanish class. And this is a professional development opportunity that our staff members have been asking for. And it's aim is to um increase the
um ability for our transportation staff to communicate with our families. Oftent times our families are calling in needing assistance. We have our children getting on the bus. We are equipping our transportation team with the tools necessary to make every student in DPS feel welcome um when they board a bus or when they need help from us in the transportation department.
Again, our initial court had 19 people um enrolled and we are in session 1B right now. Uh we will end the school year with a celebration to highlight all of the hard work and effort that our our transportation staff has been um putting into this program. And this is a partnership with the MSAP grants um that we have here in Durham public schools. So um as far as what's working, there's information here about where we are. Um I will say that our department has taken a proactive approach to try to get ahead of staffing um before we get to the summer. We want to make sure that we started next school year um as ahead of
the game as possible. So um you can kind of take a look at the metrics and how we've been capturing um applicants um to join our workforce in the transportation department. Um like I said, some of the areas where we're still looking to grow is to increase um one the number of drivers that we have also um again the the targeted um recruitment of Spanish speaking staff members um in our department. So that's um that's all I have.
I'll turn it over to I'll go next slide please. All right, recruitment. I'm back with regrow um in regards to recruitment. Um we continue to maintain and strengthen strategic partnerships to support recruitment efforts.
These include North Carolina Central University who is one of our primary partnerships. Duke's Master of Arts and Teaching Program. We've been working with them since 2007. And so they provide um teachers for us every year.
UNCC based teacher pipeline, Durham Technical Community College, um all of our student teacher programs, NC Works, the um Durham Housing Authority, Duke Teach House, and several international teacher agencies including global teacher partners participate participate in EPI. We're also focused on strengthening our and our partnership with CCTI. Right now, we have 32 seats that we um work with them every single year with the EP program. As a next step, we are proposing the addition of an international teacher coordinator.
And this role will provide targeted mentoring and professional support for international teachers as they transition into Durham public schools. The coordinator will support instructional practice, classroom management, and curriculum alignment while also assisting with cultural acclamation and serving as a bridge between teachers, schools, and the community. This position will play a critical role in strengthening
retention, promoting equity, and supporting student success. Next slide. Retention remains a priority across the district. Each month, we recognize a teacher and a staff member from every school and department with selections aligned to district goals and values.
Notably, 94% of last year's recognized employees remained with Durham Public Schools. We continue to support retention through initiatives such as the manager and training program and the implementation of M's pay. Additionally, our beginning teacher support structures remain strong and Dr. I will provide further details on those efforts. We are also evolving our recognition practices by transitioning from traditional teacher of the year dinner to a more inclusive celebration that honors all of the of the year recipients across the district called Sparky's award which would takes pla which will take place on May the 7th. Next slide.
And that's just a slide showing um all of our teacher and employee of the months from last year. And the one that's not highlighted is the one person that was promoted to um to another position who's no longer in the district. Next slide. Career development.
The implementation of M's pay in October of 2024 represent an important step in supporting career growth and compensation. While it is still early to fully measure its impact on retention, we are closely monitoring outcomes. We continue to see relatively low vacancies in English learner positions. However, EC staffing remains complex.
Compensation differentials of $3,500 a year for adapted EC teachers and $2,000 for general EC teachers are essential supports in retaining staff and these um critical roles. Next slide, please. I can speak briefly. um on the SOMOS for
the um Dr. um Cordoza was going to speak on SP speak on that today, but I will speak on it briefly. Somos, we are DPS Latinx at a glance. It was founded in 2018.
Somos DPS Lak Next is a district-wide affinity group and professional learning network committed to providing Latino educators in Durham public schools with a safe space to connect, grow professionally, and collaborate on initiatives that support and empower the Latino community. What we offer bilingual monthly meetings, celebrations, networking and collaboration among schools, professional development opportunities, sharing of ideas and best practices, quarterly socials and celebrations, relocation and transition support for new Latino staff, mentoring and participation in recruiting efforts. Um, is the information that was provided regarding Somos DPS Latinx at a glance. In addition, Durham public school is in
is committed to developing strong leadership pipelines. We provide comprehensive onboarding for new assistant principles and principles through monthly professional development sessions led by various departments ensuring leaders have a clear understanding of district protocols and expectations. Additionally, our assistant principal leadership academy, APLA, equips aspiring leaders with tools and professional learning needed to become effective principles. As we look ahead, we continue to expand professional development and conference opportunities for administrators while intentionally preparing assistant principles for principal roles, ensuring we retain and grow exemplary exemplary exemplary, excuse me, leadership within our district.
Next slide. All right, Miss Phillips. >> Good evening. For compensation, you have all been very involved in the development of the budget, so I think you're a little familiar and have
received updates on employee compensation. While we are getting feedback from stakeholders, we want to develop a regular cadence of communication with employees outside of board meetings. Therefore, our next steps will include sharing updates with employees and clearly defining and updating job descriptions. Next slide, please.
New teacher support. Good evening, Dr. Lewis, DPS board of education, DPS staff, and our community that is viewing online. I'll be presenting on the work happening with both new teacher support initiatives and affinity spaces. We are strengthening support for our beginning teachers through a comprehensive onboarding and development experience that includes new teacher orientation with two days of district level learning and one day at the school level along with ongoing
quarterly and on demand professional learning. We are also providing targeted training for school leaders to better support alternatively alternatively licensed teachers and we're in the process of piloting and implementing a differentiated tiered mentoring model which is supported by full release district mentor structure serving all schools. This work is enhanced through aligned instructional support focused on district priorities like depth of knowledge, the okay, and explicit teaching, ongoing personalized professional learning opportunities for teachers, and strong university and community partnerships, which you've heard about. What's working well is the strength of our full release district mentor model, the alignment of instructional and social emotional support in alignment with our district priorities, and the flexibility of professional learning that is tailored to teacher and school needs. Our partnerships continue to help to expand the capacity and reach of our intended audiences more effectively and
efficiently. However, we do recognize the need for improvement in ensuring consistent onboarding practices across all schools and departments and improving communication between HR and the program when new teachers are hired. We are also in need of stronger and even redesigned implementation of the current school-based mentor model and better alignment across mentoring and lensure systems particularly in supporting alternatively licensed teachers from start to end. Next steps include redesigning and restructuring a standardized onboarding program districtwide, strengthening communication systems and structures between HR and the program, enhancing school leadership training, and ensuring consistent and ongoing mentoring support at the school level. Next slide, please. And so, a little bit about affinity
spaces. And so developing and supporting affinity groups and spaces for historically marginalized and underrepresented students and staff continue to be at the core of this work. Previously by leveraging community partnerships, offering professional learning, and supporting initiatives such as SOS DPS, Latinx, and beginning teacher affinity spaces across the district. groups including international teacher ad hoc meetups and new teacher leader groups are helping to create spaces for connection and support for staff.
Additionally, housing this work within a specified department or departments that has access to staff demographic data and funding will allow us to better align these efforts with recruitment and retention goals. It is important to note that this work has also been affected by the shifts that have happened and continue to happen across the social political landscape federally and locally. What's working is the engagement that we've seen and continue to see through external partnerships and existing groups as well
as fair as early success in reaching targeted groups. These efforts provide a very strong foundation for expanding and deepening affinity based support. Where there is room for growth, however, and improvement is in creating a more standardized, coordinated, and sustainable approach to these affinity spaces. This includes clearly identifying which additional affinity spaces and groups are needed informed by various data sources and feedback.
Um, ensuring consistent support, funding structures, and professional learning opportunities. Developing a system to track participation and establishing metrics of success to measure impact across schools and the district are also opportunities for growth. Next steps include conducting a needs assessment, working with focus groups, establishing a system to monitor participation and outcomes and forming a collaborative multi-depal committee to guide this work. developing a practical
re-engagement strategy that reflects the current landscape and ensures these efforts remain responsive, inclusive, and aligned to district priorities is also a pair of a few next steps for this particular strategic plan strategy. So, I'm going to turn things back over to next slide, please. Miss Phillips. Thank you.
Hello again for staff wellness. We are promoting the employee assistance program which is now all one health and encouraging employees to take advantage of this service that is already paid for. One area that we know we want to improve on would be using restorative practices with employees. A series of next steps will be leveraging existing partnerships to bring services to employees such as friendly walking competitions and seal services.
Next slide, please. Staff interviews. When we look at the
6% of our classified staff agree that DPS is a good place to work and learn. In some schools and departments, supervisors uh often have conversations with staff who have are thinking of resigning and they end up staying instead. One way for us to improve is to work with some of the platforms that we have in place to create and conduct stay interviews and determine what needs to be done in order to keep employees in DPS. Next slide, please.
Here you have um the scores we've given ourselves on these first few. Next slide please. Did it change? There we go. Okay, Miss Hayes.
So, as you can see the pie chart, but we'll go to the next slide so you can see the actual breakdown. So, when we looked at the workforce compos composition um where we are as far as demographics in the district, um our numbers have definitely increased for our Hispanic Latino. For total employees of 5,350 and this was taken from March 26. Um 10% of our entire workforce we have um Hispan Hispanic Latinx.
41% will be African-American. 32% would be white and 15% would be other not specified. Keep to the next slide please. And so then we looked at the teacher um workforce development as you can see the pie chart and we'll go to the the next slide. And so out of the um 541 um employees that we have who identify as Latinx, 162 are teachers and 51% of um the 162 are international teachers. So we have 7% um of our teachers um are
Hispanic out of the 2380. 40 44% are African-American and out of that 44% we did pull 10% which are African-American male. So, there's 238 African-American male teachers. 4%.
Next slide. Questions and discussions. Thank you so much to the team for the robust presentation this evening. Really appreciate all of your time.
Um, with and with that, board members, do you have any questions or comments for team members? Yes, Mr. Hilgoff. >> Thank you um for the presentation. Um when I was looking through the slides and listening to the presentation, one thing that I wanted to lift up was the appreciation on the emphasis on continuous and meaningful professional
learning as as a strategy for staff retention. Um often when we think about professional development, we only look at it through the lens of instructional you know, you know, instructional improvement and things of that nature. So, thank you for emphasizing that professional learning is a collective strategy that includes coaching and peer learning and leadership pathways um with a goal of education, educators feeling supported and able to grow within Durham public schools. Um I feel that our professionals have to feel that the training um is relevant to their professional experience. So I wanted to say that out loud because I remember being in the classroom and a lot of times and you still hear this a lot of times you know there's agreement about the fact that we want to have professional learning but we also want that professional learning to feel relevant in our prof you know to what it is that we're doing
professionally. So, >> I know sometimes there's things that are required and those kind of as we're thinking about that um when it feels relevant then that's kind of what builds the culture um gives you ownership of what it is that you're doing and and those kinds of things. So, I was just wanted to lift that up. And then the other thing that um was really of interest to me was this concept of the affinity spaces.
I've never heard it said like that, but you know, but I understand what that is. Um, and I wanted to, you know, just give some support to that concept and to say that there's an autonomy that I feel that those kinds of spaces need. Um there's I heard you know um you know all the structure that you want to put around it but sometimes you know it sounded like to me an affinity space is a space to build community um and support within yourself. And so a lot of
times these affinity spaces they're they have there is an auton if you can you know if we can support the autonomy and allow the community that's it's geared for to decide what those spaces need to be and then support them in that I think that they would be uh even more successful. Um, sometimes it's hard to I've again as a teacher using myself, there were times when they would try to, you know, we want to get all the black teachers together, but then the space didn't feel like our own. We didn't have the autonomy to make the space what we needed it to be. And so, they had a hard time getting people to come. And so as we're exploring this, I just think we should also consider um what it means for those groups to feel like they have autonomy and that they that those spaces belong to them and that they're able to create the culture that needs to be in those spaces. Um
the only question I had was um you were talk we were talking about um what does oh what does ondemand professional learning look like for new educators? I was curious about what does that look like. you said on demand. I want this like I'm wondering what does that look like?
And I also wanted to know does that kind of support extend to our experienced educational per would it could it extend to our experienced educational professionals as well? >> Yes. So I'm going to answer the first part of your question. So on demand refers to as we have our new educators coming in um after NTO, we have a PO catalog based on feedback that we've received um needs assessments that we've conducted before in terms of what is it that is most pressing in terms of what new educators would need within like their first six months or their first year of teaching. And so a catalog has
been built out within the program to provide those as needed. We have our BT quarterlies uh which are held every quarter. And so our BTS are invited to participate in those uh in those learning opportunities with their mentors. And so those are customized based on feedback that's received uh by our BT shared with our mentors and we design them um based on need.
So on demand in that essence and in terms of those opportunities being available to other staff absolutely we offer those learning opportunities more at the school level and then during our district-wide um teacher work days those opportunities are also made avail uh made available and in alignment with other district priorities. So depending on the workday we try to make sure that our program offers professional learning that aligns with that as well. Oh, are there those kinds of on demand options for our um specialists as well? Like you know our music teachers, our art teachers, all you know
who are not teaching like ba the basic core curriculum. >> Yes. So during districtwide professional learning days, there's there are opportunities for all uh district staff for teachers, classroom teachers, including media specialists, um music, arts, there's learning available for them as well. Thank you.
