Board of Education · Work Session · March 7, 2024

afternoon good afternoon today is March 7th 2024 call this meeting to order the um first thing on our agenda is a moment of silence we can just take a moment to reflect thank you the next item on the agenda is the agenda review and approval I'd like to move that we add item g under the consent agenda to add the Personnel report dated March 7th 2024 second been moved by Miss berer second by Miss Rogers to add a Personnel report under the consent item for G all in favor say I I I

oppos and passes unanimously for the agenda amendment can we approve the agenda now move approval of the agenda as amended second been moved by Miss Rogers second by Miss berer to approve the agenda as amended um any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed same motion it passes unanimously thank you next item on the agenda is the Board of Education minutes from February 7th and February 8th move approval of the minutes from February 7th and 8th second then move by Miss Roger second by miss berer any discussion all in favor I any opposed it passes unanimously next item is revised Board of Education minutes from January 25th 2024 move

approval second been mooved by Miss buer second by Miss Rogers any discussion all in favor say I I any oppose it passes unanimously next item of the agenda 1 F general public comment I'll read a few opening statement first before we begin our public comment a quick review of the rules please first state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light goes comes on it will beep which will indicate your time is up complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally the board members

will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with the speakers our first speaker is Jenna cther thank you good evening my name is Jenna Crowther our oldest May is in first grade at EK po um this morning at school drop off my f my daughter's friend said to her he may my dad said you won't be attending po next year may looked at me surprised and I didn't really know what to say because I'm also not sure where May is going to be attending school next year uh like many other families I won't burden y'all with the details of our child care hardship um I actually emailed you guys the details yesterday um but we were consistently told across many levels and departments at DPS that we could apply to transfer into po given the child care hardship that we have related to May's 2-year-old

brother um however when I went to complete the transfer application it did not actually list Eko as an option I called and was told to select my base school as the transfer school and write in po as my transfer option in an open Notes field given the challenges of the past few years I hope you can see the I have trouble trusting in this guidance and in speaking with other families I know we are not alone in this situation additionally it is not clear whether I will hear about our transfer application before the after care Lottery closes so my ask to you all tonight as you work through plans for the district whether it's classified staff salaries or the growing together plan or implementing a lottery for after care that acknowledges you cannot meet the basic needs of your Elementary School community that you please remember that you are dealing with people and families and children

especially children who need to be able to trust what they are told by DPS to trust the technology used and to be able to plan their lives we don't need weight lists and lotteries and write in transfer applications we need reliable accurate information and functional technology as much as or I'd argue perhaps more than we need school choice thank you thank you next speaker is Lauren stin please correct me if I had mispronounce your name my apologies you all hear me yes okay hi my name is Lauren Stine I'm a parent of two DPS students one with an IEP one with a 504 I'm a PTA president I'm also somebody who spends a lot of time thinking deeply about systemic change and policy implementation that is fair

clear and Equitable tonight you'll continue your discussion of budget priorities for next year but this year's basic District functions still need your attention central office won't be paying staff what they were promised and writing back in October leaving morale issues on the ground in schools and staff ntion on the horizon people are The District's number one resource please invest in them central office continues to put more resources and staff into magnet schools demanding that neighborhood schools do more with less in fact publicly available data data that parents have collected show that schools that serve larger populations of historically marginalized students actually have fewer staff per student an inequitable distribution of resources to a school would do the opposite central office runs on outdated systems which we've learned about more in the last few weeks at the same time

our kids are going to school in buildings that are falling apart central office didn't plan for many of the foreseeable implementation problems with its student reassignment plan there are Promises of options that didn't show up on people's applications there are multiple different transfer options to pursue School staff often families are confused about where students will show up in the fall central office is quote unquote excited to share that they will not meet demand for after care yet again I want to remind you that elementary school gets out at 2:15 my kids are six and nine where are they supposed to go yet when I look at your priorities for next year's budget I see a lot of bells and whistles we need reading Specialists and IAS not Mandarin and French teachers we need EC and ml teachers and not more Chromebooks we need highquality schools close to home and not a complicated

system of magnets that families have to navigate we need students to enroll here in DPS and not continue to go to Charter Schools it's been a rough time since March 2020 your families and employees are just seeking consistency we need the basics since it's unclear what numbers can be trusted at this point I'm here to suggest you throw out the budget and start from scratch ask your Educators your staff your parents your students what they need to be successful and like I said people are your greatest resource invest as much as you can in them thank you you next we have yja Mahajan good evening my name is G Mahajan and I'm a parent of two children at Eko I didn't realize that DPS launched a new strategic priority called choose DPS Choose Your Own Adventure families and

staff and yet this is what thousands of staff and families are now navigating will my student get in through Lottery transfer assignment or not at all wait what about that younger student too in my household will my younger student get into Aftercare or not well what happens if my older student gets in but not my younger student if they don't get into Aftercare will the alternative Aftercare be within their assignment lottery or transfer zone for transportation will the school have enough staff to cover the student enrollment will the school system honor the promised wages of the dedicated and hardworking staff you want me to choose TPS and I'm telling you why or how can I possibly do that with the complex and often conflicting priorities you ask families and staff to navigate and more importantly accept this isn't governing it's crazy making tonight I ask you to form a govern intergovernmental task

force with the city and the county on the state of after care for 2020 2024 2025 and I also ask that you request full transparency of the 2024 2025 lottery results compared to this slide shared back with the board in January 2023 where you identified what schools would draw students from enrollment zones versus Lottery we have yet to see that for this first Lottery poll and I think that's really important thank you thank you and our next speaker is Christy clim good evening I'm Christy Clen I'm a physical therapist um I just want to share that the morale of employees in the multiple schools I serve um has not improved at all since the flat 11% decision I know there was an email sent out um from the district

saying that that decision ended a period of uncertainty and anxiety for classified employees that's not accurate it hasn't happened most if not the majority of classified people I've talked to have said they do not know if they're going to be in DPS next year and so much of that hinges um on the salary decision moving forward and we feel like we're very much in the dark now we've been very passive pwns in this game where we sit and wait to see what happens to us next when I first started speaking at the board meetings I like put time and thought and effort into what I was saying because I thought every word I say matters these last two meetings I feel so defeated when I start to write out what I'm going to say I don't get much past hi my name is Christie and I'm I'm a physical therapist honestly feel like it doesn't matter what I say right now I'm waiting for something else to happen to me with no input um I am concerned that what I understood from the comp controllers

report last uh board about the steps of heel being too high or the increases of heel being too high between steps I don't understand how reducing that is going to help with the compression that we've y'all have said for a long time has been happening so I don't know how going down and making those very small raises is going to address compression um we want we need information about what's happening going forward no one in the PT Department was spoken to during the hill study I know it reported that classified staffs in all departments were talked to nobody from PT was we're very F fearful that nobody from PT is going to be talked to about what's happening now so once again we are passively sitting and waiting like ducks um thank you for your time I appreciate it and I do want to say that just because this room isn't full it's not because employees are happy with what happened it is it is the opposite

of that our capacity right now to try to do our job and come and fight this battle that we feel like it's straight upill or into a brick wall is running low I I don't think I've ever experienced um the level of exhaustion that I hit very quickly right now in my personal or professional life I feel great I feel rejuvenated it is one small thing that makes me feel like I'm done for the day and that is directly related to the last two months of being employed here at DPS I hope that changes thank you thank you that concludes our public comments and the next item on our agenda is the consent items move approval of the consent agenda second been moved by Miss Rogers second by missp approval of the consent agenda any discussion all in favor say I I any

opposed it passes unanimously the next item in the agenda is under Board of Education discussion of budget needs and priorities for 2024 as to superintendent Moore thank you um I'll get us started and um go through the information and then we'll we can have a discussion go ahead and move on to the next slide you'll see familiar Cadence in the presentations um with changes based on updates and additional information uh again we'll start by looking at our strategic plan pillars uh I want to provide an updated list of budget priorities um including projected cost and I'll say right now and I'll say it again at least one more time maybe two or three the information you see this evening with updated costs is not the superintendent's proposed budget it is a list of some of the priorities that we've already discussed with projected amounts next to them

um it is not the superintendent's proposed budget um and we will talk about not just 2425 but also the possibility of some multi-year options um and whether or not there's interest in staging some things over more than one year with regards to uh meeting our needs and we will again review the timeline for next steps next slide strategic plan pillars include um increasing academic achievements providing a safe School environment that supports the whole child attracting and retaining outstanding Educators and staff strengthening School family and Community engagement and ensuring fiscal and operational responsibility these are really strong pillars and you can tag all of the requests in one way or another to the pillars that are in your strategic plan but I think it's important to note that there are requests that are not on here there are um needs that would also fit

into the Strategic plan pillars uh there the amounts do not necessarily reflect to the endgame in terms of what's needed to get there and so it's um it's it's important to hold folks accountable to how the asks um do support these but it's also important for the board to provide guidance if at any point in time I don't I don't know that these are listed or were intended to be listed in any sort of a priority order when they were part of the Strategic plan but knowing what the needs of any District might be at any given time those May shift in terms of which ones you feel are most most important to address at any given point in time knowing that all of them are important next slide so back to um some initial local budget needs that we identified last time and this is a slide that's got legislated and required in parentheses because these are costs that are coming and and funds must be identified to meet these required legislated

1 million the classified salary increas increase again in the biannual budget that is legislated there is a 3% again average raise for classified salaries that is coming in 2425 that's already in the North Carolina budget again the local cost of that raise for locally

1 million um and that is based on um projected growth um in Durham County overall Durham County that's any students in Durham County whether they go to a charter school or to Durham Public Schools it's based on projected growth and then the percent on

2 million it is important to note um that this is the local supplement this is not overall teacher salaries teacher salaries and durm are sort of divided into two parts the part that is paid by the state or federal or other dollars and then there is a local supplement on top of that that Durham provides for its certified

3 million in in local dollars to um Implement Master's pay for teachers that currently not receiving it that

have the relevant degrees the next one does not have a dollar figure associated with it yet continued focus on increasing classified salaries with new 2425 salary schedules there's no dollars here because number one the board will see at their next board meeting I believe you will have some um models to look at regarding options for 2425 salary schedules and what that could be for how we continue to increase increase classified salaries we know that there is at least a 3% that will come from the legislature um and there will be a local cost associated with that 3% for local employees and then whatever additional dollars you see based on the models that come and I and I'm going to anticipate models that um stay within sort of existing budgets and apply a 3% raise that I think that would be the the lowest number that you would have and

then potentially a model that fully implements uh the vision of the market rate competitive that we were looking at and then knowing what that cost would be and then figuring out how you want to step off um in between those two I I will say if the numbers that I heard as I as I came into this role were somewhere between that somewhere between 700,000 a month and a million a month is what was necessary to actually achieve that was that was in excess of what was in the existing budget so I think if you multiply that by around 10 You' you've got your outside numbers um and then I've added additional funding for Capital needs it's it's this is a need that's coming as a result of two things um I think it's really important that we note and appreciate the fact that the Commissioners are providing $6 million a year of capital funding specifically for our maintenance and operation folks that take care of their needs I think it's equally important to note that it is insufficient to meet the needs um in in

speaking with our chief operating officer we do believe that at least an additional $4 million for a budget of around 10 million a year is what's needed to really maintain facilities that are aging and be responsive to schools that have concerns um I am not representing in one way or another how we achieve that additional 4 million whether it's a million at a time all four million at once but there are additional dollars that are needed and it's especially important because there has been an ability to accelerate some things still not meet the need through Esser funds that have been able to be applied to the needs in schools for for for Capital needs and those funds sunset in the fall and then in terms of continued support for growing together um the growing together uh initiative has some prek and Global language positions that have uh that are a part of that initiative um the prek is um I think an overall expansion uh in in the budget

7 million next slide please some additional departmental needs which we've narrowed down more specifically from what you saw last time um there are some curriculum materials and renewals that are on deck for ELA I believe that's actually 610 with 11th and 12th grade coming later for literacy in elementary schools the some specific elementary schools that are implementing um a literacy program and need the curriculum resources and materials uh K5 math adopted materials uh Global languages again and some materials foral K through 12 uh the next one is a little beyond my expertise to explain funds for it

Network switches if you know where the closets are and your schools and your locations that have all those big boxes and wires and things coming through them that's what we're talking about and I believe this is just shy of $2 million just for that um Murray massenberg brand new new school opening toured it last week fabulous campus um we've made a commitment to three prek programs in that school uh that and the teachers IAS Etc um will need to come from some portion of local funds there as well uh in continuing to try to expand our supports for students there's a request for two additional social workers for the district to reduce those case loads and provide greater support to schools there are some funs associated with an evening Academy and credit acceleration program that provides more options for our students who need perhaps non-traditional methods to make sure that they complete their credits and

7 million in all of these cases especially for this page um I have asked staff to take a look at their existing budgets and other sources of funding that might be available um to look at whether or not we have the capacity to take some of these things off of the list or find other places to fund some of these things and I mean you really want to do that with your entire budget request but in particular with some of the departmental needs that are up that to make space for some of the other asks that we have next slide please just going back over the

potential risks and unknown factors where I've added one um the federal state Local Economic Outlook are incredibly important um in addition to what's happening with the essr funds sunsetting um there are long weighted uh changes and needs and uh potential movement in how Title One is funded um any in uh any changes that happen at the state level with regards to uh how they are looking to um Fund leas in AAR for ADM don't know if you've heard much about that conversation um for years the state has funded the number of Staff in schools based on their like 20 or 40-day account whichever is higher that is after the school year begins and so it makes it you know obviously if a school loses enrollment a school system is losing enrollment or a school system is gaining enrollment you don't actually know the number of staff that you are getting from the state until two months

after the two to three months after the school year begins um so the legislature requested a change in that model it is a model that will fund schools inner rear which means that the a school system will be fund fed based on their prior year ADM and that the way that would work is if a schools en school systems enrollment is lower than their prior year ADM they will not lose any positions or uh funding they will keep them for that year in preparation for the following year when then the ADM is adjusted for how a school system is funded uh generally across the state uh districts are supportive the superintendents have been supportive of that funding iners because it it allows you a year to make the adjustments um to any changes that you may have in enrollment um and then of course the Local Economic

Outlook I'm sure that we will be hearing from our commissioners as in their Cadence in the next month or so they will also be presenting their economic Outlook what their revenues are looking like um and what their options or plans might be as the county manager um presents her proposed budget to the Commissioners that then the Commissioners will take up that will be inclusive of their intents and plans for um the Durham public schools because um although there is no sort of supervisory relationship of any kind there is a fiscal relationship in that the County Commissioners uh provide the funds from tax revenues that flow to the Duram public school system for local dollars um I've mentioned Esser already uh I will just say that there's about 140 people on Esser right now um while they are all in terminating contracts those are staff that and they know that they are in in positions where the funding ends I think it is important to

try to keep our people um and see whether or not um how that movement happens with existing vacancies um or other positions in our schools and in our district the legislature can always make changes to their budget in year two they often do um and we don't know what those impacts will be until the session is done and they've made the changes I've added classified salary schedules for 2425 we do not yet know we you know the board is going to have to review that information when it comes and see what kind of an impact that has I've left continued staffing needs in all areas of DPS because our people as someone said it earlier they are our biggest resource and when we have vacancy rates for all the reasons that we may have those vacancy rates we need to pay attention and uh make sure that the work that we are doing with our budget um supports what we see in our staffing needs and in continued review of the DPS

current fiscal position talked about that a little bit earlier in terms of trying to identify where our funds are internally that we may have some flexibility with um trying to see what our uh local and State dollars look like um there's been some conversation about uh our schools uh having positions beyond what their allotment formulas indicate and needing to deal with that moving forward um there all of those things have direct impact on what's happening in our schools and our classrooms every day next slide please some board identified needs um that are that are that were common in the comments from the information that we gathered last time a lot of conversation and support for what uh how C which is the community eligibility provision that provides meals to students every students in a school at no cost um based on uh

eligibility um and there's two options really here we can expand the number of schools right now that are eligible for C just a number of schools not everybody in the district or there's a a districtwide implementation that is an option as well um those are decisions that would need to be made very quickly uh if they were going to be implemented for next year the the um there is a cost Associated regardless of which way you go and so um and then I think the the piece that has been sort of hanging out there is that we need to um make sure that we have a good model and options for how we can continue to draw down the maximum uh federal funds that are available for uh programs like title one that rely on the free and reduced lunch percentages in schools to calculate those funds because if we were using C

districtwide um you no longer have reliable free and reduced lunch information um so that that's just a that's a that's a process that needs to be worked through um I I would say that the district is probably in a better position to perhaps expand by a number of C schools than it is to be ready to go districtwide um a lot of uh comments and agreement around strategic or explicit connection to how an equity lens is being used in different uh Appropriations and needs um a strategic and intentional focus on bilingual needs across DPS that was it was mentioned in a number of different places um and I do I do wonder about how we post positions um because it is perfectly acceptable to post positions with preferred uh characteristics that include bilingual um and then salary supplements

there was a a lot of agreement here as well um how do we differentiate for both EC teachers and Ias I believe that for IAS there was something in the implementation over the last few months that had that distinguishing factor in terms of their pay um that is not the case in the 22 23 and what's being implemented right now so I think that's something to look for in the recommendations that come to the board for classified salary schedules uh moving forward and then um similarly to the before um should bilingual staff have a stipend or a different pay grade in order to uh recognize and honor the amount of time that they spend and their expertise in needing to use that other language as a part of their duties in our school system next slide please so just going back over the timeline again um in green is what we've already done um we're have today we're continuing our discussion uh next week there is a joint uh Board of Commissioners Board of Education meeting

where uh part of what uh will happen in that meeting will be the staff sharing with the Comm the County Commissioners the discussion that has occurred so far with budget priorities and um then on April 11th um there's a little switch here uh the superintendent's proposed budget will come to the board for review and discussion there will be public hearing on the budget and board discussion uh because the proposed budget is an uh an item that comes before the board I do believe those materials will be available prior to the meeting um and then on April 25th and May 9th those are both opportunities for the board to review uh the superintendent's proposed budget to then align on where you want the board's proposed budget to be um because it is the board's proposed budget that is provided to the County Commissioners and I don't know if you would be ready on April 25th but I think you could go as far as May 9th statuto I do believe the Commissioners have a

meeting on May 11th Maybe it is when the the uh County Manager presents her budget to the commissioner so that's pretty tight if it's May 9th to May 11th next slide happy to enter now into discussion um really what I think staff needs is a little bit of um opportunity to hear from the board on what you see as priorities I I do feel like the legislated uh slide is one that um I think we can make a lot of commentary on about uh what's in there without a lot of ability to do anything about what's in there thank you for this presentation um helping to organize the budget priorities um under the different headings for us to digest and it is on appr Praises for discussion so I want to turn to our board and see where will we begin Miss

