Board of Education · Work Session · January 15, 2026

Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Thank you. The Durham Public Schools Board of Education work session is now in session.

At this time, we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening. The purpose of this mini is to inform our parents, our staff, and our constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, educate, and empower every student to innovate, serve, and lead. The interpreters for tonight are Consuel Nordan and Karen Reyes. Thank you for taking the time to join us.

And also, happy new year. This is our first meeting. And happy birthday to Dr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I'd like for us to take a a silent moment to reflect on our first our immigrant families as we think about them and things that are going over

going on across the state nation and also those that continue to be affected by gun violence in our city and elsewhere. Please join us in a moment of silence to honor though their memories, their families and and their communities. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval.

>> Approval of the agenda. >> Second. It has been moved by Miss Rogers and has been seconded by Miss Beyer to approve the agenda as presented. At this moment, we're going uh next.

The next item on our agenda are the minutes from our December the 11th, 2025 meeting. >> Oh, let's vote for the approval of the agenda review and agenda. >> All those in favor say I. >> I.

>> All those Any opposed? Thank you. >> It is passes 6. Now we'll have uh next item on our agenda are our minutes from our previous meeting of December the 11th, 2025.

Can I have a >> move approval of the minutes from the work session from December 11th, 2025? >> Second. >> It has been moved by Mrs. Rogers and seconded by Mrs. Harold Goff.

Are there any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose?

It passes 6. >> Our next item on the agenda is the general public comment. So, a quick review of the rules. First, please state your name.

If speaking for an organization, please please state your name and the name of the organization. Second, speakers are asked to present their comments in a spec specified time. You will have three minutes. 3 minutes.

When the yellow light comes on, you will have one minute left and you can start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will which will indicate that your time is up. It will

beep for you. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of our students, or the operation of our school system. Finally, the board members will listen carefully and consider your comments, but we do not engage in discussion with speakers.

Our first speaker tonight, and I'm going to do my best to read your writing, is Scott Doran. And our next speakers would be Katie McGanna and Melo and Julian Patterson. In that order. >> Okay.

Thank you. I'm Scott Duron. I'm president of the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association.

I appreciate this um u this moment to uh thank the uh school board for all the work they do in service. Um TPNA has a lot of interest in what happens at DSA as one would expect uh on the since we're on the forefront of pressures from development. Uh last fall we sent a letter to you folks advocating participating um TPNA participating uh in any sort of discussion of what happens with DSA and I'm here to reinforce that uh to say of uh a casual review of the Lowe's process sounds wonderful. Um, and if nothing else, we'd like to

see that happen sooner rather than later uh for DSA. Um, and that's all I have. So, thank you very much. >> All right.

Thank you. Hi. Uh, Mr. Tab, did you need the face to go with the name?

Uh, I know I have frequent flyer miles here. Um, I prepared for one minute, so buckle up. Uh, I want to thank Miss Beyer for responding to the email that I sent yesterday evening. Out of the 13 people that I sent the photos and my message and my concerns to, you were the only one to respond and your responsib responsiveness will be truly missed um as we go forward. I hope that whoever succeeds you will continue to model that

and I appreciate it. Thank you, Natalie. Miss Beyer, sorry. Um so there was a staple gun and glue.

Uh, that's what was used to repair to I'm sorry, not repair to remediate the mold in our school. Um, I hope that you begin to understand, Dr. Lewis, what I mean when I say stop polishing and start fixing what's broken. Um, this work was not a repair.

It wasn't even cosmetic. It's careless. Um, and in my opinion, it's unacceptable. uh as a parent, an employee, and a a taxpayer here in this county, I want my money back.

Whatever they got paid, it needs to go back in my pocket because the job was not finished. It's absolutely incomplete. " I get it. We all have budgets.

We need bodies in these seats so we can be funded. But what I don't want to hear is there's no money. We found a lot of

money for the Showcase of Schools last weekend. We found $20,000 a month plus a perdm for Caddy Moore. And we found money to rebrand our buildings and slap new signage on all of our doors. Uh if money can be found for appearances, we can find it to fix our existing problems.

Enrollment is down. Growing together is failing. Families are leaving. How's the enrollment at WG Pearson?

If you want to attract and retain families, here's how. Keep school doors locked. Allow children to breathe clean air. Respond to emails.

Fix what's broken. Be good. Do good. God bless.

And go Bills. Beat Denver. >> Thank you.

Hello. Uh, Julianne Patterson with Preservation Durham. Um, and I'm here to say that Preservation Durham strongly supports the Durham Public School Board moving forward with the UNCC Chapel Hill School of Government's development finance initiative to provide technical expertise for phase one feasibility study of Old Losg Grove School. That's on the agenda tonight.

Um, we're encouraged to see Durham Public Schools collaborating with Durham County to explore redevelopment feasibility and options for this historic property. Um, Preservation Durham began advocating for the preservation of uh the reuse of old Lowe's Grove School back in 2010. And we appreciate the thoughtful conversations over the past year and a half with board members as well as um staff and administration. Um, and are encouraged um that have led to this this or that DPS staff had led to this important step. Um, engaging DFI's expertise before proceeding with demolition reflects a responsible, transparent, and dataformed approach. Uh we strongly believe that Old Loaves Grove School remains an asset to both the school district and the broader Durham community and believe that with the right team, resources, and vision in

place, this building has the potential for a productive new chapter that honors its history while meeting contemporary needs. Additionally, we're encouraged that seeking thirdparty guidance through DFI can serve as a model for how Durham Public Schools approaches other significant um historic properties, including the future of Durham High School and School of the Arts campus. DFI brings valuable community engagement expertise as seen in their work with Durham County on the 300 and 500 East Main properties a few years ago. This process demonstrates a commitment to evaluating options carefully and collaboratively ensuring that decisions about e replaceable public assets are made with the benefit of expert analysis and based on community input and values.

So just want to say thank you and we're encouraged by this step. Thank you. Next three speakers are Eliza Strickland, Heidi Eatland, and Christy Climp.

>> Good evening. My name is [clears throat] Eliza Strickland. I am the member I am a member of the Durham Advocates for Exceptional Children and I'm co-chair of the suspensions committee. I'm also the parent of a student with a disability in DPS.

Students with disabilities in DPS have the second highest risk of being suspended. Suspension is not an evidence-based practice. I apologize if I get emotional. This is a personal topic for me.

The evidence we do have is that it does more harm than good. It is associated with negative outcomes in a number of areas, not just school related, but for your health as well. So when you read the language of the goals of strategic plan priority 2, which is all about student well-being, and then you think about how we still suspend kids as young as prek, there's a significant disconnect between what we say we want to do and what we are

allowing to happen. The priority 2 update tonight does show some very promising progress and I applaud the efforts of so many in this room and outside this room who have made that happen. I do believe that this administration has its heart in the right place and that the board is paying attention to the disproportionate impact that exclusionary discipline has on students with disabilities as well as students of color. And we are only ever going to get so far with the policies that we have.

DPS has to change its policies with regards to discipline and with regards to seclusion and restraint. We shouldn't be suspending prek students with disabilities. As another student with a disability told her mother when she was suspended, I feel like they don't want me there. and it was hard to argue with that

statement. So, we do celebrate the progress and we urge DPS to keep it up, to fully commit to the well-being of all of our students by making meaningful policy change. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone.

and I'm Heidi Joe Hetland and it's been a while since I've been here, but appreciate everybody's work, especially some of my colleagues who faithfully come to these meetings every time over the past two years. It is amazing that they continue to have the endurance to do that. So, I cover the year- round schools as a physical therapist. This is my fourth year here, and in that time, um, five of my OT teammates have resigned. one of them uh an additional six person went to a different position with DPS so she um to get a 12-month position again to make um a higher salary. Um the therapists that have moved to other counties have higher salaries and they have um lower case load and of those therapists that have left several of them have 20 to 30 years

of experience working with children and a couple of them would have never ever received another raise in this county as long as they worked here based on the current salary schedule. Our PT team consists of um eight people and two left in September. Two of them went to neighboring counties. Again, higher salaries and they also get a supplement for a doctorate degree.

We do not do that in in uh our county. We don't recognize that higher degree. Um with the current salary scale, those vacancies are not going to be filled by people with decades of experience. are going to be filled with um people with much less and we welcome them and to mentor them but it's not going to work out if all of those positions are filled by people with not much school experience. Our students in EC deserve seasoned therapists who have developed relationships as a team which happen which only happens by working together over time and this is going to deteriorate further with the current salary schedule. DPS has money for consultant after consultant, but not for respectable salaries for valuable staff who serve some of DPS's most vulnerable

students. Thank you. Hello, Christy Clim, physical therapist. Um, good to see y'all again.

I've know I've missed a couple. Um I you know going on what Heidi Joe said um we've lost a lot of good people in related service in NEC and we are here because we care about the students we care about the district. We care about the staff and when you lose experienced people one the students don't get the quality the the services they deserve. the staff don't get the supplemental support and training and help that they need to be successful in the classroom and the district as a whole suffers because of that.

Um I'm going to leave a letter the group OT and PT department did a collective letter. I'll email it as well. Um I know classified pay is on the priority list

for next year's budget. Went through my phone to call OT's and PTS to go let's do a push like let's do a push. They're talking about making it better. Let's do that.

Had 22 OT's in my phone. 16 of them are no longer with the district. And those 22 in my phone were employed two to three years ago. The 13th, two days ago, was the two-year anniversary of classified getting the letter that let classified employees know the pay debacle was happening.

That is a long time. a long time. Um, some of the things that, you know, the comp the compensation scales as they are now for OT and PT are driving these vacancies. We've had people leave at unprecedented rates.

That's caused high case loads for remaining staff at times over a full-time FTE. Students are missing federally mandated services. There's reduced quality of care as

providers are forced to focus on quantity and not quality that those individual students need. There might be more group sessions just to make the minutes happen. Um required documentation. We're forced to do that at home and on the weekends.

Significant burnout causes more people to leave. And until the compensation gets fixed, DPS is going to be stuck in this cycle of it getting worse and worse and worse. Um, outside of this, uh, and I could be wrong on it. I look at Mr.

Teter. I know y'all can't answer me now, but returning employees, we didn't move up the pay amount for the step. We're we're we get our extra year and like, yes, you acknowledge we have now 10 years of experience, but we're still paid on year nine. New hires that I've talked to this year, they're paid on what the scale schedule shows. So if I'm at year 10 experience but paid on year nine and there's a new hire that's year 10,

they're paid on year 10. Because we kept that salary schedule up, we now have people with same experience paid on different. >> Thank you for >> Thank you. And last two is Erica White and Lenori Champion.

>> Good evening. Um, I'm going to preface all of this with the fact that I am not a public speaker. This is completely out of my comfort zone, but I am very passionate about this issue. I am new to DPS.

Um, and I just want to go through some background information. On May 28th, I accepted the position as an occupational therapist in DPS. I put in my resignation with my former employer mid June and they let me go

early on July 18th because they found a replacement. I did not have a paycheck in that time period. Um, and it was August 7th that HR finally let me know of the salary that I would take. Um, I attempted negotiations but that did not come through.

Um, so after three paychecks with DPS, I called my supervisor to ask what I could do because I was not able to pay my bills or my rent. " Um, then December 5th, I was evicted from my apartment. That incurred tons of other expenses, and at 44 years old, I had to get my parents to cosign an apartment. It was very embarrassing. Um, so I was raised not to talk about finances, not to talk about money, but I have to at this point. Um, keep in mind that all OT's, kodas, and physical therapists have to maintain certifications, registrations, and

lensures, and our services are federally mandated. So, the North Carolina state salary schedule for an OT with 17 years experience, the minimal is $64,211. The maximum is $105,949. I don't like to disclose this, but I have to.