>> Uh yes, Mr. Tab, >> thank you for Thank you very much. Um not going to be long, very brief with this. Um just wanted to highlight everything that you just presented to us. we could ask questions about all of this and and just give you a round of applause for uh outlining this whole presentation, but I do want to um uplift what Miss uh board member uh Joe Har has said about the affinity because that's what I was going to speak on, but she has articulated it very well. So, uh ditto what she said about that and u thank you for highlighting those um those underprivileged or underrepresented populations and
marginalized students. I really appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you.
And thank you for lifting that up. The professional learning that was mentioned during that portion is referring to how to structure and create affinity spaces that speak to exactly what you were saying is how do we maximize and promote autonomy within school spaces. So, a lot of professional learning is based on that piece. So, thank you for lifting that up.
Uh, board member Byer, I want to thank you and thank the team for um building a uh presentation and I know there's been turnover in some of the uh team members and I know that there is um there is a commitment to this priority through and through um because I I do think this is just such a critical priority. recruit, support, and retain an exemplary staff, right? And so I'm hoping that um this might be for a future board to to look
back at this, you know, halfway through next year because it's so critical as you all continue to build strategies, build um bring new people on to to really address this critical work, especially as we know that a lot of our EC teachers do not have background in um professional uh you know, classroom educator training. Um, I wonder if if later y'all could provide us actually a trend data on goal 3A, the actual teacher um turnover rates for the last five or 10 years, right? And as we look at those trends together with you all and monitor them that um I didn't see within the presentation and maybe I missed it. Um but again our goal is to decrease turnover rate of all DPS employees by 5%. But with a focus on teachers, IAS and bus drivers. So that might be an interesting data point to look at and I'm sure your team is is working towards
that but I don't know that I've seen it in a while. Um same thing with 3B increasing the fill rate of DPS positions by at least 5%. I think um even when our data is bad, we got to be transparent about how we're doing and that might be great to share. I feel like 3C, you shared some really um robust data about the work we've done over this both strategic plan version one of this and the second version that is going to take us till 2028 on the increase in Hispanic and black educators or staff in general.
But the the data is alarming to me that we really haven't done as well as we wish in recruiting Hispanic and Latino teachers, educators, right? That number is let me scroll through and remind myself of how is it seven. What administrators is seven? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. That's that is another
critical point. So the the notion of having 541 Hispanic or Latino employees is incredible and that diversity is so critical in a district which serves a third Hispanic and Latino students. But when we get to teachers, we've got less than 7%. Um, and I know we're competing with everyone in the state.
I know we're I think we've got um critical work to do. 162. I wish we had more. And I know y'all do too.
Um, I wish we had more African-American male teachers, including the retirees that are here and joining this board. 238, like profoundly as we serve, and y'all know, y'all know that that that makes such a difference, especially in elementary school when kids are first encountering. So, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but um I dream I dream of of like this plan being even more robust under y'all's leadership and
direction. I dream of having funding to put back the teacher to to TA to teacher program that I didn't know we cut. Um that one bugs me and is causing me to lose sleep. Um, I thought I think we had great things with the dream program um that uh Miss Chavez worked for previously and I know that funding is impossible and yet we've got to figure out ways to continue doing locally what our students need.
And so I trust that as y'all bring future updates with future boards that y'all will continue to push this envelope on on behalf of our students. And I don't think I really ask you any robust questions. I'm just like dreaming and for you all and I'm seeing head nods which means I think you share that dream. Um I think we should do better at stay interviews. I think rather than just exit interviews. I don't I don't want them gone out the door.
This is a glorious place to work. It is a hard place and a challenging place to work but it is beloved beautiful Durham work. And so I look forward to y'all and I will be cheering you on on on all of this priority three. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And I just want to know I think Miss Smith you were giving me a time flag a few minutes ago. Does that mean we are at time for this item? We're overtime.
So if remaining um board members could keep their comments briefish, but please feel free to share. Who's next? Miss Shabus and then um uh Chair Mstead. Thank you.
You all are clearing clearly doing a lot of um work to a lot of different strategies all at the same time. Um I appreciate the robust presentation and um so I just want to I these are mostly comments. Um I would just like to also see where we are on the metrics and I didn't ask for that ahead of time. So if we could just have that as a followup that would be great.
Um, and then also, um, thank you for the information about, um, EC and ESL teachers, um, as we try to figure out, you know, what effect our supplements have had. Um, I think the information was more on recruitment, but if I would also ask if we could have more um, like maybe by the end of the year specific information about um, the retention of those educators as well. I think other board members would be interested in that um to see how many have stayed. We know that we have high EC vacancies, but has the supplement had any effect at all? You know, we hear anecdotally about things, but it but that data would just be really great to see um not just how many positions are filled, but like how many pe but how many people are staying and is it more consistent than it was prior to the supplement. So, um, do we need to do a thumbs up on that to
see other board members feel if that is information? I know we've discussed it in the past, but I think what you're asking for is for them to um try to work towards measuring the impact of some of the decisions that we've made. and you were isolating the EC and ESL differentials, but I think the local M's pay or transportation, like there's a number of different things that the district has put into place. So, I'm interested in that being continue like becoming part of how things work here in the district and I think we're moving towards that, measuring the impact of what we've done, but I don't know how other board members feel about asking for something specific today versus providing some guidance for future.
Yes, Miss Harrell Goff. >> Um, my thought process was that, um, I know that the way the presentations have been coming um, has changed significantly and I really like the direction of where it's going. I'd like to see like these questions come up a
lot. if that could just be added somehow to the presentation like in the future, you know, we can decide on which metrics we specifically would like to follow and then but before we even get to that point, if there could be a section in the presentation with said metrics just in a place where we can say these are the things that we're following, this is what the trends are looking like now. And if it could start coming to us in these kinds of presentations, that's what I would like to see. Um and then in uh in the future I would love to talk about you know what metrics specifically for each one of our strategic plan priorities which metrics are we intentionally following and for what season?
Um and I think that could help um guide some of that. So thank you. Other thoughts on um that specifically? Yes, chairstead. Um so I think this is a both yes and
each one of our priorities do have goals listed in there which are the metrics. I think including u making sure that that goal metric data is in each of these presentations would be helpful as we're moving in each um one and I think also trend data. So this is a fiveyear strategic plan. Where do we 2003 to four to five to six?
So we can also see where we're growing or not growing and stagnant because I think the strategy work is really helpful but we're hoping that the strategies lead us to the increased data work. Um and I think to M Chavez's point I'm also interested in that data and I think it's a shift for when we start a new initiative how are we monitoring to make sure we have effectiveness of that initiative. So that is specific to EC and mast's pay and that's in this presentation but I think it is a bigger conversation around many of the things that we implement. >> Thank you. It feels like um there's an interest in this being something that we continue to move towards as a district and in our
the data that the board receives. um has more regular there's a number of things that have come out but more regular reporting of data but also with regards to these metrics here that they be integrated into no that as the district is making decisions there's active movement to be measuring the impact of those decisions and this is one example of that and that that be reported to the board periodically does that accurately capture what folks are interested in right as a part of the regular reporting on the strategic plan priorities rather than a separate report out or piece of data or is there still some interest in a separate piece of data that's reported outside of strategic plan updates? >> Yes, Mstead. >> I think for this one I would like to see this data sooner for until I would not like to wait until the next presentation for priority three. So I'd be interested to know if we have met uh the metrics around the goals as well as any information about retention for the ECSL
masters pay. I think I think I covered the ones that you just mentioned >> um in masters pay and transportation >> and transportation supplements. um if any of and I think we have some information already on transportation but if the board could receive that information before the next presentation would um uh all right so focusing on I see some um value in having some of these about the M's pay transportation ECSL especially during budget season as we might be forced to make some challenging decisions in the next we will be forced to make challenging decisions in the coming months so I wonder what if we could learn from the team or from Dr. Lewis, what is I know it's early on in these initiatives.
So, is there data that can be shared with the board and and in what format would you prefer to share that data? >> Yeah, it can. I just want to be crystal clear on what data I know chairstead mentioned bringing some data back before
the next presentation. uh we can be crystal clear on because I heard you know supplement data, retention data, fill rate data, you know, so what is the data that we we want to bring bring back before the next presentation and timeline in terms of when >> and I want to separate out because I'm still going to get to more conversation about the goal data and the metrics there. I think that is an important piece of what the board needs to see more of. But I want to specifically think about here the um ECESL differentials, transportation attendance, and local mast's pay.
Do folks have thoughts on what pieces of that data you'd like to see and or do we want to um see if the chair can kind of gather information from this group and get that back to Dr. Lewis? Okay, I see Miss Beyer's hand up. Yeah, I I'd certainly trust um the chair to to do something like that. One thing that occurred to me was if I'm a new teacher or a teacher in another county,
do we even advertise that those supplements exist? How would I how would I know and choose to come to Durham? Is that even known publicly? That might be like the front end of it, right?
I mean, um, then there's the notion of of tracking retention of of specific folks, but are we even is that even available to folks? Can does somebody know how how I I know we have folks internally that know that are already here that were here when we voted, but like as far as a attracting tool, is it >> could someone respond to that? And also um >> that takes >> what that brings to mind is sometimes it takes a while for something to start like working and part of that is communicating about it in advance, right? So you flag something that's really important that we'll need to consider about whether we pull something that we've put in place because it's like not working yet. So, okay, Miss Hayes. >> So, regarding the differentials, we have not advertised that um per se, but when
I meet with teachers who are interested in EC, I do let them know those who are interested in the adaptive, it is an additional $3,500 a year. And with the EC general, it's $2,000 a year. So, when I go when I'm going to career fairs and I'm talking to educators about going into the EC field, we do u mention the extra um differential pay for um adaptive curriculum as well as the um as the EC general. I think it also maybe we can have some discussions about the potential of placing it on the job announcements you know so when they're looking for job specific job and click on EC teacher they see that um there so I think it's a both and >> I wonder would what does the board think about the an update being provided to us regarding what's been done to communicate about each of these different things as well as any data that's available indicating like any data that they that administration has been collecting to track whether something is working or
how effective it might be. Would you all like to receive that maybe via a report out so that we have that? Yes, Miss Chavez. >> Yes.
And just a suggest suggestion for that. Um in terms of the retention, I'd be interested in um something like the number of teachers or the percentage of maybe the total number of teachers for that area who were who stayed for one year who stayed for two years with the supplement compared to that same type of data previous to the supplement. Now figure you I um leave it to you all to figure out if that really m you know if you need to fine-tune that or something like that. But that's kind of what I'm interested in.
Did they stay for a whole year? Do more teachers stay for a whole year compared to teachers before? Did we have more just like leaving in February or you know um if they got the EC supplement compared to um before when they didn't?
>> My understanding the original differential was for more retention. It was to keep our EC teachers here. It wasn't really it wasn't a part of the recruitment tool, but when I go out to universities, I do use it as a recruitment tool, but the initial differential was to retain people who were already in current positions. >> Yeah, I think that was Yes.
Yeah, I agree with that. But I'm all for using it as a recruitment tool. >> Yeah. >> I I actually think it was because we had a lot of vacancies, so it was a retention tool.
I mean, recruitment tool as well. I I do think there was both. and um and but yeah okay where I'm leaning hearing the conversation is having administration bring to the board not necessarily in a presentation but could be a report out to us like a document sent shared with us that would be um this information that we're asking for but if it's not available yet I'm also interested in how do they intend to measure this moving forward what are some ideas they have for how they might be tracking this if
it's not and if there's not sufficient data right now, then how do they intend to measure it in next year, the following year, 5 years, and for us to be able to see that so that we have some idea of what to expect moving forward. Are there other things that folks would want or other preferences for how we receive this information or when it's received? I don't think we've talked at all about when it's received. I don't know if there's a timeline from Dr.
Lewis and staff or if you want to send us an update that shares here's the timeline we can provide for you all and I won't put you on the spot because I don't know how >> on the spot because I want to be clear. So what I've heard was ECESL differentials, masters pay and transportation differential >> they're part two. Okay. And so for each of those the um how the how administration is tracking effectiveness or plans to and how
they're communicating about these different things. And I guess my vision was like in the coming weeks or so we would receive this so that we have this information as we're making decisions maybe in the spring or thinking through these issues in the spring. Does that feel too early? And again recognizing if the data is not there, it's not there and you let us know how you intend to move to measure it moving forward.
>> So an update over the next few weeks. >> Does that feel comfortable? And then if if you need further guidance and you can communicate with the chair who can confer with board members about additional information that might be desired or answer questions. Yes.
