Board of Education · Work Session · August 10, 2023

Call roll call it's one of our members is virtual I'll start you miss buyer Miss buyer thank you this is Natalie Byer I vote I Miss Rogers no Miss valladers I miss Carter Alton. Aye Ms Chavez aye I'm Sid aye and I'm Johnny Lewis and I vote I as well the agenda is reviewed and approved by six two six to one the next item on the agenda is our board work session minutes for May 4th can I get a motion too minutes.

We'll approval of the minutes from May 4th work session second he's been moving Miss Rogers second by Miss Byer we'll take a Village's vote all in favor Miss buyer this is Natalie Beyer I vote I Rogers aye Aya Davis aye this is part of Alta hi this Chavez hi I'm Sid hi I'm Giovanni Elizabeth I have passed this unanimously and next we will have general public comment a quick review of the rules first please state your name if you're speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students and.

The and to the or to the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with the speakers we have three speakers our first one is Nicholas Grabber Grace. Good evening members of the board good evening staff I hope everyone is well this evening I am here tonight in two capacities so first I'm going to wear my parent hat that is not connected to any organization and just thank the board and thank Dr Miss Giovanni for responding to a data request I recently sent regarding student safety and a potential correlation between student safety and the smart lunch program at Riverside I know that when smart lunch was suspended for a period of time last year many students raised serious concerns about the equity impact the lack of access to programs to Opportunities and extracurricular activities as well as tutoring it is my understanding from interactions and conversations with my own child's friends and with staff that.

I have spoken with there that the smart launch program is very popular and good for students and staff and so I have concerns about the news that we received from the school that the smart launch program will not be continuing in this coming school year so we will follow up more on that as I review that data taking off my parent hat now I'm putting on my organizational hat I am employed with the North Carolina Association of Educators and one of my roles with ncae is to serve as the North Carolina School rescue fund coordinator for the National Education Association so I work to track the expenditure of federal school recovery funds Esser and ARP dollars across the state in different districts I want to commend the district for really being on top of a successor and our plan I know that Mr Lester will be presenting this afternoon some of the details about the expenditure of the Esther two dollars that are said to expire in September and must be expended by January.

I I look forward to hearing the plan for that many districts are not as far ahead as Durham is and having a clear plan on how those dollars will finally be spent the other thing I just want to ask the district to be thinking about and I know that you are thinking about this to some degree but in my work I see a lot of opportunities in the funds from the federal government through the inflation reduction act these are not funds that are going directly to schools but there are many green energy and environmental construction opportunities and grants that can be applied for often in collaboration with County or Municipal governments and so as we're looking at school construction projects I hope that the district is cognizant and aware of all of those opportunities tracking those opportunities and trying to find as many federal pots of money as we can to have green investments in the sustainable development and energy needs of our schools thank you so much have a great day thank you.

And next we have Mercedes Montoya good evening everybody there are board members and administration my name is Mercedes Montoya I'm part of the photo de Padres but also an elite Community who work with many of us staff DPS staff that are no students I advocate for them because teachers are very important but custodians drivers people who work the kitchen need to be represented and need to be care I received some complaints from a couple of them I they complain they come here to Human Resources because I always say you need to follow all steps the right steps and they come here but they feeling like they come to the courthouse but with no resource they visit directly Mr Jeff office and tonight I have a specific case that pulls my heart very sad it's a custodian who work at Riverside.

Suffered discrimination they are many many many times even the lead custodian called a person for her birthday for her birth name instant to use the name she wanted and she is a woman she's feeling a woman she needs to be respect now the solution is easy change the school change the school is like penalize people who suffer discrimination it's not it's like Giver congratulations to the bullies and this is not acceptable and this is not the first time I come in I visit tonight's the first time I I hear with the board but I visit Mr Jeff office in person to report many cases and I have the same feelings like that particular custodian told me feeling in the courthouse with no Solutions with nothing please take care take care all people give the right value to the custodians because they work so hard some of them work like educators please take care then take care our staff because many people quick because they don't feel in respect thank.

You so much for the opportunity tonight yeah next we have Katie mcginnell please correct me if that was incorrect the pronunciation it's McDonald Katie mcgonnell and I am here tonight representing myself Little River school and the primary Montessori teachers across the district first I wanted to give an update a quick little river update since the last time I addressed this board in January of this year during our July Little River Sil meeting we reviewed our departing staff we lost 20 percent of our K-5 teachers and 100 of our Middle School teachers in addition from my kindergarten classroom alone we lost four Rising first grade families to Voyager Excelsior and Durham Academy Little River lost one particular particular student my daughter Elin because she was robbed for opportunity to complete her Middle School tenure at Little River School the only school she's known since kindergarten all of these losses are in direct are directly related to the growing together initiative I have chosen to stay at Little River because this board the people at Fuller.

Street and bacon Street although you may direct our instruction you are not responsible for the culture the community and the family that we have built at Little River I am determined to purse okay to keep this precious community alive during this transition and Beyond 2022 2023 it's a closed chapter it's water under the bridge 23 24 begins in the next week thank you for bringing the training to our Educators thank you for compensating us for our time and commitment to this rigorous Montessori program it's greatly appreciated but we need more last year I brought it to the attention of this board and the growing together initiative that primary montessor teachers were also required to be the EC case managers of their preschool students I've been told that this issue is being addressed and we hope to find a resolution this practice is a lawsuit waiting to happen in order to even serve this population the teacher in that role must have BK certification I'm the only kindergarten teacher in our building.

With that certification at this moment it is impossible for a general education teacher to execute an IEP to Fidelity while meeting the needs of all of their students it didn't used to be this way it has just become this way we need you to hold Bacon Street accountable for servicing their identified EC Montessori preschool students and when they can't fund it fund it I look forward to y'all to working with y'all and watching you to continue to meet the needs of your staff and students by providing qualified EC teachers to serve in this role thank you thank you that is the end of our public comments so then the next item on their agenda is the consent items we have four items here 6A 6B 6C and 6D we are given opportunity to review these items before the board work session and have a chance to ask questions and get clarification and that's been put on our.

Consent agenda I will accept emotion a move that we approved the consent items second move by Miss Umstead second by Miss Chavez is there any discussion all in favor we'll do a Voice vote again miss buyer it's Natalie buyer I vote I Rogers aye Davis all right hi Miss Chavez aye Ms Umstead all right and I also vote I that passes unanimously the next agenda item is a board of education 7A resolution black and student Black and Hispanic student achievement plan I'll turn it over to Ms Rogers.

Mr Rogers did you want to table the conversation for another agenda item I wasn't sure I didn't ask for a discussion earlier when we first made the motion you had voted notes I just want to give you opportunity if you want to table it or if you wanted to move forward.

Everybody else agreed to keep it on the agenda so I'm okay with it being on the agenda because that's a consensus of the board I worked closely with Miss buyer Miss Carter Otten to create this plan and we probably worked on it for a month before we submitted it to Administration and the rest of our colleagues on the board for feedback and I have been waiting diligently for said feedback from the district I finally got a meeting with Dr mcbangan last week much appreciation.

I feel strongly that we need to implement more deliverables more often so that we're making sure we're meeting the needs of Black and Hispanic students I am open to a conversation about what that looks like and look forward to hearing from my colleagues about what they want to see in such a plan and what the administration feels like is appropriate for them to produce and the timeline upon which they can produce that but have heard some unreadiness from other colleagues today and I am comfortable with delaying that for as long as it takes to bring the board Administration along.

And this agenda item is on for discussion so the floor is open for discussion any questions comments from other board members I'm happy to share I appreciate you Ms Rogers for putting working on this spearheading this along with the other board members that worked with you I think that it is really important as a district that has majority black and brown students Black and Hispanic students to have a clear plan about how we are addressing achievement I think that as I read through this there are many ways that I see that it overlaps with our strategic plan and I want us to consider maybe even where those alignments are so we can be really explicit about where that is in our plan I really like the portions that talk about creating a family advisory Council to have members of our community their hope supporting us thinking about how do we address some of these students I think that's really important I have some questions about some of the.

Metrics that are here and if those are the right ones or if they're metrics that we have currently that provide some of the similar information and I think one more thing that I'll just add as a piece of feedback as I was reading through in our educational Equity policy we talk a lot about systemic racism and the impacts that has on our outcomes and I would want to make sure that there's a line in the resolution that also addresses that piece as well and so want to make sure that we acknowledge how that also plays a part in outcomes for our students I think I'm happy to work on this more and have more dialogue I know that this is there's been time where this has came out to us but I think having more conversation as we finalize our strategic plan we're starting this upcoming year we'll have data back soon academic achievement data as well so we can continue this conversation but I want to again thank.

You and appreciate you for putting this together starting this work thank you and Miss buyer feel free to come up mute if you want to say anything thank you so much Miss Lewis I really appreciate it you know I I can see part of you and can't see all of you but thank you for accommodating me and letting me join you virtually I was excited when I saw this back in June just like I was excited when I suggested that we add the race Equity scorecard for discussion because I think it's so so important for us to be explicit in this work about what we're doing and how we're doing it and how we're engaging the community and so I guess I had given Ms Rogers my feedback on this I know that it had gone to Administration for feedback and I assumed when it came to the agenda that the administration was ready had made any changes that they wanted and we were ready to to move forward with this.

If there are others that feel like it needs modification I look forward to to Expediting whatever staff needs and whatever staff believes are the right metrics to go ahead and continue to bring this work front and center and and for us to have regular transparency about the disparities that we know it that we that exist and ways that we are going to hold ourselves our administrators our our Educators our community accountable and I think some of those are in this strategic plan but I think we need more than what is in the Strategic plan and we need a regular calendar of of metrics moving forward so I look forward to hopefully bringing this I was excited about it starting our school year our welcome back to 23 24 like knowing that this is the focus of this board so I look forward to maybe it being on the agenda in two weeks or in in September but I look forward to this board moving forward with an explicit Focus that is additional to the Strategic.

Plan because the Strategic plan is is one document and this goes hand in hand in my view with that thank y'all thank you Miss valladeres I want to thank my colleagues you know I've been in conversation with pretty much you know all three colleagues that worked and told me about the general intention behind his resolution and I I stated you know as many resolutions as we need you know we have policies in place we have the Strategic plan but I don't see an issue with highlighting areas that we really want to focus on but I also understand our Administration has been working really hard and I I I second that maybe you know whatever ways we can get the administration and our colleagues to just kind of talk talk about what makes sense so it's not redundant with the Strategic plan and to honor the work that is already in hand I mean every time we bring resolutions we want to honor like the work that has gotten us.

