Board of Education · Work Session · March 13, 2025

In this moment of silence I would ask that we please keep our our scholars in mind and their families thank.

You all right next on the agenda is we need to approve the agenda review it's a moment of silence. Okay colleagues the agenda is presented for us tonight is there a motion to approve the agenda a move approval of the agenda second it's been moved by excuse me okay you want to call it sure go ahead okay colleagues we would like to call.

The approval of the agenda of of the agenda for this evening I have a discussion item okay Miss I'd like to Pro pull Sumer programs to discuss at the end of the agenda all right colleagues do we have a motion to pull the discussion item summer programs from the consent agenda so moved second it's been moved by Miss buers seconded by Miss Carter auton to move the summer programs agenda off of consent all in favor I I I I any opposed it's been it's approved unanimously all right do we and colleagues can we now approve the agenda as it stands is there a motion to approve the Aged I would as amended I would move to approve the agenda as amended second been moved by Miss Umstead and seconded by M Chavez all in favor I I I all opposed it's been approved unanimously right wow okay okay next item on the agenda is the General Public it the next item on our agenda is the meeting minutes oh the meeting minutes thought we just.

Approved okay oh we have to approve colleagues I'd like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from February 6 2025 second it's been moved by Miss Carter auton seconded by miss buers any discussion all in favor hi I I will I it's approved unanimously and now next on the agenda is the general public comment superintend y thank you so much I would want to welcome and bring attention to our student representative a member of my super superintendent student advisory Council kayin Myers a student at Durham School of Technology who will be with us this evening yes we can give her a Round of.

Applause well one of the things that's a part of my entry plan tonight was to include student voice in this space and so from here in perpetuity we will have a student board member attending these board meetings and they will be able to ask questions and provide feedback just can't vote so welcome Kaylin would you like to say a few words I just like to thank everyone for having me here today I really appreciate the opportunity and I will try to do it to the best of my ability thank you thank you for allowing me to do that all right now we are ready for.

Public comment good evening everyone the Durham Public Schools Board of Education work session is now in session we're going to do a quick of the rules first please state your name if you speak for an organization please state your name in the name of the organization second speak second speakers are asked to present their comments in a specific time this evening we will have three minutes for comments when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates that your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regards to public education safety of students and to the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker is Rachel Owens followed by Joselyn Hansen and then matthus.

Matthew good evening my name is Rachel Owens and I teach science at Northern High School I'm also a member of DPSS energy advisory Council I first want to thank those of you that have been so gracious as to meet with representatives of our sustainable schools Coalition made up of DPS students and staff and Duke students as well we have learned a lot from each of the meetings and we hope to continue to forge these relationships throughout this process of moving towards a more sustainable future in Durham we have heard you and we know that Financial concerns are the main issue going forward we'd like to remind you that DPSS energy conservation program has made some huge gains in terms of Energy Efficiency and rebates millions of dollars have been saved because of the efforts of a few imagine the savings we could manage if their efforts expand expanded to a comprehensive curricular program that involves all grade levels teachers and staff teaching students how to save energy as a systemic effort part of a.

Climate action plan we can make even bigger gains as always we appreciate good intentions what we need is action a climate action plan thank.

You hi my name is Joselyn Hansen and I can seeed my time M Maas. Matthew good evening my name is Matias Matthew I'm a sophomore at Northern High School a graduate of the Aron young scholars summer Research Institute at Duke and a student with a deep worry for the state of our future one day I walked from school as I often do and saw an electric bus with some small solar panels on the top and the letters ev1 on the side I was estatic in extremely nerdy way because I was excited to see climate progress being brought forward by DPS but it wasn't a DPS school bus it was a bus for the New Horizon's Academy of Excellence a private school that doesn't seem to have more than 30 students it was personally heartbreaking to find this out because it shows that DPS is falling behind in terms of climate action to schools with far fewer resource resources than DPS does we understand that the budget is tight right now especially in the.

Transportation sector but is it is unlike likely that that tiny private school even paid for that bus that's because under the clean heavy duty Vehicles program which was created under the inflation reduction act schools and other organizations are reimbursed for replacing gas guzzling vehicles with electric ones and the infrastructure necessary to use them like charging ports and if I understand correctly the DPS energy managers had sent in a request for these same electric buses but it was never acted upon because the energy managers the one component of the resolution for renewable energy you all acted upon are blocked from directly speaking with you all the Su the superintendent and Schoolboard members and whoever is supposed to be relaying the message isn't doing their job again if I understand correctly all we needed was a signature from from the superintendent to get these buses but that still hasn't happened and I'm not sure if this Pro I'm not sure if this program is still available the window for new applications has closed and we.

May not be able to see another opportunity like this for the next four years but our application is not new and we may still have a chance to get this right school buses are one thing that is relatively simple but monumentally important for climate action to Electrify because while one bus transports a lot of kids it also uses a lot of fuel over a lot of miles meaning replacing one gasp powered bus with an electric one has a much larger impact than for example replacing a gas powered car with an electric one getting electric buses would mean that they could and should be run on renewable energy but even if they aren't right away electric buses are are still Superior because electric vehicles are far more efficient than gas powerered ones especially in terms of the amount of carbon they produce this means that if electric vehicles are run by a coal or Gas powerered Energy facility which they shouldn't be the district would still reduce emissions and save money.

School buses can also be used as a tool for climate resilience because they are basically giant mobile batteries which could be a GameChanger if coupled with solar panels but I'm getting ahead of myself the point is that you all need to listen to your energy managers I know that it isn't your fault that they have been effectively blocked from talking to you all directly but now that you have been made aware aware of this issue we all expect you to initiate these conversations the energy manager's job is to guide the district towards Energy Efficiency and hopefully to Renewables but they are being blocked because someone thinks it would be cheaper to have the service inhouse this is wrong because the infrastructure money and most importantly time that would be required to build a service like this from scratch just aren't available with climate change literally at our doorstep and the energy managers have already saved you all more money than two people could possibly use on their own if it.

Ain't broke don't fix it because while improvements in clean energy in clean energy Energy Efficiency and reducing pollution are important and kind of the whole reason we're here we will not accept pointless penny pinching and Corner cutting because we will pay the cost of climate change regardless last night I when I was watching a des a documentary about the communities racked by Helen the lives lost the the building's washed away I was reminded of one thing we will pay the cost for climate change regardless of whether it's through action or in action because once in a-lifetime hurricanes will become commonplace extreme droughts will lead to wild fires and heat WS will be too strong for our current indoor infrastructure if we do not act and we can decide whether we want to fiddle our thumbs and waiting for a flood to carry an elementary school down the Eno River or if we want to take the simple necessary steps towards climate action our ask is small.

It is simple it is what you agree to in 2021 and we have done a lot of the hard work for you it is that you enact a climate action plan like the draft we have already created and provided you and act on it it is that you get to 80% renewable energy by 2035 and the clock is already ticking and it is that you let the energy managers excel at their jobs we have gotten a ton of symbolic support from you all and while we appreciate good intentions what we need is action a climate action plan thank you thank you so much we don't typically respond to public comment we appreciate your participation in our board meeting tonight last fall that same energy manager was with us and congresswoman Valerie fushi at Southern school for sustainability and energy where that it was announced that DPS will be receiving 32 electric buses we look forward to that it's still initiative we stand behind we're excited about happy to have more conversations about those things but.

We are moving in that direction and did apply for that Grant and we're granted 32. Buses next we have meline Fuente Vasquez followed by Sharon bagatell and Karen prce. Good evening everyone I hope everyone is doing great my name is meline I'm a junior at Middle College High School I come as a part of the sustainable schools Coalition air pollution environmental justice and global warming these are terms that I'm sure you guys are all familiar with it's it's a huge matter in our world I as we continue to modernize our society each day however we fail to minimize the negative impacts leading to Greater negative results as Durham continues to evolve so does our voice for a climate action plan as residents from Durham we have a civic responsibility to find solutions to the things that are deteriorating our environment so that our future generation of leaders don't have to suffer our political climate may be struggling but our advocacy for a climate action plan continues and by Transforming Our CO2 emissions schools.

Into a more solarized efficient one we will see the Improvement in the ways in the well-being of Durham residents not only that but this will also financially support DPS schools by adding more Focus to helping enhance the school rather than the focusing on the cost this has been proven in the Beville School District in Arkansas where the installation of over 14,400 solar panels increase the teacher salary by up to $155,000 we hope to keep this going and that eventually this will be us as well we thank you for your intentions however what we need right now is a plan a climate action plan thank you guys have a great.

Evening good evening thanks for the opportunity my name is Sharon Batel and I'm a former public school teacher and a current resident of Durham I'm also the National Youth action coordinator for Citizens climate education in that capacity I support the great School electrification challenge working with student teams across the country to move their districts forward toward electrifying their heating systems cooking systems lawn maintenance Transportation fleets as well as insulation of solar panels and of course improving Energy Efficiency all the while students are learning important life skills in working with decision makers to make change I'm excited to say that the DPS solar Futures team group speaking here this evening is now one of the national leaders in this challenge with my national perspective I know that DPS is in some ways ahead of the game having already passed the 2021 renewable energy resolution we are deeply appreciative of that and the steps taken so far through the important work of the DPS energy managers I'm also aware that you're very much like many.

School boards across the country in that you would if you could and we acknowledge the funding constraints as a Durham resident I'm keenly aware of all the issues you're balancing however I know that many school districts are forging on funding finding sources of funding that do exist and recently we're engaging students and community members to speak out on the importance of maintaining the energy tax credits and elective pay that have been available to schools through the federal inflation reduction act we know that some school districts have adopted a phased in approach to electrification committing to shift to to Electric machines when in the natural course of a fossil fuel powered machine's life it breaks down and needs replacement we understand that change can happen over time we also know that school districts such as the one mentioned in Batesville Arkansas have been made have made an initial expenditure from their capital budget and are now reaping the benefits in Opera ating expenses a fairly small school system the Batesville District was able to save.

Over 13,000 in monthly energy costs and over four years put $5.5 million into teachers salaries what all of these districts have done is create a plan and so while we appreciate good intentions what we need is action a climate action plan for Duram Public Schools thank you thank you you Avery. O'Brien no Karen puce good evening my name is Karen pruce I'm a member of the Durham chapter of the climate reality project and I've lived in Durham for about 40 years I would like to express sincere appreciation for the progress in sustainability that Duram public schools has made in a number of years and to urge you to continue on that path by developing an action plan to implement the energy resolution that was adopted in November of 2021 Duram public schools has an impressive track record of sustainability actions that has benefited the district and its students resource conservation policies the 2015 resolution supporting sustainable facility design which was in incorporated in the learning environment guidelines the hiring of sustainability.

And energy managers resulting in energy conservation program which led to substantial cost savings and DPS is First Solar powerered school and the award of a significant number of electric school buses in other words DPS is well positioned to continue on the path of resiliency and conservation to meet its goals if it has a this is a critical time we owe it to our youth the people that have spoken today as you have heard to do everything that we can to keep them safe from severe storms from excessive Heat and the destruction of property lives and livelihoods that our fellow North Carolinians have suffered in the western part of our state please ensure that the younger Generations that we that that ensure them that we care about their future and are taking action to secure it the organization that I represent offers our support and assistance as we have done in the past for an action plan our members are experienced in education public Outreach grant writing and working working with large organizations.

And institutions we are dedicated and want to be of service to to dur public schools in our community thank you very much thank you next we have Avery O'Brien followed by Larry Thomas and javonia Lewis good evening my name is Avery O Brien and I am a student of Durham School of the Arts and I'm here representing Sunrise DSA as one of their c-hub coordinators and as a collaborator with the sustainable schools Coalition I'd like to start by thanking those of you who have met with us to discuss our New Deal resolution we really appreciate the time that you guys have taken to meet with us many people believe that though sustainable energy has a good repres reputation the money it takes to invest in the updated technology is not worth the cost as Miss Sharon said Miss B Batesville Arkansas School District was able to turn a deficit of $250,000 into a $1.8 million surplus by investing in energy efficient measures such as the installation of over 1,400 solar panels this meant that teachers.

Salaries were raised and their debts were gone and it was all thanks to clean energy solutions with that said we understand that we are not Beville Arkansas and it's not 2017 we have no way to ensure the same results in our context but that doesn't mean that our plan for a green future isn't feasible we know budgeting and feasibility are a leading concern when it comes to this resolution which is why we're meeting with experts like Dr Webb the DPS operations manager and Jonathan Klein the co-founder and CEO of undaunted K12 to discuss what a climate action plan like this could look realistically like in DPS we are excited to inform you of our of our findings and hopefully use them to push this resolution forward when we pass this green New Deal resolution we would be the sixth School District in the US and the first in the South we would be able to set a precedent throughout the nation and that would encourage other school districts to follow in our footsteps furthermore.

We want to show higher levels of government that this is what people want and more importantly this is what people need a climate action plan a green New Deal cannot be put on the back burner burner any longer we have 4 years please act quickly we don't have much time thank you so much for your. Time good evening thank you for this opportunity my name is Larry E Thomas I am the leader at the Thomas mour Leadership Academy the best mail Mitt program in the country where we provide love leadership and guidance for young men 7 to 18 years old who are being raised specifically by a single parent or being raised by their grandparents and once the young men come in our Academy at 7 they stay with us to 18 and once they graduate we continue to follow them through college or the military but I'm here tonight recently we did a we sered four different counties dur County Wake County Orange County and Alamance but the majority of our boys go.

To Duran public schools and recently we did an activity with our boys called taking off the mask and dealing with mental health so I just want to read a few of these with you with your time and U we ask them don't put names don't put anything on them and we'll collect them and on the front side of the Mask we ask them the right thing three things that you show the world every day you don't mind showing the world and they wrote Things One young man wrote I'm smart I show my muscular and I'm happy but on the back side of his mask we asked them to write things that they wish they could talk to someone about they wish they could talk to talk about but they don't and so on the back side of his mask he wrote I wish I can talk to someone about my pain about my mind racing constantly but I don't speak I wish I can talk to someone about my fear.

I wish I can talk to someone about my anxiety succumbing to fear or failure the next young man wrote I show the world my smile my intelligence my love but on the back side of his Mas wrote I want to talk to someone about people being nasty and mean to me about people hating me one young man I show the world that I'm smiled I'm happy my creativity my love for God but on the backside of his mask he said I wish I can talk to someone about self-hate the overwhelming fear of constantly failing people and how being an embarrassment to my parents on the front side of a mask one young man wrote wrot I'm hardworking I take action on the back side of his mask he said I have seasonal depression I need help I wish I can help financially but I'm only 13 another young man wrote I'm happy I'm prideful I'm confident but I deal with anxiety I wish I can talk to someone.