>> I don't know who you suggested. Okay, Mich um I just want to say I most want to use the information to make budgetary decisions once we know what we're working with. So that that's my interest um in the immediate. But I just to
finish my comments, I also want to say um that I do think um well, one with goal 3C, I'm glad that we've increased Hispanic teachers that is so needed, but I'm also concerned about the stability of that percentage um and because of the comeand go nature of the visa um situation And um and it's not that I don't want people I I know that we have a lot of educators who um they want to come for the time that they come and they do want to return home some of them to their home countries and through the global pro programs I'm talking about um because we know that about 50% of those um Hispanic educators um teachers specifically come through the global the international programs Um and this is not to blame anybody because this is uh many districts are using
these programs but I am concerned about um the kind of stability of that percentage generally. So I just want to name that and then also I think that we need to have further conversation about the H-1B visas which goes beyond um this presentation but um I am I do want to have more conversation about um why how our decisions regarding the renewals or non-renewals um of successful teachers especially um you know teachers who are exceptional and thinking about our outcomes and all of that. So, I just want to name that. I'm not against the, you know, us um bringing in our the wonderful at all that we've brought in so many wonderful international teachers who have um anybody anybody with people with kids in DPS has um stories of teachers who have touched their lives who have come from other countries. Um, but I am concerned about the stability
of our populations. >> Thank you. Before we move forward with additional comments, could I get a thumbs up if folks are okay with the plan to have administration report back to us in the next few weeks or so with the data that we discussed with any clarity needed going through the board chair? Do you have thumbs up or if you'd like to propose something different then?
>> Is that enough time for them? Yeah, we said an update and so that update may be we need more time on transportation or EC. Yeah, >> I just want to be clear before I do a thumbs up on something that don't work for you. Okay, >> thank you, Miss Herald. Um I I'm a thumbs up on that. And um what I was asking previous was that in the future and the updates that are coming in the future can there also be you know even if they're unclear or whatever can we can that be worked into the presentations moving forward um the
metrics that you know that that we're following and whatever trends are associated with that particular priority. Um, I think that would be that would make these presentations go over the top. That'd be great. >> Yes, we will make sure going forward.
I will also say that we are um looking at a product to also provide like like a um strategic plan or data dashboard that's available on our on our website for not only the board but also for the for the public on all of these metrics. and that the ones in the report, they don't necessarily have to have all of the everything, but just the just like there's highlights of like what we're looking at, what we're what we're following, what's what we're what we're noticing in the data. Something that would help to tie all that together. >> Thank you.
Yes. And I think as chair um said had referenced before, it's really great to see the strategic plan like p um strategies presented on that's really helpful for the board and to see the progress made on those. with the idea being that those are tied then to the
goals and to moving the outcomes and the goals. So, I think I'm hearing from multiple board members that they also want to see um goal metric report out. I'm interested in that as well and wondering it seems like this time of year we might not have that yet, but when so does it make sense to have strategy updates midyear and then early fall, end of year? What is the timeline when we can normally expect not just this year but moving forward the goal priority three goal updates and this would actually apply to all goal all priorities in my mind but for like the mid year and then the >> yeah that's actually something we're working on in cabinet we're actually looking at 26 27 board work session and um board meeting calendar to spell those out when those should come and it and in my opinion it shouldn't be just once a year and so there may be some multiple depend on the goal and in the um the strategic plan priority maybe multiple checkpoints throughout the year or so. >> I think that was essentially what I was going to say is just just remembering the board that we do have a a process
where by the end of the year we provide a full um accounting of of of data relative to um the goals. But but just a reminder that um our strategic plan speaks to um many different pieces of data all of which come out at different times of the year, right? Which is why we kind of try to do a roundup at the end of the year. Um and in these presentations we do um try to identify the data that is available at the time of the actual presentation and and and of course that varies depending on what that particular um data is.
But we will continue to provide that um final report at the end of the year um that that reflects you know all of the data pieces that that that are available at that time. And as as Dr. Louis said we we've been working and trying to figure out when it makes sense to bring each um report um so that it is um better aligned they are better aligned
to the availability of data that is related to th those particular um priorities um in the course of the year. >> That's a proposed item for our upcoming board retreat too. >> Okay. Thank.
So on this one, these goals will hear back on the priority three goals. End of year mean June. >> Is it future retention date out now for the past year? Doesn't that come out around March for DPI? 2% 2% um which was a which meant 404 teachers left but we did recoup 97 out
of those 404. So our recruitment rate was at 24%. >> I think the question was when does that data when is that data released at the state level >> right? So it it has been released it was released in March.
>> Yeah. I just thank you for that because I think we've had this presentation in March before because that's when some of the official data gets out. So I just would like to see I think there's a um culmination at the end of the year but I think there's some that we can also include as the year goes on and even though it is 2425 data we can use that right it's still informative so I just I would like to see both and maybe is what my ask is um and timeline wise I I want to or the other data request around supplements and things I just want to make sure y'all have enough time so a report is good but I think that we can include something like this we already got it. The data is out there. Let's include it in a presentation because it's a part of our plan. It's part of the goals that we're measuring ourselves
against. Thank you. Other board members, any comments on this presentation? Yes, Vice Chair Rogers.
Um, I want to go back to our grow your own program. The grow your own program. conversations around the grow your own. Um particularly interested in um the presentation says DPS has four IAS that are still in the program.
Does that mean that um DPS is still paying for that? >> Yes. So those are the last students that are in the program. So we do not no longer um accept new um participants in the TA to TP.
>> Okay. Um because of the funding. >> That's correct.
>> What was the previous funding source? Do you know? >> Have to yield to Mr. Ter.
>> Oh, I think that program was funded by the McKenzie Scott um dollars if I'm not mistaken. Dr. Pitman, can you confirm that? That's what I was going to suggest.
I'd love to be able to verify it, but I do believe that I know there was a lot of funding uh that supported our teacher recruitment and retention through that grant. Yes. >> Okay. So, it was Mackenzie Scott funding.
Thank you. Um, so when that ran out, was the board asked to reallocate funds or request additional funding to support the program? >> I'm not aware. I was just following a directive.
Um, so I was not aware of it going to the board. I was just given a directive. >> Okay. >> Then I will add um >> Okay, it's on.
Okay. Yeah. And I'll add so right at the um as those funds
expired, right, we the budget department and finance sort of made it clear uh to HR leadership at the time um that it would need to for that program to continue, it would need to operate sort of within their HR budget. Um when we went through the budget development cycle for 2526, we did not receive an expansion request specific to the program from um from HR for that process. Right. And so I know lots of people had their hands in that pot over time um and it's turned over, but just wanted to kind of be clear about that.
And and um I think too what we're hearing this evening, right, is that it's sounds like it's a priority for the board um for the administration to figure that out. Um and that's something that we can as we're making decisions over the next couple of months for the year ahead. That's something that we can lift up um and and contemplate um as a part of the upcoming budget. >> Thank you. I think
I think my question would be um Okay, HR didn't make the expansion request. I get it. What other resources did HR look into to continue to pay for this plan? Go ahead.
So, um, because we did not have the the budget to do it, I did reach out to the current, um, TTAs who are interested in the TATP or the excuse me, instructional assistance. Um, and ECU has a program that offers a lot of financial aid assistance. And so, I did share that information with um, all of the district um, IAS who were interested in the TA to TP program because that's one of our partners as well. >> Okay.
Okay. That's helpful. Given that there's no funding, why is one of our strategies to expand the grow your own cohorts
for other parts of the district and other departments. >> So with for example with the MIT the manager and training program that's another expansion that was through child nutrition and um I don't think there's a cost there. I think they just train their current assistant managers to become managers. Um the same thing um with the transportation just growing your own working within transportation to grow um their their bus drivers to to become you know just to grow on their own program but that was the TATP was a part of the grow your own but we have the MIT and other programs within the district that we're looking at the grow your own.
Okay, that's helpful. Um, Dr. Louis, I think my questions for you now is how do we get out of this cycle of where the board authorizes a thing and think the thing is continuing to happen
are advocating for and talking about, you know, the things happening and then they stop happening and are communicated with staff and families that they're not happening. But that communication doesn't come to the board and the board doesn't have the opportunity to weigh in on that expansion. And I think that that speaks to what we were hearing in public comment about the visas tonight cuz the board didn't change the policy. The policy hasn't changed.
Um the request that the board made at the time hasn't changed or been modified. The practice has. Same thing with the TA to teacher program. the request and allocation from the board, the intent of the board hasn't changed, but the procedures have. And so, how do we do better about when there is a need that it actually surfaces to the board? I think we saw the same thing with the afterare for afterare increases
being necessary. So how do we get out of that disconnect between what the board thinks is happening in terms of operations and administration asking for what is necessary to sustain the vision of the board. I >> think there's a number of things there. one is um you know there's a lot of decisions that we have to make given our limited budget and so uh to sustain a lot of things is just not realistic and so I think I don't want to call it a cycle but I think what we can do is um kind of have some discussions about what what are um the values of the board you know what are so in other words what are some things that uh this board has said okay this is what we value as a board um find a way if there's a funding gap find a way to ensure that this happens and If it doesn't happen, then we can have some conversations about what's that notification to the board that okay, we're coming up with this funding gap, coming up to this funding gap or this cliff, and we may have to cut X program.
Um what is the board's thought on, you know, finding additional funding or uh is it okay to continue down that path of of um cancelling that program? So, I think by um continued communication and the weekly updates or doing uh one-on- ones, I think that's an opportunity to continue those conversations. Any other comments? Um, yes, Miss Umstead and then Miss Chavez want to add to um, Miss Roger or expand maybe I think part of my thinking too is that how are we how are we making decisions about what we continue and what we don't continue and so Mr.
teacher. To your point, like I would love to keep the TA to teacher program, but if it's actually not a great retention and recruitment tool, then we shouldn't keep it. And I just don't know um I don't know the the data process or what kind of went behind those decisions. And I don't know that the board will ever get all of those right because a lot of that is within your
wheelhouse. But I think for us, especially for things that we are out in community talking about, how do we make sure we're that communication happens to us, but also helping us understand how decisions are made? um how what is the information that goes into making those decisions and those calls when something like a grant is going to end because we know when it will end what is our planning process for either supplementing that internally or saying we're going to end this program because we don't see the effectiveness of it and we're doing something else right so some of this I think is kind of the bigger picture strategic things that we got to think through um and be a little more and I understand we've got a lot of turnover and change happening so I don't say that to point the finger But I think the planning process for the future has got to be a little bit more strategic thinking on that. >> Yeah.
And I think that's that's just it. You know, coming to the board and seeing whether that's, you know, through one-on- ones, through weekly updates, through here at this board table that um yes, we lost this grant, but this program is so effective and has a huge impact on students on our staff. Boy,
we're bringing this proposal to um for the board to approve additional funding to continue this uh program. Similarly to your point, if there's a program that's not effective, whether it was grant funded or other identified dollars, well, not grant funded because it's written in grant, but if there's other programs that we know are not effective, we're coming to the board and saying, "Okay, we know you've uh this community has um seen this program or initiative in existence. It's just not working for us. " I think it's boils down to communication.
I'll just I had other questions about the presentation that I hadn't given. I want to um just also appreciate the while we don't have it, here's a place that can provide you with financial aid. Please get enrolled because there still is a pathway for folks to become teachers in our program. So, I appreciate that.
Um and glad that we've got some people that are going to be able to finish that out. I also want to just uplift um a lot of the things that have already been said. A couple of data points that I might would be interested
in is um breakdown of educator demographics by school. Um I'm impressed that we've grown in some ways, but I'm also very curious to know by school in um elementary, middle, and high school what uh those trends look like. " And so I want to think about what does that intentionality look like? Um, some of the other points that I written down for notes have already been lifted up around decisions the board may or may not make.
Um, but I think it's really important about what we shared earlier around data. This is such a huge priority and so I'm really grateful for all the work that y'all have put into it. Um, I know you've been doing this on a short staff. So, I appreciate that and know that we collectively because retention and recruitment is not a HR job.
It's everyone's job. It's every supervisor's job. It's every school principal's job. And so how are we continuing to invest in our folks so they can continue to invest in people um that we keep here? So thank you all.
>> Anyone else before we Yes, Miss Chavez, >> I just want to go back to with the TA to um teacher program. I think part of it is understanding the um how we're making data driven decisions and so um what is the ROI on these things and um what you know why are we keeping them or why are we letting them go based on actual data. Um I think it's similar with the you know the decisions around visas and the H-1B program are what are the outcomes? Um, so that's what I think when I um, you know, we're talking about the TA teacher program, all these programs, just how are we making those decisions based on data? And it would be great to see some of that data to understand if we are pulling back and we're not funding things, why um, we would want to see evidence that it wasn't working, it wasn't effective.
>> Yes, Miss Beyer. Is it today or in the future that we can have for the community an update on the J1 visa, the H1B in ways that they can um have more clarity rather? Um I know we've seen some um memos and written things, but I think that would be helpful to the community in general. Um, one thing that I've learned, I think, and let me not get it wrong, but that a J1 visa is a cultural exchange visa, >> correct?
