Board of Education · Work Session · January 11, 2024

to call this meeting to order thank you for joining us this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us in person or online the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff students and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead tonight the administration will be presenting information to keep us up to date on our strategic plan our interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo Riles and Marty Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us this evening our first item on our agenda is a moment of silence had a weather filled week we've had all kinds of excitement here in Duram Public Schools we are thankful for our staff who have helped us navigate this with Grace and thank you for our students and parents and families for

their patience let's all begin with a moment of silence thank you next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval there any changes deletions additions that we need to make to this agenda this evening hearing none I welcome a motion move approval of the agenda it's been moved by Miss Millicent Rogers and seconded by Jovonia Jovonia Lewis that we approve the agenda as presented any further discussion not all in favor I I any opposed it passes unanimously that brings us to our board work session minutes from November 2nd 2023 any changes that you all

noted if not I would welcome a motion I move that we approve the Board of Education minutes from November 2nd 2023 second it's been moved by Vice chair Chavez and seconded by chair Umstead any further discussion not all in favor I I any opposed it passes unanimously that brings us to item five general public comment don't see anyone signed up to speak this evening but if folks come later um we could make room for that in our evening agenda that brings us to the consent AG agenda items the proposal to upgrade to Eureka math squared for our K5 curriculum resources this item has been presented and reviewed any questions discussion motions on this item on the consent agenda move approval of the consent

agenda second it's been moved by Miss Millicent Rogers and seconded by Jovonia Jovonia Lewis any further discussion not all in favor I any opposed passes unanimously that brings us to item seven academic Services the final update a long time coming on the 2018 2023 strategic plan you ready good evening board members Dr

manga uh tonight the administration brings its final update report presentation to you on the 2018 2023 strategic plan this presentation represents a culmination of the past 5 years of comprehensive work in Duran Public Schools as we Sunset the first district strategic plan fiveyear plan at this point I'd like to ask um my colleague Dr Deborah Pitman to come forward and she will be presenting this item to you for your information thank you Dr King and good evening um board members Dr mbenga next slide please so tonight's presentation is going to is organized around five the five priority areas so we're going to do a brief reminder of what those strategic priorities are and we're going to focus on the data outcomes the metrics that we've been tracking over five years and highlighting where the five-year

trajectory has brought us and also will link to the most specific from the previous year to this year as you may remember the work for the Strategic plan uh for each of the priorities was organized around priority Champions or priority leads and those were members of Dr manga's cabinet who were charged with ensuring that each of the five priority areas were implemented with Fidelity and in turn senior level leadership served as gold team leads and then for the goal team strategies and then teams from AC across the school district from schools and multip and all of our departments were created to ensure the Strategic plan was fully implemented tonight the Strategic plan primarily the priority Champions and the senior leadership will highlight the data metrics for their priority area and their gold strategies so let's go to the next slide and let's go to the next slide so just as a quick reminder there were five

priority areas we all know these by heart but for um everyone our listening audience included the first and most important well I can say that but the first priority area was to increase academic achievement the second was to provide a safe School environment that supports the whole child the third was to attract and retain outstanding teachers and staff the fourth to strengthen School family and Community engagement and to the fifth to ensure fiscal and operational responsibility so let's go to the next slide and the next slide and this is our dashboard and for each of the priority goal areas this evening you will see a similar dashboard for the sake to begin let's do a quick uh walk around what we will see on each chart so in the top row that's red it will indicate the priority area and then you can see the blue row indicates the fiveyear longitudinal monitoring for each of the goals within

that priority area this is a busy slide but let's anchor our eyes on the color columns the color columns Mark the designation as to whether or not we met exceeded didn't meet or were within a range of the that annual metric so if we look at the first major column it says goal that was the goal strategy for that priority and we'll go through those in detail in a moment but the next Columns of metrics you can see are named the two 201819 goal followed by the actual result and then a column was added to color code how did it do and so blue and green are great so green means we met blue means we exceeded that metric for that year we've colorcoded uh golden or yellow to say we were close we were within range but didn't quite make it and then r or that pink indicates we did not make that annual Target the trajectory of each of those those years

was incremental toward the ultimate goal that is highlighted in the final three columns the if you'll look at the last four columns this is where we'll focus a lot of our discussion this evening the 2223 goal followed by the 2223 actual followed by its color coding and then a final column that was added that says over the five years did Durham Public Schools experience gains in that metric for that strategy so let's get started we'll stay on this slide and now I'm going to go deep and just talk about the uh increasing academic achievement so the first goal was that 90% of our schools would meet or exceed growth as measured by the state model now you'll remember we went pretty deep with our data and our accountability model in September on the outcomes of the of the 22 23 school year so I'm not

2% and we might have gotten a golden color a little closer within range but I also do want to spend a minute celebrating that if you'll remember among our peer districts Durham Public Schools ranked first of school with schools meeting or exceeding growth last

fall from the 22 23 school year and um so that's a huge celebration we worked hard to meet or exceed growth and we're proud of that and so we get a purple then over time over the five years we did indeed experience gains now the second goal around 60% overall great meeting grade level proficiency you remember we spoke a lot about this at our our meeting in the fall you can see that when we began the Strategic plan we got a green that first year we were on our way we were making uh proficiency improvements and then covid uh happened and for the next year there were no um the metrics were suspended in in reporting and then when we came back to in person you can see the impact that Co had on our our perent percent proficient although we have three um red bars there we have tremendous work that has been going on and we have made improvements for each

3 and so from the start of the Strategic plan to its conclusion we did indeed U make some gains and then the final goal in this on the academic achievement was around 100% of teachers leaders and staff will use technology as a tool for um student learning and so each year we survey our faculty and each year The

5% of our our staff are reporting that they're using technology but we had set 100% Target and so we colorcoded that didn't quite make it to the 100% but we're above 90 and again over the 5year trajectory certainly we made and so we colorcoded that purple at this time I'd like to invite Dr lever Maddox Perry our senior executive director of student Support Services who will share the accomplishments of priority goal to next slide please good evening thank you Dr Pitman good evening to you board members as well as Dr MinGa and the public I wanted to share our excitement about what we believe to be pivotal advancement steming from the world directly aligned to strategic plan 2018 through 2023 priority 2 the two goals for

priority two just as a review uh by 2023 100% of dur Public Schools will Implement research-based cultural Frameworks to support the social emotional health and safety of students and staff the second goal by 2023 DPS will reduce the percentage of students suspended out of school from kindergarten through 12th grade to 4% or lower on the dashboard displayed here data reflects the trajectory towards goal attainment from 2018 to 20120 and then we experienc the pandemic a closer look at priority 2A the first goal shows that our schools committed to increasing their capacity through a research-based best practice to support the social emotional health and safety of students and staff with 100% of our schools selecting and implementing a cultural framework by 2023 if we take a closer look at priority 2B the second goal specifically

targeting reductions in our out of school suspensions it shows that our numbers of outer School suspensions decreased by about two percentage points and then we experienced an extended time of virtual learning all the experts attempted to prepare schools and school districts for students and adult adults and families who would return to inperson learning with more socio emotional needs and the possible need to restart some of the social emotional learning initiatives and Paradigm shifts that we had already begun as you can see our number of out of school suspensions began to increase in 2021 2022 and we concluded our strategic plan in 20 2023 without achieving our desired suspension rate of below 4% we do however see the opportunity we now have by including a modified version of this goal in the new 20123 2028

strategic plan we now have a process for analyzing the strategies and action steps that put us on the prior Pathway to reductions in the percentage of students assigned out of school suspensions we also have an expanded team a blueprint from our earlier successes and the renewed dedication to ensure safe School environment that supports the whole child at this time I will ask uh Dr a l to come forward good evening Dr mbinga members of the board next slide thank you human capital rest at the center of our return from covid and without adjustment the metrics related here displayed here to Priority three reflect the impact of return to in-person learning despite these challenges there is a great cause for celebration of our

5% but it is not official from the state yet but in conversation with DPI we um are actually going to come in about a half a percentage less at 21% um for our final turnover rate for 2022 23 this percentage is consistent with Statewide Trends but DPS celebrates the fact that from entering the last year of this um strategic plan to the current one we have reduced teacher vacancies from a high in excess of 400 to just under 100 strategic planning has also significantly reduced uced EC Math Science and bus driver vacancies targeted recruitment efforts along with record employee bonuses and greater efforts to recognize the

outstanding um contributions and the outstanding work of our employees has helped to reduce our vacancies every month we enjoy highlighting the teacher and employee of the month and those were efforts that were initiated under this under this past strategic plan along with spark recognitions um for our employees and numerous other efforts to share the great work occurring in DPS additionally as we strategized to ensure our classrooms were covered with a substitute fill rate of less than 50% we improve the fill rate to just under 70% in two years and I would note that this is with an increase in in teacher absences our Royal metric for this strategic plan is indicated by the purple coding in the increase of the

15% at the close of the Strategic plan while this was less than the 10% that is um outlined as the goal this is huge increases for a five-year time period for um this hiring effort we have consistently said it is not just about an overall percentage but we have increased the percentage of teachers and administrators from the base year of this plan if you dig deeper into the data our greatest successes are in the increases we see in our instructional teacher and assistant teacher ranks we have almost doubled our percentage of instructional assistance and we have doubled the percentage of teachers and this creates vast opportunities for succession planning as we seek to recruit and retain talented individuals

to advance into our administrative ranks the improvements in this metric have come through expanded um efforts in our triangle Community across the state of North Carolina strategic recruitment Across the Nation and foresight that um I would put up against any district for international recruitment the best work that I must acknowledge has come through collaboration with our existing Hispanic and Latino learning community of employees who consistently provide us with good feedback on our efforts and what will goner better results there was actually a meeting this afternoon and we appreciate those employees regarding employee satisfaction we initially experienced great gains in the first three years of the Strategic plan um then the final goal was adjusted from 85% to 91% on the other side of remote work

however we experience significant decreases however we celebrate the fact that the focus of that a focus area was on improving our response rate and we had significant increase in the number of our employees responding to the employee satisfaction survey especially among our classified Personnel improvements including included providing employees with an ability to complete the survey via cell phone um one of the greatest celebrations from our 3C grow goal included the creation of a more strategic focus on professional development for classified personnel including the um creation of a position to guide that work despite not reaching the goal of 91% DPS employees still indicate a high level of satisfaction as we strive to position our work for Success under the

improvements of the new strategic plan we are exciting about C completing our state interviews this spring in the first year of this new strategic plan the metrics of the new plan along with our efforts reflect a balance of not only assessing why employees leave but why employees stay in transitioning to our current strategic plan there's a more targeted focus on key areas of recruitment with explicit goals for certain areas such as EC bus drivers and um black employment along with Hispanic and Latino employment the work has a greater focus on ensuring our community is more well informed of multiple Pathways to teaching we continue to expand our partnership with area universities um such as nccu with not only the Improvement of our TA to teer um programming but the launch of Bull City

scholarship for which we will have our first attendees um this spring this year the first um recipients will not only be named but I would also like to acknowledge a historic um cohort in in dream at UNC Chapel Hill also we have worked with Derm Tech to identify DPS graduates in their education program who will be transitioning to nccu to complete their teacher education program we will continue to focus on providing meaningful professional development opportunities to all staff and we are super excited about ongoing collaborations to ensure staff have access to affordable housing now it is my pleasure to turn the microphone over to Sheena Cooper for a priority for good evening next slide please board members Dr maena the focus of priority 4 has been

to strengthen School family and Community engagement in Durham Public Schools while while the data before you provides details about just how far we were able to move the needle in this area the true story is Illustrated in the accomplishments of our Collective work I'm delighted to share those highlights with you this evening over the past five years we have implemented targeted initiatives to bridge gaps between the district and its stakeholders improving the perception of our schools begins with a robust strategy to engage families employees and our community priority four saw the development of the district's strategic marketing and Communications plan the launch of the DPS mobile app the creation of our online engagement platform engage. net these were critical First Steps in building a culture of Engagement across all communities our parents and our families

