Board of Education · Work Session · February 9, 2023

General public comment quick review of the rules we welcome our public joining us this evening basket through our minutes let me not go skipping over the minutes the January 12th minutes from 2023 you all have had a chance to review those is there a motion any edits needed to those minutes. Over Google the minutes from the work session January 12 2023 get it the move by Miss Rogers and suck it in by Miss Lewis that we accept the January 12 2023 minutes as presented any further discussion if not all in favor aye any opposed the minutes are passed unanimously thank you for catching that for me that does bring us to General Public comment item five a quick review of the rules please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you will have one minute left to start winding up your remarks.

When the red light comes on it will beep which indicates that your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education the safety of students and the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker is Ron Baron followed by Jenny cauldron hi my name is Ron bar on dear members of the board thank you for taking the time to listen today night you will see a presentation on how wonderful Gaggle is the presentation which reads like a corporate shareholder support will extol the virtues of a software telling you that it will vastly improve the mental health of students by giving administrators great insight into students mental health and other crises and thus allowing intervention that might prevent a further escalation surely aware because but the presentation will not say is.

That the way these insights are collected are incredibly intrusive into the most private parts of students lives consider for example a report collected by Gaggle in which the students the student talks about changing conceptions of their own gender or sexuality and how those feelings are difficult and sometimes even depressing considerate if a student may not have may not have talked or may not want to talk with administrators or even teachers at severe or other data is sent to administrator de facto the student is outed as being lgbtq or gender non-conforming the harm that could be done by outing a student to people in positions of power well before they related to talk themselves is best we're all horrified by bills such as the don't say gay legislation in part because it may expose students to backlash from parents and others why on Earth would we Implement software that enables such intrusions as a matter of routine students have no practical way of opting out of these intrusions into their lives.

It is impossible for most DPS students to do much of your work without the DPS device if the only way not to be monitored is not to use one in practice simply for attending a public school when completing their work students are subjected to this corporate Invasion into private lives this is completely unacceptable as a proud parent of a non-binary child I do not believe this is a way to help our children and our students surely there are far better ways to assist students with issues regarding their mental health andness surely we can spend the same money in foreign ways a few more social workers would be nice I urge you to pause Gaggle with immediate effect and to move to move to set up a task force comprised of students teachers staff and administrators to completely and fully evaluate the software before any of assumptions thank you thank you have Jenny cauldron and followed by Jacqueline Wagstaff.

Good evening board I wanted I got a whole thing written and I'm going to read part of it in a moment but I do want to acknowledge the grief that I heard from board members this evening and how important it is as a parent that we guard our children's mental health and that's a difficult task to do we don't always know what the best decision is and so we're we're threading a needle here trying to figure out how much privacy our kids need versus how much to protect them okay I'm just gonna be part of this now I spent much of the last week and a half trying to find some way anyway to prevent Senate Bill 49 from becoming law and as a quick refresher this is the parents Bill of Rights that this board made a resolution opposing this past summer and one thing that I heard woven through statements from students clinicians and parents opposing this bill is that there is something very very healthy in a child's ability to assert their.

Independence figure out who they are and maintain an age-appropriate level of privacy we as parents and educators are guides along this journey but this journey is not ours and as we seek to protect our children as natural as that instinct is I want to make sure that we sent our children and not ourselves and when we think about what our children need it's our support and not our surveillance and my concern with Gaggle is that we are surveilling our children and not investing in the human resources that we know that they need as a teacher there were countless times that I called for a counselor because I could see a child in distress and that counselor didn't come they were busy doing other things in the building even if our schools are fully staffed we are not at recommended ratios for counselors to students we have to fix that if we want to keep our students safe and I believe that Gaggle will kind of lull us into this false sense of.

Security that we feel like our kids are safe without actually doing the hard work of building connections with them to keep them safe thank you so much thank you Jacqueline Wagstaff followed by Anne satowski hamstring good evening it's hard for me to get up here today given what happened yesterday and I just want to say I heard your comments Madam chair and I just want to know do you know the young man's name do you know where he came from do you know anything about this young man probably not but this is one of the young men that I've seen on a regular basis in Cornwallis project one of the most underserved communities in Durham doesn't get what nearly what it needs to have this young man had hopes and dreams of what he wanted to be if he had lived that didn't happen that was cut short yesterday but I drive by Hillside every day I had kids in Hillside this is not the hillside that my kids grew up in not.

Even the hillside you went to and to see those kids out there every day I actually had an incident at the store across the street where there was so many kids at that store that I went across the street to speak with Dr Logan about all of those kids that went to the store at 12 noon so I see this on a daily basis is not new to me but I'm not here I'm here to speak on this school board coaching that's going on right now you have another school board member that has resigned from this board this is the second School Board member in less than two years that runs for office get reelected and then less than six months into their term they're resigning from this board to take on a position with the Durham found the DPS Foundation which this boy gives money to this doesn't smell right and it's not passing the smell test and tonight you're going to vote on a new chair a new Vice chair.

One of the things that I have a problem with is like this is usurping the authority of the people the people vote on board members to actually stay here and remain here for at least four years we don't vote on board members that know they're going to leave as soon as they get reelected and go take on Six Figure job salary jobs that are most likely getting paid for by this board who's going to vote on 1.2 million dollars tonight to give to the foundation to create housing the last I checked I thought this Foundation was an educational committee so I want to know what their expertise is in housing since you're going to give them this money now you got employees that are leaving the school system going to the foundation haven't talked to the superintendent about it so my question is which one of you are next to go to the foundation when the opportunity arrives we are voting we are taxpayer voters that are voting on people to come here.

And serve us and do the job we're not voting on people to leave in less than six months and go somewhere else so you need to handle your business thank you Miss Wagstaff and satowski hemp Street followed by. That should Mark the mingling it's a handwriting issue I'm sorry I'm not quite sure who's next but I think y'all will know thank you hello superintendent mubanga and board members I have a whole thing here that doesn't feel appropriate at this juncture I want to acknowledge the call to action and gun violence is the number one cause of death in our children and as a parent I can say that that is unacceptable and we all need to work together to solve this problem because I cannot imagine what the parents and friends and grandparents and family are going through right now and the kids that know this child and all I just I can't I'm here and I I will continue showing up to support changing our community so that our kids are safe.

I wanted to talk with you a little bit about a child that I've heard I I got I received a message from a teacher who told me about a certain child in school and I think it's still appropriate to talk about what I heard because maybe we can save this child this week a middle school student was flagged by this new Gaggle software for being at potential risk of self-harm the student I'm sorry I didn't even say my name is Anne sakawi hem Street and my pronouns are she or they and I am with rainbow Collective for Change and have two young children okay so this Middle School child was flagged by the Gaggle software for being a potential risk for self-harm the student identifies as lgbtq but is not out to their family because their family is religious and not supportive of lgbtqia plus individuals and community the counselor who is the Gaggle administrator at the school shared the Gaggle Report with the family which is a district protocol I think and felt like.

They had no choice but to share the whole report rather than just the part about self-harm so in doing so they outed this child to their family who was not supportive who declined mental health support from the school and so therefore we don't know whether this child is getting the support they need we do know that this child is at risk of self-harm and has now been outed to unsupported family according to the ACLU it's against the law for school officials to disclose a student's sexual orientation or gender identity to parents and other school staff even if the student is open about it at school with friends or staff members I'm not here to blame the counselor who is trying to do their job they were trying to prevent a child from inflicting self-harm I am highlighting how dangerous it is to have your Gaggle software program in place when maybe you haven't thought about the unintended harms that it can cause lgbtq students and other marginalized students I am also highlighting how dangerous it.

Dangerous it is to limit resources and necessary training for educators and other school professionals we need to properly support and affirm our lgbtq students with thank you very resources thank you so much again our next speaker is on from 10 14 yeah sorry Wildwood Road and I I really apologize I'm just struggling with your handwriting and Then followed by Lou Gent.

Thank you everyone for allowing me to speak I sent all my condolences to the family who lost their child yesterday and he is actually our child he's all of our child I just want to address something now I'm not gonna pick at anybody but I just want to urge everyone the importance of education right I did graduate or and I'm not here representing anybody but I did graduate from Riverside High School I'm currently at North Carolina Central University student so I I'm a Durham student I've been here my whole life I work with the so-called Hispanic community and I just want to share some solutions to how to educate them right I work with a lot of them I work with the church you know I think we had to do more than just say okay I'm about to vote for a plan you know if we really care about the kids if we in the store and we see a kid you know let's just say hey right you.

Know you don't know what they're going through how are you right and like somebody mentioned right that they're using a position of power to transition to another position paying them six figures show people how you got to that position right but my solution for the Youth and I came across someone with the shirt that said decolonize personally I'm indigenous and I see the importance of decolonizing our school educational system it doesn't just mean oh I'm gonna make you feel bad about the history that your ancestors have done it means this is an understanding of why people are are in the way that they are why are they feeling that way why are kids angry right maybe they don't have fathers in the household they don't know how to communicate right they don't know how to express their emotions they want to let out let it out through anger so we have to teach our kids these social skills and we have to teach specifically I work with the youth but we have to teach.

Them the importance of theirselves of self knowledge of self is important now I don't know what you include in these Solutions right I don't know I don't know if putting more money is good but it's simply showing a kid how to love themselves right that and it's a journey it may take 20 years right but let's not wait let's not have them wait until they're 40 to finally love themselves and heal their traumas personally I just want to share my Solutions and I thank you for allowing me to speak but we have to decolonize the school system and thank you everyone thank you so much blue gent followed by Dr Rhonda Taylor Bullock.

Thank you all for allowing me to speak I know several of you in several different contexts in this room tonight so it's very I feel honored to be here I do not have a child endure in public schools my name is Lou Gent I represent myself tonight as a community member I will read you this sharing grief with Hillside I posted it several hours I believe before the incident I know what everyone in Durham should know to Hillside is a fantastic school it's historically maligned because of segregation policies and racism it's one of the only five remaining original 300 historically black high schools it's home of the IBN Avid programs and offers engineering and cosmetology tracks it's phenomenal marching band and Drumline was rival to my high school which is the Greensboro equivalent of this school James B Dudley high and I had the first Notions of healthy self-concept chosen family and home life form because of my school years there and the commiserate Middle Lincoln across the street I.

Give to school or went after school to that crazy convenience store after the talent show the bullets was by my head my 14 year old sweetheart dropped out of school and died trying to rob a cab I am the Survivor I am the community activist who also knows that 24 of the children who are transgender in the United States who survived suicide said that no one had respected their pronouns in the last year these situations are not separate all of it is together we stand on indigenous land I report to all these communities and I'm reporting to hear for you today to say that I am part of you I am with you and yeah we have to do it all together right we have to listen to and we have to listen to Jackie we have to listen to Alexander we have to listen to all of us because the grief in this room is not separated we all these kids survive deserve survival all of us deserve to get to where I am.

An old trans queer or an old black woman or whoever gets to survive it should have been all of us it absolutely should have been all of us and I urge everyone here tonight to find more connections and less siled community because if I can get out here and hold somebody else hands and you know who you are who didn't want to hold my hand at first if I can do it you will too thank you thank you Lou Dr Bullock.

Hi I'm not Dr Rhonda Taylor Bullard representing Durham command Affairs of black people and tonight I'm carrying two halves of also the lead curator we are also a former Hillside educator and I did not give myself the room to grieve prior to coming up here and this was a lot. Did not plan to speak about you know what the school community at Hillside is experiencing and she said in my thoughts and prayers to Dr Logan's leadership and to the school community and to all of the families who are impacted at my empath I just was able to name that about myself and and hearing the stories and the passion and just thinking about the current context that we're sitting in it feels really heavy right now I came here tonight thinking about how all of this is intersectional the attacks on our children our safety and the curriculum I came here to employ The District board members and Leadership that we're sitting in a position actually a privilege to be leaders.

To call on the state the country to fight against the racist oppression of about African-American studies it is a racist attack against learning about black history black people's contributions indigenous people having classes like ethnic studies and African-American studies validates and shows that black lives matter This research that shows that when children can see themselves in the curriculum they Excel they attend school they graduate their attendance rates are up they pass they get high gpas and so the anti-truth telling movement is very loud and it's taking up a lot of space the might don't mean right and so for those of us who share the same values who believe in a racially just socially Equitable lgbtq friendly inclusive community we have to use our positions of power to speak up it's not just about curriculum it's about life and death literally and I just pray and hope that you all in the in this midst of call to action in particular about violence that Erasure is violence as well Erasure is violence as well.

And for those of us sitting in positions of power and I believe Durham public schools are sitting in a position of power in ways that other districts are not we have to speak up you have to be the voice you have to see the fear you have to confront it you have to keep moving thank you thank you Dr Bullock I know that some folks have joined us since we took the sign up sheet I wanted to make sure that no one else has joined that would like an opportunity to speak Mr Raven and then in the front row anybody else go ahead and if you will do that just make sure you state your name so that our liaison can capture that for us thank you.

Good afternoon Frederick Raven I am not representing any other organizations that I am sometimes associated with I am representing myself as a Durham public school graduate and a father of children in Durham Public Schools I first wanted to just also offer my condolences you know sometimes when I see stuff like this on the news when there's a loss of life when you've seen it so much you sometimes get become somewhat desensitized and I start to even forget about my own family who has dealt with stuff like this in Durham so my prayers go out to the family the one thing that I wanted to talk about today was something that you all had listed in in the agenda I'm still a nerd so I did I did look it over and there was there was really three things that I that I thought about discussing I just wanted to mention that one I'm happy to see that you all are moving forward with the with the new Erp I.

Think that's going to help the district tremendously two one of the things that I saw relating to ul's budget requests I didn't notice anything about the one to one I recognized it right during the beginning of code of it the district made that step to ensure that there was that device one to one and or thirty thousand devices 250 a piece you're looking at like 7.5 million or somewhere around there and I know that there was there was a thought at one point in time to not necessarily ask the county to pay for it all at one time but to at least have a kind of like a life cycle plan in place so that if you are going to replace one third of it every year that they're aware that that 2.5 million dollars is going to come due at some point in time but the last thing that I really just wanted to quickly talk about was an excuse and recent my wife is in Florida right now so the baby's with me.

But it was with with the housing plan that that I that I read about and I I was doing some research and I found out about what other states are doing right and there was the 18 million dollars that was granted I think like 13.5 of that is is still going to stay within a district and I just wanted to plant some radical ideas I always hear board member buyers talk about how Orange County got ahead of us when we were looking at the equity when we were looking at the inclusion of the lgbtq plus community and I wanted to kind of echo that and talk about access if we're thinking about access to be able to be able to afford a place to live in Durham imagine if we use that 13.5 million dollars to actually buy or build an apartment complex and the reason I say that is the one thing that DPS has is land right and that's one of the most expensive things.

To buy so I just did a little bit of research and I'll just share the numbers with you if you wanted to build 150 units roughly that cost is 9.6 to 12.9 million but if you wanted to do 600 100 it would be 38.4 to 51.6 and while that seems like a lot generally you only have to put 25 down which is 13 million so if you had 600 units you would be able to support roughly 20 percent of your teachers or at least 10 percent of all of your staff so I just wanted to kind of throw out that radical idea of something that could potentially be used in the future to support staff so thank you all thank you Mr Raven and thank you Emerson front row folks yeah can y'all yeah thank you.

Hello my name is Andrea Hudson I'm everybody calls me muffin and I'm not representing any of the organizations that I'm a part of I'm actually here representing a parent of a student who's getting ready to graduate from Hillside on June the 12th of 2023 I want to say condolences to the family are the ones who lost a loved one and from the one who was also shot along with the one who lost his life and I want the school board to know that there is a solution to the problem but if we're not talking to our children we're not going to get that solution because we as adults do not really know what they need we can only fantasize about what we think they need but unless we talk to them to find out what they need we will not know and I don't know how many of you had to make that phone call yesterday to make sure that it wasn't your child that was shot I had to.

Make that phone call and I wasn't only checking on my son I was checking on all his friends and it was like there was a delayed response to families knowing that there was a shooting behind the school right my son was okay his friends were okay but he knew those kids who got shot and so is he mentally okay he may not want to talk to me about it but we have conversations last night we had conversations this morning and every day that my son goes out of that door I have to pray that he's going to be okay going to a place that I think that he's supposed to be secure and safe and he goes there to learn and play sports but he's supposed to be fine and that is not the case with the school being on lockdown today I was informed that one of my other sunshines was in the trailers out back and that's unacceptable because if you have a School on lockdown and you have kids who.

Are not in a brick and mortar building that is nerve-wracking to the parents and when I got that message I was like oh my gosh he's out back is he okay bullets can easily go through that modular home or trailer whatever it is out there so I'm asking for this money that is gonna that the school board has please consider making Hillside the hillside that it should be it has survived a hundred years and it would it's surviving a hundred years it does not have the things that it needs the football field it's horrible the track field is horrible when those other schools come they have to pee outside because there are no field houses for them to be able to use and that's we're doing a disservice to our kids all kids should be able to play sports for free so School Board should be able to put money into that because when I look at my son and his friends they too tired after football practice after basketball.

Practice they tired they don't have enough energy to be out doing anything they need thank you so much Miss Hudson and I saw one two anyone else yeah three Kevin I'll let you close this out Kevin is our final speaker thank you hello my name is Joanna's tutor and I was planning to talk about something else but I'm just gonna mention a few things so I'm a substitute usually for Wake County but I've been here for just like a week and I noticed some kind of discrepancies so I just thought I would mention them but first I just want to say I'm sorry that you all are dealing with all of this and my condolences to the families and the victims of gun violence but I noticed that in Durham County Schools compared to Wake County a lot of the furniture was more damaged and the supplies were scarce certified and there was more students per classroom at least 30 in every class that I was in and the teacher that I was subbing for.

Was never able to use her room during her planning period in one of the assignments that I had because it was being used by another class so she never had time to like grade papers or things like that in her own classroom and then in one of the classrooms their only air conditioners seemed to be a fan surrounded by several filters with blocks underneath to keep it from moving around the room and it didn't even have the infrared Lighting in it to keep the air free from covid so I mean I was just noticing a lot of big discrepancies in the funding I guess or I don't really know exactly what but and then this is not really that related but I was told by one of the other teachers that when I was at the Durham school the Durham Southern School of energy and sustainability that they hear that the students will hear bad things about the school before they even come to the school and I heard that the administration.

Speaks about the school as if it's only filled with idiots they say things like hope you aren't going to Southern and so even if these students are the brightest around they're going to think that they're stupid because they that's what the world is kind of showing them and wondering the students are you know starting to give up or whatever but so I might just come back next time and talk about the other stuff thank you so much and I want to let you know make sure that you know you can always email us at Boe dpsnc.net and if you have other things that you weren't able to share tonight we are always reading that and keeping up and feel free to call us as well I think William Jackson Dr Jackson.

Good afternoon or good evening everybody my name is William Jackson I'm coming today as a parent of a DCS student recently by her daughter one of our elementary schools and of course the first thing I think is important to say is condolences to the families lost their their child but they said earlier everybody's child or they're everybody's child and we all have a responsibility to do as much as we have in our power to do to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again.

So that takes a deep evaluation of our access to power how we are using that power make things happen for the benefit of those children or ourselves in our own interests so I hope that all of us with the power that we have and if I need to be specific I mean the access to money to access to decision-making power that will literally influence 33 000 children's lives you will put a policy in place that will impact my daughter's life for the next 10 12 years and so my question is is are we not just being proximate because all proximity means is that I'm close to my brother right here do I have relationship am I investing my time and energy to develop relationships with people so that when I make decisions they can hold me accountable so there's a lot of different things that I could have chose to do in my life maybe not but what I will say is that in my day-to-day work I have parents that know they can come.

And cuss me out and hold me accountable and if something goes wrong we will move Heaven and Earth to make it right because I've been given a whole lot of talent money and whatever for whatever reason and so it's my responsibility to be accountable to those folks and make sure that I'm accountable to the people who don't always have access to power but like Dr Taylor bully said earlier all of this stuff is connected the fact that our children learn inside of classrooms where they've been historically underfunded and has been historically taken out their contributions to life and Liberty and happiness in this nation is the same reason why they might not see as much value in their own lives and the value against the people that are looking across from them and so if you're using your power to not think about how you're going to enrich their lives then we have to ask ourselves some of the difficult questions Miss Wagstaff raised earlier and so I just really really really hope.

That everybody in here will do the right thing thank you Dr Jackson the Prime Minister thanks for coming this evening good evening Dr mabenga members of the board my name is Kevin Primus My pronouns are he and him I try to listen to everyone and you know clearly we're grieving and I also share my condolences with the families who are losing their children some of the things that I really wanted to say have already been said but I feel like I need to reiterate them especially in light of our next two board agenda items which are vote for vice chair and process for appointment for district three School Board member I've talked with many people in the past 24 hours Democrats Republicans I'm not an attorney I don't give legal advice I spoke to an attorney who said they were people are talking about this vacation vacating or vacation of board seats running for for public office for four years leaving your board seat going to the DPS Foundation.

It appears as a pattern to everyone I'm talking to and it looks really bad on Durham that we are considering giving money more and more money to an organization that is poaching is the word that people are using our our board members and our staff members but we don't know that this is happening I really find it hard to believe that Matt Sears who's not here today to be accountable because he wants to not have the appearance of a conflict of interest when did he decide to apply for this job did every board member know about this did they understand that we have an ongoing relationship with DPS Foundation I have a lot of questions a lot of other people have questions I've shared some of those with with my contacts in the media will they pick it up or do they not care is this board accountable with their relationship with the DPS Foundation where the the river is flowing in the opposite direction they say they're supposed to be helping us raise money.

But we're sending them money and they have a big staff a lot of staff for a foundation and are they funding these things that need to be funded can we there are people that are asking a lot of questions and there are people that ran against you Republicans who are watching very carefully to see if the Press even cares but this looks really bad it looks really bad when people run for office and before the year years up they're working for a partner it looks like there's no accountability for the money that is being given and now it's public money going to a private Foundation that doesn't have to answer anybody's questions and we need leadership we have vote for vice chair who has experience to ask some questions because how does this happen that this just looks it looks like hubris it looks like hey I don't have to be accountable I I can just move on and take this it just looks really bad and to everyone and other.

People are using the word laundering I'm not using that word I use the word funneling but I can't prove that it's laundering usually you kind of do a better job of hiding it if it's laundry but this looks like you got money you got a job and money from your old organization is going to your new organization and you quit your job that you were elected to do you quit it to go to this place that's getting money from your old job looks horrible it is blatantly obvious to anyone thank you consider it so much Mr Thomas thank you and that will conclude our public comment this evening we are so appreciative of the Hearts and Thoughts and Minds that you all have shared with us today you continue to challenge us you continue to inspire us and we thank you for that I'm going to turn the next portion of the agenda over to our chair Umstead.

Right y'all bear with me I'm gonna do the best I can to lead this next two items the first is a vote for vice chair has been alluded to many of our public comments today I'm going to read a statement from Matt Sears board we will need to take a vote to accept his resignation so on January 31st 2023 he voted to support sorry excuse me on January 31st 2023. Mr Sears emailed the board and said I want to thank you for the support and collaboration we've had over the years effective the end of today which was January 31st 2023 I'm resigning my position on the Durham school board after eight years and seven months of service I'm so pleased to share that I'm leaving the board and I'll be transitioning to work at the Durham Public Schools Foundation the director of Partnerships and so that resignation was submitted to us via email was effective on the 31st and we'll start with the first step of voting to accept that resignation.