>> Um, with three years starting, >> correct? >> Renewable for one or two more. >> Two years, three years with a two-year extension. There's no extra charge or fee, >> but participants and folks that choose to come on that J1 visa are informed ahead of time that it is a cultural exchange. Help me like understand that they sign things that give them that
awareness as well. >> Right. So the all the agencies that I work with they are very clear about um once they come they are really not supposed to have conversations about other type of visas because they are under their contract. So the J1s they come for three years and then they are given a two-year extension.
So their total time here is five years. Now after they finish their J1 they could go back return to their country for two years and they can apply for another J1. So, um they can return after two years going back home. And >> if if I can just jump in here because I do think it's an important um point to make and make sure that folks understand there there seems to be this impression um that standard practice was to have these additional visas, right? and we have somehow shifted our standard practice when the reality is standard practice is that those folks who come over uh
through these programs come over stay the initial three years sometimes extend those additional two years and then go go back to their their homes. That is the standard practice. That is the agreement that those folks come to these programs on. Um and I think in some some time ago um as a response to some challenges we were having with um identifying staff through the pandemic, there were some exceptions made to that process.
And those folks who had additional visas applied for were in fact an exception, not the rule. And um I I do think it's important to to be clear that we have not changed any policy. Um we have actually just operated within the standard practice that has always been the standard practice as it relates to to this conversation in terms of in terms of how these this visa process works. I
think the point that Michelle is was was um Miss Hayes was making that is is very clear um is that you know it there there is absolute clarity at the point at which folks agree um to participate in this process about what the amount of time they are entitled to be here is what the process is um to extend that time and what the expectation should be at the end of that process. Um and so I I you know certainly recognize that that becomes difficult for folks when they come over um and and you know you know put down some roots and become a part of a community. Um but I but I do think it's important to note that you know we aren't we aren't pulling the rug out from under folks. We are we are actually simply aligning our practice with what um the agreements that those folks came into this program under. uh from the very beginning of of their processing here.
>> Thank you. Um and I appreciate that you know that this is an topic that I care deeply about as well. Um and uh I do think that as we are thinking about as we continue to move towards I appreciate in the presentation all of the work being done to support international um educators. There were a number of different places where that showed up in your presentation today.
You all are enhancing your support. That's I think that's tremendous. And we are expanding the number of international teachers we have in our district right now because we're expanding the global languages program, we're expanding the dual immersion program, we're expanding the IB program, and we continue to have teacher shortages, right? So we have over 300 international >> we have 290 J1s, right?
>> And we have um 19 H1Bs, >> right? So over 300 total. So, I think I I'm I'm look forward to continuing to
think creatively about um where it might be possible to for exceptional educators who've built exceptional communities who want to stay for us to think about ways to find pathways for that. Even with all that you all have identified this evening as the expectations that have been set and those things still exist. We have educator shortages. We're expanding programs that rely on and not all not nearly even all of our international educators are teaching in any of those things I named, right?
We have those teaching math and teaching English, ESL, and we rely on them deeply in our schools. So, I do think as with everything else we do, let's keep thinking outside the box and see where we can go and talk with make sure that the decisions being made align with the values of the board and what the district needs. though. >> Yes, Miss Herald Gooff. >> I just wanted to say this is absolutely a retention uh retention issue. Um if an international teacher is choosing who is
is looking for options to to stay and wants to stay and we're not giving them the option, that's opening the door. They're going to charter schools. The charter schools are giving them the option to stay. So, I am curious um what that looks like equitably.
I I'm also curious about the exemptions, like have there been exemptions made in the past? How do how do we have H-1Bs now? There's a lot of questions that I have. I don't we don't have to go into it now, but I I would like, like Miss Chavez said earlier, I would like to have this conversation um more deeply um in a future board meeting.
Um we ready to move on to our next agenda item? Right. Okay. Any other comments from administration before we move to the next?
All right. Thank you so much everybody who's come to present tonight and for answering all of our questions and for all of the work that you do to >> recruit and retain our amazing staff here in Durham Public Schools. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. Um the next item on the agenda is the 2026 school library month proclamation. Welcome. >> Good evening, Madame Chair Upstead, members of the board, Dr.
Lewis, and the DPS community. I'm Gabby Hall, executive director of curriculum and instruction. I'm joined this evening by Miss Heidi Perez, our DPS media lead, literacy school support specialist, and coordinator of our district's Battle of the Books competition. We are truly honored to take a moment to recognize our media coordinators and the essential role they play in advancing literacy and supporting student learning across our schools during school library month here in April. Their work has a meaningful and lasting impact and we are grateful for the opportunity to highlight their contributions. Thank you to the board for recognizing and celebrating the difference they make for our students
and school communities. At this time, I'll turn it over to Miss Heidi Perez to share more about their work and impact. >> Thank you. Good evening, board members, Chair Armstead, Superintendent Lewis, staff, and community members.
I want to thank you for sharing this time and space to acknowledge the importance of library media center centers as integral components of each of our schools. In our school libraries, staff and students collaborate and explore and synthesize information and stories with deep curricular connections and topics of individual interest. Our media coordinators develop and maintain diverse print and digital collections that ensure all students see themselves, their peers, and humanity in texts and sources from a rich mosaic of voices and perspectives. In our school libraries, a
student from another country can read books about their native country and in their native language and books to grow their English skills. In our school libraries, learning history can can be done through biographies and research texts to gather a varied perspective of the facts. through our school libraries. Dual enrolled students and those on CTE completer pathways can access digital academic databases and texts specific to their coursework in health sciences or engineering, entrepreneurship or other career fields. Here in Durham public schools, we are truly blessed with an administration and a board of education that knows the value of media coordinators and our school libraries and you support them year after year. We are thankful.
Chairstead, I yield to you and the members of the board to read the school library month proclamation. Thank you so much for bringing this to us this evening. All right, board. Would you like to go ahead and begin reading maybe with Mr.
Tab? We'll move down the line. >> Proclamation school library month, April 2026. Whereas the school library is to ensure that students and staff are effective consumers and creators of ideas and information as active participants in American democracy. And whereas the school librarian's role is to provide the leadership and expertise necessary to partner with the school principal 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 information literacy
skills through traditional resources and new technologies to provide literature appreciation activities and to guide and encourage academic and recreational reading for every student. And whereas lifelong learning agency begins and is systematically developed through the school library curriculum of the elementary and secondary schools and whereas the school library continues to contributes to the individual growth, development and belonging of all students while fostering both excellence and equity in education. And whereas the Durham, excuse me, the school librarians of Durham public schools dedicate themselves to work for quality school library collections and programming that supports classroom instruction and welcomes, honors, and encourages all students. And >> now therefore, be it resolved that the
board of education of Durham public schools does hereby proclaim April 2026 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 all. Thank you. So with that, um, I'll entertain a motion and then we could have some discussion if folks like I would move approval of the proclamation for school library month for April 2026.
>> Second. >> Second >> and then I had a little discussion been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by uh Chair Umstead to approve the proclamation for school library month April 2026. Uh, is there any discussion? Miss Beyer? Thank you. Um, I cannot come to school library month without thinking of our former colleague, Miss Omega Curtis Parker, who
always reminded us of the critical role of media centers, media coordinators, school libraries, um, students, every student. And to have the diversity of a collection that reflects the diversity of our community is so, so important. I wonder in the data that we continue to ask for and we continue to look forward to um whether we could start to get circulation data by schools number of volumes and also whether we have uh staff vacancies in any of our librarian positions because that has been a problem in the past and I hope it isn't one currently. Um, I visited a school today and it was an early college and I did not see a library. I know it's temporary space, but I wonder what we do and if we have any schools that are missing actual dedicated libraries and how y'all are circulating books to students in in special schools like
that. And so that was a curiosity I had and it's probably because I was in a school today looking for libraries. So just going forward, I think that information might be helpful as we work on maintaining equity that this proclamation speaks to. >> Absolutely.
I can speak to the first part and Miss Perez can speak to the second part and the concern you brought up. Um that is data that we do track and we look at consistently. So, it's something that we can definitely make sure you all have your eyes on really soon. >> Yes. So, there there's really only one school that does not have access to what we consider a traditional library for lending for students and that is DEX at Durham uh early college of health sciences and I think a lot of that is attributed to its location. um our comprehensive innovative high schools do have access to libraries for the ones that are on um
college campuses. They have access to the college library uh and also to our digital resources. Uh city of medicine does have a dedicated library and um Durham School of Technology uh shares with Hillside. So right now Dex is the is the only one that doesn't have that.
At Early College on NCCU campus, we have over the last 15 years worked on developing a lending library right in the department chair's classroom. It's cataloged just like all the other libraries through Destiny and we track circulation that way. That Dex was the one that I noticed and that that's helpful to know. I wonder if there's a plan since they're probably going to be there another year or two to get them some more robust collection, but y'all can I trust you all to keep an eye on that.
Thank you so much for that update. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Other board members? Yes, Vice Chair Rogers. Um I want to say
thank you all for bringing this resolution, but thank you to our educators, our media coordinators that are in that space. Desmond Tutu is often attributed with saying that libraries are the sanctuary of truth. And at moments like this, we need our students to have access to the truth and a place where they can develop their critical sk thinking skills. They cannot do it without our media coordinators.
So, thank you all for your work and your service as students. With that, we have a motion on the floor to approve the proclamation um in support of school library month, April 2026. All those in favor? >> I.
>> All those opposed? All right, it passes unanimously. Thank you again so much for being here this evening, for all the work that you do and all the work of our amazing media coordinators and those that support our
media centers, libraries, and our schools. Okay, the next item on the agenda is um agenda item number five in operation services, the magnet transportation proposal and we welcome Mr. Anthony White here this evening. Hello.
>> Good evening. Good evening everyone again. Um happy to be here. My name is Anthony White.
Um I am the executive director of auxiliary services for Durham public schools and tonight I'm here to present a secondary magnet transportation proposal. Um next slide please. So to start off, this work is grounded in our strategic plan priority five u more specifically goal 5B which states that by 2028 90% of DPS students who ride district buses will have on time arrival to and from schools. Next slide please. Before we get into the presentation, I
would like to first start with the purpose. Um there are four um things that I want to highlight. One is um the standardization of our transportation services for our secondary magnet schools. Secondly, the increase of efficiency for our district-wide transportation services, our increase of on-time arrival um for our students at our schools, and lastly, our operational cost and savings.
In this proposal, um, we are looking to transition our secondary magnet programs to an express transportation model. With this, we would utilize our DPS facilities as the express stops. Within this model, we have a built-in flexibilities for our families who may be experiencing different hardships or different situations in um their homes or lives or work balances. We have um we have a plan to um incorporate that and
our timeline is that we would uh we are proposing to move forward with express stops for Durham School of the Arts and um Brogden's DLI program beginning um in 26 27 school year in August and for the remainder of our secondary magnet programs in the at the beginning of the 2728 8 school year. Next slide, please. So, to get started, we're going to take a look at what we are doing now in Durham public schools. Um, as we continue through the next few slides, I will highlight our existing um magnet transportation um practices in our in our schools.
Next slide. Next slide, please. So this slide here um outlines our four specialty high schools. Uh we have the city of medicine academy, Durham Early College of Health Sciences, JD Clement
Early College which is located on the campus of North Carolina Central University and also Durham School of Technology. All of these schools operate on the specialty calendar. um they service students in grades 9 through 12 and they are able to accept students all across Durham. But if you look at the last um column, you'll see that there um are differences in the level of transportation that each school receives.
City of Medicine Academy and JD Clement Early College receive district-wide neighborhood stops. And I'm going to pause right there to to describe what district-wide neighborhood stops mean. um in layman terms, door-to-door service where the bus will come to a um family's neighborhood or street and they're able to catch the bus there and be dropped off at their school. In this presentation, if you see express stops, the definition for that is that there is a centralized location where our students are asked to meet for their bus
stop. Um, and so when we talk about Durm Early College of Health Sciences, they have express stops at at high schools and Durm School of Technology also has express stops at high schools. But the caveat for Durm School of Technology is, as we just discussed, it's on the same campus as Hillside High School. So if we have students who live in the attendance zone for Hillside High School, they're still able to catch um the bus with the typical neighborhoods um transportation model.
So, four schools, same calendar, same magnet type, three different modalities of transportation. Next slide, please. Next, I want to um highlight the year- round middle schools. Uh we have two year-round middle schools in Durham public schools.
Rogers Middle School and also the School for Creative Studies. Um both of these schools service schools within um excuse me, service families within specific regions in our um growing together plan. and Rogers her all the students within the um lottery
magnet um the lottery region for their magnet receive neighborhood stops and at creative studies um students have um neighborhood stops in the afternoons but in the mornings they have express stops. So two schools same calendar servicing the same grades two different modes of transportation. Durham School of the Arts is our only six 612 um comprehensive um middle and high school and they all all of the students receive district-wide neighborhood stops from all over Durham County. Next slide, please.