[Music] Chavez thank you um superintendent um Moore for your presentation and inviting us to give feedback again I have a few questions about the um legislative change that you were discussing um what what would happen um if uh if you look at a the previous year there are a lot fewer students and then in the so say this year there are a lot fewer students than there are next year but the the teacher um allotment is based on this year um and it if it would no longer be calculated um you know into the next school year are there still opportunities to be allotted more staff does that make sense the funding iners has a provision

that if a district grows in the following year then DPI will as they have in the past a lot additional staff okay they they are keeping a reserve of funds for districts that are larger in the subsequent year than they were in the the prior year so that they will have funds from which to allot additional positions to schools okay you just won't be penalized if you go correct okay um and then I also wanted to ask about C when would we I know the deadline for the application is approaching uh when would ideally we need to make a decision about that like vote on that I guess my first question to the CEO and I'm not a fan of asking questions I don't know the answer to um do you have a list of potential additional schools or do you know what the timeline

is I would have to I would have to send that to either Dr Stewart or Sierra I would not have that information do do we have to vote on that or is that something that you all could I think I think um I think it depends on if there's a financial component and an obligation a financial obligation to it so I do are your your of all of your current C schools are there any local funds tied up currently in any of your C schools currently no we we are making note and placing that in the followup items okay thank you um I also wanted to ask you mentioned that we might be in a better position to expand by a number of C schools and not the district I just wanted to have more information from you why you would maybe suggest that I think

that um the the questions about how you navigate the impact on how we draw down federal funds that are currently based on free and reduced lunch numbers needs more time needs like like a group a focus group to come together and have a discussion on um and make a plan for because other there are other districts that are fully C and so I think that there are there are models there are places to go either visit or investigate and bring back and and see what what could work here and Durham okay thank you that makes sense and I also wanted to ask about paying bilingual staff and extra stien I'm very interested on us doing this we we know that our bilingual staff play an extra they they perform more labor um by doing that and many schools have made a concerted effort to hire um front desk staff who are bilingual I was wondering if you could speak to um if you have sort of a

thought on other districts across the state if you know to what extent other districts in North Carolina do this so not not specifically that I know of other districts that do it and but I can think of a couple of options right so and and and I think the the the difficult piece is when it becomes does it ever become sort of ubiquitous in terms of um who we are as a community and who people are that work in schools and and and is it an extra Duty or is it how we do business um and is it a priority in hiring or is it an extra Duty right it's it's it's a there's a decision point that has to be made there because um if it is an extra Duty that for which there is a stipend then you need to create a little bit of a a job description and expectations around it so that within a school um it wouldn't necessarily be every single bilingual staff member who is receiving that stien but those that have identified and are

willing to take on the additional roles associated with what's in the description for the extra Duty and so that that would be one way to do that um I don't know that there is a current contemplation or work that's been done around what an extra duty position would look like that is about um providing bilingual support in a school um and I'm not aware of any that exists in in the state anyway but I'm sure that this is not a know concept and we could we could research it um and because that that I think might be a starting point and and you could set an expectation around that in our schools in our divisions and departments and that sort of thing um and it becomes you know an extra Duty has a stipend associated with it and um but you just have to be very clear on what it means in terms of and I don't think it replaces for example the folks that you currently have providing translation and interpretation Services um I think I think those would need to continue um as they have so thank you that's really

helpful framing that I hadn't thought about before so um I think that would be I would advocate for us exploring that what that looks like to have uh biling W staff to assess whether they are performing an extra Duty and to what extent um I think that's absolutely true there are bilingual staff who may not play that role um because that's just not where they're not you know facing you know those um maybe more Spanish speaking families or what have you but anyway so I'm interested in that I wanted to say um where I land with this I continue to want us want us to move toward um the the market value increases for our classified staff I think that's really important um I'm I'm looking forward to seeing the models um uh one thing that I noticed um in a deeper dive that Miss aij did thank you Miss aij um after our discussion last time was at one area

that we didn't hear much from these folks um but interpreters were one of those areas that um were not at market rate but there were a number of um positions and so um I think I think it's important for morale um and I um I am especially again interested in us raising that bottom that living wage as much as possible and seeing what would look like um the other thing I want to offer maybe an unpopular opinion but um I am concerned about the amount that it will cost and also probably the efforts to do this um around the global language teachers for next year at all schools and I'm going to offer what if we delayed that I will say that when we were presented this and I think it's such um I I think it's a great um proposal but I am concerned that perhaps we will

not get as much for our funds in that area um as as we might by spending in other areas and um so I this was a concern I had when we were presented this um this budget uh in August 22 at the board retreat and I I noticed that that was um one of the highest costs of growing together so I want to put that out there not that I don't want our kids exposed to Global language but I am just a little bit concerned about the um cost benefit there that's all for me for right now thank you so chair if i m l if I could ask so um what is your process as a board when you have a um an idea thrown out about something that I think we might want to do how does how does staff get direction

on that I mean without consensus I mean how do you how do you either discuss achieve consensus or does it just hang there typically everyone will begin to weigh in and some of the points that someone's made uh as Miss Chavez just did and then we come back to it with follow of actions or items looking at how many people have waited in but it's not been formalized to say this is consensus to move forward or not that typically the chair would summarize that at the end thank you Miss berer so um I thank you so much for um continuing to lead us through this critical um discussion I think it's important to see that we start already with an 8 million dollar ask without us doing anything and then we build from there um that's the reality that we find ourselves in in North Carolina as we um are Downstream from

um politicians um making different decisions about the needs of students in North Carolina um I think it's important for us to continue through this process to rebuild trust and one thing that I think would be helpful as we continue to do that is to do the Deep dives into some things that we might eliminate things that we might um make different decisions about um and bring that level of transparency to the public um even if that's central office spending things like that that that are really um important for um folks to to see as an example of of those departments digging in um and and not continuing things that are ineffective and and not evidence-based um similarly you know we've heard concerns um and and I had been asking for for a while for it to be brought

about allotments and what each school gets for a certain number of employees you know for for a certain number of students what you get for a counselor an assistant principle like allotment detail and so I think that coming forward will be important we look for consistency school to school and not have um questions and I think it's also helpful to frame it in what the state gives and then how we supplement and add to that locally and then help us Vision where we would like to get to we've done it with counselors trying to meet the national ratio we've done it you know you're talking social workers here like helping us build even if it's a multi-year kind of vision I think grounding it in in where the state starts and where Durham adds to it is super important and and helpful in our conversations with Commissioners um I know one of the things I've been concerned about is these Esra positions that you talked about and while I know we can absorb the

people in other ways to me having more information about what functions they are performing those 140 people and how those have been of benefit to students um would be important as we lead forward I know that our staff um have been incredibly dis discouraged um by decisions this board has made I know that we remain committed to investing in our people and maybe some kind of detail that continues to explain what percentage of our budget actually goes to to staff and benefits is is an important um reminder as as we continue to build a budget forward [Music] um all of I mean most everything you've brought is just so so important to continuing to support students um the

classified staff we all are anxiously awaiting um that proposal from the comp troller and and staff coming in two weeks and is still the plan hopefully and I mean um and then I think people will want to have some feedback about that um going forward um I think neighboring district is doing Master's pay and we had asked about that two years ago or more um so I think that continues to be critical teacher supplements um again we want to lead the state right and all salaries it's always been my goal at least for for Durham to lead the state um and we know that that's important for living wages in this community um what I would hope that we could um continue to have in our conversation with Commissioners is that for our living wage to at least match the County's living wage um that to me is critical

and I believe they're above $19 an hour so um I think if we can have that conver ation with them next week I'd like to hear their thoughts on what it would take for us to be able to continue to both in our memorandum of understanding but to link Durham Public Schools as an employer along with Durham County that together we lift all employees so that we don't get in situations where their social workers are paid more than ours or vice ver um I've said a lot and I uh haven't let you say anything and I yeah you look like you're reaching for your I was just say one thing about the um the living wage and raising uh the minimum salary in the district I think when you when you position an entire District to avoid the type of compression that you've seen over the years based on how legislative increases have come across based on how

asks have occurred for local dollars and that sort of thing um when you raise the the minimum wage you should increase your budget by what's needed to address compression all the way through the salary scale um to avoid that and that is a much bigger ask but it in but it's the only way to keep positions from falling all over on top of each other and and having potentially having folks that are in a higher um sort of bracket of pay where those where other employees and other CL job classifications then catch up you you're you're creating compression more compression in the scale when you and that's what the state did when they raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour and didn't do anything else um so so what is incumbent there is on the district really to look at their capacity and to work with their local

Commissioners to have an Ask as of the budget that addresses that compression all the way through the scales yeah I really appreciate it because it is both and and that's definitely how I think I'll be evaluating the the classified schedule that comes forward because um everybody's important and people's ability to move and and step throughout their career is so important um um I'm curious especially as we work to build capacity for after school care how we can do that and actually dig in and understand how much of the Esra funding is actually propping that up this year um I know a lot of our instructional assistants are filling some of those roles for us and um you know I I know it's our our desire to

maximize what we can do and then also to work with Community agencies to to maximize what the community can join us in in doing and supporting and um so I think th those will be critical especially if there's estra funding that is currently kind of artificially propping up after school I'm sorry that Miss Chavez is here but left but she is probably listening I believe we have to fulfill the obligations that we made to Growing together to this community this is a multi-year plan that took us years to get to and the global language investment is largely um what is strengthening neighborhood schools which is actually the foundation of um growing together it was not adding much more Choice it was regionalizing choice and and actually strengthening neighborhood schools in in tandem together so um I I disagree with Miss Chavez but but um I look forward to

seeing how we can can f fill the promises that we made to the community um and then the other was just do we have any estimate of um the impact of school vouchers and what um is happening with the um crazy ridiculous expansion of school vouchers in the state of North Carolina and how that might impact us I think I'll just say that it's so one of the one of the um the way vouchers and the expansion has work this year you've seen it in the news the number of applications might for the first time ever exceed the funds available that's never been the case there there's always been funds left over but of course they took all the income restrictions off so now anybody who is in a private school can request uh subsidized private school

through the voucher process um the other piece that that is important about how the system is set up is that that information comes to a school system also in aers um you don't know who or how many of your students you cannot confirm that may have chosen an option to go to a private school that were previously in DPS until after a year we wouldn't we wouldn't we wouldn't know more next year on that on that question yeah I I saw a um a zoom meeting for a a new charter monory school trying to start in Durham in 25 26 a new Charter because we need that like like we don't need that just be clear um and I think it's important for us to continue um to to message to our families um why their choices do matter and how we're going to to deliver um the

school system that they deserve um and the expanded monory options that they now have in during Public Schools exactly exactly close to home [Music] um I don't know how we do this without a significant ask and and communication of the the specific needs to our commissioners but I do believe that our commissioners are um Progressive and joining us in this journey as we build this system and help pay our employees better so I look forward to to further detail um as we wrestle with this budget going forward thank you Miss buyers um chair Umstead were you gonna speak earlier did you want to speak [Music] now miss vieres

um yes I actually I'm going to give my Spiel again because this is exactly what happens um anytime folks are in a crunch we start opening the sacrifice table and deciding what is the least important thing that needs to go and that is very personal to me and the reason why is because I mentioned that I'm a graduate of Durham public school so I actually graduated from Hillside High School do you know how many people that spoke my language worked in my building at that time do you know that my children go to Hillside and I'm very proud that Hillside actually has now not as many as we need but there are families who no longer avoid open house because there's no point and and when we think about how systems can sacrifice the least important importations it is usually out of the service of the most vulnerable and I said this last time

when the controller came what are the two limitations that the state hits us with and those are limited English proficiency supports like ESL and children with disabilities our EC program and those are the two things I will not ever be okay with putting on a sacrifice table whether it is growing together program that is actually bringing Educators we have not been able to be successful at representation including our own strategic plan we did not meet that 10% 10% imagine out of 100% of Educators in DPS we could not even meet 10% and I'm not talking about teachers we said Educators from the bus drivers to the cafeteria to the custodial staff and I am not breaking any close session thing but I look at every single report as we all do and where we see our bilingual folks showing up is in classified and that is wonderful but we

need to make sure that we have the instructional piece that is about opening up opportunities for children of all ages and all Races because the Dual language immersion programs and the global programs are not just for one group and I've had to challenge administrators on this but it is not not for one group it is a combined effort where children who have an ability to speak one language have Advantage not for the whole time then they get to also work with their peers and then the other then it switches um there's so much that I can go on about the research showing how this affects relationships how this affects equity in a school system including including bullying that I recently had to send to Administration about an ESL student whose experience was that she was bullied because of language barriers and don't get me started that this is this you know this week just a few days ago um and continue to hear about ways that we we have to meet our kids where they're at we have to be inclusive and

we have to be equity-minded and that sacrifice table cannot continue to just dispose of programs that are actually going to help us help us leverage what we have if we don't have them here if Durham is not producing bilingual teachers even though we have our pipeline programs if we have five coming from dream or you know maybe dozen coming from nccu uh the the TA to teacher program that is not giving us at the pace that we need because these are programs that last two years right so we're we're not ready yet and we have growing together doing this uh doing this opportunity to actually hire uh Personnel who who are going to help us with representation with equity with relationships including with families now within that I do give discretion to Administration to determine how they're doing that allocations at the schools because I don't want a school not to have a front desk person and I don't think that it's

mutually exclusive we have to do that we have to honor that schools need front desk staff and so the sacrifice table needs to be number one how do we continue to be fiscally responsible including look at our looking at all our funds and our controllers looking at all our all our things and Community has asked for cash flows and asked for different things because this is all about money and these budget priorities that we're asking for have very important things that we cannot sacrifice so um I thank our superintendent for bringing this to us and um I'm just going to say I have more to say but I'm going to stop here because last time I said do not we cannot afford to do this um to our students to our families um waiting for 30 years to kind of see something like this and I'm not the only one I'm not the only one waiting for 30 years for something like this thank you thank you Miss

Banis Miss hson I can go next um thank you all for this budget priorities discussion I forget how you phrase this I think it's important to really note um as Miss Byer said that the leg and I like using the language of legislated if nothing else the cost of just doing business the same way we've done business is going to be an increased 8 million which increas includes some raises um as well as the other things that we just have to do and then thinking about the additional things that we know we want to do in that following slide um we know in the past in the relationship with our County Commissioners we have tried to get our budget um numbers to them earlier rather than later so they can consider those as the um County manager is putting together her budget so I'm glad that we're going to have some of this discussion next week and I would look at us board I think the sooner we can get some numbers even if there we haven't adopted our full budget yet to them the better so they can be thinking about this as their budget is being

developed um I said I think last week that I would love to I've been thinking about this in how do we support our students academic andal needs as well as how do we do educator Recruitment and Retention and I use educator because I am talking about everyone from um all the people who work for our DPS school system right every person who's employed by DPS is an educator and so thinking about those are the kind of priorities I'm thinking about as I'm thinking about what to focus on in our budget and thinking really creatively about what levers are the right ones and the financial budgets that we have that can help increase that retention so thinking about the bilingual staff thinking about the extra duty pay thinking about those Master's pay like what are the ways that we can support needs that we know we have getting folks that we want to keep also in the district as well as recruiting new folks to The District in so many of our high needs areas um I'm sorry some of what I'm saying has been said already I don't want to belabor the point too long but I also

think about those Esser funds and what are the positions that they're holding up what those positions do where do they fall in the educated recruitment and retention in supporting our students and what other funds might we need to help support what their what those positions and those funds are doing right now and I think that also probably goes to Capital as well because we know that some of our Capital needs have been we use a lot of Sr funding to support those so I know there's a capital increase there but just having a little information about what Esser is supporting and I know y'all y'all have brought it all over the course of the last two years but we might need to compile that list so we can see it all together um and the to the point around allotment details I think it will be helpful for us to have information around that but we also know like our principles have some ownership when it comes to allotment so what you asked for Miss buer I think if we can get some information too about how principles work with allotments that might be helpful as we navigate that information um and I also support trying

to keep the global language teachers for growing together that feels really important as a part of the commitment we made made to our community as we adopted this plan I I don't want to even I think we can think about is there a phase implementation or some other way to consider how we do that but I think we need to ask for what we need and then we can consider what happens after that um think it closes my comments thank you chamon Miss Cara Alton thanks um I'll build on what my colleagues have said and just like the way that I'm thinking about this again is our our job is to educate children at minimum we need adequate staff in our buildings we need highly trained staff and we need safe school buildings so I guess if we're looking at for me my priorities to clearly communicate them are again the classified salary increase working to get our staff towards market rate especially when we're comparing to neighboring districts with our focus on

our lowest paid staff our staff that serve our EC students and our bilingual staff um so I want to make sure that those Mo those are included in the models that are brought to us at the next meeting um certified salary supplement I'd like to see this at least the 12% that was in the slides tonight and to learn more about what that would look like in practice um Masters pay supplements for EC and bilingual staff um and then I appreciate you bringing the capital needs to us this when I say St safe schools I mean like schools that have mold in them schools that have are where the temperature is like really wonky kids can't learn and teachers can't teach when it's 85 degrees in a classroom or when it's 50 degrees in a classroom so like those we need to at least make sure that our school buildings are adequate learning environments right and then I guess to like to close I I too am looking at like I think of course we all want all the things but we have to make the difficult

decisions about what we do not need to be doing doing and where we do not need to be spending money like where can we where can we have cost savings and I think um I think we need to do more to in order to know what we do not need to be doing we need to do a better job of evaluating the work that we're doing right so like when we put money into a program or into an initiative we have to build in just a basic evaluation into everything we're doing a pre-post something like really I'm not talking about bringing in academics every time but like something that's very straightforward otherwise we're going to just keep throwing money at things and not know whether it is actually helping us to achieve the outcomes that we want to see um I think that that is all oh and I will also say I guess I'm curious we we've been talking about Esther a lot we want to know more we want to know more what's the plan so like when can we expect to like have a a Brer discussion

about this and something brought to us with more details about what the situation is and what the proposal is for how we move forward that we can then weigh in on from you talking about specifically the Esser funding yes okay I think I think that um the question the way I asked that question of Staff this week was um what is our do do we have continuing obligations that are currently on SR funding for example the 140 staff are not a continuing obligation because they're on a term contract that ends when the when the grant funding ends but the question so the question I asked was do we have continuing obligations on Esra funds did we move anything that we have to continue to pay for once s is no longer there so I'm waiting on on the answer to that um and and that's not a

real simple answer either because in some cases uh for example operations could be an example where there were some contracts that could have been moved to Esser funds based on the allowable uses of Esser funds that then freed up dollars in operations to do other deferred maintenance type needs that maybe weren't suitable for S funds which is why that's that's that's sort of a tricky way to to answer that because the funds will be there still in operations to do the things that had been pushed to Esser once we bring them back but then the ability to continue to do the work for the items that were not able to be paid for out of Esser and a lot of that has to do with um how we are um providing support to our oldest schools with greatest needs um with regards to their facilities and and let me just also say with regards to the allotment questions that's coming up and um apologies to my staff who will hear this for the first time you need an allotment

101 um that basically just shows you what are the formulas how are they applied to schools so that you can you can you can see all of that because there are formulas they are applied to schools principles earn based on those formulas um and then you then you need to understand where is the flexibility in those formulas that are decisions made at the school level um because I think that's really important too that sometimes those funds go to SCH tools with some flexibilities and the building level principle is charged with the distribution of those resources not Central Services and so the principal makes decisions about how to use those resources and if there is flexibility in those resources a principle may choose to do more of this and less of this um based on flexibility that's allowed so but I think the an allotment 101 that allows you to understand what the formula Baseline formulas are how they earn those allotments what they look like what's differentiated by grade level um and what the source of funds

for it all is at least provides a starting point um for that discussion I I I will also tell you that I I do not believe that we have time to change much with regards to allotment formulas because those go out in the next couple of weeks but what we can have is a greater transparency around what the formulas are what the resources are that are earned and how they are used in schools um and then if there is a a desire to take a look at that that's work that happens in the summer and the fall um prior to the next year's budget cycle because you'll know what you want to ask for if there's a fiscal impact um or you give schools the time they need to to reconfigure the one thing that I do think we need to implement for next year is schools need to work within their budgeted allotment and these these situations where schools have been able to go outside of that allotment need to have a tighter process um rationale and I identified funding source for how we

move forward with doing that um because sometimes you know you do have to sometimes go outside of the allotment formula because especially in elementary school when you think about K3 class size the mandated legislation children do not come to us in nice neat little packages of 16 and 17 so so you do have to make adjustments for that um so we don't we don't want to we we we want to recognize where the constraints are and how we deal with them but we also want to understand that we do have an amount from which we need to work May I make one extra comment that you reminded me of um one other thing that is very important to me um is that as we are I hear I recognize that we made a commitment to roll out growing together um which in some ways is expanding our magnet and our application programs and I think we do need to honor those commitments but I I just it's very important to me that we do not lose sight of our base schools or our neighborhood schools in this process

um there's a lot of a like a rat race here in Durham to apply to these application schools and I um I would like to lift up our base at any at any turn that's possible so when we're looking at where we might be cutting or where we might be supplementing I want us to always remember that all of our schools um deserve greatness just want to follow follow up um with your question um Miss Caron I think that we're we've asked a lot of questions but the other thing I would want us to think about is what do we need to make budget decisions right so we can get a lot of information what part of Esser would help us inform our budget priorities so that we can be clear about what we need and so I want to just help us again we can have a lot but we need to understand how much we want to ask for from the county and then we'll need to once we just figure out what that money is that we'll get we have to do some prioritization of what may they fully fund our ass I'm G speak that into existence um and if not then

we have to think about where the prioritization comes from so as we're thinking about information what do we need to be able to make decisions I think it's important lens for us to consider not just that one followup to um piggy back on Miss Carter ala um you mentioned program evaluations and I know that one of the slides talk about departmental ask and so my questions for you uh superintendent Moore we know that like some programs are not all or none that this is going to get you an A or this you know we look at overall growth that's happening within the school the different programs that are there um what is it accurate that the departmental uh leads have program evaluations that are already happening and it may not be all of them but it's that typical process when certain departments have certain programs or certain schools have certain programs that there is some sort of uh checks and balance on is this being successful and being tracked so I would need to I would probably want to ask uh any staff who

might be available to answer that question because I I haven't gotten that far um but what I have I mean what I have said is that generally um outside of a robust sort of data research and accountability division in a district and most school districts really don't have that is not that does not become the priority in terms of um how they allocate their staff and their resources um and even then when you have that staff and resources the work that you have to do is then train the people who Implement programs on what program evaluation looks like how to build logic models how to um sort of live out the adage that uh I can't remember who said it rarely can you fix by analysis what you Bungle in design so if you don't know what your logic model is with your desired outcomes ahead of time and you haven't mapped out how you're going to progress monitor it over a period of time then

you never can answer the question on what makes a difference or did it make a difference that capacity is not widespread in this in the district right now and I think that's true of most educational districts it is not something where a lot of time and money is spent but but the biggest resource we have are our people and the funds that we apply towards um the people and the programs and so my initial observation is that that is an area of growth um but if there are specific places where we already know it's happening um I would I would defer to I don't Dr. King or other staff who might be available to understand that I I would agree with your characterization uh Miss Moore I would note however that um we recently added um a uh program evaluation uh piece to a uh position uh with the mindset that we need to move in that direction more um