Move that we accept the resignation of Matt Sears second the move by Miss Byers seconded by Miss Rogers any other discussion all those in favor please say ah aye any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously appreciate Matt and his service on the board and what he was able Mr Sears was able to contribute with that resignation we do have our policy states that we need to vote for a vice chair that's the next order of business it says it needs to happen in our next meeting so we'll do that today in a moment I will call for nominations for the office of the vice chair of Durham Public Schools Board of Education the board will follow the procedure contained in our policy nominations do not require a second if more than one person is nominated the board will vote on nominees in order of nomination the first person to receive a majority of board members present majority vote of the board members present is elected the vice chair.

Nominations are in order for the office of Vice chair are there any nominations I nominee Emily I spoke to I nominate javonia so let's go first I'll have Miss don't literally spoke at the same time we spoke at the same time okay I'm gonna have MS Roger speak first and then I'll let you go Miss validaris we'll vote on both nominations and I'm Nate malicious I want to take a point of personal privilege right now I I'm having conversations with community that when meat show up to this meeting we don't have to have everything cooked fully decided there is a process in place in terms of votes and be it that if there is already a certain group that has already decided what they want to do I ask for right now the floor to actually make a nomination that will allow us to be able to have this process in an equitable way because I actually I don't appreciate the fact that I spoke with you earlier and everybody before.

And I said I want to nominate somebody and nothing was told to me about the fact that even though some arrangements have already been done in advance and you think that you already have the whip count you think you already have the votes I want to have the opportunity and I ask for the opportunity to make a nomination and nothing was told to me as a board member that already expressed and I sent this in days in advance to tell me what the order would be and how it would be and I do want to own that I clicked on this mic right now and I said I want to nominate Mr Vanya Lewis and I didn't finish my thought so both nominations will be voted on tonight the floor is open people can nominate as they please now to to try to be fair because both of y'all said at the same time my suggestion was going to be that we vote in order of alphabetical order so that would have.

Miss Chávez first and then Miss Lewis open to other options but we do have to vote on both tonight and that is like the process of how we we go along. So we do have two nominations one for javania Lewis we have another nomination for Emily Chavez we'll vote we'll start with Miss Chávez let's do a Voice vote so we're really clear I'll start with Miss Roger I'd like to just also take a point of privilege as we're making this vote I would like to make a statement and appeal to the board members who are voting thank you Ms bayadaris for your vote your nomination and confidence I would like to Miss Lewis I do want to give us an opportunity to speak but I wanted us to do a vote first and then have an opportunity is that okay would you like to speak I wanted to appeal to board members for the vote to aim their vote of confidence publicly if we can do that afterwards but one person receives more nominate.

Folks than the other than that would not happen so I'm not sure how you want to do it so Miss Lewis and Miss Chávez let's both give you all an opportunity to speak Miss Lewis did you want to go first right now but again thank you Miss for the nomination as I was considering this position and I had conversations with other board members who shared that we should consider rotational leadership outside of experience and I can accept that I want to be a team player and I want to know what this looks like and what this can look like in the future and policy that would support that in not going back and forth when it's convenient at this moment I do think that when my value resides is experience commitment training and being transparent which I have this is my third year of service and coming on the board while being in a pandemic I was thoughtful and made some of the hardest decisions of my life and any.

Other board member would have ever had to make in that time I worked diligently to ensure IT supplies and safety was first I considered our most vulnerable and I stood up for a board member who was targeted by hate after one year's service I was asked to serve in leadership as Vice chair and during that time Natalie you said that you didn't feel like I had enough experience but in this moment you have shared that you support rotational leadership and representation I can accept that my nomination allows for that please consider that with this vote one thing our kids Educators and administrators don't need right now is experimentation they need experience my experience on this board has led to policy updates around dress code nutrition and non-discrimination my experience with this board has led to several years of growing together and engaging the school communities and engage in communities particularly in my district I have approved curriculum resources that work towards Equity I have attended several North Carolina School Board conferences.

National School Board conferences I am committed through training ongoing education to service this community as best that I can this is my final term this is the final year I'm coming into my final year on the four-year term until I run for reelection in 2024. Our school Community is 80 students of color and the reading the third grade proficiency rate for black students is 38 percent prioritizing representation matters we need to commit to making sure every student has a black teacher by second grade as a research shows and has been requested by one of our community organizations and have had discussion with our Administration there's an urgency and experienced leadership in this moment I do not work independently as I share with Ms Rogers I re-emphasize publicly my number one concern has been in his students student Excellence that we pour into them to reach their greatest potential thank you for your reconsidering your position I have relationships with the elected officials I've nurtured over the past.

Years for such a time as this built task force and serve on task force I have a vision and urgency and experience to co-lead this board with integrity and transparency the kids particularly in districts one and two cannot wait and I hope that I can have all your support thank you Miss Lewis Miss Travis thank you for the opportunity to speak and I still appreciate everything that Ms Lewis has done as a board called colleague her perspective I will share what I think I bring to this role it's something I've given a lot of thought to I I really think this is the time and we didn't know that our other board colleague was going to step down at this time and that this opportunity would would present itself at this time in in February when it's normally in in July at the turn of the school year but I I know that I bring bold ideas and Leadership I'm seven months into this board term I'm not new to leadership I served on.

The budget process advisory committee was asked the co-chair that and have seen the budget process through through the spring that we're about to enter into now I've prioritized making relationships with our building relationships with my board colleagues with administrators with Commissioners and I intend to keep doing that and I bring an intersectional approach that I do think is really important in these conversations in leadership with attention to the experiences of our black latinx other students of color our ESL students our undocumented students lgbtq plus students EC students and low SES students and I think it's really important how we frame our conversations and then translate those and share them with our with our colleagues but communication is very important to me and making sure that as a as a board that we have collaborative leadership together I've talked since the spring about the importance of having a container in which we can hold any issue that that we talk about that we discuss or engage with and so I think I I want.

To serve in this role and I I have the support of others to do this because of my vision and the skills I bring this is a progressive board and people are expecting us to get a lot of things done I'm proud of the work that we have done in the last several months and and will continue to do and the things that I would most like to see change or move during the time that I serve on the board and in and hopefully in leadership would be improving outcomes for our black and latinx students and decreasing render race and gender disparities and discipline seeing the successful rollout of growing together which as we know is a huge process of 30 years in the making seeing our lgbtqia plus policy through full implementation and ensuring in general ensuring that our investments our money and other resources and our efforts yield results and outcomes that are tangible some of our speakers spoke to the relationship with power and I think.

That's very important as we think about how we engage in the future and so it would be my honor to serve this board in a leadership role thank you thank you Ms Chavez thank you Miss Lewis in order to decide who our nomination is to go first I have a coin I would love to do a coin toss Miss Murchison if I could have you do that and come stand maybe right here so we can get it on camera Miss Chávez and Miss Lewis if you all can come watch Miss Lewis can you pick your Assad as a senior member on our board foreign.

Attorney who's represented here tonight she will flip it and let us know it is on Tails so we'll vote for Miss Chavez birth and then we'll go with Miss Lewis thank you.

All right so the first vote will be for Miss Chávez I'm gonna start with Miss Rogers and we'll go along the Run Miss Rogers I'm sorry if you are supporting Miss Chavez please say I you are not supporting Ms Chavez you can say no when we go aye MS validaris with pain in my heart I have to say nay Miss Chávez hi Miss Lewis no hi and I will know puts us at three three our policy state so when there is a tie we have to continue to vote until we break a tie so we will I will ask if there's any additional comments from Miss Chávez or Miss Lewis and then we will vote again do you have a question or comment go ahead.

The Democratic process you know coming onto this board I faced a lot of opposition it's taken years for people to actually see what I care about I am paint that there are politics on this board and exclusionary practices and that have seen complicity in people that I did not expect to see complicity I hold this board accountable as a board member I was duly elected at the my seat was a seat that included residents from all stretches of Durham and it was a Grassroots campaign and I will not be siled I will not be excluded I will not be the last person to hear about plans if you're meeting with self-help if you're meeting with DPS Foundation if you're leaving me out if of meetings that happen with principals and there are people who are happy with that I actually want to thank my colleague right here millison the conversation is the way you have worked with all of us that was a gift I didn't expect Durham does these things.

To us it polarizes us it wanted to create division here my sister no we're not divided we care about the same things we have found Common Ground I will not allow this board to continue to operate with these Antics and politics I expect communication and I have seen that with Miss Lewis I never felt left out ostracized or being the last person to get some information even half the information I will get my do right to all the information that all of us have here because I have a due responsibility with every single stakeholder that is here and those that are listening I will own my time here during my term County will decide when my time comes up but I will say this to you I will not be allowing complicity these games of PODS and groups and clicks it's childish our kids have to deal with that with bullying in schools and I have experience with that I will not allow that in this board and I want transparency and I want.

Communication and I will congratulate I will work with whoever is on this board and I just ask let's be very mindful of power dynamics that exclude because we are all the same we all have elected seats and we all have a responsibility to work together thank you thank you Miss wardaris Miss Lewis Miss Chávez any additional comments missiles thank you for that Miss and I just want to say to the public this was a divided vote but we're not divided we're passionate about our children and how to get there it's the way we sometimes differ we're fighting for leadership in some places they're begging for people to lead so that's the power of this board and it's here I don't see myself in competition with Miss Chávez I'd held her hand so we're in this together either one of us are capable to lead I appealed to you as I had before in regards to timing in regards to experience if you would concede and as I thought about this and I.

Thought about rotational leadership honestly and I told this to miss Rogers you have worked your tail off since you've been on this board you have shown up you have shown leadership and determination your understanding and learning quickly and I remember how it was in my first year sit back you watch you learn although it was a pandemic so I had to jump in so so to that Miss Chávez I know either of us can do it and you know I'll support you at some point the hope that we can get through this divide and votes and not in our decision to lead this District in the right direction for all of our students thank you Miss Lewis Miss Travis.

Well I just appreciate that and I think that's a a great point that in some places they are asking people to lead and this is a hard decision our board has had so many conversations Among Us in the last week and a half and I hope that I mean I believe in the power of communication and relationship and I think I hope that we will be better for having had all of these conversations and getting some things on the table and I just want to say I think to the point that Ms bayadaris was making that I think I think Equitable communication is so important and I'm and I'm sorry for the inequitable communication that you have experienced it's been my my desire in coming on this board to try and sit down with everyone and and meet with meet with everyone so that we could build those relationships because I just think this is relational work at the end of the day and and so I I I want to say that yeah.

Transparency and and openness and fairness making sure that we're all aware of who is doing what I think all of that is is very important I am I also feel continue to feel convicted about this role and I feel that a lot is at stake I I absolutely agree that both of us have both Ms Lewis and I have so much to offer this role and and a passion for this work and and I I I am maintaining that I would like to do this to do this work because I believe that I have something to do to offer our students our district at this time thank you Miss Lewis Miss Chávez we're going to do another vote we'll start again with Miss Rogers again the person that has the majority of the vote will have the opportunity to serve as Vice chair appoint order Madam chair yes ma'am with the first candidate the first nominee having not received a majority of the vote this vote should be for the.

Second nominee and if there's still a tie after this one we go back to the first nominee thank you we voted for Miss Chávez first and then we will vote now for Miss Lewis we'll start Ms Rogers yeah Miss validaris aye Ms Chavez nay Ms Lewis yes Miss buyer no and I'll vote aye we're again three three so we need to vote again we continue to vote until we have a majority so let's do this again but we'll do another vote for Miss Chavez I think it is important yeah let's do this Miss Rogers and foreign.

That puts us at four two. Our work as a school board is to support our students you both women were duly elected to this role because you have the skills to lead and to serve and we both have access we all have access to power sitting in these seats and I believe that our work together has to be centered in our kids moving forward our kids have to achieve because we recognize pre-k through 12 is the transformative experience that they can have within our public school system and when I think about the students who haven't succeeded in Durham and I see their names in their faces I know that our work is about making sure that doesn't happen again and so while I understand that we are split on this I also understand both of you were duly elected both of you will do an excellent job and both of you have been called to lead and to serve and I think in all of our positions of power.

We will be able to exercise that in the support of our children our kids right our students need us to get through our agenda today our Educators need us to be listening and learning and advocating on their behalf and our community deserves to have a board that's going to fight for our students and we spend the time today thinking about our student achievement we spend the time today thinking about how we're going to protect our Educators we spend our time today thinking about keeping good principles in our buildings we spend our time today talking about how we're going to fight the state because we need the resources for our students here in Durham that's our work that's what we got to do moving forward and so I'm willing to vote for both of you because you're both excellent candidates and we have to move our agenda forward we have work to do for our students and we are thinking about our students we got work to do so I appreciate the conversation and the.

Dialogue I appreciate what both of y'all brought to the table and now we'll take a brief recess so we can get back to our work it is 6 15 before we end this agenda item I do want to bring one action to our Administration to create continuity better consistency across the conversation to keep a culture open culture and the way we do things there's policy number 220 elections of officers organization of the board that talks about a terms of service I would like to be able to work on that policy and have some discussion around adding a term to board leadership so that we can get towards true rotational leadership if that's what we're trying to do in a way that's fair and not changing ideas and who has experience or not experiences when we're looking to make these decisions of leadership so that we don't have to be in this place as long as we have been so just to action for administration before we go to recess that's something we can.

Take to our policy committee to consider we're going to come back at 6 55 and then we'll move to our next item process for appointment of District 3 board member.

Foreign.

All right we are back oh I'm not leaving this meeting I'm sorry no worries at all okay so we are at item 6B the process for appointment for district three School Board member have seen some background materials ahead of time in your email with a proposed kind of timeline and schedule some said did you want to introduce any of this I know you've been working on this with the attorneys yes so with the resignation of Matt serious we have 60 days that we need to fill the vacancy seat if we do not fill the seat within 60 days the Board of County Commissioners have the opportunity to fill the seat for us so we have a process that we've used a couple of times now to fill a vacancy when it comes on our board so I sent you all materials I think Ms Smith will be able to put these in the packets it's based on our previous experience and I'll just briefly outline it there's a statement of interest that we ask.

People to complete the statement of Interest we ask a couple of questions for them to answer why do you want to serve on our board what experience do you have in the community especially with public education and then the board has to regularly schedule meetings so we asked a little bit about their time commitment and the ability to be able to serve as a board member that is the statement we asked for two letters of Interest as well board members I'm going to pause there before we get to the timeline piece any questions or comments about what we ask for in the statement of Interest again this is based on previous processes but we are open to feedback I'm open to feedback and then just to clarify for folks that are just kind of new to this conversation this like the seat does run through June 30th 2024 as specified in this documentation that's ahead of us and we'll go to the voters at in the spring of 2024 on the ballot.

Any discussion y'all are very quiet but I know that's not always the case you've got thoughts what's going on tell me one thought if we are going to add in additional questions for the for the statement I my the question I drafted and and we can do something like this so it doesn't need to be this but what are the greatest inequities You observe in our school system today and how do you plan to address them I know that we highlight the commitment to equity that one needs and it's with public education but if there could be a question focused around equity I would appreciate it thank you Mr Travis let me also add second part we'll have the statement of interest that folks will submit in the past we also have an opportunity for an interview that we can ask folks to address questions as well so I just want to put both of those pieces out there as you think about what you as you're thinking about your feedback.

There's a statement of interest but we can also ask questions for people to come in and speak in more about any other firms that's what I'll that's what I was wondering about is that with that question for the interest or is that for the interview I was I was thinking for the statement of Interest however it could be an interview question so I'm open to whatever you all think would be best. I think that's a a great question a question that would be great to include either at this screening part or at the at the next phase the only other thing that I thought of since we looked at this earlier this afternoon was putting preferred pronouns on our form might be a great way to move us forward in that other thoughts questions discussion the timeline how does that look to you all have you had a chance to look at those dates and compare them to your calendar one that's a TBD but we'll also have more chance to discuss and find that.

Date as we get closer to it. Miss Jonathan I had some thoughts about when we could do the interviews and so I wanted to propose sometimes possibly if if we want to go ahead and nail that down the evening of March 7th or 8th the afternoon of Friday March 10th or for me anytime during the day March 13th or evening and I don't do we typically do these in the. March 7th or 8th work for me in the evening. March 7th and 8th work for me yeah I like having them earlier in case we need to bump anything back or things come up I love the seventh and 8th and going ahead to fill those dates in if they work for all of us that's why you guys does that work for you.

Anything else that we need I guess if we take action on this this will be posted starting tomorrow yeah it will be posted starting tomorrow we'll ask folks to complete their statement of interest by February 27th at 8 A.M that's a Monday so I can have those in before the start of the day Miss Smith will send all of our applications to the Board of Elections to verify that they are indeed living in District 3 and also eligible to vote in the previous process and I really liked how we did this board member sent me questions that you were interested in having folks address in the interview we were able to take that list and kind of shorten and combine questions I think we got about to three so that people were able to end their time allotted with us as board members address those questions and so I would propose a similar process that on February 23rd I could bring that list of questions and show you all what we would ask folks.

And then they'd have an opportunity to prepare for the interview interview we did not do back and forth so interview was really a presentation from our applicants on March 7th and 8th. Thank you and have you all talked about plans for besides the website where this goes out and how it gets shared out or or it will. I know there will be significant interest in in joining this illustrious board we just want to make sure that we get the the word out and we're very proactive about that I appreciate our staff helping us with that any other discussion Ms Lewis yeah thank you I agree with the process as Ford and the day so we have I have a question actually for our attorney Murchison we've had two board members step down and go work for the DPS Foundation don't get me wrong I think the DPS Foundation is amazing I got to see Miss Flowers today at Fayetteville Street Elementary School truly in her element but I'm wondering when does it become.

A conflict of interest after as a board or in our one-on-ones we have discussions around budgets programming funding for McKenzie bezo teacher housing in relation to DBS Foundation being at the table and then someone choosing to go and work for them and I understand people can make choices for themselves and that may not be a conflict of interest but as the public has seen things there's some some suspicion or doubt right so is there a way that we could draw some clear guidelines under our own board membership policies or maybe an mou that can address these concerns that the community is having maybe it could even be like a time frame of if you're beginning to interview for a position here that you're not a part of these certain conversations that could be impacted by decisions that the district is making just to avoid the conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict thank you thank you Miss Lewis in in the circumstance of a board member choosing to work for the foundation we.

Were asked to provide an opinion as to whether there was a direct conflict would that board member continuing to serve on the board as well as going over there the decision was made at that point in reviewing your own your own policy as well as the statutory Provisions that there is not a conflict would not be a conflict but there certainly is a perceived conflict and that was why Mr Sears chose to step down I think your question is actually more to point as to is there something what that the board can do and it's mou with the foundation that could address a limitation or a a break in service from one to the other or notification that there is a as you said an interest in a position at the foundation that could then limit that board members or voluntarily allow that board member to step aside and discussions that impact the foundation and that's something that could definitely be addressed in the mou so if that's something that the board would like to.

Take up that's something that you can that you certainly could do that can you clarify on your question for me you said that the board member would step away from certain Converse just clarify that part sure so I if I understood correctly Miss Lewis your concern was that that the board was unaware that folks were perhaps interviewing for positions while they were actually in conversations and at the table with with the foundation while the district was making certain decisions along with the district and mou could if the board was interested discuss and provide some guidelines for notification if there is an interest in a position there or if there was a potential conflict on the horizon that they could step aside or you could also put some guidelines in place as to whether or not you would like a break in service between when you served on the board and when when you served in in the other community I do want to hesitate a little bit on that because this could.

Have implications for lots of other things that are very close closely aligned with missions with the Durham public schools so it it ought not to be a policy that would be specific to the foundation and you'd want to think through it very carefully in terms of how it could also affect other Partnerships because again it would you'd want to apply it equitably to to all different agencies that could have that could have close ties so you'd want to be very careful about that you also want to make sure that you don't hinder anybody's ability to seek employment when it wouldn't be necessary it certainly is a conversation yeah that clarification I am a little uncomfortable about people implying that there is anything unethical about Mr Cason or Mr Sears and so without them here to speak for themselves and in this space I want us to be very thoughtful and careful about their work and service on this board for this board for this community and you know there is a memo from Farrington.

Smith that you all prepared for Mr Cason that gave him Clarity because he is incredibly ethical as is Mr Sears to say I don't even want there to be a an appearance of conflict so I will sadly step down from my service my elected office in order to do this work so I don't want their names to be disparaged in this space when you know Farrington Smith wrote legal opinion for them advising to be overly cautious that's what how they chose to ethically move forward with both roles that they they were in so that that's my you know there's documentation in history there and I don't want us to feed or fuel something that that isn't true and I and let me clarify it we absolutely have made that determination and made and we also talked to Mr Sears about that as well that there is no conflict in serving on in both the capacity and remaining on the board and serving at the foundation that was and.

It was a decision they made because of an appearance they wanted to make again it was a decision that they made to step aside because of any concern of an appearance of a conflict and any comments that I make in terms of in terms of your ability to look at the mou is not because there was anything that was done inappropriately by either one of your Prime board members so thank you for clarifying that was my point it wasn't that anything has been done the public has brought it to us and we don't make comments we don't speak to public comments as being made but to have the discussion on how do we move forward so that those appearances are not there so yes things have been done in order no one's making any accusations against them but I want us to make sure that we're looking at a way forward as there have been some Community constituents concerns can you repeat I'm so sorry can I make a.

Comment the part where I talk to my colleagues right and I have very kind of conversations about Partnerships we're right now with the 18 million we're giving money to the DPS Foundation I've had meetings with the DPS Foundation director directly and I appreciate you know all the work that is happening but these candid conversations among colleagues regarding for example like not disclosing that you have already applied or interviewed and then I'm talking to my colleague without knowing anything about it and so as recent as just a few days ago right more than more than definitely let's just say like in the last three months four months right three months two months three months four months if there were conversations pertaining to that like is there anything asked is there anything that compels a colleague to just disclose by the way we're talking about this subject but I I'm applying to that is there anything that we can put in place that there's that at least that Grace that or that transparency that we can have.

With each other so let me say first that because there's no conflict if you were to remain on the board there's not a conflict in him sitting and having conversations about the topics that you were talking about as well so I want to be clear about that there is no conflict if he were to remain a board member there's no conflict for him to hold both positions so the notion that he was applying and needed to be transparent about what he was doing there's not that's not driven by a conflict of interest statute or obligation if there is a desire by this board for transparency and certain items that's something we can talk about into and in more detail and if you would like us to look at it from a legal perspective as to what it is that you can ask board members to disclose and not disclose we can take a look at that but in terms of this particular situation and whether or not you need to.

Disclose who it is you're applying with there isn't anything in place as it relates to this employer or any other employer that board members are free to seek employment in any way they can and the only time that they need to disclose is if the employment they seek actually does create a conflict which it did not in this case thank you for that I I would just ask my colleagues that if you if we are having conversations about organizations and we and we're at the level of colleagues looking at it from us you know on this end looking at all our Partnerships that you would at least disclose or recuse yourself say I'm not comfortable with this conversation that's just what I would ask of all of you thank you okay that I want to make sure that we or stay on topic for our agenda I think it's also important to note that you know we're talking some of this is like human relations and and pieces and HR pieces where it's important for.