About my anger wish I can talk to someone about my sadness these are young men that's going into our doing Public Schools every morning young man wrote I have confidence I smile I show the world but I wish I can talk to someone about my fears my emotional pain and my anger when I'm cool I'm caring but I wish I can talk to somebody about my anxiety my anger issues.

And good evening my name is Javan Lewis and I am representing empowered parents in community we're here to share our voices from our various organizations working closely with students to advocate for those who have been historically marginalized those that have been without voices what truly brought us together is our shared investment in the success of black children there are many attacks on public education and we will not show up to attack as we understand the disinvestment in our Public Schools but we are here to shed light and make visible the truth around why this work is important we are advocating for the protection of public education and supporting Educators who are working so hard to ensure the success of all children knowing that they are constantly under attack and a small subset of folks creating Division and Durham on arbitrary facts and mostly misinformation we are here to shed light on Truth most of us would agree that no matter where you come from what you look like or how much money you have everyone.

Should have an equal opportunity to learn and Thrive but we also know this is not always the case we know that there are practices that can be prioritized such as counselors and restorative coaches I've taken Dr King Nick King's words to Heart from the previous board meeting and the analysis that he has made around restorative practices I want to connect a few dots for you we want a restorative practice policy passed by this board I don't know I don't want to wait for a public policy committee to be formed but for those who have been elected for those who have Administration to work on this policy and a policy to include mandatory trauma-informed training and liberatory classroom management for our teachers curriculum instruction Department working collaboratively with student support services to ensure that social emotional learning and opportunities are implemented throughout the day and the elimination of suspension and exclusionary practices we know that funding is hard here we're just asking as your department heads are looking at.

Where their cuts are being made or where priorities are that we're prioritizing the health and mental health of our students with what we already have and don't forget about Mackenzie got funding DPS strong we are with you together we can create a sense of belonging support and restoration for our Educators and each of our children in Durham Public Schools partnership is important I'm looking forward to the DPS family and Community engagement Summit on April 26th keep up the good work y'all thank you next we have Delon gray followed by Charlene scepter I think that's if I'm reading that correctly and Christy Clen good evening everyone my name is Delon gray I CEO of black and belonging and I represent a close-knit network of young thinkers here in Durham who are creating more a more welcoming Society and also creating more welcoming schools and so there's a couple things that they wanted me to represent for them today the biggest thing that they wanted is for their belonging expertise to be taken taken seriously so.

They believe that they are belonging experts in their own right because they have a unique perspective on their school experiences and so they want to invite you all to take their belonging expertise seriously by elevating them as decision makers key decision makers not only in their school but also in DPS as a whole so there are a few benefits that they wanted to you all to know the first is that this will help with credentialing so if we think about things from Supreme Court decisions on race and not being able to use race and college admissions credentialing them through leadership positions also elevates them and makes them more likely to be able to get scholarships and other things because they have already been stamped by their school districts as as leaders and thinkers and movers shakers and Shapers the second thing that they wanted us to Ponder on is just districtwide competitiveness and so seeing that school choice policies are a real threat to public education funding they wanted us to know that you know.

With parents having Choice in agency that that makes the the push towards public education something that needs to be competitive and so having opportunities for more advanced learning opportunities via leadership opportunities makes DPS schools more competitive for these students and makes it a place where they want to be and want to stay the third piece that they wanted us to know is that it practic it helps them practice citizenship so you know how else are they supposed to understand what rights have been taken away from them in society if they don't practice being agents with rights in their own schools and school district so with this in mind just want to end with this note that together we can create belonging support and restoration for our Educators and every child within DPS thank you so much for your time.

This Charlene.

Scepter is not here we'll go ahead and hear from Christy clim hello good evening I'm Christy clim physical therapist DEA member I'm here to ask again the same thing I've asked in comments before and send in emails classified employees would like some information is possibility that our Legacy pay is going to go away how exactly was that 8.8 million used from last year we're getting a general answer of it was used as it should be you have to understand employees don't trust to vagan like that and also we are asking for a list of how pay grades can pair across the pay debacle if you were a 78 and then he'll change you to a V and then the comproller put you on a reclassified 78 and now I'm considered an mh18 where is that information for all the folks so they can compare what is actually happening to their pay over the last year and a half from an otpt perspective the new Eerie schedules have only compressed our salaries even.

More you've heard me say when I compare our OTP to pay to Wake County we started the same Step Zero but in year 30 here I would be making less than year nine in Wake County if Durham compensated me for my doctorate degree I would be year 30 here making less than what wake does in year seven since the last time I spoke I went and compared that to DPS speech so in our own District looking at somebody who is licensed health professional working with students in the e department and it is almost the exact same as Wake County PT starts about $1,000 more per year than weight count then I'm sorry Durham speech but a speech therapist will be making more in year 10 than I will year 30 speech is compensated for their doctorate but yet in year seven they will be making more than I will on year 30 this is why OTS are leaving like crazy pts haven't yet but it is the constant rumbling of who is going to be.

Be here next OTS currently several of them have their workload is that of one and a half employees they have left and they are trying to cover there's not enough hours in the week to serve the IEP services that they should be for the salary administrating working group that's on the agenda tonight I've been invited to a couple of those meetings I greatly appreciate being included but I do want to say that I feel like I have very little information and haven't been involved much so to see my name on the slide as a employee that's given input I do feel like that gives a false representation went to one meeting in the fall where it was my first one I only listened I said nothing trying to figure it out and I went to one last week had questions haven't gotten additional information from that someone else on that slide has been to one meeting and is listed as a member again I greatly appreciate being included but not included to the point.

That that's real input something formal meet and confer a consistent way for True employees across the district to give input is vital this is the illusion of employee input it's not true input thank you thank you next we have Alexandra valz and Molina Molina.

Thank you board it's and members of the community it's so great to greet you all thank you for the work that you're doing and remind you that our mission says dur Public Schools Embraces and I'm going to stay with that word because right now there are families that are looking for that Embrace does it in our mission I don't know what that means to you but I know that my heart breaks because a family says that word right there is not happening and I'm pretty sure this is this is a sentiment where everybody's busy and lots of things are happening everybody's busy lots of things are happening in my world too but I chose to come out tonight and I actually have to head out and go somewhere else because the family is saying please remind DPS that our mission is to embrace DPS Embraces educates and empowers every student to innovate serve and Lead we don't mention names but Gabby Ortega Legacy it's a legacy and the legacy is.

And bullying it means support families it means have sufficient infrastructure including interpreters in every school that families don't have to question whether the multilingual Resource Center is available at that school or not it also means that when they're grieving and they're out there in a public easement that they want to see administrators to show up and give them a hand thank you Dr King you did that you were the only one that wasn't probably part of the plan but you know what you did it you embraced that moment and you shook that dad's hand and now he knows somebody shook his hand that family has been out there for many days day after day this Sunday might be an opportunity if you're interested reach out if you have time but we have to work on embracing we have to work on sustaining holding space for grief we cannot act like it's just another business day because that is exactly what shows our kids that they don't matter that when something happens to.

Them their families are going to be wondering where is the support and so I need all of us all of us to step it up I need all of us to not just think about liabilities and what could happen no this is a family that just wants a hug can you give them a hug can you show up and say I am so sorry you lost your child you lost your beautiful angel that was going to be an amazing Rockstar scientist artist was going to shake this world and she felt this world was toxic enough to leave it a child made a decision to leave it and she's not the only one and I actually want data from NC Department of Health and Human Services Vital Records how many of our children are taking that decision on their own hands what is the pattern in DPS because I know there are other districts that have that responsibility but we have a responsibility to look at that data and see how we are really not.

Just what before it happens but after it happens to embrace families thank. You thank you just take a breath take a.

Moment this concludes our public discussions. Oh are you oh Charles Charles sepa all right I called earlier but miss I'm sorry I apologize so Charles sepa and then Molina Molina.

Hello my name is Charles Sepeda I want to speak about the Gabby OTA Legacy let's end bullying in schools as a concerned Citizen and parent what is the rule in bullying in school and is there accountability what actions were taken what if it was your child that was bullied what are the repercussions that's in bullying in schools how can you relate to students and parents that bullying has to end or it's not allowed in schools again like she M Alexander said embrac none of that was done I was physically there and I was escorted off the property because I asked to speak to someone twice as a community and his concerned parent and a veteran it's sad to see that happen what if that was my child thank.

You can we get an interpret okay so Miss Smith thank you. Go ahead please start.

Over for.

Gab Legacy.

Good evening my name is Mela Garcia I was not prepared to intervene tonight but I need to talk and things that come from my heart as a mother as an immigrant the case of the student or Thea it can't and it should not be left alone we should investigate condolences Are Thankful but these are just words that the wind takes them we need to make the investigation about the DSA who is in charge of doing this who are the kids the students that were involved in the bowling who were the parents that did not who were the teachers that did not support they need to know that there is a consequence the student left the names we need to know those names we need to find out what are the consequences for these actions we need to respect every human life every life matters.

Thank. You this now concludes public comment next on the agenda colleagues we need to have a motion to approve the consent items I move approval of the consent agenda item overnight field trips item contract with framework Consulting for exceptional children teachers item retesting take two and the DPS legislative agenda for 2025 second it's been moved by Miss buers second it by chair Rogers is there a need to. Discussion all right all in favor hi hi oppos it's been approved unanimously where do we put it'll be the last item on the agenda okay all right next on the agenda is our superintendent post entry plan Dr Alex can we take a 5 minute recess.

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All right colleagues we're back and we are on the superintendent's post entry plan Dr Lewis so thank you so much board member her go good evening again to all board members members of the public those that are are watching it's certainly an honor and brings me great joy and excitement to share with you finally the results of the postentry plan it's my distinct honor to serve as superintendent of dorm Public Schools in such an incredible community that includes amazing Scholars that show up to board meetings on on their spring break oh oh maybe I spoke too soon right but our student representative did show up today on on her spring break so that shows the the commitment that she has for for Duran Public Schools since beginning my journey here in Duran Public Schools I set out to do a lot of listing and learning I shared with the board in the community an entry plan that included some goals which we will kind of cover here in just.

A moment is through those visits those conversations with a tremendous amount of people internally and externally students families community members Educators and engaging many individuals that that make up this amazing Community I've gained a deep appreciation for just the energy and the commitment and the support for public schools here here in Durham our district has Innovative programs a lot of strengths that were noted during these sessions that we will share with you all this evening for those that may be watching the entire booklet is available on board docs I will try not to go to every every line in the in the book however I do want to make sure that we honor the many voices that have contributed to the feedback in terms of ter of gathering to outline some action steps as a result of what we heard and so next slide please everything that we do in during public schools and everything that I set out to do learning the school system is centered around our mission and and.

Vision and really the way I approach this is really listening and learning to really think about how do we bring this Vision this Mission to reality and everything is also grounded in those core beliefs of yes still Equity a high expectations shared responsibility and a child- centered approach I want to spend a little time there she is I want to spend a little time on on on high expectations during Public Schools will challenge every stakeholder especially our students and Educators to embrace and growth Embrace a growth mindset and this belief that every child can be academically successful so that growth mindset is not just in our students but also in our Educators as well next slide grounding my work was also around these core principles of a commitment to achievement passion for learning these are the things I wanted to ensure that I observe respect for self and others educational Equity integrity and accountability and Community Partnerships that's one thing that we should be proud of in during Public Schools is our Community.

Partnerships whether it's our high Ed Partners our foundation other entities that are working alongside us book harv working alongside us to again realize this Mission you've heard me say it before schools can't do it alone and it really takes those Community Partnerships that we value so so greatly so all those are words on a slide words on a paper the mission the vision the core beliefs The Guiding principles but there are some faces behind those words next. Slide can you go back one okay I don't know what happened to I hope you got the updated version but there are some faces okay you have faces the faces are online me make sure we have the updated version of that but it's a picture if you're able to see it online it's a picture a beautiful representation of our Duran Public School Scholars those are the faces behind all these words these words are meaningless unless we are making sure that it com becomes a reality for our Scholars next.

Slide a critical part of the transition was the the entry plan and I shared the entry plan here with the board and and the community my first goal was to establish a transparent and collaborative and trusting relationship with the Duran Public Schools Board of Education as we know the board plays a crucial role in shaping policies and providing governance to the school system and so and what we did to accomplish this goal was conduct one-on-one meetings with all board members we engaged in a board retreat that was our first one was held in November and our second one was was in February where we had an opportunity to discuss governance policy Governor's team rol we administered a self assessment and discussed the self assessment discuss our communication plan that we continue to craft and then that will come forward board priorities if you're familiar with any sports teams what they do is look at film although do we although we did not look at a film of a board.

Meeting but we did discuss a board meeting in terms of just an after action review we also discussed my evaluation tool in which my work and our work quite frankly will be assessed the entry plan number two was to focus on the instructional program so one of the data points that we should be most proud of is that you've heard that over 81 % of our schools in DPS met or exceeded growth during the 23 24 school year and I'll tell you based on my observations in the classrooms and attending many of the schools most recently middle of the year data review meetings I will tell you we are poised to continue improving academic outcomes for all students Durham students are as as as you'll see are as you know are full of promise it is our Collective responsibility to ensure sure that we nurture that promise and remove any barriers that are in the way so that all of our children can Excel goal number three one of the.

Top priorities was to evaluate the internal systems and procedures or lack thereof that are to ensure that all of our schools receive the supports and services that they need in a timely manner in order for the schools to be successful over the past few months I've conducted a review of our District Operations to identify the strengths in the areas of improvement particularly there was area areas of improvement in in the areas of Transportation right we spent a tremendous amount of time discussing Transportation facilities Human Resources our business and finance those were areas that we immediately noted that needed additional attention in addition I've met with our principles I met with many teachers and staff to just to understand from their lens what are our oper ational challenges that they face daily you know I often tell people it's we just can't sit around the table make decisions that impact our students to impact our Educators and other staff without having some type of contextual knowledge as to the challenges that they face daily so as.

A result of that we work to remove those barriers that hinder U for example responsive just being responsive to our buildings also during the listening and learning session I was made aware of a lack of responsiveness from Central Services departments and so this reminded me of of a quote from Alvin willbanks was a superintendent I want to say he was in guette County where he once said that there are two kinds of people in a district those who teach and those that support those who teach Central Services reports supports those who teach and so it's Inc com upon us to make sure that we are supporting those in the buildings entry plan number four was to identify and analyze critical issues and remove barriers and then five definitely enjoyed establishing working relationships in monthly or frequently frequent meetings with Durham Council of ptas I have a standing monthly meeting with them I've met several times with our dur Durham Advocates of exceptional children have a monthly meeting with da Durham Association of Educators.