To this point we were in the second strategic plan that we have and I think that adding the Strategic plan would be it I I was ready to support this just out of principle in the sense that we continue to hear in the community ways that our families say please support our most vulnerable students right let's support the word intersectionality in here excited me because there's a lot of work that we're doing and we're not going to end that work of intersectionality I mean that is work that you know as many policies as we have in place as many strategic plans as we have in place as many trained high quality teachers that we have and Educators that we have in place there's always going to be work for improvement and I've said this in community conversations recently I've said the work of equity is the work of improvement and we're not shy in DPS to improve and so out of principle you know this is definitely something aligned with what I support.

I also you know I was ready to support it like this but I would also say let's acknowledge also that my chair our chair but Tina Umstead and I worked diligently also in meeting with Isla that also told us hey there's no resolutions that actually speak to Immigrant students and and I I mentioned this also to my colleague and I think both of my colleagues when I was talking about this resolution and and how it's important to also like acknowledge like where are we not seeing as much language around the you know the populations like our immigrant families ESL English is second language so there is a resolution in place that that has that so I'm supportive of this resolution I'm supportive of you know whatever we need to do to make sure that it acknowledges strategic plan the ESL resolution anything else but I think that there is a general sentiment in community that more work has to be done and culture is Shifting and I'm excited about our recent board retreat.

Dr mubenga we're in the right direction with that board of truth I said it there I'm seeing it now I'm very proud of where we're moving I think there's again more Improvement to come and in meeting with some of the administration also that's been the sentiment that this year we're more equipped than ever before especially with socio emotional learning like implemented throughout the entire District to actually make sure that we're being really receptive to the needs of families especially the culture especially what does it mean to be like to have well-being in schools and so I'm excited about the work that Administration is doing I think that this is definitely not in conflict in any way but if we can just get it to acknowledge that work that is on hand and then definitely the information that is on here I'm very supportive of just highlighting how important it is to keep an eye and support our our Black and Hispanic students the other thing I'll say about hispanic is that there is no consensus.

About hispanic latinx Latin we will go to war and we will never win and so I also know that that is also work you know my colleagues have been really receptive in terms of wanting to have those conversations with Community some people are going to say yes use Hispanic some people say yes use Latina Latin Latino Latina latinx there's no consensus but I think people understand the general sentiment of this that in theory we're talking about a population that has a culture language and we're not describing to the technical definition of Hispanic because that would really get us in a whole complex thing right what is you know Hispanic is based on language only and we have families that are indigenous that speak indigenous languages so we're in the work of improvement nothing's going to be a hundred percent but the intention is what is important for everybody to understand the intention of supporting all our students and making sure that we lift them all up thank you thanks.

I'm super excited about this and it feels like something that this board in this District should be behind I'm really excited about the family advisory Council and I think that that builds on that's something additional that this would provide that we don't really have in our strategic plan and the family advisory Council I think should be involved in the development of the plan as stated in the resolution to make sure that those that it reflects the experiences and the wisdom of our community members it will most directly impact but not just the development of the plan but the continual monitoring and like progress updates I think that they should be able to weigh in on that and be involved throughout the process that's exciting to me the more frequent like updates on how we're doing is exciting and also just a really transparent intentional dedication of resources to those students and families that need the most and again as my my colleagues have said to build on what the great work.

We're already doing and to continue to dedicate all of our our resources to those who who need them and I I I've been digging around across the country at other districts that are doing this type of work the most notable is I'm still looking and trying to find some really good examples that we could work from and pull like what's relevant for us but Los Angeles Unified School District while much larger than us I think is an interesting example because they already have preliminary data that indicates that they have reductions in suspensions they already have increased graduation rates and really importantly more engagement of black students and families across the district one thing that's been interesting and what I've been looking at though is that most plans across the country are either focused on Black Or Hispanic and or indigenous families and students so I think this is a way for us to continue to be really Innovative as a district I think we'll have to think through how we make that type of thing.

Work without an example to work off of but we would be serving as a model then for what other parts of the country could do again to just really show that we this is a really strong Focus for us and I agree with other comments that we need to make sure of course that this integrates with what we're doing our strategic plan but also with our office of equity Affairs for example and all of the work there we don't want to be redundant we don't want to create extra work we just want to make sure that we're doing the best we can for our students thank you stop it thank you thank you all of you and Ms Rogers for bringing this forward I think it opens a very important conversation I so in thinking about the purpose of this and the goals I let's see I think that one one of the biggest things is being able to name the strategies that we're using to improve outcomes for Black and Hispanic students.

And I think that a a number of them are listed in the Strategic plan but this further sort of highlights and illuminates what what we're doing as well as to bring out the the fact that this our Equity work is really beyond the the office of equity Affairs and it's it's you know embedded in everything that we do and I am also wondering and thinking about it more at this point if it might be something I'm wondering how it could have informed policy going forward how the information that's brought back to us might what we might do with them and so that's kind of a question that I have is is that part of the goal of this I'd be interested to hear what other people think and so I beyond that I think I also like the family advisory Council and the the community being involved in that way I'm wondering I can ask what feels or what about this to you are things that we're already doing and what is wanted what within.

This is most new and and shifts our work. I'll be glad to make my comments once every board members are intervened so I'll make my I'll give you my two cents okay. I think I'll yeah I'll stop there and I want to hear what are the photos saying to all right I will round us off so we can hear Dr mabanga's two cents get into that first of all thank you to the team who brought this together began working on this back in June what a way to start this year I Echo this sentiments by Adele's our board retreat and the work of our Administration was outstanding it was really good to hear from a bird's eye view where we are where we've been where we are and where we're going and to start off this year knowing our board priorities with this document is exciting so I'm excited to be in this discussion I appreciate you miss Rogers you sent me a podcast with AJ crabill and as I listened.

That to that that really helped me to see what I was looking at apples for apples and I said this to you how this can complement our strategic plan and the way it can add the metric pieces of it so again this is something that I think we're gonna use as our North Star for this year in this resolution as we you know fine tune it and make it what we really need it to be right so first just a few points I'm going to make and move us keep us moving but it does say in the document 2022 and I did want to make sure we're specifying to 21 22 school year because we will be getting data for the 22-23 school year so just specifying what time frame that accomplishes right we are going to get our updated data in September so I think it's important to have that information also so we're looking at this from a full perspective in a full context it says something about someone being.

Connected to DPS I want to make sure we have strong language that they attend DPS we don't want adjunct folks coming in informing our resolution and plans with the family advisory Council then I am excited about the family advisory Council as well I did question and one just put this for the record how many people are going to be on this Council I'm glad there's intentionality around the council I know that we currently have a parent advisory Council and there's one parent from each of our Title One schools so I'd love to again not recreate the will but to build what we already have so looking at some of those factors as the family advisory council is being formed I wanna also I am concerned about the December 2023 turnaround for these recommendations as we know engaging folks to be authentic in our engagement we want to give time we want to give that intentionality we want to make sure we have a well-realanced advisory Council so how much time would that be I.

Don't want to put in a resolution something so strict that we can't even keep our own commitments that we're making so let's maybe look at that and as chair Umstead shared this achievement plan is very much in line with our strategic plan and when I look at on the page two some of the bullets there I see goals 1B 2B 3C there's talk around conflict resolution I think about our restorative practices so a lot of good stuff is there I would like to really take some time and look at that section in particular and align that with the board priorities that we identified at the retreat so if we're being very intentional have this as our North Star to me that would be most useful instead of having bits and pieces from different parts of the plan so what we've already decided like this is what we're going to make sure we're focusing on and then the last thing the metrics that are listed I want to make sure that we're really clear about.

The how and the when because some of those metrics are only captured at the end of the year so to have quarterly reportings we'll have the same numbers being reported so I just that's just a fine detail that I saw as well it definitely feels like to get these metrics we're relying on data being pulled and also testing to happen and that is our value for this testing to happen to get these metrics I want to make sure we're going to do it in a way that is most efficient so again I like the so many aspects of this to be a complement to what we've already been doing in our strategic plan and the work you've done I think that again the 2021-22 school year gives us a snapshot view coming right out of the pandemic I look forward to the administrators Report with our full perspective of where we've been where we are and where we're going and how we compare with other districts I love to learn from other dishes and.

What they're doing but be clear we heard this in our in our Retreat people are learning from us we are leading the way in the uppers and things that we're doing and I want to make sure we continue to do that as well I know when our okay last thing I'm gonna say I should TJ play we talk about where we are and the plan the process of where we're going and what's already been completed I just think that's where we're going to add those metrics to really be specific in what this board is looking for so I look forward to continue working on this and it's been a short turnaround so let's give it some time and let's do this right thank you Dr McDonald you have two cents all right thank you Miss Lewis and thank you to all our board members what's really gives me joy that's I got a message loud and clear the focus for our bodies are really student achievement that's really give me joy.

That's the work that we've been doing and again I think board members of David said it really well we are in continuous Improvement business we're never gonna get 200 even when we get there they're going to be another targets there as I'm making my comments I really want folks to acknowledge and especially the one that's watching us we made a lot of progress there are a lot of districts when it comes to equity and the way even removing our minority students other superintendo will tell you they want to learn from us so with this the way I look at this this is an addition to what we are doing and if it's all the pleasure of the board just a good couple weeks give us a little bit time to be able to align what we have at a strategic plan and what this is bringing I I really would like to make sure that when you got some of this you're gonna hold the superintendent accountable.

I want to make sure if you ask it for something on a quarterly basis when it comes to student achievement I'll tell you I only have a ready data I have all this double data so which is not going to be really meaningful to be able to present to you at that points so with those differences we can really reconcile those differences in a matter of a few weeks let's look at what we have in a strategic plan if you guys want to go and move forward with these resolutions make sure that everything is pretty much compatible and then it's not something that we just created more work because we have to work really smarter to make sure that we're delivering for our students I'm really in agreement this is a good addition a good Focus for us but if we can take if we say good two weeks or three make sure that we make sure there's alignment and then when it comes to reporting of data we are really having we have.

Enough to be able to report on a quarterly basis because I don't want our family Council to be around the table say we are waiting for this at the end of this quarter what do you have if we say everything is embargo we don't have anything specific there they said this was a probable this is a resolution so I'm in agreements I met with board member Rogers we're able to have a really robust good conversation but I think a matter of a couple of two weeks it's gonna get all of us really a good place so we can make a very clear alignment to what we're going to present for you guys to to make it a resolution.

I had forgotten to say something earlier that's relevant based on the last couple of comments and that is I think it's important that the quarterly metrics when possible are not the same necessarily as the annual metrics they're predictive of right because we want to know like and that won't always be possible as you're saying but where we have something that's an indication that we're moving towards that goal we want to see like are we moving in the goal or are we starting to move in the other direction and the purpose of that being so staff and we and the public all see all right we're moving in the right direction good let's keep going versus things are not looking good let's shift gears right but again not the same metrics but those that are predictive of what our annual will be I agree let's give an example about discipline reports when students come back at the beginning of the year is this transitioning from elementary to middle middle to high.