People to be able to apply and employ and do what they need to do for their families I think it's also important just note that the foundation has its own we are separate entities they have their own board that they are are beholden to that it has accountability and ownership for that so I just want us to hold both of those things together and while I hear also is an increased ask for board members to each other around transparency and I think that's a fair ass and important ass we got to clarify when that ask is around how we want to operate as a board and then what are the legal requirements that we need to have as well and the ask is lastly for us to re-look at the mou.

So we're at any further discussion on this topic we're I believe on the topic of the process for the appointment for District 3 School Board member any other discussion questions clarification if not I would welcome a motion Mr Rogers I saw your hand the motion so I move approval of the applicant requests for applications for the District 3 vacancy with the modification of adding the pronouns preferred pronoun. Yeah I would welcome a second yeah it was move as Roger seconded by Miss Umstead any further discussion if not all in favor aye any opposed passage unanimously thank you that brings us to the crown act resolution a copy of which I believe is in your folder and I'm going to turn it over Miss Lewis to you thank you for springing that this evening thank you boy for accepting the add to the agenda this initiative the crown act this initiative was created to leave Elevate Elevate the national Crown act ensure that there is protection against discrimination that is based on.

Race that is based on race-based hairstyles in schools and the workplace DPS Crown week focuses on providing opportunities for learning and engagement centering the role and impact of the crown act in the Durham Community while Illuminating affirming and amplifying the diversity of voices and experiences in our community I have a few updates that I added to this board resolution since we passed it in 2021 and that we can begin now to read there's a resolution out you know we want to start down with Miss Rogers and then work our way around Crown act week resolution Durham Public Schools expressing support for the designation of the week of February 27th to March 3rd 2023 as the crown act week.

Whereas the Coalition of the crown act wants all Beauty to be welcome in all places and institutions they assert that narrow beauty standards make it difficult for women to freely celebrate their own beauty while all women experience pressure to conform to certain standards of appearance black women are disproportionately impacted by the eurocentric standards that so often defined Define what is beautiful and whereas research has shown that society's bias has resulted in unfair judgment and discrimination against black women based on hair texture and protective hairstyles including braids locks and twists that are cultural representations of their race and whereas in the U.S the law in many states does not currently afford protection for the race-based hair discrimination even if the hairstyle is inherent to racial identity it means black children can be denied entry to school or educational opportunities because of their natural hair this is not okay and whereas the crown act which stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair is a law that prohibits discrimination based on hair texture and.

Hair style the Coalition of the crown acts mission was and is today to advance efforts to end hair discrimination and to create a more Equitable and inclusive Beauty experience for black women and girls and whereas in 2021 the Durham city council elected officials in past a non-discrimination ordinance of the city of Durham and assert that the general purpose of this chapter is to provide individuals within the city of Durham freedom from discrimination in connection with housing employment and public accommodations because of race color religion national origin sex disability familial status military status sexual orientation gender identity and protected hairstyle to promote Harmony in human relations and to prevent commercial Advantage from unethical practices and.

Whereas one of the Durham Public Schools core beliefs is in a child-centered approach in which others our students deserve an education that is caring culturally is caring is culturally responsive and Embraces the whole child during Public School insists on addressing the social emotional and academic needs of each student and whereas Durham Public Schools has a dress code policy 4316 that reads the primary goal of Durham Public Schools is to provide a safe learning environment where all students are able to achieve at their Highest Potential ideally students should be able to dress and style their hair for school in a manner that expresses their individuality without fear of unnecessary discipline or body shaming whereas the crown Coalition offers a platform that uplifts support to end hair discrimination and they continue to Galvanize support for legislation to end hair discrimination federally and in all 50 states the crown petition has over 485 909 signatures so far so far two and Durham Public Schools Board of Education supports signing this petition and therefore be it resolved that the.

Durham Public Schools Board of Education supports the designation of February 27th through March 3rd 2023 at the crown act week across all Durham public schools and calls on all students Educators and community members to observe the week to advance efforts to end hair discrimination and to create a more Equitable and inclusive Beauty experience for black women and girls where students are affirmed and can express themselves in a safe and positive way now therefore now therefore be it further resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education encourages administrators to support Educators across grade levels and content areas from their buildings to acknowledge the crown act week and use the resources that are inclusive of all of our diverse Learners in order to support the whole child healthy identity development and affirmation and show support and acceptance for students showing up without fear discrimination or shame this is the ninth day of February 2023.

Wait that we accept the chronic resolution. It's been moved by Miss Lewis and seconded by miss viadares that we accept with joy the crown act week resolution and thank Miss Lewis for bringing it today any further discussion on this item if not all in favor aye aye any opposed passes unanimously thank you all and we look forward to sharing that and celebrating that with our students and staff that brings us to the every child in C Leandro item you all receive this in your email and around January 31st really asking and encouraging us to keep advocating at the state level for the schools that our students deserve nearly 28 years after Leander was filed I'm going to read really quickly the brief letter because we we don't have it printed out and I want the public to know I'm not going to and and hope that I can read it quickly okay thanks for bearing with me dear Governor Cooper our students need your help the Supreme Court's November ruling providing.

Funding for years two and three of the Leandro plan is an important first step towards finally providing our students with the schools they are owed your actions can ensure that this long overdue injection of school funding benefits students for years to come all parties in the Leandro case agree that providing all students with access to a sound basic education requires recurring State investment in our Public Schools the Leandro court order provides you with the authority to ensure that the funds are both recurring and protected from offsetting budget cuts we are requesting that you pledge to use this Authority so that we can start deploying Leandro funds in a way that most benefits our students to make Leandro Investments recurring we need you to build the recurring elements of Leandro plan years two and three items into the base budget for example year three of the Leandro plan calls for increasing supports for students with disabilities by 70 million dollars using 30 million dollars to reverse the legislators Draconian cuts to teacher assistance 45.

Million dollars to increase available slots in North Carolina Pre-K and 80 million dollars to hire more nurses psychologists counselors and social workers to properly budget we need to know that these amounts will continue into the upcoming biennium second we need you to make it clear to legislators that offsetting cuts will not be allowed a recurring appropriation is useless if the general assembly passes a budget that as Speaker Moore has threatened Cuts Leandro funding luckily the Leandro court orders and the state budget act provide you with the authority to protect against such cut we request that you publicly promise to use this authority to fulfill the state's obligation under Leandro and protect the funding that students are owed as you know our students have been waiting nearly 30 years for Leandro to provide the benefits we know our students are owed your leadership has been vital in bringing those resources to Bear by taking the initial additional steps detailed above we can secure the first installment and start creating schools that live up to our.

Constitutional promise to all students thank you thank you for considering that this evening I know many of us in our individual capacities and in organizations that we work with have been so enthusiastic of the leadership of every child NC as getting this message out across the state it's something we talk with our County Commissioners about and they were going to bring up at their state meeting as well we agreed in that conversation that we don't care what the funding is called we need the funding to come for these students so with that being said are there emotions or a discussion on this topic I'd move approval of the Leandro a letter to the board to the governor excuse me second it's been moved by Miss Umstead and seconded by Miss Rogers any further discussion on this item if not all in favor any opposed oh I forgot to vote aye I vote sorry any opposed it passes unanimously thank you that brings us to academic Services another amazing Proclamation.

That Dr you and Dr Hardy thank you thank you very much chair Umstead Dr mabinga members of the board in our community we can pull up our Proclamation and make sure that our board members also have access because there will hopefully be a reading today's Cutting Edge rigorous and relevant Career and Technical education programs prepare our youth for high wage high skill high demand careers and established and emerging Industries Career and Technical Education Month is a public awareness campaign sponsored by the Association for Career and Technical education acte that takes place each February to celebrate the value of CTE and the achievements and accomplishments of CTE programs across the country which we have many that we are proud of here in Durham this time it is my pleasure to introduce Dr Julie pack executive director for Career and Technical education and magnet programs Dr pack.

It's on okay now here all right thank you Dr Hardy and good evening board throughout the month of February our CTE program will be celebrating and promoting the CTE programs in our schools as well as the potential careers in Durham North Carolina and across the U.S available for our students we will also be using our social media channels to share information about our CTE program and student successes for our community so follow us on social media at dpscte as you know students who participate in the DPS CTE program have the opportunity to earn free industry credentials as well as valuable skills and knowledge for their future careers we invite you to visit our middle and high schools and see these programs at work tonight the CTE department is excited to put before you a proclamation declaring February 1st through the 28th 2023 CTE month now more than ever students and families want to see clearly how their educational Endeavors impact their economic and life goals I want to personally thank you on behalf.

Of our CTE teachers and staff for all that you do to support Career and Technical education in our schools and at this time I invite you to read the proclamation aloud thank you Dr pack this is a proclamation and something that we love to celebrate in Durham Public Schools Ms Rogers do you mind starting us off here as we read this Proclamation and we'll Proclamation Career and Technical Education Month whereas February 1st through 28 2023 has been designated Career and Technical Education Month by the Association for Career and Technical education and whereas Career and Technical education offers students the opportunity to gain the academic Technical and employability skills necessary for True career Readiness and whereas students in Career and Technical education programs participate in authentic meaningful experiences that improve the quality of their education and increase their engagement and achievement and whereas Career and Technical education provides students with career exploration opportunities early in their educational experience which enables them to make informed and beneficial decisions about their academic coursework and pursue.

Established programs of study and career Pathways and whereas leaders from business and industry Nationwide report increasing challenges related to addressing the skills Gap and connecting qualified professionals with available careers in critical and growing CTE related fields including Health Care energy skills straight skilled trades Advanced manufacturing cyber security and information technology and whereas Career and Technical education prepares students for these and other fulfilling careers by offering integrated programs of study that link secondary and post-secondary education and lead to the attainment of Industry recognized credentials and whereas Career and Technical education programs ensure that employers have access to qualified and thriving Workforce ensuring America is a strong and competitive economy therefore be it resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education does hereby Proclaim February 1st through the 28th 2023 as Career and Technical Education Month like and urge all students and families to become familiar with the services and benefits offered by the Career and Technical education programs in Durham public schools and to support and participate in these programs to enhance.

Their individual skills and productivity. Find the ninth day of February 2023. Thank you all so much Dr pack we wanted to thank you also for your leadership and please convey our appreciation to your Educators who are doing the hard work daily or do you have further conversation on this this is such an important topic I move that we approve the CTE month Proclamation second been moved by Ms Umstead seconded by Miss Chávez that we approve this Proclamation this evening any further discussion if not all in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously thank you so much Dr pack thank you all that brings us to Dr Hardy it looks like you're ready for equity and professional learning thank you we can pull up our presentation.

Good evening again this evening we are going to provide an update that I know our board has been awaiting regarding the work of our office of equity and professional learning you'll go to the next slide please this evening we will do the following things we will discuss the consolidation the Strategic consolidation of the offices of equity Affairs and professional learning review the progress of the work of the newly formed office discuss professional learning and the implementation of the racial and educational Equity policy discuss the next steps and priorities for equity and professional learning in Durham Public Schools next slide please the work of the office of equity and professional learning is aligned with our current strategic plan and really encompasses all of our five priorities however it features the priorities of Priority One increasing academic achievement and priority to providing a safe School environment that supports the whole child we do have the leader of this department with us Dr Kelvin Bullock executive director of the office I would like to note that his colleagues.

Many of them are actually at the North Carolina Association for supervision and curriculum development that conference is occurring this week we had two presentations that were approved at that conference and many of his staff members were there presenting today and that's why they're not here with us this evening this time I'll turn it over to Dr Bullock thank you Dr Hardy good evening Board of Education Dr mobinga Durham Community I'm excited to be here with you this evening to share this update on the work of the office of equity and professional learning next slide please so on this slide you will see the current structure of our office I serve as the executive director of the office and we are fortunate to have two positions that Focus primarily on our Equity programming one for students and one for staff they are colleagues who were down in Pinehurst today doing their presentation and it went wonderfully from what I'm what I'm told so we're fortunate to have those positions and we.

Also have two that Focus primarily on professional learning one for certified staff and we have been able to bolster our professional learning with our focus on on classified professional development also additionally we have 12 full-time mentors in the district who support our beginning teachers and we also have a special project support administrator that supports scheduling and Facilities Management at the mini fort Brown Staff Development Center continuing education units and other administrative duties next slide at this time I'd like to provide a quick snapshot of some of the major professional learning opportunities that are occurring in our district right now I'd like to start with our training for pre-k through five teachers there are 80 hours of State mandated letters training which I'm sure many of us are familiar with and have heard about so that is a major professional learning initiative that is occurring right now in our school system additionally departments and leaders are facilitating professional learning opportunities on our work days early release days and those are facilitated by various.

Departments whether it's student support services our department curriculum and instruction Etc arts on those days we have several opportunities for teachers to engage in learning we also have support provided for teachers via our teaching and learning coaches content specific coaches our Mentor teachers and other staff members this year we have been fortunate as I mentioned earlier to bolster professional learning opportunities for classified staff so that includes our instructional assistance our bus drivers our school nutrition staff Community Education and others and their profession their topics have included job specific training customer service support for district initiatives including the previous gender support guidelines and the recently adopted lgbtqia plus and gender support policies so we've Incorporated that in some of those trainings and are including it in some of our certified trainings too next slide please we have several ongoing Equity focused initiatives in our schools we continue to provide monthly professional learning for our Equity Champions our Equity Champions are serve as Liaisons between our office and each of our schools.

And they also help to facilitate Equity professional learning in their schools for example Equity 501 many of them we did train we've used a train to train our model for Equity 501 we trained our Equity Champions our principals our assistant principals our teaching and learning coaches and our mentors so all of them were received the training so that they could help replicate it in their schools we also the equity Champions also helped to drive Equity conversations in schools to create better outcomes for all students but particularly students from historically marginalized communities we're also excited about the growth and expansion of our we our Kings and we are Queens programs there was actually a news feature on CBS 17 this week about that about we are Queens if you didn't have the opportunity to see that I encourage you to do so we have 74 programs in 38 schools that receive financial support from us for their programming and for coordinators we also work with the coordinators we work with them to develop curriculum guides for.

For these programs and we develop some impact reports which I will share with you in a moment you have a copy actually I will share with those with you now I'm going to give these to Dr Hardy. So I'm sharing a copy with you of an impact report that we developed for our we are Kings and we are Queens programs it is also posted on the equity Affairs page on the DPS website so you can find it there the report includes data that was collected from our program coordinators about their experiences and observations and it also focuses on academic performance enrichment social emotional learning and student behaviors and discipline so our coordinators gave us feedback on how students were faring in these different areas and we use that to compile our impact report additionally last month in celebration of national mentoring month our kings and queens programs were recognized during the City Council meeting and at the city of Durham Mentor appreciation event which was Court coordinated by council member Monique Halsey Hyman and.

Her team so we're thankful for that recognition next slide please we are fortunate to have a beginning teacher support program that serves as a model in our state however we are also seeing the challenges with our current structure due to increasing numbers of beginning teachers and teachers on alternative licensure pathways on this slide you see some of our current data we have 500 approximately I think this number may have actually increased this week we have about 520 beginning teachers in Durham Public Schools which is approximately 21.4 percent of the DPS teaching population 335 of these beginning teachers are supported by 12 full-time mentors the additional 185 beginning teachers are supported by school-based mentors but also sometimes receive some support from our full-time mentors also an important data statistic I think for you all to know is that 69 of our first year teachers are on alternative Pathways for licensure so over two-thirds of our new teachers who are coming to us and this is pretty common but it's we definitely.

See it here in Durham or on alternative Pathways for licensure so later in a in the presentation on the Mackenzie Scott request you will see a request for additional support for our beginning teachers as we do not anticipate a reduction in teachers needing alternative Pathways for licensure anytime soon next slide please at this time I'm going to speak to the implementation of the racial and educational Equity policy next slide here you see a quick refresher on the pillars of our racial and educational Equity policy those pillars are to disrupt and dismantle systemic inequities to eliminate the opportunity Gap honor and strengthen the connections between home and school address social and emotional well-being of students and staff ensure access and representation in academic programming in schools and build staff capacity for equity-centered practices next slide please so our policy included the following implementation strategies and structures for accountability and compliance can we click or and one more time so our first implementation strategy that we note here is to develop system structures practices and annual.

Plans for training with timelines for operationalizing this policy so one of the things that I will be sharing with you is an update on our annual training that we had this year if you could click twice yeah and also we our policy called for us to develop an equity dashboard to compile maintain and communicate progress on Equity measures that are outlined in the policy and other measures that may be suggested by the office of equity Affairs now known as the office of equity and professional learning next slide this year our district-wide school-based Equity training built upon previous Equity sessions the equity policy and it focused on advancing black and Latin Excellence if we can click like maybe three times not not there but just yeah we just have a few but three bullet points yes thank you all right and the video is phenomenal our students are featured in the video on black and Latin Excellence we really wanted to showcase the Brilliance of our students we really wanted to put.

On full display the Excellence that is inherent in the students that we serve here in Durham so that was one of our major motivators for developing this particular Focus for Equity 501 knowing that there one of the things that we often have to debunk as a society and even sometimes within Educators might be deficit thinking towards students of color communities of color Etc so we chose for this year based on some data and feedback from previous sessions to focus on the Excellence that is inherent in the students we have the privilege of serving in Durham the target audience for this has been school-based staff but we have also had Central Services that have been able to participate different elements of Central Services have been have had that opportunity and it has been generally positive feedback from the 2100 now plus participants across the system I also want to acknowledge our school-based facilitators we have very positive feedback but we have a lot of school Personnel who were leading.

These sessions so I just want to thank them and acknowledge their beautiful work in receiving this positive feedback on these sessions and it just shows you how well equity and a spirit of culturally responsive teaching is embedded here in the culture in Durham if we can go to the next slide we are currently finalizing our public-facing Equity dashboard that we have developed in partnership with Hanover research it will feature pages that allow users to monitor outcomes and academics discipline attendance Advanced academic opportunities Etc by subgroup and by school we are excited about this dashboard as a means of providing accountability and compliance with our racial and educational Equity policy next slide please we are also thrilled about being the first district that we know of in the state of North Carolina to adopt an lgbtqia plus and gender supports policy next slide please and yes four bullet points thank you as was mentioned in a previous board meeting we incorporated data from our student from our 2021-22 student climate.

Survey into our our Equity 501 session we wanted to take some time to review this data with you here in this public forum so when we conducted that survey of our seventh and 11th graders that took the survey 660 students identified as lgbtq Plus in that survey which was 18.6 of survey respondents additionally 3.5 of fifth graders 3.5 of 7th graders and 3.7 percent of 11th graders marked that they did not identify as male or female I want to make a special note with our 11th graders they had the option of marking that they do not identify as male or female and they also have the option of marking that they identify as non-binary so the 3.7 percent is the total of either not identifying as male or female or identifying as non-binary 76 of lgbtq plus identifying students were students of color and you have the racial breakdown of this those students in the parentheses and finally 76 of lgbtq plus identifying students agreed or strongly agreed that.

Lgbtq plus students at their school are welcomed and treated with respect which on average is higher than what we typically see across the state higher than what we typically see across the country in similar surveys however still shows that we have room for growth in that 24 of our respondents did not agree or strongly agree with that statement next slide please some steps we have already taken to support our lgbtqia plus students and staff include principals counselors and social workers receiving opportunities and participating in initial training on the previously updated guidelines the lgbtq Plus student climate survey data being incorporated into Equity 501 the district-wide training we've also started developing next steps and supports for educators and students in light of the recently adopted lgbtqia plus and gender supports policy and we have also initiated an lgbtqia plus affinity group for employees our first meeting took place last month was well attended and well received by participants and we received some excellent feedback from creating that space for our employees next slide.

Regarding Equity initiatives our office is supporting Black History Month activities and efforts of schools across the district we have several schools that have reached out to us in terms of supporting the equity programming that they are doing as you previously heard we are planning for our DPS Crown act events we have two Signature Events that will occur during that week we have a group of young women from one of our schools who have put together a documentary about hair young black women who are put together a documentary about hair that we will be featuring and working with them on a full program and we are also doing a Kings and their crowns event which will speak to some of our young men and some of our seasoned men who had can speak about their experiences in having natural hair and protective stops let's see and just so you know again what you read the resolution but the crown Act was passed to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and Durham was a leader in helping to have.

This legislation here in North Carolina next slide so one of the things that we are excited about another thing we're excited about in professional learning is our professional learning site that we have developed we have a website where we are able to document all all of the professional learning that occurs here in the system so it makes it streams line streamlines the process for documenting continuing education units for our teachers I also mentioned here on this slide about the letters training we are currently in year one of two for the state mandated letters training and as I mentioned it's about 80 hours of training each year so we are in year one of two of that letters training next slide we are also in the initial phases of planning our summer learning Institute which will start in early summer and extend through mid-august the Institute will have professional learning opportunities for all educators of all calendars and will focus on topics ranging from mathematics literacy culturally responsive teaching to supporting students with disabilities.

English language Learners and creating safe spaces for lgbtqia plus students these opportunities will continue to be available for educators during work days and early release days in 2023-24 and as always we will host our new teacher orientation for new hires in July and August next slide in preparation for the implementation of the growing together initiative several opportunities are being planned for dual language immersion Montessori and IB programs or International Baccalaureate programs as well as Arts Global languages and stem integration for all elementary schools we're also developing ongoing modules on previous Equity trainings like I mentioned we're on Equity 501 so we'll be rolling into a new training next year but we'll also have modules from previous sessions that focused on topics like racial bias microaggressions implicit bias and we also talked about creating a healthy culture and climate for our students in Durham Public Schools and topics of identity so those will be some modules on previous trainings and we'll have some new ones focused on current priorities such as culturally.

Responsive teaching and lgbtqia plus supports so next slide thank you for your time at this time if anyone has any questions I will pause for that or actually I'll pass it back to Dr Hardy thank you so much Dr Bullock I saw eyes light up that we did not watch the video so I will work to make sure that that is in the next board update so that you can see our students perform the poem that actually was written by Dr Bullock so I know that you will enjoy that we'll make sure that occurs this is before you this evening for information and just wanting to reiterate the Strategic collaboration of the two offices is really intentional as our board has indicated that one of our core beliefs is equity and as we work to ensure professional learning or careers as you can see with all of our staff that means that Equity is at the heart and the center of that so that we're creating conditions not only for.

Our young people but also employees with that particular lens Dr Bullock and I are here and welcome any questions or discussion that the board may have Miss buyer thank you so much Dr Hardy and thank you Dr Bullock we have tasked you with I say the most the core of the of the most important work that is going on in this district and we've entrusted it to you and we are so appreciative of your leadership and and so glad to hear that your colleagues are down presenting at the state level and sharing out some of the Excellence that you lead here in Durham with others this is so so important especially as our general assembly tries to take us backwards and we will not go backwards in Durham colleagues you all have questions I saw you writing them down who who has moved to start first here and some said you've got a mic near you now or yeah I'll have to start first but.