Um, my pay with 17 years of experience in Durham um is $67,150. Monthly, that's $6714. Chapel Hill Carbell is the state salary plus a supplement to equal $78,024. Wake County, it's 74,251.

Orange County is a state salary schedule plus a 7% local supplement. Johnson County is 71,894. Chadam County is 6306

plus a local supplement. Um, just looking at the Durham Occupational Therapy Department, 61% of us have to work a second job, have se supplemental income, or other situations such as taking out a second mortgage. 74% of us rely on being in a two household income. Um, 100% of us either take work home or work extra hours.

Um, currently with staffing or as of the end of December, we are >> You can finish your state your sentence. >> Um, we are down three full-time direct uh DPS employees as occupational therapists. Durham School of Arts and Carrington Middle School have no OT coverage. And the preschool assessment and outreach team are down at least one FTE.

Okay. >> All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

Hello friends. Thank you for having me board members and um I just want to say that I'm the lead occupational therapist for Durham public schools and Lenor Champion. Um, recently, as in yesterday, I did a survey of my OT team to find out what their top reason that they stay. And perhaps you could guess the top reason is the kids.

Um, I like to say too, in my job, I have a lot of responsibility, but no power. " That's the truth. Um, this responsibility but not much power was glaringly clear this past summer as the 10th occupational therapist resignation came in. Much of the of my fall has been spent working on getting contract

therapists on board so that we can provide federally mandated services for our students with disabilities. We've lost many, many highly qualified OT's. And as Christie reminded everyone, the situation related to our classified employees started two years ago this week on the 13th of January. Some of you may be new to this situation.

Um, but some of us have been living this reality for two years. And I don't know, but I'm getting tired. Somebody, some people might not be, but I'm really getting tired. And this year just about put me right over the edge when I lost basically a third of my OT team. Um, please pay attention as you deliberate on the budget and the salary issues for classified staff. Thank you.

>> Thank you. That concludes our public comment. Uh thank you all for your comments. Next is our consent agenda.

The next item is out is our consent agenda uh for approval. >> I move approval of the consent agenda. Items A, B, C, and D. Second.

>> Who said second? Jessica. It has been moved by uh board member Beyer and seconded by board member Carter Autton um to approve their consent agenda. Are there any further discussions?

The consent agenda? Oh, vote. All those in favor say I. >> I.

>> All those not in favor [laughter] It passes unanimously. No. 60.

The next item on our agenda is the is uh administration. The operational service is the first one. Um the old Lowe's proposal presented by the UNCC school of government. You all have 20 minutes or less.

>> Sounds good. >> Thank you so much. U board member tab. Uh this evening we are so excited to be joined uh by representatives from the UNCC school of government um development uh feasibility.

Uh they'll be discussing the development feasibility analysis but they're from the development finance uh initiative or DFI that's housed uh in the UNCC school of government. Um for over 15 years about 15 years DFI has been partnering with local governments around North Carolina including our very own uh Durham County. um they've been doing some work uh in Durham County. They also have done some work with other school districts around the state of um North Carolina uh to really look at um uh real estate development and

specializing in uh public finance. And so at the request of Durham County and our Durham um board of education, uh DFI has been uh engaged to evaluate uh the redevelopment potential for the former Lowe's school site and those surrounding uh parcels. And so what you'll hear tonight is their um proposal in terms of uh community engagement um um you know from the standpoint of feasibility analysis. Um they'll talk about community engagement process market and housing needs assessment.

And so this will also be an opportunity uh if it's the will of the board to also um maybe engage in a similar process for um Old Northern and and DSA. And so I know board members will probably have a lot of questions um for you specifically about Olo's Grove, but they also may be thinking ahead um as as well, but tonight's presentation is certainly about um the work um and engagement around Olo Lowe's. And so at this time, I'll turn it over to uh the our team,

our partners. >> Great. Thank you for having me. I'm Marcia Parrot.

I'm the director of the development finance initiative at the UNCC school of government and I'm joined by my colleague Sonia Turner, senior project manager with DFI and would be the project lead if we were to be engaged by Durham County and DPS. Um Sonia will join me for the questions and discussion portion. Am I able to control the slides from here or should I cue next slide? >> You are able to control when you say that.

[clears throat] >> Great. Okay. It's like magic. Um, well, I'm going to give you an overview of our organization, who we are, um, tell you about our process and approach to helping test the feasibility of Durham Public Schools assets, and hopefully leave plenty of time for questions and discussion. So, DFI is housed within the UNC School of Government at UNCC Chapel Hill. I know our local government partners are very familiar, but if y'all aren't, the School of Government is a very outward-f facing academic

department within UNCC. They provide advising, teaching, and research directly for local government officials on their partners in every topic that touches civic life. From a toz, we like to say from animal control to zoning, there is an expert at the school on every topic you can imagine. Next slide, please.

DFI was created in 2010 by faculty member and attorney Tyler Mulligan, who's a North Carolina expert in community and economic development law. Local government um attorneys and faculty at the school of the government at school of government quite literally pick up the phone and take advising calls from city managers, planning directors all over the state. And our founder noticed that he kept getting questions over and over again related to public private partnerships. Um developers calling up communities and saying, "Hey, I would love to redevelop

that old school. I have an incredible vision. " And at the time, Tyler had the capacity on his team to be able to assist local governments with the legal authority for public private partnerships. He could tell them what was constitutional, what was lawful, but he didn't have the capacity to dive deep and provide long-term technical assistance around how to best structure the deal.

Um, does this public private partnership make sense? Does it make market sense? Is aligned with your community interest? Is this developer qualified to do what they say that that they're going to do? and is there a way that you can structure your investment in a public private partnership that is wise and protective of scarce public resources. So he had the idea to create us, the development finance initiative, DFI, to be able to serve as a long-term resource to local governments and their partners as they engage with the private sector um engage in public private

partnerships and really help to sit at their side of the table so that when they are negotiating with the private sector, we can land on projects that are both meaningful and in alignment with the public sector's goals, but also make sense for the private sector and are attractive and likely to attract private investment. Um we were started with some seed funding from the local government federal credit union and today next slide. Um we're working all over the state of North Carolina. I'll go through our approach in more more detail when I review the scope of services, but we act much like a private developer would when we're evaluating the development feasibility of the site.

We study the market. We study the cor surrounding area and current conditions. We engage with landscape architects and architects to understand design potential. We build financial models to test different types of scenarios. But perhaps where we're a little bit different is we are public servants. So we bring a public interest

lens to that work to make sure that as we're evaluating the project, we're keeping public interest and the goals of the organization that we're working with at the forefront and navigating that work. Next slide, please. Just some examples of projects that we've worked on all over the state. But as you can see, um Tyler was on to something in terms of of this idea for for the for DFI.

Next slide, please. and a few examples that I wanted to highlight that I thought were relevant to the old Lowe's school. We've worked on projects that relate to historic preservation around the state. Um, some examples I'm showing here are the evaluation of the redevelopment feasibility of two uh former hospital campuses.

Uh, the broughten old former Brotten Hospital campus in Morgan, North Carolina and Dorothia Dixs Park campus in Raleigh. Um, we are also currently working on a smaller historic building in Shelby, North Carolina, the former Hotel Charles. We also have extensive

experience with affordable housing, which we understand perhaps is one of the public interests of DPS in the county. We are currently working with Bunkham County on a project called Ferry Road that is a largecale nearly 500 units of mixed affordable and market rate housing. Also a mix of rental and home ownership opportunities connected to recreation and green space. We also have experience right here in the triangle.

We've been working with Morrisville for over a decade now to help them realize their vision for a mixeduse town center broke ground this fall and we have a long-term partnership as well with Durham County. Um, one of the recent projects is 300 and 500 East Main Street which is a mix of affordable and market rate housing with retail and structured parking. Next slide, please. All right. So, I'm going to dive into our proposal. Uh, next or not next

slide, but there you go. Thank you. Um, so I'm going to review the scope of services that you have in your packet and I'll do this at a high level, but please I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, so the first process in our feasibility assessment is community scan and stakeholder engagement.

We understand that y'all have been contemplating redevelopment of this school for several years. there's been prior planning efforts. So, we'll make sure that we absorb and digest that information and that we're not fatiguing you by asking the same questions over and over, but learning from the work that you've already done and leveraging that. Um, stakeholder engagement is a really important part of our process.

So, we'll work with you all to design a tailored process that makes sense for you, for your community, and that works well for for your goals for the project. Next slide, please. Next slide. All right. Our next stop is parcel analysis, an assessment of current

conditions in and around the site to understand how redevelopment of the old Lowe's site might fit into the existing context. There's opportunities for partnership in the area, and to be aware for anything within the built environment, environmental conditions that we need to be aware of in redeveloping the site. Next slide, please. We also perform market research to understand supply and demand for different uses in the site.

In this case, we anticipate studying demand for retail, residential, both affordable and market rate, office as well as hospitality or any other uses you'd like us to contemplate. Next slide, please. Site analysis. Um, this scope type is what we call a phase one feasibility assessment. So our goal here is to give you just enough information to make informed decisions to move forward. We try to design scope so that we're not having our client overinvest in analysis

and feasibility studies, but gather information that helps them be strategic as they move forward. So in this case, although sometimes we engage outside designers, we have an in-house designer that helps us perform test fits for the site. So understanding the development potential from the physical site both new construction and historic preservation or a combination of both. Next slide.

Financial feasibility analysis is obviously a really important part of our work and all of these activities tie together to help us build financial models that are driven by current real time market data and assumptions. So we will build financial models to help you understand and test the feasibility of a variety of different development scenarios and understand how public private partnerships might help us realize some of those scenarios. Next slide. And finally, we will provide you all

with recommendations. Um we are not the type of adviserss that do work in a back room and surprise you at the end. We would plan to make updates throughout, but we're here to help guide you and and navigate next steps. Next slide, please.

And then finally, you have this in our proposal, but we anticipate that this work would take five to six months. Um the fee is listed there, 72,400. And this would be the core project team, Sonia Turner, who you'll get to know more in a minute, as well as Sarah Odo, um, who has extensive experience working with Durham County as project lead. Um, we also are able to provide additional services if so desired. um the type of services that we've provided to Durham County, for example, for 300 and 500 East Maine. If we land on a program that makes sense for you all, that meets your public interest, and we are confident that it could attract private investment

partners, we can help you all run a competitive process to solicit qualified development partners, help you evaluate their proposals, select a partner, and then negotiate a development agreement with that partner. These are long-term contracts. We like to say we're there with you until you exit the deal. So, these are very long-term engagements.

And those are my slides. Ask Sonia to join me and open up for questions. Okay. Thank you so very very much.

Uh colleagues, this is our opportunity to ask any questions. Uh I would ask of you that um whatever questions you have you ask them in one goound. So if you have more than one question you know you can do that. So when I get to you whatever you have so that as we conclude this conversation will probably end. Anything additional can we email

you if we have additional questions? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> My email is on the last slide of that presentation.

Right. Perfect. Okay. Thank you.

So, I'll open it up now for discussion from colleagues. Miss um Harold Goff, thank you. Um thank you for the presentation. I had a question about um you mentioned about the lens for public interest, your lens of public interest.

I would like for you to just tell us a little bit more about that lens. What does that mean for um DFI and how does the community your the way you structure community engagement feed into that lens? Yes. So, thank you and I'm happy to

answer that question for you. So, we believe as Marcia mentioned that a project that we work on is not feasible unless it meets both those public interests and the private interests to come together. And so the way we collect those public interests is we roll up our sleeves with you and we identify who are the stakeholders we need to have conversations with. Who are the individuals that are important to make sure are part of this conversation?