are our strongest allies and we certainly recognize this all throughout priority 4 the iic plan also launched the DPS parent ambassador program this program was designed to bolster engagement and messaging among parents and families creating a core group of parent Advocates who are committed to the success of our students and this District Additionally the creation of the multilingual Resource Center allowed us to Foster relationships and support the needs of our diverse Learning Community specifically our Spanish-speaking families MRC has mobilized across DPS in the greater Dr Community to acknowledge language Justice for All Families DPSS Family Academy was expanded to include all schools promoting in promoting meaningful evidence-based family engagement across the district to ensure our Spanish speaking families exit the access test at a higher rate the El Prep Academy was established to provide additional instructional support to our students

and families our commitment to Shared responsibility has fostered a sense of community and collaboration making sure that everyone within our school Community plays a vital role in the success of our students all DPS schools forged meaningful relationships with Community Partners who enhance and support learning within those School communities these are just a few examples of this goal's impact within our district we look forward to continuing our work to strengthen our relations with our families with our Community Partners and also with others within our community to strengthen our district um and with that I will turn it over to Mr Larry Johnson to share information about priority 5 good evening board members Dr mainga um with me I have senior direct executive director planning Matthew Palmer and we're covering goal five which is ensure fiscal and operational

responsibility um first goal is through 2023 DPS will exhibit fiscal responsibilities as measured by Clean external Financial audit each year and next slide please and receive Association of school business officers and government Finance Officers Association certificates which is done through our finance department in M Lor as you can look at this goal um we've met everything in this goal with the exception of 20 um 1920 and that was during the covid year um which we did not meet during that particular time goal two by 2023 100% of DPS schools including grounds will maintain a high level of cleanliness um is evidenced by the clean scoo award um as you look at this goal um establish Baseline data what we tried to do was have incremental increases throughout the years from 70 all the way to 100% um as you look across with the exception of the co year um the two Co

years we met this goal um in 19 in 2021 we did not meet um we were asking for additional funding to increase Staffing U but overall the goal was met in 2223 um goal three by 2023 100% of elementary schools will have adequate appropriate classroom space to accommodate reduced class sizes in kindergarten through um third grade and this was tied to Mr Palmer and his staff with the assessment of Elementary space um outlining redistricting parameters and and new construction which is tied to Growing together um new construction that has started with Mary massenberg the new um with Glenn and other projects throughout the district reassigning as well um as you can see this goal was met um throughout with exception of the final 2020 2223 which will be complete once we Implement growing together our fourth goal was by 2023 DPS will improve the physical environment to enhance student learning and this update

emergency procedures responses um this goal was met all the way throughout and you can see in 2021 we exceeded that um and overall goal you know finish light and things like that was achieved as well and Mr Palmer will talk about goal five thank you Mr Johnson um with strategic plan pred 5 um what we do focus on within Transportation as you see is that we are scored annually by ncdpi for efficiency which is to say again how well we load our students of the overall capacity of the school bus and relationship to how many students are on any individual bus um if there's 72 seats can we fit all 72 students unfortunately uh when we went through covid um the state stopped scoring us so as a kpi we have not received a school for the last four years um most recently

8 by 2023 currently we are above 95% oh and currently in in 23 24 we're above 95% as well thank you I'mma turn it back over to Dr King

Dr King got caught listening to the presentation and not keeping up presentation uh board members as we recognize these achievements we cannot do so without acknowledging the priority leads goal team leads uh team members as well as everyone throughout the district teachers students and parents School leaders who have worked to move our district toward for forward in this space we thank everyone for their dedication to the this work some of the staff and gold team members are with us this evening ask any of those who are here to please stand and be recognized and and hopefully they understand that they are not to um we appreciate their work but not to start resting because we get started on the new strategic plan tomorrow morning at 900 am all right so thank you very much uh we'll be glad to hear any discussion and and try to answer any questions that you

may thank you so much Dr King wanted to thank the um team leads that were here on behalf of your teams to present today and I appreciate you acknowledging all the work and all the people that spent so many tireless hours on um these audacious goals that we set five years ago I'm looking at colleagues to see who has questions and um what discussion you all want to bring forth it is um been a lot of work some of y'all were here for it all the way through some of you all are joining and continuing this work on and we we're appreciative everyone in the DPS team yes Miss hon I'll kick us off um thank y'all so much for this work I was on the uh committee who put the plan together five years ago and I'm um honored at how much progress we made we know Co interrupted many of that the stay at home time but we also know that we were able to pick up a lot of what we learned right after

that I do have a couple questions about some of the things that we learned and we know that some of these same priorities are in the new plan so how are we going to approach them differently as we look at the next five years so thinking about suspensions um we know that suspensions increased after we returned to inperson learning I'm wondering what are some of the wise we learned behind that and what we're putting in place to Pro to help that number go back down in the next five years that's a very good question and it is a place that we have spent a lot of time um School leaders District leaders that support schools trying to figure out exactly what could have led to such an increase and then then in the second year after our full return um what I would consider you know almost a big as an increase as we had had in reductions and what we found out is that it really came down to we looked at the time of

day uh type of incidents that were leading to the suspensions as well as all the other um aspects of returning from the pandemic closures that include transitions in staff which meant you lost some of the institutional knowledge around some of the practices that we had been doing so there was an opportunity for us to reset and try to regain that momentum by increasing our um School level and District level team trainings as well as knowledge around all those initiatives and practices that we thought helped to lead to the gains in um keeping kids in school in the beginning um and when it looks when it comes to uh how we're looking at the upcoming strategic plan um we have increased we always ask okay who's missing from this conversation we've uh gotten an emphasis more on getting uh directly to students teachers and parents in a more um assertive manner to

ensure that the knowledge that we felt like we lost in some of the transition of people and time um we can gain by um an exponential increase through through community outreach as well thank you for that I'm glad to hear that we've expanded and getting that student and parent and community members perspective because we know those are vital and I often think about this number of decreasing suspension and how it works with the academic piece right if students are in really culturally rich and engaging in rigorous activity in school not gonna want to leave I want to be in the building right if I have good curriculum good friends and connections with adults in the building so I just appreciate that my other um question was on the transportation is the state picking back up the um efficiency rating next year is that what I'm hearing that they have stopped doing it so the efficiency rating is a part of the funding formula from the state of

North Carolina for people Transportation um as you know for the upcoming strategic plan 2328 working with our community and board we understand that a priority U may not be exactly can we fit 72 students in 72 stats more importantly are students arriving to school on time and by that I'm saying we understand that the key performance indicator that measure that we care most about is on time arrival and that's where our Focus has been and will continue to be um well-being efficient at the same time again director Harris and our team are some of the best in the state at ensuring we're as responsible as we can be with our limited resources uh it's an ongoing measure with the state that's not going away uh but we will be shifting our Focus to timely arrival which we have been through this past year okay thank you and then my last one is just a comment around um retaining and some outstanding Educators I'm so glad to hear about the state interviews and the ways that we've been partnering with

CCU uh UNCC and continue to expand Partnerships I also hope we can think about as another retention effort doing more Affinity groups I know we have SOS uh DPS I know we have lgbtqia group I would love to see a black male educator group as well that gets to meet whatever other affinities our teachers would like to see um but I think that's another way to increase impact the awards are good but they are are own uh one person or two people how do we think about making people feel connected to the people in the building and we know we have so many new teachers teaching is hard work especially when you first get started how can these Affinity groups help support each other as they're navigating um their teaching Journey here in DPS so those are all my comments thank y'all so much for all the work and we're looking forward to five more years thank you chair I'm said I saw Miss Millicent Rogers thanks everybody um I am appreciative of this work it's been a

long time um that y'all have been supporting our Educators and our students um my questions I guess go to Dr [unclear - not a clear name match] and stem from the portion of the presentation around suspension uh my questions are around restorative practice coordinators and the training that's happening there um you mentioned increased training do we what agencies are offering the current training that educators are receiving which Educators get that training um and do we have any information about uh what percentage of our Educators still need like some more training around the restorative practices um and if our principal same thing percentage wise with our principles and they have monthly plc's is that right when you say they the rpc's the rpc's um this year they have not had monthly they do have plc's we

are um they actually have an opportunity to have their own plc's in between their formalized plc's with uh led by members of student Support Services um and I'm I'm gonna try to remember all your questions I'm sorry U Miss Millicent Rogers but um I think agencies agencies so agencies it varies uh we do have a standing contract with Institute for uh excuse me The International Institute for restored practices um we also have worked with other local vendors uh and providers of those based on principal you know request if there is a a a standing relationship already um as the principles felt that this might be a type of presentation that would be more uh applicable at their school we have been supportive of that um that includes um caring schools I think is the the name and forgive me if I don't have it right in front of me some of them have full names um so we we do have a an opportunity to increase uh as well

our our Outreach to get more um in in involved in and one of our goals is to try to have more and more local um because we are lucky to be in dur where there's a lot of people who who are engaged in in restorative justice and some of that um translates very easily into working with school staff so we're doing that too um in terms of numbers we're still trying to um to determine exactly how many people need additional um training we're working on onboarding because we have had so many new teachers staff rpcs themselves um principles and so we're working on a plan as as Dr King said as we um leap right into the upcoming strategic plan um we're going to plan for increasing that training at the school level did I answer [unclear - not a name misspelling] that's great thank you so much yes Miss

VI you for bringing this to us um uh this is not a new conversation with the team because we actually got to uh go over this material and kind of sit with it a little bit right and um take in the positive upward Trends take in the places where we were really close but we didn't really get to where we wanted to be um and the conversations that are happening around what is needed in terms of the um strategic plan we have to realize like the Strategic plan touches on major topics major things but it is not the totality of the work that has to happen and so I wanted to just hold a little bit of hold some space for the work that will not be reflected in terms of the metrics but yet are connected to these metrics and part of that is to change culture right and that is not something that you can quantify sometimes but it is about Sonia Marquez for example a

woman who worked in DPS and you know I just Google her name up and it says she has an astounding 23 years of being in education so she's she's been 23 years in the educational space and she used to work for us and she made a request to become the first Latina principal she's the daughter of Mexican immigrants who worked in the fields providing food for us right the hardworking immigrants migrant Farm Workers who pick the crops that allow us to be nourished and allow us to go to the store and have the convenience of that the dream of her family and her ancestors this woman was with us and made that request she wanted to be the first Latina principal and um it didn't happen and she left and now she's she's actually talking everywhere and the word on the street is DPS is a very hard place if you happen to be Latina or Latino you

will sit for a long time the Committees will not ever represent your constituency the the Committees will look very biased because they are not reflective of the demographic composition of DPS and until we fix those committees that are actually making those recommendations some people will not stand a chance some people will be told that they are I won't they won't they won't say they're incompetent but they will say that they may not meet certain things like maybe they don't interview well that is a very subjective thing and until we Chang culture and really Embrace multilingualism multiculturalism and shared experiences of people who come from different walks of life you're who was sitting here jumped the fence at 5 years old so I'm telling you like I really take this very personal at what we're seeing here in terms of not meeting our metrics and we're very close I get that we should