This um last slide here highlights all of our schools that are the they have a traditional um uh neighborhood base, but they also have a magnet program attached to it. So um the first school here is Brogden. They have the DLI program. Um the the next two schools on the list, Lakewood Monastery and Lucas Middle School who've trans
transitioned to Monasuri under the grow growing together plan. If you look at those two schools outside of the attendance zone, Lakewood Monastery students can get neighborhood stops from anywhere within Durham. And students at at Lucas who want to participate in Monastery would have to have middle they currently have middle school express stops. So two different types of transportation for those two different for the same program within the same district.
Um Shepard has the IB program. Um we pick up students from all over Durm with neighborhood stops at Southern and Hillside there. um there is a magnet and also pathway where students have to go to their high schools um outside of this outside of their attendance zone for transportation. So when we looking at all of this there there was a lot of variation and I think um being in this position for one year understanding where we were a a year ago. Um one of the first things that I noticed that was glaring is that the variation causes a lot of confusion and people wondering
why some some programs get some things and some programs don't um get those things. So um next slide please. Part of the proposal is to standardize um our transportation um practices where we would have districtwide express stops for all of our schools um all of our secondary magnet schools, excuse me. Um and for the schools that also have the attendance zone, they we're still honoring that.
So for instance, um I I'll speak to Brogden for example, they have the DLI program. All the students who live in Brogden's attendance zone will still be able to receive the neighborhood stops, but if a student outside of Brogn's attendance zone wanted to participate in the DLI program, they would receive um uh express transportation. All right, next slide, please. So, next I want to talk to talk about our efficiency. Next slide. Um in this um the next few slides we're
going to talk about the um rate of on-time arrival um reduction of route times and also some of our operational costs that we are are incurring. Um um next slide please. A part of priority five and more specifically 5B is to look at the on-time arrival of our students um at our schools. What I've done here um along with the team is looked at Durm School of the Arts, picked a fiveday sample size and this is from a few weeks ago. If you guys remember um it was we had this was a Friday and then Monday we were out due to the um impending um inclement weather and then the four days um sub subsequent these are the days that I was that I looked at. If you looked at if you look at this chart here, you'll see that um like in in blue, our ontime arrival um percentage on that Friday the 13th was at 30%.
And our ontime arrival in the afternoon was at 45. I also want to take a moment to define what ontime percentage is. As a um principal, um we would like for all of our students to be in their in their classrooms ready to learn when the when the bell starts. Uh excuse me, when the bell rings.
And um in order for this to happen, we need to have our students on campus on time. Um at DSA, the um instruction starts at 8:30. So we define on time as 8:20. that would allow students to arrive on campus, possibly go get get something to eat.
If they um have to stop by the office to turn in a form or stop by their locker, they still have time to do that and make it to class on time. Um in the afternoon, um on time percentage is um the on time number is defined by 320. This speaks to when uh the principal is finished with the announcements and it's time to to dismiss are the buses outside ready to
go um ready to receive our uh children. So just wanted to lift that up. So if you look at the percentages on the chart uh we're looking at 30% on that Friday that next Tuesday 41% that Wednesday 52 42 and 42 obviously far below where we would like to be at for a district. Um we are looking better in the afternoons but mornings are defin definitely a struggle for us um as the data shows.
Next slide please. This graph this graph here shows what the current deep um DM school of the arts routes are. If you look at the map of Durham on the left, you will see the I know it's kind of hard to read, but there are a lot of little triangles up there. All of these triangles represent a individual stop that our buses make to get our students to and from school. There are there are 563
total stops made daily to get our students to to DSA with a total ride ride time of 57 hours. Under our proposed plan, we are looking to reduce the number of stops from 563 to 71 and reduce the route time to approximately 20 hours, saving um a lot of time for our students on the bus as they're riding. Next slide, please. Also, we wanted to look at the um the financial implications of this.
Um I when I ran this data, it was pre-war and as we know, gas prices are not what they were before. So, if you look at this this um chart, the price of diesel fuel uh when I did the calculations was at was at $3. I'm not sure if anybody drives a diesel vehicle or happens happens to look at what that number is when they go to the gas station now, but
it is far more than $3. Um that's even even our unled is more than that. Um but this data is calculated at $3. Um if we did this for DSA, uh on an annual basis, we would be looking at saving um 53,000.
Let's say $53,500. Um, I did the math for what it would look like if this fuel cost went up to $4 or went up to $5 or right now, which we see six, this number would increase by $18,000 per. So looking at if gas when we have to lock in our gas rates for next year if if gas price gas prices rise to $6, we're looking at over $100,000 that we would be saving on using this metric utilizing the $6 per gallon. Um again, we're not sure exactly where that's going to land at for us um in this uncertain times right now. Next slide, please.
These are the current routes for Rogers her middle school. If and again it it mirrors the chart that was um that that we outlined two slides ago. 2 hours. Next slide.
Making these changes at Rogers her again with $3 a gallon gas u would save us a little over $25,000. Next slide please. This is the this is the current routes for City of Medicine Academy. Um number of daily stops I think I think that says 180. Yeah. My eyes were messing with me over
here. um 180 daily stops with a current route time of nearly 30 hours and the number of daily stops would reduce to 36 and the route time would be 8 and 1/2 hours. Next slide please. If we um were able to make this adjustment for City of Medicine Academy, this would save us over $30,000 um annually.
Next slide, please. The last school that we looked at is JD Clement um Early College High School. Um currently they have 250 daily stops with um 45 and a half hours of ride time for our students. Under the proposal we will reduce that number to 91 with a rout with a route time of 19 hours with Next slide please.
With a total savings of over $40,000. So next slide. If we just look at those four schools which we outlined, we're looking at um over 100 hours of ride
time savings for our students. Almost $150,000 for fuel. Again, this is on the low end depending on where we are um as a country with gas prices. And we also would um save money in contracted services that we provide for our students to arrive at school.
Also, the the number that you don't see is when we reduce the number of miles that we put on our buses, we also reduce the maintenance costs and the repair costs that we have for our vehicles, which will also save us a lot um of labor hours and um parts and uh as as they continue to rise as well um with this plan. Next slide, please. a part of this proposal um working collaboratively with um Principal Jones from Durham School of the Arts, we wanted to get some feedback from our parents about their perceptions of our transportation department and their um and where they are with wanting to see
some change with um students arriving to school on time. So, I have I had um worked with Principal Jones to get a survey sent out to parents. We were able to get um a nice number of responses. We have 432 responses to our survey.
" And for the survey responses, I'm looking more at the rarely and the never, which is slightly less than 50% um of the survey respondents. So, next slide, please. " Um, almost 17% said very negative and um about 31% said somewhat negative. All right, next slide, please. Next question. Have transportation
delays impacted your students ability to arrive at school on time this year? Yes, frequently. 7%. So that is a large percentage of the respondents who stated that transportation delays um had an impact.
And lastly um the last qu next slide please. The last question on the survey is that uh we wanted to let them know we were exploring um an express stop transportation model um where students would be dropped off at um nearby DPS facilities. Would you be open to it using um be open to use utilizing an express stop model uh for transportation? 7% say yes.
And like I always say, nobody wants to get less than what they already receive. So, we understand that. But I was happy to see that 42 nearly 42% said they would be open to it. They just needed to have
a little bit more information on what it would look like and how it would work for their families. So, I saw it as a positive as we are um exploring this um as a district. Next slide, please. Also, there are some additional implica imple implementation considerations that I would like to lift up.
Um next slide. We we excuse me, we receive a lot of feedback from our community as you all receive emails. The transportation department does as well. We also receive a lot of feedback from our schools, school leaders.
Um, and one of the things that we have been grappling with is the on-time arrival for our students at our high schools. I've had um several several several several conversations with high school principles, also um Dr. Logan about this issue and how it is impacting um scheduling and um students ability to be able to access high level courses at our high schools. When you look at um this chart, this chart
highlights the impact of our arrival times um at DSA. So if you look at this chart, Riverside has 32% of their buses that come from DSA. Let's talk about what that means. If we looked at the the data from DSA, we saw that the buses were getting there late.
So, if the buses are getting to DSA late, a third of the buses that come from DSA have to go to Riverside. They're going to be late to Riverside. And we talking about a third of their student population that ride the bus. And that has a significant impact on their ability to the school's ability to schedule classes, the students access to uh again programming um and student achievement in general.
The same for Northern a fourth of their buses come from DSA. So if they're late to DSA, they're also late to Northern, which has an impact on um that school and those families as well. And we've received a lot of feedback from th those communities as well um highlighting this
problem. And again, just wanted to put that into a metric so we can see what that looks like um for our schools. Southern Jordan and the other tier, we call them tier threes because they're in the third tier of transportation. They have an impact, but not as much as those two schools.
So, I wanted to make sure I lift lifted that up. Um next slide, please. Um next, um we do have our electric buses. We have two in our fleet already, and we're looking to add another um 30 over the course of the next year or so. Um, with the electric buses, we would not be able we would have to be very selective about the routes that we would use for our electric buses when we look at the range that they have if we were still running these same routes um because of the length the length of the routes and the mileage that the buses can um withstand with the um with the current um plan that we have in place for our routing. we would have to think about how we strategically place these buses in routes to make sure that
they're not running out of um power on the side of the road. And thinking about us adding these buses to our fleet, I want us to get ahead of this versus being um reactive after we get the buses in the fleet. We want to make sure we have a system in place that allows for these buses to be fully operationalized here in Durham. Um next slide, please.
Um I think this is the last slide. Um but I wanted to make sure that I highlighted a few things. One, in this plan, it is just for secondary schools only. Um this is does not have an impact on elementary schools. Secondly, if a student has an IEP and they receive transportation through their IEP, they will not be impacted by this. students who again I'll say it again if a student has transportation in their IEP they receive transportation services they would not be impacted by this they will they will receive the same level of service as any other student at any other school in DPS um families have the option to utilize
express stops and I like to use an example um if I am a parent and I live and I have a child that uh attends let's say they attend DSA I live by Parkwood Elementary but I work on Hamlin Road. I I would feel comfortable dropping my kid off closer to where my job is due to time. I can utilize Sandy Ridge Elementary School as my bus stop because that works best for my family. Let's say we have a family that lives in the South Point area, but a mom works downtown.
We are able to utilize, let's say, CC Spalding or a school like that that's closer to the downtown region if that works best for families. students would be assigned closer to their home, but we have a process in place for us to be able to work with families to change um to put an alternate stop in place. Um lastly um we have um worked with our team to kind of come up with an outline and a plan of action um if we are able to move forward with this plan beginning
with some um communication with the families of the schools that would be impacted um first which would be DSA and Broggin spoken to those principles and already have a um a tentative plan in place to u try to get in front of parents and answer any questions they may have. also um partnering with the Office of Public Affairs to make sure that our messaging is getting out and families understand um what is what's what's happening and how it impacts them. Um we definitely want to make sure we're doing that proactively. And a part of this work would be working with our school leaders to develop and outline maps of each school campus to identify what the bus stops would be and also the um specific waiting areas for parents if they elected to wait there which we encourage if if possible to wait with their students at the bus stop um to ensure that they are able to get on the bus safely.
Next slide please. Uh and this is the last slide I misspoke. This is just a map of Durm and
this outlies outlines all of our facilities all over Durham. Um, I wish I could have got them all into one concise map, but it's it speaks to where the elementary schools are, middle schools are, and also our high schools with the red star in the mi in the middle being where DSA is. So you can see where the school is and where where a DPS facility may be in in relation to um a school excuse me a parents address. So that's why this slide is um present so we can have a visual representation of where our stop our proposed stops would be.
And that um next slide please. That concludes my presentation and I'm open for questions. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Mr.
V. really appreciate that comprehensive presentation and all the work that has gone into putting this together. Um board members, oh and um we had 30 minutes set aside on the agenda for this, which I don't know if that was supposed to account for the
presentation time also, but um let's uh make sure that we share what is important, but also try to keep remarks and questions and comments concise. And with that, anybody like to All right, Mr. Tab. >> Thank you.
I agree with you, Chair. We will do just that. Um, Mr. White, thank you so much for your presentation.
I wonder, do you keep data on when a substitute driver drives the bus of the arrival times? Is that change? You know, is are you keeping up with that? Because that makes a difference about with the substitute driver and the arrival times and things like that.
>> Yes, sir. Um we do um recognize that when we have a substitute driver on the bus, there are some inherent delays because the driver is unaware of the route and they sometimes trying to make it through. Um we don't necessarily have a data set just for sub drivers, but if we have uh a bus that we are monitoring, we are able to look at our software to
track the times of those buses if we needed to. We have the capability of doing it, but we don't have a running record of all subd drivers and their arrival times. But that information can be developed. >> Yeah, I think that's important uh because that helps with retaining your drivers or when new drivers are coming in, you know, to show sometimes, hey, kids are getting to school late, we got to make sure that, you know, you are familiar with your routes and things like that.