Particularly the president Micah tweet Meer as well as the Durham city and county leaders also have one-on-one meetings with city manager County Manager those have also been invaluable in terms of just learning from the political landscape and our and how they serve as critical Partners to us next slide yeah that's not she's G to okay we're GNA get the appropriate slide up because I had some good stuff in there any questions so far as we get the other slides up what did you say we could do.

As as they're pulling the other slides up online you can as I've initiated when I or mentioned when I first got here there was a key that will outline whether the goals in the entry plan were initiated or completed and so you can go back and check and see my progress on the entry all the entry plan goals and and action steps so that is that is still on the on the website we have it.

Okay all right should I keep going or wait comp on slide going to Slick six in the essence of time we can come back and look at the SL but okay maybe perfect all right in addition to the professional entry plan I also released a personal entry plan that included some things that I needed to do to become engulfed in the Durham Community the first one that I checked off the list was move to Durham so I actually moved to Durham and moved my family to Durham got a North Carolina license I haven't changed the the the the tag yet because it's a it's a wait to do that but that's that's coming that's coming I have grabbed some Bull City apparel and some where were gifts as well I have toured a couple of the Durham murals I did get a library card I I spent a lot of time on number six if which is exploring Durham's goto food spots I spent a lot of time there.

Haven't attended a game yet because I haven't been here when they were in session I think no I did come here and it was toward the end of the season so definitely looking forward to attending that having not hiked or biked the American Tobacco because I was too much too much number six going on there for me to do any any hiking I can bike to the food spots still waiting to take my family pictures at the American Tobacco campus have explored downtown Durham some of the museums I did attend nccu's homecoming I did do that haven't spent a Saturday at the farmers market yet or I have taken a stroll down n9th 9th Street I've been to two Duke games so far so oh wow two I thought I was GNA get some Applause around there okay all right maybe I need to take that off okay number 16 climb the Duke Chapel Tower absolutely not spill spending time on number six haven't picked up haven't picked up produce from the perk.

Perkins orch haven't joined the local Facebook Parenting group T which you want to stay off there number 19 have taken the kids out for some fun at U one of the museums I did see a show at missy Lanes yes it was nice have caught two shows at the dpack one I attended with u Mr tab and the Carolina Theater and I will take some of the food from number six and maybe have a picnic at the Duke Garden so just wanted to update to you all my personal ENT plan as well so still some goals there there to make next slide Dr Le Duke parking Duke Gardens parking lots closed for construction oh okay so I'm going have to delay that one so if we look at our entry plan by the Numbers visited 57 schools had eight in-person listening learning sessions seven that were scheduled with the community and one with my superintendent student advisory Council 509 registrants for the listening and learning section a huge thank you to those that showed up.

For those and the over 400 that completed the online surveys over 60 meetings with Community Partners and the online comments from the survey many people read and rated those comments over 2400 all centered around this one belief that DPS can be the premier School District in the country next Slide the Hallmark of the entry plan was indeed the listening and learning sessions those eight sessions and so all of the feedack that I collected I wanted to honor all of the feedback now you won't may not see your line that you submitted but we tried to capture many thought we captured all the thoughts and tried to summarize them into into themes okay so hopefully you will see some of the feedback that you shared with us next slide so the first question that we ask what are the strengths of Duran public schools and I will tell you that we received a lot of great feedback and terms of the variety of strengths including our dedicated and passionate staff participants acknowledge the.

The dedication and the commitment of D of our DPS staff as as a unifying strength they mention our teachers administrators and support staff and they were praised for their passion and and their hard work and how they often go above and beyond to support our students despite the challenges and that was that was clear I heard that several times that even though the the school system has experiencing some challenges we still have dedicated and committed staff diversity was mentioned quite a bit it was a significant strength of during public schools and it was frequently mentioned by our participants it encompasses our ethnic economic and educational diversity that many participants said created a Melting Pot of of people this diversity is also seen in our student body staff and Leadership fostering inclusive environment participant appreciated the exposure to different cultures and and backgrounds that helps enrich learning experiences the diverse structure of our program offerings including dual language and monory was also mentioned as a strength I also read somewhere that I think Duram durhan.

Public Schools is ranked number three in terms of diversity out of all school systems in in North Carolina Community engagement Community engagement was highly valued we got a lot of feedback there with strong parental support and support from local organizations participants highlighted the district's efforts to listen and to incorporate Community feedback again staff quality during Public Schools was was actually prais frequently for the dedication and passion of our staff particular our teachers and administrators and again they mentioned despite the challenges such as funding Cuts Staffing shortages and the staff they praise the staff resilience for being creative and engaging students and they said that was excuse me truly commendable they talk about our program offerings a wide range of programs and Pathways to meet the diverse needs of our Scholars participants mention options such as our yearound schools our magnet programs and our career focused offerings the availability of extracurricular activities Sports arts and other clubs was mentioned as a as a highlight and how these provide opportunities for our Scholars to.

Explore their interest in in passion they talk about our Partnerships with local colleges and organizations how those also enhance our offerings they mentioned Support Services that was recognized in a positive way they also highlighted the availability of counselors social workers and Mental Health Services and also programs like our multi-tiered systems of support as well as restorative justice practices were appreciated in terms of addressing students holistic needs they praise the the free meals free lunch and free breakfast is as well as two Services next slide I'll try to speed up on some of these questions to the areas that needs Improvement so several responses highlighted areas that needed needed Improvement including better support and resources for our special needs Scholars consistent communication and transparency from the district as well as improved school safety measures addressing teacher shortages and also compensation they talked about discipline and some of participant said we need more stricter discipline policies in place they said there was a significant concern about the inconsistencies and what what they captured as perceived leniency.

Of the enforcement of our disciplinary policies parents and teachers were frustrated with the lack of consequences for student misbehavior which they believe undermine Authority and contributes to what they describes as chaotic school school environment again I want to share that we are sharing all the Fe feedback that we that we collected trust was a area that they mentioned could needed be needed to be improved they agree that trust is a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed whether it's through better communication or more consistent disciplinary actions building trust between parents teachers and administrators it seemed to be as a crucial area for us to address and then they offered some of them offered ways that we could ensure that trust and and fostered transparency accountability and responsiveness communication was also an area that needs Improvement I'll kind of Breeze through these and if you have questions about some of the feedback that they gave us I'll be more than happy to take those questions but as it relates to communication there.

Were more calls for transparent And Timely updates regarding policy changes school events and safety protocols special needs support support for our students with special needs was seen as in as inadequate by some participants there were concerns for lack of consistent Services necessary tools and trained staff to support students effectively some responses mentioned the need for better individualized education program or IEPs and more inclusive policies the perception is that the current system fails to meet the needs of special needs students causing significant hardships for families participants also advocate for more resources and better training for staff to address these issues teacher and staff support a strong sentiment around U more support for our teachers and and staff they talked about some lack of resources and high turnover school facilities and safety transportation keep in mind these were sessions that were in the fall so we were definitely in the middle of our transportation crisis and so we received a lot of feedback on Transportation issues highlighting problems with bus schedule late arrivals no shows.

Inadequate routes which obviously affect students ability to get to school and to participate fully in their education U there was also concerns about the safety and reli reliability of our transportation services and then they talked about just systemic challenges stating that DPS faces systemic challenges that impact its Effectiveness in issues like funding Cuts Staffing shortages disparities in resource resources between schools created significant hurdles is also addressing these systemic issues call for just an overall Improvement in the sustainability of the school system question number three we asked what should be the district priorities to address Financial challenges if you recall when we had a a press conference earlier we began to act on some of this feedback earlier once Mr terer was at a point where he could share where we are from a budget and finance standpoint and so they they call for more transparency around our our finances staff compensation in this particular question staff compensation emerg as the most frequently mentioned priority many responses emphasize the needs to prioritize staff compensation and they.

Included teachers bus drivers and other essential staff other responses call for equ Equitable pay scales differential pay for special programs and and just uring we got a lot of feedback ensuring just ensuring that our staff could just afford to live in in this community other responses highlighted the importance of investing in school infrastructure including Building Maintenance technology and other resources for students and I already mentioned transparency and accountability engaging the community was seen to be critical for addressing some of those those financial challenges resource allocation they talked about effective allocation re yeah effective allocation of resources that's definitely was a recurring theme in this question they stressed the need for prioritizing spending on critical areas such as teacher pay student programs and infrastructure and then there was a lot of conversation about yes these are things that DPS can do but as a family what can we do so they call for more advocacy at the state and federal level highlighting some key priorities there next slide question four ask how can we raise.

The academic success for all students and eliminate access and opportunity gaps and you see some of the themes there and some of those are reoccurring like teacher compensation quality of teaching they called for reduced standardized testing you know some of those we are beyond our control as relates to State assessment teacher support student centered approaches community and family engagement equity and access and curriculum curriculum and instruction let make sure get some highlights there they they mentioned the importance of addressing the needs of our marginalized groups such as our students of color and those with disabilities u in this particular question I'll tell you that curriculum instruction was oh curriculum instruction was frequently mentioned with participants advocating for more engaging and relevant curriculum there were concerns about the overemphasis as I mentioned of standardized assessments and the need for diverse instructional method meod next slide and then question five ask what will it take to make Duran Public Schools a premier school district and those were the themes that emerged from that particular question a huge.

Focus on on safety there were concerns about safety incidents such as Firearms being brought to school and the need for better meal better mental health supports for our Scholars was highlighted in this question focus on academics and Community engagement was mentioned in this question they talked about effective leadership and then again accountability and transparency any questions on the questions that we asked during the listening and learning. Section all right so those were the questions and the feedback and in and in the booklet that's available online it goes into detail of it what relates to these themes and so as a result of hearing those questions next slide we just want to reflect on these first 100 days of superintendent and just think about what do we go from here we receive that feedback and one of the what we know is that yes people don't mind giving you their feedback but they will stop giving you feedback if they don't see any action as a result of of.

Of the feedback and so these next few sessions or or slides will talk about the actions as it relates to the feedback next slide and I love this next quote by Nelson Mandela that states that action without vision is only passing time Vision Without action is merely daydreaming but Vision with action can change the world next slide so what we'll dig into is a combination of these learnings highlighting some key takeaways that will guide our Collective efforts as we move forward and so these Reflections are aligned to the entry plan goals as well as and not only underscores the importance of collaboration in the community but also will help us illuminate our path forward next slide so with that there were 13 immediate priorities for doing Public Schools going forward and those are listed on your screen and so I'll spend some time just kind of sharing our path forward as it relates to these 13 immediate action steps some of the things we are already implementing and some will happen you know the.

Remain of the year and some will quite frankly take some time moving forward all right we ready all right let's dive dive in the next one well the first one is enhanced academic excellence and rigor next slide so we must ensure that our school we have schools that challenge and inspire all of our Scholars through rigorous engaging and high quality instruction in every single classroom that prepares them for colle careers and lifelong success and we must have we must ensure that we are preparing our students for their success and I mean for their future which will look totally different and does well will look totally different from when by the time they leave us establish a districtwide instructional framework so this will ensure that there is Common Language common set of expectations for all teachers and instructional practices align across classroom schools and grade levels enhanc Ing and aligning our curriculum and instruction and assessment this will also assist with identifying gaps and redundancies that and evaluate how funding Staffing and materials are.

Distributed to support curriculum and instruction so we're going to look at ways we can improve professional development for our Educators one of the things we ask our Educators to do is to differentiate their instruction we have to make sure that we're differentiating our professional development for our Educators as as well and providing them support the this was one of the things that came up in our middle of the year data reviews the notion of providing teachers with support so that they can enhance their depth of knowledge and instruction and move Beyond dok level one and two because many of our state assessments are on date dok levels three I talked about the instructional framework and aligning our curriculum and then I'm also excited to establish our AI an AI task force how many of you see the responses that we getting here Dr Pitman how many of you have heard of a prompt engineer okay you can participate the very okay Kaylin has as well was in a couple other spaces with.

Adults and it was probably this amount of hands that went up in those rooms I asked yesterday in my superintendent student advisory Council and just about all hands went went up and so these are the jobs that we need to be preparing our students for be to be a prompt engineer that's closely related to working with with AI often tell people that AI today is the worst that it will ever be it's only going to get better and we're already behind and so what what are we we have to think about what are we doing to prepare our our Scholars and our Educators for the appropriate use of artificial intelligence and so as a result we will be we will be launching a an AI task force that will help inform you know what are the for board policy as it relates to the guidelines for the appropriate use of of AI we think about some of the horror stories from AI is some of the deep fakes right thinking about how what are our.

Guidelines and expectations as it relates to that but most importantly the appropriate use of AI from an instructional standpoint and ensuring that our educator I'm sorry our Scholars appr properly use AI how am I doing okay all right thank you my timekeeper so what will happen is we'll we'll share more in the future about how we will select those individuals want Educators parents Community Meers there are some community members here in Durham that are that are steeped in in AI that we want to serve on this this task force students and Educators and administrators alike will help guide our work there which again the ultimate goal is operational efficiency and this will also help with another goal that we'll talk about talk about here in just a minute next slide one of the things that we notied is that there's not a lot of coherence in some of our programs and I love this F in and Quinn quote that states there's only one way to achieve greater Co coherence and that is through.

Purposeful action and interaction working on capacity Clarity Precision of practice transparency monitoring of progress and continuous correction all of this requires the right mixture of pressure and support the press for Progress within supportive and focused cultures so our high levers are our classroom teachers next slide there are many factors that support student outcome or student academic performance yes there's family experiences there are neighborhood experiences the research is clear that the number one decis decisive factor in terms of improving student outcomes is the classroom teacher the teachers matter most as a matter of fact they matter more than to student achievement than any other aspect and so it's really the most important School related factor in terms of influencing student achievement and so when it comes to student performance on any assessment reading science math teachers are estimated to have two or three times the effect of any other school factor and so knowing this next slide we have to make sure that we are supporting our teachers and our our staff again from.

The feedback we receive compensation and retention and so that's ensuring that we are fiscally responsible and advocating for salary increases for the goal of for the purpose of focusing on teacher retention particularly as by bus drivers and other support staff looking at workload reduction strategies and I think AI can help us with this as well but implementing ways that we can work to reduce some of the non-instructional burdens from our educators looking at implementing differential pay for hard to fill positions EC but also looking at creative ways that we can attract our most effective Educators to our schools that need them the most and so how can we incentivize our most effective teachers to work where they're needed the most but also looking at pay differential for our bus drivers as well and then always advocating for local and state funding partner with our city and county as well as our state officials as we continue to advocate for increased funding I think it was shared at a previous meeting.