Thank you to you and your team I was talking to some families in another neighboring County who didn't have any Black History Month things happening and I was reminded why I'm thankful for Durham and I was talking to some other Educators and other counties who are worried about attacks on true history and worried about attacks on African-American studies and worried about the ability to do Equity work and so I'm thankful for home and for Durham for this board and our commitment to equity Dr Bullock for you and your team and the way that y'all leave because we know that the students in our school are getting Equity focused leadership so that's not lost on me that we have something special here in Durham when I look at your kind of presentation and where we started and developing the equity policy I see some of the ways that we're thinking about implementation and training but I wanted to know if you could speak a little bit more about the practices.

Part like I think a lot of our work in creating the policy was like how do we shift people's mindsets when it comes to equity and when I shift your mindset I can shift your practice that's how we kind of interrupt this inequitable system that this replicates things over and over so I don't know if you have any kind of highlights of different practices that we're putting in place to help shift that Equity or shift us into more of an equity mindset so the thank you for that the first thing that comes to mind is our focus on culturally responsive teaching actually in equity 501 we're reiterating and building upon some content that we touched on in equity 301 which focused solely on culturally responsive teaching but essentially that is that is our primary Avenue for thinking about how do we take these ideas and put them into practice as far as how we develop lesson plans how do we make sure we're taking into account who's in the room our relationships with.

The students that are in the room and how should that inform our approach to lesson planning and so that that's the primary thing that comes to mind in terms of thinking about how we put this into practice we want to get out of the theoretical we want to understand you know the ideas of bias the biases that we may bring and we want to be able to disrupt those and we want to to have some strategies for building relationships and we one of the things that we tell people is that the relationship is at the core of culturally responsive teaching to be culturally responsive we have to know about the culture that we're responding to and so to do that we really have to get to know our students and then that should inform our approaches to teaching so one of the other pieces of that is the professional learning that also comes from his office but also from the office of curriculum and instruction with our teachers with regard to the content so.

The foundation is that culturally responsive teaching and then how do you use the resources that we're so grateful that our board has approved for all of our teachers to have access to then you can really see in the classroom because I am using resources that have African Americans as main characters so now I have literature that supports our Equitable beliefs so then in the classroom you can see that start to come to life so there are a couple of places where we really are trying to change the mindset of our Educators so the conditions within the classroom are welcoming for all of our students I really appreciate that that's when my brain went next I was like okay now we got curriculum you got to have your culturally responsive teaching then it makes me think about some of the next tools and I appreciate the equity dashboard I know we had some conversations about that as we were developing the policy and really considering how do we use data to help.

Us inform and hold us accountable but also highlight opportunities for where we need to continue to grow and so I wonder too as we're looking at this data and thinking about our practices were there other opportunities where Equity becomes kind of a part of the practice is that in some of our and I don't I'm going to put it in our evaluation tool I don't want it to become something that people feel fearful of but it's something that helps hold I think people accountable is it in observation tools that principals are using as they're monitoring classrooms and how do we kind of put it into everything and then maybe 2.0 you know next year is thinking about our operations and our systems and how do we think about in all areas that we're promoting Equity so sorry I'm just dreaming envisioning for our future and have great appreciation for the work that you do and how it touches so many of the lives of our students of our educators.

I got one more thing and then I'm moving on the the number of beginning teachers is it's exciting that we have so many beginning teachers in our district and people who are coming here to want to work and we know that it takes a while to get your footing as a beginning teacher and it makes me wonder if there are other supports that we need to be putting into place to help people with the alternative licensure program which I know is is challenging to navigate and I know Dr lasane's team has put some stuff together there but what other resources might your department need to help support those beginning teachers because when we think about continuing us improving our teacher turnover rate that seems like we need a large Focus right in this area so one of the things you will hear about just hopefully in a few short minutes it are having some recommendations in the draft McKenzie proposal and so you will see that there we because of the.

Leadership of this board we have been recognized in the state for our full-time release mentors and now we are at a place where we acknowledge and recognize that we need additional support in different ways so you will see that I do I would like to also go back to what you mentioned just in terms of practices and what you're seeing in schools the office of school leadership Services led by Dr Stewart they are conducting School Improvement team walkthroughs at our schools where they're paying close attention to the practices that are in the classrooms really looking at how students are performing and the relationships that teachers have in those practices so that's another way that you see that come to life and then the office of student Support Services we've been doing culture and climate walks where we're really looking at the implementation of our SEL curriculum how we are implementing our disciplined practices so those are two ways in our schools where we have teams working with principals our student support services.

Staff and really paying attention to the disaggregated data as well as the academic performance data but also our climate data so we we are moving in that direction and really appreciate your other ideas I appreciate like you highlighting the huge number of beginning teachers that we have and I'm glad you're going to bring some proposal for some Mackenzie Scott money to supplement it but I also remember what we used to what we used to have in Durham and it was more than 12 people serving 520 beginning teachers and it's also required by state law that we Mentor them right I'm looking at Paul we're required to Mentor them in years one two and three and that's a line item that's General Assembly eliminated in whatever year that was every District across the state is supposed to and has to by Statute support them and we are cobbling together things with outside grant money to actually do something at less than the level that we used to do it so I don't know what I'm expressing.

Except solid frustration because we know that investing in these beginning teachers is exactly what they need and will help them Thrive and stay and the state needs to step up y'all have other questions sorry I didn't mean to go off on a tangent I was just where my heart took me Miss Lewis Miss vaidaris and then miss Rogers thank you thank you so much for this presentation for the work you've done over the years getting us to approving a policy and bringing it to practice when you talk about the McKenzie information we're going to talk about when I look at these DPS racial and educational Equity policy pillars I see funding me requested for every one of those line items that's in this pillar I just want to appreciate Dr mabenga for his team and staff for bringing just keeping Equity sender in all of our work and the finances funding it to bring it to fruition I think you've done an amazing job I appreciate this magazine and.

The biggest thing that I just always ask for and seeing it so close to having it is this Equity dashboard our families have been asking for it and I just think is going to be here and it can only make us better because of it having the knowledge to move forward so thank you for this work I don't have any questions thank you very much Dr Bullock this work is is impactful it's very important work I was noticing risk outcomes and you know chronically absent like I'm just gonna you know just name them you know if a student is chronically absent if they've had restorative action you know it has to be referred to in schools you know restorative Practice Center which is a different than should be different than in school suspension but it's essentially they're in school dealing with discipline in school or short-term suspension and then also participated in a language limited English proficiency program these factors right here thank you so much I just want to thank you for.

Listing these risk outcomes and one of the things that we you're looking at data like this you know you can have the percentages and all them and I just I just want to apply to you for listing them I also know that there's ways that students fit one or more of those categories right like they might be chronically absent they were also you know had to deal with short-term suspension in which our policies don't allow us to appeal short-term suspensions only the long term 10 days and more than 10 days so it'll be day 11 onward we don't have an appeals process for short-term suspension and so I am really really interested in this data and I am so grateful that you named you know these these risk outcomes something else that I think about is you know as I'm looking at the dashboard I am just it it's bringing about and it's reminding me of you know the SWOT analysis so so our strengths our weaknesses our opportunities and our threats.

You have laid it out in such a way that it really does bring up you know opportunities that we have you know some of the weaknesses what are what are some of the things especially with that intersectionality where students sometimes you know following these different categories whether whether they're limited English proficiency and also chronically absent whether it's Transportation issues you know socioeconomic challenges and are also maybe have disabilities and you know fall into the restorative action have had some some some suspension short-term suspension or all that so just want to thank you for all that and thank you for all the work that you're doing thank you so just like everybody else I want to express my thanks when I joined the board one of the things that I kept asking for was data around who's attending the equity trainings so to see the merger of these two offices makes perfect sense to be able to keep all that information together and get people understanding how important the equity.

Work is to all the work that is being done within DPS I love the equity dashboard I look forward to seeing what comes to fruition for Durham and seeing how we can improve ourselves as a team and as a collective I appreciate the fact that you were able to reach out to more than two thousand that school-based staff to get some real data based on the people in our district we have a hard time connecting with people in that way and you've done an outstanding job I am really appreciative of that I do want to highlight that something that chair said about the evaluation process I would love to see us really incentivizing and working with our principals administrators and Educators around getting everybody involved in the equity work and really rewarding their schools for having a hundred percent participation from classified staff including bus drivers and nutrition workers all the way up to Administration around Equity policy work maybe some friendly competition between the high schools to see who can get to 100 percent.

Same thing with elementary schools Etc et cetera or size base whatever is decided but just to see if we can get more active involvement and more participation because I know that everybody really isn't about it's incentivized when the team wins together and when we do this training we all win so just thank you thank you thank you it's Travis thank you Dr Bullock for this presentation and and this lovely report this is really helpful information and I want to say I'm really excited about the equity dashboard as well for that data and and I think it'll help School level conversations about what can be improved I wanted to ask you a little bit to share a little bit more about the equity Champions and just their role and sort of all what they might do are they consultants for teachers in the schools in addition to offering this training and then a two parts of that how often are these Equity driven conversations happening and and to what extent I know all of our.

Teachers are participating in and staff are participating in equity PD are there also optional activities that teachers can participate in and I just want to say I know we have a lot of people in our district who are just so committed to equity work to racial Equity work and want to learn more so I think the opportunities for people to interrogate their own implicit biases in their own you know assumptions that we all have living in this culture are so important so those are my two questions about the equity Champion role and then the equity driven conversations all right thank you for that so the equity Champion role so we have had Equity champions in our district since 2017 I think fall of 2017 is when we first put the call out for principals to nominate someone to serve as the equity champion of their school and that is the process that we use every year we reach out to our principals we have some Equity Champions now where this is you know their fifth.

Or sixth year serving as the equity champion of their school and so what we provide is monthly professional learning for them we bring them together every month we ground our conversations in data and looking at disparities that we may see in different data sets in in schools sometimes we provide school specific data and just remind them about you know hey this is some these are this these are this is the data for your school do you see an equity come conversation in this data so we we do that with Equity Champions every month we ask that once a quarter they replicate or host a an equity conversation with colleagues and this is not anything that's mandatory for colleagues what often happens is there are you will have a group of teachers in a school who are really interested in engaging in the conversation they will attend they have started some schools have started Equity teams like this so that they expand the conversation to additional people within the school but.

At the core of it we do monthly professional learning with Equity Champions and ask that well for funding because we we give what I like to call a love offering to them I mean it's not a major stipend it's a it's something to show we appreciate you and the ask is that once a quarter they would replicate a conversation with colleagues in their school awesome that's that's great to hear just a little bit more detail about that and I also just wanted to ask about the culturally relevant curriculum and materials that we share I always say there there's so many more available now than there were in decades past so it's very exciting the the literature that's coming out I I want to ask about just how we make that the selection intersectional so that we are providing books about obviously kids who are or characters who are black or latinx Asian and also at the intersection of different family structures with disabilities who are with different gender expressions and sexual orientations and.

All of that are we is that sort of an increasing Focus or can you just speak to that kind of intersectional availability of our materials I'll start DR Bullock may have some things to add our current curriculum adoptions that have been approved by our board we went through a thorough RFP process and explicit in the RFP we named those specific characteristics that was fundamentally a requirement for you to even submit for the RFP so for our literature adoptions that we have at the elementary level we have hmh and and Inter it's called into reading in an American reading company and secondary rehab studysync so in both of those rfps that were posted specifically acknowledged those RFP documents are reviewed by our curriculum and instruction staff Dr Bullock and his team before they even go out to post so you can't even get in the door without meeting those requirements and then it's the professional learning that I was referring to earlier with the equity lens but then how to use those.

Materials aligned to the standard course of study so you're creating opportunities for young people within that classroom to ultimately Master the standards and I'll let him speak to some of the work that we did I think it was 301 that was anchored in Hammond's work and so I'll let you let him speak to some of that that we did explicitly with our teachers we've been building on this starting with implicit bias I think in 2018. Or 19. there was it was 19 2019. and so that is that's how we actually are at 501 from all of that that building on that Equity work but I'll let him speak to the culturally relevant teaching piece yeah I will say the professional learning around culturally responsive teaching is really centered mostly in helping teachers with their approach to utilizing curriculum utilizing text making sure that again you're aware of the culture that's present in your classroom and that you're you're taking that into consideration as you're developing your lessons that your.

Lessons are going to connect with the diversity that's in your room that you know sometimes it's the text that you use sometimes it could be the examples that you use to illustrate a point but really working with teachers on the mindset and the approach to developing the lesson and then I have worked with curriculum and instruction in terms of looking at the actual materials we adopt but for our work we're really working on the approach to lesson lesson planning and supporting that through inequity lens that's not something solely that my department is responsible for we work collaboratively but the idea is that we're helping teachers bring in Equity lends to lesson planning curriculum selection things of that nature.

I think that's that's just great to hear and very exciting I am convinced that our Equity work is part of why Mackenzie Scott chose to donate to us so I think we have so much to be proud of and and throughout our district on this work my last question is and you mentioned discipline addressing discipline disparities could you just share a little bit more about where in our training our Equity trainings or conversations we do more explicitly address discipline disparities and I realize that this is very hard to get at it's a again it's always it's a national issue but I think it's so key I keep you know coming back to the data we looked at in in December so so I'm gonna I think Dr Maddox Perry is somewhere in the building if she's not behind me so I will ask her to come and join Dr Bullock we really have tried to have a very proactive approach it began perfect it began I am looking to cheer Umstead I'm or.

Miss buyer I I want to say 1617 when Durham Public Schools really worked closely our current mayor was actually the chairperson of the committee who worked to really redesign our code of conduct and so that was the foundation and then when we worked community-wide on our current strategic plan priority two had some specific strategies there so that we could one make sure that all of our schools embraced a cultural framework so that our mind was starting to shift to restorative in nature so that was the first layer and we allowed schools to choose that cultural framework the next layer was just as we explicitly teach letter names and sounds in the early grades explicitly having a curriculum in the area of social emotional learning so that we're explicitly helping our young people understand how they come to of the space acknowledging the feelings that they're having and then working with student Support Services if I bring something to that how do I have any kind of replacement Behavior so we really.

Have taken that proactive approach we're now at a place where many of our elementary schools are in year two of implementation of their SEL curriculum because of our board support you approved our secondary so we have middle and high schools that are in the year one of implementation of that SEL curriculum so those proactive steps in addition to those cultural and climate walks that Dr Maddox Perry and Dr Leticia Judd Manning facilitate with their team then help reinforce what we're seeing all in the hope that if I am proactive then I'm automatically reducing the opportunity for some behaviors to exist then if behaviors do manifest it's working with our teachers on men how we redirect those behaviors so that we are making sure they have strategies of de-escalation and not strategies of escalation so that comes into some of our professional learning that we've done for example with tilt our trauma informed training so that you're aware of the experiences that students may have in the classroom and I'll let Dr.

Maddox Perry talk a little bit more her and Dr Bullock are goal leads on and work with priority two to be which is about excluding students from school. Good evening thank you Dr Hardy everyone Dr mobinga board for the opportunity you did a really thorough job Dr Hardy I think the only thing that I would like to add is Dr Bullock and I were talking about what would we want to sum up and I think it would include Dr Hardy mentioned our cultural Frameworks but just diving deeper into restorative practices we have expanded our training from administrators to school teams now we're training many of our classified employees will begin to have training on that Miss Phillips is working with us on that we have expanded our district team so that we can have capacity so that we don't always have to to call someone else in we're doing it with people we already have relationships with with our restorative practices so as much Foundation as we can give around.

Relationships that is what keeps it keeps you available to address behaviors when they occur and and all the things that we've been going through in this past couple of weeks that's the one resounding I think bright spot has been that the relationships are so strong in some of our schools until we are having the conversations we need to have the Comfort not just our students and staff but also our families. And I'll just briefly add also in our Equity series we have had iterations of that where we specifically centered a conversation around like discipline disparities and looking at that data and having those conversations also so that's just yet another way that we have tried to make sure we're having like that's a part of the fabric of who we are as a school system too.

Miss Rogers so all that work is very much appreciated it's available across the district every school has some social emotional support option and opportunity for their educators to lean on when they need that support absolutely and to get access to that an educator would contact who so two elementary schools are a little bit further along with the SEL curricula cultural Frameworks were established in 19 I have 2019 I think all of our schools selected their cultural framework that has ongoing training so for example if I'm a restorative practices school that speaks to what Dr Maddox Perry was speaking of and I think we have to acknowledge which is one of the reasons Dr Bullock talked about modules is that once we've trained our staff due to our staffing challenges right now there's turnover so when I have turnover then I have to make sure that those professional learning modules are available for new staff that come in so that I can make sure that all of our staff in our community are aware of our.

Restorative practice training and that's one of the reasons why this triangulation with once I have now participated in the training we need to make sure that there's evidence that that's happening in the schools and so that's when you see the the school Improvement walkthroughs that are occurring the student climate culture and climate walk through so that we can start to inspect to some degree the professional learning and then think about how we ensure that each of our staff given the Staffing turnover that we're experiencing that they all have access to it the secondary schools are not as far along with their SEO curriculum so they have all selected their curriculum and now they are going through the training so and that training starts with the leadership team that the principal has identified and then it then teachers are trained with turn in terms of how to implement so if there's a staff member that is is not aware definitely they should start with their School leader and if not they can.

Reach out to Dr Maddox Perry Dr Judd Manning Miss Tamika Ward Satterfield Dr Watson or myself thank you Dr Pollock can I ask you to clarify for me how EC training and EC professional development is done within that department and also how it overlaps with the equity and professional development so in in terms of EC training that is primarily you know structured scheduled and facilitated through the EC Department we work collaboratively in terms of thinking about the professional Learning System you know making sure that teachers are getting credits for that and we also have a collaborative like professional learning steering committee where we kind of come together as different departments and share about you know the priorities for different departments and how we might work together collaborate and you know you know kind of work together on advancing some of those initiatives but by and large they facilitate their own professional learning Dr Bell this year has initiated a beginning teacher training for our teachers that are teaching our our students that.

Participate in our EC program and so those beginning teachers also receive support from Dr Bullock's office but then they also participate in that training which occurs monthly and part of that training is one to also build that collaboration and network between those beginning teachers but also to help them many of them are alternative licensed as well so to help them start to understand and navigate ecats the professional learning making sure they are implementing a youngster's IEP the related services and she along with the directors in her office facilitate that and then they also we also have our ECF so our exceptional children facilitators that are also providing support to many of our beginning licensed teachers in that department yeah that's super helpful are do the are there additional full-time mentors that we have within EC are all the full-time mentors General Ed so well our we have our 12 full-time mentors and they they are our mentors for the district some of them have different areas of certification that they came into.

The the positions with so we do have some EC certified mentors but that is also something that we would be looking at should we have additional opportunities you know to expand the team that would definitely that's a high priority for considering additional mentors yes yeah you're reading my mind because I'm looking towards budget and looking towards the the turnover that we're looking at that is really unprecedented I'm glad so glad you included explicit metrics on lgbtqia students and issues I think it's just a start but it making a start is so so important and so task force I don't know who I'm asking about what the status of the task force is but it seems such a key Equity conversation that I'm wondering where we are with it does.

I'm happy to start and then there's it's a team of folks I would say who are working on the task force thank you board members all of you submitted names and we were able to send some invitations I think the superintendent staff did that to folks but I think at this point originally we talked about the task force as writing policy we now have the policy so we need to clarify and and redefine the purpose and the kind of what we want the type the outcome that we want the task force to do and so miss Chávez and I have been thinking about that as well as with Mr Giovanni I know there also have been conversations around trainers and when we want to bring those folks in and so really that is all still in the planning process I appreciate the public I know people are eager but be a patient with us we need to move we need to do this we need to do it.

Right in a way that will be bringing along folks and will allow us to implement this policy with Fidelity is there anything else MS chavezani yeah thanks I'll just comment on that a bit our Administration has been working very hard Giovanni and also Mr Sudderth with communication so I think the task force is coming together and we have a number of people who have committed to say you know to being on it to and right now you know I think our our goal is to strengthen and further develop the policy but we can yes be more specific about that is as things as time goes on and with the training Ms Giovanni and I have a robust plan that we are now working on we have met with some folks on have some we have a couple meetings that will be within the next couple weeks I anticipate so we're meeting with trainers to put it all together and and hopefully we'll have a more solid plan with who will all be involved.

Very soon but we have contacted these National well miss Giovanni has contacted these National organizations and and so we we've made some good progress on that we're excited to present it soon I really appreciate that update I just always think Academic Year and if there's anything we need to change or improve before we go to student handbooks over the summer right so I'm always looking at we're already in February this year is flying by so I look forward to to engage in the community and hearing what pieces we need to to improve I think we've started but we need to keep going and I appreciate that update any other questions or discussion on this most important topic I just wanted to add one quick thing I did want to acknowledge related to the question about the student climate survey I want to acknowledge like our research and accountability office and we we have had many people who Advocate advocated for us to ask those questions that allow us.

To provide that data and you know and so that it helps to be in a school system where again I want people to know it's not just me doing this Equity work it's a part of the culture of Durham public schools and so I just wanted to acknowledge that thank you Dr Bullock it was so great to see that we have a staff affinity group and I look forward to making sure that the word gets out broadly to our staff that want to join in that group other questions anything from folks so appreciative Dr Bullock of your leadership thank you thank you this was here for information and that brings us to item C Gaggle safety management software thank you good evening again if we can pull up our Gaggle update presentation.

At the request of our board we are presenting for information and discussion tonight a gaggle update this update will include details regarding the launch of the Gaggle Safety Management solution this evening with us we have Miss Joy Malone executive director for information technology Miss Eva Howard executive director for Safety and Security and Dr Laverne Maddox Perry senior executive director for student Support Services next slide please we will if you'll go back one slide thank you so much we also would like to acknowledge and recognize some of the other members of the internal DPS it team that have worked with this particular launch and project Miss Anya zeidman I.T project manager Mr Paul majumbi DPS director of it operations and Mr Blake Halsey DPS Emergency Management coordinator additionally we have some guests here this evening from Gaggle that will be able to answer any questions that our board may have we have Miss Heather Durack Gaggle chief operations officer and Lucy Quinones Gaggle Southeast regional manager if you guys could just stand up so they can.

See you thank you so much for joining us this evening next slide please our Gaggle Safety Management System aligns with three of our board priorities increasing academic achievement which is priority one priority two providing a safe School environment that supports the whole child and priority for strengthen School family and Community engagement at this time I'm going to turn the presentation over to Miss Eva Howard executive director of Safety and Security next slide please thank you Dr Hardy and good evening and DPS Safety and Security we are consistently collaborating to proactively assess safety security I'm sorry can you pull your mic down just a little bit closer to you thank you and DPS Safety and Security we are considered consistently collaborating to proactively assess Safety and Security strategies and mitigate comprehensive safety issues to ensure our measures are Foster in effective conditions for learning in and outside of the classroom safety is truly everyone's responsibility so we look to our 31 000 plus students and their families our 5 370 plus teachers administrators and.

District staff in our entire Community to have a hand in keeping our school safe we partner closely with our school counselors our social workers and school resource officers to use their skills and expertise to handle student situations additional safety resources include the anonymous say something tip system and a Anonymous Motorola Texa tip system we have approximately 2 800 wired cameras connected to our Network infrastructure these cameras are monitoring our entrances hallways and higher traffic areas in and around our schools to provide video documentation descaler is the district solution at DPS it manages to filter and block websites that are inappropriate for our students as of today we are currently blocking 14.4 million websites our Safety and Security team uses a variety of tools and resources to Aid in the investigation and resolution of harmful situation Gaggle is another tool that we've added to our toolkit now turn it over to Miss Malone who will provide details about what Gaggle is and how it's used within DPS next slide please.