School you can see a peak with discipline because they're trying to learn the environments and things of that nature once they settle those disciplined data may start going down so whatever we're going to present to you or to the group may be misleading because you have to capture a good year to know because there are some time I'll give you probably October when it comes to discipline reports it's always up the one data so you're not gonna make really good assessment or good judgment based on three months and when it comes to achievement is going to be more so far the tools that we use they are pretty much diagnostic data things of that nature from that point this is where those students are now let's set up some goals how are we going to be able to move them along I'm in agreements to be really laser focused when it comes to this data but I think just a few more weeks for us to really see what are we really going to.

Put there in place so that you guys gonna be able to hold me accountable I don't want to come in front of the family Council not really having something concrete to present to them yes I'm sick to there's a well again there's a tension of like we know that schools are reviewing their data on a regular basis right so instructional coaches teachers principals are looking pretty regularly to see what is Shifting and changing okay we noticed this trend what are we doing to do differently and within our school context and I wonder and as we talk about this more we got 52 schools so how do we lift up some of maybe the highlights from that or overall trends that come versus data for all of kind of everyone I think that might get us because people work is so Dynamic we might be chasing in lots of different directions throughout the year versus looking at more kind of Trends and people who are in the building being able to say here are some couple.

Highlights from our data this is what we're working on it might give us a little bit of a better picture because I think data is informative but the context around it always also matters and I think if we do too regularly with all the different schools we bring like things shift and change so much I don't know if that comment makes sense but I think we should think about the consistency and what we're seeing to make sure that we're moving helping people move forward versus kind of sending our schools in a lot of different directions.

No you're fine Miss Rogers thanks everybody for your feedback and everything I am appreciative of it and I look forward to whatever Administration and the board comes up with in terms of supporting Black and Hispanic students and immigrant students and I look forward to supporting that I want to remind us that there is urgency we've been asking for this for a while we've been looking for this the community has been looking for this we moved swiftly on the lgbtqia task force and the policy and that there's a sense of urgent same sense of urgency for Black and Hispanic students within our district and that we all feel that and I know that we feel that but like we have to keep pushing so thanks and we definitely will keep pushing and like I said I think this is definitely a compliment to the Strategic plan and we'll continue to Center the majority minority District that we have 80 percent Black and Hispanic so I think we're on the right track.

And I'm glad to hear this discussion and I laugh and chuckle when you talk about discipline as sixth graders because you all know I have a 10th grader a 8th grader and a fifth grader so when we talk about childhood development I feel like I'm in the throes of it and I see things repeating itself from when my oldest was in fifths and now being as you know so there's things that does ebb and flow so I appreciate that perspective and I just chuckle at the my my own situation and I just the last thing I want to lift up is a article I've been in conversation with Southern Education Foundation and they have an article called economic vitality and education in the South I will send it to you all anyone in public who wants just email me but it's something that really talks about policy lovers and there's language in here too that I think we can add to this resolution to make it strong Miss care for tonight Giovanni Lewis risk.

Ratios something that is mentioned in this resolution you know that's that's something that first of all I want to thank our Administration including Dr Pittman and also Dr Ali Royster working to make sure that that data is accessible to community you you how many times I've talked to community members who are like we want to see the data on suspensions oh here I'm gonna get closer and I can pinpoint them to the website and say Here's the data you know and it's you know you can definitely clearly see the trends over the years but the concept of risk ratios something that is that is mentioned as a resolution and is something that we can continue to talk about what what in what ways how does the district interpret the risk you know and that that is a good question and it may take us a little bit of time to decide like how do we prevent you know students becoming affected you know by disenfranchisement what are school to prison pipeline.

Dynamics we've talked about this endlessly we talk about this all the time and so that is definitely something that I know our Administration is working on with the data that is that is there in the data that will be forthcoming and will be shared with community that you know we look forward to sharing with Community but those risk ratios are definitely something that I think I appreciate that being in this resolution it's very important for us to be as proactive as possible and kind of think about some of the again intersectionality I think things that are listed in this in this resolution that I think I'd like to continue to see in whatever ways and I know you're going to have that conversation about what makes sense to include in what ways do we frame that we're taking a forward look into preventing our students preventing harm to students or the kind of things that lead them to risks right and so I just I just wanted to just highlight that little piece and the.

Other thing is you know as I think about the conversations about restorative practices and some of the other work that is happening that is also very important work and I know that that is there's a lot that is here about student achievement that also hinges on you know the work that we're doing with restorative practices and all that so I know that that's part of our strategic plan and it's important that the community just knows that you know this is this is work that is encompassing everything from like how clean our buildings are and I appreciate our custodial Services keeping our schools clean making sure that kids can show up and have a clean environment by which they can learn I applaud the work of of so many students who work day in and day out to do that and so student achievement is pinches on everything right on everything that we do in the Strategic plan and I just want to thank our Administration for that and also I think our board for.

Thinking about risk and ways that we can prevent lower that risk thank you and to close out our discussion Ms buyer has a comment you want to close this out Miss buyer thank you so much Miss Lewis it's hard to to not be there with you all because I just miss you all so much but but I do want to say I've I've been able to one of the benefits of Zoom is just listening to all the wisdom that is in everyone's comments all the suggestions all the feedback and to me that's what makes this work better right and but I did hear Miss Rogers you know highlight the need for urgency and I know we all feel that as well and I wondered if in the room today y'all might feel I heard Dr mavinga said you know he needs some weeks but he didn't say months so September Dr mabango would that be a time that that you would be comfortable after working with your staff to to.

Bring this back with edits I think Miss Rogers has always welcomed edits from all of us but would that be a timeline that might work for the next steps on this yeah September I think it will work but I think we got a couple opportunities there in September it can be a work session or it can be a regular board meeting as well so if you guys can give us till the end of the month in September I think that will be helpful I'm Stan chair I'm Stan all right if I could propose that we work on edits and that at the work session in September we bring a final draft that could be either approved then or moved to the big work session if we need any additional edits but I think getting that done that gives us a month I think we can make that happen Comfort Administration to look I'm also happy because I have questions to serve to work with whether it be Miss Rogers.

Or whether Dr mabinga and staff to help answer my questions on this in the next couple weeks so again thank you for working on this I'm excited I think Equity is all about being explicit about what you're doing to support student groups and we know especially our black and Hispanic latinx Latin day community and those boys like we know that there are areas that we can work on and I think even academics is here but it's also clear to me that thinking about the social and emotional Community how do they find community in school right so that they're so connected with what's happening in that building that students are not thinking about some of the things that invite me more attractive outside of school to them so I think about this in so many different ways and I think it's really urgent and important I'm happy to work with folks to make it happen Madam chair if you don't mind since this is a initiative that came from the board I will ask for.

Miss Rogers as well as probably one other board members to be able to join me with our probably a couple of my team members I'll I'll say just on top of my head that to stay with that pigment and Dr Royster because he's the one the guardian of all the data so if we can do that and we'll quickly set up a couple meetings hopefully we'll be in a good place by the time we come back excellent look at this working board so the next item on the agenda that's the end of that discussion I'm sure all hearts and mine are clear all right next item on the agenda is agenda number eight Chief of Staff policy 7503 teleworking Miss Giovanni good evening board members Dr mimic Dr urbanga and chair Lewis if I could get the teleworking PowerPoint pulled up and while we're waiting for on that I want to state that you know what precipitated this was you know the struggles that we were experiencing and they're experiencing around the country with Staffing.

In school systems around North Carolina and the country and so as we thought about it and got feedback from staff members and employees and even some board members there was some conversation around exploring the teleworking process as you know that everyone was kind of working doing teleworking during covet but we did not have a formal policy that we had adopted interim several other districts had adopted one but Durham had not and so we worked on it for several months and got feedback from various people including board members and we are now ready to present for a first reading policy 7503 teleworking next slide please next slide so it's a fairly dense policy there's also attached to it for your review that is posted in board docs a regulations and procedures which are also very dense what is not included in there because we were waiting for the board's feedback from the board would be additional processes that HR and or potentially Finance would draft and create so that it would be post hosted.

On the website so that any if there ultimately is teleworking positions it would be clear in on the website so given the density of it it would be very difficult to kind of get into that hopefully everyone had a chance to look at it but with that being said there is still the expectation that work would happen at a DPS site so teleworking continues to be kind of the exception because we can't provide instruction remotely and so when we talk with several board members there was a lot you know of recognition that in supporting teaching and learning and our teachers in the schools you know our default is that we be present to provide that support to our teachers but as I indicated at the beginning when we are trying to recruit for certain positions including some that are very difficult to staff for example I.T positions it is important that the board that we it is important to Administration that we request from the board that this be placed in the policy.

The option to designate certain positions as permanent or full-time not permanent none of them were ever permanent as full-time teleworking positions next slide please we also have if you go through the policy and again it's very dense so I'm not going to go through it there's various divisions for it there's teleworking regard for teachers on unprotected work days potential teleworking for teachers on non-instructional days Etc so just laying that out and sharing with teachers when we're recruiting for them letting them know that those are some possibilities that the board does support you know with the approval and working with principals and supervisors and as I indicated previously we are the regulations and procedures are in here those are issued by the superintendent so but they are here for the boards review to kind of see where Administration is looking and we would be having some teleworking agreement documents drafted by HR that would be posted on the website so this policy is on for first reading and I am happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much soon to be Dr Giovanni I am you know this is this is one of those topics that you know I think very important based on its on on after the pandemic the time that we're in there was like the great resignation right after the pandemic and then also who I've heard from about this policy are folks who sometimes have to go to multi-sites and I you mentioned I.T as an example but there's also interpreters you know that work in the evenings and they have to come to this building or they might have to move to another building and so they're having to go to multiple locations sometimes based on open houses I'm pretty sure that you know the multilingual Resource Center you know it's working non-stop right and and there's a whole lot of work that is happening even after hours even like in the evenings up until the evenings and so the question is while I understand the sentiment of we still have to be accountable and we.

Want to make sure that there's a DPS site what do you envision specifically for those positions that just like it they don't have to be in any particular School building but this this I guess the question is do we have flexibility about people working from home specifically versus a DPS site yeah so the policy the draft policy does indicate that positions that could potentially be decisions that could potentially be are qualified for potentially full-time telework or even hybrid telework would go through a process with a leadership team so there would be kind of you know we love our task forces and committees so a task force or kind of the superintendent would appoint various staff members to that and then those positions would be vetted by those staff members but I think the biggest piece of it is that if you look at the policy we put a lot of you know we kind of set the boards kind of sets the stage of where it wants Equity it wants flexibility it wants.