So, thank you um for that. um the pilot programs, you have two schools um and you're saying that this is going to help with student of course student achievement which is the main thing, right? Um how are you going to assess whether or not the pilot program will continue um to be imple or come to us for implementation for other schools the next year? >> Great. Yes, great question. So yes, student achievement is at the um core of all that everyone in this room um does
and it it definitely is leading the way here as well. Um so definitely want to highlight that. A couple metrics that we want to look at. One are um and we will we're looking at the on-time arrival rates for our tier 2 and tier three schools.
So we'll be taking a closer look at those um and um monitoring them more frequently um in the coming months. Also, uh we will be looking at the tier three implications of like that. There was a chart in the um slideshow that spoke to where those buses from DSA go to and um kind of like we spoke about before. Does that um looking at the arrival times for those schools and seeing if those trends are better? If we look at um trend data from this year versus last year are student or the buses arriving to campus on time for the schools following and um also just again looking at DSA's data being able to take a look and like run the data for the same like a same week and um same type
of view u we would be able to do that as well as a um monitoring source and keeping that data. >> Mr. White, if I could add one other point is that we want principles to be able to set their schedule based on what's best for the students in their school. We don't want principles having to develop a schedule based on when our bus is going to arrive to school.
So, if we give principles the flexibility of setting up schedules based on what's best for their kids, that they may have more kids who willing to take u their core classes in the morning versus trying to put all of them in the afternoon. Uh, and so we want the principles to have that flexibility. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Barnes, and thank you, Mr.
White. That's that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Beyer, I want to acknowledge that um I wish we were in a place where we could continue door-to-door transit for every
student in Durham. I want to wish that we had seen the fulfillment of the Leandro, a a huge shock of a lost lawsuit on behalf of our children as we work to uh dream the schools and and services that our families deserve. And I want to be clear that you all have been trying to bring this to us multiple times and we including I have been reluctant to take this unpopular difficult step. But I think that um we are at that time to try this pilot especially at Durham School of the Arts.
Um I'm kind of looking for clarity. I'm not really comfortable um moving beyond the pilot for DSA and the Brogden DLI program. Would it be possible to peel those two pieces out and and just have
decision more rapidly on the 2627 DSA and Brogden while y'all learn from that pilot and then bring back the analysis on the other secondary magnet programs in the future? >> Yes. Uh we are able to do that. Um and also speaking to uh Mr.
Tab's point, we plan on um looking at our data um having that data available and and analyzing that data regularly to inform uh what we are doing and informing our practices as we look to try to um incorporate more schools into this. Thank you. >> And are you are you looking for action here today? >> Yes.
the prices. , etc. >> Yeah, that's that's helpful. But but just to be clear, we are contemplating this for this fall and that this is the
first presentation and hopefully there will be other >> that's why we wanted to have it as a work session so the board can decide if there's additional data uh questions survey information we need to bring back to get consensus to move forward. >> I appreciate it. Okay, any other board members? Uh, Miss Rogers, >> thanks for the presentation for bringing it back.
Um, feel a little differently than Miss Byer. Um, I think it's a necessary step. I think it's a step we need to take for the coming school year. I hear you saying the word pilot. Um, I think that I I would appreciate having the data again next year about how it's working, how efficient it is, etc. But I would
like us to as we move forward, move forward with the intent that this is expanding to all the specialty high schools as you've requested for the following year. So people know that at the time of enrollment and if the board should roll it back at that time to going door todo, the board can do that, that would be helpful to families if the district can afford to do so and has the me power and determines that this isn't working. Um, but I want us I would like us to be able to move forward with both and leave the option to change it back so families aren't surprised when they at the same time next year. >> Thank you.
Others want to weigh in on that or did you have other remarks, Miss Rogers, or no? Okay. Others want to weigh in on that piece.
Uh, Miss Chavez. Oh, your thumbs up. Okay. To what?
what Miss Rogers was saying. Okay. And also Miss Harold Goff is not everybody's spoken, but you're responding to that, Miss Beyer. Okay.
So, 100% I understand the need for families to know as soon as possible. And I do want future boards to be able to look implicitly at the growing together data about some of the secondary programs that are trying to build that might need the support of um door-to-door transportation to get the strength of the program and the popularity of the program and to actually fulfill the equity goals of growing together. And so I could see some needs for further analysis as y'all move forward. That's that is my biggest wondering as as um remember way back when when Durham
School of the Arts was growing and actually it needed nurturing more. I would love every remember that. >> Exactly. Exactly.
I remember it. Um >> anyway, that that's my wondering um on behalf of future boards and you all. >> Absolutely. I think we should continue to assess that and continue to be looking at those things.
I don't think that goes away. I just think think that it's easier to go back doortodoor after getting that assessment, getting an understanding of transportation at that point. But whatever the board decides, it's fine. But that's my thought.
>> Okay. So, we have a couple of thumbs up did and uh from Mr. Tab as well. So, three thumbs up. Um, and then Missstead or Chairstead, did you want to share anything related to this before I weigh in >> this agenda topic? Are you saying >> um Well, I haven't heard how you feel about the moving forward with just the
two that are pilot versus um all of them. So, if you could incorporate that into your remarks, that would be helpful for us. But feel free to share whatever Um I was going to share I don't feel ready yet to make a call on that. I think um I appreciate though this presentation and I think understanding how one how um BSA is impacting the other high schools which also impacting you know thousands of other students getting to school or hundreds of other students get students getting to school on time is a really important factor.
So, I appreciate how you all have thought about this presentation. Um, and I and I sit in a place that we need to make a difficult decision and I'm also concerned about it. And here are some things that I'd want us to keep track of or or consider. Um, one, I don't love this presentation is coming after the magnet window is closed. So, if I'm a family and I've applied, y'all have heard me say this before, uh, I
applied thinking that a bus was coming to my home. And so, now I've accepted my seat. I might have to be doing something different next year. And so I don't love that part.
Understanding, you know, there's some challenges there. I also recognize that Durham School Arts thinking about just that school is one of the highly requested schools and I would want us to be keeping track of data on who can go and who is declining a seat based on the lack of transportation. Um I'm I'm sure at some point while we have this kind of mismatch of all transportation proposals for schools because Durham believes a lot in meeting people where they are, right? That equity focus.
Um and so I just want to make sure that Durham School of the Arts still feels accessible to all of our families and it doesn't become oh can't go because I don't have transportation. We have a certain subset of families that are only um opting into the school. Um, and so I I think I want to sit with it and and hear some more from community members. I know this is for information today. Um, but want to consider more
about what this looks like for pilot, but I I think I'm more interested in separating it out and have a decision earlier next school year so that um, showcase of schools, lottery applications, like all that information is publicized around the other schools. Um, but I just I don't want to create a position where even in our application schools, families don't have access because of transportation. And I I say that honoring that your team is working as hard as they can to try to get folks to school. So, I think it's a difficult decision that needs to be made.
Um, that I'm grateful that we're not making it tonight, but I'm thinking about separating those two. >> Um, I do want to highlight one thing and I I'm with you. I um understand that angst about hey we signed up for a magnet program. Um there is some language um in the magnet application process for families. Um and uh it it says I understand that placement at a magnet program or CTE pathway program
for middle or high school may not have the same level of bus transportation service as attending my neighborhood assigned school. I understand that I may be responsible for transporting my child to an express bus stop as assigned by uh excuse me, assigned DPS location or my neighborhood assigned school to access school bus transportation. Just wanted to highlight that that was already there in our magnet um application for all of all of our families. But thank you so much for that.
>> Mr. Barnes, did you have something? And then I see Miss Herald Goff. >> Go first.
I'm fine. >> Okay, Miss Herald. I just wanted to um clarify too that I understood correctly um and I I remember that language because I had kids in magnet programs and had to do we we went to creative studies and we had a express stop. Did I hear correctly that we're going to utilize all of our locations and if a family is within their neighborhood like
their their districted neighborhood then they still have the option for doortodoor. But if they if they're going into a magnet situation and they're outside of that um that neighborhood zone, then they can still attend, but they would have to do it through the express stop. Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly?
>> So, you are correct. I just want to add some clarity to that. So, we have some of our schools um in I think it's Brogden, Lakewood, Monasuri, Lucas, um Shepard, Southern Hillside. I may have been missing one more.
I can go back and look at the presentation. All of these schools have an attendance zone and they also have a magnet um program. If a student um resides inside of the attendance zone, they would still receive the neighborhood transportation as a norm any like any other student would. If a student wanted to attend the magnet program at those schools and and they lived outside of the attendant zone, then they would receive the
express stop transportation that we are speaking of this evening. Hope that was that. >> Yes. So, it's not like we are dismantling all of the neighborhood transportation.
We're just helping the option and keeping that like contained and then adding these other locations for people who are outside of that to make to ease on to give some ease on the >> Yes. I just do want to highlight this is only for our magnet program. So if a school let's say Neil Middle School, Carrington Middle School, and I'm just showing some love to my my middle school people. Um it like these schools don't have a magnet program per se.
So they they're they're their transportation would not change. They're unaffected by this. Um just the schools that were highlighted in the presentation, which are our secondary magnet programs, those are the schools that would be impacted. And again, for those uh traditional um schools with the magnet option, they will receive the neighborhood transportation and then the express
outside of their zone. for the schools um that have just district-wide magnet such as JD Clement um CMA, they would have districtwide express stops um only. They don't have because they do not have a neighborhood zone for their for their schools. >> And the district-wide express stops include all of our properties like so so one like it could be an elementary school or a middle school, right?
>> That's you know close to Okay. Yes. And um the last thing was then I can stop is um um there was conversation before about um supervision at these stops. So since they're on our properties, would that how how does that address that those conversations they were having before about you know would these express stops have supervision for youth who are there? if parents cannot stay if they can't they have to drop their kids off or if the kid has to be there.
>> That's a great question. So, our express stops would operate the same as a bus stop at um a neighborhood um let's say in I don't know like summer meadow and north durm or just any other neighborhood that we have where there's a bus stop. These parents would come they would drop their kids off at the bus stop. We encourage parents to wait as they wait with their children.
We understand that that doesn't happen the same way that it doesn't happen now. We I think we all see students just waiting for the bus stop, waiting for the bus at the bus stop. That can still occur. The same thing that happens at a um um in the in the neighborhood, if something were to occur at a bus stop, the schools would investigate and and deal with the incidents as they come.
Um in our school properties, that would be the same. Um the there are inherent um safer measures at our schools. We have staff members there. Um we've I've already met with all of our elementary and high school
principles about this and some most of our schools are being utilized as express stops anyway. So this is not anything new for them. They already have established places and again they have conversations with students and parents about what the protocols are or what to do. you know, they all have different things that they do and at their schools to um communicate with the families and I'll be working with them to get that standardized, but there's not like a dedicated DPS person who is outside to monitor students at express stops on our on our locations.
>> I just wanted to lift up again that I'm also I'm still for like looking at this together with the option of being able to revisit it with data from the first from the first year. Um but giving that expectation for families to prepare um feels like a jump ahead of having to do that prior to um next year's um time. Yeah. Magnet lottery. So I like
having, you know, as being as proactive about communication as we can. So, um, I think that there's enough time, you know, if we're thinking about it, let's go ahead and, you know, pull off the band-aid and see what it's like. And then once we have some data, if we have to backtrack, it'll still be easier to do that. Um, so I'm still in favor of of looking at it that way.
>> Thank you. Other board members? >> Yes, Miss Chavez. >> Well, um, thank you.
I think that I think that we need to move forward with this. This is a strategy that you all have been bringing us for a while. Um I think we need to do it to move forward or to deal with the um the lack of resources um that we have in different ways. Um and also um to have consistency across the district. Um my concern of course is around access, you know. Um and so I also concur that that data
analysis will be important next year. Um I have one question um that I you know kind of raised in my questions um that I sent in but around the hardship appeal um if the appeal is successful for a family then what happens? What do they get as a result of that? I I'm gonna take one step back and kind of talk about the process if you don't mind.
Go ahead. >> So, um if a family has a a hardship or they would like to request a alternate stop, um we do have a process for that. Um we will have we do have a an online form. Um if we able to move forward, that form will be available online.
Um also, our schools will be armed with that information. They will also have paper copies with different ways for them to be able to get that information to us. that's already prepared and ready to go if we're able to move forward. Um, in that process, there is a 10day um turnaround time, but we what we would do
is take it again, every situation is different, so we will have to take a look at every situation with our team um go through that process and then we will be able to communicate with families. It may be something that um as we're working with families, it may be that there's a different stop or different things. And again, um, we really want to take a personalized approach with this and working with every family to try to figure out what works best because we don't want to cut off access for our students to attend these programs. Also understanding that we have a a program that well a system that we're trying to keep integrity as we're putting in.