Thank you Miss Howard and good evening Dr rabenga board members cabinet and all of our visitors here today gaggle's mission is to help ensure the safety and well-being of all students and supporting school districts like ours in proactively identifying students who may be struggling and providing them the assistance that they need Gaggle helps K-12 districts manage student safety on school provided technology please keep in mind when I say technology I am not only referencing the student issued assigned Chromebook but also the student email their username password that the school has issued them Gaggle uses a combination of machine learned technology which is also known as artificial intelligence AI also with human expert review to identify potential harmful content in student-issued school accounts as a one-to-one district we have provided every student with access to a district issue device which has created a Equitable learning environment and it continues to reduce the digital divide within our families however the use of these technological resources that our district has provided.

Is a privilege and that comes with a responsibility to be ethical respectful academically honest and supportive in learning environments on January 23rd 2023 Gaggle was implemented district-wide in DPS Gaggle has been monitoring the DPS student issue devices and accounts for Google workspace for education Microsoft 365 and canvas for violence and risk-taking activities videos of stunts or challenges that may Inspire unsafe Behavior sexual content negative stereotypes substance abuse cyber bullying and predators as we go to the next slide I'll talk a little bit more about how Gaggle works next slide oh thank you so if and when a DPS student uses their school issued device or accounts to communicate or engage in potentially harmful content Gaggle will send an alert there are two types of Gaggle alerts as you can see near the bottom of this slide there are questionable content and possible student situations in layman terms questionable content cue kinds are the minor alerts that Gaggle identifies these alerts pose no immediate threat just awareness of a potential issue possible student situations.

Pss's on the other hand are major alerts that Gaggle has identified these alerts are very serious in nature and are designed to immediately make content contact with school or District personnel as one of our students could be in a harmful situation we partnered with our school principals and each identified who at their school and in what order should receive Gaggle alerts Gaggle emergency contact training was provided to DPS staff who were included in the workflow to receive alerts for their school over to the right are two sample recommendations on how DPS principles could configure their Gaggle workflow some principals use these recommendations as their guide While others created a workflow and included the staff members most skilled in their school to do this work there is one thing that is consistent for all DPS schools the school has identified their workflow however we have District contacts who also provide support to our schools our district contacts include Miss Eva Howard Mr Blake housing Miss Tamika Ward Satterfield and myself.

Once Gaggle has done its part to notify us of the content the follow-up is in our hands to address Gaggle does not tell us how to manage the follow-up and we follow our current processes in collaboration with school support services and Safety and Security next slide please. So Gaggle is deployed in nearly 1 500 schools and districts across the U.S please take a second to review these National statistics provided by gaggle. Next slide please this slide is very similar to the previous slide as it shows National statistics provided by gaggle I will give you a couple minutes to process these numbers.

At DPS every student life matters and we are committed to providing a safe School environment that supports the whole child since January 23rd 2023 Gaggle has helped DPS identify students who need support and provide them the resources to save their life next slide please as a one-to-one district our students have access to their school-issued devices and accounts inside and outside of our school buildings as a tool Gaggle provides 24x7 monitoring service this slide provided by Gaggle shows National statistics from last Academic School year on when the majority of Gaggle alerts are received as you can see they are during school hours primarily during the middle of the week next slide please based on National feedback Educators across the country have indicated that Gaggle is keeping students safe from predators 95 percent of Educators believe Gaggle makes School safer in North Carolina we have 119 schools and this is districts as well as charter schools are currently enrolled in using gaggle next slide please so this slide goes into the funding.

Sources for gavel as you can see here in October of 2020 DPS applied for a DPI Grant this particular Grant was set aside for with Federal relief funds and that Grant was specifically for the use of gaggle in November of 2020 it was brought to the board to approve Gaggle implementation and DPI granted that award we started a pilot of certain DPS schools you can see the list of those schools there and in March of 2022 based on the pilot feedback DPS applied for two additional grants through DPI and these were identified with Federal relief funds one of those grants was once again specifically for Gaggle and the other one was for any type of software to be able to assist with cyber bullying and suicide prevention again on June 23 2022 DPS board approved the Gaggle implementation and DPI granted those Awards next slide please so here is a summary of the Gaggle pilot data for the DPS schools on this chart you will see I have removed the name of.

The schools as I do not want to highlight what is happening at each individual school but more or less talk about the types of content Gaga was able to discover during this pilot period as you can see suicide was our highest content of occurrence followed by violence towards others harassment self-harm and drug use next slide please upon the completion of the Pilot We conducted a survey to obtain feedback from the principals who participated as well as the staff at their school who were receiving Gaggle alerts during the pilot and our district contacts to highlight a couple of the questions and their responses did the use of Gaggle allow you to take action to ensure the safety of students 100 percent response was yes would you recommend Gaggle as a DPS district-wide software for Safety Management you can see where we had a percentage of 10 sorry 12 that said yes to that said no next slide please based on the Gaggle survey results from the pilot here is the timeline for implementation.

You can see that we have communicated with our principals we have provided training to our Gaggle emergency contacts at all schools and then again on January the 23rd of this year we launched Gago District y EP next slide please so the first seven days so from January 23rd to January 30th we did a analysis of the Gaggle data that we had received the Gaggle safety team reviewed 6578 DPS items as you can see our highest area for Content was suicide also to the right you can see the number of possible student situations that happened during school hours and those that happened after school hours.

Next slide please we hear and we understand the express concerns that are related to privacy there is a thin line between privacy and safety we have two board policies Internet safety and our technology responsible use policies as well as the children's internet protection act these two policies and this act detail our District's expectations and how privacy is governed now I will turn it over to Dr Maddox Perry to discuss how our school Support Services team works with our schools to address Gaggle alerts.

Thank you Miss Malone next slide please. Because Gaggle is a new tool for Durham Public Schools we have been providing guidance based on best practices for school report recipients and responders many alerts do occur during the course of the school day however after the school day ends and our students have departed our campuses our school administration and student services staff remain committed to helping families keep their children safe when Gaggle identifies a threat of self-harm in one of the monitored products the following steps will help ensure the student's family has the information and resources to get their children the help they need out of an abundance of caution if a parent or Guardian cannot be reached the school administration will call 9-1-1 to ask for a mental health welfare check next slide please.

This is a list of our community resources available to families it is best practice to have anyone experiencing thoughts of harming themselves or others assessed as quickly as possible thankfully our DPS families have a variety of Community Partners ready willing and able to help with both at school and after hours mental health crises our school administrators or other Gaggle contacts will share these Resources with families and encourage them to seek help from one of these agencies Upon returning to school the school administrator and school counselor or School social worker will check in with the student to see what additional supports need to be provided.

At this time I returned a presentation to Ms Howard. Thank you thank you Dr MedEx Perry safety and securities top priority for DPS Community is the Safety and Security of Durham Public Schools for that reason we are included in the emergency contact list for all Gaggle threat of violence notifications threats of violence include situations that pose a threat to self others and or both threats of violence require immediate attention time is of the essence on these types of notifications and calls we connect with our local law enforcement Partners to assist in providing support to address the concern School administration contact parents Guardians of the student of concern as part of their investigation as well as offer resources pertinent DPS notifications are handled in a timely manner and at times simultaneously in our partnership with the Durham County Sheriff's Office we currently have 17 school resource officers engaged at our middle and high schools also the Durham Police Department assists by providing off-duty officers other resources available to report safety concerns anonymously include the DPS.

Sandy Hook say something anonymous tip system and the DPS Motorola Texas system both systems are monitored 24 7 365 days a year Safety and Security are notified of all tips related to Durham Public Schools next slide please. Thank you this is before the board this evening for information and discussion we have our technology team as well as some members from Gaggle that are here and at this time I'll turn it back over to miss buyer thank you so much Dr Hardy and thank you for the team that worked on this and thank you for the complex ways that we contemplate safety and the awesome responsibility it is to try to keep students teachers and our communities safe board members you have questions thoughts I Miss Rogers thank you for the presentation I have so many not so many questions I'm gonna try to keep it together first my first question is real simple on slide 14 Miss Malone you said percentage and so it was 14 really referring to the.

Number of participants in the survey or is that actually the first so 14 is the total number of participants and so for the first question it was 100 percent and then the second question it was 12 people said yes two people say no yeah no I wanted to make sure I understood that correctly okay thank you and so so much of the conversations that we've had prior to this work talked about relationships and in this presentation we didn't really talk about what real life relationships are like and how this impacts real life relationships and so my first question is how many of the students that were identified in that week by Gaggle had not been previously identified by staff as needing support and so that because again I don't I don't have that data what I do receive is the alert that comes from Gaggle we received it as District contacts as well as the school we informed that principal and then that principal has that conversation the ones that I have.

Been closely involved with the principal was not aware and the principal had that conversation and I was able to share with them information from Gaggle for them to follow up with that student and have discussions with that parent is necessary okay and are we consistently implementing intervention plans for children that are struggling with mental health after being identified by gecko and I'll let maybe School Support Services take that question absolutely that has been a part what you've identified Ms Roger said that thin line we talked about a thin line between privacy and safety there's also a thin line between the relationship and actually having access to things that students may not have really wanted adults to see and so one thing that our counselors do consistently is try to build a relationship with students to say that the information that is absolutely vital to your safety is what I would have to share but everything else is confidential entrusted between us and they use that information to build you said intervention plans it's.

More like support plans is what we call them and that includes any type of safety assessment that needs to happen whether it's a threat to themselves or others and then those team members who are necessary to implement that plan are then informed of the details to support the students okay and then my last question for now is and I don't know who's gonna who would answer this question best on slide 18 we talked about the call 9-1-1 for the welfare check if the parent is unavailable at the moment I'm working so if my son is doing something right now on his Chromebook I have no way of knowing that and I'm not sure we call ourselves a restorative district and I'm not sure how restorative it is if no one's actually had a conversation about or taking the time to educate a sixth grader about the best use of a DPS Chromebook the best use of the DPS email and accounts etc etc so where will police respond to because clearly he's.

Not here with me and he's not at home and they're going to be times when people are working or there's a custody order in place that the school may or may not be aware of what happens in instances when they don't find that student so that is even valuable information for those of us who are trying to support the family to have in making a plan to move forward the most important thing is we are once again special in Durham because we do have a unit within our law enforcement who has his staff with mental health and and therapists and social workers and people who can do a mental health check without it being criminalized if someone is exp you know experienced experiencing you know some some type of need but the most thing is we want we don't want to you know time is of the essence I think you know they show the you know the most reported notifications were around self-harm and so it is one of those things that we do.

Air on the abundance of caution and seek support when we cannot get in touch with with a family member so it is always our first inclination to try to if we can preserve that relationship with the family and the students but there are times we do need additional support Miss Rogers I wonder if our Gaggle team and or our technology team I do think it's important to clarify there are two different types of alerts and so one alert is giving us information and then one is has more of a sense of urgency and I also want to note that this is a notification system so for example if a student were to share with an adult in the school that they were thinking about self-harm and that adult would notify student Support Services in that school Gaggle is a notification system so if a student schedules on a calendar that we would say that I want to have self-harm then we notify the school so that student Support Services just as if that notification.

Came from the young person or was in a note that they had written and then we're using our our processes that we have had in place to support our young people during the school day as well as outside the school day so in the example that you provided contacting families in in the hours is when it is that more severe alert right and Dr Hardy I would like to add so since we've been here tonight Miss Howard and I we both received an alert regarding suicide Miss Howard would you be able to share kind of the process that went through and how that was handled absolutely so this evening while here we received a threat of violence notification from Gaggle in reference to a student experiencing thoughts and expressions of self-harm that actually included a letter a suicide letter there was an attempt to reach the parents multiple times unable to reach the parents and so in a situation time is of the essence we look we contacted law enforcement to conduct a welfare.

Check that welfare check was conducted the student was located parent was finally contacted the student is okay but that's an example of where if we can't contact the parent we have to contact law enforcement to conduct a welfare check so they'd be going to my apartment right now I'm sorry if it were my kid they'd be going to my apartment right now it was a suicide or something where it was a possible student situation that would occur yes to ensure the safety of the student okay just a question about those two notifications I'm sorry Mr Rogers who determines if what type of notification it is I'll let the Gaggle team answer that question yeah I'd like clarification because something else I saw said there were three types of notifications so maybe that's an old piece of news that I saw as well I thank you again Heather durcak with Gaggle so we have questionable content and we have the possible student situation so those are the two levels we.

Do offer a third I can go ahead and speak to that that is a choice if districts want to use that third level with which is low level violations is what we call that one and that's what was referenced in previous discussions about Gaggle but that's not something that's being used here Durham is focusing on the questionable content and the possible student situations those are the two that go to District level you know administrators because the violations those would go to just to the students about using inappropriate language or things like that and so that's very seldom used by school districts it's their really historically when we were a learning management system so that's that's that third hopefully that clarifies that so questionable content is the non-eminent danger situations that is when it's something that we want a principal or counselor to take a look at and assess that situation we get that notification over to the person who knows the student is this something that the student is already being addressed.

With the student is it something that a counselor or principal does know about and it helps support the work that's being done with that student or is it initial awareness to start those conversations possible student situations those are imminent that is those situations where a student has taken pills and we need to help you get to that student to to find mind to you know get that kid the help that they need so those are the ones that the the ACT is in place versus there's discussion low levels of suicide ideation and things like that my last question oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I don't understand yeah I just still want to know who is deciding what is what oh I'm sorry so are you gonna act that's right so that would be it's it's a partnership so that is the trained Gaggle safety team that team that was referenced Gaggle working 24 7. so we review the content we determine the category and the severity send it to you.

To then make the decision of what to do next but to be clear when you say we you've got an algorithm first that's doing most of this hunting and searching then you've got contracted employees at some hourly rate that are looking at stuff and going oh this is just a kid cursing or this is just a kid talking about something and then you have some level of employees that are more 24 7 kind of if you can't ping our district leader people then you'll call the police from somewhere else like there's there's an algorithm there's a machine and AI thing then there's contracted employees sifting through stuff and then there's some higher level of Gaggle thing at least according to news pieces that I have seen that's the level of human interaction with the algorithm yes do you want me to talk through those pieces so the the very first part is our words and phrases so that is designed by gaggle of the content that is going to.

Be used so that's our our team of experts our our experience in the field our review of content over the past 20 years so we first have our words and phrases then the machine learning technology comes into play so that way we're looking through if a student writes something that is about a paper on To Kill a Mockingbird nobody sees that nothing gets slowed down that does not go to human review review if the student says I'm going to kill her that does go to that first line of humans and they are reviewing it those are contracted employees who are also 24.

The contracted team 24 7 and they will review it good or bad that it is homework it is you know there's you know things like that they will say this is it this is of now concern then it goes to the expert team at Gaggle who makes the qcon or PSS decision and then it goes to Durham and when it gets to Durham I want to acknowledge who then is reviewing that alert so it's it is the district team Miss Eva Howard Miss Joy Malone and Tamika Ward Satterfield and she is our licensed counselor and also has our MSA so you have staff then here that are determining those next steps after Gaggle does their review and it goes to the school team and the principal identified on their team who would receive those alerts so for example Elementary principal may have selected principal assistant principal school counselor they may have selected social worker so if it were in reference to a child at that school they would receive.

That alert they would know little Nakia is already receiving services for this particular they would know little Nakia in addition to them getting that Miss Howard Miss Ward Satterfield Miss Malone also get that so that we can work together in terms of that notification then regarding the next steps all right my last question the Gaggle report once it's a report does it become a part of the student's educational record what happens to that report.

No a gaggle report is not a part of the student's educational record in terms of let's say it would be like any other document that you would use to inform your services for them but it is not attached to a transcript or a disciplined data or anything of that nature Madam chair if I may comment on that as well yes it although it's not it's not maintained in a student record it would be a student record so it would be subject to your records retention regulations and rules and if a parent requests a copy of that report it would need to be released thank you that's what I wanted to understand Ms Murchison if there was an example of of teenage sexting that this picked up what happens to that and our duty to report it's my understanding that images of pictures or pornographic images are not shared they're described by the Gaggle team so that we don't get those images if I'm Cur am I correct about that yep so if it is a.

A cuecon situation it is identified as professional pornography so that's like pornography that you can find on the internet if it is a PSS that is where in that image it appears to be a a minor and it could potentially be one of our students and so at that point that image is not released to the principal they have a channel in which they can contact Gaggle our administrative team to be able to describe that image to them for them to be able to follow up from there.

With the pornographic content it is also quarantined so when that is in a student's Drive Office 365 or Google it can no longer be accessed or shared by any student so we immediately stop the the sharing or spreading of that inappropriate image or video. Other questions colleagues and even then I'll jump in sorry Miss Travis thank you thank you for this presentation I think you know this is just school safety School alerts and kind of getting to the root issues of why of some of the dangers that our students are facing is on our minds and and really important and we're hearing this feedback from the community which you know you did address about the line between privacy and and safety and and just you know doing a little more thinking receiving you know information about it I I think I'm one of the things I'm most concerned is about this the triggering of the of Gaggle response for students who are lgbtq and perhaps of other identities as well and in reading this report.

On constant surveillance by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey there was some they spoke on gaggle and I'm just I wanted to hear your your thoughts on that with situations where a student is sharing their identity I know I asked about this the other day and and and we were talking about how bullying can come up as an issue for students of of marginalized sexual orientations or genders and what I'm still concerned about the the level of outing or sort of reveal of private information of our lgbtq students in particular and then one other concern that was brought up in this report was just kind of increasing disciplinary action and that contributing to discipline disparities which of course I do not want to see in our district and so those are the two major you know concerns I have right now and you know I mean I absolutely think addressing students mental health needs is important and and our students are going through a lot but yeah yeah please if you would.

Speak to that thanks yes so we did a full response to Senator Warren's letter and in that response we we talked through how we are looking for the terms and phrases around harm to self suicides wanting to die we are not reviewing the content for lgbtq plus terms so that is where I mistakenly say we at times because I do feel it is a partnership we know Gaggle all of us here know the high-end risks and suicide rates of marginalized communities so we do work to keep groups safe we are bringing to you when those students are talking about harming themselves or harming others and that can be when talking about their sexual orientation so this is where that partnership comes in and it's how then the district Works to talk through the situation with the students and the families we do have very various training tools out there we did a webinar with Partnerships we've attended sessions with the Trevor Project had a partnership with them to.

Make sure we were learning more to keep communities safe. I guess just as a follow-up to that just on our on the DPS side how do we make sure that that our staff know that you know especially with our policy our lgbtqia plus policy that we do not out students to their to their parents if they're not ready to take that step and just how yeah how is that discussing the training or how is that information disseminated and has that happened already as speakers alluded to yep I will Dr Hardy or so of course our our intent is always to make sure that we're taking care of the student we lean on our our school-based staff so when the alerts come it's that collaboration between the District staff that is also receiving the alert in the school-based staff and knowing their children to work with the staff in that school it's never any intent to to bring more harm it really is about if there is that severity of them thinking about.

Self-harm how do we make sure that we're connecting them to the resources that are available and if they are already someone that is part of that how do we make sure that that support is is helping to reduce some of those suicidal ideations part of that is the continued proactive work that we are doing with our staff and making sure our student support services staff you know they are receiving professional learning in addition to our teachers so they have the ability to respond to that most of our principles identified as part of their team someone that is part of their student services team if they had a mental health counselor some of them identified that person sometimes it was the school counselor sometimes it was the social worker all of our schools also identified an administrator often principal and an assistant principal but all of the schools did also identify someone that is part of the student service Services team thank you and I just want to say that I.

Don't think there's any Mal antenna at anybody's part it is this is all to keep our students safe and just addressing those newest nuanced conversations that's just good to hear that that information is being disseminated my last question is around just the this issue has come I think oh we got some feedback on this the time spent on on this is how yeah kind of you could tell us like how much time you all are getting alerts then the school teams are getting alerts so I'm just trying to get an idea how much time is being spent on this right now is it kind of taking the place maybe of other work to you know prevent the time that is unpaid or is after hours I mean it's also of concern to me yep so again at the school level they only receive alerts that impact their school as a district contact myself Miss Howard Mr Halsey we get them for every school and so regardless of where I am.

And I see a possible student situation I am going to address it Saturday I was at an AAU basketball game for my son and a possible student situation came through and I followed up with that principal and asked them did they need anything from me to address that situation how many alerts would you say on a daily or weekly basis are you getting and I understand what these are guesstimates our latest data I just did that seven that that seven day study but I would say even today I would probably I think it was one today three to four weeks.

Oh the one tonight yeah sorry yeah yeah sorry yep so that was two today one that happened earlier today and then the one during kind of like board meeting tonight so approximately I would say probably about three to four a week. Missed your head questions and comments yes I do have questions and comments I just the nuanced conversation because we have a need to ensure the safety of our students we are also dealing with technology artificial intelligence it is being implemented in many systems and there are definitely considerations so I just want to offer that part of all my analysis with Gaggle and hearing from you know our community and the concerns that they brought some of these same concerns in terms of bias in terms of like you know private those thin lines that we've described are happening in healthcare as well because there are algorithms that are determining like sepsis you know like when when you go into the ER and there's an algorithm that will literally provide a pathway for who's.

Going to be prioritized that is a huge liability to a lot of Health Care Systems and there are actually experts at Duke Duke Innovation and I have been in contact and I'm actually you know very happy to have these conversations and connect folks anybody who wants to connect with that team they're analyzing artificial intelligence in the healthcare setting and addressing bias addressing some of these things because we know that these are things that happen at the end of the day the algorithm is based on data and I just want to talk a little bit more to the goggle team I know why we're doing this as a school district I I understand that we have already seen some of the ways that it is providing support Crisis Support interventions but we also need to keep in mind that there's a life cycle for any technology that we adopt my thing is this is artificial intelligence any technology that we have anything that we do you know when we when concerns something that is as.

There's a word in terms of like how it it the algorithms actually are shaped by the data that are fed into it and I I did appreciate Dr Hardy you sent us a list of all the school districts which is 39 pages long we're talking about maybe 50 schools per page except for you know maybe a few pages in there maybe the last page that had less than that there are countless of districts throughout the United States and the data this is the difference between like artificial intelligence as it came out in coded bias which actually has to do with facial recognition and to bias based on not recognizing skin color right like I would probably not be as recognized as somebody who's lighter skin and that's proven in research and that has been coded by us on Netflix a lot of people have commented on that this is more on content so it's not based on the person it's based on the content the content that is flagged it is it.

Learns the model continues to learn so my my question is more for the company itself in terms of how are you number one also providing guidance on life cycle when districts have decided to abandon the technology like what are some of those risk factors because that is part of the life cycle you you there's procurement so you get the the technology algae there's the the piece where you know there might be developmental kind of things and and that is also part of the technology that it's not a one-size-fits all kind of thing so it has to be developed further and then there's the integration into the entire system and how it you know how it's integrated in our case we started with a pilot you know and the pilot had some data I'd love to you know continue to have this conversation about some of the data that we saw and then we decided to scale it up and now it's like throughout the the system itself and then.