Fairness but it also wants to make sure that the needs of the school system are being met right at the policy level but in the regulations and procedures and potentially in the processes that we will draft there is also that flexibility for principals and supervisors to say you know this person you know this job these are the essential job functions and they can be performed you know remotely two or three days that's kind of the expectation that's in the policy as well there's a lot in there so I couldn't really go through it but that's kind of the expectation even when you're talking about you know kind of the hybrid telework is to to three days a week right that you may work remotely so there is a lot of flexibility to make sure that again supervisors and principals have the bodies that they need you know the employees and staff to do to get the work done so there is that flexibility there yeah that's that looks really is important I guess the other.

Thing is that we talked about hard to fill positions but sometimes we have like limited positions like there's also that reality that you know it's not that we we would probably have triple the amount of interpreters but you know we have very limited spots in terms of like you know how many interpreter positions we have and I think that that's the that's just the other thing that hard to fill slash you know I don't know what the wording would be increased capabilities for those kind of positions you know that that are not as abundant I would say and and hopefully we can add more positions I know that we've added quite a few and I think this Administration for adding more interpreters there's always more I need for more but I think this is this is this is this is a good thing and I thank you for working on it thank you.

I really appreciate this I think this is Keeps Us on Pace with the rest of our society right it also is respectful of employees you know we entrust folks who do their work because they're professionals and to do it well regardless of where they are so I love that I think teleworking this is the future so I like this policy and I really appreciate the time spent with all the details I really appreciate the eligibility for discretionary telework including extenuating circumstances like caregiving for mine or child or other family member I think this is really important provision to support our largely female Workforce who are often caregivers and yes I think this is great that's where my main comments Miss Chavez thank you I I think this is also very practical and I think it's important to be flexible and try and retain and and recruit our a great you know Workforce I have one question which is I was wondering if there are any limits such as working outside the.

U.S I know that there are guidelines for that at some organizations and I just wanted to see if that was a regulation or if there were anything any other kind of limitations that were implemented that weren't mentioned in here along those lines I don't believe that there is any mention in the policy so I would we've actually what I would say I'm happy to come back and take a look at that and make sure I don't think anybody's doing that we did have some conversations even around out of state because we want to make sure that we are compliant because certain if a person's working in North Dakota right instead of North Carolina they may have different rules around you know workers compensation Etc and so we are very cognizant on that aspect but I will if you would allow me when we bring it back I'm happy to provide an infinitive answer I would like to add as well I think we had a situation Joe covid a person was.

Out of the country I think we're gonna work with our attorneys as we're working on these procedures how to strengthen that so that we will be legally complies. I think that's important because I know out of state out of country there's going to be different regulations texts all that kind of thing the other question I have I think I'm really excited about this policy I think it makes a lot of sense my question is I think a concern that might come up is that some people have more options to telework than others or Etc and wondering when people have those types of concerns where do they go to purport that and that might I didn't see that in the in the rules and regulations but I just want to be clear that I could see that coming up and should who should they I have concerns around being denied telework or something like that where should that go so I believe it's in very kind of in the rnp a little bit.

That they can reach out to the HR department when they're asking for that so which if it's not in there that's a given anyway that's when someone has concerns that they are being discriminated against in their employment in any way they would reach out to the HR department thank you that was my only question I'm excited about this but I could see people feeling like oh someone's got more than me or something like that so how do we make sure we keep it Equitable across the board and I think that's what it's going to be important to have that team right so that it's not just you know Dr Pittman saying oh you know this person can work remotely and then Tanya's saying no you can't so we want to make sure that we are you know Equity Equitable in this and so I think that team that's set forth in there and obviously you know like all policies and regulations you know we want to make sure that we are responsive and when we.

Get feedback that maybe we need to tweak it I'm always you know that person I know Dr ramanga is as well that maybe we you know we need to make any adjustments but we felt like this is a definitely a good start for us to launch a teleworking policy in during Public Schools fire did you have any comments or discussion points. No thank you I I appreciate all the modifications that Miss Giovanni made when we discussed this policy and look forward to it being used on a very limited basis and being clear about how important it is to be in person whenever possible including in the Fuller building I think that's important as well thank y'all and then my only question just is follow up with when you find out the legalities around out of state and out of country will that be added to this policy that language I think it depends on what we find out right if it's appropriate it needs to be in the policy we would but as Dr mabanga.

Said you know we work closely with Mr Malone and he represents multiple districts so we'll definitely bring what we believe is the best for Durham public schools because I like to duramize everything so okay well thank you this is all for discussion as a first reading that's correct there's no other comments or discussion we'll move to the next agenda item a b policy 1710 prohibition prohibition against discrimination harassment and bullying we could pull up the PowerPoint for policy 1710 all right next slide please next slide you know policy 1710 is what precipitated this and this shouldn't take too long for us but did want to make sure that it was we were sharing it publicly so that folks can understand again like I said at the last presentation policies are living breathing things and when we start to see or someone brings it to my attention or the attention of anybody on cabinet or a board member and they reach out to me we want to make sure that we are responsive to the changes.

And so what you see here is the proposal the proposed draft language that we're asking the board to change and we are asking the board to wave second read on this policy this evening but what we are doing is adding to our discriminant bases for discrimination of protected classes is sexual orientation and gender identity we changed he or she today just so that with just making sure that that we can Encompass everyone because that's what we're about in Durham is everyone belongs and should feel welcomed we added a cross-reference to the lgbtqia plus gender supports policy in the policy and later in the cross references next slide please and the other change that we are doing is Karen Beckett was our Title IX coordinator for all Title IX incidents and it was a lot for her for one person so we also are requesting that Title IX be split out between students remaining with Karen Beckett and employees going with Jeff cowick Jeff is in HR and does employee relations and.

So they were kind of trying to tag team those and a lot of times when you have employee situations they are very very sensitive and it could sometimes slow it down with Miss Beckett and so we worked with spoke with HR and I think everyone is in agreement that the best most efficient way to handle Title IX claims with employees is for those to be pulled out and go to Jeffco week and Miss Becca would retain student Title IX so we were that's our recommendation the other one I don't think we had updated the policy for Section 504 previously that was Dr Judd Manning in the policy so that position was changed and it's now Dr Melissa Watson and so we do have to get the board's approval to update what has actually happened next slide please and those are the proposed changes that we are asking the board to make and wave second reading if the board is comfortable if you're not it's not the end of the world we can happily bring it.

Back for a second reading at the board meeting all right thank you Ms card Alto and then miss Rogers thank you this looks good I was curious I have a few questions I was curious to know if there's a reason that we don't also have language and religion added to that list I don't know if you've pull up the running list again of or I'll pull it up the one that we're adding sexual orientation and gender identity to it doesn't currently include language or religion and these are included in the list enforced by the Department of Justice civil rights division so they seem like important sections to also explicitly include and protect our students and our employees but is there a reason we don't have them in there so it it is in the full policy if you go down under definitions like it describes discrimination and it does include race ethnicity sex pregnancy religion which is typically in just the kind of the way this policy is kind of.

Evolved it hasn't included the full list but sometimes when there are situations things that you kind of have to lift up a little bit more that is why those were added but if it's a board pleasure I'm more than happy I don't I'm not fighting against it I'm just answering your question as to why it wasn't in there it's not that those are less than it's just that traditionally they have been a little more limited in those in that first paragraph but I'm happy to add it if that's the word pleasure to add the full list of all of the protected classes is there a difference in like are there implications for I mean these are also federally protected that's actually that's accurate I know no there's no implications it really is that first paragraph is kind of the board you know kind of the introductory language from the board and given what where we are in Durham and what we are seeing in our community just wanted to make sure that that was clearly.

Included as a prohibited you know as a protected class or a protected descriptor in Durham Public Schools so it's just kind of an art that really so the short answer is no I don't really know how to do short answers but I just did me neither my second question is I maybe I'm just not understanding this but what is the clause about providing equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups that's a North Carolina statute that requires that.

I'm actually not sure why it appears here in the policy I looked at this the School Board Association form and I'd actually pulled up another one US during the meeting here a minute ago to see if if it reads that way and it is just the way that the School Board Association places it it is a statutory requirement that they be provided access it is a little strange in my mind but it is this is their form Mr Malone is it this is Natalie bagger sorry is it true that I don't think the Boy Scouts are even called the Boy Scouts anymore I think they've changed their name to just be Scouts didn't they I don't know the answer to that but I can certainly look into that.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry Thomas Rogers and then it's five years I'm sorry go ahead Miss Rogers I have two questions my first question is and maybe you can speak to this Miss Giovanni or maybe Dr mabenga but it says the superintendent has appointed the following individuals and so are we appointing do we revise policy every time the individuals turn over or is there a reason that we're not just naming those specific titles so that no matter who is in that role we don't have to change policy every time so we frequently we don't change them very frequently I will say that it's not very often but what has been shared with me with OCR is that it is required that people have an actual person that they can reach out to versus you know locate the Title IX coordinator and then they would try to email whoever in Durham so this way they get an actual email an actual direct contact so I mean it is you know it seems you know.

Odd that you would have that but that's that is my understanding did I answer your question you did answer my question and I'd like to sit with this for a little while so I'm asking y'all can we sit with it if it's not urgent till next week because I I'm thinking about the other implications when we have turnovers and guidance counselors and turnover and admin parents don't have that same ability to reach out to the right person. And I get that this is a little different legally but I need to sit with that for a little while if it's okay with the board I am happy to withdraw my requests that y'all wave second reading so if that's because it's not urgent we just don't have to act on it and just use it as a discussion in first reading Miss valladers thank you I this is very nuanced work right the work of people's rights you know it's very nuanced work and you know I think that following the question of my colleague.

You know when it comes to the role I I've always just wondered whether we as a district want to invest in some kind of arbiter like some kind of like second mentioned person so you have for example you know our admins that are listed on there as they're the designees but then you have a backup you have another option where there is another person and I know that this is this is work that our district has done in the past where we we're really good about like if you're not you know satisfied with this and you want to kind of what is that word up move up the chain escalate right or you want to have like a second opinion do we have that capability of having an Arbiter or a second designee that is like kind of like overall over the over the rules in this case making sure I understand your question so with regard to who your designated Title IX coordinator is and who your designated coordinators are for the.

Purpose of federal discrimination yes laws I would have to look into that I I don't see that as being I would just have to look into it just to make sure because I think what they don't want is that it'd be confusion right as to like who is ultimately responsible like somebody has to be finally accountable for complying with these federal laws what I will say is it I feel like there's definitely open doors with other people so just using Title IX right which is with me if someone is displeased with something that a title investigator has done because I'm completely objective like I don't I'm not involved in the investigations I'm not involved in the decision making so I really oversee like the facilitating it to make sure that they are complying with the law on the with for example with Title IX if someone is not happy with that I've had multiple not a lot but you know more than one less than 10 people who.