Around the additional funding that we have to and we'll continue to do because we have to invest in our EC Learners you know due to that 133% cap and the fact that we are investing $5.5 million to support our EC Learners like I say which we will continue to do however just think about what we could do with that $5 million in terms of investing in our in our staff so I wanted to point that out for continued advocacy for full funding of our special education our EC Learners next slide also looking at way creative ways to explore housing and cost of living support there's a lot of synergy and efforts to discuss teacher housing but also thinking about child care assistance we know the expensive cost of child care so what are ways what are some ways that DPS as a school system can lift that burden for our Educators by providing free child care for our Educators and staff in enhancing our beginning teacher Mentor programs what we know is that.

Educators decide to leave the profession new Educators decide to leave the profession in years one through three and so strengthening the support with our beginning teacher mentors and expanding that model to support our newly hired Ed Educators we looked at some data recently that over 50% I want to say it was around 55% of our new Educators come to us with an alternative license meaning they did not go to school to be an educator and so the additional support that they need is critical for us to provide that support so that they could you know be supportive for our Educators as well so that is really going to be crucial in terms of our retention efforts as well and then just overall promoting a POS positive workplace for our school cultures I shared in cabinet that you can measure your school Culture by how your teachers feel on a Sunday night before they go into the off the their classroom on Monday so promoting a positive workplace culture next slide so there's also some research.

Around the effectiveness of of of principles you know given the magnitude and the impact of effective principles and the scope of of of their work there's strong evidence to support that having an effect Ive principle contributes substantially to student achievement it is difficult to Envision an investment with a higher ceiling on its potential return the than the successful effort to improve principal leadership and so we know that the teacher matters second to the teacher is the principal and so those are two high levers that we will continue to support next slide so as we look to strengthen our instructional leadership and principal support developing ways to empower principles as instructional leaders focus on coaching our principles just as our Educators should have differentiated professional development sociate our principles as well U making sure we're continuing data form decision making and then also providing that high accountability but that has to be coupled with a high level of support as well maximizing our time for instruction leadership and building support if you recall one of.

The entry plan go action steps was to to assess our leadership team meetings to ensure that they are effective and I think at our last meeting last Wednesday was the first meeting that we've moved to half day principal leadership meetings there used to be full day and so the goal of that is to ensure that we're maximizing their time in their buildings and so with this particular action set we're looking to decrease the amount of time that we're pulling them out of the building also who supports that instruction is our instructional coaches as as well and so looking at way that we can ensure that our instructional coaches are not pulled out of the building as much as well enhancing Central Services supports for for school leaders and ensuring that Central Services serves as that that we're essentially providing customers service pleased to announce I think beginning in November during our monthly leadership team meetings we began a series of providing professional development and reminders to Central staff around supporting our buildings.

You know initially we we heard the sometimes the frustration or a lack of support or the how long it takes to get a response from Central Services and so we began to engage in professional development for our Central services staff also in the near future we will administer a survey as you know all of our buildings conduct teacher working condition survey we're looking to administer a survey to our principles to give us feedback on our areas of strength in terms of supporting them but also some areas that we could do a better job of enhancing our tapping your fingers over here enhancing our principal pipeline programs strengthening our assistant principal professional development ensuring that they're ready to take that seat U that that's our pipeline when we're looking for a principle we should look right in the the seat of our assistant principles well as we have teacher leaders that have their Administration certifications and degrees what are we doing to make sure we're investing in in their growth.

So that they're ready to move into the assistant principal position as well as our instructional coaches and then enhancing overall District Operations a developing and implementing just standard operating procedures across all departments to ensure consistency efficiency and accountability next slide if you recall discipline was an area that came up in in some of the feedback there there's an African proverb that says that a child that is not that a child that is not embraced by The Village will burn it down to fill its warmth so if we think about that how are we creating environments that are warm for our all of our Scholars and so some work that's already underway we got some great feedback from our superintendent student advisory Council around revisions to the discipline policies and so we will continue to conduct that comprehensive review of our student code of conduct as well as those just discipline policies and also examine those policies for that subjective language that came up at a previous board meeting ensure that.

That that that language is removed so that discipline outcomes are no longer predicated on race exceptionality or socioeconomic status or other identities and that's going to take a tremendous amount of professional development there as we continue to work with our administrators and teachers on effective classroom management and engagement strategies as well as restorative practices we've already implemented and began regular accountability checks so that will continue but we'll also have an increased Focus not only at the district and building level but also in this room how we track discipline data across all of our schools next slide trust came up as you you saw so working to rebuild trust with the community we will launch a superintendent open form where I will hold a quarterly Town Hall meetings that will engage parents teachers and students directly and so there will be some that will be devoted just for teachers and staff some for students some for parents and some for community members we haven't got the flyer out yet but on April 22nd we will.

Have our first safety Community safety Forum so more to come on on that continue to work on on our trans transparency measures and ensuring that there is there is an an accessible dashboard to track progress of some of our key District initi Ives and those are discipline how well we're doing tracking our discipline academics our academic performers so if they're whether you're a board member Community member and you have a thought at 12 o'clock at night and you want to know I want to know how we're doing with our out of school suspensions for our Hispanic students we should have a dashboard that you could just go and look and see how how we're doing there parent and family advisory councils I have a superintendent advisory Council for students teachers and principles and so creating one for families as well as classified staff will be forthcoming as well and we're always working to improve our communication and timely responses as well as strengthen our Community Partnerships you may have heard we.

Have a new website that is coming up March 31st so and an app so be on the lookout for that as we work to improve communication as a matter of fact that's on the next slide which talks about boosting communication next slide having that consistent message throughout the school system looking at ways we can provide technology upgrades as I mentioned our website and our mobile app ensuring that there's a central hub for announcements and calendars was something that we noted as well we will launch monthly superintendent updates and this will be a monthly message from me just a video message summarizing any type of key developments challenges celebrations and any upcoming initiatives that will be forthcoming then also thinking about ways that we can expand mult our multilingual Outreach you know as you know we serve a extremely diverse community and so we're always thinking of ways that we can enhance our communication to meet the needs of all of our U families regardless of of of language and so we.

Will continue to expand that Outreach as well next slide bolster our special needs support we will do this by conducting a comprehensive assessment of our special education services to identify any types of gaps in Service delivery Staffing in resources and training what we know is there's there's a challenge to hire and retain EC staff so how do we account that to ensure that we're still meeting the needs of our exceptional students I was in a school the other day went into an EC classroom and there were three adults in that room and I walked out in the hallway and we kind of debrief and I asked the principal I said now which one of those was the EC teacher and she said neither one of them one of them is serving as a longterm term sub so knowing that we have that Gap in terms of identifying I'm sorry hiring EC's teachers how can we look at our service delivery model to make sure that it it's it's supportive of of our current re reality.

But again our goal is to ensure that all of our Scholars have their service minutes and their IEP goals met as well as their accommodations and modifications and and and so this is also going to take increased training for staff not only for our EC staff but also for our general education and support staff as well particularly on the around effective I IEP implementation strategies also bringing our families along Family Support programs to ensure that our families see their role in this process as well but then also thinking about ways that we can involve our school school communities and broader communities by exploring and ex exploring Unified sports you're familiar with Unified sports and so Unified sports are ways that are EC students can participate in in in in some additional Sports with their non-disabled peers and so it's actually in many states and I talked to someone that work with Special Olympics and it is available around in this area and it in many States it's a part of their the state's High School.

Athletic Association and and so the goal of that is to just Foster more opportunities for inclusive settings as well as a program called including people selflessly which is some high school programs again just to create more opportunities for all of our students to be able to accept differences almost done next slide improving school facilities and safeties as you know we are on the tail end of our comprehensive needs assessment facilities needs assessment and so that's part of that action step there security enhancements we are always looking at ways to enhance community and safety Mental Health Resources and supports is it on this slide or maybe the next one yes on the next slide fac facility repair and upgrades and making sure that our schools are on some type of cycle as we think about deferred maintenance going forward expanding digital access and then long-term planning next slide fostering student well-being and in school climate expanding our mental health Support Services always advocating for more funding there to hire more counselors social workers and.

Psychologist to provide direct support to students that may be in crisis partner with Hart had a great meeting with them probably about two weeks ago they are interested in just providing that additional layer of support for our schools supporting our students by implementing surveys and so when we think about just student well-being and and safety ensuring that there every student has at least one adult that they are connected to in every single school and so we'll implement a survey to get that data to ensure that if there is a student that feel like they do not have an adult that they can tell you know something that they're experiencing whether it's at home or at school that trusted adult then we begin to pair those student up students up with a trusted adult then seeking ways to recognize and appreciate our staff for their contributions wow next slide I don't think could have said it any clearer here fixed Transportation issues and of course when we did this listening.

Learning tours I mentioned we were in the thick of our transportation challenges and so ultimately you see this hashtag expect Excellence that's from every single Department it it should be permeated throughout this school system even as it relates to trans Transportation our Scholars and families should expect Excellence as it relates to transportation we are continuing to with our route optimization work is continuing there increasing our staffing and transportation to address our bus driver shortage I have to get give a huge shout out to our Duran Public Schools Foundation I mentioned previously that they were looking at ways to support the cost associated with just a bus driver applying for a job and doing the physical and the licensing and everything that was over $400 I got a text from Erica Wilkins the other day as of the other day at 8:00 they had had raised $6,000 to support new bus drivers yeah had a meeting with the mayor today I think there's some other Synergy with some other initiatives that they.

Have around some of our refugees and and their U being drivers that can support us as as well creating a culture and to sustain the Staffing retaining and sustaining our bus drivers a positive culture within our Transportation department so we'll facilitate a transportation engagement survey to identify areas that we're doing well in but also those areas that we need to address as it relates to retention and then expanding our Community Partnership again child care may be a barrier for a bus driver a bus monitor to take on the job had a great meeting with the president CEO of the Boys and Girls Club they are looking they are willing to put a boys and girls club or a few Boys and Girls clubs at our elementary schools that will help with the with with Transportation because now families have additional options for before and after school care but also provide families with supports there as.

Well okay next slide increasing Financial transparency and accountability advocating for increased state in local funding I'll try to breach through these uring Transportation I'm sorry Transportation you see what's on my mind ensuring transparency in in budgeting we have our we have launched at least two parts of our dollars and decisions part three is coming out tomorrow is that the video oh okay budget calculator when's the video coming out okay all right so I'm still excited about part three and so I I hope those have been helpful for I hope those have been helpful for our our our staff and our community the reason I was excited about the am still excited about the video I'm excited about all parts but one of the members of my superintendent advisory Council Gianna over at Hillside interviewed Jeremy terer at the bank at Hillside and so I'm excited about that did you get her blinds yet okay awesome all right she reminded me of that yesterday as well she need some blinds in the bank there so that.

That's addressing just the transparency in in in budgeting I think the more that we educate our staff and our community around our our budget that that will help as well continue to help launch a public facing Finance dashboard so we'll create an online platform that tracks how District funds are spent and and allocated conducting a resource allocation review Jeremy has started some of that already streamlining our financial policies to modernize our outdated some of our outdated financial reporting systems conducting program Effectiveness reviews and then holding leadership accountable for for outcomes as it relates to spending I I have a funny story as as I shared with you when something comes across my desk to sign I'm I'm asking questions and sending it back what is this what is this the other day drivers education Vehicles came across my desk and I remember seeing Toyota Corollas in our our transportation lot they were using for driver's education well this was to purchase two Camry and I said well that's a little bigger than a Toyota.

Cora and I know it's more expensive so I called Deb and said hey what are we doing here we need to be saving money but those funds are earmarked for drivers that can only be spent so I'm sorry can only be spent for driver's education so we will spend those money but please know that we are looking at every single dollar that we are spending and so I know be I may be giving people headaches here but we have to do that next slide okay elevating family engagement and partnership expanding our parent involvement initiatives as I shared I meet monthly with our Durham Council of of ptas we also will talk about and we've already talked about with them about creating more ways that families can be engaged and that engagement may not be attending a school sponsored event but how can I be be engaged in my child's education in in another way and as also mentioned creating a a parent advisory group improving two-way communication and creating mentoring opportunities to.

Ensure that all of our Scholars have at least one Mentor outside of of of Durham public schools and so we'll work continue work there as well next slide these are the last two slides on the action steps and they're about us strengthening our governance team continue to engage in transparent communication as a as a governance team myself and and our school board transparent communication by consistently sharing important information as relates to updates and decisions ensuring that there's open honest communication timely communication with all stakeholders continue to work toward building Mutual trust through collaborative decision making keeping and then we talked about this at our Retreat keeping the district's as our North Star in all of our decisions and so that's why I'm also excited to have our student board member here as well to to remind us of that that not not student board member our student representative to remind us of that North Star next slide continuing to provide professional development opportunities as we enhance our leadership in in governance skills.

Prioritizing open dialogue with the community and then conducting I like this one I know you will to conducting efficient and effective board meetings by setting clear agendas and time limits that's not up there I included that staying focused on key priorities remaining student focused and fostering a collaborative environment that encourages productive discussion and timely decision making and there there's a mention of the superintendent student advisory council member to attend and engage in conversations and offering their perspectives for board member consideration as they make decisions all right last two slides so those were all of the parties and action steps going forward and if you recall there was another action step as well that related to what I call Strategic plan enhancements and so forthcoming will be information as a as a result of the postentry plan what are the implications for the Strate iic plan and so we have a document that's geared toward you know how are we enhance and align our strategic plan based on some of the parties that were just.

Mentioned here had an opportunity to get some feedback from our strategic plan what do we call them leaders Champions as well as looking through this feed back to see where are some ways we can we can enhance so what you'll see is the enhancement as relates to the priority and the rationale or reasoning behind that enhancement so that's a document that will be forthcoming and our final slide is just the final commitment from from me and I I do believe this that we are at a at a turning point that we will continue to take bold action as we think about moving this District forward yes we have been through some challenges these past eight months but there Al there have also been opportun ities through those challenges for us to strengthen our school system and so as we think about just these next years moving forward please know that I'm committed to moving with a sense of urgency and accountability as it relates to creating that system often say setting.

The system up for future success that will outlive all of us and so as I have been blessed to serving this role when I look back at my time uring Public Schools what can I look at can say we were able to accomplish this and I I take that same message to my advisory counsels I don't want to look at those as just checkbox activities and I shared with them with my teacher advisory counsil just yesterday no day before you know because we we shifted their commitment instead of just one year is two years so what can they look back and say after my two years on the superintendent teacher advisory Council we were able to accomplish this and I do believe still that Duran public schools can become the premier School District in the country if we continue to keep our students and families at the.

Forefront okay thank you thank you thank you thank you and and all the time that you took was absolutely thank you that was it was absolutely appreciated thank you all the detail all the work that's gone into it everything that it me it we wanted to hear every single word of it so thank you for staying in the time and and thank you for for all you shared colleagues problem do you have any comments or. Questions yeah absolutely Miss Meyers if if you have any Reflections or questions you would like to ask we would love to hear from you no pressure but if you would like to speak.