And then we quite literally get on the phone, we call people. We have one-on-one meetings with individuals depending on the scope and scale of the engagement that you would like to see happen. We in this phase typically keep that to one-on-one or small group focused conversations, but in a uh a phase two type engagement that includes surveys, that includes community input sessions. And so we really tailor that to the needs of what you're hoping to

see accomplished with the project. But when we say we want to understand the public interest, that is core and essential to the project. It we can't have a project that only meets the private sector goals without meeting the public goals. Does that help answer your question?

>> Yes. Thank you very much. And also um this the next question I have one more is um around the the cost. My question is um if we were to assume a pro, you know, this kind of support, would that be would that would we be sharing that cost with the county? Um, and then how does this project um like um does public private partnership to do something like this? Could we also potentially um make money off of it for Durham

public schools? So, that's kind of two questions, but it's all about money. [laughter] >> Let's generate revenue. Yeah.

>> Let you take the second question and I'll address the the the cost. you know, when we were looking at, you know, potential partners to engage with, it was important for us considering our budget challenges to uh take into account, you know, the cost of of consultants. Um, and what was also important is was a high level of community engagement. And when we heard the presentation, we saw at every phase that there was some level of engagement.

And so, uh, to answer your question in terms of the cost, uh, the county, uh, is covering the cost for this process. And to answer your question about profit, we will present you with a variety of scenarios that explore different possibilities. Um, I know that's a hedging answer, but it really is about tradeoffs. Um, what's the most profitable might not align well with your public interest. So, we're going to give you a menu of different scenarios that some might emphasize return on

investment or revenue, and others might emphasize public interest. And sometimes there's a tension between the two, but we'll help you understand the pros and cons of every scenario. >> Thank you so much. That's all of my questions.

>> Thank you, board member buyers. >> I want to thank Dr. Lewis and his team um for bringing this here to us tonight. I think this is um such an important community asset.

it has been sitting in need of analysis and care for a long long long time. And it's important to realize that um we don't have to do everything alone in Durham public schools. We do schools, but as far as figuring out workforce housing, affordable housing, other dreams that our community may have, um I think your expertise is is exactly what's needed to bring to bear. Have you all done and there there's there's legal things about

what can be done on school loan property? What other ways there can be? Do you all have that internal capability? Do you need our lawyers to assist with that in the future?

Tell me. Yeah. Well, the school of government is full of attorneys with expertise. So, we certainly have attorneys that we can lean on for legal advising, but I also know I've spoken with Dr.

Giovani that you have legal experts that can then assist as well. So, we'll all work together and draw on that expertise to think about ultimately how we can pull something off given the limitations on the school board's powers. >> And at this point, you all have not toured the site or you have. I was I was going to say we haven't, but >> Yeah.

>> Yeah. We haven't. But I as a Durham resident, I have driven by that school many, many years and and gone to the library there and and I can say that this is really exciting as a resident of Durham to see this happen. >> And you spoke to the parcel of land

around it, the potential for analyzing as freestanding, but also as an expanded parcel. Um, and I just look forward to you all thinking outside the box as you listen to this community because this is a very creative community as you know. Um, see what could be there next. What life is there.

Thank you. >> Okay, Miss Kag. >> Um, thanks so much for coming this evening. Um, also very grateful to Dr.

Lewis and the administration for bringing y'all here and for meeting with you and very excited about the potential for this work. Um, both for the Lowe's Grove site and also for our other properties that we hold and just in the future those that are our buildings are aging and this will not be a problem or not be a opportunity that ends here for Durham public schools. Um so my question

for you is um you had mentioned that we'll get recommendations but it won't just be a final product. We'll be getting updates periodically. So I was curious to know with what frequency should the board and administration expect updates and what might those look like? Um what can we expect from them?

>> Yeah. So typically our projects are laid out such that there's a core project team that we are meeting with bi-weekly or or pretty regularly and about halfway through that scope term. Uh so at about that two and a half to three month point we generally like to provide a project update around the market and then we come again at the end with sort of that final recommendation. So, it's sort of twofold. There's a core group that we're meeting with very regularly with that intermittent, excuse me, intermittent update to the board sort of halfway through and at the end. Now, that's typical, but we partner

we we want to learn from you. We want to hear from you. So, if we need to have updates a bit more regularly, then we do that. We we really lean on your expertise to understand how frequently we need to meet.

>> Add that we're usually limited by competing agenda items and just you all being very busy as decision makers, but we'll give you updates as much as you'll have us, especially since we're very local. It's easy to come and bring you along on the journey as we learn information. >> My next question is more for Dr. Lewis.

um what is needed from the board at this point if we want to move forward with this and also um what's the vision for the partnership with the county through throughout the process? >> Yeah, I think what we we would need to tonight is just your your blessings to move forward with um engaging with our UNCC school of government partners. Um I also want to publicly thank Manager Hager. We've been on several meetings um

planning and just you know discussing the possibility of engaging uh but also uh for covering the cost and so they'll be involved because they've been there done that through this process before. So they'll be um um along with us uh during this entire process and so we'll definitely keep them updated as well uh during this process and uh as we you know get like like you said halfway through the pro process bring an update here to the board. We'll also share that with our county partners as well since they are investing in this. >> Um, thank you.

And then my last question for y'all is um if there is interest in engaging your expertise for other projects, does that need to wait until you're finished with this one or do you have the capacity to work on multiple projects at once? We have the capacity to work on multiple projects at once. And in fact, there can be some efficiencies gained too by having that that time relevant market information as well as helping you compare decisions with different

properties and weigh those against each other. So we're happy to take a portfolio approach is how we would think of it at looking at several properties at once. >> Thank you. That's great to hear.

So the with the efficiencies, are there any cost bundling? >> There are there's cost efficiencies as well. Yep. Wonderful.

Thank you. That's of interest to me because as I said, we have other properties that I'd prefer for us to do this with um sooner than later. >> Thank you, Chairstead. >> Um thank you all for this presentation.

It was really helpful and exciting about the work to move ahead. Thank you, Dr. Lewis and your team for bringing this to us. I'm curious in relation to thinking about other projects um because my question was going to be is that fee for that initial phase the same or does it vary per site or does it get complicated with different sites? >> It gets complicated with different sites. So it it can vary based on the

scale and complexity but if we're working in the same market with the same client and we're adding additional sites we there's a lot of efficiency there. So it is not the same fee for every project but increased incrementally when it's the same client, same market. >> It's of interest to me as we think about, you know, we you named three properties at the beginning of this that we need to be thinking about for the future and at least having some of that phase one work done um as the district needs to make decisions regarding what's next. Right?

We got our capital improvement plans and bonds and all of that coming soon. I I don't know what that looks like. I know we didn't come prepared to talk about all three today, but I just it feels like strategically it might be nice to have some more information as we're making some big decisions. >> Thank you so very much.

And I think I saw the red light going off. So that's our time as well. So thank you colleagues very much for staying within the time of that. We now need

we now I'm going to yield to Attorney Balone. Do we need to vote on this or we can just do thumbs up consensus to for them to move forward? Please. >> It doesn't appear to me that there's anything before the board to do tonight.

>> Okay. >> Um there's not an agreement or anything. I certainly think you can pledge your support to it so that he'll know that moving forward makes sense, but I don't know that you there's anything to literally approve tonight. Is there?

>> No, this is just for information only. We just wanted to make sure that uh we have our partners in front of the board to to get any questions from the board. As I mentioned, you know, our initial conversations was solely about um Olo's Grove, but I think one of our first or second meetings I kind of threw in there, hey, we have some couple other properties we may want to engage uh in as well. And so I would want to know based on uh board member Car's questions, are there any reservations from the board as it relates to one moving forward with Olo's Grove which is uh right here in front of us, but also

maybe also having some conversations about the work at um Old Northern and DSA as well. Yeah. And and I'll just I'll just share this as well. What I really appreciate about our partners at at DFI is that engagement.

You know, many times organizations, as we do as well, survey, but you don't get a chance to hear the passion in in our community members voice as it relates to a particular area from those phone calls and those one-on-one meetings and and community meetings. And so, thank you all so much for engaging with us as well as our um operations team that um have spent some time with Claudia and her team as well getting to this uh step. So, thank you. >> Thank you.

>> Uh thank you all so very much. We'll now move to our next item which is strategic plan priority 2 update. You have 45 minutes or less. Thank you Mr.

Tab. Good evening board members. Uh tonight we are pleased to uh share the strategic plan priority 2 update for with the board for

information uh and discussion. I want to take a a moment of personal privilege to thank all the DPS staff members who worked collaboratively uh to develop this update uh on actually short notice. We we shifted our schedule as it relates to this and so I appreciate everybody who worked uh to make this happen uh for the board this evening. Presenting tonight will be Miss Chanel Sidbury, our assistant superintendent for continuous improvement and school support and Dr.

Al Royster, executive director for research testing and accountability. Miss Sidbury. >> Thank you. Next slide.

Javin, um before we begin, I just want to name something directly. Um I know historically pime uh the priority 2 update has not always landed well and in the past it may have felt overwhelming or presented without context that you truly understand. Um today's update is intentionally different. This is not a compliance report by any means. This is not a collection of disconnected metrics. This is a discipline continuous

improvement update. It is focused on what we are learning um what we are doing and what we are changing as a system. Um priority 2 matters because it is foundation for academic success. Um and students cannot learn well if they do not feel safe, connected and supported and valued.

This update is around clarity, discipline and also trust building. Um before we look at trends and outcomes, we want to ground you in how and um how we are approaching this work and not just what the numbers say. Next slide, please. This slide will look familiar to the board.

It is the same as priority one is the new structure of how we will provide our updates. U so this explains how and why today's conversation will feel more structured. Um we are intentionally naming naming these four things for every strategy. That level of transparency is intentional.

It reflects a shift away from reporting activities and towards owning our own results. Next slide please. This slide you have seen before. This is our continuous improvement cycle. It

starts with the reality and not aspiration and that's what you will hear tonight. It forces us to ask hard questions like are we solving the right problems. Are those problems rooted in systems skill or implementation and what do we do about that? This is the same uh improvement discipline Cogna expects of accredited systems, identifying gaps, analyzing root causes, implementing with fidelity, and adjusting based on evidence.

In 2022, Cognia noted that Durham public schools commitment to continuous improvement, but they also challenged us to strengthen consistency, implementation, and systemwide coherence. And this cycle is the direct response to that feedback. Next slide, please. This slide you will also see again uh one reason why priority two may um have been difficult uh previously is because we sometimes blur the lines between progress and impact and this rating scale forces us to be honest about where our strategies truly are whether they are uh something is planned partially

being implemented or if it's actually producing results. Uh this clarity is allows us to improve. We are not lowering our expectations. We are strengthening accountability and naming it uh in reality.

Next slide please. This slide uh gives you an overview of how do the strategies in the strategic plan priority 2 align to the metrics in that priority. So you will see here that 2 A connects to our cultural frameworks and seal 2B restorative practices and discipline. 2C is attendance and goal 2 D is around a multitude of things that connect back to our positive student climate and our SEAL survey.

I'm going to walk you through these examples of how this work is showing up in our schools and if we are consistently seeing change or if we are still working on quality implementation. Next slide, please. Our first strategy is around restorative practices and exclusionary discipline. We have invested heavily in this and we

thank our board for their purchases and our approvals. More than 360 staff have been trained um in our practices and there's a strongwide district-wide infrastructure in place. This data shows reduction in suspensions and that matters. uh at the same time we have the challenge to uh reduce our variability and how restorative practices actually translate to daily change in decisions when it comes to discipline and um how inconsistent um we are with using our data to guide next steps.