strategically um and seriously so you know in terms of the of what I've seen since I've been here that uh program evaluation has not been a significant priority uh but but it is certainly something that we like to move forward with um and and begin to develop more significantly across the district and and I'll just add one last thought to that um when we don't when we don't conduct robust program evaluation and train staff at all levels and this includes the school level as well because our school building administrators can choose programming for their schools as well um uh when you don't do that you end up in in the place of continuing to put things on the plates of our Educators in our classrooms and never taking anything off because you don't know what's making a difference and and we wonder why you know folks are

overwhelmed and and and the thing about it is you you may have an educator doing something in a classroom or in a school or a program that people love and they think it serves a valid purpose but you may not actually see that it's making a difference in um in the intended outcome or the achievement or the growth of students and then you may have other things that people really don't like um that that have been shown in research to make a difference and having having been in a large District that did lots of program evaluations 95% of them had a paragraph at the end in the summary that said that it was difficult to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of the program or the resource or the dollars due to a lack of fidelity of implementation and so this complex and this is and that getting to there is a multi-year process um that starts with one person that's

hired with program evaluation as a part of their work who who then builds a model and a framework and a structure for what that looks like across the district and it's going to take time to do it but but it is possible to say to folks prior to bringing anything forward right now you have to figure out a way to build in that component to the front end of what you're doing and so we have to start even if we start small with desired outcomes timeline how we're going to measure just very simply um before we get into the more complicated logic models and the other pieces that that go along with program evaluation but but it is desperately work that is is needed is important and I just want to acknowledge for the million of viewers that we have online there's a lot of head nodding going on in here some finger snapping um that this is resonating so thank you for answering that question Miss Moore and Dr. King did you want to build on that Miss I just wanted to yeah thank you Miss Lewis I I

um I think this conversation is incredibly robust and it also you know Miss Moore if you're not going to be here to see it through maybe help us also even on contract evaluation right we we get contracts all the time we don't know you know for it stuff we don't know if any students are using things we've asked for this for years so any better practices that that don't go don't necessarily go to full program evaluation but go to is what we're investing in useful to our students and our Educators right and our staff I mean so sometimes it doesn't have to be full program evaluation but you know 95% of students uh you know are are using this on a weekly basis I mean you know data like that also helps inform decision making um we've gotten a whole lot of just trust us and

um yeah I'll just leave it there and when you said that just made me think actually the social emotional learning when we talked about implementing that and it was really laid out in a strategic plan and whether or not it was being implemented with Fidelity and those are metrics that were brought back to us on what that Fidelity looked like um along with just the metrics of like classroom Class Dojo or different applications that are being used we do get those numbers um on a regular basis I think this again a great robust conversation thank you Miss Carter Alon for opening this door Miss Rogers um thank you for this presentation it's helpful it really kind of brings us together with the discussion we had two weeks ago chair ID requested my questions are around things we need to get to approving the budget um I appreciate what everybody has offered here um Miss Chavez I appreciate you asking about what we can carve back and pull back I

am not sure that I'm all the way there yet and in order to get there I'd love report on how hiring is going for DLI and for monor and the global languages will we meet that Mark because if we aren't on track to meet the mark for hiring then we going to have to reassess anyway um and figure that out um I'd love to know how much is being invested in that Recruitment and what that recruitment looks like um CP it feels like we've been just like cranking at it I'd love to see a demonstration of what the losses could could be um what's at stake I'd like to see us really being attentive to the fact that some of our elementary schools are C and people are being forced to go to other schools that aren't C and how we might be able to

support those families that rely on that c um and I've said this before is we convene a committee to talk about um whether or not we go districtwide c um I'd like to see if there's a policy about how we evaluate how that expansion happens um if that needs to be created so that we aren't having these departments constantly fighting with each other about about implementation and on what time schedule that's implemented um let's see after care I know that we said some of that's being propped up with Esser funding can we look into our ability what we we earmarked some of the Mackenzie Scott money PR from after care and I would I'd love an update about that to see if that's

exhausted or if that's for next year um yeah because I can't exactly remember how it was earmarked um the other thing that comes up for me is that in the previous couple of years we've done a $20 per pupil bonus for principals at each school like has it been made clear that that is not happening in this budget and um I mean I'm not sure that it's you're talking about the student incentives student and it was it wasn't something that was in our budget request something right it was something that um was already I guess kind of in what the system has done so that was something that would that came if I remember correctly I'm looking at staff it was something that came in the fall um as an allocation based on what we had available in our budget Dr Stewart is nodding yes behind you so it wasn't a new budget item request right so I guess are we going to do that again if there's

funding like I want I don't want anybody to be surprised that that might not be a thing what was the incentive there was a per pup per student um dollar amount the students received you want to answer that do yes good evening we allotted based on funds that were available $20 per pupil at each school to be used towards their incentive plan for students as well as staff again that was within money that was already in the budget it was not part of the new ask yeah I think I'd like some clarity around if we're doing that going forward or not and um if we're talking about how we're cutting back what the guidelines would be for incentives um

particularly around High stes testing and how that's how that's being invested I know that's sort of evaluative but um yeah those are my questions I just do it thank you um just remember we created an equity plan for spending it had four domains that were connected to it and so we will um allow that information to resurface yeah I think yeah never mind no I'm good all right I have not said anything yet I will go and make it quick and then come back around um so for me Priority is our people as we talked about earlier fully supporting prioritizing our staff I do appreciate your input regarding the uh living wage match and how um and the entire scale is impacted I remember a

8 million and years projected um as well so um I am supportive Global languages going forward um doing what we said that we were going to do with the growing together and um as we also look at the infrastructure for that to happen the budget I believe that it was if I remember the conversation it was

February 2023 when I pulled this up but it it was about using this to start us off but knowing that positions are reoccurring to be able to make a request for Staffing later from the county commissioner so if we were one question is have you had a chance to look at that yet I know you've done a lot and then two um I am supportive also of a multi-year beginning for the ask of what that year two would look like and possibly if that is a part of Mackenzie Scott and then year two being a request from the County Commissioners that they know is coming ahead of time right so a couple things there um first um with regards to and and and you you may be getting an update more about this in a little bit but um Dr. Pitman and I have worked through some of the requests that are needed to implement um the growing together in particular with the positions being funded likely being you know the plan right now is for them to fund them out

of Mackenzie Scott and carry them as long as you can um and it would be at least a year two years two years at would be remarkable it would mean other areas weren't spending or weren't needed in order for that to happen um so that would eventually turn in into an ask to continue but I think year one can probably come out of McKenzie Scott um which does reduce at least some of the numbers on one of these slides um the uh I do want to go back to what you said about um like cafeteria workers our CNS staff and increases there CNS is an Enterprise fund which means that their revenues from sales of meals is what pays the salaries as well as the expenses of CNS so when the district raises the minimum wage if you are not making the additional dollars in the Enterprise by selling more meals or higher priced

meals then you are not covering the cost of the raise for the staff in that division or department and so you have to allow for that in how you budget locally by either finding additional funds somewhere and subsidizing that or doing the work to ensure increased participation that brings in Greater Revenue and I think C allows you to request Federal reimbursement for everyone that's coming through the line at a rate that's higher that will generate some more revenues so there's it there you know you you gain in one place and you lose in another so uh that is something that that we have to pay attention to and what was the other one you asked about I'll come back to it was about a multi-year plan oh that yeah so you know what I will say about a multi-year plan is um I'm not a multi-year superintendent and so uh if we put something in place with the assumption

that it is um going to be phased out over one or more years in order to ask in order to prepare the community prepare the Commissioners you the staff some sense of what the priorities will be and stay in place for however many years you're trying to do it it it will be the board that needs to carry that on with um your permanent superintendent and make sure that as he or she comes in that that is um uh explained and then then that person also Buys in and sees the value or they you know whoever it is might have a much better option and plan um for how to do this so I do think to that point if we could um as as you actually do the proposed budget have a slide of just upcoming year items so that we all can have a sense of what is coming right what we might be funding now with certain grant that might need to come differently in the next year you know we won't have everything right with budget state budget and all those different things might come up but I think it will help give us some priority around multiple years um even without

numbers just we know there's additional positions or this coming in the upcoming years and and we can see that through as a board and I think it that also aligns with you know typically we have what's called deferred needs so we get to see the Deferred needs again and again um this also is known that we're planing for more than one year and um I think that's helpful that we're coming back to this conversation just two more things um people first prioritizing that and then culture is really important U when we're considering uh programs I'm still um impacted by the sense of belonging the culture of belonging for our middle school students and wanting to promote um that in regards to programming um any program that helps to impact the culture and climate in our school system to get that sense of belonging I think is important in our budget requests um going back to what was found in our panoramic studies um a

few years ago being lower in than um other districts do I see that right and I said panoramic Panorama Serv Panorama Title One Title One schools or all schools all all school had our pan and one of the data points was that our Middle School was lower than middle school students okay and their sense of belonging um so when we're looking at programming um programming funding that supports that and then um Capital Improvement I am glad that you had that uh four million ask because we have many many needs and we have another U presentation coming up about our Capital Improvement needs and I saw allotments for social workers I'm always one proponent for social workers and mental health but also think about our allotments for our operations I'm going advocate for you Mr. Johnson um and that we have four new school schools but we haven't added new positions in operations for things such as um Plumbing um there're having more schools being added so just want to um we didn't

talk about as a prioritization but I do want to put it on the table with the departmental ads that are coming when do we look at um allotments for operations and then the last thing is I saw on a date we had March 14th as our joint board accounting commission Board of Education meeting and we had a survey that was done and I think majority of us can make that except for our board chair I just want to follow up to see because I think we're having that in the commissioner's Chambers and wanted to know if you are able to be there or not because I think it's important that our board chair be there as we're talking about Budget moving forward it is important but considering that six out of the seven of y'all can be there in person I think it's important for the six of you all to be there I'll be able to join virtually so I'll be online virtually during the meeting um and I've communicated with the county commissioner folks so they'll be ready to have me join in virtually okay that was good and um because we never had that many usually two or three of us so it's just really important that you could be there and I'm glad they were able to work that out uh that's it for all that I had with the budget thank

you Miss vieres some mic malfunction um we just went through elections and I'm not talking about political things here but folks who come up you know they ask you know what do you do as a school board what is our main mandate the main mandate that we have is to provide a free and appropriate public education to all our students it is to honor the rights individual rights of students Civil Rights Act of 1964 um for students to come to our campuses and know that they will not be discriminated against because of anything and anybody who says that we don't have any work to do along civil rights after 1964 in Duram Public Schools just needs to visit our schools

6% out of 100% in the district and that number was not made public up until recently and I thank Dr Stewart for her leadership because as soon as she hit the ground running as soon as she became chief of schools there's two Dr Stewarts in the district maybe more so there so I just want to clarify that there's there's there's a Dr Stewart at one of our schools but I'm talking about Dr Stewart um in our cabinet who's our chief of schools hit the ground running and immediately started working and

6 or 16% when others are performing up upwards of 80 close to 90 that is a big inequity and I hear what we are seeing on paper about things that we think we can cut and we can I just want us to know that by us continuing to create an environment where all children can learn all families can feel welcome every culture every person regardless of origin which is a Civil Rights Act of 1964 we have to keep that in mind any program including growing together that is going to help us further or that in terms of equity in terms of access in terms of every child having art we said every child is going to have stem and we said every child is going to have languages in every school did I get did

I say that correctly like growing together is supposed to provide access to everybody so I just want to remind this because I sat in a subcommittee meeting with Dr King where for the first time in like 10 years we bought curriculum for languages that we had never had before did I get that right that it was like it was it was it it it was for the first time because we're buying curriculum that we did not have we've been doing literacy curriculum math curriculum and I love these advances because I have talked to Educators who talked about those times when they had to go online and pull things from online and that is not a service to our children we are here to instruct our kids so anything with instruction I'm not willing to sacrifice it is their due right to an education and it is the first time that we have Global languages curriculum first time in you know we haven't had curriculum in 10 years that has been purchased by this District um so we we

have to continue to keep in mind that our children deserve just like the growing together vision of every child having stem every child having access to arts and every child having access to languages this is what our predecessors had you know in terms of an education and access to things and this country is full of languages so we have to prepare our children for a global economy where they will be multilingual and will be prepared to work from anywhere in the world um so I'm just going to say that that is the piece about languages when it comes to [Music] um paying our staff and paying our classified staff I do go back to the controller and his he said his wheels were turning because we did a salary study that was supposed to give market valuations and that market rate is important um and there's more to that there were conversations and focus groups where folks who had roles it was determined that they had multiple jobs that were happening and and they were

experiencing not only compression but also you know uh multiple duties and those could be extra duties but we won't know that until we Implement that study that was done and I'm not saying that just one document or one report is going to give us the the full story but it gives us very Vital Information and so the controller said he wanted to work on ways that we can Implement that and I appreciate that also being in our budget priority I think those are my two priorities for us to make sure that we don't sacrifice anything with growing together that it has to do with instruction with languages with kids do rights to have stem arts and languages um but then we also need to make sure that um you know we also look at the salaries and the implementation and so I think that those are those for me are my my two priorities paying people and also creating environments

where kids civil rights are honored and they have a better chance in this global economy and that they're getting their fape thank you thank you um sure Miss bu okay ready brought this one up and oh and miss all right sorry um it will be short um districtwide c as as is still a goal in a dream of mine and I feel like we have heard from the instructional staff on it but we never heard from nutritional staff and so I'm hoping that as we go forward the information about from them will be able to be heard on the nutritional basis but also why not why not apply this year districtwide like why not as part of growing together you know that your child at every at least every other elementary school is going to get fed like I I'd love to be convinced why we can't do it I haven't been convinced yet

um and if it's a cost that we need to ask for from the county then why not roll that into our County ask um the Capital needs I think it's important for us to remind the Commissioners what we get on a cost per square footage and how our square footage is grown so Mr Johnson like that number of of continuing to remind it in a formulaic way and then we can't back away from our commitment to Universal prek and the elements of expanding prek that are baked into growing together and and expanding um that regionally and I think our commissioners will join us in that thank you thank you Miss berer Miss Chavez about the budget all right um I just wanted to make one last set of comments here I'll try to keep it brief um I I just wanted to um say I appreciated everybody's opinion about my um what was turns out an unpopular opinion that's right um and um

so this is what I wanted to say I'm G to offer this and you know I think it's I'm I appreciate apprciate the you know the healthy debate but um I um I am increased what I most desire to do is increase our outcomes for our students who are uh disproportionately underserved right now or um performing uh due to a uh plethora of uh systemic issues lower than their peers and that's black and latinx kids that is EC kids and Es kids and um kids of low SC and so um my proposal Around the World Language I just want to say this is that I think I I look forward to the program evaluation I'm very interested in um you know in increasing that and and all of that and I'm um very much Pro our kids being exposed to World languages but my

offer was um and my thought is that world language class once a week may not May most benefit non-latinx kids I'm interested in us having like DLI throughout the district where kids truly learn Spanish and English and that is um deeply affirmative um of our students who um learn Spanish first and so um and I'm all about strengthening our neighborhood schools but I am I think I do want to consider the cost and things and I think the representation piece is really important um that's something that I have worked on to increase our representation of latinx teachers um and teachers of color for the district um but are there other ways to increase outcomes for our students of color I do believe if we Center our marginalized students then everyone

benefits from that and we still have many programs and many metrics where you can see despite the fact that 20 or less than 20% of our student population is white they are succeeding succeeding according to um some of these metrics more than our students of color and that's not fair so anyway I offer that to say are there you know I I want us to put our money into people that will increase the sense of belonging academic achievement and parent engagement um for our for our latinx kids um for for all of our students of color that's it it was an unpopular opinion and that's all I have to say thanks all right thank you this this about the budget as well really quickly we've been on it for a while now and I think we need got one two three four more items that are heavy topics growing together all right go it'll be super quick I promise I just wanted to follow up in light of what

chair umid said about making specific asks to lead us in the direction of where we need to go so I would really love to see how much would it cost us to provide supplements for our EC IAS our cert EC certified staff and our EC classified staff how much would it cost again an estimate for us to provide some sort of a supplement or stien to our bilingual staff that are asked to use their other language in their daily um job duties and how much would it cost us or what what is a proposal for how we could Implement Universal C across the district like I hear we have to make that quickly make that decision quickly at our next meeting could we see this all laid out for us here's the pros and cons here's what you might lose here's how we could navigate this so we can make a really informed decision about that thank

you all right so then this was up for a discussion I believe that concludes our discussion on agenda item 3A now we are moving to 4A Chief of Staff social media litigation uh good evening chair Lewis board members and superintendent Moore and community members I'd like to invite Miss WL to the podium at this time and while she is well she well she's quick um just want to give a brief introduction there's a quite a lengthy PR available in board docs for um people to kind of give some background to what Miss Ward black is going to speak on but I'll just read a couple of sentences from that for the public so they have some way to kind of figure out what it is that Miss W black is going to be sharing with us the board will hear from Miss Ward black regard who is working with another other firms in leading litigation for school systems against social media companies the board will then have the opportun opportunity to review that information

about the lawsuit against the social media companies and May at that time take action to approve the contingency fee retainer agreement which is included in the board Doc's um documents as well as the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of Durham Public Schools against meta snap bite dance and Google Miss Mart black thank you Dr Giovani uh thank you uh members of the board for allowing me to come present to you this evening uh I'm also very happy for you that you're enjoying um Dr Moore and I've gotten to see Dr Moore work in an other context and so I'm very happy that you have um such a wonderful person to be able to support you at this time uh you're doing some really important work and it is really difficult and so I hope everybody can just take a deep breath for a minute and not think about the budget because hopefully what we're going to talk about is not going to have a budgetary implication whatsoever to you my my name

is Janet Ward black I am a product of the public schools in cabis County North Carolina and my mother was a 30-year high school English teacher I'm very proud of that and I was very proud of her you have precious resources here it is tough to teach and it is tough to learn and so if we could have the next slide what I would like for us to discri to discuss briefly is litigation that currently is ongoing in the United States in federal court if I could have the next slide please that litigation is from school boards all over the country and I apologize for the slide not coming up quite yet Perhaps my friend who there we go thank you very much uh the social media litigation that is currently ongoing there are more than 200 School boards just specifically in federal court another 200 in State Court where the social media company are the

defendants as a result of a mental health crisis that continues to grow among our youth if I have the next slide please there is pure scientific literature that shows that these mental health issues include anxiety depression eating disorders and in some instances suicidal ideation school districts often are the primary providers of mental health support for our young people you are on the front lines of what is a youth Mental Health crisis and unfortunately very crucial re resources much of which we discussed today has to be diverted and used in a way um that we would prefer that it did not and have the next one please there are a number of things that make social media products addictive there are things that where the companies wish to design their algorithms in such a way that young

people stay on them a longer period of time than they might otherwise now why would a social media company want to do that so that they could serve additional commercial content ads influencers promoting for example particular uh products the longer the student is on the social media application the larger the opportunity for these for-profit companies to be able to make more money as a result of their advertising there are a number of things that make it difficult for there to be control of what's being served up to our youth including inadequate age verification inadequate uh parental controls to stop when parents don't wish for their children to be on so social media endless scrolling ends uh it ends up being the endpoint a lot of times where Because Of The material's Addictive nature in receiving more and more that it's very hard for the children to stop there are

notifications that many of these companies provide there are dings and beeps and other things that call the attention of the child and in many instances indicate an endorphin rush for that individual a pleasurable experience and those targeted algorithms as I mentioned before we can have the next slide please um as Dr Giovani mentioned uh the defendants here are meta which owns Facebook and Instagram bite dance which owns Tik Tok snap which owns Snapchat and Google which owns YouTube next please now you might say well why litigation well sometimes litigation can cause Behavior changes I've had the opportunity to represent counties in North Carolina in the opioid litigation I've had opportunities to represent thank you I've had opportunities to represent school boards in the jewel

litigation sometimes litigation is the most effective thing to be able to provide change in our world perhaps there are times when we wish legislation would do that but unfortunately legislation sometimes is not as effective as litigation next please thank you so what are we seeking here there are an assortment of Damages that we believe that schools have suffered that includes the fact that resource Personnel are being called upon in ways that they should not be called upon that disciplinary uh individuals are also being put to tasks that the social media companies are at least in part responsible for so there are cost not just to school resources but to school personnel and there are opportunities that need to be embraced to be able to help parents know what is this stuff doing how can I protect my children better what can the community learn and frankly what can the students learn about what's happening to

them next please so what are the considerations for you in making this decision well one as I mentioned it's low Financial Risk uh we have proposed a contingency fee agreement that contingency fee agreement does not require Durham to ever pay a bill from the lawyers who are going to be representing you if you choose for us to do so that's because if we don't recover funds for you we in that retainer agreement agree that we will not seek any compensation if we aren't successful for you you do not owe any costs or attorney's fees and if we are successful for you there is a percentage that we would take in payment for the services that we would be rendering additionally in most instances school boards can participate in a way that is not a burden on the administration the overwhelming number of school boards are

going to be participating in a way where they will have particular documents that they have to complete but otherwise it is not litigation as usual it is not depositions and requests to prod produce documents or anticipating trials so we hope that the end point is that we will be recovering Financial Resources for you to be able to allocate in the way that you believe appropriate and to use Jewel as an example and opioids as an opposite example for opioids when the counties received money there were very narrow guidelines that were given to them about how they had to spend their recoveries and their recoveries were substantial it was greatly in excess of $40 billion with respect to Jewel there was a recognition that school systems differ and that one that has over a 100,000 students is very different than one that has a thousand students and so a one-size fits all resolution was not appropriate there so in the instance of

the jewel settlements for school boards the school boards could make the decisions about how for their individual School District could the money be best spent next please so as I mentioned multi-district litigation is what this is this means that all the cases are filed in federal court here in North Carolina for North Carolina School boards and they are transferred to a single judge in the United States who is coordinating the initial proceedings for those cases that judge is a judge right now in the Northern District of California who's been appointed B by a multi-district litigation panel to oversee the uh litigation against these companies on behalf of individuals school boards and other governmental entities the mdl system has been one that has been often quite successful in allowing for a positive resolution for the litigants it

gives uh finality for the defendants such as the social media companies but it also gives the plaintiffs that individual folks who are suing or in this instance school boards who are suing the um support of many others in this instance hundreds of school boards in what they are doing so rather than it having be Durham being a single case against large corporations it is a number of school boards in the United States all together where there are economies of scale of how that litigation is being handled next please so coming to an end here uh you heard Dr gvani mention that there are three law firms that are involved in this litigation support I'm here in North Carolina with my firm uh we've been here over 30 years uh the bared mandelis firm is one that I have worked with for a number of years including all of the jewel litigation for school boards that we represented in North Carolina and in the leaf cabaser firm in