There's all definitely at the end of that life cycle the decision whether to stop the services you know to to abandon the services or to continue or to iterate so when it comes to all this I I have questions about how your company with all this data from all these districts is continually evaluating the model what kind of you know consortiums what kind of accountability you have in in that space as artificial intelligence in that is being used in education which is this is definitely a frontier here with education and artificial intelligence making its way just like it's doing in healthcare just as it has done in the criminal justice system just as it's being done with construction engineering everything from from using satellite imagery and then determining so many different things there's so so many uses of AI I just want to know about the company itself how are you all considering that life cycle how are you all also providing that guidance to districts who may decide to.

Adopt it you know integrate it have addressed some of the bias and risks and then also maybe decide that it's something that we may not need for the long term or we may continue it so to clarify you're asking how we train our technology tools how we train our data and then how we evolve or how we train our our machines the the AI and how what we do in districts don't stay with us is that the question so it's so the thing is this is this is technology that evolves right there's there's the notion that it's going to be only as good as the data that it has and so with all these districts that are already participating the goggles already in all these different districts you know there's always there's ways for quality assurance for like those conversations about bias I want to know is Gaggle engaging in biased conversations with other artificial intelligence companies and maybe even researchers and maybe even talking to some folks that are actually.

Leading in this work in terms of like things to watch out for I just want to know your accountability for your company in terms of your product so thank you for for the clarification and what we we have our own data scientists our own machine learning team and a key piece of it all starts with the words and phrases that that we are reviewing so Gaggle we started in 1999 as a learning management system so we have been built for Education since our Inception our founder and president who still is the owner of Gaggle today was working to bring email into the classroom and luckily he called us Gaggle Gaggle can be whatever we want to be and as we have seen education evolve and Technology change just like you're pointing out what we started hearing was that districts did not want our learning management system but really did want our efforts to keep kids safe because our word lists and our phrases that we've been building since 1999 have been built around the.

Communications that we were seeing between students as Google and Microsoft start having things like Google ads for Education which made a gaggle learning management system not really that great but administrators kept telling us I want your safety piece though I need to know what my students are communicating and who's trying to reach them if I am giving them email accounts and giving them access to this Google Drive think of it as that put that fence around your Digital Playground to be able to open up to the world and communicate but keeping them safe because you're seeing when someone tries to ask for inappropriate share inappropriate or starts discussing those harms of suicide and violence to self or violence towards others over all of those years we keep finding other words and phrases so we started out with things like kill and die and suicide which now have evolved to those words but also things like if you're reading this that's how we caught the PSS that we spoke about earlier because through seeing things like.

Suicide we were also able to learn a lot of suicide notes start with a phrase if you're reading this if you're reading this got on the list from our data our research Rai and updating our blocked word lists to get get that kid help today and that makes me very proud of the work that Gaggle has done and the partnership we have timstead was were you wanting to jump in on something that was related I'm sorry I'm sorry I wasn't well I mean if it's related I have more questions go ahead okay I also think you asked about what we're doing as far as training so can I keep answering that question because I really I realized there were multiple parts and I probably skipped over a couple of them so I talked about how we've evolved based on the content that is coming in from the documents and the words the communications that students are doing and those suicide notes we're finding then we add that to.

The work that the safety team is doing who's making those decisions like our anti-bias training our train with and that is done by an organization that does a lot of bias training for law enforcement court ordered officials and and that team it seemed to really fit Gaggle and a lot of the things that we're doing with who then we you know contact and when we are sending the sending the alerts so constant training of leaders you know all of Gaggle leaders and the safety team who are making the decisions to call it a qcon or a possible student situation so then the data that comes from it being a qcon or a PSS is a human decision that then our data team our machine learning team then evolves the the machines the AI to make and review those decisions so when it sees if you're reading this puts it into the Queue at a highest priority because it has a high likelihood of being a suicide note so that's how the humans Gaggle Works to.

Really form the decisions that the machines are making in terms of you know that development of the product when it comes to languages because we have diverse students Spanish Arabic Pashto you know Swahili just to name a few you know how how is how is your organ your company also keeping in mind like languages DPS is has an analysis or multilingual Resource Center has done an analysis of all the different languages that we have currently and in the future we'll have even more you know yes we continue to do amazing work around all of the the languages so we were highly focused on English and very extensive Spanish words and phrases now we're using Google translate features so we have more options coming into the safety team making the decisions also I mean they can either they are can speak other languages or they then use translate tools that we have while our machine learning team our data team is working to build out the machines to learning our algorithms to.

Then support the languages so this is an area that's getting a lot of development right now which is pretty exciting this is exciting the last thing I'll say this this pertains more towards you know what we have to do as an institution that is employing this technology as any technology that we have right we have a team and I'm always so grateful for our our director Joy Malone who has been doing extensive work with this and the team that also includes you know so many stakeholders including student Support Services definitely safety and and the team what I want to know is and this is this is more for our admins how we can continue to structure that committee because there's a need for organizational governance with any AI system that is something that you will find in research you don't just launch the product and just let it go it has to continually have that oversight right and I know that that oversight is currently here even in the process of the things that.

Are flagged but even in terms of How It's Working what are the metrics that we want to see you know is it going to be the number of students that we know that we kept safe but then also we have the harms which are harms are inherent in any system in any technology as well and the harms when we heard from some of the public comments you know children being outed to their parents you know these kind of things we have to continue to keep an eye you know on on on this governance so I'm I'm interested in DPS our admins committing to having an organizational governance of this technology just like any other technology which already it seems like you already have a committee that is that is looking at that you know it it would include you know just some of these concerns definitely our our community is going to be a part of that you know as we start seeing Trends and start seeing some of the the things this governance.

Committee will definitely be very important in terms of analyzing you know what are some of the risks what are some of the harms but also what are some of the benefits and what are some of the metrics that we really want to continue and whether it makes sense to keep this technology for years maybe there might be a moment where like you know the ROI the return on investment for the time that our counselors have to you know read through everything the the time that you all have to you know be on getting all these alerts you know there may be that consideration whether we continue this product for years to come or maybe it's something that we just try for for short term so I'd love that governance committee with artificial intelligence this is very important to keep keep tabs on that thank you so much.

A lot of my colleagues have asked a lot of questions that I have but I do want to know who owns the data like there's a lot of data that's being collected who owns it as far as what goes into Gaggle right like the Gaggle is is I mean scanning emails and documents and correct it is our data and in our agreements we have with therington and Smith they reviewed our contract regarding how our how our data is is managed in that way and the kind of the pieces that as far as Gaggle not taking that data and selling that data and things of that nature that's in our contract can we let's have attorney Murchison address that your agreement with Gaggle that has a standard student confidentiality provision in it so the data when it's used by Gaggle and maintained by Gaggle is managed by them but ultimately if you choose to end your relationship with Gaggle all of that information is to be returned at your request so and there's.

An agreement that it does not get used for other purposes it's to be returned which means that it does in some way live with them and they can manipulate it and build their algorithm better and do whatever with private content that students have created so again there's a give me just one minute let me check the language in your actual contract thank you.

So again there's a standard confidentiality provision that does limit well I actually I actually have it here I do have it thank you that limits the ability of Gaggle to use it for other purposes at the time of if you were to terminate the agreement and you may be familiar with this as well but when the agreement is terminated there is a provision that provides for let me find it here.

Give me just one second I apologize I don't want to misspeak on this point I know it's important to you.

So there's there's a provision as I said there's a provision that Gaggle cannot disclose any Student Records or student personally identify information without written consent from DPS and then upon termination of the contract Gaggle must return all Student Records or personally identifiable information about students to DPS so when they're sorting through things they can identify students by name yes so in the alert that we get it does include the student's name because that's how we end up being able to see who to follow up with and who to contact so it's going to someone's phone that is our employee that's sitting on their nightstand in the middle of the night it's going Bing Bing Bing it has a student name in it yeah and it's how however those employees have access to to student information so the principal and the team that they have identified those are employees and Miss Murchison can speak to how we as DPS employees have access to that information are bound by protocols to.

Make sure that we handle that sensitive information appropriately. That's my question in a time where they are more data leaks and other things happening and questions around the information that we're putting on whether it be on the social media or other places you know who's owning it and using it and curating it for their own kind of good and so I that's kind of who owns it we do know at this point what it means though is Gaggle is having and scanning our student information and when that and it is being used to help inform it sounds like some of their work and that's where I'm wondering and is it only dude you might have more answers to that but is it also only students or also staff also involved in this at all or other people on DPS without staff are not included these these grants were only for students and I think it's important to share I think this this will help and I I pulled it up myself so I.

Wouldn't mess it up but we are sock to compliance so it's SOC service and organizational controls we go through a rigorous auditing an audit of our systems to test you know safety security and reliability to ensure we are keeping all information safe and secure to allow you to make sure you are meeting all you know HIPAA FERPA zipa compliance as well and I can share that with you Joy so you've got more information to share out more details about our stock audit and our compliance there you have more questions one more question of this comments I think you know with any tools about how you use the tool and what does that look like in I while I understand how we want to prevent incidents of self-harm for our students I think that thin line is where I'm struggling how far are we too close to the line so I would like for us to in six months evaluate how many of these alerts are we getting what incidents have stopped self-harm and have there.

Also been incidents where we it created harm right are there incidents where there were times where it was not helpful in supporting that student so I think this is something we need to monitor we can't just and I know we did the pilot but it's about how you use a tool and you know in that looking at this incident's number I think it was like 38. incidents of suicide in our Focus as a district is how do we build relationships and connections with people so that students feel there's an adult in their school to talk to and I don't want this to feel like a replacement of that either and so how are we leaning in heavy to the people in the relation I know we are but keep leaning into the heavy people relationship work because I just worry about this tool it doesn't it doesn't sit quite right with me so I think continuing monitoring and evaluation will be really helpful hey Miss Rogers thank you.

I have some questions I guess for the Gaggle folks is there any demographic data about employees that's available you all can send that I don't expect you to report on that right now and working conditions right to pay things of that nature included and for the district this is paid for with the grant grant funding what happens after that if we have an appetite to continue to be one-to-one and can we get some follow-up around what options do families have to opt out and still be educated within DPS on that last point there is not an opt-out provision there's not an opt-out provision but do we have to students don't have to accept a Chromebook or even a DPS email account no but if you use the if you use any any of those then you would be subject to to that and and they're put on notice about that so the the issue about privacy of course is governed by the fourth the Fourth Amendment right search and seizure the right to privacy doesn't.

Exist unless you create an expectation of privacy so the way that you all address that with Gaggle is that you make sure you provide in your policy and other mechanisms clear understanding that there is no expectation of privacy in your devices that you get through the district so so privacy from a legal perspective regardless of how it feels to the individual is not an issue as long as there's appropriate notice to that right to be clear this is not just on our devices or in our login DPS things it's also people using Wi-Fi in our buildings is that not true that is not true for Wi-Fi so it's again and it's really not even monitoring it on the Chromebook it is specifically for your email address so for students email so that's Google education Microsoft 365 and canvas those are the only three environments now if you are using your personal device and you're logging into canvas with your DPS account then that is monitored and if I unders if I understand correctly that includes.

Uploading to the cloud all of the photographs on your phone not just the photographs are related to schools now and that means on your phone that means that a student will have to be logged into their phone with their DPS account not their personal accounts have they been advised not to do that I can't speak to that okay and as we're thinking through this this is kind of just a comment the Trevor Project separated from Gaggle in October of 2022 so even though they've mentioned that they work with the Trevor Project and I want us to think about what our desired outcomes are because Gaggle literally means capable of or prone to gagging or being quiet so it's the idea that we don't want students to communicate with anybody whatever it is that they're experiencing whatever it is that they're going through is our effort to teach them not to use their device to talk about anything of importance to them because that could be the outcome that we achieve here as opposed to.

Really continuing to engage them and support them socially and emotionally they just won't do it on their Chromebooks or with their DPS accounts yeah I appreciate that Miss Rogers I have not asked y'all many questions I tried not to interrupt I want to be clear I am respectful of the work that you all have done I am respectful of the Gaggle team I believe you all believe this is making children safer and I very much think that it actually is technology that we shouldn't be using yet and and actually could do more harm and I say that as as someone that belongs to ACLU so I understand those privacy concerns I say that as as my husband is a psychiatrist and so we spend a lot of time awake at night wondering whether people will do harm that they have actually threatened that day in his office and we we lose sleep and have for years and years and years so these things are incredibly serious and personal to me.

But I also think we have been entrusted with people's children and this is like a news report said peeking in their Diaries and when you are a child or a teenager and and writing and processing through your thoughts you're allowed to say anything that you want to say as you're figuring stuff out and this is to me an overreaction and over policing and over criminalization of children I worry about our lgbtq students that we've already outed and what harm we've done if I started typing about an abortion that I needed as a 15 or 16 year old would that alert and and people show up at my door I I don't know if we're arming as the Republicans are trying to push a don't say gay bill across this you know down the street in Raleigh are our teachers going to have to out children because we're going to know it from what gaggles alerted us to like are we helping them with the advancement of that.

Horrific bill so I also want to read in this paragraph from one of our teachers and so it sounds different how it's coming to her than you all given two or four or five pings a day a week for the district as a whole I served as a school counselor I was invited to a training four days before the filter was going to be turned on in DPS the training I received was from the Gaggle company representative did not include any direction for DPS Educators and administrators about how to respond to the flood of documents emails and photos that would appear in a few short days presentation also included inaccurate information about what platforms would be included in the filter I spent all my time during the week of January 23rd on Gaggle I found myself reading creative writing that a student was engaging in on her own time a very personal email from one friend to another a couple of short silly emails and two photographs none of these things.

Were meant for my eyes none of my students had any reason to believe that I would be viewing them the deployment of this type of filter should involve the adults thinking through the consequences of having a filter Educators weighing in on the idea of the filter family should be notified and students should be told instead I scheduled class presentations at the last minute and tried to talk through what was happening with my students and teachers I am also now expected to respond to phone calls and emails from Gaggle on my personal time I was not asked I am not being compensated and I did not sign a contract that said I would be on call 24 hours a day seven days a week I say that to say I would encourage us to just take a pause while we wait for the White House to and the department of Ed that the federal level to like actually release their best practices on this that that that.

Yeah I and I and I know you all feel like you're getting suicide notes and alerts today I I I I think actually where those those actually preventing things are going to come is from strong built trusted relationships with adults and so I think this disrupts that that's my concern with Gaggle I don't think I asked any questions I just gave you a gaggle sermon and I didn't mean to but I wanted to share that also teacher perspective yeah jerem said this is before the board tonight for information and discussion we are in an agreement that agreement has been reviewed by our attorneys there is an option for termination of that agreement and Miss Murchison can speak to those terms I just wanted to make sure that that you and the board were aware in terms of any options that you may want to take at this meeting or in future meetings regarding this I think what I've heard is questions concerns I think I would like to see us revisit.

This item in June to get a sense of this longer pilot of where we are and as we're thinking about a new school year under and it's a June May or June what do we need to do moving forward I think it's not we understand that there are some ways that we are intervening with students but I think we need to understand is it supporting students needs or is there any ways that we might be causing harm and what is the what's the impact on Educators and other folks who are also receiving these alerts so I think we need some more information is what I'm kind of hearing from folks and I think you all have also heard a lot of our concerns and questions I hope that the presentation can mirror some of that Madam chair your current contract with Gaggle expires on June 30th and it you can renew it but renewing it is not automatic it will take action of the board that can presentation can coincide with that date.

Thank you for that any other questions that have come to hearts and Minds as we've in the hours going like Miss viadarius thank you thank you board member buyer educators are definitely engaging us and there was a question about emergency contacts you know just just got a question about the listing and how do we make how can we be assured that those contacts are current and up to date and are the best contacts so that's going to take some work what are some of those plans in terms of like making sure that whether it's our staff or students that there are those emergency contacts are definitely up to date and and correct are you saying the emergency contacts in Gaggle yes so our principals they identified like if they want to change or update and so we have been receiving even since we've gone live we have received updates so those do come into our it team and we can work to update those in the system thank you so much.

All right this is here for information I would thank you all and thank you for for bearing with us at this late hour we are so appreciative of the ways that you are working to build relationships and care and and safety nets for our students and staff would you all be interested in a brief recess like say a five minute before we dive back in yep okay we are in recessed.

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Okay thank you all for bearing with us patiently we are now at item D on our agenda it is what I like to call the Mackenzie Scott 18 million dollar donation which is here for Dr benga to bring this evening thank you Miss Byers our board members our staff and our community that are watching so very grateful that we've been able to receive this donation of 18 million dollars that's a lot of money thank you to Mackenzie Scott for thinking about DPS for all the work that we are doing I would like to start by saying thank you to our board for your patience I know when we receive these funds folks really wanted to know immediately what are we going to do with this funding so it was really important for us to go to the process that's a lot of money that's staff alone we're not in a position of making that decision we really wanted to get everyone involved in the process I would like to recap a little bit the.

Process the way we went through to get to the points where we are today I studied with our Board of Education I said both give me your wish list what you would like to see being included or being considered after that I was able to work with my cabinet and then from cabinets they were able to work with their staff as well you can see Dr Hardy working with academic directors and so forth operation and so forth so all those voices were around the table from that point I was able to pull superintendent principal Advisory Group for the input as well that the next round was pretty much with our superintendent student Advisory Group then the last group was our superintendent teacher Advisory Group so going through that process every group they had something they really wanted to add or to remove as well and we were very Mindful and the folks that were able to see this document when we started it's not the same documents that we have today.

But I'll say this thank you to all our community members that had all these great ideas on how to spend these funds and one of the ideas was like our students are so behind just add more position in schools especially K22 so we'll be able to address literacy that was well received there was another deal so you guys really need a lot of counselors in your schools why can't you add all the counselors in your different schools that was well received as well but I'll say this DPS has a budget of over half billion dollars as much as 18 million dollars that's a lot of money I'm not taking this for granted a lot of my colleagues superintendent they would love to be in a position where we are today because this is a great gift but when you have a budget of over half billion dollars 18 million dollars cannot go too far I heard ideas of being able to spend this money in one particular project maybe teacher housing or something else.

But our approach was pretty much holistic because we have a lot of needs we did not just want to touch one area we really wanted to spread it throughout different departments with that one of the ideas that came from our board was pretty much make sure that our current staff they get something out of this if we all recall when we give fifteen hundred dollars to all our staff that's cost us probably about 7.5 million dollars just to be able to give fifteen hundred dollars to all employees I'll say this to our board that fifteen hundred dollars per employee was not include included in this 18 million dollars but next two weeks when I come back we're gonna bring a proposal out of our Sr funds which they have money remaining there that we're going to be able to pull 7.5 million dollars to address that need the fonts my proposal is going to be for all returning DPS employees that will be here with us they'll be able to.

Get fifteen hundred dollars the first or the second week of September so it's going to be for retention purpose the one that will come back that's going to be approximately 7.5 million dollars I'll bring it to you for approval next time when I come here also as we heard all these ideas from our community we gotta keep in mind if we have to put position in a school those are reoccurring expenses we're trying to stay away from that if you add counselors you earn nurses you gotta make sure that you are sustaining those positions as well I don't think that was fair to our Board of County Commissioners for us to be able to support the positions and then go to them as for them to sustain those positions we were trying to stay away from that we still have Sr funds that we're gonna use till if I'm not mistaken probably September 2024 there were a lot of requests about tutoring support for our schools we have a process in place with.

Our school Improvement our process where our principles can request additional support as we still have this funding available till September 2024. you can say the turtle ring is not a part of this 18 million dollars but we have another pot of money as our funds that we've been addressing those needs with that I'm gonna ask for the person running this put the PowerPoint up there so 18 million dollars we're really excited about that until we got to the points where we learned from our attorneys that's how we have to give up 3.5 million dollars to Charter Schools so that's that is two points where we only had about 13.5 next slide please as you can see the broken down of how we're spending the fonts 18 million dollars charter school is getting 3.5 and then the next big part of money is going to academics which makes really sense 8.22 million dollars then after that we have our HR 2.5 million dollars Transportation 1.5 million dollars School support 1.28 million dollars than the last one.

At the last one is one million dollars for operation next slide please everything that we do at DPS we always want to make sure it is aligned with our priorities our strategic plan we don't want to do things out of emotions we really want to make sure that everything is well aligned priorities we have one two three four five we are all accustomed to these priorities I'm not going to read them for you next slide please I'm gonna pass this to Dr Hardy to be able to give the rationale how we're going to spend 8.22 million dollars and she's going to tag team with Dr Stewart as well and then we have some other academic folks here and then once that's a holiday finish it's going to give it back to me and I'm going to do the HR I was expecting our HR folks to be here but the good thing they're all traveling trying to recruit and bring teachers in our dishes the right thing to do that's already.

Thank you Dr ravenga we do have some staff who are here when we do get to questions Dr Debbie Pittman assistant superintendent for specialized Services Dr lever and Maddox Perry senior executive director for student Support Services Dr Julie pack executive director for CTE and Magna Dr Kelvin Bullock executive director for equity and professional learning and Miss Joy Malone executive director for information technology so I'm going to go through our slides I did receive some additional questions I'll try to make sure that I address some of the questions that we have received as well as Dr mabinga mentioned through that collaborative process this was developed in regards to professional learning principals and teachers are alike wanted to deepen their knowledge and content specifically around math literacy and mtss supports to that end each teacher will have the opportunity to attend four Pay Days of learning during our three weeks of Summer teacher Institute with one additional day to plan a unit of instruction teachers will have the opportunity to.

Work and go deep in terms of math literacy mtss with differentiation for traditionally marginalized students specifically with the focus on EC and ESL strategies as well as focusing on our students of color it's also important to note as we heard earlier today from Dr Dr Bullock I wanted to make note of who would be facilitating this training so the training will be organized by our office of equity and professional learning as well as our curriculum and instruction team with collaboration with the office of school leadership Services summer sessions will be facilitated by department leaders directors lead teachers and classroom teachers classroom teachers will be selected those who have demonstrated that they are effective using data as well as our principal recommendations the content as I mentioned mtss math literacy as well as information regarding policy 1900 which is our equity and our racial and educational Equity policy in policy 1735 our lgbtqia plus all of the content will be taught through an equity lens our classified staff will engage in a variety of Summer.

Sessions based on their department needs Ms Phillips has been working very closely with Dr Monk and his team to make sure that we're looking at those department leaders and the needs that those teams have IAS will have the opportunity to experience many of the sessions that classify that our certified teachers have this is going to make sure that they can support the work that's happening in our classrooms operations leaders will attend facilitator leadership training we will also continue working on Equity practices Conflict Management as well as customer service our last road then talks about letters letter stands for language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling understanding and implementing the principles of the science of reading is a critical component of the professional development for our elementary teachers in order to continue that professional development related to effective literacy instruction the funding for the implementation for letters has been requested for the 24-25 Academic Year DPI is providing some training for next academic year 23-24 but DPS we remain committed to providing that ongoing professional.

Learning and to build internal capacity and ensure Fidelity of implementation for the program related to the science of reading improved Benchmark and summative assessment outcomes using great appropriate strategies is the goal of letters professional development as a part of this professional learning DPS would like to create a Cadre of letter certified trainers within our district who can deliver and refresh content knowledge to our staff district-based letters trained staff will be further tasked with creating customized learning opportunities for instructional assistants as well as members of their staff who were outside the original scope so that we can ensure our staff have the professional learning they need next slide please.