Uh this reflects Cogni Cogna's uh findings uh around strong engagement but needing to uh deepen implementation and fidelity. Next slide please. Next strategy is around inclusion and intersectionality. We see strong examples of inclusive practices at our school across our schools as a district but it is not yet systemwide. The data uh challenges us to move from awareness to observable practices in our schools and aligned

instruction. This is not a lack of commitment of course. This is just a systems alignment issue. Next slide please.

Our next one is around extracurricular which is a strategy shared u with Dr. Pitman and the specialized services team. We are looking to provide every every DPS middle and high school student with extracurricular activities. Um you will see here what we are doing.

We have lots of supports for athletics, arts, culture, wellness and STEM. What is working? Our community is really stepping up to support our schools in a holistic way. and middle of our uh many of our middle and high schools have a lot of programming where we need to improve.

Uh the the strategy says uh we want every student. So we need to define what access and participation really looks like and what we're aspiring to do. Um our next steps are lifted there in terms of establishing a minimum access expectation, monitoring participation in these resources um by our student groups and aligning our extracurricular offerings to our student

engagement and attendance goals. Next slide please. Our next slide is discipline. Um it is looking at how we aggregate data and how we uh reduce uh dis disproportionalities among students who are farthest from justice.

Our schools are able to identify broad discipline trends through their various school improvement plans and other improvement efforts. What is not yet consistent is uh the use of offense level and student group data to drive our changes in our practices. Um this is the exact type of gap that we referenced uh before. Um we know the data but we do not always consistently use it to address in address uh instruction and supports.

Next slide please. This slide is around student voice. We have lots of surveys and information that we ask of our students and they are participating. So our participating rates uh participation rates in student surveys are high and our engagement in those surveys are strong. Uh again the

gap is feedback loops. Our students do not always see and hear how their voice informs our decisions. And when feedback loops are unclear, we want to make sure that even in our survey participation, although it looks positive, that we're clear about how we use their survey information and how it shapes our changes in our districts. Next slide.

This slide is a summary of the first five slides. And you will note that there is one strategy rated at a four, which is full implementation. And that is rated as a four because of the wording of the strategy which is provide all school administrators and educators annual professional learning and our student support services team is doing that work. Next we need to take a look at how that work is showing up in terms of change practice and change outcomes for our students and our schools.

So this tells us two things. Implementation is on its way and we're that way uh but it is not yet sustained across all of our schools. Next slide please. Next slide is around mental health and seal very important work to provide our

um school administrators yet with professional learning. We are doing that work. There's annual professional learning for classroom staff and administrators. There's monthly professional learning at the student support services level with our school counselors and social workers coaches etc.

So we across the board across mental health and seal engagement is very very strong with that practice. Professional learning is ongoing and staff awareness is increased. So now we want to do all of that to tighten the clarity around what that looks like to change our practices in classrooms and begin to monitor for fidelity. Who monitors what, how often, and how that information is used to guide our support is what we need to define moving forward.

Next slide. Next is student wellness. Student wellness is around our systems of integration. We have wellness structures that exist in most of our schools. We have wellness initiatives, district and community partnerships um and wellness structures. The challenge is uneven integration into school improvement

plans at MTSS. Student wellness is a part of academic success and right now we are treating those things as separate entities in some cases. So we don't want schools to experience this as adding new initiatives. It is about how do we use current practices to embed wellness into existing systems moving forward.

Next slide please. We come to our cultural frameworks. Um our cultural frameworks um here are our staff are deeply engaged in that work. Um we have professional learning.

U student support services staff are positioned as key implementation partners at the school level. However, our cultural frameworks are not yet consistently owned across leadership roles. Um some our cultural frameworks are treated as standalone initiatives in some schools. And so the next phase of this work looks like establishing sh uh shared ownership and leadership roles instead of isolated responsibility just in one department.

If we're going to build a strong culture in Durham public schools, we all own how that works. Look, how that work looks. Next slide,

please. Next, we have seal. We have several curriculums. zones of regulation, character strong, rethink, rethink ed, uh move this world in second step.

We have all of those in our schools and we provide annual SEAL um implementation training, resources, rubrics, you name it, we have it. Um so where we want to improve is um inconsistent completion and use of the SEAL implementation rubric. We want our schools to self assess and rate themselves on where they are in terms of implementing this SEAL curriculum and uh name exactly what they would like support to look like to strengthen fidelity so that our students have access to those resources um on a daily basis and as needed. So we have clear expectation implementation tools and analysis of the SEAL curriculum. Um and now we want to make sure that we move our focus towards reinforcing fidelity and not changing the curriculum. Although a reduction in curriculum may be something we bring forward to you as

well. Next slide please. Attendance. So we want to create this culture of attendance and and improve attendance by building our staff capacity and we do that through the vehicle of attendance team.

Uh most of our schools have attendance team and analyze their attendance data on a monthly or bi-weekly uh basis. However, attendance work uh remains largely reactive. We wait until students miss days and then we want to respond. So our work moving forward are how do we focus ourselves on yes reacting to the data as well as what are preventative strategies um that we can consistently embed so that our system is aligned to a proactive response to attendance as po as opposed to a reactive response.

Next slide please. So this slide again gives a summary of the last five strategies in priority two with our um mental health and seal getting a rating of a four. As you read that standard um that strategy you see that it says to provide professional learning. Again the charge is we have

strong engagement. We have uneven implementation and we have emerging impact. And so how do we name exactly what it looks like to not just participate in professional learning but to see that translate to change outcomes for students at the school and district level. Next slide please.

This slide is a snapshot of the 2425 endofear um reporting for priority 2. And I think the board may find this a familiar looking dashboard. Um this dashboard looks at the strategies name and our strategic plan. It shows you our 2425 benchmark where we actually fail and where where are we in terms of our status of meeting that goal.

So you will see that we met four one of four uh goals in the priority two um primarily that prior uh 2B is around reduction of suspension for equity focus with students with disabilities African-American students and Hispanic. We did meet that goal and you can see that reduction there. 37.

So we know that there's much work to do um and we want to make sure that we are looking at a large scale to see what supports do all schools need as we look at our data and start there and work systematically. Um others include attendance and fidelity of SEAL um implementation. They were not met and I mentioned that to you earlier. Those things are not for a lack of resource.

there are lack of data monitoring and accountability so that we really get to a strong strong um implementation fidelity of those things. So uh moving to the next slide, the next slide is around where we dig deeper into the data. Um this is uh the most important shift. We're no longer surprised by the data that we're going to be sharing for you with you.

We understand why the data looks the way that they do and we're adjusting accordingly. Um this is what is respon what what responsible governance governance and continuous improvement looks like. Um priority two is about how we make decisions and how we think as a

global community around these strategies. It is not perfection but we are building systems and that produce better outcomes for our students. I do want to before I turn it over to Dr. Royster, I do want to thank Dr.

Mattis Perry, senior executive director of student support services and her team. um Dr. Watson, Melissa, Amy, all of those and their respective team members are uh supporting this work moving forward. We are in the process of uh calibrating ourselves around both doing great work, providing great supports and also how do we see the fruits of the labor of that work show up in outcomes that are changed for students that are farthest for justice and that support us in meeting our strategic plan goals.

So, I turn it over to Dr. Royster. will give you a closer look at our data that is associated with priority 2. Dr. >> Thank you, Miss Hberry. Good evening,

board members and Dr. Lewis. , executive director of research and accountability. This evening, I will review the discipline data connected to the priority 2 update.

My role is to present the data from a neutral perspective, simply showing what the numbers tell us. Miss Sidbury has shared context for priority 2 through uh strategy deep dives, key takeaways, systemwide next steps, and other pertinent information. My focus is support the work and information shared by showing the data and answering any data related questions you may have. In addition, we will review some quarter 1 data for the 2526 school year.

This data is preliminary, unofficial, and subject to change. Final verification is done at the end of the school year by our DPS safety and security department, which will be submitted to DPI for further review and final verification. I will reiterate this several times tonight. In addition, I also want to state that DPI DPI has not yet released the official

2425 statewide discipline data. Um we are bringing this information to the board to support the discussion align with priority two of our strategic plan. Uh next slide please. This slide shows the total incidents each year from 2122 through 2425 and how total incidents in quarter 1 of this year 2526 compared to quarter 1 total incidents each year from 2122 to 2425.

A highlight shown in our callout box. There was a reduction in total student incidents from 19,972 in 2324 to 14,161 in 2425. That's a difference of about 5,811, which is a 29% reduction. That's the lowest in four years. Another highlight shown in our callout box, there was a reduction in total student incidences from 4,377 in quarter 1 24-25 to 3,51 in quarter 1

2526. A difference of 1,326, which is a 30% reduction. Again, this data is preliminary, unofficial, and subject to change. Next slide, please.

Next slide. This slide shows restorative practices center or RPC data spanning over four years from 2122 to our last school year 2425. 36. You may notice over the next few slides um that the percentage of RPC elementary and secondary students assignments differ from those of the RPC student groups. The percentage differ because RPC elementary and secondary rates are

calculated using the total number of students at each level as a denominator. 69%. So just giving you that example as we go forward. Uh next slide please.

This slide shows the same data but for RPC student groups spanning over four years from 2122 to 2425. 02. Again, the percentages here for students differ from the RPC elementary and secondary percentages because we're using all students and DPS to calculate these numbers. So for example, there were 31,165 total students in DPS for 2425 and that

17% you see there. Next slide please. Next slide. This slide shows short-term data spanning over four years from 2122 to last school year 2425.

38% a difference of 62. And as a reminder, the same concept I discussed with RPC also pertains to short-term numbers as well. Next slide, please. This slide shows the same data but for short-term suspension of student groups spanning over the four years from 2122 to last school year 2425. Some highlights shown in our callout boxes a reduction in short-term suspension for

all students from 2324 to 2425. 22%. That's a difference of 76 across six out of the seven student groups. 2.

39 which equaled about five students. Next slide please. Next slide please. This slide shows long-term suspended student groups data spanning over four years from 2122 to last school year 2425.

Please note that due to reporting restrictions, we cannot report numbers for student groups with fewer than 10 students. Therefore, you'll see numbers less than 10 for each student group in their corresponding year. A highlight shown in our callout box, an annual reduction in long-term suspensions for students with disabilities and black females from 2223 to 2425. Next slide, please. So, in the next five slides, we will

review the quarter 1 discipline data from 2526 school year with comparison spanning the last four school years back to 2122 school year. The year-over-year data shows that we are making progress. Next slide. Next slide.

And I want to say again as a reminder, this data is preliminary, unofficial, and subject to change as final verification is done at the end of the school year. This slide shows quarter 1 RPC data spanning over 5 years from 2122 to quarter 1 this year 2526. 74% that was a difference of 74. 01. Next slide please. This slide shows the same data but for

quarter 1 RPC student group data spanning over the five years from 2122 to this to quarter 1 this year at 2526. A highlight shown in our callout box. 20 to 39 which was about eight students. Next slide please.

And next slide. This slide shows quarter one short-term suspension student uh group data spanning over 5 years from 2122 to 2526. As shown in our callout box, we had a reduction in secondary short-term suspensions from 2425 to 2526. 78% that was a difference of8.

37 to 65 a difference of two of 28. Next slide please. This slide shows the same data but for

quarter 1 short-term suspension student group data banning spanning over those five years from 2122 to uh 2526. 48 48 and 2526. Next slide, please. Next slide, please.

And this slide shows quarter 1 long-term suspended students spanning over 5 years from 2122 to quarter 1 of this year, 2526. As you can see, there was a significant quarter 1 drop for three years. 2122 to 2324, 20 students to 13. That was a decrease of 7. 2223 to 2324 13 students to five it was a decrease of eight in 2324 to 2425 there was a slight increase

of one student and then 2425 to 2526 there was an increase of two students. So that concludes the data review for priority 2. Now Miss Sid Barry and I will take any questions that you may have. >> Thank you so very much to both of you.