Thank you for that I really enjoyed the entry plan I thought it was amazing I would like to mention that maybe we could talk about infrastructure at our schools I know I've heard from my peers at the Stu student advisory Council that a lot of students have issues and worries about the infrastructure of their schools so maybe I mean I understand it's not an immediate thing it won't be fixed tomorrow it won't be fixed next month even next year I understand that entirely but it is something that a lot of students are concerned about and I do think you know it should be spoken about eventually yeah no thank you for that and that is something that you know every scholar in this school system should should should walk into their buildings with their chests out that this is an amazing facility school from a facility standpoint there was an announcement that was made today by the by the governor that may help us with the with that in terms of bond but we.

Are actively working to identify and address those areas that we need to address to ensure that you're you're proud of your classroom your your school and you don't see paint chipping off the wall and and and the likes and so we have a team in place that's ready and willing to to to tackle that obviously funding is is needed to address all of our buildings but we will continue to prioritize our facilities thank you for that question that comment. Board members any other discussion or.

Questions Miss Carter Aon thank you Dr Lewis I'm very excited about all aspects of this so really appreciate the attention to detail and I really look forward to seeing all of this come to fruition in the coming years it feels ambitious and I'm really excited to see and to work with you to move all of this forward and and as I was trying to pick things that stood out to me as being particularly exciting it was difficult to narrow it down really but I'll try to name a few really thrilled about the review of the student code of conduct and in particular looking at subjective language that could result in discrimination based on different aspects of someone's identity in addition to more professional development for educators on classroom management and restorative practices the quarterly Town Hall meetings that you're planning sound super cool so excited to see those roll out and let's see dashboards you know we like looking at data so that is pretty exciting the special education audit.

I think all the steps that you've proposed for bolstering special needs support are going to be pretty incredible once they get moving the audit the Family Support programs to help families navigate the system and be engaged and be able to support their students and then lastly oh the fin under the financial transparency and accountability the program Effectiveness review seeing where we're producing measurable results and Equitable resource distribution so looking at to ensure that all schools you said receive adequate and equitable funding especially those with greater needs so that's exciting to see that lens applied to how our schools receive funding and looking at how that improves outcomes over time so thanks so much thank you Miss Umstead thank you missal goof and thank you Dr Lewis for such a comprehensive plan as I was reading through I was like this touches almost think every section of our district which I think is really important vital and Will Keep Us busy but has high expectations which I think is really important and as you said.

This is a turning point so I can see this turning Us in the right direction since Miss Carter oughton list in all the things that she likes which I agree to I'm going to list give you a couple questions that I had and things to consider in throughout here you talk about culture and you talk about culture I heard a lot for the adults but I didn't hear us talk as much about about culture for schools and students and I know that is more explicitly a part of our strategic plan and I wonder where the alignment also is here I think if we're wanting to increase that academic achievement we got to have a culture where students want to be and I think that helps Taps into some of our goals around absenteeism around suspensions whatever creating a really positive School culture that's inclusive of everybody so that's my comment on that one and and then the other thing that I wanted to note is we use use special needs throughout your presentation and I.

Know we tend to use exceptional children and try to put the student first so student with exceptional who qualifies for exceptional children services so that might just be a small thing that we want to shift to aign and then the last thing or no two more things sorry in their academic Excellence we know that the pillar is around equity for DPS and we talk about diversity but I didn't see it explicitly listed under that academics I think it's in that last bullet on that on the PowerPoint so I'm wondering how do we get thinking strategically and explicitly about how this instructional framework Works to support a majority students of color District I think about Dr Bullock who was here earlier this evening who often talks about DPS Camp be the premier school district for educating students of color like we have what we need here and how do we get really intentional about being strategic around Frameworks that are about supporting majority students of color in our district which we also know will.

Support the white students in our district yeah so that was that and then my really last comment is you mentioned a dashboard where do you see it living I was wondering which one I guess all of them maybe I don't on our website okay know those those things that we can do do public facing that we can put out there on our website so for example I think I was hearing that we previously did not have a budget and finance fullblown out website I think with the new website I'm looking at Shea we do have a budget and finance Tab and a section Jeremy's clapping and so that will we will'll live there U and I had a conversation with Jeremy about this dashboard and I think I was sharing with him I think it was Jeremy or somebody El talk about the Fire Equipment no okay anyway I was sharing with him about a a dashboard that a a a city government had used and I was.

Looking at it and there was this fire you remember now okay there was this fire and Equipment line that maintained right here over the years and then also all sudden shot up so as a citizen I'm I'm questioning are we spending money on fire extinguisher this was a city government but then once I clicked on it I was able to see oh this is the year they bought a fire truck so it's that type of transparency that I would we want to look for and then our academic dashboard door would also live on our our website we do have the Handover Equity Dash dashboard which is I speak for myself Challen challenging to navigate and I don't know if everyone in the district knows about that but coming up with a way to ensure that we are able to share our our reality in terms of of of academics I appreciate that I think that's all helpful I'm glad you mentioned the equity dashboard because I was going to mention that something.

That a lot of folks work to get up and running and I don't think it's been updated I was on playing around with it early with 2024 link data yet so that what that or something different and I think something that as you were talking it made me think timeline for all of our goals yeah and we might want to do some here's some shortterm and here's some longterm I think because to build what we want to build it's going to take some time it's going to take some trial and eror it's going to be come play with this website see what you think so we can work to improve those dashboards so thank you for all the listening and learning thank you Durham for coming to all those sessions and synthesizing this into something that we can put a plan to so thank you just to come in on some of the other pieces that you that you mentioned and we talked about the culture of of students we had some interesting.

Conversations yesterday with my superintendent student advisory Council and we were talking about U some of the Panorama data we have about 43% of our 6th through 12th grade students feel like they have some sense of belonging and one of the students said you know those are just just numbers you know you all need to come and talk to us you know the people behind the numbers and I I shared with the student that I was reading a book and it's called Street data and I said that's exactly what you're talking about yeah we have the data but what is the story behind the data you know and so creating additional opportunities beyond the superintendent student advisory Council and I know our principles you know are in tune with their their students but making sure that that gets to this level as we are making U major decisions and a good thing is is this post entry plan will be on the superintendent's page on my website and it's a I can't remember the tool but.

We can make those tweaks that you suggested as relates to and then just acknowledging the tremendous amount of work that was done part of me getting here around the Black and Hispanic plan that will kind of help guide and move work. Forward Miss buyers and then miss Chavez Dr leou I want to start with just thanking you you came to Durham in a time that we were still living in Challenge and you have your your document shows how much you've just joined this community made yourself at home in this community and and listened and engaged with our community which is our Beloved Community but but also a challenging Community because all of these things that you've captured here we want them done like all of us want them done immediately and so I think the part that I think is going to be important as we work together as a team is for for us to continue to listen to you about the the priorities and where you you can make the biggest impact on.

Students the fastest and and how they this aligns with strategic plan so I'm looking for ways that we can make space for you to lead and drive change in the in the most impactful way for students as as we go forward with what I think is really really ambitious work I think folks will be excited and and they will feel affirmed that that you listen to All of that and I know you've got a strong team and you're still building and reorganizing your team to tackle a lot of this work so I'm glad that Miss Myers is here and reminded us about the need for infrastructure improvements we might want to talk explicitly about regular Bond project and and those kind of things I know those conversations are coming soon when the CIP comes in a couple of months but I think it'll be important for our community to see that we're we're working on the physical as well as as the student focused work one piece that I don't know if you're.

Explicit about but I think you are is I still have for years been wanting an equity audit of what we're doing in academics at each school what you know making sure that if if AP classes are available at two high schools but not three others we we what are we doing to address that urgently but it's it's also the Arts it's also Athletics and making sure that that the opportunities at at for our students are not defined by ZIP code and continuing to break those systemic barriers and expose them so I look forward to just increase transparency on all of that as as you drive this this transparency that is so needed to rebuild trust in this community do you want like one of the things I heard you say at a listing session that I think it's helpful to hear is is you said and maybe I want to make space for you to say it again some of this will be lwh hanging fruit even fruit on the ground some of this will.

Take one two three years like this is this is systems change that that you're leading so do you want to speak explicitly to the timing and how yeah yeah again coming in knowing that the district had typically when a new superintendent come in there there may not be a strategic plan and they use this data to launch a strategic plan honoring the work that was already done in this strategic plan but also reserving the right to tweak the Strategic plan and Infuse some of this through 2028 and so what I was mentioning when I said that is there are some unique opportunities immediately things that we can do when I that I call that fruit on the ground and that's you know we think about the things that I would hear coming in I can't get anybody to answer the phone or return my email that's fruit on the ground we can address that that's something that we we control but then there will also be some things that.

Will be infused in the Strategic plan that may take two or three years some some of these action steps may take more than a year to to accomplish but there are also some things we can put in place in the immediatey so yeah there's fruit on the ground there's low hanging fruit and then there's fruit that's still growing and I appreciate that so much and appreciate your you're continuing to make this transparent on the website and the new and improved website people will be referring I think to this entry plan for for years some words that I would like if you still have some time to strengthen and beef it up I just occurred to me just from some of our public comments but the language Justice and and making sure that we are doing everything we can in that space and even sustainability and climate because those are areas that we've made progress but we want to also continue to accelerate progress and not not Overlook I look forward to to your.

Alignment and your leadership and I really want to just thank you for listening and engaging so deeply with with our community and and welcoming the voices of our critics who often have the best ideas and so that is a very Durham thing and so I just wanted to appreciate that thank you. Well I I want to thank you for this robust process and work to get here I one of the important things one of the many important things I think about what you are bringing now is that systems work and I said this to you one to one but I'll say say here when the board gets an email complimenting that something ran efficiently that is great and we did get that email and so it's nice to get to see some of the some of the systems changes already taking place and so I look forward that to just having an even more well oiled machine that serves that serves our children and all children I also wanted to lift.

Up one of the things that you discussed when you interviewed with us which moved me me was you talked about not only the graduation rates but the kids who did not graduate the numbers for each year and I see that kind of value of looking who about at who is left out in in this plan and it just feels like a very accurate representation of what we need to do so obviously you had lots of input you know from parents and Comm Community it but it it really I think very much hits the Mark I wanted to make a particular comment around the enhancing the alignment of curriculum instruction assessment I think that is very needed I wanted to say that I think you know as we are dealing with these trying times and thinking about all the ways in which we may be restricted I one of the reasons I became an educator and serve on the board now is because I believe that schools and education can be places of.

Healing and to use what our former board member Lewis lifted up liberatory education Liberation and so I think and there's a lot of power in curriculum which is why schools are a Battle Ground one reason that they are such a Battle Ground I think politically but I we have focused a lot on operations for the past year so I look forward to what you will bring us around curriculum yeah a I don't if you did the time percentage it would be very high on the on the operation side so that that piece I love the focus on developing leadership the partnership with heart that's great and the equity equity and access piece wanted to lift that up as well I think you know well we just passed or on consent the O over now overnight field trips or acknowledge them I guess we didn't decide on them but and we're going to talk about summer programs things like all these extra things a lot of that to me is where some.

Of the disparities lie the in some of our programs some of our extracurriculars who has access to those who's participating so I I am looking forward to also your your analysis of that data and what that you know tells you and and what you do with that I wanted to mention with strengthening Partnerships something I've been thinking about more about is is organizing especially in this time again this political time that we are in and I see a place for me and confer in this I'm thinking about our labor organizing leaning into that I also am thinking about our parent organizing and other Community organizing that is taking taking place and that is really a source of so a resource for us so we have businesses universities nonprofits beyond that there are other types of networks that I think are really important for us to connect with and and lean into the expertise of and all of that so those are all of my comments thank you so much Mr.

Tab thank you very much Dr Lewis thank you so very much for your report protocol has already been said and everybody have said a lot of the things that I I wanted to say but I will uplift two things one is the teacher and staff working condition survey I know those are not out yet so I would love for you to take a really really deep dive into analyzing those surveys and so that we can see how that's going to drive us into teacher and staff retention that's very important to us and so I'm looking forward to to to seeing you give us more even more information about that once that comes out and the second thing is thank you so very much for the safety Forum that's very you know important especially in the climate that we're living in but I would want to ask are you including well Wellness in that as well because I know it said just safety but I would like to uplift with.

The mental health and a lot of things that's going on are we going to is that going to be part of it yeah yeah absolutely and when I talk about safety it's more than just the the hardening of schools or our lockdown procedures but it's how how does a student feel in a in a Algebra 2 class do I feel safe to learn do I feel safe knowing that I have my social worker down the hall I can go talk to that was one of the reasons I included in that safety piece ensuring that all students and we have a way to identify that all students have at least one caring adult so yes mental health is a part of safety as well thank you I would just like for that to definitely be highlighted so that people will know it's more than just the security keep weapons out of the yes and so those are the two things I would like to highlight every you know it's a really really great report thank.

You so very much yeah thank you and I will just say on the the teacher working condition survey that that came up in my superintendent advisor counsel for my teachers around their use of the data uhu I also talked to a principal the other day about best practices and how they use the data and as I shared earlier teachers you won't continue to get a a high participation rate if teachers know you're not looking at that data and so what we can continue to encourage our leaders to do is share that data it turn the mirror on you and see how can I improve my culture here and showing the data these are the three areas that were our were our three strengths thank you for taking the survey now let's dive into the three areas that we want to focus on it was noted I'm using this example here was noted that 22% of the staff here feels like they're not a part of decision making let's turn.

And talk to your neighbor how can you be a part of decision making okay create a survey box perfect we'll create a survey box in the office so now they know hey the leader is listening to me and so if we ensure that teachers are taking the survey but then as Leaders how do we turn the mirror on ourselves but also take that data back and and improve that data thank you and I also would extend my hand to you again to say in our one-onone I would love to dive even more into the safety and wellness with you and to any other school board member like to talk more about the safety I'm really open to that and looking forward to.

It right if there's no more discussion I would just like to say again I'm just really excited I was excited for this conversation was excited for this presentation I'd like to thank you for what I saw lifted up was a real High lens on student achievement and moving the district forward and really looking forward to part of the ship turning because you're really turning a really large ship to you know our North Star and and getting back to these discussions on student achievement I personally do not mind spending time on this look forward to all of the really Dynamic data and updates that will be coming in the future around how all of these things are moving and excited to support so I could just make some U closing remarks did you mentioned turning that ship I don't turn the ship by myself and so a huge shout out to our cabinet who who put in many hours you know and and has helped us gotten gotten us to this to this point we're not.