The next few items are going to focus on some of our Career and Technical items as well as there's an item here for every educator in the districts let me start with Esports a large majority of our teams play video games Esports takes video gaming to a competitive level has been shown to improve attendance and increase self-esteem and self-efficacy creates a sense of belonging for our students additionally gaming and gamification helps students increase critical thinking and problem solving skills the money here will be used to purchase game consoles accessories gaming furniture and software to develop teams we will have teams at the high school level and clubs at our Middle School level the next talks about our interactive video conferencing classroom super excited this allows teachers to connect remotely to students across the district the interactive video conferencing learning environment consists of innovative and upgraded technology that addresses many of our strategies within our strategic plan this unique visual audio and interactive features of the classroom enhances the learning experience of students and Educators and.

Allows them to engage in more engage more enhanced learning opportunities in terms of how we're using them now we have high school math that we are using with our interactive classrooms that are at the school for Creative Studies in Riverside we're also using High School Spanish at Riverside High School and then we are using the one at mini fort Brown Staff Development Center for professional learning expanding will allow us to use this in all core subjects K-12 math Ela science and social studies will allow us to have interactive classrooms at our elementary schools as well as additionally at a middle and a high school so this will help us we've been working also very closely with Dr Jones there's some coordination with our middle school schedules that's going to enhance that opportunity at middle school and expand those upper level courses that our Middle School teachers will have access to next you have the hillside arts program and later you will see I think on the next few slides we have invested in all.

Of our comprehensive high schools in our CTE programs we wanted to ensure that there was equity in terms of funding amongst our high schools so we are providing Hillside with a hundred and fifty thousand dollars regarding their arts program so in collaboration with Dr Logan his Arts teachers as well as operations we're going to be providing funding in the area of Arts some of the requested items include instruments costumes theater media systems editing equipment work tables for visual arts classrooms and then the next one on this slide is classroom instructional resources we wanted to ensure that all of our certified Educators had the opportunity to purchase classroom resources to support student learning you will see each educator here will receive two hundred dollars next next slide and now I'm going to turn it over to Dr Stewart I was going to say I thought I saw her.

Good evening as you can see it says DPS family engagement Center imagine with me if you will a One-Stop shop similar to a mall experience for parents where if they need assistant with student assignment Community Education interpreting and translating services Family Academy resources access to computers to assist them with job applications and so on I need a transcript I need some student Support Services this will provide equality for all of our parents in the name of quality customer service efficient use of resources troubleshooting on the spot and offering flexible hours to meet the needs of our families through this we will streamline our resources imagine this being located in a central location near a bus line what we have is a vision it is not fleshed out but the desire is to set aside five hundred thousand dollars toward the development of this Vision to provide resources for our families we've heard them we want to build trust we want to be supportive that is the vision and I hope he will support it.

Thank you. For more than three years during public schools has been reimagining our instructional program and offerings our Student Assignment practices and their impacts increasing Equity access and diversity we're appreciative to this board for most recently adopting the rules regarding our elementary programming for with regards to Growing together the growing together Elementary implementation funding across addresses some major items the first making sure that we can enhance Visual and Performing Arts provide exposure to World languages in every Elementary School and provide stem in 32 of our elementary schools this will include professional learning instructional supplies classroom resources for music and art number two implementation of the new instructional programs include International Baccalaureate Montessori and dual language immersion this will include funding for training fees instructional resources equipment supplies as well as curriculum development the redesign of the Lottery application programming platform to make sure that we have a platform that can handle the new rules of access that you all have just adopted for elementary and that are forthcoming for secondary and finally additional items including.

Recruiting resources communication marketing and operational costs next slide please. These next several items are in regards to Career and Technical education we are thankful that you adopted CTE month a dedicated activity bus for the skills trade pathway at Southern School of energy and sustainability will allow students to engage in live work sites and Industry tours as part of their regularly scheduled class time in addition the bus will allow teachers to ensure students are able to access their assigned pre-apprenticeship location a dedicated skilled trades activity bus will provide the program in class access as well as visibility in our community our DPS Hub Farm which we have the opportunity to have meals from when we have our regular board meetings we is an extension to the classroom for the northern culinary and agricultural students and teachers currently our culinary and agriculture students at Northern access the Hub Farm regularly as part of their CTA experience by just simply walking to the hub Farm but you know what's coming the new Northern so.

When the new Northern relocates to the new school in the fall the students will not be able to just simply walk to the hub Farm to continue this valuable extension of their classroom experience a dedicated activity bus for these programs will allow our culinary students to continue to grow Harvest cook and produce at the Hub Farm we'll also assist our agricultural students in assessing the farm for Animal Care and horticulture the fire technology program at Northern Partners with the Lebanon fire station to conduct certification and skills training with the current proximity to the station students are able to walk during their class period or the station can bring us Trump to the school however if an emergency occurs during that particular time students would be left without access to that equipment unexpectedly purchasing a fire truck for the northern fire program would allow Chief Hayes and her students to access a dedicated truck for certification and trainings the fire truck will also help to increase visibility to this amazing program at Northern throughout the.

County next slide please the EMT program at CMA currently utilizes an ambulance simulator inside the classroom however as part of the EMT level 2 certification preparation students must demonstrate the ability to drive the ambulance currently we have to utilize a borrowed ambulance to accomplish part of this training a dedicated CP CMA DPS ambulance would allow students to access to skills training in a working ambulance in addition the ambulance could be utilized as at the school and or District events to provide additional emergency support and provide EMT students clinical experience the ambulance would also help to increase visibility to our EMT program as part of the skills trade pathway program at Southern School of energy and sustainability students are able to learn how to drive a forklift and earn forklift certification currently we have to borrow or rent a forklift for this training so the training has to be condensed until one day a dedicated forklift for the program would allow students a longer time to practice and utilize the forklift to earn their certification.

Finally in an effort to increase visibility of our culinary programs at both Jordan and Northern a dedicated DPS food truck will will allow an on-site kitchen at events also a food truck would add a layer of excitement to the culinary arts program and give students an insight into one of the most growing Food Industries in the nation next slide please the goal of this expenditure is to assure our Vital area regarding trauma-informed practices and to increase DPS staff members accessibility and capacity more DPS staff will be able to learn how to best recognize and respond to trauma when it manifests itself within our schools row two Equity we are kings queens and royalty DPS currently has over 70 we are Kings and we are Kings programming serving boys and girls of color primarily black and latinx students we want to enhance support for these programs and also explore the possibility of developing a we are royalty program which would be a gender neutral space for delving into various issues of social justice we're neces.

When necessary we may also develop programming specifically for latinx students who have not been able to access our we are Kings or we are Kings we are queens or we are Kings programming Row three in previous year student Support Services is seeking to expand not only to reach out our co-located Mental Health Services but also the breadth of those particular services our goal is to increase accessibility of services during our scheduled breaks including summer months to find more bilingual Mental Health Providers and continually eliminate some of the barriers that families may have in participating in our co-located Mental Health Services next slot please the number we talked about this with Dr Bullock's presentation in reference to our staffing the number of alternatively licensed teachers is growing each year while teachers have vast content knowledge they need intensive instruction around Core Curriculum lesson planning pedagogy and behavior management our hope is to provide them with a 10-day compacted student teaching experience gradually easing them into teaching in full responsibility providing daily.

Database feedback and coaching prior to their placement in the classrooms as the teacher of record next to extend the learning of our initial 10-day experience we will need to make sure that our mentors have the needs to support our alternatively licensed teachers so looking at making sure we have more Mentor support for our alternatively licensed and beginning teachers and next I will turn it over to Dr mabinga to talk about the DPS Foundation also on if you go to the next Slide the second row on the next slide Dr mabinga mentioned also working with the superintendent student advisory Council you'll have the opportunity later this spring to meet these Dynamic young people those of you who have been part of the Strategic plan steering committee have seen our Dynamic high school students they spoke boldly in their meeting and said we need help we have all of these wonderful ideas and we need to make sure that we are not dependent on like Club dues but we need funding to support our community projects and.

Service oriented initiatives that not only make their school Community but the Durham Community better this funding will provide six of our high schools with five thousand dollars and then five of our specialty high schools including the school for Creative Studies with two thousand dollars specific for our student clubs and then I'll turn it over to Dr mabinga regarding the DPS Foundation thank you Dr Hardy board thank you for your patience if you don't mind for us to go through the whole presentation then you'll be able to ask questions I say you all agree all right DPS Foundation I have been involved in several meetings with DPS foundation with our partners I think the conclusion of the initiative that we really came up with for this particular year was the whole school initiative we all understand the need for social emotional needs of our students as well as our staff I remember in the meeting the foundation has requested some fund from Duke Durham and other partners as well that was even before we.

Received this 18 million dollars I was a part of those conversation I was able to have a conversation with some of those business partners once we receive 18 million dollars it made with a sense that if we are really committed to the whole school initiative we have to make a deposit as well so I think the plan that they have for that particular initiative is about probably 3.5 million dollars we have a Duke University we have our student services Dr Laverne Matic parish is a part of that conversation so we really wanted to put a deposit to show to our business partners that are this is something that we really need for our students as well as our staff that's why we're making that deposit of 280 000 dollars the million dollars that is remaining I just really want wanted to be clear as folks are watching this we've been talking about teacher housing for a long time will 18 million dollars build teacher housing no we wanted to put a deposit.

As we started having those conversation again with Board of County Commissioners and other partners in the community we really wanted to put money aside for that particular purpose this is the way we're going to work with DPS Foundation they're going to be a clear mou that I'm going to bring back to the board this money is going to be used just for that particular initiative and the mo is going to be approved by you before even our CFO is able to transfer funds that was the sole reason for us putting that money on the side we have we've been involved in a civil conversation with several folks about teacher housing but we felt like it's really important as we get this one-time money that is flexible on the restricted let's put a million dollars on the side for that purpose I just wanted to say that so probably once you we get to the points where you approve this tonight we're gonna start driving that ammo U H Tanya Giovanni will work with DPS.

Foundation and then we'll be able to bring that to you I really wanted to spend a little bit time there to make sure that I was not influenced by any board members for that particular initiative it's our money it will be used solely for that particular purpose if the board gets to the point where say we felt after a year or two or five we cannot invest in teacher housing it's your money for you to be able to repurpose it to something else it's not DPS Foundation money next slide please.

The next one allocation is 2.5 million dollars we felt it was really important for us to invest this in human resources so with that as I said before all our HR folks are gone I know co-work is here with us we train myself and co-work will be able to answer to the question that you might have both City teaching Scholars if folks remember probably about three years ago we started having this conversation it was pretty much aspiration where can we get a fund to start growing our own as we all know Across the Nation as we're facing this crisis of teaching our teaching pool is really important for us to start doing this work ourselves start growing our own teacher our own our own teachers so I think pretty much we're looking at all this comprehensive high schools and start having those teacher Cadets and try to start grooming them and then we have a good Pipeline with Durham Tech we have a middle college there and some of our students are graduating with a.

Social degree we can take some of those students and be able to pay for them to go to nccu and have a pop line there so we really wanted to put 1.6 million dollars on the side because Human Resources is really important for us if this particular initiative work really well the students that we're going to be able to pay for them we're going to have a good understanding NYU with them for them to come back at DPS and be able to serve us for four years that's a great and worthy investment the next one is focus on math and science for female we felt like there is a deficit we don't have a lot of female Math teachers or female that are really interested in mathematics so we're going to work collaboratively with nccu to start building that spot line as well that's what we put in 360 000 on the side International recruitment bonus as we are recruiting those teachers internationally I think we have about 91.

Or 95 in our district already it's gonna grow our teachers they come a week before a student can start we felt it was really important for these teachers that are coming overseas to be able to come to the district and start working with us two weeks prior to students coming back so that's what we're investing hundred thousand dollars to make sure our veteran teachers and our central office folks they'll be able to work with our International teacher for one week before other teachers come back hundred thousand dollars deposit I think is a worthy investment as we start recording more International teachers the next one we really want to assist DPS employees with securing teaching credentials with the trim initiative we really wanted to put two hundred sixteen thousand dollars on the side for that particular purpose next slide please of a housing allowance for early contract teachers some of our teachers that become fresh of college they don't have any saving if they have to move in the area where.

They're requesting they're asking for a deposit for the apartment so we really wanted to have probably about two thousand dollars there that we can work with our students our teachers that we're recruiting so they will be able to have housing we're putting a hundred and ten thousand dollars on the side for that particular purpose then the next one reimbursing or testing needs completion licensure very important as you saw pretty much we have close to 70 percent of our teachers that are coming with emergency license they're going to need a lot of training as well as assistant for them to be able to pay for those testing we're putting 35 000 on the set for that then the next one 2016 that's pretty much continuation of a medical benefit for DPS employees in dream program next slide please I'm gonna pass this to data mark thank you Dr mabang good evening Gord the first item for operations are emergency radios this one million dollars will it's about 58 of the the budget.

That we set aside for it but it covers about 63 percent of the radios and the components that we need to make sure that we have emergency radio service throughout the district and this will help us to extend beyond high school and middle schools down into elementary schools as well as help us get on to the city and counties 800 megahertz frequency next slide please and then for the growing together you know we are going to be doing Legacy with fourth and fifth graders this one million dollars is not only going to go towards incentives to get the extra bus drivers that we need but also help support some of the privatized van services and things like that that we utilize throughout the district and then the White Fleet refresh was very excited about this we've we've done a good job in advocating for Capital renewal for our buildings we need to start doing the exact same thing for our vehicles as you can see here we have about 48.

Vehicles that are 15 years or older high mileage high maintenance costs and we want to do some replacements for those this will give us about 11 to 12 vehicles and our goal is to replace those with electric vehicles you know the board had approved for us to upgrade our electrical infrastructure for recharging stations about two million dollars and so we plan to put some money towards a White Fleet to have electric vehicles as well as hybrid next slide please and I'll turn it back over to Dr mabanga all right boy that's pretty much conclude our presentations and we are ready for your questions thank you so much Dr moving thank you thank you all that feedback from all the stakeholders I'll go with Miss Chávez and then see who else has questions okay I'm going to keep it brief since it's late thank you so much for all this what I I think most wanted to see out of this was a combination of immediate short-term and long-term projects and goals that would be met.

Through this the spending of these funds and I I do think there's I see that across the different the different components that you've laid out here I'm just going to ask one question which is about that one million dollars for affordable housing and I appreciate you Dr milvenger go on just a little bit more in depth on that since we are in conversation about that and we have not determined a partner or partners with the different components if we invest that or put that one million with the DPS Foundation I know you said you know even if we don't do that project we could take it out but I wanna are you asked or I guess is the proposal that they are definitely our partner in this project or is it more a savings of that one million dollars because I know we've talked to a few different entities about how this how we could do how we could partner to make this affordable housing initiative come to life.

Thank you for the question of simple answer is pretty much for saving purpose at this point that's the conversation that the boys stay having with different partners self-help DPS is a part of the conversation as well we're talking with Board of County Commissioners we don't know yet where we're gonna land so the money now just for saving purpose until we'll decide which direction who's going to be the partner that's taking the loan and things of that nature and then with that is with that money then generate Revenue I mean would it generate interest in the time that it's I think once we work with our CFO I think that's going to be clearly stated in the mou if definitely they're going to be some interest that's going to be generated so I think with the Amway we're going to be really very careful we don't want to put money in a place where it's going to be risky as you all know there may be one person interest or add to.

Maybe a good five so all that we're gonna have really full transparency I think the mou is going to be pretty much dictating what we'll be doing with that but the money belongs to DPS thank you Miss Lewis and then miss Rogers thank you so much the question I have is also around the same thing you just brought up Miss Chávez I wanted to appreciate the expansiveness stretch of these dollars I'm fine with the proposals and appreciate that you spoke with many departments and committees to create this list and we are truly grateful to Mackenzie Scott foundation for this generous gift for the yeah 280 000 DPS foundation for whole child that we talked about and supporting I definitely appreciate that I would like to consider separating the requests in the line I'm the one million the 280 000.

Again I'm appreciative of our partnership with DPS Foundation all the work they do truly centered with the boots on the grounds and have always had great experiences with our community coordinators for the Community Schools I was not sure about them housing about them managing the 1 million for the housing I shared this concern with board member or Matt Sears at the time about the teacher housing in December because this is not necessarily A DPS Foundation specialty and they had to bring in a team to do that the concern was met you know even when we talked about some teacher housing like do we know anybody who could who support affordable housing who does this dhic was who I found they were recognized by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency for their work with the Willow Street departments I think what I would feel comfortable with is separating the line items and looking to do a RFP to see who we may get the best opportunity to do this.

Work with and still have that mou so that one million is earmarked for us to determine who we're going to work with opposed to designating that we're going to work with DPS Foundation at this point until we vet other people who can handle housing finances and management that's needed all right was that the extent of your questions and comments before I go in okay thank you Ms Rogers thank you for this presentation same thing everybody else said the long-term short-term plans I'd appreciate that I have a question in Human Resources given that we pass our lgbtqia policy and we have a focus on math and science can we say can we change that language to be Femme presenting or something of that nature or non-binary included there so that we start adding it to our process our processes and then the dream plan to do the medical expenses for employees doing the dream program I really appreciate that can you speak to how many people that 216 000 goes to or can that.

Be shared later I know that bill the same thing here so I don't know anybody but. Thank you board member Rogers I'm looking at co-work there you have the answer I know that's a lesson was able to email us so if you have it please proceed yes thank you good evening everyone so the idea with that it would be 10 candidates per year for three years and and that that would be the support for it initially thank you that's why he does Dr rubenga we try to engage as much in the community we try to listen you know go to you know task forces Latin 19 like we each plug into community in the best ways and I actually got a chance to listen to the governor's advisory I was just there as a guest listening and our very own director of the military Resource Center was presenting on on the data the questions that they were asking at the governor's advisory Latino advisory were really poignant and they were asking.

About how are we expanding are we meeting well first of all how are we meeting Federal legislation civil rights of 1964 which says that you know language should not be a barrier for anybody there's no discrimination based on country of origin everybody has equal rights to it to an education and they a recording is available I will definitely make sure to request that recording so you can listen those questions are really poignant and they were talking about how are we as a district meeting the demand the growing demand of a population that is no longer one-third we're actually at 34 and growing we will be 40. pretty soon and so with these questions that were being asked of us I I just in in in the proposal for 18 million I I understand that there's creative ways that we also make sure that we are complying and we are meeting the the needs but I do have a question in terms of when it comes to our need to really really give.

Parents their advocacy give them the rights to advocate for their children and we are having we're facing a dilemma right now where interpreters have seven schools assigned sometimes between five to seven schools it is a lot for our interpreters who are getting paid 15 an hour with a little bit of of the of the supplement a little bit of the money's coming maybe 16. but these these these are front line front line employees that are helping us with growing together and we always throw in the MRC is going to help us right now we have the ESL Academy and there is the MRC helping us with Saturday Academy and I think Dr Stacy Stuart for leading that that work and our families are receiving Services because our English as a second language students need those academic supports but the question is how are we building capacity knowing that our populations are growing and that we have promised our community that we are going to develop a plan to bring in interpreters.

Not only for Spanish we have to expand into the other languages we don't have that capability right now with the limited spots just this January there were there you know just as January looking into the and talking to community members they noticed that there were positions that are that are posted but these are not new positions right there's two positions available those two positions are not going to make or break when when it comes they actually will not meet the demand that we have right now and so we need to add positions and I remember in 2020 when we went to Lima culada and there were a couple of us who were there even you know making Promises to the community that we were going to add positions and I remember that was one of the things that I I made sure that I as soon as we were adding positions I reported it back to the community and I said we added a position La connection USA published that and.

Said okay they added one but they're waiting for you know there's there's that expectation how are we growing the multilingual Resource Center knowing that our families are are needing interpretation there's a need for Fidelity in terms of interpretation we have schools pulling in the front desk staff person to interpret and that's not their skill set they're not trained in that way and our families are complaining about that they're saying they're not getting Equitable so my question to you is interpretation relationship we talk about we we have we're talking about developing a new center and I am in support of that but I also want us to keep in mind that there are already there is already that triaging where do families go when they have a pandemic EBT question where do they go when they have questions about deeds and where do they live they go to the MRC and I know even during the pandemic families were coming and I heard from you know just staff talking about the families even showing.

Up and trying to work with with dedicated staff some of the some of the staff through the window trying to trying to make sure to interact because it is that important to them so I want to be able to see you know in in the proposal or maybe maybe if you can address a little bit about how we're doing that in terms of complying with the demand that we have for our Multicultural families and multilingual families thank you Miss varadaris let me just reinstate this as I said before as we're going through this process we really was trying to avoid the recurring cost and I'll also say that there are other pot of money that we have to consider for other needs that we have in the district I completely agree with you MRC has been really saturated with needs requests with growing together and other things as well as I'm working with Dr Steward and Mr lesueur looking at the budget and we're gonna sit down and.

Look at how can we grow that particular departments well well received but again the 18 million dollars very limited funds one time but anything that's going to be reoccurring I would like for us really to consider other part of money I think your request is really well received but let me also Circle back when it comes to community engagement I think the community engagement is that the student presented this that's pretty much aspiration we would love to have a location like they want the building is to fully here to have a welcoming Center for some reason we're not able to get it but I think with a half million dollars that we put on the side we're gonna sit down with staff and MRC staff they're going to be a part of the conversation as well that's how we're going to spend the money but our aspirations pretty much to be able to have a place one location to be able to address all those needs if the physical.

Facility is not going to allow us to do that we can use our existing facilities and try to be able to expand those services so more details is for Community engagement is going to come but I heard you with it loud and clear about mlc how we can grow that probably a couple years ago we start adding position Connie was not able to fund us on that but I will also say as we have all these mlc employees when we bring the salary studies is impacting them all when we are bringing this growing together providing all these access languages to all the schools is impacting the latinx community as well latinx communities a growing population for us we are very grateful that's our ADM is growing the needs DPS needs as well we're going to address those needs as we're looking at other social funds as well so I just wanted to say 18 million dollars very one time when you're looking at a half billion dollars budget we cannot address.

All those needs in the same time but your point is well taken we'll be able to address those needs as we will be presenting to you the budget until we get to the point where we'll bring the final one in March or April. Make it brief appreciate your comments Miss valodares and it makes me consider even as we're looking at this proposal when we have needs how do we grow capacity and some of that might be full-time positions and some of that might be in other ways and so if we need school level capacity that triage or some of those interpretation needs before it gets to MRC right like I just think about capacity in different ways and I just can't help but think about so many of our kids who are bilingual who can be doing some of the support and not not getting into student you know information but this is how you call the bus folks this is how you do this this is how you set up your computer and how.

Are we plugging that in so it your my brain just started thinking about we have needs we have capacity issues how do we fix how do we use that and some of that might not come in 18 million in positions but there might be other ways that we can support it I want to appreciate y'all for the work that you've done I'm not going to do a lot of comments on the proposal I just want to encourage us as we do engagement a little challenge for us to think about flipping our model and starting with students and Educators first and then let it kind of funnel back up to the cabinet I'm so glad there's money in here for student clubs I'm glad there's money for the food truck and forklift and all those opportunities that will enrich students learning so I really appreciate that focus and the proposal.