California Lexi ham is a female attorney with whom I have worked for many years uh she is an extraordinary attorney and she is one of the three lawyers in the country who has been appointed as the coordinating Council by the federal judge so we believe that the three law firms together are a very good working group to be able to provide our clients with the best possible information about how the litigation is ongoing and how best to represent our clients next please so this is a a list of the current North Carolina Schoolboard clients there are 14 at this point that number is expected to grow over the next few weeks uh as you will see they run range from very small school boards to very large ones to ones that are in metropolitan areas to ones that are in very rural areas so in addition to sort of the breadth of the kinds of school boards that are involved here 42 of the United States Attorneys General so in other

words Attorneys General in 42 of the states in in the United States have all joined into social media litigation in one instance at this point against uh Facebook and Instagram's parent uh but we expect that there's going to be additional litigation it is once again a very remarkable thing that you have Attorneys General on opposite sides of the political Spectrum who are working together uh in this particular instance uh next please um I'm happy to answer any questions that you have as I mentioned before uh juel is a really good example of what has happened with school board boards who were participants in that litigation uh it I'm happy again to um to address anything that you have and I appreciate your time thank you so much for this presentation and explaining the different counties are involved what this will take what this will cost this is on our places for Action uh so I do want to open up the floor for any

questions where do we start Miss Chavez thank you so much for this presentation and um I'm really hopeful about this about this litigation I um I wanted to say I was I was thinking where did I get this article I think Miss Carter Aon sent me an article about this social media litigation and what spoke to me was that um a um a parent was talking about how our our kids our young people are often in a different digital world than we are in our whatever age we are um and well I might be getting all these ads for clothes or something like that they're getting they're getting exposed to so many other things that they're not necessarily um equipped to handle yet and and so I um that frightens me that idea that our our our kids can just kind of get lost

in that world without um necessarily those um those PL those people looking out for them in that space so um so I I'm excited to um to move forward with this and I'm hopeful that this will be successful as the jewel litigation was thank you any other comments or questions board Miss buer thank you for um bringing this presentation I think it is a public health issue and um I think as you saw our conversation about budget that we struggle to have the resources that we need you know for counseling and mental health supports for our students I look forward to us continuing to tackle ways that we can teach children um how they are being targeted by uh for profit right I mean it's capitalism um

and we've had that conversation before I want to make sure that um are joining this suit will not prevent any family that happens to be a DPS family if they need to bring suit on their own um in the future yes there's no correlation between those things there are some individuals who have brought suit in the mdl um there are also other governmental entities other than School boards who have uh you may have recently seen when at the US Senate Judiciary member uh meeting there were a number of parents who had pictures of individuals children of theirs who had passed away those individuals would have the the right to bring their own suits in the mdl there's no con correlation and there's nothing that your filing suit would have to impact those individual claims and are you also seeking individual families as part of this mdl my firm is not your firm is not okay

um thank you that's helpful anyone else else Mr Carter I'll keep it brief I'm excited about this I think this is powerful I mean if we end up with some compensation to support the needs of our students that'd be amazing but um we have the ability to impact thousands hundreds of thousands of lives with us so I'm I'm thrilled thank you for being here today I'm excited to to support it as well and just seeing where our kids are with social media and being able to curb that with resources to support um their academic growth and their social skills growth all the things that social media is taken away I think is just very powerful and U thank you for bringing this to us there a motion I move that we what Mr Malone I move whatever Mr Malon say about social media litigation

you want to um move to uh join the litigation and to approve the retainer agreement I move that we join the litigation and approve the retainer agreement for social media litigation second has been moved by Miss V and second by Miss Carter ala to join the litigation approve the retainer any other discussion all in favor say I I I I any oppos it passes unan unanimously thank you I say one more thing yes uh thank you and I promise you we will do the very best we possibly can for this school system uh it was very helpful for me to have to listen to the budget discussion and so I appreciate that it gives me context and as I said we will do the very best we cank thank you next item on the agenda is Operation

services agenda action form 2022 General obligation Bond project Mr Davis coming to the podium Mr Johnson turn the mic over to you good evening Frederick Davis with building operational Services um good evening board chair Vice chair interim superintendent Miss Moore today is a little different than what we've usually done the the AFA transfer is generally a consent item where we request the funding to support the projects the capital Improvement projects from the county um this board approves that funding and it goes to the county U for implementation um but today we're going to do a little bit deeper dive um as the prices has said the 22 2022 General obligation bonds uh back in October of 2022 were appropriated for 423 million dollar to support the

capital renewal and Improvement needs for the district uh we are uh currently uh wrapping up construction of Murray massenberg which was the first project on our 10year priority list uh and we have just started Glenn Elementary School we are currently in design of Durham School of the Arts um and as you see this was our priority list as you remember we've had several conversations over the course in preparation of those bonds uh to Showcase where we were in terms of budgets um we talked about the local the regional and global economy and how like many other schools districts we've had to uh reallocate and think of how we would be able to disperse the funds based on the priority order um and so generally um the county has a Innovative Finance mechanism um where it is pay as you go and we work with them on a cash flow to see how much money we

need over the course of the four to five years the bonds are distributed um we are asking the county for funding to support where those projects are in that various stage and so the various stages are design construction uh and then FFN um for a total project budget the slide that you see with you right now um depicts where we were uh and anticipated in 2020 of course you know the global pandemic affected us uh both physically and financially we've had several meetings with this board uh just stating where we were in terms of construction dollars in terms of material and labor shortages um and so I recently had the pleasure of this morning to um be at the North Carina State construction conference and over the last three years uh it was stated that we've seen a over 30 to 40% increase uh in Goods Services as well as construction and so if you look at uh that first line item where we

were in 2022 and then the next um line those are construction numbers we have met those thresholds of 20 to 30% to give you a little history before uh the pandemic we were looking at an average of three to 5 per escalation um which we had budget for as we started our planning um however again we could not impact the 30 to 40% that we see now and so uh we show you this as we continue the priority order that was set based on the facility conditions assessment that was done in 2018 that is our mechanism for making sure that we have equity and how we make our decisions on what schools to prioritize in another presentation following this it is that time again to do another facility conditions assessment what that facility condition will do will rep prioritize based on how we've been able to maintain those buildings over the course of the last 3 to five years and then give us another landscape of where we are

com uh org website again Mory

massenberg is slated to finish up this uh summer um right now that total project cost is roughly under 91 million next slide uh we're currently in construction documents um for DSA we currently total project budget which includes design construction and FFN Furniture fixture and Equipment um roughly around 240 million um we brought to you in December some relatively um costs uh for my neighboring counties of high school and right now we're seeing around 180 to 200,000 200 million um to construct uh high schools Comprehensive High Schools again this is uh a middle and high school with uh truly Innovative design and uh schools of arts components um next slide please and then currently Glenn Elementary again it is a comprehensive um rebuild but we in terms of our

strategic plan want to make sure that we have educational suitabilities and so many of our schools because of the growth have students who are in mobiles and we want to make sure that each learning experience is Equitable and so the main goal for Glenn is to increase capacity um with growing gr together in Pre as well as enlarging some of those core capacities for uh gym and cafeteria spaces next slide please and then Hol is the next priority order that again will be a comprehensive addition renovation um there are areas where students have to walk outside to the elements to get to other uh free standing buildings we want to fully enclose that to be one complete campus for Safety and Security next slide please and then the final uh is Morhead Elementary again the same component of making sure that the campus is safe secure as well as increasing our uh capacity for prek as well as

enlarging the gym and um cafeteria spaces next slide please there was a conversation of how this impacts our minority participation um we know that our County's goal is around 25% we're happy to report uh for Murray massenberg who was wrapping up construction we're at a 27% of total uh mwbe participation and Glenn Elementary uh which is just starting we have a total of 25% so we're doing um a good job we have our own inhouse mwebe uh Consultants that are going across uh this area to find small underutilized businesses who be are in the Construction and design industry um and let them know about all the work that we're having here in Durham North Carolina This truly Bond can be an economic generator for uh parents who have students who attend during Public Schools so we're really excited about the numbers that we're showcasing um for

the 2022 Bond next slide please we want to make sure that everyone knows that we do have uh updated information that keeps us a breast uh in a form of transparency this is on our website uh this keeps track of where we are spending our money where we are to date where the project currently um sits and so we update this on a continual basis just to keep the public and the community informed with that um next slide I'll take any questions that you may have thank you and this is on a pris for Action um DPS Administration is recommending approval transfer of 2020 General obligation bonds funds in the amount of 12,4 21,27 $7 to be dispersed to support projects in priority order as indicated in the attached Durham County Capital project ordinance so with that as Mr Davis has said what questions do we

have that was a really good presentation and I think um maybe ready for a motion i' move approval of um moving to 2022 20 excuse me let me that's an incorrect it should be 2022 I'm sorry for that we'll make that correction okay 2022 General obligation bonds of approximately 12 million um for the projects second it's been moved moved by Miss Umstead seconded by Miss Rogers any discussion Miss Chavis all right I'm just going to be on a roll here with my unpopular opinions but I do have to ask about this we are getting a lot of emails as you may know about DSA so I want to ask about that um one I want to ask about um the bus service there I know I've asked you this about about you this or about this to

you before um but could you give us an update on where where that that conversation is um with the city about um having bus access for the new DSA yes so currently um dur School of Arts is in construction documents we've submitted our site plan review we're working with the city and county transportation department to understand where are within appropriate distances uh bus uh stops um if there is not one in an appropriate distance we will commit to to providing bus U stops within what is allowed it on Stadium or Duke Homestead site okay I think that's something I'll just say that I think is really important for us to make sure that that keeps up with the pace of this project uh because we do want our students to be able to access DSA that way and I don't know how that raises a question for me of how many students um take the city bus right now to DSA I

don't know if we're not sure we could definitely get you that information I will just caveat not that it you we were talking about budget uh that is what we call an off-site Road Improvement which is uh generally not a part of the construction um however um we hope to be able to work with our County um for additional funding to support those great needed um off-site Road improvements that's helpful to know when when would be when would be we be working with them on that in this budget cycle or so as we continue with design once we get to June and July when we bring forth construction um bids um those offside Road improvements will be categorized we'll see how much money that is for instance the off-site road improvements um at Northern were around $2 million the off-site road improvements uh at Lions Farm were around a million and we continue to have a a new crosswalk at lines Farm which is

much needed but those are also considered outside of what um we had discussed in terms of construction for those projects so there is a monetary value however we will work with the county uh officials at the commissioner and at the City Planning Department to identify what those true costs will be okay thank you for explaining that that's really helpful to understand can I ask a follow-up question on the yeah so you said you're gonna get city bus data usage for students at DSA that was what her question was that was question was I think um my followup to that would be can we compare that to the other Comprehensive High School city bus usage okay okay um as a DSA Alum I know often times we use the city bus to get away from campus in in times when we were not supposed to be getting away from campus and I want to make sure that

we're not measuring that usage in our expectations here I think the ridership coming from wherever their home is to the school is the information that we'll probably get versus if they're taking the bus from school away from school that's exactly and if necessary and I don't know if it's necessary given the Middle School component to DSA the same sort of data around other middle schools thank you sorry and then the car ridership because some of the reason we want to move is to get the traffic off of the street yes we have that information based on their current a lot men and in student capacity and the student capacity is 2,000 students so we will incorporate that in the design of the traffic study that we've doing right yeah because yeah that's helpful thank you since we're asking questions um

I'm also in response to concerns that we've heard about related to DSA I'm wondering um from your perspective what are the implications of not completing the renovations um in the next few years to the Deferred schools so that Morhead Bethesda club and mang Mangum like are we looking at unsafe or inadequate learning conditions for students at those schools as a result of our of this decision no uh Maintenance and Facilities department has done an excellent job of maintaining buildings that have fully exceeded their life expectancy um again the priority order was set by the quantitative and qualitative analysis in 2019 based on a facility conditions assessment rating um not about who goes to what schools but the schools themselves um we wish that we could do all the schools that are on our Authority list um but right now uh as a facilities uh efficiency it costs us more to maintain

an older building I think I said in December it's like having an old historic car and at some point when you continue to pour money into it it's more efficient and economical to just buy a new car um and with all its Glamour and achievements of Dural School of the Arts uh it is not efficient to continue to pour money uh into that school uh for that purpose which is a School for the Arts I appreciate that thank you so while so I hear you about the order in which um Renovations were determined or projects were determined and it sounds like while those schools could use Renovations and repairs deferring them does not produce unsafe learning conditions for our students that is correct and let me just say um under Mr Johnson's leadership once we determine what the true cost of DSA is going to be we're going to have around 20 hopefully $30 million and so what we've said to the county uh is we're going to look at kind of rep prioritizing um that list to

maybe take some of the uh items let's just say h if they life expectant of their Chiller or their boiler things that we can do now and preparation for the full buildout we'll look to do that to make sure we're maintain and keep schools safe thank you I appreciate that and lastly um will those will those schools then remain I hear that you there might be some little projects but will schools then remain at the top of the list for renovations like once now we we believe so um however once we get up under the hood and look at our portfolio there may be schools that may move up the list we we can't say now I I don't think so but that might be an option um but we will make sure that in preparation for that our ask is enough so that we uh can do more more okay thank you and just to tie into that um something that we're doing is talking to principles about things that

we can get done in the meantime like Mr Davis talked about because we're doing what we do like walk and talk with principal and try to address some of the concerns that they might have so that hon H or some of the other schools we can address some of the issues prior to getting it um Construction done so we're still addressing those needs and that's part of the for million that superintendent Moore talked about was how we use that money to continue to build our schools and keep our schools safe for our students just going to thank him for circling back because I was going to do that thank you Miss V I saw Miss Vadar I mean not miss viar Sorry Miss Chavez I'm sorry um okay I wanted to ask one other question which is about the old building um with DSA this is another thing that's come up um could you tell us what exactly will happen after there is a new

DSA with that building what cost will be needed to maintain that building or um what will it cost us to sort of um do something with it and I I don't think we can leave it sitting idle for too long so and I'll I'll jump in answer that question we have not determined anything at this point what that would involve as involving the superintendent as well as a board as far as options um what we are looking at is getting some appraisals for facilities that will no longer be in use and then we'll bring that back to the board and make some decisions on how we move forward so you would do all facilities like Northern maybe and all the facilities we're not yes that we're not using and how we can use it how we can repurpose that okay we would have to have a discussion with the board and superintended decide how we want to move forward with that sorry with Beyond appraisals though we have publicly spoken about the the interest in moving Durham School of Technology into that space and so I don't want us to say that

we haven't don't have a instructional need in mind um the previous Northern we have talked about making a comprehensive CTE um districtwide high school and so just because we haven't gotten funding to do those things um I think they always have had instructional needs at the basis and part in in this in my hearing and learning um in the past Mr Jos let me just say we will also need you know what we don't have that could really generate uh efficiency is Swing space and so a lot of our elementary schools are occupied which take longer um as well as meaning more time and so we would also look at opportunities of utilizing those buildings for swing space to get more done with the funding that we currently have all right thank you for this discussion there's a motion on the floor has been proberly sorry I I was just hadn't

chimed in with my my questions yet and I just um do appreciate folks um emailing us I was surprised not to see folks here to speak on this it seems like every time we have a topic with DSA on the agenda um we get information from folks later um or ahead of time but but I'm surprised that people aren't here to address it I I hate that we don't have we in the past haven't invested enough and that our buildings are so ancient and that we are having to Band-Aid so many things together um I think Mr Davis you said that the county has other pots of money in the past that they have been able to access for us and and what we've flipped to is having project shovel ready so as we've gotten these Elementary projects shovel ready if the county had other

funding um we these projects are ready to go it it wouldn't need to wait for a a bond could you speak to that for a bit yes we have all of our elementary schools will be bid out and we will know what those dollars are we have been speaking Mr Johnson and I to the county on on different funding sources like lobs that they gave us uh if you remember they gave us funding to be shovel ready they gave us design work and Discovery work for many of the projects that's on this priority list to be able to be shovel ready and to be at this point now and so we do do believe uh that will continue to have those conversations and as different funding mechanisms come arise we will be ready uh to start those projects I appreciate it and then just um I know the DSA project specifically is out for bid at some point we're waiting and and I want the public and um us all to know that you you and your

team Mr Johnson are continually reevaluating that and will continue to reevaluate that decision if it comes in like the parking deck in Chapel Hill at twice what they expected like all construction is as you said today um ele ated right now um we will continue to reevaluate and I trust your team will do that and and bring us the wisest thing at any time um I look forward to these projects and I love that you put the images in here of how these um are such beautiful and and sustainable projects and I look forward to ways that we can continue to increase sustainability and Energy savings with everything that we do but thank you all for bringing this tonight any other discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I any opposed same it passes

unanimously thank you Mr David and te next item on the agenda is contract with Turner and Townson operation Services thank you again um this item again as we look to be fiscally responsible in terms of making sure 100% of our buildings are safe clean and technologically ready in order to do that you need a road map um and that is in the form of facility conditions assessment um we've have the unique opportunity um to do a comprehensive long range plan and there are four steps um one the great work of growing together already have identified uh what is a suitable classroom and how we will manage um the curriculum as well as the facility um the facility conditions assessment will provide us a a deeper dive into deficiencies as well as sustainability uh on our campus um

educational leaders at all levels have identified the programs of each of our schools and that will better help us as we continue uh to increase our design and construction know what will be in each of these buildings um going forward um the demographics enrollment needs um have been prioritized and in this fiveyear um facility conditions it will help us for the next 10 years I do have with us um members of the turn towns and here and DLR group um they were selected um based on the request for qualifications um they will be able to provide you information of what the next steps are of what we will be getting for uh this work and how critical and pivotal this work is this will involve both quantitative and qualitative there will discuss how the community community engagement process will take place and so we will hear from all stakeholders um one thing I will mentioned I think Mr Johnson mentioned um the start of this

calendar year um we put together what we had was a uh subcommittee of principles from elementary middle and high school um that was for us to hear what operational needs they may have as well as they were critical in listening to the interviews um to make sure as building supervisors U we got the right consultant and I do believe we do have the right consultant so I will give it over to Miss Jessica here and she will go with the rest of the presentation thank you thank you Mr Davis uh my name is Jessica Killian I'm a program director for Turner and towns in hiri um here in the Raleigh Durham area and with me is Julia McLaren she is with drr group who's one of our Consultants to really focus on community engagement so our portion of this project of the long range um long range comprehensive facilities plan is really on that step two facilities condition assessment which will involve not only assessing the physical condition of Duran public school buildings but also further developing the learning environment

guidelines to establish common guidelines for educational spaces this assessment and development work will include a significant amount of community input which is the first step to building our future in the coming years we're excited to embark on this journey with Duram public schools because of the very thoughtful approach that was started with the growing together work and work effort we will be tying that groundwork into our facility condition assessment using the data as a Baseline and continuing the ongoing Community engagement having comprehensive standards makes decision- making consistent and easy because consistent standards mean consistent approaches and transparent decision-making also utilizing experts and engaging in thoughtful processing now will result in assessments and standards that can be implemented for many years next slide please oh might even be the next one all right so dur public schools has a long history of successful fa facility improvements but we also know that

there's never enough money to meet all the needs we just talked about this the physical learning environment affects student achievement positive or negative this is shown in research conducted throughout the country which supports that better buildings positively impact students next slide please some statistical examples of This research are shown here a sick building according to the apaa is one in which occupants experienc acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time in a building but no specific illness or cause can be identified building issues may be related to poor air quality poor lighting poor audio quality in efficient space and much more director Carter aen referenced this earlier tonight the purpose of our facility condition assessment is to evaluate where these conditions are happening and provide a plan to address them next slide please I know you can't read the words here and that's okay we wanted to just share an example of what we can produce to help understand facility system needs