Uh I yield now to my colleagues for any questions that you may have and we would follow the same procedure that we did before. Ask all your questions as I get to you and then we should be able to conclude this. No particular order. >> Okay.

M >> I'll go first by warning you I have a lot of questions. So, I'm going to try to consolidate some of them. Thank you so much um first for such an excellent presentation. Really appreciate all the all the work that you're doing to um lead us in these ways. Um

it's um my understanding that we don't have restorative practice coordinators at every school. Is that right? And if so, um can you tell us how many schools have restorative practice coordinator? We have restorative practice coordinators in all secondary schools.

We do not fund restorative practice coordinators in elementary schools. Uh some schools have, you know, been able to be created with their aotments to create them at the elementary level. Uh but but that that is uh a secondary aotment. >> And do we have restorative practice centers at elementary schools then?

>> We do. We do in in some elementary schools. I guess I um I saw that in the data it indicates that we have students elementary school students um in RPCs and so I was curious to know how we should interpret that data then given what you've shared

meaning if the only some if no elementary schools have restorative practice coordinators if only some have restorative practice centers then does the data about elementary school students only represent some schools or in schools that have neither, where are those kids going when we're saying they're in an RPC? Does that make sense? >> Uh, yes, it makes sense. Um, you know, I I would be load to answer that question because I'm not sure I can quantify it as as well as I would as I would like to without being able to go back and getting very specific data.

What I would want to clarify and and differentiate though is between the notion of using restorative practices as a response to behavior and having a restorative practices center. One doesn't have to obviously have a restorative practices center to use restorative practices as a response to uh to behavior. >> Yes. And if I could add there, what it alludes to is is that setting is there to say if an infraction occurs, what's your response to it? And schools have

multiple ways that they could respond. One is suspension, ISS, OSS rather, short-term alert, longterm, and then RPC. So RPC at a school that does not have a RPC center or coordinator could look like a counselor pulling a small group of students and doing work around to manage your anger so that you don't have an outburst in schools. So you don't have the center, but you would note that that was an alternative to suspension.

>> Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. So that's how when we're looking at that data on the elementary school students and RPCs that might be what's happening with some of them >> and some schools do have those centers and are not yet as such.

>> Thank you. Okay. And then um [clears throat] I know you were talking about how um we are training um Okay. We're requiring all in one section of the presentation says we're requiring all administrators and restorative practice coordinators to complete peaceful schools professional learning. And then another slide says we're providing all educators with training on

restorative practices. And I was curious to know which is the case. Are we um training all everybody in schools and if not then who's getting trained? So it is both as it was noted in the slide.

So what happens is if you think of kind of a train to trainer model administrators and RPC coordinators and others receive that training and think about how that looks to bring a forth those restorative practices and alternative alternatives and to suspensions in your school. So it's more so around a mindset shift. How do you prime the school community to look at discipline in a different way? Um, I will get with our student support services team to see if we keep up name by name, but it's more of are we having that influence at the school level and priming our leaders, our administrators as well as the people who lead that work to facilitate that work at the school level.

>> Okay. Thank you. Um um on slide 20 there was you reported out

about student sense of belonging and reported that only le a little bit less than half of our students say um they feel like they belong in their school and noted that that was I think you noted that that had declined significantly and it signaled an area for critical act uh critical area for action. So I'm wondering do you all have thoughts or the team have thoughts on what has happened there or why that data looks that way and also what actions are being taken in response. >> Sure. So what I would couple that with is the also the metric that says our reduction in completion of that survey it reduced from around 90% to roughly 60% of our student actually have that survey. So until we get our completion our participation rate up so that it is a full encompassing of all of our students it's hard to make any conclusion because we has a reduction in the in the reach of who took that survey. So what it would say in terms of um your sense of belonging is again

using this data this data is from October. So our school counselors, SEO coordinators, RPCs have already grappled with this data and also our school administrators through our impact meeting identify what they're using uh how they're responding to their panorama data. So what I would say is what we are doing are making sure we have critical conversations. We don't have a blanket response to this data.

is more of having intentional conversations at the school level and the principal and their respective team think about how this data manifests and what they would do and adjust to change in that structure. So our schools are responding to this data. Um I could bring forth some some comprehensive reports on what strategies those schools are are doing but this isn't a global response at this point. We will want another data point which is coming up in the spring. The second survey of Panorama to see if the impacts of what schools are implementing is changing this data in a radical way. But I just want to note the reduction in in and participation would allows us to make a less conclusive uh decisive

answer on that. >> Thank you. Is that the panorama and is that related to the shift from from the state that went from opt out to opt out in? >> Correct.

>> Thank you. That's unfortunate. Um what um trying to narrow this down. Um okay.

Can you please help us understand what what student incidents includes like who's included in student incidents and um what like what counts as an incident? I'm just not familiar with that. So yeah, student incidences is anything entered into it would be power school last year and infinite campus this year. So it could be any infraction any anytime a child is sent to the office. Um we have reportable ones like fighting disorderly conduct um inappropriate language disrespect truency. Those are

some of the things, but the incences this make up is anything that was put into Infinite Campus and Power School last year that a student might have gotten uh had an infraction for and was sent to the office and it was entered into powers school or infinite campus. >> Are these entered into infinite campus and powers school or educators handbook? >> That sorry educators handbook but hand educators handbook uploads to infinite campus. So you are >> parents can see the infractions for their students listed there >> in where in educator's handbook >> infinite campus >> that I have to check on.

I I'm >> I don't think they I don't think they can. I think it's just >> okay. >> It's just >> make sure because they use infinite campus and I don't want to give them the impression that they can go look at those infractions. >> It it is >> or incidents.

it is updated to infinite campus because that's where our state uh pulls that data from for the ultimate and authoritative source to make that endofear reporting structure. It is not public to to to parents. We do that communication at the school level. And just to go back to your your point um

Miss Carter is to think about anything that a teacher might bring attention to administration and infraction is that. So it could be something as simple as you threw your pencil across the room. What we do is how we respond to that infraction. and it could be a call home and that infraction wouldn't be something that we would suspend or have ISS for.

There's there's minors and there's majors is what um Dr. um um Royster was referring to and our majors are kind of what we report to the state. >> And board members, just just to add to that, it was it was really important for us to include the number of incidents in this report um in order to give context to the reductions in terms of um consequences. For instance, if um you know, we saw reductions in terms of the number of students who were uh suspended and assigned to restorative practices that don't that only means something if the number of incidents are going in a certain direction, right? And so we wanted to make sure to to give you that so that you had context as to you know

the fact that the number of um consequences students are being um are are hearing or feeling um are going down and the in incidents are going down. >> Thank you. That's very helpful um context. I was wondering about that.

Um okay I can probably make this my last one. um the data I think you mentioned somewhere in the presentation that your team that folks are looking at suspension data by type of infraction. So why someone's getting suspended, right? And you're in not quite at the point where you're fully able to use that to inform decision-m, but you're working on that.

Is that all right? Did I hear that? >> That's correct. >> That feels like that would be something that could be helpful.

So, the policy committee is going to be and then the board will be looking at the student code of conduct likely in the spring. It's in our queue. Um, that would be something that could be helpful for us as we're thinking about to help us

understand why we're suspending kids or why kids are receiving different types of punishments, correctional action. Um, is that something that would be that the board members could receive or suspension data by type of infraction? Are they is it a weapons? Is it a weapon?

Is it a substance? Is it a disobedience? >> You you certainly can and we'll provide that by um by by type of incident and connected with consequences that that students um the the the responses that we have for that. Um the only thing I would share and I will um deliver um Al Royster to be there to deliver his famous tagline.

So as you think about that, we would ask you to remember um particularly over the last the data that we'll give you that reflects last year and this year um to that point. Um Al, what is the tagline that you use? The data is not >> Yeah, for quarter one, it is unofficial.

Um and it is subject to change. And I know I said something else in there, but yes, it is subject to change because again, uh, DPS safety and security, they kind of go back, check with principles, make sure data is correct before they submit. So, it could shift. So, that's why it is unofficial.

Um, and like I said, the state has not even released the 2425 data yet. If you go on their website now, it says 2324, and they don't usually do that to March. And so, that's the reason why we're a little hesitant sometimes with sharing this because again, it's unofficial. If you see one number and then you all are very sharp, you'll keep that number in mind and then look five months from now and see it's a different number.

" That's why I want to say it about five times tonight. Thank you. And with that data though, can we see that by grade level, too, so we can have a good understanding of what's happening at different because that's part of what I think we're going to be thinking about. >> Um I I want to preliminarily say yes.

Um but just that may require some work. My tame is looking at me sideways. Um I I I do want

to just say this given that we are shifting to infinite campus um and you know our capacity to provide some of those things is a little bit um what I would categorize it as touchandgo. So things that we've been able to just give folks in the past we we have to figure out how to make happen in this new system. Our commitment will certainly be that we will make every effort to be in a position to provide that to you um in a way that is sensible and uh we'll start working on figuring out how to make that happen now. >> Thanks so much.

I will stop now and I trust my colleagues are going to have lots of great questions and if I might email some later if they don't I'll get asked. Thanks. just for context and we certainly will be able to provide that for years past um but um the the more recent data that may be a little bit more challenging. >> Thank you board member Carter alter um great questions. So so great that nobody else is going to probably have any questions but I know Mich

>> Thank you. um the data is uh is promising to see the changes according to our um strategic plan. So thank you um for um just also this new structure that's really helpful understanding the um changes in um actions we're taking. So, a a few questions.

I wanted to get clarity again about the RPC referral because my understanding is that we should be using restorative practices all the time and it's a proactive approach too. And so, when we say RPC referral, do do we mean any restorative action in response like that conversation? I was kind of wondering about the time as well. If it's an RPC referral, is it for a class period or it could could it be a day? Could it be multiple days? Um, so I'd like just more specificity about what is included in that RPC

referral. Um and also I guess um from what you said Miss Dbury could it be also in the classroom then and not so it's not necessarily a center actual like change in location for the student as well. Okay. >> Yeah.

So I can speak to that. So I would say that um in in terms of the RPC as we are rep reporting it this is solely focused on as an alternative uh to a suspension. Um and so this data is only in response to an incident as we have defined. Um what we have not reported is perhaps a behavior support plan or MTSS support plan notes restorative practices as a conjunction to help that student get stronger with academics or get focused that is reported on our Panorama uh student success data and is not a part of this discipline data. So those are separate reportings and to your note there are many teachers who provide restorative practices uh right there in the classroom. It is noted either in

their own documentation and lesson plans and their PLC plans and that is not noted in this data. This is just holistically and in in changing how we respond to discipline practices. >> Okay, that's very helpful. And and then about the time piece can it include multiple days or >> it can include multiple days.

Um and then we are also making sure that we're not just using uh the RPC as an alternative to an ISS. Um but again this practice I think is began in 1819 is when we shifted to restorative practices and maybe uh shortly after that in 2021 is when we started to invest in the RPCs. So we're still uh getting that continuity across what that looks like implementation which is what I alluded to. It still is varied in our schools, but we're working on how we get that clear focus on using it in the right way that we intend.

>> Thank you. That consistency is important. >> This is might be a good point to to remind board members of the conversation we had some time ago about the way Durham Public Schools has approached the implementation of restorative practices.

And remembering we had a conversation about um the the the notion was introduced um and we provided positions but here to for we had not adjusted our um our discipline policies to reflect restorative practices in those policies and that is part of the uh shift that we are making now as it relates to the work that's going on um with our student code of conduct. So, um, I think to your question about, you know, do do we use it all the time, right? The answer, the honest answer to that really is is no, because that's not the way we rolled it out initially, right? But I think that is um an aspirational um way of thinking about the way this will will work and and as we do a better job of embedding it in our student code of in our student code of conduct, we'll be in a much better position to to to establish that as an absolute expectation for schools and staff members.