There yet but I I was telling someone earlier today that I see a light at the end of the tunnel it's not a train light but I know that we are moving in the right direction and with the team that we have the team to help us turn this ship and I just want to give our cabinet a a huge thank you for the work that you all do and the commitment to to doing Public Schools thank you than you yes and one piece I did not mention I don't want you know anyone to think I was that we were toned dep to that but in within the support teachers and staff there is mentioned in in an action step to and it's under the advocate for state and local funding to include Master's pay and increase our supplements there's a whole lot I would encourage anyone who was interested to take the time and read it if if you haven't already because it it there's a lot there to process and.

Our Opa Tony Cunningham Sheena for making it look what I call making it look sexy thank you Shea more sexy more sexy please all right next on the agenda oh I just I love this agenda today former arts teacher we have our Proclamation arts in our schools month would we like to start on one end oh oh thank you thank you and Les Turner good evening chair Wendell Tabb esteem members of the DPS Board of Education superintendent Lewis the Durham Community tonight we invite the board and our community to commemorate all of the outstanding Arts education happening right here in during public schools with this year's proclamation of Arts in our schools month this is an annual celebration from the US Department of Education honoring the achievements of students Nationwide in music dance theater and visual arts our students and art teachers uplift and Inspire our community with their extraordinary talents every day and all year long but in March a month dedicated to the Arts offers us a chance to.

Rejoice in the boundless creativity of our students the dedication of our our amazing Arts teachers and the unwavering support of our community art Partnerships the Arts not only provide an outlet for self-expression contributing to the increased student well-being and sense of belonging but also serve as a catalyst for learning across all disciplines aligning directly to our DPS strategic plan and two of Dr Lewis's priorities from his entry plan enhancing academic excellence and rigor and of course fostering student well-being and school climate during Public Schools is steadfast in its commitment to ensuring Equitable universal access to Arts education for our DPS students fostering a culture where every child's creativity can flourish Without Limits this semester alone we will host band solo and Ensemble Elementary allc County Chorus our destination dance event Middle School All County Orchestra as well as visual art shows at South Point mall and even an art teacher exhibition at the Durham Arts Council most recently we all celebrated the Monumental talents of over 350 of our DPS young artist with.

Our annual evening to shine event and I could not be more proud of the excellent student contributing and celebrating their efforts shared in partnership with the DPS Foundation as a district we support over 20 districtwide Arts event experiences which is more than any District around Durham and I would wager across the state of North North Carolina in thinking about our districtwide events I want to take a moment to say thank you to our Board of Education members our superintendent Lewis our DPS senior leadership cabinet members our school administration and of course our community for continuing to support with your presence at our district level Arts events it does not go unnoticed that you are taking the additional time to join us each month as we celebrate yet another group of young artists from across the room so thank you for being a part of our young artist Journey here in DPS chair Wendell Tabb I respectfully yield the floor to you and the esteemed board members to unveil this year's Proclamation celebrating arts in our.

Schools month with profound joy and pride Mr tab would you like to begin the reading of the Proclamation and do the first paragraph I would love to thank you so very much Proclamation for arts and our schools month whereas all students have the right to an Arts education that includes dance media arts Music Theater Visual Arts and Performing Arts taught by certified Arts Educators in partnership with Community providers and whereas Arts education is part of a well-rounded education for every student as outlined in the every student succeeds Act and whereas the purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness of the lasting positive impact of Arts education on the academic personal and professional growth of our students and whereas Arts education helps nurture healthy inclusive communities where all points of view are respected and whereas Arts education shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them allowing for students to be culturally responsive and whereas Arts education supports the social and emotional well-being of students and fosters a more positive.

Safer School environment and now therefore be it resolved that the dur Public Schools board of education does he Pride Proclaim March 1st through 31st 2025 as arts in our schools month and ask all to celebrate the importance of Arts in our schools Liv lives and our students lives I'm sorry signed the 13th day of March 2025 colleagues I'll entertain a motion I make a motion that we accept this Proclamation I second been moved by Mr tab seconded by Miss Herold G is there any.

Discussion Miss Chávez I just want to say thank you for all you do it's really important it's critical sometimes art the Arts get overlooked but they are they are necessary to the human spirit so thank you I'll just take the lead of Dr Lewis here and it's really the Arts teachers that's making it happen so we thank you to the Arts teachers Mr T and thank you so very much the only thing I would say that's missing in this Proclamation is that we need money in the budget for the Arts there we go I agree all those favor of passing The Proclamation for arts and our schools month say I I I any opposed don't say anything andur it passes.

Unanimously thank you all right the next item on our. Agenda is the salary administ rtion and employees compensation Miss Harrell Goff thank you thank you good evening chair Rogers Vice chair Carter auton board members Dr Lewis and DPS Community the salary Administration policy working group made up of various DPS employees including both certified and classified staff from across the district which convened in May 2024 has experienced some transition weather dels Etc and along the way even added some additional voices to this great work we are committed to competitive compensation Fair placement Equitable Administration and recognition of relevant experience and with that Administration presents policy 7502 the salary Administration and employee compensation for a second reading next slide please.

Policy rationale so this policy that we're bringing forward is to ensure transparency regarding Fair consistent and lawful employee compensation some of the key elements of this policy will include definitions procedures and legal compliance next slide please again our guiding principles ensuring competitive compensation it's something that we've heard much about especially even in Dr Lewis's post entry plan Fair placement Equitable Administration recognition of relevant experience and I would even like to add just rebuilding the trust of our DPS staff next slide please the purpose of this policy 7502 applies to all forms of employee compensation including their base salary raises base bonuses and extra duty pay this policy is also to ensure that payments are authorized by the board of education but excludes doesn't exclude reimbursements and payments for independent contractors next slide please so this list or this next slide shows us just the members of the policy working group the salary Administration policy working group which convened in May of 2024 we have experienced some transition there was a prior.

Assistant superintendent of HR it started during her tenure and transitioned over to my leadership once I came on board in June in J June in January and as with any working group you're going to have folks that come on the group come off the group attend when they're able to attend but this is the group of folks that have been invited to enjoin to join the group and we have added folks along the way way so the group is made up of several different staff members both certified classified and our next meeting one of the things that we were challenged with during that transition had to do with just trying to get the group together so we meet virtually but our next inperson meeting which was supposed to happen when it snowed will be held on March 20th at staff development next slide our goal is to ensure that this policy identifies key terms and definitions for consistency that is crucial next Slide the one of the things that we've.

Really tackled during this work has been around extra duty pay really just trying to streamline what the process is make sure that it's clear make sure that everyone knows how to receive extra duty pay so that administrators know what the process is staff members who may be called to do extra duty pay understand the rules so it is work outside of an employes regular job description performed outside of regular hours and then we go on to show what that approval process will look like next slide athletic pay we also want to make sure that there's clear communication around athletic pay and I know I've received or we've received questions athletic pce so that is an area we want to make sure that that is clear as well there will be annual step increases so for bullet two it's really annual step increases not at the end of each season so we just need to make sure that that's clear and coaches are paid at the end of each season so if it's the.

Fall winter then they're paid at the end of that season if it's the spring summer they're paid at the end of that season but the annual step would travel with them through the whole year so it wouldn't increase in the middle of the year next slide all compensation changes will be documented in Personnel files and right now the procedure that we use with the employee Personnel action form that we work closely with Mr teter's Department Finance to make sure that anytime there's a change or an adjustment that that originates nhr and then travels to finance so that's processed and then that form ends up in the person in the employees personnel file next Slide the next slide goes on to talk about General salary increases so for certified classifi and administrative employees changes as authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly supplements for certified staff are voted on by the board substitute teachers and then bonuses so we will lay out make sure that language is clear around how those increases are administered next.

Slide so another place that we want to make sure that there's clear guidance for staff just how new hires are placed on the salary schedule so teachers and other employees paid on the certified schedules their salaries are based on their license Li and those are provided to us by ncdpi that's a ler review and that's based on their state certification but for classified positions such as bus drivers School nutrition staff instructional ass assistants Etc they're placed on the salary schedule which is approved by the Board of Education and their placement considers their verified years of experience which we use a VOE form to verify their experience upon hire next.

Slide so still in process is the document we want to bring Clarity around the following areas if someone's moved administrative if there's an administrative change someone moves from one position to another position that's an administrative change versus a volunteer voluntary transfer so if I decide that I'm going to move to another position then I'm going to take on the position salary grade so I want to make sure that that's clear rules around promotion and then rules around reclassification following the salary study we did receive lots of folks that reached out to us to HR Dr giovan's office Finance to ask for us to look at their their position to be Rec considered for reclassification and we get those re those on an ongoing basis and so that will be part of the compensation salary reclassification Review Committee next slide we want to ensure that we're in compliance with laws adhering to state and federal laws including flsa and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction guidelines and then of course the IRS requirements for.

Employee compensation for. All and that is my last slide and I just ask for any questions and again we're bringing this for second reading so still a lot of work going into this policy one of the things that we've heard loud and clear from the working group is that while we are anxious to get this done we don't want to rush we want to make sure this is a thoughtful clear document that folks can go to and really have a resource like many times folks want to be able to just say hey Miss Harrell Goff where do I go to find transfer information or where do I go to find this and we want to make sure it's clear folks have had an opportunity thank you Miss Harrell Goff thank you colleagues are there any questions comments Mr tab thank you very much just a few clarifying questions that I have yes sir sorry turn this way to you you're fine thank you I'm on your slide where.

It says extra duties yes sir but it it says extra duties outside of job description performed outside of regular hours there are employees that may do the job description during the regular school day but are called in on weekends to do work but it may be still part of their job description but they're called in on weekends how do you different differentiate between the two good question thank you for that I think in part of the extra Duty form when we have to provide a justification for the work so the extra form really outlines all of the things that would go into a description so if it's outside of or for I think I received a question about how would an element what would extra Duty look like for an elementary school teacher right and so if there's a vacancy and an elementary school teacher is called in to assist with during their planning time with grading or helping with lesson plans those would be inside but if there were out outside that would.

Be let's say we have a teacher that's now asked to drive a school bus right when they are available so it would be different for different purposes so we just want to make sure that would be clear I hope that helps it does help but because it says outside of job description that may make U employee hesitate to do the assignment because they may see it as still part of their job J description but you're asking them to come in during hours that they would normally be doing that particular job description which could be after hours or it could be weekends and I'm bringing this up because this has been brought up a lot okay so that's one thing okay the other part to this is making sure that employees do understand the difference between what's considered supplemental pay and what is cons considered extended pay or extra and or extra duty pay because there are teachers I'm going to use the Arts since I'm more familiar with that Arts get.

Supplements but they are on a schedule in terms of how many things are they're supposed to do to receive that supplement once they exceed that do they then move to extra duty pay because they have now fulfilled their duty of the. Supplement I am taking notes okay thank you Mr T you're quite welcome that was actually a question that came up at our just our last policy working group was just making sure that the language around supplemental pay extra Duty and actually the Arts did come up during that conversation so I appreciate that and I'll be glad to help any have additional conversation about this to help out duly noted all right Miss buer did you have your oh thank you Miss Harrell Goff for this presentation my first question just for clarity is that this is you're bringing this for second read but you don't expect us to pass this tonight.

Okay right okay corre the one of the questions that I raised colleagues in advance of this meeting that I wanted to share with you is in if you're looking at the full policy it's in section d I'm try to get to the right spot. Okay which page page five yeah section B so it's D2 B D is in dog B is in boy I'm sorry D2 and then B for boy around classified employee pay. Increases there was there's a portion in this it says subject to budget approval and funds availability it is the intent of the Board of Education to Grant experience increase in addition to annual legislative pay increase to all classified employees who worked at least six full months the previous fiscal year for schools and my question to miss Hager was is this best practices to in policy asign the intent of the board and is that portion really necessary or does is it sort of sort of like implies that the board is going to do this or will review doing.

This and obviously we can review whatever we want to annually but isn't is it enough just to say subject to budget approval and funds availability and not to assign Bas so I think that that is because we can't lock into another board to what they might want to do well that's a good question and it it also has the words in addition to the annual legisl it's like the board and Durham's going to do something on top of the state is that how you read it that's how I read it yeah and so I don't want us to pass a policy that says that that's what we're going to explore doing annually because we can do that and will do that if we can but I don't know I want us to consider that that it felt like just saying subject to budget approval and funds availability was.

Enough missad I wanted to highlight that but I was looking up in the step definition in the definitions because step increase is there and it says refers to any raise paid annually and automatically to employees on a board approved schedule based on years of experience and I'm gonna say this I know it's not popular but like we can't guarantee it if we don't have the budget for it so that definition gets a little tricky that and it's been the practice so let me say that too the practice in DPS is people were moving from step to step or expecting to move from step to step and we know there's a lot of anomalies inside of that and one of the hopes I was thinking about for this policy was to get clear around what movement looks like and when we move and the Board needs to approve a movement versus it being automatic and that is I feel that's not clear and I'm so sorry to all of our.

Employee I would love to do it automatically but we need to know that we have the budget to do it so that part needs just I think to follow up on your point Miss Roger some clarity on that I'm sorry no thank you for that and Mr terer is also thanking you for. That any other comments are Miss Umstead thanks y'all again for this is like a really important policy and taking a lot to consider and there's always nuances in the how many 5,000 different roles and people that we have here I just I have a couple of other questions that I can Contin you all to ponder a little bit later but the main one that I wanted to think about was we still this doesn't clearly outline how people move or or and or place on our salary schedules right so our salary schedules currently have men's and Maxes and I don't if I'm an employee I don't know how I get placed on that schedule in.

Between a minute Max on a step and I don't know how I can move in between those either and so how do we get clear about what that looks like I think we've been hearing really loudly and clearly from our classified staff who aren't on this schedule how are we moving how do I place how do I know what I'm going to get inre say like what does that all look like and so we I just think there's a lot more work to do around improving and making that really clear because it's not clear to me and that also means it might not be clear to other folks and then sorry let me and then along with that like step part there's might be something different for classified versus certified too so that might need to be separated in this salary Administration policy I think I'm done Miss Rogers to follow up on Miss ID's point of the men's and Maxes I wonder if we should be having conversations with our counterparts.

HR counterparts at Duke and maybe at other well not local but yes at Duke one of the things that they clearly state is if you come in with the minimum requirements you start at the minimum and you can move and then they have a series of expectations within HR as you are applying for other jobs at Duke where you can end up in in the men's of Max and other pay scales and that might need some clarity as people look for Upward momentum within the district and that might be something that you put into procedure as opposed to put into policy but having that as a supplement might be helpful and understanding how they're doing that because they also do and.

Maxes I see Miss Chávez and and then miss Carter Aon I I will just say I agree with this point that mam said is Raising I think I I also want to know I've said this but like what's you know going on with the mens and Maxes and everything at Duke I worked at Duke and they all they do have mens and Maxes but people negotiate their salary and so it's a very different model than I think we're going for I but that's yeah that some people negotiate their salaries there's some of us that were not able to do that because the difference between certified and classifi here sure exactly but that's how some of the men's and Maxes are used and so it might be worth a conversation but it's also a different model than I think we're going for on the whole but of course I'm sure you're looking at other models and you know colleagues in this area.