this assessment is more literal than just a long-range plan we will be using DPS condition guidelines to establish facility investment priorities once we determine where the capital needs are we can develop a prioritized plan for repairs replacement and reinvestment and these prioritized needs will include addressing educational suitability like classroom size building layouts and more our assessment team is going to walk all identified durm Public School schools over the coming months to develop a comprehensive picture of facility needs next slide please so by developing uh learning environment guidelines we can ensure that the students that the standards that are important uh to the school district are embodied in those in those guidelines the research has shown uh that these four key factors have the greatest impact on student learning student learning and outcomes so the goal of having learning

environment guidelines is to provide appropriate space and appropriate activity settings that support the district's view uh and vision for teaching and learning next slide please so while we develop how best to meet the district's vision for teaching and learning we also need to understand that Baseline uh of the fa facilities um to achieve those goals and we talked about the facility condition assessment but we want to look at the spaces through the educational lens and understand the gaps and establish priorities for the future development will evaluate things like learning styles um how much handson Project based versus traditional and do you have the space to accommodate it are there enough spaces are they the right size and are they located in the

correct place next slide please so engagement is really foundational uh to the process and we start that by listening to your stakeholders your team students Community leaders caregivers we want to understand everything from their point of view this centers their expertise in the outcomes so over the next several months we'll be meeting with and listening to their voices and hearing their perspectives and so during this process we'll have surveys workshops focus groups uh and and lots of other tools and one of our tools um that we utilize is called the student engagement and teacher engagement index so with that we see differences in how teachers perceive the teaching and learning environments and how students

perceive them and we know that a VAR iety of teaching and learning styles will lead to engag teachers and engag students and better outcomes for us all next slide please so the school of uh the school district of Philadelphia there we started with that teacher and student uh engagement process like we were just talking about and it authentically form the spaces that we recommended in the in the guidelines what we found was important to students was to have flexibility in uh so their education could be individualized and that there were spaces for teachers and students to connect and that those spaces can be used daily and into the future in multiple ways so DPS uh during public schools has

enhanced that basis line um that we started with in Philadelphia because of the intentional way that you have prepared us for this effort in all the work uh from growing together and other studies that have already been done next slide please we have experience uh with engaging with a variety of stakeholders in multiple school districts and we look forward to working with Durham public schools and sharing some of the tools that we have developed to continue positive change so the input from stakeholders and the community here in Durham informs the spaces the adjacencies and the quality of the spaces that we will be recommending in the learning environment guidelines thanks slide um so our process is starting now um and will extend over the next six to eight months um like J mentioned this

work is really going to be Advanced by all the significant groundwork that Duram public schools has already laid over the last few years this is also an iterative process it's not a linear sequential process we'll engage in feedback loops to make sure that we get the right set of solutions for DPS engagement with the community and stakeholders will also happen throughout the process we'll spend these next few months while students and staff are still in the buildings envisioning our guiding principles and needs over the summer we will be taking that input and layering it on top of our facility walks so we can assess building condition and educational suitability in the fall we will come back not only to the board but also to our stakeholder groups to share the results of what we've learned and confirm we can deliver an understanding of DPS facilities to build the future thank you for this opportunity to be your partner and we're now open to questions thank you board th this then miss Rogers

uh thank you so much for this presentation I'm really excited about this I will be interested to see what you all discover um uh my my biggest question is this how do you bring a racial Equity lens to your work could you provide me a little bit more detail in your question in terms of racial Equity I wanted to leave it open so that I heard from you what you're how you were applying applying it but I do I want to ask about specifically racial Equity not just um the cultural considerations or which I appreciate you having in there or like kind of an equity lens broadly because when I think about space I think about students of color being able to take up space and I think about how um um access access to space has everything to do with with race so um so I guess I to give a little bit more detail like um how might a

racial Equity lens shape the questions that you ask in your assessment um what you are looking for and observing and writing down and um how you are yeah seeing the spaces that we have so a little bit um I think thank you for that additional information just like growing together um in equity of thought um this team will look at multi modes of of gathering that information so just not internet or phone calls but actually going to areas where that demographic uh may look different to gather that information so those types of efforts I think will achieve what your question is asking you want to add okay um what Frederick said was exactly right I mean we really want to meet with those and in multiple different ways and really understand those uh p uh perspectives and um we have a lot of team members experts across um our company um who have done this a lot and

worked with very similar school systems with some of the similar um issues and um so I think finding that the best way to get that information and to really build that trust and start having those conversations um is something that we have experience in doing thank you that's all all I have thank you for this presentation um I have two questions the first question is it's everything right like so um it's not just inside the building it's around the building as well yes this is a full building envelope under the hood assessment of our buildings um and around the track around the track um and just for historical context in 2018 we due to

budget concerns I'm not aware we did a a similar FCA however it was merely a tabletop um and that could attribute to why some of the numbers that we were seeing in 2019 were not as in depth as when we started our Discovery for some of those first priority projects uh this um facility conditions assessment really will look at the notes and bolts of all of our facilities I feel like we'll be better prepared in anticipation of future funding such as the 2026 Bond thank you that's helpful the other question that I have is how does it how do the schools that we're currently working on that are in our current CIP plan fit into this assessment will they be prioritized or not prioritized or is it based on the age of the building still so all of the buildings will be assessed of course the new ones won't have a number but there's a rating system um and so even the ones that are currently

in our priority order we will reengage uh we have information the team will take 2018 study um as a benchmark and then add on to that and so every site will get another thorough um inspection let me just kind of tie into that because I think where you're going I think and tell me if I'm wrong because we've had some conversations with administrators about about making sure they don't drop to the bottom and that we keep priority with those ones like that are already at the top of the list that we had to push back because a budget we will have some conversations and prioritize how we can keep them towards the top um and like Mr Davis mentioned earlier we don't foresee that they will drop tremendously down the line to be able to still address those issues with those schools thank you that's not what I was thinking but um I going based on urgency is going to be important as we continue to move forward so thank

you I just add also that you know ultimately it is the board's decision to determine what to do in terms of the order based on the new information that you get and where the schools land um thank y'all for this presentation this does seem more comprehensive than the Cummings report so I'm excited to see a oh I'm sorry but it I think we had we had different ask we had right so we had different goals and intentions and so this presentation feels like it's going to go a little deeper than I think we had a different intention in 2019 um will this look at all DPS facilities so I know we mentioned schools but we also going to do Fuller Bacon Street Hamlin Road we be looking at all all six million in counting square feet will be assessed yes great um I'm glad because I think we've and we should continue to prioritize our schools but I do want our buildings where we do have staff working in to make sure that they have the

proper HVAC and other systems and things that they need to be able to run efficiently um I look forward to hearing more about it in the community engagement and for love for y'all to keep us a breast of how we can stay engaged um as you do that Community engagement work Miss vas and then miss bu thank you so much for bringing this to us um I I was thinking in terms of um outside of the buildings um we're trying to expand Universal pre and uh there's a site that I visited for a different reason regarding to the salary study but I noticed the children were playing on um it was impervious surface that had one of these green tarp the green uh carpets that mimics grass and uh the first feeling was I was overjoyed that the kids you know were outside and these are this is a prek program and the children were crawling and and you know playing and that

brought joy to my heart and then I thought about equity in terms of prek programs as we look to expand Universal prek and we're coning to add classrooms children who don't even get to touch grass you know and and I know that there's considerations around like folks who may not want that but I mean when it comes to equity playgrounds where children actually get to experience like the outdoors not just being outside on an impervious surface that just has a carpet over it but actually like engage in in you know in nature right and and there's some benefits uh research does talk about the benefits of outdoor education and we have been big proponents of environmental sustainability and outdoor education um concerns around pests is also a thing um I have talked to a lot of different custodians and the work that they do I mean I can't even finish telling you but Pest Control is also something that is not in their purview but they are the first chain of command that kind of sees what's happening and if there's anything you

know if there's any Critters or anything that that uh might affect the safety of our children and so um I do have those considerations as well um because even in previous surfaces do have crawlers especially you have moist carpet Carpeting and um and I just I I want all our kids to have the best access so just a consider itation about prek the most vulnerable the smaller little children as well um having access and having equity in terms of outdoor exploration education safety everything else thank you so I um I also agree with Miss Umstead that this is uh overdue and we look forward to the depth of of your work including building Upon Our learning guidelines um and bringing Equity lens to our entire uh campus and and land Holdings um I'm curious about um how you all look at HVAC especially

in light of covid and whether air quality kind of guidelines are part of the work that you're going to do and um recommendations you're going to bring about improving that going forward yeah it's a good question um so HVAC is is really is part of the assessment it's we have mechanic mechical Engineers electrical engineers um who are going to be part of that team walking and we'll be using the guidelines and specifications that Duram public schools has now and then where they want to go so that we can say okay this one maybe meets current standards but it doesn't meet whatever the enhanced air filtration qualities are um but we do have licensed Engineers that are part of our team that are going to be walking with us maybe that's a question for Mr Davis Mr Johnson do we have enhanced air circulation kind of guidelines yes so uh from covid we went to what was a mve 13 generally um the energy code suggest a Merve eight um but what that also does for our systems um

because the filters are smaller uh are not allowing more particles to come through please forgive me if I nerd you out um this makes our systems work a little harder um and so they're uh cost associated with uh increasing the MV 13s um in terms of replacement and in terms of the cost of those MV 13s as well as uh the wear and tear on our existing systems but we will put all that information uh and bring it before the board to to make those types of decisions and then and no you're not nerding us out at all because we love the Merv 13s when we live through it and glad that um we got there what about environmental guidelines and as far as what we can do um whether it's solar whether it's I mean any sustainability guidelines that we've improved since the 2018 so a part of the uh energy sustainability fund that we appropriated about a year and a half ago we did do a sustainability U study uh and making sure that our

existing buildings um when appropriate um could provide solar or uh any other um alternative energy sources we'll share that information with them and they can compile that with the overall report um for that information to be shared so lead I mean like LED lighting like what daylighting like all of that you're going to as much as you can push that on our behalf I think is super important I also look forward to y'all helping us figure out those renovate versus replace decisions in a way that is more comprehensive than what I think the DPI minimal require reement is if that's a fair statement I think Jordan high school is on our list for another big project um and the and I think all the schools that have not had as much attention as they need um we really really need some help prioritizing them

and um advocating on their behalf um office space for staff and and flex space for learning as we do this Construction in the future is super important so I I trust y'all will take as Broad and a comprehensive look um as possible with this going forward um yeah people don't like paying for office space for staff but this building is tired and sad and as is bacon and Hamlin Road and some of our staff for operations are also in Mobile units and trailers that are old and um rund down so thank you for helping us accelerate this work really do appreciate it and engage the community since we have multiple schools that are year round your summer break actually doesn't have to be too long you could start right back up in July with year round schools so thank

you else add a couple of things um I'm glad to know that you all are going to get a running start with all the work that we've already done with growing together and these conversation our current plans are in place and know as you you talked about um the full area comprehensive outside of the schools as well include uh sidewalks walkability crosswalks making some recommendations around that as well with there go ahead crosswalks within the context of being on the site um you know if they're crosswalks outside of the site sometimes we will what we'll do is just note that there may not be an accessible path onto the school property um but that's usually something we have to start working out with this City when it's on city property versus School District property but yeah we're going to be looking at all of that um the accessibility aspect of it can be in a number of different ways and so we've got again we have experts that are going to be helping look at all of that to to establish it and and kind of to director buyer's point the end result of all of this is going to be a database that you can

filter and pick out and look at and prioritize and do whatever you want to to build the the information that you need about the questions you have it is not going to be a flat sheet of paper um that you just need to read and try not to fall asleep like it is going to be very much something that you can use for a number of years and be updated as you are able to make improvements um so you'll be able to kind of parse the information in a way that makes sense for whatever um you're be looking at at the time okay and then um also thinking about our athletic facilities and the standards that you're using I know that sometimes we have good standards that's allowable um so for instance like our surfacing of our track there are standards are allowable then we have your good better and best could we get some of those comparisons as well yes that will also be a part of the study um and just to piggy back Mr Palmer and his team have done some of that work in terms of the crosswalks uh and safe routes to school so we'll build upon that um as we also uh in

20 20 we did a Middle School athletic uh assessment that was used for some of our asphalt repairs this summer so we have a plethora of information that we'll be using uh to help build upon this um but when I tell you this will be something uh that would help us chart the road map for the rest of the facilities I can assure you uh no stone will be unturned yeah okay that's it for my questions this is for action oh miss vas just one more comment um when it comes to the fire safety we were cited by the fire marshall um that's part of our Grim history we're doing better we're trying to improve and so the question is you know will assessments of fire safety everything to code all that is included yeah thank you there motion move approval of the

recommendation for administration to approve the service contract really quickly um we've just got to work on the contract but what we would like for you to move approval for us to come back at the end of the month and put this on consent right You' like to move it to the consent agenda for the next board meeting is that what I'm hearing that's one option um I I do want to work on the contract a little bit with him so you could either approve it tonight subject to a changes to the contract approved by the by the board attorney and superintendent or you can bring it back at the next meeting but it won't take long it's just a couple things I want to fix with the draft that's included in the buard area I move that we um allow Mr Davis and the attorney to make changes to the contract bring it back on the consent agenda on the 21st second it's been

moved by Miss Rogers and second by Miss sper any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed it passes unanimously thank you madam chair can I just address something that the board asked Mr Davis earlier U Mr Palmer is here the question was asked about um DSA and the number of students with bus passes he can answer that question so Mr palas you can just give those numbers I would appreciate it thank you Mr Johnson and uh good evening all chair Lewis good to see you um Miss sper we also need circulation of air in this building too um I wanted to briefly just piggyback on the topic with regards to the transit access durm School of the Arts uh we have an ongoing partnership with go Durham which is our local Transit service provider um part of that partnership is the durm youth Go pass so it is our best proxy for Transit

ridership for all of our middle and high schoolers and for those watching at home any principal parent student if you associated with dur public schools and you want a Durham youth Go pass you are eligible to get one for free which allows you to ride the G the go Durham bus for free what's that the buses are free in Durham okay which through yeah through July okay um thank you for the technical point I think what we are trying to share with you is the r ership levels associated with the go Durham youth goass which is a partnership between DPS and God Durham uh of our largest 16 participating middle and high schools so these are students that have signed up for bus service and ride the bus we have number of passes issued as well as ridership or boardings across the Academic Year um our highest participation rate is at Hillside High School uh which again with roughly 1,400 students we have

422 God Durham Riders at Hillside High School which is equates to 52,000 boardings a year at Hillside High School uh our large Regional High Schools Hillside Jordan Northern and Riverside and Southern are top five most participating each of those has over 100 subscribers and over 10,000 boardings of the top 16 participating schools durm School the Arts ranks number 13 there are 69 students out of the 1,00 at Durham School of the Arts that participate in the transit program which equates to 10,000 boardings a year so to normalize and relative access to Transit access to durm School of the Arts it is 150th of the usage of Hillside High School I can provide that data to the board and an attachment and email as requested but wanted to share that with you Based on data provided from go Durham thank you for that um uh thank

you for that update answering questioning about U busing and transportation any followup no the the only point about it being free is that would we not necessarily capture all students if they are free they don't have to scan in which also and I thought the city intended to continue that that was my question it may be best in addition to that data we can share our monthly School level report Ed Transportation mode Choice by school for all schools and we can focus in on DSA just so you can capture that to bracket the information both self-reported at a school level as well as our intergovernmental partner with godor we're happy to share both awesome thank you thank you next item on our agenda is growing together update and I see a lot of movement happening Dr. Pitman turning it over to you thank you good evening chair Lewis it's so good to be with you this evening board members superintendent Moore we do

have members of our project team coming in from the growing together initiative and we'll spend a few minutes at the end of our time together recognizing their hard work and naming them uh they are in our slides but we are pleased tonight to provide a brief overview and an update on the work underway with growing together and highlighting the significant accomplishments and the Milestones that have been achieved thus far this evening on the next slide we're going to highlight some of some or information organized around the following areas and the project champions for each of these major project teams will provide the summary information around academic programs we have Dr Julie pack the senior executive director of Career and Technical education programs and magnets for student and facility planning and Updates this evening um Matthew Palmer the senior executive director of school planning will share that information and of course around Community engagement and transition supports by

schools for students and families will be shared by Sheena Cooper our senior executive director of public affairs in addition you'll see in the presentation we've tried to highlight some of the budgetary considerations and sources of funding that will support this work on the next slide we feel it's very important we continually bring these four pillars forward to the project team and lift them back to our our community and our board recognizing that growing together focuses on effectively managing our community's growth while prioritizing equity and access as we embrace our Rich diversity the district and the board has recognized the importance of these pillars and to that we are truly grateful by addressing these pillars around growth access equity and diversity the growing together initiative creates a sustainable and fair framework for Progress it acknowledges that fostering diversity and ensuring Equitable access are integral components of successful growth

fostering collaborative and and inclusive environments for all of our students and families on the next slide we've want to highlight this again moving forward we've been in this work for about four years going on five and it's been a long journey and we are deeply uh indebted to the board for your commitment to the work around the policy revisions and looking at our rules and making sure our rules are aligned with our values and now we're in the important season and the Milestone season of moving from the conceptual policy work into the actual work that it takes to implement and so each of the steps that you'll hear more about tonight specifically around the academic programs remembering that we are trying to align our EC separate program special programs and our prek programs increasing that Regional access increasing application seats for our highest demand application programs and cleaning feeder plan cleaner clean

feeder patterns and programmatic links and again focusing on our students in our projections and our spaces and our school facilities making sure they're all suitable and that we have the capacity to serve in the highest possible way at this time I'd like to invite to the podium Dr Julie pack to share some key updates around our Academic Program progress thank you Dr. Pitman and good evening uh board uh chair Lewis and board members and superintendent Moore tonight the growing together team would like to give you an update on the implementation of the academic programs as they relate to the growing together initiative Durham Public Schools is committed to the fact that all DPS schools are great schools to this end the growing together plan has placed emphasis on the content and programs that are important for all children to enhance excuse me to experience uh and position themselves

for Success all elementary learning will emphasize high quality programming in the Arts World languages and stem which are critical for ensuring strong exposure and a foundation for middle and high school where students interests begin to solidify next slide please as part of the growing together plan elementary students will have dat daily integrated stem so everyday stem by Design is DPS is answer to daily integrated stem everyday stem by Design is a design thinking protocol which is foundational to all aspects of stem and applicable across all content areas as part of the everyday stem by Design students will integrate this problem solving model into their classrooms to deepen their understanding and become active participants and leaders of their own learning as you can see on the screen this is the dream design due process and to date all elementary principles and

instructional coaches have participated in the initial everyday standby design PD and all teachers will be trained by the end of the school year students in all elementary schools will have Global language instruction as part of the growing together together initiative as part of their specials rotation to ensure all schools have Global language instruction DPS is looking to add 23 Global language teacher positions to the existing positions in the district we are also adding two French teachers as part of the international baloria program for next year funding for these positions has been allocated from Grant funds and a future funding source will need to be added to the recurring budget for these positions curriculum materials were approved at the Fe February board work session and a team of Educators is working to create curriculum support documents and Grant funds were also used to support the curriculum materials and development and finally Global language

teachers will have designated professional learning opportunities supported by the office of curriculum and instruction next slide please oh sorry you're already there finally as part of the gr uh growing all Great Schools together all elementary students will have Visual Arts and Music dedicated classrooms as part of their specials rotation Grant funds were designated to purchase additional equipment and materials to provide Equity across all elementary school art programs we're excited about the opportunities all elementary students will have across during Public Schools through the growing together plan next we will provide updates on the application programs for elementary schools next slide please as a part of the growing together plan Durham Public Schools is adding a third monor application program at Little River to serve the northern and Eastern regions implementing the monor instructional model requires monory

trained teachers and specialized classroom equipment and materials a comprehensive professional learning plan for training Little River teachers is nearing completion of the first year of training uh this spring and funds to support the monstory training and classroom materials were designated in the Mackenzie Scott Grant in order to be ready for the fall launch of the monory programming at Little River we will be opening up to seven primary classrooms which are prek-k and four lower elementary which are grades one through three as well as adding a magnet program coordinator position that will be allotted through the magnet allotments budget we are currently seeking four monstory teachers three of these positions are for prek lure which are typically local funded positions Grant funds will be redirected to cover these additional positions for the next school year and future funding will need to be added to the recurring budget for these positions next slide

please as part of the growing together plan DPS will be opening dual language immersion programs at Club Holt Lions farm and Merrick Moore and opening the established DLI program as Southwest Elementary School to the southwest region through application a concerted effort was made in hiring for the school year current school year to find teachers that would be ready to start the DLI kindergarten cohort next year DLI site coordinator coordinators are currently being provided to Sion and will be allocated through the existing mag magnet excuse me magnet budget in the future a team of DLI Educators work together to develop biliteracy unit Frameworks or Buffs this past summer and are being finalized for implementation next year grant funding was allocated to support curriculum materials and unit development DLI teachers will be supported through DLI professional learning and the D and district