So I appreciate just how deeply you all have engaged because this is not at all the list we started with that you all started with it I mean it very much evolved and and has just this kind of gift basket of Awesomeness in it right and so I look forward to seeing what all these initiatives spark and grow kind of within the district as a whole and I'm not going to nitpick your list I'm not going to tell you where to put money that you've already made decisions about I I think our our vision is to respect the work that is that our teachers our students and folks have brought to you all with the ideas that that are represented here I know that you also have the flexibility as things go along if you see things that aren't working you will stop spending money there and and you know that is the beauty of the flexibility of this money I hope that as we're doing this training for staff that.

Will have child care provided for this summer stuff I know y'all will be sensitive to those kind of needs as we're making opportunities for folks to come in and realizing that they also have child care needs in in that but it's it's a great accelerator I will also say I disagreed with our legal counsel about the need for this to actually be shared with Charter Schools this was funds from Mackenzie Scott that were given directly to Durham Public Schools they also gave to charter schools in other states and they clearly know how to do that they gave this to to Durham public schools and I believe as Michelle said earlier it was largely because of of our Equity work and our Focus that that is trying to accelerate work with students of highest need and so I would welcome any of these charter schools that have received their payments to return those funds and we will continue to accelerate Equity work here in Durham I believe it is a shared Community value.

And I just welcome those checks to come right on back into the district because that's that's who Durham is so do you all have any other questions and and if not I would welcome a motion. I move that we approve the plan for 18 million dollars we're going to make an amendment a modification just clarifying are we so did did we make a decision about putting the one million separate from the the full amount I just want clarification the pleasure of the board Where Do We Stand bored when it comes to the one million there's there's there's two different things whole schools and then there's a one million for housing is will that be separate I think board member Lewis was saying that it could be a separate item what I heard clearly from Dr mavenga was that there would be no expenditure of those funds until an mou was legally vetted and brought to this board and so I've not seen the vote tonight having any need to restrict that further I.

Think that was clear but what was not clear I think was the fact that the mou would be the DPS Foundation we're talking about opening it up like an RFP process that will allow as many different entities who want to participate in this teacher housing so if the mou itself would be with DPS Foundation that wouldn't really answer the question of how are we opening up that opportunity for other organizations I clarify what the project is and I don't think we're at that point yet so to put out an RFP when we haven't clarified what our project is I think we need to still do that work and so I think Dr moving alluded to earlier this kind of being a savings place while we clarify and understand the project and we know there's again been a priority for us for a while so I think it's okay to separate this out into two chart table situations here but I think the cler the mou can help us clarify.

What the funds are for and I think our Board needs to help clarify kind of what the project is well no that will bring you the mou yeah that will be separated thank you thank you we had a motion right and second a second and that is clear enough for everyone as as Dr mabinga and I'm fine with adding that to my motion but we separate the two out okay okay it is late and I want to make sure y'all have any other discussion before we vote on this submission yes just want to clarify so that the one million dollars for the teaching housing project will have an mou drawn up with DPS Foundation but we will still be able to vote whether or not we want to enter that contract with DPS Foundation or determine another Housing Organization depending when we find out what the project is I will bring you the mou and then we'll go from there that'll be a pleasure.

Any more questions discussion point of order on the motion I think chair Umstead with your with your clarification your motion is to approve acceptance of the grant with the separation of the one million dollars yes thank you all right It Is seconded by Miss Rogers any further discussion right all in favor say aye any opposed if it passes unanimously thank you all for all your work on this and that brings us to item eight operations Services budget update 23 24. Foreign.

That's on the agenda at this point because we've had it before in the late hour we still have one more item that is for Action could we table this until next I move that we table this discussion this point until the next board meeting we have some questions on this it is on the presentation for Action Mr lasor and I wanted the praise these is what it says so I want to know if you needed action tonight or not I don't really need action on this first budget item this was really bringing the Deferred items that we had in the past back to you so you could see them some of them were from last year Lions Farm we didn't get any funding for it but we were able to take care of it because of some of the vacancies that we have here at in the district so therefore that would still be something down the road we would want to come back to the county for but not necessarily A.

Need I would like to just ask one question about parental leave if you want to talk through that well and Mr I don't want you to have to rush through this you've been waiting for us to do all kinds of things tonight I don't think we have to rush through and this is information we did ask you to bring so I would hope that you could take any time you needed with us yeah so you can bring up the PowerPoint please we'll we'll just talk about it real briefly I just need some guidance because parental leave is is a broad question and we have to Define what what parental leave is and that's really the big ticket item that we would need to talk about on this the other things are positions that have been talked about previously in past years that we just need to make sure that we don't let go by the wayside as we know the county also talked to us you can go to the third slide I think.

Right there next slide please nope yeah there you go so if we can talk about these deferred items these are really the ones you you talked about counselors 13 more counselors that you wanted a million dollars it would be again I go back to the point of that's what we would love to do but that's a state that's a state responsibility from that standpoint operations is for the operation side of the house is what we in the county are responsible for the state's responsible for the instructional support activities we mentioned earlier where are we one to two fifty is the recommended level for counselors in schools we're at one to three thirteen based on our allotments to the schools but we also have put in 25 other we need a total of 25 positions we have about 13 14 in the schools additional with the Esser funds bring us down to one to two seventy six so you know that's just something we need to keep our eye on and hopefully.

Leandro will take hold one day and those positions will come to us because that is part of it again we talked about school-based behavioral support staff as well in the past and that's something that just needs to be on the table because we do have behavioral issues throughout all our schools and we want to make sure that we're taking care of those kids and and providing the resources to ensure safety in our schools the other thing is in talking with the county just last week was it or the week before we talked about the additional Career Development coordinators three two one work based learning initiative that would be eight positions we would need they can't come out of CTE funds for this initiative so we would have to look at getting some additional dollars to support that program from the county also in the past few years we've talked about additional funding for the Arts programs to provide additional support for their events that they're putting on to promote our students across the.

District and sending them to different competitions across the state and Country for that matter and then the parental leave one which is the the one we've talked about from time to time in regards to where we're headed with that you know looking at parental leave this 800 000 would cover about 50 60 maybe 100 teachers for two months you know some School District I mean the county has a three-month parental leave policy well that's a lot of money that's a lot of time out of the classroom if it's from that standpoint so when you're talking about we have to get some guidelines about how we would want that to look who would be involved in Parental leave as well is it a husband is it a husband or is it the a wife that gives birth or they get a child through adoption is it more than that you know I mean we need to flush out what you really want to talk about in regards to parental leave and that's something that.

Has to be thought about and and I'm in my from my side I'm looking at this as a next year type of ask for that purpose to really develop what you really want as a board for Durham Public School staff so so and those were the real items that we were bringing tonight the other was just the 10 million dollar ask that we need from the county for our classified salary study and and certified salary increases I do want you to know that at the conference that I was just at with ncsbo the North Carolina School boards Association presented to us on things that they're hearing at the general assembly they said that they're looking at generous salary increases for employees looking at bus drivers as well looking at Ias as well different specific parts that they might Target additional funding for but they said that so our four percent may be good our four percent may not be good depending on what they say is generous because of the revenues that.

They've received over the past few years so I mean there's a lot of things that as we look at this nothing's coming clear yet because they're just talking supposedly they're going to put out a budget sometime in in late March April you know last last year it was June and it was a one-sided budget so we hope that it's going to be more transparent so that people can actually have some activity in in in questioning and trying to understand what is being presented to the school districts as we all know we just we're here we accept what they give us and we move on and we make it work so we'll see how that all plays out but this is really what we have to deal with in regards to the parental leave I would like to put my my thoughts that we just try to get the money for the classified salary study this year in our budget ask because the more we ask for the more I think they will.

Frustrate the Board of County Commissioners but that's me I'm always going to give you my opinion Dr mbinga I see you have thoughts thank you Miss buys I just have a question about parental leave this is a conversation when I came on board I heard about this conversation I don't really know is it aspiration or were able to pull our staff to be able to gather data with the nuts it was really a need do we know any other District that are really offering that as well and I heard Paul say that anytime you offer this you gotta think about the consequences of not having teach in the classroom as well so how are this conversation for years I just really wanted to know is that's neat really relevant at this point or where that aspiration really came from so I just for my own knowledge foreign I think it's something that Chapel Hill carborough is running on right now and they've offered a parental leave I also think it's part of our benefits.

Package it's going to be necessary to compete with the likes of RTP and Duke and the city and the County Government because they offer it and I think when we're looking at this especially as you say that this is for next year's ask or we should see how how the impact has been in Chapel Hill Carrboro and see what that's like see if there are other districts in the state that do that. And look at the practices of the locals like the companies in RTP I'm pretty sure it's parental leave for whomever whether they are adopted or a natural birth or for all pain the parents involved and there are some stipulations like I know at Duke both parents cannot get paid parental leave only one parent could so those are ways to save the money save some money is to look at the best practices about what's happening there and documentation is required for you know what I mean sorry yeah I think it's it started as a need and something.

That came from Educators but I like your point of how do we spend some time fleshing out what what would what might be a Durham way a Durham public school's way of doing this and I wonder if there's a small working group that we can get together I very much agree it's it's a benefits package we know that we have many teachers who are who tend to be women identify as women who tend to be young and I'm starting families and so how do we create a workspace that's conducive for that when in the time where we know that many teachers are deciding about should I work or should I stay home with my child and if this is something that could help that out that's what something I would think about so a later ask but again it kind of maybe a little group together to look at Best Practices yeah and I I also think it came from in Durham mom's Rising organized around this city and county changed their policies and.

This has been six or seven years ago maybe longer 12 weeks right and even the city both parents I mean I don't know how they do it it's clearly expensive and it's obviously as we everything we talk about something that should be at the state level for employees like of course and it's the right thing to do for Child Development so I mean there I guess I'm always curious like how much can we do and model for the state along with Chapel Hill and whatever like how much can we can we afford both in terms of money and the time off that that we know we're going to have to find subs for I mean it's logistically enormous for the second largest employer in town but it's also the right thing to do and so I think any group of folks that we can get together to to improve this from where it is moving the state in the right direction and leading the state so I don't know that's how I think about it.

Yeah I might add to that we could the things I would like to be a part of that conversation and do we have to pay for our first three weeks we have we have to pay for our first three weeks and then Duke will pay for the next three weeks and so you have to spend your time off you don't just automatically get it so there are ways to have conversations about how it's a dual investment right and if you don't come back from maternity leaves there are some penalties as well so having those conversations I think are important and Miss Travis I'm sorry yeah yeah just quickly want to say I support the working group idea just I know this I saw you know Chapel Hill Carver Road doing this last year and with this article I pulled up from last summer it says no other districts in our state do offer this so definitely interested in the data that they gather this year what comes.

Out of it obviously it'd be an expense I think it's also in line with the County's I think the county has this you know push for maternal and child health and and all of that so I think that's in line you know with that that effort as well so hopefully this would be something that we would find alignment in with the county but the working group sounds good get some details together and how this plan would work yeah it would be a total local cost the state would not share federal dollars were not sharing this unless the federal government does go along with their parental leave I'd be interested to have you know just thinking of of we're just barely out of covid maybe and you know the RSV risks the the the the need to keep tiny babies safe out of out of daycare as long as possible so I I just look forward to ways we can accelerate that conversation but the other thing I guess Miss viadaris would be like multilingual.

Resource people would be on this list if you need like this deferred items of years past right I mean those kind of things that you were bringing up earlier I think are this kind of wishless conversation that we're still trying to figure out how to take care of everything that our children need other things that come to mind for you all Mr can you remind us when we next come back and talk about budget again because this will all be rolling around so we were going to come back at the board meeting okay we'll be back in a couple weeks then yeah and at that time we'll bring you the enrollment which we plan on using thirty thousand seven twenty two as a beginning number we already have our allocations ready to go to the principles from that standpoint it's it doesn't look pretty because you remember I told you that it was looking like the state would have taken away this year 40 positions based on our enrollment reduction.

But they only took half of those away so with this enrollment decline it comes out to be another 24 position so that is critical when we're talking about what's happening in our schools because of the enrollment reductions that's going to be painful for everyone to realize thank you so much for staying at this late hour with us and helping us keep thinking about these important topics any other questions on this otherwise we'll see in a couple weeks thank you so much Mr lasur and that brings us to the new financial and human resource system yes if you can bring up the next presentation please in regards to this you can go down a few slides yeah go back one for right now and we'll talk about this what is the reason why we need a new Financial system I mean ours is over 30 years old in this state we need something new that we can we can really progress with and move ourselves forward it's it's it's really something that has been overdue.

The state has engaged in this from that standpoint and we're we're looking for the purpose of change to get more functionality out of our systems when I talk about green screen it's truly a green screen and it's very clunky to go from here to there though we're used to it there's better things out there for us the state's doing the modernization Tyler munis and Cherry Road Oracle have been at it for three years with some of our schools and they're still not completely there with their modernization and getting those school districts up and running Gaston County for instance has had some serious issues and it's been costing them every month trying to get their file to the retirement system correctly because you get fined if it's not there in a in a timely manner there was no there were no excuses it just wasn't getting there and the state treasurer was not allowing for any lenience in in the fines that were going on there so that's become a costly project for them.

This is going to bring it to a cloud-based system which is critical we have to we are off site with our system at SAS currently but going to a cloud-based system provides us much more flexibility in being able to do things from afar very easily compared to having to log in through VPN to get to this to get to that and when VPN wasn't wouldn't work on your computer you wouldn't be able to get in from afar so Cloud base will bring a different aspect to us and again it's about simplifying our day-to-day operations this will provide so much more functionality and workflows to notify people that they have assignments in a purchase order World requisition gets entered gets sent to somebody's desk currently it sits there might not move for a couple days you can do this automatically because it's going to come to your box be notified you can set up a time on on any day to go in your box and get it taken care of moving.

On to the next step we want to make sure that as we continue to move forward which we've tried to do a lot of our own modernization as much as we can through emails and so on and so forth it just isn't the same as it hitting your box and you having to take action on it and we'll know where it is and this system is designed if it's sitting somewhere too long you're able to send notifications back to that person saying hey you got work to do so it's really important that we simplify our processes not only in the financial side but for everybody across the district that works on on budgets and and system generated documents for the purpose of a purchase order really good things in this system that will give us for payroll purposes for HR purposes for certificate CPE that teachers have to have there's modules in this system that we would like to have your blessing to move forward with from that standpoint we just want to.

Make sure that this is going to give us not everything none of these systems are giving us everything we need there's still going to be some plug-in but this one will be able to work with the staff the company that we'll talk about in a minute to move us forward is part of as partnered with the ceramic group that's currently working with us so that's important next slide please. Those syllogists Ed and which we call wind gauge is a product currently being tested for us specifically this group has is in Oklahoma they have a school-based system which the other two systems that the state has put forward one is for municipalities and government work the other is for big business work Oracle Cherry Road Oracle Tyler munis is for governments Cherry Road Oracle has been in the business world for many many years wait wait County does use Oracle but it's their own system that they've had for 15 years or more they have a contractor that's on that they have to contract with every.

Year to provide the services to the tuna 700 thousand dollars to have him available and make modifications to their system when they want to make changes the reason this system is better is because it's a system that's already developed in Oklahoma for the Oklahoma districts and this is a family-owned business and just want to put a shout out to the the dad of Chad Humphrey who his son will be playing the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend he is a center Creed Humphrey so I have to I had to give that shout out for Kansas City Chiefs because of that but yeah small world when it comes to doing business and who you know and who they know but they've already got the accounting general ledger part the back side of the financials that we need already in place they started working with us last April came and demoed it to a number of us here in the in the district and from there on they just started going and they've already got it in place.

For us to play in a sandbox which is a very big advantage for us to be able to try it see how it works see if it it comes out with the the final answers that we need they've already tested it but you know we try it we break it if we can they'll fix it so that that's the main thing is getting it right before it actually goes into implementation they're working on the payroll right now they say they're going to have it done by the end of March with all the uniquenesses that North Carolina has with the retirement system the orbit file the health insurance so on and so forth the nice thing about the sun pack product that we had the green screen is we have the programmer the lead programmer that's partnering with wind gauge to ensure that those things that are unique to North Carolina get taken care of on the front end and I mean that's a big thing that the other.

Two companies did not have in their back pockets there are two great people that work Mark Gooch and Sally Sally Sally Sally Sally Sally works with us on the payroll side Mark Gooch does the programming side so we have those people there for us and we'll make sure that they work closely with the wind gauge group to ensure a successful Landing the nice thing about this they are really comfortable they're really comfortable sir I gotta have my time they're really comfortable that they can get us going in July of this year not three years down the road so they're very comfortable with that because they know and and have products in another state so they just have to do the modification so next slide please so with that I'm not going to go into this much more you had you've had it the presentation to look at they're just they have over 500 of the school districts in Oklahoma every city is a school district in Oklahoma pretty much or every Farm even.

So they look at it from that side they've been doing modifications for 30 years so they know what it's about they know what education is about that is the key to this product is it's an education-based product so I feel much more comfortable that this company would be able to put the pieces together for us and make sure that we have the customer support that I am very concerned with with the other two groups that aren't going to be able to be there for you when you need an answer and I know that these people will so just because of their past performance and their credibility across Oklahoma because I have spoken some some of the school districts in Oklahoma to see how they like it and it's working great for them so I'm sure it's going to work great for us next slide please so these are just some of the things that are in the the system right now accounts payable purchasing that's what we'll be playing with right now payroll.

They'll be they're going to be working on they have a Personnel portal that allows Personnel to go in into their information it will update their information on the page on the on the HR side in personnel and it will flow to payroll so there's a lot of things that are there that make sure that that you have continuity in both locations and the information will be the same also some of the other things that they have that I didn't put on there is you can change your W-2s you can change your nc4s right then and there you can change your your bank routing number location account number whatever you need to do it's a self-service portal and it goes right into payroll so I mean it's really critical that we save our time and people's time as well to make sure that it gets to the right place on time so for the most part it's there they have Assist that system is is pretty pretty complete with what we need.

There's some things that they're going to add to it but there's a lot of things that are on the table right now that are plug and plays that we're going to be able to pull off the table as we go along and we make sure everything works so there'll be some cost savings as we go down the road from that standpoint next slide please so there's a conversion cost and there's an annual subscription cost what they're doing for us the state is paying for Tyler and Oracle they're paying over two million dollars for conversions for those two school districts that are in play right now we're only going to get charged 95 000 per conversion the reason why is because they feel they have a product that they can move in North Carolina for other school districts as well and as Mark Gooch says the Durham has always pushed ceramic and Sun pacted limits on trying to get things modernized as much as we can this just.

Puts us that much further at a low cost for us to be able to move forward it does increase the subscription one dollar per student bringing it up to two hundred thousand dollars at the very bottom in the first year cost and that's they want to guarantee that for five years so we do have and I will say this we would love to have your blessing to move forward in it I'm not going to go through the presentation that continues on which is a state presentation that shows it's going to take another seven and a half to ten years for to convert the school districts in North Carolina and there are those modules that the states working with with student accounting and some other hrms which is human resource management system that they're changing up as well as all the different human resource advertising pieces for personnel so I'm not going to bore you with that I think and I feel my staff feels that we can move forward with this.

We're excited about it because we want something new we've been wanting something new and we hope that you will allow us to move forward with this and engage with syllogist on this wind gauge product I do want you to know that we're still looking at the document and our our in-house attorney Miss Giovanni has some questions that she wants answered by the their group before I actually sign it and move forward so we will get those cleared up and if you give us the go ahead we'll we're ready to go they're ready to go thank you so much Mr we are almost as excited as you are about this long overdue upgrade and know that you will be leading us as we lead the state in making sure that this gets done smoothly and our employees still get paid and no one notices anything behind the scenes y'all have any questions about this Miss Lewis just one quick question thank you I am excited as you are too crunching numbers and being able to.

Transfer over and do things automatically and in the cloud and all that good stuff what is it like as far as compatibility with artists and for our vendors to be able to get the information out things of that nature how compatible more compatible oh most definitely I mean it's just yeah it's all Excel spreadsheets it's not you know it's not all hard coded reports that we print out or that we have to go through and try to generate we'll develop those reports as we go it'll be easy to get the information out and you'll have so much at your hands that it will be a it'll be a different world and well they just one other quick question what is the training time for you're on onboarding your team's onboarding with it so they're gonna we're playing in the sandbox as soon as I can sign they're ready to give us their app to go but we'll be training through through the April time frame on general.

Ledger and then when we get the when we get the payroll general ledger will continue but payroll will pick up with the payroll part and human resource part as well and they'll be training right through through the summer thank you and they're developing videos and a whole whole a lot of documentation to support the ongoing North Carolina model they already have they have 850 videos out there for the Oklahoma model but they're going to do some for the North Carolina model as well because they want it to be simple they want to they want you to be able to move quickly thank you any other questions Miss Rogers thank you I appreciate it I appreciate the fact that you're offering the financial piece is our human resource department ready to come on board with the same system at the same time and will it slow their processes no it will expedite the processes and Jeff shaking his head let's go.

Mr McCoy can you can you just jump on the mic so sorry about that when I came here three years ago and saw as for 100 my jaw drops we at any system in the modern age will be a benefit to HR as well really ready to get into the sandbox I can tell yeah off the green screen thank you yeah something happy to move on motion do we need any special language since there is some things still worked out in the contract is that correct yeah they're very minor but just want some clarity around some of the terms in the standard contract but Mr lesord and I have discussed some they we are going to before we just need some clarity so it'll happen very quickly because as he indicated we're trying to get this rolling in July so I anticipate tomorrow I'll start a conversation with them I don't anticipate they're being too much of an issue thank you if you're going to move to approve the.

Contract perhaps motion to a move to approve the contract subject to approval by a board attorney a move that we approve the contract subject to approval by the board attorney it's been moved by Miss Umstead and seconded by Ms Chavez any further discussion on this financial and human resource system if not all in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously thank you thank you yeah we are excited we are thank you so much for shepherding us through that and thank you all for being so patient with us Dr Hardy the follow-up items.

Maybe not as long as you think so in the board discussion items for staff to work on I think it's policy 2200 regarding board member terms of service with Miss Giovanni as well as in regards to the mou reviewing the mou with the DPS Foundation the equity and professional learning make sure that the board members have access to the video and with reference there's a there is quite a bit of items from Gaggle mostly I think to summarize to make sure that we bring back collecting data through this spring bring back that information prior to in enough time for the board to make a decision regarding renewing that particular contract and those terms go through June 30th so my notes say revisit that in May so the board has time to deliberate and take any action necessary in reference to the McKinsey report separating Dr Bing has already indicated separating the requests for 1.28 to the DPS Foundation 280 000 whole child 1 million for affordable housing.

And HR in the math and science make sure that we're acknowledging other options such as non-binary and making sure that that's present in the language and in the professional development making sure over the summer making sure that we have access to child care Dr Mark is not it thank you thank you thank you and with that I will welcome a motion.

The movie we go into closed session for the reason stated on the agenda second improved by Miss understood second by Mrs any further discussion if not all in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously we are in closed session thank you.

All right we are now back in Open Session Dr mabinga Madam chair I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a closed session move approval of the Personnel report dated February 9 9th 2023 second been moving properly second any other discussion all those in favor please say ah any opposed please use the same sign we are now adjourned.