>> Thank you. That's um yeah, that makes sense. I'm I'm glad we're doing this work to kind of clean up the consistency piece and also solidify things through policy. That's we need to do that.

Um, so along those lines, I just want to ask, so do any schools use an ISS? Do any schools use that as a term or send students to an in school system? >> We have moved away from that practice as an institution. >> Okay.

Um, I think I'd want to again make that aspirational. I think we've moved away from that nomenclature and we've done a very a pretty good job of moving away from that notion. I think we still have some work to be to do as it relates to that and I think that is you know again a part of that that transition process that we've talked about. So just want to be clear about that. >> Thank you. That's why I'm asking >> I don't want anybody to call later and say my child was in something that felt just like ISS last week.

Um, and then all right, I have to note um with that fe white females are an outlier in some of this data. They are significantly lower than any other group. Um, short-term suspensions, RPC referrals. I'm just going to ask to what do we attribute this?

Um, oh, and also just point out that black males are still 10 times more likely to be referred to an RPC, although I the disparity has lessened significantly. So, I appreciate that. Um, I can see the work done to what do we attribute this the very small percentage of white females that receive these disciplinary referrals and do we think this is partly due to a positive bias? So what what I will say just from a systems level is what I u mentioned in the presentation around getting consistency and what these things mean in practice. Um one of the things that you'll see in discipline is that you can have a phrase like insubordination. What

is insubordination? How do we define insubordination? Um as we look at our data who is likely to be marked more as insubordination versus others. That is work ahead of us as we recalibrate with our student code of conduct and some policy adjustments.

But that is more of a mindset shift as I mentioned in my presentation. We have our structures. We have the tools. We have the resources.

We have to now shift as an organization commit to this work. It will be hard and difficult for some people to change their practices. Uh but it is the work ahead of us as the strategic plan as our northstar. >> Yeah.

Thank you. Um I appreciate that answer. Um and then there was um community member Eliza Strickland who's u representative from Durham Advocates for Exceptional Children sent um us some questions as well. Um is there data about repeated suspensions and total date days of suspensions that students accumulate over time like with multiple uh short-term suspensions? Is that

something you all are tracking even if you don't present it to us? is that >> so our educators handbook platform allows us to look at that data over time. It is also a part of our impact meeting structures where we look at multiple data sources and look at root cause analysis with our schools to say why is this happening? Um and so yes it is a part of what we do internally.

Um and it is not something that we report. We report exactly what we report to the state as well as our progress monitoring data uh for quarter one. >> Okay. Just for clarity, you're you're speaking of if a school has um 50 and 50 suspensions, uh schools are able to see of those 50 suspensions if it's, you know, how many kids make up those 50 suspensions and if it's some repeat offender.

So, yeah, they are monitoring that data. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Yes. Um All right. And last thing, um just are there other additional pieces of data that you all feel are needed or should be collected in order to properly

assess what changes we continue need to um need to make to align with the um the changes and actions that you described earlier. So one of those is noted in in the presentation which is around a implementation rubric. Um I think that was introduced this year um in terms of not just providing the curriculum and providing the professional learning but giving schools a holistic picture of what full implementation looks like and allowing them to self assess and say where am I in that continuum. I think it'll be reviews like that internally that allow us to think about not just if we have what we need but how far we're moving with the impact of implementing those things.

Okay. And I think I don't think it's additional data, but just taking a deeper dive in the data and I think Dr. Midberry mentioned that earlier. So really looking at yes, we have a number of um the students in subgroup as it relates to what they're you know their suspension numbers and what they're being suspended for and really looking at the infractions and you know looking at the subjectivity uh in some of those

infractions as well as relates to students of color. >> Thank you. This work is so important. and thank you so much for this presentation and and all that you all are doing.

Yep. >> Thank you very much. We are out of time with this particular item, but we do have two colleagues who want to speak. So, we'll yield to Mrs.

uh board member Beyer and then to uh chair Mstead. >> Oh, I was saying I would go last. Save save the time for chairstead. Thank you.

And I'll you can come back. We're not going to waste any time fighting over this. Mr. Umstead, you go ahead.

>> Uh, thank y'all for this comprehensive presentation. It's really helpful and seeing where the strategies are. I'm going to try to keep my questions as brief as possible. Um, for the March um, thank you for telling the Mar the data is not clean till March because in my mind I'm like where is 2425 data? So, it's helpful to know that that won't come until March. Feels less helpful for schools, but that's a DPI conversation.

Is prek data also included in that or is that something that we track separately as a district? >> Um, in terms of reporting, no prek prek data we don't have. Um, and we I think yes, pre-k data we don't have. I think in educator's handbook, I did look um earlier.

I think we do have first grade in there because I did see some um incidences for first graders, but in educators handbook we um it's just first grade. I have not seen any pre-day data, pre preK data, excuse me. >> That feels like an opportunity. Just thinking about what our public speaker shared today, especially as we think about um some of our exceptional children's programs that are prek if we're having suspensions there.

That's something that we want to be tracking and knowledgeable of and also think about improvements of. So, I just I don't know if that's captured somewhere anecdotally, but how do we kind of get it together and um in one place for the data as a district? So, that'd be helpful. And then will the board maybe in a email update also just get once you get that finalized data in March or

whenever that y'all get it and then scrub it and create those data sheets that you put on the website and that kind of stuff. Is there a way that that can also be shared with us so we know when it's up? >> Yeah. and and we we have like the reports we have now we just typically and I we we typically wait until that time but we have the the data that is that the state I'm talking about for 2425 is district data they actually do it a different way I think they do it by 100 per 100 students >> um was that yeah >> yeah so we have that data now we just usually wait per Dr.

Lewis, if we need to go ahead and post post the reports that we have typically that's on the website um on our website, we can go ahead and do that. We were just waiting. And we've also reorganized our website. I think I remember seeing your email asking that is that we usually have academic data and then we have subgroup.

We have academic discipline and then subgroup data. And that discipline subgroup I like to say is student groups now, but that student group data is usually under that subgroups. We're gonna reorganize our website where that

data will be under discipline so it'll all be in one spot. >> Great. That'd be wonderful. >> Yes.

So again, pleasure of them if they let me know, I can go ahead and I can post reports because the reports I used to gather this data is I mean the the data that I I had today, I used our reports from last year to do that. So >> I think whatever is the cleanest I would hate for us to put something and then have to put other stuff. whatever that cleanest final version is, let's keep the cleanest final version. I don't want that to get confusing.

So, that's that's helpful. Um, the other thing I think what I hear a lot from community members and was highlighted in this presentation is a lack of consistency across schools and how implementation looks different across our schools to fidelity across the schools which is in some ways makes sense as our schools have different cultures but we shouldn't have folks having really negative or disproportionately different implementation across schools. So really kind of what are we doing to hold each school accountable for that high expectations we have around in

implementing restorative practices so we don't have folks saying you know this really feels like ISS which we've heard from some of our students and families. Yes, thank you and definitely understand that and I think that alludes to kind of the theme of the presentation. We have been in the mindset of um providing the professional learning and the resources and providing support um and we're shifting to doing that and also monitoring fidelity and giving feedback around the gaps in implementation. So the with that change in mind thinking about not just the professional learning but do we see the impact of that professional learning not just having the curriculum but our students behavior changing as a result of that you will see the shift in that that implementation gap.

It is just around the shift in fi philosophy and mindset shift as a district which will probably take us a few years to adjust to especially with the new uh code of conduct being implemented this year. >> Yeah that that was the point I was going to make. I mean, I think that that shift in the code of conduct is critical because at this moment, no principle is required to ever use restorative

practices because it's not laid out in the code of conduct. Um, specifically to that end, um, once we make that shift, um, you know, it becomes a different conversation and and accountability becomes a different conversation. It's difficult to hold someone accountable to a shift they were asked to make if they valued it. Uh rather than and then it's a whole lot different to say you know we hope you will use restorative practices.

Um and when you at the end of the process if you don't that's different than you are required or the or the code of conduct requires you to use restorative practices. Um so once we make that shift, I think we'll be in a much stronger position um to get to that place and it will be more fair for our administrators for us to go to that place at that point as well. >> Thank you. That's really helpful. And I would love to know just I'm trying to make sure I get on time like I think

that professional development, training and implementation is important and then how are we also making sure we're actually seeing improvements. " and then we go back to do the what we were doing anyway. And so how are we kind of making sure we're monitoring what improvements look like across there? Um are we also still using the conflict resolution center when it comes to attendance?

I know at some point principles were working with the conflict resolution center when there was uh truency pro issues and then they were working um which used restorative practices to think about with that family how to get those students reconnected with school. We'll have to go back and answer it. I don't know the definitive answer to that question. >> Think about this theme on restorative practices and thinking about absenteeism and as a part of this strategic pulling goal too. How do we is there al there is a center that can help us facilitate that practice. Um and so we're really thinking about how does that look across all of our different uh challenges and things we're working with our students.

So thank you all for the presentation. It's um good to see that we're seeing some incidents go down and very clear about where we need to improve our data as well. So thank you. >> Thank you chairstead board member Beyer.

So, real quick and for followup, not for now. Um, thank you to every educator that has spent so much time making these improvements and as we work towards zero suspension, zero absenteeism, like let's let's give gratitude to the folks that are doing this really complicated time inensive work. Um, and to you all for bringing the data. Um, long-term suspensions can be appealed to the board of education.

I need our community to know that. I need to start seeing some again because perhaps the word got out in the street that this board says no and don't bother the board and don't bring them to the board. This board is child-c centered, whole child focused and we need to see those um appeals occasionally and and

know that our we need our community know that they have the right to that appeal. Um it's been too long. I have two more that are going to be more questionlike. Um, just as y'all focus on chronic absenteeism, um, I think that would be super important, perhaps even worthy for future board's um, presentation just on what we're doing to address those those students, how our data is helping us inform and c catch those students early.

Um, we know that that is a significant issue in post pandemic and I don't think we've gotten our hands around that yet. And then the Duke Children's Law Clinic did a report and I wondered if staff might have a chance to look. Apparently early grade suspension um before this would ever come to policy committee. I would like to hear from staff and what you all think if the board is amendable. It's really policy changes that have prek through e second

or third grade in Winston Salem, Charlotte, and New Hover actually have policies that say before a child would be suspended in those very early grades, it has to be reviewed by the superintendent or superintendent's designate in order to reduce those early grade suspensions which have such an impact, a negative impact on students. So, I'd be interested in in y'all's input on whether those policies are helpful or not before we we would ever dive into any changes in Durham. But, um, and I can send y'all a link to that that report from the Duke Children's Law Clinic. But, thank y'all and I can send it to the board.

I just assume the board already had it, but it's from the Duke Children's Law Clinic and I'll send it to everyone now. Thanks. Uh just to that point, we do have a review process internally to respond to that and we can bring that back to the board along with the attendance data to kind of talk that through. >> I just want to get clarification. When you mentioned the chronic absenteeism report, were you requesting that for a future report?

>> I I don't want to request anything. I think future boards when y'all dig into this might need a little more digging into that data and how we're targeting that issue and and systems, but no, I'm not directing y'all to do anything. And thank you know y'all are keeping an eye on it. >> But are you good?

>> Better than good. Thank you. I'm great. >> Great.

Um, thank you to my colleagues for those wonderful great questions that were asked. Thank you very much. And to the team, Dr. Lewis, to your team, thank you for an answer answering those questions and thank you for the work that you're doing.