Have reached out to me you know with some concerns or questions or sometimes displeasure with that and I will frequently let them know that they can reach out to the superintendent's office if they have an additional concern and then Dr mabenga because as his purview could then assign it to anyone else that he would so select so I think that it's really about in Durham has been my experience and I know I'm always sharing you know grievance policies with people and complaint procedures with folks to make sure that they know that their voice it can be heard so I feel like we're that what your concern is being met but I'm happy to kind of think that through a little further to see if it needs to be codified and maybe take a look and see what if any other districts have kind of codified outside of that to make sure that you know maybe some people don't aren't as comfortable you know like Miss Giovanni said no you know you know she.

Said I'd go superintendent but you know he may not listen so let me think that through if you don't mind and I'm happy to bring that back when we come back for the board meeting and kind of talk it through some more I think even what you just said right now you know I I do I do see that happen in the district quite a bit as many folks as you know we start you know with with somebody who's the designee and sometimes that work moves to somebody else it includes somebody else and you know that that's a practice that we have in DPS I'm just wondering how we can kind of exemplify that that the buck doesn't stop here you know in the sense you know in any ways that we can say these are the designees they're folks who have a background some of them have a background in law you know they they know the laws and and they're able to you know do this work and that's why.

They're the designees they're the best folks to do this work however in the cases of grievances sometimes there are differences sometimes there's you know issues that that families haven't they want to know who else can I go to and I think in this District just even codifying that in terms of like you know there's also the office of the superintendent is also definitely involved in this work in some ways so the appeals process is clear for all of these right if you're not happy with what the decision maker stated there is a process to appeal that but I think what I'm hearing from you is kind of maybe on a more informal sometimes but maybe people aren't necessarily displeased with one thing but maybe a less formal piece so I can think I can think that through a little bit more yeah we can talk about it okay okay thank you I appreciate it any other discussion.

All right just one question well and a comment thank you for working on this thank you for updating it and adding in gender identity and sexual orientation and I wanted to say to Ms Carter on his point if we wanted to add language I would just say I'm I'm a words person but gender identity religion language legal status or ask other aspects of identity or affiliation perhaps we could just change that sentence right there and capture a lot of the big categories of identity beyond that I just wanted to ask this question about Title IX if because women are the are the gender group most likely to experience sex discrimination or maybe most commonly have complaints of it is there access to a female identified person for Title IX complaints of someone or is that not something that perhaps like legally we wouldn't need to is that something that we might want to provide if someone wants to bring a Title Nine complaint forward all right I'll let you respond then a.

Tanya Giovanni you can jump in as well so if a cold week is the person in Asia then there's another level there's a person there that's a listen that's collaboratively work with cool week as well to look into those cases so if we're looking at a opposite sex there I think Dr lesson has been collaboratively working with rjfkowic there were some cases that were really hard and that she has to be involved as well thank you I appreciate that yeah maybe I don't know if this I don't think this needs to be written in policy but maybe it's just made clear as people reach out to Mr co-week that if they would like to request a female to attend a meeting then that is like something that they can do because I think I know that they work closely together and she'll collaborate but I could see some people wanting even in an initial meeting for there to be a female president or someone else present in that meeting.

Second I just want to come back to the question around language and Mr Malone I don't know what your feedback here is if in that first paragraph adding so down in the definition of the policy it has religion listed there but do we also need to add language as well being that it's like a federal category and then Emily also added additional categories when in your comment or Miss Travis excuse me in your comment and do those also fit the legal definition to be added here I actually was going to talk to Miss Giovanni about whether it made sense to I think they ought to be the same so do we just have it one time so do we not list it up but but that's probably not your preference would be not to have it up front and have it refer to the definition down below that's more inclusive or do we just go ahead and kind of mirror the definition even though it adds more to the policy it it may be easier.

Especially given to board members have raised the concern so I I was going to talk to her about that offline. Thank you and I think if when we bring it back maybe to what needs to what legally we need to make sure we include in there would be great too if there's language or legal status or any other things that might need to go in there. Understood thank you for all this discussion Miss buyer did you have anything. No I really don't but I appreciate all the comments that you all have made now the improvements you made through your comments I look forward to seeing it in the future thank you so this was one of the places for Action that does not sound like we're ready for action other than some additional research around the language and so we will look to have it added to the agenda for a second reading additional discussion thank you and the next agenda item is from operation Services 9A funding for schools Mr Johnson.

They want to introduce Mr Johnson called your name out anyway no very well yes funding for schools in your packet you received a pre-seize in regards to the funding for the schools that we would like to put forth to provide schools as we have in the past few years twenty dollars per enrollment on the for the 20th day count to ensure that schools that are growing will get the maximum amount of money that they can utilize to provide incentives for students and staff celebration type things to encourage student performance as well as reward the staff and the students for all the hard work that they've done over the past year as Dr mabinga mentioned tonight school districts are looking at Durham Public Schools to see what we're doing right so we want to make sure that we continue to support our schools in this respect so tonight the 20 dollars per student would be about 625 thousand dollars that would be going out to the schools so they can put the money in a local.

Bank their local checking accounts so they can utilize the funds in a more expedient way and a more appropriate way to support their staff and students also we included in this document a document that is the guidance for Equitable student and staff incentive and Rewards was attached to this for your use in regards to that document that is something that Dr Bullock has worked on collaboratively with others to come up with an outline a guideline for people to be able to use as a resource as they work through their School Improvement plans and developed plans for the use of these types of incentive dollars from that standpoint it's not up on the set up in the PowerPoint but that was included in your packet for you to be able to see what guidance that we're providing to schools we want to bring that to you for Action tonight so that we can move forward as soon as we get moving on this school year with all the traditional schools in.

And provide the twenty dollars per student to the schools just additional comments before board reactions schools pretty much I think we're using the ADM model in an equitable way because there are other schools they have strong PTA PTO other schools they don't have anything so our principles has been very appreciative of being able to get these funds so that they will be able to address student Behavior attendance and things of that nature so our boards our principles are really waiting to see what's the decision is going to be tonight and we've been able to receive feedback about the misuse of the funds that's the reason why Dr Stewart was able to trust Dr Kevin Bullock to work on this policy not policy guidance so that our parents will they will be able to know how to use the fund that you're going to prove tonight back to you oh Mr I'm open for comments or discussion Ms Rogers thank you thank you for this I'm very appreciative to see this going forward I.

Am so glad to hear how appreciative our principles are of this additional per people funding I guess my question is simmer Ram do we have any examples as to what that funding has been used for is there anything tangible that that funding was used for that is be carrying over into the next year or still available for use and then in section four and incentives and reward ideas one of the bullet points is excursions and field trips centered on academic engagement and social emotional learning are we empowering principles to use excursions and field trips as an incentive and reward as opposed to an academic Excursion academic enhancement thank you for that question I think at this point we're just giving them some guidance we're telling our principals anytime you get a funds you have to go to your school Improvement team you look at data where there's academic data attendance Behavior whatever and then let's these phones be aligned with the Strategic plan or the school Improvement plan that you have established for your particular.

School so we don't have anything specific let's redirecting the school to do other than the guidance for them to be able to use it using an equity lens so how do we ensure that schools are making field trips and excursions that are centered on academic engagement and social emotional learning a part of their standard curriculum. That's the work that's our principal supervisors they're going to make sure they're going to monitor to make sure that our principles are pretty much in quote unquote compliance with the guidance that we put in place around field trips so we're not saying you can't go on a field trip because you didn't meet your academic goals I have not heard that so those would be really good questions to be able to ask our principles okay.

Any other questions Ms Rogers any specific examples of what the funding has been used for anything that's tangible that Still Remains at the schools that's carried over or been held over I'm not aware oh let's Delta stay with if you want to jump in but we can come up with existed list of things that they've been able to to buy and purchase or support with these funds anytime I'd love to hear that thank you any other discussion board members comments questions I just want to appreciate the guidance from the office of equity of office of equity and professional development I think over the years we've seen different students celebrate it online and so this guidance I think I appreciate the focus on giving questions to ask also focus on like goals and growth not just an outcome at the end so it's a combination of both which I think is important we know that all of our students are starting in different places so to be able to help them monitor their progress.

Towards a goal meeting that goal and celebrating that growth I think is really important I don't have an extensive list but I know in the past let me not even say that because I don't know what pot of money principles used to do their celebrations but I know that many schools celebrate students who are on honor roll students who met growth like I I don't know what pots of money people use so I don't want to say that but I know that I've seen lots of celebrations for growth for students whether around benchmarks or the end of the year kind of exams so I hope that this helps guide those in a really positive direction that even more in students get included because they're meeting their goals and seeing growth and I think this is just an example of us leading thinking about Equity at the Forefront I do think in the future I don't know we have more schools that are starting earlier and I don't know if we would.

Need to I know the fiscal year starts in July but if we would need to approve this in June so that principals Who start in July early August kind of know what they have available if the I'll look to you all for that conversation but I know that we have people who are who are already in school so I want to make sure they have what they need to thrive as well in response to that we're going to do it based on their 20th day enrollment so we can roll it out to those schools that have been in since the end of July because they're going to be coming up on your 20th day very shortly great thank you I just want to make sure they have what they need but we're doing it on the 20th day enrollment so we have to wait till we get to that point but actually there are this Armstead points if we do this in June by July 1st the fund will be available for those year-round schools.

Especially that's we're going to have more studying this year.

I'm I'm very grateful that we're able to give this funding to our schools and glad to hear that the principals are appreciative it does seem like a significant amount of funding that could do some really great things for our schools I I similarly was wondering if we like if we're talking about say we have around 31 000 students enrolled twenty dollars per student this is over six hundred thousand dollars right that we're dedicating to this which could be really good but I'm wondering well I appreciate the autonomy that we're giving our principals to meet this needs of their specific school and I think that's really important I'm are we asking for any kind of reporting for how they use the funds or any kind of tracking for just broad categories so that we know and we can learn from that understand their needs know where our money's going no I am not they're supposed to work in this with their school Improvement plan so that would be giving us the guidance.

That we need for how they're going to utilize those funds and in the past we have had the principal supervisors approve those dollars to ensure that they are for the the needed expenditures and and to ensure that all students and staff are are looked at equitably Dr Stewart did you want to add to that good evening I was just nodding in our support of the comment and the response from Paul ashore so one of the things that we will do again that we did last year this is year two of our school Improvement plan presentations although last year you all approved the two-year 2023-2020 2022 2020 for school Improvement plan cycle this year we will request all principles coupled with a member of their school Improvement team to present their plans again there is language specific in terms of expectations for them to present their incentive plan so that is a part of the presentation They will receive feedback from that from the team in addition to their principal supervisors being the persons to approve.