8% that that's an attempt then we can say we're within the within the um we're we're we're close enough to meet a 10% but that 10% is not reflective of the constituency that we have that is very much diverse and when you look at DPS were upwards of 34% and so I just want to hold space for the work that we're doing and the ways that we can say we're on the right path and the ways that we're also needing to address things that will not be addressed by the Strategic plan and that is the work of equity and that is the work of justice and that is the work of listening and I I appreciate um Dr Lin mentioning the group I do know that there's a group of very hardworking people including some of the people who are in that cabin translating this meeting right now you know who meet and have talked about upward mobility and what that looks like in DPS and we have

zero Latino principles zero Latin inclusive of all the diverse and intersectional identities zero latine principles right now and um and we have I believe two assistant principles that are Latino and that's the number that we've had for the last since ever since we actually even had our first like two it used to be Sonia and Jose cardosa and right now it's Jose cardosa Sonia left and we have Luis and so we just have to sit with that for a district that serves 34% upwards of 34% families that look like me right um my mom didn't speak English and I had to translate for her and so I'm I'm just saying like we really need to like amp that up and I'm I'm I'm not trying to knock the work that has happened because we've gotten to 8% but 8% is not commensurate with 34

upwards of 34% and so um I think the pipeline that we have with Durham Tech my alma moer nccu UNCC dream which Emily worked with and um and that is important work um the ways that we continue to think about these pipelines and those are all great but we have to create the conditions for people to want to stay and recommend us because as much as all these Endeavors that we do and we can go out and and try to get people here if the word on the street is is that DPS is a very hard place for Upward mobility and equity for people that look like me people that look like Sonia people that look like Jose cardosa who's been here for five years as an assistant principal then that means this is not the place that is growing talent and not retaining talent and so I this is not a surprise I told this is exactly what I shared in that meeting

and I want to hear from Community as well well about how they feel about that and I i' I've actually heard so I've heard how they feel about that I'm just saying I want Community to uh speak about that to you all and provide that opportunity um and I thank Dr King for making himself available he at that meeting when I said this he's like I'm interested let's talk let's figure this thing out and so there will be more opportunities um to have these conversations but it's important for us to name the elephant in the room not having one single princip that is Latino is a disservice to families that are hardworking some of whom have Generations here um you know in and out because migratory work Farm worker work is not work that is steady all the time people actually go back sometimes the language is not Acquired and people have you know these migration patterns have been studied over a long time the United States has been relying on agricultural labor for a long time and we would not be the nation that we are without Farm

Workers and so I just want to to continue to um honor Pioneers like Sonia Jose cardosa and others who were the first two assistant principles and do right by them and many others who want to serve our children in the school district that has many of these children thank you okay I know you didn't ask a question but I do want to take this as an opportunity to say I hear you as the head of human resources and we have these conversations front and center from the work that we have been doing specifically in Human Resources as well as the priority 3 work and so I think we have lots of wonderful things in place but I do think that there are um things practices that we're looking at with best hiring practices how do you diversify teams how do you do those things so I will just say we hear you it is front and center and we welcome feedback and actually look for that

feedback from like I mentioned some of the outstanding employees that always keep it real with us and say these are things that you should consider so I appreciate that thank you thank you Dr L thank you Miss viar for holding that truth here for us all to continue to push forward with other comments questions Miss chavas and then Miss Jovonia Lewis thank you all for this full presentation so much work has been done my appreciation and looking forward to seeing how we how we continue and build off of what has done with a lot of attention to our subgroups my question is also for Dr Maddox Perry about the suspensions uh I and my question is specifically around I know I've brought this up before but about students who are suspended for substance use and I wonder if there are or what opportunities you see to to support

students who have who are um in violation of our substance use policy and who may be using substances to self-medicate and who may not be able to access uh DC if I'm saying that right to because of uh the level of Parental involvement that's required I know I've brought this up before but just wondering and thinking about our goal around Partnerships as well to expand those are there other organizations or entities that we haven't thought of thus far or that you are thinking of in in in uh sort of reexamining this gooal yes and uh in addition to looking at of course our Partnerships and other agencies we actually are um thinking about how we can have uh you know be creative and Innovative and think about programming that we could offer one thing that we've heard from a lot of families and principles when the offer is made for d and the families are having to decline it it has to do with um easy

accessibility and so what kind of programming could we be offering on our campuses if that's possible and that could mean a two or threee commitment from a staff member or from our departments to figure out who would receive that training because it would require some specialized training but we are U committed to making something like that happen over the next few years thank you I I appreciate that that work and just look forward to to seeing growth in in that area around suspensions thank you that's all I have for now situated here so here in this presentation I just think that people without a vision will perish and this Vision has been set has been the North Star and guid in this District over the past five years I was also part of the creation team and to

Sunset it I feel like we need to have cake and ice cream like this is a celebration of progress It's a celebration the progress is not that we're where we want to be with our students and families and as a community but progress that we actually set goals and kept it at a Forefront and there a living document that did not just sit on a shelf so kudos and that's what I celebrate um with this DPS Administration educator staff um all included who has been doing the work but now it's just captured and making sure that we are following it with the fine tooth comb and I I took a minute to laugh and want to give you a second to sit down Dr M madx perod because my question is for you also the priorities of this uh board is very similar right um so I know and appreciate um accessibility and working on the plan

for what it looks like for us um for children who their substance abuse um suspensions you mentioned that um this is an opportunity with this um plan to modify goals and the goal numbers are less are higher than what they were previously so just I guess more realistic but still a little higher than we might want it to be I remember we had when I was first coming through getting rid of out of school in school suspension and doing restorative practices we often got updates on um with these metrics with how often what the metrics were with restorative practices and suspensions will we still get that even though that's not in this strategic plan it's in there we have not abandoned that that practice of monitoring how much time students spent outside of the classroom and um in revamping what our resorted practices centers look like as we said we have to have restart we have had transition there so that's not an

abandoned uh practice by us and yes you will um as you know as uh our superintendent and and Dr King see fit we were happy to continue to share updates on on those things with you and then with um eser funding we had additional positions Behavior specialist interventionist and things of that nature and that we still saw the numbers went higher and again there's not a A to B C it's a couple of different factors you talked about the environmental factors historical knowledge um the the vacancies and things of that nature so we know that system works all together where are we now that essr funding is exhausting and ramping up the student Support Services Personnel right now um well we have been communicating with our superintendent and and other members of cabinet leadership about what is possible in um being able to you know continue those things that we have find found to be helpful and um useful in

making gains but we also are thinking about um what's possible and what could we add to to our team and um as we're thinking about moving into the new strategic plan we also have been looking about what's high leverage because we always have the prioritize um resources we we have limited resources so what are our high leverage practices and that's why we've been spending kind of a a long time reflecting on um what things were working in the first two years what things have changed and where we need to go so high leverage practices um because we know we're not going to have an unlimited source of funding for some of the things and when you said that that made me think there's um districtwide training coming up right yes ma'am what is that called again and what can tell us a little more about it yes so is it so I'm gonna have um luckily she's here um t or saterfield our director for student wellness and advocacy her department is actually leading some of

that work so she can be very more specific than I can thank you good evening Bard and Dr mainga uh thank you for asking yes on Tuesday um first of all you may remember in in a board update that um over last summer Governor Cooper created a initiative around U Mental Health First Aid um and so as as soon as we saw that we jumped on board um it is available for all of the eleas in the state we have arguably uh the highest involvement we have the most trained staff and community members so far and because of that on Tuesday we are holding five Training sessions now these sessions will hold up to 30 members a piece on youth Mental Health First Aid um at last count three of those sessions were already full and the last two are filling up so it's going to

be a fantastic day four of those sessions are scheduled to be in person one session will be online uh and they are being facilitated by members of our team uh and student Support Services as well as our Community Partners um at student U the volunteer Medical Corp and dermtech outstanding thank you so much for sharing that for bringing that resource to uh the district and this that's again how you're building capacity by first aid mental health first aid for those who are all interacting with you thank you for that thank you for sharing um where things are beginning that's just the beginning thank you and then the last thing I'll just say is there's lots of metrics and things that we can measure um one of the things I did want to key in key in on and um Dr L it's not a question but just something to consider as HR has a lot of needs um with what the goals are already are I also want to

make sure we're looking at the turnaround fill fulfilling positions once people get into the pipeline that's just been something that's been reiterated to me this year that's just a longer process than to be expected some of it is government I understand but also um I think we may be Miss nowon some people by the time they have to end up taking another job offer just something to think about thank you good job Miss Carter Auten um thank you so much I don't have much to add my colleagues have asked some um really incredible questions this evening touching on some of our biggest priorities um so I'll just say I'm um proud of the work that's been done we've made some amazing progress um and we have a lot of work to do still and I'm excited to have this next strategic plan with I think some even more um uh robust um goals and some strategies there that we're going to be working towards and I'm eager to see the way that we um do

an even better job of aligning uh the all of the work that we're or the work that we're doing the strategies and our resources um with the effort to get further along in achieving the goals that we've set forth in our new strategic plan Miss Chavez so I wanted to I wanted to go back to uh what my colleague Miss vadis was saying um and Dr L we have obviously had conversations about this I wanted to say that I wanted to just comment on on this a little bit and say that I'm I'm glad that we've increased the number of IAS and teachers and note that we have seen some of our um even our teachers of the month who are those LAX teach teachers that we have recruited here I want to I want to underscore what Miss V said about the need for attention to biases that may particularly affect latinxt and immigrant Educators I know that we're doing a great job at now

doing those Equity audits in the classroom and I hope we can do those with also the attention attention to experiences of immigrant students and families and Educators and and I will say that in in doing some of this work of trying to recruit latinx Educators I found that the barriers to entry for it for latinx uh young people or or people in general to get into education started before the you know the point at which they may be entering a program and that's why it's important for us to address those those barriers headon so I'm really looking forward to seeing with our Bull City what is it Bull City Scholars Bull City fellows Bull City teaching Scholars teaching Scholars I'm hoping to see that diversity there because there what I found was there were uh prerequisites

and that kind of thing that students may not have that would prevent them from then moving forward you know in a certain uh teacher ad program so so that's where I I really hope we can cultivate that um that passion for for working with young people in in those young people um who are who like to work with children and and all of that um I want to say about this the other thing is I wanted to uh just point out what Miss vtis was saying about the diversity well sort of you were speaking to the diversity within the latinx community and that I hope that we can also make sure to we're as we're searching for latinx educators try to recruit those who also reflect the backgrounds of our students and um and so I think we've talked about this but those who like you said children of Farm Workers migrant workers those who have experienced tremendous

obstacles in getting to this place in this country and sometimes it's easier for more privileged uh people latinx people to access resources just like anybody um anyone any other person with more privilege but I want us to also just pay attention to that and I want to raise that um that there you know there's racial diversity latinx is not a race there's you know all class diversity um and obviously and most of our students here are from of Mexican or Central American descent and so I raised that as well but I appreciate the work we are continue to be excited about the work and we and you know it's it's important to this board so I just raised that you can comment if you want that wasn't a question just thank you and we'll accept that as conf confirmation of many of the discussions that we've been having we're actually looking at some collaborations with other departments within our district just to help because all the hiring doesn't start from like the HR office and so

when you talk about these teams and schools and different things like that that's a much broader professional development piece that is tightly connected to the equity work that we do in this District so thank you for that feedback so do you have other discussion before I can I take my points and then come back to you other um so I wanted to start with just gratitude actually to Dr MinGa to say that most districts you don't have a superintendent that is here to see a a strategic plan carried out I mean National uh superintendent turnover is under three years right and so I I would like to just kind of acknowledge your your focus when you got here your ability to pull our community together to listen to all the voices and help us um lead this work forward um it's not been easy no

one planned for a pandemic a global pandemic in the middle of this and we kept going you know through it um both with online learning and with return to in-person learning um trying to hold true to the values of Durham and trying to hold Equity at at our hearts so I I wanted to acknowledge that and and I think you know you all who have led these teams have heard the common themes from this board so they are strongly that representation matters in not just um students but in the adults and the leaders the educational leaders that are in front of children of of the community of Durham and so I know that you are going to continue to help us lead that work forward um to recognize um multilingualism as a strength and and all of the diversity that our students and our our staff bring I would even like as a followup to