Um, this concludes your presentation. Thank you so very much. And as in theater, Mr. Teter was on deck in Q ready to come in and I appreciate that.

All right, Mr. Ter, the next item is the uh budget feedback. You have 20 minutes and you know the rest. >> Fantastic.

Thank you so much. >> All right. >> Um, thank you. uh work session chair um

tab board members and Dr. Lewis. Um so we've um as as you've known from our our last couple of presentations, we've been sharing sort of the cycle of feedback um that we were going through with this and um so the thought exchange uh most uh most pressing um so we we opened that uh shortly after or shortly at the holiday break. Um and then we ended up closing that exchange on the 9th.

We had originally proposed uh closing that on the 2nd, but we extended that to to allow more time for folks to participate and and get as much feedback as possible. And so grateful uh for my partners um in in Miss Cooper's office in public affairs for all of the different ways that they uh impressed on folks to engage in that. So um on the next slide um we sort of lift up just sort of the overall data in terms of participants. And so we we were able to collect over a thousand thoughts um through that process. And on the next

slide um we get just sort of a breakdown um of of the folks um who participated. And as a reminder, you could you could uh answer more than one of these and and fit in more than one category. Um but really grateful to see the parent guardian uh participation at 67%. So 811 of those and 402 of our employees.

and we know some of those intersect, but um really glad to see 33 students. So, um maybe some of those folks um will come forward and and identify themselves to participate in dollars and decisions later. That would be great to have more student engagement um in that process. The next slide um is just sort of a visual a visual representation of words that we heard or we saw in the process.

So you can see wage retention, salaries, and attract um are are were pretty preeminent words uh in the in the comments that we received. At one point in the process, it's in another presentation uh that Dr. Lewis and I have been making to our stakeholder groups, but at one point in

the process, um that word cloud was pay staff uh in the middle and it almost seemed like an imperative uh statement that was built in uh at that point in time. Um but same the same the essence same essence came through uh with with where we are now >> and it's it's it's still there. So what you're seeing on your screen now is is like a word cloud from from the thoughts the overall thoughts but when you you click on another button that actually counts the words pay staff was was huge. >> Yeah.

So um so as we uh move forward to the next slide um we we start to see sort of um some of those highly rated thoughts come through and we saw that over 20,000 23,000 ratings occurred throughout the process. Um that first slide really just lifting up the most key thoughts. Teacher pay increased pay for teachers and support staff teacher salary and retention. Um and and it's a a recurring theme. So on the next slide um you know captured a theme of raises

again teacher raises pay raises for teachers um and then that final bullet point lifting up classified staff pay. Um we can advance um to the next couple of slides. I mean every every single thing that was highly rated uh came through um as staff pay. Um and and I was, you know, glad to see teachers and classified both um as a collective were lifted up through that.

Um we did have um on the 8th of this month um sort of the first meet and confer meeting that addressed budget explicitly. There are always shades of budget that come up um through those meetings, but this one had a more explicit focus for that for part of the time. um they've lifted up sort of um some of their existing um points of advocacy uh with classified pay, so with the living wage for Durham and addressing compression um extra duty pay, bereavement leave and and a and the concept of the transportation supplement um and and specifically in that context

of perhaps uh expanding our current transportation supplement to clue include uh the safety assistants that are on the that are on the buses. uh we are looking forward to our next meeting uh with them on the 22nd uh where they will bring to us even more feedback uh from their membership about what priorities are. Uh we'll exchange some ideas with them at that time. Uh I'll also share and we'll talk about this a little more uh with upcoming dates.

Um we're going to spend some time in February in the meet and confer process as well um discussing uh budget priorities and um we were happy to accommodate that and um admittedly I went into the process in my mind thinking that January would be the only two but we were happy uh to work with folks and and incorporate the February meeting dates for that as well. So um by the conclusion of the budget development process, we will have had four meet and confer meetings uh that touch on on the budget at least for part of the time. Um the the next slide, we're just sort of

revisiting some similar concepts and and some foreshadowing um for the next meeting. So when we're uh with you again at the end of January um we're going to talk about some these concepts again um but attaching some um some dollar signs to those to start to to start to build up uh to that process. So uh lifting up um what compensation increases might look like in a potential state budget that we hope will get addressed in the short session um that happens this spring. Um, we we can guarantee that our retirement contribution rate is going to increase, that our health insurance contribution is going to increase.

Um, the retirement rates only gone down one time in my career. Um, and the um, health uh, utilities are always going to go up. Um, or at least the rates are always going to go up. And so being very mindful of of Duke Energy's campaign um, to increase uh, utilities. Um and then also so very carefully monitoring um federal funds and and lifting up um in

the spirit of the budget transparency conversations that we've been having, lifting up what we're currently doing with our federal funds that are potentially endangered. Um, so those those same federal funds that we heard conversations about earlier in the year, uh, with titles two, three, and four, uh, in particular, uh, and making sure that we have a plan, uh, for how we would continue doing what we currently do with those, which very much presses into our classrooms, um, and it's, um, we're not really supporting central office with that money. It's things that directly impact, uh, learning and social emotional health in our schools. Um, the next slide.

Um, you know, we're just working through review of expansion requests and so, you know, you know, commendable. My colleagues are always thinking about what new things can we do to be better and make the district better better for children and make us better operate and and support what we have. And so, we are continuing to evaluate those. Uh, we've started lifting up some of those to our feedback groups to hear what their reactions are. uh and we'll continue to press into

those to see um which ones are really going to be critical uh in the superintendent's recommended budget to to start getting board feedback and and and thoughts on that. Um on the next slide um again as a reminder just sort of as a starting point this is not an exhaustive list um of what the priorities are but certainly three that are preeminent. Um the continuation cost is just more important than ever um and um just want to keep that in the forefront particularly with the federal dollars entangled in that. um classified pay. We've um seen a lot of intersect uh with our feedback groups um the survey and and and administration where classified pay is concerned and that has shown through very brightly. Uh and we um have committed uh for the next uh meet and confer meeting or by the next meet and confer meeting uh to come forward um with some additional models uh to kind of work through and think about what might be palatable uh as we work forward to address the the living wage and the compression uh in the

salary schedules. And um I think goes without saying occupational and physical therapy um you know we hear that loud and clear and um we certainly have um some thoughts and and and and models in mind that would make us more in line uh with with some of the other districts that we heard about tonight among others. Um capital outlay um another space that's critical. We have we've heard that uh from some of our feedback groups in particular.

Uh so we've at this point in time uh met with the superintendent teacher advisory council. We've met with parent ambassadors. We've met with the principal advisory council. Uh in addition to DAE and and across a couple of those groups uh we heard kind of very loudly and clearly about concerns with with uh temperature regulation, heating and cooling. Uh we've heard about uh roof leaks and and other things um that they want us to be mindful of as we formulate how we move forward um with our capital outlay needs. We've also heard feedback about technology and we've um heard about some

opportunities um that are out there um that do align interestingly with some expansion requests that we received from the information technology department and we'll be lifting some more of that up at the next meeting. But um really really kind of thrilled to see some of those intersects and and seeing that leaders in the district have their ear to the ground uh and they're lifting up things um that we're hearing from other folks. Um on the next slide here, I know that some of these dates may modify. I just got the invite for the new date for the uh work session in February.

So I know that those uh some of these will move a little bit. Uh and so um so again, we had our first meet and confer budget conversation on January the 8th. The thought exchange closed on the 9th. Um we met with the teacher advisory council and the parent ambassadors backtoback on the 13th and those were really great meetings. Um here we are on the 15th um in in lifting up um that survey feedback. um those meetings on

the 13th. Um we will have some detailed slides for you on the 29th, but those occurred kind of beyond when we made board materials go live and so we'll have some specific slides that kind of detail my notes from those and we'll lift up the feedback uh from principles as well. We met with them this morning um to to hear their feedback and what their priorities are uh for their schools. Um so January 22nd next meet and confer um to have some more kind of in-depth conversation about specific proposals as we continue to sharpen up our pencils um along the way.

Um I know that the doodle poll is out there to ascertain when we might do an educational town hall. I think so I think we're close to knowing what that date is and hopefully for before or at the meeting on the 29th we can communicate that precise date of what we're going to do there. and we're preparing the materials for that already. Um so that we can really laser focus on that on that education. Um we know that March 12th is a target, but we

know that could move um and there's, you know, other information that we want to make sure the board receives as we work through the process. So we know there's going to be more conversation about the technology plan. we'll have more conversation about capital plans uh so that the board can have those details um as you ponder um some of the expansion requests that come through. So um lots of information coming forward um over the next six weeks or so for folks to consume and and particularly as we continue to escalate our commitment to the budget transparency that that folks are seeking.

Um so with that um I will conclude my remarks and happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Thank you for your report, Mr. Teter.

I yield now to my colleagues, board member Bayer. >> So, thank you, Mr. Teter. Thanks for um engaging the community in this. thanks for these um notions that we uh that center us in the notion that we all want

to pay staff more that that we are aligned with our community that we um wish the state would pass a budget that would actually uh all lot the dollars that we need. I had a crazy idea that I wanted to run by colleagues and I don't know whether it's a proposal for the budget finance town hall or at some other time. But I feel like besides the opportunity to to work with the community to understand our budget more, there's also to hear perhaps from the county finance staff about what their projections and their thoughts are leading into um this budget cycle. And I know they had their retreat recently, but I wondered if there was a way to combine those or invite them into that space. Um because I think the longer I've been here and it's clearly too long. um that that we have gotten very generous local funding so many years and um I think there's a concept misconception that

that's an infinite pool that we can tap. So I don't know if it helps to have them I don't know what others think about that idea of having the county budget staff kind of join in for um sooner rather than later in that conversation. Yeah, that's a question, I guess. >> So, is that is that a question that you want us to tackle now, or is that something Dr.

Lewis wants to give a >> I don't know who it's a question for, but I just throw it out there if it's I mean, it could be the worst idea we've ever had. But, um, I do think something that seems like it's causing more tension every year in Durham is that we think that there's a lot a lot a lot of local money to find. Um, and so I wondered if bringing them into that conversation in a collaborative way sooner, um, lets them also join that conversation with us. >> Maybe that's a conversation that that Dr. Lewis can have with county manager

Hager. Thank you, colleagues. >> Miss Chavez, >> just to weigh in on that. So the main goal you're suggesting, Miss Beyer, would be to educate people about the county budget and how we fit into that.

Is there more? >> Yeah, I think I think that we are we are knit together. We have no funding mechanism other than county funding and what they are able to lift every year. Um we are dependent upon them that relationship and that information.

And it might be good to have half the agenda about how our budget works and how the county works and and a space for them to actually share kind of what their stressors are as well. Um yeah, I think that could be helpful. Um I'm not I'm not decided right now, but I think it's the best idea. In some ways I

think it makes sense to keep the entities separate as containers for the information but in but I also think perhaps it would be beneficial because it's another then people don't have to go to two different events or you know to um get a fuller picture of all the the budget connections between us and the county. So I am interested in you know Dr. is your um conversation with Miss Hagar and seeing how you know what you all think and what you all might suggest. >> Thank you.

Other colleagues >> board member cut off. Um this [clears throat] is related and I'm sorry if I missed this but there's the plans are to have a town hall and a public hearing and the town hall is more information sharing but also can you explain please the difference and what your vision is for those? >> Sure. So the town hall is definitely

right. So a focus to provide more education u so specifically around where our funding comes from how it works. Uh also just to dive deeper into all these variables that are out of our control right now um that could affect our funding. So, the federal grants um that are at risk and what we do with those um you know, the impact of no state budget um impact of u declining enrollment and potential for more declining enrollment uh due to new charter schools and and just really to try to paint that whole picture for folks so they understand how it all comes together and and the context for our decisions.