Their incentive plan thank you I know you had more to add to that yeah anything else yes a couple of things but I really appreciate that thank you Dr Stewart I love the guidance I think that's really critical and I hope I assume this is being shared with all School staff that will play a role in administering the incentives because I think it's really important that we're motivating hard work and effort not punishing kids for things they can't control like you know attendance for really young kids for example it's out of their hands largely whether they can get to school or not and that's an equity issue and then also rewarding like inputs rather than outputs like a test score or looking at growth instead of performance I lastly oh I was wondering do we currently have any kind of limit on the amount that a school is allowed to spend on a reward for a single student or has there been any discussion about that so that we could.

We don't I think we heard some comments where some schools that were spending 300 that's the reason why we came up with this guidance because we received some feedback from our our board on this so we did not have any specific that's where the guidance came from. Let's do it again at me I'm nodding and supportive what the superintendent has said in addition to receiving comments back from the board we also observe some things as we walk through the schools and we made notations of what was appropriate and what was not appropriate therefore in collaboration with Dr Bullock's office it was important for us to provide guidance because we do not want to limit creativity with the school Improvement team but definitely guidance and a lot of hand-holding as it relates to inequities around incentives.

Rogers thank you so much I'm so glad that I followed Dr Stewart just because I know that this is you know like the work of you know walking through the schools the way she does and her team and taking taking notes as she mentioned some of the the feedback that we've gotten I don't know how many of us might have gotten these emails but there were some concerns definitely about just the the I would say the equity guideline considerations for how rewards are not necessarily punishing but definitely not seeing the effort of kids who are climbing a Mount Everest for example who are overcoming obstacles barriers and some children got to go to Carowinds and you know some families got to enjoy something like that and you know I understand like these are incentives that we give some schools have given to to students but there there was definitely some commentary around you know how how that plays into into what students perceive about like kids who are performing.

And kids who are struggling but also trying and that effort is not really a scene and visible so I know that this is work that we're going to continue to see about ways that the incentives do follow the guidelines I really really want to shout out this work especially Point number three about Equity considerations to keep in mind when considering word incentives and just even the questions about you know how does this incentive help to address inequities if we have inequities in a school system so that I'm grateful Mr lesour that you know that you included this also and also like you know who does it benefit who doesn't impact you know who is it benefiting how does that impact just a general appeals so no I I look forward to hearing more and I know Dr Stewart is always so busy thank you so much for your work you know with the schools and as I continue to listen to whether it's names on the walls we've heard from some community members that.

Just talk about like you know putting the names on the walls for for the honor roll like that's something that that happens in some schools but ways that we can also shout out you know some schools are also shouting out students that are exemplifying you know positive behaviors even in spite of challenges and stuff like that so I'd like to see a little bit of how this work Point number three kind of rolls out thank you so much for giving us those numbers and we're excited that schools actually have some resources by which to celebrate.

I'm sorry to bring this up again but every time I think about the incentives and the investment on the incentives I think about the limitations that families and Educators and guidelines that admin gives out around teacher appreciation and what we can do for teacher appreciation week and what we can how parents can appreciate Educators normally it's about a 20 limit and if we are especially because we don't want to have tax implications and I think about all the things that we've been allowing our admin to give as incentives to students can sometimes put them in a compromising situation given that sometimes they have to share with siblings and other things of that nature so we don't want it to or they don't know how to care for an item that that's that high-end because they haven't been taught that or haven't had an opportunity to do that so if that's not something that families will ever take on are we willing to really run this back a little bit and make sure.

That we're implementing dollar limits there on the incentives because I don't want I don't want to put Educators against students in that Educators can get a 20 gift card at Target but students can get an Xbox I don't know I don't even know what the latest one is whatever the latest Xbox is I was going to say 360. that's not right all right okay so I just want to make sure that we are giving everybody the same kind of appreciation and letting them know that they're all valued in that way so I'm sad I really appreciate that feedback Miss Rogers and I want to make sure that we don't tie the hands of the people who are coming up with these plans too much as well I think with the layers of you have a school Improvement team that has students parents and staff then they have to present to Dr Stewart and her team to get that approval I think with those layers we hopefully can.

I think Dr Stewart here is the kind of direction of the board because I want people to there's also like a lot of opportunity that happens here right when students get to go on field trips or get things that they would have not normally got in and so I want to I don't want to tie their hands too tight but I also think that the guidance should if you if you follow it and ask these questions might limit some of those really big incentives because like an Xbox does not help to address inequities for one kid right that's one child versus if I think about an incentive I want to address inequities that are around lots of kids you know so I think I'm I hear us but I want us to make sure that we think about the guidance and think about the layers that people have to go through to make sure whether it's a check and balance on that as well what I just want to say thank you I.

Think we made progress we've done this probably for the last four years without any guidance we've seen some schools buying those expensive jackets we say wait a minute don't do this so now they got a guidance I think they're going to be Improvement but we're gonna keep in mind as much as we don't want to micromanage those schools we have to trust those School Improvement team which is inclusive for parents as well to come up what is best for the schools and again when they come to present to that is to a team and they're going to be more feedback I think as we put in this guidance in place we're going to see Improvement along the way this Chavez I just want to say I'll be brief that I also really appreciate the equity considerations I think that's really important and I appreciate what you said Dr Stewart about creativity and supporting that I just I want to say I think what this has the potential to do and probably has done.

In the past as well is to create a positive association between students and school regardless of their their grades and their test scores and all of that and I think that's what we want is for kids to feel a positive association with school and with learning and and want to you know be part of the school communities that we create so thank you for this. The other discussion. This is on our Pisces for action as a you ready go ahead I'll move approval of the funding for schools second been moved by Miss Umstead second by Miss Byer for this additional funding of schools we will do a Voice vote Miss buyer this is Natalie Beyer I vote I Miss Rogers aye is aye Ms Carter Alton aye Ms Chavez aye Ms Umstead aye I am I it is approved unanimously thank you for your presentation the next item on the agenda is also Esser funding update the school year 22-23 quarter four.

Good evening once again as we talk about covet we're going into our last year of covid funding we need to be mindful that these funds have to be expended or obligated by September of 24. Anything obligated such as contracts that are in the works that the work gets done between then September 24th and January 25th will be counted as expenditures but I'm just starting this off this way to let you know that if some of those contracts don't come to fruition in that period after September 20 of 24.

We do not have access to those dollars so if a contract was let for the chase which is was something you looked at today and approved on consent item 1.9 million dollars that contract if all of the pieces did not play out if there was a hundred thousand dollars left on that contract we would not be able to spend that money because it's contract specific when it comes to crossing the September fiscal 24. Month so we have to be conscious of that so we're going to be monitoring those contracts that we let out between now and the spring to make sure that these are on track to to get accomplished by I prefer to have it all done by September 30th August really because ultimately we want to make sure that we are in a place where we're not scrambling to spend the last few dollars we want to make sure that they're expanded on on on time I just wanted to start off that with that conversation because we are into a crucial period.

This District does a fantastic job of spending down dollars and not letting things revert back to the state for the federal government there are times when it happens because their contract or their dollars that are tied to students or specific Personnel hired to support those students and those students don't come the the person it's a contract the person a nurse or so on and so forth doesn't get paid for that those Services unless the student's in class and being administered the services those are the times where we lose dollars to the state but this District does a great job of making sure that we get it spent down the federal programs area under Dr Danner and and Dr Stewart they do a fantastic job of making sure that we spend down those dollars on an annual basis when the 27-month period ends for the grants as we start with the covet Appropriations as we know we had three rounds basically of funding the cares act which get was given out.

In May of 2020. if you go to the next slide please. The coronavirus response and relief supplement Appropriations krissa enacted in December of 2020. and then the American Recovery plan and enacted in March of 21. We're at the point now where we're going to be close closing out two of those in September we closed out the coronavirus release the cares Act September will be closing out for chrisa which is as we call it sr2 answer one answer two sr3 and then in 24 we'll be closing out the American Recovery Act sr3 with that said we spent the 13 million dollars that we were provided from the cares Act sr1 we're spending down quickly the 48.8 million dollars that we received for sr2 that ends September of 23 back in March March 9th meeting work session you approved the supplemental funding to be used this supplemental funding to be used for bonuses in September to ensure that we spend down the sr2 funding we're on target to spend it down and.

Then use some of the sr3 money to finish up the bonuses there's it costs close to eight million dollars to do this supplemental bonuses and we have a little over seven million remaining in sr2 at June 30th so some of those expenditures have been have come through and reducing the amount that we have available but we're going to be spending it all down I can assure you that because we're going to overspend it by September 30th so with that said we're going to give you a an overview of where we where we started and where we are today from that standpoint if we go to the next slide please.

This is just a quick look at the sr1 funding that we received from that standpoint that ended in September of 22. We got the 13.7 million dollars and you can see based on this chart we spent down on a consistent basis to get rid of those dollars those were a lot of those dollars were for ensuring that we had the computers in the classrooms our one-to-one initiative and hot spots yeah they have the little programs that we spent out that we talked about in quarter two and three from the purpose of ensuring that we were able to get all these spent by September of 22. next slide please.

This is the big chart up at the top or in the green area is the money that we're spending down right now based on the sr2 funding that was released to us prc-171 is the big pot of money as you see up there 7.9 million dollars that's still remaining balance third column from the right it shows that we had a little over 7.9 million dollars remaining at June 30th again that's spending down because we had additional expenditures come in after June 30th or contracts that were let so we will most definitely spend it down as we pay the Esser bonuses in September September 15th is a target date for the the bonuses to be paid out the other pots of money the areas are working feverishly over the summer a lot of this is for summer programming with your Esser summer career accelerator PRC 177 in 178. those are those are the programs that still have to spend down some money and those directors that are responsible for those areas are engaging in contracts and.

Support for the students over this summer so making sure that we can spend those out by September 30th of 23. The big pot of money that in the Blue Area we've got a lot of money to to still be spent this pot started off at eight nine 1097 from that standpoint one 109 million dollars that we received overall of that 104 billion point seven was Esser funding which is the the big pot of money PRC 181. that we still have 62 million dollars left at this at June 30th that continues to dwindle from that standpoint as we had the summer programs that that took place in July that we utilized funding for so those numbers are are coming down from that standpoint and we will be on target to spin those down by the September of 24 deadline so overall we have about 7.3 million dollars 73 million dollars left or 46 of the money that we had appropriated to us over those two-year periods.

Next slide please and this just shows you where we are we're in quarter four of 22 23. This gave you a breakdown of the funding that we received and how much we had per pupil back when we started receiving these funds this is just for information next slide please. In this slide this really breaks out the academic Services 56 million dollars or 37 percent of the pot if you remember academic Services was a little bit more than that when it first started out but some of the items that you provided in support of additional bonuses portions of that was taken out of here as well as the operation areas to support those bonuses to all staff members to date you've gone you've provided over forty five hundred dollars worth of bonuses you've had three rounds moving forward you'll have you'll get it up over six six thousand dollars that we've provided to to staff across the district and across all areas a lot of this money is for summer learning.