coordinator next slide please as part of the growing together plan DPS is expanding the international baloria program to Eko Elementary School the international baloria program is an instructional framework that incorporates International mindedness and interdisciplinary curriculum the existing staff at Eko has participated in introductory IB training and will continue to enhance their IB knowledge each year additional language positions of Mandarin French and Spanish will be reallocated from current positions to support the IB pillar of international studies funding from the Mackenzie Scott Grant was allocated to support the professional learning enrollment with the international Balor organization and classro materials next slide please finally as part of the groin together plan there are six year round application schools while the transition to a year

round school does not require additional staff Human Resources has been working intentionally with schools transitioning from a transition uh excuse me from a traditional schedule to a yearr round uh schedule to ensure that staff understand the changes and provide opportunities through the transfer process to opt out of a year round schedule if desired there is intentionality to align operational activities like School cleaning to support all yearound schools as well as aligning instructional support activities such as professional learning days finally we're working with our Community Partners as well as DP the DPS Community Ed to offer additional opportunities for families during intercession breaks at this time I will turn it over to Mr Palmer senior executive excuse me senior executive director of school planning and operational services to walk us through the student and facility updates thank you Dr pack and good

evening again board members chair Lewis and the durm community next slide please thank you so we're bringing together two threads enrollment information as it relates to assignment as well as the size and conditions and capacities of our facilities again the suitability fitting together our students into the seats is part of the Feathering in process of implementation everything's conceptual and in data tables to we're talking about students and schools and assignment decisions tonight is a chance for us to bring information to you on that um we're looking forward to the conversation next slide please we have to bring and coales all of these factors together when we talk about what is successful opening of schools that includes having our teachers ready you just heard from Dr pack on the academic program the curriculum that aligns with not only what we're teaching but how we're teaching making sure that those schools are ready to receive our students and the staff are in position the physical spaces you heard earlier

about the learning environment guidelines standards the facility conditions assessment the can the size and capacity of our schools we have a database of over 2200 classrooms here in Duram public schools that includes the size the square footage whether it has a bathroom whether it has a sink whether the sink has hot water all of that relates to the suitability and placement of our classrooms and our students students themselves we have 31,000 students here in dur public schools and we're proud of that number fitting them within our classrooms within the framework of implementation is core to making sure we're ready to go and lastly Transportation we've got to get him there and we've got to get them home safely so we're looking at all five of those components as far as what is it going to take for 2425 and happy to share with you tonight where we are in that process next slide please so the core question how many students will the students fit in the buildings will they fit in the classrooms and the seats we have very stringent guidelines with regards to

class size here in North Carolina hb90 mandates class sizes by grade 18 for Kinder 16 for first 17 for second and third there are no limits on the upper grades and in many of our adjacent school districts the way that they've addressed hb90 is inflating our grades four and five here in DPS we've capped that at 25 as far as our overall average for class size that was in 2022 we have to look at that ratio of enrolled students over our classroom capacities by classroom by school by region and for the overall District we'll talk later about our team and the folks that have contributed to this work with us today is over 20 of our gr together members as far as what we do in preparation but this is what we do many of us 10 12 hours a day getting ready for nights like tonight so that we're ready to open on July 22nd 2024 that includes bringing back our art and music spaces I remember day two

being at Hope Valley Elementary visiting the art room that was housing two first grade classrooms with a Kil in it that's what it looks like when we're overcrowded resetting the board the prior strategic plan pretty gold 5c you've heard it a thousand times I know but it's getting our students into brick and mortar classrooms this is that process so we're going to go over both parts of that fraction enrolled students and the capacities and how we arrive at both next slide please start with our our students at the prek and EC levels we discovered on this journey that oftentimes a prek student with developmental needs or Autism was not placed in a program that was aligned at a K5 Continuum so they may go for developmental needs prek at one school but starting even at kindergarten another school and at third grade likely at third that has ramped up the stress on our transportation network but even more important than the mileage is what it takes to build a school

Community student relationships with staff and staff and Leadership relationships with families and parents and students I want to just acknowledge for a moment the incredible work of our Early Education and exceptional children's Department in conjunction with our planners to bring all of this in alignment at a school level and a regional level to ensure access next slide please we talked a little bit about instruction we heard from Dr pack on the academic program that June 2022 approval for growing together was our Academic Program Cornerstone the students we talked about the rules for Access last summer in June of 2023 then this fall we went out in across 7,500 families work between schools and families to talk about intent what are you thinking you're intending to do for next year getting those classrooms ready getting the furniture in place and yes going into

our allotment meetings which as you heard this evening is a vitally important Next Step so we're fitting all of these pieces together but they're on a critical path next slide this is that timeline and again I bring you back to June of 2022 identifying the academic program and placing that Academic Program allowed us to do the sequential steps that followed this fall we locked in our EC and prek classroom placements I'm very happy to share we have not moved in a single EC classroom what we have been able to do is bring the pre- supports in line with that this has taken three years to phase Us in small micr level adjustments of this classroom moving from school to school to get us ready for this full pathway implementation that then set up our school capacities which then informed by our enrollment interest the lottery how many seats we were drawing and remembering we started this work in 2019 we came back in 201 20 but we've

been updating our student level information with enrollment all through the Journey we had the lottery window that opened this early part of 2024 assignments and opportunities went out letters went out on March 1st this past week as families make those decisions we're able to share with our allotment team what are those student enrollment numbers looking like where are we at all 56 of our schools that informs the lopment meetings and getting us ready for individual student rosters and all the work that has to go with Master scheduling and again that utilization enrollment divided by capacity we are also simultaneously and we'll come back in a few weeks to talk about our preparations and transportation so that we can get school bus assignments out early we want families to know where's the bus Scout going to be what bus number am I is it Mr Smith or Miss Jones that's driving the bus for me we're excited about that step next slide please

so in that fraction on the bottom part classroom capacities we've gone through the overall built number of classrooms by school updating our floor plans which was a big step for us prior to 2019 we had in many instances schools that didn't even have floor plans Mr Davis has led us through a complete renewal of our floor plans the built classrooms by a school I mentioned those class- siiz laws with hb90 the placements of our academic programs and our pre K and EC special classrooms that all coalesces into that bottom part of the fraction what are our classroom capacities by a classroom and rolled up across 2200 classrooms for the district to give us our school level capacities as well next slide on the top part of this fraction are enrolled students we've talked a lot about boundaries in this body as far as the overall number of students in a boundary in addition to what choices have they historically made Mr raty our in-house school planner for rment in demography has gone back 10 years to

6% error rate which if I'm going to brag on my team for a second is incredible work and again what we have done to sharpen the pencil time and time again as a district

has prepared us for this but being right those tiny G gears in the clock move the bigger hands as far as the hours the minutes and the date we work across School planning to get it right in conjunction with student assignment we support of course our facility planning and the work that you heard from Mr Davis on tonight and getting us ready in partnership with HR and finance and school leadership as we head into those allotment meetings it's very important important we are as as accurate as we can be so we have done the homework here next slide this just shows you our confidence as we go through these steps as we go through these Gates collecting intent information in the fall and again you'll hear from Miss Cooper on what that's entailed from engagement 7,500 families talking with our School principles and our school leaders on their plans the Lottery application window heading us into our projection hanging us into ultimately our staffing allotment PL as we go through this you see that tightening in we are trying to be as precise and accurate as possible for you

the board and the community next slide please we're through two steps but I should really say one and a quarter yes we have done the boundary analysis work yes we have accounted for our Legacy students and the siblings of Legacy students we have only done the first opening of the lottery there are more to come I understand we have heard among on the wait list and it's never going to move it will move this year but we need to make sure we don't give the same seed out twice so we are asking for the grace and patience of our parents of our board and our community to understand we want to get it right as we headed into the transfer window here which has just opened up that is again another opportunity to ensure that as much as we can we're honoring the preferences of our families while also being responsible with I must be honest is a public good and limited resources our schools have capacities and they're not just our choosing those capacities are mandated by state law next slide

please so I have referenced this but again speaking candidly for a moment having done this work in other parts of the state in the south east to provide Legacy protections for our upper grade students was vital these are the students that were impacted the most during covid we recognize that these were the prek and the kindergarteners in the co years we heard from the board we heard from the community on that in addition keeping families together when and where possible again linking those siblings so that we're not splitting families that is important we heard that and our analysis our enrollment projections reflect that I also would remind the board and the administration that initially we were planning to open Murray massenberg K3 partly because of those early Legacy statuses for fourth and 5ifth in 2425 but we also heard loudly from the community that we wanted Murray massenberg opened up all the way so we tried to account for all of those board and Community priorities in this transition work I reference again the school

community actions and those are School Community Partnerships the family intent Outreach from the schools in the fall to 7500 parents and families the Lottery application window in the exhaust of work that Miss Marshall our director of student assignment and her team have done with Fidelity and integrity and consistency the transfer window is just opened and it is get another mechanism to make sure we get it as right as possible the work's not done the Ink's not dry the painting isn't complete but we are down the journey on the next slide so I want to name this again Dr Pitman had it in her opening slide but I I do hope the board can step back take a breath and for our parents and our public understand the totality of what growing together is it is not merely a student assignment plan we talked about what we're teaching and how we're teaching then we talked about who we're teaching and where they live then we talked about where our schools are the size of our schools and Mr Davis has talked about tonight we've got to come

back to the mill as far as continuing this process of evaluating how growing togethers work and looking at our academic programs what's working we talk program evaluation tonight I'm going to nerd out that's my love language um again facilities are vitally important to fitting all of this together this will impact our renovation schedules we have accounted for that I know there was a question earlier if the renovations don't go forward what will that do we've already accounted for that in the gr together plan but and some of those Renovations are vitally important to account for the new growth that is in the eastern part of the county I must state that again and again for the board 5,000 students coming our way with from Brier Creek to Spring Valley you can see the rooftops coming up in addition some are learning cleaning schedules changes in year round calendars will impact the work that Mr Davis is doing and he is a vital part of this team we need to look at that Capital outlier for 2425 and know that's a priority in the budget but again we need to get those classrooms ready for our

kids and lastly this is a Bedrock to then go back with Partners like towns and Turner and heri and say this is what we're trying to teach this is how we teach and these are our students what do we need to do to our facilities to update that long-term capital Improvement plan that's not intended to be a chiseled and stone 10e doc document that's looking 10 years out and coming back and keep renewing and refreshing are we going where we're trying to go as a board in the community next slide with that let me hand it over to Machina Cooper our senior executive director of communications thank you Mr Palmer good evening again board members DPS colleagues and our Durham Community next slide please communication and engagement with stakeholders ERS have been a critical component of the growing together initiative from our initial conversations with our families more than two years ago to today just a few months shy of Elementary implementation

we have worked to provide information to our community along the way as we prepared for implementation we knew that in order to fully support our families with transitions we first needed to provide support to our principles and school-based staff an implementation toolkit was established lished last fall to provide timelines resources how-tos messaging and more to equip our teams with information they needed to support families and begin to make any adjustments for implementation you'll see on the slide that information has been provided monthly since last fall and that guidance continues through the spring and summer the toolkit is updated regularly and will continue to be a vital resource to guide our staff with critical information next slide please as we approach the 2425 school year our engagement with stakeholders continues through three main focus areas first building upon the Cadence established in the fall with school

level communication we will continue to support principles with communication to families it is important that families hear directly from their current principles and their new principles about transitions the toolkit provides guidance for welcoming families to our schools as well I do want want to acknowledge the work that our schools have already done to welcome their new families they've made calls to their new families they've hosted tours at their schools they've produced welcome videos and we even have one school whose students are making cards for their new peers to make sure that they feel welcome and included in their school Community additionally a robust web presence was developed for families at welcome. net with information about upcoming transitions along with information about the schools in their region our team has also developed a comprehensive strategy to engage our Media Partners to support our ongoing conversations with families and extend the growing together message to our entire Community regarding implementation and what to expect in

July 2024 and Beyond lastly our team is working collaboratively with Community organizations to share this information with their constituents our team has and will continue to meet with Community Partners to further engage families and in DPS and in Durham next slide please the board made it clear that support for transitioning families was a priority that directive has guid provided guidance for our team to develop a structure that supports families along the way next slide please and here again sharing information that has been elevated this evening but I do want to reiterate that first we needed to identify those students before we could support them in their transitions last last fall families were contacted by their current schools requesting their intent for the upcoming school year this provided the growing together team and our school Leaders with critical information about fam's plans and their students the plans for their students and allowed us to

facilitate planning at the school and District level intent was received prior to winterbreak and Upon Our return from winter break we launched the annual magnet and CTE Lottery and extended that period for an additional week to Grant families more time to make its decisions and to apply in the lottery the first round lottery results were announced on March 1st which also marked the opening of the transfer window the programs as well as um processing sibling Legacy transfers for families whose fourth and fifth grade students will remain at their current schools has also underway the district is also working to facilitate program optout transfers for families who's currently zoned to a school who which offers a year round program International balarat or montau programs but they prefer for their children to participate in a traditional school program our office of student assignment will continue to work very closely with our families and our schools on an ongoing basis to process these request next slide

please support for these transitions includes a wraparound approach for all of our families I want to reiterate that each of our schools will be hosting welcome events to get students and their families acclimated to their new school communities and to make important connections with staff as well as other families a listing of events is available on welcome. net the DPS upcoming events calendars on the homepage of our website in addition these upcoming events are being shared on DPS social media platforms we want to make sure all of our families are well aware of the opportunities that are before them to engage with their new schools the information we have collected from our amilies from stating their intent to the magnet application period and the transfer window is being documented in a dashboard that dashboard supports the information exchange between schools to between schools to make sure that information about student needs travels from the current school to their new school the social emotional needs of our

m. m. and that is at Northern High School to Showcase openings and opportunities within the district we know the need that we have as a district

to provide exemplary staff for all of our students and it begins next month with the career fair additionally our secondary implement M mentation planning is underway and we will increase that planning as we prepare to launch this initiative in the 2526 school year for our DPS middle schools and high schools next slide please the road to implementation necessitates a robust team to navigate plan and execute the various components of this initiative you will notice that the implementation team consists of leaders from across the district this multi-department collaboration includes academics School leadership Human Resources operations and public affairs our project Champions project leads and team members have dedicated numerous hours to prepare smooth transitions not only for our families but also for our staff many of these team members are present this evening those that are in the room I want you to stand and be

recognized additionally there are people in the hallway this is how large this team is and it is necessary to have such a comprehensive team to ensure that we are doing all the critical things for our students and our families please wave your hands Stan please be recognized thank you at this time I'll turn the presentation back over to Dr Pitman thank you Miss Cooper and thank you board I hope on the next slide we hope that you have received the tremendous amount of work that's going into making sure that growing together is embraced by our community and our children um are thriving the work is progressing so far tonight you've received an update to where we are so far we feel that we're well posession positioned to launch our schools with the opening of the Year rounds in July

the collaborative efforts of this dedicated team the work with our schools coupled with the support of our community and our board are instrumental in realizing our shared Vision vision for an exceptional educational experience for every child as we embrace the growth of our community in its diversity and our equity and access pillars we appreciate your ongoing support and we look forward to celebrating the launch of our schools together in July so thank you we're ready to answer any questions should you have them thank you Dr. Pitman and thank you everyone who is here who has put so many U hours into this work into the Departments and collaboration is really just so important just to see you all here it's like wow this is amazing I know this is just a portion so thank you for being here tonight um and board members questions Miss Rogers Follow by Miss Umstead I have a

5 kids in DPS who is currently going through this process of enrolling our kids how many touches do I as a parent need to have with DPS to ensure that my students have care in the fall for their academic needs for their transportation needs and for their after school needs and the timeline upon which I'm expected to do those things haven't gotten the lottery results last week and entered the transfer portal to get my kids all in the same

school yeah two is fine well I'll begin with a touch of of trying to address some of that we are being very intentional about how we roll out the lottery seats and placements because if you remember every magnet school every applic ation school now has a boundary in the past we knew how many seats were available at a magnet program Lottery applications were submitted the office of student assignment was able to fill the the vacant seats as we knew them and the lottery was pretty straightforward what adds an important and critical complexity to this journey this year is the fact that the board said and and endorsed the what we heard

from the community is our families in and around our magnet programs would love access to their neighborhood school which is why every school has a boundary the reason I reme I call that to our remembrance is we have filled our Lottery seats but we have also done two parallel uh pieces of important work one is to plan for and protect what we know to be the boundary what we are anticipating the boundary enrollment to be in those schools we must protect those seats all under the caveat of honoring the class size restrictions making sure that we are not overfilling and so we have filled our Lottery seats of open access to our Lottery schools with a bit of a conservativeness as that as the um boundary families enroll now here's the other complex to this the board said you

asked the administration to Legacy and have stability for our fourth and fifth grade children which we were able to do so our fourth and fifth graders in Magnet or traditional are going to remain in their current schools what that also we said and heard from our community please keep our families together as best as you can which means for the children who are not legacy but may have a younger sibling a kindergarten first or second or third grader you ask the administration to try to plan for that as well and as best as we are able partner and join the fourth and fifth fifth grade Legacy child to its younger sibling and the caveat that the board said and endorsed was we want we believe in our reassignment uh journey of equity we believe in family stability we support that sibling Legacy

while the older sibling is completing their stable assignment in their current school but upon completion of the Legacy student exiting the school we would like the the boundaries that then reactivate and the younger children to return to what their boundary program is under growing together so what's important to that is in the December timeline where we did the family engagement and the base schools called all their families we wanted to know which families we should try to plan for honoring that fourth and fifth grade sibling Legacy in the younger grades as best as we could but we had to First calculate boundary then we did the lottery fill and now now that we're in the transfer season we're able to go back back to the information our families shared in December and reactivate transfers that are good for one to two

years for the Legacy sibling it's not a reassignment of permanence because if it were we would be in some ways corrupting so to speak our Lottery process if we were to do that we would crowd out the the Integrity of the richness of diversity and Equity of access with the lottery so there are a lot of values that are Tethered to the rules and the policy implementation that we are entering into this season and so we are going quite intentionally very careful with each step of the journey and so I'm going to stop there because there's it's simple in its in its Precision but there's you have to really think through the logic model and Link ourselves back and anchor ourselves what did we say as a board and as a community as a school district we valued

and all of those bring us to some um to this place of of managing the process so that's about the access I didn't touch on Transportation or after school yet how many emails how many phone calls how many times do I need to interact with dur public schools in order to make this enrollment happen so for the lottery if you have submitted your Lottery application and you were seated we as a district are reaching back out to you if you have a younger sibling of legacy to notify you that we we were able to partner that that up for the period of time that your child will be a legacy student if for the fact you are in the lottery and you are on a waiting list you're on a waiting list for a lottery seat and that will be filled under a rhythm of uh we give families and this has been historic we are very

familyfriendly with our Lottery timeline we give families three weeks upon notification of your lottery seat three weeks to say yes I want this seat and I I am coming we've then will as a uh the office Student Assignment will take that information manage and make sure the database is tight and right and then do a second run and pulling open children off the waiting list to seat them into newly act opened up magnet seats what's critical about this is we are very intentional with our communication we have got to make sure that families know when to expect communication coming and that is 3 weeks after after the first run and two weeks after the second run families know to be watching for an email and they know they have a window of time to respond that has been historic and it has been um a rhythm that we follow for many many years and

it has been one that has been um valued and and quite embraced so families are less inclined to miss deadlines on Miss Rogers Dr P if I could just add please in addition to what you said because I have children that are in the lottery and schools um the principles of the schools are also instructed to reach out to the families even before the lottery process of what changes were coming into their schools so they were making phone calls to individuals throughout the fall and having gotten a lottery sment I think it's called School Min is the application that's been used I've gotten text messages and emails as far as points of contacts with due dates of when things would be um required for acceptance and then after that I've even gotten emails and phone calls from the accepting school to get ready to register particularly if it's a year round school because they're going to be

going they're going on intercession um soon as well so those are some extra point touch points that the schools also are making with parents and structurally also every school this year we ask them to um strengthen what we call their enrollment team and their enrollment teams have been uh strategizing on how to get all of those action steps done so we didn't miss a family okay so I'm weight listed okay or my kids are weight listed okay how do I enter the lottery for after care so the lottery for aftercare and I may need is Dr Danner here or someone from the that team for the after school I know they're working on aligning timelines with the lottery timelines and maybe perhaps would you like to take that I don't want to put you on the spot

but okay so what will happen happen after the students are weight listed in the lottery process once seat are you speaking for the after care Lottery after after school care Lottery yes okay thank you yes so once the students are waight listed then once seats become available then your student will be identified to have a seat but you're on a wait list and in time if a seat becomes available you will have that seat okay I missed something can you can you back up Dr Danner Natalie hey so um can you back up and talk about the why for the lottery for after care and do you have any of the dates of after care Lottery

like because it's new this year and I know you weren't presenting on that but or are you coming at another time to present on that is that part of your question like how those where you put in for because you don't know where your kids's going to be Miss Rogers is that I I that question as well just to jump in it sounds like to rephrase the question we know that families are navigating a different Lottery system with schools and after school programs so how can we have those systems work together so that families can ensure care for their children for some probably as soon as July right as we're talking about year round programs so the after school Lottery opens on March 18th and the initial communication that went to family stated that that Lottery would close on April 5th it has been extended to April 19th uh we do know that throughout this throughout this window there's additional work that's being done by the office of students assignment to process

those transfers additionally there will be a second pull for the lottery so we will have more information and Clarity throughout that window for our families for any child who is requesting after school care they are to apply for after school care or enter the lottery for the school that they are currently at if they receive a seat through that lottery for the school that they are currently at and they receive a transfer or they accept a lottery seat to attend one of our application schools that seat will follow them pending the availability of the seat or they will receive a priority on the wait list for that school yes a priority on that weight list thank you that's helpful and and just to follow up on that the school so I was at Merrick Moore now I'm going to Glenn next year but I've applied for IB at Eko I'm applying to after school I'm not well anyway I'm applying to my 24