for you all to bring the breakout of the different job categories of of the Latino hiring we knew it was audacious when we said it but you know we didn't we didn't want you just to go hire you know custodial staff or Child Nutrition staff we want the and and those team members are so important but we also need the data that you alluded to and I think you all have that to share I think that would be great I think if we don't share it publicly we can't continue to hold ourselves accountable to to where we've gotten to and and moving forward from there um and you heard us all Dr [unclear - not a clear name match] I won't make could come back up again but before we did this work on the Strategic plan so many of us came together on the student code of conduct and major revisions to that and we understand and know that suspending children out of school is a southern nightmare it doesn't exist across the country we want students actually in school especially kids that are

struggling we want to help get to the root cause of what's going on and we we know we've built up alternative places and ways for res restorative practices to happen both in schools and at Second Chance and some at Lake View and I think probably in the near future we need a a board update maybe academic Services can help us bring forth some of that work where we are where we've come forward and and where we've got um huge work to do um but I look forward to to celebrating some of that work just this week we're celebrating new school buses right green electric school buses that we were awarded um by the federal government and and some of those initiatives that will help not only with our efficiency on Transportation but on what we're doing to the environment that children are are cared for on the way to school and in their communities um so I don't have questions I just I appreciate you all

holding our values that are pretty evident clear as we lead forward with our next version of the Strategic plan um Miss vus thank you um I too just wanted to uh also make a comment about Dr radx Perry's um part and this is not just Dr [unclear - not a clear name match] This is actually all of us right um because although there's a goal that um is being tracked and worked out of the uh student Support Services office um this is not just the work of the student Support Services office this is the work of every single educator to make sure that we uh as much as possible are upholding well-being and these metrics the way we we wrote them um it talks about Frameworks you know to support the social emotional health and safety of students and staff this is this is pretty much the Crux when we talk about guns in our schools it's a safety thing and it's not as simple as

just an item that is not supposed to be in the school building it's about kids feeling safe feeling they are supported mentally holistically um conflict resolution the fights that we see breaking out in our schools like all of this and this goal of having a framework we met it and it says yes was the goal met yes that's a step that's a big step but there's a a phrase that comes to mind and it's that um I I didn't come to abolish the law I came to fulfill the law kind of thing that's like the spirit behind the intention having a framework only gets us so far if it's the implementation and the actual Spirit of that intention is not felt by students and that's where practitioners come come in and we are missing one goal here because there's two goals we're trying to get from I'm not saying that we're trying to get from the goal of having uh social emotional Frameworks and then reducing suspension

next like not saying that they're um there's cause uh causation right like if we have the framework then we will see the suspensions go but there's a third goal in there that that is not there um that actually involves like more of the implementation of how do we get kids mentorship how do we get kids support that they need um how do we get how do we make sure that they have an adult they trust in a building that is a big thing anywhere you see it's like do the kids identify do can they identify one single adult that they know has their back and we have had kids grapple with suicide ideation um I'm not trying to say heavy words here what I'm trying to say is we have some students facing real mental health challenges real situations some of whom are mckin vento students um in a separate category facing houselessness food insecurity you know maybe even Court situations between whatever is

happening um we have some serious needs and this priority to goal has two metrics one of which we met when we which we didn't and I posit that it is very important for us even as we reflect on what's here and what's not here to keep in mind what's not here that is a part of this we will never be able to get these two to say yes unless we have that human capital of care and trust and that includes um restorative practice practices amping that up and you know making sure that we have coordinators but also um it includes partnering with Community organizations because mentorship is really what families asked us for with mckin vento I want to thank the group of mothers that met with me and that wrote a letter to us and um and said to us that $18 million would go a long way to providing mentorship and we we didn't do

that right we we couldn't do that or we had many other things that we wanted to use that money for but we have to figure out a way so I just again bring us back to keeping in mind the things that are not reflected on this that are not laid out that the metrics are not being tracked but are very instrumental and I would say missing from from from from these metrics right in terms of making sure that um that we have adults in the restorative practices space counseling um Hospital School staff I want to also shout them out um sufficient people that our kids feel supported and you are The Architects for how to measure that and keep that in mind and and hopefully bring that to us with even the presentations of updates what's what's here and then what's not here but is also very important and it is actually going to help us accomplish reduction in suspensions I believe that wholeheartedly um mentors changed my life

and I would posit that mentorship changed many of us many many of our Lives thank you thank you Miss vs any other comments or questions to discussion on this topic tonight this is here for information and celebration and yeah Jovonia Jovonia Lewis is working on cake and ice cream I noted okay um thank you all so much that brings us to our next item which is the Durham Public Schools Black and Hispanic student achievement plan the Baseline report thank you I'm GNA try to not take it personally that everybody's leaving the room when it's my turn to talk uh good evening again Dr MinGa board members um

I'm excited tonight to uh take just a few minutes to talk with you about some of the preliminary work that's been done around the resolution to support Black and Hispanic student achievement um before I uh do that I do want to take a moment to just um thank uh first the academic Services uh leadership team many of whom just walk walked out of the room um you know once Dr manga asked me to um focus on uh this work uh upon my arrival uh at each of the meetings I've had with them U they have um uh had to struggle through uh questions that I have posited to them about um matters uh relative to this work and uh so much of the thinking that has gone into this has been um their thinking and I am um appreciative of of their of their input I'd also like to take a moment to thank uh board member Carter Alton and board member uh Millicent Rogers who both uh uh gave me about

two hours of time two hours of their time few weeks ago to uh help me uh try to develop a better understanding of uh the board's thinking and vision uh for this work their their time and their input uh was certainly uh valuable to me um as I began to uh continue to think through um this work um and hopefully uh after having had that opportunity unity and some time to do some work and some reflecting uh this uh Baseline report that I will be presenting tonight is closer to what the board was looking for um I I do want to say that I see this as the beginning of this work and one of the things that I shared with them that day um and that I continue to uh grapple with is um trying to find the right balance between laying out uh the parameters of this work and actually doing the work because as I understand it there will be an not as I understand it I know there will be an Advisory

board that we will develop uh that will that will lead much of this work so uh my effort here has been to kind of lay out some broad uh banks on the river um and uh hopefully that group uh will help us to um uh plant grass between those Banks um and and move this work forward over over the next um period of time next slide please so uh the the resolution to support the achievement of black in Hispanic students uh was created by this board in October of 2023 and uh importantly for tonight the board uh directs the superintendent of schools uh to develop and lead a Black and Hispanic family advisory Council which we will work to develop uh in the near future also to work with that uh advisory Council and the board to develop an an annually review uh and refine during Public Schools Black and Hispanic student achievement plan uh the

goal of which will be to improve academic opportunities and outcomes uh in alignment with the district's strategic plan and then finally the uh board's directive uh directed the superintendent uh to provide uh this uh student achievement plan outline um which would serve as the groundwork if you will uh for this plan by December 2 23 uh we did uh extend that to this evening um uh after uh running out of time in the last last board Mee so what have we I'm sorry next slide what have we laid out in terms of uh this plan first this plan is grounded around nine uh What uh we are calling statements of intention uh Each of which is directly related to a 2023 to 2028 during Public School strategic plan uh goal so those St statements of intention are very in important and I think it's important that they be framed that way because they establish uh not something that can

happen not something that might happen but something that we intend uh to see happen uh for the students of Durham public schools in addition to the statement of intention there is a brief rationale for each of those statements of Interest I'll share those with you tonight uh then we will provide disaggregated data um and address during Public Schools performance relative to each of those statements uh of intention additionally and this is really where the work of the academic Services leadership team came in helpfully we'll identify the critical data sources that we believe uh will certainly help us uh to uh continue to look at these particular statements of interest uh and measure our progress uh towards achievement of uh those statements and then finally we also asked the academic Services team and they helped us think about uh the specific Durham Public Schools departments that will be best positioned to support the work um around each of these um statements uh of

intention one thing that I do want to note and I think is important um to to to uh include it at this point is the the understanding that this work is not intended to supplant uh the work of the Strategic plan however uh really the idea here is to make sure that we have um a plan that will allow us to intentionally and purposefully uh uh make sure that those students particularly uh Black and Hispanic students uh benefit from the work that we do relative to the Strategic plan um over the next five years such that those students would enjoy the benefits um of our success in terms of of that work going forward next slide uh so you will note again that the uh this plan focuses uh primarily on two uh of the goals of of the uh strategic plan the first of which is uh strategic goal one Foster academic Excellence uh

next slide our first statement of intention uh is that we will increase black increase increase academic growth among Black and Hispanic students uh increasing the academic growth of Black and Hispanic students ensures that those students have the opportunity to reach their full potential and eventually make a more significant contribution to society ultimately improving academic growth among Black and Hispanic students is not only a matter of fairness but also an investment in the future promoting a more inclusive and prosperous Society so what are the specific uh goals that are connected to that particular statement of interest that would be go 1A by 2028 uh 90% of DPS students students in schools will meet or exceed standards for year-to-year academic growth as measured uh by the state model and as I'm sorry next

6% uh this year um and we are we have already exceeded that goal uh for Hispanic students so what that tells us is uh what's important for us now is to make sure that we continue to engage in the appropriate work to maintain uh the Improvement that we've seen um over the last um five years next Slide the critical data sources and sources of data uh for us to achieve this goal and continue to work through this goal would be the Handover data data dish dashboard uh which is an important resource for us as it pulls together uh an incredible uh collection of data that that is at our hands and um available to us uh to review the work of our students certainly Evas growth data by subgroup uh will be important to helping us make sure that we are on

track to uh reach and maintain our work around this goal mclass progress monitoring data which of course works and looks at the uh the progress of our youngest students particularly uh around uh their development as it relates to literacy um and certainly already beginning of year middle of year and end of year data which looks at both reading achievement and uh in some instances math achievements the DPS departments that we believe are going to be most critical to this work will be of course uh and probably uh most importantly uh research and accountability and curriculum and instruction additionally the the work that we do in professional learning and Equity Affairs will be critical uh students Support Services I think this ties directly to the conversation we were just having um about the importance of reducing suspension because we know that if we want our students to uh increase increase their academic growth they have to certainly be uh in schools and so the

work that we do around student Support Services will certainly be important uh for this work Advanced academics uh work will be there and certainly the work of uh School leadership Services particularly uh the leadership provided uh by our principal supervisors who work with our schools uh most closely uh each and every day um our next statement of intention next slide to increase grade level proficiency rates among Black and Hispanic students uh increasing grade level performance among Black and Hispanic students is the most critical factor in closing the achievement Gap and ensuring that individual students Master the grade level specific work that they will need to be successful in the next grade level it it's really important that we start out talking about uh growth and grade level proficiency one of one of the things that um we have to really guard against as as Educators and has become frankly

um uh something that we see very often is folks engaging in this conversation about whether or not what's most important is growth or grade level proficiency one of the things I heard Dr maanga actually say to our principal group yesterday is that they are both critical we certainly want both and it is Inc in in important that our students experience both growth in terms of what it is they can do from day to day uh and the growth that they make over the course of a year uh I think the best way to put that is uh one year of academic growth for one year of academic instruction but certainly we want to make sure that students are mastering great level content uh because students who only make growth uh find themselves consistently and constantly struggling academically because even if you make a great deal of growth right as a if you will a third grader if at the end of that process you still have not mastered right um those grade level um uh

objectives the grade level learning you're going to find yourself in the same struggle next school year and the next school year and the next school year so it's important that we uh focus on both of those pieces next slide please uh the Strategic uh goal plan goal 1B relates to this and that one states that by 2028 at least 70% of DPS students will achieve grade level proficiency with a focus on black Hispanic students with disabilities and limited English proficiency students is measured by end of grade and end of course testing uh the data here relative to this goal indicates that there is much work to be done each of the identified groups um are significantly below the target goal with students uh with disabilities and limited English proficiency students both being nearly nearly 50 percentage points below and both Hispanic and black students being more than