Of this fifty six million dollars was spent being spent on summer learning as well as temporary positions in the schools for the past two years we're extending it out over the next year for schools where we'll have about 129 positions I believe that will be funding at school levels mental health positions teaching positions language positions a variety of different positions that will be utilized to support the schools as we move forward in this last year to try to reduce learning loss as well as ensure we're in a better place with our test scores down the road gains have been good and we want them to be great so we're moving forward.

We have we provided additional curriculum resources the art programs you had reading programs that you put in place that we've been able to utilize these dollars for as well to make sure that we all we all had the same curriculums going out to the schools to ensure the students would be able to go from school to school and be able to be in the same place along the way that's that's rounds it out for the academic Services area and we'll go to the next slide please as we talk about the operational Services area the 52 million dollars again that a portion of this was carved out to ensure that we had the the bonuses going out to staff during the periods of no significant salary increases but the majority of this money has been used for facility repairs and improvements the HVAC systems making sure that they the the facilities air quality to minimize at the beginning the virus Transmissions also the Outdoor Learning programs that were developed through the through the implementation of the.

Outdoor learning sites educational technology at the time this was under operational Services we haven't moved it out from underneath that for this purpose but we were providing the one-to-one laptop initiatives so we had some technicians that we were providing additional positions for up I think we had 13 budgeted but we probably did not fill those positions in their entirety to ensure that there was support for all schools with the one-to-one initiative as well a lot of enhanced cleaning took place over the the past few years to ensure that the cleansing cleanliness of the schools were in disaffecting of the schools were appropriate for when we were coming out of the coronavirus over covered times and getting back into school and ensuring that we had appropriate signage in the in the hallways outside to make sure that we had all our needs I think what the most important thing that you know this District did is really looked at the holistic picture as we move through the process in the operations area of course.

Had to had to had to bring on a lot and also some custodial work and also used during the summer use staff to ensure that that we were able to get the buildings clean so it wasn't just custodial Personnel it was others that might have been 10 month employees that wanted some extra work during the summer to ensure that one we had clean buildings when we came back in next slide please and then the other areas we had staff Recruitment and Retention 28 million dollars that we appropriated for that purpose School level strategies 13 million dollars and administrative Services another 1.6 million dollars in the staff Recruitment and Retention again were were funds that we've provided up to this point and we're in a good place to provide those additional staff bonuses as well as recruitment bonuses for this upcoming year as well one of the other things in the staff and recruitment is your ta to teach to ensure that those that we can bring in our Tas and bring them up to speed.

And and get them the classes they need so that they can enter into our classroom so we can grow our own that's been a big initiative that we've been working on with the staff recruitment bonuses and retention initiatives School level strategies again these were funds that were provided for tutoring Supply the materials curricular materials as well to provide the schools the needed resources to address learning losses and and bring our grades our students grades up during the testing times and then there were some other dollars that we spent for the purpose of administrative services and when we talk about that we talk about the initiatives for aspiring teachers as well as some money that we put aside for the at the time Kobe tracers as well as some other support for the agency so that rounds out the overall allocations and how we set them up start and as they've adjusted as we've come along next slide please.

Next slide please this this chart just gives you a summary of the relief funds by areas to just bring everything back around to where we started and and where we are with our remaining balances from the different operational areas within the district as you can see we're we're at the 46 percent Mark with these two sets of funds sr2 and sr3 with about 70 million dollars remaining overall. Next slide please this is showing you the summary of positions that we had in the Esser category for elementary middle and high different types of positions throughout the district to ensure that we had our resources in the schools to assist as we came out of the learning loss these were the positions that were provided for two years at the end of this June 30th of this year some of these positions ceased but some some continued based on school needs and that was the critical part when we went through the allocations with the principals they were able to advocate for positions that were necessary.

And we looked at those very closely to make sure that it was Equitable and and that there was a true need based on actual data that was provided to us to ensure utilization of these positions were appropriate there were 109 positions through the year we had the majority of those filled 97 at this point from that standpoint so I mean it's it's an in and out thing with positions at schools whether it be us trying to maximize the positions at the schools to ensure that we utilize these dollars and spend these dollars first of course they all have to be if they're a certified teacher or any type of certified position they can only be paid out of Esser if they are if they have their certification and licensing up to date next slide please.

And as we looked as we came into June 30th and as you would expect we would be reducing positions as we went from 119 that we had empty equivalents down to the 47. all custodial part-time positions were eliminated at that point in time schools were we were trying we're working on converting part-time positions that we have within the budget to support those individuals that would be in the in the that wanted to continue being custodial staff here at the district we're converting some of those from halftime positions to full-time positions to ensure that we can provide them the benefits that they need to be part of our school district next slide please and at that point we're open for discussion thank you so much for your presentation it definitely had a lot of information and looking at we were rounding out using the fun using this funding to appreciate the confidence in getting it spent down and the breakdown from the different categories I will open the floor for discussion from our board members.

From what you shared with us who would like to begin. I can also keep going I always just want to say I I really appreciate the way that it really all ties together from instructional intentional funding right the equity initiatives that are in place in particular the school level strategies that we saw I appreciate the breakdown and you always show us a chart of where the spending has been out the where the funding has been allocated for spending definitely from this input and strategies for the 2022-2023 school year we should see some correlations we know that it's not a one-to-one input one thing you're going to get the output of the other but that there's a combination of work that has to be done to see growth in our district but looking at these numbers and and it's unfortunate that it had to be a crisis for us to get this influx of funding to get the technology needs met the operation these met all these things work together knowing that our schools.

Are underfunded but that DPS has done a really good job with the intentionality of spending it that's what your report shows to me in the skill level work I look forward to the growth report from this information and and do see some correlation from one to the other with that intentionality when the report comes out to us the big picture allows for fine-tuning at the school level that's what you share with us today one of the things that I did note on the summary of K-12 the school level strategies had the greatest percentage remaining I I was going back and forth from the different slides did you talk about where that is going to be spent and the Assurance is that we're well no I won't even ask where it's from what what was that line item so as we start looking at the funding for the 23-24 school year we're going to be looking at it holistically again to determine what the greatest needs are at this point in time they had.

To apply for those School level strategy funds many schools did not did not apply for those because of the fact that your title 1 schools had Title 1 funding correct they had to spend that down as well as this down and to utilize both pots might have been a little bit too much what we can what we can see from this is that as we revise this plan some of that money will go into paying bonuses in the upcoming year for tutoring in the schools if they apply for those funds again those are funds that they want to we need to have them apply for from that standpoint some of these dollars may be also utilized more for the positions that we're putting into the classrooms this year because as our enrollment's been dropping as we've talked about and as we've also lost funding from the state the pressure comes down to local which we can offset some of these positions in the classrooms based on our loss of students as well.

Thank you for that and I did see the greatest or the least amount left in percentage of her spending was in HR I Recruitment and Retention so good job there thought to the Saint and team but that that does lead me to to think about this application process and school Improvement Team Planning that you talked about Dr Stewart will there be enough time to tie what's coming out of the school Improvement team plans for getting schools to apply to this funding so I'll I'll speak to the fact that next Wednesday five of our schools our year-round schools will do their presentations and part of their school improvement improvement presentation it includes a request for funding to support whatever needs that they may have so that is embedded within the process also in September our specialty high schools as well as our traditional schools will present from September the 19th through the 28th so that is the timeline in which we will have all the particular specific requests because they have to request it.

By September the 30th that is what is on their plan from us thank you for that that's it for my questions any other board members I'm chairman said thank you all for this presentation and Mr I'm I'm happy to hear you say we're going to spend all this money and do it early watching the contract because I think we need to make sure we're maximizing the funds and it's good to hear from our public comment earlier that Durham is kind of ahead and planning and I think we've done a really good job with this I feel like a broken record or a Debbie Downer when I ask this question often we talk about this funding but I mean 2023 is here and 2024 is next year and I'm looking at all of the positions especially that are in schools as acceleration teachers and and all those different Physicians instructional coaches like we know the impact they have on on student learning and so I'm I think we need to have in in this.

Upcoming budget cycle if any of these positions need to be there we need to be having that conversation with our County Commissioners starting now and if there are more that need to come for 24.25 we need to start having that dialogue because these are I believe and I'm sure you all will be able to do an assessment further to understand which ones are directly helping impact student learning but we got a plan for that now on that conversation. Miss Chavez and then miss Carter Alto thank you also yeah glad that we're spending these dollars down and my question is about on slide 10 the the different positions that we funded can you remind us or or Dr losain if how we determined where those positions were or based.

Okay I'm not viewing that but so these positions that are on this slide were the ones that we developed through the allotment plans and during the 2021 school year for the 21-22 school year so we planned on what the needs were going to be so we could have them for 21 22 and 22 23 school year in place they were based on allotments but they also went beyond what we were allotted by the state so were there schools that I got additional support based on certain criteria so part of the allotment process was the review with our chief of schools so that's why I was saying Dr Stewart could speak to the priority the prioritization that occurred in the conversations during the allotment meetings So to that point we tag team the allotment process for the 20 this past year Paul gussur representatives from Human Resources as well as myself we met with the principals they signed up and they had an opportunity to hear their allotment from Paul Le Sueur and then.

Afterwards they were all asked if they had additional requests so it was an equitable process as a result of the request we we had conversation right is this reasonable and necessary those were the two main words used reasonable and necessary because we want to be able to spread the wealth of support for all and so as a result of that the majority of them received what they asked for if it was reasonable and necessary which was above and Beyond some of the ask from the previous years thank you that's really helpful to understand that process better and I you know wonder the same thing as chair instead keeps bringing up what you know what will happen past September 24th so I wonder how that process will be useful in kind of assessing our our needs and desires for the budget going forward thank you.

My questions are also about slide 10 and the 109 positions that expired at the end of the 2020-23 school year I'm and you alluded to this so these I'm curious to know like what proportion of these roughly have been extended do we now just to give me an idea like we lost all those positions but some have been extended some have been moved into I think right vacant positions within DPS is that correct or not correct I mean the intention was not for anybody to lose a job we have a lot of turnover on an annual basis in all types of positions and the the the biggest part that we pushed was that we wanted to put people in positions it might not be at that school but at another school where there was a need we still had the growth we still had loss of enrollment which makes it difficult but again we're probably putting probably close to 100 positions at this point in time back into the schools.