So miss Carter I'm dying to hear what Mr terer has to say so I'm but but I guess I'll frame that with a question that builds on these which is so I'm a Staff person and or maybe I'm considering working for the district one of those two things and I want to know where I get placed and how I move so right so the Pol this policy we're working on is one piece of the information that people would look at right we currently also have some scales on the website together I still can't fig I think we are having a hard time figuring out how this happens and I was looking at other districts trying to figure out do they have a policy that outline like is the language in policy is it in procedures is it a combination so could you share with us like where will that live eventually and that package of information about like how much do we expect to be in this policy and what.

Else will accompany it to give that full picture of information and then anything else you want to weigh in on related to these questions about this topic would be really helpful thank you yeah so I think a couple of comments so thank you so I think certified folks right kind of going back to those questions we have to do what the state tells us to do where those certified folks are concerned and you know on occasion they ask us to pause right so if the state budget has not been finalized when we start a new school year we're we're directed to pause those steps until we get direction from the Department of Public Instruction but then ultimately you know we're we're we're going to eventually move Folks up to their next step that aligns with their license with the state so classified right did different districts have different strategies about how they go about those steps a lot of times the step movement is performative in nature like yes we're going to.

Acknowledge that you are now progressing from year 26 to 27 if there was not a change in compensation at the state level that may not correlate into new money with that step change we may simply step 27 in the New Year might reflect what step 26 was before and so forth just just depending upon the financial cir cumstances of the district some districts if the state does nothing they might ensure their employee at least gets a 1% adjustment of some sort between steps I am very relieved that this policy was already under reviewed before I came because there there is a lack of clarity in a lot of districts about how to go about this and sometimes I have found that it's it's protocol that's on a sheet of paper in in an HR director's notebook somewhere and they don't remember how it got there or what the history was behind it I think particularly as we have conversations about how much credit can we give or are we going to give for.

Experience that comes from other school systems experience that comes from other state agencies how much experience U from relevant work in the private sector and so I think those are all things that we think about and and it really is scattered all over the place and it's it's an area for improvement for a lot of districts and so I think we're it's incredible work that's happened across these two HR administrations to to pull this together and bring and bring that into focus and so I'm I'm looking forward to this being a governing document that we go to and and we can crosswalk and and I think your questions got me thinking too of how can we even further craft this to to make a simple crosswalk talk to those salary schedules that are online to follow up so when you so to by that do you mean a connection between the two so that you one could look at the two of those things and fully understand what we're asking which is if.

I'm a potential employee here's where I go or have a better idea but I know that there's some unknowns but yeah I think I think kind of knowing I think I think particularly I think we're seeing it more and more that folks are sometimes not willing to even apply or or go through a process unless they know like is this worth my time U to interview for this position where might I land and and I think particularly our newer generation of workers they're not going to pick up the phone and call and ask those kinds of questions so I think the more that we can do to help people anticipate if it's worth their time or not to pursue a position with us with this information I think is is time well spent I had a couple more questions but did you have a followup to that we also did want to and I flagged this earlier Miss Harrell Goff but just I want to make sure that whatever.

We put out does clearly outline for folks like how if they got placed on the Eerie versus the that issue what where they're where they're staying what they're like we had heard in public comment tonight some folks are afraid about being moved down so maybe just I'm not sure how that gets addressed but making sure that that's addressed in whatever our final version is of this or whatever other documentation absolutely and I think that's just part of the transparency and rebuilding trust because those are definitely the conversations that we hear Mr Teter and I hear and are talking pretty much on a regular basis about how we educate our current staff not just their new hires but our current staff are still struggling with they can't see themselves on the salary schedules that are posted and so being able to respond to that I think is going to be really important work that we do people are still hurt is a fair word to use and we hear that and we're experiencing even from.

Folks on the policy working group and so acknowledging that and then how do we move forward so we want to hear from as many folks as we can as we bring this policy to light thank you I so appreciate that perspective that you bring to this Miss Hagar and acknowledging the need for just continuing to focus on the transparency and then the last thing that I'll say is as I was reviewing this that I had plenty of things that stood out to me that looked great and many that I had questions about but I kept returning to like but I don't this is not like I'm not in this schools or I'm not in these positions so I don't have a lived experience with what how this might impact me so I'm glad that you have included folks in the working group to give feedback and I hope that we'll continue to get feedback from the staff that are going to be impacted because the expertise that y'all bring is so.

Critical and the expertise that those are going to that are going to be impacted by this at different levels of our organization is really critical too thank you all right I I see do you want to follow up on that question I'll let Dr gani follow up and then I saw Miss berer and I saw Miss Umstead and Mr tab you and Mr tab okay I just want to thank Miss Hagar and Mr terer for their comments but they are working very collaboratively we do recognize the extreme frustration for those that are on the Crutchfield schedules and trying to figure that out we talked about it last week I think or maybe earlier this week I don't know the Days Run but at some point in the last week or so Mr terer Miss Harrell Goff and myself sat down and were kind of trying to figure out find a way forward for the staff that are on the crutch Feld amounts so that they can clearly see that what their amounts.

Are how they may or may not be increased and I think that and I don't want to speak out of school here of no pun intend but I believe this board was very clear from the Das that no one would be getting less money and so I just that is not something Dr Lewis is you know instructed us to do like that's not a goal at all that anybody is pursuing with HR or Finance to reduce anyone's funding what we're trying to do is see away clear with HR and finance to have schedules that anybody that works for during Public Schools can see where they fall but that's going to take I don't know I don't know what it'll take to get there we weren't able to do it last August or September and so but we are still working on that and that is a goal for us to be transparent but I know that Miss Harrell Goff and Mr terer are very open and invite any employee to.

Reach out to them to sit down if they aren't on the Eerie scales and they will go through and show them this is where you were before this is where you are now these are the changes that were made in your salary so and I think they're both nodding their heads they are more than willing and their teams are more than willing to do that so I just want to put that out there thank you. Was it Miss B Miss thank you I was there's there's so much about this work that is so critical so so informed by the place that we've come from but also we I feel like it's needed to be at least passed to in for this budget cycle right so that we are at least establishing cleaner expectations for for our own employees and and we I want more input I want to hear from all the employees but I also think it's so urgent for us to get something solidified as we work towards more.

Clarity and Perfection going forward the the I still an important part of this budget process for me is going to be better understanding of what y'all are modeling for this very group of employees these two groups right we've got some people that that who's who are on salary schedules that are published that have clarity about how we're modeling and where they might go and then I'd like I still don't understand how big this other group of Crutchfield or consultant kind of folks are and then I would hope that our practice in the future would be to bring those together in some way right so that we have that Clarity of tables for the future for all employees so I don't know whether it's for this budget cycle or for the following but it's I know it's sticky you're making the you're you're making the like Mr yeah that I would love to hear where we're going with that yes so I think in in the forecasting that we've done for the.

Continuation part of the budget we've looked at right so for our our employees that are on the Crutchfield model have those two lines on their and we we've considered both of those in applying what a a state mandated raise might be so we want to make sure that we acknowledge that you we definitely did not want to because in some ways I see that that differential line that's holding them to the carry Crutchfield table is it's different than when we think about a normal hold harmless situation and so I think we're so so in my math we we very much so included those carry Crutchfield differentials in our calculation to make sure that we're asking for enough money to ensure that part of the pay receives whatever state raise there might be but then I think two right so part two of that of eventually fusing creating a scale in the in the future where that additional line item is not necessary will be a tremendous lift for darham you know I think it.

It is a large population and some of those differentials are substantial on a monthly basis so it's I it's come up before in a pass board meeting and I hate to Echo it but I it's going to require another study for us to work through that and see what that's going to look like and definitely not this cycle I I think this cycle we keep things moving and we acknowledge that differential we apply whatever the state raise is going to be to that and then we have time to collect ourselves and and think forward to 2627 and and and what we can do with more in pention and and also be hopeful for a better budget cycle That season too so I I appreciate that and I that helps to know kind of what a puzzle it is and how important it's going to be for this superintendent and board team to continue to advocate for moving everyone and and not back away from that commitment I hope that it doesn't I hope.

We don't have some people at a steeper curve where they're raising are going to put them out of line with the tables that are published and then morale issues amongst employees become even more challenging so you know it it sounds like something we might need to tackle with Grace and and time this other piece that seemed new to me was this rehire part so if you leave but come back within one year and one year is is how how' y'all think about that time frame that's did you have any debate about if you come back within one year you go back I mean can you so that actually came out of early on just part of the discussion around when the new classified salary schedules came out that was part of that discussion is that if you left DPS and came back then you would start back on the men right and it just seemed we have a lot of folks that come they decide to leave and then they come back.

Because DPS is the great greatest place to work and they turn back around and so we do want to owledge sometimes that folks will make a knee-jerk move and are back and we don't want them to go from you know they've got 20 years and now they they back at zero that's a really hard pill to swallow I appreciate that I I think if we when we do put that into policy it'll be important to have clearly communicated to staff as they're thinking about the grass is greener somewhere else and and so that they know to come back quickly if they're coming back yeah yeah thank you missad yes couple other things to follow up on and thinking just about how what you were saying Miss Carter often about like how people are placed but how does this like how do people know what to be expecting part of me think some of that's not even in the salary Administration policy like is there other guidelines that help people make.

Sense of our salary schedules and I'm even just thinking about recruitment right now someone asked me if I come to DPS what would I get paid and they would be a classified and I wasn't sure what to tell them and that's actually not a good recruitment tool for us and so thinking about is there any kind of document that we or something forward facing that we can say even right now this is how we're placing people on salary schedules especially if you're in that classified category you know more information to come or something like that but I just think that's a we're we're losing because people can't clearly see where they're going to be placed on that schedule right now Dr Lewis would you like to rep is that something what I'm I'm as I continue to learn North Carolina policy work is that something that could live in regulations I think it needs to live forward face wherever it lives if I know that I'm going to work at DPS I need to.

Be able to click it and see it next to salary right like if I go into the salary tables right now from classified I see hourly men's and Maxes I see base salary men's and Maxes 10 months 11 months 12 months but I have no clue where I'm gonna fall within that men Max right if I'm not and and so to Mr teter's point I would have to go all the way through an interview do all the background check that da da before I maybe found out what my salary would be and that just feels like as a recruitment tool some people aren't doing all that right because I don't know where I'm gonna land go ahead so the board did state that any new hires would start at the men during the board meeting but your commentary regarding how people may move within the men's and the Maxes is an area that the policy working group is continuing to work through so that is and I do agree.

With you I think that's not clear right unless you watch that board meeting you know which I mean they probably didn't and it still wasn't clear in the board meeting I did watch it really yeah I wasn't here for that one okay but it wasn't clear how you move within that right exactly so I agree I think that's well received and so I think Miss Hager and her team can kind of work on a draft that does set forth you know just for the recruiting piece especially right I mean they're out there at job fairs all the time so that does need to be made clear where folks are on that Eerie scale so I think you got that misser okay I've got it but also to your point what that really means is when you go onto the salary schedules and right below because a lot of the eie schedules the schedules that are posted at the bottom you'll see that there are positions that are listed what we really.

Need to make is that's clean and that someone could go there and say I'm going to apply for an ECI position you know where's where am I going to land that I'm going to be on the placed on a minimum with my 10 years of experience and what that would look like so I think for a lot of this to will need to have examples you know folks will see if there's a scenario such as that then people would be able to you know see themselves right but you're absolutely right and to the example that you just gave someone gets through the process and then they're like I have no idea how much I'm going to make and so those that's the feedback that we hear from our team and so just making sure it's clear and then I wonder if there's a different memo or something that goes to the folks who are in this limbo because what I continue to hear is a lot of stress is this going to go away what's.

Going to happen and like we should relieve that stress if we know and we should to clearly communicate to them that differential means this that differential is budgeted for it is you know our goal is to never decrease you or something just clearly put that out there because I I mean we've had people come to our meetings week after week saying and with concerns around that and then sorry this is my last thing Cho isn't we when we were last year around this time we were toying with idea of Step increases versus just a percent increase right so people were placed in the consultant crutchfield's schedule and it was like the board should approve a percent increase every year versus this step and I don't know where we landed with that because it seemed like we went back to a step but I don't anyway I'm putting that out there as a because it feels like since we have these people on two schedules if how do we navigate that moving forward that for Dr.

Giovani did you acknowledge me okay yes you did okay so thank you Miss I'm said so where Administration understands the board to have landed is that raises would only be done when voted and approved a percentage by the board so people still move up their step right like so next year it's SA you have a person who was step 22 for 2 425 and July 1 of 25 they move to step 25 right that's just their step that they move but it does not tie to any money like it used to be on the scale that there was like this automatic raise what it now says is that raises will only be based on a percentage as voted on by the board which gives the board they were kind of in the past and what was shared I know and what was shared in the past is that the board was kind of to chair Ro M Miss Rogers commentary I don't know if you're the chair tonight so to miss.

Rogers point of it you can't mandate and policy that the board is going to give a raise and so it says that the board you know shall we don't want that what it does say in there now is that let's say in July or as part of this budget process board says that there won't be you know they're not going to do a raise people would still move up but their salaries remain where they are until the board increases a percentage so what I will say as I'm saying it and I'm looking at your face I don't know if that people can't say it is that that needs to be made clearer that right I'm saying it and I'm thinking to myself that's that Clarity needs to be made I think Miss Harrell Goff sing also so we will work on that and make sure it's clear kind of how the raise process works with the the percentages versus the steps and just make sure that's crystal clear right.

Thank you for answering my next comment on that because it's not like if I'm looking at steps and you tell me that I go to a new Step there's a new dollar next to it and my assumption would be that's my that's my salary now right and so I think I don't that just needs to be unraveled and get really clear because I also bet people are expecting next year because we have steps and we would move a step that I would get an increased salary based on that step come real soon.

So Mr tab thank you very much just quickly I wanted to lift up Equity and so where I'm looking at athletic pay I don't see where we have Arts equity in this as well so as we are moving athletic forward please make sure I would ask that we make sure that we move Arts Equity forward along with Athletics because this district has fought so hard to make sure that that we bring it all in line and I definitely do not want us to see us to go backwards because as I see step increases upon completion of a season that means that Athletics are going to continue to move forward in their St steps and if we don't move artarts with it then that will is going to put us behind again and now we got to Advocate and fight to to bring it back and this District worked very hard to to get it all aligned and so thank you for doing the Athletics and I know they are.