30% 30 percentage points uh below the go so it goes without saying that we have much work to do um as if it relates uh to students and their on grade level uh percentage um and on grade level achievement uh the critical data sources that will help us and guide us through the work as it relates to that are certainly uh end of course and end of grade test scores uh particularly the subgroup performance of uh of end of course and end of grade test uh mvpa subgroup performance uh those MVPs of course as you know are our benchmark assessments and those are I'm sorry next slide thank you somebody please do that for me every time because I think I'm going to forget every time uh those are our bitmark assessments uh and they uh inform um our teachers and our administrators in real time as to where our students are um and what portions of the uh of of the curriculum they are mastering and what portions they need

contined supporting again mclass and I ready and Reading Plus data will also be uh critical DPS departments that will inform and support this work again would be the research and accountability curriculum and instruction again professional learning Equity Affairs student support services and again um our school uh leadership Services next slide all right I'm on a rooll now our next statement of intention is to increase graduation rates among Black and Hispanic students increasing graduation rates among Black and Hispanic students will contribute to a stronger more educated Community ultimately increasing graduation rates is not just about meeting educational benchmarks but about empowering individuals and communities fostering equality and and creating a more prosperous and inclusive Society uh for all students uh the uh strategic plan goal

related to this statement of intention is that by 2028 the DPS 4 4-year cohort graduation rate for students who start with DPS in 9th grade will be at least 90% uh as you can see next slide you can see now uh you can see that uh we have made great progress I would say significant progress let me back that up not necessarily great progress uh I think when you look at the numbers but when you look at the numbers in context understanding that we're talking about the uh the point before the uh pandemic uh to a point after the pandemic uh we have made uh some progress right and there are many school districts across the state I think who would not be able to boast that their graduation rate um has uh uh has gone back and exceeded uh the pre-pandemic rate uh that having been said this is an area where we still need to do some work um among Hispanic students the

1% uh to 86% and board members I apologize that I did not include that uh graphic but I did want to share those numbers with you what that tells us is is that if we continue on the trajectory we are on we are likely to meet uh that particular goal as it relates to graduation rate uh for Black and Hispanic uh students and for all students as well uh the critical data sources that will inform this work of course will be our four-year cohort graduation rate which is uh what we are really focused on there also we want to pay attention to the five-year cohort graduation rate because we want to be able to go back and look at uh those students who uh did not graduate in four years but we're

able to get it done uh with one additional years and be able to look at what happened for those students and find out what we can do uh to help students uh who have who are on the trajectory of the fiveyear rate to move closer to the four-year rate uh we certainly want to look at and think very clearly about Dropout data and the issues that are driving dropouts obviously dropouts um uh are are uh one of the most really the most significant concern when it relates to um our graduation rate uh and then we also want to look at retention data we know research has told us over many years uh that the more often um students are retained in grade the more likely they are to drop out and not reach high school graduation so we want to make sure uh that we are being very careful uh very purposeful about the number of times uh that we uh allow um that we uh support uh the retention um of students and then one of the things that we uh have been working on and we're really

excited about and we've kind of refocused our work on uh is the data that we're able to uh Garner from our Panorama system the Panorama early warning data which is a system that we uh have implemented recently and are still working on implementing um and and that system provides us with the opportunity to have lots and lots of pieces of data uh pulled together in the same location so that our administrators uh can work with our families around their students um achievement and have all that stuff all that material in the same place at the same time uh Department that will support this work of course will be uh student Support Services um English learner graduation coaches research and accountability curriculum and instruction uh professional learning and Equity fairs and again um School leadership Services next slide please our next statement of intention is that we will improve career and

college readiness among Black and Hispanic stud students improving career in college readiness for Black and Hispanic students will ensure that students have more Equitable access to higher education improving career in college readiness will also contribute to creating a more diverse pool of talent for local business and industry the Strategic plan goal that relates to this is 1D and it says that by 2028 85% of DPS students will demonstrate career and college readiness as measured by the ACT work Keys composite proficiency um again as we look at this goal there's a great opportunity for growth we find that our black students are some 51 percentage points off of this goal at this point and um off of the goal while Hispanic students are nearly 50 52 percentage points uh behind the goal there one thing I do want to note is that you know I think it's it's fair to say that focus on on the ACT

work keys is is a new way of thinking uh for many Educators in North Carolina it's something that we've done uh for a few years uh but it is something that our Focus hadn't been as clearly um um centered around and so we've begun to us try to remedy that here in Durham Public Schools I'm sorry next slide we beun to kind of Remedy that in Duram Public Schools not this last principal's meeting but two principal meetings ago uh we spent probably uh 45 minutes working with our secondary principles uh revisiting the importance of act work keys providing them with the opportunity to understand uh what that tool looks like and beginning to have some additional conversations about what kind of strategies and structures we need to have in place in order to provide our students with the better possibility and better preparation so that they'll have the opportunity to be more successful um on that particular measure and so that is something that we recognize that there is much work to be done on we

started that work work and we'll continue to focus on it um um with our with our administrators in and in our schools next slide uh in terms of critical data sources for this work we'll want to think about critical about CCP participation rates and participation um data uh the national Clearing House data if I'm I'm not sure if this board is aware but uh this year for the first year the Department of Public Instruction uh partnered with an organization that has has been able to provide us with uh an incredible report that shares with us how our students are doing once they leave us um as graduates in terms of their continuation with um uh both uh High both their educations as well as their connection to the job market so that is data that we now have um at our fingerprints at our fingertips uh it's new data and data that we'll be continuing to learn to use so that it can inform um our work uh we certainly

also want to look at math course rigor data um that is very important that is that data that speaks to us about the number of our students uh who uh complete uh courses at the math three and above level and so that's quite critical for us obviously we want to look at the ACT work keys data we also want to look at the CTE concentrator uh data and that is the data that speaks to us about the number of students who create who complete a a full series as it relates to their CTE um performance so not just one kind of random CTE course but if you're interested in it in U being an electrician that you complete uh I think it is a minimum of two courses um in that particular area and so we want to continue to focus on that and look at that data too and certainly the number of students in our schools who attain credentials uh through their work with um NC as well as some of that work that they will also do uh at the local community colleges as we

continue to ramp up the ability of our students um to access those opportunities as well uh DPS departments that will be uh pivotal in this work will be English learner graduation coaches uh again research and accountability curriculum and instruction professional learning and Equity Affairs as well as student support services and school leadership Services next slide uh improve the next statement of intention is to improve the performance of English language Learners English language Learners deserve an equitable education that supports their language development while ensuring that they receive the same quality education as their peers improving the performance of English language Learners promotes educational equity and prepares students for success in an increasingly uh globalized world next slide during Public School strategic plan goal e relates specific spefically to this goal uh to this uh in statement

of intention and it states that by 2028 at least 70% of eels will meet their annual progress targets and by that what we mean is those number of students who exit uh that particular program uh in the uh prescribed amount of time based on their uh asset asset test score right so over the last three years DPS has made break great progress in terms of El progress increasing the percentage of students by nearly uh 20 points I'm Sorry by nearly 10 points each year and outpacing the state of North Carolina uh last year even though that that progress has been made we certainly know that we are a great distance from our goal and so we know that we don't want to rest on our Laurels because we're improving we want to continue that Improvement and frankly we want to really look at how uh we might ramp up that Improvement because we will need to do that in order to have a chance to be successful at that particular goal uh the kinds of critical U next Slide

the critical uh uh data sources that we'll need for this uh particular goal are access testing data ELC and elog uh performance and mvpa Benchmark uh data and again those departments that will support this work uh will be curriculum instruction English learner Services uh School leadership and professional excuse me and professional learning and Equity Affairs Services next slide please our next statement of intention is to improve the performance of students with disabilities improving the performance of students with disabilities ensures uh that those students receive the necessary support they need to succeed academically success in academics boost the self-esteem and confidence of students with disabilities it empowers them to pursue further education or employment opportunities with confidence and enables them to reach their full potential and make meaningful contributions to their communities next

slide please the Strategic plan goal that relates specifically to this one uh would be this statement of intention would be uh strategic plan goal 1f says that by 2028 at least 90% of schools with students with disability subgroups will exceed growth standards as measured by the state model um right now u in Durham Public Schools we stand at about 20% um and so certainly uh this again is one of those areas where we have a great deal uh of work to do um right now there are 34 of our 54 schools that have a student uh with disability subgroup so we know this is work that we need to do um um aggressively um and need to do uh really widely uh within our district in order to have a chance to uh to reach uh that particular particular goal next Slide the critical data sources for this

work will of course be EOC and EOG performance data MVP Benchmark data discipline and suspension rates um and and and it's important to note there we know that one of the things that really impacts the achievement of um our students with disabilities is that they are very often um the students who who kind of uh end up with a great number of the out of school suspensions in our district and so we want to be very careful and be make sure that we are quite uh mindful of our discipline data as it relates to this particular goal as we do a better job of keeping those students in school and reducing the number of suspensions that they incur uh we will certainly see we believe their their achievement move forward uh we certainly will want to look at AP and honors performance data for students with disabilities um graduation data for students with disabilities and we'll want to look at our annual DPS EC Department data uh report which is filled uh with important information about our program as a whole uh the DPS

departments that will support this work will be the incept the exceptional children's Department uh student Support Services Research and accountability um our curriculum and instruction Department professional learning and Equity Affairs as well as our school leadership Services uh Department next slide uh the next slide identifies the Strategic plan benchmarks that have been established uh in the Strategic plan I am going to give short Thrift to that slide uh board members so that we can move on to the next uh pieces of this but uh it is important to note that these are the benchmarks that have been set uh that would suggest uh that we would need to reach in order to reach our goals by the end of the Strategic plan um process the next priority goal uh that we will look at will be priority goal two which calls on us to provide a safe and healthy school environment for our students next Slide the first statement of intention relative to that priority goal is to

reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices among Black and Hispanic students by reducing the use of exclusionary discipline practices schools can ensure that Black and Hispanic students have the opportunity to engage fully in their education leading to better academic outcomes excessive use of exclusionary discipline practices erodes trust between the school and the community by reducing their use schools build trust and collaboration with families fostering a supportive network uh for students I was having been a disciplined officer uh for some years I was really excited to hear the conversation um about the importance uh of suspension data um and frankly this board's focus on reducing um suspension data there there are um the evidence uh about the connection between um suspensions and low student performance um is voluminous right um and beyond that we also know that there

there is very little data that suggest that exclusionary discipline practices have very much impact on student Behavior so what we know relatively clearly about exclusionary disciplinary practice practices uh is that they are not particularly effective at achieving our goals and they tend to impede the possibility of progress uh for our students um so it is one of those things that for me personally has been um a focus of my own professional work and something that I'm really excited to know that this board um is excited about uh taking a very close look at and continuing to focus on uh because as we do that work we certainly will see improvements in our um student performance uh the Durham Public School strategic plan goal that relates to this work is 2b by 2028 Durham Public Schools will reduce the percentage of Black and Hispanic students suspended in the district to 5%