Could keep changing every day that's the reason why I say about a hundred and at this point we're still receiving requests so and so one of the factors that's playing in now is we've gone with the Child Nutrition program we've gone to cep we've gone from what 17 schools to 29 schools and with that the title one money gets spread out further because now you have schools that are a hundred percent participation because they're now cep so we're looking at that as well of these we're we're looking at 21 positions as of right now and it's going to continue to grow so our we'll be looking at putting more positions into the schools as their their budgets had been reduced and with the less Title One money going to off the schools that normally received it and go into more schools it's going sorry it's going to it's going to put some pressure on on the title one budget as well oh yeah that is.

I thank you so much for for mentioning cep because that you know I did see that you know as of two months ago from the funds that expired I mentioned School nutrition as well and covid but we have to continue to build capacity for kids to access lunch across our Title One schools now because Durham can has been involved in this and they have kind of held me to task and asked me to give reports back I just want to make sure that we have that number so I understand that we were 17 and we we talked about we had 30 34 Title One schools right is it 30 34 schools that were designated Title One pretty much when it comes to Title One all our Elementary their label and then we use some middle schools as well because that what I essentially reported back is that pretty much every Title One School you know we had applied for those to be included in cep so that that number went.

Up to I heard I heard 29 right now but I was like my understanding is that there were 30 the 34 that should be title one would be applying for so we have five I believe that are not title one's rules in the elementary schools can get you the specific numbers on those board member olivarez the thing is to remember is the more we increase our Title One schools in the cep program the less money we have for that individual school to continue to support teaching positions at the rate that they have been supported at that particular year so say for example if I have if I receive 100 let's say a hundred and fifty thousand dollars this year if we continue to expand for more ceps that's going to be less money so now I may receive thirty thousand dollars of title one dollars and if before previously I was able to fund three teaching positions at this point now with thirty thousand dollars I'm not going to be.

Able to fund a teaching position so that is one of the drawbacks of going full cep it impacts our ability to support teaching positions at Title One schools this is gonna definitely going to be just a follow-up conversation just because the general sentiment around the county is food insecurity and as many families as we have that you know especially with Rising costs of living gentrification so much that is happening around the area that it's it's actually quite a quite an extensive group that is Beyond just Durham can it's actually touching folks on the county that are advocating for this but I I appreciate Dr Stewart I can't see I have to turn around I I just I appreciate this you know what are some of the constraints that we have I do I will definitely report back 29 and then of title one and then the five I guess that are not Title One I'll just follow I think we'll we'll just we'll just do another follow-up conversation the other thing is that I.

Don't know if you notice in the media today there was a report that went out that talked about school nutrition having fourteen thousand five hundred you you may know this because this actually came out and used in the actually Spanish I've seen it in the Spanish TV where they actually did an interview talking about 14 259 dollars that are pretty much like in lunch monies that needed to be reclaimed because it hadn't been reclaimed and you know it's it's folks are like starting to notice a little bit more about what funds do we have is there you know the the the interview was with with Nidia Vargas Casiano who interviewed and she's the eligibility from the office of Eligibility who gave that interview and it's just interesting because the community is listening to this like there's some monies in there what can we do if that money doesn't go back to each person can we use some of that money to further some of these it's further the work of school nutrition being that.

Some of those funds have already kind of gone past your deadline so those funds are still in the Child Nutrition program but they're being held aside for those individuals we reached out to many but reading it responses of course people come and go so the money is still sitting there but they tried to track down as many as they could in in that regard to put the money out let's be remind reminded that we're in at a place where we're going to be spending 350 000 or more dollars on unpaid lunches annually again that's the number I needed okay so say that number again 350 000 worth of unpaid lunches yeah that was that was the reference number I needed thank you so much for that Mr we're hoping that cep will bring that down because we'll get more more lunches into into students hands but again it's still going to be at a cost to the district on an annual basis really good conversation Miss Rogers your next thank you Miss valiadarz for bringing.

Up that conversation that you've been in with Durham can I think I mentioned it at the last meeting or yeah we were talking about the last meeting Dr Stewart is there anyway to get projections for the numbers or values or loss that we could have if a school went fully absolutely yes thank you and one of the other things that I need to add is that we're losing some Title One funding to begin with right now to the tune of a million to two million dollars that we're going to be losing entitle one funding we lost 2 million or this 23 24 Academic Year if I remember correctly so as a result of that we needed to make up for it and so we are utilizing our Esser dollars to support those Staffing positions that have been lost as a result of adding additional schools to cep.

Thanks for that any other discussion. So a couple quick comments here I think Michelle said it really well I think we're at a point where probably in a week or two we're gonna look holistically all the fun that we have academic as well as our operation to be able to realign our priorities and again we have to make sure that we're working with DPI for some flexibility that we're not aware before we're trying to see if some of those flexibility when it comes to operation we used to use a lot of those money for HVAC and all that kind of stuff but they are other pressing needs with Fire Marshals and all that kind of stuff we're trying to see if we can get some flexibility there so we're going to realign our needs as we're going to try to finish up the last year so I heard comments about a hundred positions that we have moving forward for next year whether that's those need to be put in the budget.

Definitely we're going to do assessment I think usually we start around December working on the budget and having informal conversation with the board what's your pleasure things of that nature and we're going to do analysis of the impact of all the position that we had before but I just wanted to remind us that 100 position when it comes to teaching position I'll say probably about fifty thousand dollars average when you include benefit that's about twenty thousand dollars I'm looking at about seventy thousand dollars per position so times hundred thirty by seven million dollars just to be able to maintain those positions so I really want us to be able to be honest to ourselves because the situation that we're gonna face moving forward once all these funds is gone all the district we're going to be facing that because we've been able to have this luxury of extra money but we're gonna make some tough decisions are we going to be able to maintain 100 Maybe not maybe 30 maybe 50. so those will be.

Conversation that we'll be having as we start looking at the budget around December thank you for that and put Dr mabenga and this was on the agenda for discussion it sounds like that wraps up our discussion and that concludes our agenda items for operations but sorry Miss Miss Lewis I'm sorry I texted you and I just texted you like can I say about three sentences before we move on to the final of this evening thank you so much I wanted to start with just deep appreciation for Paul and your Finance team and all of the work that you all have done to do incredible management of these funds I don't think we gave you extra staff but we certainly gave you and the FEDS in the state gave you lots of extra Hoops to jump through I appreciate you letting us know that you're going to help us figure out which of these positions might be able to stay which might need to be able to go in the future and giving us advice.

And input on that and we might have to make some tough decisions and say no and we're going to hear some of these these things from schools probably this year as we already have from some schools and so we're going to have to help folks understand why we're making these tough decisions enrollment going up would be how Durham could come together and help us bridge and bring back counselors to EK Poe for instance right there are ways that our community can join us in this growing together work as we move forward and help us have people the other thing we talked about Mr lasur and you said real clearly to staff that these funds have to be spent by September of 2024 or they will revert and we're not we know we're not going to let that happen but especially on the operational side I know you really needed that by June 30th you really let Mr Johnson know that and that's the date that's in my head the end of.

June 2024 right is is when we've got to have these projects moving well well ahead to make sure we don't lose these funds so thank you so much and thank you for your comments Miss buyer that is a perfect segue for a point of privilege as we are concluding with operations is to introduce our chief operating officer Mr Larry Johnson has joined us Dr moving if you want to introduce or have him introduce himself welcome first of all good afternoon everybody good afternoon everybody first first of all thank you to the board and Dr mabenga for giving me this opportunity I've been here almost a month I had the opportunity to visit almost 50 schools within that month and talk to principals and do what I call walk and talk just get feedback from them on how we can help them move forward that conversation has been very positive we have some things that we'll put in place like Miss buyer just mentioned about some of the money that we have to spend and.

We're going to get to that point we're going to have conversations with Dr Danner and Miss and see what we can do to keep moving forward I appreciate this opportunity I think we have a great team I would be remiss without mentioning some folks that have gotten us started at the beginning of the years that's our custodians and our bus drivers you know the schools that have already started I mean I go into the schools and I see the floors and I see how clean our schools are we have a great team we have a great team and we can only get better so I appreciate this opportunity and look forward to getting to know you guys better and anything you need please feel free to reach out to me.

Thank you so much and welcome to the team and that was for discussions there anything else on the agenda not from summary of follow-up using the board docs list item 3A Dr mabanga requested that he worked with Ms Rogers and another board member to meet with several of Dr mabanka's staff to develop a final edited version for the board's consideration at the September work session of the resolution regarding black and brown student achievement under item 4A this policy regarding telework is to be brought back on August 24th at the board meeting with Clarity around the out-of-county or out of country out of state protections that might be needed item 4B the policy regard on 1710 there was a request to bring this back on August 24 2023 as well with Clarity around the protected class language to determine whether they should track each other or move them around so just Wordsmith kind of the protected class language there was some conversation from a board member regarding some concern or wanting some additional.

Information around the fact that Title IX coordinators and other discrimination coordinators were listed in the policies and easily accessible to families and community members but that same may not be true for counselors and social workers and other people in these school buildings there was a statement that there needed to be an investigation or not investigation but to take a look into the need to share with staff members the option to have a person of their same gender as the contact person for Title IX and so just wanted to make sure that look into what needed to be done if there were a female that was not was not comfortable talking with Mr co-week or perhaps a male that wasn't comfortable talking to Miss Beckett just making sure that we put in there somewhere that it's clear to those people that that is an option to have someone of their same gender present if their gender is not the same as the express gender of Miss Beckett or Mr co-week item 5A.

There was a request that there'd be some clarity provided regarding the use of field trips for Education by principals versus the use of field trips perhaps as incentives so those requests for some additional information on that there was also a request that the when asking for the ADM incentive funding that that be brought to the board in June so that that those funds can be ready on July 1 for the start of year-round schools item 5B there was a statement that the growth report on those items is anticipated and that they would like to start a dialogue around the positions that may be lost around Esser fund that are lost with the ex with the EXP exploration of Esser funding and lastly under 5B there was a re several requests that the additional information or a presentation be provided regarding cep schools versus Title IX funding and a request for a projection on what that may look like financially those are all the follow-up items that I have did I what did I say.

Title one I'm it's in my blunt titled thank you I apologize Title One and that's those are all the items I have Dr mabanga thank you those concludes our items on the agenda I'm gonna get a motion for a closed session a move that we go into closed session sorry based on the reason stated in the agenda second on the agenda the move bonus upstairs second by Miss we'll do a Voice vote Miss buyer this is Natalie buyer I miss Rogers aye Mrs aye Ms Carter Alton Miss Umstead aye and I also vote I it passed this unit six six yep.

We're now in closed session foreign.

We are now back in Open Session Dr mabango board members I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a closed session a move approval the Personnel report dated August 10 2023 second been moved by Miss underst taken by Miss Chavez all in favor we could do a all vote as Miss buyers not with us all in favor say aye aye Naples no the motion carries five to one with that the session.

The meeting is adjourned.