And so understanding that for our families and understanding like we we're trying to figure out how we can work best for our with our families through this process. " We want to take a look at everything and get back with our families and communicate with them. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And um people, you know, families should should know that. Um and so the the appeal
school bus stop appeal request form is to um request an alternative bus stop. >> Yes. Okay. Um but individual families would not be responsible necessarily for gathering up five other or four other people or something like that.
You're going to work with them. Um okay. >> Absolutely. Um we would want we again this is part of the individual individualized approach that we will be taking to this um this process.
taking a look at stops, working with families, having some conversation, not just being a person behind the screen, just sending a a blind emails, picking up the phone, having conversations with with families and trying to figure out what we can do to work best um together. >> Right. Well, thank you. Thank you very much.
>> Anything else from other board members? >> Okay. Um can Oh, oh, I forgot. Mr. Barnes, I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I think In the past, we've talked about the challenges at DSA now, but
we've talked about when the new DSA is online and with traveling from Chadam County to now northern Durham, it's going to increase um the probability of kids not being able to get to school on time. So, if we're able to move forward with this with this proposal, then the data that we're going to collect this year is going to be valuable for us as we learn how to get the kids from the Chattam County line to DSA that's going to be located in Northern Durham. So, this is also a a good tool for us to use to figure out the best way to transport those kids uh without losing or without having families to um think the DSA is not accessible to them because they live in Southwest. >> Thank you.
Um thank you so much for your leadership on this. U Mr. White, this is um I know you've put a lot into this and um I think of course we would like to be able to provide bus transportation
to and from people's houses um for everybody, but our resources are not unlimited. We have a state that's starving our public schools of funding that we need. Frankly, fuel resources are not unlimited as well, right? We have environmental concerns um to balance.
So, um I think what gives me the most unease, and you've heard me say this before, but is the timing of this, um I that it's happening after people have accepted lottery seats. That said, that's where we are. But moving forward, I really would prefer to give folks more um more of a heads up. And so, I'm in favor of going ahead and moving forward with the plan to implement so people have as much time as possible to plan.
Um, the other thing that gives me unease is the risk of making our magnet programs less accessible to our families that have less resources. And so I do want us to keep an eye on that. Things that make me feel better about this are the incredible amount of work you've
done to make this as flexible as possible for people. So the ability to offer different express stops and for them to request ones that are closer to their work or closer to um different things, that's that's incredible. and I think will make this um less of a burden on folks and also the hardship um waiver process makes me feel more comfortable with this. So, thank you.
Um I really I always like to see data, but I think that's going to be really important to track and keep tracking so that we know if those things that we're worried about are happening. And so I think in addition to the on-time arrival at school, um I'm interested in the ontime or reasonable arrival back home or back to that express stop. I know you're tracking when people are leaving the schools, but we have problems now with folks kids on the bus for a long time in the afternoon. So, if this can reduce that, I think that would um help our families. Um also, how much less fuel are we using, right? So, how much money
are we saving? But also that environmental impact if we can keep track of that over time. and then whether we're pushing low or lower resource students out of our magnet programs, we can track that through demographic changes in our magnets over time, um applications, enrollment, things. So, I think it'll be really important for y'all and this board to see um that data.
And then also just satisfaction both from like the parent and the student level, but like at school administrator level, too. Satisfaction with transportation services. The idea being that all of these things improve over time, we don't see the negative stuff that we're worried about. Um any other um thoughts that come up for board members?
Yes, Vice Chair Rogers. >> Just want to make sure I understand this clearly. I thought I understood it cuz my kid attended a magnet school and I attended a magnet school. Magnet lottery is open or magnet lottery is closed. They're pulling people accepting seats.
In general, we don't get bus assignments until open house, >> right? >> So, people don't have any real expectation of where their bus stops are going to be yet. Maybe like similar to where they were last year, but we are making it clear >> right >> that it's not and at that point they can make their appeal. Okay.
At this point, they now know that the board is considering express stops for the coming year. They could opt to go to their base school in lie of the magnet school now to avoid that. They could wait to attend open house and they can still request to go back to their base school. So, as far as enrollment is concerned, um it's my understanding, not not my specialty, but my understanding that um a student at a magnet school can opt to return to their um neighborhood school
um at that point. >> We Yes, I I've seen Yes. >> So, they could also submit an appeal. The appeal could be approved or denied and they could go back to their base school up until the first day of school.
they can return to their base >> up until the first day is >> prefer not because we stop filling those those magnet seats as of July 31st for traditional magnet calendar schools. So >> So after the first day of school, they can't go back to their >> they can request an appeal to return >> they can request an appeal, >> right? >> Transfer. So, if they can't get to a bus stop after the first day of school >> because they're appealing to stop because they can't make it to that location, if they don't show up for the first 20 days, they're unenrolled anyway.
>> They can they would be put in for a return to their base. >> I just want to make sure that I understand this process. >> Yes. >> Because what we don't want is for people to be disengaging with DPS over
transportation. But we also need to be clear that there are multiple steps along the way that families have multiple options that they have at this point even still in terms of attending their base school if they think transportation is going to be an issue. Miss Fuller going to be at location. >> So couple things.
Um the last question first. No, Fuller was will not be um one of the stop locations. I would say that our team has been working feverishly. Um was meeting with the team today and we're ready to I think maybe in the next couple weeks we would be able to kind of generate what stops would be if we're able to move forward with um DSA.
So when we start talking about communication and getting information out early and often, I think that's something that we are in the place to do. We've already been talking about it. We just want to um be able to press the
gas and be able to move forward with it. Um but yes, we be we will be available to give that information early. Um we talking about in the next month or so we will be able to have a um estimate. Again, nothing's finalized at this point, but we will be able to give families at least an estimate of what what that would look like.
>> Okay. Thank you. Yes, Miss B. Yeah, I think that's one thing that when we talked about this previously, like we looked at these maps, I'm looking at slide 17, the DSA um expressing in, right?
You said you could almost identify every dot on this or whatever triangle shapes these are on this map. And I think that kind of information as a next step for families to be able to see, oh, I I am not far from Southwest Elementary. I could see and there maybe
you could project is this part of the projection. There will be five other students there or 10 or whatever piece of my community is coming in towards this express. Is that the level of information that you could give to this board so that the public can see it before this board votes on that? Are we because I think that kind of level of information of a draft kind of where are these dots um would be super helpful as folks start to try to plan.
Aren't they dot just the elementary, middle, and high school? >> Yes. So if you're looking at slide 29, um the the dots were so there are three different maps outlining where the the location of each elementary school, middle school, and high school with um DSA being the red star that's in the middle where DSA is located. >> So >> that one I'm looking at 17. >> Yeah. With the with the crazy red, blue, green lines of now and then the express
like What are like the stops that you have projected already that that you're close to finalizing? Would you be able to provide that level of detail in draft form knowing that it would might change prior to a vote? I'm hearing that I just wanted to clarify really quickly. If parents if families want to know where their nearest express stop is, that is their nearest elementary, middle, or high school, right?
Whether or not there's going to be five or more students there is what you were referring to. If we >> I was not clear from your presentation earlier that all of these are existing schools. >> If you look at the maps um let's say you looking at slide 17 the map on the right are existing DPS locations. These are like if you're looking at the map, the left with all the lines are all of the the neighborhood stops that we're currently making and the map on the right are all those triangles that you
see there are existing DPS locations. If families wanted to know where their express stop would be, I think the the easiest thing is to think about where you are. You probably can go on like school locator on our our website. Just type in your address to figure out what's your closest elementary, middle, or high school.
just kind of take a look at those things. You'll be able to kind of see what's closer. That does not absolutely 100% define where you would be. Um, but that would at least give you an idea of the schools that are closest to you in geographic region.
Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, Miss Rogers. >> All right. So, that makes So, I hear what Miss Beyer is saying.
You know how um I guess we don't do it for bus stops. I guess the question is you know how uh there's the school locator resource. Is there some way for DSA families or the schools that are on
this to and people who are thinking about applying to magnet schools to be able to put in an address and find out where an express bus stop is. >> Okay. So, in order for us to generate that, again, that's I was kind of speaking to where my team is ready to move forward with that. We would be able to um simulate what all of the express stops for all of our students would be for next year.
We don't nec we because we are in um building mode. We don't have like every single stop for every single student laid out. Um you can kind of think about a school and like a radius around it and kind of looking at it. But some it it takes a little bit of a human eye on it as well because not just because it's a let's say a mile or two mile radius that doesn't mean that it may it may not geographically work best.
And so again that's something that my team is ready to go. I told them to pause today. They were ready to go. I said let's kind of see where we are. Um, but we want to like if we able to move forward, we will be able to generate all the stops for all of the students who are projected to be well who are
currently at DSA and kind of and then from there any other students would kind of get an idea of like let's say I live in this neighborhood look at other students who live in this area where their bus stop is and so they can kind of see what that looks like. >> Does that answer your question? >> That answers my question. And so if you're that far along, is it possible to get that information >> for us to say yes, we're absolutely moving forward?
And you know what I mean? >> Um, so if we a so we can get the information. I'm not saying we can't get the information. When we do it that there's a a back-end process working with Miss Phillips and uh Mr.
Harris where they have to it's it's a lot of techn technicalities behind the scene. we can go ahead and get that information if if you guys would like to see a draft of what DSA is going to look like. We are able to provide that. Um I just have to work with the team and we can get that information >> that put people more at ease. >> It would I is I think that's the
>> I guess I'm curious to know like I want families to have that as soon as possible and I think that will be useful for families. So, I would like to know how that can get rolled out to families who are planning to go to those schools and when, but I don't know that for me personally, I guess I don't see the value in having that before we decide to move forward on this. Like, that's not new information that I need. But I could see how a family would need it if they're deciding for next year and planning for next year.
>> Um, if if I could um jump in, I was working with um Principal Jones um if we're able to move forward. We're already kind of looking at a date that we can set where we can um me and other members of the transportation team are able to schedule a time to go to DSA to answer answer some specific questions. We already kind of have a tentative date um set. We didn't finalize anything because we kind of want to wait to see where we are. So again, um as far as the team, we're ready to move forward and communicate with families about what things look like. Again, if we if we say that we're moving forward, we can get
that data, have it real time, be and have it there at DSA ready to answer questions for families within a few weeks. >> Other comments? And if not, I kind of wanted to just take a straw poll to see who's ready to move forward with this. Okay.
Okay. Can board members give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down if they're ready to say yes, move forward with implementation of DSA and Brogden DLI express stops planning and communication. Okay. So I have six board members.
Yes. And then my next question is, are you ready to give the go-ahad for them to start rolling out the next phase of this which will be implemented in the next school year which is to all middle and high school magnets also >> with the caveat that the board could roll that back later. >> Right.
>> Or we'll have information before it happens. >> Right. But for planning purposes. Yeah.
and the question that I had asked him about making sure that >> the data >> the data is there >> to support it >> to support that >> right and that'll be my yes so I think the tentative go-ahad with the with the expectation that there's data being gathered and reported back to the board as this moves forward how do do we want to are there thumbs up or thumbs down or do people have other questions before they give a thumbs up or thumbs down to that yes miss buyer I will I will add my other caveat in um talked to a lovely student that you know walks 20 minutes to her stop and she's high schooler. That to me on this secondary piece I think the future board might want to start as much as possible with high school students before getting to middle school. And that's another point of like taking a little bit of time seeing what you learn from this
massive pilot that is Durham School of the Arts which is expressed stopping nearly 700 family 700 students something like that. Um and so giving y'all some time to nuance it a little bit I I still think is helpful. Um because you might not have to do all the middle schools. You might be able to get the gains you're hoping for in efficiencies and on timeness.
Is that a thing with just doing the the high schools rather than both middle and high? I don't I don't know. And I fully know that DSA is a 612 school and that makes it extra challenging too. >> Well, I think you you all will be assessing this as you move forward and you're not going to roll this out more than you need to, right?
I think I I want to give you the space to do what you need, but understand that you're making data based decisions as you move forward. Um, >> yes. >> So that we don't hold you back. But I hear what you're saying, Miss Beyer. And I also,
um, >> uh, but I don't want to hinder your ability to to do this if it's necessary. If we can get a guarantee that you're, you know, thinking about all these different things that have come up tonight as you're moving forward with this. >> My guarantee is that I will be data focused. Um I will continue to take um a deep dive into the data and be ready to report out whenever um it is requested.
It will be readily available because we're going to be looking at it and as a team um very regularly. So any request that we receive for data, you'll be able to have it because we're going to be looking at it. We don't want to make any blind decisions. We want to make um data informed decisions and also just making sure that we're keeping students and student achievement first.
So again, that data is something that we're going to be um looking for. >> Thank you. What other others have questions or comments? I wanted to also flag that um Principal Jones of DSA is here in case folks have specific questions for him about conversations he had he's had with families there
already. Yes. Um Chairstead, >> thank you for being here, Mr. Jones.