39% um at the end of last schol school year that number was up to 13 um 54% right so we we know that this is an area again that we have much work that we need to do in um I think it's important also to note that um we have we are very close to the goal uh as it relates to Hispanic students uh but if you look very closely we need to be very very careful because while we were once at the place we want to be we can see that there is a trend uh where that data is ticking up right and we want to make sure that we go ahead um and um arrest that Trend as soon as possible and and make sure that we uh move it in the

other um Direction next slide please in order to reduce uh the use of exclusionary diary disciplinary practices the critical data source we'll need to look at will be of course our DPS discipline data um our Lake View and new directions enrollment data um our out of school suspension data specifically and restorative practices assignments and uh Trends in our school I had the opportunity to have um a really long conversation the other day with um our director of the stop Grant and we were talking a lot about the work that we're doing around um restorative practice I think that Grant and the work that we're doing there represents a real opportunity for us because it puts us in a position uh to to provide some financial support around this as an important piece for us um I worked in a school district not long ago in Virginia where we were trying to do this work and we didn't have any funding to support the work so I'm really excited about the fact that we have that in place uh we

have uh able leadership there and and uh that work is going forward um the DPS uh departments that will support this work will be the student Support Services Department School leadership Services Research and accountability and professional learning and Equity Affairs next slide please all right I think they figured me out at this point I appreciate all right our next uh statement of intention is to improve School attendance among Black and Hispanic students regular attendance ensures consistent access to education improving attendance among Black and Hispanic students ensures they have have Equitable access to learning opportunities setting them on a path towards academic success when Black and Hispanic students attend school regularly they have more opportunities to engage in learning leading to improved academic performance next Slide the Strategic goal uh plan the Strategic goal plan plan goal that

relates to this uh statement of intention is 2C uh by 2028 DPS will have an overall student attendance rate of at least 95% or higher again as you can see we are I think what we would categorize is within range um of this goal in virtually every area um again this is one of those areas where we want to make sure we continue to work um and make sure that we continue to get closer and closer to that goal um because we know that there will be uh significant tangible benefits to our students as we increase um their School attendance and particularly pay attention uh to attendance rates the critical data sources that we will look at as it relates to this are daily attendance data uh period by period attendance data particularly in our secondary schools and then certainly chronic absentee uh data this is one that we want to really look at and again this is an area where our Panorama intervention data uh can help us and help us see that there see

what trends are out there as it relates to attendance and help our uh School based uh folks uh move in the right directions as it relates to this the DPS departments that we feel like can help here will be family and Community engagement School leadership services and student Support Services next slide please our next statement of intention is to improve the perceptions of Black and Hispanic students about their schools feeling a sense of belonging Fosters positive mental health and well-being among students it it's it reduces feelings of isolation anxiety and stress contributing to a healthier learning environment when students feel they belong they are more engaged in their education this engagement often correlates with improved academic performance and a higher likelihood of completing their education next slide our strategic plan goal 2D relates

directly to this statement of intention and it suggests that by 2008 at least 95% of students will participate in annual student surveys student climate survey Panorama survey and identify their school Community as a good place to attend and learn and that they feel like they uh belong uh again this is an area where we certainly have some work to do but we are uh in a position where I think it is reasonable to expect that with contined Focus effort uh we have a very strong chance of reaching um our identified goals here for our students uh both all students as well as Black and Hispanic students it is this is a point where it would certainly provide an opportunity for me to suggest this piece is one though that we are going to have to probably address um as it relates to the Strategic plan um in general um we all know about the challenges that we are are facing as it relates to participation um in our uh student

surveys based on um um the the the new legislation that we are dealing with and um um before you ask uh Miss Millicent Rogers I have that number for you and I'm G to have to look at it again because I had it and I and I and I and I forgot to bring it up here with me um I I will tell you um it is not particularly pretty and that is the number in terms of the number and the percentage of students who are participating in our surveys based on the adjustments that we've had to make um due to Senate Bill 49 um I I was in a conversation with my colleagues from the um 12 largest districts from around the state uh and I can tell you that on average folks are seeing a reduction in terms of their survey participation around between any anywhere between 30 and 60% in terms of those um surveys and so we're certainly going to have to go back and take a look at how we address that and um look for some initial uh additional strategies that will help us

uh with that because that is emerging as a very significant challenge uh for us uh next slide uh the critical data sources uh for this work around the perceptions of Black and Hispanic students will be daily attendance data uh period by period attendance data as well chronically absent report data and intervention data and we again think that the family and Community engagement um School leadership services and student Support Services departments will be most useful as we move uh towards achievement of this particular goal the next slide is uh the Strategic benchmarks for priority two uh again board members I won't spend very much time here um and move uh forward to the next Slide the next thing that board that the board did direct and asked us to identify was the kinds of funding that is being used to focus on strategies uh to address um the performance of of

5% local and 23% uh of those funds uh were other that funding range um ranged from uh schools reporting that they didn't spend any money for that specific purpose up to uh a high of a school spend ending uh

reporting spending $50,000 uh for that particular purpose uh the average funding allocated in our schools uh was approximately $632 20 schools reported a funding amount um and 18 schools reported um funds allocated at0 now one thing I I do want to say here in defense of my of my colleagues is that this is a really difficult piece for building level principles because I can tell you that in all of our training um honestly this is something that we are generally taught not to do right we don't necessarily spend money for the purpose of one small set of students so it is going to be a challenge for us to help our students un our students our principles understand how to do this work uh as sometimes you know it may be a bit counterintuitive uh for them so u i I did want to share uh that data with you next slide please

finally I did want to share some of the strategies that our schools reported that they are using uh to focus on Improvement uh for Black and Hispanic students um and you as as you can see there is a range um of strategies uh they range from uh letters implementation uh to provision of weekly nurturing service for all K2 students uh by AIG specialist um access testing nights to educate families on El testing daily and monthly student attendance incentives weekly small group targeted tutoring on power standards uh provision of uh I'm sorry collaborative conversations conducted by the office of academic services and the office of the chief of schools to gauge progress towards goals and level set for support schools might need next slide please culturally responsive and appropriate professional learning opportunities targeted to advance academic language proficiency culturally

affirming programming for students of color primarily uh black and nor Hispanic students like The we are Kings we are queens and L AAL uh groups that are operating within lots of our schools um NC edore tutors reading support for grades 28 English language Learners Saturday acmy next slide and the final Slide the final piece here I did want to share with you um some next steps for us uh the next steps as as as I see it are to go ahead and begin the work of identifying the potential members of our Black and Hispanic family advisory Council uh designing a program of learning for the advisory Council we want to provide an opportunity uh for for those folks who end up working with us in this regard uh to be well informed about what is going on around the country uh as it relates to support for these for Black and Hispanic students we want to make sure that these folks are able to come to the table uh with the wealth of both their

own experiences that will certainly be informative for us as we think about this work but we also want to make sure that we underpin them um with a great deal of knowledge and information about what is going on what is being what is being done in other places uh that is seeing success uh so that we will have the opportunity to benefit from their from their uh wise counsil um we want to engage with Community leaders leaders including the DPS Board of education the Durham County Board of Commissioners Durham city council regarding resource allocation to support the work of the advisory Council and Implement implementation of eventual recommendations it's important to note here that as we've looked at what some counties and some school districts have done around the country most of the folks who are doing this work are doing this work uh after having uh been given an influx of specifically targeted dollars to do this work um and so as we move forward we will want to uh reach out to um our policy

makers uh so that uh with the hope uh that they will follow suit and that they will provide us with additional funding specifically focused um on doing this work for our students here um in Durham Public Schools this point board members I'll be glad to answer uh any questions and hear any discussion that you would like to share Dr King thank you thank you so much we um welcomed you to Durham late last year and we uh gave you this Focus along with all the other work that you have taken on and um it is a great Foundation that you have laid as we really kind of put a microscope on the Strategic plan and focus on the 80% of our students who are most underresourced and look for ways that we can endur them change all lives with uh what we're doing let me see if colleagues have

questions comments inspirational words Miss Millicent Rogers and then Miss Thomson Dr King thank you so much um for putting together this presentation um has come along long way from where we started indeed to get here I appreciate that I really appreciate you adding in the statements of intention I think that's going to be important um as we move forward for all of us to have a shared understanding but also for our advisory Council to come on and have that understanding and so I really appreciate that I have a couple of notes um I think as hard as it was to look at some of this data and as hard as difficult as it has been to talk about

um student outcomes based on test scores because we know our our students are more than just these tests true um I'm appreciative that we are owning our story and telling our truths because this is the narrative that we have an opportunity and responsibility to take control over and we are demonstrating what we as a district are going to do to improve student outcomes and I look forward to seeing that over the next few years um and this presentation I look forward to seeing what the presentation can become I expected hoped for look forward to seeing more of all the things that DPS leaders are posting on social media about their schools and the programs that they're offering and what they're doing to support student outcomes you spoke to slide 36 that talked about um

18 um schools reporting that they don't spend any funding this way I understand that that's not true you know because there is work being done at all our schools to educate um Black and Hispanic students when I look at a report like this it is sort of a alarming because I know that there's not a school in DPS that is not supporting Black and Hispanic students absolutely so everything that they're doing regardless of whether it's intentional for just Black and Hispanic students is for that work absolutely so I look forward to seeing us continuing to layer things in like supportive Athletics suppor of Arts um and as far as we can go you know I know there are things that are happening curriculum if they hiring interventionists like to see that as part of the work that's happening is I think is going to be helpful if I can just jump in that's that's the piece I was trying to get at

when I said this is a very difficult piece for educators to to respond to because you know to our minds uh everything that we do is about that work right and so it's it's sometimes difficult for us to uh we don't even really our minds don't really even think think about how we parch those pieces out so I I appreciate your comment relative to that right thank you um I don't I also want to make sure that y'all know that we're not like throwing everybody out here without the supports and resources uh slide 27 spoke to suspension data and we talked about it in the Strategic plan about restorative practices I have some documents about on boarding that I want to share with you to share with your team in regards to what Milwaukee is doing um with restorative uh practices and making sure their schools are ready yes right and so I don't expect you all to just go out and get Best Practices I'm gonna give you what I have access to I also want to

highlight and we talk all the time about DSA doing um and there suspension data but um Amber chrisell is there and she's doing good work as a Restort of practice coordinator um with pulling data from the Educator's handbook to figure out if we um have certain Educators that need some support around classroom management or if they are targeting particular subgroups of students and to see if their Trends in what the writeups and suspensions are for and I think that that's some good work that we need to see I know she's reporting that to her Administration um I'd like to see some more of that happening across the district and she has a great spreadsheet that helps people to do that and I'll share that as well um and I I guess this last comment is for the board around slide 30 and attendance data we're talking about um in the Strategic plan the laws of

averages um we want to see a 95 uh percent attendance rate but that doesn't help us with the bottom 10,000 of students if 10,000 students show up 100% of the time and 10,000 students are showing up 50% of the time they offset each other and we're not reaching those folks that we need to get to show up more often and so I'd like us to figure out how we can specifically support the students that are on the bottom of the averages The Chronic absenteeism kind of issue the yes yeah because if we we don't have to address that if we just get more people to show up more often we're not really getting the people who are most chronic so I just want us to kind of talk about and see what that looks like in terms of a goal but thank you so much I look forward to continuing this work together and um seeing what happens

thank you um thanks Dr King for this presentation I just had one clarifying question and then a comment about the funding piece although I think that might have been covered already on the question around um belong I'm I'm using belonging but don't think the actual language in here was around my school is a place that I want to [Music] be um the question was written overall how much do you feel you belong at your school you know how when the what the percentage is reporting out on does that make sense I'm not sure I the question says um overall how much do you feel you belong at your school and then there's a percentage but it's hard to know what the percentage represents without knowing what the answers were like if it was a yes or no question or like a so I

just was curious and that might we might not have that answer tonight but if we could get a sense of what the percentage represent um I think that would be helpful okay and then the other one about the funding I feel like it's an impossible question because I could look at our budget and say that 80% of our budget the whole overall budget is supporting those students because about 80% of our students are black and Latin X and so I I think that's a I appreciate the efforts to get the numbers but I just looked at it I was like this is nowhere near what we're spending to support our kids and I don't want the general public to think you know um because I think there's so much money that's going towards supporting the majority of student population um my last comment actually this is it we have we call it the Black and Hispanic plan but our language generally has been latinx or Latin so I just didn't know for the board if we wanted to shift that language to be more consistent with what we use in conversation um think the state uses