Very appreciative but we we can bring Arts along with them as we're going thank youly noted thank you Mr T thank you Mr tab we're going to wrap up this part of the agenda after we hear from Miss Chavez right M Chavez that that made me wonder just about having people from the Arts and Athletics in as part of the working group and are there and his I'm stud is throwing in payroll and finance yeah but I guess any other areas that are left out and I'm wondering now are there other areas to get a like kind of supplement besides Athletics and arts maybe not but I was going to say also in looking at the at the salary schedules again I guess I'm not sure why we have the Maxes up there or why it says men when it's just what it is so I I would just like offer maybe we could just take that out because the max doesn't mean anything right now because we're not using it at all and.

Of course we can always change these when appropriate and then and I also just wanted to say I also think it's it's very important to make it very clear that people are not moving up in steps yeah I think that's that's really important I'm glad that got brought up just thank you that is all thank you Miss Rogers you have a question yeah Miss Travis can you help me or maybe Miss Hagar Miss Travis's question was why do we have men's and Maxes so I thought new people that were starting started at Men's but there were people currently in place in the district that got pay increases previous years that are falling within the range of Minimax but aren't on the minimum on the scale do you understand my question I do and so that's that's the folks that we're talking about that are let's say they've moved from before they were on grade 72 right and now they're at NC 13 right okay whatever that is equal to.

I don't have it up in front of me but if they're on nc13 then they're on nc13 so if you were to go into their payroll record you'll see the base which is the minimum which is at nc3 and then the additional line that's what Mr Tito was just talking about which is the differential that they receive each month so that they don't receive lower pay right so that's why that's part of why we still have the scales for men's and Maxes so when people look themselves up they see that they're falling within the men and Maxes even though they're new height they get the minimum I mising could be outside of that Max they could be they could be outside of the max because they're on a completely different salary schedule than new people coming in I'm that okay that's helpful that's what I wanted to understand I want to acknowledge Dr Giovani as we're trying to wrap up yes.

One of the reasons that what I got from Miss Chávez is can we consider it like what is kind of like just to think about it right that's what I took from her right and so I'm always like you know let's think about it but to miss Rogers point I was just asking for clarification I wasn't making a point to miss Roger's Point where we are now and this is going to be the work that Miss Harrell Goff and Mr terer are going to and myself and Dr Lewis and probably all cabinet and other folks are going to have to wrestle with is one of the positives of keeping the Maxes is that for these kind of what everybody these kind of one-offs that we now have because of Crutchfield we can at least assign them under the Eerie scale like somebody somebody coming in new might be like an NC 10 but because of the Crutchfield amounts they are being paid at like an nc13 so we can temporarily put on that.

Particular job line for finance and HR that this person this Singleton person is being paid at the nc10 and then un and they fall within that Max so that's what I was trying to say to miss buer and what we were all saying that this is is extremely complicated and we're trying to be transparent about it and Equitable about it but that's one of the reasons but I'm not going to sit here and say like you know we've got a new HR person a new CFO and a new superintendent and so they could maybe wrestle with what was done before and what they've kind of inherited maybe wrestle with that and see if they can get us somewhere potentially where we can get rid of the Maxes or potentially where we land somewhere where it's able to be synthesized and so that's kind of what the plan is but as Mr Teter said it's going to be an extremely heavy lift that's what I said I mean my face said.

It I think Miss Meer when I was looking at you like it's a lot it's a a lot of work to be done but I think just the first step of is honestly just being I say this word all the time transparent right and just putting it out there and so I think it's well received the feedback we've gotten from the board of putting it on Dr Lewis just said it to me we stepped to the side putting it on the HR website like you know even if you pull Clips out from the board meetings right like I think those are the things that we need to start doing so that we aren't saying oh yeah it's out there go dig and find it in bardocks but look on August 10th you know 24 this is the clip where the board said we're doing this or we y'all never mind okay never mind I'm out okay doing good you were doing.

Good but as we wrap this conversation I do agree in terms of whether it's a rig or a PDF or flowchart U how do we operationalize this policy that that answers questions around the outside the duty day questions that Mr tab raised and some of the other pieces that we can provide Clarity that's right there by the salary schedule so here's a salary scale click on this document oh okay this is where I'm after I read through this this flowchart or step one step two this is where I'm landing thank you I can tell by all of the vigorous the the very you know all the conversation that we've had around this topic that this is something that we feel is very high priority thank you for the conversation thank you for the questions thank you U Miss Hager Mr terer and the whole team for putting the effort in for this thank you for the work this next part of the agenda we're going to go to the.

Summer programs Dr King and let's see if we can do this in 10 minutes.

I'm sorry it's Ashley Stevens okay he's gonna kick it off thank you so. Much if I can just ask for clarity do you want would the board like for Miss Stevens to do the presentation that's attached to this item would you just like to make her available her to make her available for the questions that are that drove the decision to pull the item we certainly are prepared to do either colleagues are there would you what is your preference Miss Chávez has a preference it's 21 slides y'all my preference is to that you would be available for questions absolutely we've read it yes anyone else.

Miss car I wonder if we could pull the slides up so that we could reference slides during The Question. Absolutely shz okay we're beginning all right yes so questions so M Chavez has questions my my first and only question is about just thank you for this information it's really good to see what all we have going on this summer to support our students I am simply interested in getting follow-up data after this summer to see how many students registered or how many attended rather and the demographics and my desire to see that comes from particularly couple things am I yeah the ESL newcomer Academy I'm interested to see is are there barriers are kids coming is it helpful or I mean are they in attendance did they complete the program I'm very interested in that and also English for the 21st century workshops I I really again appreciate that you're offering that we're offering these and the other thing is that I to the equity and access piece that we talked about earlier with the.

Superintendent's postentry plan I am interested in the diversity racial socioeconomic Etc of and other you know I identifiers of attendance of these different programs sometimes you see a program that is fairly monolithic in who attends and so that is an ask for the administration and if that is a more than 15minute request then we can you know take a vote on that and if other people are interested in that data as well yeah so we keep attendance data and registration data so that is something that we could definitely compile.

Okay Miss Rogers thank you for making yourself available I appreciate it at the last minute can you tell me so I several weeks ago we got an influx of emails about some camps going offline this year how was that how were those camps selected to go offline and is there an idea plan or partnership to look into bringing those camps back online in the future and did those camps have low attendance absolutely so our camps that are primarily funded by our state federal local funds fall a lot in that targeted range and required range so when we look at camps that don't Target necessarily a specific subgroup or an area of need across the district it then Falls within that Department's budget so when we look at our budgets for summer programs for summer 2025 we really were looking at the budget that was approved June 2024 and then as the year progresses we look at you know our data what are the needs of our students and we also look.

At those camps where there may not be funding what will that be like to have a parent fee because that specific Camp was fully funded by Esser it would have been an astronomical ask for our parents to pay that fee so really taking the time to additional funding grants and working with our dpsf and some of our Community Partners so that we can make that a manageable program for our families to attend we did have good attendance at those programs we saw that during our time it started with Esser funding and ended with Esser funding and we did see the diversity dipped down the less we were able to provide whether it be Transportation or for some options for after school program because it was a halfday program and our many of our families need a full day program so looking at some of those barriers so that we can emulate that first year where we had a real diverse population of students that were experiencing that camp thank you and so that was the.

Other question so in terms of accessibility camps accept the local vouchers is there a sliding scale fee what do the fees look like for the camps that are going to be offered this summer is there still opportunity for students to enroll yes absolutely so we have three camps that are presented that have parent fees all the rest of our camps are free of charge to our families for our camp fantastic which is our through Community Ed those fees are posted on the website and they do accept cultures and for families who qualify we also have our spark camp that is parent fees and they do offer some scholarships based on whatever Community Fund partner they're working with that's able to access that and then we have Camp inventions Camp inventions is a little bit unique in that it's a paid program it goes through like an outside vendor almost so through that vendor you can do payment plans but we also also were awarded six 60 scholarships so that we could have a.

More diverse population specifically scholarships for girls this summer and we were actually able to open up another location so those are our only three camps with fees the rest are free of charge to families and then all of our camps are still accepting applications some of our camps because they are targeted or based on academic performance you kind of have to be eligible for them so until you're eligible for instance for a read to achieve camp we give family notices in this third quarter to say this is how your child's performing this is a summer camp opportunity we have for your child however their performance can increase before the end of the school year and then that would make them not eligible for that camp anymore so for camps where it's based on specific criteria it it varies but all of them are still open for registration especially our ones that are a little less performance driven and focusing really on supporting a subgroup thank you are there any further that Miss.

Buyers so Miss Stevens thank you for being here with us late just to to dig into this I think this is important work that we do and I always always like the community to to be excited about these amazing opportunities and it's great to see on social media just the praise that that parents have for the DPS camps and the quality of of programming so I just want to thank you for the efforts that you put into that I would say that a theme that I see a lot on social media and you probably see it too is people wish we had camp registration earlier in the Academic Year as they plan their summer and I don't know with your team going forward whether in the future that might be something we we're able to you know people are looking January February I'm looking for the people of the yeah yeah yeah so in the future as we dream all the Visionary things I'm hoping that we might be able to to be folks's First.

Choice especially with the affordability and great quality of programming that we offer but thank you I just wanted to express that gratitude absolutely thank you Miss Carter Aon thank you again Miss Stevens and I just wanted to start by saying in addition to thank you that I'm feeling super proud to be part of a school district that offers this array of opportunities for our students in the summer and that serve so many students I was I want to build on Miss Chavez's request for data and I'm wondering if like at the end of the summer it could be a routine for the board to receive an update on some of that data about who attended our how many many people attended and benefit from our camps who that was and what that looked like but also any potential and this isn't possible for all camps but any outcomes from the camps that are measurable some of them feel like you know we have the read to achieve camp where we should be able to.

Measure changes in proficiency for reading or camps for our English language Learners where they're and more to demonstrate that like these are in a objective way benefiting our students you could we could gather subjective data which would be useful also on satisfaction and changes to like quality of Summer experience or things like that but something to just show the board and the community also the value of the funds that are invested in this and the time that's invested in each of our summer initiatives so I don't know if that's something that is that feasible is that asking for something that's Out Of Reach at this point or no that's absolutely feasible we I asked that all of our program coordinators they determine what metrics they're hoping to impact and how will they collect the data on that so all of our programs collect data based on the metric that they have determined to be the the data they're hoping to impact and then we could easily compile that into a presentation to see the.

Impacts along with our demographic data just to look at Trends and access across all of our subgroups thank you that sounds awesome are there any other questions all right thank you so much for taking the time next on our agenda is the summary of follow-up items Administration yes thank you so I will be reporting on follow-up items from Dr Lewis's post entry plan and Dr web will be reporting on the academic items and Dr King will be reporting on follow-up items from the human resources salary Administration policy so I'm it's not necessarily so much follow-up items because I really didn't get other consensus from the board but what I did do with the post entry plan is document kind of some of the commentary and then would share those with Dr Lewis to direct cabinet as he sees fit so with regard to that the first was from the student representative she wanted to make sure that we were focused and following up on repairing and fixing School infrastructure there was a request to.

Clarify alignment between culture in the Strategic plan and student School needs there was a request to ensure people first language and addressing language Justice initiatives strategically assessing how Frameworks support students of color a request to establish a timeline for goal implementation in the postentry plan a request to continue discussion on a regular Bond program a request to conduct an equity audit at each school to include Arts athletic and systemic barriers a request to conduct a deep dive into teacher survey analysis for retention insights and to confirm that the safety Forum includes Wellness as well in that safety narrative to particularly include Mental Health and lastly to consider how to it's not last in order but it took me a while to kind of word Smith it to make sure I got got it right but and so miss shavez if I didn't C please let me know but it's to consider how to acknowledge organizing including meet and confer and parents and community that and that was all from the feedback from the superintendent's post.

Entry plan.

Good evening two items the first one in response to the proclamation for the Arts in our schools month there was a request for more money in the budget for the Arts I'm an Arts educator for life so I had to say that also there's interest for summer camps there's interest in followup after the summer specifically how many attended are there know barriers what is the diversity racial makeup and other identifiers of attendees that information is requested after the camps there was question about how were camps cancelled and and which C why were some canceled why were why did others continue there's requests for attendance feedback and again any known barriers there's questions on fees and availability of the camp then there was a statement for would like the camp registration to happen earlier and then again at the end of the summer would like for the board to get a report on how many attended each Camp who attended and any measurable.

Benefits so in terms of the salary Administration policy there was a request that the policy make clear whether or not extra Duty covers scenarios where employees are called in on weekends to do work who keeps changing is that that trying to read this thing over here moving it I'm sorry there a request that there's a desire to make sure that the policy correctly and clearly delineates the difference between supplemental pay and extra duty pay that was from Mr tab there was a a mentioning that the policy needs to clearly establish that the board has to app has to approve annual increases rather than it being those being automatic understanding needed as it relates to men and Max placement U could speak with Duke as as they do the same there was a request to make sure that the document establishes how people will be moved up and down related to how they were originally placed on the scale I.E the Crutchfield placements versus the Eerie placements and there was the hope.

That eventually there will be a process to merge folks who are in that same status who are who were placed originally by the Crutchfield work or the eie work and there was a question about the decision was made to develop the language about leaving and returning to DPS in terms of the one-year requirement and then there was a question about where the board landed in terms of the question of whether or not people should get a step or a percentage I think that there was an answer to that one but but but I did leave it there and then there was a question about are there other areas or other employees that get supplements that should be included in the work of this of the compensation.

Group any. Comments Miss Travis that was great by the way as a summary I just have a question about the agenda I saw that the legislative agenda was added but I think it was after we passed the approved the consent agenda do we need to approve that separately it was not I didn't refresh okay. Thanks I'm move that I was sorry oh no that's right I just wanted to remind everybody we will not be streaming after Clos session once we go on the Clos session we will not come back online that's all before I'm move that we go Dr Le needs a moment I'm sorry before we go I I cannot let this board meeting in without congratulating and wishing good luck to our Southern Spartans that will U play for the state championship tomorrow night the first time since 1959 and so if you are available and members that are still up watching this board meeting if you can join us at 11:00 maybe we'll end tomorrow morning early 11.

O'clock they're doing a a sendoff for the team as they leave tomorrow morning 11 o'clock at Southern but the game is tomorrow night at 8:30 in winstom Salem yeah so good luck Spartans and special all good good luck for all the players but special good luck to Keith Jackson a member of my superintendent advisory Council scored 30 points last game so wishing wishing all the Spartans well Mr tab just quickly since this is arts and Education Month Hillside High School is doing Majesty in the mirror this weekend so if you get a chance please go out and check it out I told him I would make that announcement okay now colleagues I'll accept a motion to go in close session I move that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda second is there any further it's been moved by missp seconded by Miss Chavez I'm sorry is there any discussion all those in favor say I I we're now in close session.