I don't have specific questions. I think the tricky part for me about 2728 and trying to make a data driven decision when we won't have that data till the fall which is a new board and so just being frank about we that is hard for me to make a decision about that when there's another group of people who need to wrestle with that in the fall. So I just want to I don't know if there's a date that we want to say look quarter 1 we look at this data it's going to come to the board and and the board makes that decision about 2728 um because we are talking about making a data decision and so I just want to uplift that I'm I think we've been clear about what we need to move forward with for 26 27 27 28 just feels like might need to be a different set of decision makers. Yes, ma'am. >> And I think I'd love to see this on the um the calendar or the board conversations, wherever you going to put it.
>> Uh Dr. Pitman. >> Yes. Just a point of clarification, particularly M.
Rogers, lifting your question about how off how what the process might be if a family needed to change their decision. The acceptance of a magnet seat this year is binding, but the normal process would be the families could submit an appeal and we would work with those families, but there is a process that we would shepherd them through. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Other comments? And I think I'm I'm trying to balance, as I think we all are, this desire to make sure that we move forward with as much information as possible with also informing our families in a more timely way than we've been able to do this year because this doesn't feel good to me to be telling them right now. And I don't want next year for this to happen again where we're telling families after they've accepted a lottery seat that that we're moving
forward with additional schools for the following year. I think that's my primary concern with not giving transportation the leeway to do what they need. Um so maybe an alternative does somebody have a proposal for like by this date in the fall this needs to come back to the board because I would love to hear that as we're trying to balance those two things. Yeah, I think after I'm sorry I just spoke out of term, but after quarter one, what's that?
Octoberish, if that data could come to the board at that point, that is before showcase of schools, which normally happens in November, and the um application process starts in January. So, that gives plenty of time for even two meetings if you need it um before families are entering into the application process. I think I did that math right. I'm looking around.
I see headshakes. So, that timeline. >> Yes, ma'am. How does that feel for other board members instead of making a decision tonight on anything beyond the first two schools to receive data in the fall prior to showcase of schools and make a
decision at that point? >> I see Miss Rogers maybe. And then Mr. Barnes, did you have something?
Okay. It feels a little early to me and I understand the showcase of schools. Only reason I say it feels a little early is because things are just really settling in at the end of the first quarter. Um you can't make we could do first and second.
Um I know that there's like a 10day waiting period after school starts to request a bus stop and that puts us a little further in. And then you're at the 20-day ADM um to see what people are doing, if they are keeping their seats, what they're, you know, all those things, if they're staying the year round program, if they're going back to traditional. And so I want to give some flexibility in that. So I don't want it too early when students aren't where they aren't showing up, aren't showing up consistently, might still be taking
, etc. You don't have good data. Um, but I do hear the desire to come before Showcase of Schools. So somewhere in I want us to be flexible October, November at a work session for sure.
>> Yeah, I was going to say November work session maybe. >> Yeah, that might be feasible. But also like it's out there now that we're considering it for next year. So people do know that going in the showcase of schools.
But when the data is verifiable and and I would expect y'all know more as you go continue to build this and by the time we get to the board retreat where we're making decisions about the board calendar, we can make some more specific about that. >> Mr. Barnes, >> yeah, I think it's fair enough for us to say that we could do something at the end of the first quarter and as we start to see trends with the data, then we could come back more often. um and give
you what we're seeing as far as trends are concern concerning. So, uh I think October first nine weeks and then uh early in November before the um showcase of schools and we can tell you what the data is saying and what the trends are. Um yes, Miss Herog, >> is there anything that in order to make it like if if it did move forward that we're we're saying that administration is not doing like are they not going to work on what it would look like for all the schools until we have reviewed what they've already done? Is that enough of a time for them to be working on like what this could look like?
like will they continue to work on what it could look like if if we go that far or are they not going to do that work until we get the data back for the first year for for the first quarter? >> I appreciate that question. So, can you help us? >> Um, I will say that we we have a timeline that we that we utilize in the transportation department to make sure
that everything is squared away for the next year. um that starts very early and we actually kind of in the middle of the game right now which I know people are not understanding that this work is happening but it's happening every day getting everything together. Um we if we I think after the first quarter we kind of understand where we are. We get our state reports in and we then at that point we start shifting our um lens to the next school year.
By that time we will have enough data to be able to see what's working, what's not working, be able to make any kind of adjustments. It will be after we will come back um and present kind of where we are and then we will have enough time to go and operationalize the other schools. Some of that work has already started as um as you s saw in the presentation kind of like an outline of what CMA would look like or Durm Early College of Health Sciences. some of that work has already happened. Um, but we wouldn't fully operationalize it until we get the 100% go ahead to know that this is working. And then we've already done our own internal audit to say, "Hey, this is
what we need to adjust. This is what we need to fix. " And again, because this is a pilot for us, we want to learn from what we're doing. Um, I the some of the best plans that we've ever seen have taken some tweaks and some changes.
And like I said, we kind of learned from those things and we're looking forward to going through the learning process. Um been partnering with our principles. Like I said, we have um principal Jones here. He's been a great partner with us with this just kind of working through some things and talking through it and trying to figure out what's going to work best.
I'm dedicated to um continuing that work and we look forward to like I said the continual partnership and collaboration um amongst all of us and um DPS with on in this venture. And understanding that, I would be fine with, you know, waiting on making, you know, to give, you know, the new board a chance to weigh in and all of that. I'm in favor of that with us getting data um to make that assessment at the end of the first quarter, Novemberish or
whenever they're laying it out. I I would be fine with that. I could work with that. >> Okay.
So, if this um comes back to the board, some robust data and a plan for potentially moving forward to expand beyond the two pilot schools, if that comes back to the board in November, that gives you enough time to plan for what need what would need to happen to roll it out. if we were um to come back in November, I could come back with um kind of like plus deltas, things that that work um things that we've learned and kind of a um like a comprehensive comparison data from where we are and kind of looking at some different trends that we see. I'm I feel comfortable coming back with that information um late October, early November. >> Thank you.
Board, does that feel comfortable to you all? Can you'all give me a thumbs up if that feels good? Okay. All right, wonderful. Um, anything else before we forward with our next agenda item? >> Oh, say in addition, we could probably
also have we can have some additional conversations about some survey data as well, surveying staff, families, um, of of DSA. Uh, and so, uh, we can definitely have a robust data in Brogden. Uh, yes, surveying those those communities. Um, I will say, um, kudos to Mr.
White and his team. um for an indepth um report. Although the conversations have been about transportation impact on families and express stop, please know that this is a student centered um decision that we're making. When I hear from Mr.
Jones that 200 two to 300 kids are late every day, when I hear from high school principles about structuring their first period in a way to account for buses not getting there on time, we have to make sure that we are um looking at the entire system to to alleviate that. and the fact that this is also about continuous improvement with our transportation um system as well. And definitely kudos to, you know, we've had some previous conversations about uh what's in our strategic plan about on time uh arrival and and and Mr. White found a way to to
find that data and it wasn't people standing out there with a watch NFL buses here. It was GPS reliable data. So kudos to you and your team for that. >> Thank you.
Thanks so much for all of your work for being here tonight answering all of our questions and sharing all this with us. Thank you so much. >> Forward to more. >> Thank you.
>> Okay, with that, the next item on our agenda is um for agenda item number six for information only, overnight field trips. There's that. Then the next item on the agenda is um the item that was moved from the consent to lower in the agenda for the purpose of having additional um information added. So that's all been added into board docs now.
However, I believe this is still remains a consent item unless it's been unless somebody wants to have a discussion about it. Yes, Miss Rogers. >> So we would have to we didn't approve it on consent. So we have to approve it. I think approve the
contracts and my question the prey is gone. Um, so my question I think is the first question I have is what's the value of the new contracts? It's not gone. It's gone for me.
It just doesn't say pricey. Okay. >> All right. So, what are the value of the contracts?
>> Hi. Um, Jim Katon, child nutrition. um the value of the contracts are not included in the precises because the values are not determined. It's determined based on the amount of food we use.
So we go out to bid with a usage report where we say to Cisco, we're expecting to use 500 cases of chicken nuggets, 300 cases of frozen broccoli, 200 cases of this and that. And we give them an entire um usage report. And then as we purchase items, the value comes
from what we've purchased. We don't actually know how many kids are going to come to school on which days, how many snow days we're going to have, how much food we don't purchase as to compared to what we planned. We don't know what menu items are going to change based on student acceptability. So, the the Cisco bid, the usage report is a little over $5 million.
That's what we expect to purchase from Cisco. Um, but it's not a determined figure until each week as we order for every school. The milk is based on the individual cartons of milk. We don't know how many kids are going to choose milk at every individual school.
So, um it's and it's based on what flavor of milk they choose. So, um there's no set amount to our purchasing because ours is so fluid. Same with vegetables. We don't know um from week to week which from local farmers which products are available, which ones the weather is make them have to cancel not to be able to provide to us. So um all of our contracts are written with usage reports where we give an expected usage um and that's what we
remain under that value. >> Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And so you are requesting the board renew each of these contracts.
Basically an extension of the contracts from what they previously were based on usage. I guess we're not done with usage for this year, but based on usage from last year, you didn't see any reason to make modifications or did you make modifications based on the usage you saw? >> We did make mod modifications. So, um, for example, with Firsthand Foods, it's a local woman-owned business where we purchased um, meat from.
We we received ground beef and um, we were receiving pork. Initially, we had been receiving sausage, but we found that the sausage was not um meeting the nutritional standards that we needed to have for uh the menu pattern. So, we had to take the saus sausage off. We were also purchasing bacon and bacon did not meet the nutritional standards. So, we diverted that money away from sausage
and bacon. So, that value of that contract dropped based on we didn't use all the uses we initially intended. And then for this coming year, we're going to divert our USDA commodity money to purchase um more of the chicken and things directly from USDA. And we're going to use instead of buying beef from USDA, we're going to buy it more from the local womanowned business and use the money we would have used for bacon and sausage.
So, we shift our funds around based on which contracts best fit our menu needs. >> Thank you. That's all my questions. >> Any other questions?
Yes, Miss Beyer. >> I'm just ready to make a motion when you're ready for one. >> Yep. >> And hungry. >> Um, I would move that the board approve on consent item 7A, school nutrition services bid renewals for 2627 school year.
>> Second. It's been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Chavez um to approve on consent the school nutrition services bid renewals for school year 2627. Is there any other discussion? >> Not on consent because we pulled it from consent.
It's just a vote. >> We didn't modify the agenda during the agenda review and approval. But we modified it when we approved the consent agenda. >> I thought it was a consent item that moved to a different place on the agenda, but I'm it's fine wherever you want it.
And you pulled it anyway because you talked about it, so probably it's action, right? >> Okay. >> Yes. So do that.
>> So do you want to change it? >> Of course. >> Um, do I need to restate it? I move that we uh approve as new item 7A the school nutrition services bid renewals for 2627 school year.
Second >> been moved by Miss Beyer and seconded by Miss Chavez to approve the school nutrition services bid renewals for the school year 2627. Is there any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor?
>> I I >> All those opposed? Right. Passes unanimously. >> The next item on the agenda is a summary of follow-up items.
Dr. Pitman. >> So for the 23 through 28 strategic priority three strategic plan priority 3 update, there are four follow-up items. The first is a request that future strategic plan presentation updates highlight the metrics or data points that are being followed by that priority. The second is that we would provide a written update on the impact of the supplements or differentials for EC ESL locers ma local
mast's pay and transportation if we're able to determine its impact on retention and if the data is not yet available how might we be tracking it effectiveness and how will this impact be tracked. The third is a request that the board receive an update on the communication about how the bonuses for retention and recruitment are being shared with the greater community outside of Durham public schools. And the fourth is a consideration for a future board meeting topic being an update on the J1 visa. Did that get approved as an update item?
I captured it in the notes. I wasn't sure where the board landed. Um, we did not do a thumbs up or thumbs down for that. Do not do that.
Would board members like an update on the um international teacher visa um conundrum at a future board meeting for us to hear more information and discuss? All those in favor? Thumbs up.
Okay. Anybody not Okay, that's majority. So, yes. One thing I wanted to add I think the the update on impact of ECESL transportation masters pay you mentioned impact on retention.
I think there's also interest in seeing any data indicating impact on recruitment >> for both. >> Is that correct board? Anybody disagree? Okay.
Thank you. That was okay. And recruitment. And then the final item um what we've just lifted up uh to bring an update to the board on the express stops in October or November at that work session in preparation for the 2728 school year.
That's all we have. >> Thank you, Dr. Pitman. Was there anything that other board members identified that is missing?
Thanks so much. All right, that um that's our agenda. I'll
entertain a motion. >> I move that we um go into close session for the items stated on the agenda. >> Second. It's been moved by uh Miss Harold Goff and seconded by Miss Beyer that we go into close sess session for the reasons outlined on the agenda.
Is there any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor? >> I.
All those opposed. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we're moving into close session. As a reminder, we're not going to return um to streaming once we return from close session. So everybody have a great night and thank you for joining us.