Hispanic and all of their reporting but as a group as a collective as a community I think we use lots of different things so those are all my comments thank you um uh thank you so much uh for um listening to our feedback and incorporating that into this it's looking really good and I'm excited to see um where this goes and where it takes us um excited about next steps of beginning to build this um advisory Council and um I think it's our goal to have that and I'm excited also about the plan to um build upon the existing knowledge base of those in the advisory Council and the lived experiences by adding right um some additional resources and um so I'm I think that the plan is to have that Council in place by like early fall is that right yes maam

okay so then we'll have this spring and summer to think really intentionally about who's part of that how many people how do we structure it all of those different types of things um and then pull together what they need to get started and I'm wondering um I love that the uh presentation includes all the different potential data sources and departments um because I think that's a good foundation right the data just gives us and is going to give that Council a starting point and a good picture of like where we're at to then figure out where we need to go um is the vision then to have a more like use the data sources in the Departments to have a little bit more um information pulled together for the council by the time they get started or they just going to be operating on their annual metrics what's your vision yeah my vision is is is both and right is that you know that data certainly uh provides us with you know the Benchmark pieces um and as we

go through the work you know we'll continue to watch what that data what what emerges from that data and that that will inform the work that we continue to do but really most importantly uh what I would really what I really hope will happen is that as that uh group begins to work they will begin to be in a position to advise us about what additional pieces of data uh we need to be um identifying and bringing to the table to both inform their work and help us understand whether or not we are on the right path so I think uh you know what I asked my staff when we thought through that was what are the pieces of data that we have in hand right now that could inform this work um and so the the idea was not that that would be the exhaustive um resource if you will but just kind of the starting point uh for data but but but we will uh Endeavor to to uh again watch that data that we those data points that we know about now um and look for um additional data

points that we might need that we might need to create and the you know many of which that we might not even even understand are possible in in this moment um that sounds good and it makes sense um and I um um yeah I think that's related to the interim goals that will be developed so if we're looking to reduce the percentage of Black and Hispanic students suspended right what are some ways that we know along the path that we're moving in the right direction or like and then the strategies are related to that what things are we specifically doing we say we want to do that we've talked about this so much tonight but like what are we doing at the district level and then at the school level to actually move the needle on that goal um and how can we know whether we're in whe whether whe whether we're doing enough early on not just at the end of the year um and then related to the um the budget I mean that's the type of thing I really appreciate you trying to get that at the school level but maybe this is like at the at a district

level it's better to look at that like what are we investing in these different types of initiatives that we're trying um so then we can see okay is this actually again moving the needle for us because we don't want to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results right I agree 100 perc and and just to speak to the to the issue of those um The Benchmark data points I I I was a bit of a bad boy there uh I I I I really wanted to and we talked about this in my office I really wanted to limit um um putting any very much guidance out there around that because I don't want there to be anything that Limits The Thinking Of The Advisory Group when we get here I think it's really going to be critical for them to to feel free to um to really stretch out as it relates to that um and and so I did not want to do anything that that they might see um over time as limiting as it relates to those to those um to those benchmarks so um I'm anxious to start that piece of the work and to

have those folks come in and and and really help us think about you know what we really should be thinking about very often particularly as Educators we have in our minds uh the direction that we need to go and and and and unfortunately sometimes that's limited by those things that we think we know and so I'm really excited about bringing in a group of folks uh who can apply a fresh lens right to to the work um and in many cases um you know really challenge us and and and and ask us some of those questions that we might not have otherwise thought about um as we begin to think about you know what we need to do and what we need to think about in terms of whether or not what we're doing is working so I'm excited about that piece of the work great thank you so much um go Miss viar and then Jovonia Jovonia Lewis and Miss chz thank you Dr King for um working with us um getting our feedback and definitely working with uh my colleagues

uh both of whom are on one side one on each side um working even more closely right because this was like something that uh uh board member Millicent Rogers um brought to us and and so I know there's been a lot of collaboration a lot of feedback about the resolution itself that enabled this work to happen um and conversations around how important it is to not confuse the community around different plans this is all part of the Strategic plan you know it kind of Builds on that um my feedback is more on the materials that were presented the resolution itself and again colleagues y'all can correct me because we all met about this resolution over and over and over we met and we were all I think in one Accord when we uh approved this resolution is that the one that I'm reading on here um seems to be missing uh something that I'm very sure was in the resolution and I don't know if it's an an error in terms of like the version that we're

using here that is in this material but I know for a fact that the uh the updated resolution um had something that's not on here so the reason why I say this is because as my colleague Batino was saying you know what's the right way to say Hispanic or Latino Latin um before you before she even said that I thought about students that are within the uh ESL Department English as a second language who may not qualif who may not be black or Hispanic but might also be struggling right and so this this is um this is where that piece of what I think is missing from this resolution is that my colleague board member Millicent Rogers and I think my colleague buer like we were talking about Alexander not wanting to FL FL or whatever the word is or try to say oh yeah the ESL resolution right the English as a second language resolution that was also done in this District um with the help of Isla um it's not that I

just want to you know shout that out because I know that this was in conversations with our chair as well about passing that resolution but I do see it missing from this resolution here and it's very important for the community to know that even though this is a Black and Hispanic plan through the resolutions and the work that are outlined on there there are more groups um there's inclusion and the word Hispanic actually comes from um it yeah it's more it's more about the language it's like who speaks span Spanish um and identifies as that and then Latin Latin and Emily Chavez is here too so Latin is is more about geographic like the areas around Latin America and so Hispanic is inclusive of language and there are many of our non-hispanic immigrant families from the you know from many parts of the world that speak multiple languages they might speak Arabic Spanish English so I think Hispanic might at least have that Nuance of language to include more but the

reality is that by including the resolution on there that was the the resolution that Isla um wrote and contacted me about and you know I I I think Janice Ramirez and uh the folks who she worked with who brought this to us then at least we have even in the resolution the acknowledgement that English as a second language or some of the uh students are some of the students that need the most support who definitely need a plan and may not be reflected in the Black and Hispanic uh title but through having that resolution in there yes it's a part of all the work that we're continuing to do um to lift all our students thank you may miss viar is it in that very last bullet on the first page of the resolution if you can look at that one and see if that language captured what you're talking about it has a lot of the intersectionality there and that may be where we'd captured that I don't know um the conversation we had was that as we were mentioning all the other resolutions that we're addressing

um you know visibility for for um for black lives matter at school national uh mentoring Mentor mentoring month and the crown act and you know so many of these resolutions that it would also you know include the English as a second language the resolution in support of of English as a second language students um and that's what I that's what I thought I I approved because we had talked about like how all of us can be at one pie with this resolution and um maybe it was Jessica I talked to we all talked about it so kind of surprised that I can't find that resolution in this in this particular what I'm seeing is including intersectionality with other marginalized identities such as limited English proficient students immigrant students exceptional children EC lgbtqia plus students lowincome and working class families but I don't know if that speaks to what I'm yeah I'm just addressing that um this Builds on a

strategic plan and also other resolutions and so we give resolutions space here to say this is what you know these are examples of resolutions that are really highlighting um you know our need to work on this and then in that list we know that the the the resolution supporting English as a second language students ESL students that Isa uh worked on would also be reflected on here and so again I I just looked at this version and and I was looking at it because I was like English as a second language is inclusive of races from all over from all over the world you know um uh uh different ethnicities different languages as long as you know they meet that criteria of um uh English limited proficient so it's okay I just I just I just think that as we move along this work it's important to to just give that Nuance that while our Focus as black Hispanic students because that's our Focus right now that it is not to say that we forgot

that there are many immigrant families that are also struggling and need supports you know so yeah thank you the Strategic plan also is really specific about um students who are learning English as a second language as well who may who may not be Black Or Hispanic but still fall in that category so I think between strategic plan and this resolution we know that we're going to have efforts to support all those students who may be limited English proficient and I think that's vital to the work that we need to do as a district sorry I didn't mean to just jump in I um board member of aus does um raise an important issue because we did discuss that and so but it brings me to another issue which is is there a place that we store resolutions so that we can reference them easily I've looked for this before um so in board do that's that's what I used what was in vard do the night you passed

it um okay because we do want to make sure that whatever version was approved is the one that we're all um feel good about so helpful to be able to reference inste dig around okay and if if we need to modify them we can for sure um if there was some something unintentionally left out other thoughts before we go to Jovonia Jovonia Lewis anything on that specific topic that you thank you thank you Dr King I'm gonna just go to just one portion of it so much has already been said by my colleagues um but when we look at the I appreciate you talking about the improving the performance of students with disabilities and you also brought out the intentionality um and being clear about the over suspension of those students with disabilities I know that um one of ways that we can work towards um closing that uh that Gap and

keeping our kids in school I think is goes around back to the professional development of our general um teachers General AED teachers as well as the school Community the staff everyone within the school uh we had talked about U previously um with some community members who were interested in a equity Dash board specific for the schools of students with disabilities so I just want to make sure we're bringing that back to the Forefront and look forward to some additional information from you about um where we are with that um as it started when Dr Hardy was here and wanted to um continue that on thank you all right quickly I'm going to weigh in on the Hispanic question um or the identity question around latinx Latin I think we should use the term that most students use to identify

themselves and in discussing it I think that is Hispanic but if I am wrong then I think we should change it because language is updated uh all the time and so so yeah that's that's what I favor uh whatever um people see themselves in and and I also wanted to say um sort of to missis's point that I think that this is an example of when we support students who are most marginalized in some way all students benefit and that's what we're doing here so we have like students with disabilities that's there's racial diversity within that group but when we when we focus on Black and Hispanic students with disabilities all students with disabilities benefit for example so anyway wanted to mention that as sort of a philosophical underpinning of I think this project uh Dr King you did an excellent job thank you we're so excited to have

you come on board right as we were passing this um and to hand this over to you so I really appreciate what you have put together is very thoughtful I'm really excited about the the list of different uh sources of data and and yeah like the intentional um statements all of it so it's an evolving conversation but you really you've given that's what we wanted is a a Baseline and uh a starting point you've given us that and now I'm excited to see where it will go I have a couple questions I was wondering and I don't know if you know this off the top of your head but how many El uh English learner English language learner or learning coaches we have and I'm interested to know if every high school has one I heard that number yesterday though because I was talking with um Sashi and she told me that number because I was in

the welcome center with her yesterday I will get that for you and and and send it to you tomorrow okay English language El learning coaches were one of the like departments that were or groups that were um listed as collaborating they listed as uh yeah one of the DPS departments that be collaborating on one of these many excellent intentions so that's what I was yeah find it now but okay um my other question was about the improve improving the performance of El's if the MRC would not be an appropriate Department to include and then I also wanted to say

that with the E increased or improved performance among Els I would ask that we also look at discipline and suspension data that was something the board asked for some more a deeper dive into ESL the status of our ESL students in the spring and one of the things that stood out to me and I don't remember the exact figure but it was around rates of of discipline of our El students um so just saying we have that with students with disabilities it'd be useful there as well um with the exclusionary discipline piece I just wanted to say with your background I think you bring a lot and I'm glad that you have you bring that um to you know to this work it's really important last year when we looked at the data I want to bring this back up our suspension data it was the the math and it was I believe around uh that black boys were 26 times

more likely than white girls when you broke it down with gender uh to be short-term suspended or then referred to a restorative Practice Center so many reasons for that that's not to like and like stigmatize one person or something or one group um but that is that's you know the number that sticks in my mind from looking at that data so um and then with that I also just want to say I think part of it is reducing isolation to uh and increasing young people's contact with supportive individuals and I think of how during the pandemic isolation increased for many people but especially our young people and when they're suspended out of school which may be sometimes an appropriate um uh disciplinary action um or necessary in some way but they are they're often home by themselves or on their film so are there you know other ways we can put

them in contact with people who can help guide them um and then I wanted to ask if we need to talk about next steps on the family council at all as a as a board or I just want to raise that so that we can uh think about it and what we want our next steps to be you mean the advisory sorry yes ad the Black and Hispanic ad Family advisory Council yes so if if if I could offer a suggestion uh what I would what I would love to do is take a take a run at a process and structure for that and bring it back to you and and that way give you a starting point point to begin those conversations and have you um tell me if I'm way off base or close or um I should throw it all out or keep one piece of it um and that's that's what I would love to suggest to you as a as a way to start that process that would be great thank