25 no if you are a student at Glenn today you should apply for the after school lottery for a seat at Glenn okay if you receive a transfer or you are pulled from the um Lottery at the second Lottery pool and then you now transfer to Eko you and you are awarded a seat through the lottery for after school that seat would transfer with you to the school that you transfer to so no family if you are granted a seat through the L Lottery into after care that seat will remain with you if you are awarded the seat now if you transfer to a program throughout this transfer window that seat will follow you but if there is a weight list you will receive priority on that weight list or you will be automatically slotted into that program based upon availability okay so there are some assurances for our families as their students transition throughout this period okay thank you that's sorry but didn't that matter Miss Cooper whether you were a fourth fifth grader or a K1 where you would actually be

going you said Glenda mer Mo or whatever like didn't that also the Legacy part matter about what grade you're talking about not for after school this is specific to the after school lottery so if I'm a if I'm a um I'm a third grader at meric Moore this year I'm gonna be a fourth grader at Glenn or I could apply to stay at mer Moore or I could stay at mer Moore students who will be in the fourth and fifth grade next school year have been provided Legacy status so they will remain at their current schools so if you are a third grader at Glenn this year and you will be a third fourth fourth grader at Glenn next year you will be at Glenn and so you will apply in the lottery for Glenn there should not be um unless otherwise um requested through the office of student assignment fourth and fifth graders are staying at their current schools so if you are in going to be in the first second or third grade and you receive um a seat at a new

school or a transfer and you are transitioning to a new school then that after school seat would transfer with you if you are awarded that seat okay so even if I but if I wanna I could let be Legacy at meric Moore or if I choose I could go to Glenn or I could be in the lottery and maybe go to EK po fourth or fifth graders will stay at their current school they have to stay at their current school they are staying at their current schools unless you transfer okay yes all right got it okay thank you M Rogers are you do your questions please accept my apologies for asking a difficult question I think it's difficult for parents to navigate and trying to get through that seems important thank you that's sounds it I just want to jump in I know there's a FAQ on the website um but it is complicated so as many ways that we can

simplify the better I know notice in English and Spanish even a graph or a chart just multiple ways because um we know families are trying to figure it out right and we know those after school spots are coveted um they're essential for families who work especially and have those work hours so um thank y'all for explaining it really clearly here and it is explained here but as many different ways as we can do it and say it I think will be helpful absolutely because there was a new process this year we wanted to make sure families were well aware of that process early um so they could make the necessary plans we will continue to prioritize communication with our families who are seeking after school care to make sure that they are well aware of um the various steps in the process with this um with this new implementation of how to access after school I I'm just gonna pause it here that the point of the initial question was if you're a parent and you're trying to walk through all of these

changes you're going to be confused and and I'm and I'm just going to say that I I get it um from the enduser side we're talking about lotteries in more than one place weight lists in more than one place when your day of certainty is about something for your child whether it's fourth or fifth grade or K3 impacts the others and so there's just a there's just a flow and and and these it looks and growing together is new the after school Lottery is new so you've got a lot of new going on on and so I think trying to demonstrate through answering a question on how many times do I have to touch something to figure out where my kids are going to school next year was the point of the question so thank you very much um so we might even need to expand out this FAQ to tie it all together so I

don't have to go to multiple places right so you know here here is my um Student Assignment FAQ how do I transfer how do I apply who get Legacy connected right here next to it is after school right right next to it is transportation because that's gonna come in June so it's all in one place um so we don't have families having to go to lots of different places to figure it out um and written graphs charts phone numbers because we know families are going to have lots of questions even after I read it um I'm gonna switch now to a different topic I would like when we first started growing together one of the keys was talking about prek and EC classrooms and I would love if we could have a fuller presentation around how growing together is supporting alignment in those classrooms we haven't had that kind of longer conversation and I would love to see that that was again one of the one of the places that we started and I I really want to learn more about that

um we did have a question from some families around the transfer options I guess I am going back to the transfer part um to the transfer options in some schools that weren't on the application or not and so can you all just speak a little bit to why that might be the case I think I have some assumptions but I want to hear why that is certainly historically board policy does not allow or transfers into magnet application schools however the office of student assignment has been able to relax that um access to the online application for a student transfer so that we can at least capture the interest and we will at the right time be able to look at those transfers and it may will work to see if it's going to need to have some uh board involvement to relax the policy provision but indeed if if it gets to the place where we need to start to to

consider those uh we'd like to be able to capture them now and I believe the trans for has been that relaxed access has been opened and then we'll be able to capture it let me just chime in there too I think that um we have if I read everything correctly today determined a way to try to capture that but that's another piece of trying to figure out how to navigate it because I believe the option requires that you actually request the school by requesting another school since you can't request the one you want and so and then putting something in the notation there that lets you do that um and and so again that's just it's just what another piece another wrinkle that adds to the complexity and I mean as a parent you may have to sort of chart you may be charting your own list out here of all the places you need to go and again I just want to appreciate the question for bringing it to light and so as that was raised um and you are

absolutely right uh within the last few days that was the situation we've worked with our vendor to be able to that families can request any school good I think you know we um we we asked for a lot in growing together we asked for a lot to try to we know that transition is hard and we were like can we do little pieces here and there to try to make the transition a little smoother and I think these wrinkles that we're seeing is a part of that whole process of trying to navigate this new system um I think any way we can make this as easy and as simple for families the better um really clear expect and y'all have said this already clear expectations around timeline so they also know how to make decisions around all the different things that they need to make decisions about Transportation that's right um after school care you know what school you're going to all of that I know the foundation also had done some support work can y'all just speak a little bit to how the foundation has supported with the grown together absolutely they've

been a tremendous partner I'll invite Miss Cooper back thank you from the very beginning the foundation knew how necessary it was to enhance our presence within the community far beyond um the bandwidth that we have as a DPS staff to really support families understanding and their knowledge about the transitions that were underway uh one of the things that we are very proud of is our partnership with the foundation and the financial support that they have provide provided specifically for helping our schools better Market themselves to the neighborhoods and the community communities in which they reside or they are um located um that work started um last summer actually um and we meet with the foundation regularly we've identified schools um within the our um portfolio of work um that need may need some additional support um and other schools um that may not need as much but need very specific things and they have been very instrumental and helpful along the way um you likely have seen yard signs throughout our communities they

are also investing in a digital advertising campaign to help us better Market our schools additionally even producing videos for some of our schools that were in dire need of marketing materials they have been a very helpful partner along the way and that is something that will extend into our secondary implementation as well um and they have been in contact with our principles our families they're capturing testimonials U from our families as well as our staff to talk about how wonderful their schools are because we know we have great schools in DPS and um one of the things that they were intent on is making sure that everyone in our community knew how great our schools were as well I really appreciate that that's helpful I remember seeing the yard signs everywhere um I also know I've talked to families who were excited about welcome events this week right there's popsicles and all kind of different events so I think our schools are doing some good work there um will we I know this is tricky because people are accepting and moving but will we have some preliminary

numbers around enrollment or when can we maybe expect kind of some sense of where families are enrolled for the year before August maybe maybe not before August I want to make sure I think again specifying the question is important is the question what do our enrollment numbers look like by school as of X date yes right yes yes so we are perpetually and some of the folks in the room perpetually sharpening that pencil again we're braiding together a couple strands and I want to name it for the board and the public are boundary students Which percentage of those boundary students are attending their boundary School the lottery assignments that have already been allocated to families there is a window there that they have to accept those seats but it is not closed yet right it just went out just last week

and so you know we are working with Administration again to bring all of that together you have that graph of the narrowing down of the the certainty of our projection numbers and I want to put a little daylight between two ideas one is a projection which is a statistical model of what we think is going to happen on the 40th Day in the fall of 2024 that's not the same as an enrollment plan which is a literally student by student accounting of fitting students into seats that happens as we migrate into next school when we're talking about promoting students within power school so miss said I know that I'm I'm answering two questions one you asked one you didn't but these two paths that we're on our statistical model how certain are we and our actual student by student power school ID batina Umstead is a second grader at Lakewood right those paths converge as we get towards the 40th Day of the Fall but we are already at that point now of

saying here's where we're looking at that's what's informing our Lottery seat access and it's why you've heard Dr pitman's share earlier you've heard it from me we're moving slowly particularly with the lottery so that we know that there are students that have moved we know that there are students that plan to move into a boundary we know that there students that have never been on DPSS radar that are in private school home school Charter School other the school systems that have heard of growing together and this is something they've been asking for so we are being cautious with the lottery in part so we can capture all those boundary students right a big part of that is the registration process itself and we have some of our principles right now that are out there I won't name school by school but are literally filling their student rosters again I want to lift up Dr Stewart in the collaboration between our principls our school leadership and the growing together team with student assignment to make sure that we're bringing all of this together together so as far as like a are you

asking for like a concrete when will we no number or what is the have I given you enough of the response or do you you gave me a good a great response which get LED Me Maybe to a different different request could we get uh now recognizing it's a projection of enrollment maybe around June because that think most people will have settled and then I know we'll get um what's um who shows up right like who shows up in August right so if we can get both of those I'm just curious to see kind of where we might be in June and then we'll know we'll get our 20day or 40-day in August as well or September really we use that pmr1 which is the principal monthly report we have our average daily membership by month as well as our membership last day of every month there's our benchmarks but again when we do our projection which we're happy to share with you again under superintendent more you know sort of vision and Leadership

there we are looking at that day 40 number to say again that's our state reimbursement date that's a key date in the world of student enrollment planning yeah happy to do so to follow up on that question I'm sorry in the last presentation you shared the um projections um the accuracy of the projections of ADM for the district could you share that for for the elementary schools when you share that data that for like for this current year for the 23 24 year how accurate were your projections for this current year thank you and sorry let me just let me clarify I don't want the whole District it I'm curious to where Elementary School folks are yes Elementary I was gonna say that yeah sorry just to clarify I forgot it was different thank saw Miss I saw Miss buer trying to add on I think then V is trying to add on and then miss Chavez and then you can

get back to your questions so I just want to appreciate um you all walking us through the complexity of this work and how we got here and how um it took us 30 years to get here and these um changes while incredibly um challenging are rooted in our in our values um so like I don't know if it's going to come in the data that folks have just requested but one of my biggest concerns is yearr round enrollment as we've expanded it seven elementary schools so what data do you have so far that is giving you confidence that those seven schools will be filled and thriving I guess is one of my major questions so at some point I will have

to ask Mr rsky to join me because I think we should share um in knowledge I think that is important but I want to directly answer Miss byer's question so we're fortunate to have had Co Holt Elementary School which has been a boundary accessed year round with a lottery that's actually been our one of our Inspirations principle da Jones is a phenomenal leader at PT and we've spent a lot of time really since I ENT DPS working to understand how it works between the boundary assignment and Holt in conjunction with the lottery placements what that has helped is and Dr Stewart I'm just going to sort of throw it out there is that we have a PLC specifically for year round principles that are learning from each other not only principal Jones principal Cunningham who's been running Pearson town as you're aware a longstanding panda they are helping other yearr round principles principal Miller at Hope principal teal at Eastway principal Hower at easy another

long-term year round principle to help us understand the Cadence of communication with families to make sure that they have their student rosters early so these are the principles that are already at the top of their game as far as the students that they have coming to them those home addresses where they are and engaging with those families I should add as well principal Tate at oak grow so you're right we have a total of seven year round schools but we are not new to yearround instruction in dur Public Schools either through boundary or Lottery access and so it's with that intentionality that we're working with those particular those particular principles as a priority prioritized set of leaders so that we can engage with our families understand their intent make sure that they are aware of their boundary opportunities as well as the lottery access to the school for the regions that they reside within so we've mapped we've geolocated every student in the district particularly those that live in those School boundaries produce student rosters for our principles who

are now engaging with families as we prepare for weeks of Welcome right but we haven't yet because we've made this transfer window so long are we encouraging folks if they're doing this opt out transfer to lean on the early side of that to let us know that they don't want year round is is that also how that's going to move so historically yearound has had opt out for example I think Miss Chavez you referenced earlier students that have attended that have lived within the H boundary have opted out for mer Moore or Glenn depending on which side of the boundary they're located within I think director Marshall has a few contributions to make I'm surprised we haven't heard from her yet because she has been the heart of all of this as well that's I like to sit in the back good evening everyone thank you so much I did want to come back if if it's okay um just

5 children before can I back up and I apologize if that's out of order please please um and just thinking about the touch Point Dr. Pitman lifted up one of the major and thank you also um uh board member leis one of the major points of um our enrollment teams we have thank you for the additional staff my right hand Joy Bingham um and her work we have worked really hard on making sure that our schools are ready to uh support our fam so that's what you the outcome of what you experienc board member Lewis so the first point of contact are the enrollment teams that have been trained so if a parent comes in that's overwhelmed when it comes with how do I apply for this um to for this transfer do I need an opt out um transfer I don't know our enrollment teams are there at that school to ask and answer those questions and then of course the office of student assignment

is ready and prepared to answer those questions so we want that that touch Point are those enrollment teams that is the the place where that Mama stops when it comes to any kind of questions when it comes to where do I go in um my next place so I did want to just um really highlight the work of our schools and those teams that have been trained and ready to support so that may not have gotten I know I didn't walk all the way through the after school care but I wanted to say there is a One-Stop shop at your school with starting with the enrollment teams and um and then funneling to the people that we um how we support them so and I apologize yes and then I the opt out transfers I want go ahead Miss Rogers had a you know yeah I was just gonna say thank you though okay thank you and I apologize I know that was may not have been it's okay it's great and and board member Byer well I my question for you miss Marshall

was whether you had additional staff to assist you with the the transfers that are about to come and the complexity of each individual family's request as we try to both Legacy our fourth and fifth grades and also after care and all the impossibilities that we're juggling and y'all were juggling we are still a very small small staff in the office of student assignment but uh we're a hardworking group that works late but again I appreciate the um the thoughtfulness of this board and the um additional coordinator that has been added to our transition coordinator who is taking care of our opt out transfers um and you're all of our schools and families are already receiving those sibling Legacy transfers and confirmation um of those siblings that are attached to those fourth graders and we're running through those quickly and we're off to our opt out transfers and that'll help us help inform the additional seats and movement um as we move through the lottery and um transfer if folks have

questions because as they're getting their information they're having lots of questions is your office office Student Assignment your email your phone number still the best way for folks to connect on these really complicated questions that they have yes continue to call um we are uh our phones are ringing and we are answering them and uh but please we invite the phone calls we want to support we are there we are staff to support that is really where a lot of our our um our we have dedicated staff that are ready I also want to lift up the MRC who are our heroes on the other side our ESL registration Center as well but our MRC we work collaboratively in helping to support families and throughout this entire process I could not have done our our teams are are are um working collaboratively in answering those questions and getting um getting the right things and the um well you went right to my next question was whether there we have I know we have an eye towards language Justice I didn't

know if you had staff in your office um or if you were still dependent on MRC to support in all these complexities yes we still depend on our MRC team but they are always accessible I I can say that I don't know how they do it but they are accessible to our families when they come in we we know how to direct them so I I I give uh so much credit to uh D director Freeman for his work and his staff so i' budget wise just dream up a bilingual staff member for the office of student assignment I'm just going to say it out loud while I'm here um kindergarten registration how does that overlay with everything that is going on and in the near future prek process the kindergarten you were I'm sorry I missed your sorry no you're good how does Kinder we didn't talk about the window of kindergarten registration we didn't talk about prek and then the

other piece would be amping up intercession camps for yearr round schools and the work that you all have done in the community in that front yes I do want to appreciate the plug of our new student enrollment portal being open for the 2425 school year our kindergarteners uh um we have a had a a pretty robust kindergarten enrollment campaign in the month of February our babies are coming in and we are excited about it um and all of the opportunities to to visit schools but we are monitoring and watching those kindergarten numbers so while we we're invited and and um really encouraging our families of our new students our kindergarten students as well as New U families that are new to dur public schools to please go ahead and register so we can account for and monitor those um those numbers uh there was some additional was there an additional question about year round about year round intercession camps and how the team is planning in that area and Community providers we're

working with as in addition to what we might be able to do at our own sites a big part of the year round intercession support is helping our uh Community Partners think differently about um the so most of them are used to doing summer camps and helping them know that uh when the intercession dates are what can be provided so there are additional opportunities for our families and um many of our Community Partners are very receptive to that um Dr Rath you want to shout out some of our Community Partners oh Echo and then um as far as our community ed program we are in collaboration with them currently to um to see what is available what what additional supports are can be provided so for each of our year round schools there is a separate tab on the website listing all intercession Camp um

both inhouse and partners so those Community Partners are linked um on that tab for each School site as well as Community Ed 's information will go there and the individual school that they offer things so it's all in hous in one place for each school individualized and thank you thank you that's helpful I'm Sor Miss vus and there miss Chavez thank you team um I can I can attest that you all work till late I have met including Dr. Pitman we've been available in evenings um and we've talked about growing together and you know why uh when we talked about growing together and the the equity components the equity mindset like how we were really taking into account equity and you've mentioned so many things it's my memor is just going back to the conversation around Holt and

um K green Scott from you know one of our parent Advocates from that community in Tamika uh suchel were definitely folks who are talking about you know keeping hold as Z round and part of the thing is because of the equity considerations um and the demographics right the demographic of the school and that is a question that actually came in um how are we because of the intent of growing together to be integrated Equitable as best as possible using the data that we have Census Data um Trends projections how are we um keeping track of the demographics of the applicant pool for each of the new application schools um in real time in as much real time as can be provided or in whatever ways that we can continue to keep tabs on um what the applicant pool is looking like Matthew dat is very young right now so

things will be settling but we designed it such that yeah so a couple things there um I'll reset you briefly and take you to an adjacent topic which was in regards to some of the stated goals with growing together right increasing access diversity and Equity um what we are aware of is that you know again none of this is reflective of a weighted lottery or anything to that effect it is a raw applicant pool in other words because we do not know the decisions of the boundary students right the applicant pool is simply a reflection of of the expressed interest at this time in the lottery itself that's important because in order to provide any weights you'll recall our conversation the last 22 23 year we would need to know what we're waiting against to hit the district level margin again I will reset the board as well that the key indicator that we were looking at was identified student percentages when we discussed this application of weights for lottery

programs from middle and high schools we had also stated at that time we were going to Benchmark growing together for 24 25 to see where we were and be slow and responsive in in the application of any waiting for diversity in equ equity to we see where we are with our boundary in order to wait against that for district level average at this time we haven't had a look yet at the demographics of the applicant pool itself um we certainly can collect that information from Student Assignment but our demographic and planning team have not had access to it yet we're happy to work with the superintendent Administration to bring that back or share in a companion file if that is what the board requests thank you thank you for that yeah I'd be interested um this ties into uh some of the considerations and I think when it comes to weight um parent Advocates who've emailed us let me turn this thing away it doesn't work um parent Advocates whove come to us uh particularly sharing their stories about how they've had to navigate this um you address so many of

the questions including I was thinking about one particular case where they kind of posited many different issues with with this process um having a legacy student and the leg the Legacy student does not have to fill out an application and the parent knew as much you know the parent called office of student assignment was told an application is not needed but the confusion comes when when an application was started regardless even if they don't need an application and when they go on there the information that was in there said the Bas school it lists the Bas school and that I guess that's an automatic thing and and and it immediately brought like mistrust because it's like you know you're going on an online system that is suited for a particular individual particular student who um needs to have certainty as to where they're going to go and when they go in there it's the standard this is your school but it's like no but this is a legacy student and the Legacy Provisions were not I haven't I guess need to be updated so that it does not confuse parents um if they are Legacy

fourth and fifth grader they don't have to do an application but if they do um for that application to have consistent information um especially noting that this is a fourth or fifth grader um the other question in this particular case was also related to um uh transfer uh transfer the transfer process um and Al they also did hard like considering hardship right and so when it comes to EC services this is the topic and and we have talked as a board about the the importance of having EC as a separate presentation to talk about staffing needs for EC to talk about trainings um ways that we are looking for looking out for the well-being of EC kids and I'm a parent of e children e you know is is is is something I've navigated uh throughout my whole tenure with DPS and when it comes to these processes

of uh folks who are trying to go through the trans trans ER process and they have needs um some schools are are are facing vacancies some schools it's really hard for parents to feel that their child is going to be looked out for especially if they've been working with somebody who's provided these kind of supports and I guess um in these considerations there the question is you know will there be that consideration for especially EC needs [Music] um the status of E services at each school they vary and I know that we don't want them to vary but the real on the ground truth is that they vary and I can tell you I I it makes a difference a world of difference when you have the services that you finally waited years to get and then to know you're going to be moved to a different school where the services are provided because that's that's federal law right you know