And then the town hall or the the public hearing would sort of be more geared towards uh folks kind of lifting up priorities and and and also reacting to what administration uh brings forward um as our recommendations. >> That sounds great. Thank you. Also keep in mind with the the budget hearing it's it's you know very similar to public comment where um community members staff

come in here and just you know share uh town hall maybe opportunity for dialogue. >> Thank you for adding to that. Um that sounds great. I love that.

I feel like each year this process gets, at least from what I've seen, better and better. And I really like the idea that now folks will have a chance to review the draft recommended budget before they're asked to weigh in again um at the hearing and in the town hall seems great. I I mean, I like the idea of inviting folks from the county. More information and more context, I think, is is better so folks can have the best understanding possible um before we go into the rest of the budget season.

if they're willing to be part of that. Um, thank you for your work on this. Look forward to seeing. >> Okay.

Thank you. And Chair Mstead. >> Yes. Thank you for the presentation. Looking forward to seeing the budget as it gets developed. Um, I'm going try to

keep it really brief. I think uh the idea of a town hall and inviting the county I think as long as we can keep the the agenda not too long I think we keeping folks attention um as we get too nerdy into the budget might be harder right so get higher level conversations um because I think it's a rich and important conversation but we wouldn't want it to be you know too long also just timing wise we need to get on that soon if we're talking about February we need to go ahead and plan that get an agenda and start pubbing it out so I just want to push us to do that as soon as possible. Um I know Miss Smith needs our doodle availability probably sooner rather than later if we haven't done all that. And so making sure that we can get it um organized really well.

I like the idea of having thinking a little bit about how the counties, the state and our budgets inter intersect with each other and how they kind of depend on each other in some ways and then what does that mean for our budget priorities moving forward. >> Thank you. Anything else from colleagues? Anybody else?

Okay. Thank you. So, thank you so very much, Mr. Ter.

Really appreciate. Thank you for your report. Um, next on our agenda is the legislative steering committee. Um, Vice Chair Rogers be leading that.

Thank you, everybody. And up the slides. Sorry. That's coming.

Um yeah. So the slides start out with our purpose. Again, the purpose of this group is to um help us help to inform our legislative agenda that we present to our durm delegation. So, there are some asks of the board of education

tonight both to um try to seat some folks uh on the steering committee. We're hoping to have about 13 to 15 members. we did extend the um applicant process or interest form process um until January 9th, the same day Mr. Teter uh talked about in his presentation.

Uh so my ask tonight is that we spin the wheel, select one person from the wheel from each category. We did not have anybody from the Durham Chamber of Commerce um apply, but I would like to um extend an opportunity for somebody to express interest from the chamber going forward um and be added to the committee if the board's amanable to that later. Um

and then um so everybody will get an email. I've got the draft email ready to go out. It includes a when to meet so that we can collect when people are available instead of being um specific about what dates are going into the doodle poll. Um just a different way of collecting that feedback.

Um and the proposed agenda is included in the email as well as our previous legislative agendas. We will um the proposed agenda for the initial meeting and we will also select a secretary that will be responsible for recording the minutes from that group and getting them to Miss Smith and to Shermstead. Um and at the initial meeting, the idea is to gauge a timeline for the number of times this steering committee is going to meet and dates that they are going

we're going to do outreach to meet with the delegation, members of the delegation in the interim so that they have a full understanding about what requests we can make in our legislative agenda. um as it pertains to state statute and what the state can and the delegation can and cannot do on our behalf. Um so on sorry y'all I'm on slide six that I get for starting early. Um so what I'm asking for the BOE support is to schedule meeting with the durm delegation. to start that doodle poll and process so that we know when uh the draft legislative agenda needs to come to the board as we go into this initial meeting so that we can work backwards. Um and uh we will bring a calendar that we would like the board to approve so that Miss Smith can post those

steering committee meetings because there will be open meetings and she can help us to find or whomever y whoever the superintendent decides can help us find locations for the steering committee to meet um and do the meeting notices so that uh we're not doing that every time we're trying to meet and hit a deadline. Are we still all amanable to doing the legislative steering committee and we're ready to spin the wheels? >> Spin that wheel. >> Miss Smith, are they working?

Okay. Any other comments or discussion from my colleagues? We'll go around. Yes.

>> I was going to suggest that maybe the composition slide, slide four, go up. Or is the wheel going to actually be on the screen? >> The wheels going to actually be on the screen and each there's a wheel set up for each category except for board

members cuz Joy I mean Miss Harold Goff and I are doing that. Um we're still um trying to figure out who the superintendent or designate might be on the on that. And then of course I didn't create a durm chamber slide. Um I'm not in charge.

>> Okay. Um board member Brier, >> thank you for your leadership on this. I think it's going to be a great opportunity. I was glad to see so many people willing to serve.

Grateful for them. Were there I didn't spend as much time as I needed to with the list of applicants. Were there any um all the folks that applied in that parent category, were they actual current DPS parents or anyone that of that was not? I just want to make sure that people fit in the categories where they placed themselves and that they were anything we should be concerned about there.

I can't speak to whether they're actually DPS parents, Miss Chavez. >> It seems like if they when the wheel spin, then we could just verify at that point. >> That's a great plan to make sure that they're And I like the idea also of keeping the slot open for the chamber and making reaching back out again. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to the wheel. >> Anything else from colleagues? Any other think Miss Rogers and Chair Vice Chair Rogers? Anything else from you?

>> Nope. So, if somebody is selected um and they from one wheel and they show up in the next wheel, Miss Smith will have to remove their name from the next wheel because they can't take up two spots. Somebody some of them were eligible for multiple or we could will again. And then so I want us suspend it twice so that we get them in an alternate

All right. Go ahead, U Miss Smith. So, this is the elementary principles. Wait a minute.

Let me pull up my draft email so I can put the email in right away. Katherine Blackburn. Thank you. Congratulations.

Uh, no, she's an AP. She's a She's an AP. She's an AP at Pearson Town. We did I don't think anybody Well, okay.

Yes. And so Victoria Kramer is the alternate. You take it. Are you going to error message Smith for all of them now?

Oh. Yeah. From Jeopardy movie music secondary principal. Yep.

But I figured they get a wheel spin. And it's also an AP. Yep.

George Ward III. Congratulations. Welcome. Welcome to advocacy. The next category is the Derm Association of Educators. Congratulations, Professor Parker.

Oh, yeah. Um, Miss Smith, will you spin again for an alternate? They pick somebody. We can go to the next one. We can come back and do alternates. This is from the Derm Council of PTAs.

Face and F. And the alternate will be Yes, Mary Sanford. >> Thank you, Miss Smith. Um, and thanks everybody for your patience.

This is the DPS Foundation. I think we only had one applicant. Uh, so we can skip that one. It's uh Briana Kennedy.

Okay. Support staff person. Uh Lois Murphy, congratulations. Yep, we can.

Yep. Get her again. We'll just again. All right.

Detta Lee, I apologize if I as alternate. I apologize if I'm pr mispronouncing anyone's name. Uh, student representative from high school.

Yes, we did have four people interested. Sasha Wolfrram, congratulations. If you'll spin again for an alternate. Lucia Harrington is the alternate. Uh the next one is teacher representative.

So Miss Smith, can you edit it on the right hand side? Do you see the editing features? If not, don't worry about it. It's okay.

Go ahead and spin. Congratulations, Tanya Jackson. You'll have to spin again.

Rachel Owens, congratulations on being the alternate teacher representative. Okay, the next one is um elementary school parent guardian representative. Only a few more y'all. Vanessa Whmer, congratulations. and Tracy Henry as the alternate.

Then next category is middle school parent or guardian. We didn't share the sound. It normally does have a sound. It does.

Uh, congratulations Kristen Southworth as a middle school parent. Kelly Riley is our alternate for middle school parent representative. We're going to the high school parent representative.

Congratulations, Margaret Hall. Yeah. Lots of Latasha Storm. Storm is the alternate for the high school parent. The next um category representative is a community member.

Patrice Patrice. Hi. Congratulations. Alternate is Charles Wood.

And we needed to go back and spin the alternate for derm association educators. Is that right? Oh yeah. D8 EC I think there are only two people and Kristen Southworth has already been seated. I can't see who the other person is. Rebecca Ferguson, congratulations.

and Caroline Brick House is the alternate for Durm Association of Educators. Thank you all. Um, do we need a motion to approve this committee? Attorney Malone, >> Chair Malone, what's your >> I'll come to you.

>> I think Dr. Lewis is uh >> Hold on. Dr. Lewis would go ahead.

>> Yeah, as a chamber board member, I reached out to our colleagues. Um, can we add Angelique Stalling, Florida Chamber? She has agreed. >> Thank you very much.

>> Absolutely. Congratulations, Miss Stallings. Thank you so much. >> Okay, now we'll yield back to I'll turn him on.

>> Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to ask I'm going put Dr. Lewis on the spot. He got a chamber member but not a cabinet member.

>> It'll be Dr. Anthony Lewis. Congratulations. >> Okay. Congratulations, Dr. Lewis.

Is that is that conclude before we do the motion? Do we need to do a motion? >> Yes, you you need to do a motion, but I think the motion can be something simple like to um appoint the um committee members and alternates as displayed with the >> Can I have a motion? >> The selection process.

I move that we appoint the committee members and the legislative committee members, steering committee members and alternates as determined by the wheel and uh this evening as long as well as Miss Rogers, Vice Chair Rogers and Miss Harold Ruff. >> Yeah. Be second. It was the motion by Miss [clears throat] Beyer and seconded by Miss Harold Goff. Any questions?

All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed?

Sign. It passes unanimous. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Miss uh, Vice Chair Rogers, for that.

Well done. Thank you very much. >> Thanks for everybody being willing to serve all applicants. Thank you.

>> All right. Thank you again. And now the next thing is for information only, board member. That's for information only.

And now we'll move to our summary of follow-up items. And that will be by Dr. Pitman. Thank you, Mr. Tab. So, for our the proposal for the old Lowe's presentation, there was we the board asked that we inquire whether additional information regarding other sites that the district may want to consider be

included in the DFI work. For the strategic plan priority two, the board has requested that we provide suspension data by type and infraction and consequence by grade level. That when the DPS discipline data is verified and approved by DPI, which we anticipate February or March, that it be provided to the board. There was a question around the use of uh whether Durham public schools is using the conflict resolution center for cases of chronic absenteeism or other more complex issues and a request for consideration that the administration review other LEAs with policies that prohibit suspension for prek through younger grades as uh referenced in the Duke Center for um the Duke Children's Law Clinic. Is that right, Miss Beyer? Then for the budget feedback, um there

was a consideration whether the Durham public schools and the board would like a joint meeting with the county on the budget team. It didn't seem clear whether that was a directive or a wondering >> conversation. We'll have conversation with manager Hager. >> Very good.

if someone could grab that while I continue. And then um that Dr. Lewis would extend an invitation to the Chamber of Commerce to join the legislative committee and he has now completed that task. So kudos and I believe that's all we had.

>> Thank you so much Dr. Pitman. Um that concludes all of our agenda items. Um, is there anything else that we have overlooked or missed or anything within opening session?

Is there anything that we have missed or anything board members like to comments add? Anything? Well, that concludes things in open session. We will now um colleagues, is

there a motion to go into close session for the reasons outlined on our agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. Again, >> it was moved by uh board member Beyer and seconded by Chair Umstead for us to go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda.

Is there any further discussion? If there's no further further discussion, we are now in all those in favor of going into close session. Let it be known by the sign of I. >> I.

>> Okay. Any oppose? It passes unanimous. We are now in closed sessions and we will not be streaming after close session. Good night everyone.