you I do think from the resolution this advisory council is for the administration not necessarily reporting to the board so I think that does give you the latitude for sure to develop a process and we can give feedback but I think you all should take the lead in creating the council that you need Miss Chavez is that you have other questions other discussion or no I'm done thank you and I saw Miss vus um I'll come right back to you if that's okay um Dr King what I appreciated so much was your um detail here and also looking to National Best Practices I so much appreciate that um we're not trying to just lead in North Carolina which is not a a North star that we set for ourselves but that we're looking at National Best Practices I tend um to hope that we can

look for some more qualitative metrics that we bring forward I know the test data is one piece um but it but in my mind um the equity pieces of what Arts courses and what AP courses are offered and what athletic opportunities are offered at at our schools and whether all of that is Equitable um what books are in our libraries and I know our media folks made a great effort at getting um more representation into books just last year and and that made the media coordinators so happy um but are those books circulating right are they are they moving and going home with children and coming back and and being shared um I'd love to hear kind of how did AP black history go at Jordan where we were a national pilot for that course and are we expanding that how can we deepen um all the way from prek to 12th

grade black history uh Latino history I mean lgbtq history like all of the the pieces of equity and intersectionality that that our children um need and deserve um I'd love to look at prek enrollment and whether we have um that targeted in a way that is reaching these subgroups um and and early literacy strategies I think um love to love to see how y'all are working on best practices in that way um the state again passed another dumb law that makes us offer a three-year diploma a track right and then I don't know if that's coming this fall or one year out I don't know how y'all have started to think about that we got another year to you know but there's a group of nonprofits in Durham trying to work together to help us make sure that in Durham we maximize um students staying in for that fourth year and getting as much

um credit and um cours workk on our dime that we pay for whether it's in DPS at Durham Tech or at the Lial University so um I know y'all are starting to think about that but um I am so so appreciative of ways that this will overlap with growing together um and that that y'all will help track some of that qualitatively too and that we share best practices between our school communities um at this Council um Miss vadz and then others Miss Chavez thank you um I wanted to uh just um thank my colleague uh Emily Chavez for you know just listing like among the Departments that are here the MRC wasn't listed but they are definitely involved in supporting so many departments I was here that there's collaborations like mrcr MRC with uh um all these different departments and so um I just wanted to thank you for that and and then also the other part of that is that for

a department that is as small as the MRC I don't want burnout for our staff so we want to include them in everything we need to grow them equitably we need to make sure that we add more positions to that because the last thing I want is um to acknowledge that the MRC is a big part of this but to burn out our our staff who are currently working out of a cafeteria where they experience conditions that are that are not acceptable right and so we want to we don't want to burn them out and include them in every little piece without growing that department sustainably and adding more positions so that some of the of them can work on this with us some of them might work on you know every daily ask and request for parent conferences visiting you know going to the schools like the five or seven schools that they that they each represent so um I just wanted to say yes and just a little bit of of um uh reality about capacity right now and the number of uh MC staff that we have um

and we need a coordinator yes um the other the the second thing that I that I looked on here is that in strategies currently underway which is um after the current funding slide um there's something that just really I want to offer uh in terms of a short reflection um bullet point number four says provision of weekly nurturing services for all K through2 students by AIG Specialists and and I had to read it and I was like I know that I'm reading it but it would all K through second grade students are going to get the benefit of an AIG specialist is that is that what we're seeing so I I think that's something that's being done in a school um and it it's not you know that that was something I did at a school I was principal of many many years ago and it's just a matter of how you structure your AIG program um such now it's it's a

difficult thing to do because um you know to be blunt if you structure your program that way um you have the number of staff that you have um and the fact that you pull a piece of the time of that specialist off to provide those nurturing Services means that that person doesn't have as much time to deal with those students who are already identified and so it's a it's a it's a challenging and um and sometimes controversial um and certainly challenging for the principles to do because sometimes folks aren't particularly happy about um uh taking that step um but it is something that schools do um you know have done um over the years but it it would be something that it's not something that we're promising yet uh but that would be a practice that one of our schools reported that they are that they are doing I

don't let me guess what school is that so while you're while while you're while you're thinking about what school is that or could be I want to offer just I said like I'll take a minute to just offer a reflection as to what what this means to me so I was an ESL student for many years in my elementary education and I learned towards like the last year of being in that school which was um K through third grade right um I learned in third grade that um I did qualify for AIG so I got to be a part of AIG for a little stint and do you know what my face did when I learned that kids my age when we were sitting in that boring room looking at a wall and getting this paper and that's all we had no interaction no no Dynamic learning happening and then I went to with the AIG kids and I learned that they had cardboard crayons markers clay they had uh strings they have all these things and I was like I just could not believe my eyes and I only got to savor it right

but I was I got to savor it for last I'm like all this time I've been an ESL student nobody ever told me that kids were having this much fun all this time that I was an ESL student all I had to do was look at a paper and it was the most boring most deflating experience that I ever can I don't want it on nobody that's why ESL students to me I remember what that was like and so but I got to taste AIG a little bit so if a school is actually making sure that the ESL students the kids with discipline problems AIG Specialists are trained to find different modalities of learning and that I want for every single kid I actually want I think AIG level for all our kids in DPS Point Blank but um and I think about Hospital School being the the the example of that because Hospital School teachers they figure different modalities for kids all kids whoever's you know meets that criteria of needing that support because it's Hospital school they have a limited thing but that's the kind of thing that I would like to see so if a school's already practicing this that all their K through uh 2 grade students are interacting with

an AIG specialist that brings those gifts of different modalities different you know not just the paper and the worksheet right no not at all I did want to raise that the resolution did we resolve that the board was selecting The Advisory Council and so if we want to change that then we should speak to that but I'm not sure we want to change that it's in the last paragraph of the first page of the resolution let's keep looking at it we don't I don't think we need to decide it tonight and I think that the the line before that says that it's um that we direct

the superintendent or designity to develop and lead the council and then we will be part of selecting it so I think it's both um and then one it would be interesting to hear I I my experience at my children's school is that in K2 the AIG there is an AIG specialist that pushes into all K2 classrooms and there's another one that pulls out that's a whole other discussion for 35 and so it'd be great to know if that is this presentation seems to imply and I that was my understand that was happening in all schools but it'd be good to know if that's not the case I want to be clear that I'm I'm not implying it's happening in all schools in this context I'm I'm reporting that at least one principal reported it as happening in their school um and I'm gonna pull that data for for you for a minute Dr Pitman is beg to say something no I I I want to just share that we have an AIG local plan and in

that plan we have strategies that indicate that at every Elementary School all K2 children will experience um nurturing and in this case we're doing a lot with stem and Robotics and um it's really exciting but indeed to Dr King's Point the scheduling of it can be very challenging but it is the intention of our plan and the allotment support that nurturing experience for our K2 children so that we are early identifying and not overlooking talent that could benefit from this sort of instruction so I just wanted to say yes you know that that changed my life it let me know that um people lie to you people adults in the school system lie to kids and tell them this is what you got to do this is all there is and on the other room other kids are having a blast you know that just feels so wrong so anyways um but yes um uh I I I want us to continue to grow that to grow that and I also um participated in the

AIG um uh the committee that they had and and and was hearing about great things so as much as we can make sure that this is happening um at all our schools and the one that is doing it right now um I mean they've been doing it for a while I I believe so or I don't know but they they can show us a path forward in terms of how that's done for capacity or you know amount of staff that we have thank you Miss chavas two things I wanted to say about the forming of the family advisory Council I think that do king could bring a a structure what did you say you take a run in a structure and bring it back to us and we could still uh give feedback on selection of individuals so that's what I would uh suggest for that piece the other thing I wanted to add was that I would like us to include in our strategy supports for lgbtq plus

students because this is that's part of acknowledging intersectionality which is all woven into this plan and so I was thinking about adding as part of our strategies our gsas we are royalty if we get that off the ground and and also just to remind us that most of our lgbtq plus students are black or Andor Hispanic and they are doubly or more marginalized and so if we don't attend to their experiences we are not serving all of our Black and Hispanic students I think I'm done now thank you thank you all other questions there and thoughts discussion on this very important topic one this was here for yes just resolve on that so so the resolution doesn't have the ESL the resolution addressing ESL and I know that that was our intention

because we would not after so much I'm looking at y'all colleagues y'all know right after so much like that it's not listed on there and so can we can we um do we have to I'm looking at um Mr Malone um do we have to bring this resolution back and make a motion to amend it or or because this is I'm considering this resolution as as a part of this presentation that is the the Baseline report and so I just want us to make sure that it's edited there and everywhere else I think I think as long as the motion adequately describes the edits you intend to make it would not need to come back could trust the chair to make sure those are included okay so I can just make a motion to amend or I missed yes but the motion would need to generally include the adits that you're proposing so that the chair and others will be able to implement it yeah it would be

adding the resolution support of English as a second language students and under the under the list of resolutions that were listed in the historical listing of as we built the history of what all we've done yeah and the we ass portion of the resolution yes I think that the motion could specify that and our chair could yes do that absolutely because if it happened it certainly was an oversight and not anyone's intention that it's it's been moved is that right M I'll second moved by Miss vodar and seconded by chair Umstead that our resolution reflect the Isla resolution previously passed by this board on limited English proficiency any any further discussion all in favor I I any oppos it passes unanimously we thank you all so

much for this presentation that brings us to a summary of follow-up items I'm going to defer to Dr Pitman who has been taking notes for me while I was standing and I'll go and start DR Pitman and you can pick up what what I missed if that's okay um first U board member Millicent Rogers um she's going to provide some additional information on practices from Milwaukee um to Dr King um two next step is the bill advisory counsel by adding additional resources um by board member Alton and Dr King should bring back a structure for moving forward um Miss Chavez they look further at discipline and suspension data of el students also miss Chavez ask for um consider putting suspended students in contact with Community Support while they out of school U board member buyer ask about um all Athletics and books and programs Equitable for all students and want something to come back to reflect

that also um board member buyer look at the um prek enrollment at early literacy strategies um and board member Alton is it a standard that AIG pull outs are occurring in all schools Dr Pitman if you have anything different I had from the Strategic plan a request for data on employes disaggregated by employment category is that something correct and then um that we would look at restorative practices and how many students are accessing the restorative practice alternative spaces may I correct the one the the AIG one it's actually I think we know that they're pulling out what we what I would like to know is if they're pushing in for K2 like going in all the classrooms not segregating the some students out of them and I think go ahead Mr Travis you

might be answering the same thing I think so I was just gonna ask for that excuse me BL learning coach data oh that's not I one say I think the question around the Strategic plan was about students accessing alternatives to suspension programs because we have the data on who's in restorative practices and Jovonia Jovonia Lewis think it was the um Equity dashboard EC exploration any any other uh followup items that come to mind knowing that we can always reach out and maybe connect with you all in the future as well if not we will thank our uh staff for their leadership and um I welcome a motion I move that we go on to close session for the reason state on the agenda second been moved by chair I'm St

seconded by miss fadar that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda any further discussion all in favor I I any opposed unanimous we are in closed session thank you thank you all right

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good evening everyone we're back in Open Session Dr mainga Madame chair I'm here to seek your approval for the personal report as discuss at the close session I'm move approval of the Personnel report dated January 11th 2024 as amended second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Chavez is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes uh unanimously the next item on our agenda pass it to Mr Malone Mr Malone can you use your microphone please thank you sorry uh the next item is the announcement of a settlement that the board considered in closed session um it it reads as follows um I'd like to announce the settlement of the following matter e s by her guardian at lium KS versus the Durham Public Schools Board of Education at all

the Durham Public Schools board of education has come to settlement with es and her guardian at Lim KS with the board's insurance carrier agreement to pay the plain ofs $315,000 for a full release of all claims that's it thank you Mr Malone and with that board we are adjourned thank you