our our school district is going to provide e like the services to the students because that is federal that is their Federal right but the particular way of that service um the particular way that that service is provided may vary um and and so we're not going to be moving you know somebody who's because of the particular needs and how varied they are we we we can account for every single school being the right fit for every single student and so I guess the question for this parent is that while they have to wait the 40 days or how how many days they have to wait uh for the transfer period to close um it's open for from March one to May one yeah so from March one to May one so may may 1 they'll find out we'll start processing them in the interim but and then it'll be staggered and ongoing you want to take that you want to

clarify it's March 1st to May 1st and uh June 1st is when we are expected to have decisions so um we we encourage families to submit those transfers March 1st to May 1 and um after May 1st there has to be an extenuating circumstance as to why you didn't submit it but it will still be processed so March 1st to May 1st is our window and then um decisions come out by June 1st we be we We Begin processing them but everyone should have a decision by June 1 that's that's helpful to know and so you know so I'm just following the same example of a family who brought multiple pieces of this thing and how it feels to families because this family not only had to navigate an application for a legacy student and and started an application but a lot of families are going to do that and then seeing that the information on there is not what you know what is stipulated for legacy

students it showed the Bas school um then they also had to do a um an application for after school and and it was a question as to which school do I do it you answered that question beautifully tonight because the if they have a spot in after school that student is assured a spot regardless of whatever school they go to and I appreciate that um thank you so much to our um senior director of communications M Cooper for answering that question and so that that takes away that piece of stress because the emails that come in are definitely like emails or families are expressing a lot of uncertainty and a lot of concerns and then also um there's also the concern especially going back to EC because we're using projected numbers the projected students that are going to be at a school and we have instructional assistance that we are trying to fund that we we we don't have enough instructional assistance for all the needs especially for these two vulnerable groups at the State caps us

with really stringent caps us really uh really bad um EC limit limited English proficiency and also EC students um the allocations based on projections sometimes are not exactly what we can anticipate with a with neighborhood with the factor that now a lot of these applicant schools are no longer they're no longer closed off they're they're open to neighborhood students at any time of the year maybe they started out at a charter and they in the middle of the Year decide and this happens all the time we have students coming into DPS even up until the very last day and so how are we also keeping in mind like the the actual uh enrollment Trends and even if there's like a bell curve of like when do we get peaks of students coming in um and how are we also like taking that data into account um with the projections that we have and I and I and that goes back to

for a family that has that receives services from the EC department and all of a sudden you have a school that now has more Demand on those services and you have only two or one instructional assistant and you know when it comes to EC like how how is how is that particular consideration being considered for when a family applies for a transfer and puts it on there like I really want to stay at the school because at least I know that I I have been able to navigate those relationships with the staff to provide the level of care um as best level of care in this context so a couple of things first of all once the students have indicated the school in which they will attend the allotments and those categories with which you've lifted the EC allotments the ESL allotments the AIG allotments that the team then will look at how do

the enrollment numbers look at each site what is the need of the number of EC children and the Staffing then will follow in suit in line um according to headcount so to speak [Music] and I forgot your other question I lost it allotments follow the children I mean the numbers of children and then can't remember the other part of your point I am so yeah well I guess I'm I'm I'm because we haven't yet got into the weighted part of like how the weights could impact and the weights that were never reasons for transfers reasons for Trans if it was uh according to a teacher a situation those are each application is managed on an individual case-by case basis um Miss Marshall does a phenomenal job at first filter to see if it's within policy guidelines to be able to approve that and then of course it can be appealed to the

superintendent's office through um and then ultimately to the board so there are protocols in place and safeguards for families if they feel very strongly about the need for a transfer and we work very carefully with each case yeah and I guess the weighted part goes on folks who are in that waiting list you know if they're on a waiting list to be there so so and I know that that uh that's still being determined as to when we might even consider because at this point it's just the order of it's the whatever number they arrived at and I know some families apply pretty early um even if the windows open for an extended time I hear you know like it's the first first come first serve kind of thing right based on the um the way the applications go once the lottery is run and the computer generates that order in the in the random assignment through the lottery the office of student assignment will will honor that in the sequence in which they are placed on on the waiting list first and and down that list so that is correct and then after that we

may consider weight like waights to that to that sequence that is provided or where where would weights even come L you mean like weights like heaviness and lightness or prioritization priority prioriti priority waiting yeah waiting there are they are in there in the priority order in which um they their application indicated so this okay so so the lottery self will generate because it's a lottery so it's going to put placements they indicate through categorization and the policies or the um categories of the application the computer will um for instance if I'm at a magnet school and I have a sibling at the magnet school the computer and the fent parent fills out that application that application will go above a general applicant pool so the the business rules are built into the uh logarithm I don't know if that's the right word of the of the lottery to prioritize families according to board policy and Miss

Chavez okay thank you Dr K thank you very much um part of the reason this is so complicated like jeram said said is because we're accommodating a lot of different desires and listening to um things that our community members said and um so thank you and the the the website um I think we can obviously we're continually working on those Communications um but it is um I think it's very well done and so I appreciate the communications that you have um been working on and um so um okay it's late um my I had the same question as miss vitis about demographics of the lottery um so I would love to see that information um when you can share it with us the other question I had I just wanted to know about the lottery like who who uh

or who was applying and also what programs are they applying for okay um I know that we had seen data um at some point about um you know Lottery programs that where many more people apply then there are seats and then some where we weren't getting enough to um to F the seats that were available okay so I am I'm interested in what that looks like I'm interested in you know the the racial component of that and also the regional component of that what what are numbers are looking like how interested are people in DLI and and um and monor and all of that so I think that's all um for me that I would like a follow up from but but thank you so much much for your work on this and thank you to the whole team it's a huge effort and um I I think we'll you know continue to work out the Kinks and um uh but you know I'm I'm

looking forward to seeing this unfold so thank you Miss Kota ala thank you thank you so much I know this is a lot and it's late um many of my questions have already been asked and answered but I have a few remaining um let's see what to prioritize can you help me understand this issue of a um people being stuck on a weight list while taking a spot that someone on another weight list needs um does that make sense or I'm gonna try so let's say a family um at a particular school is now in a boundary for a new school a different School school so they're a boundary family and we're planning we're making sure we can accommodate that it could be that same family applied in the lottery for a magnet program and they're on a waiting list and so they're saying they may say

not quite sure I want to register at my base school because I don't want to give up my possibility of being able to go to the lottery program in which I'm on the waiting list and so in some ways we're protecting the B foundary um and that family is saying I I want to wait a little bit longer um I want to stay on the waiting list that's exactly what I'm talking about so what is the answer to that like do families are you saying that families just wait and you believe that it will even out like things will move eventually or is it because it does feel a little bit so so this happens every year families are on a waiting list to many of our highin Lottery programs and at some point the office of student assignment will stop filling and pulling off of the waiting list and so for our magnet programs June 30 is the is the stop date of when the lot the wait lists for traditional calendar lottery programs will stop no help me no year

rounds we'll stop pulling June 30 for the year rounds so that the yearound schools can do their rosters and get ready for opening of school and then we'll continue the rest of the lottery through J July 31 so by The End by Midsummer the the magnet process of Lottery and weight listing will conclude and then families will be able to determine um move forward if they got in then they're good to go in their Lottery program if they got pulled off the waiting list if they didn't and that they'll go ahead and make their decision about enrolling in their base school or their boundary school thank you I'm guess I'm wondering like in that scenario the that you described like how do you know that that person doesn't want that seat at their base school so that they can then say I don't want that seat which opens that seat up for somebody else and then they can take the seat in the they could get in line for the right is there a process that exists for them notifying because this must be the case

for kids throughout our district now that we have base school like base assignments and Lottery at the same schools so um come back to some of the uh grid lot or some of the so we are looking really using that trans um the transfer options we're looking at every kid this is why it feels very conservative right now uh we're seeing where our opt out transfers um for instance um we have about 70 in there that where families are saying no I don't want that application school I want to go to a traditional school so that's going to loosen up seats where where it feels tight where we have been conservative to um Reserve those seats for those base kids as Dr. Pitman was lifting and um and as those transfers and those and families are making uh decisions and we did reach out to get get an idea and we use those in in um in making assumptions and our projections and planning but we were very conservative and uh as we're getting the real opt out applications and I I want

to make sure everybody uh the opt out program transfers and we are going to move those kids off of those application from those application um seats and that'll loosen up some of the um make room for some of the weight list I hope I'm making sense of it is late and I don't operate well I don't know how y'all do this but yes thank you that's very helpful but from both of you um when like relatedly I feel like we're all a lot of us are asking the same question which is like when should people like when should we and families know more um this will be rolling like in the next few weeks people are going to start knowing more and more more every single day right or we are we are rolling we are rolling through weekends we're rolling through the nights we're not sleeping no we are we are actually um moving as quickly as we can through because we know families are waiting for those answers so those transfers are being in processed right now again we we are I'd say 75% if not

100 about today um shout out to my transfer technician um who has gotten out those sibling um Legacy transfers now our opt out transfers are our next in line um where we need to go ahead and get those seats available to loosen the grid lock for our April 1 um our April 1 pool our next Lottery poll on April 1 or weight list pool okay thank you that's helpful and I'm wondering if this tonight's been helpful to have this like big um presentation but I'm wondering if in the coming meetings if we could have like many I know that there's a transport ation um update coming up at our next meeting is that right looking at you Mr Palmer um can we have a growing together update at each one of our meetings so that we get more in-depth like instead of a large presentation with broad overview like more indepth um update on like how things are looking what the numbers are looking like as they come in at each of our meetings so that we can

just stay a breast of how things are feeling and y'all can let us know then if things are not feeling good um I think lastly because I know it is getting late I am still a little bit stuck on this question of or the um email that went out tonight about after care and why it was stated that families should indicate should apply into Aftercare at the school they're currently at if they know they're going if they've already accepted a position at a different school or they know they're going to a different school why would they not just indicate that they're going to go to that school and also I just wanted to clarify that you said that the spot will move unless there's not a spot right so let me say if you are attending if you are currently at a school and you do not have indication of your transfer or if you have not been pulled if you're awaiting um an application seat from the lottery and you have not been informed yet that um

that is when you apply for your current school we know that the next Lottery is on April 1st that is why that window was extended to the 19th so families who are still awaiting their Lottery seats would have time to apply and at that point they would apply for the school in which they know that they are going to because they may have accepted a seat in the application lottery for our U magnet and CTE programs so does that clarify specifically for um families does that answer your question well I'm wondering if maybe this FAQ should just be modified then because it's not a it's a PDF and it says should enter the lottery for the school their child currently attends we can make that accommodation um and and currently um we will make sure that is a living document on the website um for many of the questions that may be arising the fine tuning that needs to be done over the next few weeks but again I do want to clarify if your child has not yet received a transfer is still

awaiting um to be um to be uh seated based upon a lottery weight list you can apply for your child for the current school that they attend and if they are granted a seat then that would transfer with them to the new school or you can wait because that window has been extended until the 19th thank you so much I know this is complicated I really appreciate absolutely um okay I'm back and I want to shift gears a little bit I'm sorry it's so late if you have to answer later then we'll deal with that I'd like to hear some about the um my notes are we're adding two new French teachers on grant funding are those positions posted and what is recruitment looking like right now um little river monor is completing their first year in training right and so projections for

educators that got the training do we have any idea of the number of Educators that are receiving this training that have entered the transfer portal and are going to enter the transfer portal will they be prioritized at schools where they've gotten the training for um it's up to y'all yeah not get why don't we why don't we follow up and get that information to you all that's fine yeah some some that requires that they go check soon yeah um yeah and so basically are we prioritizing Educators that have gotten such training in their transfer request to go to schools that have the same programs that they've gotten the training for or we sort of kind of taking a loss and making sure that they get that training and allowing them to transfer out we'll address that

yeah um that's all I got but it's about the educator any other ways that this growing together impacts our Educators would be helpful some feedback on that thank you Miss Rogers Miss vieras I just had a comment um because the question about just as you were mentioning French uh teachers and we've heard Mandarin teachers so there's a lot going on with growing together um a lot of things that I personally celebrated when it was brought to us in those first presentations um and many of you know I said that back then um I was an IB student International Balor that I actually got a diploma but then also an IB diploma that is like worldwide and it's been a fun thing to talk to people from other countries who say if you got

that diploma you're bonafied like that is like they have a level and it's a package regardless of whether you're studying here or in France or in Canada if you have that IB diploma you're at the same scale I mean you're you're you're tests are literally sent overseas to other professors other teachers to grade and um and it's about languages and I know people push back on languages because it it becomes like an added expense I say it's an added invest um guess who still uses languages to this day you know I'm just saying it's lifelong impact um and I am a lover of languages um when it comes to the IB program it is a package and they do ask that if we are going to stick to Fidelity with the IB program we have to provide choices and we're actually limiting the choices that the IB Program offers because they have not only Spanish French Mandarin but you can also choose Latin um

and classical Greek in other places because I know of IB programs in Miami for example Latin like there are different IB implementations where they give the whole thing like as many options five languages um but we are choosing to stick to with three right Spanish French and Mandarin if we're going to do this program right and we're going to give kids the upper hand to start with the IB program in elementary school and then they have a full they can have from elementary school up until High School to be involved in IB opportunities um and graduate with that I mean it it is definitely it is a very tailored and specific program and some families have yet to see the value of that and personally that kind of you know breaks my heart because it's it's not their fault we have to do something to show why the IB program is such an important program um and we can't pick and choose

we can't tear it apart we can't say well the IB programs that's implemented in dur Public Schools can only offer Spanish like that is not how the program works um they they want you to give those choices um and we're giving three out of five essentially but um but we have to make that case as to as we're implementing these programs whether it's monor I think it comes back to the same thing that there are families who begrudged monor programs in their schools when they weren't there before there are families who begrudge IB programs in their elementary schools when we didn't have that before because when I when I was an IB student Hillside High School had just started the IB program right and so there weren't that many IB programs and then we had Shepherd that's whys for the sake of time is there a question I want so so I guess my question about this is because there are such feelings about these programs that are vital that I consider Investments right um that set you on a different like it can be a game changer for some for some students um and Kindle love of learning how are we also doing

that in terms of our Outreach and when families have questions as to why are we investing in French you know French teacher how are we funding this um if we're going to do the if we're going to do the program we have to do it right you know and or not five languages but we have to do it as best as we can and so are we going to continue um how are we going to share that information as to the benefits of the program kind of get more Buy in because what I what I do feel is that the buying is not sometimes often there especially with all the considerations right we've had very strong response through our IB applications and when we bring some of that the uh data we can go deeper and and truly look at the actual results and through the leadership Dr Rathbone has been amazing working with our school teams um the Fidelity of implementation ensuring we'll be ready to launch and working through that K12 Continuum with IB so we're trying to present position ourselves for Fidelity and uh give the

schools what they need thank you for that question thank you not seeing any other questions M Mo good I I just want to sort of close a couple things thank you all it's 10:37 very much for all this work and I just sort of want to bring us back to um the fact that this work is part of a longterm Vision around how we and the term that I have always used in in my background is how we in in the school system ensure that every single one of our schools is the best choice and a first choice for our families and that is comprehensive work and it is it is at the it is messy work also um to implement because you're you're changing the way families have approached how they choose the school and what those are options are and and so that's just that's going to be complicated and I'm

sure that it's you could call it Growing Pains if you want to be polite you can call it night terrors if you're experiencing it so I think I think both of those can be true at the same time but I think if you bring it back to the to what has been the vision and what I have learned in my short time here about why you are doing this work it's important to understand that why and to validate that why which several of you have done at the table today but I think our community might need to be continually reminded of that why and that that why does not diminish their concerns or their experience of how they are engaging and so that is something that we have we have to you know pay attention to that and respond to it because um next year it'll be better and the year after that it'll be better and that is what we have to be held accountable to as a district so thank you thank you so much Dr. Pitman and team um that think closes out our discussion for

growing together thank you so much for being here y'all thank you team you all are excused and then our last topic on our agenda is um arts and our schools Proclamation yes good evening we're back this evening I'm excited to uh we are excited to celebrate arts in our schools month I'd like to introduce Mr Lester Turner many of you may have seen him at the evening to shine event at DPAC but he's providing tremendous leadership to our Arts education programming within Duram public schools and he's going to introduce the proclamation and requests that it be read into the record this evening Mr Turner good evening uh night maybe uh but good evening if it Wills uh so good evening uh chair Lewis esteemed members of the DPS Board of education and superintendent Moore tonight I want to bask in the Brilliance of art education residing right here in Durham public

schools throughout the year our schools become stages for the creativity to flourish and the talents To Shine from the enchanting Melodies of our spring musicals to the all inspiring Strokes of our visual artist and Community exhibitions from the Soulful harmonies of our instrumental and coral concerts to the graceful movements of our dancers our stud students and our art teachers uplift and Inspire our community with their extraordinary talents every day and all throughout the year tonight we invite the board and our community to join in commemorating all of those wonderful artistic moments with this year's arts in our schools month Proclamation an annual celebration born from the US Department of Education honoring achievements of students Nationwide in dance music theater and Visual Arts March a month dedicated to the Arts offers us a chance to rejoice in the boundless creativity of our

students the dedication of our amazing art teachers and the unwavering support of our community art Partnerships throughout this month on all of our DPS social media channels we will be celebrating our DPS Arts students and teachers for all that they bring us in our community has DPS Arts the Arts not only provide an outlet for self-expression but also serve as a catalyst for learning across all disciplines aligning directly with our DPS strategic plan and evidenced in the growing together initiative let us Revel in the transformative power of Arts education this month now more than ever our students deserve access to the Arts shaping them into empowered individuals ready to conquer the Alles of the world around them and igniting their Limitless potential Duran public school stands as a beacon of excellence in transformative

Arts education boasting record-breaking participation in dance music theater visual arts for all of our districtwide events this semester alone we will host Destination Dance Band solo and Ensemble Elementary all count chorus all count Orchestra as well as visual art showcases at South Point mall and a special teacher Art Exhibit at the Durham Arts Council most recently we all celebrated the Monumental Talent of over 350 of our most talented DPS young artists with our annual evening to shine event in late February and we could not be more proud of the celebration that we all had sharing alongside the DPS Foundation Duran Public Schools is steadfast in his commitment to enduring and ensuring Equitable universal access to Arts education for all of our DPS students fostering a culture where every child's creativity

can flourish and do that without limits chair Lewis I humbly yield the floor to you and the esteemed members of the Board of Education to unveil this year's Proclamation celebrating arts in our schools month with exuberance and pride late at the night what a wonderful presentation yes March is Arts month Proclamation I think we'll be happy to read this to start with uh shair uh board member buyers and then we'll go around accordingly thank you so much the proclamation arts in 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 certif ified 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 Arts education is a key to reigniting students learning in a post-pandemic world and whereas Arts education helps nurture healthy inclusive communities where all points of view are respect Ed 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 whereas Arts education has lasting positive impacts on the academic personal and professional growth of our students now therefore be it resolved that the dur Public Schools board of education does hereby Proclaim March 1st through 31st 2024 as arts in our school's month and asks

all to celebrate the importance of the Arts in our students lives signed this 7th Day of March 2024 and you made it without changing the day and uh can we get a motion to approve motion to approve our our school's month acation yes it's been moved by Miss Rogers second by Miss viadas is there any discussion I'm appreciative of all that the things that you laid out throughout the community that will be on display this month and hope that the community can get out as I will try as best as I can to get some into these events looking forward to seeing the posts on social media and on our website thank you thank you all in favor say I I I any opposed it passes 60 thank you so much thank you all get a motion to go into close session that's a summary of followup oh summary followup summary followup no

it's not mic it's not on our agenda for summary of followup but typically we have that the very end summary of followup just wasn't on the agenda so did anyone capture that or should we Dr. King can you um there you go use the microphone we got we got excited and shut down our computer so we got to pull it back up first one I have is when is the deadline and or um there is a subset of schools under consideration for CP application expansion next I have questions about paying for bilingual staff at different rate what are other schools doing is there a priority in hiring or extra

Duty um what if we delay Global language position board would like to see a breakdown of how allotments are determine and also part of that is um superintendent Moore talked about um allotment 101 for the board would we like to see a comparison of County living wage versus DPS living wage what is or will be the impact of school vouchers um where can we capture cost savings um when can the board expect a deeper conversation regarding erer positions thr together hiring update for DLI Global language and monor um what's at stake with the loss of Esser funds want to update on that have a clear have we made a clear um that student bonuses may not be part of the 2425 but school year um guidelines for acceptance what is the impact of CP on

families who are C schools um that may be reassigned to a noncp school feedback from Food Service and staff Mr Johnson yes we were just talking and wonder if we can get that just in a just a write up absolutely we combine sounds like you're going whatever saying we'll combine with Dr King and we'll send that out to you everybody that'll work and I think we had a motion I move that we go into close session for the reason stated on the agenda second move by Miss bu second by chair alad any discussion all in favor say I I I any oppos same passes 60 with that we're now in close session see yall

later

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we are now back we are now back in Open Session and with that we are adjourned